love to have others to handle it severely All this bad men may do upon the score of natural fear and self-love and the apprehension of a future judgement And now such convictions will naturally beget some endeavours A convinced understanding will have some influence upon the will and affections The mind in the unregenerate may lust against the Flesh as that doth against it So that 2. such a meer animal man may promise and purpose and endeavour in some considerable measure but then he goes not on with full Resolution but wavers and stops and turns about again and lets the law of the members that of death and sin to prevail over him His endeavour is remiss and consequently ineffectual it makes no conquests and will not signifie He sins on though with some regret and his very unwillingness to sin while he commits it is so far from lessening that it aggravates his fault It argues that he sins against conscience and conviction and that sin is strong and reigns 'T is true indeed St. Paul Rom. 7. makes such a description seemingly of himself as one might think concluded him under this state he saith vers 8. That sin wrought in him all manner of concupiscence vers 9. That sin revived and he died vers 14. That he was carnal and again sold under sin vers 20. That sin dwelt in him and wrought that which he would not vers 23. That the Law of his members led him into captivity to the law of Sin and vers 25. That he obeyed the law of sin If this be so and St. Paul a regenerate man was in this state it will follow that seeking and feeble endeavour that overcometh no difficulty may yet procure an entrance and he that is come hitherto viz. to endeavour is safe enough though he do not conquer This objection presseth not only against this head but against my whole Discourse and the Text it self Therefore to answer it I say That the St. Paul here is not to be understood of himself He describes the state of a convinced but unregenerate man though he speaks in the first person a Figure that was ordinary with this Apostle and frequent enough in common speech Thus we say I am thus and thus and did so and so when we are describing a state or actions in which perhaps we in person are not concerned In this sense the best Expositors understand these expressions and those excellent Divines of our own Bishop Taylor and Dr. Hammond and others have noted to us That this description is directly contrary to all the Characters of a regenerate man given elsewhere by this and the other Apostles As he is said to be dead to sin Rom. 6. 11. Free from sin and the servant of Righteousness Rom. 6. 18. That he walks not after the Flesh but after the Spirit Rom. 8. 1. That the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made him free from the Law of sin and death Rom. 8. 2. That he overcometh the world Joh. 5. 4. He sinneth not 1 Joh. 3. 6. He hath crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts Gal. 5. 24. Which Characters of a truly regenerate person if they be compared with those above-cited out of Rom. 7. it will appear that they are as contrary as 't is possible to speak and by this 't is evident that they describe the two contrary states For can the regenerate be full of all manner of concupiscence and at the same time be crucified to the Flesh and its affections and lusts one in whom sin revives while he dies and yet one that is dead to sin carnal and yet not walking after the flesh but after the Spirit sold under sin and yet free from sin Having sin dwelling in him and a captive to sin and obeying the Law of sin and yet free from the law of sin and death how can these things consist To tell us 'T is so and 't is not so and to twist such contradictions into Orthodox Paradoxes are pretty things to please Fools and Children but wise men care not for riddles that are not sense For my part I think it clear that the Apostle in that mistaken Chapter relates the feeble impotent condition of one that was convinced and strove a little but not to purpose And if we find our selves comprised under that description though we may be never so sensible of the evil and danger of a sinful course and may endeavour some small matter but without success we are yet under that evil and obnoxious to that danger For he that strives in earnest conquers at last and advanceth still though all the work be not done at once So that if we endeavour and gain nothing our endeavour is peccant and wants Faith or Prayer for Divine aids or constancy or vigour and so Though we may seek we shall not be able to enter But 3. an imperfect Striver may overcome sin in some Instances and yet in that do no great matter neither if he lies down and goes no further There are some sins we outgrow by age or are indisposed to them by bodily infirmity or diverted by occasions and it may be by other sins and some are contrary to worldly Interests to our credit or health or profit and when we have in any great degree been hurt by them in these we fall out with those sins and cease from them and so by resolution and disuse we master them at last fully which if we went on and attempted upon all the rest were something But when we stop short in these petty victories our general state is not altered He that conquers some evil appetites is yet a slave to others and though he hath prevailed over some difficulties yet the main ones are yet behind Thus the imperfect Striver masters it may be his beastly appetite to intemperate drinking but is yet under the power of Love and Riches and vain Pleasure He ceaseth from open debauchery but entertains spiritual wickedness in his heart He will not Swear but will backbite and rail He will not be Drunk but will damn a man for not being of his opinion He will not prophane the Sabbath but will defraud his Neighbour Now these half conquests when we rest in them are as good as none at all Then shall I not be ashamed when I have regard to all thy Commandments saith the Kingly Prophet Psal 119. 6. 'T is shameful to give off when our work is but half done what we do cast the greater reproach upon us for what we omit To cease to be prophane is something as a passage but nothing for an end We are not Saints as soon as we are civil 'T is not only gross sins that are to be overcome The wages of sin is death not only of the great and capital but of the smallest if they are indulged The Pharisee applauded himself that he was not like the Extortioners Adulterers and Unjust nor like the Publican that came to
true the world is extended to those duties that relate immediately to God also By which we see how ignorantly and dangerously those people talk that disparage morality as a dull lame thing of no account or reckoning Upon this the Religion of the second Table is by too many neglected and the whole mystery of the new Godliness is lay'd in frequent hearing and devout seraphick talk luscious fancies new lights incomes manifestations in-dwellings sealings and such like Thus Antinomianism and all kinds of Fanaticism have made their way by the disparagement of morality and men have learnt to believe themselves the chosen pretious people while their hearts have been full of malice and bitterness and their hands of violence while they despised dominions and spake evil of dignities rebell'd against the Government destroyed publique peace and endeavoured to bring all into misery and confusions 'T is this diabolical project of dividing morality from Religion that hath given rise and occasion to all these villanies And while the Practisers of such things have assumed the name of the only Godly Godliness it self hath been brought into disgrace by them and Atheism incouraged to shew it self in open defiance to Religion Yea through the indiscretions and inconsiderateness of some preachers the fantastry and vain babble of others and the general disposition of the people to admire what makes a great shew and pretends to more than ordinary spirituality things are in many places come to that pass that those who teach Christian vertue and Religion in plainness and simplicity without senseless phrases and fantastick affectations shall be reckon'd for dry moralists and such as understand nothing of the life and power of Godliness Yea those people have been so long used to gibberish and canting that they cannot understand plain sense and vertue is become such a stranger to their ears that when they hear it spoken of in a Pulpit they count the preacher a broacher of new divinity and one that would teach the way to heaven by Philosophy And he escapes well if they do not say That he is an Atheist or that he would reconcile us to Gentilism and Heathen Worship The danger and vanity of which ignorant humour the contempt of morality is apparent in the whole scope of my Discourse and therefore I add no more concerning it here but proceed to another Inference which is IV. That Grace and the new nature make their way by degrees on the Soul for the difficulties will not be removed nor the corrupt nature subdued all at once Habits that grow by repeated acts time and continuance will not be expelled in a moment No man can become greatly evil or good on a sudden The Path of the just shines more and more to a perfect day Prov. 4. 18. We do not jump from darkness into full light We are not fully sanctified and converted in an instant The day begins in an insensible dawn and the Kingdom of heaven is like a grain of Mustard seed Mat. 13. 