Part 3

Part 3

instructions have been given you, so from you, men will most justly

expect the greater improvement in goodness.

Indeed, I cannot say, I have discharged my duty towards you as I ought.

No, I am sensible of many faults in my ministerial office, and for

which I have not failed, nor, I hope, ever shall fail, to humble myself

in secret before God. However, this I can say, that except a few days

that have been spent necessarily on other persons, whom God immediately

called me to write and minister unto, and the two last weeks wherein I

have been confined by sickness; all the while I have been aboard, I

have been either actually engaged in, or preparing myself for

instructing you. And though you are now to be committed to the care of

another (whose labors I heartily beseech God to bless amongst you) yet

I trust I shall, at all seasons, if need be, willingly spend, and be

spent, for the good of your souls, though the more abundantly I love

you, the less I should be loved.

As for your military affairs, I have nothing to do with them. Fear God,

and you must honor the King. Nor am I well acquainted with the nature

of that land which you are now come over to protect; only this I may

venture to affirm in the general, that you must necessarily expect upon

your arrival at a new colony, to meet with many difficulties. But your

very profession teaches you to endure hardship; "be not, therefore,

faint- hearted, but quit yourselves like men, and be strong," Numb. 14.

Be not like those cowardly persons, who were affrighted at the report

of the false spies, that came and said, that there were people tall as

the Anakims to be grappled with, but be ye like unto Caleb and Joshua,

all heart; and say, we will act valiantly, for we shall be more than

conquerors over all difficulties through Jesus Christ that loved us.

Above all things, my brethren, take heed, and beware of murmuring, like

the perverse Israelites, against those that are set over you; and

"learn, whatsoever state you shall be in, therewith to be content,"

Phil. 4:11.

As I have spoken to you, I hope your wives also will suffer the word of

exhortation,

Your behavior on shipboard especially the first part of the voyage, I

choose to throw a cloak over; for to use them mildest terms, it was not

such as became the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. However, of late,

blessed be God, you have taken more heed to your ways, and some of you

have walked all the while, as became "women professing godliness." Let

those accept my hearty thanks, and permit me to entreat you all in

general, as you are all now married, to remember the solemn vow you

made at your entrance into the marriage state, and see that you be

subject to your own husbands, in every lawful thing: Beg of God to keep

the door of your lips, that you offend not with your tongues; and walk

in love, that your prayers be not hindered. You that have children, let

it be your chief concern to breed them up in the nurture and admonition

of the Lord. And live all of you so holy and unblameable, that you may

not so much as be suspected to be unchaste; and as some of you have

imitated Mary Magdalen in her sin, strive to imitate her also in her

repentance.

As for you, sailors, what shall I say? How shall I address myself to

you? How shall I do that which I so much long to do; touch your hearts?

Gratitude obliges me to wish thus well to you. For you have often

taught me many instructive lessons, and reminded me to put up many

prayers to God for you, that you might receive your spiritual sight.

When I have seen you preparing for a storm, and reefing [could also be

reesing] your sails to guard against it; how have I wished that you and

I were as careful to avoid that storm of God's wrath, which will

certainly, without repentance, quickly overtake us? When I have

observed you catch at ever fair gale, how I secretly cried, O that we

were as careful to know the things that belong to our peace, before

they are forever hid from our eyes! And when I have taken notice, how

steadily you eyed your compass in order to steer aright, how have I

wished, that we as steadily eyed the word of God, which alone can

preserve us from "making shipwreck of faith, and a good conscience!" In

short, there is scarce anything you do, which has not been a lesson of

instruction to me; and, therefore, it would me ungrateful in me, did I

not take this opportunity of exhorting you in the name of our Lord

Jesus Christ, to be as wise in the things which concern you soul, as I

have observed you to be in the affairs belonging to your ship.

I am sensible, that the sea is reckoned but an ill school to learn

Christ in: and to see a devout sailor, is esteemed an uncommon a thing,

as to see a Saul amongst the prophets. But whence this wondering?

Whence this looking upon a godly sailor, as a man to be wondered at, as

a speckled bird in the creation? I am sure, for the little time I have

come in and out amongst you, and as far as I can judge from the little

experience I have had of things, I scarce know any way of life, that is

capable of greater improvements than yours.

The continual danger you are in of being overwhelmed by the great

waters; the many opportunities you have of beholding God's wonders in

the deep; the happy retirement you enjoy from worldly temptations; and

the daily occasions that are offered you, to endure hardships, are such

noble means of promoting the spiritual life, that were your hearts bent

towards God, you would account it your happiest, that his providence

has called you, to "go down to the sea in ships, and to occupy your

business in the great waters."

The royal Psalmist knew this, and, therefore, in the words of the text,

calls more especially on men of your employ, to "praise the Lord for

his goodness, and declare the wonders he doeth for the children of

men."

And O that you would be wise in time, and hearken to his voice today,

"whilst it is called to-day!" For ye yourselves know how little is to

be done on a sick bed. God has, in an especial manner, of late, invited

you to repentance: two of your crew he has taken off by death, and most

of you he has mercifully visited with a grievous sickness. The terrors

of the Lord have been upon you, and when burnt with a scorching fever,

some of you have cried out, "What shall w do to be saved?" Remember

then the resolutions you made, when you thought God was about to take

away your souls; and see that according to your promises, you show

forth your thankfulness, not only with your lips, but in your lives.

For though God may bear long, he will not forbear always; and if these

signal mercies and judgments do not lead you to repentance, assure

yourselves there will at last come a fiery tempest, from the presence

of the Lord, which will sweep away you, and all other adversaries of

God.

I am positive, neither you nor the soldiers have wanted, nor will want

any manner of encouragement to piety and holiness of living, from those

two persons who have here the government over you; for they have been

such helps to me in my ministry, and have so readily concurred in every

thing for your good, that they may justly demand a public

acknowledgment of thanks both from you and me.

Permit me, my honored friends, in the name of both classes of your

people, to return you hearty thanks for the ears and tenderness you

have expressed for the welfare of their better parts.

As for the private favors you have shown to my person, I hope so deep a

sense of them is imprinted on my heart, that I shall plead them before

God in prayer, as long as I live.

But I have still stronger obligations to intercede in your behalf. For

God, ever adored be his free grace in Christ Jesus! Has set his seal to

my ministry in your hearts. Some distant pangs of the new birth I have

observed to come upon you; and God forbid that I should sin against the

Lord, by ceasing to pray, that the good work begun in your souls, may

be carried on till the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The time of our departure from each other is not at hand, and you are

going out into a world of temptations. But though absent in body, let

us be present with each other in spirit; and God, I trust, will enable

you to be singularly good, to be ready to be accounted fools for

Christ's sake; and then we shall meet never to part again in the

kingdom of our Father which is in heaven.

To you, my companions and familiar friends, who came over with me to

sojourn in a strange land, do I in the next place address myself. For

you I especially fear, as well as for myself, because as we take sweet

counsel together oftner than others, and as you are let into a more

intimate friendship with me in private life, the eyes of all men will

be upon you to note even the minutest miscarriage; and, therefore, it

highly concerns you to "walk circumspectly towards those that are

without," I hope, that nothing but a single eye to God's glory and the

salvation of your own souls, brought you from your native country.

Remember than the end of your coming hither, and you can never do

amiss. Be patterns of industry, as well as of piety, to those who shall

be around you; and above all things let us have such fervent charity

amongst ourselves, that it may be said of us, as of the primitive

Christians, "See how the Christians love one another."

And now I have been speaking to others particularly, I have one general

request to make to all, and that with reference to myself.

You have heard, my dear friends, how I have been exhorting every one of

you to show forth your thankfulness for the divine goodness, not only

with your lips, but in your lives. But "physician heal thyself," may

justly be retorted on me. For (without any false pretenses to humility)

I find my own heart so little inclined to this duty of thanksgiving for

the benefits I have received, that I had need fear sharing Hezekiah's

fate, who because he was lifted up by, and not thankful enough for, the

great things God had done for him, was given up a prey to the pride of

his own heart.

I need, therefore, and beg your most importunate petitions at the

throne of grace, that no such evil may befall me; that the more Go

exalts me, the more I may debase myself; and that after I have preached

to others, I myself may not be cast away.

And now, brethren, into God's hands I commend your spirits, who, I

trust, through his infinite mercies in Christ Jesus, will preserve you

blameless, till his second coming to judge the world.

Excuse my detaining you for long; perhaps it is the last time I shall

speak to you: my heart is full, and out of the abundance of it, I could

continue my discourse until midnight. But I must away to your new

world; may God give you new hearts, and enable you to put in practice

what you have heard from time to time, to by your duty, and I need not

wish you anything better. For then God will so bless you, that "you

will build you cities to dwell in; then will you sow your lands and

plant vineyards, which will yield you fruits of increase," Psalm

107:37. "Then your oxen shall be strong to labor, there shall be no

leading into captivity, and no complaining in your streets; then shall

your sons grow up as the young plants, and your daughters be as the

polished corners of the temple: then shall your garners be full and

plenteous with all manner of store, and your sheep bring forth

thousands, and ten thousands in your streets," Psalm 144 In short, then

shall the Lord be your God; and as surely as he has now brought us to

this haven, where we would be, so surely, after we have past through

the storms and tempests of this troublesome world, will he bring us to

the haven of eternal rest, where we shall have nothing to do, but to

praise him for ever for his goodness, and declare, in never-ceasing

songs of praise, the wonders he has done for us, and all the other sons

of men.

"To which blessed rest, God of his infinite mercy bring us all, through

Jesus Christ our Lord! To whom with the Father and Holy Ghost be all

honor and glory, might, majesty, and dominion, now, henceforth, and

forevermore. Amen, Amen."

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The Necessity and Benefits of Religious Society

Eccles. 4:9-12 -- "Two are better than one, because they have a good

reward for their labor. For if they fall, the one will lift up his

fellow: but woe be to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath

not another to help him up. Again, if two lie together, then they have

heat; but how can one be warm alone? And if one prevail against him,

two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.

Among the many reasons assignable for the sad decay of true

Christianity, perhaps the neglecting to assemble ourselves together, in

religious societies, may not be one of the least. That I may therefore

do my endeavor towards promoting so excellent a means of piety, I have

selected a passage of scripture drawn from the experience of the wisest

of men, which being a little enlarged on and illustrated, will fully

answer my present design; being to show, in the best manner I can, the

necessity and benefits of society in general, and of religious society

in particular.

"Two are better than one, &c."

From which words I shall take occasion to prove,

First, The truth of the wise man's assertion, "Two are better than

one," and that in reference to society in general, and religious

society in particular.

Secondly, To assign some reasons why two are better than one,

especially as to the last particular. 1. Because men can raise up one

another when they chance to slip: "For if they fall, the one will lift

up his fellow." 2. Because they can impart heat to each other: "Again,

if tow lie together, then they have heat, but how can one be warm

alone?" 3. Because they can secure each other from those that do oppose

them: "And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a

threefold cord is not quickly broken." From hence,

Thirdly, I shall take occasion to show the duty incumbent on every

member of a religious society.

And Fourthly, I shall draw an inference or two from what may be said;

and then conclude with a word or two of exhortation.

First, I am to prove the truth of the wise man's assertion, that "two

are better than one," and that in reference to society in general, and

religious societies in particular.

And how can this be done better, than by showing that it is absolutely

necessary for the welfare both of the bodies and souls of men? Indeed,

if we look upon man as he came out of the hands of his Maker, we

imagine him to be perfect, entire, lacking nothing. But God, whose

thoughts are not as our thoughts, saw something still wanting to make

Adam happy. And what was that? Why, and help meet for him. For thus

speaketh the scripture: "And the Lord God said, It is not good that the

man should be alone, I will make an help meet for him."

