The works of the Rev. Isaac Watts, D. D. in nine volumes (volume 1 of 9) (part 2 of 4)

The works of the Rev. Isaac Watts, D. D. in nine volumes (volume 1 of 9) (part 2 of 4)

4. He hath a fuller, a richer, and a more transporting sense of the love of God, since God makes nearer approaches to him, and discovers more of his infinite goodness, and communicates more of his love. We may venture to say, that God loves the human nature of Christ better than he does any other creature; and this human nature has a stronger, and more intimate consciousness of the divine love, and a sweeter sensation of it, than saints or angels can have, because of the personal union between the son of man and the eternal God: which union, though we know not precisely what it is, yet, we know to be sufficient to give him the name Emmanuel, God with us; which distinguishes it most gloriously from all our unions to God, and raises his dignity, his character, and his advantages, even as a man, to so sublime a degree above that of all other creatures.

By his exaltation, and his dwelling so near to God, his powers are inconceivably enlarged, and made capable of taking in higher degrees of felicity. Sights of God stretch the faculties of the soul, and enlarge it to receive more of God; this eternal sight has our Redeemer. We see the glory of God chiefly in the face of Christ Jesus his Son, but he sees the glory of God in his own face and brightness, Christ himself is the brightness of his Father’s glory; Heb. i. 2, 3.

5. As Christ is the medium of our nearness to God, as he is the head of all those who approach to God, and the Mediator through whom all approach, so his blessedness is above ours; for in some sense, and by way of eminence, he enjoys and feels all that we enjoy and feel, and vastly more too; for he is the medium through which we approach and we enjoy, as well as a person who himself, and for himself, approaches and enjoys: As when a stream of wine or living water is conveyed from the spring by a pipe or channel, the pipe has a tincture of the rich liquor as it flows; so, if it be lawful to illustrate things heavenly and divine, by things on earth, and to bring them down to our ideas by material similitudes, our Lord Jesus, who is authorised to confer life and joy on the saints, and through whom all grace, glory, and blessedness, are conveyed to them, feels, and tastes, and relishes, eminently and in a superior manner, all the joy and the blessedness that he conveys to our souls; and all better than we can do, for he is nearer the fountain; he takes a divine and unknown satisfaction in every blessing which he communicates to us. Besides all this, there are some richer streams that terminate and end in himself; the peculiar privileges and pleasures of the good man, while others flow through him, as the head, down to all his members, and give him the first relish of their sweetness.

When Christ, at the head of all the elect saints, shall at the great day draw near to the Father, and say, Here am I and the children thou hast given me; those blessed ones whom thou hast chosen, that they may approach unto thee by me; I have often approached to thee for them, and behold I now approach with them to the courts of thy upper house. What manner of joy and glory shall this be! How unspeakably blessed is our Lord Jesus; and we rejoice with wonder!

[This sermon may be divided here.]

Fifth, or supreme degree of Blessedness.—V. Our admiration may be raised yet higher, if we make one excursion beyond all created nature, and lift our thoughts upward to the blessedness of the three glorious persons in the trinity[26]. All their infinite and unknown pleasures are derived from their ineffable union and communion in one godhead, their inconceivable nearness to each other in the very centre and spring of all felicity. They are inseparably and intimately one with God; they are eternally one God, and therefore eternally blessed; 1 John v. 7. For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one; which text I believe to be authentic and divine, and that upon just reasons, notwithstanding all the cavils and criticisms that have endeavoured to blot it out of the bible. Nor is their blessedness, or their nearness, a dull inactive state: Knowledge and mutual love make up their heaven, so far as mortals dare conceive of it, and so far as we have leave to speak of God after the manner of men.

First, Knowledge.—An eternal blissful contemplation of all the infinite beauties, powers, and properties of godhead, and of all the operations of these powers in an inconceivable variety among creatures, is the glorious employment of God. His own knowledge of infinite truths, whether wrapt up in his own nature, or unfolded and displayed in his works, is a pleasure becoming the Deity; and each sacred person possesses this unknown pleasure.

And besides the general glories of the divine nature, we may suppose, that a full and comprehensive knowledge of the sameness, the difference, the special properties, and the mutual relations of the three divine persons, which are utterly incomprehensible to mortals, and perhaps far above the reach of all created minds, is the incommunicable entertainment of the holy Trinity, and makes a part of their blessedness. In reference to this mystery, God may be said to dwell in thick darkness; 1 Kings viii. 12. or, which is all one, in light inaccessible; 1 Tim. vi. 16. We are lost in this glorious, this divine abyss, and overcome with dazzling confusion: But the ever blessed Three behold these unities and distinctions in the clearest light. As the Father knoweth me, so know I the Father, saith Jesus the eternal Son; John x. 15. And as the spirit of a man knoweth the things of a man, so the things of God are known to his own Spirit, for he searcheth the depths of God; 1 Cor. ii. 10, 11. as it is expressed in the original, τὰ βάθη τοῦ Θεοῦ.

But God’s contemplation, or knowledge of himself, is not his only pleasure, for God is love; 1 John iv. 8. He has an infinite propensity towards himself, and an inconceivable complacence in his own powers and perfections, as well as in all the outgoings of them toward created natures. His love being most wise and perfect, must exert itself toward the most perfect object, and the chiefest good; and that in a degree answerable to its goodness too: Therefore he can love nothing in the same degree with himself, because he can find no equal good.

May we not therefore suppose the blessedness of the sacred Three to consist also in mutual love? May I call it a perpetual delightful tendency, and active propensity toward each other? An eternal approach to each other with infinite complacency? An eternal embrace of each other with arms of inimitable love and with sensations of unmeasurable joy? Thus saith the Son of God under the character of divine wisdom; Prov. viii. 23, 30. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. Then was I by him as one brought up with him, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him. As the Father loveth the Son, so the Son loveth the Father. As the Father delights infinitely in his perfect image, so may we not venture to say, the Son takes infinite delight in the glorious archetype, and thus imitates the Father? Will not the expressions of the apostle Paul; Heb. i. 3. and the words of Christ himself; John v. 19, 20. encourage and support this manner of speaking? He is the brightness of his Father’s glory, and the express image of his person: The Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth: and what things soever he seeth the Father do, these also doth the Son likewise. And this seems to be the first foundation of those glorious offices of raising the dead, and judging the world, which in the following verses are committed to the Son, that all men may honour the Son, as they honour the Father; ver. 23.

As the blessed Three have an unknown communion in the Godhead, or divine nature, so they must have an unspeakable nearness to one another’s persons, an inconceivable in-being and in-dwelling in each other. John xiv. 10. I in the Father, and the Father in me. Each is near to the two other divine subsistences, and this mutual nearness must be attended with delight and felicity unknown to all but the blessed Three who enjoy it. O glorious and divine communion! The Father for ever near to his own image the Son, and herein blessed! The Son never divided from the embraces of the Father, and therefore happy! The Spirit everlastingly near them both, and therefore he is the ever-blessed Spirit! And all these united in one Godhead, and therefore infinitely and for ever blessed!

The Father is so intimately near the Son and Spirit, that no finite or created natures or unions can give a just resemblance of it. We talk of the union of the sun and his beams, of a tree and its branches: But these are but poor images, and faint shadows of this mystery, though they are some of the best that I know. The union of the soul and body, is, in my esteem, still farther from the point, because their natures are so widely different. In vain we search through all the creation to find a complete similitude of the Creator.

And in vain may we run through all the parts and powers of nature and art, to seek a full resemblance of the mutual propensity and love of the blessed Three towards each other. Mathematicians talk indeed of the perpetual tendencies, and infinite approximations of two or more lines in the same surface, which yet never can entirely concur in one line: And if we should say that the three persons of the Trinity, by mutual in-dwelling and love, approach each other infinitely in one divine nature, and yet lose not their distinct personality; it would be but an obscure account of this sublime mystery. But this we are sure of, that for three divine persons to be so inconceivably near one another in the original and eternal spring of love, goodness, and pleasure, must produce infinite delight. In order to illustrate the happiness of the sacred Three, may we not suppose something of society necessary to the perfection of happiness in all intellectual nature? To know, and be known, to love and to be beloved, are perhaps, such essential ingredients of complete felicity, that it cannot subsist without them: And it may be doubted whether such mutual knowledge and love, as seems requisite for this end, can be found in a nature absolutely simple in all respects. May we not then suppose that some distinctions in the divine Being are of eternal necessity, in order to complete the blessedness of godhead? Such a distinction as may admit, as a great man expresses it, of delicious society, We, for our parts, cannot but hereby have in our minds a more gustful idea of a blessed state, than we can conceive in mere eternal solitude.

And if this be true, then the three differences, which we call personal distinctions, in the nature of God, are as absolutely necessary as his blessedness, as his being, or any of his perfections. And then we may return to the words of my text, and boldly infer, that if the man is blessed who is chosen by the free and sovereign grace of God, and caused to approach, or draw near him, what immense and unknown blessedness belongs to each divine person, to all the sacred Three who are by nature, and unchangeable necessity, so near, so united, so much one, that the least moment’s separation seems to be infinitely impossible, and, then we may venture to say, it is not to be conceived; and the blessedness is conceiveable by none but God?

This is a nobler union and a more intense pleasure than the man Christ Jesus knows or feels, or can conceive; for he is a creature. These are glories too divine and dazzling for the weak eye of our understandings, too bright for the eye of angels, those morning-stars; and they, and we, must fall down together, alike overwhelmed with them, and alike confounded. These are flights that tire souls of the strongest wing, and finite minds faint in the infinite pursuit: These are depths where our tallest thoughts sink and drown: We are lost in this ocean of being and blessedness, that has no limit, on either side, no surface, no bottom, no shore. The nearness of the divine persons to each other, and the unspeakable relish of their unbounded pleasures, are too vast ideas for a bounded mind to entertain. It is one infinite transport that runs through Father, Son, and Spirit, without beginning, and without end, with boundless variety, yet ever perfect, and ever present, without change, and without degree: and all this, because they are so near to one another, and so much one with God.

But when we have fatigued our spirits, and put them to the utmost stretch, we must lie down and rest, and confess the great incomprehensible. How far this sublime transport of joy is varied in each subsistence: how far their mutual knowledge of each others’ properties, or their mutual delight in each others’ love, is distinct in each divine person, is a secret too high for the present determination of our language and our thoughts, it commands our judgment into silence, and our whole souls into wonder and adoration[27].

Thus we have traced the streams of happiness that flow amongst the creatures in endless variety, to their original and eternal fountain, God himself: He is the all-sufficient spring of blessedness as well as of being, to all the intellectual worlds; and he is everlastingly self-sufficient for his own being and blessedness.

But are not we told in scripture, that God delights in the works of his hands, that he takes pleasure in his saints, that he rejoices in Zion, and rests in his love to his church; that Jesus Christ, even as man and Mediator, is the beloved of his soul, in whom he is well-pleased? Yes, surely, this is one way whereby he represents his own divine satisfactions in our language, and after the manner of men. But we must not imagine that he ever goes out of himself, and descends to creatures, as though he needed any thing from them, who are all before him as nothing, and less than nothing, and vanity. It is from his own wisdom, power, and goodness, as they appear in all his works, that his delight arises; and it is in these glories of his nature, and in the gracious purposes of his will, as they are manifested in his works, that the saints and angels, and all the happy ranks of beings, find their highest satisfaction. It is in the contemplation of God, and in the exercises and sensations of divine love, that all supreme felicity consists, so far as we are capable of being acquainted with it.

The only reflection with which I shall conclude the subject, is this, that communion with God, which has been impiously ridiculed by the profane wits of the last and the present age, is no such visionary and fantastic notion as they imagine; but as it is founded in the words of scripture, so it may be explained with great ease and evidence to the satisfaction of human reason. That it is founded in scripture, appears sufficiently in several verses of the xvii. chapter of St. John’s gospel, where the divine union and blessedness of the Father and the Son, are made a pattern of our union to God, and our blessedness; John xvii. 21, 22, 23-26. That they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee; that they may be one in us: And in this sense, but in a lower degree, even here on earth, our communion, or fellowship, is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ; 1 John i. 3. Though our communion with Christ includes also some particular varieties in it, which is not my present business to explain.

That this doctrine is exactly agreeable to reason, may be thus demonstrated:

We use the word communion, when two or more persons partake of the same thing. So friends have communion in one table when they dine together: Christians have communion in one sermon, in one prayer, or one sacrament, when they join together in those parts of worship; and the saints have communion with God in blessedness, when they rejoice in the same object of contemplation and love. God surveys himself, he is pleased with his own glories, delights in himself as the highest and the noblest object; he trusts in his own right-hand of power, he leans upon his own understanding, he rests in his own counsels and purposes, he feels and he acknowledges all his own infinite perfections, and thus he enjoys them all. Thus also is our blessedness frequently set forth in scripture. It is our happiness to know God, to contemplate his glories, so far as they are revealed; to love him and his goodness, to trust in his wisdom, and lean securely on his strength? to feel the workings of divine powers and graces in and upon us, and to make acknowledgment of them all to God. Thus the image of God is restored to us in holiness and in happiness: Thus we are said to be holy as God is holy; and thus also we are blessed as God is blessed.

But though we are admitted to this amazing privilege, and hold communion with God, in the same object of contemplation and love, yet we must still remember, with humble adoration, that his holiness and his happiness, does infinitely exceed ours. The pleasures which arise from his knowledge, and his love of himself, are as far above our taste, or all our ideas of blessedness, as heaven is higher than the earth, or as God is above the creature.

There is another sense also of this phrase, communion or fellowship with God, which has been used by many pious writers, when they make it to signify the same thing as converse with God; and this also depends upon our nearness, or approach to him: As when a christian, in secret, pours out his whole heart before God, and is made sensible of his gracious presence, by the sweet influences of instruction, sanctification, or comfort. When man speaks, and God answers, there is a sacred communion, between God and man; Is. lviii. 9. Thou shalt call, and the Lord shall answer. This holy David often enjoyed, and always sought after it. When the soul, in secret, complains of perplexity and darkness, and God is pleased to give some secret hints of direction and advice; when the soul mourns before God, confessing guilt, and the weakness of grace, and some divine promise is impressed upon the mind by the Holy Spirit, whence the christian derives peace of conscience, and strength to fulfil duty, and to resist mighty temptations: These certainly are seasons of converse or communion with God.

So when, in public worship, we address God with our souls in fervent prayer, and while we hear the word of God spoken to us by his ministers, we receive an answer to those prayers in the convincing and sanctifying impressions which the word makes upon the heart; this is also an hour of secret communion. So at the supper of the Lord, when with hope and joy we receive the bread and the wine, as divine seals of the faithfulness of God’s covenant, and when we transact those solemn affairs also as seals of our faith and love, and our engagements to be the Lord’s; we may properly be said to hold fellowship, or communion with him.

What swift advances of holiness doth the saint feel in his heart, and practise in his life, after such seasons of devotion! What glory doth he give to religion in a dark and sinful world! What unknown pleasure doth he find in such approaches to God! And he moves swiftly onward in his way to heaven, by such daily receipts of mercy, and returns of praise. These are powerful motives that will make him persist in his holy practice and joy, in scorn of all the mockery and ridicule of a profane age of infidels. So the moon holds bright communion with the sun, the sovereign planet; so she receives and reflects his beams; she shines gloriously in a dark hemisphere, and moves onward sublime in her heavenly course, regardless of all the barking animals that betray their senseless malice.

This blessed privilege and pleasure of converse with God, which is enjoyed by the saints on earth, is doubtless the pleasure and the privilege of the spirits of the just made perfect, and of angels near the throne, but in a much higher degree: When they address the Majesty of Heaven in the forms of celestial worship, and receive immediate and sensible tokens of divine acceptance; or when they take their orders and commissions from the throne for some particular errand, or high employment, and return again to make their humble report there: These are glorious seasons of converse with their Maker.

Much more glorious communion of this kind does the man Christ Jesus enjoy with God, in transacting all the vast and illustrious affairs of his commission; a commission large as the extent of his Father’s kingdom, full of majesty and justice, terror and grace; a divine commission to govern, to redeem, and to save, or to punish and destroy millions of mankind, as well as to rule all his unknown dominions in the upper and nether worlds.

But in what manner this communion between the Father and Christ is maintained, we know not; nor can we guess in what manner, or in what degree such sort of converse or communion as this is practised, or is possible, between the three glorious persons of the ever-blessed Trinity. These are mysteries wrapt up in sacred darkness, and the explication of them surrounded with dangers. A particular knowledge of these divine unsearchables, any farther than scripture has revealed them, is by no means necessary either to begin, or to maintain our state of grace. Let us content ourselves a few years longer with humble ignorance, and we shall have brighter discoveries in the future world, if it be necessary there to fulfil our happiness, and to complete our state of glory.

HYMN FOR SERMON XII. _The Scale of Blessedness; or Blessed Saints, Blessed Saviour, and Blessed Trinity._

Ascend, my soul, by just degrees, Let contemplation rove O’er all the rising ranks of bliss, Here, and in worlds above.

Blest is the nation near to God, Where he makes known his ways: Blest are the men whose feet have trod His lower courts of grace.

Blest were the levite and the priest, Who near his altar stood; Blest are the saints from sin releas’d, And reconcil’d with blood.

Blest are the souls dismiss’d from clay, Before his face they stand: Blest angels in their bright array, Attend his great command.

Jesus is more divinely blest, Where man to godhead join’d, Hath joys transcending all the rest, More noble and refin’d.

But, O what words or thoughts can trace The blessed Three in one! Here rest my spirit, and confess The infinite unknown.

Footnote 24:

These expressions may be sufficiently justified, if we consider Jepthah’s rash vow of sacrifice, which fell upon his only child; and Samson’s rude or unbecoming conduct in his amours with the Philistine woman at Timnah, the harlot at Gaza, and his Delilah at Sorek, his bloody quarrels, and his manner of life. The learned and pious Dr. Owen, as I have often been informed by his intimate friend Sir John Hartopp, called him a rude believer. He might have a strong faith of miracles; Heb. xi. 22. but a small share of that faith which purifies the heart.

Footnote 25:

I know the word blessed, when it is applied to God or Christ, generally signifies, that they are the objects of our blessing or praise, and it is thus translated from the originals, ברוך or ευλογητος: But in our tongue this word signifies also happy, and the original words אשרי and Μακαριος are frequently rendered blessed, to signify happiness, as in my text. Though, if our translators had always observed the distinction, the precise lease of the original had better appeared.

Footnote 26:

See the note toward the end of this part of the sermon, p. 151.

Footnote 27:

This discourse was delivered above twenty years ago, and the reader will observe some warmer efforts of imagination than riper years would indulge on a theme so sublime and abstruse. Since I have searched most studiously into this mystery of late, I have learned more of my own ignorance: so that when I speak of these unsearchables, I abate much of my younger assurance; nor do my later thoughts venture so far into the particular modes of explaining this sacred distinction in the godhead. There appears to me good reason to doubt, where there can be three distinct and different principles of consciousness, and three distinct and different wills in the one God, the one infinite Spirit. I was afraid to assert it in this sermon heretofore, and I am more afraid to assert it now. Reason and scripture join to teach me, that there can be but one God, and this God is a Spirit. What distinctions may be in this one Spirit, I know not: Yet, since I am fully established in the belief of the Deity of the blessed Three, though I know not the manner of explication, I dare let this discourse appear now in the world, as being agreeable so far to my present sentiments on this subject. A larger and more particular account of my most mature thought on the doctrine of the holy Trinity, may be seen in the last sermon of my third volume.—April 8, 1729.

TWO SERMONS On our Appearance before God here and hereafter. Delivered in Sir Thomas Abney’s Family at Theobalds in Hertfordshire, at the Evening-worship, Nov. 25, and Dec. 9, 1716.

To the Right Worshipful Sir Thomas Abney, Knt. and Alderman of London.

WORTHY SIR,

While you were restrained by the laws of men from public worship in that way which you have chosen, I also suffered the same restraint, by the providence of God confining me to long sickness; during which time I enjoyed in your excellent family, many happy conveniences, toward the ease of my affliction, and the recovery of my health.

I thought it therefore a necessary piece of christian gratitude, that some of the first-fruits of my labours should be devoted to your service; and with this view I attempted such meditations as might be well suited to my own circumstances of confinement, as well as to yours; that I might speak more sensibly from the heart to your spiritual advantage, and to the profit of all your household.

Since that time it has pleased the providence of God to take off your restraint entirely, by the repeal of that unrighteous law, and to give you the pleasures of his sanctuary; yet the review of these discourses, through the operation of the blessed Spirit, may renew some useful meditations, when offered from the press as a testimony of public thankfulness, and in this new form proposed to your perusal, by,

SIR,

Your most affectionate,

And obedient servant,

Under many obligations,

I. WATTS.

SERMON XIII. Appearance before God here and hereafter. PSALM xlii. 2.—When shall I come and appear before God. THE FIRST PART.

The holy Psalmist was now absent from his usual place of public worship, and restrained from coming near to the ark of God which was the token of the divine presence in the days of the Jewish church; and when he had been meditating on his past and present circumstances in this respect, both what he enjoyed heretofore, and what he was deprived of now, he breaks out into a divine rapture: As the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. And he goes on to describe the frame of his spirit in this holy song: The substance and sense of the whole psalm is, as it were, epitomized and drawn up into these few words, when shall I come and appear before God? I shall not spend time to shew in how many senses man may be said to appear before God; but shall content myself to say, that in this place it signifies attendance on public worship, in the place where it was usually celebrated and performed. In the words of the Psalmist we may find the temper of his heart expressed under these two general heads.

I. A belief of the special presence of God in his ordinances of public worship.—II. An earnest longing after them on that account.

I shall enlarge a little on each of these, and make remarks as I go along, under each head.

First, The words express David’s firm belief of the special presence of God in his ordinances, insomuch that he calls an attendance on them, an appearance before God. We are always in the view of God, and every creature is naked and open in his sight, and for ever appears before him as the all-seeing and all-knowing Creator and Governor of all things; but it is a peculiar, a gracious, and favourable presence of God that belongs to his sanctuary, his appointed worship: God is taking special notice of our carriage toward him, and manifesting his designs of special mercy towards us.

David well knew this, that the great end of appointing public worship, was, that there might be a communication between God and man, who were so dreadfully separated by sin: He knew the gracious promise, that where God recorded his name, there would he come and meet his people, and bless them; Ex. xx. 24. He knew what sensible tokens of divine presence were found in the sanctuary; there was the ark of God, and the mercy-seat that covered it, upon which God dwelt in a bright shining cloud between the golden cherubims, to signify his dwelling in light among the glorious angels in heaven; beside the many sweet experiences which David had of sensible discoveries of God in counsel and grace, strength and consolation, in his public worship.

And have not christians, under the gospel, as great a reason to expect the special presence of God among them in his ordinances! Are they not appointed on purpose to bring God near to us, and to bring us near to God? Have we not an express promise of God himself, dwelling in flesh, that where two or three are gathered together in his name, he will be in the midst of them; Mat. xviii. 20. and is not Christ worthy of credit? Have we not his word there published and preached? Doth not God appear there very eminently, in the glory of his truth, in the beauty of his holiness, in the purity of his commands, in the terror of his threatenings, in the sweetness of his promises, in the wonders of his wisdom and power, and more amazing works of his grace and love? Doth not the Lord discover himself there in the majesty of his government, in the miracles of his providence, and the divine glory of his fore-knowledge in prophecies exactly fulfilled? Surely that man must be blind indeed, who sees not God in the scriptures.

Will you say, “All this may be seen and read at home in private, as well as in a public assembly?” But you must remember that even the written word of God was communicated to the most part of mankind only in public worship, for some thousands of years: for before the art of printing was invented, one bible was scarce to be found in several hundred houses, and very few of the common people were capable of reading; nor could they know the written word, but by their attendance on the public ministrations of it. And in our day, how many are they who either do, or will know very little of religion, but what they hear at church.

Besides the written word of God is given to be expounded by his ministers, that the gospel being preached at large, and the truths of it being particularly applied, his presence and glory may appear therein. Many parts of scripture are so obscure, that God stands, as it were, behind a veil, or a curtain, till, in the ministry of the word, the sense is explained, the veil removed, and God stands forth to sight in the open glories of his majesty, or his mercy. It was for this purpose that Christ, at his departure from earth, engaged the promise of his presence with his ministers in the preaching of his gospel. Lo I am with you always even to the end of the world; Mat. xxviii. 20. And is not this sufficient ground for men to expect and hope to see God there?

Besides all this, have not christians enjoyed blessed experiences of the presence of God in his sanctuary, in the assemblies of his saints? One can say, “I was all darkness and ignorance, and there I found divine light, discovering to me my sin and misery, and his salvation.” Another can say, I was dead in sin, and found my soul raised to a divine life there; “I was mourning and despairing, and there I found a word of support and holy joy, such as no mere words of men could convey into me; and I am forced to confess God was in this place of a truth;” 1 Cor. xiv. 25.

Remarks on the first head.—I. How much should we guard hypocrisy in divine worship, because it is an appearance before God? We do then, in a solemn manner, set ourselves before God, and, as it were, humbly call God to look upon us, and take notice of our hearts. Let us remember this, every one of us, when we go to public worship, we do in effect say to God, “O Lord, we are always in thy sight, but in a special manner we now come to shew thee our hearts, to acquaint thee humbly with our wants, our sorrows, and our sins, our desires and hopes;” and God will not hold him guiltless that takes his name in vain; He is a jealous God, he will not be mocked; Gal. vi. 7. He is a Spirit, and he will be worshipped in spirit and in truth; John iv. 24. He is sharp-sighted, he sees through our souls, and knows the ends and designs of our coming, whether to see creatures, and be seen of them, or to see himself, our Creator: Whether to observe the modes, dress, and behaviour of our fellow-creatures on earth, or to learn the will of God, and the mode of heaven. Suppose Jesus Christ, in his human nature, were there, whose eyes are as a flame of fire, and through your countenances can discern the most secret thought of your souls, would you not stand in awe of his majesty? Would not this glorious appearance fix the most vain and fluttering imagination in a pious solemnity? How solicitously would you watch over your minds, lest they wander from worship! How carefully would you keep your hearts! Or suppose you saw the holy angels there which attend the churches in worship, would you not be ashamed to trifle in their presence? And has not the spiritual presence of the great God as much real, though invisible awfulness and majesty in it!

How do persons both of the polite and the vulgar world, all agree to dress fine and gay, and make the best figure of all the week, to appear before men on the day of the Lord? But let us remember that we come not only before men, but before the living God, in whose sight, ornaments of the body are of no account, and, O, what pains ought we to take, to put on our best ornaments of the mind! To see that our graces all shine, when we are to stand before God! And not to suffer one vain thought, one corrupt affection to work in us; nor a spot or blemish, if possible, to be found upon us!

Alas! what millions of hypocrites have we in the world? How many may we fear in every congregation? How many come to attend at prayers, but never seek to join in their own wishes and desires with the words of him who speaks? How many voices follow the tune in a psalm, but their souls feel no joy, no inward elevation of praise? How many hear the word as the word of man, and their hearts have no sense of God speaking to them? They sit before God as his people, but their heart goes after their covetousness; Ezek. xxxiii. 31. after their idols of business, or carnal pleasure, after every vain object of their eyes, or vainer images of the fancy. Let us take heed therefore, how we shut our eyes, or harden our hearts against a present and a speaking God; for the word of the Lord is quick and powerful; God speaking by his eternal word, or by his ministers in the sanctuary, pierces the secret recesses of the soul and spirit: God sits there: discerning the intents and thoughts of the heart; all things are naked and open before his eyes with whom we have to do; Heb. iv. 13.

II. Remark. In attendance on public worship, we should fix all our hope and expectation of profit upon the presence of God in it; for the design of ordinances is to bring us to appear before God. Now, if in things of this life, God should be our chief hope, much more in things of another; Ps. lxii. 5. My soul, wait thou only upon God, my expectation is from him.

How ready are we, even in spiritual concernments, to depend on outward forms and ceremonials! and to hope, or despair of success, according to some circumstantial attendants on worship? One is ready to say, “If it were a nice enquiry into some deep doctrine, I should get something by hearing the word.” Another complains, “Alas! If it had been a sermon of grace and privileges, I had not been so careless in my attention, nor wasted my time.” And a third satisfies his conscience with this, “If I had heard moral duties enforced powerfully on our practice, then I could profit by the preaching; or if he who ministers had but more skill in composing, more fervency of speech, more warmth in delivery, more graceful pronunciations, more strength of argument; surely I should feel more lasting impressions of religion under every sermon.” And thus we go on from week to week, and worship without any sensible benefit, because we seek all from men.

But, alas! if all these things were exactly suited to our wishes, the matter ever so agreeable, the manner ever so entertaining, the voice ever so charming, and the performance ever so affectionate; if God be not there, there is no lasting benefit; Paul may plant, and Apollos water, but God gives the increase: 1 Cor. iii. 6. The ministration of the word is committed to man, but not the ministration of the Spirit. What can a man do to give eyes to the blind? To give ears to the deaf? Can a man make the lame to walk? or raise the dead to a divine life? and turn sinners into saints? Who is sufficient for these things?

A minister is ready to say, “When shall I preach to such a people? they would learn and profit by my sermons.” A christian is ready to say, When shall I hear such a minister, or partake of such an ordinance, or hear a discourse on such a subject managed in such a particular method? And they are ready to go away discouraged, as though all hope were gone, when they find a disappointment in the pulpit; as though the graces of God were confined to a particular instrument, or as though the words of a man were our only hope.

When any of us have been at church, and waited in the sanctuary, let us examine what did we go thither to see; a shadow of religion? An outside of christian forms? a graceful orator? The figures and shapes of devotion? Surely then we might with as much wisdom, and more innocence, have gone to the wilderness to see a reed shaken with the wind. Can we say as the Greeks at the feast; John xii. 21. We would see Jesus? Or, as Absalom; 2 Sam. xiv. 32. It is to little purpose I am come to Jerusalem, if I may not see the king’s face. To little purpose we go to church, or attend on ordinances, if we seek not, if we see not God there.

III. Remark. What everlasting thanks are due to our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath made way for our appearance before God with comfort and hope? You are called by the name of christians, you profess to believe in him, but you know little what you have to do with him, or what use his name is of in religion, if you can go daily to appear in the presence of God without him; you know not the nature of christianity, if you do not feel a want of Christ when you bow yourselves before God.

Consider a little what God is, and what you are, that you may have a due sense of the necessity of Christ; say to yourselves, “I am going to appear before the great and glorious God, a God of infinite perfection, and I am a little vessel of mere imperfection and infirmity; what shall I do to stand in his sight? He is a God of majesty and judgment, and I traitor, a rebel by nature and action; I want some person to introduce me into his favour. He is a God of spotless holiness, and I am defiled with a thousand sins, who shall make me appear lovely in his sight! he is a God of inflexible justice, and I a guilty wretch, a criminal, a malefactor, already condemned; who shall plead for me, and obtain a pardon?” O beg of Christ to introduce you with acceptance; in him alone can we appear well-pleasing to God: He is the beloved of the Father, and if we are ever accepted, it must be in the beloved; Eph. i. 6. Christ appears now in the presence of God for us, in the virtue of his blood and spotless obedience; Heb. ix. 12, 24. He who once appeared with sin imputed, was made sin for us, and was treated as a sinner in the world for our sakes, now appears before God, without sin, in heaven, as our great High Priest and Surety, to make us acceptable to God there. Nor should our warmest devotions, nor our highest praises, dare to appear there without him.

Remember that the high priest himself among the Jews, was in danger of death, whensoever he went into the holy of holies, to appear before the tokens of the divine presence, if he had not proper garments upon him, and the blood of atonement with him; see Ex. xxviii. 35, 43. Lev. xvi. 2, 13, 14. Let Aaron be clothed, and the blood so sprinkled, saith the Lord, lest he die. How much more may we fear destruction, if we rashly, or carelessly, come near and speak to God himself, and yet neglect the garment of righteousness, and the blood of sprinkling, and Christ our great Mediator.

Remember, O christian, that for a sinner to appear before God without the Mediator, is a thing of infinite terror, and not of comfort. A traitor would keep at the farthest distance from the prince, if he hath no friend to speak a word for him there. To come and present yourselves before God as sinners, without a Saviour, would be but to awaken his wrath, and put him in mind of your guilt, and his righteous vengeance. Remember therefore to take Christ with you when you come near to God. See Eph. ii. 3, 13, &c. “We are by nature children of wrath, and afar off from God,” it is he only can bring us near:—“No man cometh to the Father but by me;” John xiv. 6.

And as this is the only appointed way for sinners to appear before God, so it has been the sweet experience of ten thousand souls that they have drawn near to God, in this manner, with acceptance and delight. Hear what many a child of God can tell you in this case: “When I had the first sight of my guilt and defilements, and beheld God in the terrors of his holiness and justice, as a consuming fire, I was affrighted at the thoughts of appearing before him; every threatening that I heard, I thought it was pronounced against me, nor could I delight myself in the blessings of his gospel, for they were not mine. But when he was pleased to lead and draw me to Christ, I saw such an all-sufficiency of atonement and righteousness in him, that would answer all the demands that divine justice had upon me; I joyfully accepted of this salvation, I surrendered myself as the subject of his saving grace: And though now I behold God in the same glorious and dreadful attributes as before, and behold myself still defiled and sinful, yet I humbly dare appear before him daily and hourly, for Jesus is my intercessor, he is my propitiation, he is the Lord my righteousness, and my God sits upon a mercy-seat sprinkled with the blood of this heavenly sacrifice. My sins are many and great, and the matter of my daily groaning; I hear the threatenings and curses of his holy law, but they affright me not from his presence; for in the name of my Mediator I come, who hath borne the curse for me: With humble penitence, and with a lively faith, I draw near to a reconciled God, and give eternal thanks to the Reconciler.”

IV. Remark. What a blessing it is to have many houses of God in the nation where we dwell; and those houses of God near us! God may say to us, as to Israel; Deut. xxx. 12. “Say not who shall ascend into heaven to bring the word to us, that we may hear it? Or, who shall go over the sea, &c. for the word is very nigh to us.” We need not travel so far as the Jews, three times every year, to public worship; and yet they “went from strength to strength, till they appeared before God in Zion;” Ps. lxxxiv. 7. Consider some nations where God is not worshipped aright, and hath no dwelling-place; consider how far some poor creatures come even in this island, many miles from their own dwelling, to appear before God in his ordinances; but God seats his throne, as it were, at our doors: there are many synagogues of God in our land, for us to appear before him, and many near us in the city where we dwell, and near us too in this place of retirement.

How valuable a privilege is it to dwell in a religious family, in a house of God, where there is a church in the house, as Phil. verse 2. where we often appear before God? How gladly would many persons (who are in better circumstances in the world than some of us enjoy) exchange those better circumstances for spiritual advantages such as we have: But some of you perhaps may say, “We may be saved without so much religion, without so much ado about the worship of God in families or in churches.” Let me tell you, if a religious family be not a pleasure to you, heaven itself cannot afford you pleasure; for that is but one great religious family, of which Jesus Christ is the head: And if the business of that place be not your delight, you shall never have a place there.

Shall I ask the servants of this house, when you are called in to morning and evening prayer, what is your end? Do you come with hope and desire to appear before God? Or is it merely to obey the orders of the house, and comply with the custom of the family, for the sake of your temporal interest? Ask yourselves, my friends, what is it that brings you in constantly at the seasons of reading and praying? Is it a design to get near to God. Shall I ask the children, when you come in at the hour of worship, do you set yourselves as before God? Do your thoughts go along with the words of him who prays? Do ye attend to the word read, as the word of God, whereby you must be judged? Or do you satisfy yourselves to wear out the quarter of an hour, in sitting still, or in kneeling as others do, without thoughts of God? Shall each of us ask our own hearts, how do we pass the time of daily worship? Are we careful to lay aside all our thoughts of the world, that we may be at leisure for God? Remember, that not only in the morning and evening devotion, but at every meal we appear before God: Now, do we join in prayer for a blessing on our food and in giving thanks? Or do we think the word of one who speaks sufficiently sanctifies and blesses the meat for all who taste it?

Let us farther ask our consciences this one question, do we remember God all the day, as those who have appeared before him at worship in the morning? Do we walk among men as those who dwell in a house of God? Do we eat, and drink, and speak, and live, as those who profess so much religion and worship. Let us think on these things, and consider who there is among us that ventures to trifle with the great and dreadful God in such appearances before him? Or provoke him with a conversation unsuitable to such professions?

Blessed be God, there is more than the form of Godliness found in the governing parts of this family! And I am persuaded, that not the parlour only, but the meaner rooms are witnesses of devotion and pious discourse: But we are none of us above the need of self-enquiry; and as we all appear with our bodies to worship God daily, methinks I would not have one soul among us absent from God in this daily worship.

Thus have I finished the first general head of my discourse.

Secondly, The words of the text discover to us an earnest longing after divine ordinances, and the presence of God in them. This abundantly appears also in several parts of this psalm: How mournfully doth the Psalmist complain, and what a painful sense he expresses of his long absence from the house of God! verses 3, 4. What a sweet and sorrowful recollection he makes of past seasons of delight in worship? My tears have been my meat day and night,—my soul is cast down and disquieted, I remember when I went with the multitude to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise; but now God seems to have forgotten me, ver. 9. How earnestly doth he breathe after the sanctuary? Psalm lxiii. and lxxxiv. to see thy power, O God, and thy glory, as he had seen it there. He borrows metaphors and similitudes from some of the most vehement appetites of nature to signify his strong desires after God; my flesh thirsteth for thee, even fainteth for the courts of the living God.

And this is the blessed temper of a christian, when in his right frame; he is never satisfied when quite restrained from divine ordinances, whether by persecution, by banishment, by the unreasonable laws of men, or by afflictions and weaknesses laid on him by the hand of God. He thinks over again those seasons wherein he enjoyed the presence of God in worship, and the recollection of them increases his desires of their return. He watches every turn of providence, and hopes it is working towards his release: When he sees the doors of his prison begin to open, he is ready to break out of confinement, and seize the pleasure of public worship: He thinks it long till he appears before God again. “I have chosen God, saith he, for my highest good, for my everlasting portion, and I would willingly often resort to the place where God hath promised to communicate his blessings, and where I have so often tasted that the Lord is gracious.”

Remarks on the second head.—I. How very different are they from the temper of David, who enjoy public ordinances continually, and are weary of them? Who appear before God frequently on the Lord’s day, and yet cry, what a weariness is it, when will the Sabbath be gone; Mal. i. 13. and iii. 14. Amos viii. 5. When shall we return to the world again?

What is the reason of this great aversion to divine worship among those who call themselves christians? Truly the greatest part have nothing of christianity besides the mere name: Some are stupid sinners, and have no sense of divine things; and they think it is all lost time: They have no need to come before God, but that it is the custom of their country, or of the family where they live, and they must do it; they do not know how to spend the hour elsewhere without reproof and censure: Or they come merely to see, and to be seen, as is the fashion of the land.

Some perhaps have a sense of religion, and yet they cannot look upon God any otherwise than as their enemy, and so they come before him without any love or delight in his company; and then no wonder if they are weary of it. They do not come as friends to take pleasure in his presence; they would be well enough pleased, if they could live for ever in this world, and never have any thing to do with God: Their chief motive is the fear of hell, and therefore they drudge on in toilsome and undelightful religion.

And indeed this is one great reason why so many true christians feel no more longing after God, either in public or in private worship; because, though they have some faith and some cold hope, yet they are contented to abide in this state of uncertainty, without joy or assurance, and do not make it their business to advance in christianity: They cannot rejoice in God as their father, or their friend, with a lively soul; and they find but little pleasure in his house. But it is a divine pleasure, and a-kin to heaven, when a child of God, with a lively faith and joyful spirit, comes before God as his God, and entertains himself with all the blessed discoveries that he makes of his wisdom and grace in his churches, with all the promises of the covenant, with all the words of love that God hath written in his book, or publishes in his ordinances by the ministry of men. He feeds upon heavenly provisions in his Father’s house; and when he departs, he maintains on his soul a sweet savour of heaven. But alas! there is a great withdrawment of the Spirit of God from his churches; a deadness of heart has seized believers in our day, and they grow carnal: O pray that the Spirit may return to the sanctuary again!

II. Remark. How comfortable a thing would it be, to feel our souls longing for divine ordinances more earnestly after restraint! We should learn the language of Jonah, when in the belly of the whale; Lord, I am cast out of thy sight, yet I will look again toward thy holy temple; Jonah ii. 4. I will look while I am at a distance, and pray toward the mercy-seat, in hope and desire to come near the sanctuary.

We are too ready to grow indifferent, and think we can do well enough without this appearing before God? We grow, as it were strangers to him by long absence; and though the sacred correspondence in public be lost, yet sometimes it is not much regretted: This is a frequent distemper of the soul. When fasting increases a regular appetite, it is a sign of a healthy constitution; but weakly natures are so overwhelmed with a little fasting, that their appetite is gone too. Many christians may complain of this, and say, “Though I find some relish of pleasure when I am in the house of God, and amongst his saints; and though it was very painful to me to endure the first months of confinement, yet a long restraint has brought me under the spiritual disease, that my appetite and desire grow feeble, and my heart too indifferent to public worship.”

Now in order to enquire into the temper of our spirits, and to awaken us to greater longings after divine ordinances, let us consider what are the two chief ends of a christian in his appearance before God: It is either to do something for God by a public profession of his name among men, or to receive something from him in order to our own comfort and salvation. If we hope to receive, this calls faith into exercise; if we endeavour to do something for his service, this awakens our zeal. Now, is our faith active? Is our zeal lively in this matter? Some christians have one of these, some the other most in exercise: Some look most at honouring God in a public profession, some at obtaining some sensible benefit and delight to their own souls: But it is best when both of these invite us to the sanctuary, and make us long after the presence of God.

Some of us, it may be, have found the work of grace and salvation begun on our souls at public worship; there we were first awakened and convinced of sin, there we were first led to the knowledge and faith of Christ, and pardoning grace was revealed with power by the ministry of the word; therefore we long after the sincere milk of the word, in the same public dispensation of it, that we may grow thereby. Others have been favoured, it may be, with the presence of God more abundantly in secret; and reading, and meditation, and secret prayer, have been the chief sensible instruments of their conversion, sanctification, and peace; these therefore, sometimes have not the same earnest longing after public preaching as others have; yet they do continually attend on the ordinances of Christ in public, to maintain religion, in the profession of it, among men; and they ought to do it. But these persons are most in danger of growing cold and indifferent.

I grant it is a glorious and self-denying temper, to maintain a warm zeal to do much for the honour of God in the world, even though we enjoy but little of him; but this is not so frequent among men: For we are usually drawn to God by the blessings we hope to receive; and we should consider, that an utter neglect of all those enjoyments of God in the sensible increase of grace and joy, which are to be found in public worship, is a sign that our faith runs too low: We do not expect to receive much from God, even in his own appointed methods; and therefore we grow negligent whether we worship him in public or not. O let the soul who feels nothing of this negligence, but maintains a warm desire of ordinances under long restraint, rejoice and bless the Lord!

However, while any of us are confined, our desires after God ought to appear in this, that we often seek him in secret, and are perpetually with him in our thoughts; that we take all proper opportunities to lift up our souls to him in the midst of common affairs, and thus do what we can to make up the loss of the sanctuary: But we should be still breathing also after church-worship, and the communion of saints; for God loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob; Ps. lxxxvii. 2.

III. Remark. O what unhappy clogs these fleshly sinful bodies are to the mind! How they contradict the best inclinations of the soul, and forbid it to fulfil its spiritual desires! The soul would appear often before God, but the flesh forbids: The spirit would rejoice to be among christian assemblies, but the body is too often confined by sickness, or by the necessary cares that relate to this life, this poor animal life, that has so troublesome an influence upon the noblest enjoyments of the mind.

The soul would wait upon God whole hours together in praising, in praying, in hearing the word; but the body is weak, overwhelmed with a little attention, and can bear no more. The soul wrestles and strives against the infirmities of the flesh, and labours hard to abide with God; but these very wrestlings and strivings overcome languishing nature; the impotence of the flesh prevails against the sprightliest efforts and vigour of the mind; the flesh prevails, and the spirit must yield. Thus we are dragged down from the holy mount of converse with God, and the soul, who is a-kin to angels, and employed in their work, must descend, and lie idle, to refresh the animal. In vain would the spirit raise all its powers into lively and devout exercise, if the flesh grows faint under a warm affection, it is forced to let go the holy thought, and quit the divine pleasures of religion, until a better hour return.

Sometimes, through drowsiness, and want of natural spirits, we grow stupid and heavy in religious duties, and have but little sense of that God before whom we appear. Sometimes, through excess of spirits, our imagination grows vain and fluttering, and wanders far away from the God whom we worship. If we fix our thoughts one minute upon things of the highest importance and the most awful solemnity; the next flying idea catches the mind away, and it is lost from God and devotion again. We appear before God, and disappear again; we wander into the world, and return to God, twenty times in an hour.

Our eyes and our ears are constant witnesses of this painful weakness; and unhappy instruments they are to draw off our souls from the divinest meditation. Every thing around us is ready to disturb and divert our feeble nature in the most heavenly acts of worship: Poor broken worship! Poor frail estate of human nature! But there is a blessed assembly of better worshippers above: Awake our faith and desire to join them! and let each of us say, “O when shall I go to that bright company, and appear amongst them before God.”

SERMON XIV. Appearance before God here and hereafter. PSALM xlii. 2.—When shall I come and appear before God. THE SECOND PART.

By an appearance before God, in the text we are to understand our attendance upon him in the public ordinances of worship; and the longing desire the Psalmist had to draw near unto God in his ordinances, represents to us the character of every sincere christian, when he enjoys his own right frame, and heavenly temper of soul; He longs, he breathes after those seasons of divine improvement and comfort.

I shall make no further repetition of any thing before delivered; but considering that all our appearances before God in this world in his sanctuary, are but means to prepare us to stand before God in the world that is to come; I shall not think myself at all to wander from the text, if I spend my whole time, at present in shewing the difference that is between our appearance before God on earth here, and our appearing before him in the other world hereafter; and this in order to awaken the sinner, and to encourage the true christian.

There are two great future appearances before God, the one at judgment, and the other in glory in heaven. The one belongs to all men, the other only to the saints. And now that I may divide my discourse aright and give to every one their portion, I would beg leave chiefly to apply our general appearance before God at judgment, to those who are unconverted, and in a state of sin; for we have reason to fear that there may be some such among us: And I will apply the blessed appearance before God in heaven to converted souls, to whom only it belongs: These are the persons who have faith and love, and are in some measure prepared to appear and worship there.

First then, Let us consider our appearance before God in judgment. It is true, at the moment of death our souls immediately stand before God to be judged, as well as our souls and bodies united, shall stand together there in the great day of the resurrection; yet I shall not make any distinction of these seasons now, lest I should multiply particulars; but shall treat of them together, to awaken the secure and sinful worshipper, who appears before God here in the form of devotion: And to put him in mind he must ere long stand before God in another manner than now he does, and to set his thoughts at work to compare one with the other in these particulars:

1. The sinner now appears with some degree of willingness in the presence of God, then it is under a terrible constraint. A wicked man may be willing to come to public ordinances for many carnal ends, as to comply with his superiors, to follow the custom of the family where he dwells, to gain reputation among men, to satisfy the cries of an awakened conscience; for his conscience, perhaps, will not be easy without the performance of some duties; and so he makes use of divine worship, and his public appearances before God, as a kind of opiate, to stupify an uneasy conscience, and therefore he has some inclination and willingness to come before God here on earth: but at death, and at the general resurrection, he must appear whether he will or no; Heb. ix. 27. It is appointed for all men once to die, and after death the judgment; Rom. xiv. 10. and 2 Cor. v. 10. We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. The angels shall gather the elect from the four quarters of the world, and bring them near to the judge with pleasure; but sinners shall be dragged toward that awful tribunal, and be forced to abide the trial.

While the believer, who walks in lively faith, says, When shall I come into that world of spirits, and appear there before God? the sinner wishes that day may never come: O that I might live for ever on earth! that I might for ever converse with men, and never see the face of that God who hates me, and whom I have never loved. O that death might make an utter end of me! O that the grave would cover me for ever, that I might rise no more. And when that dreadful day comes, then, “Fall on us, rocks; then, mountains press us down, and conceal us for ever from the wrath of God and the Lamb;” as in Rev. vi. 15, 16. that outcry is represented. But they must stand and see the terror; they are constrained to hear the glorious and dreadful sentence, Dost thou believe this, O my soul! and canst thou be content to live unprepared for the solemnities of this day?

2. Here sinners appear like the saints of God in disguise; but there as sinners, openly guilty, and exposed to light: Here not separated from the saints in the place of worship, there sufficiently distinguished and divided from all who love God, and that worship him in spirit: For when a sinful soul goes out of the body to appear before God, every angel in heaven knows him; he is naked without a covering of disguise, as well as without the covering of a justifying righteousness; and upon this account he appears all guilty, not only before the searching eye of God, and the terror of his anger, but also before the blessed spirits who are near the throne. Here those who are in the same assembly, know not whether we are the children of God, or the children of the devil; but in the world of spirits, all the children of Satan are as much distinguished from the children of God as an angel of light is from a spirit of darkness.

This flesh is a disguise to the soul, a thick cloud to cover a thousand hypocrisies; but at the great day the naked soul must be known; All nations shall be gathered before him, and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth the sheep from the goats; Mat. xxv. 32. Jesus shall separate the one from the other; and what will the sinner say at that day? “I have on earth appeared before God among the saints, but now I must for ever dwell with my companions in iniquity, with my partners in everlasting burnings; I am so like to the spirits of hell, now I am undressed, and divested of all disguise, that I see myself justly divided for ever from the saints, and a fit companion for none but devils.” O who can tell the torment that is contained in such a self-condemning reflection as this?

3. Sinners appear now, and take no notice of God as Creator, or Christ as Mediator and Saviour; but at the appearance in judgment it will be impossible to stand before God, and not take notice of him. He appears there as a God of terrible and incensed majesty, and they must see him; and Jesus Christ sits there, and must be seen, not as the Saviour to secure them, but the judge ready to condemn them to everlasting punishment; Rev. i. 7. assures of this day, and speaks of it as already come: Behold, he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him; and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. I shall behold him, says the wretched Balaam, but not nigh; Num. xviv. 17. not as my God, near me, but as my enemy, afar from me. “Now God speaks with the voice of mercy in the church, and I turn a deaf ear to him, may the sinner say, but then it is the language of justice and vengeance: O that my ears and my eyes were sealed up for ever: for his looks, his words, his actions, smite my soul through with a thousand torments.”

It is impossible for the wicked to turn their eyes from God in that day, whereas now for a whole hour or two, in his worship, their hearts are not once fixed upon him. A God of holiness will be seen on his seat of judgment; and the sinner who will not see, shall see, and be confounded at the sight. Think of this, O my soul! and when thou findest thy thoughts wandering from God in the next duty of worship, take this awful hint to recal them again.

4. Now the sinner appears before God as on a throne of grace; there on a throne of justice: now in a state of trial: there for a final sentence. He comes now to hear the general language of God to men; there to hear his own particular judgment from the same God; now the sinner stands in the church, in a general assembly: and he stands within the reach of a general promise: He that believes shall be saved; he that confesses, and forsakes his sin shall find mercy: But then the book of all the promises is for ever shut, and it is declared by the Judge, that not one of them belongs to him: He hath refused all the offers of grace, and the day of grace is gone for ever.

Now he stands, and hears the general threatening of the word: The soul that sinneth shall die; the wages of sin is death: he that believeth not shall be damned; he that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption: Yet he may escape all these threatenings. But in the great and last day he hears his own name, as it were, read together with each of these threatenings, and united to them all: “Thou art the impenitent sinner, and thou must die for ever? thou hast not believed in Christ: and thou art the person who shall be for ever damned.”

Now he appears before God, and though he is, as to his state; at a distance from him, yet he may be converted and brought near; he hears these blessed words; Mat. xi. 28. Come all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Is. xlv. 22. Look unto me, ye that are at the ends of the earth, and in immediate danger of hell, and be ye saved. But there the only word is, depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire; for I have not one word of promise, of encouragement, or of comfort for you.

Because he appears now in a state of trial, it is with some hope of obtaining pardon; but there he stands only waiting for the sentence of death, and therefore with everlasting despair: He appears there guilty in open light, and his condemnation is certain and unchangeable.

Believe this, sinner, now in this life; the wrath of God lies heavy upon you; John iii. 36. but this wrath may be removed; the condemnation that is now upon you from the law, may be reversed: the gospel is ready to take it off, if you receive this gospel: But there, before the judgment seat, every soul who is found in his sins, falls under an eternal curse, and without repeal: that condemnation shall never be removed; for immediate execution follows upon the sentence. Now the sinner appears before God, and hears such words of compassion as these are: “I delight not in the death of a sinner, I would have him turn and live; I propose the method of reconciliation and life;” But then the Lord sits upon a throne of judgment, and he shall laugh at the calamity of the wicked, and the obstinate sinner’s distress; for pity and compassion are for ever hid from his eyes. Now, who is there among us able to bear the sight of a provoked God, who is infinite in power, terrible in majesty, and has abandoned all compassion.

5. The sinner now appears often before God; there but once, and is for ever driven from his presence: Here, if you meet with no comfort from God in one ordinance, you may find it in the next; but then you shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and the glory of his power; 2 Thess. i. 9. How will you long for such seasons again, when you are for ever shut out from them? “O that I had but one Lord’s-day more to spend in the service of God! how would I labour and wrestle with God in prayer, that I might become a new creature!” But in hell the days are all alike, they are all dark and stormy; there is not one day of sunshine, not one sabbath, not one hour of rest. “How did I mock God on earth, must the sinner say, when I appeared before him! and after I had mocked him once, I trifled again and again; but now I find he is a God who will not be mocked; I see he is a terrible majesty, and I am driven for ever from all his grace and compassion, and shall see his face no more.”

