Light of Nature is but dim and its Assistance weak and they who followed that did but grope in the Dark and were apt ever and anon to stumble And no Marvel For some Evil does so well imitate Good that 't is hard for a natural Eye to make out the just Bounds and Limits of each of them The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Rule that marks out Vertue from its neighbouring Vice being not so plain in every place as to chalk out exactly to this point thou may'st come and no farther and therefore we find the best Philosophers Ethicks so imperfect that some Heathen Vertues are little better than Christian men's Vices Besides the Universal ill practice of mankind by putting a false gloss on Evil did so disguise it that the mistake of that for Good was very easie But Christ having in his Gospel given us such exact Rules whereby to judge of them One would think it were impossible now for men to be deceived And yet we find nothing so common and the moralists Observation most true Pauci dignoscere possunt vera bona atque illis multum diversa For while some look upon these things through such false Glasses as do alter their shape and proportion or their Organ is vitiated by some such bad humour as discolours every Object presented to it while the strength of passion blinds some men's reason or the pleasures of sin corrupts it and wicked men do so cunningly suit their Principles to others bad Tempers that they are presently swallowed without chewing 'T is hard to know things that are excellent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle's word is Phil. 1. 10. things that differ especially men being willing to believe all lawfull that gratifies their vitious humour and inclination And this was it which rendred the Heathen Divinity so plausible to the World and the vile Doctrines of Gnosticks to loose Christians that it brought in such Shoals of Proselytes to them Upon all which Accounts David's Prayer will be very seasonable for every one of us Psal. 119. 66. Teach me O Lord good Judgment and Knowledge In the Original 't is good tast to try and relish what is good or in the Language of the Apostle give me Senses Exercis'd to discern Good and Evil. And while we thus beg God's Light and Direction let us as Christ bids us make our Eye good and single by clearing it from all carnal prejudice and that Dust and Filth which Satan and the World cast into it still rubbing and polishing natural Truths that they may shine out brighter and continually blowing up these Sparks into a flame Thus if we be not wanting to our selves God will improve our natural into a divine Light He will show us what is good by lifting up the Light of his Countenance upon us and enable us not only to call every thing by it proper Name Good good and Evil evil but withal to chuse the one and refuse the other That so the Curse of the Text may be turned into a Blessing and the Seeds of moral Vertue well cultivated here may yield us the Fruit of a blessed Immortality hereafter Which God of his infinite Mercy grant c. Amen Soli Dei Gloria in aeternum FINIS THE CONTENTS SERMON I. SAint Luk. XI 27 28. And it came to pass as he spake these things a certain woman of the company lift up her voice and said unto him Blessed is the womb that bare thee and the paps which thou hast sucked But he said Tea rather blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it Pag. 1 SERMON II. Tit. II. 14. Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works p. 34 SERMON III. Tit. II. 14. Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works p. 61. SERMON IV. St. Luk. II. 22. And when the days of her purification according to the Law of Moses were accomplished they brought him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord. p. 87 SERMON V. Joh. XIX 37. And again another Scripture saith They shall look on him whom they have pierced p. 124 SERMON VI. Acts II. 24. Whom God hath raised up having loosed the pains of death because it was not possible that he should be holden of it p. 159 SERMON VII Joh. XVI 7. Nevertheless I tell you the truth it is expedient for you that I go away for if I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you but if I depart I will send him unto you p. 197 SERMON VIII Heb. I. 14. Are they not all ministring spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation p. 242 SERMON IX Colos. I. 12. Giving thanks unto the Father which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light p. 287 SERMON X. St. Matth. VII 16. Ye shall know them by their fruits p. 321 SERMON XI Joh. XVI 2 3. They shall put you out of the Synagogues yea the time cometh that whosoever killeth you will think that he doth God service And these things will they doe unto you because they have not known the Father nor Me. p. 399 SERMON XII 1 Cor. XV. 19. If in this life only we have hope in Christ we are of all men most miserable p. 458 SERMON XII Rom. XII 1. I beseech you therefore Brethren by the mercies of God that ye present your bodies a living Sacrifice SERMON XIII holy acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service p. 490 SERMON XIV Esay V. 20. Wo unto them that call evil good and good evil p. 529 BOOKS Printed for and Sold by Tho. Bennet at the Half-Moon in St. Paul's Church-yard AThenae Oxonienses or an Exact History of all the Writers and Bishops who have had their Education in the Ancient and Famous University of Oxford from 1500 to the End of the Year 1690 Representing the Birth Fortune Preferments and Death of all those Authors and Prelates the great Accidents of their Lives the Fate and Character of their Writings The Work being so compleat that no Writer of Note of this Nation for near Two hundred years past is omitted fol. 2 Vol. Sir William Davenant's Works fol. Comedies and Tragedies by Tho. Killigrew fol. Beaumont and Fletcher's Plays fol. Shakespear's Works fol. Voyages and Adventures of Ferdinand Pinto a Portugal who was five times Shipwrackt sixteen times Sold and thirteen times made a Slave in Aethiopia China c. Written by Himself fol. Dr. Pocock on Joel A Critical History of the Text and Versions of the New Testament wherein is firmly Establish'd the Truth of those Acts on which the Foundation of Christian Religion is laid By Father Simon of the Oratory Together with a Refutation of such Passages as seem contrary to the Doctrine and Practice of the Church of England
