Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

long shall vain thoughts lodge within thee?" The greatest wickedness, and that which is the most odious to God, is the wickedness of the heart; and this consists in pollution of the thoughts and desires. Nay, God does so much hate the sinfulness of these, that sometimes he expresses the whole work of conversion by the renovation and change of the thoughts (Isaiah, lv. 7,) "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him." But was it God's intention only to restrain these, and, in the meantime, to give him liberty in his sinful actions? No; but the forsaking of one implies the leaving of the other, as the greater duty includes the less. He that will not so much as indulge himself in an evil thought, will much less venture upon the gross commission of sin. Now God oftentimes judges of the state and condition of a man from the purity or impurity of his thoughts; and that upon these reasons:

1. Because the sin of the thoughts and desires is most spiritual, and consequently most opposite to the nature of God; spiritual wickedness is properly contrary to spiritual holiness, and it is that by virtue whereof Satan has strongest possession of the soul, as being that wherein most men resemble him, who being destitute of a body is not capable of corporal, fleshly sins; hence, in Ephes. vi. 12, we have the vileness of his nature expressed by "spiritual wickedness in heavenly places." Now, as there is nothing almost so evident in itself, as by the advantage of contraries, so we may see how odious spiritual sin is to God, in that spiritual duty is so acceptable. God does not so much command us to serve him, as to "serve him in spirit and in truth." In all religious duties the voice of God is, "Son, give me thy heart." To find a sacrifice without a heart, was always accounted a thing prodigious. To bring our bodies to church, and leave our thoughts at home; this is most detestable before God. To lift up our eyes to heaven in prayer, and yet to fix our desires upon the earth, oh, this his soul hates. As God drew a resemblance of himself upon the whole man, so, in a more lively manner, he imprinted it on the mind. Now one sinful thought is able to slur this image of God upon the soul; one corrupt desire is able to divest the soul of all its native innocence and purity. This certainly must be true, that that which tends to corrupt the best and most worthy part of man, must needs be the worst and greatest corruption. But all, even the heathens, will acknowledge, that a man's mind is his better part; and scripture and experience tell us, that evil thoughts and desires defile the mind; therefore we should endeavour, in the first place, the sanctification and regulation of these. Moral philosophy tells

us, that external actions are not morally good or evil of themselves, but by participation of the good and evil that is in the acts of the will, by which they are commanded. We are not angry with the hand that strikes us, but with the evil intention that guided the hand; nor with the tongue that curses us, but with the vile disposition of the mind that bid it curse. God commanded David to cut off the sin of Saul, (2 Sam. xxi. 1,) and he commanded Jehu to slay the posterity of Ahab. The outward action is here the same; whence then was David's action pleasing to God, and Jehu's reputed murder, (Hosea, i. 4,) but from the difference of their thoughts and intentions? David did it with an intent to obey God, and Jehu with a design of private revenge. It is most just, therefore, that God should judge of the whole man by his thoughts and desires, since from these are the issues of life and death.

2. He judges a man by these, because his actions and practice may be overruled, but thoughts and desires are the natural and genuine offspring of the soul. Experience tells us, that we have not that command and dominion over our thoughts that we have over our actions; they admit neither of order nor limitation, but are the continual incessant bubbling up of sin out of the mind: for we may observe that those acts that may immediately result from the faculty, without the interceding command of the will, are scarcely controlled by it. How will the unruly imaginations of a vain fancy range and wander, in spite of all the dictates and commands of reason. There is nothing more easy or usual than for one to counterfeit his behaviour. A man may cause, that nothing but love and kindness shall appear in his actions, when in his thoughts he breathes cruelty and murder. The hypocrite, in the outward part of the most holy duty, may make as fine and specious a shew as the best, when there is nothing but sin and rottenness in his heart; (Ezekiel, xxxiii. 31,) "They sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them; for with their mouth they shew much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness." Here we see they had nothing so frequent in their words and outward services as the worship of God, and nothing so remote from their desires. But now in the thoughts there is no dissimulation: what a man is in these, that he is in truth and reality: the soul is in its thoughts, as in its retiring room, laying aside the garb and dress in which it appeared upon the stage of the world. Nay, although a man had a full rule over his thoughts, yet they must needs be free from dissimulations, as not being capable of the causes of it. That which makes men dissemble, is a fear of and a desire to please the eyes of men; which we know cannot reach