Observe, God said, "It is not good," thereby implying that the creation

would have been imperfect, in some sort, unless an help was found out

meet for Adam. And if this was the case of man before the fall; if an

help was meet for him in a state of perfection; surely since the fall,

when we come naked and helpless out of our mother's womb, when our

wants increase with our years, and we can scarcely subsist a day

without the mutual assistance of each other, well may we say, "It is

not good for man to be alone."

Society then, we see, is absolutely necessary in respect to our bodily

and personal wants. If we carry our view farther, and consider mankind

as divided into different cities, countries, and nations, the necessity

of it will appear yet more evident. For how can communities be kept up,

or commerce carried on, without society? Certainly not at all, since

providence seems wisely to have assigned a particular product to almost

each particular country, on purpose, as it were, to oblige us to be

social; and hath so admirably mingled the parts of the whole body of

mankind together, "that the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need

of thee; nor again, the hand to the foot, I have no need of thee."

Many other instances might be given of the necessity of society, in

reference to our bodily, personal, and national wants. But what are all

these when weighed in the balance of the sanctuary, in comparison of

the infinite greater need of it, with respect to the soul? It was

chiefly in regard to this better part, no doubt, that God said, "It is

not good for the man to be alone." For, let us suppose Adam to be as

happy as may be, placed as the Lord of the creation in the paradise of

God, and spending all his hours in adoring and praising the blessed

Author of his being; yet as his soul was the very copy of the divine

nature, whose peculiar property it is to be communicative, without the

divine all sufficiency he could not be completely happy, because he was

alone and incommunicative, nor even content in paradise, for want of a

partner in his joys. God knew this, and therefore said, "It is not good

that the man shall be alone, I will make a help meet for him." And

though this proved a fatal means of his falling; yet that was not owing

to any natural consequence of society; but partly to that cursed

apostate, who craftily lies in wait to deceive; partly to Adam's own

folly, in rather choosing to be miserable with one he loved, than trust

in God to raise him up another spouse.

If we reflect indeed on that familiar intercourse, our first parent

could carry on with heaven, in a state of innocence, we shall be apt to

think he had as little need of society, as to his soul, as before we

supposed him to have, in respect to his body. But yet, as God and the

holy angels were so far above him on the one hand, and the beasts so

far beneath him on the other, there was nothing like having one to

converse with, who was "bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh."

Man, then, could not be fully happy, we see, even in paradise, without

a companion of his own species, much less now he is driven out. For,

let us view him a little in his natural estate now, since the fall, as

"having his understanding darkened, his mind alienated from the life of

God;" as no more able to see his way wherein he should go, than a blind

man to describe the sun: that notwithstanding this, he must receive his

sight ere he can see God: and that if he never sees him, he never can

be happy. Let us view him in this light (or rather than darkness) and

deny the necessity of society if we can. A divine revelation we find is

absolutely necessary, we being by nature as unable to know, as we are

to do our duty. And how shall we learn except one teach us? But was God

to do this himself, how should we, but with Moses, exceedingly quake

and fear? Nor would the ministry of angels in this affair, be without

too much terror. It is necessary, therefore (at least God's dealing

with us hath showed it to be so) that we should be drawn with the cords

of a man. And that a divine revelation being granted, we should use one

another's assistance, under God, to instruct each other in the

knowledge, and to exhort one another to the practice of those things

which belong to our everlasting peace. This is undoubtedly the great

end of society intended by God since the fall, and a strong argument it

is, why "two are better than one," and why we should "not forsake the

assembling ourselves together."

But further, let us consider ourselves as Christians, as having this

natural veil, in some measure, taken off from our eyes by the

assistance of God's Holy Spirit, and so enabled to see what he requires

of us. Let us suppose ourselves in some degree to have tasted the good

word of life, and to have felt the powers of the world to come,

influencing and molding our souls into a religious frame: to be fully

and heartily convinced that we are soldiers lifted under the banner of

Christ, and to have proclaimed open war at our baptism, against the

world, the flesh, and the devil; and have, perhaps, frequently renewed

our obligations so to do, by partaking of the Lord's supper: that we

are surrounded with millions of foes without, and infected with a

legion of enemies within: that we are commanded to shine as lights in

the world, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation: that we

are traveling to a long eternity, and need all imaginable helps to

show, and encourage us in our way thither. Let us, I say, reflect on

all this, and then how shall each of us cry out, brethren, what a

necessary thing it is to meet together in religious societies?

The primitive Christians were fully sensible of this, and therefore we

find them continually keeping up communion with each other: for what

says the scripture? They continued steadfastly in the apostle's

doctrine and fellowship, Acts 2:42. Peter and John were no sooner

dismissed by the great council, than they haste away to their

companions. "And being set at liberty they came to their own, and told

them all these things which the high priest had said unto them," Acts

4:23. Paul, as soon as converted, "tarried three days with the

disciples that were at Damascus." Acts 9:19. And Peter afterwards, when

released from prison, immediately goes to the house of Mary, where

there were "great multitudes assembled, praying," Acts 12:12. And it is

reported of the Christians in after ages, that they used to assemble

together before day-light, to sing a psalm to Christ as God. So

precious was the Communion of Saints in those days.

If it be asked, what advantages we shall reap from such a procedure

now? I answer, much every way. "Two are better than one, because they

have a good reward for their labor: for if they fall, the one will lift

up his fellow; but woe be to him that is alone when he falleth, for he

hath not another to help him up. Again, if two lie together, then they

have heat; but how can one be warm alone? And if one prevail against

him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly

broken."

Which directly leads me to my Second general head, under which I was to

assign some reasons why "two are better than one," especially in

Religious Society.

1. As man in his present condition cannot always stand upright, but by

reason of the frailty of his nature cannot but fall; one eminent reason

why two are better than one, or, in other words, one great advantage of

religious society is, "That when they fall, the one will lift up his

fellow."

And an excellent reason this, indeed! For alas! When we reflect how

prone we are to be drawn into error in our judgments, and into vice in

our practice; and how unable, at least how very unwilling, to espy or

correct our own miscarriages; when we consider how apt the world is to

flatter us in our faults, and how few there are so kind as to tell us

the truth; what an inestimable privilege must it be to have a set of

true, judicious, hearty friends about us, continually watching over our

souls, to inform us where we have fallen, and to warn us that we fall

not again for the future. Surely it is such a privilege, that (to use

the words of an eminent Christian) we shall never know the value

thereof, till we come to glory.

But this is not all; for supposing that we could always stand upright,

yet whosoever reflects on the difficulties of religion in general, and

his own propensity to lukewarmness and indifference in particular, will

find that he must be zealous as well as steady, if ever he expects to

enter the kingdom of heaven. Here, then, the wise man points out to us

another excellent reason why two are better than one. "Again, if two

lie together, then they have heat; but how can one be warm alone?"

Which was the next thing to be considered.

2. A Second reason why two are better than one, is because they can

impart heat to each other.

It is an observation no less true than common, that kindled coals, if

placed asunder, soon go out, but if heaped together, quicken and

enliven each other, and afford a lasting heat. The same will hold good

in the case now before us. If Christians kindled by the grace of God,

unite, they will quicken and enliven each other; but if they separate

and keep asunder, no marvel if they soon grow cool or tepid. If two are

three meet together in Christ's name, they will have heat: but how can

one be warm alone?

Observe, "How can one be warm alone?" The wise man's expressing himself

by way of question, implies an impossibility, at least a very great

difficulty, to be warm in religion without company, where it may be

had. Behold here, then, another excellent benefit flowing from

religious society; it will keep us zealous, as well as steady, in the

way of godliness.

But to illustrate this a little farther by a comparison or two. Let us

look upon ourselves (as was above hinted) as soldiers listed under

Christ's banner; as going out with "ten thousand, to meet one that

cometh against us with twenty thousand;" as persons that are to

"wrestle not only with flesh and blood, but against principalities,

against powers, and spiritual wickednesses in high places." And then

tell me, all ye that fear God, if it be not an invaluable privilege to

have a company of fellow soldiers continually about us, animating and

exhorting each other to stand our ground, to keep our ranks, and

manfully to follow the captain of our salvation, though it be through a

sea of blood?

Let us consider ourselves in another view before mentioned, as persons

traveling to a long eternity; as rescued by the free grace of God, in

some measure, from our natural Egyptian bondage, and marching under the

conduct of our spiritual Joshua, through the wilderness of this world,

to the land of our heavenly Canaan. Let us farther reflect how apt we

are to startle at every difficulty; to cry, "There are lions! There are

lions in the way! There are the sons of Anak" to be grappled with, ere

we can possess the promised land. How prone we are, with Lot's wife, to

look wishfully back on our spiritual Sodom, or, with the foolish

Israelites, to long again for the flesh-pots of Egypt; and to return to

our former natural state of bondage and slavery. Consider this, my

brethren, and see what a blessed privilege it will be to have a set of

Israelites indeed about us, always reminding us of the folly of any

such cowardly design, and of the intolerable misery we shall run into,

if we fall in the least short of the promised land.

More might be said on this particular, did not the limits of a

discourse of this nature oblige me to hasten,

3. To give a third reason, mentioned by the wise man in the text, why

two are better than one; because they can secure each other from

enemies without. "And if one prevail against him, yet two shall

withstand him: and a threefold cord is not quickly broken."

Hitherto we have considered the advantages of religious societies, as a

great preservative against falling (at least dangerously falling) into

sin and lukewarmness, and that too from our own corruptions. But what

says the wise son of Sirach? "My son, when thou goest to serve the

Lord, prepare thy soul for temptation:" and that not only from inward,

but outward foes; particularly from those two grand adversaries, the

world and the devil: for no sooner will thine eye be bent heavenward,

but the former will be immediately diverting it another way, telling

thee thou needest not be singular in order to be religious; that you

may be a Christian without going so much out of the common road.

Nor will the devil be wanting in his artful insinuations, or impious

suggestions, to divert or terrify thee from pressing forwards, "that

thou mayst lay hold on the crown of life." And if he cannot prevail

this way, he will try another; and, in order to make his temptation the

more undiscerned, but withal more successful, he will employ, perhaps,

some of thy nearest relatives, or most powerful friends, (as he set

Peter on our blessed Master) who will always be bidding thee to spare

thyself; telling thee thou needest not take so much pain; that it is

not so difficult a matter to get to heaven as some people would make of

it, nor the way so narrow as others imagine it to be.

But see here the advantage of religious company; for supposing thou

findest thyself thus surrounded on every side, and unable to withstand

such horrid (though seemingly friendly) counsels, haste away to thy

companions, and they will teach thee a truer and better lesson; they

will tell thee, that thou must be singular if thou wilt be religious;

and that it is as impossible for a Christian, as for a city set upon a

hill, to be hidden: that if thou wilt be an almost Christian (and as

good be none at all) thou mayest live in the same idle, indifferent

manner as thou seest most other people do: but if thou wilt be not only

almost, but altogether a Christian, they will inform thee thou must go

a great deal farther: that thou must not only faintly seek, but

"earnestly strive to enter in at the strait gate:" that there is but

one way now to heaven as formerly, even through the narrow passage of a

sound conversion: and that in order to bring about this mighty work,

thou must undergo a constant, but necessary discipline of fasting,

watching, and prayer. And therefore, the only reason why those friends

give thee such advice, is, because they are not willing to take to much

pains themselves; or, as our Savior told Peter on a like occasion,

because they "savor not the things that be of God, but the things that

be of men."