very proposing of these four Particulars 1. That they so exempt all Ecclesiastical persons from Subjection to Princes as to allow these no co-active but only a directive Power over them 2. That by the Seal of Confession they tye up their Priests from revealing any traiterous Plots of Rebels against their Soveraigns 3. That the Pope by his Authority can when he pleases absolve Subjects from their Oaths of Fidelity to them 4. That 't is not lawfull for Christians to obey an Heretical Prince By which Maximes 't is evident how impossible it is for any Man that believes them to be a good Subject He must be no Papist if he be true to his Prince since he can be so no longer than the Pope will suffer him Whatever such a Man's practice may be as no doubt many noble Gentlemen of that persuasion have been Loyal to their last breath yet his Principles are rebellious and if his natural generosity or some other respect keeps him fast to his King his Religion I am sure does not bind him And when there happens a contest between Honour and Religion 't is odds but the latter will carry it For put the case the Pope should command one thing and the King another I would fain know whether of the two a Papist conceives himself oblig'd to obey If he says His King he can be no good Roman Catholick If the Pope as he must say unless he will renounce his profession 't is impossible for him to be a good Subject since the Pope whom with Bellarmine he acknowledges the Head of the Church one that cannot err and that has power to make Articles of Faith according to the determination of the Council of Trent hath ex Cathedra declared these forenamed Principles of Rebellion to be such Articles of Faith and the denying them to be so no less than Heresie You see the doctrines of these false Prophets of Rome and they have exemplified them all by their practices The Pharisees were great boasters of their Father Abraham and so are these of the Fathers of the Church as if they were their only legitimate offspring and the sole heirs of their learning and piety And these two they have so engross'd to themselves that they look upon all the world besides as bankrupt As to learning 't is so confin'd to the Colleges of Jesuits that if we may believe them it very seldom travels beyond their walls who being the only Rabbi's have appropriated to themselves the swelling Titles of Angelical Seraphical and the like All besides them having but one eye while these like the Chineses have two As to piety and devotion the Catholick-church like the Temple of the Lord among the Jews is ever in their mouths They are the only godly Party the Favorites and Minions of heaven Nothing to be seen in their Churches but miracles and nothing on their Walls but devotion and indeed all their religion is but paint The very habit of a Monk with them is miraculous beyond St. Paul's handkerchief and a Franciscan's frock wrapt about a dying man shall as infallibly make him a Saint as Rablais his gown a Physician All the Pharisee's arts of dawbing and pargetting are but rude and gross and his colours faint to those of a Mendicant View him with his shaven head his long beard and longer beads his ill habit and worse looks prostrating his body to the ground before his woodden god and what Pharisee can compare with him And yet this is the best side of the man and of his religion which like an Egyptian Temple belies and shames its fair frontispiece with some ridiculous Ape within There is no such hypocrisie as that which lurks under a Cowle no pride to that of a feigned and voluntary humility nor any such lewdness as that which is gilded over with devotion Should I lay the dirt of their Cells before you or rake up the bones of buried Infants the prospect would be too nasty and dismal We know what good use they make of their Confessions They who are well acquainted with them find them one thing abroad and another at home one thing at their Altars and another in their Chambers These Pedlers of devotion carry all on their backs abroad while their storehouses lye empty They can appear to the eye of the world like so many Baptists with their Camels hair and leathern girdles which they brag of as Antisthenes of old did of the rents of his garment that served only to let in light to sober Spectators to view the Wearer's vanity And what is all their Tinsel devotion but a Pharisaical will-worship That rabble of insignificant and superstitious ceremonies wherein they out-doe the most hypocritical Pharisees in Crosses Relicks Agnus's Exorcising of devils of their own raising and ridiculous cringings and postures not to be found among the Pharisees whose behaviour was sober and grave in comparison of that antick Mascarading and religious Mummery practised by these Romish Augurs who cannot chuse but laugh sufficiently at themselves for them and do no doubt much more at them who are so silly as to admire them The Pharisees had their superstitious washings 'tis true but they had no holy water to fright away the Devil nor did they wear their Philacteries as these men doe a piece of St. John's Gospel about their necks to charm him Indeed those many Sects of religious orders among Papists derive from them but are far more numerous and ridiculous exceeding them as much in their Crimes as they doe in their Fopperies Did they compass sea and land to gain a Proselyte these will run farther than the Indies to gain Souls that is to extend Empire like subtle Foxes preying far from home or rather going about like roaring Lyons seeking whom they may devour And when they have gained men they make them much more the children of the Devil than themselves being sure when once they have them to keep them fast and tame enough either by a gross ignorance or the consciousness of those sins which they have pickt out from them by Confessions and which they continually nurse up by their Indulgencies Had the Pharisees subtle ways to entrap men these their disciples can out-wit them and a Pharisee is but a Dunce to a Jesuit in his art of Legerdemain spiritual juggling and holy frauds whose fundamental Principle 't is That Gain is Godliness If the Pharisees were covetous these have hearts exercised with all manner of covetous practices Let the Quarry be never so mean these Hauks will stoop to it To say the truth The religion of these men is founded in policy and interest and the whole current of their doctrines and practices run that way as 't is easie for any one to see that well considers them 'T is this that sets the Fryars and Jesuits together by the ears all the quarrel between them being this Who shall bring most grist to their several mills A man can
