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OF LUKEWARMNES3 AND ZEAL. Serm. XII,

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they accounted it no sin if they murmured at the riches of religion ; and Joscphns reproves Polybins for saying that Jlntiockus was punished for having a de- sign of sacrilege ; and therefore TertidUan says of them, they were nee plenac^ ticc adco timendae discipli- nae ad innoccntiae veritatem ; tliis was their righteous- ness which Christ said, unless we will exeeed^ ive shall 7iot enter into the kingdom of heaven^ where all spiri- tual perfections are in state and exeellency.

2. The other part of a spiritual worship is a ycr- iJO?ir and a /io/yze«/ of God's glory, greatness of de- sire, and quickness of action ; of all this the Jews were not careful at all, excepting the zealots amongst them, and they w^ere not only fervent, but inflamed ; and they had the earnestness of passion for the holy warmth of religion ; and instead of an earnest charity, they had a cruel disciphne ; and for fraternal correction, they did destroy a sinning Is- raelite ; and by both these evil states of religion they did the work of the Lord deceitfully ; they either gave him the action without the heart, or zeal with- out charity, or religion without zeal, or ceremony without religion, or indifferency without desires ; and then God is served by the outward man and not the inward ; or by part of the inward and not all ; by the understanding, and not by the will ; or by the will, when the affections are cold, and the body unapt, and the lower faculties in rebellion, and the superiour in disorder, and the work of God is left imperfect, and our persons ungracious, and our ends unacquired, and the state of a spiritual kingdom not at all set forward towards any hope or possibility of being obtained. All this Christ came to mend, and by his laws did make provision that God should be served entirely, according as God always designed ; and accordingly required by his prophets, and par- ticularly in my text, that his work be done sincere-

m \ aresecurei

v^'kt. ii

Serm. XII. of lukewarmness and zeal.

225

It/^ and our duty with great affection ; and by these two provisions, both the intention and the extension are secured; our duty shall be entire, and it shall be perfect, we shall be neither lame nor cold, without a limb, nor without natural heat, and then the work of the Lord wilt prosper in our hands : but if we fail in either, we do the Lord''s work deceitfidly^ and then we are accursed. For so saith the spirit of God, Cursed be he that doth the ivork of the Lord deceitfully.

1. Here then is the duty of us all. 1. God re- quires of us to serve him with an integral, entire, or a whole worship and religion. 2. God requires of us to serve him with earnest and intense affections ; the entire purpose of both which, I shall represent in its several parts by so many propositions. 3. I shall consider concerning the measures of zeal and its inordinations.

1 . He that serves God with the body without the soul, serves God deceitfully. My son^ give me thy heart ; and though I cannot think that nature was so sacra- mental, as to point out the holy and mysterious Trinity by the triangle of the heart, yet it is certain that the heart of man is God's special portion, and every angle ought to point out towards him directly; that is, the soul of man ought to be presented to God, and given him as an oblation to the interest of his service.

1. For, to worship God with our souls, confesses one of his glorious attributes ; it declares him to be the searcher of heaits, and that he reads the secret purposes, and beholds the smallest arrests of fancy, and bends in all the flexures and intrigues of crafty people ; and searches out every plot and trifling con- spiracy against him, and against ourselves, and against our brethren.

VOL. I. 30

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DISCOURSES

VARIOUS SUBJECTS.

By JEREMY TAYLOR, D. D.

tHAPLAIN IN ORDINARY TO KING CH.4RLES THE FIR3T, AJiD LATE LORD mSHOF OF DOWN AND CONNOR.

IN THREE VOLUMES.

VOI^UME I.

BOSTON :

PUBLISHED BY AVELJiS AND LILLY.

SOLD By A. T. GOODRICH, NKW-VORK — AND M. CAREY, PHlLAaSLPlil A.

1816.

RIGHT HONOURABLE AND TRULY NOBLE

RICHARD, LORD VAUGHAN,

EARL OF CARBERY, &c.