This then, is another excellent blessing arising from religious

society, that friends can hereby secure each other from those who

oppose them. The devil is fully sensible of this, and therefore he has

always done his utmost to suppress, and put a stop to the communion of

saints. This was his grand artifice at the first planting of the

gospel; to persecute the professors of it, in order to separate them.

Which, though God, as he always will, over-ruled for the better; yet,

it shows, what an enmity he has against Christians assembling

themselves together. Nor has he yet left off his old stratagem; it

being his usual way to entice us by ourselves, in order to tempt us;

where, by being destitute of one another's help, he hopes to lead us

captive at his will.

But, on the contrary, knowing his own interest is strengthened by

society, he would first persuade us to neglect the communion of saints,

and then bid us "stand in the way of sinners," hoping thereby to put us

into the seat of the scornful. Judas and Peter are melancholy instances

of this. The former had no sooner left his company at supper, but he

went out and betrayed his master: and the dismal downfall of the

latter, when he would venture himself amongst a company of enemies,

plainly shows us what the devil will endeavor to, when he gets us by

ourselves. Had Peter kept his own company, he might have kept his

integrity; but a single cord, alas! how quickly was it broken? Our

blessed Savior knew this full well, and therefore it is very

observable, that he always sent out his disciples "two by two."

And now, after so many advantages to be reaped from religious society,

may we not very justly cry out with the wise man in my text, "Woe be to

him that is alone; for when he falleth, he hath not another to lift him

up!" When he is cold, he hath not a friend to warm him; when he is

assaulted, he hath not a second to help him to withstand his enemy.

III. I now come to my third general head, under which was to be shown

the sever duties incumbent on every member of a religious society, as

such, which are three. 1. Mutual reproof; 2. Mutual exhortation; 3.

Mutual assisting and defending each other.

1. Mutual reproof. "Two are better than one; for when they fall, the

one will lift up his fellow."

Now, reproof may be taken either in a more extensive sense, and then it

signifies our raising a brother by the gentlest means, when he falls

into sin and error; or in a more restrained signification, as reaching

no farther than whose miscarriages, which unavoidably happen in the

most holy men living.

The wise man, in the text supposes all of us subject to both: "For when

they fall (thereby implying that each of us may fall) the one will lift

up his fellow." From whence we may infer, that "when any brother is

overtaken with a fault, he that is spiritual (that is, regenerate, and

knows the corruption and weakness of human nature) ought to restore

such a one in the spirit of meekness." And why he should do so, the

apostle subjoins a reason "considering thyself, lest thou also be

tempted;" i.e. considering thy own frailty, lest thou also fall by the

like temptation.

We are all frail unstable creatures; and it is merely owing to the free

grace and good providence of God that we run not into the same excess

of riot with other men. Every offending brother, therefore, claims our

pity rather than our resentment; and each member should strive to be

the most forward, as well as most gentle, in restoring him to his

former state.

But supposing a person not to be overtaken, but to fall willfully into

a crime; yet who art thou that deniest forgiveness to thy offending

brother? "Let him that standeth take heed lest he fall." Take ye,

brethren, the holy apostles as eminent examples for you to learn by,

how you ought to behave in this matter. Consider how quickly they

joined the right hand of fellowship with Peter, who had so willfully

denied his master: for we find John and him together but two days

after, John 20:2. And ver. 19, we find him assembled with the rest. So

soon did they forgive, so soon associate with their sinful, yet

relenting brother. "Let us go and do likewise."

But there is another kind of reproof incumbent on every member of a

religious society; namely, a gentle rebuke for some miscarriage or

other, which though not actually sinful, yet may become the occasion of

sin. This indeed seems a more easy, but perhaps will be found a more

difficult point than the former: for when a person has really sinned,

he cannot but own his brethren's reproof to be just; whereas, when it

was only for some little misconduct, the pride that is in our natures

will scarce suffer us to brook (endure, tolerate) it. But however

ungrateful this pill may be to our brother, yet if we have any concern

for his welfare, it must be administered by some friendly hand or

other. By all means then let it be applied; only, like a skillful

physician, gild over the ungrateful pill, and endeavor, if possible, to

deceive thy brother into health and soundness. "Let all bitterness, and

wrath, and malice, and evil speaking, be put away" from it. Let the

patient know, his recovery is the only thing aimed at, and that thou

delightest not causelessly to grieve thy brother; then thou canst not

want success.

2. Mutual exhortation is the second duty resulting from the words of

the text. "Again, if two lie together, then they have heat."

Observe, the wise man supposes it as impossible for religious persons

to meet together, and not to be the warmer for each other's company, as

for two persons to lie in the same bed, and yet freeze with cold. But

now, how is it possible to communicate heat to each other, without

mutually stirring up the gift of God which is in us, by brotherly

exhortation? Let every member then of a religious society write that

zealous apostle's advice on the tables of his heart; "See that ye

exhort, and provoke one another to love, and to good works; and so much

the more, as you see the day of the Lord approaching." Believe me,

brethren, we have need of exhortation to rouse up our sleepy souls, to

set us upon our watch against the temptations of the world, the flesh,

and the devil; to excite us to renounce ourselves, to take up our

crosses, and follow our blessed master, and the glorious company of

saints and martyrs, "who through faith have fought the good fight, and

are gone before us to inherit the promises." A third part, therefore,

of the time wherein a religious society meets, seems necessary to be

spent in this important duty: for what avails it to have our

understandings enlightened by pious reading, unless our wills are at

the same time inclined, and inflamed by mutual exhortation, to put it

in practice? Add also, that this is the best way both to receive and

impart light, and the only means to preserve and increase that warmth

and heat which each person first brought with him; God so ordering

this, as all other spiritual gifts, that "to him that hath, i.e.

improves and communicates what he hath, shall be given; but from him

that hath not, or does not improve the heat he hath, shall be taken

away even that which he seemed to have." So needful, so essentially

necessary, is exhortation to the good of society.

3. Thirdly, The text points out another duty incumbent on every member

of a religious society, to defend each other from those that do oppose

them. "And if one prevail against him, yet two shall withstand him; and

a threefold cord is not quickly broken."

Here the wise man takes it for granted, that offenses will come, nay ,

and that they may prevail too. And this is not more than our blessed

master has long since told us. Not, indeed, that there is any thing in

Christianity itself that has the least tendency to give rise to, or

promote such offenses: No, on the contrary, it breathes nothing but

unity and love.

But so it is, that ever since the fatal sentence pronounced by God,

after our first parents fall, "I will put enmity between thy seed and

her seed;" he that is born after the flesh, the unregenerate

unconverted sinner, has in all ages "persecuted him that is born after

the spirit:" and so it always will be. Accordingly we find an early

proof given of this in the instance of Cain and Abel; of Ishmael and

Isaac; and of Jacob and Esau. And, indeed, the whole Bible contains

little else but an history of the great and continued opposition

between the children of this world, and the children of God. The first

Christians were remarkable examples of this; and though those

troublesome time, blessed be God, are now over, yet the apostle has

laid it down as a general rule, and all who are sincere experimentally

prove the truth of it; that "they that will live godly in Christ Jesus,

must (to the end of the world, in some degree or other) suffer

persecution." That therefore this may not make us desert our blessed

master's cause, every member should unite their forces in order to

stand against it. And for the better effecting this, each would do

well, from time to time, to communicate his experiences, grievances,

and temptations, and beg his companions (first asking God's assistance,

without which all is nothing) to administer reproof, exhortation, or

comfort, as his case requires: so that "if one cannot prevail against

it, yet two shall withstand it; and a threefold (much less a many-fold)

cord will not be quickly broken."

IV. But it is time for me to proceed to the fourth general thing

proposed, to draw an inference or two from what has been said.

1. And first, if "two are better than one," and the advantages of

religious society are so many and so great; then it is the duty of

every true Christian to set on foot, establish and promote, as much as

in him lies, societies of this nature. And I believe we may venture to

affirm, that if ever a spirit of true Christianity is revived in the

world, it must be brought about by some such means as this. Motive,

surely, cannot be wanting, to stir us up to the commendable and

necessary undertaking: for, granting all hitherto advanced to be of no

force, yet methinks the single consideration, that great part of our

happiness in heaven will consist in the Communion of Saints; or that

the interest as well as piety of those who differ from us, is

strengthened and supported by nothing more than their frequent

meetings; either of these considerations, I say, one would think,

should induce us to do our utmost to copy after their good example, and

settle a lasting and pious communion of the saints on earth. Add to

this, that we find the kingdom of darkness established daily by such

like means; and shall not the kingdom of Christ be set in opposition

against it? Shall the children of Belial assemble and strengthen each

other in wickedness; and shall not the children of God unite, and

strengthen themselves in piety? Shall societies on societies be

countenanced for midnight revelings, and the promoting of vice, and

scarcely one be found intended for the propagation of virtue? Be

astonished, O heavens at this!

2. But this leads me to a second inference; namely, to warn persons of

the great danger those are in, who either by their subscriptions,

presence, or approbation, promote societies of a quite opposite nature

to religion.

And here I would not be understood, to mean only those public meetings

which are designed manifestly for nothing else but revellings and

banquetings, for chambering and wantonness, and at which a modest

heathen would blush to be present; but also those seemingly innocent

entertainments and meetings, which the politer part of the world are so

very fond of, and spend so much time in: but which, notwithstanding,

keep as many persons from a sense of true religion, as doth

intemperance, debauchery, or any other crimes whatever. Indeed, whilst

we are in this world, we must have proper relaxations, to fit us both

for the business of our profession, and religion. But then, for persons

who call themselves Christians, that have solemnly vowed at their

baptism, to renounce the vanities of this sinful world; that are

commanded in scripture "to abstain from all appearance of evil, and to

have their conversation in heaven:" for such persons as these to

support meetings, which (to say no worse of them) are vain and

trifling, and have a natural tendency to draw off our minds from God,

is absurd, ridiculous, and sinful. Surely two are not better than one

in this case: No; it is to be wished there was not one to be found

concerned in it. The sooner we forsake the assembling ourselves

together in such a manner, the better; and no matte how quickly the

cord that hold such societies (was it a thousand-fold) is broken.

But you, brethren, have not so learned Christ: but, on the contrary,

like true disciples of your Lord and Master, have by the blessing of

God (as this evening's solemnity abundantly testifies) happily formed

yourselves into such societies, which, if duly attended on, and

improved, cannot but strengthen you in your Christian warfare, and

"make you fruitful in every good word and work."

What remains for me, but, as was proposed, in the first place, to close

what has been said, in a word or two, by way of exhortation, and to

beseech you, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to go on in the way

you have begun; and by a constant conscientious attendance on your

respective societies, to discountenance vice, encourage virtue, and

build each other up in the knowledge and fear of God.

Only permit me to "stir up your pure minds, by way of remembrance," and

to exhort you, "if there be any consolation in Christ, any fellowship

of the spirit," again and again to consider, that as all Christians in

general, so all members of religious societies in particular, are in an

especial manner, as houses built upon an hill; and that therefore it

highly concerns you to walk circumspectly towards those that are

without, and to take heed to yourselves, that your conversation, in

common life, be as becometh such an open and peculiar profession of the

gospel of Christ: knowing that the eyes of all men are upon you,

narrowly to inspect every circumstance of your behavior: and that every

notorious willful miscarriage of any single member will, in some

measure, redound to the scandal and dishonor of your whole fraternity.