Devil says Mass Sure I am that if once these evil spirits get possession of you you will find it a harder task than you are ware of to turn them out But in vain do I speak to such men as are fast in the Snare Let us take heed how we fall into it To this end let us compare the doctrines of Protestants contained in their several publick Confessions with those of Papists set forth by their Council of Trent and such a comparison will shew who are the true or false Prophets whose doctrines suit best with the Gospel and the Analogy of Faith and whose practices with those of Christ and his Apostles I dare say should a sober rational Heathen who had seriously read over the New Testament judge impartially between us his very natural reason would tell him that all that Popish trash which is obtruded on men as Gospel does not so much as look like it I put this case becaûse we had the like instances in a late converted Jew who upon a serious consideration of each Party's tenets chose rather to be baptized with us though much to his own temporal disadvantage than with them merely upon such an account But to come nearer home to our present purpose and to speak to the point of Obedience I confess indeed that some Protestants in the World have been Rebels But there is no Protestant Church that ever taught and constantly maintained Rebellion or allow'd the practice of it as that of Rome does I appeal to their several Confessions extant in print The difference between Protestants and Papists in this case is indeed this That disobedience with them is a crime and with these a law That they punish Rebels and the Pope rewards them promising them no less than Remission of sins and Eternal life That they abhor the Murtherers of Kings but the Pope sets them on by his Excommunications and after the murther is committed makes Panegyricks on them But whatever the doctrines and practices of other Churches may be nothing can be more clear of Rebellion than the Church of England is Let any man judge of their doctrine as to that point by the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy which Priests and Jesuits will no more own than they will doe us for a Church and can no more swallow such a morsel than a Pharisee could Swines-flesh Some Priests indeed as Blackwell for one took the Oath of Supremacy and Withrington wrote a book in defence of Obedience to the Civil Magistrate but were so far from having any Thanks from that they were severely checkt by their Masters But as to the generality of these False Prophets they are still the same and bear the same bad fruit These Wolves in Sheeps-cloathing will sooner change their Hair than their Opinions Try them by this Shiboleth and they will quickly appear to be Ephraemites 'T is true indeed some who would be thought Protestants have been guilty of the same Jesuitical Doctrines and Practices but they were no more Protestants than Jesuites are Protestants They went out from us but were not of us They never suckt such Principles from the Breasts of that Church they were born in but from those Emissaries of Rome who debaucht them Before the Troubles began we were most of us Orthodox 'T was Anarchy brought in Schism into our Church and Rebellion into our State While Penal Laws were in full force we could scarce ever see a Priest but in a Prison or on a Gallows Let not Rome then charge our Church with their own Principles nor tell us we have been Rebels since they made us such No true Member of our Church ever was nor indeed could be one He could no more be a bad Subject than a Christian as Athenagoras said could be a bad Man Many of us have died for our Prince but none of us have taught to kill him either by Precept or Example as some Popish Priests have done or else they are very much bely'd Our Ministers were never found preaching Rebellion in Conventicles as Jesuites have been found to doe some faces having been seen there which never appeared to any before but in Rome or Madrid In a word we have confuted the Church of Rome as much by our Lives as by our Writings in this point and undergone as many tryals for the defence of this Truth as Primitive Christians have done for that of their Religion Patience and Meekness are the fruits we own others are of a forreign growth By these our Church desires to be known and when the Church of Rome can shew the like she shall be ours too but she must then cease to be what now she is But if she will not come to us as 't is to be feared her pride will not suffer her to bow though it be to the Sceptre of Christ let us not go to her but keep where we are nor forsake our own Church till we can be sure to find a better And surely no better argument of her being a good one than this That the Church of Rome persecutes her as Nero did her when once Apostolical And should the time ever come that she should use her strongest and best arguments Inquisition and the Faggot I hope by God's help we should be as ready to confute them by our Patience as we have done others by our Pen. But God who in his Mercy has so miraculously preserved us from their fury this day will no doubt still doe so while we continue true Sons to him and his Church Nor is it possible that his Vicegerent should ever have a good opinion of those False Prophets who would have blown up his Grandfather and in Him himself and would no doubt were there the like occasion endeavour to blow up his Royal Person their principles and their malice being still the same To summ up all Let us bless God that we can meet here to bless him Without the wonderfull Mercy of this Day some of us had never been and perhaps this Church had not too No place then so fit to praise God in since 't is its self so great and signal a Monument of his Goodness in its own and our preservation And while we praise him with joyfull Lips let us at the same time beg of him still to preserve our Church and the Nursing Father of it our Soveraign from all attempts and practices against his Crown or Person either by Heretical or Schismatical Men Forraign or Domestick Traytors praying God that under him we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty and that obeying God and his Laws God may own us for his by those fruits of righteousness we bring forth that so having our fruit unto holiness we may obtain everlasting life through Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour To whom c. Amen Soli Deo gloria A SERMON Preached on the Fifth of NOVEMBER JOHN XVI 2 3. They shall put you out of the Synagogues yea