Use. All the use I shall make of this head, is only to urge upon your minds a practical belief, and a lively sense of this appearance before God at judgment. Must we all stand before the judgment seat of Christ? Do we think we are ready? What answer do our own consciences give, when we make that enquiry? Am I prepared to appear before God the Judge? Have I but little hope, and yet can I satisfy myself to lie down at night, and arise in the morning, and have this hope not increased? Have I so little expectation of my appearing well there, and yet rest contented under it?

Do I worship now with that sincerity and devotion, as those who must hereafter come to be judged? Could we, dare we, indulge ourselves in the neglect of any duty, or commission of any sin, or careless performance of the religious services we owe to God, at the rate we now do, had this great appearance before God at judgment been often upon our thoughts? Alas! these things vanish from our minds, many times, together with the breath and air that forms the words: Business, or cares, or the diversions of this life, turn away the soul from God and judgment, We dwell in flesh, we see not God, and we are ready, foolishly, to imagine that we shall never see him: We thrust this hour at such a distance, as though it would never come; we put it afar off as an evil day.

But let us stand still here, and consider a little: This evening we are come to appear before God in worship; we see ourselves here, and see each other; we are sure it is a reality, and not a dream; yet seven years ago, this evening was at so vast a distance from us, that we scarce knew how to realize it to our thoughts, and make it, as it were, present: but now all that long distance is vanished, and this evening is come; those days are all passed, and this hour is upon us. Thus it is in the case of death and judgment. Seven years hence, it is most likely, some one or more of us, and perhaps every one of us, shall appear before the bar of God our Judge; that appointed hour will come however it seem afar off now; and then it will be as real an appearance as this present hour is, but a much more solemn one: we shall see and feel ourselves there, and know it is not a dream, but an awful reality.

Consider further, that it can be but a few seven years more, before every one of us must certainly appear at the judgment-seat of God; and as long as these years seem now, yet they will quickly fly away, and the last hour will be upon us.—Think how many of your acquaintance, in seven years past, have made their appearance before God, have past their final trial, and received their everlasting sentence: And each of us may say, “Why should not I be the next? What is there in my nature, or in my circumstances that can secure me against the summons of death and judgment?” It may be but a few days before we are called; and is every one of us here ready? This is a question of infinite importance, and let us not give rest to our souls, till we can answer it to our satisfaction.

O how should we live! how should we act! how should we speak! how should we worship! if this were always upon our hearts? O that we could but realize these awful things to our minds, and make them more familiar to our thoughts daily! Could sinners then be one day contented without converting grace, and without a justifying righteousness? Could they any longer refuse the mercy of the gospel, and Jesus the Saviour? Could they be satisfied to appear all guilty before God, and no friend there to speak for them? no intercessor to plead for them? none to undertake their cause? Could they go on to sin with a negligent mind, if they thought the judgment-door just opening upon them, and Jesus Christ at hand? Could it be possible we should have such cold and lazy desires after a Saviour and his salvation, if we thought our everlasting happiness or misery depended upon the next day, the next hour, or the next moment? For we know not how soon the summons may come, and state us before his tribunal.

II. The second part of my discourse leads me to consider the blessed difference that there shall be between a christian’s appearing before God in heaven, and his appearance here in divine ordinances before God on earth? and by a comparison of these two, may the Spirit of God awaken our faith, our hope, our love, and our joy, and all join to promote our sanctification! The differences then between our standing before God in worship now, and our worshipping before God in heaven, are such as these:

1. Now the true christian appears in a mixed assembly of saints and sinners: there the assembly is all holy, and not one sinner amongst them. Here sincere souls and hypocrites meet together in worship; there the hypocrite is for ever banished. In the houses of God on earth, the wicked Canaanites will mingle with the children of Israel; but in his temple in heaven, every one is an Israelite indeed; There shall no more be found a Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts; Zech. xiv. 21.

The children of God here, are under a veil of infirm and sinful flesh, and in the likeness of sinners; there they are unveiled and acknowledged to be the sons and daughters of the Almighty; 1 John iii. 1, 2. Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God! But the world knows us not; nay, we are not at many times known to ourselves; but when he comes whom we have trusted, then we shall be known and distinguished from the world, as God’s only begotten Son; and we shall be known and distinguished as the children of God, all related and a-kin to him:—When he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; 1 John iii. 2. and shall sufficiently be distinguished from all who belong not to Christ.

Here a child of God, in the sanctuary, is deeply humbled at the mention of the name of God; but his humility is not seen. Here his zeal kindles at the proposal of a duty, but it burns with a hidden flame: Here his love is at work, his hope is arising, his joy is getting up to heaven, when he is engaged in the meditation of a comfortable promise, or some of the blessed privileges of the children of God; while those who are around him, even his next neighbour who sits close to him, knows nothing of the holy workings of his heart, and the breathings of his soul towards God: But there the whole assembly shall worship with one heart, and one soul, and not one wandering worshipper, or one wandering thought in worship.

We are ready to complain here, that we ourselves know not whether we shall be accepted or no; through the weakness of faith, want of holiness, decay of zeal in our spirits, and that degeneracy we sometimes find and feel in ourselves, we are often ready to doubt, and almost upon the borders of despair. This is the case of many a poor, trembling christian; but there every one shall worship with strength of joy, liveliest delight, and warmest zeal and affections: and be assured his graces are all true, for he shall see them all in the light of glory.

This suspicion or jealousy of ourselves, flattens our devotion many a time here, and takes away the pleasurable sensations of religion, because we ourselves know not whether God accepts us or no: There a full assurance of our being beloved of God, and being for ever accepted of him, shall make every exercise of devotion a most agreeable and perfect pleasure. O my soul, how should it quicken thy race, and exalt thy joy, to think how fast thou art removing from this world of sinners, and from all thy own doubts and fears, to a glorious assembly of holy souls, where not one doubt, or fear shall remain in their consciences, nor in thine!

2. In this world the saint appears among a few to worship his God, but then among millions. Now many times we have worshipped in a secret corner, for fear of men; but then it is all in public glory: for there all the worship that is paid, is the established worship of the whole country; and honours, and kingdoms, and wealth, are all on that side: All the inhabitants are made rich for ever, with the riches of heaven; and all the children of God are the sons and daughters of a king, and all heirs and possessors of glory, and reign together with the Lord Jesus: Rom. viii. 17. 2 Tim. ii. 12. Here many times the children of God are forced to be separatists from their neighbours and fellow-citizens, they are divided from the multitudes and crowds of mankind, they are but a little flock; but there they shall shine in the midst of the general assembly of the first-born, and a great multitude which no man can number; Rev. vii. 9. that with victories and songs are for ever addressing the throne of God and the Lamb. O when shall I hear the voice from heaven say, Come up hither?

3. Now we worship in a way of preparation; there for enjoyment and full delight. Ordinances here are but slight shadows, and very faint and imperfect resemblances of what the worship in heaven shall be. Now the word of God is spoken by a man, and it loses much of the divinity and power, by the means of conveyance; there it will be spoken by God himself to our spirits, or by our Lord Jesus Christ, to the ears of our bodies, raised, sanctified, and immortal; and our souls shall receive as much of the express ideas, as God designs to convey by all his conversation with that sanctified number: nor shall they miss of any of the beauty, or spirit, or perfection, of those thoughts which God himself would impress upon us.

Now in the letters of the bible we read the good-will and mercy of God to sinners; but there, in a far brighter manner of conveyance, in thy light shall we see light; Ps. xxxvi. 9. Here we seek the Father and the Son; the one as our happiness, the other as the way to the enjoyment of that happiness, as they are usually represented in the word of God: There we shall say, We have found him whom our souls desire and love, and shall be for ever happy in his presence. Our business now in this world is to get a right temper and frame: there to practise and indulge the joy. Happy souls, who are thus prepared in the outer courts to draw nigh and worship within the veil!

Now we appear with imperfect services, and poor improvements, there with glorious and complete worship: For here we see God but as in a glass darkly; there face to face; 1 Cor. xiii. 12. Now we can have his glory, or his grace represented to us but in part, in a small measure, and according to our poor capacities of receiving; there we shall see him as he is, and know as we are known.

What are our prayers, what are our praises here? our praises when offered up in a song, or in plainer language, in comparison with those that are paid to God above? Now we speak of him whom we have not seen, therefore we speak in so imperfect a manner: There we shall hear and speak of him whom we see or know more intimately: Now we appear before God, and bring too much of the world with us; there we leave the world and go to the Father, God and Christ are too much forgotten, or they are too often thrust out of our minds by vain thoughts, even when we ourselves are never so desirous to spend an hour or two with God; what interruptions do we find? What long blanks divide the several petitions of our prayer, and break off the meditation while we stand before God to worship him? We have many enemies within and without, who stand ready to seize away our souls from God, and to rob him of our devotion: Vain fancies call us aside, and our senses turn off our minds from heaven. There shall be everlasting worship above, without one impertinence interposing; no trifles there to divert us, and separate one part of our worship from the other: there all the powers and faculties of nature shall perpetually be engaged in the business and blessedness of that state. Glorious worship, and blessed worshippers! fit for the presence of the Majesty of heaven.

5. I might say, We come with very little comfort, and many discouragements, to appear before God on earth; but there with everlasting consolation. We come now to the word, and we go away again, hardly hearing the voice of God in his word or seeing his countenance, but there we shall be for ever near him; no wall of flesh, or of sin to divide us.

Now we are defiled with guilt, and ashamed to lift up our faces towards heaven, and blush even when our hearts are never so sincere; but there we shall come near to God, even to God in glory, and not be afraid of him; there we shall see a God undefiled, ourselves also being undefiled; a God of spotless purity, and ourselves without blemish before the throne; our garments washed white in the blood of the Lamb, and never, never to be defiled again; that is the glory and pleasure of a christian. Then we shall appear without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; without guile in our mouths, or vanity in our hearts; without fault before God, and therefore without pain; without sorrow, and without fear for ever, even though we stand before God in all his majesty; for we are assured of his mercy. Now we worship with prayers and tears, because of many and heavy burdens, sorrows and sins; but then with everlasting songs and joy on our heads; Is. xxxv. 10. If we had a painful and living sense of these things, of the wanderings, temptations, burdens, and defilements, that mingle with our worship here, we should cry aloud, and say, How long, O Lord, how long?

6. Lastly, Now we appear and depart again, but then we shall abide with God for ever. Now we go down from the mount of converse with God, into the world of temptation, and sin, and business, and care: We appear upon mount Horeb, or Pisgah, and we take a little view of the promised land: but we go down again as the children of Israel did, to fight with the Canaanites, the giants that are in the valley, our mighty sins, our strong corruptions. In this valley of tears we must have a conflict before we get to the promised land; there every worshipper has in his hand a palm of complete victory; Rev. vii. 9. and he is for ever discharged from fighting: Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God; and he shall go no more out; Rev. iii. 12. So necessary is the presence of the saints in heaven, that our Lord Jesus Christ has represented them as pillars of that building. God dwelling in the midst of his saints, counts himself dwelling in one of his glorious heavens: and every saint there is, as it were, a pillar, and a support of it: We are lively stones in that building in which God will for ever inhabit. Now we come to the house of God as visitants; but there as inhabitants, as the children of God, who abide for ever in the house: There every saint obtains what holy David wished for, and that in the literal perfection of it, that he might dwell in the house of the Lord for ever; Ps. xxvii. 4. and xxiii. 6.

Use. The only reflection I shall make on the second part of my discourse, is this, that we should raise our hope, our consolation, and our joy, by a meditation of such future worship in heaven as this is, when we lie under many weaknesses, restraints, and defilements, in our best worship on earth. O! how would this hope rejoice our hearts, if we could but live upon it! What secret comfort would it be to a poor humble soul, who is hindered from drawing near to God in worship now, because his affections are perpetually ready to wander, to think that he shall come and appear before God hereafter, and see him without ceasing, and his thoughts shall never wander from his God. When he complains under the temptations of Satan, and absence of God from his ordinances, what a pleasure to think he is going above to worship at the general assembly, where Satan never enters, and where God never conceals himself; but appears universally gracious, and without a frown; where the God of glory and mercy appears unchangeably, and for ever the same.

Those of us who have been long restrained from all the pleasure and profit of public ordinances, what a blessed release will it be to our souls, when we shall be dismissed from the bonds of flesh, into that great and holy society of spirits, and shall feel no more restraints for ever? We who have been detained from the house of God, by the uncharitable laws of men, or the painful providence of God, with what a divine relish shall we embrace our liberty in that day, and be eternally free from all forbidding laws, and all imprisoning providences?

O how heartily should it engage our affections to one another, and increase the pleasure of our worship, when we come to wait on God together here below, to think that we shall worship God together in the upper world? How should it unite the hearts of our congregations one to another in divine love and make christians for ever forbear wrath and anger here, since they must be everlasting fellow-worshippers above?

What a glorious joy will it be to you who are the heads and rulers of this family, who have so often joined in sweet devotion here on earth, when you shall meet each other there, and worship together before the throne in heaven? What a mutual endearment, and mutual delight does such a prospect raise between the nearest relations? How doth it exalt the sweetest passion, heighten and refine the warmest love? What a blessed transport will it be to the parents, to find their children there engaged in the same work? And what a joyful meeting will it be to you, the children, the hopeful offspring of this house, to find each other in that company, and to see your pious parents with you? With what a glorious and unspeakable joy shall parents render up their accounts to God in this language, “Lord here am I, and the children that thou hast given me;” imitating the words of the Lord Jesus, giving up his account to his Father; Heb. ii. 13.

How will our gladness increase, and our souls enlarge themselves in holy joy, to behold our christian friends, and our dear relatives, standing in the same assembly, as fellow-worshippers at the throne? How will the heads of this family rejoice, if their whole household should be found there, whom they have endeavoured to encourage in their way to heaven, by a religious care to maintain household worship? how will the joy of faithful ministers be advanced by every one of their hearers, whom they shall find in that blessed church above? Ye are our crown, and our glory, and our rejoicing in that day; 1 Thess. ii. 19, 20.

Now should not each of us maintain a holy jealousy within ourselves, and say, “Which of us shall be missing?” May not every one of us so far suspect ourselves, as to say, ‘Lord is it I?’ Shall I be wanting there, when all the rest of this little assembly shall be worshipping with the saints in heaven? Shall I be separated from them with whom I have so often appeared before God, and bowed the knee together on earth? O dreadful thought of overwhelming sorrow! Which of us all has so much stupidity, or such impious courage, as to bear the terrible apprehension? To be divided for ever from the family of God, and shut out of his upper sanctuary! O may these words make a proper impression on every heart, to keep our jealousy awake, and spur us onward in our christian course of duty and devotion! May such thoughts as these excite us to give all diligence, to make our calling and election sure, and in every act of worship here in this world, to get some clearer evidence of an interest in the favour of God, some further meetness for glory; that when the great assembly shall join together in that heavenly worship, we may assist with our praises, and mingle our joy with theirs. Amen.

HYMN FOR SERMONS XIII. and XIV. Appearance before God here and hereafter.

While I am banish’d from thy house, I mourn in secret, Lord: “When shall I come, and pay my vows, And hear thy holy word?”

So while I dwell in bonds of clay, Methinks my soul shall groan, “When shall I wing my heavenly way, And stand before thy throne?”

I love to see my Lord below, His church displays his grace; But upper worlds his glory know, And view him face to face.

I love to worship at his feet, Though sin attack me there; But saints exalted near his seat, Have no assaults to fear.

I’m pleas’d to meet him in his court, And taste his heavenly love; But still I think his visits short, Or I too soon remove.

He shines, and I am all delight, He hides, and all is pain: When will he fix me in his sight, And ne’er depart again?

SERMON XV. _A Rational Defence of the Gospel: Or, Courage in professing Christianity._ ROM. i. 16.——I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth. THE FIRST PART.

Shame is a very discouraging passion of the mind; it sinks the spirits low, it enfeebles all the active powers, and forbids the vigorous execution of any thing whereof we are ashamed. It was necessary therefore, that St. Paul should be endued with sacred courage, and raised above the power of shame, when he was sent to preach the gospel of Christ among the Jews or the heathens, to face an infidel world, and to break through all the reproaches and terrors of it. I am a debtor, saith he, verse 14, to the Greeks and to the Barbarians; that is, to the learned and the unlearned nations; to the wise and to the unwise: I have a commission from Christ to publish his gospel among all the nations of men, and I esteem myself their debtor, till I have delivered my message: And though Rome be the seat of worldly power and policy, the mistress of the nations, and sovereign of the earth, where I shall meet with opposition and contempt in abundance, yet I have courage enough to preach this doctrine at Rome also, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.

My friends, this is an age wherein the gospel of our Redeemer meets with much contempt and opposition. There are many in a baptized nation, and who have been brought up in the christian belief and worship, that begin to be weary of Christ and his religion; they are endeavouring to find blemishes and defects in this sacred gospel, and in that blessed word of God that reveals this grace to us. The divine truths, that belong to this gospel, meet with mockery and profane reproach from deists and unbelievers. I may call it therefore a day of rebuke and blasphemy. God grant we may never become a land of heathens again! Those of us that believe this gospel from the heart, have need of courage to maintain our profession of it, especially in some companies and conversations. We should prepare ourselves to encounter the false reasonings of unbelievers, as well as harden our faces against their ridicule. Let us therefore meditate this sacred text, that each of us may pronounce boldly the words of this great apostle, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.

Now, that our meditations may proceed regularly on the present theme of discourse, let us consider,

I. What the gospel of Christ is, that we may not mistake it.—II. What is included in this expression, I am not ashamed of it.—III. What there is in this gospel that might be supposed any way to expose a man to shame; and I shall take occasion under this head to give particular answers to some of the most important objections that might be made against the gospel, and shew that there is no just reason to be ashamed of it.—IV. I shall consider what is that general answer to all objections; that universal guard against sinful shame which is contained in my text, and which will bear out every christian in his faith and profession of the gospel of Christ, viz. that it is the power of God to the salvation of every one who believes.—And, V. I shall draw some proper inferences.

First, What is the gospel of Christ?

I answer in general, It is a revelation of the grace of God to fallen man through a Mediator. Or, It is a gracious constitution of God for the recovery of sinful and miserable man, from that deplorable state into which sin had brought him, by the meditation of Christ: Or, in the words of my text, it is the power of God, or his powerful appointment, for the salvation of every one who believes. The word gospel, in the original, εὐαγγέλιον signifies good news, or glad tidings. And surely, when a sinner who is exposed to the wrath of God, is sensible of his guilt and danger, it must needs be glad tidings to him to hear of a way of salvation, and an all-sufficient Saviour. This constitution of God for our salvation has had various editions, if I may so express it, or gradual discoveries of it made to mankind, ever since Adam first sinned, and God visited him with the first promise of grace before he turned him out of paradise. But the last and most complete revelation of this gospel was made by the personal ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ, and more especially by his apostles, when his own death, resurrection, and exaltation had laid the complete foundation for it. From the books of the New Testament therefore we may derive this larger description of the gospel of Christ.

It is a wise, a holy, and gracious constitution of God for the recovery of sinful man, by sending his own Son Jesus Christ into the flesh, to obey his laws which man had broken, to make a proper atonement for sin by his death, and thus to procure the favour of God, and eternal happiness for all that believe and repent, and receive the offered salvation; together with a promise of the Holy Spirit to work this faith and repentance in their hearts, to renew their sinful natures into holiness, to form them on earth fit for this happiness, and to bring them to the full possession of it in heaven.

It might be proved that this is the sense and substance of the gospel of Christ from many of the prophecies of the Old Testament, and the ceremonies and figures of the Jewish church, as well as from a variety of citations from the writings of the evangelists and apostles: Yet there have risen some persons, I mean the Socinians and their disciples, in the last age and in this also, who call themselves christians, but they also curtail and diminish the gospel of Christ, as to make it signify very little more than the dictates and hopes of the light of nature, viz. “That if we repent of our sins past, and obey the commands of God as well as we can for the future, Christ as a great prophet, has made a full declaration that there is pardon for such sinners, and they shall be accepted unto eternal life:” and all this without any dependance on his death as a proper sacrifice, and with little regard to the operations of his Holy Spirit.

Now I need use no other argument to refute this mistaken notion of the gospel, than what may be derived from the words of my text, viz. that St. Paul expresses it with a sort of emphasis, and as a matter of importance, that he was not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: Whereas if this had been all the substance of the gospel, he had no reason to be ashamed of it either among the Jews or the heathens. The Jews had a knowledge of forgiveness upon repentance, and a belief of it long before Christ came: And the heathen philosophers would have readily received it, as a thing very little different from what their natural reason might lead them to hope for: though it could not fully assure them of it: They would never have sought to expose and ridicule the preaching of St. Paul as mere babbling, and called him a setter forth of strange gods.

But on the other hand, if we suppose him publishing the glorious doctrine which I have described, there was something in this so strange to the ears of the heathens, as well as of the blinded Jews, that might well be supposed to awaken their opposition and rage; and therefore it was a great point gained with him, when he had courage enough to maintain such a gospel, and to say, I am not ashamed of it.

This leads me to the second thing proposed.

Secondly, What is included in these words, I am not ashamed of the gospel? To this I answer under these five heads:

1. I am not ashamed to believe it as a man.—2. I am not ashamed to profess it as a christian.—3. I am not ashamed to preach it to others as a minister.—4. I am not ashamed to defend it, and contend for it as a good soldier of Christ.—5. I am not ashamed to suffer and die for it as a martyr.

1. I am not ashamed to believe this gospel as a man. My rational powers give me no secret reproaches. My understanding and judgment do not reprove and check my faith. I feel no inward blush upon the face of my soul, while I give the fullest assent to all these truths, to this scheme of doctrine, to this heavenly contrivance and system of grace. A rational man, especially who has been bred up in learning, should be ashamed to believe fables and follies, but I believe all this gospel and am not ashamed. My own reason approves it, and justifies me in the persuasion and belief of such a gospel as this is. I believe it with so firm and unshaken a faith, that I venture all my own eternal concerns upon it. I lay all the stress of my hopes of a blessed immortality on it. My soul rests here, and I am not ashamed of my resting-place: I am not ashamed of my Saviour, and the method of his salvation. I am persuaded my hopes shall never disappoint me. Surely, if the gospel had been so very irrational a thing, as some men pretend it to be, St. Paul, being so rational and wise a man, would have been ashamed to believe it. But I believe it, says he, and am not ashamed. I do not think it casts any just reflection upon my rational capacities, or my learned education at the feet of Gamaliel, for me to give a full assent to this gospel.

2. I am not ashamed to profess it as a christian. I am ready to tell the world that I believe it, and I take all occasions to let the world know it. I am coming to profess this gospel at Rome, and am not ashamed: I have owned it before my own countrymen the Jews already, where it has been most reproached. I have been telling the Gentiles what the gospel of salvation is, and I long to see you at Rome, that I may tell you what my belief is in the gospel, and may hear how far you have believed, and may be comforted by the mutual faith both of you and me; Rom. i. 12. I shall be glad to tell you what doctrines I venture my own soul upon, and shall be willing to hear from you whether you venture your souls upon the same doctrine, or no; and shall rejoice to find we are both interested in one salvation.

3. I am not ashamed to preach it to others as a minister, that is, to invite others to believe it. It is a communicable good, and I am sent to diffuse it, nor am I ashamed of my commission. See 2 Tim. i. 12, 13. Our Lord Jesus Christ has abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light by the gospel, and has appointed me a preacher, and an apostle to the gentiles: I preach the gospel, and am not ashamed, though I have suffered for it. I venture my soul upon it unto the last great day, and I bid thee, Timothy, as a preacher unto others, to hold fast the same form of sound words which thou hast learned of me. I long to teach the whole world this faith and this doctrine, therefore I am a debtor to the Greeks and barbarians; I would make others partakers of the same hope. Would to God, that not only thou, Agrippa, but all those that hear me, were not only almost, but altogether such as I am, except only these bonds, these sufferings which I endure for Christ’s sake; Acts xxvi. 22.

4. I am not ashamed to contend for it as a good soldier of Christ; to defend it when it is attacked, and to vindicate the cause of my Lord and Master. Where it is assaulted I endeavour to secure it, though with many reproaches from the carnal prejudices of mankind. I oppose them all; for they oppose my Saviour and his cross, and I build my everlasting hopes there. I am set for the defence of the gospel of Christ; Phil. i. 17. and I will contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints; Jude ver. 3. And he gave us an instance of it, that when Peter, who was an apostle, seemed to diminish some of the glory and the liberty of the gospel, he withstood him to the face; Gal. ii. 11. “There shall no man silence me, or stop my mouth, when I am preaching a crucified Saviour, and when I express my faith in the liberty and latitude of the gospel of Christ. For if I durst withstand an apostle under his criminal concealments, and in his diminution of the honour of this doctrine, surely I dare oppose all the world besides.”

5. Lastly, I am not ashamed to suffer and die for it as a martyr. Load me with reproaches, ye Jews, my countrymen, and load me with chains, ye magistrates of Rome; of none of these am I ashamed or afraid, but with all boldness I am always ready that Christ should be magnified in my life, or my death; Phil. i. 14, 20. And as for my friends that are full of sorrow lest Paul should be sacrificed for the faith of Christ. What mourn ye, and break my heart for? I am not only ready to be bound, but to die for the sake of Christ. I count nothing dear to me, no nor my life precious to myself, that I may finish with joy the course of my ministry of this gospel, that I may testify the grace of my God; Acts xx. 24. and xxi. 13.

I might add also, that St. Paul intends and means more than he expresses by a very usual figure of speech: I am not ashamed of it, that is, I glory in it, I make my boast of it. If there be any doctrine worth boasting of, it is the gospel of Christ. If I have any profession to glory in, it is that I am a christian. Once I was a pharisee, and I counted it my gain and my honour; Phil. iii. 7, 8. But what things were gain to me, these I counted loss for Christ; yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. I glory in being a minister of the gospel; it is the highest honour God could have put upon me, who am less than the least of all saints. To me is this grace given to preach among the gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; Eph. iii. 8. I glory in it to that degree, that I am dead to all things else. God forbid I should glory in any thing save in the cross of our Lord Jesus, whereby the world is crucified to me, and I to the world; Gal. vi. 14. I glory in my sufferings: and, my friends, if ye understood the value of these things, they are your glory too. If I am offered up a sacrifice for the service of your faith; I joy and rejoice together with all; Phill. ii. 17. O! that you would but rejoice together with me in it. Thus I have shewed you that all these things are implied in St. Paul’s not being ashamed of the gospel of Christ, and I have proved it to you from other parts of his epistles.

The third general head I proposed to speak to, was this; What is there in this gospel that may be supposed to expose any man to shame! And this question is very needful; for if there were nothing in it that men might take occasion to throw their scandals and reproaches at, it had been no great matter for St. Paul to have cried out, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.

To this I answer in general, this was a gospel that contradicted the rooted prejudices of the Jews, and was severely reproached by those that professed great knowledge in their law; it was also a new and strange thing to the Gentiles. A crucified Christ was a stumbling-block to the Jews, and foolishness to the Greeks; 1 Cor. i. 23. There was something in the faith, and practice, and worship of the gospel so contrary to the course of their education in the world, so opposite to their carnal inclinations, and to the customs and fashions of their country, that a man might well be afraid and ashamed to profess it, when they lift their tongues, and their hands, and their swords against it, and the chief of them crucified the Lord of glory, and put the preachers of it to death.

Thus in general. But while I descend to particulars, I shall confine myself only to those occasions of shame, which the same gospel meets with in our day, that so the discourse may be more useful, to the present audience; and as I mention each objection or supposed occasion of shame, I shall endeavour to take off the force of it, and shew that it is unreasonable.

Now the things that might any ways be supposed to expose this gospel to shame, may be ranked under these two heads:—

I. Those which arise from the doctrines of the gospel: And, II.—Those which arise from the professors of the gospel.

First, The occasions of shame that arise from the doctrines of the gospel, are these five that follow:

I. That there are mysteries in it which are above the powers of our reason to comprehend, and I will never believe a gospel that I cannot comprehend. This is the language of Socinians, men that have pretended so much to reason in our day.

But to relieve this occasion of shame, let us consider that mysteries are of two sorts.

First, Such as we should never have known but by divine revelation; but being once revealed, they may be fairly explained and understood. Such is the doctrine of the satisfaction of Christ, of the resurrection of the dead, of the forgiveness of sins for the sake of Christ’s sufferings, and of eternal life in a future world. I say, these are all mysteries that were hid from ages, that is, they are such truths which nature or reason could not have found out of itself, but being once revealed to us of God, may be fairly explained and well understood. Other sort of mysteries are those, which when revealed unto us, we know merely the existence, or reality and certainty of them, but cannot comprehend the mode and manner how they are. And of this kind there are but two that I know of which are peculiar to our religion, and which are the chief objects of offence to some men. These are the mysteries of the blessed Trinity, and the mystery of the incarnation of Christ. The mystery of Three, whom the scripture describes as persons, who have some glorious communion in one godhead! and the mystery of two natures united in one person.

Now, though the way and manner how the three persons, Father, Son, and Spirit, should be one God, and how two natures, human and divine, should be one person in Christ Jesus; I say, though the way and manner how these things are, is not so easy to be explained and unfolded by us, and above our own present capacity to comprehend and fully to explain, yet I could never find these things proved impossible to be. If I must refuse to believe a thing that I know not the manner and nature of, there are many things in the world of nature, and in natural religion, that I must disbelieve. Let them explain to me in natural religion what is the eternity of God, what ideas they can have of a being that never began to be; and then perhaps I may be able to explain to them how three persons can have communion in one godhead, and how two natures can be one in person. I am well assured, there are some doctrines in natural religion as difficult to be explained, and hard to be understood, and the manner of them is as mysterious, as these doctrines of revealed religion, which are also rendered more offensive to the thinking mind, by some men’s attempts to explain them in an unhappy manner.

But we may go a step lower to meet this objection, and confound it. In the world of nature there are mysteries of this kind, which are as unaccountable and as hard to be unfolded as the mysteries of grace. It is the doctrine of union both in the trinity and the incarnation, which renders them so mysterious. Now this doctrine of unions in natural philosophy hath been hitherto insolvable. We know that spirit and body are united to make a man: But the manner how they are united, remains still a most difficult question. We know that some bodies are hard, and some are soft; but what it is that ties or unites hard bodies so closely together, and makes them so difficult to be separated, is a riddle to the best philosophers, which they cannot solve; or what it is that renders the parts of soft bodies so easily separable. And many other things there are in nature as mysterious as this.

Besides, if it were possible for us to explain all things in nature, and to write a perfect book of natural philosophy with the most accurate skill, yet it would not follow that we must know God the Creator to perfection. The things of God are infinitely superior to the things of men. The nature of a Creator in his manner of existence is infinitely above the nature of creatures in theirs. It is fit there should be something belonging to God an infinite Spirit, that is incomprehensible, and above the power of finite spirits to comprehend, and fully search out and explain. It ought therefore to be no just ground of shame to the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, that it has mysteries in it, that is to say, that it has some doctrines in it, which we could never have found out by the mere light of reason; and some truths, the full explication whereof we can never attain to, since there are many things in the world of nature, in the world of bodies and souls, and many things in natural religion, which we cannot fully explain.

II. Another occasion of reproach, which men fasten upon the gospel, is, that some of the doctrines are so singular and contrary to the common opinions and reasonings of men; such as that the ever-blessed God should want a satisfaction, in order to pardon sin with honour; that he should punish the most innocent and obedient man that ever lived, even his own Son, for the sins of wicked and rebellious creatures; that we should be freed from hell, which we had deserved, by the sufferings of another in our stead; that one man should be justified with another’s obedience; nay, that ten thousands of men should be pardoned and justified for the sake of the obedience and death of one single man; that all our own repentance is not sufficient of itself to obtain our pardon; and our holiness, be it never so great, does not procure us a title to the favour of God and heaven; that dead bodies, though mouldered in the grave for thousands of years, should be raised again to life and immortality: These are such strange doctrines, so very foreign to the common sentiments of most men, that some of the Athenians cried out, “What does this babbler mean?” A man should be ashamed of these things; the very heathen philosophers called it foolishness.

But now to remove this scandal, let us consider that many of these things are not so contrary to the reason of men as some think: As for the satisfaction made for our sins by the sufferings of Christ, did not almost all the heathen world suppose that God would not pardon sin without satisfaction? What else mean all their bloody sacrifices? And why did they sometimes proceed so far as to murder men, and offer them to God for their sins? I confess indeed, that many of the philosophers and learned men amongst them, who derided the gospel of Christ, did also despise the sacrifices and religious ceremonies of their own countrymen, believing that God would be merciful to men that were penitent and pious, without any rites of atonement and sacrifice. But it is as evident also, that the people had a general notion of the necessity of some atonement for sin, and that the more valuable the sacrifice was, the sooner was their god appeased, and the benefit procured would be more extensive, howsoever the philosophers might ridicule it. It is manifest then, that many of the heathens did imagine that the death and sufferings of one person would procure pardon and immunities for a whole multitude. And upon this principle some of the ancient Romans, now and then, out of nobility of spirit, devoted themselves to death, to appease the anger of the gods, for their whole country. Thus it appears, that the business of satisfaction for sin, and the doctrine of expiation and atonement by the blood and death of a surety, was not so utterly unknown in the world.

I add farther, that the notion of one person’s making satisfaction for the crime of another in human and political affairs, has been sometimes practised, and thought to be very intelligible; and why should it be counted so very monstrous and absurd in things divine? Do we understand what it is for one man to become a surety for another, or for a criminal to be set free from punishment by the voluntary substitution of another person in his stead? Are we not well acquainted what it is for one man to pay the debt of another, and the original person that was obliged thereby, to become free? Do we not know what it is for a whole family of children to inherit a possession for many ages, one after another, for some noble acts and services of their father? Therefore honour, and glory, and happiness, bestowed upon a multitude, for the sake of what one man has done, is not so unintelligible a thing as some men would persuade us. Why should that be esteemed impossible in the affair of religion, which is evident and plainly practicable in the affairs of this world?

Again, they think it strange that our repentance should not be enough to obtain the pardon of past sins, and our own obedience should not procure heaven for us. But are not traitors and robbers, and all notorious criminals punished in all governments, notwithstanding their repentances? Can their sorrow for what is past, procure a pardon of their prince? Who then would be punished? And is man’s government in punishing criminals, without a satisfaction, just and reasonable? And shall God’s government be counted unreasonable? Can future obedience among men obtain forgiveness for past treason and rebellion? And why then should you think the great God is obliged to accept of it?

As for the resurrection of the dead, though it was counted a strange thing among the heathens, when it was preached to them, yet in these latter days, since the knowledge of God and his glorious attributes has been so much increased, and the reason of men has freely exercised itself upon things divine and human; the resurrection is not counted any impossible thing, nor the doctrine of it incredible. And I am verily persuaded if men, whom God has endued with large capacities and great skill in reasoning, would but employ those talents to write a rational account of most of the doctrines of our Lord Jesus Christ, it might be done with much glory and success.

As for those few doctrines of christianity, which may at first appear less reasonable to men, their abundant attestation from heaven demands our belief.

III. Another occasion of reproach is, that the gospel teaches mortification and self-denial in a very great degree, conflicting with our natural appetites, and fighting against our own flesh and blood: And all that it promises is an unseen heaven, a future reward, a far distant happiness in another country, which eye has not seen, nor ear heard of, nor the heart of man conceived. A mere spiritual pleasure, that is to be enjoyed by the mind, and which the body shall not taste of, till perhaps after a thousand years or more. Now, as under the former head, the doctrines of the gospel are a scandal to the men of reasoning, so under this they become a scandal and reproach to those that are literally called men of sense, who are carnalized and immersed in sensuality. They think it strange to forego the joys of sense for the hopes of enjoying a happiness in a world they do not know when or where.

But I need not stand long to answer this calumny; for even some of the refined philosophers gave sufficient rebuke to this sensual temper: The very heathens could say enough to abate this censure, and to remove this occasion of shame, though the gospel of Christ does it infinitely better.

Christianity does not abridge us of the common comforts of flesh and blood, nor lay an unreasonable restraint upon any natural appetite; but it teaches us to live like men, and not like brutes; to regulate and manage our animal nature with its desires and inclinations, so as to enjoy life in the most proper and becoming manner; to eat and drink, and taste the bounties of providence, to the honour of our Creator, and to the best interest of our souls.

But, suppose, we were forbid all the indulgence of our appetites, and the delights of sense, by the gospel; surely, those who know what intellectual pleasures are, who can relish the joy that belongs to spirits, will not be much terrified with these objections, nor deride the faith of Christ, because it does not propose to them the reward of an earthly paradise. The rewards of the gospel are indeed spiritual till the resurrection, but those spiritual pleasures shall vastly over-balance all that toil, sorrow and suffering, we have passed through on earth, and all that self-denial which we have exercised. But when the body shall be raised again, our refined delights of all kinds shall be infinitely satisfying: We shall not say, that God has dealt our happiness to us with a niggardly hand, but that he has exceeded all his promises, when we shall come to taste the things God has prepared for us, which eye hath not seen, or ear heard of.

IV. Another prejudice against the gospel is this; some persons charge it with much of enthusiasm; and that the doctrine of the operations of the Spirit, and the expectation of his divine assistance to instruct us in truth, to mortify sin in us, and to enable us to perform holy duties, has too much of a visionary and fanciful turn of mind, and does not become men that profess reason.

But if such objectors were better acquainted with themselves, and knew the weakness of their own reason in the search after truth, and the various and plausible errors that attend their enquiries on every side; if they were better acquainted with the strength of temptation, the power of their own sinful appetites, and the weakness of their will to resist sin, and to fulfil the rules of righteousness: surely they would not think it a ridiculous thing to lift up a prayer to the great God to guide them into truth, and to assist them to walk steadily in the paths of religion and virtue. If they had but a deep and lively sense of their own insufficiency for every thing that is good, and of the many dangers and enemies that beset them, they would rather see infinite reason to bless their Creator, that has given them any promise or hope of the aids of his grace.

Nor is it at all fantastical or irrational to suppose, that the great and blessed God, who made these spirits of ours, should kindly act upon them, and influence them by secret and divine methods to their duty and their happiness; that he should send his own Spirit to help them onward in their proper business, which is to serve him here; and assist them in the pursuit of their true blessedness, which is, to enjoy him hereafter.

Methinks it is one of the glories of the gospel of Christ, that God has not only sent his Son to purchase heaven for us, but continually sends down his own Spirit to lead every humble christian in the way thither. When a poor penitent creature, distressed under a sense of the power of sin, dwelling in him, who has long and often toiled and laboured to bring his heart near to God, and to suppress the irregular and exorbitant appetites of his nature, addresses himself to the throne of God, and cries earnestly for divine help, it is a glorious provision that is made in the gospel of Christ, that the Spirit of God is promised for our assistance. Nor is it at all unworthy of a person of the greatest reason and the best understanding, humbly to wait and hope for the accomplishment of this promise. Thus the charge of enthusiasm vanishes, and the gospel maintains its honour.

V. The last objection against the doctrines of the gospel of Christ, is, that they are not sufficiently attested, that there is not ground enough given to credit the divinity of them in our age. They are ready to say, “These things were done, according as ourselves profess, above sixteen hundred years ago, and we have not sufficient credentials to venture our faith upon it at this day.”

It would be too long here to repeat over to you half the grounds we have for faith in this gospel. That there was such a man as Jesus Christ; that he lived at such a time at Jerusalem; that he wrought wondrous works in his own country, is not at all disbelieved by those that profess any reasonable faith in human history. The Jews themselves, who were his greatest enemies, do not deny that he wrought those miracles, which others could not work; but they pretend, that he did it by some magic art, by diabolical charms: and wrought miracles not by the power of God, but by virtue derived from spells and evil spirits. So that the miracles he wrought were not disbelieved and denied, but the heavenly spring of them is impiously perverted and turned downward, as though Christ borrowed his power from hell to transact these affairs. But the holiness and the heavenly temper of the gospel of Christ refutes this accusation. Satan was never known to demolish his own kingdom of ungodliness in such a manner as this. The gospel of Christ in every part of it has a most singular and sublime tendency to advance the name, the attributes, and the honour of God, whom Satan hates with a perfect hatred: He would never lend his assisting hand to support a scheme of religion so divine and holy.

Never was any body of doctrines and of duties so composed and calculated to promote the glory of God, nor the good of man, as this gospel does: Our peace and happiness would be secured by it on earth, if all men would comply with it, and our felicity after death is the great and indefeasible proposal and design of it: Now Satan is a restless enemy to men, his fellow-creatures, as well as to God, his Maker; and he would never exert the remains of his angelic power to encourage and defend such a pious and beneficent religion.

But the most amazing progress and success of the gospel is another argument that proves it to be divine, even when devils and magicians opposed it as well as princes and philosophers. That the gospel itself, without the force of arms, that a naked gospel, that seems so incredible as this did, should spread itself throughout the world in so short a space of time, that by the preaching of a few despised persons, and several of them fishermen that were utterly unlearned: That this gospel should triumph over all the powers and policies of men and hell: That it should make its way in opposition to the wisdom of philosophers, and the will of princes, and all the temptations and terrors of this world: This is another miracle, which perhaps is as divine and convincing as any of the preceding wonders, that attested this gospel, when it was first preached.

I add also the testimony of prophecy to that of miracles. The wondrous and exact accomplishment of many prophecies since our Lord Jesus Christ dwelt on earth in the days of his flesh, confirm his gospel. The prophecies that he himself gave forth from God, is another testimony of this gospel, which is uncontrollable. The destruction of Jerusalem, the time and methods of its destruction, and the terrors of it, may be read in Mat. xxiv. And if you read the history of Josephus, a Jew, you find so many parallels, that you may say Christ did foretel it indeed.

I might here subjoin the predictions of the apostles, particularly that of St. Paul, and St. John, concerning the rise and spirit of antichrist, wherein the church of Rome so clearly answers the language of the visions and prophecies. But the brightest and most uncontrollable witness of prophecy to the truth of the gospel, is the most exact and punctual accomplishments of all the predictions of the Old Testament, in the life and death, the resurrection and glory of Jesus Christ our Lord. From the first promise given to Adam in the garden, down to the words of Malachi, the last of the prophets, you find every thing that was said of him fulfilled in his history. And thus the books of the Jews, wherein they placed all their hopes, confirm the gospel of Christ, and refute and confound their own infidelity: So that if ever I had been a Jew, and did believe Moses and the prophets, I think I am constrained to be a christian, and believe in Jesus Christ.

Thus I have endeavoured to answer those objections against the gospel, which are pretended to arise from the truths or doctrines of it: And before I proceed to answer those cavils which are raised against it, because of the professors of it, I must finish the present discourse with a word or two of improvement.

Use 1. If this be a gospel not to be ashamed of, then study it well: Learn the truths and doctrines of it thoroughly: Truths and doctrines, which St. Paul, so wise, and so great a man, did not blush to profess, and preach, and die for. Value it as he valued it: The more you know it, the more you will esteem it; and the better you are acquainted with all the glorious articles of it, the less you will be ashamed of it: The divine harmony of the whole will cast a beauty and a lustre on every part.

Use 2. Furnish yourselves with arguments for it daily, that you may profess it without shame, and defend it without blushing: This is a day of temptation, and you know not what conversation you may be called into by divine providence; you know not what cavils you may meet with to assault your faith, and attack christianity. Be ready therefore to give reasons of the hope that is in you, and to make a just and pertinent reply to gainsayers, and convince those, if possible, that are led away captive by the wiles of the devil to forsake Christ and his gospel. Let not every turn of wit, or sleight of argument and sophistry, make you waver in your faith. It is a gospel that will bear the trial of reasonings and reproaches. It has something in itself that is divine, and therefore it is able to support the professors of it against an army of cavillers.

Use 3. Submit to all the institutions of it. Profess the whole of the gospel; not only the doctrines, but the ordinances of this gospel, are divine and glorious; they have something in them that shew they come from God, and they have something in them that evidently leads to God. They have all something in their sense and signification that discovers divinity. Wait upon God therefore in all his ordinances, in the assemblies of christians, that you may see his power and his glory in his own sanctuary, and that you may, from your own experience, be able to say, that the gospel is too great, too glorious, too divine a thing in its doctrines and worship, and in all its institutions, for you ever to be ashamed of. It has now, for sixteen ages, endured the test of the wit, and the rage of earth and hell, and it shall stand in power and glory, till the heavens be no more.

HYMN FOR SERMON XV. A Rational Defence of the Gospel.

Shall atheists dare insult the cross, Of our Redeemer God? Shall infidels reproach his laws, Or trample on his blood?

What if he chuse mysterious ways, To cleanse us from our faults? May not the works of sov’reign grace Transcend our feeble thoughts!

What if his gospel bids us fight With flesh, and self, and sin? The prize is most divinely bright, Which we are call’d to win.

What if the foolish and the poor, His glorious grace partake? This but confirms his truth the more, For so the prophets spake.

Do some that own his sacred name, Indulge their souls in sin? Jesus should never bear the blame, His laws are pure and clear.

Then let our faith grow firm and strong Our lips profess his word; Nor blush, nor fear to walk among The men that love the Lord.

SERMON XVI. _A Rational Defence of the Gospel: Or, Courage in Professing Christianity._ ROM. i. 16.—I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth. THE SECOND PART.

There are many in the world who call themselves christians, and boast in the name; yet if you ask them what the gospel of Christ is, they are either struck into confusion and silence, or they give such an awkward and impertinent answer, as sufficiently discovers they know little of the religion of Christ, or of the sacred name into which they were baptized. Now that we may act and speak as becomes persons endued with reason, I thought it necessary at first to give some account what this gospel is, that you might know and understand, the religion which you profess; and if ye will glory in the name of christian, ye may be able to tell what it is you mean by christianity.

By reading the books of the New Testament, wherein the gospel is contained, you will find this to be the sum and substance of it, viz. that it is a wise, a holy, and a gracious constitution of God for the recovery of sinful man, by sending his own Son Jesus Christ into the flesh, to obey his law which man had broken, to make a proper atonement for sin by his death, and thus to procure the favour of God, and eternal happiness, for all that believe and repent, and receive this offered salvation; together with a promise of the holy Spirit to work this faith and repentance in their hearts, to renew their sinful natures unto holiness, to form them on earth fit for this happiness, and to bring them to the full possession of it in heaven.

I have shewn, in the next place, what St. Paul meant, when he told the Romans he was not ashamed of this gospel: He was neither ashamed to believe it as a man, nor to profess it as a christian, nor to preach it to others as a minister, nor to defend it as a good soldier of Christ, nor to suffer and die for it as a martyr.

The third thing which I proposed, was to make it appear, that all the occasions of shame, which men of infidelity pretend to raise from this gospel, may be answered upon the fair and just principles of reason and argument. The first sort of reproaches are those which are cast upon the doctrines of the gospel, and I hope I have rolled them away.

I repeat no more of these things, but proceed to the next sort of occasions of shame, and these are such as are supposed to arise from the professors of this gospel; and I shall endeavour to shew you also Low they may be answered. They are chiefly these four.

I. Some will say, “The professors of this gospel in the beginning were the weak, and foolish, and mean things of this world; but it was despised by the wise, it was scorned by the great and honourable, and persecuted by the mighty. Why should a Paul, a pharisee, a doctor of the law, become a follower of a carpenter’s Son, and associate with a parcel of fishermen? This is a scandal, and foolish indeed. Who among the pharisees or rulers have believed on him; John vii. 48.” This was the stumbling-block of the gospel in that age, and it is the stumbling-block at which many persons take offence in our age too. “It is the unthinking multitude, say they, the mere mob of mankind, that are led away with the noise of strange things and the gospel. And it is only those who have no relish of good sense that can dispense with mysteries. The poorer and weaker sort of men and women flock after your powerful preachers of the gospel, but wise men despise it.” I am very glad, my friends, if in your conversation you meet with no such persons that ridicule the gospel at this rate. But there are many in our age and nation arrived at this height of pride and contempt of the gospel.

This objection may have more answers than one given to it; as first, it is a matter of unjust reproach, and it is false in fact; for all the professors of this gospel are not weak and unlearned. There have been in the very beginning of christianity some wise, some great persons, that have given testimony to this gospel by their believing it. St. Paul was a man of no weak reason, no mean understanding, no small learning, and yet he believes this gospel, and professes he is not ashamed of it.

And there have been in most ages of the church some instances of the power and success of this gospel in converting philosophers and senators and princes. The learned, the ingenious, and the noble amongst mankind have sometimes given up their names to Christ, have yielded their assent to his doctrines, and conformed their hearts and lives to the rules of his gospel. Men of wit and reason have been converted to the faith, and then have exerted their peculiar talents in the defence of christianity, and they have convinced the world that they had neither left their reason nor their wit behind them when they became christians. Men of grandeur and power have sometimes also supported it with honour.

But the number of these have not been exceeding great. God has ordained that there should be some, to shew that it is no foolish and unreasonable doctrine, that it is not a religion unworthy of kings, nor unbecoming the wisest and the greatest of characters. But if there have been but a few great and wise have embraced it, it is evident that its success and glory is not owing to the wisdom and power of men, but to the divinity of its doctrines, and the power of God.

Besides, I might tell you, secondly, that riches, and grandeur, and elevated degrees of wit and learning, become a sore temptation to pride of mind and self-sufficiency. Now the faith of the gospel is founded in humility, and self-diffidence, and poverty of spirit; and this is one plain reason why it was received by so few of the rich, and the learned, and the mighty among men, though it was contrived and invented by God himself.

I answer, in the third place, that it is one of the designed characters of the true gospel of Christ, and it is foretold by the ancient prophets, that when it should come to be preached upon the earth, the poor should receive it. Its reception by the poor and weak among men, is one evidence that it comes from God; Mat. xi. 5. When John the baptist sent his disciples to our Saviour to know whether he was the Messiah, or must they expect another? Go, tell John, the blind receive sight, the deaf hear, and the lame walk, and to the poor the gospel is preached; blessed is he that is not offended in me, &c. Go, and give John this very account I now relate to you, and tell him these are my credentials, these are the testimonials I bring. John will infer that I am the Messiah, and this is the true gospel that I preach; for the great and rich, and the pretenders to wisdom among the Jews, account it a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, and only a few of the poor receive it; as it was foretold by the prophets.

Each of us may say therefore, if only the wise, or the great, or the rich, believed it, it must have been such a gospel as I could never have believed; for it wanted one character which is necessarily adjoined to it, that is, that the poor receive the gospel: Father, I thank thee, says our Lord, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, but thou hast revealed them unto babes; Mat xi. 25. “It pleased God, when the world by wisdom knew not God,” to darken all their wisdom, and turn it into folly, and to call those that were esteemed fools, and make them wise in believing the gospel, of Christ. It has pleased God to chuse the mean, and weak, and contemptible things of this world to confound the wise and mighty. It has pleased him to chuse the things that are not, to bring to nought the things that are, that no flesh might glory in his presence; 1 Cor. i. 27, &c.

II. It is another occasion of stumbling or shame in the gospel of Christ, that some of the professors of it are vicious in their lives. “Will you believe such a gospel, says an infidel, that does not restrain the professors of it from the worst of sins?”

This, I confess, gives it great dishonour among the men of the world, and is sometimes ready to shake the faith of younger christians; they know not how to go on farther in christianity, for such and such that made great profession, you see how they are fallen. This is a common temptation of the devil; it is a frequent snare, and there hath been many a pious soul that hath been in danger of being caught thereby. The vices of some professors were great even in St. Paul’s days: There were some among the Philippians; Phil. iii. 18. “Of whom I have told you often, and now even weeping, that they walk as enemies to the cross of Christ, and cast scandal and shame upon it. It makes my eyes flow with tears, and my soul bleed within me to hear of it: The gospel of Christ is so much dishonoured by these means.”

But if we take a nearer view, we shall see that no doctrine ought to fare the worse, because some wicked men are professors of it. It was not counted a discredit to philosophy, that some of the professors of it, who hated the gospel, were vicious in their lives. I would ask the deist now, is there any ground to disbelieve natural religion, because there are some that make profession of it are fallen into great sins? The gospel itself teaches us to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts, and does not indulge one of them. And they are said to be enemies to the cross of Christ, when their conversation is all earthly, when their God is their belly, and their glory is their shame. This is no fault of the gospel, for they felt not the power of it. Nor is there any religion or profession in the world that would have had any followers at all by this time, if men must have entirely cashiered that religion, because there have been some persons vicious that have been professors of it. There is no sect, no religion in the world, though the institution and the rules of it have been ever so pious, but what has produced some persons that have been vicious in their lives.

But this cavil is still carried on, and urged with much vehemence. “If the gospel of Christ were a religion so heavenly, and so divine in its original, as you pretend, surely the nations that profess it would eminently exceed all other nations in piety, in justice and goodness: whereas the nations that now a-days embrace christianity, are not at all superior to the Mahometans, nor to some of the heathens, either in duty that relates to God or man: And if we may give credit to ancient history, the virtues of the old Romans, long before the days of Julius Cæsar, shone much brighter than any of the virtues of the baptized nations: There was more truth and honesty, more devotion to the heavenly powers, more of a public spirit and zeal for their country’s good, than we can find in any christian kingdoms or states now-a-days.” To this I would give these three answers:

1. The account which we have of the shining virtues of these best ages of heathenism, is given us only by their own posterity, who lived in succeeding ages. Now it is the well-known temper and custom of mankind to magnify the virtue of their ancestors, and to say, that the former times are better than these; But you have scarce any heathen writers, who do not describe their own ages as vicious enough, if they have occasion to talk upon that subject. And therefore there is just reason to suspect the strict truth of these encomiums of their fore-fathers.