31. It doth not start up presently to the stature of a tree The Divine birth begins like the Natural in an imperfect embryo There are some seeds of Knowledge and Goodness that God hath sown in our natures these are excited by the Divine Grace and Spirit to convictions which proceed to purposes these to resolutions and thence we pass to abstinence from all gross sins and the performance of outward Duties and so at last by degrees to vigorous attempts for the destruction of evil habits and inclinations When Grace is arrived to this eminent growth 't is very visible as the Plant is when 't is above the ground But the beginnings of Conversion are not ordinarily perceived So that to catechize men about the punctual time and circumstances of their Conversion is an idle device and a great temptation to vanity and lying Who can tell the exact moment when the night ends and the dawn enters 'T is true indeed the passage from the excesses of Wickedness which begins in some extraordinary horrors and convictions is sometimes very notable but 't is not so in all or most The time of St. Paul's conversion was eminent but that change was from great contrarieties and miraculous and therefore 't is not to be drawn into instance Both the beginnings and minute progressions of Grace are usually undiscerned We cannot see the Grass just putting out of the earth or actually growing but yet we find that it doth both And Grace is better known in its fruits than in its rise By their Fruits ye shall know them saith our Saviour Mat. 12. 33. and the same way we may know our selves V. We see that there is an Animal as well as a Divine Religion A Religion that is but the effect and modification of complexion natural fear and self-love How far these will go we have seen and how short it will prove in the end The not noting this hath been the sad occasion of deceiving many Some observing great heats of zeal and devotion in the modern Pharisees take these to be the Saints and good people believing all the glorious things which they assume to themselves When others that know them to be envious and malitious unjust and covetous proud and ungovernable and cannot therefore look on them as such choice holy people are apt to affirm all to be hypocrisie and feigning In which sentences both are mistaken for want of knowing that there is a meer Animal Religion that will produce very specious and glorious effects So that though the Pharisee Prays vehemently and Fasts severely and talks much of the love of God and delights greatly in hearing and pious Discourse and will suffer all things for what he calls his Conscience yet he is not to be concluded a Saint from hence because the meer Animal Religion may put it self forth in all these expressions And though this Professor be a bad man proud and covetous malicious and censorious Sacrilegious and Rebellious yet we cannot thence be assured that he is an Hypocrite in one sense viz. such an one as feigns all that he pretends But we may believe that he is really so affected with Hearing and Praying and devout Company as he makes shew and yet for all this not alter our opinion of his being an evil man since the Animal Religion will go as far as the things in which he glories There is nothing whereby the common people are drawn more easily into the ways of Sects and Separations than by the observation of the zeal and devotion of those of the factions These they take to be Religion and the great matters of Godliness and those the religious and only godly people And so first they conceive a great opinion of them and then follow them whithersoever they lead For the generality of men are tempted into Schism and Parties not so much by the arguments of dissenters as by the opinion of their Godliness which opinion is grounded upon things which may arise from
HIS was that they may be perswaded to conform theirs unto it and though mens understandings are convinced already that Charity is their Duty yet there is but too much need to represent some of the vast heap of injunctions that make it so to incline their Wills I shall therefore briefly lay together a few of the chief instances of this kind that you may have the distincter sense of the reasons of your Duty and from them the most powerful motives to enforce it In order to this let us consider in short the Injunctions of Christ and the teachings of his Apostles Our Saviour urgeth it as his New Commandment John 13. 34. and inculcates it again under the obliging form of his Command John 15. 12. He makes it a distinguishing note of his Disciples John 13. 35. and enjoyns them to love their Enemies Mat. 5. 24. He mentions it as the great qualification of those on his Right hand that shall be received into his Kingdom Mat. 25. 34 35. and the want of it as the reason of the dreadful Curse pronounced upon those miserable ones on the Left at the solemn Judgement ver 41 42. St. Paul calls Love the fulfilling of the Law Rom. 13. 8 9 10. and sets it in the first place among the fruits of the Spirit Gal. 5. 22. yea reckons it five times over under other Names in the Catalogue viz. those of Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Meekness ver 22 23. He advanceth it above all Gifts and Graces 1 Cor. 13. above the Tongues of Men and Angels ver 1. and above Prophecie and Mysteries and Knowledge and Faith ver 2. And the beloved Disciple St. John who lay in the Bosom of his Dear Lord and seems to partake most of his Spirit is transported in the commendation of this Grace He tells us that God is love 1 John 4. 7. and repeats it again ver 16. He makes it an Argument of our being born of God and Knowing Him ver 7. and the want of this an evidence of not Knowing God ver 8. He counts it the mark of Discipleship aâ—d the contrary a sign of one that abideth in Death 1 John 3. 14. He calls him a Murtherer that hates another ver 15. and a Lyar if he pretends to Love God and loveth not his Brother 1 John 4. 20. In fine he out-speaks the greatest heights of Praise when he saith God is Love and he that loveth dwelleth in God and God in him 1 John 4. 16. I might represent further that we are commanded to Love without dissimulation Rom. 12. 9. to be kindly affectioned one towards another ver 10. to put on the Breast-plate of Faith and Love 1 Thess 5. 8. to be pitiful and courteous 1 Pet. 3. 8. to provoke one another to love and to good works Heb. 10. 24. to serve one another Gal. 5. 13. to love as Brethren 1 Pet. 3. 8. We are minded of Christ's New Commandment 1 Joh. 3. 23. and of the Message which was from the beginning That we should love one another ver 11. and are urged by the consideration of Gods loving us 1 John 4. 1. Thus the Apostles exhort and teach and they Pray that our Love may abound Phil. 1. 9. and 1 Thess 3. 12. and give solemn Thanks for it when they have found it 2 Thess 1. 3. And now considering the expresness of all these places I cannot see but that any Duty of Religion may be more easily evaded than this and those who can fansie themselves Christians and yet continue in the contrary Spirit and Practice may conceit themselves religious though they live in the constant commission of the greatest sins And if such can quiet their Consciences and shuffle from all these plain Recommendations and Injunctions they have found a way to escape all the Laws of God and may when they please become Christians without Christianity For the evidence I have suggested to prove the necessity of this Duty doth not consist in half Sentences and doubtful Phrases in fancied Analogies and far-fetcht Interpretations but in plain Commands and frequent Inculcations in earnest Intreaties and pressing Importunities in repeated Advices and passionate Commendations And those whom all these will not move are Incapable of being perswaded against their humour or their interest to any Duty of Religion So that though I see never so much eagerness for an Opinion or Heat for an indifferent Circumstance without the conscience of Christian Love I shall never call that forwardness for those little things Zeal or Religion Yea though those warm men should sacrifice their Lives to their beloved Trifles I should not think them Martyrs but fear rather that they went from one Fire to another and a Worse And in this I have the great Apostle to warrant me who saith Though I give my body to be burned and have not Charity it profiteth me nothing 1 Cor. 13. 3. Thus of the First Head the Necessity of the duty I Come to the II. the Extent Our Love ought 1. To be extended to all Mankind The more general it is the more Christian and the more like unto the Love of God who causeth his Sun to shine and his Rain to fall upon the Good and upon the Evil. And though our Arms be very short and the ordinary influence of our kindness and good will can reach but to a very few yet we may pray for all men and desire the good of all the world and in these we may be charitable without bounds But these are not all Love obligeth us to relieve the Needy and help the Distressed to visit the Sick and succour the Fatherless and Widows to strengthen the Weak and to confirm the Staggering and Doubting to encourage the Vertuous and to reprove the Faulty and in short to be ready in all the offices of Kindness that may promote the good of any man Spiritual or Temporal according to the utmost of our power and capacity The good man is Merciful to his Beast and the Christian ought to be Charitable to his Brother and his Neighbour and every man is our Brother and every one that Needs us is our Neighbour And so our Love ought to extend to all men universally without limitation though with this distinction II. That the more especial Objects of our Love ought to be those that agree with us in a common Faith Gal. 6. 10. that is All Christians as Christians and because such Whatever makes our Brother a Member of the Church Catholick that gives him a title to our nearer affections which ought to be as large as that Our Love must not be confin'd by names and petty agreements and the interests of Parties to the corners of a Sect but ought to reach as far as Christianity it self in the largest notion of it To love those that are of our Way Humour and Opinion is not Charity but Self-love 't is not for Christ's sake but our own To Love like Christians is to Love his Image