Church when they cannot make them of their Religion I doe not think that those Christianos nuevos those new Christians as they call them in Spain That is such as the Inquisition has made Christians of Mahumetans doe much love the Religion they turn to and much less those who turn them to it by employing Fire and Faggor These indeed are undeniable Evidences of cruelty in them that use them but slender Motives of credibility to beget belief in them that suffer by them And this way will not fail to multiply enemies instead of procuring friends to any Cause though never so good For as Persecution to the true Church is but as the Pruning to the Vine which gains in its bulk and fruit what it loseth in a few luxuriant branches lopt off so even Heresies themselves thrive by being prun'd too the cropping of these Weeds does but serve to thicken them the bloud of the Devil's Martyrs proves as much the Seed of his Synagogue as that of Gods Saints does of his Church and the destroying of the Persons of Hereticks supposing them such does but add life to their Cause And indeed what encouragement have Men to receive a Religion from their Oppressors or how can they think that they who torture and kill their Bodies are really concern'd to save their Souls And while the felicities of another World are recommended to them only by such as doe deprive them of all in this we cannot wonder at their little appetite to embrace them or to find the oppress'd Indians protest against that Heaven where the Spaniards are to be their Cohabitants Add we to all this That such Motives as these can never demonstrate Truth For how successfull soever their force proves yet it cannot prove the Doctrines true For by that argument it proves the Religion it goes about to settle true It proves that that which it destroys was true before while it prevailed and had the power And then such a testimony is given to the truth of Christianity which Heathenism had before and Turcism hath since And thus you see how all violent ways to propagate the Faith cannot be acceptable to God the Father as being directly contrary to his Nature and Will nor yet to his Son since they cross the very end and design of his coming into the World his Doctrine and Practice Fly in the very face of Religion it self and can never serve their turn who make use of it From all which it follows That they who pursue such ways neither know God the Father nor his Son Jesus Christ. I know what is commonly said by some who practice this way of compulsion in excuse and defence of it That many who serve God at first by compulsion may come after to serve him freely That these sorts of Conversions doe not augment the number of Saints but they diminish that of Hereticks That although some among them may prove bad Converts themselves yet they have Families to be saved that their Children may make good Christians and though the stock be naught yet the branches may be sanctified But the answer hereunto is easie That neither good Intents nor casual Events can justifie unreasonable Violence which instead of rendering Men orthodox Christians makes them rather Atheists Hypocrites and Formalists For being constrained to practice against Conscience they soon come at last to lose all Conscience Nor are Men to owe the Salvation of Souls to any unwarrantable proceedings because they must not doe any present evil in prospect of any future good This was another gross error of these persons in the Text as I am now to show you in the next place 2. The Jews here thought their Zeal to the Temple and their Ritual Observances so invincibly meritorious that no crime could defeat it And we see how apt many Christians are to ascribe so much to the force of a good meaning as if it were able to bear the stress and load of any sins that can be laid upon it A good purpose shall hallow all they doe and make them boldly rush into the most unchristian practices in prosecution of what some call The good old Cause others The Catholick Faith For how doe Men swallow down the deadliest Poyson Perjury Sacriledge Murther Regicide and the like in confidence of this their preservative and say grace over the foulest sins How many have made themselves Saints upon that account that would never have been such upon any other And how much Religion groans under the Reproach of all those Evils which zeal and good meanings have consecrated is notorious to all the World Men call the over-flowing of their gall Religion and value their Opinions so high and their eagerness in abetting them that they think the propagating of them so important a service to God as will justifie all they doe in order to this end Now not to speak of their Error in the choice of their Opinions That of many opposite one only can be the Right my present business shall be to shew you 1. The Impiety and 2. The Danger of this strong delusion in respect of that Malignant influence it has on Practice For the clearing of which two things we are to observe That to the making an Action good and warrantable these three things are requisite 1. A good Intention in the Doer 2. That the Matter of the Action be in it self good and 3. That it be rightly circumstantiated For a failure in either of these three things quite vitiates the whole Action 1. The first thing necessary to a good Action is a good Intention in the Doer This we learn from Matth. 6. 22. If thine Eye that is thy Intention for so Interpreters generally understand it be single thy whole Body shall be full of light Be the matter of an Action never so good yet if a Man's aim and intention in the doing of it be not so all is stark naught For Actus moralis specificatur ex fine And Finis dat speciem in moralibus And as the End is the first thing that sets an Agent a working so is it the last that perfects its work Nay so valuable in the sight of God is a good Intention where-ever it be found That as He sometimes prevents an evil Act in him in whom He discovers a good Intention as in Abimilech so does He sometimes reward a good Purpose tho' it proceeds not to act as in David T is true that a good End alone does not justifie any action but it is as true that there can be nothing good or tolerable without it And although a good meaning doth not wholly excuse yet an evil one wholly condemns it But then 2dly Besides a good Intention two things more are requisite to the making an Action good 1. That the Matter of it be such 2. That it be rightly circumstantiated 1. That the Matter thereof be good For our Intention as our zeal must be always in a good thing And a thing is then