Labor, therefore, my beloved brethren, to let your practice correspond

to your profession: and think not that it will be sufficient for you to

plead at the last day, Lord have we not assembled ourselves together in

thy name, and enlivened each other, by singing psalms, and hymns, and

spiritual songs? For verily, I say unto you, notwithstanding this, our

blessed Lord will bid you depart from him; nay, you shall receive a

great damnation, if, in the mists of these great pretensions, you are

found to be workers of iniquity.

But God forbid that any such evil should befall you; that there should

be ever a Judas, a traitor, amongst such distinguished followers of our

common master. No, on the contrary, the excellency of your rule, the

regularity of your meetings, and more especially your pious zeal in

assembling in such a public and solemn manner so frequently in the

year, persuade me to think, that you are willing, not barely to seem,

but to be in reality, Christians; and hope to be found at the last day,

what you would be esteemed now, holy, sincere disciples of a crucified

Redeemer.

Oh, may you always continue thus minded! And make it your daily,

constant endeavor, both by precept and example, to turn all your

converse with, more especially those of your own societies, into the

same most blessed spirit and temper. Thus will you adorn the gospel of

our Lord Jesus Christ in all things: Thus will you anticipate the

happiness of a future state; and by attending on, and improving the

communion of stints on earth, be made meet to join the communion and

fellowship of the spirits of just men made perfect, of the holy angels,

nay, of the ever blessed and eternal God in heaven.

Which God of his infinite mercy grant through Jesus Christ our Lord; to

whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost, three persons and one God, be

ascribed, as is most due, all honor and praise, might, majesty and

dominion, now and for ever. Amen.

__________________________________________________________________

The Folly and Danger of Being Not Righteous Enough

Ecclesiastes 7:16 -- "Be not righteous overmuch, neither make thyself

over- wise: why shouldst thou destroy thyself?"

Nothing is more frequent, than while people are living in a course of

sin, and after the fashion and manner of the world, there is not notice

taken of them; neither are their ways displeasing to their companions

and carnal relations: but if they set their faces Zion-ward, and begin

to feel the power of God on their hearts; they then are surrounded with

temptations from their friends, who thus act the devil's part. The

enemies, the greatest enemies a young convert meets with, my dear

brethren, are those of his own house. They that will be godly, must

suffer persecution; so it was in Christ'' time, and so it was in the

Apostles time too; for our Lord came not to send peace, but a sword.

Our relations would not have us sit in the scorner's chair; they would

not have us be prodigals, consuming our substance upon harlots; neither

would they have us rakes (a dissolute [loose in morals or conduct]

person) or libertines, but they would have us be contented with an

almost Christianity. To keep up our reputation by going to church, and

adhering to the outward forms of religion, saying our prayers, reading

the word of God, and taking the sacraments; this, they imagine, is all

that is necessary for to be Christians indeed; and when we go one step

farther than this, their mouths are open against us, as Peter's was to

Christ: "Spare thyself, do thyself no harm."

And of this nature are the words of the text. They are not the words of

Solomon himself, but the words of an infidel speaking to him, whom he

introduces in several parts of this book; for Solomon had been showing

the misfortunes which attended the truly good, as in the verse before

our text.

Upon this the infidel says, "Be not righteous over-much, neither be

thou over-wise; why shouldst thou destroy thyself?" i.e. Why shouldst

thou bring these misfortunes upon thyself, by being over strict? Be not

righteous over-much; eat, drink, and be merry, live as the world lives,

and then you will avoid those misfortunes which may attend you, by

being righteous over-much.

This text has another meaning; but take it which way you will, by

brethren, it was spoken by an unbeliever; therefore it was no credit

for the person who lately preached upon this text, to take it for

granted, that these were the words of Solomon: the words of an infidel

was not a proper text to a Christian congregation. But as David came

out against Goliath, not armed as the champion was, with sword and

spear, but with a sling and stone, and then cut off his head with his

own sword; so I come out against these letter-learned men, in the

strength of the Lord Jesus Christ; and, my dear brethren, I trust he

will direct me to use my sling, so that our enemies may not gainsay us;

and by the sword of God's word, cut off the heads of our Redeemer's

enemies.

But though they are not the words of Solomon, yet we will take them in

the same manner the late writer did; and, from the words, shall,

First, Show you what it is, not to be righteous over-much, that we may

not destroy ourselves.

Secondly, I shall let you see what it is to be righteous over-much. And

then,

Thirdly, Conclude with an exhortation to all of you, high and low, rich

and poor, one with another, to come to the Lord Jesus Christ.

First, The first thing proposed, is to show you what it is not to be

righteous over-much. And here,

It is by no means to be righteous over-much, to affirm we must have the

same Spirit of God as the first Apostles had, and must feel that Spirit

upon our hearts.

By receiving the Spirit of God, is not to be understood, that we are to

be inspired to show outward signs and wonders, to raise dead bodies, to

cure leprous persons, or to give sight to the blind: these miracles

were only of use in the first ages of the church; and therefore

Christians (nominal Christians, for we have little else but the name)

may have all the gifts of the Spirit, and yet none of the graces of it.

Thou, O man, mayest be enabled by faith to remove mountains; thou, by

the power of God, mayest cast out devils; thou, by that power, mayest

speak with the tongues of men and angels; yes, thou mayest, by that

power, hold up thy finger and stop the sun in the firmament; and if all

these are unsanctified by the Spirit of God, they would be of no

service to thee, but would hurry thee to hell with the greater

solemnity. Saul received the spirit of prophesying, and had another

heart, yet Saul was probably a cast-away. We must receive the Spirit of

God in its sanctifying graces upon our souls; for Christ says, "Unless

a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." We are all by

nature born in sin, and at as great a distance from God, as the devils

themselves. I have told you often, and now tell you again, that you are

by nature a motley mixture of the beast and devil, and we cannot

recover ourselves from the state wherein we have fallen, therefore must

be renewed by the Holy Ghost. By the Holy Ghost, I mean, the third

Person of the ever blessed Trinity, co-equal, co-essential, co-eternal,

and consubstantial with the Father and the Son; and therefore, when we

are baptized, it is into the nature of the Father, into the nature of

the Son, and into the nature of the Holy Ghost: and we are not true

Christians, till we are sanctified by the Spirit of God.

Though our modern preachers do not actually deny the Spirit of God, yet

they say, "Christians must not feel him;" which is in effect to deny

him. When Nicodemus came to Christ, and the Lord Jesus was instructing

him, concerning the new birth, says he to our Lord, "How can these

things be?" Nicodemus, though a master of Israel, acts just as our

learned Rabbi's do now. The answer that Christ gave him should stop the

mouths of our letter- learned Pharisees: "The wind bloweth where it

listeth, and we hear the sound thereof, but cannot tell whence it

cometh, nor whither it goeth." Now till the Spirit of God is felt on

our souls as the wind on our bodies, indeed, my dear brethren, you have

no interest in him: religion consists not in external performance, it

must be in the heart, or else it is only a name, which cannot profit

us, a name to live whilst we are dead.

A late preacher upon this text, seems to laugh at us, for talking of

the Spirit in a sensible manner, and talks to us as the Jews did to

Christ: They said, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" So he

asks, "What sign or proof do we give of it?" We do not imagine, that

God must appear to us, and give it us: no; but there may be, and is, a

frequent receiving, when no seeing of it; and it is as plainly felt in

the soul, as any impression is, or can be, upon the body. To what a

damnable condition should we bring poor sinners, if they could not be

sensible of the Spirit of God; namely, a reprobate mind and past

feeling?

"What proof do they give?" says the writer. What sign would they have?

Do they expect us to raise the dead, to give sight to the blind, to

cure lepers, to make the lame to walk, and the deaf to hear? If these

are what they expect, I speak with humility, God, by us, hath done

greater things than these: many, who were dead in sin, are raised to

scripture-life: those, who were leprous by nature, are cleansed by the

Spirit of God; those, who were lame in duty, not run in God's commands;

those, who were deaf, their ears are unstopped to hear his discipline,

and hearken to his advice; and the poor have the gospel preached to

them. No wonder people talk at this rate, when they can tell us, "That

the Spirit of God, is a good conscience, consequent thereupon." My dear

brethren, Seneca, Cicera, Plato, or any of the heathen philosophers,

would have given as good a definition as this. It means no more, than

reflecting that we have done well. This, this is only Deism refined:

Deists laugh at us, when we pretend to be against notions, and yet

these men use no other reason for our differing from them, than what is

agreeable to Deists principles.

This writer tell us, "It is against common-sense to talk of the feeling

of the Spirit of God." Common-sense, my brethren, was never allowed to

be a judge; yea, it is above its comprehension, neither are, nor can

the ways of God be known by common-sense. We should never have known

the things of God at all by our common sense: no; it is the revelation

of God which is to be our judge; it is that we appeal to, and not to

our weak and shallow conceptions of things. Thus we may see, it is by

no means to be righteous over-much, to affirm we must have the Spirit

of God as the Apostles had. Nor,

Secondly, Is it to be righteous over-much to frequent religious

assemblies.

The preacher, upon this text, aims at putting aside all the religious

societies that are in the kingdom: Indeed, he says, "You may go to

church as often as opportunity serves, and on Sundays; say your

prayers, read the word of God; and, in his opinion, every thing else

had better be let alone: and as for the Spirit of God upon your souls,

you are to look upon it as useless and unnecessary." If this, my

brethren, is the doctrine we have now preached, Christianity is at a

low ebb indeed; but God forbid you should thus learn Jesus Christ. Do

you not forbear the frequenting of religious assemblies; for as nothing

helps to build up the devil's kingdom more than the societies of wicked

men, nothing would be more for pulling of it down, than the people of

God meeting to strengthen each others hands; and as the devil has so

many friends, will none of you be friends to the blessed Jesus? Yes, I

hope many of you will be of the Lord's side, and build each other up in

Christian love and fellowship. This is what the primitive Christians

delighted in; and shall not we follow so excellent an example? My

brethren, till Christian conversation is more agreeable to us, we

cannot expect to see the gospel of Christ run and be glorified. Thus it

is by no means to be righteous over-much, to frequent religious

assemblies. Nor,

Thirdly, Is it to be righteous over-much, to abstain from the

diversions and entertainments of the age.

We are commanded to "abstain from the appearance of evil," and that

"whatsoever we do, whether we eat or drink, we shall do all to the

glory of God." The writer upon this text tells us, "That it will be

accounted unlawful to smell to a rose:" no, my dear brethren, you man

smell to a pink and rose too if you please, but take care to avoid the

appearance of sin. They talk of innocent diversions and recreations;

for my part, I know of no diversion, but that of doing good: if you can

find any diversion which is not contrary to your baptismal vow, of

renouncing the pomps and vanities of this wicked world; if you can find

any diversion which tends to the glory of God; if you can find any

diversion, which you would be willing to be found at by the Lord Jesus

Christ, I give you free license to go to them and welcome; but if, on

the contrary, they are found to keep sinners from coming to the Lord

Jesus Christ; if they are a means to harden the heart, and such as you

would not willingly be found in when you come to die, then, my dear

brethren, keep from them: for, indeed, the diversions of this age are

contrary to Christianity. Many of you may think I have gone too far,

but I shall go a great deal farther yet: I will attack the devil in his

strongest holds, and bear my testimony against our fashionable and

polite entertainments. What satisfaction can it be, what pleasure is

there in spending several hours at cards? Strange! That even people who

are grown old, can spend whole nights in this diversion: perhaps many

of you will cry out, "What harm is there in it?" My dear brethren,

whatsoever is not of faith, or for the glory of God, is a sin. Now does

cards tend to promote this? Is it not mispending your precious time,

which should be employed in working out your salvation with fear and

trembling? Do play-houses, horse- racing, balls and assemblies, tend to

promote the glory of God? Would you be willing to have your soul

demanded of you, while you are at one of those places? Many of these

are, (I must speak, I cannot forbear to speak against these

entertainments; come what will, I will declare against them) many, I

say, of these are kept up by public authority; the play-houses are

supported by a public fund, and our newspapers are full of horse-races

all through the kingdom: these things are sinful; indeed they are

exceeding sinful. What good can come from a horse-race; from abusing

God Almighty's creatures, and putting them to that use he never

designed for them: the play-houses, are they not nurseries of

debauchery in the age? And the supporters and patrons of them, are

encouragers and promoters of all the evil that is done by them; they

are the bane of the age, and will be the destruction of those who

frequent them. Is it not high time for the true ministers of Jesus

Christ, who have been partakers of the heavenly gift, to lift up their

voices as a trumpet, and cry aloud against these diversions of the age?