to the thoughts. It is therefore clear, that sincerity does only reside, and consequently is only to be found in these: hence we may observe, that Christ, in all his replies to the Jews and the Pharisees, did rather answer the inward reasonings and thoughts of their mind, than the questions they did propose. In Ezek. xiv. 3, 4, we have men addressing themselves to God in the greatest shew of salvation that might be; yet he professes that he will not answer them according to those pretences, but according to the idols they had set up in their hearts. A man, by reason of his concernments and interest in the world, what for fear of this punishment, and hope of that preferment, will cast himself into such a mould, as he shall be really nothing less than what he does appear to be; his words, actions, and outward carriage shall bear no correspondence with his intentions. The covetous man, in his mind, can lay heap upon heap; and what he cannot gain by his endeavours, he will make up by his thoughts. The ambitious man will think over all the applauses and greatness of the world, and in the closet of his mind erect to himself the idol of his own excellencies, and fall down and worship it. The revengeful person, though fear will not let him act his revenge, yet in his thoughts he will stab and trample upon his brother. The lascivious wretch, though shame will not let him execute his sin, yet he will feed his corrupt fancy with unclean imaginations. In all these passages men, being secure from the view of others, behave themselves according to the free genius and inclination of their nature. But God knows all these silent workings: he knows them, and abhors them: and that he does know them, he will make it appear at that day, when he shall also make others know them, and when the secrets of all hearts shall be revealed. Oh what black stories will be told at the day of judgment of men's thoughts!

2. The second sort of secret sins are such as are not only transacted in the mind, but also by the body, yet are covered and kept close from the view of men. Such was David's sin in the matter of Uriah, (2 Sam. xii. 12.) God says to him, "Thou didst this thing secretly." Such was Cain's murder of his brother. Such was the theft of Achan: there were no standers by, conscious to it; it was not done before spectators. Now certainly a sinner should thus argue; If I cannot hide my secret sinful thoughts and desires from God, how much less shall I be able to conceal my actions, be they ever so private. When Satan, secrecy, and opportunity, all of them great tempters, shall tempt you to sin, consider that you have still this company with you, a conscience that will accuse you, and a God that will judge you. And is there any man so irrational as to commit a robbery in

the sight of his accuser? to do a felony before his judge? What reason will not suffer us to do before men, shall not reason and religion keep us from committing before God? Thou mayest wrong and defraud thy neighbour in secret, (Habakkuk, ii. 11,) " but the stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall accuse thee." Thou mayst kill and murder, and none behold thee, "but the voice of thy brother's blood shall cry to God from the ground that receives it," (Ġen. iv. 10.) I may here speak to the secret sinner in the words of a holy author; Let him but find some corner where God may not see him, and then let him sin as he pleases. The adulterer in the forementioned place of Job, is said "to wait for the twilight:" but here we find in this Psalm, "that the darkness and light are both alike to God." The drunkard will presume to be "drunk in the night;" (1 Thess. v. 7,) but here we may read, "that the darkness hideth not from God, but the night shineth as the day." No sins can be covered, but such as God himself shall be pleased to cover within the righteousness of his own Son: he that can see in secret, and when thou shuttest thy door behold thee praying in thy closet, can as easily see thee when thou art sinning there; and as for private duty he will reward, so for secret sin he will punish thee openly, either in this world or in another. And therefore it were good for such kind of sinners to consider, that while their door is thus shut, the gates of hell stand open.

3. As it speaks terror to all secret sinners, so it speaks no less comfort to all sincerehearted Christians. The same sunrising and break of day that terrifies the robber, is a comfort to the honest traveller. Thou that art sincere, God sees that sincerity in thee that others cannot discern; yea, he often sees more sincerity in thy heart, than thou canst discern thyself. This may uphold the drooping spirits of a disconsolate soul, when the black mouths of men, steeled with ignorance and prejudice, shall be opened in hard speeches against him. For indeed, now-a-days, when a man cannot find fault with his brother's outward conversation, which only he can behold, he will censure him in respect of spirituals, which no man can discern, any more than I can know what is in a man's mind by the colour of his clothes. Such men speak as if God did not only make them partake of his mercies, but also of his prerogative. And when it should be their work to resemble God in holiness, they arrogantly pretend to be like him in omniscience. How severely, though blindly, do they judge of men's hearts? Such a man is profane; another is carnal, and a mere moralist; another proud, and as to the bent and frame of his spirit, a contemner of religion. But here the sincere soul may com

