prevail and like an irresistible Torrent bear all before him as some kind Friends to the Liberties of Europe and the Protestant Name and Interest wish and pray he may it requires not a Spirit of Prophecy to foretel what will become of Protestants But our Hope and Trust is in God that the true Christian Faith shall never be rooted out and I am as certainly perswaded that the Protestant Faith and Worship as to the Essentials of it and â—…s opposed to Popery is the true Christian Faith and Worship as I am â—…f the truth and certainty of Christiaâ—…ity it self and when I remember â—…y what little beginnings and weak â—…nd contemptible means GOD spread â—…he true light of the Gospel over great part of the European World when it was covered with the Aegyptian Darkness and oppressed by the Unsupportable Tyranny of Popery notwithstanding all the Follies Divisions and Miscarriages of Protestants I cannot fear that God will cause our Sun to set again and that he will finally remove his Gospel from us and that gives great reason to hope that he will â—…heck the Pride and Ambition and â—…t a stop to the Successes of a Prince who glories in the Extirpation of his â—…rotestant Subjects and at once enâ—…aves both the Bodies and the Souls of Men who challenges as absolute a Dominion over the Faith as over the Estates of his Vassals to fill his Exchequer and Purgatory together This I am sure we ought heartily to â—…eg of God in our most solemn Prayers and Fasts and those who scruple this if they understand themselves must never say the Lord's Prayer more wherein our Saviour has taught us to pray Thy Kingdom come which those who wish success to Persecuting and Antichristian Powers do not and cannot pray II. I observe farther That as God's Covenant with Abraham and his Posterity was sure and stedfast that no provocations could ever tempt him utterly to destroy them so he never inflictted any publick Judgments and Calamities on them but when he was greatly provoked by their Sins This was God's express Covenant with them 26. Levit. That if they walked in his statutes and kept his commandments then he would bestow all Temporal Blessings on them Rain in its season and the encrease of their Land in Corn and Wine and Oyl Peace at home and Victory abroad and his special Presence and Favour I will set my tabernacle amongst you and my soul shall not abhor you and I will walk among you and will be your God and you shall be my people But if they would not hearken unto him and would not do all his Commandments â—…hen he threatens all sorts of Evils â—…hould befal them sickness of Body â—…o fly before their Enemies the unâ—…ruitfulness and barrenness of their Land that they shall be a prey to wild Beasts that the Sword shall devour them and they shall be enslaved to their Enemies and buy their own Bread of them that they should suffer Famine to such extremity as to eat their own Sons and Daughters that he would lay waste their Cities and make their Country desolate and carry them away captive into foreign Countries as you may see at large in that Chapâ—…er This was his Covenant with them and this he punctually observed whenever they did obey him they were a happy and prosperous People their Enemies crouched before them they enjoyed Plenty and Peace â—…nlarged their Borders and made their Neighbours Subjects and Tributariâ—…s â—…o them and though God did not always punish them according to their â—…leserts yet he never did inflict any publick or National Judgments on them but when they were grown very corrupt and wicked in their manners as it were easie to shew from the History of those Times and all the remarkable Judgments God inflicted on them Now I must confess when we apply th is to the Christian Church the case is very different for God has not so expresly covenanted with the Christian Church for external Peace and Prosperity as he did with the Iews they were the carnal Seed and Posterity of Abraham Heirs of an earthly Canaan and external Prosperity but the spiritual Seed of Abraham are Heirs of spiritual and eternal Blessings which were typified by the carnal Promises made to the Iewish Church the Christian Church was founded in the Sufferings of our Lord the Christian Faith was at first propagated by the courage patience and sufferings of the Apostles and the Primitive Martyrs and Confessors The Terms ouâ—… Saviour proposes to us are If any mâ—… will come after me let him deny himsel and take up his Cross and follow me Hâ—… that loveth his life shall lose it but 〈◊〉 that loseth his life for my sake shall find it And therefore the most sincere Believers and most exemplary Christians may suffer very severely in this Worlâ—… and their support and comfort is that â—…hey shall be proportionably rewarded â—…n the next this was the great Objeâ—…ction the Iews made against Christians being the Sons and peculiar People of God that they were hated and persecuted for the Faith of Christ and God suffered them to be so whereas he had promised all Temporal Prosperity to the observance of his Laws and Staâ—…utes and if believing in Christ had been the Will and Commandment of God he would certainly have made good all the Promises of their Law to the Disciples of Jesus An Objection which very much troubled many believing Iews themselves who did not thoroughly understand the difference between the Iewish and Christian Dispensation between the Law of Moses and the Gospel of Christ and therefore is particularly answered by St. Paul 8. Rom. and in the 7. Heb. But this shews that the Faith and Worship of Christ is not always rewarded with external Prosperity and we must not expect it should be and consequently that very severe Sufferings and Persecutions may befal Christians not always for the correction and punishment of their Sins but for the trial of their Faith and Patience to make them conformed to their Suffering Head to prepare them for richer and brighter Crowns to convince and convert their Persecutors and to propagate the Christian Faith in the World Though it is observed by some of the Ancient Fathers and particularly by St. Cyprian That God never sent a general Persecution upon the Christian Church but when their Sins the general declension of Piety and Discipline their Worldly-Mindedness the formality and coldness of their Devotions called for a Scourge Thus it was with the Church while it sojourned as I may so speak in the world as in a strange land had no place of its own no earthly Power and Authority to support it but lived under Pagan Powers was intermixt with them and oppressed by them when they pleased but the case of a Christian Nation where the Power and Authority is Christian seems very different and to come nearer the state of the Iewish Church for God does not use to inflict Publick Judgments and
its Love and Care to its self but a Man who has a truly great and divine mind who loves all Men as himself and loves himself in conjunction with the rest of Mankind can by no means be called a selfish Man or a lover of himself for he has an universal love to Humane Nature which begins with himself but extends to all the World This is a plain and short account what this vicious Self-love is and why it is so called 2dly The Second thing I proposed was to shew how dangerous and perillous such Times must needs be wherein this Self-love Prevails Now those are perillous Times which expose Men to great Dangers and to great Troubles and Calamities and that with respect to their own private Fortunes with respect to the Publick and with respect to the State of Religion and what a malignant influence this vicious Self-love has upon all these great and dear Interests is so visible that methinks it should need no proof and therefore I shall at present only give some brief Hints of it And I shall not here take notice how much such Self-lovers suffer from themselves and from their own Self-love for though this makes themselves â—…iserable it does not make the Times dangerous the Times may be very prosperous and good Men very happy though such Sinners may reap the Fruits of their own Works and be filled with their own Devices though they sacrifice their Honour their Estates their Health their Lives to Intemperance and Lust though Ambition heats their brains into a Distraction and Cares and Disappointments break their Hearts or Guilt disturbs their Consciences and fills them with Rage and furious Despair the World is not much concerned in this let such Self-lovers look to it and thank themselves for what they suffer but then the Times are dangerous with respect to our private and personal Interests when Men are in great danger from one another when they are never secure from private Injuries when they know not whom to trust nor with whom to converse when it is hard to find a Friend and almost impossible to escape an Enemy when the greatest Virtue Innocence Inoffenciveness nay the Divinest Charity and all the charms of an obliging Conversation cannot secure Men from Envy Rapine and Detraction from the Venom of Tongues or from more malicious designs against their Lives and Fortunes such a State as this will make all Good Men wish as David did O that I had wings like a Dove for then would I flie away and be at rest Lo then would I wander far off and remain in the Wilderness I would hasten my Escape from the windy Storm and Tempest 55 Psa. 6 7 8 Verses And this is the very State which Self-love puts Mankind into when it prevails in the World This a late admired Philosopher calls the State of Nature wherein every Man is a Woolf to a Man but in truth it is only the State of this vicious Self-love which is the Corruption and Degeneracy of a reasonable and sociable Nature If Man was made for Society it cannot be his Nature to love no body but himself which is a Contradiction to the Nature and End of Societies He must first put off Nature if that be this Self-love before he can be capable of living in Society which seems very unaccountable that a Creature who was made for Society should not be fit for Society till he change his Nature For Men cannot live together in safety while they are all acted by this Principle Self-love makes every Man his own Center and the Center draws all to it self all that is within its sphaere of activity Pride is Self-love such an esteem for our selves as values no Man's Honour or Reputation but our own and this draws all Honour to it self is not contented unless it can out-shine all others and either by a greater brightness swallow them up or eclipse them by black and misty Vapours by all the Arts of Infamy and Reproach Covetousness is Self-love when Men will be rich whoever be poor and by whatever Arts they can do it and this draws all riches to it self and snatches them from all that come