Are they not earthly, sensual, devilish? If you have tasted of the love

of God, and have felt his power upon your souls, you would no more go

to a play, than you would run your head into a furnace.

And what occasions these place to be so much frequented, is the

clergy's making no scruple to be at these polite places: they frequent

play-houses, they go to horse-races, they go to balls and assemblies,

they frequent taverns, and follow all the entertainments that the age

affords; and yet these are the persons who should advise their hearers

to refrain from them; but instead thereof, they encourage them by their

example. Persons are too apt to rely upon, and believe their pastors,

rather than the scriptures; they think that there is no crime in going

to plays or horse-races, to balls and assemblies; for if there were,

they think those persons, who are their ministers, would not frequent

them: but, my dear brethren, observe they always go disguised, the

ministers are afraid of being seen in their gowns and cassocks; the

reason thereof is plain, their consciences inform them, that it is not

an example fit for the ministers of the gospel to set; thus, they are

the means of giving that offense to the people of God, which I would

not for ten thousand worlds: they lay a stumbling-block in the way of

their weak brethren, which they will not remove, though it is a

stumbling-block of offense. "Woe unto the world because of offenses,

but woe unto that man by whom the offense cometh." The polite gentlemen

of the age, spend their time in following those diversions, because the

love of God is not in their hearts; they are void of Christ, and

destitute of the Spirit of God; and not being acquainted with the

delight there is in God and his ways, being strangers to these things,

they run to the devil for diversions, and are pleased and delighted

with the silly ones he shows them.

My dear brethren, I speak of these things, these innocent diversions,

as the polite part of the world calls them, by experience; perhaps

none, for my age, hath read or seen more plays than I have: I took

delight in, and was pleased with them. It is true, I went to church

frequently, received the sacrament, and was diligent in the use of the

forms of religion, but I was all this while ignorant of the power of

God on my heart, and unacquainted with the work of grace; but when God

was pleased to shine with power upon my soul, I could no longer be

contented to feed on husks, or what the swine die eat; the Bible then

was my food; there, and there only I took delight: and till you feel

this same power, you will not abstain from the earthly delights of this

age, you will take no comfort in God's ways, nor receive any comfort

from him; for you are void of the love of God, having only the form of

godliness, while you are denying the power of it; you are nominal

Christians, when you have not the power of Christianity.

The polite gentlemen say, "Are we to be always upon our knees? Would

you have us be always at prayer, and reading or hearing the word of

God?"

My dear brethren, the fashionable ones, who take delight in hunting,

are not tired of being continually on horseback after their hounds; and

when once you are renewed by the Spirit of God, it will be a continua

pleasure to be walking with, and talking of God, and telling what great

things Jesus Christ hath done for your souls; and till you can find as

much pleasure in conversing with God, as these men do of their hounds,

you have no share in him; but when you have tasted how good the Lord

is, you will show forth his praise; out of the abundance of your heart

your mouth will speak.

This brings me to the second thing proposed, which is an extreme that

very seldom happens:

Secondly, To show what it is to be righteous over-much, And here,

First, When we confine the Spirit of God to this or that particular

church; and are not willing to converse with any but those of the same

communion; this is to be righteous over-much with a witness: and so it

is, to confine our communion within church-walls, and to think that

Jesus could not preach in a field as well as on consecrated ground;

this is judaism, this is bigotry: this is like Peter, who would not go

to preach the gospel to the Gentiles, till he had a vision from God:

and when his conduct was blamed by the disciples, he could not satisfy

them till he had acquainted them with the vision he had seen. And,

therefore, we may justly infer, the Spirit of God is the center of

unity; and wherever I see the image of my Master, I never inquire of

them their opinions; I ask them not what they are, so they love Jesus

Christ in sincerity and truth, but embrace them as my brother, my

sister, and my spouse: and this is the spirit of Christianity. Many

persons, who are bigots to this or that opinion, when one of a

different way of thinking hath come where they were, have left the room

or place on the account: this is the spirit of the devil; and if it was

possible that these persons could be admitted into heaven with such

tempers, that very place would be hell to them. Christianity will never

flourish, till we are all of one heart and of one mind; and this would

be the only means of seeing the gospel of Jesus to flourish, more than

ever it will by persecuting those who differ from us.

This may be esteemed as enthusiasm and madness, and as a design to

undermine the established church: No; God is my judge, I should rejoice

to see all the world adhere to her articles; I should rejoice to see

the ministers of the Church of England, preach up those very articles

they have subscribed to; but those ministers who do preach up the

articles, are esteemed as madmen, enthusiasts, schismatics, and

underminers of the established church: and though they say these things

of me, blessed be God, they are without foundation. My dear brethren, I

am a friend to her articles, I am a friend to her homilies, I am a

friend to her liturgy; and, if they did not thrust me out of their

churches, I would read them every day; but I do not confine the Spirit

of God there; for I say it again, I love all that love the Lord Jesus

Christ, and esteem him my brother, my friend, my spouse; aye, my very

soul is knit to that person. The spirit of persecution will never,

indeed it will never make any to love Jesus Christ. The Pharisees make

this to be madness, so much as to mention persecution in a Christian

country; but there is as much of the spirit of persecution now in the

world, as ever there was; their will is as great, but blessed be God,

they want the power; otherwise, how soon would the send me to prison,

make my feet fast in the stocks, yea, would think they did God service

in killing me, and would rejoice to take away my life.

This is not the Spirit of Christ, my dear brethren; I had not come to

have thus preached; I had not come into the highways and hedges; I had

not exposed myself to the ill treatment of these letter-learned men,

but for the sake of your souls: indeed, I had no other reason, but your

salvation; and for that (I speak the truth in Christ, I lie not) I

would be content to go to prison; yea, I would rejoice to die for you,

so I could but be a means to bring some of you to Jesus: I could not

bear to see so many in the highway to destruction, and not show them

their danger: I could not bear, my brethren, to see you more willing to

learn, than the teachers are to instruct you: and if any of them were

to come and preach to you, I should not envy them, I should not call

them enthusiasts or madmen; I should rejoice to hear they had ten

thousand times more success than I have met with; I would give them the

right hand of fellowship; I would advise them to go on; I would wish

them good luck in the name of the Lord, and say as Christ did, when the

disciples informed him of some casting out devils in his name, and were

for rebuking of them, "Forbid them not, for they that are not against

us are for us;" or as St. Paul says, "Some preach Christ of envy, and

some of good-will; notwithstanding, so Christ is but preached, I

rejoice; yea, and will rejoice." The gospel of Jesus, is the gospel of

peace. Thus you may see, that to be righteous over-much, is to be

uncharitable, censorious, and to persecute persons for differing from

us in religion.

Secondly, Persons are righteous over-much, when they spend so much time

in religious assemblies, as to neglect their families. There is no

license given by the blessed Jesus, for idleness; for in the very

infancy of the world, idleness was not allowed of. In paradise, Adam

and Eve dressed the garden, Cain was a tiller of the ground, and Abel

was a keeper of sheep; and there is a proverb amongst the Jews, "That

he who brings his son up without a business, brings him up to be a

thief:" and therefore our Savior was a carpenter; "Is not this the

carpenter's son," said the Jews: and St. Paul, though brought up at the

feet of Gamaliel, was a tent-maker. Labor, my brethren, is imposed on

all mankind as part of the divine curse; and you are called to be

useful in the society to which you belong: take care first for the

kingdom of God, and all things necessary shall be added. To labor for

the meat that perisheth, is your duty; only take care, that you do not

neglect getting the meat for the soul: that is the greatest

consequence, for this plain reason, the things of this life are

temporal, but those of the next are eternal. I would have rich men to

work as well as poor; it is owing to their idleness, that the devil

hurries them to his diversions; they can be in their beds all the

morning, and spend the afternoon and evening in dressing, visiting, and

at balls, plays, or assemblies, when they should be working out their

salvation with fear and trembling. Such a life as this, occasions a

spiritual numbness in the soul; and if Jesus Christ was not to stop

those who thus spend their time, they would be hurried into eternity,

without once thinking of their immortal souls. But Jesus Christ has

compassion upon many of them, and while they are in their blood, he

bids them "live." And though I preach this doctrine to you, yet I do

not bid you be idle; no, they that do not work should not eat. You have

two callings, a general one, and a special one: as we are to regard the

one in respect of our bodies, so we are to regard the other on account

of our souls. Take heed, my brethren, I beseech you, take heed, lest

you labor so for the meat that perisheth, as to forget that meat which

endureth for ever. Seek the things of God first; look well to obtain

oil in your lamps, grace in your hearts. I am not persuading you to

take no care about the things of the world, but only not to be

encumbered with them, so as to neglect your duty towards God, and a

proper concern for your souls. It is meet, it is right, it is your

bounden duty, to mind the calling wherein God hath placed you; and you

may be said to be righteous over-much not to regard them. This brings

me,

Thirdly, To give you another sign of being righteous over-much; and

that is, when we fast and use corporal authorities, so as to unfit us

for the service of God.

This, my brethren, you may think there is no occasion at all to caution

you against, and indeed there is not a great necessity for it; however,

many persons, upon their first being awakened to a sense of their sin,

are tempted to use authorities to that excess which is sinful. It is

our duty to fast, it is our duty to fast often, and it is what we are

directed to by Jesus Christ himself; but then we are to take care to do

it in a proper manner: to bring our bodies under for the service of

God, is that which we are commanded by our Lord Jesus Christ.

The late preacher upon this text, runs into great extremes, and charges

us with saying and acting things of which we never thought; but I do

not regard what he said of me: I do not mind his bitter invectives

against my ministry; I do not mind his despising my youth, and calling

me novice and enthusiast; I forgive him from my very heart: but when he

reflects on my Master; when he speaks against my Redeemer; when Jesus

Christ is spoken against, I must speak, (I must speak indeed, or I

should burst:) when he gives liberty to persons to take a cheerful

glass, and alledges Christ for an example, as in the marriage-feast,

saying, "Christ turned water into wine, when it is plain there had been

more drank than was necessary before;" what is this, but to charge

Christ with encouraging drunkenness? It is true, the Governor says,

"Every man in the beginning sets forth good wine, and when men have

well drank, that which is worse; but thou hast kept the good wine until

now:" but it does not at all follow, that it was not necessary, or that

there had been a sufficient quantity before: I would not speak thus

slightingly of one of my Master's miracles, for the whole world. And we

may observe, that as Christ chiefly visited poor people, they might not

have wherewithal to buy a sufficient quantity of wine; for having more

guests than were expected, the wine was expended sooner than they

thought; then the Mother of Jesus tells him, "They have no wine;" he

answers, "Woman, what have I to do with thee? My hour is not yet come."