fort itself, when with one eye it can reflect upon its own integrity, and with the other upon God's infinite, infallible knowledge, and say, indeed, Men charge me thus and thus, as false-hearted and a hypocrite, but my God knows otherwise. This, I say, may set thee above the calumnies of unreasonable men, and make thee ride upon the necks of thy accusers. And as Daniel, by trusting in his God, was secure from the mouths of the lions; so thou, by acting faith upon, and drawing comfort from God's omniscience, mayest defy the more cruel mouths of thy reproachers. When a man is accused of treason to his prince, and knows that his prince is fully assured of his innocence, he will laugh all such accusations to scorn. It is thus with God and a sincere heart in the midst of all slanders, he will own thee for innocent; as he did Job, when his friends, with much specious piety, charged him with hypocrisy. Wherefore commit thy way to the all-seeing God, to that God that is acquainted with all thy ways; that sees thy goings out and thy comings in, and continually goes in and out before thee, and will one day testify and set his seal to thy integrity. Comfort thyself in the consideration of his omniscience, from whence it is, "that God judgeth not as man judgeth, but judges righteous judgment." And hold fast thy integrity, that lies secret in the heart, "whose praise is of God, and not of man."

SERMON XIV.

Say not thou, What is the cause that the former days were better than these? for thou dost not inquire wisely concerning this."- ECCLES. vii. 10.

IN the days of Solomon, when Jerusalem was the glory of the whole earth; when it flourished as the metropolis, not only of religion, but of the riches of the world; when gold was made as common as silver, and silver as the stones of the street, (so that its inhabitants might even tread and trample upon that which so much commanded the hearts of others;) when their exchequer was full, and their fleets at Ophir; when religion was established, and the changing, ambulatory tabernacle fixed into a standing temple, and all crowned with a peace under Solomon after the afflictions and wars of David; when they flowed with plenty, and were governed with wisdom; yet, after all, the text here gives us a clear intimation, that plenty passed into surfeit, fulness into loathing, loathing into discontent, and that (as it always happens) into complaints of the times, namely, "that former days were better than these."

When yet, upon a small reflection backward, we have the calendar of the former times red with the bloody house of Saul, with the slaughter of the priests, and with the rebellions of Sheba and Absalom; nothing but tumults, changes, and vicissitudes; and yet, in the verdict of folly and faction, present enjoyments did so far endear former calamities, as to give them the preeminence in the comparison.

But we see there may be "folly even in Israel;" and, if they were all of this mind, Solomon may justly seem to have monopolized all the wisdom to himself. We have him here chastising the sottishness of this inquiry indeed the fittest person to encounter this exception, as being a king, and so able to control; being a preacher, and so able to confute it; furnished with power for the one, and with wisdom for the other.

:

This is therefore the design of the words, either to satisfy or silence this malecontented inquiry; and supposing it to carry in it its own confutation, he confutes it, not by argument, but reproof; not as a doubtful problem, but as a foolish question: and certainly the case must needs be carried, where the fool makes the question, and the wisest of men gives the answer.

The matter in controversy is the pre-eminence of the former times above the present; when we must observe, that though the words run in the form of a question, yet they include a positive assertion, and a downright censure.

The inquiry being determined before it was proposed, now the charge of folly here laid upon it may relate to the supposition upon which it is founded in a threefold respect, namely,

I. Of a peremptory negation, as a thing absolutely to be denied, that former times are better than the following.

II. As of a case very disputable, whether they are so or no.

III. As admitting the supposition for true, that really they are better, and so bear away the pre-eminence.

Yet in every one of these three most different respects, this inquiry ought to be exploded as absurd, impertinent, and irrational.

1. And first of all, that it is ridiculous to ask why former times are better than the present, if really they are not better, and so the very supposition itself proves false; this is too apparently manifest to be matter of dispute, and that it is false we shall endeavour to prove and evince in the ensuing discourse: but before I enter upon the proof of it, this one observation must be premised:

That time is said to be good or bad, not from any such quality inherent in itself, but by external denomination from the nature of those things that are and do subsist in such a space of time. Time is the great vehicle of

nature, rot only for its swift passage and career, but because it carries in it the system of the world, from one stage and period of duration to another.