within its reach and what Injustice and Violence Theft Murders Perjuries does this occasion Self-love is the love of the Flesh the love of carnal and sensual Pleasures which will please it self whoever be grieved and injured by it Such brutish Sensualists have no regard to the Honour and Peace of Families to the Modesty of Virgins to the Sacred Vows of Wives to the Stain and Infamy of Posterity nay many times not to the dignity of Humane Nature but gratifie their Lusts in contradiction to them all Where Self-love reigns there is no place for Compassion for Charity for Justice for true Friendship every thing must give way to Self and let any man judge whether such be not perillous Times some such Men there are always in the World and great numbers of them too and we daily feel what mischeifs they do but the more the numbers of them encrease the more this Self-love prevails the more intolerable will Humane Conversation be And if we allow that Pride Ambition Covetousness Sensuality are great Enemies to the Peace and Prosperity to the good Order and Government of any Nation we must grant that Self-love which is the impure Fountain from whence all these corrupt Streams flow is very destructive to Humane Societies too it corrupts publick Justice loosens the reigns of Government softens and emasculates Mens Spirits renders them unfit for Counsel or for Arms makes them contemptible to their Neighbours and brings down the Judgments of God upon them Is any thing so destructive to any State as Divisions and Factions at home and was there ever any State-Faction without Self-love and private Interest at the bottom when great Men will rival one another and are impatient either of Superiours or Equals and prosecute their Private Animosities with the Publick Danger and when common safety requires united Hearts and Counsels will not adjourn their private Quarrels nor sacrifice their private Interests and Resentments to save a Nation It is wonderful to observe that when a Kingdom is divided into Parties and Factions the most threatning dangers are so far from uniting them that they take advantage of Publick Fears and Apprehensions to get ground of their Adversaries tho' they hazard the whole by it and what are such Factions but a Combination of Self-lovers who divide themselves from the Publick Interest unless their Private Humours and Intrigues may take place when a Party will be the Whole and if others will not let them be the Whole let the Whole perish This is the narrow peevish unsociable Spirit of Self-love a temper which generous Heathens had in the greatest abhorrence and till a more publick Spirit revive in the World we must never expect to see easie and happy days The Times will be perillous while men are such Lovers of themselves But how
deplorable must the state of Religion needs be when Self-love prevails which is such a direct contradiction to all Piety and Virtue to the Love of God and Men The Apostle indeed tells us of these Lovers of themselves that they have a Form of Godliness but deny the Power thereof They make a Show of Religious Worship and it may be a very glorious and pompous Show too for this may serve their Interest and give them Reputation with their Prince or with the People but their Religion has no power upon their Lives cannot subdue any one Lust as it is impossible it should while they are acted by Self-love And yet it is much to be desired that such Men would retain a Form of Godliness that they would not publickly affront Religion nor ridicule all that is Sacred but it is in vain to hope for thus much from all of them St. Paul's perillous Times was a very Modest and a very Religious Age to ours wherein men seem to be ashamed to be thought Religious and therefore if they ever think fit to go to Church take great care that no Man who sees them shall suspect that they come thither to worship God But though few Men attain to such an outragious Contempt of Religion as this yet all the Corruptions of Religion are more owing to Self-love than to Innocent Mistakes This secretly influences Mens Faith and forms their Notions and Opinions This invents a Form of Godliness and turns Religion into Show and Pageantry when Men bring Self-love into the Church it quickly turns true Religion out it is Pride and Ambition or Covetousness and a love of sensual Pleasures which makes Men Infidels and Hereticks and occasions all the Schisms which divide the Church For when such Self-lovers cannot cast off all Religion they must fit their Religion to Self-love to serve their Lusts or to give them security in the Enjoyment of them when they cannot raise Self up to the terms of Religion they must bring Religion down to Self It were easie to give undeniable Proofs and infinite Examples of this but I must proceed For having shewn what this vicious Self-love is and what Mischeifs it does in the World both to Mens private Fortunes to publick Societies and to the Church of God it remains 3dly To consider the Folly and Unreasonableness as well as Impiety of this Principle All the Wickedness that is committed in the World and most of the Miseries which Mankind suffer are owing to Self-love and could we convince Men of the Folly and Unreasonableness and Impiety of this it would lay the Axe to the very Root of all Wickedness it would reform the World and heal all the Maladies and Distempers of it And to do this the more effectually I shall distinctly apply what I have to say to the several Notions of Self-love 1. Let us consider Self-love as it signifies the love of Flesh and Sense when we love a part of our selves for the whole and expect our whole entire Happiness from the gratification of some inferior Appetites which at first hearing appears as absurd and impossible as it is to make a Part the Whole The greatest part of Mankind in all Ages have made this Experiment but no Man was ever made happy by it We see infinite Examples of miserable Sinners and the most prosperous always find that that they want something else to make them happy and would Men wisely consider the nature of things they would find that it is impossible it should be otherwise What is Happiness but such a State of Ease and Rest and Self-enjoyment as is agreeable to our Natures and can a reasonable Soul then find its compleat and perfect satisfaction in the Pleasures of sense the perfection and the happiness of our Natures is the same thing and therefore that which perfects our Natures must perfect our Happiness Is Sense then the perfection of a reasonable Nature if not how can it be its perfect Happiness Is not Wisdom and Knowledge the perfection of the Understanding is not the love of the best and most excellent Being the perfection of the Will and is not this the perfection of a Reasonable Soul and is it possible to make a Man happy who feels none of those divine and exalted Pleasures which are proper to a Mind Well! but if the enjoyments of Sense will give a compleat and entire satisfaction that will make the Man happy when he has no relish of any other Pleasures and then we need not dispute which Pleasures are greatest in themselves when the Man has what he likes best and is happy in it which is as much as to say that it makes no difference whether a Man enjoy the happiness of a Man or of a Beast that a Beast is as happy a Creature as a Man a Worm as an Angel because it has what satisfies and wants and desires no more But however let us consider whether the pleasures of Sense can give perfect ease and satisfaction to a reasonable Soul that they do not all Men find and the reason why they cannot do it is very plain The Pleasures of Sense cannot give perfect ease and satisfaction without a full unconfined and undisturbed Enjoyment and without such an Enjoyment as equals the Desire As for the first not to take notice how apt Men are to be disturbed in their Enjoyments from without there is enough within the very Frame and Constitution of a Reasonable Soul do disturb them For they find there a Natural Sense of the difference between Good and Evil a Natural Modesty which makes them blush in secret at some infamous Vices and sours the Pleasures and frequently interrupts the commission of them a natural belief of a God who is the Judge of the World and the Avenger of all wickedness a strong perswasion that they shall live after death and be rewarded and punished according to their works I need not tell you how uneasie such thoughts as these make the enjoyment of all sensual pleasures and an uneasy Happiness is a contradiction that if God intended Man for a Sensual Happiness I must confess he is the worst contrived Creature in the world as if he were made by chance not by a wise Creator for the Principles of his nature disturb and contradict the enjoyment of his natural Happiness Or whether you will call this Nature or Education or what you please there are very few Men with the help of all the Wit and Philosophy of Atheists can deliver themselves from this Belief and from these Fears and much fewer do it than pretend to do so and therefore there are very few who have an easy and undisturb'd Enjoyment of Sensual Pleasures that is who are easy and happy in them unless to sin with Fear with Shame with Guilty Remorse with frightful Presages of judgment be an easy and undisturb'd Enjoyment As for the Second it is very plain that the Enjoyment of Sensual Pleasures can never answer the