After this he commanded them to fill the water-pots with water, and

they filled them to the brim, and this water he turned into wine: now

it does not follow, that there was more drank than was necessary;

neither would the Lord Jesus Christ have continued in the house if

there had. But we have an excellent lesson to learn from this miracle:

by the water-pots being empty, we may understand, the heart of man

being by nature destitute of his grace, his speaking and commanding to

fill them, shows, that when Christ speaks, the heart that was empty of

grace before, shall be filled; and the water pots being filled to the

brim, shows, that Christ will fill believers hearts brim full of the

Holy Ghost: and from the Governor's observing, that the last wine was

the best, learn, that a believer's best comforts, shall be the last and

greatest, for they shall come with the greatest power upon the soul,

and continue longest there: this, this my dear brethren, is the lesson

we may learn from this miracle.

But one great inconsistency I cannot avoid taking notice of in this

late learned preacher. In the beginning of his sermon, he charges us

with "laying heavy burdens upon people, which they are not able to

bear;" in the latter part he charges us with being Antinomians, whose

tenets are, "So you say you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you may

live the life of devils." Now, he charges us with being too strict, and

by and by with being too loose. Which side, my brethren, will you take?

Thus you see, when persons forsake Christ, they make strange mistakes;

for here can be no greater opposition of sentiments than this

letter-learned writer has made: as opposite as light and darkness, good

and evil, sweet and bitter. And, on this account, to find out these

lettered-learned gentlemens notions of the new-birth, I put a paragraph

in my Journal; and, blessed be God, I have obtained my desires, and

have plainly perceived, that the persons who have lately written

concerning the new-birth, know no more of it than a blind man does of

colors, nor can they have any more notion of it, (by all their

learning, falsely so called) than the blind man, who was to give an

account what the sun was, and, after a considerable time allowed for

study, he said, "It was like the sound of a trumpet." And till they are

taught of God, they will be unacquainted with the new-birth; therefore,

if you have a mind to know what the devil has to say against us, read

Dr. Trapp's sermons.

It is with grief I speak these things, and were not the welfare of your

souls, and my Redeemer's honor at stake, I would not now open my mouth,

yes I would willingly die (God is my judge) for the person who wrote

such bitter things against me, so it would be a means of saving his

soul. If he had only spoken against me, I would not have answered him;

but, on his making my Redeemer a pattern of vice, if I was not to

speak, the very stones would cry out; therefore, the honor of my

Redeemer, and love to you, constrains me to speak. It is of necessity

that I speak, when the divinity of Jesus Christ is spoken against, it

is the duty of ministers to cry aloud, and spare not. I cannot forbear,

come what will; for I know not what kind of divinity we have not among

us: we must have a righteousness of our own, and do our best endeavors,

and then Christ will make up the deficiency; that is, you must be your

own Savior, in part. This is not the doctrine of the gospel; this not

the doctrine of Jesus: no; Christ is all in all; Jesus Christ must be

your whole wisdom; Jesus Christ must be your whole righteousness. Jesus

Christ must be your whole sanctification; or Jesus Christ will never be

your eternal redemption and sanctification. Inward holiness is looked

on, by some, as the effect of enthusiasm and madness; and preachers of

the necessity of the new-birth, are esteemed as persons fit for Bedlam.

Our polite and fashionable doctrine, is, "That there is a fitness in

man, and that God, seeing you a good creature, bestows upon you his

grace." God forbid, my dear brethren, you should thus learn Jesus

Christ!

This is not the doctrine I preach to you: I say, salvation is the free

gift of God. It is God' free grace, I preach unto you, not of works,

lest any one should boast. Jesus Christ justifies the ungodly; Jesus

Christ passed by, and saw you polluted with your blood, and bid you

live. It is not of works, it is of faith: we are not justified for our

faith, for faith is the instrument, but by your faith, the active as

well as the passive obedience of Christ, must be applied to you. Jesus

Christ hath fulfilled the law, he hath made it honorable; Jesus Christ

hath made satisfaction to his Father's justice, full satisfaction; and

it is as complete as it is full, and God will not demand it again.

Jesus Christ is the way; Jesus Christ is the truth; and Jesus Christ is

the life. The righteousness of Jesus Christ, my brethren, must be

imputed to you, or you can never have any interest in the blood of

Jesus; your own works are but as filthy rags, for you are justified

before God, without any respect to your works past, present, or to

come. This doctrine is denied by the learned rabbi's; but if they deny

these truths of the gospel, they must not offended, though a child dare

speak to a doctor; and, in vindication of the cause of Jesus Christ, a

child, a boy, by the Spirit of God, can speak to the learned clergy of

this age.

If I had a voice so great, and could speak so loud, as that the whole

world could hear me, I would cry, "Be not righteous over-much," by

bringing your righteousness to Christ, and by being righteous in your

own eyes. Man must be abased, that God may be exalted.

The imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ is a comfortable doctrine to

all real Christians; and you sinners, who ask what you must do to be

saved? How uncomfortable would it be, to tell you by good works, when,

perhaps, you have never done one good work in all your life: this would

be driving you to despair, indeed: no; "Believe in the Lord Jesus

Christ, and you shall be saved:" therefore none of you need go away

despairing. Come to the Lord Jesus by faith, and he shall receive you.

You have no righteousness of your own to depend on. If you are saved,

it is by the righteousness of Christ, through his atonement, his making

a sacrifice for sin: his righteousness must be imputed to you,

otherwise you cannot be saved. There is no difference between you, by

nature, and the greatest malefactor that ever was executed at Tyburn:

the difference made, is all owing to the free, the rich, the undeserved

grace of God; this has made the difference. It is true, talking at this

rate, will offend the Pharisees, who do not like this leveling

doctrine, (as they call it); but if ever you are brought to Jesus

Christ by faith, you will experience the truth of it. Come by faith to

Jesus Christ; do not come, Pharisee-like, telling God what you have

done, how often you have gone to church, how often you have received

the sacrament, fasted, prayed, or the like: no; come to Christ as poor,

lost, undone, damned sinners; come to him in this manner, and he will

accept of you: do not be rich in spirit, proud and exalted, for there

is no blessing attends such; but be ye poor in spirit, for theirs is

the kingdom of God; they shall be made members of his mystical body

here, and shall be so of the church triumphant hereafter. Acknowledge

yourselves as nothing at all, and when you have done all, say, "You are

unprofitable servants." There is no salvation but by Jesus Christ;

there is no other name given under heaven amongst men, whereby we may

be saved, but that of the Lord Jesus. God, out of Christ, is a

consuming fire; therefore strive for an interest in his Son the Lord

Jesus Christ; take him on the terms offered to you in the gospel;

accept of him in God's own way, lay hold on him by faith.

Do not think you are Christians; do not flatter yourselves with being

righteous enough, and good enough, because you lead moral decent lives,

do no one any harm, go to church, and attend upon the outward means of

grace; no, my brethren, you may do this, and a great deal more, and yet

be very far from having a saving, experimental knowledge of Jesus

Christ.

Beg of Christ to strike home upon your hearts, that you may feel the

power of religion. Indeed, you must feel the power of God here, or the

wrath of God hereafter. These are truths of the utmost consequence;

therefore, do not go contradicting, do not go blaspheming away. Blessed

be God, you are not such cowards to run away for a little rain. I hope

good things of you; I hope you have felt the power of God; and if God

should bring any of you to himself through this foolishness of

preaching, you will have no reason to complain it was done by a youth,

by a child; no; if I could be made an instrument to bring you to God,

they may call me novice, enthusiast, or what they please, I should

rejoice; yea, and I would rejoice.

O that some sinner might be brought to Jesus Christ! Do not say I

preach despair; I despair of no one, when I consider God had mercy on

such a wretch as I, who was running in a full career to hell: I was

hastening thither, but Jesus Christ passed by and stopped me; Jesus

Christ passed by me while I was in my blood, when I was polluted with

filth; he passed by me, and bid me live. Thus I am a monument of God's

free grace; and therefore, my brethren, I despair of none of you, when

I consider, I say, what a wretch I was. I am not speaking now out of a

false humility, a pretended sanctity, as the Pharisees call it: no, the

truth in Christ I speak, and therefore, men and devils do your worst; I

have a gracious Master will protect me; it is his work I am engaged in,

and Jesus Christ will carry me above their rage.

Those who are come here this night out of curiosity to hear what the

babbler says; those who come to spend an idle hour to find something

for an evening-conversation at a coffee-house; or you who have stopped

in your coaches as you passed by, remember that you have had Jesus

Christ offered to you; I offer Jesus Christ to every one of you:

perhaps you may not regard it because it is in a field. But Jesus

Christ is wherever his people meet in sincerity and truth to worship

him: he is not confined to church walls: he has met us here; many, very

many of you know he has; and therefore you may believe on him with

greater confidence.

Can you bear to think of a bleeding, panting, dying Jesus, offering

himself up for sinners, and you will not accept of him? Do not say, you

are poor, and therefore are ashamed to go to church, for God has sent

the gospel out unto you. Do not harden your hearts: oppose not the will

of Jesus.

O that I could speak to your hearts, that my words would center there.

My heart is full of love to you. I would speak, till I could speak no

more, so I could but bring you to Christ. I may never meet you all,

perhaps, any more. The cloud of God's providence seems to be moving.

God calls me by his providence away from you, for a while. God knows

whether we shall ever see each other in the flesh. At the day of

judgment we shall all meet again. I earnestly desire your prayers. Pray

that I may not only begin, John-like, I the spirit, but that I may

continue in it. Pray that I may not fall away, that I may not decline

suffering for you, if I should be called to it. Be earnest, O be

earnest with God in my behalf, that while I am preaching to others, I

may not be a cast-away. Put up your prayers for me, I beseech you. Go

not to the throne of grace, without carrying me upon your heart; for

you know not what influence your prayers may have. As for you, my dear

brethren, God knows my heart. I continually bear you on my mind, when I

go in and out before the Lord; and it is my earnest desire, you may not

perish for lack of knowledge, but that he would send out more ministers

to water what his own right-hand hath planted. May the Ancient of Days

come forth upon his white horse, and may all opposition fall to the

ground. As we have begun to bruise the serpent's head, we must expect

he will bruise our heel. The devil will not let his kingdom fall

without raging horribly. He will not suffer the ministers of Christ to

go on, without bringing his power to stop them. But fear not, my dear

brethren, David, though a stripling, encountered the great Goliath; and

if we pray, God will give us strength against all our spiritual

enemies. Show your faith by your works. Give the world the lye. Press

forward. Do not stop, do not linger in your journey, but strive for the

mark set before you. Fight the good fight of faith, and God will give

you spiritual mercies. I hope we shall all meet at the right- hand of

God. Strive, strive to enter in at the strait gate, that we may be born

to Abraham's bosom, where sin and sorrow shall cease. No scoffer will

be there, but we shall see Jesus, who died for us; and not only see

him, but live with him forever.

Which God, of his infinite mercy, &c.

__________________________________________________________________

A Preservative Against Unsettled Notions, and Want of Principles, in Regard to

Righteousness and Christian Perfection [4]

Ecclesiastes 7:16 -- "Be not righteous over much; neither make thyself

over wise: why shouldest thou destroy thyself?"

To all the Members of Christ's Holy Church.