consequence from it And thus also are our differences heightned and rendred almost incurable If then we have any kindness for Charity and Christian Love let us take care of such dis-ingenuous practices A true Catholick should not take any Name to himself but that of a Christian nor Reproach any other with any Style of Infamy He should not and cannot in Modesty or Justice charge his brother with any Opinion which he will not own though he never so clearly see that it may be concluded from what he believes and teacheth If men would learn to be thus Fair and Candid to each other our Differences would be reduced to a narrower Circle and there might be some hopes that Peace and Love would revive and flourish in our Borders IF any now should ask me Whether this Doctrine of Universal Love do not tend to Universal Toleration I should answer that thus far it doth viz. that all private persons should Tolerate each other and bear with their brothers Infirmities That every man should allow another that Liberty which he desires himself in things wherein the Laws of God and the Land have left him Free and permit him his own Opinion without Censure or Displeasure Such a Toleration I think Christianity requires in Private men But as to the Publick I do by no means think it Modest for Us to determine what the Government should do And in This case 't is as unfit as in Any whatsoever since this matter depends upon the Consideration of so many Things that 't is very Difficult to state the Bounds of Just Permission and Restraint Leaving That therefore to Their Prudence whom Providence hath called to determine in It I shall only say that so much Toleration as may consist with the Interests of Religion and Publick Safety may be Granted But such a Liberty as is prejudicial to any of These should not be expected For Christianity and all other Considerations oblige the Government to provide for the Common Good And were the Duty of Catholick Charity duly practised and Private Christians once perswaded to Tolerate one another it might then be safer for the Government to give a Larger publick Toleration than possibly now is fit In the mean while without troubling our selves with fansies about the Duty of our Governours Let us mind our Own especially this great one of Charity and Christian Love And if we mind this and practise sutably God will be Glorified and Religion Advanced the Church will be Edified and our Souls Comforted Government will be Established and the Peace of the world Promoted And the Peace of God which passeth all Understanding will keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus To whom with God the Father and God the Holy Ghost be ascribed all Glory and Worship henceforth and for ever SERMON III. Christian Loyalty Preach'd on the KING'S MARTYRDOME The Second Edition SERMON III. A FAST SERMON ON THE King's Martyrdom ROM XIII 2. And they that resist shall receive to themselves Damnation AS there are some Ages and Times that are more infested than others with unhappy influences from the Heavens and noxious reeks from the Earth which by poysoning the Air Roots and Herbs convey that pestilential venome into mens bodies that even wearies Death and gluts the Grave with its slaughters and was matter of our late miseries In like manner there are Times when poysonous Doctrines from the Pulpit and malign humours in the Populace infect the Publick Air and spread a fatal Contagion into mens Principles and Manners which flies like Infection and destroys like the Plague And if ever Times were under cross and unlucky Aspects if ever there were a publick Spirit of Phrensie and mischief in the World in any days since the first certainly this Lot is fallen upon ours wherein mens Principles and Practices contend which shall out-do the other in the degree of Evil And 't is hard to say which are worse Mens actions or opinions We are fallen into Times wherein among some 't is a piece of Gallantry to defie God and a kind of Wit to be an Atheist among others 't is Religion to be Humorous and Phantastick and Conscience to be Turbulent and Ungovernable Nor have mens Practices come short of the malignity of their Belief but if possible have out-done it Atheism hath not rested in the judgement but proceeded to all enormities and debauches And we had not been called to the sad solemnity of this Day if Rebellion had stopt in Opinion But alas the venome of the Asp hath swoln into deadly Tumors and those seditious Principles have shot their poysonous arrows into the vitals of the publick Body We yet feel the smart of those wounds and the Generations to come will wear the scars and the marks of our misery and our guilt What is past we may lament but cannot help What we may do and what we ought is to inform our selves better of the Duty we owe to God and those he hath appointed over us and to endeavour the suppressing those principles and affections which breathed the Plagues that destroyed the Nation and would again burn us up in hotter Flames than those And if that fatal Fire which so lately prey'd upon our Peace and our Properties our Religion and our Government our Persons and our Friends hath not yet convinced us of the evils and danger of Resistance yet there is another and a greater one as certain and more fatal threatned by the Apostle They that resist shall receive to themselves damnation Which words were spoken in the days of NERO who besides that he was an Heathen was a Persecutor and a Tyrant and the most infamous instance in Nature and yet this Monster is not excepted as to the Tribute of Obedience Whereas had this been said in the days of such a Prince as our CHARLES the First it might have been supposed that the vertue of the person claimed the reverence and subjection and not the character of the Prince And that 't was damnable to resist because he was Good not because he was Supream because he was a Nursing Father of the Church not because the Ruling Father of his Countrey 'T was an happy coincidence therefore to secure the Authority of the Magistrate which answers the greatest pretensions of Rebellion If Religion be pretended an Heathen must not be resisted If Tyranny 't is damnation to oppose a Nero. They that resist shall receive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the wrath and judgement of God which implies the guilt and expresseth the danger Now to resist lawful Authority is so sinful and so dangerous principally upon this three-fold account RESISTANCE 1. Affronts the Authority of God 2. 'T is contrary to the Spirit of Religion And 3. Destructive to the Interest of Societies The two former express the Guilt and the latter both the Sin and the Punishment Of each in order 1. RESISTANCE is an affront to the authority of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lord sets up Kings saith
the coyness and perverseness of their own fancies are like him that could see the Stars at noon but could not see the Sun and could spy the shadows made by the Mountains in the Moon but could not discern the greater spots upon its visible surface And for men to strain at the decency of an Habit or the usage of a Ceremony when they can swallow Rebellion and Sacriledge without chewing is to be like him who durst not eat an Egg on Saturday but made nothing to kill a Man Doubtless had the Scripture said by a thousandth part so much for the Jus Divinum of Presbytery as it hath for obedience to Authority had there been one plain word against Conformity as there are many against Rebellion that would have been worn bare upon the tongue and the World would have rung with it But the Injunctions and Commands of Obedience are against our humours and opinions against the darlings of our fancies and the interest of our Party and therefore here we must shuffle and evade cogg and interpret by Analogies of our own making by the Rules of our Sect and the Authority we worship by Necessity and Providence and any thing that will colour Sin and cozen Conscience that will turn Religion into the Current of our appetites and make Scripture speak the language of our humours and our interests Thus Religion and divine Authority shall be reverenced and pleaded when they agree with mens fancies and send light or advantage to the Favourites of their affections But when they cross their Models oppose the people of their imaginations and call them to duties that are displeasant the case is altered the great motives of perswasion have lost their power and influence and Religion can do nothing with them Thus briefly of the two first Heads viz. Resistance 1. affronts the Authority of God and 2. is opposite to the Spirit of Religion From which I come to the third which makes resistance both a great sin and a great punishment viz. 3. It is ruinous to the INTEREST of SOCIETIES This I must more largely prosecute because it will lead us into the sad occasion of our present meeting Man is a Creature made for Society and what is against the interest of Societies is destructive to Humane Nature And if the greatness of a sin and a mischief be to be measured by its reference to the Publick for ought I know Rebellion will be the next sin to that which is unpardonable in the degree of guilt as well as it is near it in the penalty threatned Now there are two great interests of Societies viz. GOVERNMENT and RELIGION to both which Resistance is fatal both in the doctrine and practice of it To begin with Government in order 1. Resistance is destructive to Government For if Subjects may resist the Powers over them no Government in the World can stand longer than till the next opportunity to overthrow it Every man will resist what he doth not like and endeavour to pluck down what comports not with his humour Thus every fit of discontent will stir up the various and inconstant People to seek an alteration And there was never any Government so exactly framed in the World but in the menage and administration of it many things would displease Now the generality of men are led by their present senses and if they feel themselves pained by any thing though the Grief be but in their Imagination they are for present deliverance from that Evil by any means never considering whether the way of Cure draws not greater Evils after it than the distemper and so upon