MY LORD,

1 HAVE now, by the assistance of God, and the ad- vantages of your many favours, finished a year of sermons ; which if, like the first year of our Saviour's preaching, it may be annus acceptabilis^ an acceptable year to God, and his afflicted hand-maid, the church of England^ a rehef to some of her new necessities, and an institution or assistance to any soul ; I shall esteem it among those honours and blessings with which God uses to reward those good intentions, which himself first puts into our hearts, and then recompenses upon our heads. My Lord, they were first presented to God in the ministeries of your family : for this is a blessing, for which your Lord- ship is to bless God, that your family is, like Gideon's fleece, irriguous with a dew from heaven, when much of the vicinage is dry; for we have cause to remem-

ir THE BPISTLE JJKDICATORY.

ber that Isaac complained of tlic Philistines^ who filled up his wells with stones, and rubbish, and left no beverage for the flocks, and therefore they could give no milk to them that waited upon the flocks, and the flocks could not be gathered, nor fed, nor defended. It was a design of ruin, and had in it the greatest hostility, and so it hath been lately;

undique totis

Usque adeo tiirbatur agris. Eu ! ipse capellas Protinus aeger ago ; banc etiam vix, Tityre, duco.*

But, my Lord, this is not all : I would fain also complain that men feel not their greatest evil, and are not sensible of their danger, nor covetous of what they want, nor strive for that which is for- bidden them; but that this complaint would suppose an unnatural evil to rule in the hearts of men ; for who would have in him so little of a man, as not to be greedy of the word of God, and of holy ordi- nances, even therefore, because they are so hard to have ? and this evil, although it can have no ex- cuse, yet it hath a great and a certain cause ; for the word of God still creates new appetites, as it satisfies the old ; and enlarges the capacity, as it fills the first propensities of the spirit. For all spiritual blessings are seeds of immortality, and of infinite felicities, they swell up to the comprehensions of eternity ; and the desires of the soul can never be

* Virg. Kclog. I. 12. And lo ! sad partner in the general care, Weary and faint 1 drive my flocks afar. Warton.

THE EPISTLE DEDICATORT.

wearied, but when they are decayed ; as the sto- mach will be craving every day, unless it be sick and abused. But every man's experience tells him ' now, that because men have not preaching, they less desire it ; their long fasting makes them not to love their meat ; and so we have cause to fear, the people will fall to an atrophy^ then to a loathing of holy food; and then God's anger will follow the method of our sin, and send a famine of the word and sacraments. This we have the greatest reason to fear, and this fear can be relieved by nothing but by notices and experience of the greatness of the divine mercies and goodness.

Against this danger in future, and evil in present, as you and all good men interpose their prayers, so have I added this little instance of my care and ser- vices ; being willing to minister in all offices and varieties of employment, that so I may by all means save some, and confirm others ; or at least that myself may be accepted of God in my desiring it. And I think I have some reasons to expect a special mercy in this, because I find by the constitution of the divine Providence, and ecclesiastical affairs, that all the great necessities of the church have been served by the zeal of preaching in publick, and other holy ministeries in publick or private, as they could be had. By this the Apostles planted the church, and the primitive bishops supported the faith oi tnartyrs, and the hardiness of confessors, and the austerity of the retired. By this they confounded hereticks, and

VI THK EPISTLE DED!CATORr.

evil livers, and taught them the ways of the spirit, and them without pertinacy, or without excuse. It was preaching that restored the splendour of the church, when barbarism, and wars, and ignorance, either sat in, or broke the doctor's chair in pieces : for then it was that divers orders of religious^ and especially oi preachers^ were erected ; God inspiring into whole companies of men a zeal of preaching. And by the same instrument God restored the beauty of the church, when it was necessary she should be reformed ; it was the assiduous and learned preach- ing of those whom God chose for his ministers in that work, that wrought the advantages and per- suaded those truths, which are the enamel and beauty of our churches. And because by the same means all things are preserved by which they are produced, it cannot but be certain, that the present state of the church requires a greater care and prudence in this ministery than ever; especially since by preaching some endeavour to supplant preaching, and by inter- cepting the fruits of the flocks to dishearten the shepherds from their attendances.