Bitter what gratifies their bodily Senses that is their Pleasure and Happiness without any regard to Vertue Modesty or Honour what lays Restraints upon their sensual Inclinations that is bitter uneasy and grievous and no wonder that there is a Woe denounced against these Men. 4ly Woe be to them that are wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight Where the Prophâ—…t speaks of the same Men still those who call evil good and good evil who put darkness for light and light for darkness who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter and yet think themselves the only wise Men in the World though they contradict the Sense of all Mankind the natural uncorrupted Sense of their own Minds the Light of Nature and the Word of God This is the just Character of Atheists and Infidels who think themselves the only Wits the only Philosophers and laugh at all the rest of the World as easy credulous unthinking Fools who are under the Tyranny of Custom and popular Opinions which exposes them to all other Cheats They think it an Argument of Wit and profound Thought to contradict all Mankind for there are but few wise Men they say in the World and the most are usually in the wrong which may be allowed as to improved Knowledge which is gained by laborious study and observation but the Folly lies on the other side when Men advance Paradoxes which contradict the universal Sense of Nature for in such Cases the most are likely to be in the right because Natural Productions are more common than Monsters that a wise Man will rather think and judge with the Multitude when they think on Natures side than with the most famed Philosophers against Nature But those who affect to contradict the rest of the World must think themselves the only wise Men if they think at all that we have no more reason to wonder at their Pride and Insolence than at their Atheism and Infidelity 2dly Let us now inquire how these Men come to sink into so degenerate a State as one would think impossible to a reasonable Nature and that is intimated in that order which is observed in my Text that they first call Evil Good and then Good Evil first put Darkness for Light and then Light for Darkness c. As to consider this particularly 1st They begin with calling Evil Good for no Man can begin with calling Good Evil Nature will have the first word and pass the first Judgment on Things and Nature as corrupt as it is till it be depraved and vitiated by evil Customs will call Good good and Evil evil Atheists and Infidels must confess that as wise as they think themselves now there was a time when they were as very fools as the rest of the World that is when they had the same Opinions about Good and Evil which the rest of Mankind still have when they did own a moral difference between Good and Evil and called Good and Evil by their right Names and it is as certain that the only Reason for altering their Opinions and changing the Names of Good and Evil was changing their Manners that they grew very fond of what they themselves as well as the foolish Multitude thought and called Evil and then they began to think and to call it Good and the necessary Consequence of this is to call Good Evil and as unwilling as they are to own this it is demonstrable there can be no other Reason for it Though these Men could prove which they will never be able to do that there is no moral essential immutable difference between Good and Evil between Vertue and Vice yet this is no reason to call Evil Good or Good Evil for though they were neither Sins nor Vertues neither forbid nor commanded by a Divine Law yet they themselves confess as I observed before that what we call Vertues have so much Good in them that they are the best and wisest Rules of Society and Conversation necessary to secure every Mans private Interest and the Peace and good Government of the World and therefore fit to be encouraged and to be made Laws in all civiliz'd Nations and that what we call Sins have so much Evil in them that they are very destructive to Human Societies and deserve to be restrained and punished and then it is certain there never can be any reason to call Evil Good and Good Evil which by their own Confession is a direct contradiction to the Nature of Things it is to call that Evil which they themselves own to be a great and publick Good and that Good which they own to be a publick Mischief which there never can be any reason for So that the Case is plain it is not Reason but Lust which calls Evil Good and Good Evil till Lust prevails above Reason Vertue and Vice Good and Evil keep those Names which God and Nature has given them and such Men offer as much Force and Violence to their Natural Understanding when they call Evil Good and Good Evil as they do to Natural Conscience when they chuse the Evil and refuse the Good This is Answer enough to such Men who would reason or laugh away the distinction between Good and Evil and ought to be a Warning to us all how we engage in a Course of Wickedness for how much soever we despise and abhor these wicked Principles we shall soon think as these Men do if we grow as wicked as they are 2dly These Men first put Darkness for Light and then Light for Darkness Men are not born stark blind but have the Light of Reason to discern the natural differences of Things and to direct their Lives and as weak and defective as meer natural Reason is especially in Matters of Religion and another World it directs us to a safer Guide For Reason it self teaches us to believe God who cannot deceive us and can it self judge of the external and visible Marks of a Revelation that is can judge when God speaks and what we must receive as taught by God This is the Light of Mankind the Light of Reason or Revelation what Nature teaches or what God reveals And all Mankind at first both see and own this Light for no Man is born an Atheist or an Infidel But bad Men who have corrupted their Manners and cannot justifie their Vices nor quiet their Consciences if they attend either to the Light of Nature or Revelation must seek for other Remedies and this makes them espouse the Principles of Atheism and Infidelity and these they call Light which in Truth is a meer Aegyptian Darkness and then they must call Light Darkness reject and scorn both the natural Dictates of Reason and the supernatural Revelation of the Divine Will as Ignorance and Darkness Now whatever Opinion Men have of their Philosophy yet how they should learn what neither Nature nor God teaches them or how they should discover that what all the rest of the
in Danger when we cannot reasonably promise our selves to receive our own again no man can deny but this is great Charity but then this must be conducted by the measures and proportions of giving what Charity will oblige us to give it will as reasonably oblige us to lend but where the Retuâ—…n is very hazardous it can oblige us to lend no more than what it would become us to â—…e and yet in such Cases lending â—…y be a greater Charity than giving â—…ich is the Second thing proposed â—…ich I can speak but briefly to 2. The Excellency and Advantaâ—…s of this Charity of Lending and â—…w it may be improved to be the best â—…rpose Now if we compare Giving and â—…nding together Lending has much â—…e Advantage of Giving as to â—…e true End and Purposes of Chaâ—…y To lend is a greater Obligation to â—…dustry than to give and there canâ—…ot be a greater Kindness done to the â—…oor next to keeping them from starâ—…ing than to teach them Industry I â—…eed not tell you that there are many â—…oor who will never work while they â—…an meet with charitable People to â—…ive nay who chuse to be sick to â—…e lame to be blind to move Chariâ—…y rather than work to supply their Wants but when Men have nothing â—…o live on but the improvement of lent Money which they know they must repay when it is called for this must make them industrious for it both encourages their Industry and keeps the Rod over them especially were this made a standing Rule to give nothing to those who are able but will not work who have a Stock lent them to trade with and neglect to improve it Thus what we give does but one single Act of Charity for we can give it but once but what we lend may circulate as the Blood does in our Veins and communicate Warmth and Spirits to more parts of the Body than one that is what we lend may be lent again and do a great many successive Charities as great or greater than that one single Charity had been if we had given it And that certainly is one of the greatest and noblest Charities which is most diffusive But yet to make this Charity of â—…ending the more effectual it must be confessed that a Publick Bank of Charity raised out of such free Loans will have many Advantages above any Private Acts of this Nature and I can â—…y no means think this either impractiâ—…able or difficult I doubt not but most of this Hoâ—…ourable Assembly could contrive very Advantageous ways of doing this were Men but Charitably disposed For suppose you should make your Hospitals or your Companies such Publick Banks or if it could be more Publick still the more Useful and the more secure where charitable People may safely deposite their Money without Use or those who cannot spare the whole Interest may abate some part of it and where the running Cash may be lodged which Men expect no Interest for this might easily rise to a very vast Sum which with wise Improvement would make a sure and lasting Fund of Charity And could any thing in the World be more easie than this which no man could feel What would it be to a Rich Man who has many thousands employed in Trade or secured at Interest or if he knows when he has enough has no need to increase it to drop some thousands into such a free Bank to sanctify and prosper his Trade and other ways of Gain and to secure a Blessing to his Posterity How may others are there who could spare a hundred or it may be some hundred pounds out of their Stock and not feel the want of Interest or at least if they could not spare the whole Interest might spare the half or third part of it How many are there who have some hundreds by them useless which they would not and could not with any reason grudge to lay up in a safe Bank How many are there who would easily be perswaded to lend were there such a safe Bank to receive it who are very unwilling to give And were there such a Bank of Charity once setled there would be very little need of giving For I know not any kind of Charity but might be provided for in this way were men but free and liberal in lending It would enlarge your Hospitals clear your Streets of Beggars the great Reproach of this City maintain those who can't work and employ those who can put poor Children to Apprentice provide Stocks for â—…ngenious and Industrious Young Men â—…ho want them redeem Prisoners â—…nd which Justice and Honour requires â—…f you as far as possibly you can may 〈◊〉 some measure provide a Fund for â—…our Orphans This would advance the Glory of â—…his great City it would perpetuate â—…nd consecrate the Memory of such â—…orthy Persons as would begin and â—…romote such a lasting and extensive Charity the Children which are unâ—…orn would rise up and call them blesâ—…ed it would draw a great share of â—…e Charitable Money of the Nation â—…to your hands which would quicken â—…rade and encrease your Riches and â—…bove all it would procure all the great â—…ewards which are promised to Chariâ—…y both in this World and in the â—…ext But whatever becomes of this Proâ—…osal you must always remember that 〈◊〉 is great Charity to lend as well as â—…o give This is what our Saviour exâ—…ects from us this is what he Comâ—…ands To do good and lend hoping for â—…othing again and if out of a greedy desire of gain we will lend nothing freely to the Relief and Encouragement of the Industrious Poor this will make all our other Usury and Increase which is Lawful and Innocent in it self when it neither Oppresses the Poor nor stops our Charity to become sin SERMON VI. â—…reach'd before the Queen at Whitehall Iune 26. 1692. Prov. XVIII 14. â—…he spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity but a wounded spirit who can bear ONE great Objection against Providence is taken from the many Evils and Calamities â—…hich mankind suffer which would â—…e a reasonable Objection were they more than are deserved or more than â—…are necessary for the wise Government of the world But besides other Answers that may be given to it the Wise-man's Observation in my Text furnishes us with Two very plain Answers 1. That the Sufferings of this â—…ife are not disproportioned to our strength to bear them and when Afflictions and Misfortunes are necessary to the wise government of the world it is a sufficient vindication of Providence that God lays no more on us than what the spirit of a man can bear The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmities And 2dly That the only Evils that are intolerable and insupportable are wholly owing to our selves and then we have no reason to quarrel at the Divine Providence when God is more merciful to us than we are to our selves But a wounded spirit who caâ—… bear For the Explication and