2. Although some social virtues in a heathen country might really flourish more for an age or two, springing from the principles of ambition, and honour, and love to their own country; yet there were such vices also practised among many of the gentile nations, which are seldom heard or known among christians: The apostle describes them in Rom. i. 26. and that in such a manner, as leads us to believe, that they were practised by those who professed wisdom among them.

It must be acknowledged also, that these nations were gross idolaters, and worshipped many gods, and that even in the times when their social virtues were most conspicuous. Now this is most highly criminal in the sight of the great and sovereign God, the Creator of all things: And the warmer and the more zealous were their devotions which they paid to these idols, with the neglect or contempt of the true God, the greater was their guilt and abomination.

But, 3. The chief answer I give is this, that when whole kingdoms are made christians merely by birth, education, and custom, it is not to be supposed that a twentieth part of them believe the gospel upon any just and reasonable principles of knowledge and choice. When whole cities and nations are worshippers of Christ, no otherwise than the Ephesians were worshippers of Diana, or the Turks of Mahomet, it is not reasonable to expect that there should be much difference in the virtues of such a national sort of Christians, Mahometans, or Heathens; for the principle from which all their religion springs is the same, namely, their education, custom, and fashion of their country; and therefore their vices are much the same as they would be according to the present reigning humour, disposition, or political temper of the nation, whatsoever were their form of religion and their established worship.

The true way therefore to put these things to the test, is to consider those christians only who believe and profess the gospel from knowledge, and choice, and inward conviction, and who make their religion a matter of solemnity and importance and not of mere form and custom. Now if you separate these from the rest of mankind, I am well assured, that as bad as the christian world is, you will find all the human and divine virtues more gloriously practised among such christians as these, than among an equal number of the professors of any other religion under the sun: For inward christianity, and the faith of the gospel, when it is built upon just foundations, will necessarily draw along with it such a train of virtues and graces, as shall adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour; and by such a comparison as this, men would be constrained to confess that God is among us of a truth.

III. The various and divided opinions, the sects and parties that are found in the christian world, have been another occasion of scandal and offence to the infidels. “How can we ever come, say they, to any certainty what your religion is, since you do not agree about it among yourselves?”

“All Europe pretends to be christian, and to believe the gospel; yet France, and Spain, and Italy, and Poland, and a good part of Germany, tell us, that true christianity is found only amongst them. But in the countries of Denmark, Sweden, and the northern parts of Germany, and in the British islands, there is another religion professed, of a very different kind, and they call theirs the pure gospel, and reformed christianity. The protestant and the papist divide these western parts of the world, and they are ready to tear one another to pieces upon the account of their different opinions and practices. Now if the books that contain the religion of Christ be of so very uncertain sense and signification, truly we are ashamed of such a doubtful religion; it is even as well for us to content ourselves with the religion that the light of nature teaches us, and the dictates of our common reason, which we think has more certainty in it.”

To this I answer, that it is a great mistake to imagine that the light of nature and reason, if left entirely to itself in this corrupt and fallen state, has more certainty in its determinations than scripture hath. How many wild opinions hath the corrupt mind of man produced among the inhabitants of the heathen world, and this same light of nature has not corrected them? What infinite diversity of vain and monstrous fancies hath past for religion and devotion among them? And the light of nature has been supposed to dictate some of them, for they did not always pretend revelation for them. There have been wide and irreconcileable differences among the philosophers, as well as among the priests and the people of different nations. The light of nature and reason is a poor dark bewildered thing, if it hath no commerce, nor communication with persons who have been favoured with divine revelation. It is only the scripture that has established and ascertained the doctrines of natural religion: And it is to the scripture that the deists of our age are obliged for their greater acquaintance with natural religion than ever their forefathers, the heathen philosophers, arrived at, though they are too proud to acknowledge it. If they agree better, and are more uniform in their principles now than the old epicureans, the stoics, and the platonists were, it is all owing to a more intimate acquaintance with the writings of Moses and the prophets, the evangelists, and the apostles; so that it is with a very ill grace that our present infidels can object to christians their difference of opinions, and pretend that this is a ground of shame to the gospel of Christ, and a reason why they do not believe or profess it.

But I come now to give some account of the true reasons of such divisions of sect and party among christians. There are two great causes of these divisions, and the charge is not to be laid upon the gospel of Christ, nor upon the books that contain it.

1. The first cause is, that the papist does not pretend to derive his religion merely from the bible; but he brings in the Jewish apocryphal writers of ancient ages, and lays them also for a foundation of his faith; and he makes the traditions of the christian church, which he pretends to have been delivered down from age to age, of almost the same authority as the scripture itself: And some of their authors have raised these traditions to equal dignity with the scripture, as being built upon the same foundation, viz. the authority of the church. As they have many things in their religion which they cannot find in the word of God; so they think it is sufficient if they can support them by these pretended traditions of the church. Whereas the protestant takes nothing for the ground of his faith but the books of the Old and New Testament; and what he cannot find written there, nor derived thence by most obvious and evident consequences, he does not profess it as any necessary part of his christianity. The religion of the protestant therefore is abundantly more conformable to the gospel of Christ, both in the doctrines and the worship of it, because it derives the whole from the word of God: But it is no wonder at all that there should be such a difference between them and the papists, when they lay such different foundations for their faith and practice.

2. Another reason why the protestant and papist differ so much is, because the papist pretends that there is an infallible judge among them to determine all controversies; and that their popes, and their councils, which they call the church, have authority to appoint what shall be esteemed the true articles of faith, and to bring in rites and ceremonies into their worship according to their own invention and pleasure. And that all the people are bound to believe as the church bids them believe, and to practise in matters of worship whatsoever the church bids them practise: And upon this account they forbid the scripture to be read by the common people, that they may not learn the truth of the gospel, but may take all for gospel which they teach them, and be content with it. Whereas the protestant has nothing else but his bible to have recourse to for the conclusion of all controversies; and he encourages every man to use his bible, and to judge for himself concerning the sense and meaning of it, using the best helps that he can obtain for this end: The protestant ministers teach him not only what they know of the gospel, but they put the bible into his hand, and bid him search and see whether things are so or no, that thence he may learn what are those doctrines and those duties which Christ has required him to believe and practise. Thence it comes to pass, that there are almost a thousand things in popery, which the protestants utterly disown, because they disown the power of the pope, or church, to stamp new articles of faith, or invent new forms of worship.

Objection. But it may be said still, there are so many different sects and parties among the protestants themselves, as encourages the deist to maintain his charge and accusation.—“Why do you, saith he, who profess to derive all your religion from the scripture, differ so much among yourselves, both in doctrine, in worship, and in the order of your churches, if the gospel of Christ be so excellent a religion, and if the books that contain it can give you so plain and certain a knowledge of it!”

I answer, That almost all those things wherein protestants differ, are but of smaller importance in religion, in comparison of those many and great things wherein they agree. The chief and most important points of christianity are written with so much plainness and evidence in the word of God, as would lead all humble, honest, sincere and diligent enquirers into a belief of them, and consent in them. Now it is not necessary that the lesser matters of christianity should be written down so expressly in scripture: For the all-wise God thought it proper to leave many of these articles of less importance more dubious and obscure, both to awaken the diligence of men to study his word, and to leave amongst them some occasions for the exercise of their mutual charity and forbearance. Our blessed Lord has thought it proper to put the universal love which he requires amongst his followers, to this test or trial, to see whether they will cultivate peace and charity to one another amidst their various and divided opinions in things of less concernment.

I confess there are some differences among protestants in the great doctrines of the Trinity, and the satisfaction of Christ, which must be acknowledged to be articles of very high moment and importance in christianity. But if we compare those few who profess dangerous opinions in these points with the millions that agree in the same general profession of faith, it will be found that their number is but very small. If we consider the great ignorance of God, which is found in all men by nature, and take a survey of the unhappy influences that education, fancy, passion, pride, friendship, aversion, precipitance and laziness, have upon mankind in forming their judgments and opinions, we shall not wonder to find some persons here and there falling into strange sentiments, contrary to the plain and sufficient evidence of scripture. We believe in general, that whoever puts off all prejudices, and is piously sincere in his search of the word of God, shall certainly find, through divine assistance, all needful truth. If therefore a disbeliever come with a serious, humble, and pious mind, and apply himself with diligence and fervent prayer to read the scripture; I am well assured he will become a christian, and find out so much of the doctrines and duties of the gospel, as are necessary to his eternal happiness.

But there will be heresies arising sometimes in the church. Tares will grow up sometimes in the field that is ever so well cultivated, and sown with corn: And what unknown reasons there may be in the counsels and providence of God in permitting heresies to arise for the farther trial of his own people, is too high and hard a point for us to determine. The apostle saith; 1 Cor. xi. 19. There must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest: If such a thing as this is, shall be abused by men of corrupt minds, to turn them quite away from the gospel of Christ, and to support their own infidelity, they must answer for it at the great day to Christ their Judge.

Thus I have done with the third charge or accusation brought against the gospel, and removed the scandal and shame that some men have thrown upon it, because there are such sects, and parties, and divided opinions among the professors of it.

IV. Another occasion of scandal which infidels charge upon the gospel of Christ, is this, “That some who have long professed it have forsaken it; and one should be ashamed to embrace such a faith as this is, for it has been tried, and found to be vain and groundless, even by those who have known it long, and searched it through and through, and therefore at last they have abandoned and cast it off.”

But in answer to this, give me leave to say, first, that the chief and most common reason why persons who have professed christianity cast it off, is not because they found any just reason of blame either in its principles or rules; but because they think it too strict for them, and it curbs their vicious appetites more than they like.

I will allow, that perhaps there may be some persons who have abandoned the christian religion from a wantonness of fancy, from a licentiousness of thought, from a pride of reasoning, and who make it their glory to have thrown off the bonds of their education, and to have obtained the honour of free-thinkers, or from a presuming conceit that they must comprehend every thing in their religion, and will believe nothing that hath mysteries in it. Such vain principles as these may have influenced some minds, and given them up to apostacy: But, I fear, far the greatest part of those who forsake the gospel, have been tempted to it by the power of their lusts, which the gospel would restrain: and some of these persons upon their death-beds have confessed it too.

This is also sufficiently visible in the world, that when men have long professed this gospel and forsaken it, they seldom grow more pious, more sober, more honest or good than before; but, on the contrary, they generally have indulged vicious excesses, and neglected all piety, and this is rather a ground of glory to the gospel than a just reason of shame.

If these persons had generally grown more holy, if they had feared God more afterwards than ever they did before, if they had more aimed at the glory of God, and loved him better, when they forsook Christ and his gospel, then we might have some reason to suspect this gospel was false, and a mere mistake or imposture. But when these persons grow more unjust than before, love their neighbour less, are become more sensual, more selfish, disregard God more than they did before; I repeat it again, this is rather a ground of glory to the gospel of Christ, than of shame. Demas hath forsaken us, saith Paul, because he loved this present world; 2 Tim. iv. 10. A covetous Demas is no good argument why St. Paul should forsake Christ, or be ashamed of the gospel. And the apostle has shewn that those who have made shipwreck of their faith, have parted with a good conscience too, and lost their virtue; 1 Tim. i. 19, 20.

But there is another answer which the apostle John gives to this objection in his first epistle, chap. ii. ver. 19. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us. They might make a profession of the gospel, and perhaps give a real assent to the truths and doctrines of it by the convincing influence of miracles and human reason, or perhaps they became christians merely by the force of education, because they were taught this religion from their childhood, and professed it without thought; but they never had such a powerful belief of this gospel of Christ, as to change their hearts, to renew their natures, to form their souls after the image of Christ into real holiness; and therefore like the hearers that are compared to stony ground, the seed did not sink deep into their hearts, though they might receive the word at first with joy, but having not root in themselves; they endure but for a while, and when any temptation arises, they are offended, and depart from the faith which they once professed; Mat. xiii. 20, 21. Thus it appears, that the gospel of Christ is never the worse in itself, nor does it deserve the less esteem in the world, notwithstanding such apostates as these, no more than seed-corn should be pronounced nought, because it does not bring forth a harvest in every soil.

I have now finished the third general head of discourse which I proposed, and have shewn, whatsoever occasions of shame might be supposed to arise either from the doctrines of the gospel, or the professors of it, are unjustly charged as blemishes on the gospel; and I have given particular answers to both sorts of cavils, and defeated the accusations.

One word of advice to christians shall conclude the present discourse; and that is this:—

Since the gospel of Christ gives no just occasions of shame, you that are professors of it should take heed that you do nothing to cast shame on this gospel. Do not mingle the christian faith with doubtful notions of your own. Do not defile your christian conversation with sinful practices. Do not make the lesser circumstances and appendages of your religion the matter of loud contest, and a party strife; for all these things expose the gospel to shame, and may justly put its professors to the blush, in the face of the world, when they are guilty of these practices.

Let me insist a little upon each of these.

1. Do not mingle the christian faith with doubtful notions and fancies of your own. The articles of our christianity, and the necessary truths of the gospel, are divine and glorious: Take heed you do not bring in your peculiar sentiments and favourite opinions, which have no sufficient evidence from the word of God, and join them in the same dignity with the articles of your faith; and much less should you dare to impose them upon the consciences of your fellow-christians. The gospel itself will suffer by it, and sink in the esteem of the world, when the divine doctrines of it are mingled with our weaknesses, and debased by the addition of our doubtful sentiments.

2. Defile not your christian conversation with sinful practices. Indulge not a conformity to this present evil world in any of the corrupt and unlawful customs and courses of it. Mingle not your practice of the lovely duties which this gospel enjoins, with lying, and slandering, and railing; do not interline your lives with religion and sin, with devotion and shameful lusts. It is a gospel that forbids all iniquity, it requires that you mortify sin and cleanse yourselves from every defilement of flesh and spirit, and that you go on to perfect holiness in the fear of the Lord; 2 Cor. vii. 1. The very design and end of it in God’s eternal counsels and contrivance, is, that you might be holy, and without blame before him in love; Eph. i. 4. If you pursue this advice, then shall others, who behold you, confess that there is something divine in christianity, when you thus adorn the doctrine of God your Saviour. Thus you give the gospel its due honour by believing all it reveals, by worshipping according to the methods of its appointment, and by that purity of conversation which it enjoins.

3. Make not the lesser circumstances and appendages of your religion the matter of loud contest, and a party-strife. We are called to contend earnestly for the great and necessary doctrines of faith, which were once delivered to the saints: But we are commanded also to receive those that are weak in the faith, without involving them in doubtful disputations about matters of less moment. Give no occasion to the infidel to blaspheme the gospel by your factions and quarrels, and the rage of a bitter and unsanctified zeal. Oh that the time were come, when the wolf and lamb shall lie down together, and there shall be nothing to hurt or destroy in all the holy mountain! But surely, it is very hard if the lambs themselves, who belong to the flock of Christ, cannot live without hurting and destroying one another; that christians cannot live without exposing their divine and heavenly religion to the blasphemies of sinful men. Happy were the christian world, if we could all behave ourselves so as never to give occasion to the adversary to reproach the professors of the christian faith, nor throw shame and dishonour upon the gospel of Christ! May the blessed Spirit of God teach us this lesson effectually, and let it be copied out in our lives daily, till we arrive at the regions of perfect holiness and love! Amen.

SERMON XVII. _A Rational Defence of the Gospel: Or, Courage in Professing Christianity._ ROM. i. 16.——I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth. THE THIRD PART.

Though the passion of shame has something in it that sinks our nature, and enfeebles our spirits, yet it is a very becoming passion, where sin is the object of it; and indeed it was wisely ordained by our Creator to be a guardian to those small remains of natural virtue that abide in us since the fall. We find the first young sinners clothed with shame in the garden of Eden at the presence of God. But the growing corruption of our natures, the subtilty of Satan, and the temptations of this world have joined together to take this piece of artillery out of the hands of virtue, and make use of it in their attacks upon religion and goodness. We ought to be ashamed indeed of nothing but our sin, our folly, and our wretchedness; but we have been too ready to be ashamed, even of the grace of God, and the methods of our recovery from folly, wretchedness, and sin. The gospel itself, the glorious gospel, has been made a matter of reproach among men, and its professors have been sometimes tempted to be ashamed of it.

The blessed apostle in my text had gained a victory over this temptation, for he was not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. Whatsoever there might be contained in the doctrines of this gospel, or whatsoever might be found among the professors of it, from which infidels or unbelievers might take occasion to throw shame and scandal upon it; yet I have shewn in the two foregoing discourses, that all this is unjustly charged on the gospel, and have given particular answers to both sorts of cavils.

I go on now to the last proposal, which is to explain the force of the apostle’s argument against shame in professing and preaching this gospel, and to make it appear, that the words of my text contain a general and most extensive guard, or defence, against all possible occasions of shame in the profession of christianity; and that is, that the gospel of Christ is the power of God for the salvation of all that believe.

Now this is an argument which you, who believe in Christ, may all assume to yourselves as well as the apostle: You cannot preach this gospel so well as he, nor explain the reasons of your faith to others, and establish it upon so solid and unshaken foundations of argument, as Paul could do; but every christian, that has embraced the faith, and felt the power of this gospel for his own salvation, may give this reason for the profession of it, and may support his courage in opposition to all the sharpest temptations of mockery and reproach.

When the apostle says, it is the power of God, we must suppose him to understand, it is a most powerful means, or effectual instrument that God uses, to save souls, and it is attended with divine power for that end.

It is more powerful than the light of nature; for we have no just reason to believe, that the mere light of nature, without some helps of divine revelation, or some unwritten traditions of it, ever saved any souls at all; and if there have been any of the sinners of the heathen nations made partakers of grace, I think it is otherwise to be accounted for than merely by the poor remains of the light of nature.

It is more powerful than any religion that men or angels could invent, and more powerful too, than any religion that God himself ever invented, or revealed, and proposed to men before the gospel of Christ. His revelations to the patriarchs were but few; they were made here and there to a house or two, or to a family; they were particular favours that he bestowed upon persons called out of idolatry, nor had they a very long, nor spreading, nor lasting influence, except in the family of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, where they were frequently renewed.

It is more powerful than all the revelations of grace, which God made by Moses to the children of Israel, and intermingled with the Jewish law: for these discoveries reached but to one single nation, and wrought but feebly toward the conversion of sinful souls to God and holiness, in comparison of what the gospel of Christ has done.

Besides, let it be considered, that all the power which all the former discoveries of grace to the patriarchs, or to the Jews, had to save souls, was derived from the gospel of Christ, which is contained in them in lower measures, and in a more obscure manner. Therefore since the gospel of Christ now stands forth in open light, and in full glory, it is most eminently powerful to convert sinners, to bring this apostate world back again to God, and to save millions of souls.

I. It is the most powerful means of salvation, considered in itself, and in its own nature and influence.—II. It is the most powerful means, as it is accompanied with the influences of the Holy Spirit.

The first of these maybe called a moral persuasive influence; the last is supernatural and sovereign. Let us meditate on each of these distinctly.

I. It is the most powerful means, if we consider the gospel in itself, and its own nature. Not that the mere word of the gospel, reaching the ears of men, is sufficient to change the heart, and to save the soul without divine influences: For it is said to be the power of God to salvation; that is, it is that doctrine whereby God exerts his divine power to save sinful man. But still it must be granted, that the doctrine itself in its own nature has a very great and evident tendency to this glorious end, as it is the noblest, the richest, and the brightest discovery of grace that ever was made to man.

If we consider it in its own nature, it has the greatest moral power, or persuasive influence toward the salvation of perishing sinners. This is easily proved by explaining what this salvation means.

Salvation includes in it a freedom from the guilt and punishment of sin, together with a right and title to heaven; it implies also a freedom from the power of sin, and thereby a preparation for heaven, and a final possession of it. Under each of these considerations it will appear with great evidence, that the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is the power of God to salvation.

1. It is the most powerful means to set sinners free from the guilt and punishment of sin, and to relieve a distressed conscience under the sense of divine anger: It gives the most effectual security to a believer against the terrors of hell and eternal death; for it not only declares, that there is forgiveness with God, but it shews us the foundation upon which this forgiveness stands, namely, the satisfaction made to the offended justice of God by the death and sacrifice of Jesus Christ, his Son. Suppose it were possible for a philosopher, or wise man, to prove that God would forgive the sins of the penitent, yet there is nothing but the gospel that can set the conscience at such joyful ease from the terror of guilt, and release the soul from the chains wherewith it was held: “For now, says the believer, I not only hear it proved by divine testimony, that there is pardon of sin to be obtained from God, but I see how God may do it with honour: I behold the atonement that is made by Christ Jesus, his own Son: The atonement is equal to the offence: He can justify me, though I am a sinner, upon the account of this perfect righteousness, and he can do it with glory to all his terrible perfections; therefore I may venture my assent to this doctrine, and I may rest my soul upon it.”

2. The gospel is a powerful means also to raise undeserving sinners to a hope of heaven and eternal life. It shews us what heaven is, by the discoveries of one that has been there, even the Son of God himself. Life and immortality are brought to light by this gospel, which lay hid under much darkness before; 2 Tim. i. 10. It teaches us also, how the happiness of heaven is procured for us, even by the obedience and blood of the Son of God; and therefore, some think, heaven is called the purchased possession in Eph. i. 14. It assures us, that this blessed state of the enjoyment of God in unchangeable peace, and in the company of blessed spirits, waits for every believer, when he is dislodged from this flesh, and when the habitation of the body is no longer fit to retain the spirit: And it reveals also the final heaven of the saints, when the body shall be raised into immortality. “Without this gospel, says the soul, I could have no just ground to hope for heaven; for all my best righteousnesses are imperfect, my fairest acts of holiness have many defects in them; but I behold the perfect righteousness of my Saviour that has procured it. A life of holiness without defect, and a most submissive obedience to a painful and shameful death, has been the price and purchase of it.”

3. This gospel is a most powerful means to subdue sin in the soul, to mortify corrupt nature, to inspire us with virtue, to wean our hearts from vice, sensuality, and trifles, and from all the insufficient pretences to blessedness that the world can flatter us with. The gospel of Christ, both in his own personal ministry of it, and in the writings of his apostles, sets before us the most divine scheme of morality, piety and virtue, that ever the world knew. The sacred dictates of probity and goodness towards men, as well as the venerable rules of piety toward God, which are scattered up and down in an imperfect and obscure manner among the philosophers, and shine like a star here and there in the midnight darkness of heathenism; these are all collected and refined in the gospel of Christ, and fill the christian world with a pure and universal light like the sun unclouded in a meridian sky: We know our duty infinitely better from the instructions of Christ and St. Paul, than all the Platos, and the Plutarchs, all the Zenos and the Antonines of Greece and Rome, could ever teach us.

The most divine rules of the gospel are attended also with the noblest motives to love virtue, and to hate all vice; for never was the evil of sin so displayed to the eyes and senses of men, as by the cross and gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Never did sin appear so hateful, so abominable, so justly the object of divine and human hatred, as when it appeared pressing the soul of the holy One of God into agonies and sharp anguish. A believer, who has seen the evil of sin as revealed in this gospel, will hate it, and will be led powerfully to a conquest over it.

Besides, the terrors of hell are revealed to us among the doctrines of christianity, as the just punishment of sin, and that in such a manner as no other religion pretends to: For, as the doors of heaven are opened by our Lord Jesus Christ, both by his ministry on earth, and by his ascent into heaven, and by the farther discoveries which his apostles have made of the future unseen happy world, so the doors of hell are opened too. Our Lord Jesus himself preached hell and terrors to sinners with a sacred vehemence, and set everlasting fire in a clearer and more dreadful light than ever had been done by all the philosophers in the world. The soul of every saint has been in some measure a witness of this truth, when it lay under the work of divine conviction.

And not only the horrid nature and evil of sin, and the dreadful consequences of it, are powerful motives to make us stand afar off, and fear it: but “The sweet and constraining influence of the love of Christ does most effectually incline me, saith the believer, to hate every sin, and to follow after universal holiness: Shall I build up again the things which my Saviour died to destroy? This would be to make him suffer agonies in vain, and run counter to all the designs of his bleeding love, and the voluntary sacrifice of his soul?”

“I have also the glorious and perfect example of my blessed Lord: Never did virtue and religion shine so bright, and look so amiable as in his life, and he has set it before me as my pattern: I feel the attractive and divine power of it: Where my Lord leads, I must follow; for I would fain be like him. He draws me by his example, and he draws me too by his heavenly promises. He spreads the glories and the joys of heaven before me, to allure my hope; I see those sacred glories, I long after the possession of these unfading joys, and I must and will keep the path that leads to paradise, that where my Lord is, I may be also. The rules and precepts of holiness, which my Lord has taught me, are more pure, more clean, more perfect, more divine and godlike, than ever any other scheme of rules and duties was; and the joyful and dreadful motives given me to press after this holiness, are infinitely beyond all the motives that any doctrine of religion has proposed. Blessed be God that I ever learnt those holy rules, that I ever felt the power of these divine motives, and am become a lover of holiness.”

4. Thus the gospel prepares the saint for heaven, and fits every power of his soul for the business and blessedness of those happy regions. “Once, says he, I had no delight in spiritual things; I had no relish of spiritual pleasures; but now I taste them with delight, and I rejoice in the hopes of a sweeter and more complete taste of them on high. Once I had no love to God: it is true, I feared him as some unknown and extraordinary terror; but I had no delight in him, no desire after him. Now he is the object of my warmest love, and of my sweetest meditations. Heaven itself, as it is described in the word of God, was not pleasant to me. What! The everlasting continuance of a sabbath? Perpetual employments of worship and service to be done for God everlastingly? These are things that were not agreeable to carnal nature; but by the influence of this gospel of Christ my heart is new-moulded, and I delight in the fore-thoughts of such a heaven as the gospel describes.” Such instances as these of the sweet efficacy of the gospel upon the soul of man, turning it into a divine temper, and fitting it for the enjoyment of God, are so many proofs of the power of this gospel unto salvation, and so many grounds and reasons why the believer cannot be ashamed of it.

But I must add, in the fifth place, it is the gospel of Christ that brings believers to the final possession of heaven. Then, and not till then, is the salvation perfect, it is the gospel that has given us an unchangeable promise of heaven, when our state of trial is ended here on earth, and Christ is bound to fulfil it. The gospel assures us, that when we are absent from the body, we shall be present with the Lord. When we see the heavens open at the death of Stephen the first martyr, and Jesus Christ, standing there to receive his departing spirit; we believe that the same Jesus will fulfil the same kind office to us also, and receive our spirits, if we have been found faithful to the death.

The same gospel also gives us a more distant hope and glorious assurance of the resurrection of our bodies from the prison of the grave. When we behold the body of our blessed Saviour rising from the tomb, and ascending to glory, and when we are told, that his resurrection is a pledge and pattern of ours; then with a joyful expectation we wait for the same blessedness. The gospel lays an obligation upon Christ himself to raise his saints from the dead; for he himself tells us, that it is the will of his Father, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, should have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day; John vi. 40.

Hence it comes to pass, that the believer triumphs over death under the influence of these hopes. “Now, saith the saint, I can venture to die; for my spirit shall be received to dwell with my Saviour among the spirits of the just that are made perfect. These feeble and withering limbs of mine I can chearfully commit them to dust and the grave; for the great trumpet must sound, the dead must arise, my Redeemer will call my flesh from its dark prison; I shall arise to meet the Lord in the air, and dwell with him for ever in unknown worlds of blessedness.” Thus I have shewn you the first thing I proposed, viz. how the gospel in its own nature has a very proper and powerful tendency in a moral or persuasive way towards the salvation of the soul, as it insures pardoning grace and final blessedness to believers.

II. I come now to shew how the gospel is made powerful to the salvation of sinners by the accompanying influence of the Spirit of God, and this is supernatural and sovereign. If I should run over all the particulars I have just before mentioned, I might make it appear in each of them, how the Spirit of God by the word of his gospel, works this salvation.

It is this blessed Spirit that awakens the stupid and thoughtless sinner to a sense of his guilt and danger. It is he shews him the evil of sin, and makes him groan after deliverance, and cry out, what shall I do to be saved? And it is the Spirit that reveals and discovers Christ Jesus to him as the only and all-sufficient Saviour: It is he who shews the convinced sinner, that there is righteousness and grace to be found in Christ, to answer all his present complaints and necessities. The word of the gospel says these things indeed, but it is like a dead letter, till the living spirit speaks them over again, and, as it were, constrains us to hear the voice of encouragement and hope. It is he represents the death and sufferings of the Son of God, as an effectual atonement for sin, and makes the soul believe it, and teaches us how to lay hold on this hope, to fly to this refuge, to receive this atonement: It is the Spirit of God that softens the hardest heart, and melts it into godly sorrow: It is he makes us willing to accept of Jesus as a Prince and a Saviour, to renew our sinful natures, to refine our hearts, and thereby to reform our lives: It is he that takes the blood of Christ, and applies it to a distressed conscience under the guilt of sin, and thus gives the disquieted soul rest and peace: He takes of the things of Christ, and shews them unto us in all their glory and sufficiency for our salvation, and thereby justly obtains the name of the paraclete, that is, an advocate for Christ, and a comforter to us: John xiv. 26. and xv. 26. and xvi. 14, 15. He composes the ruffles of the disturbed mind, and speaks all the waves of the soul into a calm: He makes all within us peaceful and easy, under the apprehensions of divine forgiveness through the merit of Christ.

It is only the Spirit of God that can make the discoveries of heaven in the gospel effectual to awaken our hope, and to raise our joy: He shews us how it is purchased by the blood of Christ, and that it is made sure to all those that believe: He stamps his own holy image upon us, and seals us up for the inheritance of heaven; Eph. i. 13. When ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed it, ye were then sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance. The Spirit is sent into our hearts as a Spirit of adoption, whereby we call God Father; Gal. iv. 6. And he changes us from children of wrath into the sons and daughters of the living God; and he himself dwelling in us is a pledge and earnest of that inheritance, which is reserved for us among the saints in light.

It is the same blessed Spirit that makes the gospel of Christ powerful to mortify sin in us; for though the words of the gospel forbid all iniquity, and require us to renounce the lusts of the flesh, and the vanities of the world, if we belong to Christ; yet it is by the Spirit of God alone that we are enabled to mortify the deeds of the body, that we may obtain eternal life: It is he that makes the commands of Christ come with divine power and authority upon the soul, and gives the motives of the gospel power to persuade us: It is he that renews our affections, makes us hate sin, and love God supremely, and causes us to delight in the spiritual pleasures of a future, unseen world, which before we treated with contempt, or disregard: It is by the sanctification of the Spirit, and the belief of the truth, that we are prepared for the heavenly glory whereunto we are called by the gospel; 2 Thess. ii. 13. And since the Spirit of God is promised to dwell in us for ever; John xiv. 16, 17. we have good reason to believe he will be our eternal Sanctifier in heaven and our eternal Comforter.

There is such a thing as the influence of the Spirit of God attending the gospel of Christ. The apostle argues thus with the Galatian christians, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Gal. iii. 2. And it is the great promise of the gospel, or the new covenant, that God would send his Spirit to make it powerful for the blessed ends for which he has designed it; Ezek. xxxvi. 25, 26, 27. Joel. ii. 28. Zech. xii. 10. Is. xliv. 3.

In the primitive days of christianity, and the age of miracles, the Holy Spirit attended the preaching of the gospel with his extraordinary gifts of tongues, of healing, of prophecy, as well as with the graces of conviction, and sanctification, and comfort: And the suddenness and the glory of the change that was wrought on sinners carried with it an illustrious and incontested proof of the presence and power of God and his Spirit. Nor have some fainter resemblances of such glorious grace been altogether wanting in later ages. There have been some most remarkable instances of great sinners converted at once by the gospel of Christ, and the demonstrations of the Spirit.

But in his more usual and ordinary communications of grace, he works so gently upon our natures, and in so sweet and connatural a way, as not to distinguish his agency in a sensible manner from the motions of our own souls; for he never disturbs our rational powers, nor puts any violence upon the natural faculties; yet when we are changed, when we are renewed, when sin is mortified, the scripture tells us, that it is the Spirit of God has done it: When our souls are prepared for heaven, and our corrupted natures sanctified, and suited to the things that are prepared in heaven for us, we are assured by the word of God, that the Holy Spirit has been the great operator, and has wrought this change in us. Thus I have made it appear at large, how the gospel of Christ is the power of God to salvation. I apply myself immediately to raise a few inferences from the subject I have been treating of.

Inference.—I. How unreasonable are all the reproaches that are cast upon this gospel! A gospel that saves mankind from misery, and from sin, and eternal death! A gospel that teaches men how to appear before a holy and terrible God with comfort, though their sins are many, and their righteousnesses are imperfect! A gospel that gives the hope of pardon to criminals and rebels, and the hope of heaven to undeserving creatures! And all this upon such solid grounds and foundations as justifies its highest promises and proposals to the reason of men! It is a gospel that changes our sinful natures into holiness, and reforms our hearts as well as lives! A gospel that, aided by divine power, creates souls anew, and raises dead sinners to life! It is a gospel that turns wolves into lambs, and makes ravenous vultures as meek as doves! A gospel that so disturbs the kingdom of Satan, as to take thousands of slaves and captives out of his dominions, to transfer them into the glorious kingdom of Christ, and make them chearful and willing subjects! A gospel that fulfils gloriously the first promise, and makes it appear, that the seed of the woman hath broke the serpent’s head, and destroyed the works of the devil. You have never seen, you have never known, you have never learned this gospel aright, if you have not felt it to be the power of God unto salvation. Those that can speak evil of this gospel, it may be universally said concerning them, they speak evil of the things they know not; for if they had known this gospel as they ought to know it, they would have seen it all over glorious and divine; they would have felt it to be attended with divine power to their salvation, and then they would never speak evil of it.

The heathen world may be ashamed of their doctrines and their religion; the heathen worshippers may be ashamed of their sacrifices, their superstitions, and their forms of devotion; for they have no power to save their souls: And many of them were indeed brutish and shameful. Mahomet, the founder of the Turkish religion, may be ashamed of his alcoran, and volume of fables and incredible lies; all his followers may be ashamed of their prophet, and of the sensual paradise that he promises them. The Jews, under the eye of Christ, and the sun-beams of the gospel, may be ashamed of the vain traditions of their rabbins which were never divine: and even of their old rites and ceremonies which Moses gave them; for all these are now but weak and beggarly elements; the Spirit of God calls them so; Gal. iv. 9. They have now no power to save souls, since God hath abolished them; nor indeed had they ever any power but what they borrowed from this gospel of Christ, which lay concealed in them: But let none of us that believe and profess the gospel of Christ, be ever ashamed of any of the doctrines, or precepts, or promises of it; for they are all holy, they are all heavenly; all of them have divine power accompanying them to lead souls to salvation.

II. Learn hence the true method of obtaining christian courage; courage to profess the gospel of Christ against all opposition: It is by getting it wrought into your hearts and lives by christian experience, and not by learning a mere form of words in a road of education and catechism. You must feel it as the power of God to your salvation, or you will never suffer much for it: Let it be an ingrafted word able to save your souls; James i. 21. and then it will harden your faces against all blaspheming adversaries, and the terrors of a persecuting world: then you will be able to render a most powerful reason why you are bold to profess this gospel, and to answer every one that asks you a reason of the hope that is in you; you will be able to oppose those that set themselves against the gospel of Christ, when you feel this divine spring of courage within you.

I have encouraged you before, to acquaint yourselves with reasons and arguments that may defend your religion, and support your faith: But hours of temptation may come, when all the knowledge and learned furniture of your head, all the arguments that are treasured up in your memory, and all the reasonings that your invention can supply you with, will hardly be able to keep your faith and hope firm and stedfast; for Satan goes before you in skill and rational argument; and though your arguments are strong and solid, yet he may baffle you by his hellish sophistry, and thus cheat you of your faith, and your hope, and your heaven, if you have not got this gospel wrought into your hearts with power, if you have not felt it to be the power of God unto salvation.

Hence it comes to pass, that in times of great temptation and persecution there are many fall away, as the leaves of a tree in the blasts of autumn, when but here and there one stands and endures the shock: It is because there are so few of the professors of the gospel have felt it to be the power of God to the conversion of their souls, and turning their hearts to God and heaven. And hence it comes to pass also, that several unlearned christians in all ages, that could not argue much for the faith in a rational way, yet could dare to die for it, because they had this argument wrought in their own souls; they had felt a divine power going along with it to change their natures, to make them new creatures, to give them the hope of heaven, and a preparation for it.

III. From what you have heard of this subject, learn the wide extent of this argument for the defence of the gospel of Christ, and the invaluable worth of it to every christian, viz. that the gospel is the power of God to your salvation.

It is an argument of wide extent: for it belongs to every christian, to the wise and to the unwise, to the weak and the strong; there is no sincere christian, no true believer in Christ, but hath got the foundation of this argument wrought within him: He knows this gospel is divine, and he should not be ashamed to believe and profess it; for he hath felt it support his soul under a sense of guilt, and give him solid hope of pardoning grace. He hath found it change his sinful nature, soften his heart into repentance, and turn him from a sinner into a saint; it hath laid the foundation of eternal life within him. And as it is an argument that belongs to every true christian; so it answers every objection that an infidel can bring against the gospel, either from the doctrines, or from the professors of it: And methinks, I would fain have you all furnished with this glorious argument, and learn to manage it for the defence of your faith.

Do they tell you, that the doctrines of the gospel contain mysteries in them, and things that are unsearchable? Do they endeavour to put you out of countenance by ridiculing the truth of christianity, as being contrary to the common opinions and reasonings of men? Do they reproach them as foolish and unreasonable, and do they endeavour to persuade you that they are not sufficiently attested, and there is not ground enough to give credit to them? Though there have been particular answers given to each of these cavils in the first discourse; yet you may give this general and short reply to all of them, and say, “I am sure they are not contrary to reason: for they are divine. They are not incredible, nor do they want sufficient evidence; for God himself by his own Spirit has borne witness to them in my heart: He has wrought an almighty work there by the means of this gospel: He has created me anew unto faith, and hope, and holiness: He has turned my heart from earth to heaven, and subdued the sinful inclinations of my nature by the precepts, by the promises, by the glorious discoveries of this gospel: He has made use of it to save my soul; and I carry about me an incontrolable proof that it came from heaven.” Now though this sort of argument may have but little force in it sometimes for the conviction of the infidel; yet it is of sufficient force to establish the believer.

But I proceed. Do they fill your ears with the mean and contemptible character of the professors of this gospel? Do they charge many of them with vicious practices? Do they tell you of their different opinions, their contests and their quarrels? And do they discourage you by pointing to the apostates that have forsaken the faith? You may defend yourself and your profession against all these objections by the same general argument thus; “Are the professors of it some of the mean and base things of this world? But they are saints, and this gospel has made them so; they are the sons and daughters of the most high God by faith in this gospel; and I will not be ashamed to reckon myself of their society, and to number myself amongst them. Are there many that are called christians, whose lives are vicious? Surely they never knew this gospel in truth; they are but false professors of it. There are thousands that can bear this witness to the gospel, that it has changed their hearts; it has renewed their natures: it has made them hate every vice, and their lives shine amongst men glorious in holiness, and resembling God himself. Are the sentiments of some of them different from others? It is chiefly in points of lesser importance; but the substantial truths of it, which are the power of God to salvation, are professed and acknowledged by us all. And though a thousand should forsake this gospel, and become apostates, yet I can never part with it, while I feel the blessed effects of it abiding upon my heart, and I trust, through the grace of God, they shall abide for ever.”

This leads me to the last inference.

IV. What strong engagements is every true christian under to maintain the profession of this gospel? Not only is he laid under many obligations from the commands of God, and the bonds of duty, and gratitude, and love, but he has a constant pressing obligation within him. “How can I be ashamed of my hope, my portion, my everlasting all? Shall I be ashamed of that gospel, upon which my salvation is founded, and my best and highest interest, even my expectations of endless felicity? If I let go this faith, if I lose my hold of this gospel, I let go my hold of Christ, of God, and his love; I let go my hold of heaven, and all my happiness: My sins all return upon me with their insufferable loads of guilt and anguish of conscience, if I lose my faith in this gospel; for all my hope of pardon is built upon this foundation: heaven with the joys of it vanish from my soul, if I part with this glorious gospel of Christ, and death and hell face me with all their terrors.”

There is an awful and solemn motive derived from the great judgment-day to maintain the profession of this glorious gospel; for our Lord himself has pronounced this threatening, and he will fulfil it, Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and my words amongst a sinful generation of men, I will also be ashamed of him before my Father and his holy angels. But this text shall be the subject of some future discourses.

HYMN FOR SERMONS XVI. and XVII. The Gospel the power of God to Salvation.

What shall the dying sinner do, That seeks relief for all his woe? Where shall the guilty conscience find Ease for the torment of the mind?

How shall we get our crimes forgiven, Or form our natures fit for heaven; Can souls all o’er defil’d with sin; Make their own powers and passions clean?

In vain we search, in vain we try, Till Jesus brings his gospel nigh: ’Tis there such power and glory dwell, As saves rebellious souls from hell.

This is the pillar of our hope, That bears our fainting spirits up: We read the grace, we trust the word, And find salvation in the Lord.

Let men or angels dig the mines, Where nature’s golden treasure shines; Brought near the doctrine of the cross, All nature’s gold appears but dross.

Should vile blasphemers with disdain Pronounce the truths of Jesus vain, I’ll meet the scandal and the shame, And sing and triumph in his name.

SERMON XVIII. Faith the Way to Salvation. ROM. i. 16.——The gospel of Christ,—it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

Salvation is a frequent and familiar word in the mouth of all who call themselves christians. It is a sort of asseveration or oath among the looser and meaner part of mankind: As I hope to be saved. But little do they know what salvation means. All the notion they have of it is this, that they would be saved from going down to hell, a place of fire and torment, and that they would go up to heaven when they die, to some unknown shining place above the skies, where they shall be free from all pain and uneasiness. This is the utmost point to which their idea reaches, and I think I have hit their sense exactly in this description. Alas! poor ignorant creatures! They have no thought of being saved from sin, of having their hearts made holy, their sinful inclinations rectified, their passions subdued or refined, their love turned toward God and things spiritual, and their desire and delight fixed upon things divine and holy, instead of their sensual entertainments of flesh and blood. They have no concern about the pardon of the guilt of sin, and restoration to the favour or image of God, and not so much as a wish for the joys that arise from his love, or from the blessed presence of our Lord Jesus Christ in the world to come.

I have shewn you therefore in the foregoing discourse what this salvation is, and made it appear that the gospel is the power of God to salvation, that is, it is a powerful means in the hand of the Spirit of God to save us from the guilt of sin, and to give us a right to heaven; to save us from the power of sin, to fit us for the business and the joys of heaven, and ensure to us the actual possession of it.

There are two things yet remain to be considered in discoursing on this subject:

I. The place or influence that faith, or believing, hath in this salvation; for the gospel provides this blessing only for believers. It is called the power of God to salvation to every one who believes.—II. The wide extent of this glorious benefit: It belongs to every one that believes, whether Greek, or Jew.

I shall treat of each of these particularly:

First, Since the gospel is the power of God to the salvation of them that believe, let us enquire, what place or influence has our faith in this concernment?

To answer this, we may consider faith in its various acts or degrees of exercise as it begins in assent, as it proceeds to affiance, and as it is completed in assurance; and shew what influence each of them hath in the work of salvation.

1. An assent to the truths of the gospel must begin the work of salvation in us: There must be a belief and inward conviction of our sinful and dangerous state, which is more clearly revealed under the gospel, and that there is an atonement made for sin by the blood of Christ: We must believe, that there is forgiveness to be found with God, for the sake of this atonement; and that there is grace enough in our Lord Jesus Christ, to renew our sinful natures, and to fit us for heaven. This usually begets in the sinner, who is truly awakened, some desire toward this salvation, and some distant hope of obtaining it. When the poor perishing creature believes and beholds the glorious influence of the death and righteousness of Christ to justify a sinner in the sight of God; when he surveys the love, the wisdom, the grace, and the power of Christ, answerable to all his wants, he then comes to determine thus with himself, “This salvation is glorious and desirable; the methods proposed, even for my own attainment of it are practicable and sufficient, and why should not I apply myself to this Saviour, and seek this unspeakable happiness?”

2. Affiance or trust in Jesus Christ the Saviour is the next degree of faith. When we are willing to be delivered from the condemning guilt of sin, and from the defiling power of it, and have seen an all-sufficiency of atonement, grace, and power in Christ, then we commit our souls into the hands of Jesus, the Mediator for this blessed purpose, and make a solemn surrender of our whole selves into his charge and care, that we may be pardoned for the sake of his death, that we may be accepted of God through his righteousness, that we may be sanctified and made holy by his grace and Spirit, and that we may be fitted for and preserved to his kingdom. We reflect upon our past iniquities, and mourn to think that we have been rebels so long; we are ashamed and grieved for our rebellions, and we now most earnestly desire to be made willing subjects to his holy government; and therefore we entrust our souls with him, and beg that he would take us under his care for this end, and bring us into the Father’s presence with comfort and joy. This is the soul’s coming to God by Jesus Christ.

Now such an act of faith as this is, has some sensible tendency to promote the peace of a distressed conscience, the sanctification of a sinful nature, the solid hope of heaven, and a preparation for it. But still it must be acknowledged, that its original and chief influence arises from divine appointment. The gospel is the power of God to salvation, and it is by divine promise and power that faith saves the soul. Such a faith, or trust in Christ, has all the promises of gospel-blessings belonging to it. God has appointed in his word, and it is the standing rule of the gospel, He that believeth shall be saved; Mark xvi. 15, 16.

All the parts of salvation come by faith: Justification, and favour in the sight of God; Rom. v. 1. Being justified by faith, we have peace with God. Adoption comes also by faith; Gal. iii. 26. Ye are the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. Sanctification is ascribed to the same principle: Acts xv. 19. The Gentiles had their hearts purified from sin by faith. Joy and hope come in this way also; Rom. xv. 13. The God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost. And you may read several of these benefits of the gospel, these divine ingredients of our salvation put together, and all attributed to faith; Acts xxvi. 18. I send thee now to the Gentiles, saith the Lord Jesus to St. Paul, to open their eyes, to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them who are sanctified, by faith that is in me.

Faith, or affiance in Jesus Christ, is an acceptance of this salvation, it is a trust in the offered grace, it is a dependance on the promises of the gospel confirmed by Christ, it is the surrender of a sinful soul to Jesus the Saviour to perform his whole work of grace for him and to him; and thereby the believing sinner, according to the appointment of God in his gospel, partakes of all the benefits that are treasured up in Christ.

Faith in the gospel relieves the distressed soul under a sense of the guilt of sin, and the humble weary sinner finds mercy to forgive, and strength to subdue it. Faith appropriates and applies the blood of Christ, that sovereign medicine, to the wounds of a guilty conscience, and the conscience finds ease and refreshment. It applies the grace of Christ, that powerful antidote, to expel the venom of in-dwelling sin, and the soul is healed in some measure, and the poison is expelled. It lays hold on the power of Christ to assist in the performance of every duty, and it obtains divine assistance. Every true believer has experienced something of these benefits by a sincere surrender of himself to Christ in such a way of trust and holy dependance.

Can the thirsty soul taste of the running water, and not find refreshment, since God, who created water, has ordained it to refresh the thirsty? Can weary limbs lie down on a bed, and not find ease, since a bed is made to give ease and rest to the weary? Can a fainting creature drink a divine cordial appointed to give life, and yet feel no revival? No more can a guilty, distressed, and penitent sinner believe the truths of the gospel, and trust in Jesus the Saviour, and yet find no relief: for this is the will and settled law of the God of heaven, that peace and holiness shall be obtained this way.

3. When faith grows up to assurance, it approaches towards complete salvation. Then the christian can say, I know I have believed on the Son of God, I know I enjoy his favour. Then the holiness and the joy increase, for the salvation enters into the soul in fuller measures: The nearer faith arises to assurance of our own interest in the grace of Christ, the more it supports the soul, the more it comforts, the more it sanctifies, and the more evidently doth the gospel appear to be divinely powerful to save us from sin and hell.

“Can I believe God has pardoned me, so vile a rebel, and forgiven me so many and aggravated offences, and yet is it possible I should not love him, and rejoice? Can I be assured he loves me, and not make him a return of my highest and warmest love? Can I believe that Christ the Son of God died for me, and shall I not consecrate myself and all the powers of my nature to him, that I may live devoted to his service? He has bought me with a price, a dear and valuable price, that of his own blood, and I must glorify him with my body and with my soul, which are his; 1 Cor. vi. 20. Can I believe that I am redeemed from hell and destruction, and shall I dare to walk in the road that leads to it? And not rather run with patience and joy the race that is set before me, till I arrive at the gates of heaven? Am I not assured that Jesus the beloved of God suffered death for my sins, and shall not I hate sin, which caused his suffering? Sin, which was the occasion of his agonies, and the very sting of his sorrows! I am crucified and dead to sin, and to this world, by my union with a crucified Saviour, yet I live, saith the divine apostle, and the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who hath loved me, and given himself for me; Gal. ii. 20. How is it possible that I should hope to be made like Christ in glory, with a full assurance of arriving thither, and not purify myself as he is pure; 1 John iii. 2, 3. While I believe and am persuaded that the promise of the joys of heaven shall be fulfilled to me, I would awaken myself hourly to the joyful prospect, and be ever preparing for the possession of that blessedness.”

Thus when faith arises to a sublime and eminent degree in this world, the believer may be said to rejoice with joy unspeakable, and full of glory, and to receive the end of his faith, even the salvation of his soul; 1 Pet. i. 8, 9.

Before I pass to the second head, I desire leave to make these few remarks.

Remark I. Though the first degree of faith or assent to the gospel be necessary to salvation, yet it is not of itself sufficient; and though the last degree of faith or assurance be gloriously useful in this work, yet it is not absolutely necessary.

A mere assent to the truths of the gospel is not sufficient to save; for there are many who by the force of education, or by the force of argument, yield their assent to the doctrine, and believe it to be true, yet it is a cold, feeble, languid assent; it begins and ends in the head, and never reaches the heart; it does not awaken them thoroughly, nor make them long after the pardon and the grace promised: They seem to sit still contented with the forms of their catechism, and a general belief of the christian religion, so far as they know it; but are under no painful solicitude, or concern of soul, about the forgiveness of their sins, the sanctification of their natures, their interest in the favour of God and eternal happiness; and therefore they proceed no farther, they never heartily apply themselves to Jesus Christ the only Saviour, and they fall short of the blessing. The devils believe as much as they do, but are in a state of damnation still.

Again, consider that a full assurance of our own interest in the favour of God through Jesus Christ, is the highest degree of attainment on earth; but it is not necessary to the being of christianity, nor doth it belong to every christian. It is true indeed, that every one ought to seek after it by the frequent exercise of faith and love, and every grace, thus brightening the evidences of his saving interest in the blessings of the gospel daily; and where assurance is obtained upon solid grounds, holiness and joy will rise by swift degrees, and the soul will make glorious advances towards the heavenly state and complete salvation: But some christians scarce ever arrive at this attainment all their days.

Since therefore a mere assent to the gospel in general is not sufficient for salvation, and a full assurance of our own interest is not necessary, it follows, that an affiance or trust in Christ as a Saviour is the most essential and important act of faith. This is that sacred and appointed duty of a convinced soul, whereby it is made partaker of the blessings of salvation according to the gospel, if it be practised in the way which I have just before described.

II. Take notice here of the difference between the law and the gospel, between the covenant of works, and the covenant of grace. The one gives us life upon our working, the other saves us from death, and gives us a right to heaven upon our believing, therefore one is called the law of works, and the other the law of faith; Rom. iii. 27,

It is proper here to observe, that the scripture sometimes speaks of two covenants; the old and the new: and means chiefly the œconomy or dispensation of the Jews under Moses, and the œconomy of Christ, or the dispensation of the gospel since the Messiah came. But by the two covenants I now speak of, I would be understood to mean the law or constitution of innocency, and the constitution of grace.

By the constitution, or law of innocency, man was to have obtained eternal life before his fall; and as this law or covenant was given to Adam as the head and representative of all mankind, so every son and daughter of Adam continues under it till they accept of the covenant of grace, or the offers of the gospel, either in the darker or brighter discoveries of it: And therefore all mankind, Jews and Gentiles, are laid under condemnation by it in the writings of St. Paul, in the second and third chapters to the Romans. By this law of works, every mouth is stopped, and the whole world is become guilty before God; Rom. iii. 19. Though the nations of the Jews and christians, and perhaps the greatest part of the heathen world, have had some revelations of the gospel or covenant of grace, and have been under the outward offers of it; yet Jews, heathens, and national christians, are all under the sentence of the covenant of the law of works, till they enter into the covenant of grace by repentance and faith in the mercy of God.

But the covenant of grace, or the gospel is a new constitution, which God hath ordained for the relief of poor fallen miserable man, condemned and perishing under the curse of the law of works. It is a constitution of grace, whereby alone fallen sinners can obtain salvation.

The law of works demands universal obedience to all the commands of God, obedience perfect and persevering; for this is the language of it; the man that doth them shall live in them; Rom. x. 5. and it curses every sinner without hope or remedy; cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do them; Gal. iii. 10, 12. But the voice of the gospel, the righteousness of faith, or the way of justification by Christ, speaketh on this wise, With the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation; for the just shall live by faith; Rom. x. 10. Gal. iii. 11. The one proclaims eternal life to all that perfectly obey, the other publishes salvation to all that believe, though their obedience be very imperfect.