every discontent the people are inflamed and upon every occasion rebel And thus is a Kingdom laid open to inevitable devastation and ruine and by a dear experience we have learnt that 't is better to endure any inconveniences in a setled Government than to endeavour violent alterations When the Sword is drawn no man knows where and when it will be sheathed When the Stone is out of a mans hand he cannot direct it as he pleaseth Men with Swords by their sides will do what likes themselves and not what is enjoyned by those that imploy them Or could we suppose what our own unhappy experience hath confuted that Armies would be obedient yet the Murders and Rapes the Spoils and devastations which are the natural issues of a Civil War are worse than any inconveniencies in any Government possible And though as my Lord Bacon notes Foreign War is like the heat of exercise good and healthful for the Body yet Civil War is like the heat of a Fever ruinous and destructive Besides those that resist either overcome the supream Power or are conquered by it If the former their Instruments in all likelihood conquer them as well as those they served them against and so from the just authority of their lawful Rulers they fall under the insolence of their licentious Vassals Or suppose they get the Government to themselves all the evils will follow which usually do upon Competitions and variety of Claims which will breed everlasting disturbance and eternal fears Such evils will follow if the resisters prevail and if they chance to be supprest and overcome by the Powers they oppose they can expect nothing less than to be crusht and ruined So that those that resist whether they conquer or are overcome draw inevitable ruine upon themselves and probably on the common Body For Laws and Government are the great Charter of our Lives and Libenties our Properties and our All and as the Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Murders rapes violence and all kind of mischief invade the World with Anarchy and Disorder And how far all this hath been verified in our Land a little recollection will inform us For WHEN fair Weather and a warm Sun the indulgence of Heaven and a long tranquillity had made us fat and frolick rich and full our prosperity made us wanton and our riches insolent We began to murmur we knew not why and to complain because we had nothing to complain of Discontents grew upon the stock of our ill Nature and the perverseness of our humours and every little occasion was Fuel to the Fire that was kindling in the distempered Body We began to invade the Government with malicious whispers and private Preachments with Libels and Declamations with Insolencies and Tumults And when Sedition had incouraged it self by Noise and Numbers by Popular zeal and loud talk of Reformation it flew into the highest irreverences towards the King and the most violent proceedings against his Ministers that the nearest Trees being removed they might have a full stroke at the Cedar Nor did things stop here The Sparks grew into mighty Flames and those Vapours into Thunder and Tempests The whispers of the Corner past into the noise of a Camp and the murmurs of the Street into the sound of the Trumpet The Cloud like an hand became a Magazine of Storms and our New
reverence of the most High which is a direct contempt of his perfections Now scorn is one of the greatest indignities especially it is sore and provoking when one is contemn'd by his inferiours and more when they are his dependants that have their bread from his Bounty such is the case here in all possible degrees of aggravation vilest worms and lowest dust scoff at the highest Majesty and fullest perfection The universal King our Soveraign before whom Angels bow and Devils tremble is derided by the slaves of his Kingdom and Creation The general Father and Benefactor flouted by those that have their Being and all their comforts from his goodness and cannot live or move or breathe without him Acts 17. 28. Instead of lowest reverence gratitude and prostrations they lift up their heads in proud scorn and defiance of him and as the Royal Psalmist speaks of them Psal 73. 18. They set their mouth against the Heavens 2. This is a sin that is a step beyond Atheism it self 'T is greater impiety to say God is a careless or a contemptible Being than to say He is not As the Moralist tells us He would rather it should be affirm'd that there was no such man as Plutarch than that it should be believ'd that there was such a man but that he was a vile and worthless person Now to deride Religion while we allow there is a God is to say by immediate consequence either that he is a careless and idle Greatness that heeds not his Creatures and so worship is an impertinence or that he is so bad or so mean a Being that he deserves not to be worshipp'd that is that we owe him no acknowledgement of his Being or his Bounty and which is more that 't is ridiculous to pay him any To deny the existence of God is gross and unreasonable but to acknowledge that and to scoff at the expressions of love and veneration of him is down-right madness So that if the scoffer be not an Atheist he is the more inexcusable in his scoffing and if possible he is worse 3. The humour of deriding Religion is monstrousness in the soul All sin is deformity but this is Horrid For a man to have his parts and members misplaced His legs suppose on his shoulders his eyes in his neck and his arms growing out of his belly is frightful but there 's a misplacing in the soul that is more ugly Man hath such powers given him as scorn and derision and while they are exercised against sin and folly there is nothing amiss in them But when they are misplaced upon holiness and wisdom upon the greatest and the purest upon the most visible and most universally acknowledg'd perfections they are then an excess of deformity in the soul and such scorners are greater monsters than the man that hath horns and hoofs 4. It is a wickedness beyond the degeneracy of Devils We read that They fought against the Angels the Ministers of God Rev. 12. 7. but never that they derided them for their Ministeries They oppose Gods ends and interests in the world but we find them not scoffing at Him No they believe and tremble Jam. 2. 19. This Fear is not a vertue indeed in those Apostate spirits and yet it proceeds from a sense and apprehension of divine power and vengeance But the impious Scoffers at Religion have out-grown that and are more bold than all the Legions of darkness They have so little dread of the wrath of God that by their scoffs they endeavour to provoke and as it were to dare him to pour his displeasure on them As if they had a mind to challenge the field with Him and to try the reality and force of his power and terrours Thus briefly of the malignity and aggravations of the sin of Scoffing at Religion There will be an occasion of saying more of it in the sequel I therefore descend now III. To an account of some Effects and Consequences of it and shall confine my self here also within the bounds of that which is mention'd as the character of these Scoffers in the Text Walking after their own Lusts We have seen that mens lusts are the ground and occasion of their scoffing and I add that this again is a cause of the greater heights and boldness of their Lusts like Water and Ice they produce one another Mens lusts put them upon scoffing at that which should restrain them and this through the judgement of God and the nature of the thing brings them at last to walk after their lusts in such obsequiousness and intireness that they follow them 1. Without any check or restraint upon their Lusts 2. Without power to forsake or disobey them 3. Without or with very little hope of remedy or deliverance from the dominion and sad consequences of them These are all dreadful things and such as frequently if not mostly follow upon the impious humour of scoffing at Relgion As to the first The Scoffers walk after their own lusts 1. Without restraint or check from the Spirit of God This strives long with sinners but it will not always strive with them that strive against it Gen. 6. 3. When men move with their Lusts as those that are joyn'd to them the holy Spirit will let them alone Hos 4. 17. And this impiety in the very nature of it is of all sins most likely to provoke Him to a dereliction of the sinner Since it is the greatest most direct and most intolerable affront of the most High and if any thing be a fighting against the Holy Spirit a vexing yea a blaspheming of Him This is Moreover such a sinner becomes a subject incapable of His communications Nothing that is sacrâ—d or serious makes any impression upon such whiffling spirits 't were as good attempt writing on the water or painting with a Pencil on the air as to think of fastening any sober sense upon the scoffer And when it is come to this that the sinner hath made himself incapable of any benefit from the influences of the Spirit He withdraws his solicitations from that miserable person He will not plough upon a rock nor sow upon the sands So that the man hath the advantage now of not being disturb'd in his pursuits by the grand Enemy of his lusts but is suffer'd to run upon the wrath of God and everlasting torments without controul from Him 2. The scoffer gets this priviledge also to walk after his own Lusts without check from his Conscience This is an Inward Judge that summons censures and condemns and while there is such a Court and such transactions in the sinners breast he cannot walk after his lusts in quiet But the scoffer takes a course with Conscience 1. He debauches it And 2. He makes it stupid As to the First it may be consider'd That when He enters upon the trade of deriding Religion he doth not believe it to be really so contemptible and ridiculous only he follows a fashion and