design and management thereof did at his Examination confess That his principal motive to this villanous attempt was an Excommunication thundred out at first by Pius Quintus against Queen Elizabeth and kept still on foot by Sixtus Quintus which sticking on King James oblig'd him in conscience to attempt the murthering of his Sovereign in obedience to that Bull. And how did he excuse that Fact Was it not by his pious intention to promote God's glory and the good of the Catholick Church A fit cover for such a foul fact but commonly made use of by such as himself was in justification of the like wicked practices St. Paul we see hath expresly doom'd all those that doe so to no less than eternal Damnation But those men and he are not agreed in this point For should his doctrine be good what would then become of all their Piae Fraudes Feigned Legends and Miracles Indices Expurgatorii Equivocations and mental Reservations Allowance of common Stews for the preventing unnatural Lusts that is of one Sin to hinder another For which and the like the Catholick defence is the Catholick cause and men's pious Intentions which in case they should prove never so faulty yet a little rectifying of them will rectifie all that is amiss in them A piece of spiritual Chymistry this of late Invention which can extract the finest gold out of the basest metal to guild over all the Villanies which the heart of man can devise or his hand execute I know not whether any can really think that by such vile artifices they can doe God any service But I am apt to believe that they rather think to doe themselves one and that 't is the same humane policy not to give it a worse name and not Religion that acts such men which did these persons in the Text. But if any men do in good earnest think they doe God any service thereby It is such a one as our Lord Himself here flatly tells them neither his Father nor He will ever thank them for But since it will be in vain for me to tell them so who will not take Christ's own word for it I shall turn my discourse to you who now hear me and for the preventing any such dangerous errour in you leave some few Rules of caution and direction with you and so conclude 1. And the first shall be concerning your Zeal That you be as carefull and industrious to employ it in a good as some do theirs in a bad cause but with this proviso That your Zeal be a right and well-temper'd one A right one it will be if it be alway in a good thing And well-temper'd if it be according to knowledge Rom. 10. 2. St. Paul's rules both If your Zeal be not in a good thing it will doe the same mischief that fire does out of its proper place the hearth And if it have not light to see its way by it will prove very dangerous company in the dark and lead you into bogs and precipices There is nothing so pernicious to man as a blind frantick zeal which instead of eating them up who are possess'd with it eates up God's people as if they were bread Nor is there any thing so injurious to God it being common for people in their indiscreet and furious zeal for God to run farthest from Him and either to break the two Tables of his Law with Moses or at least to dash them one against the other And can we think they should ever doe God service who know not what they doe themselves May not he say to such Zealots what King Achish did of David 1 Sam. 21. 15. Have I need of mad men And does not too much ignorant zeal much more than too much learning make men so Surely there is no madness to the religious one which like the Devil in the possessed man in the Gospel casts them sometimes into the fire and sometimes into the water that is into contrary excesses and extravagances scattering mischief where-ever it goes turning the World into a Chaos and the Church into an Acheldama while Melancholy is made the seat of Religion by some and Frenzy by others what can follow thence but confusion And therefore we ought to have a special care that our Zeal be guided by knowledge and discretion lest we over-shoot our selves with these men here and when we put Christ's servants out of our Synagogues and kill them too into the bargain we become so foolish as with them also to think we shall thereby doe God service 2. Our next caution must be that we be well assured of the soundness of the Principles we act by What a dangerous thing it is to be herein mistaken our Saviour tells us Matt. 6. 23. If the light that is in thee be darkness how great is that darkness that is If thy mind and conscience be defiled if thy Judgment be corrupt how great and dangerous will those mistakes prove that mislead thee For the farther thou shalt go on in thy wrong way the more shalt thou be out of the right one And when thou art once out it will be impossible for thee to get into it again so long as those false Guides which are as so many Satans standing at thy right-hand still prompting and tempting thee to evil shall remain in thee He that commits a sin by principles hath nothing to retrieve him from his errour while he retains such principles and as long as he is under the power and guidance of ill ones they will not only dangerously expose but highly encourage him to evil by turning the greatest crimes into merit and making him hope to gain Heaven by such practices as directly lead him to Hell The Physicians maxime That an error in the first concoction is never to be mended holds as true in Religion as in Nature And therefore it highly concerns us that our first choice here be right lest we set out amiss and offend God most even there where we think most to please Him 3. The last Use I shall draw from my Text is an Use of Direction or Tryal how to judge of the Truth and Goodness of a Religion and that is by the Mildness and Harmlesness thereof This is the proper Chraracter of true Christian Religion It has all of the Dove and nothing of the Vulture in it That which breathes nothing but Curses and Slaughters to be sure is not of God the Father nor of His Son I think there is no true Member of our Church that understands his Religion well and the nature of it but would be willing to submit it to this Test But I can scarce believe that they who talk so much of the Cruelty of ours would be content to put the Truth of their Religion upon this issue We need but compare Q. Mary and Queen Elizabeth's Reigns to see which of the two Religions they were of was the mildest No fire and faggot to be