I grant indeed, that the apostle cites these descriptions of the law of works out of the books of Moses, and therefore some persons would suppose him only to mean the particular law given to the Jews at mount Sinai, and not the general covenant of works made with Adam, and with all mankind in him.

But to this I give these two answers:

1. The laws of works, which the apostle speaks of in the epistle to the Romans, particularly in the second and third chapters, cannot signify merely the Jewish law; for it is such a law as includes all the heathen world, as appears plain; Rom. ii. 14, 15. and by which the heathens as well as the Jews were condemned, and could never be justified; Rom. iii. 20. By the deeds of the law shall no flesh he justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin; therefore this must be a law that extended to all mankind, since it stops every mouth, and proclaims the whole world guilty before God.

2. The law given to the Jews, or the covenant of Sinai, so far as it is purely political, was indeed a covenant of works; and their continuance in, or rejection out of the land of Canaan, depended upon their own works, their obedience or disobedience to this law, as it is often expressed in the writings of Moses: And upon this account it is used sometimes by the apostles as a very proper emblem or representative of the covenant of works made with our first father Adam, who was to have enjoyed or forfeited some earthly or heavenly paradise, according to his obedience or disobedience. It is plain then, that though St. Paul may cite the law of Moses to shew the nature of a law of works in general, yet it does not follow that he means only the law or covenant of Sinai; and it is as plain, by his including the Gentiles under it, that he does not mean the law of Sinai, but the original law or covenant of works made with all mankind in Adam their father and their head, and of which the law of Sinai was a proper emblem or figure.

All laws of works therefore are insufficient for the salvation of sinful man, and his restoration to God’s favour and image, and eternal life. The law of Sinai was a law of works, promising an earthly Canaan to the obedient Jews. The law of innocency in Eden was a law of works, promising life and immortality to obedient mankind. But they have been both wretchedly broken; man was turned out of paradise, and the Jews out of Canaan, because of disobedience. But now the gospel whereby the Jews or Gentiles are to be saved, or to obtain eternal life, requires faith in the mercy and promises of God in and through Jesus Christ; and by this means it saves us, though our obedience be far short of perfection: This was the way whereby the Jews themselves were saved under the Old Testament: for the gospel was preached to them as well as unto us; Heb. iv. 2. though it was in darker hints, and types and figures. And in this way were Abraham and David justified as the apostle teaches; Rom. iv. 3, 4, 5, 6.

Though the Jews’ enjoyment of the land of Canaan depended on their good works and obedience to the law of Moses, yet their hope and enjoyment of heaven depended on their faith or trust in the mercy of God, which was to be farther revealed in the days of the Messiah. And it is the same gospel by which we are to obtain salvation, since Christ is come in the flesh; but with this difference, that we are now more expressly required to make Jesus Christ the object of our faith, and we have a thousand clearer discoveries of his righteousness and grace than ever the Jews were favoured with.

Happy mankind! though fallen and ruined in Adam, yet recovered and raised to righteousness, grace, and glory by Jesus Christ. How dreadful is that law which pronounces a curse and death upon every transgressor! Tribulation and wrath, indignation and anguish upon every soul that doth evil, to the Jew first and also to the Gentile; Rom. ii. 9. But how sweet and reviving is the grace of that gospel, which becomes the power of God to the salvation of every one that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek!

The great and blessed God saw the frailty of his creature man, how ready he was to ruin himself under a law of works; therefore he appointed his recovery by the law of faith. And what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the infirmity of flesh, that he has sent his own Son Jesus Christ in the likeness of sinful flesh, to do for us, to fulfil all the demands of the law, both in the penalty and the precept, to finish transgression, to made an end of sin, by his own sufferings, and to bring in an everlasting righteousness, that whosoever believes on him shall be saved. Blessed God! How kind and condescending are thy ways to the children of men! How full of compassion to rebels, who had destroyed themselves! How gentle are the methods of thy recovering mercy! If we will but confess our sins, mourn over our own follies, return to the Lord our God by humble repentance, and put our trust in an almighty Saviour, there is peace and pardon, there is grace, and life, and glory provided for us, and laid up in the hands of Jesus Christ our Lord.

III. Though the gospel offers us salvation by faith and not by works, yet it effectually secures the practice of holiness since holiness is a part of that salvation. We are saved from sin as well as from hell by this gospel; and we must have our souls prepared for heaven, as well as brought to the possession of it. He that pretends to trust in Christ, for a deliverance from hell and has no desire to be made holy, he has no desire after such a salvation as Christ proposes in his gospel, nor is he like to attain it.

We must be sensible then of the corruption of our natures, the perverseness of our wills, the vanity of our minds, the earthliness of our affections, our inability to do that which is good for time to come, as well as our guilt, condemnation and misery, because of our transgressions past: We must desire that a thorough work of repentance may be wrought in our hearts, that the power and reign of sin may be broken there, and that we may become new creatures as well as desire to escape the wrath of God, and hell, and eternal death, if ever we would be partakers of that salvation which the gospel proposes. Christ will not divide one part of his salvation from the other: And in vain do we presume to trust in him for happiness, if we are not willing to be made holy too.

How false and unreasonable are all the reproaches that are cast upon the doctrine of salvation by faith, as though it tended to promote looseness of life, and to indulge iniquity; when that very salvation includes in it a freedom from the power of sin, and a delight in all that is holy? This is the very character of Christ our Saviour, and the reason of his name Jesus, that he should save his people from their sins; Mat. i. 21. If we are delivered by Christ, it is from this present wicked world; Gal. i. 4. If we are redeemed, it is from all iniquity, that we might be a peculiar people purified to himself, zealous of good works; Tit. ii. 14.

IV. Though the gospel is such a glorious doctrine of grace, that there is no reason to be ashamed of it, yet since it saves us by faith, and not by works, there is no reason for us to boast when we are saved. We may glory indeed in the cross of Christ and make our boast in the Redeemer all the day long; but the gospel for ever cuts off all ground of boasting in ourselves. Here the justice and mercy of God shine forth gloriously; here the righteousness of God is declared, sinners find remission or pardon, God is just, and a justifier of him who believeth in Jesus. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? Nay, but by the law of Faith; Rom. iii. 25, 26, 27. By grace ye are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast; Eph. ii. 8, 9.

The gospel concurs with the law in this respect, that it shews us our own guilt and vileness, our ruin and our impotence to restore ourselves, and therefore it has put all our help upon another. God has laid our help upon one that is mighty to save; Ps. lxxxix. 19, and he has ordained that the way whereby we should derive this salvation, is by renouncing all dependance upon self, and trusting in Christ and grace for all that we enjoy and hope for. This is the business of faith; this is the very nature of that Christian virtue, to disclaim all self-sufficiency, and receive all from mere mercy; and therefore it is appointed to be the means of our justification under the gospel; therefore it is said so often in scripture, that we are justified by faith, that divine grace may have all the glory; Rom. iv. 16. Therefore it is of faith, that it might be of grace. We are ignorant and foolish, and must derive wisdom from Christ: We are guilty, and must receive righteousness from him: We are unholy, he is the spring of our sanctification: We are captives and slaves to sin and Satan, and we must have redemption from him: He is made of God to us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, that no flesh might glory in his presence, but he that glories, must glory in the Lord; 1 Cor. i. 29, 30.

Man, innocent man, had power and righteousness, and life put into his own hands; but the first Adam grew vain in his self-sufficiency, and he foolishly sinned, and lost it all: Therefore God, in order to our recovery, would put power, and righteousness, and life into the hands of another, even his own Son, the second Adam, that we might go out of ourselves, and seek it all from another hand. Now faith, or trust, is the proper act of the soul, to express our own emptiness, and our dependance on another for all.

This is the language of faith, “Lord, I am a sinful and guilty creature; I have no righteousness, no merit, to recommend me to thy favour; I have no power to change my unholy nature, and rectify the criminal disorders of my soul; I am unable to subdue the sins that dwell in me, or practise the required duties of holiness; I deserve condemnation and death, and I am by nature walking in the way to hell: helpless and hopeless for ever in myself, but in thy rich grace is all my hope: I rejoice in the discoveries of thy mercy; I come at the call of thy gospel, upon the bended knees of my soul I accept of the proposals of thy grace; I give up myself to thy power and mercy, as it is revealed in Jesus Christ, thy Son, that I may be saved from sin and hell. To me belongs nothing but shame and confusion of face; I renounce for ever all self-sufficiency, and if ever I am saved, thy grace shall have all the glory.” Now when a poor humbled sinner is brought thus far, and receives the salvation of God in this lowly posture of soul, the great God has obtained a good part of his designs in the gospel upon him; self is humbled, grace is glorified, and the sinner is saved by faith.

V. Heaven is made up of believers. The whole number of the saved were once sinners, and obtained salvation by faith.

The holy angels indeed never sinned, and yet whether their confirmed state of holiness and glory is not secured to them by trust or dependance on Christ, may be a reasonable enquiry; for all things in heaven and earth are said to be gathered together, and reconciled in him; Eph. i. 10. Col. i. 20. But this we are sure of, that not one of all the race of Adam hath been restored to the love of God, or raised to heaven, by their own works but all by faith. It is sovereign and glorious grace that has saved them all, and that by the gospel too, in the various editions of it, from the promise in Eden, till the full discovery of grace at the day of pentecost after the ascension of Christ.

O it is a pleasing entertainment of soul to send our thoughts forward to the last great day, or to send them upward to the courts of heaven and glory, and to hear how the millions of redeemed sinners shout and sing to the honour of divine grace! How all that happy world of believers assist the melody, and dwell upon the delightful sound. “Not unto us, O God our Father, not unto us, but to thine own name”, and to thy mercy be all our honours paid though the ages of eternity. We were a race of guilty and perishing rebels, who had sinned against thy majesty, and ruined our own souls: We lay upon the borders of death and hell without help, and without hope: We could do nothing to procure thy love, nor merit any thing by the best of our works: But thou hast called us to believe thy gospel, to trust in thy grace, and to lay down the arms of our rebellion, and to receive the blessings of salvation by faith: We have nothing to boast of, for we are mere receivers: Thou hast put forth thine almighty arm, and hast made thy gospel the instrument of thy power to save us; and while we feel and taste the complete salvation, thy power and thy mercy shall have all the praise.

Not unto us, O Lord Jesus our Saviour, not unto us is any honour due; but to thy condescending love; to thy compassion and death shall our honours be paid, and our acknowledgments made for help. We saw ourselves helpless, and were directed to thee for ever: We trusted in thee, and thou hast saved us: it is thy sufferings that have procured our pardon; it is by faith in thy blood we find an atonement; it is through thy righteousness that we are justified and accepted of God, and made partakers of these heavenly glories that shine all around us. All our sacred comforts, our excellencies, and our joys are thine. Pride is hidden from our eyes for ever, and boasting is banished from all our tongues: It is thou hast fulfilled the law: it is thou hast suffered the curse; it is thou hast purchased, and promised, and bestowed the blessing. We believed thy word, we received thy grace, and behold, we, dying sinners, are raised to life, and advanced to glory. There is not a soul of us but delights to join in these sublime anthems of worship; Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing: Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power be to him that sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb for ever. Amen.

HYMN FOR SERMON XVIII. Faith the Way to Salvation.

Not by the laws of innocence Can Adam’s sons arrive at heaven; New works can give us no pretence To have our ancient sins forgiven.

Not the best deeds that we have done, Can make a wounded conscience whole; Faith is the grace, and faith alone, That flies to Christ, and saves the soul.

Lord, I believe thy heavenly word, Fain would I have my soul renew’d; I mourn for sin, and trust the Lord, To have it pardon’d and subdu’d.

O may thy grace its power display, Let guilt and death no longer reign; Save me in thine appointed way, Nor let my humble faith be vain.

SERMON XIX. None Excluded from Hope. ROM. i. 16.—The Gospel of Christ,—it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

We have seen the gospel of Christ vindicated in the former discourses on this text, and the glorious doctrines of it guarded against the various reproaches of an unbelieving world: We have heard what a powerful instrument it is in the hand of God for the salvation of perishing sinners. We have been taught the way to partake of this salvation, and that is by believing; and we have learned what influence our faith has in this sacred concernment. I proceed now to the last thing which I proposed, and that is to shew the wide extent of this blessing of the gospel; for it brings salvation to every one that believes, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

Where the word Greek is used in opposition to the Barbarian, as it is in the fourteenth verse before my text, it signifies the learned part of mankind, as distinguished from those that are unlearned; the Greeks being the most famous among the nations for wisdom, knowledge, or learning in that day: But when this same word stands in opposition to the Jew, as it does here in my text, then it includes all the heathen world, so that when the apostle says, the gospel brings salvation both to the Jew and the Greek, he shews the extent of this benefit to all mankind that hear and receive it.

It may be worth our while to spend a few hints upon the order in which the apostle represents the communication of this blessing, viz. to the Jew first, and then to the Greek or Gentile.

When he describes, in the second chapter of this epistle, the terms or conditions of the covenant of works, he sets mankind in the same order; he pronounces indignation and wrath upon every soul that doth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile; but glory, honour and peace to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile. So when he declares the blessings of the covenant of grace or the gospel, he brings the salvation first upon the Jews, and then upon the Gentile nations: And one reason of it may be this, that the Jews having been favoured with an earlier and more express discovery of the nature and will of God than the heathens, they seem to stand fairest for the participation of divine blessings and that, even by the law of works, if life and righteousness could have been obtained by it, as well as by the covenant of grace, or law of faith. But if they abuse their knowledge, and their sacred advantages, to the neglect of God and godliness, faith and works, they justly fall under a more severe condemnation every way, because their guilt is greater.

But there may be some special reasons given why God thought it proper, in the course of his providence, to send the notice of this salvation by Jesus Christ among the Jews, before he sent it to the Gentile world.

I. The Jews were the chosen people of God, the sons and daughters of Abraham, his friend, the first favourites of heaven, considered as a family and a nation: and as he first preached to them the purity and perfection of his law, whence they might discover their own sin and misery, so he published his gospel of grace by Jesus Christ first among them, and sent his Son with the messages of peace and forgiveness first to their nation. The great God thought it becoming his equity to publish his abounding mercy first toward them, amongst whom he first published his law, to shew them their guilt and misery through the abounding of sin: “By the law is the knowledge of sin; and where sin has abounded, grace has much more abounded;” Rom. iii. and v.

II. The Jews had this same gospel preached to them many ages before in types and emblems, in sacred ceremonies and dark prophecies. Now it was fit, that the types and prophecies should be explained and the grace contained therein revealed first to them; for hereby the gospel obtained a great confirmation, and established its own truth, when it appeared in all the parts of it so exactly answerable to the ancient figures, and to the predictions of many hundred years. It was fit that the Messiah should appear among them first, where his character add picture had been drawn for many ages before, that so he might be known and distinguished whensoever he should visit the world. It was fit that his doctrine should be first published in plain language, where it had been long written and spoken in metaphors. Thus the gospel went forth first from Jerusalem, that it might be preached and proclaimed with more glorious evidence among the rest of the nations.

III. Jesus Christ, who is the subject and substance of the gospel, was himself a Jew, of the seed of Abraham, of the nation of Israel. He was born, he lived, he died amongst them. All the great affairs of his birth, his life, his ministry, his death and resurrection, were transacted in their country, and in the midst of them. It was fit the benefit thereof should be first offered to them.

If this gospel of Christ had been first preached to the gentiles, while it was kept silent and secret amongst the Jews, there might have been reason to suspect that there was some fraud or falsehood at the bottom, and that this doctrine would not bear the light in the country where these things were done, and that it would not stand the test of examination in the land of Judea, and therefore the story was told first among strangers: And thus the gentiles might have found some difficulty to receive it, and been prejudiced against the belief of it. But now, when it is published through all the land of Israel, and the apostles appeal to their own countrymen for the truth of these transactions; when it has stood the test of public examination there, where the things were transacted, it goes forth to the rest of the nations with brighter evidence and glory.

IV. I might add in the last place, that it was fit it should be first published to the Jews, who seemed to have the first claim to it; that since they refused it, it might be offered to the poor gentile nations with greater justice and equity, even the Jews themselves being judges. Such are the frequent hints given by St. Paul; Acts xiii. 46. It was necessary that the word of God should have been first spoke to you; but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles. Be it known therefore unto you, that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and they will hear it; Acts xxviii. 28.

When we think of that poor unhappy nation, the Jews, scattered abroad among all the kingdoms of the earth, banished from their own promised land for their rejection of Christ, and yet hardened in their unbelief, methinks we should send out a groan of pity for them; for they are the sons and daughters of Abraham, the first favourites of our God. Jesus our Saviour was their Messiah, their kinsman, and their rightful king. We should send up a kind wish to heaven upon their account, “How long, O Lord, how long shall Israel be cast off? How long wilt thou be angry with the children of Abraham, thy friend? When shall the day come for the opening of their eyes, that they may look on Jesus whom they pierced, and believe and mourn? When shall the veil be taken off from their hearts, that they may read the books of Moses, and trust in Jesus of Nazareth, whom their fathers crucified?”

When we see one and another of the Jewish nation in this great city, and think of their blindness and their zeal for the idle traditions of their teachers, and observe their ignorant rage against our blessed Saviour: when we behold the vain superstitions of their worship, the thick darkness that hangs upon them under the brightest beams of gospel-light, and their wide distance from salvation, we should let our eyes affect our hearts, and drop a tear of compassion upon their souls. “These were they to whom the promises of salvation did first belong, and to whom the first news was brought, that Jesus the Saviour is born. These are they to whom the gospel was first preached. God himself dwelt in the midst of them, and the Son of God was their brother, their flesh and their blood. Though they are for a season cast off for their infidelity, yet God has told us, that he has a secret love for that nation still for their father Abraham’s sake; Rom. xi. 28. and this love shall break forth in its full glory one day. Make haste, O deliverer, who didst come out of Zion, make haste to fulfil thy promises, and turn away ungodliness from Jacob. Let the fulness of the Gentiles be brought in, and let all Israel be saved. Bring them back from all the lands whither thine anger hath scattered them. Release thy ancient people from their long captivity to Satan, and their bands of thick darkness. Be thou, O Jesus, who art the light of the Gentiles, be thou also the glory of thy people Israel.”

But I would endeavour to make a larger improvement of this general head of discourse.

Does the gospel bring salvation to every one that believes without exception: to all ranks and characters, and degrees, and orders of men? then let this grace be spread far abroad: And let not the more polite and nicer hearers grow tired, or drowsy, or disdainful, while I amplify a little and diffuse my thoughts into various particulars, pointing out the variety of the subjects of this grace; for I would, as it were, mention every sinner by name, that they may not be left only to unaffecting general notions, but being especially addressed they may all come and partake of this salvation by believing this gospel.

A glorious and extensive gospel indeed, and a wide-spreading salvation? To every one who believes! None excluded from this blessing!

1. It is not confined to one nation, or one family, not to one tribe or kindred of mankind, as the law of Moses was. Go preach the gospel, says our Lord, to every creature; Mark xvi. 15. Preach repentance and remission of sins in my name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem; Luke xxiv. 47. To the Jew first, but let not this grace be confined to them: Publish this blessed doctrine also to the sinners among the Greeks and Gentiles. You that are afar off from God, even in the ends of the earth, ye are called to look unto Christ: and be saved; Is. xlv. 22. It is no matter, O sinner! what thy father was, or what thy kindred are! if thou art but a believer in Christ, thy soul is happy, thy sins are pardoned, the gospel is the power of God to thy salvation.

2. It is not confined to one sex only, or to one age. The children are called as well as the fathers, and men and women are invited to partake of this blessing together in Christ. There is neither male nor female, neither young nor old, neither Greek nor Jew, that have any distinction put upon them, to exclude them from this grace; they are all one in Christ Jesus; Gal. iii. 28. Children, have you seen the evil of your sins, and the danger of hell? Do you long for pardoning and saving grace, and are you willing that Christ should make your peace with God, that he should enable you to serve him upon earth, and prepare you for heaven? Come then, trust in this gospel, give up yourselves to Jesus Christ the Saviour in the manner I have spoken, and the salvation is yours. Nor let old sinners thrust away this mercy from them, under a pretence that they have long abused it. You are now under the joyful sound of the gospel; you sit now under the language of inviting love: Are you willing to be made new creatures before you die, and to accept of a deliverance from hell, though you are upon the very borders of it? Behold power enough in this gospel to deliver you: The blood of Christ can wash out stains of the longest continuance; The Spirit of Christ can change the skin of an old Ethiopian, and create an old inveterate transgressor into holiness. This gospel could save the thief upon the cross, and ensure paradise to him. It can rescue a dying rebel from eternal death; for it gives life and salvation to every one that believes.

3. It is not limited to one rank or condition of men in the civil life, but reaches to persons of every circumstance. The rich and the poor, the master and the servant, the prince and the peasant, must partake of salvation by the same faith in the Son of God. The barbarian and the Scythian, who seem to be born for slaves, and the Romans who are lords of the earth, the bond and the free, have all an equal call to receive this salvation; Col. iii. 11. Ye are all rich enough to obtain it: There is no purchase of these blessings by any other price but that of the blood of Jesus. Silver and Gold, and the treasure of kings, are all contemptible offers in so sacred a concernment as this is. The benefit is too valuable to be bought at any meaner rate: Christ, who paid for it, will bestow it freely on all. If the rich will receive it, they must come without money, and without price, and accept of the free gift of God, as humble petitioners at his footstool; and the poor that have no money, come ye and buy; Is. lv. 1, 2. Let the vilest, meanest creature come to this treasury of grace, and with thankfulness receive the salvation, for it is bought already. You are called only to trust in this gospel, to surrender yourselves to this Saviour, and the salvation shall be yours. Ye that are mean and low and base in this world, there are many of your brethren already joined in the fellowship of this gospel: Come, enter yourselves into the blessed fraternity. To the poor the gospel is preached, and the poor receive it. But there are some noble, there are some great, there are some rich, that have felt the power of it too: There is Philemon the master, and his servant Onesimus, joined in the same faith, and partakers of the same salvation; Philem. 16.

Again, 4. It is not confined to persons whose intellectual excellencies are superior to their neighbours, or who exceed others in understanding and the acquirements of the mind. St. Paul was debtor both to the wise and the unwise; to the learned Greek, and to the ignorant and unpolished barbarian; Rom. i. 14. He preached the gospel to all of them: For Christ had a chosen number amongst them all. If the witty, and the wise, and the learned will lay down their pride, and submit to the doctrine of Christ crucified, and not call it foolishness: If they will humble their understandings to receive the sacred mysteries of our religion, God manifest in the flesh, and put to death for the sins of men, and will place the concerns of their eternal welfare into the hands of him who hung bleeding upon the cross: If they are willing to be converted and become as little children, there is a door for them to enter into the kingdom of heaven. And as for you, whose understandings are weak and unpolished with human learning, this is a doctrine and a gospel exactly fitted for your character: It is no business of great sagacity, no ingenious matter to become a christian. Believe the truths that are plainly revealed concerning your own sin and misery, and the power of Jesus Christ to save you; bewail your own wretchedness and guilt, and entrust yourselves in the arms of his grace, that ye may be made holy and happy, and ye also shall become possessors of the same kingdom. Father, I thank thee, Lord of heaven and earth, that though these things may be hidden from the wise and the prudent, yet thou hast revealed them to babes; Mat. xi. 25, 26.

But I pursue the distributions of this grace yet farther:

5. No particular tempers or constitutions of men, no different qualities of soul or body, can exclude those that believe from the grace or blessings of this gospel. Let not the strong man glory in his strength, nor the comely figures of human nature boast themselves in their beauty. Let not the weak be overwhelmed with despair, nor the deformed or uncomely stand afar off and abandon their hopes; the same Saviour proposes the riches of his grace to all. Learn therefore to look upon all your natural advantages, and all your natural discouragements, with a negligent eye in the matter of your salvation. If you would be strong to win heaven, you must borrow all your strength from Christ and the gospel. If you would appear comely and honourable before the face of God, you must be clothed in the robe of righteousness, and the garments of salvation, which he has prepared; Is. lxi. 10.

Nor can any difference in the natural qualities of the soul forbid any person who believes in Christ to hope for this salvation. Those who are by nature proud or peevish, sullen or passionate, angry or revengeful, have been made partakers of this grace, as well as those who by the complexion of their animal frame, and the original temper of their minds, have had more of the natural virtues belonging to them; such as gentleness, meekness of spirit, good-humour and kindness. Those who have something in their very frame that is sly and crafty, or covetous, wanton, and intemperate, have felt the power of this gospel, as well as those that have been generous and sincere, modest, chaste, and abstemious; for the grace of the gospel, which was typified by the ark of Noah, takes in all manner of animals, clean and unclean, and saves them from the deluge of divine wrath that shall come upon an ungodly world. But there is this blessed difference, that the brutes went out of the ark with the same nature they brought in: but those who come under the protection and power of this gospel by faith, they are in some measure changed, they are refined, they are sanctified. The wolf that came in, is turning into a lamb, and the raven by degrees becomes a dove, surely, the gospel has begun to make them so, for it has begun their salvation.

I will grant indeed, that the perverse temper of blood and spirits, and the very make of the man, as to his natural and vicious qualities, is seldom entirely altered by the grace of God here on earth. There will be some sallies of animal nature, some out-breakings of the irregular fire that is pent up in the constitution; and these will too often mix themselves with our conduct, and interline our acts of virtue and duty. But the holy soul, who believes in Christ, will be humble, will mourn, will accuse and chide itself before God in secret, and will be importunate and restless in prayer for the victory. The christian will not suffer himself to be carried away willingly by the stream of vicious inclinations; for he that is born of God sinneth not; 1 John v. 18. and it is in vain to talk of the gospel and salvation of faith and grace, if we give up the reins to vicious nature, and bid a careless farewell to any one virtue.

But to proceed yet farther in reckoning up the various characters of men, whom the gospel makes christians by the grace of faith.

6. As no persons are excluded because of their natural constitution, so neither are any forbid the blessing of salvation because of their former ill characters in the moral life. Not the greatest of sinners are shut out from this blessing, if they repent and believe the gospel. Not the Jews who crucified the Lord of glory: Not the Gentiles or Greeks, who were slaves to superstition and idolatry, and drenched in most infamous and abominable practices; the Greeks, who gave themselves up to work uncleanness with greediness without God, and without hope in the world. One gospel has saved them all. No former follies or faults, no, not the greatest of sins against man, or against God himself, ought to shut up a humble soul under despair; for this is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ came to save the chief of sinners; 1 Tim. i. 15. And that is a word of most extensive grace which our Saviour speaks; Mat. xii. 31. All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men.

You who have enjoyed a happy education, and had pious parents to boast of, as the Jews boasted of Abraham; you who have many shining works of sobriety and righteousness, you are called to come and trust in this gospel: But you must renounce all your pretended merit, and accept of pardoning grace, or you can never be saved. And you that have nothing that looks like a good work to glory in, sinners as bad as the worst of Gentiles, come, and believe this gospel, and surrender yourselves to Jesus the Prince and the Saviour; his blood is all-sufficient for the pardon of your sins, his righteousness is all-sufficient for your justification; and his Spirit can purify your sinful natures. Where sin has abounded, grace has much more abounded; Rom. v. 20. It is to the everlasting honour of the gospel of Christ, that it has appeared to be the power of God to the salvation of multitudes of such as you: Such were some of you, saith the apostle to the Corinthians; but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God; 1 Cor. vi. 11.

And surely if great degrees of sin cannot exclude the penitent soul from the benefit of the gospel; then, 7. Neither shall any person be excluded because of the weak degrees of his faith; Him that is weak in the faith, receive ye; for Christ has received him; Rom. xiv. 1-3. Read that kind condescending promise, and believe it; Mat. xii. 20. He will not break the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax, nor suppress, nor despise the least, the lowest desires of grace: He will encourage the youngest and the feeblest acts of sincere repentance and true faith, though struggling under much sin and darkness, till it break out into evident and active flame. The little tender seed of grace under his heavenly influences shall bud, and blossom, and spring up into full glory.

How large and glorious is the salvation that attends faith in this gospel! How extensive is the grace of God our Saviour! How unsearchable are the riches of his mercy! O the heights and the depths, the lengths and the breadths of the love of Christ, that pass all knowledge! None of the sons or daughters of Adam the sinner, are excluded from this salvation, where the gospel is preached, but those who exclude themselves by stubbornness and unbelief. Persons of every kind, every character, condition and quality, amongst men, have found this gospel become the power of God to their salvation, when they have fled to this refuge, and believed in this Saviour.

What improvement now shall I make of the last part of this discourse, this wide extent of salvation bestowed on all who believe? Has every single believer this salvation in some measure conferred on him, and wrought in him? Then here is a plain and evident test, whereby to try our faith, or a certain sign whereby we may judge, whether we are true believers, or no.

The gospel is the manifestation of the power of God for the salvation of every one that believes. What have you found of this salvation begun in you? What have you felt of your own guilt and wretchedness by reason of sin, and of your danger of eternal death? Have you seen the death of Christ as an effectual atonement to procure the forgiveness of an offended God? Have you beheld the power and grace of Christ sufficient to renew your sinful natures, and to form them after the image of God in righteousness and true holiness? Have you found your conscience resting upon the sacrifice of Christ, and your souls humbly expecting pardon and peace there? Are your hearts turned away from every sin? Is the temper of your mind made divine and heavenly, and suited to the business and blessedness of the upper world? This is the salvation of Christ which the gospel proposes, and bestows upon all that believe.

Upon such solemn enquiries as these, I am persuaded there is many a soul must take up this heavy complaint, “Alas! I fear I am no believer: I have sat long under the sound of the gospel, and I have heard the doctrine of Christ crucified many years to no purpose; for I have never found this gospel attended with any such powerful impressions as to begin salvation in me. I have been too thoughtless about the guilt of my sins, and about the forgiveness of them in the court of heaven. Nor have I found my sinful nature changed, nor my affections sanctified. I have very little of these spiritual desires and delights which have been before described as part of my salvation, I feel the inward workings of my soul vain and carnal still; I am not prepared for the heavenly world, and surely then I have never truly believed in Christ, nor received his gospel.”

To such complaints as these, I would propose these three several answers:

Answer I. It may be so indeed. All this complaint may be just and true; and perhaps thou art an unbeliever still, dead in trespasses and sins, and exposed every moment to the stroke of death, and to everlasting misery. This is the case of many a thousand beside thyself: Even the greatest part of those who are called christians, are yet afar off from God and from salvation, and have no just ground to suppose that they are believers in Christ. But it is of infinite concern for thee, O sinner, to busy thyself about this enquiry. There is not any one act in thy life, in which thou canst be engaged, that is of greater and more awful importance than this; for thy heaven or thy hell depends upon it.

Some sit all their days under the gospel, and hear nothing but the outward sound, always unmoved, unawakened, and unaffected; slumbering and nodding upon the borders of eternal fire; while others hear the voice of the Son of God, arise from the dead and receive a new, a divine life. Some in the same family, perhaps of thy own kindred, thy flesh and blood, or some that are upon the same seat in the public assembly, are convinced and converted, believe in Christ, and are saved; while thou remainest a hard and impenitent sinner under the voice of the same grace, and the preaching of the same salvation.

And if this be thy case, it is a dreadful one indeed. Consider, how will thy condemnation be aggravated, that thou hast heard the gospel published with so much glorious evidence in such a land, and such an age of light as this is, and yet thou abidest in the state of impenitence, and unbelief, and death. Thou hast had the blessings of heaven offered at thy door, and hast hitherto refused to receive them. Thou hast sat, as it were, on the banks of the river of life, and never desired to taste the living water. Thou hast dwelt near the shadow of the tree of life, but art an utter stranger to the fruit. O! with what a stupid and a careless ear hast thou heard the things of thy everlasting peace! Think of it therefore, and be horribly afraid: If the gospel be not powerful for the salvation of thy soul, it will become through thy own impenitence, a powerful means to increase thy damnation, to make thy hell hotter, and thy eternal sorrows more intolerable, Wo to thee, Capernaum! Wo to thee Bethsaida! Wo unto you, O sinners of Great Britain, ye have been exalted to heaven in divine favours, and ye shall be thrust down to hell, if ye continue in unbelief. It shall be more tolerable in the day of Judgment for Sodom and Gomorrah, than for you; Mat. xi. 21.

But art thou indeed yet an unbeliever? Yet sleeping the sleep of death? It may be this is thy awakening time: It may be this is the hour when thou shalt begin to hear the voice of God in order to life. O cherish such important thoughts as these. Let them arise with thee in the morning, let them lie down at night with thee, and give thyself no rest, nor give rest to the God of heaven, nor to Jesus Christ the Saviour, till he has received thy soul into the arms of his love, forgiven thy sins, and made thee a new creature, that the gospel may not be to thy soul the savour of eternal death.

II. But perhaps the person who makes this complaint, may be some humble, melancholy christian, some sincere believer in Christ, and yet under dark and timorous apprehensions, concerning his own state. It may be, poor trembling soul, that thou hast found the preaching of the gospel to be the power of God to thy salvation, though thou art not able rightly to evidence it to thy own conscience.

Thou hast not the joy of pardon indeed, but hast thou not some glimmering hopes? Surely thou dost not abandon thyself to utter despair? Thou hast not assurance that Christ has accepted of thee; but art thou not sincerely willing to surrender thyself to him, to receive his complete salvation in the holiness as well as the happiness of it? Dost thou not long to be pardoned and accepted of God, for the sake of his death and obedience? And art thou not heartily desirous to give him all the honour of thy salvation? Thou hast not much power against sin, but dost thou not hate it with immortal hatred, and esteem it thy constant enemy? Does it not often cause thee to mourn before the Lord, because of thy captive state, and the working of in-dwelling iniquities? Perhaps thou dost not yet feel thyself to be manifestly saved from sin, but art thou not saved from the love of sin? It dwells in thy flesh, it may be, and raises tumults there, but not in thy desire and thy delight. Canst thou not say with the apostle; Rom. vii. 23, 24. There is a law in my members warring against the law of my mind? But it is a daily torment to me, O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me? Thou dost not love God, it may be, according to thy wish and desire; but is there any thing which thou valuest more than God and his love? Art thou not truly willing to love him above all things, to be renewed and sanctified in all the powers of thy nature, to be fitted for the business of heaven, and suited to the blessedness?

If thy heart can echo to this sort of language, and the grace of God has prevailed thus far in thee, then thy salvation is begun; the gospel has shewn its divine power upon thee, and thou art indeed to be numbered among the believers.

III. But I would conclude my discourse with a word that may have equal respect to saints or sinners. If you are concerned sincerely about your eternal welfare, but can see no comfortable evidences in yourselves of the work of faith, or the beginnings of salvation, if all within you appear to be guilt and sin, and there is much of hell and darkness in the soul, yet do not cast away all hope: Arise and come to Jesus the Saviour, behold he calleth you. This is the season of the grace of the gospel, This is the accepted time, this is the day of salvation. Make haste now to the city of refuge, fly now to the hope that is set before you.

The promises are held open to thee, O soul! whosoever thou art, even the promises of light and life, of grace and eternal glory. Christ Jesus invites thee by the messengers of his gospel: If there be some darkness upon thy Spirit, do not spend all thy time in laborious and fruitless enquiries whether thou hast heretofore believed in Christ, or no; but come now with an humble sense of thy guilty and sinful circumstances, and surrender thyself to his charge and care by a new act of faith, or trust, or dependance. Plead with him to accept a vile criminal overloaded with guilt and misery, and to make thee accepted with God by a righteousness which was not thy own. Beseech him to look with pity on thy unholy soul, to sanctify and renew it, to take thy hard heart into his hand, and soften it into repentance. Plead with him, and say, Lord, art not thou exalted to give repentance as well as remission? Entreat of him to subdue thy sins, to new-mould and create all the powers of thy nature in the beauties of holiness, and to prepare thee for the heavenly state. Go and complain humbly at his mercy-seat, how long thou hast sat under the ministry of his own gospel, and felt no divine power attending it. Intrust thyself now to his care, and place thyself by faith under his divine influences. He that comes in this manner, shall in no wise be cast out, for the Lord has promised to receive him; John vi. 37. Wait on him with daily importunity, follow all the means of grace which he hath appointed, and the gospel of Christ shall appear in due time to be the power of God, even thy God, to thy salvation. Amen.

HYMN FOR SERMON XIX. None excluded from Hope.

Jesus, thy blessings are not few, Nor is thy gospel weak? Thy grace can melt the stubborn Jew, And heal the dying Greek.

Wide as the reach of Satan’s rage, Doth thy salvation flow: ’Tis not confin’d to sex or age, The lofty or the low.

While grace is offer’d to the prince, The poor may take their share: No mortal has a just pretence, To perish in despair.

Be wise, ye men of strength and wit, Nor boast your native powers; But to his sovereign grace submit, And glory shall be yours.

Come, all ye vilest sinners, come, He’ll form your souls anew: His gospel and his heart have room For rebels such as you.

His doctrine is almighty love; There’s virtue in his name, To turn the raven to a dove, The lion to a lamb.

SERMON XX. Christian Morality, viz. Truth, Sincerity, &c. PHILIP. iv. 8.—Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, or grave, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Οσα εστιν αληθη, &c.

Faith and practice make up the whole of our religion: A sacred compound, and divinely necessary to our happiness and our heaven! Nor does the blessed apostle in any of his writings ever dwell so entirely on one of them, as to forget the other. In this letter to the saints at Philippi, practice has the largest share. Through every chapter he scatters up and down particular directions for the conduct of those believers who dwelt among the gentiles; but he gives them two general rules, by which they were to walk. The first is in the beginning of his epistle; Philip. i. 27. Let your conversation be as becomes the gospel. Act always agreeable to the temper and design of that gospel, which brings salvation by Jesus Christ, and then you will certainly practise every virtue of life; your carriage can never be amiss.

And toward the latter end of his letter he saith, Finally, brethren, before I take my leave of you, I would give another general rule to direct your practice: I would recommend holiness to you under another view, and describe it in such colours and characters, as will not only approve themselves to your fellow-christians, but even to the heathens among whom you live, that you may be, as he expresses it in chap. ii. ver. 15. that ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God without rebuke in a wicked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; that they that have a mind to speak evil of christianity, and cast what reproaches they can upon the doctrine of the cross, may not be able to find any flaw in your conversation, or any ground to slander the doctrine which you profess.

The rule is this, whatsoever the light of nature, and the better sort of heathens, esteem true and honest, or decent, and just, and pure, and lovely, and of good report, let these things be your meditation, let these be your constant aim and design, let these be the business of your lives, and your perpetual practice: Think of these things, says the apostle, and think of them so as to perform them.

In a day wherein the professors of christianity, and of the glorious doctrines of the gospel, grow degenerate and loose in their lives, and fall sometimes into vices, which the better sort of the heathens have utterly condemned, I think it may not be amiss to stir you up together with myself to all holy watchfulness and caution; that christianity in our profession and in our practice may appear and shine in its own bright raiment; that the doctrine of God our Saviour may be adorned in all things, and that it may look, as it is indeed in itself, a doctrine according to godliness.

Without any further preface, or division of the words, I shall take these several sentences in the text, as so many distinct characters of morality, or virtue, which the apostle recommends; and in discoursing of each of them, I shall follow nearly the same method; viz.

I. Shew the sense, latitude, and extent of the duty.—II. Make it appear, that these duties are required by the law of nature.—III. Discover what additional influence the gospel should have upon our consciences to the meditation and performance of such duties; and sometimes,—IV. I shall give directions toward the performance of them, and guard against the contrary sins.

Whatsoever things are true.—The first thing that the apostle mentions is this, whatsoever things are true, let these be our meditation, and our practice.

First, Let me shew the sense, latitude, and extent of this advice.

Truth in general lies in a conformity of one thing to some other which is made the standard or rule of it. So a picture is said to be true, when it is conformable to the face and figure of the person: So a copy of any writing is true, when it is conformable to the original. So a narrative or history is true, when it describes matters fairly as they were transacted, and tells the circumstances just as they are. And that is true doctrine which is conformable to the word of God, which is the rule and standard divine truth.

But none of these agree to the design of my text. For the apostle here is describing moral characters, and the duties of a christian. Truth in this place is not so much to be considered as seated in the understanding, as it is in the will. It signifies here integrity and uprightness, in opposition to hypocrisy, insincerity, or moral falsehood. And there are three things that make up the perfect character of truth or integrity:

1. That our words be conformable to our hearts.—2. That our deeds be conformable to our words.—3. That our whole carriage be conformable to itself, and consistent with itself at all times, and in all places.

1. The first thing wherein this virtue consists, is in the conformity of our words to our hearts. This is sometimes called veracity, sometimes sincerity; a necessary duty that belongs to every christian, and that in all the affairs of life. We must be sincere in all relations of matters of fact; in all the narratives or accounts we give of either persons or things, in all our discoveries of our esteem for other men, and in all our professions of love and good-will to others. Whatsoever we speak, it ought to be agreeable to the sentiment of our souls.

Let us first consider what is that truth that is required in relating matters of fact, and narratives concerning things or persons. This is what Solomon mentions; Prov. xii. 17. He that speaketh truth, sheweth forth righteousness; but a false witness deceit. In the xvth Psalm, ver. 2. it is the character of one of those who shall inhabit the holy mountain of God, that he not only worketh righteousness, but he speaketh the truth in his heart. That which he thinks in his heart to be true, he clothes it in words, and thus delivers it out to his fellow-creatures. The apostle in Eph. iv. 25. makes mention of the same duty, and presses it upon those to whom he writes; “Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour; for we all are members one of another:” Members one of another, as we belong to the same original, as we are born of the same first parents, as we are made of one flesh and blood, as we are parts of the same civil society or nation, and especially as we that profess christianity are related to one another in nearer and diviner bonds, as we are members of the general church or body of Christ. Now it does not become those that are joined in so near a relation to lie and speak falsely, and deceive one another, no more than the members of the natural body should do injury to each other, whose single welfare lies much in the welfare of the whole body.

I grant it is possible for the best and wisest of men sometimes to be mistaken in their apprehensions of things, and they may happen to speak something that is false in the course of their conversation: for they may be deceived themselves, and not know the truth. But in matters which they have occasion to speak of, they ought to be as well informed of the truth of things as present circumstances will admit, and to say nothing to their neighbour but what they really believe themselves. When we speak a thing which we sincerely believe, and it happens not to be true, that is properly called a MISTAKE, for we had no design to deceive the person we converse with. But when we speak the thing that is false, and we know it to be false, or do not believe it to be true, this is wilfully to deceive our neighbour; and is properly called by the odious name of LYING.

It is granted also, that no person is always obliged to speak all that he knows, when he is giving an account of some particular affair or concern of life. There are several seasons, wherein it is a piece of prudence to be silent, and not to publish all the truth. We have a most remarkable instance of this in the prophet Jeremiah, when he had been admitted to the speech of Zedekiah the king, and had given him divine counsel, that he should submit himself to the Chaldeans, and save his life, and preserve the city from burning, and at the same time had intreated for himself, that he might not return to Jonathan’s house and the dungeon, lest he died there. A little after, the princes of Israel demanded of him what discourse he had with the king; he concealed his chief business from the princes, which was about submission to the Chaldeans, and told them that he presented his supplication to the king, that he would not cause him to return to Jonathan’s house, so the princes left off speaking with him, and the matter was not perceived; Jer. xxxviii. 24, &c. There may be various occasions in life, wherein it is proper to keep ourselves upon the reserve. Silence is much commended by Solomon, who was made divinely wise; Prov. xxix. 11. A fool uttereth all his mind; but a wise man keepeth it in till afterward.

Yet it must be confessed too, that sometimes the concealment of part of the truth, when it is necessarily due to the hearer, in order to pass a right judgment of the whole, is almost as criminal as a lie: And herein consists the guilt of partial representations. But I cannot stay to discuss this point at large.

The great rule of veracity in general lies in being just and fair in our narratives and representations of things and in saying nothing but what we believe to be true. Whatsoever therefore we have to speak to our fellow-creatures, let us lay a charge upon our consciences perpetually, that we speak according to the sentiments of our hearts; and remember, that what disguises soever our tongues put on, God our Judge sees through them all.

And not only when we relate matters of fact, but when we express our sentiment of the characters of men, let us be just to truth. I confess, brotherly love generally requires us to put the most favourable colours on a blemished character, and say the softest things that the matter will bear; love covereth a multitude of faults and follies, and in this case silence often becomes us best. But when providence and duty requires us to speak, no pretences of love or charity are sufficient to excuse a falsehood.

Again, when we have a bright character upon our tongues, or when we are paying civilities to our neighbours or friends, let us take heed of being lavish beyond what truth will allow. The sins of complaisance may be connived at or applauded by men, and miscalled by the name of good breeding; but the eye and ear of God take a juster and more severe notice of the softest and smoothest falsehoods.

In all the discoveries of our esteem for other men, let us speak no more than we in our hearts believe. It is a character of a very vicious time, and a very degenerate and corrupt age, Ps. xii. 2. “They speak every one with his neighbour, with flattering lips, and with a double heart do they speak; but the Lord shall cut off all flattering lips, for he hates them,” ver. 3. They speak flattery with their tongue, while at the same time their throats are open sepulchres, and they, it may be, attempt to waste, devour, and destroy. This character of the basest of men you read in the vth Psalm; and you find the same hateful practice among the Jews in their deepest degeneracy; Jer. ix. 5, 8. “They will deceive every one his neighbour, and will not speak the truth. One speaketh peaceably to his neighbour with his mouth, but in heart he layeth wait for him.” But this which was so abominable in a Jew, surely a christian ought to stand at the greatest distance from it at all times.

As in discovery of our esteem, so in the profession of our love and good-will to our neighbour, we must observe truth. When your heart is not with your neighbour, be not profuse of the language of friendship. Let love be without dissimulation; Rom. xii. 9. Let love be sincere to your fellow-creatures, and love to your fellow-christians be upright and cordial. Let not that affection appear in a flourish of fine words, if it be not warm in your soul. This is the first character of truth, that our words agree with our hearts.

II. The next instance of the truth required in my text, is, when our deeds are conformable to our words: And this is called faithfulness, as the former is called veracity or sincerity. Faithfulness or truth, in this sense, has respect to our vows, our promises, our resolutions, or our threatenings.

1. Vows are properly made to God alone: And when they are made, if the matter of them be lawful, they ought to be performed. “When thou vowest a vow, defer not to pay it. Better it is thou shouldst not vow, than that thou shouldst vow, and not pay;” Ec. v. 4, 5.

2. Promises of things lawful made to our fellow-creatures, must also be fulfilled with religious care. As for things unlawful, they ought not to be promised. We bind ourselves to perform what we promise, and the law of God binds us as well as the laws of social life. In the xvth Psalm, ver. 4. it is another of the characters of him that shall inhabit the mountain of God, that he sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not; that is, he makes a promise to his neighbour, and though it be much to his own disadvantage, yet he doth not alter the word that is gone out of his lips, nor make a forfeiture of his truth by breach of his promise.

We should remember, that when we bind ourselves by a promise to give any good thing to another, or to do any thing for the benefit of another, the right of the thing promised passes over from us to the person to whom the promise is made, as much as if we had given him a legal bond, with all the formalities of signing and sealing; we have no power to recal, or reverse it without his leave. Always except the promise be made with a condition expressed, or necessarily and evidently implied; then indeed, if the condition fail, the promise is void. But the lips of a christian, when they have once uttered an absolute promise, have laid a bond upon his soul; and he dares not break the law of his God, though the law of man should not bind him.

3. The case of threatenings is somewhat different. A promise makes over the right of some benefit to another who may justly claim it; but a threatening only shews what punishment shall be due to another for such a particular fault or offence. If a superior propose and publish a law, and therein threaten an inferior with some penalty, the superior is supposed to be at liberty, whether he will execute the threatening of his own law, or no: for the criminal will not claim it. Thence arises the power of a superior to pardon a fault.

But if over and above the proposal and publication of this law, a father, for instance, or a master, does solemnly foretel or declare that he will certainly execute the penalty upon the child or servant offending; I think he ought generally to esteem himself bound to fulfil such a declaration or threatening, if it were made in a prudent and lawful manner; unless the repentance of the offender, or some other change of circumstances, give him a just reason to change his mind and alter his purpose.

And in the fourth place, the case is much the same when we make a solemn resolution, and publicly declare it, that we will do such or such a thing in time to come. If this resolution be solemn and public, and be in all respects lawful, it should generally be performed; unless some other circumstances arise, which we did not foresee, or which escaped our present notice when the resolution was made: otherwise we justly expose ourselves to the censure of fickleness, inconstancy, rashness, and folly: And such a conduct seems to intrench upon truth. But this leads me to the third or last instance of truth.

III. Another part of the character of truth is, when our whole carriage is conformable to itself. When we are always of a piece with ourselves, and our conduct is still consistent with our own character and profession. This is called constancy.

Something of this might have been introduced indeed under the first or second particulars, when I shewed how our words should agree with our hearts, and our deeds with our words; for both these demand that our practice should correspond with our profession. But I choose to cast all that I have to say on this subject under the head of constancy to our professions and pretences, which implies a perpetual and persevering honesty of thoughts, words, and actions, and a regular consistency with ourselves. Now that I may throw this matter into the easiest method, I shall shew how this exercise of christian truth will appear in a good man at all times, in all conditions of life, in all places, and in all companies.

1. At all times a good man is the same: He ever maintains the same pious and religious design, and having set his face heavenward, he travels on in the sacred narrow path, and never wilfully turns aside to the right-hand or to the left: Or if at any time he makes a false step, he recovers it again with humility and shame, and repentance, and his feet return to the ways of holiness.

Here let it be observed, that a good man may change his practices in some lesser points of christianity, and alter his principles too in doctrines of less importance, and yet he is not to be charged with criminal inconstancy or falsehood: For he never renounces all improvement of knowledge, but is ever ready to receive further light, and to retract his former errors and mistakes: And indeed this is one glorious evidence of his being a constant friend to truth. But being well established in the necessary and fundamental points of faith and practice, he walks on regularly in his christian course without wavering, or wandering into forbidden paths, ever pursuing his last great end: And this is a constant christian, though his sentiments, in the latter part of his life, may differ in several points from the thoughts of his youth.

When the eye of the world smiles upon his profession, and the sun shines bright upon his party, or when the clouds arise, and the sharp winds of persecution blow, he is still the same steady christian, composed, quiet, undisturbed; not doubtful what he should do, but aiming at heaven, he marches on homewards, with the regular discharge of all his duties to his God on high: nor does he forget his obligations to his fellow-creatures on earth, though in twenty instances they may forget or refuse to fulfil their duty to him. His supreme obligations are to God his Maker, and to these he must be true and faithful.

How various were the trials that St. Paul met with from the Jews, and from the Greeks, from the Jewish christian, and the heathen converts? But how bright and blessed an uniformity ran like a golden thread through his whole life and ministry? Hear the holy man often in his writings declaring his own stedfast adherence to the gospel: Hear him appealing to his Ephesian disciples concerning his own conduct, and proving it to their consciences, that he had in some good measure acquitted himself according to this rule of christianity; Acts xx. 18. When the elders of Ephesus were come to him, Ye know, says he, that from the first day that I came into Asia, after what manner I have been with you at all seasons, and that was by the space of three years, as in ver. 31. serving the Lord with all humility of mind, with many tears and temptations that befel me: And I was constantly testifying to the Jews and Greeks, faith and repentance, and shunned not to declare the whole counsel of God to you, coveting no man’s gold or apparel, &c. I have shewed you now, that for these three years together I have maintained the same holy conduct, that so you might follow my example, that ye might always act agreeable to yourselves, and be constant to your own virtuous and holy character.

But what an inconstant christian is he who changes his principles and practices, being blown about with the wind of prevailing party, and the humour of the times? Who seems active in the cause of religion, when religion is the fashion of the age; but he grows ashamed of every part of godliness, when the times turn upon him! His religion dies, when piety is discouraged in the world, and a saint becomes a name of reproach! To-day for the God of Israel, and to-morrow among the worshippers of Baal! Now a zealot for pure doctrine and worship, anon so lukewarm and indifferent about every thing of religion, as though it had no place near his heart! Multiplying duties of godliness one week, and grossly negligent of all duty the next! To-day preaching and practising the rules of christianity, and to-morrow talking and living like a man of heathenism? True and constant to nothing, but to his own fickle temper and inconstancy!

Is it not a glorious character when we can say of a good man, that “all that have known him give him a good word; that those who have lived many years with him, and seen him in his unguarded hours, and in the undress of life, pronounce him the same man as he appears in the public world.” They who have known him longest, admire him most and love him best, and they bear a noble testimony to his virtues, and his graces. His graces and his virtues advance with his years, they imitate the morning sun, which keeps the same steady pace through the heavens, but rises hourly, and shines with a brighter lustre, and with warmer beams. “The path of the just, like the morning light, shines more and more unto the perfect day;” Prov. iv. 18.

But what a wretched satire it is upon any man to say, “If you see him for an hour his talents will surprize and please you, but if you have a year’s acquaintance with him, his evil qualities are so many and so hateful, that all his charms vanish, and he sinks and loses all your esteem?” So a torch blazes high when it is first kindled, but the flame grows lower as it burns, till it expire in stench and smoke. Where such a censure is just, or such a simile well applied, the man is far from that fair character of truth and constancy which the gospel recommends.

2. A true christian is the same in all conditions of life. Let the favours or the frowns of men attend him, or the awful providence of God make a surprizing change in his affairs, still he ceases not to look and live, to speak and act like a christian. Is it not a very honourable account that you have heard sometimes given of a person in the height of prosperity, and in the depth of afflictive circumstances, that he is still the same man? That he maintains his probity and his integrity, and every virtue, in the midst of all the revolutions of providence! Serene and chearful, calm, peaceful and heavenly, holy and humble amidst them all! St. Paul was eminent for this grace. “I know,” saith he, “how to be abased and how to abound, to be full and to be hungry: I have learned to be content in whatsoever state I am,” and to appear a christian under every change of circumstances; Philip. iv. 11, 12.