Dear Fellow Christians,

The great, and indeed the only motive which prompted me to publish this

sermon, was the desire of providing for your security from error, at a

time when the deviators from, and false pretenders to truth, are so

numerous, that the most discerning find it a matter of the greatest

difficulty to avoid being led astray by one or by other into downright

falsehood. There is no running divisions upon truth; like a

mathematical point, it will neither admit of subtraction nor addition:

And as it is indivisible in its nature, there is no splitting the

difference, where truth is concerned. Irreligion and enthusiasm are

diametrical opposites, and true piety between both, like the center of

an infinite line, is at an equal infinite distance from the one and the

other, and therefore can never admit of a coalition with either. The

one erring by defect, the other by excess. But whether we err by

defect, or excess, is of little importance, if we are equally wide of

the mark, as we certainly are in either case. For whatever is less than

truth, cannot be truth; and whatever is more than true must be false.

Wherefore, as the whole of this great nation seams now more than ever

in danger of being hurried into one or the other of these equally

pernicious extremes, irreligion or fanaticism, I thought myself more

than ordinarily obliged to rouse your, perhaps drowsy vigilance, by

warning you of the nearness of your peril; cautioning you from leaning

towards either side, though but to peep at the slippery precipice; and

stepping between you and error, before it comes nigh enough to grapple

with you. The happy medium of true Christian piety, in which it has

pleased the mercy of God to establish you, is built on a firm rock,

"and the gates of hell shall never prevail against it." While then you

stand steadily upright in the fullness of the faith, falsehood and sin

shall labor in vain to approach you; whereas, the least familiarity

with error, will make you giddy, and if once you stagger in principles,

your ruin is almost inevitable.

But not I have cautioned you of the danger you are in from the enemies

who threaten your subversion, I hope your own watchfulness will be

sufficient to guard you from any surprise. And from their own assaults

you have nothing to fear, since while you persist in the firm

resolution, through God's grace, to keep them out, irreligion and

enthusiasm, falsehood and vice, impiety and false piety, will combine

in vain to force an entrance into your hearts.

Take then, my dearly beloved fellow members of Christ's mystical body,

take the friendly caution I give you in good part, and endeavor to

profit by it: attend wholly to the saving truths I here deliver to you,

and per persuaded, that they are uttered by one who has your eternal

salvation as much at heart as his own.

"And thou, O Lord Jesus Christ, fountain of all truth, whence all

wisdom flows, open the understandings of thy people to the light of thy

true faith, and touch their hearts with thy grace, that they may both

be able to see, and willing to perform what thou requirest of them.

Drive away from us every cloud of error and perversity; guard us alike

from irreligion and false pretensions to piety; and lead us on

perpetually towards that perfection to which thou hast taught us to

aspire; that keeping us here in a constant imitation of thee, and

peaceful union which each other, thou mayest at length bring us to that

everlasting glory, which thou hast promised to all such as shall

endeavor to be perfect, even as the Father who is in heaven is perfect,

who with thee and the Holy Ghost lives and reigns one God, world

without end! Amen, Amen.

Ecclesiastes 7:16, "Be not righteous over much; neither make thyself

over wise: why shouldest thou destroy thyself?"

Righteousness over-much! May one say; Is there any danger of that? Is

it even possible? Can we be too good? If we give any credit to the

express word of God, we cannot be too good, we cannot be righteous

over-much. The injunction given by God to Abraham is very strong: "Walk

before me, and be thou perfect." The same he again lays upon all

Israel, in the eighteenth of Deuteronomy: "Thou shalt be perfect, and

without blemish, with the Lord thy God." And lest any should think to

excuse themselves from this obligation, by saying, it ceased when the

old law was abolished, our blessed Savior ratified and explained it:

"Be ye, therefore, perfect, even as your Father who is in heaven is

perfect." So that until our perfection surpasses that of our heavenly

Father, we can never be too good nor righteous over-much; and as it is

impossible we should ever surpass, or even come up to him in the

perfection of goodness and righteousness, it follows in course that we

never can be good or righteous in excess. Nevertheless Doctor Trapp has

found out that we may be righteous over-much, and has taken no small

pains, with much agitation of spirit, to prove that it is a great folly

and weakness, nay, a great sin. "O Lord! Rebuke thou his spirit, and

grant that this false doctrine may not be published to his confusion in

the day of judgment!"

But if what this hasty, this deluded man advances had been true, could

there be any occasion, however, of warning against it in these times,

"when the danger (as he himself to his confusion owns) is on the

contrary extreme; when all manner of vice and wickedness abounds to a

degree almost unheard of?" I answer for the present, that "there must

be heresies amongst you, that they who are approved may be made

manifest."

However, this earthly-minded minister of a new gospel, has taken a text

which seems to favor his naughty purpose, of weaning the well-disposed

little ones of Christ from that perfect purity of heart and spirit,

which is necessary to all such as mean to live to our Lord Jesus. O

Lord, what shall become of thy flock, when their shepherds betray them

into the hands of the ravenous wolf! When a minister of thy word

perverts it to overthrow thy kingdom, and to destroy scripture with

scripture!

Solomon, in the person of a desponding, ignorant, indolent liver

(resident), says to the man of righteousness: "Be not righteous

over-much, neither make thyself overwise: Why shouldest thou destroy

thyself?" But must my angry, over-sighted brother Trapp, therefore,

personate a character so unbecoming his function, merely to overthrow

the express injunction of the Lord to us; which obliges us never to

give over pursuing and thirsting after the perfect righteousness of

Christ, until we rest in him? Father, forgive him, for he knows not

what he says!

What advantage might not Satan gain over the elect, if the false

construction, put upon this text by that unseeing teacher, should

prevail! Yet though he blushes not to assist Satan to bruise our heel,

I shall endeavor to bruise the heads of both, by showing,

I. First, The genuine sense of the text in question.

II. The character of the persons, who are to be supposed speaking here:

And

III. The character of the persons spoken to.

From whence will naturally result these consequences.

First, That the Doctor was grossly (Lord grant he was not maliciously)

mistaken in his explanatory sermon on this text, as well as in the

application of it.

Secondly, That he is a teacher and approver of worldly maxims.

Thirdly, That he is of course an enemy to perfect righteousness in men,

through Christ Jesus, and, therefore, no friend to Christ: And

therefore, that no one ought to be deluded by the false doctrine he

advances, to beguile the innocent, and deceive, if possible, even the

elect.

I. To come at the true sense of the text in question, it will be

necessary to look back, to the preceding verse, where the wise man,

reflecting on the vanities of his youth, puts on for a moment his

former character. "All things, have I seen in the days of my vanity:

(and among the rest) there is a just man that perisheth in his

righteousness, and there is a wicked man who prolongeth his life in his

wickedness." Now it is very plain, that he is not here talking of a

man, who is righteous over- much, in the Doctor's manner of

understanding the words, that is, "faulty, and criminal by excess." For

on one side he commends him for being a just man, and full of

righteousness, and yet on the other tells us, that his righteousness is

the shortening of his life. Whereas, had he looked upon his perishing

in righteousness to be an over-righteousness, he would never have

called him a just man. Neither by a wicked man, can he mean a man given

up to the utmost excess of wickedness, since he tells us, that he

prolongeth his life in (or by) his wickedness. Who does not know, that

the excess of almost every kind of vice, is of itself a shortener of

life. So that the whole opposition and contrast lies between a good

man, and a bad man. A good man whose goodness shortens his life, and

bad man whose iniquity lengthens his life, or at least is not excessive

enough to shorten the thread of it. Solomon, absorbed in these

reflections, speaks here by way of prosopopeia, not the sense of

Solomon, the experienced, the learned, the wise; but of the former

Solomon, a vain young fellow, full of self- love, and the strong

desires of life. In the quality of such a one then, he looks with the

same eye upon the righteous man, who perishes in his righteousness, as

he would on a wicked one, who should perish in his wickedness. For it

is neither the righteousness of the one, nor the wickedness of the

other, that offends him, but the superlative degrees of both; which

tending equally to shorten life, he looks upon them as equally opposite

to the self-love he fondles within him. And, therefore, he deems an

excess of debauchery as great an enemy to the lasting enjoyment of the

pleasures of life, as an extraordinary righteousness would be. Well

then might he say to the latter, in this character, "Be not over-much

wicked, neither be thou foolish; why shouldst thou die before thy

time?" And to the former: "Be not righteous over-much, neither make

thyself over-wise: Why shouldst thou destroy thyself?"

What wonder then, that a youth of sprighthness and sense, but led away

by self-love to be fond of the pleasures and enjoyments of life, when

attained without hurry, and possessed without risk; what wonder, I say,

that such a youth should conceive an equal dislike to the superlative

degrees of virtue and vice, and, therefore, advise such of his

companions as give into the excess of debauchery, to refrain from it:

as it must infallibly tend to clog their understandings, stupify their

senses, and entail upon their constitutions a train of infirmities,

which cannot but debilitate their natural vigor, and shorten their

days? "Be not over-much wicked, neither be thou foolish: Why shouldst

thou die before thy time?" What wonder, that the same self-love should

prompt him to dissuade such of his friends or acquaintance, as he

wishes to have for companions, and countenancers of his worldly-minded

pursuits, from pursuing righteousness and wisdom to a degree that must

destroy in them all taste of earthly pleasures, and may possibly impair

their constitutions, and forward their end? "Be not righteous

over-much, neither make thyself overwise: Why shouldst thou destroy

thyself?"

This is the sense in which Solomon (placing himself in the state of

vanity of his youth) speaks to the one, and the other: to the

righteous, and to the ungodly. This is the true, genuine sense of the

letter; and every other sense put upon it, is false and groundless, and

wrested rather to pervert than explain the truth of the text. O

Christian simplicity, whither art thou fled? Why will not the clergy

speak truth? And why must this false prophet suffer thy people, O Lord,

to believe a lie? They have held the truth in unrighteousness. Raise

up, I beseech thee, O Lord, some true pastors, who may acquaint them

with the nature and necessity of perfect righteousness, and lead them

to that love of Christian perfection which the angry-minded,

pleasure-taking Doctor Trapp, labors to divert them from, by teaching,

that "all Christians must have to do with some vanities."

Is not the meaning of this text plain to the weakest capacity? I have

here given it to you, as I have it from the mouth of the royal preacher

himself. I have made use of no "philosophy and vain deceit after the

tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after

Christ," to impose a fleshly sense upon you, for the sense of the word

of God. No, I have given you a natural exposition obvious from the very

words themselves. Hence you may see, my fellow-strugglers in

righteousness, how grossly our angry adversary is mistaken in his

explanation of this text. Lord! Open his eyes, and touch his heart; and

convert him, and all those erring ministers, who have seen vain and

foolish things for thy people, and have not discovered their iniquity,

to turn away thy captivity. For they have erred through wine, and

through strong drink are out of the way! The priest and the prophet

have erred through strong drink, they are swallowed up of wine, they

are out of the way through strong drink, they err in vision, they

stumble in judgment.

It is plain from the words of the text, that the royal Preacher was

speaking in the person of a vain worldling, when he said, "Be not

righteous over-much;" whereby he meant to exhort the truly righteous

not to be dismayed, terrified, or disturbed from their constant pursuit

of greater and greater perfection of righteousness, until they rest in

Christ; notwithstanding the derision, fleshly persuasion, ill-treatment

and persecution of worldly men: Who, one day, repenting and groaning

for anguish of spirit, shall say within themselves, "These were they

whom we had sometimes in derision, and a proverb of reproach. We fools,

accounted their lives madness; and their end to be without honor. How

are they numbered among the children of God, and their lot is among the

saints!"