My Lord, your great nobleness and religious cha- rity hath taken from me some portions of that glory, which I designed to myself in imitation of St. Paul towards the Corintlmm church ; who esteemed it his honour to preach to them without a revenue ; and though also hke him I have a trade, by which as I can be more useful to others, and less burthensome to you ; yet to you also, under God, I owe the quiet and the

THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY. Vll

opportunities and circumstances of that, as if God had so interweaved the support of my affairs with your charity, that he would have no advantages pass upon me, but by your interest; and that I should ex[ ect no reward of the issues of my calling, unless your Lordship have a share in the blessing.

My Lord, I give God thanks that my lot is fallen so fairly, and that I can serve your Lordship in that ministery by which I am bound to serve God, and that ray gratitude and my duty are bound up in the same bundle; but now, that which \\2iS yours by a right of propriety, I have made publick, that it may still be more yours, and you derive to yourself a comfort, if you shall see the necessity of others served by that which you heard so diligently, and accepted with so much piety, and I am persuaded have entertained with that religion and obedience, which is the duty of all those who know, that sermons are arguments against us, unless they make us better, and that no sermon is received as it ought, unless it makes us quit a vice, or be in love with virtue ; unless we suf- fer it in some instance or degree to do the work of God upon our souls.

My Lord, in these sermons I have meddled with no man's interest, that only excepted, which is eternal; but if any man's vice was to be reproved, I have done it with as much severity as I ought. Some cases of conscience I have here determined ; but the special design of the whole, is to describe the greater lines of duty, by special arguments : and if any

Vlll THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY.

witty censurer shall say, that I tell him nothing but what he knew before ; 1 shall be contented with it, and rejoice that he was so well instructed, and wish also that he had needed not a remanhrancer ; but if either in the first, or in the second ; in the institution of some, or the reminding of others, I can do God any service ; no man ought to be olBended, that sermons are not like curious inquiries after new nothings^ but pursuances of old truths. However, I have already many fair earnests that your lordship will be pleased with this tender of my service, and expression of my great and dearest obhgations, which you daily renew or continue upon,

MY NOBLEST LORD,

Your Lordship's qiost

Affectionate, and most Obliged Servant,

JEREMY TAYLOR.

A PRAYER BEFORE SERMON.

O Lord God ! fountain of life, giver of all good things, who givest to men the blessed hope of eternal life by our Lord Jesus Christ, and hast promised thy holy Spirit to them that ask him ; be present with us in the dispensation of thy holy word [*and Sacraments ;] grant that we being preserved from all evil by thy power, and among the diver- sities of opinions and judgments in this world from all er- rours and false doctrines, and led into all truth by the con- duct of thy holy Spirit, may for ever obey thy heavenly calling: that we may not be only hearers of the word of life, but doers also of good works, keeping faith and a good conscience, living an unblameable life, usefully and charita- bly, religiously and prudently, in all godliness and honesty before thee our God, and before all the world, that af the end of our mortal life, we may enter into the light and life of God, to sing praises and eternal hymns to the glory of thy name in eternal ages, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

IN WHOSE NAME LET US PRAY IN THE WORDS WHICH HIMSCLP COM' MANBED, SAYING,

Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come; thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven ; give us this day our daily bread ; and forgive ua our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us ; and lead us not into temptation ; but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

* This clause is to be omitted if there be no Sacrament that day. VOL. I. 1

A PRAYER AFTER SERMON.

JLoRD, pity and pardon, direct and bless, sanctify and save us all. Give repentance to all that live in sin, and perseverance to all thy sons and servants, for his sake, who is thy beloved, and the foundation of all our hopes, our bles- sed Lord and Saviour Jesus, to whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit, be-all honour and glory, praise and adora- tion, love and obedience, now and for evermore. Amen.

CONTENTS

TO

THE FIRST VOLUME.

Page.

SERMON I, IT, III.

Doom's-day Book ; or, Christ's Advent to Judgment .... 1, 21, 44.