Gospel denounces against â—…penitent Sinners every thing else 〈◊〉 it is a true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 glad tidings 〈◊〉 great joy to Mankind It gives us 〈◊〉 many signal Tokens and Pledges of â—…e divine favour and such expresse â—…romises of Gods care of good Men 〈◊〉 this World and of the glorious reâ—…ards of the next as meer nature at â—…ost affords but very imperfect conâ—…ectures of that the Deist if he have â—…ny generous hopes of immortality â—…eft should be glad to have some betâ—…er assurance of immortal happiness â—…han nature gives and can think it no advantage that the Punishments of the next life are uncertain when the Rewards of it are as uncertain too if we will allow no other Evidence but the Light of Nature But I shall consine my self at present but to one thing which all Mankind are equally concerned in and which we can never be assured of but by Revelation and that is the certain pardon and forgiveness of Sin If God be holy and just a Sinner as all Mankind are must be punished except he be pardoned and therefore can have no good hopes towards God till he is assured of his pardon Now the meer light of nature gives us no absolute assurance of the pardon of Sin no not so much as it does that God will punish Sinners and therefore a Deist who rejects the Gospel Revelation cannot possibly be so certain that his Sins shall be pardoned as that he shall be punished for them The Holiness and Justice of God makes him an irreconcileable Enemy to all Sin and the only refuge Sinners have is in the Goodness of God but Goodness does not so necessarily prove that God will forgive Sin as Justice does that he will punish it For Goodness in its own nature must give place to Justice that is Goodness cannot pardon while it is unjust to pardon for an unjust Goodness is no divine Perfection So that the Goodness of God how great soever we conceive it to be and we cannot conceive it greater than it is does not necessarily prove that God must or will pardon Sinners but only that he will pardon Sinners when it is wise and just to do so but who can tell when God will think it wise and just to do so without a Revelation or who can tell what it is that makes it wise and just for a good God to forgive Sins A good Man does not always think himself bound to forgive those Personal injuries and affronts which are offered him much less is a kind and merciful Prince who is entrusted with the Administration of Justice and the Sacred Authority of Government bound to forgive every Malefactor out of pure good nature which would soon dissolve Government and make Authority contemptible and if we consider God as the Supreme Governour of the World it will satisfy us that to forgive Sins is not the immediate effect of goodness but must be tempered and accommodated to the Justice and Wisdom of Government which we understand so little of that we can never certainly learn from the meer light of nature when and upon what terms God will forgive Sin The general hope and expectation of Mankind is that God will forgive all humble penitent Sinners and yet I cannot find that any Man ever thought that meer Repentance was sufficient to obtain our Pardon for all Religions had some instituted Rites to appease their Gods which seems to argue that Natural Sense they all had that some Atonement and Expiation as well as Repentance was necessary to pardon Nor can Reason prove the contrary Repentance renders Men fit objects of mercy when no other reason hinders but the reasons of Government may supersede the Inclinations to shew mercy How often does a merciful Prince hang a penitent Malefactor without any blemish to the Mercy of his Government and if good Men and good Princes are not always bound to forgive Penitents then Repentance it self alone cannot entitle us to Mercy So that we can have no Security of the pardon of our Sins but by the Gospel of Christ wherein God has expresly promised the remission of Sins to all true Penitents in the Name and through the Merits and Mediation of Christ. Good God! what a consolation is this to Sinners who would be without the certain hopes of Forgiveness for all the World How terrible is it to believe that there is a just God who will punish Sinners without knowing or believing a Saviour did these Men duly consider Things they would think Deism to be the most dangerous State in the World which has no Covenant no Promise no Priest no Sacrifice which might be the Religion of the State of Innocence but is no Religion for Sinners Secondly Let us now consider the unreasonableness of Deism and how inconsistent it is with it self For to deny all Divine Revelation does extreamly weaken the belief of a God and to acknowledge the Being of a God makes it highly reasonable to believe a Revelation First That to deny all Divine Revelation does extreamly weaken the belief of a God A Deist indeed has this visible World for the Proof of a God as St. Paul argues The invisible things from the Creation of the World are clearly seen being understood by the Things that are made even his Eternal Power and Godhead Rom. 1. 20. And this I grant is a very good Argument but loses very much of its Strength in the Mouth of a Deist For though it be highly reasonable to think that the World was made by that Supreme and Sovereign Being whom we call God yet had we no other notice of the being of a God but from this visible Creation had there never been any Commerce or Intercourse between God and Men had he never since the making of the World given any Signs or Tokens of his Power and Presence it would have been a very strong Praesumption that there is no God notwithstanding all the Arguments from the Frame of this visible World that there is one For it seems as unreasonable to think that there should be a God in the World and Mankind hear nothing of him see no visible Marks of his Care and Providence in matters of the greatest Consequence as the Worship and Glory of God and the Salvation of Mens Souls certainly are that they should receive no Notices of his Will what Homage he expects from them and what he will accept that there should be no Communication between Reasonable Beings and the Supreme Mind as it is to think that the World could be made without a God For what end did God make reasonable Creatures but to make himself known to them which is the highest happiness and Perfection of Reasonable Beings and can we then imagine that when God had made the World and made Man he should withdraw himself into Silence and Obâ—…curity and take no farther notice of Mankind nor make any other Discoveries of himself to them than what they can imperfectly
spell out from the visible Creation And on the other hand though we must not urge the Authority of Revelation to prove a God which would â—…e to beg the Question yet the being of a Revelation we may for whatever proves a Divine Revelation proves a God The wisest and acutest Philosophers among the Heathens thought this the best and most sensible Proof of a God Balbus the Stoick having begun his Cicero de natura Deorum Proof of the Being of a God from â—…his visible Creation and the univerâ—…al Consent of Mankind in this Belief â—…e resolves the Firmness and Stability of this Perswasion into those visible Signs which their Gods oftentimes gave of their own Power and Presence Quòd presentiam soepe Divi suam declarant And the Argument is certainly a very good one though the Particular Instances he gives of it may be vain and fictitious and want sufficient attestation to gain belief But had Balbus instead of the Apparitions of Castor and Pollux and their ridiculous Rites of Divination seen the Miracles of Moses and of Christ the familiar Conversation of God with Abraham and Moses the terrible Appearance of Mount Sinai when God delivered the Law in an audible Voice and the infallible Accomplishment of Prophesies that is had his Proofs of a Divine Power and Presence been as undeniable as his reasoning from such Divine Appearances to the Being of a God is unanswerable all the Wit and Sophistry in the World could never have evaded this Argument for it would be impossible to perswade Men there is no God when they do little less than see him in such present and sensible Effects as can have no other Cause but a God However thus much we learn from this dispute that according to the Sense of the wisest Men such visible Effects of a Divine Power and Presence are the most irresistible Argument for the Being of God that the wisest Men did believe that if there is a God he would give some undeniable Proofs of his own Being in the Acts of Government and Providence as well as of Creation And that if there never had been any such sensible Appearances of such a Divine Power and Presence it would at least have rendred the Being of God very doubtfull This should make all those who heartily believe a God to think and speak more honourably of Revelation for the Belief of a God and of Revelation will stand and fall together that a Deist who ridicules all Revelation takes a very ill Course to perswade the World that he believes a God Secondly The unreasonableness of Deism will further appear if we consider that to acknowledge the Being of a God makes it highly reasonable to believe a Revelation I do not say that to believe a God obliges us to believe every pretended Revelation for the truth of any particular Revelation depends on those peculiar Marks of Divinity and Credibility which it bears on it but whoever beleives that there is a God cannot think it incredible that God should reveal himself and his Will to Mankind nay will see great reason to believe that he has done so as the State of the World in the different Ages and Dispensations of it did require and would admit For First No Man who believes that there is a God can question whether God can if he so pleases make a more perfect manifestation of himself and his Will to Mankind than he has done by the Works of Nature for what can't he do who made the World and is infinite in Wisdom and Power as to consider particularly some of those ways whereby God is supposed to reveal himself to Mankind God is a pure and infinite Mind who cannot be seen by Mortal Eyes and yet will any Man say that God cannot by some visible Appearances convince Men of his immediate Presence beyond all possibility of Doubt that he cannot either with or without such visible Appearances speak to them and talk as familiarly with them as one Man converses with another And then whatever Truth there be in the Story which is another Enquiry there is nothing in its own Nature incredible in those Relations we have of God's appearing to Adam and conversing with him in Paradise of his appearing to Abraham and Iacob who saw God face to face Gen. 32. 