Now the world may be considered either in its natural or moral perfections. Some hold, that for the former, there is a continual diminution and an insensible decay in nature, things growing less and less, the very powers and faculties of them being weakened and shrunk; and the vital spirit, or humidum radicale, that God and nature first infused into the great body of the universe, being much exhausted, so that now, in every following age, the lamps of heaven burn dimmer and dimmer, till at length they dwindle into nothing, and so go out of themselves.

But that this cannot be so, is clear from these reasons. 1st, Because the ancientest histories generally describe things in the same posture heretofore that we find them now. 2d, That, admitting the least and most indiscernible degree of diminution, even to but one remove from none at all, the world, in the space of six thousand years, which date it almost now bears, by the continuance but of that small proportion of change, would have sunk even to nothing, or the smallness of an atom. 3d, This will make the final annihilation of the world a mere effect of nature, and not of God's supernatural power; and so the consequent of it is irreligious.

Wherefore it being sure that the whole fabric of the world stands in the same vigour and perfection of nature which it had at first, we come next to that in which we are now most concerned, to see whether or no it be impaired and sunk in its moral perfections, and what is the consequent of that in political.

We have here an aphorism of Horace much inculcated, "Terra malos homines nunc educat atque pusillos." But poetry never yet went for argument and perhaps he might speak this, being conscious of his own manners, and reflecting upon his own stature. But that in the descent of succeeding generations, the following are not still the worse, I thus evince :

1. By reason: because there were the same objects to work upon men, and the same dispositions and inclinations in men to be wrought upon, before, that there are now. All the affairs of the world are the births and issue of men's actions; and all actions come from the meeting and collision of faculties with suitable objects. There were then the same incentives of desire on the one side, the same attractiveness in riches, the same relish in sovereignty, the same temptation in beauty, the same delicacy in meats, and taste in wines; and, on the other side, there were the same appetites of covetousness and ambition, the same fuel of lust and intemperance.

And these are the wheels upon which the

whole visible scene of affairs, ethic and politic, turns and depends. The business of the world is imitation, and that which we call novelty is nothing but repetition. The figure and motion of the world is circular, and experience no less than mathematics will evince, that, as it turns round, the same part must be often in the same place: one age indeed goes before another, but precedency is not always preeminence; and it is not unusual for a worse to go before a better, and for the servant to ride before and lead the way to his master.

2. But, 2dly, the same may be proved by history and the records of antiquity; and he who would give it the utmost proof that it is capable of from this topic, must speak volumes and preach libraries, bring a century within a line, and an age into every period. But what need we go any farther than the noblest and yet the nearest piece of antiquity, the book of Moses.

Is the wickedness of the old world forgot, that we do so aggravate the tempest of this? Was it destroyed with waters of oblivion ? and has the deluge clean overwhelmed and sunk itself? In those days there were giants in sin, as well as sinners of the first magnitude, and of the largest size and proportion.

And to take the world in a lower epocha, what after-age could exceed the lust of the Sodomites, the idolatry and tyranny of the Egyptians, the fickle levity of the Grecians? and that monstrous mixture of all baseness in the Roman Neros, Caligulas, and Domitians, emperors of the world, and slaves to their vice?

And for the very state of Israel, in which this envious inquiry was first commenced, was that worse in Canaan, under the shadow and protection of a native royalty, than under the old servitude and tyranny of Egypt? Was their present condition so bad, that while Solomon was courting Pharaoh's daughter, they should again court his yoke? woo their old slavery, and solicit a match with their former bondage? Was it so delightful a condition to feed Pharaoh's cattle, and to want straw themselves? instead of one prince, to have many taskmasters? and to pay excise with their backs to maintain the tyrant's janizaries, and to feed their tormentors? But it seems, being in a land flowing with honey, they were cloyed with that, and so, loathing the honey, they grew in love with the sting.

But to bring the subject to our own doors; if we would be convinced that former ages are not always better than the following, I suppose we need not much rack our memories for a proof from experience.