2 Cor. y. 10. For we must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ, that every oue may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.

SERMON IV, V, VI.

The Return of Prayers; or, the Condition of a prevailing

Prayer 67, 85, 104.

John ix. 31. Now we know that God heareth not sinners ; but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doth his will, him he heareth.

SERMON Vll, VIII, IX.

Of Godly Fear, &c 127, 145, 162.

Heb. xii. part of the 28th and 29th verses. Let us have grace whereby we may serve God with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire.

SERMON X, XI.

The Flesh and the Spirit 180, 195.

Mat. xxvi. 14. latter part. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak,

CONTENTS.

Page.

SERMON XII, XIII, XIV.

Of Lukewarmness and Zeal ; or, Spiritual Fervour,

221, 2oy, 261.

Jer. xlviii. 10. first part. Cursed be he that doth the work of tlie Lord deceitfully.

SERMON XV, XVI.

The house of Feasting ; or, the Epicure's Measurei5

2»0, 300.

1 Cor. XV. 32. last part. Let us eat and drink, for to naorrow we die.

SERMON XVII, XVIII.

The Marriage-Ring; or, the Mjsteriousness and Duties of Marriage 324, 344.

Ephes. v. 32, 33.

This is a great mystery ; but I speak concerning Christ and the Church. Nevertheless, let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.

SERMON XIX, XX, XXI.

Apples of Sodom ; or, the Fi nits of sin. . . 366, 389, 410. Rom. vi. 21.

What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed ?

for the end of those things is death.

SERMON XXII, XXIII, XXIV, XXV.

The good and evil Tongue. Of Slander and Flattery. The Duties of the Tongue .... 430, 448, 446, 464. Ephes. iv. 25. Let no corrupt commtmication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may miuister grace unto the hearers.

SERMON i, ADVENT SUNDAY.

DOOMS-DAY BOOKl

OR,

CHRIST'S ADVENT TO JUDGMENT.

2 Cor. v. 10.

For we must all appear bfifore the Judgment-seat of Christ, that every one may receive tlie things done in las body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.

V iRTUE and vice are so essentially distinguished, and the distinction is so necessary to be observed in order to the well being of men in private and in societies, that to divide them in themselves, and to separate them by sufficient notices, and to distinguish them by re\vards, hath been designed by all Taws, by the sayings of wise men, by the order of things, by their proportions to good or evil ; and the ex- pectations of men have been framed accordingly : that virtue may have a proper seat in the will and in the atfections, and may become amiable by its own excellency and its appendant blessing ; and that vice may be as natural an enemy to a man, as a wolf to the iamb, and as darkness to light ; destructive of its being, and a contradiction of its nature. But it is not enough that all the world hath armed itself against vice, and, by all that is wise and sober among men, hath taken the part of virtue, adorning

VOL. I, 2

2 Christ's advent to judgment. Scrm. I.

it with glorious appellatives, encouraging it by re- wards, entertaining it by sweetness, and command- ing it by edicts, fortifying it with defensatives, and twining with it in all artificial compliances ; all this is short of man's necessity : for this will, in all modest men, secure their actions in theatres and hiiih-ways, in markets and churches, before the eye of judges, and in the society of witnesses : but the actions of closets and chambers, tiie desi^rns ami thoughts of men, their discourses in dark places, and the actions of retirements and of the night, are left inditlerent to virtue or to vice ; and of these, as man can take no cognizance, so he can make no coercitive ; and there- fore above one half of human actions is by the laws of man left unregarded and unprovided for. And besides this, there are some men who are bigger than laws, and some are bigger than judges, and some judges have lessened themselves by fear and cowardice, by bribery and flattery, by iniquity and compliance ; and where they have not, yet they have notices but of few causes : and there are some sins so popular and universal, that to punish them is either impossible or intolerable ; and to question such, would betray the weakness of the publick rods and axes, and represent the sinner to be stronger than the power that is appointed to be his bridle. And after all this, we find sinners so prosperous that they escape, so potent that they fear not ; and sin is made safe when it grows great,

Facere omnia sajve

JVon iiupiine licet, nisi duiu I'acis ■*

and innocence is oppressed, and the poor cries, and he hath no helper, and he is oppressed, and he wants

* Short is Uic triumph of injustice, soon,

Your cruel deeds on your own head shall fall.