The man of truth and constancy, when he is exalted and walks upon the mountains of prosperity and honour, is not vain and haughty in his treatment of inferiors, nor does he look askew upon his former friends, nor cast his eye down with contempt on his meaner brethren. When his mountain shakes and falls, he descends calmly into the valley; but he is not of a mean, abject and desponding spirit: Ever mindful of his high birth as a christian, and of his heavenly home, he bears up with a sacred constancy of soul, with a generous contempt of this world, and all the vanishing honours and the uncertain possessions of it. His behaviour is ever true to his holy profession, and to his sublimest hope. Is not this a character which each of us wish our own? Is it not worthy of our aim and ambition, our daily pursuit and labour to obtain?

There are some christians that know not how to bear the smiles of providence: and some who are as much untaught to bear the frown of it: For their piety is ever changing, as their circumstances are.

The first sort are they who are never very serious and devout but when they lie under the chastisements of God: They seem humble, penitent, and pious when the rod of heaven is upon them, but when that is once removed, they forget their sorrows and their seriousness together. Such were the rebellious and inconstant Jews of old, when the Lord slew them, they sought him early, and enquired after God; but they took every new occasion to murmur and rebel again: There was no truth in their religion; “their heart was not right with God,” nor “were they stedfast in his covenant;” Ps. lxxviii. 34. “In trouble they visited thee, O Lord, and poured out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them; but their goodness was like a morning cloud, and as the early dew, it vanished away;” Is. xxvi. 16. Hos. vi. 4.

There is another sort of men who behave well enough in matters of virtue and religion when they are in peaceful and easy circumstances; but if once they are smitten in their flesh, in their good name or their estate, or have any of the comforts of life imbittered to them, they grow peevish and passionate, and nothing can please them; they vent their impatience on their friends, and throw their vexation of spirit all around them, as though they resolved to imitate that brutal character which the prophet mentions, like a wild bull in a net, struggling, and raving, and full of fury under the rebuke of the Lord; Is. li. 20. Surely both these qualities are very contrary to that serene and uniform practice of true godliness that becomes a saint.

3. In all places, as well as in all times and circumstances, the true christian appears the same, and is just to his own profession. Wheresoever he dwells, or sojourns, where he spends an hour or a year, he is constant to himself, and consistent with himself still. He ever maintains the same pious designs, and adorns and glorifies the doctrine of the gospel in all things. When at home and when abroad, he is the same person. When at church paying his honours and devotions to heaven; when in his own family among his children and servants, or when in his shop and in the affairs of life; when in the street or on the exchange conversing with the world, friends and strangers, known and unknown; when in his closet and secret chamber, still he is the same good man: still acting consistent with himself and his profession, still pursuing a regular steady course of piety, and his dying pillow confirms the sincerity and practice of his life. Religion is ever uppermost in his heart, and all his affairs and businesses in the world, are managed with regard to his last great end. Thus though his engagements and actions of life be very various daily, according to the various calls of duty; yet his design is ever the same, and the rule that governs all his practices is the word of God, the gospel of our Lord Jesus.

How far from the glory of this character were the false-hearted sons of Israel in Jeremiah’s time! They were guilty of stealing and murdering in the streets, or by-ways, or private-houses, yet they came and stood before the Lord in the house which was called by his name; Jer. vii. 3, 4, &c. There were also in our Saviour’s days men of the same deceitful spirit, whom he frequently and sharply reproved under the odious name of hypocrites, who made long prayers in the temple, and in the corners of the streets; but devoured widows’ houses, and neglected judgment, mercy and faith; who made clean the outside of their cup, but filled it with all extortion, luxury, and excess. You read their infamous manners at large in the vi. and xxiii. chapters of Matthew.

They had no more truth in them than whited sepulchres or flowery graves, fair indeed and beautiful on the outside covering, but all within is death, and horror, and rottenness. O, how inconsistent were the two pieces of this character one with another! How far from that truth and uprightness, that sincerity and constancy, that the gospel requires, and so much approves of? What a most sharp and shameful reproach is it, and yet a righteous one too, that is thrown on some persons? They are saints at church, and devils at home!

It is pity we must borrow a word from hell to describe any sort of men that dwell on earth: I would not willingly apply it to any particular person living: But in describing a general character of this kind, we can hardly paint it in colours frightful enough. In public they are all meekness and innocence, all demure, and abstemious, and heavenly, and they transform themselves, as their father does, into angels of light; 2 Cor. xi. 14. but follow them to their houses, and you see a surprizing change: There luxury and riot, there fury and passion reign in every room, their dwelling is without God, without prayer, without piety or peace, and has more of hell than of heaven in it. O my soul, come not into their secret, to their family, my honour, be not thou united! for truth and goodness are far from them.

4. The true christian is the same in all companies: And though he does not think himself obliged to cast his pearls before swine, to give that which is holy to dogs, or to impose a discourse of religion upon those that hate it; yet he never forgets his religion in the worst of company, nor does he throw off the christian in the midst of heathens. The general course of his life shines in the beauty of holiness, and glorifies his God in an impious world. And there are seasons too, when he sees it necessary to rebuke public iniquity, and bear a testimony against a vicious age: He has never any fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather he reproves them; Eph. v. 11. Yet sometimes his prudence directs his christianity to lie concealed, but he never dares do any thing that contradicts it. It is like a garment that he ever wears about him, though he does not always wear it uppermost: He keeps it ever as his guard, though he does not always expose his glory.

What a scandal is it to any person who professes the name of Christ, that he can sometimes lay aside all his christianity, and bury it in an hour of riot! That he can drink till midnight when he gets among drunkards, and take his cup as merrily and as often as they! That he can relish a lewd or profane jest, and make one too, when he sits in the company of lewd or profane jesters! That he can lisp out an oath, and stammer at a curse, or perhaps he can swear roundly when he is in the midst of swearing wretches! And yet he can pray and talk devoutly when he falls into religious company, and pretend to tremble at the profaneness of the age. What shameful hypocrisy and falsehood is this!

There are some persons who have appeared in the country to be professors of religion, and perhaps may have obtained a name of piety; but when they come up to the city among loose libertines, where their vices are better hid, they give themselves up to loose practices, and indulge a licentious month or two. They are pious amongst their acquaintance, and profane amongst strangers. They have not impudence enough to be constant in vice, nor have they grace enough to be true to virtue.

There are some that speak fair to the face of their neighbour, and spread their compliments abroad before him; but behind his back, in other company, they are as liberal of their reproaches, and can hardly endure a good thing to be said of him. Their behaviour has brought an infamous word into the English tongue; for they are justly called backbiters.

There are some children that pay the utmost deference to their parents in appearance and shew, and will not dare anything vicious while they are under their eye; but when they are mingled with their vain young acquaintance, they run into many extravagances, and give a loose to the wild appetites of the flesh. But these are not the children of truth.

There are some servants who make their zeal and diligence appear while their master’s eye is upon them; but they are mere eye-servants and false creatures, for when they are out of his sight, they can waste his substance among merry companions, and perhaps purloin and pilfer to gratify their own covetousness, or luxury: or at best they make no conscience of acting for their master’s interest, when he is absent.

Thus different company hath a different influence on the thoughts, the words, and the works of men: And some persons will run into every vice and folly, rather than to oppose their company; they had rather sin against God, and be false to their profession, than venture to be, what they call, rude and uncivil to company. So tender are they of giving offence to men, and so careless of offending the great and dreadful God!

There are some of all ranks and orders, of all sexes and ages of mankind, that seem to be sober, but have nothing of this divine virtue of truth or constancy in them. They would neither swear, nor drink, nor game, nor speak a lewd or impious word, when they are in a sober family: But when at any time they happen to come into houses without godliness, they can follow the course of the family in all manner of iniquities, and grow false to all their former appearances of goodness.

I might multiply instances of this kind, to shew what falsehoods and sly deceits are practised amongst men who call themselves christians, and how inconsistent many of their actions are with their own professions and pretences: But this part of my discourse hath already exceeded its just bounds. Yet I think I ought not to leave it till I have answered one objection.

Objection. It may be said here, does not St. Paul, one of the truest christians and the best of men, tell us, that when he was among the Jews, he became as a Jew, and appeared like one that was under the law: But when he was among the Gentiles, who were without law, he appeared like a Gentile too, for he was not willing to offend the one or the other; according to his own advice, Give none offence neither to the Jews, neither to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God; 1 Cor. ix. 20. and chap. x. 32. To this I answer,

The blessed apostle, when he had none but Jews about him, practised so much of the Jewish law as was consistent with christianity: When he had none but Gentiles with him, he declared his freedom and release from the bonds of the Jewish law, and neglected the Jewish ceremonies, for some parts of the Jewish law were now lawful for a season, though they were so far abolished that they were not necessary for a christian. And the apostle managed this affair with holy prudence, and with a religious design to ingratiate himself and his ministry, as much as possible both with the Jews and Gentiles for the salvation of both of them: For you find this was his great end, I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some; and this I do for the gospel’s sake; ver. 22, 23.

Yet you may observe, that though he appeared free from the Jewish law when he was among the Gentiles, yet he did not carry it like a lawless man, but confined all his practice within the bounds of his duty to God and his Saviour, being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ; ver. 21. So that neither one sort of company nor the other tempted him to neglect any duty, or to indulge any sin.

You may observe also upon another occasion, where Jews and Gentiles were both present, when he thought a conformity to any of the Jewish customs might give greater offence to the Gentile christians, and be likely to do more hurt than good, he withstood Peter to the face, for his sinful compliance with the uncharitable Jews: He reproved him for dissembling, and chid him because he walked not uprightly, according to the truth of the gospel, and would not give place to him by subjection; no, not for an hour; Gal. ii. 5, 11, 14, &c.

There are some seasons therefore when we may indulge an innocent compliance with our company in things lawful, in order to do credit to the gospel Of Christ, and make our profession appear lovely and honourable in the eyes of all: But there are other seasons when circumstances are so placed, that we may not indulge the same compliances, lest our liberty be construed to an evil purpose, and we bring more scandal than honour to our profession by it.

I grant there are some difficulties attending particular cases in the christian life, and it is hard to know sometimes how far we may go. It is no easy matter to tread in the apostle’s steps, to become all things to all men, and yet be true to Christ. In the general, let this be our great rule, to act always with honest zeal for the glory of God, and see that we please him in the first place; and then as far as possible to please all men, not seeking our own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved; 1 Cor. x. 31, 32, 33. And if while we endeavour to be true to God, we should happen to be less complaisant to men, we shall certainly find favour at the throne of God, and then we ought not to be over-solicitous whether men be pleased, or no.

Thus I have finished the first general head, which was to shew the extent and latitude of this virtue, or what is included in the nature of this truth, which the apostle recommends to christians. It contains in it veracity or sincerity, faithfulness and constancy: And a lovely character it is indeed, when it shines in its full glory.

But it is time now to enquire, which of us can say, “This character belongs to me? Am I this true, this sincere, this faithful, this constant christian? Am I always careful that my words are conformable to my heart, and express the honest sense of my soul; Do I speak nothing but what I believe to be true, and set a continual guard upon the door of my lips, lest they utter deceit and falsehood? Do I neither flatter my neighbour, nor spread a false report of him? Am I watchful to make no promises, but what I mean sincerely to fulfil? And am I as careful to perform my vows and all my engagements? Am I sincere in the profession of godliness, and constant in my practice of it at all times and circumstances, in all places and companies whatsoever?”

Let us ask our hearts again, “While we have heard this discourse, how many of us have sat here judging our neighbours, and not ourselves: Have we been distributing abroad the shameful characters of insincerity, falsehood, unfaithfulness, and inconstancy, among our acquaintance? Or have we applied the words as a test to our own souls, as a trial of our christianity? Have we taken a secret and malicious pleasure in fixing these scandals upon others? Or have we begged of God to fix the conviction upon ourselves if we are guilty? And which of us can stand up and say in the face of heaven, We are innocent, entirely innocent of all these charges?” O may the blessed Spirit, the Convincer and the Sanctifier, shew each of us our own concern in this sermon, awaken each of us to a sense of our own iniquities, and by his almighty grace work in us repentance, and restore us to truth and holiness!

SERMON XXI. Christian Morality, viz. Truth, Sincerity, &c. PHILIP. iv. 8.—Whatsoever things are true,—think on these things.

Truth is a name of wide extent. It includes in it the blessings of the head and the heart. Happy the man whose head is furnished with a large knowledge of divine and human truth, and so far delivered from mistakes and errors, as to lay a foundation for wisdom and holiness! But all the furniture of the head is not sufficient to make us truly wise and holy, without the honesty and integrity of the heart. Truth demands a room and place there also: And this is the truth which my text recommends.

The first thing I proposed, was to shew the latitude and extent of this duty—and I have described it as consisting in these three things; 1. Veracity, which is, when our words are conformable to the sentiments of our mind. 2. Faithfulness, when our actions agree with our words. 3. Constancy, and that is when our practices are consistent with our pious principles, and the whole course of our life is of a piece, governed by the same rules and dictates of morality and religion. Where these are wanting, that person is false, faithless, fickle, and inconstant, and acts neither agreeable to his nature as a man, nor to his character as a christian.

The second thing I designed to shew, was that the light of nature dictates and requires the practice of this virtue: And it will appear, if we consider our relation either to God or man.

I. If we consider our natural relation to God, both as our Creator or Father, and as our Lord or Governor.

Consider him as our Father, the Author of our being. Truth and faithfulness are the attributes of his nature, and the necessary characters of his conduct toward his creatures; and many of the heathens could tell us, that a likeness to God the Father of our spirits, in such moral perfections of his nature, is the duty and glory of mankind. We are his offspring, saith Aratus, a heathen poet; Acts xvii. 28. and children should be like their divine Parent.

The light of nature tells us, that he is not only our Creator, and our Father in this sense, but he is our Lord and Governor also. And he has knowledge, and he has power to answer and fulfil this high character and station. The great God who looks into our hearts, who sees our souls through and through, he knows what our inward sentiments are while the falsehood is on our lips; he remembers what our engagements and contracts are while we renounce and break them; he hates deceit, lying, and falsehood; and all the civilized nations have ever supposed that he will avenge it with peculiar judgments.

It is upon this supposition of an all-knowing and avenging power, that oaths are administered in all countries which are reformed from utter barbarity. An oath is appointed to be the confirmation of truth in what we say or do. Therein God himself, with all his knowledge, his power and his terrors, is called upon to bear witness to what we speak, and to be an avenger of perjury and falsehood. Surely we might venture to say, that a day will come when the great and holy God will shew himself terrible to liars and deceivers, if we had nothing but the light of nature to tell us so.

II. If we consider our relation to mankind, truth will appear to be a necessary duty. Man is a sociable creature, he is made to love society; but no society can be maintained without truth: All falsehood therefore is inconsistent with the social nature of mankind, and consequently it becomes contrary to the law and light of nature. Without truth we should all become deceivers to one another, every man a liar to his neighbour. No contracts would be of any force; no commerce could be maintained; none of us would he able to trust another, nor could we live safe by those that dwell nearest to us.

He that indulges himself in lying, takes away his own credit, and gives sufficient occasion for his neighbour not to believe him, even when he happens to speak the truth; for a man that will lie and deceive sometimes, how can we tell that he is not dealing deceitfully with us, even when he professes to be most faithful and true? And children should take notice of this, that if once they indulge the sin of lying, there is nobody will ever believe what they say.

A liar is such an abandoned character amongst mankind, that though there are too many who deserve the name, yet every one is ashamed of it. It is esteemed a reproach of so heinous and hateful a nature for a man to be called a liar, that sometimes the life and the blood of the slanderer has paid for it. The very nature of man resents it highly, for it implies in it, that a man guilty of this vice deserves to be cut off from all society with mankind, and to be thrust out of cities and families like a beast of the earth.

The same thing may be said of an unfaithful man, a man who makes promises, contracts, and agreements, and takes no care to perform them. All commerce and traffic is confounded, and the laws of it dissolved, by a person of this shameful conduct. He that loses his credit and honour by this sort of falsehood, cuts himself off from many of the blessings of civil society, and stands as it were excommunicated from the friendship, the company, and commerce of his neighbours among whom he dwells. His character becomes hateful among men, and his name is a word of scandal and infamy. But where a man is true to his word, and punctual in all his correspondencies, how fair is his reputation! How honourable is his name! And he stands entitled to all the blessings of the society where he resides.

I might borrow arguments also from the light of nature, to shew what an excellent virtue is that of constancy; how useful in the whole course of life; how honourable a name does it gain a man in the world! With what a happy regularity his affairs proceed, both in his household and in his shop, or business of life! He maintains a sacred and steady peace of mind, and all men bless him: but the character of a fickle, wavering, inconstant man, is always mean and contemptible: he is compared to a weather-cock, that is blown about by every wind: and his name is thus exalted, or stuck on high, there to become a more public mark of jest and ridicule.

The third thing I proposed, is to consider what are those additional arguments that might be drawn from the gospel for the practice of this truth and sincerity, this faithfulness and constancy: For the gospel doth not only confirm all the duties of morality that the light of nature dictates, and establish all the reasons of them that the light of nature more feebly proposes, but it adds also many arguments and motives to enforce the same virtuous practices, which the mere light of nature knows nothing of; and I shall represent all these advantages of the gospel here. But I will not overload your memory with particulars, and therefore I shall speak them more generally, and heap them together; and may your souls and mine feel the united force of them!

It is a gospel of truth we profess, even the eternal truth of God revealed to men concerning our salvation and his glory. There are a multitude of scriptures where the gospel itself is called the truth, and the word of truth; and it is a most inconsistent thing for the professors of this gospel to be guilty of falsehood.

God the Father is the God of truth: and never did he give so glorious a demonstration of the sincerity of his love, of the faithfulness of his promises, and of the constancy of his compassionate design to man, as in sending his own Son into the world, according to his ancient prophecies of a thousand years, and bestowing upon us Jesus the Saviour.

Jesus Christ, by whose name we are called, he is the true and faithful witness; Rev. iii. 14. Truth, and grace, and peace, came by him; John i. 17. He is called the truth; John xiv. 6. He came down to bring life and immortality to light by his gospel; he came to tell us, and he well knew, that in his Father’s house were many mansions; and if it were not so, says he, I would have told you: But it is not my business to be a deceiver to men: Therefore all the life, light, and immortality that I have discovered to you in my preaching, it is all sincere, it is all real. When you enter into the other world, trusting my promises, you will find all my words fulfilled. I would not have raised your expectations, if it had been otherwise.

Again, the Holy Spirit is a Spirit of truth; it is he that guides us into all truth; John xvi. 13. And the name of this Father, and this Son, and this Holy Spirit, is called upon us in our first admission to christianity. So that we wear the name of the God of truth upon us, and shall we indulge temptations to falsehood? Shall we practise deceit, who profess a gospel of such truth, and upon whom the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, the name of the God of truth is pronounced in baptism?

God is sincere in his revelations of grace, and discoveries of his pardoning mercy; for he sent his own Son to die for us, and this is a proof of his sincerity in his designs of love. Let us then be sincere in love to our God, to our fellow-creatures, and fellow-christians. Jesus Christ is sincere in the profession of his love, and he hath given us an infallible pledge of it, for he hath given his life for us. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends; John xv. 13. But he hath laid down his life for enemies, and therefore he hath magnified his love, and divinely demonstrated it to be sincere and true, beyond all possibility of jealousies and exceptions.

God is faithful to all the promises of his gospel; all his ways are mercy and truth to his people: He is a God keeping covenant through all generations. This is the illustrious title that he assumes to himself, and glories in: And this is the name by which the ancient saints have delighted to make their addresses to him. These heavens shall be dissolved and perish in the flame, and this earth become a smoking cinder; “heaven and earth shall pass away, but the word of the Lord and his truth abide for ever; not one jot or tittle of them shall perish, but all shall be fulfilled.”

“By two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie;” that is, his oath and his promise, he hath established his covenant of grace, “that the heirs of salvation, might have strong consolation;” Heb. vi. 18. Hereby it comes to pass that we have a sure hope of eternal life; for “God that cannot lie hath promised it to us in Christ Jesus before the world began;” Tit. i. 2. and 2 Tim. i. 9. And though it was so long ago since the first promise was made, the first promise made to Christ before the foundations of the world, and the first promise made to fallen Adam a little after the foundations of the world were laid; yet our God hath not forgotten his promises and his covenant; he remains still faithful to fulfil every word of grace “that is gone is out of his lips;” Ps. lxxxix. 33, 34. And should not this oblige us to like faithfulness to our fellow-creatures, since God, who is so infinitely our superior, is pleased thus to bind himself by promises, and thus to fulfil them.

The constancy and immutability of God in his designs of mercy to sinners, should influence us to the practice of the same constancy of spirit in our professions of his gospel. God acts always like himself, conformable to the glory, and holiness, and dignity of his nature, so should we, who are the sons and daughters of the most high and holy God. He is uniform in his counsels and methods of grace and peace, he is unchangeable in his love, and always the same: “And Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever;” constant to himself, and consistent with himself in all the purposes of his mercy, and in all the prosecutions of those divine and eternal purposes in heaven and on earth. No alteration of circumstances, no change of place, from a cross on earth to a throne in heaven, can change his compassion and love to his saints. And shall we suffer our petty changes here on earth, from a higher to a lower part of a little mole-hill, to make such a shameful alteration in our conduct to our friends, as too often endangers our truth, and discovers our inconstancy?

Let us consider that by our profession of christianity we renounce deceit and falsehood, and all the hidden things of darkness: We are children of the light, then let us walk in the light and do the truth, and let our deeds be made manifest, that they are wrought in God; that is, in the faith and fear of God; John iii. 21. Why should a christian be a deceiver, when he bears the name of Christ the faithful and true? How inconsistent a character is it for a christian to be a liar? For a christian to be false, and violate and break his word? How dishonourable is it to the holy name we bear?

Let the children of Satan, who is a liar from the beginning, delight themselves in falsehood, and sport themselves in their own deceivings: Let those who renounce all hope in the promises of God, imitate the devil, who is the father of lies: But let us who trust in the God of truth, who believe in Jesus the Saviour, and make his truth our hope, let us imitate our heavenly Father and our blessed Lord. Let us speak the truth and practise it. It was by a lie of the devil that our first parents were deceived and ruined: All our sin and misery sprung from that falsehood, Ye shall not surely die. And it is by our faith in the truth and promise of God that we hope for salvation. While we therefore remember either the spring of our ruin, or the means of our recovery, we should love the truth, and hate lying.

But there are motives of terror, as well as arguments of grace and love, that should ever influence us to sincerity and truth. We should remember that Christ our Lord has eyes like a flame of fire, that he searches the hearts and the reins, and will render to every one according to their works; Rev. ii. 23. We should remember the dreadful threatenings that Christ the faithful and true Witness, Christ the Lord and Judge of all men, hath denounced against hypocrites. You scarce find him preaching a sermon of any length, but he has one or more woes in it ready for those that practise hypocrisy.

There is no sort of sinners that he treats with such infamous names, and such killing reproaches as he does the hypocrite. They resemble the old serpent, the devil, in subtlety and falsehood, and therefore the language of Christ to them runs in this manner; Ye Jews, who are false to the inward conviction of your own consciences, ye are of your father, the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do: He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him.—When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own; for he is a liar and the father of it; John viii. 44. It is as if our Lord had said, “The first lie that ever was made, was made by the devil; and by his telling a lie, and our mother Eve’s believing it, he murdered mankind in Adam their head. And yet you false Jews would imitate him, and make him your father.” And again, Woe unto you scribes and pharisees, hypocrites,—ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, sons of the old serpent, how can ye escape the damnation of hell; Mat. xxiii. 29, 33. Your eternal punishment is most just and unavoidable.

In another of his discourses he makes the punishment of hypocrites to be, as it were, the pattern of the punishment of the worst of wickedness. The servant who is intrusted with the household of his Lord, that shall beat his fellows, and shall eat and drink with the drunken, his Lord shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrite; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth; Mat. xxiv. 51. And when you read the black catalogue of sinners, who are doomed to everlasting destruction; Rev. xxi. 8. the name of liars is put in with a peculiar remark, the unbelievers, the murderers, the whoremongers, the sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. As if he had said, whosoever escapes hell, no liar shall escape it, and it is repeated again in the next chapter, Without the gates of heaven are dogs, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie; Rev. xxii. 15.

Whensoever therefore we find a temptation to falsehood, let us set ourselves under the immediate eye of God our Judge, God who shall bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and shall judge the secrets of every heart one day by Jesus Christ our Lord; 1 Cor. iv. 5. Rom. ii. 16. If we did but always place ourselves as in the sight of the great and dreadful God, whose eye beholds every falsehood we practise, and all the hidden hypocrisy, the lurking deceit of the soul, whose ear attends to every word of falsehood we speak, and records it all in his book against that great and terrible day of account; surely we should find a more effectual influence of it upon our spirits, to guard us from such words and actions as are inconsistent with the sincerity of a christian.

And let our hearts be melted into repentance for our past iniquities of this kind, and moulded into the love of truth by a delightful meditation of the faithfulness of our Lord Jesus Christ to us, in performing his kind and dreadful undertaking to suffer for our sins. Let us dwell upon the thoughts of his faithfulness to all his promises, and think thus with ourselves, that he has engaged us to truth of every kind by the strongest bonds of duty and love: And if we are false and unfaithful to him in this world, how justly may he cut us off from all our glorious hopes and expectations in the world which is to come.

But this leads me to the fourth general head that I proposed; which was to lay down some directions how christians may be preserved in the ways of truth, how they may secure and maintain this blessed character of integrity and uprightness which I have described. And I think this may be better performed by distinguishing truth, or integrity, into those three distinct parts, under which I treated of it before, namely, veracity, faithfulness, and constancy, and by giving some rules for the preservation of each.

The rules to preserve veracity, or to keep our words conformable to our hearts, are such as these:

I. Be persuaded in your own minds, that no circumstances whatsoever can make a lie lawful. Though when a question is asked, there are many cases wherein it may be lawful to turn the discourse aside, to wave a direct answer, to be entirely silent; or in some circumstances it may be both lawful, prudent, and proper, to conceal a part of the truth, as I hinted in the former sermon; yet in my opinion it is neither prudent, proper nor lawful, to speak a falsehood to deceive my neighbour. The whole truth may not always be necessary to be spoken to men; but such falsehood is always a sin in the sight of God. All lying is utterly forbidden; and the true meaning of a lie is, when we speak that which we believe to be false, with a design to deceive the person to whom we speak.

Here may arise two questions:—I. If I have a good and valuable end in speaking, and my design is to serve the glory of God, or the good of my neighbour, may I not then use the art of lying, or speak a known falsehood without sin?—2. Surely there are some sort of persons who have no right to truth, such as children, common liars, knaves or cheats; may we not therefore deceive them by direct falsehoods, either for their good, or for our own?

These are enquiries of very great importance to the honour of truth, to the satisfaction of conscience, and to the welfare of mankind: And it is my present opinion (and I think there is good reason for it) that none of these cases can make an express and deceitful falsehood to be lawful, or change the nature of a lie, and make it innocent; but to debate these two cases as largely as they deserve, would too much incumber the present discourse; I leave them therefore to be read with an honest and serious mind, as an Appendix to these sermons of truth, and so proceed to the next direction, how to preserve our veracity.

II. The second rule to preserve veracity is this; accustom yourselves to a sober, modest way of speaking, avoid all those methods of speech that border upon falsehood. I shall mention a few of them, to give sufficient notice of what I mean.

Some persons affect to be certain of every thing they speak, and pronounce all that they say with the highest assurance. If they are relating matters of fact, which they only learn by report, they tell you every circumstance without the least hesitation, and endeavour even in a dubious matter to make the hearer believe it with the highest confidence: They are never in the wrong, never doubtful, whether they are in the right no. If they are declaring their own sentiments of the most difficult subject, it is always as clear to them as the light, they are always as positive as if it were divinely revealed, and written in the most express words of scripture.

Now such sort of speakers will often find they have been mistaken; and if they have modesty enough to retract their words, it is well: but for the most part they refuse conviction, and often persist to maintain their own error, even almost against their own consciences. In short, it appears to me, that a man who dares frequently to assert doubtful matters with the most positive air of assurance, has not so much tenderness about his heart, and such a religious fear of lying, as a good christian ought to have.

There are others again that affect to tell you nothing that is common, but would always surprize the company with strange things and prodigies, and all this out of the pride of their hearts, and an ambition to have their own stories applauded and admired by all that hear them. This sort of affectation oftentimes betrays a person into falsehood, and secretly and insensibly allures him to say things that are neither credible nor true. Sailors and travellers should set a special guard upon themselves in this respect.

There are a third sort of talkers, that when they discourse of common things, are ever expressing them in exalted and superlative language. If they speak of any thing small, it is prodigiously small; if they speak of any thing great, it is incomparably great. If they name a man of wisdom, he is the wisest man in the world; or a woman of piety, she is the only saint in the nation. An imprudent man with them is the greatest fool in nature; and a little disappointing accident in life, is an intolerable vexation. If they happen to hear a good sermon, the preacher was inspired, not an angel could exceed him: If it was a mean discourse, the wretch had not a grain of sense and learning. Every opinion they hold is divine and fundamental: All their own sentiments, even in lesser matters, are the very sense of Christ and his apostles, and all that oppose them are guilty of heresy or nonsense. Now persons who have accustomed their tongues to this language in common discourse, seem to want that due caution which the strict rules of godliness may seem to require, and make a little too free with truth. Either their thoughts are very injudicious, if they can believe what they say; or if they do not believe it, they should make their words agree better with their thoughts.

But besides the approaches to falsehood in this manner of conversation, there is something in it that is very vain, and almost ridiculous. Methinks such an extravagant talker is something like a man that walks upon stilts through the open street, or like one who wears a coat much longer than his neighbours; and how tall soever they may think themselves, the world will be ready to call one of them a child, and the other an idiot.

Objection. But are there not a multitude of such expressions in scripture in the books of Job, and the Psalms, and the Prophets, wherein even the more plain or common occurrences of life are dressed up in very magnificent language, and in expressions that far exceed the truth of things? Does not David, in his elegy upon Saul and Jonathan, say, they were swifter than eagles, they were stronger than lions? 2 Sam. i. 23. And even in St. John’s history of the life and death of Christ, does he not suppose, that if all things which Jesus did were written, even the world itself could not contain the books? John xxi. 25.

Answer. It is the natural language of poetry and prophecy, and the custom of the eastern nations, to express things in a lofty and sublime manner; so that there is no danger of being deceived by that language, when a prophet or a poet indulges such figures of speech. Now the books of Job and Psalms, and David’s elegy, are so many Hebrew poems. The business of oratory is a-kin to verse, and sometimes requires a figurative style. But in familiar language and common discourse, it is not the custom of mankind to use such extravagance of expression: The hearer is many times ready to be led into a mistake thereby, because he supposes the speaker to mean plainly what he says. And I would not willingly indulge a habit of expressing my thoughts in such a manner in common conversation, as should deceive my hearers, to humour a silly affectation.

As for the figure which St. John uses to represent the variety of useful things which were said and done by our Saviour, it is such as can lead no man into a mistake, for none can believe it to be understood in a literal sense. Besides, if one would indulge the most superlative expressions and boldest figures that human language can furnish one with, to set out the honours of any person on earth, there can be no such proper or deserving subject as Jesus Christ our Lord.

III. The third rule to preserve veracity is this, practise nothing which you are ashamed of. Do nothing that you need be afraid of the ear of the world: Walk carefully in the ways of virtue and duty: Fulfil your obligations to God and man to the utmost of your power: Venture upon no practice that needs a cover, a disguise, or an excuse; and then you will not be so often under the temptation of lying.

Let children remember this, and have a care of disobeying God, or their parents, even when they are alone; lest they be tempted to excuse their faults by lying, which indeed does but enlarge and double them, rather than diminish and excuse them. Let servants take notice of this, and pay all due honour and faithful obedience to their masters and governors? or else the devil, and their own corrupt hearts, will frequently join together and help them to lie for the cover of their guilt. Let every one that hears this discourse watch over all their actions, and confine them within the rules of religion; otherwise their practice, which will not bear the light, will put them under a temptation to hide it behind a refuge of lies.

And under this head I might particularly give this advice. Do not affect a cunning way of life. Do not aim at the character of a subtle and crafty man. Be not fond of being let into secrets, nor of engaging in intrigues of any sort. There are some tempers of mankind that are naturally addicted to craft, and are ever seeking to outwit their neighbours: they seldom live upon the square, or walk onward in an open path; but are still doubling, and turning, and traversing their course. They take a special pleasure in managing all their affairs with art and subtilty, and call it necessary prudence. But if you would shew yourselves tender of the truth, and preserve it, let your course of life be bold, and free, and open. There is much prudence to be used in our daily conduct, without this crafty humour. The integrity of a man will preserve him, and keep his tongue from falsehood; whereas a man who is much engaged in crafty designs, will now and then be tempted to intrench upon truth, and come near the brink of lying, to carry on and cover all his secret purposes.

Methinks I could pity rather than envy the high station of courtiers. How often they are constrained to put on disguise, to colour or to conceal their real designs! How near they walk to the borders of falsehood, and tread hourly upon the very edge of a lie! David, the man after God’s own heart, while he kept his father’s sheep, was more secure from this temptation; but when he became a courtier and a king, he was often exposed, and therefore he begs earnestly, that God would remove from him the way of lying; Ps. cxix. 29. He had felt the mischievous influence of this snare, and dreaded the pernicious power of it. To be ever practising the politician at home and abroad, is a constant snare to sincerity; and to live as a spy in a foreign court, may be a post of service to our own nation; but it is exceeding dangerous to virtue and truth.

IV. Have a care of indulging any violent passion, for that will tempt the tongue to fly out in extravagance of expression, and out-run the settled judgment of the mind. Whether it be grief or impatience, or anger and resentment, it will engage the soul to form ideas far above and beyond the truth of things, and often arm the tongue with unruly expressions, even beyond the sentiments of the heart. Strife and contention, and noisy quarrels are very dangerous enemies to truth.

And upon this account, above all things, I would warn young christians to avoid the excessive zeal of a party-spirit in the lesser differences of religion. There has been often a great deal of darkness, and fire, of rage, and deceit, and falsehood in such sort of quarrels as these. Men of natural warmth, animated by an honest zeal for God and religion, taking it into their head, that every doctrine besides their own is damnable heresy, and all forms of worship different from their own, are superstitious or schismatical, and abominable in the sight of God; they have, under the influence of these principles, kindled their passions to a flame: and to secure the reputation of their own party, or vindicate all their principles and practices, they have made shameful inroads upon truth, even in relating matters of fact: and as Dr. Tillotson well expresses it, that the zealots of all parties have got a scurvy trick of lying for the truth; though he confesses he has never observed any that would be so very fond of a false report, or hug and caress a lie as the papists have done. And I wish no protestant had ever followed their example.

I should proceed now to lay down rules how persons may best preserve their faithfulness to vows or engagements of any kind. But this may be reserved to the next discourse.

HYMN FOR SERMONS XX AND XXI. Christian Morality, viz. Truth, Sincerity, &c.

Let those who bear the christian name Their holy vows fulfil: The saints, the followers of the Lamb, Are men of honour still.

True to the solemn oaths they take, Though to their hurt they swear; Constant and just to all they speak, For God and angels hear.

Still with their lips their hearts agree, Nor flattering words devise; They know the God of truth can see Through every false disguise.

They hate th’ appearance of a lie, In all the shapes it wears; Firm to the truth: and when they die, Eternal life is theirs.

Lo! from afar the Lord descends, And brings the judgment down; He bids his saints, his faithful friends, Rise and possess their crown.

While Satan trembles at the sight, And devils wish to die, Where will the faithless hypocrite, And guilty liar fly?

SERMON XXII. Christian Morality, viz. Truth, Sincerity, &c. PHILIP. iv. 8.—Whatsoever things are true,——think on these things.

When we are ever so well informed in the nature of our duty, we still want arguments to make our consciences feel the obligation. Flesh and blood are frail and sinful; grace is feeble and imperfect in the present state; temptations surround us in this lower world, and are ever ready to allure or affright us from the paths of holiness: we have need therefore of powerful motives to enforce every duty upon our practice.

In the first discourse on this subject, we have heard the nature and extent of that truth or sincerity which the gospel requires. In the second we have considered what obligations are discovered by the light of nature to be faithful, upright and constant in our words and our ways; and what additional motives the religion of Christ has furnished us with, to practise the same virtues; and may the good spirit of God make our souls feel the power of them! But nature is dark, as well as feeble. We are unskilful in the matters of holiness, and know not how to secure our virtue, and to guard ourselves from temptation to the contrary vice, unless we are informed by particular directions. I begun this work at the end of the last discourse. And as truth was divided into three parts, viz. veracity, faithfulness, and constancy; so I proposed to give special rules for the preservation of each of them.

The directions to preserve our veracity, were these:

1. Be well persuaded in your minds, that a known and wilful lie is utterly unlawful: Let your heart be established in this doctrine; for a slight conviction may be easily overcome by some advantageous circumstances, and the temptation will soon prevail.—2. Be sober, modest, and cautious in the manner of your speech, and do not allow yourself in those ways of expression which border upon lying; for if you often accustom your tongue to venture near a lie, you will be in danger sometimes of falling into it.—3. Take care to do nothing that you need to be ashamed of, that so you may not be under the temptation of a lie to cover or excuse it.—4. Watch against the violence of any passion; for this will sorely endanger the veracity of your lips. Passion will carry your judgment beyond the truth of things, and then it will soon awaken your tongue to an extravagance of language, even beyond the present irregular judgment of the mind.

I persuaded you there to beware of blind and fiery zeal, and more especially in matters of small importance, lest you should be tempted to tell lies for a pretended defence of the truth. The pious frauds, as they are called, or the religious cheats that have been practised in christendom in all ages, have brought much dishonour to the gospel of Christ.

The second part of truth is faithfulness, to our vows, promises, and solemn resolutions. This is a conformity of our deeds to our words, as the former was a conformity of our words to our thoughts. And I come now to lay down some rules how we may secure our faithfulness, and maintain our conscience and conversation free from guilt or blame in this respect also.

I. Be very cautious in all the promises, vows and obligations, under which you lay yourself. Use a pious prudence in this matter, and it will be more easy to you to perform them. Do not multiply needless bonds upon your souls. The more care you take before you utter any thing with your lips, you will be more secure of fulfilling what your lips pronounce. In the case of vows, there is no inconvenience of solemn engagements to God to do what his law hath made your duty before. And this was the custom of the primitive christians, as Pliny, a heathen, acquaints us, that they made vows, and swore in their secret meetings, not to commit murder, or theft, or adultery, or indulge vicious courses. It is good to remind ourselves of what God requires, and establish all our obligations to the general practice of holiness.

But you had need be well advised before you make vows in matters that are indifferent; for many times this has exposed persons to greater snares and difficulties. They have hoped to restrain the violence of natural appetites by means of their own devising; and thus they have been tempted to be unfaithful to God himself. The word of God gives us this advice; Ec. v. 5, 6. Better it is that thou shouldst not vow, than that thou shouldst vow and not pay. Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin, neither say thou before the angel, it was an error. Wherefore should God be angry at thy voice, and destroy the works of thine own hands? That is, “Do not hastily engage thyself in vows, such as the weakness of flesh and blood will not suffer thee to perform: Nor think of being absolved from thy own obligations in the presence of God, and his holy angels, by foolish excuses, and saying, It was a mistake; lest God, being angry and offended at thy broken vows, should bring a curse upon thee and thy affairs.” There is most abundant experience of the folly and danger of needless vows in the church of Rome.

In the case of promises made to others, and public solemn resolutions, be not too frequent in making of them. See that the reason of things, the providence of God, and the circumstances of life, seem to call you to it before you engage, that so you may better maintain your faithfulness, and turn your words into deeds. Why should you make chains to bind yourself, without necessity or reason? Why should you promise to do this, or to go thither in a thoughtless or trifling way, and let your tongue put needless bonds and fetters on your hands and feet for time to come? My son, if thou art surety for a stranger, or if thou make a bargain without discretion, or multiply promises without prudence, thou art snared with the words of thy mouth.

There are some persons who are very free of their promises upon all occasions; and often indulge this manner of speaking, “I am resolved to do such a thing to-day, or I will certainly go to such a place to-morrow,” &c. Whereas sometimes they find the thing impracticable, sometimes it is inconsistent with their other duties of life, sometimes it lays them under great difficulties and inconveniences to fulfil such appointments, and often they forget them too, and so disappoint their friends.

Before you tie yourselves by your solemn resolves and engagements, ask your hearts, Is it possible to be done, Is it lawful? Is it convenient? Is it proper? Is it consistent with other promises? Is the thing which I would promise due to my neighbour upon principles of honour, virtue, gratitude, religion? Is it necessary at all, and is it necessary at this time? Methinks I would have no promise made, but what should be kept; and therefore I would set all these guards around my lips. Experience of human affairs will teach us the use of these prudential rules, if we cannot learn them without it. A watchful caution in all such sort of language, as lays us under any engagements to future practices, is of necessary use to secure our faithfulness, and to maintain our truth with honour.

Besides, I might add also, that we should bring in something of God and piety into the common engagements of life; and this would preserve a greater guard upon our tongues, Go to now, ye that say, to-day or to-morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow;—for that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that; James iv. 13, &c.

If therefore we would secure our faithfulness as well as our veracity, it is necessary to learn a modest and cautious way of speaking and accustom our tongues to practise it. When we are relating any thing past or present, the words, I think, I suppose, it is my opinion, are very proper where the case has any thing doubtful in it: So when we engage ourselves to do any thing for time to come, I intend, I design, I hope, I will endeavour, are more cautious methods of speech, and very proper upon most occasions of life, except where the circumstances require a more express promise, whereby we bind all our faithfulness to the performance.

II. I would add another rule in the case of vows and promises, which cannot but have some force toward the preservation of truth. Think solemnly with yourself, how miserable and abandoned a creature you must be, if neither God nor man should fulfil any of their promises or engagements to you, and thereby you should awaken your soul and all your powers to perform your obligations to them. What if your governors should break their engagements to defend and protect you? What if your parents and your friends should refuse to help and assist, to feed, or clothe, or comfort you? What if your debtors should refuse to pay what they owe you? and your servants deny you their obedience and help in a most necessary hour? What if your neighbours should disappoint you in all the agreements and promises they make? What if the great and blessed God should seize all your forfeited mercies, because of your unfaithfulness to him, and perform none of the promises of his word which regard this life, or the life to come? What a load of calamities would at once come upon you, and overwhelm you in soul and body! You would fall under universal distress and wretchedness in this world, and have no hope for eternity; and yet if you are careless to fulfil your covenants, or wilfully break your engagements, why should you expect that God should fulfil any on his side? Or why should his kind providence incline any creature to fulfil any on their side?

“O blessed and holy God, how false have we been to thee! How fickle! How unfaithful! How often have we broken the solemn engagements under which we have laid ourselves to thy majesty! Our comforts are all forfeited into thy hands, and yet we have food and clothing given us; the mercies of the night and the day are continued to us; thy compassions are renewed every morning, and in the evening thy faithfulness is glorified. We are ready to charge our fellow-creatures with unfaithfulness, and reproach their breach of promise, when we ourselves perhaps have been the unfaithful dealers, and have broken all those engagements and bonds of kindness or duty which are the foundation of their promises. We seldom or never think of our own unfaithfulness to them or to thee, but delight ourselves in accusations, while thou delightest in forgiveness. O how often hast thou pardoned our broken vows, and hast been slow to anger! But we though we are wretchedly unfaithful ourselves, yet are slow and backward to forgive. We have been guilty of many failures in thy covenant, and our everlasting hopes had been utterly lost, if thy covenant had not stood firmer on thy side than it has on ours. Blessed be the name of Jesus, our glorious Surety, our Advocate at thy right-hand, to whom thy promises were first given! He has fulfilled all his sacred engagements: Thy faithfulness to him can never fail: in him are all our hopes established; by his grace we are kept from an utter renouncing of thy covenant, though we have so often wretchedly failed in the performance of it. Glory, honour, and praise be given to a faithful God, to a kind and faithful Mediator.”

I come now to propose a rule or two for the preservation of our constancy, which is the third part of truth or integrity; and to give some directions how we may keep the whole course of our life consistent with itself, and agreeable to our profession.

I. Fix your great and general end, your chief and everlasting design, and keep it ever in your eye: then you will certainly be more regular and uniform in all your particular practices. Set your face towards heaven betimes. Let it be the most solemn and unalterable business of your lives to please God on earth, in order to enjoy him in heaven, and then you will not be easily tempted aside by the flatteries or the terrors of this world, to go astray and wander in the paths that lead to hell. Give yourselves up to Christ both in secret and in public. Devote yourselves to him, to his fear, and love, and service, in your private retirements, and solemnize your obligations to him among the churches of his saints. See that you are an inward christian, and declare to the world, that you are a follower of Christ. Mix with the sheep of his flock, and you will find many advantages thereby to secure your truth and constancy. When a temptation comes to make you act like the sinners of this world, tell the world, and tell your own heart, that you are a christian, and you must pursue heaven.

II. Get above the fear of the world, and the shame of professing strict godliness. It is sinful shame, or sinful fear, that has a thousand times tempted the professors of the name of Christ, to be false to their profession, to act unbecoming their character, and inconsistent with christianity. It is from a certain feebleness and cowardice of soul that they desire, at any cost, to keep well with all men, and are afraid, sorely afraid, to be out of the fashion, or unconformable to this world: therefore they venture upon some practice in company, that their hearts would abhor, if they were alone: Therefore they indulge many sinful compliances; sometimes they countenance the lewd and the profane, they join in a jest upon things sacred, they make the ministers of Christ their objects of ridicule; and sometimes they fall into sensuality, luxury, and excess, because they must do as their company does, and have not courage enough to refuse.

If we would be true to Christ, we must live above the world, and be dead to all its threatenings and reproaches. If we are afraid of being thought truly religious, we shall not be able to maintain religion in the truth of it. There needs a sacred courage to be constant in the faith. We must learn to endure hardship as good soldiers of Christ, if we would be true to the Captain of our salvation. All that belong to his army are chosen and faithful; Rev. xvii. 14. It is a coward that changes his side as oft as the enemy makes a flourish, and he lists himself under every banner: But the constant christian is a soldier faithful to the death, and he shall receive the crown of life; Rev. ii. 10.

III. Never venture into the world without having solemnly committed yourself to the grace of Christ. Trust your soul afresh in the hands of Jesus every morning, that he may keep you true to himself all the day. All the divine motives you have learned, and all the solemn engagements under which you lay your own souls, will prove but a weak defence to virtue without faith and prayer. Commit yourselves to him who is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless. Your hearts, your lips, and your lives must be in his keeping, if you would have them true to God or man. Your adversary the devil is watchful and busy with all his wiles to tempt you to falsehood and inconstancy; none but he who has conquered the devil can be your sufficient guardian. And when and wheresoever we find frailty and folly in ourselves, O may the strength of Christ appear in our weakness, and be glorified in our preservation!

Thus I have finished all that I proposed concerning the first duty recommended in my text, Whatsoever things are true—think on these things.

There may be perhaps some other instances wherein this divine character of truth, uprightness, or integrity, ought to appear in the conduct of christians which do not so directly and immediately fall under the general heads which I have before named: But they may be easily reduced to one or another of them. There are various other methods of deceit and falsehood practised in the world, which break in upon this sacred character of truth, which I have not expressly mentioned before; such as subscribing with the hand to testify our assent to opinions, which we do not believe; counterfeiting the names or writings of other persons without their knowledge, consent, or approbation; adding or blotting out any thing from divine writings; or doing the same to the writings or men in civil affairs or contracts, whereby one party or another may receive damage; practising fraud or deceit, or any criminal concealment in matters of traffic, or in matters of trust; and, in general, forgery and knavery of all kinds whatsoever: some of these may, by natural and easy consequences, be reduced to the heads I have spoken of, and are effectually precluded by the large description of moral truth, which I have given: Others of them fall as naturally under the general head of justice and injustice, which will be the subject of one of the following discourses.

AN APPENDIX To the three foregoing Sermons, wherein two important Questions about TRUTH and LYING, are debated at large.

Question I. If I have a good and valuable end in speaking, and my design is to serve the glory of God, or the good of my neighbour, may I not then use the art of lying, or speak a known falsehood, without sin? Did not Rahab the harlot practise this; Josh. ii. 4, 5. when she hid the spies of Israel, and told the messengers of the king of Jericho, that she knew not whence they came, nor whither they went? And yet she is commended by the apostle Paul; Heb. xi. 31. That by faith the harlot Rahab perished not with unbelievers, when she received the spies in peace.

Answer I. When any action, considered in itself, is utterly unlawful, it is not possible that the goodness of the end or design, can so change the law of God, or alter the nature of things, as to make that action lawful. The apostle Paul brings the same objection; Rom. iii. 7. If the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory, why am I judged as a sinner? But in the next verse, he speaks of it with indignation, as a heinous slander cast upon him, that he should maintain this pernicious doctrine, Let us do evil that good may come: And he adds concerning these slanderers, or concerning those who hold this doctrine of doing evil with a good design, that their damnation is just; ver. 8.

Answer II. The case of Rahab is easily adjusted in this manner, without allowing a lie to be lawful: Rahab, though she was a woman of evil fame in Jericho, yet had heard of the promise of God to Israel, to establish them in the land of Canaan; she believed this promise, and under the influence of this faith she entertained the spies, and thereby assisted the Israelites in the conquest of that city; so far her action is approved of God, and mentioned with honour: But she used a very sinful method in compassing this design, when she told a plain lie to the messengers of the king. The timorousness of her temper was a sore temptation to her; and though she fell into a criminal action, yet God so far excused the ill conduct, as to forgive the falsehood, and thereby put a more signal honour upon the eminence of her faith. Her name stands therefore recorded with honour in scripture among believers. But the lie, though it was pardoned, remains still a blemish to her character.

There may be also a reason given why the scripture does not particularly make any sharp remark upon this falsehood of Rahab: for the great degree of her ignorance does much lessen her fault, though not cancel it. A woman of her character, living in a heathen country, may well be supposed to have had little knowledge of the sinfulness of so beneficial a lie as that was, and no scruple about it.

But it is by no means a sufficient justification of her conduct, that the scripture does not directly censure her for lying; for there are many actions recorded in scripture, both of saints and sinners, which are utterly unlawful in the sight of God, which yet have not an express censure passed upon them. Rahab’s being an harlot is not censured in any part of her history; nor Judah’s defiling Tamar his daughter-in-law; nor Jacob and Rebecca’s complication of lies to gain the blessing; nor the most express and wicked lie of the old prophet in Bethel, though it was the cause of the death of another prophet; 1 Kings xiii. yet surely these were crimes of heinous guilt. The plain commands or prohibitions of scripture are the rules to govern our practice: Nor can we fetch the lawfulness or unlawfulness of any matter of fact from the mere silence of the historical part of scripture about it.

Question II. If there are some persons who have not a right to truth, may we not lawfully speak falsehood to them? Now to prove that some have not a right to truth, it is urged, that truth or veracity is a virtue or duty of the social life: But there are many questions may be asked in the social life which the speaker has no right to be informed of, and therefore he has no right to truth when they are answered; may we not then answer them with falsehood? There are also some characters of persons who seem to have no part in the social life, as children who are not capable of judging for themselves, nor acting regularly in society; may we not speak a falsehood to them for their good? There are some who practise no social virtue, such as knaves and cheats, thieves, and pilferers; surely these have no right to truth, who are ever dealing in falsehood; and may we not cozen them who would cozen us? I will first offer two or three general answers to the question, and then descend to consider the particular instances.

Answer I. Truth seems to be a matter of eternal right and unchangeable equity. And there are general and express commands given us in scripture to speak the truth, and there are as express prohibitions of falsehood and lies. Now if there were any such exceptions as these against the general rule, I think God would have given us some plainer evidence of these exceptions in so important a point as truth is, upon which the welfare of mankind so necessarily depends: But I cannot find any such evident exceptions given in the whole word of God.

Answer II. When we say a person has no right to truth, it may signify one of these two things:

1. That he has no right to demand of me a direct answer to his enquiry: And I will readily grant it in this sense, there are thousands who have no right to the truth; and therefore I may wave the question, I may give them an insufficient answer, or I may be silent, and boldly refuse to give them any answer at all. But 2, If his having no right to truth, be intended to signify, that the character of his person, or the nature of his question, is such as releases me from all obligation to truth in answering him, and that therefore I may lawfully tell him a falsehood; then I deny the propositions: For my obligation to speak truth doth not all depend on the nature of his question, nor doth it depend merely on the character of the enquirer, but on the eternal rule of equity, and the command of God. And I think this appears from hence, that though I were alone, it would not be warrantable in me to assert with my lips a known falsehood: and in this case the right or claim of man can have no place nor consideration.

Answer III. If this exception be made to the plain law of God, that we may speak a direct and express falsehood to any persons who in our esteem have no right to the truth in their enquiry; this seems to break all the bands of human society, violate all the faith of men, and render the divine commands of veracity, and the prohibitions of falsehood almost useless. The consciences of men would find a way of escape from the greatest part of the bonds of duty, and yet think they committed no sin.