I conceive the state of the Christian church also may come within the compass of our present discourse. Take it in its infancy, and with the properties of infancy; it was weak and naked, vexed with poverty, torn with

persecution, and infested with heresy. It began the breach with Simon Magus, continued it with Arius, Nestorius, Eutyches, Aerius, some rending her doctrine, some her discipline; and what are the heresies that now trouble it, but new editions of the old with farther gloss and enlargement? What is Socinus, but Photinus and Pelagius blended and joined together in a third composition? What are our separatists and purity-pretending schismatics, but the tame brood and successors of the Donatists? only with this difference, that they had their headquarters in meridie, in the southern parts of the world, whereas ours seem to be derived to us from the north. These, I thought, had put it out of dispute, that no succeeding age of the church could have been worse: and, I think, the assertion might have stood firm, had not some late instances of our own age made it disputable.

But as for those who clamour of the corruptions of our present church, and are so earnest to reduce us to the primitive model; if they mean the primitive truth, and not rather the primitive nakedness of it only, we know this, for doctrine and discipline, it is the very transcript of antiquity. But if their design be to make us like the primitive Christians, by driving us into caves, and holes, and rocks; to tear down temples, and to make the sanctuary itself fly for refuge; to bring beasts into churches, and to send churchmen into dens; at the same time to make men beggars, and to take away hospitals; it is but reason to desire, that they would first begin and exemplify this reformation in themselves; and, like the old Christians, with want and poverty, wander about in sheepskins and goatskins though, if they should, that is not presently a sheep that wears the skin, nor would the sheep's clothing change the nature

of the wolf.

I conclude therefore, that all these pompous declamations against the evil of the present times, set off by odious comparisons with the former, are the voice of error and envy, of the worst of judges, malice and mistake: though I cannot wonder if those assert affairs to be out of order, whose interest and desire it is to be once more a reforming.

And thus much for the first consideration of the suppositions: as a thing false, and to be denied. I shall now,

II. In the second place, remit a little of this, and take it in a lower respect; as a case disputable, whether the preceding or succeeding generations are to be preferred: and here I shall dispute the matter on both sides.

1. And first for antiquity, and the former ages, we may plead thus. Certainly every thing is purest in the fountain, and most untainted in the original. The dregs are still the most likely to settle in the bottom, and

to sink into the last ages. The world cannot but be the worse for wearing; and it must needs have contracted much dross, when at the last it cannot be purged but by an universal fire.

Things are most fresh and fragrant in their beginning. The first-born is the most honourable, and it is primogeniture that entitles to the inheritance: it is not present possessions, but an early pedigree, that gives nobility.

The older the world grows, the more decrepit it must be: for age bows the body, and so causes an obliquity: every course of time leaves its mark behind it; and every century adds a wrinkle to the face of nature.

As for knowledge, the former age still teaches the latter; and which is likely to be most knowing, he that teaches, or he that is taught? The best and most compendious way of attaining wisdom is the reading of histories; but history speaks not of the present time, but of the former.

Besides, it was only the beginning of time that saw men innocent. Sin, like other things, receives growth by time, and improves by continuance and every succeeding age has the bad example of one age more than the former. The same candle that refreshes when it is first light, smells and offends when it is going out.

In the alphabet of nature, it is only the first letter that is flourished. In short, there is as much difference between the present and former times, as there is between a copy and an original; that indeed may be fair, but this only is authentic. And be a copy never so exact, yet still it shines with a borrowed perfection, and has but the low praise of an imitation and this may be said in behalf of the former times.

2. But secondly, for the preeminence of the succeeding ages above the former, it may be disputed thus.

If the honour be due to antiquity, then certainly the present age must claim it; for the world is now oldest, and therefore upon the very right of seniority may challenge the precedency: for certainly the longer the world lasts, the older it grows. And if wisdom ought to be respected, we know that it is the offspring of experience, and experience the child of age and continuance.

In every thing and action, it is not the beginning, but the end that is regarded: it is still the issue that crowns the work, and the amen that seals the petition: the plaudite is given to the last act and Christ reserved the best wine to conclude the feast: nay, a fair beginning would be but the aggravation of a bad end.

And if we plead original, we know that sin is strongest in its original; and we are taught whence to date that. The lightest things float at the top of time; but if there be suck

« AnteriorContinuar »