30. Of his speaking to Moses face to face as a Man talketh with his Friend Exod. 33. 11. Cannot God who formed our Minds and knows all the Springs of Thoughts draw such clear and bright Scenes and Pictures of things on our Fancy and Imagination whether sleeping or waking as shall need no other proof of their Divinity but themselves As Light is known by it self and the first Principles and Maxims of Reason by their own Evidence Cannot the Son of God who made the World and made Man if he so pleases cloath himself with Humane Nature and appear and converse in the World as a Man and familiarly instruct Mankind in the Will of God and the Way to Heaven There is no question then but God can if he pleases inspire Men with the Knowledge of his Will either by Dreams and Visions or by an audible Voice and a familiar Conversation oâ—… by an immediate Impression upon the higher Faculties of Reason and Understanding so that if there be a God there may be Prophets inspired by God to reveal his Will to Men And therefore the Pretences to Prophesie must not be laugh'd out of the World but examined The thing is not incredible because it is what God can do but the Prophet must be tried because there may be Cheats and Impostures Now the trial of a Prophet whether he come from God is by such Works as no Man can do except God be with him that is in short by what we call Miracles and foretelling things to come And here again he who believes that there is a God cannot think either Miracles or a Prediction of future Events impossible For what cannot that God do and know whose Power and Knowledge are infinite What cannot that God do who made the World Is it such a Difficulty to him who framed our Bodies out of the â—…ust to give Health to the Sick or Sight to the Blind to make the Deaf to Hear and the Lame to Walk and to â—…aise the Dead We all know this is above Humane Power and therefore if â—…uch things be done they must be done by the Power of God and we know â—…hat God can do them and therefore Miracles are not impossible or incredible to him who believes a God Thus far the Deist must agree with me unless he have a very mean Opinion of his God For a God who cannot reveal his Will to Mankind who cannot inspire Prophets nor work Miracles nor foretel things to come is no God has not the Wisdom and the Power of a God Now this is a great Point gained for if God can do all this then there is no Objection against the Nature of
Convictions of Conscience and enforceâ—… the Reproofs and Threatnings of the Word with such sensible and smarting Proofs of the Evil of Sin and God's Anger against it as will make all Men consider who have not lost their Senses and many times restore Sense and Understanding to those who had lost them But this to some Men will seem a very dull Account of God's Judgments which will neither gratifie their Curiosity nor ill Nature nor which they think worse leave them any excuse to palliate their Hypocrisie The Judgments of God declare God's Anger against Sin and call us to Repentance This Men will own but do not like to hear it express'd in such general Terms as if when God sends his Judgments amongst us he were angry with â—…s for all our Sins and called us to repent of them all This they think hard that they must part with all their Sins to remove these Judgments nay this they think can't be the Truth of the Case because the World is always very wicked and yet the Judgments of God are not always abroad in the World And therefore they suppose that when God does execute Judgments it is not Sin in general but some particular Sins which so highly provoke him and could they learn what they are and reform them they might see happy Days again And this sets Men at liberty to favour what Sins they please to reproach and accuse each other and to charge all the Evils and Calamities they suffer upon one another without thinking of reforming themselves Thus to be sure it always is when there are differing Parties and Factions in a Nation who judge very differently of Good and Evil They will all confess they are great Sinners and it may be too many of all Parties are guilty of the same Sins but those Sins which are common to them all must pass for nothing because so far they are all agreed But then there are peculiar Party-Sins which every Party dislikes in each other and what they dislike they conclude God dislikes too and to these they attribute all the Evils they suffer As if the Judgments of God were not to reform the World but to decide some Party-Quarrels which will never be decided this way when every Party will expound Judgments in favour of themselves But all Men see that this is to judge by a false and partial Rule This is neither Conscience nor Scripture for Conscience equally condemns all Sin and so does the Scripture too I grant tho' there is always a great deal of wickedness committed in the World God does not always inflict Publick Judgments which are commonly executed when Wickedness and Impiety is grown publick too when publick Government is remiss in punishing Wickedness or the Numbers and Power of Sinners are grown too great for the Correction of publick Justice But we shall always find in Scripture that when God did inflict publick Judgments he called for a general Repentance and Reformation and if this were not so no Man could understand the Voice of the Rod without a Spirit of Prophecy But this deserves a more particular Consideration both with respect to those Sins for which God most commonly sends his Judgments when he sees fit to execute a publick Vengeance and the necessity of an universal Reformation when the Judgments of God are upon us 1. The most general Account the Scripture gives us of publick Judgments is an universal Corruption of Manners Thus the Prophet describes the State of the Iewish Church when God threatned his Judgments against them Ah â—…nful Nation a People laden with Iniquiry a Seed of evil Doers Children that are Corrupters they have forsaken the Lord they have provoked the Holy One oâ—… Israel they are gone away backward And the whole Head is sick and the wholâ—… Heart faint From the Sole of the Foot unto the Head there is no Soundnesâ—… in it but Wounds and Bruises and puâ—… trifying Sores they have not been closed nor bound up nor mollified with Oint ment Isa. 1. 4 5 6. And in Verse 10 he calls them The Rulers of Sodom anâ—… People of Gomorrah When Wickednesâ—… is grown universal and hath infected alâ—… Ranks and Orders of Men such a Nation is ripe for Judgment but it addâ—… greatly to the Guilt and Provocation when Men are not contented to bâ—… wicked without bidding open Defiane to God and to all Religion Wo untâ—… them who draw Iniquity with Cords of Vanity and sin as it were with Cart-ropeâ—… Who deride all the Threatnings of God and even dare his Power and Justice That say Let him make speed and hast en his Work that we may see it and leâ—… the Counsel of the Holy One of Israel draâ—… nigh and come that we may know iâ—… Who mock at the differences of Gooâ—… and Evil and value the Reputation oâ—… their Wit and Philosophy too much to beâ—… cheated with such empty Names Wo unto them that call Evil Good and Good Evil that put Darkness for Light and Light for Darâ—…ss that put Bitter for Sweet and Sweet 〈◊〉 â—…itter Wo unto them that are wise in their own Eyes and prudent in their own Sight Who having first destroyed the eternal and essential differences of Good and Evil change their Names too at pleasure and think themselves the only wise Men in the World for doing so This takes off all Restraints and gives the Reins to their Lusts and they live just as they believe without making any difference between Good and Evil. Wo unto them that are mighty to drink Wine and Men if strength to mingle strong Drink who justifie the Wicked for a Reward and take â—…ay the Righteousness of the Righteous from him Therefore as the Fire devouâ—…eth the Stubble and the Flame consumeth the Chaff so their Root shall be as Rotâ—…nness and their Blossom shall go up as the Dust because they have cast away the Law of the Lord of Hosts and despised the Word of the Holy One of Israel Isa. 5. 18 c. The like Account we find in the other Prophets And when the State of a Church and Nation is so corrupt we need not enquire for what particular Sins God strikes but yet there were some Sins which God expressed 〈◊〉 severer Indignation against and seldoâ—… delayed to punish such as their Idâ—… latry and Contempt of the God oâ—… Israel of his Word and Prophets Prophanation of his Worship Atheâ—… istical Notions of Providence and 〈◊〉 Good and Evil or their abominabâ—… Hypocrisie in committing all the Lewâ—… ness and Villanies which Men couâ—… commit and sheltring themselves in aâ—… external Form and Appearance of Râ—… ligion which the Prophets every wheâ—… complain of To these Causes is oâ—… ing the universal Corruption of Maâ—… ners for it is impossible any Natiâ—… should so universally degenerate tâ—… they have either corrupted their Reâ—… gion by Superstition and Hypocrisie lost all Sense of it and therefore tâ—… calls for a speedy Vengeance As for what more particularly