thinks 't is witty to Scoff at it But in process of time and practice his understanding through the withcraft of this vice and the secret judgement of God grows into the very nature and temper of the sin And he comes insensibly at last to believe that in earnest which he entred on at first in jest and so Satan and his Lusts have decoy'd him into a down right serious Infidelity If the horrid Articles of impiety and unbelief had been offer'd him at the beginning in a way of serious argument he would have entertain'd them with some intellectual detestation and abhorrence But having a long time droll'd upon Religion and represented it as ridiculous rather than so much wit and sport should be lost he is willing to believe it is so and such a will quickly draws such an understanding to it But especially the consideration of full liberty in his Lusts indears and recommends the opinion to him and the intellect so prepar'd is quickly convinc'd having so great an interest to incline it so that now the foolish mind is darkened Rom. 1. 21. and the Conscience made a party with the lusts It is become reprobate Rom. 1. 28. and given up to strong delusions 2 Thes 2. 11. The Scoffer now believes his Jests as if they were arguments of Reason and pleads for his lusts as if they were actions of vertue And thus his Conscience is debauch'd Or if he have not proceeded so far as this Yet 2. He stupifieth it at least There are two main acts of Conscience to inform us what is our Duty and to judge how far we do it or do it not And this sort of wicked men deal so with Conscience as to stupifie both For Duty they think of none who is Lord over them and for reflection on their actions they are strangers to it They follow on with their eyes and thoughts upon their Lusts but never consider whither the way leads They pursue sense and appetite but reflect and think no more than Beasts Whither am I going and what have I done are no questions with them All the soul and mind they have is employ'd in seeking means to gratifie and please their Lusts and while those are satisfied the men are content and quiet be their actions what they will They feel no inward trouble or disturbance from the greatest villanies They can blaspheme the name of God by horrid Oaths every moment and debauch themselves by drunkenness and vile sensuality every day without the least remorse or sense that any thing is a-miss yea they make sport of their Sin Prov. 14. 9. and glory in their shame Phil. 3. 19. They live undisturbedly in a course of hellish wickedness and die in the same without any thought or apprehension of Sin Death or Judgement They laugh and debauch themselves into a state past feeling Ephes 4. 19. and sear their Consciences as with an hot iron 1 Tim. 4. 2. They are twice dead plucked up by the roots Jude 12. dead by nature to the spiritual Life and now by these vile usages dead to the moral also And when they are come thus far they are freed too 3. From the Restraints of the Ministers of Gods Providence the Holy Angels They are Instruments in the distribution of mercies and judgements by which God restrains sinners from their Lusts Ministring spirits for our good Heb. 1. 14. and are perhaps concern'd about us in more things than we imagine throwing bars a-thwart the way where danger or temptation lies inwardly and secretly exciting good thoughts and desires as Satan doth evil ones and defending us in many instances from the power and subtilty of that enemy But the derider of Religion who is forsaken of God and Conscience is also left by These And that there is such a dereliction of incurable sinners we may see Jer. 51. 9. We would have healed Babylon but she is not healed forsake her and let her go Spoken as some of the learned Ancients suppose by the Presidential Angels like the voice in the Temple a little before the last destruction of it Let us go hence Thus Psal 71. 9. the Septuagint reads They that keep my soul take counsel together saying God hath forsaken him let us persecute and take him for there is none to deliver him The good Spirits depart from the incorrigible sinner and leave him to the evil ones Thus of the first dreadful consequence of Scoffing at Religion the Scoffers are given up to follow their Lusts without restraint Another is 2. That they follow without power to leave or disobey them They follow as Vassals and Slaves yea they follow as a Beast that is led Their wills are but the motions of their Lust their Reasons but the impure Phantasms and Imaginations that are raised by their Lusts and their affections but the various inclinations of their Lusts So that what ever may be said of the liberty of less degenerate men these have none Our power consists in the aids of the Spirit of God in the informations convictions and reproofs of Conscience and in the offices of kindness we receive from the Ministring Spirits When these are gone all our power is gone So that those reprobate men are dead in sin Eph. 2. 1. and Sold unto it Rom. 7. 14. They are led into Captivity by the Law of sin and death Rom. 7. 23. They are slaves and slaves to the worst of Tyrants and the worst of slaves even to him that is held in the chains of darkness to the judgement of the great day Being left of God and good Angels the evil ones take possession of them on which account they are truly Demoniacks and those of the worst sort they are mov'd and acted by the Devil as if they had no other Soul And so 3. They follow their Lusts with none or very little hope of Remedy The condition of the Scoffers of some of them at least is quite or very near desperate This follows from what hath been said already and we may consider further 1. That there is a day of Grace a time in which there is ground for hope when that is done hope is at an end Now this day is the time and possibility of repentance When ever a sinner repents and turns he shall be accepted and live But men may out-live and sin away the power and capacity of repentance And then their Sun is set their day is done Now Repentance begins in Sense and conviction of sin but when a man is arriv'd at a state past feeling he is incapable of that the most powerful word most terrible judgements and most alluring mercies have no effect on such the best Physick in the world will not work on a dead carkass the loudest voice will not rouze a Marble Statue nor the most soveraign Salve close up a cut in the stump of a Tree The summ is When one is past the inward sense of Duty and danger Sin and Misery he is past Repentance
Grace and Hope And this very often is the condition of the Scoffer who hath debauch'd and jested away all feeling of these Interests Yea 2. there is great cause to think that he commits the Sin against the Holy Ghost or a sin that is very near it For that consists in the Disbelief and contempt of the great and last Testimony that was given by the Spirit to the truth of Christianity And that I may not seem to speak this without ground let us look into the place where the first and fullest account of this sin is We have it Matth. 12. Our Saviour had cur'd one that was possest ver 22. The people marvell'd and were inclin'd to believe upon it ver 23. But the Pharisees revil'd saying that he cast out Devils by Belzebub ver 24. Christ shews the absurdity and falshood of their suggestion arguing that then Satan would be divided against himself and his Kingdom so divided could not stand ver 25 26. And having reason'd against that malicious account of his Miracle he infers from the contrary and true way of his performing it ver 28. If I by the Spirit of God cast out Devils then is the Kingdom of God come unto you viz. then I that have done this am the Messias And he concludes by a serious application to them to shew the sad consequence of such bold and impious suggestions 31. Wherefore I say unto you All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men Where by Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost must be understood according to the context That of imputing the operation of the Spirit in Miracles to the Devil which is therefore so hainous because it is an expression of the greatest contempt of it and a bar against the being perswaded by it Now to apply this Though the Scoffer doth not impute the Spirits Testimony in Miracles to the Devil yet that is not because he hath a greater esteem of the operations of the Spirit but because he hath less belief of the existence of Devils Yea he will not allow so much as the Pharisees did That any such things were done but supposeth all to have been Impostures and delusions in the Author or cunningly devised Fables in the Relators which is a contempt put upon the operations of the Holy Spirit equal to that of ascribing them to the Devil and doth as effectually and incurably strike up the Grounds of Faith as that So that in substance the sin of the Scoffers is the same with that described in the Text though differing in circumstance and form Yea 't is the sin with aggravation since they do not barely speak against the Holy Ghost and his operations but deride them an expression of the greatest contempt possible And when men are come thus far to despise the great Testimony of the Spirit and ground of Faith after it hath been sufficiently propounded to them and entertain'd by them in favour of their Lusts we have cause to think their Infidelity is incurable and consequently unpardonable For so the Apostle hath declar'd plainly Heb. 6. 