For let us consider, who it is that must judge whether the person to whom we speak has a right to truth or no. Is it not the speaker himself who will be the judge? Now if the speaker must judge whether his neighbour has a right to truth, there is no case, wherein the speaker’s interest may be any ways endangered by the truth, but his own sinful heart will readily whisper to him, that the hearer has no right to truth in such a question: and conscience will easily be warped aside, and comply to pronounce a known falsehood, under the colour and pretence of this exception: As for instance; if the buyer asks the seller, how much he gave for any merchandize? The seller by this rule may tell him double the price that it cost; for he will say, the buyer has no right to truth in such a question as this is. So if I ask an artificer, how he fashions his work, or what tools he uses in it? He may by this rule give me a very false answer, under pretence that I have no right to truth.

I readily grant in these cases, that the enquirer has no right to demand and claim an answer to such questions; therefore the seller or the artificer may refuse to inform him. But it is surprising to think that any man should persuade himself, that such a question being once asked, gives him a right to tell a lie! That any person should ever believe, that the mere enquiry of a thing improper to be told, absolves the answerer from all the obligations of truth, which his duty to God and man have laid upon him! Surely such a rule of conduct as this, had need have better arguments to establish it. But those who maintain this principle, must rather recur to the character of the person who makes the enquiry: and here indeed they give a little better colour to their cause.

I come therefore now to give particular answers to the instances alledged; 1. Concerning children. 2. Concerning knaves and cheats.

Instance I. Will you say, that children have no right to truth, because they are not capable of civil society?

But I reply, they are capable of knowing what truth and falsehood are, and of being influenced by the one or the other; they are capable of being deceived, and of knowing when they are deceived, they are capable of judging when they are treated with truth and sincerity, and acting according to the things you tell them; or else to what purpose do you speak falsehood to them instead of truth, and try to impose a lie upon them?

They are capable of resenting your conduct, when they find out the falsehood; and of refusing to believe you another time; For the very reason why they believe your falsehood at first, is, because they suppose you speak truth to them, and would not deceive them: And it is only upon this very principle that you yourselves can attempt to impose upon them.

Again, They are capable of learning from you and imitating your conduct, and they will be so much more ready to practise lying, and to deceive you with it, when they have found you practising lies, in order to deceive them. Suppose a mother has now and then persuaded a child to take a wholesome bitter medicine, by saying, it is not bitter, or has allured it to bed or to school by some of the arts of falsehood, and this child should imitate the mother’s example, and grow up to a confirmed liar; what inward and piercing reflections must the mother feel? Alas! I have taught my child this sinful practice, I myself have led it into the ways of the devil: How can I chide and correct by my reproof that vice, which I have taught by my example!

It is sufficiently evident therefore, that though children are not capable of half the duties of the social life, yet they are so far capable of them, as to know what truth and falsehood are, and to resent, and to practise accordingly: And this is sufficient to the present argument, and fully answers the objection. I think therefore it is infinitely better to allure those, whose understandings are weak, and whose wills are obstinate, to the practice of duty, by all the gentle arts of softness and fondness, of persuasion and love, than by venturing to make an inroad upon our own sincerity, and to trifle with so sacred a thing as truth.

But the querist may say, Suppose these softer arts have been tried, and have no effect, and children may be in danger of destroying themselves, if they are not immediately prevented by some plain and express falsehood; is it then unlawful to preserve their lives by a lie? Answer. It is a command of God indeed to preserve life, but it must be done by lawful means. May a man rob on the high-way, to get money to feed and clothe him? Surely we ought to trust the kind care and providence of God with our own lives and others in the way of duty, and not do evil that good may come, as was said under the former question.

Thus much shall suffice for the case of children, on pretence of their being incapable of civil society. But the querist will insist still on the next instance:

Instance II. Cheats, and knaves, and thievish criminals, have no right to truth; for they have broken the bonds of civil society, though not by a public renunciation of them, and therefore we may use all manner of deceit toward them, and treat them with express falsehood and lying, wheresoever it may promote our own interest and safety.

To this I reply, that the rule of Christ is, Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye also that unto them; Mat. vii. 12. But this licentious doctrine cancels this divine rule, and substitutes another in the room of it, viz. Whatsoever men do unto you, do ye also that unto them; which is as widely different from the sacred rule of Christ, as light is from darkness, or heaven from hell. By this new rule we are no longer bound to practise that truth, that justice, that goodness to others, which we think reasonable they should practise towards us; but we have leave to practise that falsehood and knavery, that fraud, and injustice, and mischief to others, which they do actually practice towards us, or which we suspect they design to practise.

If one half of a city or a nation were fallen into knavish practices, through the great degeneracy of the age, or were become thievish pilferers, the other half would, by this rule, practise knavery with licence toward them, and deal out falsehoods to them by divine permission. And then the charge would quickly be just and universal, There is no truth in the land, as Hos. iv. 1.

There is indeed scarce any censure of a degenerate and corrupt age under the Old Testament, but fraud and deceit, lies and falsehood, make a considerable part of the accusation or complaint; and surely God would never allow any principles or practices that have so pernicious a tendency. Hear how the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah lament their multiplied transgressions in conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood: Truth is fallen into the street, yea, truth faileth, and equity cannot enter; Is. lix. This is a nation that obeyeth not the voice of the Lord. Truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth. They deceive every one his neighbour, and will not speak the truth; they bend their tongues like their bow for lies; Jer. vii. and ix. Now if this licentious principle were allowed, neither God nor his prophets would ever want matter of complaint.

By this means also it will come to pass, that if a man happen once to get the name and character of a thief or a cheat, all his neighbours will think themselves authorized to have no regard to truth or honesty in all their dealings and discourse with him; for this rule affirms that he has no right to truth. And when any person fancies that he has seen reason to suspect or disbelieve his neighbour’s honesty, he will think himself absolved from all obligations to speak truth to him. But what a wide and dreadful flood-gate would be opened by this means, to let in an inundation of fraud and falsehood, and to practise all manner of deceit!

Let it be remarked also, that this doctrine is near a-kin to the popish abomination, “That no faith is to be kept with heretics; for they are a sort of dangerous men, who would ruin the church, and therefore they have no right to truth.” Now what shameful and horrid perjuries, and what execrable mischiefs, have sprung from this one impious principle of the church of Rome? The word of God gives no manner of indulgence to such licentious principles as these. We must wrong no man, defraud no man; we must not render to any man evil for evil, nor falsehood for falsehood, but overcome his evil with our good: and we must provide things honest in the sight of men.

It will be said, perhaps, that the scripture most frequently mentions a neighbour, or a brother, or a fellow-christian, in the prohibitions of lying and falsehood, as in the ninth commandment, Bear no false witness against thy neighbour; 1 Thess. iv. 6. No man defraud his brother. Eph. iv. 25. Speak every man truth to his neighbour. Lev. xix. 11. Lie not one to another.

But let it be replied, that the scripture demands righteousness for the strangers also; Deut. i. 16. and in several other places. And when God, by his prophet Malachi, forbids treacherous dealing with a brother, he gives this reason for it, Have we not all one Father? Hath not one God created us? Therefore all mankind are brethren in this sense. Our duty to speak and practise truth, arises from our obligations to the law of God; and since God has not released us by any such exceptions, the lying and deceitful carriage of men does not authorise us to practise deceit and lying. It is indeed a piece of an old latin verse, that is in the mouth of many, “Fallere fallentum non est fraus;” which may be Englished thus, To cheat a knave is no cheating: But I know no verse in scripture that gives us this liberty. And I think we may by the same rule steal from them that would steal from us, or plunder those who would plunder us.

I will readily grant, that when a contract or bargain is made, whereby both parties are obliged mutually to perform something to or for each other, whether this contract be expressed in verbal promises, or implied in the nature of things, and by the known customs of mankind, then if one of the parties fail of performance, the other is thereby released from his promise or engagement: and the reason is most evident, because the promise or engagement was made in a conditional manner; and if the condition on one side be not fulfilled, the agreement or bargain on the other side is void, and utterly ceases; so that a man is innocent in this case, though he does not perform his promise. Now this is so well known to all men by the light of nature, and the easiest reasoning, that there is no need to enlarge upon it.

According to this general and known rule, suppose a merchant order any quantity of goods from his correspondent by the first ship, and promise payment by such a day; if the sending of those goods be neglected, and carelessly delayed, the merchant is not bound to keep his first appointed time for payment. An hundred instances there are of the like nature, which a small degree of reason, and an honest conscience, will easily determine, without intrenching upon truth. Such is the case of all conditional promises and contracts. But if a man be never so great a knave, and I should make him a lawful and an absolute promise of any thing, surely I ought to perform it, and not satisfy my conscience in the practice of deceit and falsehood, under a pretence that he had no right to truth.

There are other cases which may occur in human affairs, and create difficulty in the minds of sincere christians, a solution of which may be found in books written on those subjects: But I think most of them may be easily answered by the general principles before laid down: And, to finish this subject, I add, that I know of no circumstances that can make a plain, and express, and known lie to become lawful: If life itself were in danger, yet the express prohibitions of falsehood and lying in the law of God, make it safer, in point of conscience, to venture the loss of any earthly comfort, and life also, rather than venture upon a plain and solemn lie.

And, in my opinion, that man, who, being assisted by divine grace, maintains the truth boldly, or refuses to speak a known falsehood to a murderer, or a bloody tyrant, and bravely resigns his life upon the spot, he dies a martyr to truth; his name shall be registered with honour among the saints of God on earth, and his soul shall have its place among the martyrs in the upper world.

HYMN FOR SERMON XXII. Faithfulness.

Hath God been faithful to his word, And sent to men the promis’d grace, Shall I not imitate the Lord, And practise what my lips profess?

Hath Christ fulfill’d his kind design, The dreadful work he undertook, And died to make salvation mine, And well perform’d whate’er he spoke?

Doth not his faithfulness afford A noble theme to raise my song? And shall I dare deny my Lord, Or utter falsehood with my tongue?

My King, my Saviour, and my God! Let grace my sinful soul renew, Wash my offences with thy blood, And make my heart sincere and true.

SERMON XXIII. Christian Morality, viz. Gravity, Decency, &c. PHILIP. iv. 8.—Whatsoever things are honest, or grave, &c. think on these things. Οσα σεμνα, &c.

Since the translation of the bible into the English tongue is so excellent a performance in itself, and so necessary a service to the church: I feel a sensible regret, whensoever there is occasion to complain of it, or to correct it. In the main, I may venture to say boldly, it teaches us all the necessary doctrines and duties of christianity in a very ample and complete manner, and sets them in an evident light: And what the Spirit of God spoke in ancient times in Greek and Hebrew, is sufficiently manifested to us for our salvation in the English bible.

But in this part of the verse, which I am now to discourse of, the word which we render honest, is not so well translated as I could wish; for honesty is contained in the words true and just, which go before, and follow my text. But the Greek σεμνος, more properly signifies grave, decent, or venerable; and so you find it in the margin, which will oftentimes help you, when the word in the English text is not so expressive of the original sense. The same word σεμνος is rendered grave in several other places of scripture: It is three times so expressed in the third chapter of the first epistle to Timothy, ver. 8. The deacons must be grave. Ver. 11. Their wives also must be grave. Ver. 5. A bishop must have his children in subjection with all gravity.

It is a word that is used in Greek authors to represent the character of an aged man, a philosopher, or a magistrate among the heathens. It carries in it the idea of an honourable gravity, and a venerable decency of behaviour; and this is what the apostle recommends to the practice of christians. It is as if he had said, “The character of every common christian should have something in it so honourable, as may command a sort of veneration and respect from all persons they converse with, as much as the character of a wise old man, a magistrate, or a philosopher, does in the heathen world.”

To improve this subject, I shall shew,

I. Wherein this gravity consists.—II. How the light of nature recommends it.—III. How the gospel enforces it.—IV. Lay down a direction or two, in order to obtain it.

First, This gravity and venerable decency which the apostle recommends in my text, may be supposed to consist in these three things.

1. A moderation and decency in our apparel.—2. A gravity and sobriety in our speech and conversation.—3. Honour, decency, and dignity in our whole deportment and behaviour.

I. A moderation and decency in our apparel, such as becomes the profession of persons whose chief ornament is religion and godliness. This the apostles, both St. Peter and St. Paul, each in their turn, insist upon, as a necessary qualification of women who profess christianity, and as an ornament to the doctrine of the gospel of Christ; 1 Pet. iii. 2, 3. Let your conversation be with fear; whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and wearing of gold; 1 Tim. ii. 9, 10. The apostle Paul bids Timothy the young evangelist teach the same doctrine and practice. In like manner, I will also that women adorn themselves in modest apparel with shamefacedness and sobriety; as becometh women professing godliness.—Not that all christians must utterly abandon those richer and costly methods of ornament, gold or pearls, which the apostle there makes mention of; for every one of us should wear such raiment as suits our character and our age, our company and business in the world: But let not these be our chief ornaments, still remembering that we are christians, and let our apparel, as well as our conversation, shew that we despise trifles and thus maintain the dignity of our high and holy calling.

Here, saith a[28] learned commentator, “it is worthy to be noted by the women that this precept ought not to be slighted by them, as of little moment, seeing it is so carefully inculcated by the two chief apostles of the Jew and Gentile, St. Peter and St. Paul; and the contrary is represented as a practice opposite to godliness.”

Nor while you are dressing, should you forget that you are sinners, and therefore should put on shamefacedness; for all our ornaments and clothing are but a memorial of our first sin and shame. And when we take a pride in our garments, it looks as if we had forgotten the original of them, the loss of our innocency. Nor is this sort of advice to be confined to the female world: For, as the same author expresses it, “If it be so unbecoming a christian woman to be thus concerned in adorning and tricking up her body, it must be much more unbecoming a christian man, and that which makes him truly to deserve the name of a fop.” It is a token of a light and vain mind to be too fond of gaudy habits, a mind not much affected with sin or with salvation. Surely christians are born for greater things, and their aim should point at higher excellencies than these are. Let their chief ornaments be the graces of the Spirit, and the virtues of the heart and life. A well adorned body, and a neglected mind, very ill becomes a professor of the gospel.

Christians should look like strangers and pilgrims here, and not think themselves undressed, unless they are conformed to all the niceties and fashions of the world. Sometimes, it may be, we are too much afraid we shall not look like the children of this world; whereas the apostle advises us rather to look like strangers. We are travelling homeward through a foreign country, having the ornaments of holiness on us, which is the raiment of heaven. I confess we are not required to affect singularity, nor to seek a foolish and useless distinction from the customs of our country, where they are proper, innocent, and becoming; for the kingdom of God does not consist in any affected peculiarities of dress or behaviour; but let us remember too, that it is below the glory of our character, and the dignity of our calling, to have our thoughts uneasy, if every pin and point that belongs to our apparel be not placed in the most fashionable manner; to fret and rage, if every fold of our garment be not adjusted in perfect conformity to the mode.

Then we may be said to fall short of that venerable decency in our apparel which christianity should teach us, when we are among the first in any new devised and gaudy fashions; when we are some of the foremost in the gaieties of the age: When we run to the extremes of every new mode, and affect to vie with the vainest of our sex: When the business of dressing is made one of the most frequent, important, and solemn enquiries and concerns of life; and when it employs some of our most serious thoughts, and our warmest passions: When we indulge a greater expence in finery than our circumstances will allow, or our stations require: When we waste more time in adorning ourselves, than the duties we owe to God or man, will reasonably permit; and especially if we intrench upon the hours which should be devoted to sacred purposes. I should add also, that then we certainly break in upon christian sobriety, when we indulge such sort of clothing as in its own nature becomes a temptation to immodesty, and brings fuel to the impure fire of the eyes, or of the heart.

I would not be thought to treat too largely upon this subject or handle it too severely; but let us remember, that our biggest danger in this age is excess, and luxury, and vanity of mind: We are pretty secure now-a-days from too great a carelessness in this respect.

II. Gravity and sobriety in our speech is another part of that honourable conduct and character which we ought to maintain, and to which the holy apostle invites us. In the second chapter of Titus, ver. 6, 7, 8. you have this direction of the apostle to Titus the evangelist, how he ought to behave himself, and what he speaks to him chiefly as a minister, may be given as a rule to all christians whom he must instruct in all things, shewing thyself a pattern of good works; in doctrine, or in discourse, shewing incorruptness, gravity, and sincerity; sound speech that cannot be condemned, that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil to say of you. He gives the christians at Ephesus the same advice; Eph. iv. 29. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. Talk of something that may improve one another in knowledge, in virtue, in religion: And let each of us be ashamed to think that we have been an hour or two in each other’s company, and have neither spoke nor heard any thing that is worth remembrance. How often, after a visit among friends, must we take up this just and shameful complaint, “Alas, I have said nothing for their improvement, nor heard any thing for my own!”

In Eph. v. 4, the apostle there secludes some sort of conversation from the lips of christians, Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient, which are ουκ ανηκοντα, not agreeable to our profession. Foolish talking and jesting are here forbidden, as well as filthiness. By foolish talking, we may suppose such sort of language to be intended, from which it is impossible any profit or advantage, should arise to a wise or a good man. And by jesting the apostle here designs such sharp and biting jests that wound the reputation of a person concerning whom they are spoken. Such a turn of wit, as the original word signifies, that at the same time wounds a good name, and gives a bitter reproach: Not that every thing pleasantly spoken is supposed to be unlawful; or that the apostle any where forbids all manner of mirth and jesting in conversation; for there are proper times and seasons for such sort of discourse: And there may be valuable ends in it too, when it is innocently used, on purpose to recreate nature, and refresh the mind. And how far this may be indulged, I shall have occasion to speak toward the end of this sermon.

III. Another thing that is included in this word gravity, is honour and decency in our whole deportment and behaviour. Each of us should be careful to maintain our public character as a christian, with a due sense of the dignity of it. Christians should be ashamed to debase the powers of their nature, to practise any thing that is sordid and unworthy; nor make the members of their flesh, nor the faculties of their mind, slaves to that which is ridiculous or foolish.

How unbecoming is it to see a christian spoil his countenance, and disfigure a human face, by practising all the wild and wanton grimaces of folly and madness! To see man, who is made after the image of the Son of God, distort his body in the most antic postures, and give up all the honours of his nature to base and senseless merriment! Surely the duties of christianity lead us to nothing below the dignity of man. Here I would not be mistaken, nor do I pretend that the gospel requires such a constant solemnity of countenance and language, as though we were all preachers, or always preaching. There is no need to put on serious airs at all times: We are not bound to banish mirth when we become christians. Laughter is a natural action, and the faculty was not given to mankind in vain, nor is the exercise of it forbidden for ever.

The chief ends of it seem to be these two; either to recreate animal nature by expressions of mirth, or to put folly out of countenance.

There may be times to recreate nature, to unbend the spirits from business, and to indulge mirth among our friends. The wise man assures us, there is a time to laugh, as well as to mourn. There are times proper for weeping, and some persons may have times for dancing too; Ec. iii. 4. And in the 19th verse of the xth chapter the same divine writer says, a feast is made for laughter. At the mutual entertainment of friends we may be merry, and not sin. Our holy religion only demands this of us, that we confine our mirth within the limits of virtue, and take heed lest when we give a loose to the sprightly powers of animal nature we should transgress the rules of piety, or trespass upon things sacred.

Another purpose for which laughter was made, is to reprove and punish folly, and put vice out of countenance. There are seasons wherein a wise man or a christian may treat some criminal or silly characters with ridicule and mockery. Elijah the prophet condescended thus to correct the priests and worshippers of Baal; but this sort of conversation must by no means be the business of our lives, and the daily work and labour of our thoughts and our tongues. It is the heart of a fool that is in the house of mirth, for he would dwell there continually; Ec. vii. 4. If we are always affecting to throw out some turns of wit upon every occurrence of life, and tack on a jest to every thing that is spoken, if we interline all our discourse and conversation with merriment, banter and joking, it is very unworthy of that gravity and honour that belongs to the christian life.

The second head of discourse which I proposed, is to prove that the light of nature, or the law of reason, requires something of this gravity of speech and behaviour; and this is manifest, if we consider the nature of man in opposition to the brute that perishes, or the growth and age of man in distinction from children and babes.

1. If we consider man in opposition to the brutal world: Man, who has a rational soul, should act conformable to that sublime principle within him, and not devote himself to a life of fantastic humour, or content himself with the character of an everlasting trifler. What a poor and contemptible account is it of any person to say, he is a walking jest, a mere living trifle? His thoughts are made up of vanity and emptiness, his voice is laughter, and his whole life is composed of impertinences.

There is a sort of persons in the world who never think well of themselves but when they are dressed in gay attire, and hope to command the respect of mankind by spreading abroad their own fine feathers. Their raiment is the brightest and best thing that belongs to them, and therefore they affect to shew it. There is another sort of men who value themselves upon their merry humour, and that they can make their company laugh when they please. But the more refined and rational part of the world value all these creatures as they do peacocks, or other animals that imitate the voice and actions of man. They use them as an entertainment for their eyes or ears, to give a fit of diversion, or to pass away a merry hour. We generally look upon this kind of people as very worthless things, as something beneath ourselves and as sinking below their own species. We seldom converse with them upon the level, or to attain any of the nobler purposes of life. We only borrow their wit, or their folly, their humour, or their finery, for a season of amusement, and justly despise them when the laughing hour is at an end. Reason itself tells us, that human nature was made for something greater and better, for contemplation and action much superior to what these trifling creatures are acquainted with. Again,

2. If we consider man as he stands in distinction from childhood, surely a more grave and solemn carriage becomes him.—Children are pleased with painted toys; gaudy garments and sounding trifles are their chief delight. They are entertained with little impertinences, agreeable to their ignorance and the weakness of their age: But it is a shame to a person of well-grown years to practise the child for ever. He that devotes himself to a life of useless idleness, and treads round the circle of perpetual mirth and amusement, without profit to himself or the world, is but a child in longer garments, or an infant of larger size.

The third general head leads us to consider, what forcible arguments christianity furnishes us with to practise this sobriety, gravity and decency of behaviour: And I shall throw them all into a few expostulations.

1. Do we not bear the name of Christ, a sacred and venerable name? And shall we cast disgrace upon it by any thing that is mean and dishonourable? Do we not profess to be the followers of a crucified Jesus, to be disciples of the cross? But wherein do we follow him, if we spend our days in mirth and trifling? His conduct was all holy and heavenly, and we can never look like his disciples, if our conversation savour of earth and vanity. What a noble simplicity runs through all his speeches, through all the actions and the behaviour of our blessed Lord! And how little do we imitate him, if we fondly pursue the gay follies of life in our dress, in our speech, and in every thing we do! No glarings of affected wit, nor insipid pertness, can add any thing to our character as christians.

2. Let us remember that we are the sons and daughters of the Most High God. We profess to separate ourselves from the triflings and impertinences of this world, as well as from the impiety and guilt of it. “Come out from among them, saith the Lord, and I will be your Father, and ye shall be my sons and my daughters, saith God almighty.” Surely the children of a prince should behave with solemnity and honour, when they are in the midst of the lower orders of mankind; and the children of the King of heaven should remember the dignity of their birth, and their high relation, when they are conversant among the sons of earth. Their carriage indeed should not be proud and haughty to the men of this world; Jesus, the only begotten Son, was meek and lowly: And there is a sacred art of maintaining a divine humility, among the meanest of our fellow-creatures, without indulging the practice of any thing mean and ridiculous. Our blessed Lord was a companion of fishermen, but not of mimics and public jesters.

3. Let us think again, that we are bought with a high and valuable price; we are redeemed, not with corruptible things, as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot; 1 Pet. i. 17, 18. And what is it that we are redeemed from? It is from this evil world, and from a vain conversation. The Son of God hath loved us, and washed us in his own blood, and shall we defile these souls of ours with the meannesses of this life which Christ hath cleansed in so rich a laver? He hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father. Let us now and then ask ourselves and enquire, is our language and behaviour becoming such illustrious names, such titles, such honours, as are put upon us by the Father and the Son?

4. Again, let us review our profession; What is our calling? What is our design? What is our hope? Are we not born from above? Are we not pilgrims and strangers here? Do not we profess to seek a better country, that is, a heavenly? Do we not live for heaven and immortality? How unbecoming is it then for christians to be perpetually light, and vain, and frothy? How unbecoming our holy and heavenly calling, and our everlasting hopes? If we are children of the light and of the day, let us not live as though we belonged to the night and darkness: Let us not sleep, nor trifle as others do, but watch and be sober. And especially if our natural temper be sanguine and sprightly, and incline to assume vain airs, there is more need of constant watchfulness over the heart and life, and a bridle upon the tongue, lest we should speak indecencies, and be guilty of folly and madness.

[Here this sermon may be divided.]

The last thing I designed, was to propose some directions in order to cure the levity of the mind, and to maintain such a decent gravity in the course of our life as becomes the gospel.

Direction I. Let us meditate often on the most sublime and the most awful parts of christianity; and through the assistance of the Spirit of God, these will be effectual guards against this vanity of temper.

The sublime truths of christianity demand our frequent review. Let us often rise high in our thoughts, and let our faith look far backwards to the eternal ages before this world was. Let us contemplate the love of God the Father, in contriving our salvation, before he stretched abroad these heavens, or laid the foundations of this earth. Let us think of the condescension of his mercy, when he chose fallen perishing sinners to be the objects of his everlasting love. Let us dwell upon his compassion to man, when he appointed his own Son to take flesh upon him, and to become our Mediator and sacrifice. Let us survey with holy wonder the various glories of the Son of God, by whom and for whom all things were made, who upholds all things by the word of his power, and who is the express image of his Father. Let us behold him consenting to hide all these honours behind a veil of flesh and blood, walking the streets of Jerusalem, and travelling on foot through the villages of Israel, attended with a few poor despicable men, or surrounded with the reproaches of the blaspheming Jews. Let us look upon this illustrious person, who was adored by angels, yet unknown and unglorified among the sons of men, and humbled even to death and the grave; then gaze on him rising again from the dead, and declared to be the Son of God with power, exalted at the right-hand of the Majesty on high, and ruling all the millions of inhabitants of the visible and invisible worlds. Surely if our souls were inured to the meditation of such sublime wonders as these, we should not easily immerse ourselves in trifles and fooleries.

Again, let us meditate on the more awful doctrines, the more solemn and dreadful truths of our religion, and these will be an effectual restraint to a vain temper of mind. Let us think on the justice of God manifested in the destruction of sinners in all ages, when it appeared in a prodigious flood of water, and with a deluge of rain testified against the wickedness of the old world; and when it came down in flaming fire upon Sodom, and upon the cities of the plain. Let us meditate on the wrath of God, that has been revealed in numerous instances against all the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. Let us contemplate that divine and severe justice, that appeared in the sufferings and death of God’s own Son, when it pleased the Father to bruise him, and to make his soul an offering for sin. Let us think of his agonies in the garden, and on the cross, when he bore the weight of our iniquities, and stood in the place of sinners. Let us send our thoughts down to the regions of death and hell, and behold the fallen angels bound in chains of darkness, and groaning under present torments, yet waiting for the day of greater vengeance. Let us think with ourselves what millions of our fellow-sinners, the sons and daughters of Adam, lie there banished from the presence of the Lord, and tormented with fire in their consciences without remedy, and without hope, and say, why are not we there too?

Let us often look forward to the awful moment of our death, and the time of our departure from all the flattering scenes of this present world. This will put a damp upon the vainest mind, and hang with a painful weight upon the sons of mirth and levity. This will be a means to restrain us from that foolish and trifling behaviour, which otherwise our tempers might incline us to. And let us remember the solemn hour when we must stand before the tribunal of our Lord Jesus Christ, divested of all these gaudy shews of life, in which we are now ready to pride ourselves, and there we must receive a sentence without repeal, which shall send us to heaven or to hell at once, and fix our everlasting state. These are terrors or glories too solemn to be trifled with; these are thoughts that will hold our souls awake and serious, this will preserve that gravity of mind which becomes a christian, and keep us in a prepared temper to fulfil present duty, and to wait the final event of all things.

II. If we would maintain that venerable decency in our frame of spirit, and in our deportment, which becomes the gospel, let us set ourselves about some useful employment for the service of God, or our fellow-creatures, or for our own best improvement. If Satan find the mind empty of thought, and the hands void of all business, he will be ready to fill them with temptations to iniquity and mischief: And the triflers of this world will be ready to seize upon such a person as a fit partner for their impertinences, and allure him into follies beneath the dignity of human nature, and the character of a christian.

I have often pitied some of the dependents of honourable and wealthy families of both sexes, the unhappiness of whose education has given them nothing to do, nor taught them to employ their hands or their minds: Therefore they spend their hours in sauntering, not knowing whither to go, and are at a loss what to do with themselves to wear their life away. Upon this account they give themselves up sometimes to the mean and scandalous pleasures of the lowest of the people, and spend their hours in chattering and vulgar merriment. They make the business of their dress the study and labour of half the day, and spend another part of it in trifling discourse and laughter, and in scattering jests and scandal upon their neighbours or acquaintance. All these pieces of folly and immorality would be rectified, if they would but find out for themselves some daily and proper business to be employed in. King Solomon at his leisure hours studied natural and moral philosophy, he discoursed of the nature of vegetables, from the cedar to the hyssop, and of beasts, birds, and fishes besides his proverbs and rules of prudence for the government of human life; 1 Kings iv. 32, 33. St. Paul, when he was not employed in his sacred work, yet he would not be idle; and having no need to study for his sermons which he had by inspiration, therefore he wrought with his hands at tent-making, and maintained himself by it: “Not, says he, because we have not power to eat your bread while we teach you the gospel: but to make ourselves an example to you.” See Acts xviii. 3. and 2 Thess. iii. 8, 9. And good Dorcas, when she had no business of her own, made coats and garments for the poor; Acts ix. 36, 39. Such honourable examples as these deserve our imitation.

III. Let us keep a strict watch over ourselves when we indulge mirth, and set a double guard upon the seasons of recreation and divertisement.

The rules of religion do not so restrain us from the common entertainments of life, as to render us melancholy creatures, and unfit for company. There is no need to become mere mopes or hermits, in order to be christians. The gospel does not deprive us of such joys as belong to our natures, but it refines and heightens our delights. It draws our souls farther away from mean and brutal pleasures, and raises them to manly satisfactions, to entertainments worthy of a rational nature, worthy of a creature that is made in the image of God. The innocent entertainments of life are not utterly forbidden to christians, but are regulated by the gospel.

When we have considered and found them to be lawful, then they are to be regulated these two ways.—1. All our recreations and divertisements must have some valuable end proposed. 2. We must distinguish the proper time and season of them, and confine our diversions to that season.

1. They must always have some valuable end proposed. The chief and most useful design of them is to make us more chearful and fitter for some hours or days of service afterwards. Recreation must not be our trade or business, but merely used as a means to prepare us for the valuable businesses of life.

The scripture indeed tells us, that “of every idle word that men shall speak, there shall be an account given in the day of judgment;” Mat. xii. 36. And much more of idle hours and actions. But this doth not utterly exclude all manner of recreations, or all words of pleasantry, which may be innocently and properly used upon some occasions; but whatsoever words, whatsoever conversation, whatsoever sort of pleasurable entertainments, we indulge ourselves in, which have no valuable end, no useful design in them: These will bear but an ill aspect before the judgment-seat of Christ. We shall not be able to give a tolerable account of such idle words or hours at that day; and it is the judge himself who tells us so, and adds his Amen to it.

It is proper more especially for persons that are of a melancholy temper, or that have perhaps been overwhelmed with bodily diseases, or overloaded with some sorrows, or cares, or businesses of life, to give themselves a little loose or diversion now and then in delightful conversation, or other recreations and exercises. These may be as useful as a glass of wine to refresh nature, to make the heart glad, and the spirits lightsome; for they tend to fit this animal body of ours for better service to the soul in future duties that God calls us to: And so long as we confine our recreations to this design, and keep this end in view, our words of pleasantry in private conversation, and even our recreations, and diversions that are more public, may be agreeable to the mind and will of God; for it is his will, that our whole nature, flesh and spirit, should be kept in the fittest frame for duty. And some natures are so constituted, that they will hardly be kept in a temper fit for duty, without some divertisements and recreations. Where this therefore is the end, these practices cannot be called idle, that is, impertinent, and to no purpose. But where no reasonable design is proposed, sports and merriments are hardly to be defended, for all rational creatures ought to act with a view to some valuable end.

2. Another regulation which ought to be given to all our diversions, is this; we should narrowly watch, lest the time of our recreations intrude upon the hours and seasons of business or of religion. There is a time to laugh, the wise man tells us, as well as a time to labour or to pray; but laughter must be confined to its proper place and proper time, and not intrench upon the season where affairs of bigger importance, and matters of grave and serious consequence should be transacted.

Conscience has something to do in matters of recreation as well as in our religious or civil affairs: And as it can never be lawful to rob God or our families of any of the time that should be devoted to their service, on purpose to lay it out in diversion, so neither is it by any means proper to let the seasons of diversion come too near the seasons of worship. When a loose is given to all the natural powers in mirth and pleasure, they are not so easily recollected all at once for the sacred service of religion. Nor should we run hastily away from the duties of worship, and plunge ourselves into the midst even of innocent merriment; for this would look as though we were weary of devotion, and longed to be at play. A wise christian will divide his times aright, and make all the parts of his conduct to succeed one another in a decent order.

Besides, the hours of recreation should not be multiplied by those persons who have least need of them; such are persons of a chearful and healthy constitution: And they will be used more sparingly by christians of maturer age, and longer standing in religion. As a child grows up toward man, he leaves off the impertinences of infancy, and the sports and trifles of childhood; and as a man grows up more and more toward a perfect christian, his methods of pleasure will be changed from light and gay, to that which is grave and solid.

To conclude this subject, I would mention only one powerful motive to preserve christian gravity, and that is, that hereby the temper of your spirit will be better prepared for every religious duty, whether it be prayer or praise, and better fitted to meet every providence, whether it be prosperous or afflictive: Whereas those who perpetually indulge a merry temper of mind, when a prosperous providence attends them, they are tempted to excessive vanity and carnal joy; their hearts are not filled with thankfulness to that God from whom their mercies come, being too thoughtless and regardless of the original donor. On the other hand, when affliction smites them, they are in danger of despising the stroke of the rod, nor does the correction of their heavenly Father make so deep and useful an impression upon their spirit as it ought to do.

When in the course of our lives we maintain such a grave and composed frame as becomes a christian, we find our hearts more ready for all the duties of worship. We are prepared to receive evil tidings as well as good, and to attend on the will of God in all his outgoings of providence. We are ready to receive messages of sorrow, or the summons of death, for we are still conversing with God: We keep the invisible world in the eye of our faith: And our spirits are ready prepared to depart from the flesh, and to meet our God and our Saviour in the unknown regions of light and immortality.

HYMN FOR SERMON XXIII. Christian Morality, viz. Gravity, Decency, &c.

Are we not sons and heirs of God? Are we not bought with Jesus’ blood? Do we not hope for heavenly joys, And shall we stoop to trifling toys?

Can laughter feed th’ immortal mind? Were spirits of celestial kind Made for a jest, for sport and play, To wear our time, and waste the day?

Doth vain discourse or empty mirth Well suit the honours of our birth? Shall we be fond of gay attire, Which children love, and fools admire?

What if we wear the richest vest, Peacocks and flies are better drest: This flesh, with all its gaudy forms, Must drop to dust and feed the worms.

Lord, raise our hearts and passions higher, Touch our vain souls with sacred fire; Then with an elevated eye We’ll pass these glittering trifles by.

We’ll look on all the toys below With such disdain as angels do, And wait the call that bids us rise To promis’d mansions in the skies.

Footnote 28:

Dr. Whitby.

SERMON XXIV. Christian Morality, viz. Justice, &c. PHILIP. iv. 8.—Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, or grave, whatsoever things are just——think on these things. Οσα εστιν δικαια——

In many parts of the sacred writings, there appears a very close connexion of the subjects which are handled; a natural order is observed, and a beautiful transition made from one to the other: But this is not to be expected in every text, nor is it at all necessary that it should be so. When St. Paul enumerates several virtues or vices, he sometimes heaps them together, and doth not design any regularity or natural order in placing them. Our commentators therefore in such cases, when they are once resolved to find these beauties and connections where the holy writer did not intend them, they oftentimes torture and strain both their own invention, and the words of scripture. Thus, I fear, I should do, if I would attempt to give a reason why the apostle in this collection of virtues, named gravity or decency before justice, which is of so much greater importance in the christian life.

I take them therefore in the order in which they lie; and having treated of truth and gravity, I proceed now to consider the third piece of morality which he mentions, that is, justice, Whatsoever things are just,—think on these things; let these be the objects of your meditation and of your practice.

And here if I should entertain you in two discourses with this single subject of justice, I hope I shall not exceed the limits of your patience: For it is what the apostle frequently insists upon as a glory to christianity, that those that profess it be just or righteous. You who have fixed your hope on the grace of God, and have a design to honour the gospel, to you I would recommend this great duty of the law, and that in this method:

I. I shall endeavour to shew what is the general nature of this justice, and lay down the universal rule of it.—II. Discover in various special instances what those things are, which are just, or wherein our justice or righteousness must appear.—III. I shall give some proof of this great duty of justice or righteousness by the light of nature, and according to the law of reason.—IV. Shew what forcible influence the gospel of Christ has to recommend justice to your meditation and practice.—V. Propose a few directions how to guard yourselves against temptations to injustice, or rather point out some of the chief springs of injustice, that you may avoid them.

And while I proceed in this work, you will rejoice inwardly if you find your own consciences sincerely answering to the characters of this virtue in any good measure: And if there be any shall find himself a guilty sinner, and very deficient in this practice, let him be reproved, ashamed, and amend.

First then, Let us consider the nature of this justice, and what is the most universal rule of it.

In general, justice consists in giving to every one their due. According to the stations in which God has placed us, and according to the several relations in which providence has joined us to our fellow-creatures, every person we converse with hath something due to him; and this we are bound to pay as men, and much more as christians. But since cases and circumstances are infinite, and it is impossible for any book to contain, or any man to receive and remember so many special rules for justice, as there may be occurring circumstances in the world, which require the practice of it; our Lord Jesus Christ has therefore given us one short rule whereby to judge what is due to every man, and fitted it to every purpose: Mat. vii. 12. All things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so to them; For this is the law and the prophets.

I confess there may happen in human affairs some cases of such exceeding intricacy and difficulty, that very few persons have skill enough to determine precisely what is due, or what would be strictly just and righteous: Nor will this rule infallibly lead us into the perfect knowledge of it; but even in such cases, a sincere honest man consulting his own conscience, and asking, what he thought reasonable that his neighbour, in the like case, should do to him, would seldom wander far from strict justice; and by practising agreeably to this general law, would approve his conduct both in the sight of God and men.

Thus our blessed Saviour hath set up a court of equity in the breast of every man. This rule is easy to be understood, and ready to be applied upon every occasion. The meanest of them may learn and practise it, and the highest are bound to obey it. This is that divine and comprehensive rule of justice or righteousness, by which you must regulate all your actions, and give every one their due: “Do to others, as you would have them do to you:” Not as an unreasonable self-love would wish to receive from others, but as your own conscience would think it reasonable others should do to you, as I have explained it at large in a sermon on that text.[29]

The second thing proposed, was to discover in various instances what those things are which are just, or wherein our righteousness must appear.

Here it is necessary to distinguish justice into that which belongs to magistrates, and that which belongs to private persons.

That which belongs to magistrates is called distributive justice, because it divides and distributes such rewards and punishments as are due to every one, according to the merit or demerit of the person; and this is done either by the law and light of nature, or by the laws of the land in which we dwell. Now in this sort of justice the general rule of our Saviour, of which we have been speaking, is of excellent and constant use. Let a prince or a magistrate place himself in the room of a subject or inferior, and ask what is equitable and just that his governor should practise toward him, and let that be the measure of his own conduct toward his subjects or inferiors: Let him exercise his authority according to this sacred rule of righteousness.

But in our separate assemblies we have very little need to speak of the duty of magistrates, or of distributive justice, since there are very few of that rank and order of men among our hearers. We have reason to give hearty thanks to our present governors, who distribute so much justice to us, as to give us the liberty of worshipping God in a manner that differs from theirs.

I apply myself therefore immediately to consider that justice which belongs chiefly to private persons, and which is their duty to practise. This is called commutative justice. This is that equity of dealing, that mutual exchange of benefits, and rendering to every one their due, which is necessary between man and man, in order to the common welfare of each other. This is that justice that is due from every person toward his neighbour, whether he be superior, inferior, or equal: And I think the following instances which I shall mention, will comprehend most of the cases wherein the practice of justice is required:

I. It is just that we honour, reverence and respect those who are our superiors in any kind; whether parents, masters, magistrates, ministers, or teachers, or whatsoever other character of superiority there be in the natural, the civil, or the religious life; otherwise we do not pay them their due.

Honour and obedience are due to parents. It is the first command of the second table. Honour thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long in the land. Children obey your parents, for this is right in the Lord. Manifest your affectionate duty toward them. Pay all due submission to their commands, and all honourable regard to their advice.

Honour the king as supreme, and other ministers of justice as subordinate to him, and submit to them in all the just executions of their authority: This is due from subjects to princes. Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, in singleness of heart as unto Christ, with good-will, doing service as to the Lord, and not to men. Your faithful, diligent, and cheerful service is their due. Let those that labour in the word and doctrine be counted worthy of double honour, that is, of respect and maintenance: It is due to them in the church where they are set as elders, if they rule well. I mention these hints but very briefly, and for the most part in the language of scripture, as instances wherein these characters of superiority demand honour and duty from inferiors.

I grant there may be other obligations to respect and honour our superiors in some of these cases, besides the mere law of justice: but this law of commutative justice that I am now treating of, obliges us to it. The light of nature and scripture both suppose and oblige parents to take care of their children, to advise and instruct, nourish and provide for them; therefore obedience and honour becomes their due. The command of submission given to subjects, supposes and obliges princes and rulers to protect and defend them from all injury. The precept of chearful and willing obedience given to servants, supposes and obliges masters to do the same things unto them; that is, to treat them with good-will, and chearfully give them their food and clothing, or their wages and hire; Eph. vi. 9. Nature and scripture suppose ministers and teachers to be capable and willing to give good advice, counsel, and instruction to those who are younger, or who accept of their preaching; therefore let respect and honour be paid where it is due.

It is the foundation and rule of commutative justice in all these instances, that whilst inferiors are obliged to pay due regards to those that are above them, the superiors are equally obliged to confer those benefits on persons of a lower character, which the law of God, and the light of nature require; but some of the cases I have mentioned, will fall in naturally under the following particulars.

II. Another instance of commutative justice, is the particular kindness that is due to near relations. This is a very beautiful and a pleasant part of life, where it is well managed, this affectionate and delightful exchange of good turns one for another.

Now that it is due to near relatives, according to the appointment of God, will be made evident in this manner:

God, the great Creator of all things, could have produced all men immediately by his own power, and have made them arise up in several successions of time, without such a propagation or dependance one upon another, if he had pleased; and then there would have been none of these tender and engaging relations of father, son, and brother. But the wise Creator hath ordained otherwise; he hath appointed such methods for the building of families, and continuing mankind in the world, as bind every soul of us by the ties of nature to one another; Acts xvii. 26. Of one blood hath God made all the nations of the earth. And those that are nearer a-kin to one another, especially in the same family, as brethren and sisters, ought to look upon themselves under more peculiar and mutual obligations to do kindnesses for each other in the first place, according to their capacity. The obligation lies on each party, because it lies upon the other. My brother is bound to love and help me, therefore it is my duty to help and love my brother: For a brother is born for adversity; Prov. xvii. 17. It is the sovereign will of Heaven, that there should be such near relations, who should be bound by the law of creation and duty to protect, to support, and assist one another in a time of adversity: This is the design of God the Creator, in the course of his providence, in his subdivision and propagation of all the families of the earth.

And as it is a piece of justice to confer this mutual help which is due to near relations, so there is something of justice too in our distinguishing acts of kindness and assistance according to difference of necessity, and according to difference of merit. I cannot believe I am bound to love or serve every brother, or every sister, with equal degree of affection and kindness, whatsoever their character be, whether virtuous or vicious: Nor to bestow equal benefits upon them, where there is not equal necessity: this can never be of a divine appointment. And though there is some duty, some kindness, some assistance always due to those that are our near relatives, yet this very rule of justice obliges us to give more respect or love to those that are in themselves more honourable and worthy, and those who merit more at our hands, may reasonably expect it. This will farther appear from the next particular.

III. Another instance of justice is, love to those that love us, and gratitude to those that have done us good. Those that have been serviceable to us in the concerns of our souls, or our bodies, demand kindness from us, and returns of service, according to their benefits, and our capacity.

Let us first take notice of the gratitude that is due for spiritual benefits. The christian Galatians, who were converted from idolatry and heathenism, and reconciled to God by the preaching of St. Paul, had such a powerful and penetrating sense of their obligations to him, that if it were possible, saith the apostle, I bear you record, ye would have plucked out your own eyes, and given them to me; Gal. iv. 15. And when the same apostle writes to Philemon, who was converted to the faith by his ministry, he gently insinuates the obligations he was under; though I do not think proper to tell thee, saith he, how thou owest unto me even thine own self; ver. 19. St. Paul speaks upon this principle in many places of his epistle; 1 Cor. ix. 11. If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we should reap your carnal things? And when he gives an account of the contribution which the christians of Macedonia and Achaia made for the poor saints at Jerusalem, he expresses himself thus: It hath pleased them verily to make this contribution, and their debtors they are. For if the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister unto them in carnal things; because it was from the Jews that the gospel first came forth, and was preached among the Gentiles; Rom. xv. 27.

There is some sort of gratitude due also to those who by their writings, or more especially by their conversation or instructions, have improved our understandings, and added to our knowledge in things natural or moral, as well as divine. There are some persons in the world, who have advanced their intellectuals in a very sensible manner, by the company of their friends, but they have so much of pride and self reigning in them, that they refuse to acknowledge it: They would fain have the world believe that it is the rich soil of their own understanding has produced this harvest of itself: They are ambitious and fond to have it thought that their notions are all their own. Though they plumed themselves with borrowed feathers, they are unwilling to confess whence they received them, and pretend they are owing to nature only. But pride is a secret vice, and a cursed spring of injustice in more instances than one, as I shall shew hereafter.

After the benefits bestowed on our souls, we ought to consider what is due to those that have served our bodies, or our natural life. Those that have healed our diseases, that have saved us from imminent dangers and calamities, or present death; those that have fed or clothed us, or supported life when we were poor and destitute: All these deserve particular kinds of remembrance, and due returns of service. Those that have either vindicated our honour, or increased our reputation, and spread our good name in the world, stand entitled also to some agreeable returns of benefit.

Do not let us imagine then, that gratitude is a mere heroic virtue, that we may pay or not pay at our pleasure; for nature dictates it to us, as a piece of strict commutative justice, and equity of dealing between man and man. We may be very properly said to treat our neighbour unjustly, if we refuse to serve him again, who hath first served us, when his distressed circumstances shall require our assistance.

There are some cases indeed wherein the person who is obliged by his neighbour’s kindness, cannot possibly make a return equal to the benefit received, without ruining himself and his family, or exposing himself much more than his neighbour did to serve him. There are cases wherein the person who hath obliged us, may over-rate his kindness, and undervalue all our acknowledgments: He may require most unreasonable returns, and think he is never sufficiently recompensed. There are cases also wherein the benefactor may repent of his past services, may endeavour to take away the benefit bestowed, may without reason commence a resolute enmity, and do what in him lies to cancel all former obligations: In such circumstances as these, the obligation of gratitude may be diminished, and perhaps may cease altogether. And though sometimes, in these very cases, there may be high and heavy charges of ingratitude brought by the first benefactor against a person of a very grateful mind; yet these accusations may be utterly unjust in the sight of God, who knoweth and weigheth all circumstances in a righteous balance. But where no such bars are laid in the way, it is evident that the practice of gratitude, and a mutual return of benefits, is but a piece of natural justice. The very publicans and sinners do good to those, that do good to them: Mat. v. 46. Luke viii. 32.

IV. Another piece of justice is, the payment of the full due to those whom we bargain or deal with, whether the contract be made formally in words, or implied in the nature of things, according to the customs of mankind. And under this head, not only those who buy and sell, who lend and borrow; but all ranks and degrees of mankind, who have any commerce with each other, are included, from the prince upon the throne, to the day-labourer in the high-ways and hedges.

The very notion of commutative justice implies the giving one good thing in barter of exchange for another. And all commerce amongst men was originally carried on this way, viz. the husbandman gave corn, the grazier cattle; the draper gave cloth; the artificers and labourers their skill and work; the prince and rich man gave food and protection; the poor and the subject gave their attendance and service: And thus mankind lived by an exchange of benefits. But when they found many inconveniences arise from this manner of dealing, they contrived another way of exchanges, and that is by money, which by universal agreement is made the common measure of all things in contract: And since that time, skill and labour, attendance and services are exchanged for money, as well as goods and merchandizes. Now herein consists the practice of justice, that every one render to his neighbour that which is due upon the account of any of these benefits or conveniencies of life he receives from him.

Let us give the first place to kings and rulers in this discourse, as justice requires. Though the distribution of special rewards and punishments may have something in it of a distinct nature, yet the common protection which they owe all their subjects, and the obedience and tribute which their subjects owe them upon that account, are properly a part of commutative justice. By their oath of magistracy, and by our engagements of allegiance expressed or implied, we bargain with them for protection, and we ought to pay them tribute. They accept of a high and heavy charge, and agree to execute the laws of the land for the good of the people: Therefore not only the purses, but the consciences of the people are under obligations to pay taxes to the magistrate for the support of his governing power, and the maintenance of his honour and authority, that he may the better fulfil the glorious and useful work. This is what the apostle insists upon, and argues in that known place, the xiii. chapter to the Romans; Rulers are ordained of God, not for a terror to good works, but to the evil. The ruler is the minister of God to thee for good, and he beareth not the sword in vain; he is an avenger to execute wrath upon him that doth evil. Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, that is, for fear of his anger: but for conscience sake, as a matter of justice and duty: And for this cause also pay tribute. And it is to be noted, the apostle puts our duty in this respect upon the foot of justice; ver. 7. Render therefore to all their dues; that is, whatsoever things are just, perform to them; render tribute to whom tribute is due, custom to whom custom, fear to whom fear, honour to whom honour.

As the payment of tribute and taxes to those who undertake our protection, defence, and safety, is a necessary duty; so the payment of a salary to a teacher, of wages to a servant, of money or merchandize to a trader, of hire to the workman, are other parts of justice. Let not the labourer that hath reaped down your fields, or wrought in your service, go without his hire, which was a practice the apostle reproached in his days; James v. 4. The law of Moses is very strict in this matter; Deut. xxiv. 14, 15. Thou shalt not oppress a hired servant that is poor and needy, whether he be of thy brethren, or a stranger. To express it in modern language; whether he be a christian or not, a good man or an evil man, let him have his hire. If he is so poor that he cannot tell how to provide for himself to answer the necessities of the evening, then see that thou pay him the hire of the day, nor let the sun go down upon it, for he is poor, and sets his heart, or depends upon it. Trespass not upon his poverty by thy withholding his due so long as may turn to his prejudice; let not his hire, which is detained by fraud, cry against thee, for the Lord of hosts, the God of Justice will hear the cry of the oppressed.

And not only in the case of a poor labourer, but in every other instance make conscience of paying that which you have borrowed, or what you owe to your neighbour, and that not only in full measure, but at the appointed time of payment: The time is part of the contract as well as the money. Do not say, “I intend to be honest, but I will not pay this week, or this month.” Do not withhold what is due, and say to thy neighbour, Go, and come again, when thou hast it by thee; Withhold not good from him to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it. This is forbid by the inspired preacher Solomon; Prov. iii. 27, 28. Nor is this agreeable to the golden rule of our Saviour, Do to others as ye would that others should do unto you.

V. Help to our fellow-creatures in cases of great necessity, seems to be another piece of human justice, even though they have never done any thing actually for us. We are bound to defend our neighbour from apparent injury, so far as is consistent with our own safety, and sometimes farther too. It is our duty to direct him in the right way, when he is wandering or uncertain. It is a piece of justice to warn him of approaching danger, and to give him some assistance in case of sudden calamity or distress attending him. When we see his soul, or his body, or his estate in imminent hazard, we ought to give him notice of it; we should put forth some efforts of kindness for his security, and pluck him as a brand out of the fire. Our own conscience dictates this to us, since we should think it a very reasonable thing to expect the same kindness from our neighbour, when we are found in the like circumstances.

Can we suppose that the law of God should appoint us to lift the ox or the ass of our neighbour out of a pit, or to restore his sheep to him when going astray; Deut. xxii. 1. and yet that we are not bound to fulfil the same duty of love toward our neighbour himself? Nay, the command of Moses reaches still farther; Ex. xxiii. 4. If thou meet thine enemy’s ox or his ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him again. How much more should this be practised toward the soul or the body of a fellow-christian?

If the law of justice require us to secure the cattle or possessions of our neighbour; surely then we are obliged to deal as kindly with his reputation and good name, which in some cases is the best part of a man’s estate, and is almost as dear to many as their health or life. When we happen therefore into such company as give their tongues a loose to scandal, and we hear our neighbour vilified and reproached, we ought to ward off the calumny, and to refute the scandal, where we know that our neighbour does not deserve it.

This piece of justice or duty, to assist a suffering neighbour, arises from the social nature of man, who by the law of nature is so far born for a social life, as to come into the world with this claim, and under this sort of obligations; for a naked exposed infant may claim the patronage and protection of every eye that beholds him. And where other circumstances are equal, those who are most capable of affording help, seem to be most obliged. Now if it be a work of human justice to preserve such a helpless piece of human nature from death, surely every infant grown up to any degrees of capacity and manhood, ought in like manner to esteem himself obliged to afford some assistance to his fellow-creatures, according to their distress, and his capacity well considered and adjusted.