Serm. I. Christ's advent to judgment. 3

a patron. And for these and many other concurrent causes, if you reckon all the causes that come before all the judicatories of the world, though the litigious are too many, and the matters of instance are intri- cate and numeious, yet the personal and criminal are so few, that of two thousand sins that cry aloud to God for vengeance, scarce two are noted by the pub- lick eye, and chastised by the hand of justice. It must follow from hence, that it is but reasonable, for the interest of virtue and the necessities of the world, that the private should be judged, and virtue should be tied upon the spirit, and the poor should be re- lieved, and the oppressed should appeal, and the noise of widows should be heard, and the saints should stand upright, and the cause that was ill judged should be judged over again, and tyrants should be called to account, and our thoughts should be examined, and our secret actions viewed on all sides, and the infinite number of sins which escape here should not escape finally. And therefore God hath so ordained it, that there shall be a day of doom, wherein all that are let alone by men shall be ques- tioned by God, and every word and every action shall receive its just recompense of reward. For we must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.

rtt iSt* TBu <ra)/uici]os; SO it is in the best copies, not TA<r<*, the things done in the body, so we commonly read it ; the things proper or due to the body, so the expres- sion is more apt and proper; for not only what is done <f/* o-a^7of by the body, but even the acts of abstrac- ted understanding and volition, the acts of reflec- tion and choice, acts of self-love and admiration, and whatever else can be supposed the proper and peculiar act of the soul or of the spirit, is to be ac-

4 Christ's advent to judgment. Serm. I.

counted for at the day of judgment': and even these may be called ^m tw au>f^aio^, because these are the acts of the man in the state of conjunction with the body. The words have in them no other difllculty or variety, but contain a great truth of the biggest interest, and one of the most material constitutive articles of the w^hole religion, and the greatest endearment of our duty in the whole world. Things are so ordered by the great Lord of all the creatures, that whatsoever we do or suffer shall be called to account, and this account shall be exact, and the sentence shall be just, and the reward shall be great ; all the evils ol the world shall be amended, and the injustices shall be repaid, and the divine Providence shall be vindicated, and virtue and vice shall for ever be remarked by their separate dwellings and rewards.

This is that which the Apostle in the next verse calls the terrour of the Lord ; it is his terrour, because himself shall appear in his dress of majesty and robes of justice ; and it is his terrour^ because it is of all the things in the world the most formidable in itself, and it is most fearful to us : where shall be acted the interest and final sentence of eternity ; and because it is so intended, I shall all the way represent it as the LorcVs terrour^ that we may be afraid of sin, for the destruction of which this terrour is intended. 1 . There- fore, we Avill consider the persons that are to be judged, with the circumstances of our advantages or ouY sorrow?, \we must all appear.^ 2. The Judge and his judgment-seat : [before the judgment-seat of Christ.^ 3. The sentence that they are to receive ; [the things due to the body, good or bad,] according as we now please, but then cannot alter. Every of these are dressed with circumstances of affliction and affriaht- ment to those, to whom such terrours shall appertain as a portion of their inheritance.