esse omnino non videtur is most true in matter of Piety Here 't is the same thing not to be as not to be doing Nor was it without reason that the Stoick observing one given over to a Lethargy of Ease and Idleness pronounceth him morally dead and makes his Epitaph Vacia hic situs est so does Saint Paul her that lives in pleasure That she is dead while she liveth 1 Tim. 5. 6. And surely we may well conclude him sick in Religion whose Pulse beats slow and dead when it ceases and to have a name only that he lives Rev. 3. 1. 3ly Those things we count living that move of themselves not like an Engine or Automatum Alienis mobile nervis Compelled service to God is but a lame offering and as unacceptable in the Gospel as it was in the Law Heathens counted it an ill presage when their sacrifices did not as it were court their own deaths nor will ours pass for any better in the sight of God if they come with reluctancy and dragg'd as it were to his Altar The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here implies a voluntary Act an offering-up of our selves not a being offered up God who gives us all things freely does Himself also love a chearfull giver Lastly Our Sacrifice will then be a living one when 't is offered up in Faith and Love For as Faith is the true life of a Saint The Just shall live by faith says the Prophet Habac. 2. 4. so without that 't is impossible to please God says our Apostle Heb. 11. 6. Our gifts will be as unacceptable without our persons as Cain's was And where there is no Love our hand only presents them not our heart the only true Altar that sanctifies our gifts But then 2ly As our Sacrifice must be a living so a holy one For without holiness it can never please a holy God And we find that for want of this necessary qualification he often disclaims nay seems to abhorr what Himself had commanded in the time of the Law Now to make our Sacrifices holy two things shadowed to us by legal Sacrifices are requisite 1. That they be entire and that in all their parts For as God would not then endure a maimed Sacrifice Levit. 22. 22. Mal. 1. 8. so neither will he now away with it The whole Spirit Soul and Body all and every part must be God's Lust must not have the Eye nor Folly the Ear Oppression must not have the Hand nor Covetousness the Heart There is no serving God by halves no serving Him and Mammon too The true Mother would not suffer the Child to be divided nor will our heavenly Father his 'T was Ananias and Saphira's sacriledge to keep back part of what they had once voluntarily offered up and 't will be no less in us too 2. The Sacrifices of the Law were to be pure and separate from common use Levit. 3. 1. and 12. 5. such our Apostle makes Christ our Sacrifice undefiled and separate from sinners Heb. 7. 26. and without spot says St. Peter 1 Pet. 1. 19. such must ours be too spotless pure and separate from the world the least touch of that will pollute it And as we are to keep our selves unspotted from the world Jam. 1. 27. so are we likewise to hate even the garment spotted by the flesh Jude v. 23. In a word We must cleanse our selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit ere we presume to present our selves unto God Now as Holiness in the Gospel-sense commonly signifies the whole complexum of Duties and Graces so has it sometimes there a distinct peculiar signification both as to the Body and to the Soul And here according to the observation of a late excellent Annotator the Purity of the Body is particularly designed in opposition to the Uncleannesses practised by the Gentiles and applauded by the Gnosticks A sort of Christians if they might deserve that name whose practices made the name of Christ to be abhorred by the soberer Jews And indeed whosoever shall look into the first Chapter of this Epistle and there observe what manner of lives the Heathen Romans led will allow this Interpretation as most pertinent to the scope of our Apostle For when they did no longer like to retain God in their knowledge they quickly left off to be men and when they ceased to hearken to their natural reason they soon fell into a reprobate sense For they not only changed God into Stocks and Stones but their Worship into most abominable Wickedness not only made the vilest Creatures Deities but the foulest Actions Religion they turned a Passion and a Disease into a God and Sin into Devotion They thought it a most sacred thing to prostitute their Bodies and their very Altar-fires did kindle those foul heats whence Uncleanness is so often called Idolatry in Scripture Practices taken up and even out-done by viler Christians and that in the first and purest times of the Gospel and frequently objected to them by the Jews who could boast and that with some colour of truth that their Doctrine was opposed not so much by sharp Intellectuals as by debauch'd Morals And not only the Jews but Heathen Philosophers also as Hierocles for one could make the same objection and upon the same score detest the Religion of Christians or rather as he mistook it the Wickednesses of the Gnosticks which made the name of Christ to be evil spoken of throughout the whole World and are indeed directly opposite to the Spirit of Christ which is a Spirit of Purity and to the Rule of the Gospel which every where forbids us to walk in the lust of concupiscence as did the Gentiles who knew not God and which commands every Christian to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour there being no Vice so dishonourable to a Man as that of fleshly impurity which turns him into a Beast making him have as foul a Name as a Body as loathsome a Character as a Carkass rendring him despised by all Men and not the least by himself when David fell into this sin at his repentance he prays for his free spirit once again he found that thereby he had lost not only the Spirit of God but of a Man being asham'd of himself and afraid of his servants The strange woman's house says Solomon leads to death and sure a death 't is where the poor wretch is not less corrupt than if he were buried and that ditch he mentions is no less noisome than the Grave He goeth on and tells us That her house leads to hell and doubtless 't is a part of it where there is not only the stench but the heat of it all its Attendants whether sin or punishment the blackness and the flames withall being found in it 'T is not for this place to describe what such persons deserve and endure The very reproof of this sin must consist of such foul things as a