Therefore, my assistance or relief of an injured or perishing creature, is a sort of duty to mankind, though the person himself be an utter stranger to me: The history of the good Samaritan in the gospel tells me, that in such a case every man is my neighbour, though he be of a different nation, sect, or party. But when men are fellow-subjects, or fellow-citizens, or combined in any natural, civil, or religious society, this rule of justice appears with more force and evidence; it strikes a brighter light upon the conscience, and ought to have more power upon the heart and practice; for combination into society is an implicit contract or promise of mutual help under necessity.

I confess, several of the instances which I have mentioned under this fifth head may be referred also to charity and mercy, of which I shall speak hereafter: but for as much as the light of nature and the law of God require these beneficial actions of men toward each other, I have here placed them under the head of justice.

VI. The last piece of justice which I shall mention, is reparation to those whom we have wilfully injured, as far as possible: And this is a certain duty, whether we have done them injury in their souls, in their bodies, in their estates, or in their reputation.

If we have led them into errors or heresy by our conversation; if we tempted them to sin by our allurement or example; if we have solicited their assistance in any base or guilty practices of our own; we ought seriously to employ our best powers and prayers toward their recovery from the snare of the devil: If we have wilfully injured their health; if we have blasted their credit; if we have thrown a blot upon their good name; if we have defrauded them of any part of their due, or wasted their substance, let us know and consider that the law of justice requires us to make what restitution we are capable of: But still it must be done in such a manner as must consist with our duty to the rest of our fellow-creatures round about us. It is a vain thing to pretend to be sorry and repent that we have done our neighbour a wilful injury or to flatter him with idle compliments of asking his pardon, while it lays in our power to repair the damage he sustains in a way of consistence with our duties, and yet we obstinately refuse it: Such a repentance as this cannot be sincere in the sight of God, nor have we any reason to hope that his justice or mercy will condescend to accept it.

We have heard these various instances of justice, this large and particular account what is due to our neighbour, in the manifold relations and businesses of life. I grant there are several difficulties that may attend some of these instances in the particular practise of them, by reason of the infinite variety of circumstances which may surround our actions, and the unforeseen occurrences of human life. The strictest rules of equity or justice, in some cases, require a mitigation; and it is impossible to say before-hand what shall be precisely and exactly due to our neighbour in every new accident or occurrence. But a sincere love of justice wrought deep into the heart, and a sacred regard to the golden rule of equity which Christ hath given us, will lead us through most of these perplexities into the paths of righteousness and truth.

It is time now to have the question put close to conscience; Has this been the manner of our life? Has this been our conduct toward our fellow-creatures? Are we children, and have we paid all due honour and obedience to our parents? Has the father no cause to complain that we have disobeyed his authority? Has the mother no reason to say, that we have scorned her advice, or abused her tenderness and compassion? Are we servants, have we never wasted the goods of our master, nor spent that time in idle company, in folly, or in sin, which should have been employed in his service? Have we dealt with our relatives in the same family as becomes a brother, a sister, or a near kinsman, and fulfilled the duties to which we were born? Do we never neglect to make due acknowledgments for favours received? Have we loved those that love us, and practised the law of justice and gratitude to those who have rescued our souls and bodies from distress and danger, or laid obligations upon us by peculiar benefits.?

Am I a trader, and do I practise strict justice and truth, in all that I buy, and in all that I sell? Have I been carefully solicitous to wrong no man, to defraud no man, to cheat and cozen no man? Do I hate the arts of falsehood and knavery? Have I paid the full due to all that I deal with, and do I keep the proper time of payment, which contract or custom have appointed? Have I defended my neighbour from injury, and assisted him in the day of his distress, as I myself should reasonably hope for his defence and assistance? Have I sought to rescue his good name from reproach and slander when it has been attacked? Or have I rather fallen in with slanderers, and joined in with the wilful scandal? Have I honestly sought to make restitution to another where I have been guilty of wilful injury, and done what in me lays to repair the damage that my injustice has brought upon him? Have I attempted to repair his losses, so far as is consistent with the duties of my other relations in life?

Where is the person that can lay his hand upon his heart, and say, I am guiltless before God in all this? Who can wash his hands in innocency, and pronounce himself righteous? Surely such a discourse as this is, should awaken conscience to sensible acts of repentance and mourning; we should be willing and ready to yield to the conviction, where the word of God fastens the charge upon us, and lay ourselves low before the throne of a righteous God. Blessed Lord God, if thou art strict to mark iniquities, who can stand before thee? But there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared. We have failed in many instances of duty toward our fellow-creatures, as well as toward thee our Creator: We have neither given to God nor to our neighbour the full due of love which thy righteous law requires: We lie down in the dust before thee, and betake ourselves to the refuge that is set before us: Jesus the righteous is our hope, he not only paid to God and man all their due, in the course of his holy life, but he also restored that honour to thy justice by his death, which we had taken away by our unrighteousness. O may every soul of us be forgiven for his sake, and created anew in Christ Jesus unto good works? Amen.

HYMN FOR SERMON XXIV. Christian Morality, viz. Justice and Equity.

Come let us search our ways, and try, Have they been just and right? Is the great rule of equity Our practise and delight?

What we would have our neighbour do, Have we still done the same? And ne’er delay’d to pay his due, Nor injur’d his good name?

Do we relieve the poor distress’d, Nor give our tongues a loose To make their names our scorn and jest, Nor treat them with abuse?

Have we not found our envy grow, To hear another’s praise? Nor robb’d him of his honour due, By sly malicious ways?

In all we sell and all we buy, Is justice our design? Do we remember God is nigh, And fear the wrath divine?

In vain we talk of Jesu’s blood, And boast his name in vain, If we can slight the laws of God, And prove unjust to men.

Footnote 29:

See Sermon XXXIII.

SERMON XXV. Christian Morality, viz. Justice, &c. PHILIP. iv. 8.—Whatsoever things are just, &c.——think on these things.

If a bare proposal of the rule of duty, and the mention of the various instances of it, were sufficient to persuade mankind to the practice; then I need not prolong my discourse on this subject of honesty and justice: For I have already proposed the sacred rule which our Saviour has given us, Do to others as ye would that others should do to you; and I have described the several instances wherein this rule must direct our conduct, that we may be just and righteous in all our dealings amongst men.

But alas! our natures are so corrupt, our consciences are so unwilling to receive the laws of duty, and our perverse wills and passions have so much reluctance to the practice, that we have need of arguments to enforce it upon conscience, we have need of powerful motives to awaken our souls to righteousness, and it is necessary therefore that I proceed to the third head of discourse which I proposed, and that is to shew how far the light of nature dictates to us the duty of common justice, and what arguments may be drawn from thence to influence men to be honest.

I. If we consider the natural right that every man hath to keep that which belongs to him, it will appear that this is the gift of God as the God of nature. God, the common author of all our beings, requires that this right be held sacred and inviolable.

I shall not run back to ancient ages, to trace the original grounds of property, or how men became entitled to any of their possessions: It is sufficient for me, that every man is born into this world with a right to his life, to his limbs, to his liberty and safety, and to the good things of this world which he possesses according to the laws of nature, and of the nation where he is born. He has a right also that these should be secure from the hands of injustice and violence, unless he himself be some way concerned in the practice of injury to his fellow-creatures. That man therefore who offers injustice or violence to his neighbour in his body, or his soul, or estate, he robs him of his natural right which God hath given him, and which the law of nature secures to him: He sins against the God of nature, the common Father of mankind; and his conscience hath reason to expect that the God of nature, who is just and righteous, will avenge the mischief done to his injured creatures.

Let it be always observed and excepted here, that the great God himself, considered merely as the God of nature, and where he has not bound himself by promise, reserves a right to resume what he has given, and especially when his creatures have made a forfeiture of their blessings by sinning against their Maker: But this does not authorize men to deprive one another of their possessions, unless he has appointed them from heaven the executioners of his vengeance by a most evident and infallible commission particularly given by God himself; as in the case of the Israelites spoiling the Egyptians of their borrowed jewels, and depriving the Canaanites of their lands, and their lives: But I know not any instance of that kind ever since.

II. If we consider the need that every man stands in of the help of his fellow-creatures, justice and honesty will appear to be a natural duty of the social life: And God, as he is the Governor of the world, will take vengeance of any neglect or violation of this duty, either in this world, or in the other.

Commutative justice, as it is described in the former discourse, is built upon this foundation, that one man has need of another’s assistance: Nor is there any the meanest figure amongst mankind so very worthless, useless, and contemptible, but he may be capable of doing us some service either now or hereafter. It is possible we may be in such circumstances, as to stand in need of the help of the meanest, as well as of the mighty; and therefore the duty of social life obliges us to practice the rules of justice toward all. The rich stand in need of the poor to perform the meaner offices for their convenience, as much as the poor stand in need of the rich to supply them with food or money. The master has need of the servant to assist and obey him, as well as the servant stands in need of maintenance or wages from the hands of his master. One man can never procure for himself all the necessaries, and all the conveniences of life! it is indeed impossible. The same man cannot sow his own corn reap his own harvest, keep his own sheep, make his own bread, form all his own garments, build his own house, fashion his own furniture, and secure his own possessions; no man can provide for himself in all respects, without the assistance of his fellow-creatures. Now those from whom he expects to receive help in any of these instances, it is necessary he should give them help in other instances wherein they stand in need of his. This is one foundation of justice between man and man; that so every man may have the necessaries and conveniences of life by his neighbour’s assistance. Thus the king himself, as Solomon says, is served by the field; Eccl. v. 9. The prince stands in need of the plowman: The plowman gives food to the prince, and the prince gives to the plowman protection and safety.

I might run through the various instances wherein justice is to be practised, and shew how the higher and lower orders and characters of men have mutual need of each other: The buyer and the seller, the artificer and the merchant, the teacher and the scholar; and thus I might make it appear, that unless a due exchange of benefits be maintained, and the practice of justice secured, none of us could enjoy the safety, the ease, or the conveniences of life.

Where there is no practice of justice amongst men, no man can live safe by his neighbour: Every one that is mighty and malicious, that is proud or covetous, that is envious or knavish, would rob another of his due, and either assume the possessions of his neighbour to himself, or make havoc of them, and destroy them. There would be everlasting confusion amongst men, slander and theft, cheating and knavery; plunder and slaughter, and bloody violence would reign among all the tribes of mankind; if justice were banished from the earth; for neither life, nor liberty, nor peace, nor any of our possessions, nor our good name, can be secured without it. Therefore the light and law of nature sets a sacred guard upon justice, and has written the necessity of it in the consciences of all men, who have not seared those consciences as with a red-hot iron, and rased out so much of human nature from their souls.

The practice of justice has so extensive an influence into the whole conduct of our lives, and the welfare of mankind, that some of the heathen writers have made it to be comprehensive of all virtues.

But because sinful men are ready to break the bonds of commutative justice and invade the property, the peace, or the life of their neighbours, therefore government is appointed, and magistrates are ordained to maintain peace and equity amongst men, and to punish the breakers of it. This is the greatest reason why there must be such a thing as magistracy and distributive justice amongst mankind; that those who commit outrage upon their neighbours, and practice injustice toward them, may be punished by the laws: For, as the apostle says to Timothy, the law is not made for the righteous, but for the disobedient, for the ungodly, and for sinners; for murderers, stealers, and liars, &c. That it may be a strong restraint upon the violent inclinations of men, and bring just vengeance upon them, when they bring injury upon their neighbours. Therefore it is for the welfare of the innocent and the righteous, that the laws have ordained vengeance for the guilty; that those who would not injure their fellow-creatures, may be guarded in the enjoyment of their own property and their peace, and may have them secured from the sons of injustice.

And besides all the punishment that such sinners justly receive from men on earth, God, the great Governor of the world, has often revealed his wrath from heaven against all the unrighteousness of men, as well as their ungodliness. He has hereby proclaimed his public approbation of justice, and his hatred of all iniquity. His terrors have sometimes appeared in signal and severe instances against those who have been notoriously unrighteous, and who have broken all the rules of equity in the treatment of their fellow-creatures. This the heathens themselves have taken notice of. And they thought this to be so necessary for the government of the world, that their priests have invented a sort of goddess called Nemesis, whose office is to avenge the practice of fraud or violence, and to bring down curses on the head of this kind of criminals.

As the ancient records of the heathen world give us some histories of divine vengeance, so the bible abounds with more awful and illustrious instances of this kind; which leads me to,

The fourth head of my discourse; and that is, to consider what forcible arguments and motives the christian religion affords for the practice of justice among men.

If I were to speak of distributive justice, or that which belongs to the practice of the magistrate, never was it more gloriously manifest, than in and by God the Father, when he refused to pass by our iniquities without punishment, and laid the dreadful weight of it upon the head and soul of his own Son. Never could magistracy receive such a glory, as when our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, hung and died upon the cross, suffering the penalty that the law of God, the supreme magistrate, had denounced against sinners.

And as punishing justice was glorified in all its terrors, so rewarding justice also appeared most illustrious. Because our Lord Jesus Christ had fulfilled obedience not only to the broken law which we lay under, but to those peculiar laws which God the Father also gave him as a Mediator; therefore it pleased God highly to advance him, according to his own eternal covenant. God rewarded him, as a magistrate, distributing justice to a person who had done the greatest things for the honour of his sovereign: He exalted him at his own right-hand, and gave him a name above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow; for he deserved it at the hands of his Father, and his Father distributed rewards equal to his desert.

Rewarding justice again appears glorious, in that God the Father communicates unto us the rewards of the sufferings of his own Son. God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, because the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, has paid for all our follies and unrighteousness; 1 John i. 9. Faithful and just to his Son, that he may not go without the rewards of his sufferings: Faithful and just to us, because it was in our name and stead that the Son suffered. But not to insist upon this longer, commutative justice is abundantly enforced also by many considerations drawn from the books of the Old Testament, as well as from the gospel of Christ.

If we consult the moral statutes of God, which were given to the Jews, we shall find them full of righteousness. These statutes are of everlasting force, and their divine solemnity should impress our consciences. That which is altogether just shalt thou follow, that thou mayest live and inherit the land: And the judges and officers shall judge the people with righteous judgment, and shall shew no respect to persons, nor take a gift to pervert justice; Deut. xvi. 18, 19, 20. Ye shall not steal, nor deal falsely, nor lie to one another. Thou shalt not defraud thy neighbour, nor rob him. The wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee all night until the morning. Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in weight, or in measure, just balances and just weights shall ye have; I am the Lord your God; Lev. xix. 12, &c. A false balance is an abomination to the Lord; but a just weight is his delight; Prov. xi. 1. To do justice and judgment is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice; Prov. iii. 15. Woe to him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong, who uses his neighbour’s service without wages, and giveth him not for his work; Jer. xxii. 13. Remove not the ancient land-marks, nor enter into the field of the fatherless: for their Redeemer is mighty, and he shall plead their cause with thee; Prov. xxiii. 10, 11.

If we review the records of the Jewish history, we shall find the cruel and the covetous, the tyrant and the oppressor, made terrible examples of the vengeance of God against unrighteousness. Survey the plagues of Egypt, and the dreadful desolations of that fruitful country, with the destruction of the first-born by the midnight pestilence, and the armies of Pharaoh drowned in the Red sea, and you may read there the wrath of God against the unrighteousness of men, written in dreadful characters. They treated the race of Israel with cruelty and sore oppression; they destroyed their male-children, and provoked God to bring swift destruction upon themselves. Behold Adonibezek, king of the Canaanites, with his thumbs and his great toes cut off by Joshua, and confessing the justice of the great God. Three-score and ten kings, saith he, with their great toes and their thumbs cut off, have gathered their meat under my table: As I have done, so God hath requited me; Judges i. 7. See the dogs licking up the blood of Ahab in the place where he slew Naboth the Jezreelite, in order to take unjust possession of his vineyard; 1 Kings xxi. 19. These things which were written of old time, remain upon record for our instruction in the days of christianity.

But let us take more special notice what influences may be derived from the gospel, and from the name of Christ, to enforce the practice of justice among men.

I. If we look to our Lord Jesus Christ as a law-giver, how various and how plain are his solemn and repeated commands, not only in his sermon upon the mount, but upon other occasions too, that justice be practised between man and man. He hath explained to us that glorious rule of equity, on purpose to make the practice of justice easy, plain, and universal, love your neighbour as yourself; that is, do to others, as ye would that others do to you.

We cannot but think that the holy soul of our Lord Jesus was concerned to secure the practice of justice and righteousness among his followers, when we read his terrible rebuke to the pharisees for the neglect of it, and a curse pronounced upon them; Mat. xxiii. 23. “Woe unto you scribes and pharisees, hypocrites: for ye pay tythe of mint, and anise, and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith.” Judgment in that place may signify commutative and distributive justice: all manner of exercise of righteousness towards their fellow-creatures. Under a pretence of serving God better than your neighbours, and crowding his temple with your presence, and his altar with sacrifices and gifts, ye abandon common justice, ye neglect the righteousness due to your fellow-creatures. There is a woe denounced upon you, and my Father will inflict the curse, for he hates robbery for burnt-offering; Is. lxi. 8. Nor will the God of heaven excuse you from paying your dues to men on earth, under pretence of paying honour or sacrifices to him.

There are many other threatenings in the New Testament written against those that neglect justice, and pronounced by the apostles in the name and authority of Christ, their exalted Lord. The covetous and extortioners, those that take away the light of their fellow-creatures, are shut out from the heavenly blessedness; 1 Cor. vi. 10. “Know ye not, says the apostle, that none of these shall inherit the kingdom of God?” As much as to say, it is so very obvious a thing, that an unjust man can never enter into heaven, whatsoever pretence he makes, that I may appeal to the meanest capacity, ye all know it. God will repay vengeance to them that do wrong to their neighbours, whether they be great or mean, for there is no respect of persons with him; Col. iii. 25.

II. Consider Christ as a pattern of justice and righteousness. Look to the example of our Lord Jesus; you see him, who was the sovereign Magistrate and Lord of all, who could distribute crowns and kingdoms to men, submitting himself to commutative justice among creatures.

Behold the Son of God, who was the brightness of his Father’s glory, and the delight of his soul before the creation; behold him stooping down to our world, and taking flesh and blood upon him to become our brother, that he might shew us how we ought to love our brethren. It was an unparalleled instance of divine love that Christ has given us, when he came down from heaven to become our neighbour, and to dwell amongst us, that he might teach us to love our neighbours as ourselves.

Behold the glorious Son of God subjecting himself to his earthly parents, to Joseph the carpenter, and to Mary his mother, that he might instruct us how to pay obedience to our superior relations. See how the King of kings pays tribute to Cæsar, when he was so poor, that he was forced to send Peter a fishing, to procure the tribute-money by a miracle. And though the beasts of the field were his, and he could have commanded the cattle upon a thousand hills, to make provision for his followers; yet he would not dispossess the owners of them, but created food on purpose to feed four or five thousand in the wilderness.

III. If we consider Christ as a glorious benefactor, who has taken care to provide for us the necessaries of this life, and hath purchased for us, at the hands of God, the eternal treasures of heaven and glory. Has not this blessed consideration force enough to guard us against all temptations to injustice? Shall a christian break the rules of equity, and steal, or cheat, or plunder his neighbour to gain money or merchandise, who has the promises of God for his support in a way of diligence and humble faith? Shall we sully our consciences, and defile our souls with knavery and injustice for a little of the pelf of this world, when we have the unsearchable riches of Christ made over to us in the gospel, and the inheritance of heaven in reversion?

IV. Let us consider the very nature and design of the gospel of Christ, it is to make sinners holy, to make the unjust righteous: The new man of christianity must be created in righteousness and true holiness. Therefore are we purchased with the blood of Christ, that we might be a peculiar peeple, zealous of good works; Tit. ii. 14.

It is a shame and scandal to the christian name, when one who wears it is unrighteous or dishonest. An unjust christian, what a contradiction is it in itself, and how it disgraces the profession of the gospel! Hear how the great apostle treats his Corinthian disciples when such sort of sins were found amongst them; 1 Cor. vi. 1-8. Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust man and the infidel? Dare any of you injure your neighbour, your fellow-christian? I speak this to your shame. Brother goes to law with brother, and ye injure one another. Why do not you rather suffer wrong? nay, you do wrong, and defraud, and that your own brethren. But what is the consequence? Such wretches as these are, shall never inherit the kingdom of God.

The grace of God that bringeth salvation; Tit. ii. 9, 10. teacheth us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly and righteously, and religiously, in this present evil world. It teacheth us righteousness towards men, as well as sobriety among ourselves, and godliness towards the King of heaven. But how hath this divine religion been scandalized for want of justice in the professors of it! Scandalized among heathen kingdoms, among Turks and unbelievers! and christianity in our own land, how hath it been dishonoured by the practices of those that pretend to that holy name! How hath the conversion of wild heathens in the Indian nations been hindered by the injustice and fraud of christian merchants and traders there, or by merchants who call themselves christians. I have heard it said by persons whom I could fully credit, that a Turk when he is suspected of fraud and cheating, will reply, “What, do you think I am a christian?” O how hath the gospel of the lovely Jesus been rendered odious by the abominable practices of those that pretend to honour him! What falsehood, what lying, what perjury, and cheating, and deceit, and violence have been practised by our traders in foreign lands! Thus there has been an ill savour of our holy christianity carried beyond the seas, by those, perhaps, who have pretended to convert the infidels. And many in our own nation, who have begun to set their faces towards heaven, have been sorely disgusted at the knavish practices of professors, and been tempted to think that all religion is a jest, and to abandon the ordinances of the gospel. But when souls stumble, and fall, and perish by such discouragements, woe to him that gave the offence, and laid this stumbling-block of iniquity in their way. How heavy must the blood of souls lay upon such sinners!

Surely there has been enough said on this head to discourage oppression, deceit, and injustice in the professors of christianity, if argument, and shame, and terror can have power and prevalence over sin and temptation. O may almighty grace attend this discourse of justice, and work the sacred love of it in the hearts of men!

Now if ye are made willing to walk by the rules of equity and justice, instead of proposing particular directions for this end, I shall proceed,

In the fifth and last place, to point out the various springs of injustice, that ye may avoid them.

The great and general spring of injustice to our neighbour is a criminal and excessive love to ourselves. For since the comprehensive notion of justice lies in this, to give to every one that which is due, it follows, that the general notion of injustice consists in taking to ourselves more than is due, or in giving less than is due to our neighbour.

There are a thousand instances of this unrighteousness among men, in reference to their bodies, their souls, their good name, or their possessions in the world. This general term of injustice is so extensive, that it includes a great part of the sins forbidden in the second table. Disobedience to parents and governors, rebellion, treason, murder, adultery, theft, violence and plunder, cheating, and deceit, and slander, with all sinful desires to possess what belongs to our neighbour, may be justly ranked under the head of unrighteousness: And they spring from this one fountain, namely, an excessive regard to self. It is to this natural and exalted idol that we sacrifice the peace and the property, the good name, and even the life of our fellow-creatures. Nor will any method be effectual to secure us from the practice of injustice, till we learn to degrade self a little in our own esteem, and to judge of our neighbour, and of the things that are his due, by the same rule and measure by which we take an estimate, of ourselves, and of what is due to us. Let us put our neighbour in the place of self, and judge how he ought to be treated.

But that we may more effectually guard ourselves from the temptations of injustice, let us descend to particulars, and we shall find that almost all the unrighteous practices of men spring from some of these six principles; viz. covetousness, pride, luxury, sloth, malice against men, or distrust of God.

I. Covetousness is a great spring of injustice. This consists in an immoderate desire of possessing: And we are told by the apostle, that the love of money is the root of all evil, which while some have coveted after, they have not only erred from the faith, but they have ventured upon many sins, as well as pierced themselves through with many sorrows. For they that will be rich, fall into temptation, and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which draw men in destruction and perdition; 1 Tim. vi. 9, 10. Solomon is of the same mind; Prov. xxviii. 20, 22. He that maketh haste to be rich, shall not be innocent, for he hath an evil eye upon the possessions of his neighbour.

It is from this cursed root of covetousness that a multitude of bitter fruits proceed. It is by this vicious principle working within us, that we are tempted to take what is not our due, either by craft or by violence. Hence it is that men cheat each other in their daily commerce, they defraud and over-reach their neighbour, if they can, in every bargain they make, and try all the arts of subtle knavery, in order to enrich themselves. They divest their souls of truth and virtue, and put off conscience and shame to load themselves with thick clay.

It is covetousness that teaches the sons of men to practise upon their dealers with a false balance and a deceitful beam. They shorten their measures, and lessen their weights by which they sell their goods: But when the case alters, and they buy any thing for themselves, they will, if possible, take another sort of weight, or use a different measure; all which are an abomination to the Lord.

It is the same evil and unrighteous principle that persuades the seller to put off corrupt and damaged wares for good and sound, and to cozen his neighbour with merchandize that is by no means such as he reasonably expects. It is this principle that persuades the buyer also to cheat his neighbour with corrupt and false money, which he knows to be unlawful coin. For corrupt merchandize and corrupt money, false balances, light weights, and scanty measure, seem all to stand in the same rank of deceit: These are all weapons of craft and knavery to give a secret wound to their neighbour’s estate, they all belong to the armory of fraud, and the magazine of unrighteousness.

It is this covetous humour that tempts the tongues of men to speak flattering falsehoods in their daily dealings, and some of them make an hourly sacrifice of truth to the gain of a penny. It is from this principle that they break their promises of payment; they withhold the money that is due to their neighbour, beyond all reasonable time, and that for no other reason but to gain by the loan of it: They delay the payment of their poor creditors for many months, or perhaps for years, and put the advantage which they make of this delay into their own purse. This is a frequent, but an unrighteous practice in our day: For the profit that accrues by the detaining of money that is due to another beyond the customary or contracted time of payment, should doubtless be given to the person to whom the principal money was due; or at least he should have such a valuable share of it as may compensate the damage or loss he sustains by the delay.

It is a covetous desire of gain that tempts men to practise extortion, and to prey upon the necessities of those they deal with. When the buyer wants any conveniency of life, they force him to give much more than it is worth, because he stands in the utmost need of it; or they constrain the seller perhaps to part with some of his most valuable possessions for a trifle, because he is under special necessity and present distress. This was the extortion which Jacob practised upon his brother Esau, when he made him sell his birth-right for a mess of pottage, while he was faint with hunting. And it is the same iniquity when we impose upon the ignorance or known unskilfulness of the persons we deal with; and especially when we make our advantage of children or servants, or of persons who confess their own ignorance, and leave the choice of the goods, or the determination of the price, to the conscience of him that sells.

We may indeed set a just value upon our own goods; but we must not set a price upon any man’s pressing necessity, nor raise a tax upon his ignorance. It can never be certainly determined how much it is lawful for a trader to get by his merchandize: Doubtless he may sometimes make a greater gain of the same things than at another: And this is often necessary, in order to compensate the losses, the risks or dangers that he passes through. He may lawfully make those advantages which the change of things, and the divine providence often puts into his hands: Nor is it unlawful for him to take more of some persons than he does of others for the same merchandize; for he may treat some of his customers favourably, though he must deal righteously and justly with them all. But let him see to it that he use ingenuity towards the poor, the necessitous, and the unskilful, as well as moderation toward all men. The circumstances of things are so various, that much of the practice of justice must be left to the court of equity in every man’s breast, under the sacred influence of this rule, Do that to others which you think reasonable that others should do to you. It is best in all doubtful and difficult cases to practise what is fair and honourable in the sight of men, and what is safe and innocent in the sight of God: for a good conscience is better than the largest gain: But where the sacred principles of virtue are over-borne by corrupt inclinations, the moral powers of the soul are stretched at first to the lengths of moderate iniquity, and conscience is strained to the indulgence of some smaller unrighteousness: but virtue will die by degrees, and conscience will learn in time to allow bolder injustice. And then, though it may be stupified and senseless for a season, yet let the sinner know, that it will have its feeling return again, and the guilt of knavery and falsehood will torture the soul with unknown agonies here or hereafter.

But the wretched influence of this vice of covetousness is not confined only to traffic and merchandize: It spreads its unrighteousness much farther and wider: It tempts the sons and daughters of men to withhold due honour and necessary supplies from their aged parents, and exposes to great hardships in the latter end of life, those to whom we owe our life itself, and the comforts of it in our younger years. It withholds wages from the servant, and salary from him that has earned it. It forbids those who have received benefits to make a grateful return to their benefactors. It will teach a man to stop his ears at the cry of his neighbour in distress, lest it should cost some money for his relief. It refuses an alms to the starving poor, and finds an excuse for the churl, lest he stretch out his hand of bounty to a perishing family. It is so wrapped up in self, that it never considers what is due to another; and ventures to break all the rules of righteousness rather than diminish its own estate, or part with any thing it can call mine. It would suffer a church or a kingdom to sink and perish, and let the public peace be broken, and the nation dissolved, if it might but secure itself and its own possessions in the midst of those ruins. An accursed vice. An iniquity big with misery and desolation! yet it hides itself too often from conviction and reproof; it runs like a river under ground, and attempts to conceal itself under the specious disguises of frugality and virtue, while it practises all the mischiefs we have been describing.

II. Pride is another spring of injustice. But having broken up the fountain of covetousness as of a great deep, and traced it in its various streams, the labour of drying them up has employed so much time, that the pursuit of the other springs of unrighteousness must be delayed till a further season.

HYMN FOR SERMON XXV. Christian Morality, viz. Justice and Truth.

Great God, thy holy law requires, To curb our covetous desires, Forbids to plunder, steal, or cheat, To practise falsehood or deceit.

Thy Son hath set a pattern too, He paid to God and men their due: A dreadful debt he paid to God, And bought our pardon with his blood.

Amazing justice! boundless love! Do we not feel our passions move? Do we not grieve that we have been Faithless to God, or false to men?

Have we no righteous debt denied, Through wanton luxury or pride? Nor vex’d the poor with long delay, And made them groan for want of pay?

Have we ne’er thrown a needless shame, Or scandal on our neighbour’s name? O happy men, whose age and youth Have ever dealt in love and truth;

But if our justice once be gone, And leave our faith and hope alone; If honesty be banish’d hence Religion is a vain pretence.

SERMON XXVI. Christian Morality, viz. Justice, &c. PHILIP. iv. 8.—Whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, think on these things. Οσα δικαια, οσα αγνα.

Justice and truth are two of the chief bands that preserve human society. If truth and justice perish from the earth, the sons of men would become like the savages of the wilderness, where the strong or the crafty animals prey upon the weak, the simple, and the innocent. The Lord God, the author of nature, is a God of justice, and he has written something of this law in the consciences of men. But the God of grace has given us much plainer rules for the practice of it, hath allured us to righteousness by sweeter motives, and hath guarded it by more awful and solemn terrors. These things have been the subject of the former discourse; and that we may, as far as possible, assist towards the rooting out injustice from the hearts and lives of christians, I have begun to point out some of the chief principles, or springs of it.

The first which I mentioned is covetousness, a vicious weed that grows in corrupt nature, and is fruitful of a thousand unrighteous actions.

I proceed now to the second, that is pride. When a person sets too high a value upon himself, and aggrandizes himself in his own esteem, he is ready to imagine that all things are due to him, and there is very little left to become due to his neighbour. The proud, as well as the covetous man, is full of self, and he forgets the command of love to his neighbour: He treats him as if he was not made of the same clay, and lives as though he were obliged to no duty to his fellow-creatures. This is evident in a variety of instances.

It is pride that forbids us to give due respect to those that are above us in the family, in the church, or in the civil state: And instead of paying the honours that are due to superiors, we are tempted to treat them with insolence and scorn. Many a father in our degenerate age, has found this unhappy effect of raising his children too soon and too high: And the mother has seen her sin, and felt it in her punishment, when she has cockered up her young offspring in pride, and thereby taught them to break the rules of justice, to slight all her authority, and make a scoff of that pre-eminence which God and nature have given her. The proud man is ready to say in his heart, “All that are around me ought to pay me respect, and do me justice,” while he is regardless of the respect due to others. “Let them carry it towards me as they ought, and I will carry it toward them as I please.”

It is pride that inclines us to throw a blot here and there upon the good name of our neighbour, and to blemish his reputation, lest he should outshine us. When some honourable mention is made of another person in our company, especially if it be one of our own sex, our own rank or degree in the world, do we not feel something rising within to lessen their honour, and to stain their character? It is through this vanity and ambition of mind, that we are tempted to defame and reproach our neighbour, and to rob him of his just honour among men, and we endeavour to build our own fame and credit upon the ruin of his. But it is a sandy, or rather an impious foundation; and the fame that is built upon such ground will never stand. Pride inclines us to assume more respect than is due to ourselves, and to take it away from our neighbour, even as covetousness tempts us to take more money to ourselves than is due, and to deprive our neighbour of it. Thus both of them are opposite to the sacred rule of justice; one to that justice which we owe to our neighbour’s estate, and the other to his good name.

But the evil influence of pride spreads farther also; for it teaches us to practise unrighteousness in matters of property: It instructs us in the methods of oppression, and inspires us with a wicked courage to practise it; Ps. lxxiii. 6, 7, 8. When pride compasses men as a chain, and they wear it as a golden ornament, then violence covers them as a garment; and though their eyes stand out with fatness, and they have more than heart could wish, yet they are corrupt, and speak wickedly concerning oppression. They gripe those that are poor, because they themselves are mighty. They refuse to pay the just demands of their neighbours, they speak loftily, and stand it out with them against all right and justice, because they are great in the world. It is the rule of justice to change places with our humble neighbour, and ask ourselves, what we should think due to us, if we were in his place. Or at least we should set ourselves and our neighbour upon the level, and consider what is just and right on both sides. But the heart of pride cannot bear such a rule, it exalts itself far above the level of mankind, and practises toward those that are around it with a superior insolence and injustice. Cursed pride, the first-born of hell! It seized our first parents and tempted them to aim at godhead, to practice injury to God himself, and assume a right to the fruit of the forbidden tree! Vile iniquity, that hath tainted all the seed of Adam! It is a haughty poison that was infused into our veins with the first sin; and where shall we find the son or daughter of Eve that is not infected with it? Blessed be the grace of God, wheresoever its dominion is broken, so that it does not break out into all the works of unrighteousness.

The third spring of injustice among men is profuseness and luxury. When persons affect to live in a manner above what their circumstances will afford, they are tempted to intrench upon the property of their neighbour, either by cheating or by violence.

It is the language of luxury, “I must indulge my appetite, my table must be furnished with a costly variety, and I must eat and drink with elegance, as is the modish phrase. I must treat my friends when they visit me, with fashionable entertainments; I must keep fine company, and make a figure in the world; I must appear in such an equipage as my neighbour allows himself, though he be ten times richer than I am. I must have many changes of raiment, for it is a mean and vulgar thing to appear too often in the same dress: My house must be furnished after the mode, and I must shine at home and abroad in silks or in silver; for I cannot bear the thought that such or such a one should out-shine and over-top me.” Then the patrimony is sold or mortgaged to raise present supplies, and the rich food and clothing, and luxurious expences of a twelve-month, devour and swallow up seven years income, or the gain of half their lives.

What remains then, when their own substance is not sufficient to supply their vanity, but that they make an inroad upon the property of their neighbour? They run deep into debt with the artificer and trader, and they never concern themselves how to make payment. The workman has built them palaces, instead of such common dwellings as their character requires, and the artificers of various kinds have furnished out their bravery of apparel or equipage: But the unhappy creditors are ready to starve in tattered raiment, through the oppression and injustice of their luxurious neighbour. And when they make a modest demand of what is due to them, they meet with nothing but a frown or a jest, and the reproachful names of saucy and impertinent. But, wo to him that covets an evil covetousness to his house, that he may set his nest on high;—for the stone shall cry out of the wall against the oppressor: The beam out of the timber shall answer it, and shall bear witness against unrighteousness; Hab. ii. 9, 11.

This is the crying guilt of many, and very commonly practised in this city, in greater or in less degrees; but perhaps the profuse wretch pursues a bolder course of injustice, and betakes himself to robbery and plunder: He lies at watch on the high-ways, he seizes and assaults the innocent traveller, and deprives him of his wealth and every thing valuable, in order to support his own wild and extravagant expences. Luxury must be fed, though justice be starved; and luxury must be clothed, though justice go naked.

My hearers perhaps will think themselves unconcerned in all this story, and take no share of conviction to themselves, nor do I know any of them to whom half this charge belongs. But let it be considered, that men do not usually rise to this degree of madness all at once. Unrighteousness has several steps and stages in its race; if we indulge our appetites, and spread our tables, or form our apparel or our furniture but a little beyond our income, if we once begin to admit such a manner of life and expence as exceeds our estate, in order to please our own sensual or vain inclinations, or to vie with our neighbours, we expose ourselves to most evident temptations of injustice, and lead our souls into sinful snares. “We cannot live frugally as our fathers did: The fashion is altered, and we must follow it, whether the purse can bear it or no.”

Hence arise the impetuous desires of hasty and extravagant gains by gaming, in order to recover what is lost by luxury. Men venture largely upon the turn of a dye, and defraud their honest creditors of their bread and life, to pay, what they call in their cant, the debts of honour. A wanton sort of justice and illegal equity! It is the luxurious fashion of life that hath filled our land with the itch of gaming; and if the turn of a wheel can entitle them to thousands, they despise the slow and tedious ways of supplying their wants by labour, business, or traffic. Thus honest industry is discouraged, and trade, which is the political life of our nation, lies groaning and expiring.

Hence proceeds the wicked custom of breaking promises to those that we deal with, and long delays of payment, till we imagine that the debt is cancelled, by being almost forgotten. A vain and criminal imagination! As though the daily increase of interest, and the patience of the creditor, could make the principal cease to be due! As though time, and unjust delay could pay debts without money.

Hence flows the unrighteous practice of borrowing without any design to pay, which is gross and shameful iniquity: I would hope none of the professors of religion have so far abandoned all sense of righteousness. Yet there are too many, who, when once they have borrowed, grow so careless and negligent of payment, that it brings a disgrace upon their profession, and a blot upon their character. Profuse and thoughtless sinners, who run in debt to every one that will trust them for the daily conveniencies of life! Though they have no reasonable prospect of paying, yet they ask their neighbour to lend, with a free and courageous countenance, and put a bold face upon their venturous iniquity, being too proud to let their poverty be known. But the God of justice beholds their crime, and writes their names down in his book among the unrighteous. Ps. xxxvii. 21. The wicked borroweth and payeth not again.

Hence it comes to pass that there are so many bankrupts in our days, even among the professors of strict religion: A shameful and ungodly practice, if it arise from luxury and profuseness, or from a careless neglect of their proper affairs! It was thought sufficient, in the days of our fathers, to deserve an expulsion from the church of Christ, unless they could evidently make it appear, that it was merely the unforeseen and frowning providences of God, they were reduced to this extremity.—There is many a man hath groaned away his latter years in poverty, and perhaps in a cold prison, and in most forlorn circumstances of life, by means of the profuseness of his youth: And he hath been taught to read the guilt of his luxury and injustice in a long and painful lesson.

But a profuse and sensual humour is not only the spring of unrighteousness among persons of better rank and circumstance in the world, but it tempts servants also to be unjust to their masters: They will now and then provide a treat for themselves and their friends; they must eat nicely, and drink to excess: And thus they waste their master’s substance. They must keep good company in the world, and now and then spend a licentious hour or two, while their just and reasonable service at home is neglected; and perhaps the purse of the master must pay for all.

Under the same head I may bring a charge of injustice against the careless and wasteful servant, who persuades himself that his master is rich enough, and therefore he is not solicitous to buy or sell, or manage any affairs for him to the best advantage. He permits the goods of his master to be wasted or embezzled, he grows liberal and generous at his master’s cost, and has no thought of the golden rule of our Saviour, to manage his master’s concerns with the same frugality and conduct, as he would expect a servant should do for him. But it is time I proceed to the next particular.

The fourth occasion of injustice, is sloth and idleness. For the slothful man is a brother to him that is a great waster; Prov. xviii. 9.

Whosoever wants the necessaries, or the conveniencies of life, is bound to obtain them by labour and diligence, if he is not possessed of them by any other methods of favourable providence. In the sweat of thy brows shalt thou eat thy bread, was the command given to Adam, when he was turned out of paradise, and forfeited his property in the fruits of Eden. But when once a person gets an aversion to business, when he finds a pleasure in sauntering and trifles, and indulges idleness and a lazy life; then he is tempted to seek the supports and comforts of nature by some practices of unrighteousness. The slothful man will be clothed with rags, unless he procure better clothing by fraud or violence; Prov. xxiii. 21.

Hence it is that persons learn the art of stealing, and possess themselves of the goods or the money of their neighbour by thievery. They mark out the houses in the day, and break them up at midnight for plunder. They remove the ancient land-marks, to enlarge their own borders; they violently take away flocks, and feed upon them. They go forth to their unrighteous work in the morning, and rise betimes for a prey. They reap down the corn in their neighbour’s field, and the wicked gather the vintage. They cause the naked to lodge without cloathing, and take away the sheaf from the hungry. These are they that rebel against the light, they abide not in the paths thereof. Though God does not lay folly to them, nor punish their crimes by his immediate judgments, yet his eyes are upon their ways; Job xxiv. 2-23. And many times his providence brings their crimes to light, and they are punished for their iniquity by the sentence of the judge. O what a shame and scandal is it, that in a nation professing christianity, there should be such multitudes trained up to the pilfering trade, and educated for infamy, for transportation, and the gibbet!

There are others, whose hands refuse to labour, and whose temper of mind delights in idleness, but they venture not upon these bolder crimes; they learn other unrighteous arts of cheating and falsehood, and fall into the same evil practices, which I have just before described under the head of luxury. But when luxury, pride, and sloth join their forces together, the temptation to injustice becomes exceeding strong, and there are few who have power to resist it. Such was the unjust steward, whom our blessed Saviour represents in a parable, procuring himself a way of living by cheating his Lord: Luke xvi. 1, 2, 3, 4. He had wasted his master’s goods, and he was to be cashiered from his service: What shall I do, said he, I have not been used to work, I cannot dig; there is the sloth of the man: He had lived well in his stewardship, and was grown proud, to beg I am ashamed. Well, I can purloin no more of my Lord’s estate for myself, but I can do it for his debtors; I will cheat him in his accounts, and make all his debtors my friends, by cancelling a good part of their obligations, and then I shall get a livelihood amongst them. O that all such practices had been found no where but in parables!

Some that have been reduced to poverty by idleness, and have borrowed boldly what they could never pay, yet wipe their mouths, and think themselves innocent and righteous, because they have not a sufficiency to make payment: Whereas, in truth, it is their own sloth that makes them poor, and keeps them so. Some of these idle creatures waste their days in drowsiness and inactivity. “A little more sleep, a little more slumber, so poverty comes upon them like an armed man without resistance.” Others are a little more sprightly, and they spend their hours in an inquisitive impertinence, in public news and private slander, in searching and tatling of the affairs of other persons and their families, while they eat, and drink and live upon the labour of the diligent, and unjustly serve themselves out of the industry of their neighbour. So the worthless drone wastes the summer’s day in buzzing and trifling, he gads abroad, and wanders with idle flight; then he returns, and feeds upon the honey that the bee has gathered, and abuses the industry of a better animal.

St. Paul takes notice of this sort of people at Thessalonica who call themselves christians, and reproves them with just severity; We hear there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busy bodies. Now them that are such, we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread: For even when we were with you this we commanded you, that if any would not work neither should he eat; 2 Thess. iii. 10, &c. And in his letter to the Ephesians, he exhorts the thief to diligence. Let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him labour, working with his hands, the thing which is good; and that not only for his own support, but that he may have to give to him that needeth; Eph. iv. 28. How little do those christians read their bibles! Or how little do they mind what the great apostle tells them! They profess they were never brought up to work, and give that answer roundly as a sufficient excuse for idleness: And therefore when they become poor and necessitous, they think it the duty of others to maintain them, without stretching out their hand for any thing but to beg and receive. They will apply themselves to no employment, though they are told their duty continually: Their pride, indolence, and sloth withhold them from labour, though they are called to it daily in the loudest language in which God now-a-days speaks to his creatures; and that is the voice of reason, of scripture, and of providence.

But there is another sort of sloth and idleness, that leads on to the practice of injustice too, and that is when men are busy in their trades, and the affairs of life, but seldom look into their accounts, or perhaps keep none at all: And thus they live upon the spend, and are utterly ignorant whether their income will support it. They eat and drink with daily chearfulness, and sleep sound upon their pillow, while they know not whether their food and raiment, and even the bed they rest on, be their own or no. Perhaps they have let their accounts run long behind, they are a little jealous of their circumstances, and then it is an unpleasant and tedious task to take a thorough review of them. By this means they run on venturing and heedless, till justice overtakes them, and ruin seizes them at once. Then they see what a shameful and cruel inroad they have made upon their neighbour’s property: They find then that they have fed and clothed themselves and their household out of their neighbour’s estate. What shall I say to persons of this character? Their souls are generally hardened on all sides against conviction, and it is with much difficulty they are ever brought to confess their own folly, their sloth and unrighteousness. Ask thyself, O man, O woman, ask thyself this short and solemn question, “Am I willing my neighbour should deal thus with me, and spend my substance for his daily support?”

Here let it be observed, that I would always except from this accusation such as are mere children and cannot work, or such as are aged, and past all ability of labour, such as are weak and sick, and rendered thereby utterly incapable of working, and such as seek work with honest diligence, and would be glad to be employed in any thing they can do, if they could find others to employ them. Some of these indigent and necessitous persons are in every city, and they seem to be marked out by providence as the proper objects of compassion and bounty, and are not to be blended with the slothful and idle creatures in the general charge of unrighteousness.

Fifthly, The next spring of injustice is malice and envy. This is the vilest of all, and the most like the devil; for it contrives mischief, and brings injury upon others, without seeking gain and advantage to self. This is a vile iniquity, and has a great deal of the spirit of cruelty and of hell in it, where ill-nature and spite reign and triumph.

Though envy and malice awaken and excite the sinner to acts of unrighteousness and violence, and tempt us to rob our neighbour of what is his due; yet these vicious principles aim more frequently to disturb the peace, or health, and good name of our neighbour, than to injure his estate. It is wrath and hatred that boils up the blood into fury and revenge, and moves us to smite our neighbour with the fist of wickedness; nor is the guilty passion allayed till it has practised mischief to his body, or his reputation, or his family, or to something that belongs to him. Hence proceed murders and death, and all the train of evils and injuries of the cruel and bloody kind. It was from this principle that Cain slew Abel his brother, that the sons of Jacob sold Joseph into slavery: It was from this principle that Sanballat and Tobiah joined their rage and their counsels against the Jews, that they might hinder the rebuilding of Jerusalem, and endeavour to destroy the builders, and throw down the work; Neh. ii. 10.

I hope there are no examples of this flagrant injustice to be found among us who profess piety. But are there none of us guilty of some lesser injuries rising from the same principle? Are there none of us that indulge our tongues to backbite and slander, to make our neighbours look odious, or to make ourselves easy or merry? This is to play the madman, who casts abroad fire-brands, arrows, and death,—and saith, Am I not in sport? Prov. xxvi. 18, 19. Are there none of us that delight to teaze, and vex, and torture our neighbour by disagreeable speeches and sly reproach? Do we never envy and provoke one another, contrary to the apostle’s express prohibition? Gal. v. 26. Do we not take pleasure to repeat the things that make each other uneasy, in order to vent the gall within us, and scatter the venom upon our neighbour’s good name? This is malice and unrighteousness together; a complicated crime, which one would think should be abhorred by every christian, if one did not frequently see and feel the practice of it among the professors of the name of Christ. I might well compare such creatures to a wasp or hornet, who first teaze and disquiet us with their endless humming, and ere we can get rid of them, they fix their painful sting in our flesh; though neither the pain nor the teazing vexation they give us, can procure any conveniency to those peevish insects, those noisy animals of a little angry soul.

If we are poor, this evil humour tempts us to envy the riches of our neighbour, and we magnify and exalt them beyond the truth, that we may give some colour to our splenetic and uneasy carriage. If we are afflicted, or in pain, we envy the welfare and the ease of others, we enlarge our paraphrases upon their blessings, and blacken their character, that they may appear unworthy of such favours, and worthy of our indignation and envy. “When shall the time come, O Lord Jesus, thou king of righteousness, and king of peace, when shall that day appear, that Ephraim shall not envy Judah, nor Judah molest Ephraim? When shall it be that no ravenous beast shall come near Zion, and there shall be nothing to hurt or destroy in all thy holy mountain?”

The last spring of injustice that I shall mention, is unbelief, and distrust of the providence of God. When persons are in low circumstances, they are sometimes hurried by the power of this temptation to use sinful means in order to obtain what they want, or at least what they fancy they want for the comfortable support of life. The word of God has many engaging promises in it, to those who are diligent in their duty: Though the soul of the sluggard desireth, and hath nothing; yet the soul of the diligent shall be made fat: Prov. xiii. 4. It is the hand of a diligent man that maketh rich, for it hath the blessing of the Lord upon it. God can increase the handful of meal in the barrel, and lengthen out the stream of oil from the little cruse, that the debts of the widow may be paid thereby, and her family find provision; 1 Kings xvii. 12, 14. And even since the days of miracles have ceased, there are many christians who have lived by faith, and have found wonders of support, not much inferior to this ancient miracle.

But those who know not the way of living by faith, are too ready to indulge themselves in some little pilfering or cheating methods to procure a subsistence. Thus unbelief has a plain tendency to unrighteousness, but he that believeth shall not make haste; Is. xxviii. 16. He that believes the care of God toward his own people, and puts his trust in his Redeemer, who is Lord of all things, he that lives upon the covenant of God daily he shall not make haste to make himself rich, or to possess himself of the comforts of life by any methods of injustice; his faith and diligence shall be rewarded at least with daily bread.

And now having finished this subject, I must beg pardon of my reader for insisting so largely on those two virtues, justice and truth, in my text. But they are of so divine a necessity to make up the character of a christian, they are of so valuable importance to the glory of the gospel, and so shameful an inroad has been made upon them in various instances in our degenerate age, that I was willing to attempt something to retrieve this part of godliness: And O may the convincing and sanctifying Spirit of God attend it with his sacred influences, that those who are called by the sacred name of christian, may never bring a blemish upon it by deserving the characters of false and unjust!

[The Second Part of this Sermon.]

The next virtue mentioned in my text, is purity; whatsoever things are pure,—think on these things. The sense of this word αγνα in the Greek, is extended so far by some critics, as to include temperance in eating and drinking, as well as chastity and modesty in all our words and behaviour; and thus it signifies almost the same with sobriety, and implies a restraint upon all the excessive and irregular appetites that human nature is subject to. Under these two heads I shall treat of purity briefly, and shew under each of them how the light of nature, and how the gospel of Christ requires the practice of it.

I. Temperance in eating and drinking may be included in this command of purity, for we can hardly suppose the apostle omitted so necessary a virtue, and it is not mentioned at all, if it be not implied here. It is not beneath the doctrine of christianity to condescend to give rules about the most common affairs of human life, even food and raiment. It is a piece of impurity to imitate the swine, and to gorge ourselves beyond measure; to give up ourselves to fulfil every luscious appetite, and every luxurious inclination of the taste.

An indulgence of this sort of vice, what infinite disorders doth it bring upon mankind! If a man would read the character of a drunkard painted in very bright and proper colours, and receive the foulest ideas of it in the fairest oratory, he cannot find a better description than Prov. xxiii. 29-32. Who hath woe? Who hath sorrow? Who hath contentions? Who hath babbling? Who hath wounds without cause? Who hath redness of eyes? They that tarry long at the wine, they that go to seek mixed wine. Look not therefore upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth its colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. Some men in our age well understand what Solomon here means. But at the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. The pleasure will be attended with intolerable pain and mortal injury, when the excess of liquor shall work like so much venom poured into the veins, and cast thee into diseases as incurable as the biting of any serpent; it will do thee more mischief than an adder with all his poison. There are many that have felt the words of Solomon true, when their voluptuous sins have been dreadfully recompensed with ruin to their soul and body.

But the inspired writer dwells upon the loathsome subject, and bids us mark the particular effects of it: Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things; Prov. xxiii. 33. that is, says a learned paraphrast[30] upon the text, “thy thoughts will not only grow confused, and all things appear to thee otherwise than they are; but lustful and adulterous desires will be stirred up, which thou canst not rule, and thy mouth being without a bridle, will break forth into unseemly, nay, filthy, scurrilous, or, perhaps, blasphemous language, without respect to God or man.” Yea, thou shalt be, saith the wise man, as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast; ver. 34. that is, “Thou wilt sottishly run thyself into the extremest hazards, without any apprehensions of danger, being no more able to direct thy course, than a pilot who snores when a ship is tossed in the midst of the sea; no more able to take notice of the peril thou art in, than he that falls asleep on the top of a mast, where he was set to keep the watch.” They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick; they have beaten me, and I felt it not. When I shall awake, I will seek it yet again; ver. 35. It is as if the wise man had said, “That to complete thy misery, thou shalt not only be mocked, and abused, and beaten, but thou shalt be as senseless as if no harm had befallen thee: And no sooner wilt thou open thine eyes, but thou wilt stupidly seek an occasion to be drunk, and be beaten again.”

My friends, have ye never seen a drunkard make that odious figure, in which Solomon represents him? You find human nature is constant to itself: It appears now in Britain, just as it is described in the days of old at Jerusalem in all its vicious excesses. There is a great degree of likeness between our forefathers’ intemperance, and their children of late posterity. One would think one such a spectacle as this, or the mere report of it, with an assurance of the truth, should be enough to forbid our lips the excess of liquor, and to set a guard upon ourselves in the hour of temptation.