4 5 6. For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly Gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost viz. in Baptism and have tasted the good Word of God and the powers of the World to come all which are expressions of the visibly owning Christianity and partaking in the duties and priviledges of it if they shall fall away to renew them again to repentance And they that are arriv'd at the impudent height of deriding all this are faln away with a witness and therefore I think we may conclude safely from the Doctrine of the Apostle that they are incurable and unpardonable and from this and the discourse before that 't is sadly probable they have committed the sin against the Holy Ghost This 't is like may seem very severe Doctrine but I cannot help that if it be true I am not to be blam'd for the severity of it And I 'me sure the Book of Homilies declares more positively in the case than I have done For speaking in the Tenth Homily of the Scorners of Godliness and Religion who are there describ'd the Author saith of them I think I may without danger of Gods judgement pronounce that never any yet were converted unto God by Repentance but continued still in their abominable wickedness heaping up to themselves Damnation against the day of Gods inevitable Judgement I Come now IV. to the APPLICATION which shall be 1. Earnestly to Dehort all that have the least sense of vertue or reason from Scoffing at Religion or at men for making profession of it And then 2. I shall conclude with some very brief Directions and Rules of caution to secure us from the danger of this Sin Concerning the first I consider that the Scoffers with whom I am further to treat are of two sorts 1. The desperate who have debauch'd themselves into down-right Infidelity And 2. the Fashionable ones as I crave leave for distinction to call them who do not Scoff at Religion out of enmity or malice but out of modishness and compliance and it may be out of design to be accounted Wits for so doing I shall deal First with the former sort and in treating with them shall use none of the acknowledgments of Religion but from plain unassisted reason shall shew the extreme vanity and madness of their practice And I would entreat them to think of the following things 2. Be Religion True as we know or false as they vainly imagine their Scoffing at it is exceedingly absurd Every Faculty is to be applyed to its proper object to employ and of them about others that belong not to them is foolish and unnatural Now God hath bestowed upon us Reason and understanding to judge and discourse about things that are serious and the Faculty of laughter and derision to be exercised upon things that are vain to employ the former and discourse gravely about ludicrous trifling matters is ridiculous And 't is equally absurd to be sportive about affairs that are serious Now whether Religion be true or not 't is a serious thing If true the greatest Interests of this world and another are included and concerned in it Or if it be otherwise it must yet be granted that it hath much agreeableness with the Reasons and most serious Faculties of Mankind and our greatest and most important concerns in this Life viz. the main affairs of the Government of the World are bound up with it and have relation to it So that whether true or false it is no matter of sport but subject for our most serious considerations and discourses And from this last hint about Government I mind the Scoffer 2. That his practice tends to the dissolution of humane Society and the turning of mankind into the condition of wild nature And if it should
our present safety ours our Kings our Government our Religion our posterity require from us for if we continue to do wickedly we may expect to be destroyed both we and our King This all the considerations of the next state demand loudly call for all manner of Reasons from both the worlds urge and enforce this Let us not be still stupid and deaf to such calls but hear and fear and do no more so wickedly Let us put a stop to the course of our sins and then we may expect that a stop will be put to our Troubles and the Judgements threatned and feared will be turned from us The Summ of all is to urge us to be as wise in our Generation as those poor Heathens were in theirs who Believed Fasted Prayed Reformed and we may consider further 3. The Universality of these From the greatest of them to the least of them They were all affected they all did something and so much as was accepted This is a wonderful Instance of Conversion somewhat like it is that of St. Peters 3000 in one Sermon The King humbled himself and the people Fasted and put on Sack-cloth The Greatest is not too great to humble himself before the God of Heaven nor the least too little to be consider'd by him all Flesh had corrupted it self all were become abominable in their doings and therefore all were concern'd to be greatly affected and deeply humbled from the greatest to the least From the Greatest There the Humiliation begun The King descended from his Throne and put on Sack-cloth laid by his Majesty and Glory debased himself in the dust and put on vile array significations of Sorrow and Repentance from the great 't is like their enormous sins begun thence they had their examples thence their encouragement The great draw their Trains after them Natural Pride and Ambition make all desirous to imitate them their Example is largely diffusive and infectious and makes sins fashionable their sins quickly over-spread and debauch a Nation and therefore 't was fit that Repentance should begin here where probably many of their sins did that the great should cure by their good example those they had hurt by their bad and theirs being against more Mercy and more Expectation are the greatest and most aggravating and therefore there was Reason and need that they should be most penitent and first so and accordingly here it Commenc'd Reformation is like to be general and effectual when the Great begin it in themselves it doth not stop there but passeth through the middle degrees to the least of men the meanest and least considerable those also add to the common heap of provocations and those have therefore reason to be humbled also and when Gods hand is lifted up and his Judgements are near he requires and expects that all and every one from him that sits on the Throne to him that grinds in the Mill should repent and turn to him the sins of the meanest contribute to the publick guilt and their Repentance helps forward to publick deliverance Let us duly consider this circumstance of the Repentance of the men of Nineveh and O that God in his Mercy to us and them would open the eyes of the Great among us to see this their duty and the things that belong to their Peace before they are hidden from their Eyes as their Guilt is often greatest so the publick consequent Judgements many times fall heaviest upon them Two late dreadful Judgements we have been under Fire and Pestilence These fell chiefly upon the middle and meaner sort The Judgements we have now reason to fear threaten all but chiefly the Great In the Name of God let us all pray that a deep Spirit of Humiliation may be upon them that they may reflect on the greatest of their sins in their Nature and the Mischief they have done by their Influence that they may strive to go before all the rest in Repentance and shew the Inferiour souls the way to Safety and Happiness that they may lay aside all Vanity Luxury and Intemperance Rioting and Drunkenness Chambering and Wantonness the Dalilahs the dearest sins those of Pride and Pleasure the sins by which the Nation hath been made drunk poysoned debauched and depraved that they may mourn for these great crying Iniquities and in the strength of Divine grace resolve to turn from them This would be the happiest sight that ever England saw and the most hopeful Oh that our eyes were blest with it And Let not us of the middle and inferiour sort content our selves to desire their Reformation and amendment but resolve also on our own 'T is generally very grateful to us to hear the faults of the Great ript up of our Governours especially It will concern us more to affect our hearts duly with those we are guilty of our selves And in this we the Ministers of Religion the Guides of the people at least who ought to be so should lead the way our unworthiness also hath been great and our provocations have been many we have not returned unto the Lord according to his Benefits or made a right use of his Mercies we have not been so strict in our Lives or so diligent in our great and most weighty Imployment so much concern'd for the good of the Church or Interests of mens Souls as we ought to have been many have been Loyterers some Rioters scarce any have imploy'd proportionable Zeal and circumspect diligence Our faults are published and aggravated to the height I hope beyond it by our Enemies of all sorts and we may expect still a greater load of Criminations and Reproaches Let us consider that this evil is from the Lord for our sins He said to the Lying Spirits Go and David reflected that he might have bid Shimei curse him Let us look at his hand and humble our selves before him and not spend our Breath in Invectives against the Instruments of our Troubles and Fears but apply the proper Remedy to the Root of our Distemper which we know is to bring forth Fruit meet for Repentance And let not the people spend their all their Heat and Zeal against the sins of their Governours and their Misdeeds in these they are apt to exceed and run beyond bounds and multiply their own sins in so doing But let them lay their hands on their hearts and say We have all sinned and done wickedly we have been all as sheep going astray but we will return to the great Shepherd and Bishop of our souls Let them make themselves deeply sensible not only of the gross carnal Evils but of the Spiritual Iniquities malice bitter zeal contempt of Rulers and betters Schism Separation waywardness and the like and not excuse and extenuate their sins charge others and lessen their own by Pharisaical comparisons but let all sorts and degrees of men charge themselves with their own guilt and deeply abase themselves before the Almighty in the sense of it and when it is thus