1. The persons who are to be judged ; even you, and I, and all the world : kings and priests, nobles

Serm. I. Christ's advent to juccment. 5

and learned, the crafty and the easy, the wise and the foolish, the rich and the poor, the prevailing ty- rant and the oppressed party, shall all appear to receive their symbol ; and this is so far from abating any thing of its terrour and our dear concernment, that it much increases it : for, although concerning precepts and discourses we are apt to neglect in <c particular, what is recommended in general, and in incidencies of mortality and sad events, the singu- larity of the chance heightens the apprehension of the evil ; yet it is so by accident, and only in regard of our imperfection ; it being an effect of self-love, or some little creeping envy which adheres too often to the unfortunate and miserable ; or else because the sorrow is apt to increase, by being apprehended to be a rare case, and a sino-ular unworthiness in him Avho is afflicted, otherwise than is common to the sons of men, companions of his sin, and brethren of his nature, and partners of his usual accidents ; yet in final and extreme events, the multitude of suf- ferers does not lessen but increase the sufferings ; and when the first day of judgment happened, that, I mean, of the universal deluge of waters upon the old world, the calamity swelled like the flood, and every man saw his friend perish, and the neighbours of his dwelling, and the relatives of his house, and the sharers of his joys, and yesterday's bride, and the new born heir, the priest of the family, and the hon- our of the kindred, all dying or dead, drenched in water and the divine vengeance ; and then they had no place to flee unto, no man cared for their souls ; they had none to go unto for counsel, no sanctuary high enough to keep them from the vengeance that rained down from heaven ; and so it shall be at the day of judgment, when that world and this, and all that shall be born hereafter, shall pass through the same Red Sea, and be all baptized with the same

6 chkist's advent to judgment. Serm. V.

fire, and be involved in the same cloud, in which shall be thunderings and terrours infinite; every man's fear shall be increased by his neighbour's shrieks, and the amazement that all the world shall be in, shall unite as the sparks of a raging furnace into a globe of fire, and roll upon its own principle, and increase by direct appearances, and intolerable rellections. He that stands in a church-yard in the time of a great plague, and hears the passing-bell perpetually telling the sad stories of death, and sees crowds of infected bodies pressing to their graves, and others sick and tremulous, and death dressed up in all the images of sorrow round about him, is not sup- ported in his spirit by the variety of his sorrow : and at dooms-day, when the terrours are universal, besides that it is in itself so much greater, because it can aifright the whole world, it is also made greater by communication and a sorrowful influence ; grief being then strongly infectious, when there is no variety of state but an entire kingdom of fear; and amazement is the king of all our passions, and all the world its subjects: and that shriek must needs be terrible, when millions of men and women at the same instant shall fearfully cry out, and the noise shall mingle with the trumpet of the archangel, with the thunders of the dying and groaning heavens, and the crack of the dissolving world, when the whole fabrick of nature shall shake into dissolution and eternal ashes. But this general consideration may be hcio-htened with four or five circumstances.

1. Consider what an infinite multitude of angels and men and women shall then appear ; it is a huge assemblv, w^ien the men of one kine:dom, the men of one age m a single province, are gathered together into heaps and confusion of disorder; but then all kingdoms of all ages, all the armies that ever mus- tered, all the world that Augustus Caesar taxed, all

Serm. /. Christ's advent to judgment. 7

those hundreds of mllhons that were slain in all the Roman wars from JYuma^s time till Italy was broken into principalities and small exarchats ; all these, and all that can come into numbers, and that did descend from the loins of Adam^ shall at once be represented ; to which account if we add the armies of heaven, the nine orders of blessed spirits, and the infinite numbers in every order, we may suppose the numbers fit to express the majesty of that God, and terrour of that Judge, who is the Lord and Father of all that unim- aginable multitude. Krit terror ingens tot simul tan- torumque populorum*

2. In this great multitude we shall meet all those, who by their example and their holy precepts have, like tapers, enkindled with a beam of the sun of righteousness, enlightened us, and taught us to walk in the paths of justice. There we shall see all those good men whom God sent to preach to us, and recall us from human follies and inhuman practices : and when we espy the good man, that chid us for our last drunkenness or adulteries, it shall then also be remembered, how we mocked at counsel ; and were civilly modest at the reproof, but laughed when the man was gone, and accepted it for a religious com- pliment, and took our leaves, and went and did the same again. But then things shall put on another face, and that we smiled at here, and shghted fondly, shall then be the greatest terrour in the world ; men shall feel, that they once laughed at their own de- struction, and rejected health, when it was offered by a man of God upon no other condition, but that they would be wise, and not be in love with death. Then they shall perceive, that if they had obeyed an easy and a sober counsel, they had been partners of the same felicity, which they see so illustrious upon the

* Florus. Great shall be the terrour of so hu^e and vast a mul- titude.