of our Church that Men who have no Devotion come only for Musick For Church-Musick can't create Devotion tho' it may improve it where it is But indeed we ought all to be aware that the Musick does not Employ our Thoughts more than our Devotions which it can never do if as Common Sense teaches us it ought to be our Minds be in the first place fix'd and intent upon the Praises of God which are express'd in the Hymn or Anthem which when conveyed unto us in Musical Sounds will give Life and Quickness to our Devotions not first fixed on the Musick which most probably will leave the Devotion of the Anthem behind it Those who find that Musick does not Assist but Stifle their Devotion and many such there may be had much better keep to their Parish-Churches and prefer Devotion before Musick For to come to Church without any Intention to Worship God in his own House or to pretend to Worship him without Devotion are great Affronts to the Divine Majesty In a word Those who profess themselves Lovers of Musick ought to consider what the true End of Musick is and to improve it to the Noblest Purposes The meer Harmony of Sounds is a very pleasant and innocent Entertainment Of all the Delights of Sense this is in it self the least sensual when it is not abused to recommend Vice and to convey impure Images to our Minds But yet meerly to be delighted with Charming and Musical Aires does not answer the true Character of a Lover of Musick For it is the least thing in Musick to please the Ear its proper natural Use and the great Advantage and Pleasure of it relates to our Passions To Compose to Soften to Inflame them and the Diviner Passions it inspires us with the more it is to be admired and valued and then Musick must attain its greatest Glory and Perfection in true Devotion That the Lovers of Musick ought to be very Devout Men if they love Musick for that which is most valuable in it and its last and noblest End To conclude It concerns the Lovers of Musick to vindicate it from all Prophane Abuses not to suffer so Divine a thing to be prostituted to Mens Lusts To discountenance all Lewd Prophane Atheistical Songs how admirable soever the Composition be To preserve Musick in its Virgin Modesty and without confining her always to the Temple make the Praises of God her Chief Employment as it is her greatest Glory Thus have I spoke my Mind very freely shewed you the Use and the Abuses of Musick which was one great Inducement to me to comply with the Desires of those Honourable and Worthy Persons who imposed this Office on me that I might have an Opportunity of Saying that which I thought fit should be said at one time or other and for saying of which there could not be a more proper Occasion than this And I hope this may plead my Excuse with all good Christians if it have drawn my Sermon out to too great a Length and given too long an Interruption to the Entertainment of those the least part of whose Business it was to hear a Sermon To God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost be Honour Glory and Power now and ever Amen SERMON XV. Preach'd before the QUEEN at White Hall in Lent 2 Tim. iii. ver 1 2. This know also that in the last days perillous times shall come For men shall be lovers of their own selves IS Self-love then so dangerous a thing as to make the Times perillous What Times then can be prosperous and happy What Age produces such Monsters as do not love themselves And where is the Man that would be contented to live in such an Age The Apostle then by the Lovers of their own selves cannot mean all those who are acted by this natural Principle of Self-love to take care of their own Happiness for that is all Mankind in all Ages of the World and cannot be the Character only of the last Days nor the cause of perillous Times Self-love is the very Life and Spirit of the reasonable World which has no other Spring of Motion It unites Men into Societies is the Parent of all Arts and Sciences it makes us take care of our selves and it teaches us to do good to others It is no Vertue it self because it is not Matter of our choice but as necessary as our Being but it is the Seed and Principle of all Moral Vertues as it obliges us to make our selves happy to preserve our Health to encrease our Fortunes to gain the Good-will and good Opinion of our Neighbours to be easie to our selves and to make the World easie to us which requires the Practice of all healthful thriving and sociable Virtues It is Self-love which inspires us with that Divine Principle of Universal Goodness and Charity to do to other Men what we desire they should do to us It is this which makes us soft and tender to all the Impressions of Kindness which makes us feel other Mens Sufferings and other Mens Resentments in our own which makes us relish the Sweetness and Pleasure of doing Good by the Pleasure of receiving it and gives us an Antipathy and Abhorrence of doing Injuries from our natural Aversion to suffer them It is this Self-love which makes Mankind governable and secures the Peace and good Order of Humane Societies Humane Laws would signifie very little without Rewards and Punishments and Rewards and Punishments would signifie as little as Laws without Self-love For could Men be unconcerned for themselves did they neither hope nor fear any thing they could be governed only as Beasts are by external Force It is the love of our selves which makes us delight in Humane Conversation and promote the Publick Good wherein all Mens private Fortunes are involved In a word This Self-love is the Principle of all Religion which teaches us to love and worship God who is eternal and essential Love and Goodness to praise him for our Being for our Preservation for all the Enjoyments of this Life and for the great Hopes and Expectations of the next It teaches us to reverence his Laws to fear his Justice and Power to depend on his Providence to pray for the Supply of our Wants and for the Pardon of our Sins 〈◊〉 It gives Virtue and Efficacy to Faith and Hope which are the great Gospel-Principles of Obedience For what would the belief and expectation of unseen Glories signifie if Men were not concerned to make themselves eternally happy So wild and extravagant is that Enthusiastick Conceit of serving God without respect to the Recompence of Reward which contradicts the whole Scope of the Gospel all the Motives and all the Principles of Evangelical Obedience the Examples of all good Men and of Christ himself who for the Ioy that was set before him endured the Cross despised the Shame and is set down at the Right Hand of God This is sufficient to prove
vast and boundless Desires of Happiness in Humane Nature a reasonable and intelligent Being has no other bounds to its Desires of Happiness but the most perfect and perpetual Enjoyment whereas Sensual Pleasures besides all other Disappointments must wait the Returns of Strength and Appetite and Objects and therefore cannot always be had or cannot always please Sensual Pleasures can never be the Happiness of any Creature which has any higher Principle then Appetite for Appetite is the utmost bounds of Sensual Enjoyments but when Knowledge serves instead of Appetite as it must do in Reasonable Creatures it creates such Desires as no Appetites can answer This makes Sensual Men so insatiable in their Desires of Pleasure though Bruit Beasts know their Measures because they misplace their Natural Desires of Happiness which are boundless and infinite upon Sensual Pleasures which are limited and confined and what Disapointments and Distractions must this create when there is no proportion between the Desire and the Object besides those Sensible Mischiefs of it which do not much contribute to their Happiness For when Desire forces an Appetite beyond the Strength of Nature and the Natural End and Use of such Pleasures it impairs their Health weakens their Bodies shortens their Lives or makes them miserable which are the common Rewards of Intemperance and Lust. These Beasts who are governed by Appetite know nothing of Sense is their Happiness and Appetite is the Measure of their Enjoyment and Sensual Pleasures can fill and satisfie a meer Sensual Appetite but when knowledge is both the Reason and the Measure of our Desires Sensual Pleasures can never fill such Desires for we know more than Nature it self can enjoy and yet when we place our highest Happiness in it must desire all we know and as long as we know which is longer than we can enjoy This proves that nothing can be the Happiness of a knowing and reasonable Creature but Intellectuall Pleasures where Knowledge is Enjoyment and then Enjoyment will equal Knowledge and Desire but when Knowledge and Enjoyment are two Things they may be parted and may be unequal and such a Creature cannot be compleatly happy 2dly All Men who believe that there is a God must confess that it is very foolish and very wicked to love our Selves in opposition to God Is it possible for a Reasonable Creature to be happy who separates himself from God the World may much better subsist without the Sun for God is the Life of a Reasonable Soul the brightest Object of our Minds Eternal Truth and Wisdom there is nothing worth knowing without God for to contemplate his Wisdom and Goodness and Power in all Things is that which gives a relish to all other Knowledge In him we live move and have our Being no Wise Man would be contented to live in a World which has not a God to govern it nor to live any longer in it than he can trust to and depend on his Protection and is it then the way to be happy to divide our Selves from God can any Man chuse better for himself than God can do we know our Selves so well as he that made us does not God know what Happiness he hath made us for or does he envy us the Happiness for which he made us Why then did he make us for such a Happiness so impious is it to think that God has forbid us any thing which is our true Happiness So vain is it to hope to make our selves happy in contradiction to the Will and Laws of God No Man thinks honourably of God who does not believe that his Laws are the most infallible Methods of our Happiness as well as the Tryal of our Subjection and Obedience and he who does so can never think of making himself happy by disobeying God But supposing it were otherwise is it not perfect Distraction to oppose our selves against God Can we make our selves happy whether he will or no Are we a fit Match for infinite Power Can we resist his Almighty Arm How easily can he look us into Misery and Confusion And does it not become us to submit to him and rather chuse to obey his Will than to suffer his Vengeance This is the Natural State of a Creature to live in subjection to his Maker and Sovereign Lord to receive Laws from him and to give up himself without any reserve to his Government and Disposal and therefore this is the Natural Method of our Happiness too 3dly As for the Third Notion of Self-love to love our selves in opposition to the Love of Men to divide our selves from the rest of Mankind and to carry on a Separate Interest to which as far as we are able we make all other Interests give place This is so hateful a Temper that the very naming of it is enough to expose it No Man dares to undertake its Defence those who are most guilty of it dare not