any thing of it that is not rapt up into the ecstasie of admiring it Who would think now that such a Spirit as this that so highly pretends to exalt Grace should really disparage it and undermine it Who would think that the enemy of Gods Grace blew in this humour upon the world and kinled this mighty zeal that seems so gloriously to illustrate and recommend it And yet we may see reason to believe so when we shall consider that this Free Grace that is so magnificently talkt of is infinitely unworthy God and prejudicial to his Glory both in the notion of Free and in the notion of Grace For a thus admired thus celebrated freeness is but an humoursome doating on a party which self-admirers are pleas'd to call the Elect that is those of their own fashion and likeness They first fansie themselves the favourites and special darlings of Heaven not from any reason they have to think so from the goodness of their lives but the strength of their imaginations which furnish them with strong and proud presumptions and then they admire and well they may the freeness of that grace which chooseth them to be the darlings and peculiar people with as little reason as they can conceit themselves to be so And thus the freeness they commend in God is that we call childish and unreasonable fondness in our selves which is infinitely unbecoming him who is a lover of Righteousness and no respecter of persons who acts by the eternal Laws of Right and Good and not by the feminine measures of impotent humour and indulgence and the freeness of whose Grace consists not in loving or favouring us without reason but for reasons drawn from the benignity and perfection of his own nature which communicates without external motive or constraint without bounds or possibility of impediment And thus we see how a corrupt and abusive notion of the freedom of Gods grace hath been insinuated by this device to the prejudice of his Glory And as free grace has been misrepresented in the notion of Free so also hath it been corruptly taught in the notion of Grace which some have represented as a violence the divine power offers unto our wills at least superinducing a foreign quality upon us to which we contribute nothing which makes us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Heathen expresses it Good and happy by a certain fate So that good men are but a better sort of Engines By which notion of grace God is supposed to contradict the laws himself hath establisht in the Universe which have provided that every thing act consonantly to the rules of their own natures Besides which such an irresistible impulse as this defeats the doctrine of Rewards and Punishments For who is rewarded for actions that are prefectly anothers or who is punish'd for what he could not help And if grace be such a force as makes men good irresistibly and this Grace bestow'd only on one here and another there meerly as arbitrary Will shall dispose it the greatest part of men for ought I see will have fair apology for their sins at least for their neglects since they wanted that which was necessary to make them better and God alone could have given them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was the Apology of the Heathen and might be all mens else upon this supposal And to this I add that such a notion of Gods grace lays a foundation for sloth and remission of all endeavour For whoever believes that the grace of God where it comes is like a mighty current that bears down all before it irresistibly forceth our wills to a compliance and makes such sudden and miraculous changes upon our natures I say whoever believes this and thinks also that this grace is necessary to make him good and happy and that nothing he can do can obtain it or draw it near him what can we expect but that such a man should neglect all care and diligence in order to the making himself better in expectation of this necessary irresistible Grace without which his endeavours are at the best impertinent and who is so ridiculous to digg for the wind to fill his Sails or to endeavour to set to Sea without it We see then how the fulness and glory of the divine grace have been undermined by plausible and dangerous conceits that have crept into the world under the notion of free grace dishonourable to God and injurious to the interest of mens Souls And this is the second device I proposed to detect Thirdly then another design Satan manageth against Gods glory is to disparage and vilifie his Spirit which he doth by ascribing to it the foolish and sometimes wicked impulses the fond and extravagant conceits of the sons of imagination For as of old when he perceived he could not overcome the belief and acknowledgement of a Deity He multiplied Gods and Deified things of the meanest and vilest rank and nature even stocks and stones vices and diseases in like manner perceiving now that he cannot hinder the influence of the Spirit of God from being acknowledg'd in the world He crys up every folly and hot imagination for the work of the Spirit He entitles it to boyling passion under the name of zeal and to the diseases of mens fancies melancholy and phrensie under the name of the Spirits motions Thus when kindled melancholly hath inflamed the imagination with hot and scalding conceits and the fired Fancy gets into the Revelations opens the Seals pours out the Viols and fantastically interprets the Fates of Kingdoms when 't is mounted on the Wings of the Wind flys into the Clouds and flutters there in Mystical non-sense when it flows into the tongue in an extravagant ramble and abuseth the name and word of God mingling it with canting unintelligible babble I say when the diseased and the disturbed Fancy thus variously displays it self Satan makes men believe they are acted by the Spirit and that those wild agitations of sick imagination are divine motions And when this fire is descended from the fancy to the affections and these being extreamly moved by those vain and proud conceits cause tremblings and foamings convulsions and ecstasies in the body all which are but natural diseases if not worse and just such as were those odd ecstatical motions of the Devils Priests when they came foaming from his Altars These I say the same wicked Designer hath taught these wild Phantasticks blasphemously to ascribe to the blessed and adorable Spirit And when their fancies being full of turgid notions and their bodies in an ecstasie they dream of strange sights voices and wonderful discoveries which are nothing but the unquiet agitations of their disorder'd brains These also Satan perswades them to be divine Revelations and effects of the Spirit of God shewing it self miraculously in them Briefly then and in summ Every humour and Fantastick unaccountable motion hath by this device been represented as the work of
purest times those of the first three hundred nay six hundred years which assertions I have in this place particularly and largely made good and divers of our Learned Divines have in their writings fully proved it Nor is there any one thing which we condemn in the Roman belief or practice but what hath arose by the corruption of times long since the beginning and indeed in the the Church of Rome there is an eternal fountain of Innovations in the authority they assume of declaring that is in good earnest in making new Articles of Faith So that their people can never know when they have all new things may still be obtruded as necessary and essential without end On the other side the Character of Antiquity condemns the Sects also Among them there are some old Heresies received but their principles and practices as opposite to those of our Church of England were not in the first best times Presbytery Independency Anabaptism Quakerism may have been here and there of old in the brains of some particular conceited men but never were in any general practice any where the eldest not two hundred years ago and some have arose in our own time Their ways they pretend to be contain'd in the holy Scriptures and if so we would presently acknowledge them to be Primitive But they are in the Scriptures only as those are interpreted by their private Spirits that is not there but in the fancies of the Innovators and these being their guide in interpreting Lo here also is a fountain of perpetual novellizing And as long as the imaginations of men can frame novelties we shall never be at the end of new Sects We have seen the rise of some in our late times of confusions and if ever we should be so unhappy as to see such again which God forbid in all likelihood from the same Source other new yet unheard of Sects and Heresies would arise to the further dividing of the Chncurh ad scandal of Religion There is nothing so pregnant with Novelties as imagination and the Sectarian private Spirit is no better nor worse than Fancy I deny not but these all sorts of them do retain some of the Primitive Doctrines as the Roman Church also doth but their opinions and ways that are opposite to the Church of England are not such This our Church without fondness or overweening I may say doth profess and teach the Ancient Apostolical Primitive Christianity and hath admitted no new things that are contrary to it It was reformed according to the Scriptures the Scriptures as they are interpreted by the first General Councils and Fathers those next the Apostles who we ought to believe understood best what were their doctrines and ways This Church in its constitutions is therefore truly ancient so in every main every considerable thing and truly Protestant protesting both against Roman and Sectarian Innovations 2. Another Character of the Faith delivered to the ancient Saints is that it was pure 'T was delivered to the Saints and it made them such The wisdom that is from above is first pure It teacheth and produceth Purity Holiness and real Goodness in Heart and Life The business of it is to conform us unto God and to make us like him And the Lord our God is holy And by this Character also is Popery condemn'd For this teacheth some direct impieties and immoralities and by the consequence of some other of its Doctrines the necessity of Reformation of life is quite taken away the Reins are laid on mens necks and Gods Laws are made void by their traditions Of the first sort are their Idolatries and Invocation of Saints and Angels which God both in the Old