S Christ's advent to judgment, fierm. L

heads of tliosc preachers, ichose work is with (he Lord^ and who by their hfe and doctrine endeavoured to snatch the soul of their friend or relatives from an in- tolerable misery. But he tliat sees a crown put upon their heads that give good counsel, and preach holy and severe sermons with designs of charity and piety, will also then perceive, that God did not send preachers for nothing, on trilling errands and with- out regard : but that work, which he crowns in them, he purposed should be elfective to us, persuasive to the understanding, and active upon our consciences. Good preachers by their doctrine, and all good men by their lives, are the accusers of the disobedient ; and they shall rise up from their seats, and judge and condemn the follies of those who thought their piety to be want of courage, and their discourses pedantical, and their reproofs the priest's trade, but of no signification, because they preferred moments before eternity.

3. There in that great assembly shall be seen all those converts, who upon easier terms, and fewer miracles, and a less experience, and a younger grace, and a seldomer preaching, and more unlikely circum- stances, have suffered the work of God to prosper upon their spirits, and have been obedient to the hea- venly calling. There shall stand the men o( jVincvch^ and they shall stand upright in judgment, for they at the preaching of one man in a less space than forty days returned unto the Lord their God ; but we have heard him call all our lives, and like the deaf adder stopl our ears a<rainst the voice of God's servants, chann they nerer so wisely. There shall appear the men of Capernaum, and the Queen of the south, and the men of Berea, and the iirst fruits of the Christian church, and the hoiy niaityrs, and shall proclaim to all the world, that it was not impossible to do the work of grace in the midst of all our weaknesses, and

Serm. I. Christ's advent to judgment. 9

accidental disadvantages : and that the obedience of faith^ and the labour of love^ and the contentions of chastity, and the severities of temperance and self- denial, are not such insuperable mountains, but that an honest and sober person may perform them in ac- ceptable degrees, if he have but a ready ear, and a Avlillng mind, and an honest heart : and this scene of honest persons shall make the divine judgment upon sinners more reasonably and apparently just, in passing upon them the horrible sentence ; for why cannot we as well serve God in peace, as others served him in war? Why cannot we love him as well, when he treats us sweetly, and gives us health and plenty, honours our fair fortunes, reputation or contentedness, quietness and peace, as others did upon gibbets and under axes, in the hands of tor- mentors and in hard wildernesses, in nakedness and poverty, in the midst of all evil things and all sad discomforts ? Concerning this no answer can be made.

4. But there is a worse sight than this yet, which in that great assembly shall distract our sight, and amaze our spirits. There men shall meet the part- ners of their sins, and them that drank the round, when they crowned their heads with folly and for- getfulness, and their cups with wine and noises. There shall ye see that poor perishing soul, whom thou didst tempt to adultery and wantonness, to drunkenness or perjury, to rebellion or an evil in- terest, by power or craft, by Avitty discourses or deep dissembling, by scandal or a snare, by evil ex- ample or pernicious counsel, by malice or uuAvari- ness ; and when all this is summed up, and from the rariety of its particulars is drawn into an uneasy load and a formidable sum, possibly we may find sights enough to scare all our confidences, and argu- ments enough to press our evil souls into the sorrows

VOL. I. 3

10 Christ's advent to judgment. Ser

m.