are we to those who bequeath them to us And if we think we have reason to be so to Men for such mean Inheritances how much more ought we to be to our Heavenly Father for this Inheritance in light Now since we cannot be thankfull to him for an Inheritance which we are not well assured does belong unto us it will concern us here to try and secure our Evidence and for that we need go no farther than the Text. If as that tells us it be an Inheritance of Saints and an Inheritance in light what Right or Title can we pretend to it without being our selves Saints and Children of the light And if as St. Peter hath described it it be an Inheritance incorruptible and undefiled how can we hope to partake of it unless our Corruptible even here put on Incorruption and we endeavour to be pure as God who is our Inheritance is pure 1 Joh. 3. 3. Heaven is no place for the polluted Into the Heavenly Jerusalem shall in no wise enter any thing that defileth or is defiled Revel 21. 27. Nor will Christ receive any into his Kingdom but whom He shall find when He cometh without spot and blameless 2 Pet. 3. 9. If these things be found in us Innocence Vertue and Holiness of Life an entrance shall then be ministred unto us abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ 2 Pet. 1. 11. And so when St. Peter bids us give diligence to make our calling and election sure 1 Pet. 1. 10. He shews us the way how to doe so and that is by adding to our faith vertue and to vertue knowledge and so on verses 5 6 7. by practising the Vertues of the Moral Law there set down These are the clear Evidences of the Inheritance in light as well as the means to attain it which we are to find in our selves continually and to clear up still fearing lest any of us come short of our Inheritance Heb. 4. 1. If we doe these things we shall never fall Let our Inheritance be as sure as God can make it yet is it not sure to us till our Consciences can bear us witness that we are the Children of God by obeying our Heavenly Father And since he has provided such a glorious Estate for those that doe so how ought we to despise those poor Inheritances He allots us here below in comparison of what He prepares for us above How willing to part with those for that when He requires it and we cannot keep both Heaven will make up all our losses here it will pay for all at last And this is the main Argument the Apostle useth here to persuade the Colossians unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness in the precedent Verse because by outward afflictions God did make them meet to be partakers of such an Inheritance in light as could not be taken from them as their Earthly Ones daily were by Heathens Tyrants and Oppressors That with other Saints of God they should take joyfully the spoiling of their goods knowing in themselves that they had in Heaven a better and an enduring substance Lastly As God the Father first makes us meet to be partakers of the Inheritance of the Saints in light so when he has once made us meet by his Grace let us endeavour by the assistance of that Grace still to make our selves meeter always blessing and thanking him as for all sorts of Blessings he bestows upon us so in an especial manner for this in the Text for the blessed hope and assurance he gives his Saints of partaking one day of such an Inheritance as is All Blessedness Here He crumbles his Blessings unto us we have them here by Retail In Heaven we shall have them all in a lump and that for ever All the satisfactions and enjoyments of this present life are so thin empty and comfortless that we have need of patience to be able to endure them The Prophet David found them so and had He not had a prospect of far better things as a Cordial to cheer up and enliven his Heart it would quite have failed him I should utterly have fainted but that I believe verily to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living Psal. 27. 15. Let this Faith bear up our drooping spirits as it did his And let our Thoughts continually dwell on Heaven and on the Happiness we shall there enjoy when we shall come into the City of the living God the Heavenly Jerusalem to an innumerable Company of Angels to the general Assembly and Church of the first-born which are written in Heaven and to God the Judge of All and to the Spirits of just Men made perfect who now partake of the Inheritance in light To which blessed Society God bring us all Amen Soli Deo gloria in aeternum A SERMON Preached on the Fifth of NOVEMBER St. Matt. VII the former part of v. 16. Ye shall know them by their fruits THE main design of Satan as it hath ever been the same to ruin the Church of God so his arts and methods to compass it have been various and different Sometimes he hath endeavoured to destroy her by force otherwhiles to undermine her by subtlety His first attempt was to crush her in the Birth and the second Man that ere was born dy'd a Martyr Ever since the Church has been an Acheldama a Field of Bloud and its Kalendar markt all along with Red letters the profession of truth having still been fatal as to its Author so to all his followers in succeeding Ages distinguishable not so much by the several Reigns of Heathen Emperors as those various storms that in their times have fallen upon Christians 2. But as these storms were ever blown away by the breath of God and Satan by strictly winnowing the Church gat nothing thereby but his own tares when he saw that Phoenix grew fruitfull from her own ashes and the fertile bloud of her Martyrs did but bring her in a larger harvest of Proselytes He then shifted the Scene laid aside those terrible Arguments of Racks and Gibbets to compell Men to come into his Kingdom and took up other more plausible and insinuative the allurements and blandishments of this World to baffle them out of the rewards of another thinking by out-bidding Christ to gain a more numerous party to himself wherein how successfull he has been the frequent Apostasies of Men in all Ages do abundantly testifie 3. Lastly As he met with some of a stouter and wiser temper than to be prevail'd on by either of these Methods Men not to be beaten off from their Profession by threats nor drawn away from it by such mean hopes as this World could afford them His subtlest policy has been to work upon their Judgments to deprave their Understandings by poysoning the very Fountains of Knowledge the Scriptures To which end he made choice of corrupt Teachers as the most proper