own it but disguise it with some more popular Appearances A great and generous Mind that is concerned for all the World that does all the good it can that is ready to sacrifice his private Ease Satisfactions and Fortunes nay Life it self to serve his Country or to cleanse the World of Monsters is the Darling and Favorite of Mankind he is loved he is reverenced of all as a common Friend of Humane Nature and Humane Societies But a Man who loves no body but himself is a universal Enemy and all Men ought to have a Care of him and all Men will despise and abhor him when they know him These Self-lovers themselves when they see their own Picture in another Face will spit at it for those who love no body but themselves yet desire that all Men should love them and be very tender of their Concernments though they value no bodies Interest and Happiness but their own But though this Self-love be universally condemned yet it is too universally practised and therefore I shall briefly shew how impossible it is that this Self-love which divides us from the rest of Mankind should make us happy The Principles of Humane Nature make the Exercise of it very uneasy and that can never be our Happiness which is a Force and Violence to Nature We feel a Natural Compassion for the sufferings of Mankind especially of Innocent Men who have not deserved it and as well as any Man loves himself this makes it very painful to serve his own Interest by doing injury to others One of the first Principles of Morality which all Men confess to be highly reasonable is to do to other Men what we desire they should do to us which is the Fundamental Maxim both of Justice and Charity and in other Words is to love all Men as our selves and no Man can violate this Law that is no Man can love himself in opposition to the rest of Mankind without falling under the Censures and Reproaches of his own Mind which is no happy State One of the Divinest Pleasures
but the means whereby Mankind are now corrupted That the very Notions of Moral Good and Evil are almost lost among us that Men call evil good and good evil darkness light and light darkness bitter sweet and sweet bitter and shew their good will to change the Natures as well as Names of things were that in their Power This may seem new and surprizing to Men unaquainted with the State of former Ages but even upon this Account there is no new thing under the Sun Men have been as wicked in former Ages as they are now and have taken the same ways to justifie their wickedness and to harden themselves in Sin that they do now As great a Degeneracy as this is of Human Nature the Prophet assures us in my Text that there were such Men in his days who called evil good and good evil and thus it is likely to be to the end of the World and yet there will always be a Succession of good Men and the Eternal Differences of Good and Evil will never be lost But then good Men must endeavour by all wise Arts to preserve a Sense of Piety and Vertue to vindicate Religion from the Attempts of Atheists and Infidels and to put a stop to the growing evil For this reason God by his Prophet denounceth a Woe against such Men which it shall be my Business at present to explain to you 1. I shall explain the several Terms in my Text what it is to call Evil Good and Good Evil to put Darkness for Light and Light for Darkness to put Bitter for Sweet and Sweet for Bitter and who those are that are Wise in their own Eyes and Prudent in their own Sight 2. I shall enquire how Men come to judge thus perversly of Things which is intimated in the Order here observed That they first call Evil Good and then Good Evil first put Darkness for Light and then Light for Darkness first Bitter for Sweet and then Sweet for Bitter 3dly I shall consider the Woe denounced against these Men and how unavoidable it is 1. To explain the Terms And 1. What is meant by calling Evil Good and Good Evil. For are there any Men in the World so senseless or impudent as to affirm That what Mankind call Sins are Vertues or what they call Vertues are Sins I never heard of such Men and I believe there are no such Men to be found For there is no Fault which Atheists themselves can find with those which we call Moral Vertues such as Justice and Charity Meekness Humility Patience Temperance Chastity and the like but that they do not agree with their Inclinations and Interests and they desire to be at liberty from such Restraints to live as they like best they are not pleas'd that the one should be thought essentially Good and the other Evil or that the one should be thought commanded and the other forbidden by a Divine Law which makes them accountable to a Superiour Lord and Judge for what they do But if you will not call them Sins or Vertues nor pretend a Divine Law for it they will allow what we call Moral Vertues to be good Rules of Life and very necessary for the prudent Government of Humane Societies and such as Mankind ought to agree in for their own Sakes and for the Common Good and that the contrary Vices are great and publick Mischiefs which ought to be restrained and punished by Civil Laws They are very well contented and think it necessary that Men should make them Laws but not God For this still leaves them at liberty to transgress these Laws when they can do it safely and when their Interest and Inclinations tempt them to it This indeed is to reject the very Notion of Moral Good and Evil but not in a strict Sense to call Evil Good or Good Evil for they allow of no such Distinction between Good and Evil in a Moral Sense Tho' by the way I could never understand what they mean by this for if the Matter of these Vertues or Vices be such things as are naturally good or evil then the doing such things must be morally good or evil For I know no other Notion of Moral Good and Evil but doing or chusing such things as have a natural Good and Evil If to rob our Neighbour of his Estate to desame him to abuse his Wife or Daughter be a great Injury to him it is a great Wickedness in us If to defend the Injur'd and Oppress'd to relieve the Poor and Fatherless and Widows be a great Good to them it is a great Vertue in us And I know not what other Sanction Men would have for natural Laws but the natural Good or Evil of things and if there be an essential and eternal difference between natural Good and Evil Nature has made an essential difference between doing Good and Evil that is between Vertue and Vice But to let this pass since these Men discard all the Moral Differences of Good and Evil and yet own that what we call Vertues do a great deal of good and what we call Vices do great hurt and mischief the difficulty remains in what Sense any Man can be charged with calling Evil Good and Good Evil and I can think but of two Accounts of this Matter 1. That they make their own Appetites Interests and Inclinations the only Rule and Measure of Good and Evil as they must necessarily do when they allow of no common Rule and Standard for all Mankind For if as these Men perswade themselves there be no Law either of God or Nature to distinguish between Good and Evil there can be no other distinction but what every Man 's own Appetite and Inclination makes for him that is his Good which he best likes and that is Evil which he does not like Good and Evil signifie nothing more but what pleases or displeases him and therefore when he feels himself highly pleased and gratified with what the rest of Mankind think a great Evil and really is so he laughs at their Ignorance and Folly and calls and chuses it as his Good and when that which is really Good crosses his Interests and Inclinations he rejects it as a great Evil When such Men think it their Interest to be Unjust or their Inclinations tempt them to be Unchaste they don't think such Actions Vertues for they disown that Name but they think them good that is profitable and pleasing nor do they think Justice Temperance and Chastity to be Vices but great Evils as contrary to their Gain or Pleasure which is to call that which is morally Good Evil and that which is morally Evil Good 2dly Besides this the better to excuse themselves from the Shame and Reproach of such Actions which will be always infamous when they have done and said all they can though they dare not call Vice Vertue nor Vertue Vice yet they give good Names which are the Appendages and Properties of some Vertues to
their Vices and bad Names to Vertue This is so common and so well known that I need not insist on it An easie obliging friendly Conversation is very charming when it is governed by strict Vertue these Men let the Vertue alone and justifie their Vices as only the Effects and Instances of good Humour and Sociableness and of a complying Temper to make their Company easie and their Conversation pleasant and entertaining and this they think a good Apology for all their Lewdness Debaucheries and Profaneness which may make them agreeable Company for one another but very unfit for the Conversation not only of good Men but of prudent and cautious Sinners but that is all one they will have this good Humour and that is a good Name which will suit any Vice which pleases themselves and their Company Thus to be diligent in our Business prudent and frugal in our Expences to mortifie our sensual Appetites and deny the Cravings of Lust and use our Bodies hardly are very commendable things when they are opposed to Idleness and Luxury and have regard to the Care of our Families and to make us capable of all Acts of Charity and to subdue the Flesh to the Spirit and to make us more devout Worshippers of God And therefore a meer Earth-worm who does all this for no other end but to get or to save his Money tho' he starve himself and his Family and the Poor by it and makes himself a vile Slave all his Days calls this fordid Covetousness by these good Names of Diligence Prudence Frugality Temperance Mortification when in Truth it is nothing but a love of Money above his Ease and Pleasure and adoring it as his God Thus on the other hand Superstition and Hypocrisie are very ill Names and these at all Adventures they bestow upon Piety and Vertue to excuse their own Neglect and Contempt of both as if no Man could be sincere because there are some Hypocrites or as if there were no such thing as Religion because some Men would appear to be religious who are not though it is a better Argument for Religion that even bad Men desire to be thought religious Thus an affected Singularity is very offensive and nauseous to all wise Men and this is their Name for a sullen inflexible Vertue which will not do a bad thing to please its Company nor admit bad Men into the Privacies and Familiarities of Conversation as if there were no Medium between affecting Singularity and