of a most intolojablc death. For however we make now hilt li2;lit accounts and evil proportions concern- ing it, yet it will be a fearful circumstance of ap- pearing, to see one, or two, or ten, or twenty accur- sed souls despairing, miserable, infinitely miserable, roaring and blaspheming, and fearfully cursing thee as the cause of its eternal sori'ows. Thy lust betray- ed and rifled her weak unguarded innocence ; thy example made thy servant confident to lie, or to be perjured ; thy society brought a third into intemper- ance and the disguises of a beast; and when thou seest that soul, with whom thou didst sin, dragged into hell, well mayest thou fear to drink the dregs of thy intolerable potion. And most certainly it is the greatest of evils to destroy a soul for whom the Lord .Tesus died, and to undo that grace which our Lord purchased with so much sweat and blood, pains, and a mighty charity. And because very many sins are sins of society and confederation ; such are fornica- tion, drunkenness, bribery, simon} , rebellion, schism, and many others ; it is a hard and a weighty consid- eration, what shall become of any one of us, who have tempted our brother or sister to sin and death : for though God hath spared our life, and they are dead, and their debt-books are sealed up till the day of account ; yet the mischief of our sin is gone before us, and it is like a murther, but more execrable : the soul is dead in trespasses and sins, and sealed up to an eternal sorrow; and thou shalt see at dooms-day what damnable uncharitableness thou hast done. That soul that cries to those rocks to cover her. if it had not been for thy perpetual temptations, might have followed the Lamb in a white robe ; and that poor man, that is clothed with shame and flames of fire, would have shincd in glory, but that thou didst force him to be partner of the baseness. And who shall pay for this loss } a soul is lost by thy means ;

Serm. I. Christ's advent to judgment. 11

thou hast defeated the holy purposes of the Lord's bitter passion by thj impurities; and what shall hap- pen to thee by whom thy brother dies eternally ? Of all the considerations that concern this part of the horrours of dooms-day, nothing can be more formida- ble than this to such whom it does concern ; and truly it concerns so many, and amongst so many perhaps some persons are so tender, that it might affrignt their hopes, and discompose their industries and spiritual labours of repentance ; but that our most merciful Lord hath, in the midst of all the fearful circumstances of his second coming, interwoven this one comfort relating to this, which to my sense seems the most fearful and killing circumstance ; two shall be grinding at one mill ; the one shall be taken, and the other left : two shall be in a bed ; the one shall be taken, and the other left : that is, those who are confederate in the same fortunes, and interests, and actions, may yet have a ditferent sentence ; for an early and an active repentance will wash off this ac- count, and put it upon the tables of the cross : and though it ought to make us diligent and careful, charitable and penitent, hugely penitent even so long as we live ; yet when we shall appear together, there is a mercy that shall there separate us, who some- times had blended each other in a common crime. Blessed be the mei-cies of God, who hath so carefully provided a fruitful shower of grace, to refresh the miseries and dangers of the greatest part of man- kind. Thomas Jlquinas was used to beg of God, that he might never be tempted from his low fortune to prelacies and dignities ecclesiastical; and that his mind might never be discomposed or polluted with the love of any creature ; and that he might, by some instrument or other, understand the state of his de- ceased brother ; and the story says, that he was heard in all. In him it was a great curiosity, or the

12 Christ's advent to judgment. Serm. L

passion and impertinenclcs of a useless charity to search after him, unless he had some other personal concernment than his relation of kindred. But truly, it would concern xery many to be solicitous concern- ing the event of those souls, with whom we have mingled death and sin ; tor many of those sentences, which have passed and deoieed concerning our de- parted relatives, will concern us dearly, and we are bound in the same bundles, and shall be thrown into the same fires, unless we repent for our own sins, and double our sorrows for then' damnation.

5. We may consider that this infinite multitude of men and women, angels and devils, is not Inelfective as a number in Pythagoras'' Tables, but must needs have influence upon every spirit that shall there ap- pear : for the transactions of that court are not like orations spoken by a Grecian orator in the circles of his people, heard by them that crowd nearest him, or that sound limited by the circles of air, or the enclo- sure of a wall ; but every thing is represented to every person ; and then let it be considered, when thy shame and secret turpitude, thy midnight revels and secret hypocrisies, thy lustful thoughts and treacherous designs, thy falsehood to God and startings from thy holy promises, thy follies and impieties shall be laid open before all the woild, and that then shall be spoken by the trumpet of an archangel upon the house top, the highest battlements of heaven, all those filthy words and lewd circumstances, which thou didst act secretly ; thou wilt find, that thou wilt have reason strangely to be ashamed. All the Avise men in the world sliall know, how vile thou hast been: and then consider, with what confusion of face wouldst thou stand in the presence of a good man