Testament and the New hath so earnestly declared against as the highest dishonour to his Majesty and affront to his Glory and which he stigmatizeth as the greatest impurities and frequently calls Fornication and Whoredome they are spiritually so Likewise their doctrines and practices of deposing and murdering of Princes and absolving the people from their Allegiance their dispensing with Perjuries Rebellions and other sorts of wickedness are highest immoralities and most Antichristian that is most contrary to the Spirit Genius and designs of the holy Jesus which were to redeem unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Besides which direct and point blank oppositions to the Christian principles and Rules they strike at the root and main design of Christianity by those their doctrines that render repentance and change of life unnecessary For according to them the favour of God and eternal Salvation may be had upon easier terms Crossings Pilgrimages Ave Maries Whippings Fastings with Confession and Absolution will do the business There is no need of cutting off right hands of plucking out of right eyes and mortifying the body in our Saviours spiritual sence that is of subduing and rescinding all inordinate appetites and affections which are the great difficulties of Religion the bodily exercises will suffice we may be safe and Sainted without obedience to those hard sayings Or if the other things should be omitted 't is but going to Purgatory at last and if you have money to leave for Masses and Dirge's you are secure of being pray'd out thence So that here the greatest design of the Gospel which is real inward holiness and purity is destroyed And without holiness 't is here made possible to see God And this is the worst thing that any thing that pretends to Religion can be guilty of On the other hand the Sects whatever purity and spirituality they pretend do many most of them teach doctrines and walk in ways that are contrary to the purity of heart and life that becomes a Christian The Gnosticks who were some of the first Fanaticks in the Christian Church pretended that they were the spiritual the pure people and that all things to them were pure on which account they gave themselves up to all Immorality and filthiness Sensual saith the Apostle having not the Spirit They denyed there was any moral good and evils in the nature of things and estimate of God And this Heresie is received among some of our Sects God they think and say sees no sin in them his elect people He loves not for the sake of holiness and vertue but freely that is for no reason but meer unaccountable will and if so 't is in vain to amend our lives to live soberly righteously and godly in order to our acceptance with him Though we are the quite contrary in all manner of evil conversation we may yet be his beloved his chosen This hath the malignity of the worst of Popery or Heathenism And such a Principle is among some of the Sects I accuse not all others that do not affirm so much as this do in a manner make good works unnecessary Faith their airy Faith that prescinds from moral goodness is all All is believing receiving trusting relying which are great duties parts of Faith but this as
the Glory of God the Peace of the Church our Faith and a good life All which in some of their main branches I shall endeavour faithfully to discover and though I foresee my discourse will light on things which are very sacred with some who will be angry with every one that is not fond of their darling devices yet I shall not keep the Devils Counsel because I know they are not so much theirs as his And the more men are taken with the pretence in the greater danger are they of the mischief To begin then with the first Head proposed Satan deviseth against the Glory of God and that in these instances viz. against his Goodness his Grace his Spirit and his Worship 1. Satan designs against the Glory of Gods goodness The goodness of God is his nature and the fountain of his actions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Philosopher and God is love saith the Apostle And the most suitable apprehension we can form of God is to look on him as an Infinite Eternal and Almighty Love as that benign fountain that is continually overflowing and that glorious Sun that is always shedding abroad its beams and brightness Indeed the dry essence of God we cannot know 't is hid from our sight and our approaches in dazling glory and light inaccessible But his nature that is the Principle of his actions is his goodness and his attributes are but the several modes and variegations of Almighty Love from which they differ but as the colours of the Rain-bow do from the light of the Sun This then is the dearest and most God-like Attribute and the Divine glory is most concern'd in the honour of his goodness and against this Satan hath in these latter days especially been most subtilly and unhappily designing For perceiving that the notion of a God was so deeply prest upon the Souls of men that there was no erasing no plucking it thence He endeavours to corrupt and undermine what he could not otherwise destroy And if he cannot obtain of the world to say with the Fool There is no God he 'l attempt to perswade them to believe that God is like him or themselves and so is worse than none which he doth by instilling notions into the minds of men vastly prejudicial to the honour of his goodness and representing him as cruel merciless and tyrannical as one that hath made Myriads of excellent creatures to make them miserable for ever and who delights in triumphing over the wretched and calamitous whom meer unaccountable Will hath made so As one that hath involv'd the greatest part of his best Creation in black and dismal fates before they sin'd or had a being that do what they can will dragg them into the Regions of endless woe and pain Thus representing the God of Love under the character of the most detestable Cruelty and Injustice and making him who is a Lover of men an Almighty Cannibal and an Idol more black than the God of the barbarous Americans Which sowre and injurious apprehensions of God had never enter'd upon the minds of men by profest and open ways of opposing that goodness which shines with so clear a beam into our Souls and is writ upon every leaf of the sacred volume and external nature and therefore the cunning agent hath insinuated them by a Device pretending himself a mighty Zelot for the glory of God's absolute will power and prerogative over his Creatures which he hath strain'd and forc'd beyond all the bounds of Right Just and Good And by such representations he knows he doth no real honour to these Attributes but reflects a certain disparagement upon the divine goodness For a Will that is arbitrary and not govern'd by goodness and wisdome is meer unaccountable humour and womanish impotence and not becoming him who acts by the Council of his own will according to the Apostle yea and the Heathen Poet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And that power and prerogative that is a perfection of the divine nature is always in conjunction with the milder and sweeter attributes he cannot lye he cannot destroy him saith the Apostle He cannot act contrarily to the rules of his infinitely perfect essence And indeed to act inconsistently with the eternal laws of Right and Good is not only cruelty and injustice but impotency and weakness So that this mighty noise of the glory of Gods absolute power and prerogative in contriving and resolving the ruine of his creatures is no exaltation of any perfection in God but a sad and particular execution upon his goodness and consequently upon Religion the foundation of which is laid in Love to God which is fatally overthrown by such sowre and surly notions of him as represent him as the hater of his creatures And when such apprehensions as one hath well observ'd meet with stout and resolute tempers they do but canker them against such a Being so that first they wish he were not and then easily perswade themselves he is not Or if such opinions of God light on the more timorous and passive spirits they do but fright them into some poor sneaking forc'd and feminine devotions which are devoid of all heart and life And thus the success of the first device against the glory of the divine goodness is either Atheism or a Superstition that is near it But 2. Satan deviseth against the glory of God by disparaging his Grace which he doth by detracting from the fulness under pretence of exalting the freeness of it The Enemy of Mankind is envious at that Grace the Divine goodness affords us and denies him and because he cannot confine the bounty of Heaven or hinder the beams from descending from above he 'l endeavour to raise clouds below that shall intercept them and deprive us of their influence which he doth by suggesting narrow and diminishing apprehensions of the grace of God and representing it as an arbitrary contracted desultory thing bestowed only here and there by humoursome measures and directed by no rule but that of meer unaccountable will by which abusive representation the glory of the divine Grace which consists in its universal diffusion is clouded and eclipst and the minds of men hindred from apprehending what they enjoy and from enjoying what without such an abuse they could not but apprehend This is the design and the mischievous issue which to cover and to propagate the cunning Machinator pretends the exaltation of the freeness of that grace which he designs to dishonour and defeat He raiseth a mighty cry of Free Grace and intitles the Libellings of divine goodness by the specious name of Vindiciae gratiae He fills mens heads and mouths with Grace Grace O the freeness of Gods grace Nothing will be admitted but what comes in the Livery of grace men are pleased with the very word and tickled with that dear and agreeable sound all discourses are insipid that are not full of free grace and he will not be allow'd to know