persecuted us says St. Paul 1 Thess. 2. 15. Adding this farther character of them there That they pleased not God and were contrary to all Men That is to all that were not of their way but to Christians above all others Which is that our Lord had expresly foretold they should doe Mat. 23. 34. and St. Stephen upbraids them for having done Act. 7. 52. And we see what havock St. Paul himself made of the Church before his Conversion breathing out threatnings and slaughter against the Disciples of the Lord And himself tells us why he did so namely out of a full persuasion that he was in conscience obliged to persecute Christians who were as he then thought the main Enemies of the Jewish Religion I verily thought with my self says he that I ought to doe many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth Act. 26. 9. And he tells us Phil. 3. 6. That out of zeal he persecuted the Church Affirming the same of the other Jews being all zealous of the law Act. 21. 20. So that all his and their rage against Christ and his Disciples proceeded from their great Zeal to the Mosaical Law For the Mosaical Law having been of divine Institution they lookt upon all those that opposed it as professed Enemies to God as guilty of the highest presumption and sacriledge who should endeavour to repeal and make void what God Himself had once enacted And then what more acceptable service think we what better sacrifice could they offer up to Him than the bloud of such Miscreants who should presume to set up a way of Worship in opposition to what Himself had prescribed We find this charg'd upon St. Stephen as his great crime That he should affirm That Jesus of Nazareth should destroy the holy Place and change the customs which Moses had delivered them Act. 6. 13 14. And so strongly were the Jews possessed with a conceit of their being the peculiar People of God that they could not endure the least mention of any others sharing with them in this Priviledge insomuch that they could hear St. Paul with patience enough till once he spake of his being sent to the Gentiles They gave him audience till then says the Text And then cryed out Away with such a Fellow from the Earth for it is not fit that he should live Act. 22. 21 22. Contradicting and blaspheming the truth Paul preacht unto them Act. 13. 45. And stirring up the devout and honourable Women that is such as had embrac'd the Law of Moses and the Jewish Religion being led with blind Zeal against the Gospel which they knew not and so were the fittest Agents to their Party and for their turn to promote Persecution against the Church as having a great Interest in men's Affections All this plainly shews that what the most part of the Jews did in opposition to the Gospel was out of pure Zeal to the Law and out of a conscientious but blind Persuasion That it was their Duty to persecute and destroy All that were Enemies thereunto wherein many of them did bono animo errare err with a good Mind and holy Intention Thinking thereby to doe God service But although the Generality of the Jews did Think so yet some and They the leading Party among them did think to doe themselves some service as well as God driving on their Politick designs under the fair and colourable pretence of Religion Of this sort were the chief Governors who dreaded the ruine of their Synagogue That their Law and Government would sink together and that Christianity if not timely crusht would sweep away both This appears clear from that saying of theirs Joh. 11. 48. If we let this Man that is Christ alone All men will believe on Him And then what will become of our Power and Authority The Romans shall come and take away both our Place and Nation This was their great Fear They saw that the World was already gone after Christ And if things should go on at that rate they should then be left alone and the People should fall off from them from whom they suckt no small advantage It was this Apprehension that vexed them at the heart This made them straitly threaten the Apostles not to preach any more in Christ's name left a doctrine so dangerous to them should spread any farther Act. 4. 17 18. The Law was their great Pretence but Interest their chiefest Motive to persecute Christians who were such dangerous Enemies to their Religion and which was more considerable to them to Themselves to their Sway and Authority And both these meeting together would not fail to give their rage the keenest Edge But this consideration was not perhaps that which moved the generality of the People who had no such deep reach and had more sincere Hearts and honest Intentions being but so many Tools in the hands of more cunning Designers These men being possessed and acted by a Religious frenzy bore all down before them not valuing their own Lives to be masters of other men's Such were those devout Assassins who had bound themselves under a great Curse an Oath of Execration That they would neither eat nor drink till they had killed Paul Act. 23. 12. Like those among the Mahumetans who strongly deluded and besotted with their Superstition count it meritorious to murther any Enemy thereof though Themselves perish in the Attempt And thus you see who were the principal Persons our Lord here aims at to wit the Jews And what were the main Grounds and Motives that transported them with such rage and fury against Christ's servants a blind zeal for their Law and a strong persuasion that they were bound in duty and conscience to use all manner of violence against them who were in their account utter Enemies to their Law and consequently to Themselves as well as to God the Author of it 2. But these were not the only People here pointed at The time cometh faith our Lord that whosoever killeth you will think that he doth God service That Time was not yet come but it was coming and near at hand too when every one as much bigotted as the Jews could be should think they should perform the same service Deo opiniativo as St. Augustine phraseth it to what they took for God to those false Gods they worshipped as the Jews did to the true by mingling theirs as Pilate once did the Galileans bloud with their Sacrifices This points to Heathens So Tertullian speaking of Maximilian tells us That he thought the bloud of Christians a most pleasing Sacrifice to his Gods Christianorum sanguinem Diis gratissimam esse victimam Budoeus is of opinion that St. Paul speaking of Christians being accounted as the filth of the World and the off-scowring of all things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 4. 13. Alludes to those Expiations in use among Heathens where certain condemned Persons were