Not only those who overwhelm themselves with strong drink, and forget reason and themselves, but those that are mighty to drink wine, have a severe censure cast upon them, and a curse in the book of God: Is. v. 11. not only woe to them, that rise up early in the morning, that they may find strong drink, and continue till night, till wine inflame them; but woe to them that are mighty to drink wine, even though they are not utterly overcome by it, to the disorder and disgrace of their understandings, verse 22. The reason is, because nature will not bear such a quantity of wine or strong liquors at first; and it is presumed men have forced nature beyond its original capacity, and thus have grown up, by degrees of sin, to such a strength in drinking. These are they that call evil good and good evil, and that glory in their shame.

Hearken to thy father’s advice, O youth, and despise not thy mother’s counsel; hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide thine heart in the way of temperance. Be not among wine-bibbers, amongst riotous eaters of flesh; ver. 19. Youth is greedy of pleasure, and in danger of being corrupted by it; therefore avoid the society of drunkards and gluttons. You see they are joined together in the prohibition and threatening of the word of God, “for the glutton and the drunkard shall both come to poverty.” A wanton indulgence of the taste will tempt men to revelling and riot, thence follows a neglect of all business; and many a prodigal, who had a fair estate, is by this means become a beggar or a prisoner. Let us be watchful therefore when we sit down at a plentiful table, and put a knife, as it were, to our throat, if we feel the danger of a sharp and wanton appetite; let the guard of our virtue be as sharp and active as our thirst or hunger. Let us not be desirous of feasting ourselves with dainties, for they too often prove deceitful meat: And though they are never so tempting to the palate, yet they may disturb the health of the body, or indispose the mind for the service of virtue. But this leads me to the next general head, and that is, To consider how the light of nature condemns this vice, this sort of impurity.

If it were my business to make a flourish with learned citations, it were an easy matter to bring the Greeks and Romans hither to pass sentence upon the glutton and the drunkard, and all the luxury of the taste; for it is too mean an indulgence either for a man or a christian. It does not become human nature to endanger the welfare of all its powers, and enslave them all to the single sense of tasting, “I am greater, says Seneca, and born to greater things, than to be a slave to this body, or to live merely to become a strainer of meats and drinks.” The wisest of men, and the best writers of all ages, even in the heathen nations, have passed their heavy censures on these impure and brutal follies, whereby we are reduced to the rank of beasts that perish, or perhaps sunk below them by the practices of intemperance; for there are but few of that lower rank of creatures, who swill themselves beyond the demands of nature; or, at least, beyond what nature is able to bear.

Let us argue a little upon this head from the principles of reason, and consider that the chief designs of food are these two, the support of our nature, and the refreshment of our spirits. Therefore give food to him that is hungry, that life may be maintained: Give drink to him that is thirsty, to assist the supports of life, and to refresh it. Give strong drink to him that is ready to faint, that his spirits may be recruited: and wine to him that is heavy of heart, that he may forget his sorrows; Prov. xxxi. 6, 7. It is evident that every thing, which goes beyond the mere necessity of nature for its support, does not presently become sinful; because the refreshment of nature is also one end and design of our food. Remember that the supports of nature are designed by the God of nature to make us fit for all the services and duties of life, and the refreshments of it are ordained by the same Author of nature, to render us chearful in the discharge of those duties. The one is necessary to give us a capacity to perform, and the other proper to render the performance chearful and delightful to us, and to intermingle our labour with such innocent delights as may awaken our thankfulness to the bounty of our Creator.

Thence it will follow, that the rich are allowed to furnish their tables with a variety of pleasing and grateful food; and that feasts designed for chearful enjoyment of our friends, are by no means forbidden by the light of reason, or of scripture: For we gain vigour for action, by having the spirits raised and exhilerated. But it will follow also, that when we have our choice of what we shall eat or drink, we ought to determine not merely by pleasure and appetite, nor feed till we are unfit for service. If we know, or have a good guess beforehand, that this cup, or this dish, will render us unfit for the proper business of the day, or incapable of the several duties we are called to; yet if, for the sake of mere sensuality, we venture upon it, God will number it among our sins against the light of nature. Those ends therefore for which God hath ordained our various food, both in his creation and in his providence, namely, the support of nature, and its refreshment; let these be our designs in eating, and give rules for our determination what food we should partake of.

It must be granted indeed, that a sickly person may be indulged in more solicitude about food, and may make it a matter of more distinguishing choice than persons vigorous and healthy. But then the great end must still be kept in the eye, that is, the recovery of strength for future service, where they are much cut off from present work: For neither the sick nor the healthy, should live for the sake of eating, but both should eat for the sake of living and working.

Now if the light of nature requires such purity and temperance, how much more doth the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ oblige us to it?

I. It is the command of our Redeemer, “that we take heed of surfeiting and drunkenness, lest our hearts at any time be overcharged with them;” Luke xxi. 34. And what charge doth the holy apostle give, Eph. v. 18. Be not drunken with wine, wherein is excess, but be ye filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns, and spiritual songs. Do not be so indulgent to your palate and your glass, as to let excess of wine overtake you, lest you christians should do as heathens have done, and break out into irregular songs, and licentious or profane mirth; but seek rather the largest influences of the blessed Spirit, and give a sacred loose to a devout frame: Break out into divine psalms or songs; comfort yourselves, and edify your neighbours thereby. In Rom. xiii. 13, 14. St. Paul advises us how we should behave ourselves in this point; Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness;—but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil it in the lusts thereof. Put on the spirit of the gospel, and the ornaments of christianity, and then you cannot for shame seek the pleasures of the brute, nor sink down into the base impurities of the animal nature: If you have put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and are his disciples indeed, then look like christians; let the very life of Christ be manifest in your lives: Live above these animal desires, these lower designs of the flesh, which is not the chief nature of the man, much less should it be the chief end of christians to gratify it.

II. Let christians consider, that the original ruin of their natures, soul and body, arose from the indulgence of a foolish appetite. When our mother Eve saw the fruit of the forbidden tree, she thought it was pleasant to the eye, and good for food: She tasted it herself, and tempted Adam to the sin that ruined him and all his offspring. When therefore a temptation to this sort of guilt appears, let us think of all the miseries of our fallen state, and not dare to repeat that crime, which had such dismal consequences. It brought iniquity, pain, and death into human nature, and begun all that dishonour to God, and all that mischief among men, that ever was found in this lower world.

III. Every saint ought to have a mortal quarrel with the flesh, because he carries about the seeds of iniquity in it, and the springs of perverse appetite which ought always to be kept under, lest our very spirits become carnal, and we lose our heavenly crown. Therefore saith the apostle; 1 Cor. ix. 27. I keep under my body, and bring it under subjection, and endeavour to be temperate in all things, that running in the christian race, I may obtain the prize. It is the business of a christian to eat and drink in due season, for strength and refreshment, not for luxury and drunkenness, which Solomon forbids to princes; Eccl. x. 17. It was an excellent saying of that holy man, Mr. Joseph Allein; “I sit down to my table not to please my appetite, or to pamper my flesh, but to maintain a servant of Jesus Christ, that he may be fit for the Lord’s work.”

IV. The saints should be pure and holy; even in the affairs of the natural life; for they have meat to eat, that the world knows not of: they drink of the pleasures that flow from God, and from his covenant; and therefore should not be over-solicitous about pleasing their meaner appetites. Those that indulge themselves in carnal delicacies, and make enquiry for the pleasures of the flesh, as the main business of life, what shall I eat, and what shall I drink? Those that live in a round of sensuality, they debase their souls, make themselves unfit for the duties and pleasures of a christian, unfit for divine communications, for holy fellowship, heavenly meditation, and lively exercises of faith, upon unseen things; they damp their zeal for God, blunt their relish for religious delights, and are perpetually defiling their own consciences. These are they that make their God their belly, while they profess to be christians. But the apostle, in Phil. iii. 18, 19. tells us, “whatsoever they profess, they are enemies of the cross of Christ, and I cannot speak of it, says he, without weeping.”

Now if there be any such sinners amongst us, such slaves to a paltry appetite, that make it a business of too solemn and solicitous enquiry, “How we shall regale the palate, and gratify the taste:” If there are any of us that know not how to forbid ourselves a savoury or luscious dish, even though we know or expect it will discompose the flesh or the mind: If we have not temperance enough to deny the superfluous or excessive glass, when it comes to our turn, nor virtue nor courage enough to refuse it, let us take our share in the reproofs of this discourse; and let us remember that we have had fair warning this day from the word of God, that we may not drown our souls in sensual indulgences, and make ourselves unfit for the duties of life, or for the business or the joy of heaven.

HYMN FOR SERMON XXVI. Christian Morality, viz. Temperance.

Is it a man’s divinest good, To make his soul a slave to food? Vile as the beast, whose spirit dies, And has no hope above the skies?

Can meats or choicest wines procure Delights that ever shall endure, Was not I born above the swine, And shall I make their pleasures mine?

Am I not made for nobler things? Made to ascend on angel’s wings? Shall my best powers be thus debas’d And part with heaven to please my taste?

Can I forget the fatal deed, How Eve brought death on all her seed, She tasted the forbidden tree, Anger’d her God, and ruin’d me.

Was life designed alone to eat? What is the mouth, or what the meat? Both from the ground derive their birth, And both shall mix with common earth.

Great God new-mould my sensual mind And let my joys be more refin’d; Raise me to dwell among the blest, And fit me for thy heavenly feast.

Footnote 30:

Bishop Patrick.

SERMON XXVII. Christian Morality, viz. Chastity, &c. PHILIP. iv. 8.—Whatsoever things are pure, &c.—think on these things. Οσα αγνα, &c.

Purity of heart and life, in the perfect beauty of it, belongs to no man since our original apostacy. That foul and shameful departure from God, has rendered us all unholy and unclean. But we are recalled to seek our ancient glory, by the messengers of heaven, and the ministry of the gospel. The apostle exhorts us to it in the text. If the word pure be taken in its largest extent, it may include in it temperance in meats and drinks, as well as chastity in behaviour. You have heard already a discourse of temperance, with so hateful an account of the crimes of gluttony and drunkenness, that I hope my hearers have conceived a sacred aversion of such sensualities.

Let us now proceed to the second sense implied in the word, and that is, modesty and chastity of speech and behaviour. This is a most eminent, and most undeniable part of that purity, which St. Paul here requires; and this, in many of his epistles he insists upon as necessary, in order to make up the character of a christian, and render it honourable; and St. Peter recommends it to the pious women in his day, as a means of the conversion of their husbands, who were gentiles: That they who obeyed not the word of the gospel, might be won to a good esteem of christianity, while they beheld the chaste conversation of their wives; 1 Pet. iii. 1, 2.

This virtue stands in opposition to those several vices, which are distinguished by different names in scripture, such as adultery, fornication, lasciviousness. 1. Adultery, when one of the persons who are guilty of impure embraces, is under the sacred bonds of marriage. By the commission of this sin there is injury done to another family, and thus it is not only an offence against the laws of purity, but a violation of the laws of justice. 2. Fornication, when both the guilty persons are free and unmarried. It has been sufficiently proved by many writers, that this is utterly unlawful, however some have attempted to varnish the guilt, and excuse the crime. 3. Lasciviousness, which consists in giving a loose to those impure thoughts, words, and actions, which have an apparent tendency toward the sins before-mentioned. Besides these, there are other names and instances of unclean abominations, which I wish could be utterly rooted out from human nature, by burying them in everlasting silence.

If I were to fetch arguments from reason and the light of nature, I might make it appear that these things are criminal and contrary to those rules of morality, which were written in the heart of man. And perhaps they would have appeared in the same guilty colours to all men, if the light of nature were not obscured by corrupt passions, and licentious appetite. The practice of these impure vices is inconsistent with the great ends for which God has formed our natures, has raised us above the beasts that perish, and has inclined mankind to form themselves into societies for mutual benefit. The brutes, who have no nature superior to the animal are not governed by the same laws. But the God of nature, who has made us compound beings and (shall I say?) hath joined an animal and an angel together to make up a man, expects that the angel should govern the animal in all its natural propensities and confine it within the rules of religion and the social life.

These vices are also contrary to the solemn ordinances of marriage which the blessed God instituted in paradise in a state of innocency, and designed to continue through all generations. If these impurities of conversation were publicly permitted, all the tender and most engaging names of relation and kindred, such as father, sister, and brother, would be confounded, and almost abolished among mankind; and what dismal consequences would hence ensue? In what helpless circumstances would children be then brought into this world? And many of the ends of human society would become frustrate and vain.

I confess indeed, that several of these vices were practised in the heathen world without any inward remorse of the mind, without private reproof or public shame. Some of these impurities were allowed by the laws of their country; some were indulged at festivals, and sometimes they were mingled with their religious ceremonies, and made part of the worship of their gods; Idol gods! Abominable religions! Base and shameful worshippers! For it is a shame, saith the apostle, even to speak of those things that are done in secret; those unfruitful works of darkness: Eph. v. 11, 12. Yet there have been several of the grave, the sober, and the wisest among the Gentiles, who being constrained by the mere force of reason, have spoke against these corrupt practises, and have adorned the virtue of chastity with many honourable encomiums.

But how doubtful soever this duty hath been reckoned among the heathen nations, yet it is made necessary by the principles of the christian religion, and a strong and severe guard of prohibitions and threatenings is set all around to secure the practice of it. Now that I may speak of this subject as becomes me, and recommend it in language pure and undefiled, I shall set before you some of these scriptures, that bear witness against all the violations of it, under the following heads:

I. The express precepts of the law of God demand the first place in this catalogue of divine testimonies against impurity, for they were delivered at Mount Sinai to many hundred thousands at once, they were ushered in with lightning, and pronounced with thunder. Ex. xx. 14. Thou shalt not commit adultery. This is the seventh command: And that there may not be the least tendency toward this sin, the tenth command is set as a preservative and defence, thou shalt not so much as covet thy neighbour’s wife, verse 17. In this epitome and sum of the laws of God, whereby he rules his creatures, which is called the decalogue or ten commandments, you find this vice of impurity is twice forbidden; once in the perfect act, and again in the criminal wish and intention. Observe here, that though the words of these commands directly point to adultery, yet it appears by the very reason of things, as well as from other passages of scripture, that all unchaste thoughts, words, and actions, are here forbidden, as our younger years have been taught in the catechism.

Nor is this a law that belonged only to the Jews, for the New Testament mentions and enjoins this command with the rest, which are of equal force under the gospel. The law forbids all manner of lust, and saith; Thou shalt not covet; Rom. vii. 7. The great apostle puts the Thessalonians in mind of what he had taught them as the law of Christ. 1 Thess. iv. 2, 3, 4, 5. For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that you should abstain from fornication: That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour; not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God. It is as much as if he had said, it is a dishonour to christianity, and a step of return to heathenism, to give a loose to impure lusts. He repeats the same thing; Eph. iv. 17-21. “This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their minds, having the understanding darkened, and being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them; because of the blindness of their heart: Who being past feeling, have given themselves over to lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. But ye have not so learned Christ;” “if so be ye have been led by him, and taught the truth as it is in Jesus.” In vain ye profess to have learned the truth as it is in Jesus, or to have put on Christ, while you practise the same abominations as ye did before, while ye walk and live as the heathen world.

II. The hateful description of these sins which is given us by the holy writers, should print the same odious image of them upon our minds, and for ever forbid the practice. Solomon, a great king, and a man of excellent wisdom, had well known the mischief and madness of this sort of vice; he gives his son the most solemn charge against it in various parts of the book of Proverbs, more especially in the vi. and vii. chapters, which he spends entirely upon this theme, and in the ii. and vi. and the ix. chapters, where he applies near half of them to the same design; wherein after he has shewn the insinuating flatteries of the wanton woman he never fails to give notice of the terrible attendants of those that follow her. For her house inclines to death, and her paths unto the dead; none that go to her return again, neither take they hold of the paths of life. There is scarce any iniquity that does so effectually harden the heart, and prevent all repentance. Let not thine heart therefore decline to her ways; go not astray in her paths: For she has cast down many wounded, yea, many strong men have been slain by her: Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death. This leads me to the next particular.

III. If we consider the dismal effects of these impure practices, as they are recorded in sacred history, they should keep our souls awake, and keep us always to the watch, lest we be ensnared. Behold Sampson the strongest of men, who was a holy Nazarite, and devoted to God; how was he brought down shamefully from the heights of his glory to prison and slavery, to blindness and death by the love of strange women! Behold the Jewish hero lying like a thoughtless fool upon the lap of Delilah, while the seven sacred locks of his head were shaven, and his divine strength went from him, for the Lord departed! Behold the wretched captive with his eyes bored out by the Philistines, bound with fetters of brass, and grinding in the prison-house! Behold the man who was once their terror, now become their sport, their mockery, and their laughing-stock in the house of Dagon their god: See him there crushed to pieces, and expiring under the weight of his own revenge upon his Philistine enemies; and all this for the love of a harlot! Mark the mischiefs, the calamities, and the bloodshed that pursued the house of David, when adultery and guilt in the matter of Uriah had provoked his God! See how sin and death made wide inroads into his household! See there his son Amnon slain by his brother Absalom for the folly he had wrought in Israel, and the incest with his sister Tamar? Think of Solomon the wisest of men, whose heart was enticed away by strange women from the God and religion of his fathers, when he paid such profane and criminal regard to the idols of his mistresses, as to build temples for them near the temple of Jehovah; and “the Lord was angry with Solomon, when his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and he rent the kingdom from him in the days of his son Rehoboam,” and made a long and fatal separation between the tribes of Israel for many generations. And, to name no more, turn your eyes to Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities of the plain, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh; mark how the Lord rained fire and brimstone out of heaven upon them, and they are set forth for an example suffering the vengeance of eternal fire; Jude 7.

IV. Think of the dreadful threatenings that are denounced against impure sinners in the word of God, and you will find these are flaming witnesses against their practice; Hos. iv. 1-5, “The Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because of killing, stealing, and adultery: therefore shall the land mourn.” And God seems to forbid the prophets to give them reproof, as though he resolved to destroy them. Let no man strive and reprove another. His mercy and forgiveness seem to be put to a stand; Jer. v. 7, 9. “How shall I pardon thee for this? saith the Lord; thy children have forsaken me when I fed them to the full, they then committed adultery, and assembled themselves in troops in the harlots’ houses. Shall I not visit them for these things, saith the Lord? and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?” When the apostle Paul had represented this sort of vice in 1 Cor. vi. 18, 19. “as a defilement of the body, which is the temple of God, and the habitation of the Holy Spirit;” he adds this word of terror; iii. 17. “If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is and ought to be holy,” and not kept as a nest for unclean vermin. “Be not deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor those who indulge vile impurities, shall inherit the kingdom of God;” 1 Cor. vi. 9, 10. Such were some of you, indeed, says St. Paul to his converts, but ye are washed and sanctified from these pollutions, or you could never have been saved. Therefore saith the same holy writer, “let neither fornication, nor any unclean practices be so much as once named amongst you as becometh saints;” that is, let them never be named without abhorrence. “For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor any unclean person, nor covetous man who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no man deceive you with vain words; for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience;” Eph. v. 3-6. The visions of St. John in the book of the Revelation, pronounce the doom of whoremongers with the rest of notorious sinners, and give them “their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death;” Rev. xxi. 8. How impiously bold are those sinners, who dare venture through all these terrors to gratify a sensual appetite! Who can rush upon the point of the avenging sword of God, and plunge themselves into everlasting burnings, to taste the deceitful baits of impure and forbidden pleasure!

Before I conclude this head, I would just hint a few directions to those who would preserve their modesty and virtue, and prevail against all temptations to impurity.

1. Set a severe watch upon your eyes and your heart. Keep all the powers of nature under a proper discipline, and guard all the avenues of the soul. Secure your senses without, and your fancy within, as much as possible, from all allurements of this kind. Let us remember that sin often begins in the imagination, and therefore we must establish a strict guard upon our roving thoughts, and reduce them when they first begin to go astray. We must lay a strong chain of restraint upon those endless wanderers; for our Saviour himself tells us, Out of the heart proceed adulteries and fornications, which defile the man; Mat. xv. 19.

We must make a self-denying covenant with our eyes, that we may not look upon temptation, lest we be led astray from the paths of purity. Our blessed Lord himself gives us a sufficient caution, when he explains the seventh commandment; Mat. v. 28. I say unto you that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. When our Saviour forbids a wanton look, he requires that we put a veil upon our eyes, lest like wandering stars or foolish fires they betray us into foul and miry pits of pollution, or lead us to deep and dangerous pollutions.

Avoid all impure representations, pictures, and images: Turn your eyes from immodest sights, and your ears from polluted language, whether it be in discourse, or writing, a lewd jest, or a wanton song. Let them not entertain you, though they may be attended and adorned with never so many colours of wit, and charms of music. Romances and novels, and invented stories of forbidden love, have painted over these impurities with shining eloquence, and awakened the same foolish passions in the reader. O how unhappily has the art of verse, which was first consecrated to the service of the temple, been prostituted to the vilest purposes, to give gay colours to temptation, and gild over the foulest images of iniquity! And what a multitude of souls may date the commencement of their guilt and ruin from the time when they began to frequent the poisonous entertainments of the stage! Their ears which were shocked at first with some of the coarse and foul expressions of modern comedy, by degrees are hardened to bear the most offensive language: Their modesty and blushing dies and vanishes by degrees, till at last they learn to relish the grossest pollutions of the theatre, and perhaps put the fable into practice.

As faith and salvation come by hearing, so iniquity and everlasting death come sometimes by hearing too. And what we would not hear, surely we should not speak. Let us then set a guard upon our tongues, lest they border upon forbidden language. No filthiness, no foolish talking, no corrupt communication must proceed out of our mouths; Eph. iv. 29. and v. 4. We should not affect those speeches of a double meaning, which lead the thoughts away to lewd and wanton conceits, and make foul impressions upon the mind. Let your ears hate to be treated with such indecencies, nor let our lips dare to treat others so.

2. Do not make too rich provisions for the feeding of the flesh; indulge not yourselves on the delicacies of the taste, nor in the luxury of excessive sleep: Both of these may incline animal nature to licentious desires: Stand afar off from gluttony and excess of wine, nor pamper the body beyond the just support, and due refreshment of nature. The holy apostle in his prohibitions, couples “chambering and wantonness with rioting and drunken practice;” Rom. xiii. 13. and calls them all works of darkness. It is a good remark of Kempis, a devout papist in former days, “Bridle the appetites of the palate, get a sovereignty over them, and you will be better able to master every other appetite.”

3. Always employ yourselves in something innocent and useful, that may engage the powers of the body, or the mind, or both, that so temptation may never find you idle. The springs of the sin of Sodom were fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness; therefore they grew haughty, and committed abomination before the Lord; Ezek. xvi. 49, 50. This is an advice of Jerome, one of the christian fathers. Be still doing some work, that the devil, when he comes to tempt, may always find thee busy. Where you are in danger of these sins, put yourselves upon a necessity of diligence all the day, that you may have no time nor room for wild imaginations nor impure indulgences.

4. Avoid the seasons, the places, and the objects of temptation, as far as it is consistent with the necessary duties of life: For he that hath no caution about him, and is not afraid of being tempted, he is not acquainted with human weakness, nor is he so much afraid of sin as he ought to be.

5. Maintain an everlasting and awful sense of the presence of God thy Maker, thy Governor, and thy Judge. Remember the Lord beholds the secret workings of the heart, and the foul practices of darkness and midnight. There is not a place where the eye of God cannot come. What an honourable character hath young Joseph acquired in the word of God, and his name stands recorded with renown in divine history through all ages, for his flight from the allurements of an immodest woman: The guard which he continually placed upon his virtue, was the all-seeing eye of heaven. “How can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” Gen. xxxix. 9.

6. Get those scriptures written in your hearts, and ready at all times in your memories, which may be the most effectual antidotes and preservatives against all forbidden pleasure. This was the ancient practise of the saints. Ps. cxix. 11. “Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee.” The word of God is the sword of the Spirit, to put to flight, and to slay whole armies of iniquity.

7. Fly daily to the mercy-seat for divine aid: Commit thy soul and body to the keeping of Christ; he is exalted and authorized to take care of sinners, who make him their refuge: he is also compassionate and ready to succour the tempted. There is cleansing virtue in the blood of Christ to wash away the foulest guilt, and to sprinkle the conscience of the humble penitent with peace and pardon: and there is all-sufficient power and grace with him to subdue the most raging vices. Make haste to him by humble faith, and most importunate prayer: Continue instant at the throne: Never rest till he hath by his providence and his grace delivered you from the dangerous temptation, or made you conqueror over the sin that easily besets you. There are a thousand souls in heaven, who were once conflicting here with the same impure temptations, but they gained the victory by the blood and Spirit of Christ, and are made more than conquerors through him who hath loved them.

I fear I have trespassed upon my hearers, in dwelling thus long on this dangerous theme. It is time to retire, and end my discourse. Those who have a mind to be better furnished with weapons and divine armour against these enemies of purity and virtue, I would recommend to them three books, where they may find abundant provision: And these are Mr. Ostervald’s Treatise of Uncleanness, Mr. Henry’s Four Discourses against immorality, and Mr. Baxter’s Christian Directory, tome 1 chap. 8. part 5. And may the holy and pure Spirit, who attended at the baptism of our Saviour in the form of a dove, which is an emblem of chastity, may he give these waters of the sanctuary a divine efficacy to purify the souls of polluted sinners, and to guard the innocent and the tempted from these dangerous pollutions!

HYMN FOR SERMON XXVII. Christian Morality, viz. Chastity.

The lord, how great his majesty, How pure are all his ways, Sinners unclean offend his eyes, Nor stand before his face.

Thou hast ordain’d immortal woes, And everlasting fire, To be the just reward of those Who follow loose desire.

I hear, I read the dreadful doom Of Sodom; in thy word; And dares a feeble worm presume Thus to provoke the Lord?

Dear Saviour, guard me by thy grace, From thoughts and words unclean, Nor let temptation gain success To draw my soul to sin.

SERMON XXVIII. Christian Morality, viz. a Lovely Carriage, &c. PHILIP. iv. 8.—Whatsoever things are lovely——think on these things. Οσα προσφιλη, &c.

Man was a lovely creature in his first formation and innocence, however he has been debased and dishonoured by the fall. Now there is nothing in all the religion of Christ but what tends to restore man to the excellencies of his original state, or to exalt him above them, and to render him all over amiable. To this end truth and sincerity are recommended to him in the gospel, with a venerable decency in all his conduct. To this end he is required to practise justice to his neighbour, and to keep himself pure and chaste from all the vices of sensuality. Thus far we have proceeded in improving the text. And the man who has attained thus far, has many lovely qualities belonging to him, such as lay a foundation for a good report, and deserve our praises.

Yet there are many things in human conversation, which do not directly fall under the commands of truth and gravity, justice and purity: These the apostle recommends to the Philippians, under the following characters, viz. things that are lovely, that are of good report, deeds of virtue, and worthy of praise.

The things that are lovely, are such as look well among men, and have a good appearance in the eyes of the world: Those things that gain the love of our fellow-creatures: Not merely such religious practices, as make us beloved by fellow-christians, but such a temper and conduct as commands the esteem and respect even of the ungodly, and those that profess not strict religion. This ought to be the carriage of the saints of the Most High, they should practise those things that are grateful and pleasing to human nature, so far as innocence allows: those things that may recommend our conversation to our neighbours, and procure the love of all men. Is it not a very desirable thing to have it said of any particular christian, all that know him love him; he hath no enemies but those that are unacquainted with him, unless it be such as hate him upon the same ground as the devil doth, and that is because of his piety and goodness? But to explain this more fully, and impress it with more power upon every one of our consciences, I will descend to particular instances of a lovely carriage. And here I shall mention but these few, viz. prudence, moderation, humility, meekness, patience, and love.

I. Prudence is a lovely quality. This teaches us to speak every word, and perform every action of life at a proper time, in the proper place, and toward the proper person. It is prudence that distinguishes our various behaviour toward our fellow-creatures, according to their different ranks and degrees among mankind, or the different relations in which we stand to them. It is a very desirable excellency to know when it is proper to speak, and when it is best to keep silence; at what seasons, and in what company we should awaken our zeal, and exert our active powers; or when we should hide ourselves, or put a bridle upon our lips, and sit still, and hear.

Prudence is of infinite use in all the affairs of life and religion: Nor is there any hour of the day, nor any place wherein we spend that hour, whether alone or in public, but gives occasion for some exercise of this virtue. It does not belong to human nature to possess this in perfection: Perfect prudence dwells with God alone, God the most lovely of beings: He that comes nearest to it, is the wisest of men, and he gains the love and high esteem of all that are near him; for his conduct in life is of singular advantage to those that converse with him, as well as to himself. This man is consulted by his friends as an earthly oracle, and by his advice he saves many from ruin. Thus he wins and wears their honour and their love.

There are many good qualities both of the natural and moral kind that must meet together, to make up a prudent man. He must be furnished with a memory of things past, and with just and proper observations made upon them, that he may know how to improve every opportunity and occurrence of life to the best purposes when the same occasions return. There is no prudence without some degrees of experience. But experience alone is not sufficient; he should have also a wide extent of soul, and be able to take a large and comprehensive survey of the concurrent circumstances of things present: And he must be blessed with a solid judgment, that by putting many things at once into the balance, he may find which outweighs the rest, and determine his present conduct thereby. He must have a degree of sagacity, to foresee future events, according to the usual consequences of things in this mortal state. The prudent man foresees the evil, and hideth himself; but the simple pass on, and are punished; Prov. xxii. 3. that is, They suffer for their want of prudence and foresight. And besides all these, he should be a man of firm and steady resolution to go through difficulties, and to put in practice what his judgment has determined.

Rash and ungoverned passions are great enemies of this virtue. Both these push a man onward to a hasty and irregular conduct. His lips multiply folly, and his hands practise it through the impatience of his spirit. His unguarded talk, and precipitant actions plunge himself into snares, and sometimes involve his acquaintance in the same mischief.

There are other characters also inconsistent with prudence, such as an unthinking and an unsteady temper. The thoughtless person lives at a venture, walks always at random, and seems to aim at nothing. He enjoys the present hour indeed, talking and acting according to the mere appearances of things. He is content with a slight sudden view of any thing without recollection or forethought; and in a most literal sense takes no thought for the morrow. The fickle and inconstant man, he may aim at something indeed, and have honest designs in his head, but is ever changing the means to attain them, and pursues nothing with that steadiness that prudence requires, or that the necessity of human affairs demands of every man that would be wise and happy. Such men may be pitied as weak and silly, but they are seldom esteemed, or much beloved in the world, while prudence is so much wanting.

There is no necessity that I should cite special parts of the word of God, to encourage us to seek this most amiable quality, since the recommendations of true wisdom, both human and divine, are scattered up and down through all the sacred writings: And the Spirit of God has given us one or two books on purpose to teach us prudence; these are Ecclesiastes and the Proverbs of Solomon. Nor can I propose any better direction to gain universal wisdom, that to read the book of Proverbs often with diligence and humble prayer.

II. Moderation is another lovely quality. It teaches us to maintain a medium between those wild extremes, into which human nature is ready to run upon every occasion.

When a warm and imprudent talker adorns some common character with excessive praises, and carries it up to the stars; the moderate man puts in a cautious word, and thinks it is sufficient to raise it half so high. Or when he hears a vast and unreasonable load of accusation and infamy thrown upon some lesser mistakes in life, the moderate man puts in a soft word of excuse, lightens the burden of reproach, and relieves the good name of the sufferer from being pressed to death. When he sees oppression and violence practised among his neighbours, the justice of his soul directs him to take the part of the injured person, and his own moderation and goodness inclines him to do it in such a manner, as may calm and suppress the resentment of the oppressed, and soften and melt the oppressor into compliance with the rules of justice. Thus he reconciles them both, without giving offence to either.

When any sects of christians seem to be carried away with the furious torrent of some prevailing notions, or some unnecessary practices, some special superstition, or a contentious spirit, the moderate man tries to shew how much of truth and goodness may be found amongst each party, where all agree to hold Christ Jesus the head; though he dares not renounce a grain of truth or necessary duty, for the sake of peace, and he would contend earnestly, where providence calls him, for the essential articles of faith which were once delivered to the saints; for he knows the wisdom that is from above is first pure, and then peaceable; James iii. 17. Yet he takes this occasion to prove that some truths or some practices, are articles of less importance to the christian life; that they are not worthy of such unchristian quarrels; and thus he attempts, as far as possible, to reconcile the angry disputers. Sometimes he has the happiness to shew them both that they fight in the dark; he explains their opinions and their contests, and puts the best sense upon both of them: And when he hath brought them into the light, he makes it appear that they are friends and brethren; and that religion and the gospel are safe on both sides, if they would dwell together without fighting, but that it is sorely endangered by their battles. So St. Paul dealt with the Jewish and gentile christians, and assured them that they both belonged to the kingdom of God, and the church of Christ, though they quarrelled about flesh, and herbs, and holy-days. How lovely, how glorious, how desirable is such a character as this!

I confess when a party-spirit runs high among the different sects of religion, or the different divisions of mankind, this most amiable virtue is called by the scandalous names of indifferency, and lukewarmness, and trimming; and it sustains a world of reproaches from both the quarrelling parties. Moderation, though it is the blessed principle, which awakens and assists men to become peace-makers, yet at the same time when it enters into the battle to divide the contenders, it receives an unkind stroke from either side. This the reconciler expects, and he bears it for the sake of union and love.

The moderate man in cases of private property or interest, does not insist upon the utmost of his own right with a stiff and unyielding obstinacy, but abates of his just pretensions for the sake of peace; and what he practises himself, he persuades others to practise in the like contests. This is that moderation and gentleness, which the great apostle recommends a few verses before my text. Phil. iv. 5. Let your moderation be known unto all men. And our blessed Lord himself gives the moderate man this illustrious encomium, blessed are the meek, who submit rather than quarrel, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are the peace-makers, for they shall be called the children of God; Mat. v. 5-9. Happy souls whom the God of truth, and the God of peace, acknowledges for his children, and to whom he promises a large inheritance!

And let it be observed also, that whatsoever hard usage the sons of peace may meet with, while the ferment of parties is hottest, and the storm is high, yet when the clamour and rage are sunk and calm, when the party-fury hath spent itself, and is grown cool enough to suffer men to bethink themselves, and to see all things in their true colours, then the man of moderation stands approved of men as well as of God; the divine virtue appears in its own lovely form, and receives a becoming share of honour.

III. Humility is a lovely virtue. It is beautiful and becoming for a man to divest himself of all affected grandeur, and not to exalt his head above his neighbour. O that we were all clothed with humility! It is an ornament that becomes sinners well. Let us put it on with our daily raiment, and strive to vie with each other which shall practise this grace in the greatest perfection.

How unlovely a carriage is it to boast ourselves of any superior quality we possess, or to assume lofty airs, because we have more money than our neighbours! To aggrandize ourselves in our own esteem, in our own language, in our behaviour, because we fancy ourselves to be better dressed, or better fed than our fellow-creatures! And if we have a little honour put upon us by the providence of God, it is a criminal vanity for us to grow haughty and insolent upon that account. I am in pain whensoever I hear a man treat his servant as he does his dog: as though a poor man were not made of the same clay, nor born of the same ancient race as his master: As though Adam, whose name is dust, was not our common father, or a lord had not the same original as other men.

Nay, the nobler possessions of the mind, ingenuity and learning, and even grace itself, are no sufficient ground for pride. It is a comely thing to see a man exalted by many divine gifts, and yet abasing himself. It is a lovely sight to behold a person well adorned with virtue and merit, and glorified in the mouths of all men, and yet concealing himself: To see a man of shining worth drawing, as it were, a curtain before himself, that the world might not see him, while the world do what they can to do him justice, and draw aside the veil to make his merit visible. Not that a man of worth is always bound to practise concealment; this would be to rob mankind of the blessing God has designed for them, and to wrap up his talents, in the unprofitable napkin. But there are occasions wherein a worthy and illustrious person may be equally useful to the world, and yet withdraw himself from public applause. This is the hour to make his humility appear.

How graceful and engaging is it in persons of title and quality to stoop to those that are of a mean degree, to converse freely at proper seasons with those that are poor and despicable in the world, to give them leave to offer their humble requests, or sometimes to debate a point of importance with them: Not all the dignity of their raiment can render them half so honourable as this condescension does; for nothing makes them so much like God. The High and Holy One, who inhabits eternity, stoops down from heaven to visit the afflicted, and to dwell with the poor. And surely, when we set ourselves before the divine Majesty, we are meaner and more contemptible in his eyes, than it is possible for any fellow-creature to be in ours; he humbles himself to behold princes.

It must be allowed indeed, that where God and the world have placed any person in a superior station, and given him a sensible advancement above his fellow-creatures, he is not bound to renounce the honours that are his due, nor to act beneath the dignity of his character and state. This would be to confound all the beautiful order of things in the natural, civil, and religious life. But there are cases and seasons that often occur, when great degrees of humility may be practised without danger of sinking one’s own character, or doing a dishonour to our station in the world. There is an art of maintaining state with an air of modesty, nor is there any need to put on haughty and scornful airs, in order to secure the honours of a tribunal, or the highest offices of magistracy. I have known a man who acted in an exalted station with so much condescension and candour, that all men agreed to love and honour him so far, that it was hard to say, whether he was most honoured, or most beloved.

How amiable a behaviour is it in younger persons, when respect is paid to age, and the honour is given to the hoary head that nature and scripture join to require; Lev. xix. 32. “Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honour the face of the old man: and fear thy God: I am the Lord. Though the character of the aged person, in respect of riches, quality, and learning, may be much inferior, yet the wisdom that is naturally supposed to be derived from long experience, lays a foundation for this superior honour. And I look upon it as a part of the shame and just reproach of our day, that there is such a licentious insolence assumed by youth to treat their elders with contempt. But so much the more lovely is the carriage of those who, in spite of evil custom, treat old age with reverence, and abhor the pert and petulant indignities that some of their companions cast upon the writings and counsels of their ancestors.”

And here I beg leave also humbly to admonish my fathers, that they practise the lovely grace of condescension, when they converse with those that are young. I entreat them to permit a youth of an inquisitive genius, to propose an argument for some farther improvement of knowledge, or to raise an objection against an established doctrine, and not to answer him with an imperious frown, or with the reproaches of heresy or impertinence. I beseech them to indulge the rising generation in some degrees of freedom of sentiment, and to offer some demonstration for their own opinions, besides their authority, and the multitude of their years. The apostle Peter’s advice may be addressed to persons of all ages and characters; 1 Pet. v. 5. Ye younger, submit yourselves to the elder: Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility; for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. If we have more knowledge than others, how lovely is our conduct, when we teach and instruct them, not like sovereigns of their faith, and dictators to their understanding, but in a way of friendly conversation, and mutual improvement? If any thing occurs to be debated, it is a sign of modesty to yield to the force of argument, and not to resolve before-hand to be infallible and obstinate, as though we were exempted from the common frailty of human nature, and free from all possibility of mistake. While we are arguing with others, in order to convince them, how graceful a thing it is, when we have the power of the argument on our own side, to keep ourselves from insult and triumph! how engaging a behaviour toward our opponent, when we seem to part as though we were equal in the debate, while it is evident to all the company, that the truth lies wholly on our side!

Yet I will own there are seasons, when the obstinate and the assuming disputant should be made to feel the force of an argument, by displaying it in its victorious and triumphant colours: But this is seldom to be practised, so as to insult the opposite party, except in cases where they have shewn a haughty and insufferable insolence. Some persons perhaps can hardly be taught humility without being severely humbled; and yet where there is need of this chastisement, I had rather any other hand should be employed in it than mine.

IV. Meekness is another of the lovely graces. This is contrary to wrath and malice, and all the angry passions, as humility stands in opposition to pride. As there are generally some secret workings of pride in the heart, when a man gives indulgence to his wrathful passions; so where a person has thoroughly learned the practice of humility, the grace of meekness is easily attained, and indeed it seems to be a necessary consequent of it.

How lovely is the character of a man, who can hear himself censured and reviled, without reviling again! Who can sustain repeated affronts, without kindling into flame and fury. Who has learned to bear injuries from his fellow-creatures, and yet withhold himself from meditating revenge! He can sit and hear a strong opposition made to his sentiments, without conceiving an affront: He can bear to be contradicted without resenting: And as he never loves to give offence to any man, so neither is he presently offended. It is only the more peevish and feeble pieces of human nature, that are ready to take offence at trifles, and many times they make their own foolish jealousies a sufficient ground for their indignation.

We cannot expect to pass through the world, and find every thing peaceful and pleasant in it. All men will not be of our mind, nor agree to promote our interest. There are savages in this wilderness, which lies in our way to the heavenly Canaan; and we must sometimes hear them roar against us. Divine courage will enable us to walk onward without fear, and meekness will teach us to pass by without resenting. We should learn to feel many a spark of angry fire falling upon us, from the tongues of others, and yet our hearts should not be like tinder ready to catch the flame, and to return the blaze. The meek christian, at such a season, possesses his soul in patience, as good David did, when Shimei sent his malice and his curses after him: The saint at that time was in an humble temper, and said, Let Shimei curse. We should not render evil for evil, but according to the sacred direction of scripture, endeavour to overcome evil with good; Rom. xii. 21.

Anger is not utterly forbidden to the christian; yet happy is he that has the least occasion for it. In Eph. iv. 26. the apostle gives this rule: Be ye angry, and sin not. As if he would have said, when the affairs of life seem to require a just resentment and anger, look upon it as a dangerous moment, and watch against a sinful excess. Let us never give a wild loose to our wrath, but always hold the reins of government with a strong hand, lest it break out into forbidden mischief. When we give ourselves leave to be offended, let the anger appear to be directed against the sin of the offender, if possible, more than against his person.

Let our anger be well-timed, both as to the season and the length of it. The seasons of it should be very uncommon; a christian should seldom awaken his anger, and the continuance of it must be very short. Let not the sun go down upon your wrath, nor give place to the devil; Eph. iv. 26, 27. The long sullen resentment which is practised by some persons, carried on from day to day with a gloomy silence, and now and then venting itself in a spiteful word, or a sly reproach, is by no means becoming the name and spirit of a christian. This is giving place to the devil, and making room for him to lodge in our hearts. This is as much contrary to meekness, as a short and sudden fury is, and perhaps carries in it a guilt more aggravated in the sight of God.

Yet neither should our anger indulge itself in loud and noisy practises, nor fill the house with a brawling sound. It is better to dwell in a corner of the house-top, than to cohabit in a palace with such a brawling companion of life; Prov. xxi. 9. And the wise man has repeated it again in the xxv. chapter, as a matter worthy of a double notice. St. Paul forbids this practice to the Ephesians: Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil-speaking, be put away from you, with all malice; Eph. iv. 31.

Nor should our resentments carry us to any cruel practices. The word of God spends its curses upon such sort of anger; Gen. xlix. 7. Cursed be the wrath of Simeon, for it was fierce, and the anger of Levi, for it was cruel. You know what mischiefs it hurried them into, even to foul treachery and murder, and the destruction of a whole country. The grace of meekness is an enemy to all these practices, and a happy preservative from them.

V. Patience is a lovely virtue. I am not now speaking of that religious exercise of it, which consists in a humble submission to the providences of God, without repining at his hand, or sending up our murmurs against heaven; but a patient conduct to our fellow-creatures, is the thing which I chiefly design here to recommend.

When some persons stand in need of any of the necessaries or conveniences of life, they must be supplied first, they can brook no delay; let all the world stand by waiting till they are served; and their anger is quickly kindled if their affairs are not dispatched in a moment. They make no allowances for the necessities or conveniences of others; nor for the various accidents that attend human life, which may stop the speed of the most diligent servant, and constrain him unwillingly to delay his message or his work. But the patient christian considers all things; desires but his share of the attendance of his fellow-creatures, and waits without clamour till the proper season. He makes wise and kind allowances for every incident of life that may give just occasion to a delay; and gains the love of all that are about him by his most engaging carriage.

How lovely is it to see a teacher waiting upon those that are slow of understanding, and taking due time and pains to make the learner conceive what he means, without upbraiding him with his weakness, or reproaching him with the names of stupid and senseless? This is to imitate God, the God of long suffering and patience, Who giveth wisdom to all that ask, and upbraideth not; James i. 5. The patient man attends and waits upon those that are slow of speech, and hears an argument fully proposed before he makes his reply. This is an honourable and lovely character; But he that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him; Prov. xviii. 13. Perhaps he is utterly mistaken in the objection which his friend was going to make, then he is justly put to the blush for his folly and impatience.

The virtue of patience teaches us to be calm and easy toward our fellow-creatures, while we sustain sharp and continued afflictions from the hand of God. It is the unhappy conduct of some christians, that when the great God puts them under any sore trial or chastisement, they are angry with all their friends around them, and scatter abroad their discontents in the family, and many times make them fall heaviest upon their most intimate friends. If one were to search this matter to the bottom, we should find the spring of it is an impatience at the sovereign hand of God; but because their christianity forbids them to vent their uneasiness at heaven, they divert the stream of their resentment, and make their fellow-creatures feel it: So a piece of unripe fruit pressed with a heavy weight from above, scatters its sour juice on every thing that stands near it, and gives a just emblem of the impatient christian.

But what a lovely sight is it to behold a person burdened with many sorrows, and perhaps his flesh upon him has pain and anguish, while his soul mourns within him; yet his passions are calm; he possesses his spirit in patience, he takes kindly all the relief that his friends attempt to afford him, nor does he give them any grief or uneasiness but what they feel through the force of mere sympathy and compassion? Thus, even in the midst of calamities, he knits the hearts of his friends faster to himself, and lays greater obligations upon their love by so lovely and divine a conduct under the weight of his heavy sorrows.

VI. Love to mankind in the various branches of it, is a most lovely quality, and well becomes a christian.

Should I speak of love in the heart, which ever thinks the best concerning others, and wishes and seeks their welfare and happiness: Should I speak of it as it works on the tongue, and appears in all friendly language, whether the object be present or afar off: Should I describe it as it discovers itself in the hand of assistance and bounty, to relieve the poor and helpless: Each of these would yield sufficient matter for a whole discourse; and this grace would appear lovely in all its forms. It is a pain to my thoughts to omit it here: Methinks I can hardly tell how to let it go without large encomiums: Nor could I prevail with myself to pass it over now with so brief a mention, if I did not design to employ an hour or two on this subject hereafter.

[The Second Part of this Sermon.]

I proceed to shew how the very light of nature recommends every agreeable and obliging character; every lovely quality that is found among mankind; and reason exhorts us to the acquirement and practice of it.

I. Our own interest directs us to it. It is a natural good quality, and a most useful thing to desire the love of others, to seek the favour of our fellow-creatures. It is a very lawful ambition to covet the good-will of those with whom we converse; and to pursue such practices as may procure us a place in their good opinion and friendship. We who are born for society, must naturally desire to stand well with mankind; and that our neighbours should wish our welfare, should treat us with decency, and civility, and love; should assist our interest, and do us good when we stand in need of them: And if so, then the rule of justice obliges us to practise the same towards them, which we desire they should practise towards us. The more we exercise of humility, meekness, patience, charity, and good-will towards our neighbours, the more reason have we to expect the same returns of a lovely carriage from them. And it is no small advantage in life, for a person to be much beloved. When he falls under sudden distresses, every man is ready to relieve him, when he meets with perplexing difficulties he has the ready assistance of multitudes at his command, because he hath many lovers.

II. It is a most generous character, and the sign of a great and good soul, to delight to please those with whom we converse. It is a lovely sight to behold a person solicitous to make all around about him easy and happy. Such amiable souls as these it is a frequent practice, and a pleasure to them, to contradict, their own natural inclinations, in order to serve the desires, or the interest of their friends. Happy temper! that finds so much satisfaction in this self-denial, that the very virtue loses its name, and it becomes but another sort of self-pleasing. Such persons are in pain, when they find their friends hard to be pleased, and they suffer sometimes too much uneasiness in themselves, because of the perverse humours of those they converse with. This uneasiness indeed may arise to a criminal excess, but the spring of it has something amiable. I could wish every soul of us would learn a lovely carriage. For,

III. It makes us resemble God himself. And yet there are some that will be selfish and churlish, that will practise the furious or the peevish passions, through some reigning principle of pride, or covetousness, impatience, or envy. There are some that delight in vexing their fellow-creatures, and in giving them torment and pain. Part of these qualities make us a-kin to brutes of the worser kind, when we take care of none but self, and are regardless of neighbour’s welfare. “If self be healthy and rich, easy and honoured, it is no matter though the rest of the world sustain sickness, and poverty, and scandal.” Others of these unlovely characters approach nearer to the spirit of the devil, who takes delight in torturing his fellow-creatures, and doing what mischief he can amongst men.

But it is a God-like temper to take a sweet satisfaction in diffusing our goodness, and in pleasing and in serving all that are near us. Let us then be followers of God as dear children; Eph. v. i. He is the original beauty, he is the loveliest and the best of beings. To be good, and to do good, is a divine perfection, and let us remember it is a perfection that may be imitated too. He causes his sun to rise, and his rain to fall on the just and on the unjust, and fills the hearts even of the evil as well as the good with food and gladness, when he gives them fruitful seasons; Acts xiv. 17. Let us not dare then to be rough and quarrelsome, and sullen, and ill-natured, while we profess to be his offspring. Let there be something lovely in our whole temper and conduct, while we pretend to be imitators of the God of love. And does the light of nature furnish us with all these motives for a lovely carriage? then surely the light of scripture enforces them all. The gospel obliges christians to this practice by much stronger arguments, and it lays on us more substantial obligations.

I. The blessed and ever glorious Trinity, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, give us in the gospel a divine example of this practice. Has God, the great and glorious God, manifested a lovely conduct in his works of creation, and his ways of providence; how much more glorious a pattern has he set us in the transactions of his redeeming love! What condescension hath he here shewn! What gentleness! what patience and forbearance! what forgiveness! what infinite and endless discoveries of grace has he made in his gospel! God the Father reconciling the world to himself by Jesus Christ, has a peculiar sweetness of aspect and most amiable appearance. Here every christian beholds him such as he revealed himself to Moses, when he caused his glory to pass before him; Ex. xxxiv. 6. The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, &c. The Son of God stooping down to take flesh and blood upon him, made the most amiable figure in the universe. Even in his glorious and triumphant state in heaven, he is represented by a lamb that was slain, an emblem of meekness and innocence. And if ever the blessed Spirit appeared in the shape of any living creature, it was in the form of a dove, a lovely and gentle animal. Thus the blessed Trinity conspire to teach us this amiable and divine carriage.

II. The Son of God incarnate has brought a lovely pattern of this practice nearer to us in his whole deportment on earth. I cannot part with the most graceful example of our Lord Jesus Christ with a slight notice. He came into this world partly with a design to become our pattern in every virtue, and in every grace. Let us turn our eyes towards him in all the circumstances and behaviours of life, and he will ever appear, as he is in himself, the chiefest of ten thousands, and altogether lovely. Let us take a survey of him under those several particulars, in which an amiable carriage has been described.

Is prudence a lovely virtue? How perfectly wise was the conduct of our Lord! How carefully did he attend to the circumstances of time and place, while he dwelt among mankind! How happily did he suit his conversation to his company! How wisely did he derive his divine discourses from the daily occurrences of life! How admirably did he distribute his benefits according to the various necessities of men! So that the unprejudiced world pronounced concerning him, He has done all things well. Shall we be rash and foolish, fickle and imprudent, and live at random in our words and our works, when we have so divine a pattern of prudence before us in the history of the gospel?

Is moderation another lovely character, and a peace-maker an amiable title? Such was our blessed Lord, and such should his followers be. How glorious a sight is it to behold the Son of God coming down from heaven to be a mediator betwixt his offended Father and his offending creatures! to reconcile heaven and earth together, and rather than fail in this attempt, he gladly exposed himself to shame and death, and made a cement of everlasting friendship betwixt God and man with his own blood. Shall we, who are reconciled by such amazing transactions, quarrel with each other for trifles, and form ourselves into parties for rage, and strife, and hatred, and yet profess the name of the great reconciler! Are we not commanded to follow peace with all men, as far as possible, with the security of our holiness and peace with God? And how can we otherwise hope to be the subjects and favourites of the Prince of peace?

Is humility another part of an amiable character? Who was ever humble as the Son of God? The brightness of his Father’s glory, and the express image of his person, who emptied himself, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men, and humbled himself yet lower, even to the death of the cross, and to the dust of the grave; Phil. ii. 6-9. Therefore the Father loved him, and the Father exalted him. This is the man, the God-man, who calls us to the practice of this virtue; Learn of me, says he, for I am meek and lowly, and ye shall find rest for your souls; Mat. xi. 29. What folly and madness is it for dust and ashes to be proud, when God’s own Son was humble? And he gives us a noble instance to assure us that humility is a lovely quality: When the rich young man in the gospel came and kneeled before him to ask his advice, Jesus looked upon him and loved him; and would have left it upon record in his word, that there was something lovely in a modest and humble carriage, even where the saving grace of God was wanting: Mark x. 21.

Meekness and patience are the next things I mentioned, that go to make up the character of a lovely person. But who was meek as the Son of God is? What affronts did he endure even while he was inviting sinners in the most affecting language to their own eternal happiness? What shameful mockery did he sustain? What loads of malicious and infamous blasphemy? But when he was reviled, he reviled not again; 1 Pet. ii. 23. as a sheep before her shearer is dumb, so opened he not his mouth; Is. liii. 7. O when shall we learn to imitate our blessed Lord, and forbear and forgive as he did.

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