being wicked for Company This is the Art of changing Names call any Vertue or Vice by its own Name such as Piety Justice Charity Temperance Chastity or Profaneness Injustice Drunkenness Adultery and they have nothing to say against the one nor for the other for these are Names of Honour and Esteem or of Infamy and Reproach all the World over But if they can find any thing in Vice which bears the least resemblance to what some Vertues oblige us to they presently give the Names of those Vertues to their Vices and if a vertuous Man may do any thing for wise and good Reasons which has any Likeness or Analogy to what bad Men do for very bad Reasons they give the Names of those Vices to Vertue which is in a strict and proper Sense to call Evil Good and Good Evil And this there are too many guilty of who are not profess'd Atheists or Infidels who think it some Excuse for their Vices if they can find any thing good to say of them and an Apology for their Lukewarmness and Indifferency in Religion if they can charge some zealous Professors with Pharisaism and Hypocrisy but by whomsoever and for what reason soever this be done the Woe belongs to all those who call evil good and good evil 2dly What is meant by putting darkness for light and light for darkness Darkness and Light very often in Scripture signifie Vice and Vertue Sin is the work of Darkness to walk in the Light is to live holily as St. Iohn tells us 1 Iohn 1. ver 6 7. if we say we have fellowship with him God and walk in darkness live in any Sin we lie and do not the truth but if we walk in the light as he is in the light if we are holy as God is holy then have we Fellowship one with another and thus it is the same with calling Evil Good and Good Evil. But then Darkness signifies also Ignorance and Error false and corrupt Notions of God and Religion and Light a clear and certain Knowledge especially in matters of Religion what concerns the Will of God and the way to Heaven as our Saviour tells us light is come into the world but men love darkness rather than light John 3. 19. And thus we must understand it here Those Men who call Evil Good and Good Evil who reject the moral differences of Good and Evil and confound the Names of Vertue and Vice pervert all the Principles of Knowledge and Rules of judging between Good and Evil they put darkness for light call all the arbitrary and ridiculous Principles of Atheism and Infidelity Light and esteem them as the most true and certain Knowledge though indeed they teach us nothing but reduce us to the most perfect state of Ignorance by unteaching all that Mankind knew before for if there be no God and no difference between Good and Evil there is an End of all Knowledge which is the Light of the Mind for the next step is to put light for darkness to reject all the Natural and all the Supernatural Means of Knowledge the Natural Notions of our Minds the Natural Light of Reason and the Supernatural Light of Revelation as meer Ignorance and Imposture the Cheats of Education or of a timorous Fancy or the Cunning of Statesmen or the Inventions of Priests Such Men you know there are in the World and this Woe belongs to them 3dly To put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter is a corruption not meerly of our Judgment but of our Natural Sensation of our Natural Taste and Relish of Things Bitter signifies whatever is naturally uneasy grievous offensive as bitter things are to the Palate that which causes Trouble Anguish Remorse as all wicked Actions naturally do now such thingâ—… as are grievous and afflicting to all the rest of Mankind who have any natural Sense left these Men call sweet account their Pleasure and Happiness But then what is naturally sweet hath a Natural Easiness Pleasure Satisfaction as all good and vertuous Actions have this they call bitter these are the grievances of their Life an intollerable Yoke which they cannot and will not bear This is the most degenerate State of Human Nature which hath lost all Relish of Vertue and all Sense of Shame and Fear and Remorse when they do Evil their Minds are perfectly dead and stupid without any Rational or Spiritual Sensations they have nothing but their bodily Senses left and by these alone they judge of Sweet and
World believe that God and Nature has taught them is false is a Mystery to me And the only Account that can be given of it is what our Saviour gives That light is come into the world and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil And when they love Darkness it is no wonder that they call it Light but they must first call Darkness Light before they can put out the Light and turn it into Darkness Now if this be the Truth of the Case as our own Experience and our Observations of other Men assure us it is this is a sufficient Reason to reject all the Principles of Atheism and Infidelity without disputing for they were not born and bred with us as what is natural is and therefore must be owing to the Lusts and Vices of Men which are the Works of Darkness and hate the Light and nothing seems stranger to me than that of all the Men in the World these Men should pretend to Reason who have the least Right oâ—… Pretence to it For what Principles can they reason on who reject the Light of Nature and of Revelation What is Natural Reason but the Reason of Humane Nature And how shall we know what this is but by those common Principles of Reason which Nature has implanted in all Mankind and which Art and Wit and Vice it self have much ado to silence and can never perfectly root out and certainly that is not Natural Reason which contradicts all the Principles of Humane Nature and what is that Reason which is not the Reason of Humane Nature Or how is Mankind concerned in such Reasons as can be no Rule to them unless they put off Humane Nature And indeed this is the Case of these very Men they have put off Humane Nature are degenerated into Bruits and have the Reason and Understanding of Bruits espouse such Principles as serve no other End but to justifie the brutal Nature and therefore laugh at the common Sentiments and Faith of Mankind and pretend to Reason only to reason Humane Nature as well as Revelation out of the World How subtilly soever these Men may dispute it sufficeth me that this is not the Original Belief of Mankind and therefore is not owing to God or Nature but to Lust. No Man can call Light Darkness till he is in love with Darkness for the sake of the Works of Darkness 3dly The same may be said of putting Bitter for Sweet and Sweet for Bitter Men must first reconcile themselves to Wickedness which is naturally very bitter uneasie and grievous and shake off all sense of Shame and Modesty and Fear before they can in good earnest reproach Vertue For till Men are very wicked Vertue is the great Pleasure the truest and sweetest Pleasure of Humane Nature Thirdly Let us now consider the Woe that is denounced against these Men and how unavoidable it is Woe be to them that call Evil Good and Good Evil c. What this Woe is is not here express'd but an indefinite Woe is very terrible for it includes all the Woes that God has any where in Scripture threatned against Sinners the Vengeance of God in this World and the eternal Miseries of the next A Woe signifies a State of extream Misery wherein Men shall bewail and lament themselves without Hope or Redress all the Miseries that such Sinners deserve and therefore the greatest that Humane Nature can suffer because this is the greatest Degeneracy of Humane Nature And therefore to warn you all of falling into this State I shall briefly shew you how unavoidable this Woe is When Men are so in love with their Sins that they resolve never to part with them they vainly think that the only way to secure themselves is to banish God out of the World and to destroy all the differences of Good and Evil and then they may please themselves and live as they list without Fear or Shame or any Danger of a future Account Now so far they are in the right that if they could banish God out of the World their Work were done and they might bid defiance to all the Pulpit-thunder and laugh at all the superstitious fears of Sinners But to perswade themselves contrary to the Sense of Nature and the universal Belief of Mankind that there is no God will not banish God out of the World And if they should find a God after they have perswaded themselves there is none as they certainly will they will find this God a provoked and terrible Judge For what greater Contempt and Despite can be offered to God than to perswade themselves that there is no God This is a State of open Enmity They hate God and would destroy his Being if they could for the Reason why they perswade themselves there is no God is because they would have none and those who hate God are hated by him and must suffer his eternal Vengeance Thus if there were no essential difference between Good and Evil they might chuse for themselves and call things by what Names they pleased Evil Good and Good Evil but if there be such a difference however they havâ—… made shift to conquer this Sense at present if they refuse the Good and chuse the Evil they must lose all that Happiness which they might expect from what is a natural Good that is all the true Happiness of Humane Nature and suffer all those Miseries which those Evils which are contrary to the Happiness of Humane Nature and destructive of it will expose them too For Good and Evil are not empty Names but Good signifies the Happiness of that Nature whose Good it is and Evil its Misery And if after all their Philosophy there be such a distinction of Good and Evil with respect to Humane Nature and that is a strange Nature which has no Good or Evil belonging to it to reject the Good must deprive them of Happiness and to chuse the Evil must make them miserable And if there be a moral as well as natural difference between Good and Evil that one deserves to be rewarded and the other punished we must expect that the Righteous Judge of the World will reward and punish us according to our Works If Men shut their Eyes or put out the Light and then call Darkness Light and Light Darkness how secure soever this may make them at present all that they gain by it is to go to Hell blindfold not to see their Danger before they feel themselves irrecoverably miserable If there be a distinction between Light and Darkness in the Moral and Spiritual as well as in the Natural World as there must be if there be any difference between true Knowledge and Wisdom and Ignorance and Folly If the Office of Light be to direct us in the way to Heaven those blessed Regions of eternal Light which those who wander in Darkness can never find If the necessary Effect of putting Darkness for Light be to lose the sight