How blind then is the application (not to say perverse) which this

self-wise clergyman makes from the text, to such as, following the

advice of the apostle (Coloss. 3:2) "set their affections on things

above, not on things on the earth." Must hastiness in anger get the

better of sense and truth? Must the people be misled because the pastor

cannot, or will not see? Or must the injunction of Christ, "Be perfect,

even as your Father, who is in heaven, is perfect," give place to the

maxim of the heathen Tully: The greatest reproach to a philosopher, is

to confute his doctrine by his practice; if this be the case, alas,

what a deplorable, unspeakably deplorable condition is that of some

Christians? Wherefore, "thus saith the Lord concerning the prophets who

make his people to err, that bite with their teeth and cry peace; and

he that putteth not into their mouths, they even prepare war against

him: therefore night shall be unto you, that ye shall not have a

vision, and it shall be dark unto you, that ye shall not divine, and

the sun shall go down over the prophets, and the day shall be dark over

them.

But I will leave these lovers of darkness, and turn to you, O beloved,

elect of God! I beseech you, by the bowels of Christ, suffer not

yourselves to be deceived by their flattering, sin-soothing speeches.

"Be not of that rebellious people, lying children, children who will

not hear the law of the Lord: who say to the seers, see not; and to the

prophets, prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth

things, prophesy deceits." Follow not those, who flatter you in the

vanities they practice themselves. O may you never be of the number of

those, in the person of whom Solomon here says, "Be not righteous

over-much;" for their character is the character of the beast.

II. The character of the persons, who are to be supposed speaking here

in the text, is in a word the same with the character of those whom

Solomon here personates: who, as is already shown, are a vain set of

men, neither righteous enough to have an habitual desire of improving

virtue to its perfection, nor quite so flagitious [sinful, unlawful,

wicked] as to give into self-destroying vices: in a word, they are

self-lovers, the sole end of whose pursuits, whether indifferent, bad,

or laudable in themselves, is self-enjoyment. Insomuch that they look

upon virtue and vice, righteousness and wickedness, with the same eye,

and their fondness of aversion for both is alike, as their different

degrees appear to be the means to enhance and prolong the enjoyment of

pleasure, or to lessen and shorten those pleasures. Thus any virtue,

while it is kept within such bounds as may render it subservient to the

pleasurable degrees of vice, will meet with no opposition from them; on

the contrary, they will even commend it. But the moment it becomes a

restraint to vice in moderation (if I may be allowed to make use of

terms adequate to their system) from that moment it gives offense, and

they put it in their caveat, "Be not righteous over-much." In like

manner, vice, while confined to certain limits, which rather improve

than obstruct pleasures ,is with them a desirable good; but no sooner

does it launch out into any depth, sufficient to drown and diminish the

relish of those pleasures, than they declare open war against it; "Be

not over- much wicked." And the reason they assign for their opposition

in both cases, is the same: "why shouldst thou destroy thyself? Why

shouldst thou die before thy time?" Such is the prudence of the world,

the flesh, and the devil. Such the maxims of these refined libertines,

so much that more dangerous as they are less obvious; so much the more

insinuating, as they are removed from certain extra-vagancies capable

of shocking every man who has the least sense and delicacy. O Lord, how

true is it, that the sons of darkness are wiser in their generation

than the sons of light!

You are not then, beloved in the Lord, to imagine that your greatest

opposition, in struggling for perfect righteousness, is to come from

profligates, from men whose enormous vices create horror even to

themselves: no, your most dangerous, most formidable enemies, are the

kind of men I have painted to you, who render vice relishable with a

mixture of apparent virtue, and clothe wickedness in the apparel of

righteousness; "Beware of them, for they come to you in the clothing of

sheep, but inwardly are ravenous wolves."

This perverse generation will ensnare you into ungodliness, by seeming

oppositions to vice, and allow you to swallow the seemings of virtue

and righteousness like an emetic, only to puke forth the reality of

them. They paint black, white, and the white they convert into black.

Not content with seeming what they are not, they labor to make you,

what they are. Righteousness and wickedness they interweave in an

artful tissue, capable of deceiving the very elect, and difficult for

the most discerning among them to unravel; as almsgiving and avarice,

pride and humility, temperance and luxury, are dexterously blended

together; while as mutual curbs to each other, they combine to stem the

tide of impediments to worldly enjoyment, which might flow from

extraordinary degrees on either side. Thus "Almsgiving (you are told)

is very excellent," and you believe the proposition, without knowing

the particular sense it is spoken in, which is, that alms-giving is an

excellent curb upon avarice, by preserving a rich man from such a

superlative love of money as deprives him of the self- enjoyment of it.

And upon the strength of this belief, the worldly-minded man, who

labors to deceive you, gains credit enough with you to establish this

maxim, that all superlative degrees of alms-giving, are great sins, and

that a man must never sell all he has and give it to the poor, because

some may have families of their own, and ought to make sufficient

provision for them, according to that proverb, "Charity begins at

home;" when no one, at least scarce any one, is wise enough to know,

when he has a sufficiency. O Lord, which are we to believe, these

worldlings, or thee? If thou dost deceive us, why dost thou threaten us

with punishments, if we do not heed thee? And if the world is

deceitful, shall we not flee from it to cleave to thee?

"Pride is a great sin" even with these worldlings, inasmuch as the

external excesses of it, may obstruct the way to many ambitious

terminations of view, and its internal agitations are the destruction

of that peace, to which even self-love aspires; besides, the frequent

extravagancy of its motions may not only be prejudicial to health, but

a shortner of life. And, therefore, no wonder they should object

against it, "Be not over much wicked: why shouldst thou die before thy

time?" For this reason, they look upon a little mixture of humility to

be not only commendable, but even necessary to cub the extravagant

follies of an over- bearing pride. But then a superlative degree of

humility, that is, humility free from the least tincture of pride or

vanity, which is the same with them, as "an over-strained humility, is

a fault as well as folly;" because, forsooth, it is an expediment to

the self-enjoyment of the world and its pleasures; "All Christians must

have to do with some vanities, or else they must needs go out of the

world indeed; for the world itself is all over vanity." Tis nothing,

therefore, surprising, my brethren, to see a man of this cast of mind

making a vain ostentation (act of display, show) of his little

superficial acquaintance, with the ancient Greeks and Romans. What is

this but acting conformably to his own principle, that "all Christians

must have to do with some vanities?" And shall we wonder to hear such a

one prefer their writings, to those of an apostle; or be astonished to

see him wound the apostle with raillery, (good-natured ridicule)

through your sides, for wishing to know nothing but Jesus Christ, and

him crucified? No, with him it is consistency to laugh and reprove you

out of the perfection of righteousness, which, however he may play with

terms, is with him the same as being righteousness over-much; but with

you it would be inconsistency, who ought to know no difference between

being righteous, and living in a perpetual, habitual desire of being

superlatively so. It is no more than, than you ought to expect to hear

such advocates for the world cry out to you, "Be not righteous

over-much: why should you destroy yourselves?" But, O Lord, surely this

is not the same voice which tells us, that unless we humble ourselves

like unto children, we shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven, and

that he is greatest there, who humbles himself the most like a child!

But what will not men advance who are drunk with passion, and

intoxicated with self-love?

"The vice of intemperance in eating, and drinking, is plain to

everybody," they own. And, therefore, they give it up as an excess

which cannot but tend to the impairing of health, and shortening of

life: nay, it drowns the very relish of pleasure in actual eating and

drinking. Hence will every refined debauchee exclaim against it with

Dr. Trapp: "Be not over much wicked: why shouldst thou destroy

thyself?" Little sobriety, say they, is requisite to give a zest to

luxury and worldly pleasures. But too much of it is too much, "to eat

nothing but bread and herbs, and drink nothing but water, unless there

be a particular reason for it (such perhaps as Doctor Cheyne may

assign) is folly at best (that is, even though it be done for Christ's

sake) therefore no virtue:" "Be not then righteous over- much, why

shouldst thou destroy thyself?" And if you should answer those

carnally-minded men with the words of the apostle, Rom. 8, "We are

debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh; For if we live

after the flesh, we shall die: but if we, through the spirit, do

mortify the deeds of the flesh, we shall live." If you answer them

thus, they will tell you, this is teaching for doctrines the

commandments of men." And it will be to as little purpose to answer

them, with what St. Paul says elsewhere (Rom. 14:17) "The kingdom of

God is not meat and drink, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the

Holy Ghost:" They will not blush to tell you, that "our blessed Savior

came eating and drinking, nay worked a miracle to make wind (at an

entertainment) when it is plain there had been more drank than was

necessary." To such lengths does the love of the world hurry these

self-fond, merry-making worldlings! Tell them of self-denial, they will

not hear you, it is an encroachment upon the pleasures of life, and may

shorten it of a few days, which you are never sure of possessing; it is

being "righteous over-much: why shouldst thou destroy thyself?" Jesus,

you will say, tells us (John 12:25) "He that loveth his life shall lose

it, and he that hateth his life in this world, shall keep it unto life

eternal." But this and the like, they will inform you, "are

hyperbolical phrases." Now what signifies minding Jesus, when he speaks

hyperbolically, that is, speaks more than is strictly true. Yet, O Lord

Jesus, grant us to mind thee, whatever these worldlings may say; remind

us, that if any man will come after thee, he must deny himself, and

take up his cross, and follow thee! O how enlarging is it to the soul,

to take up the cross of Christ and follow him!

But you are charged, ye beloved lovers of perfect righteousness, with

extravagances. You allow of "no sort of recreation or diversion;

nothing but an universal mortification and self-denial; no pleasure but

from religion only:" you teach "that the bodily appetites must not be

in the least degree gratified, any farther than is absolutely necessary

to keep body and soul together, and mankind in being: No allowances are

to be made for melancholy misfortunes, or human infirmity: grief must

be cured only by prayer;" (a horrid grievance this, to such as think

prayer burdensome at best) "To divert it by worldly amusements is

carnal." A heavy charge this: but left it should seem so only to those

carnal persons, who are resolved to give way to their carnal appetites;

what you look upon as advisable only, these perverters of truth

insinuate to be looked upon by you as indispensable duties. And lest

prevarication should fail, downright falsehoods must be placed to your

account, "so that to taste an agreeable fruit, or smell to a rose, must

be unlawful with you," however you disown it. But O, my beloved

Christians, be not discouraged from the pursuit of perfect

righteousness by these or such vile misrepresentations. For "blessed

are ye when men shall revile you, and shall say all manner of evil

against you falsely for the sake of Christ Jesus. Rejoice, and be

exceeding glad: For great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted

they the prophets who were before you."

Thus far, then, may suffice to show clearly with what dangerous views

the worldly-minded men, whom Solomon personates in the text before us,

lay siege to your souls in fair speeches. What I have said, is enough

to convince you, that their character is that of the beast, whom St.

John, in the Revelations, "saw coming up from the sea (that is, the

flagitious [sinful, unlawful, wicked] world) with seven heads." And

what shall we say of a man, a clergyman, who teaches, and is an

advocate for their perverse doctrines? May we not, nay, must we not,

for the glory of God, and your good, inform you, that he is a "Teacher

and approver of worldly maxims." May I not, nay, must I not, give you

this caution with the royal preacher: "When he speaketh fair, believer

him not, for there are seven abominations in his heart?" But how

different is the character I have given you, from the character of the

persons to whom the text under consideration is spoken! That is, the

character of all such, as, like you, are resolved never to rest, till

they rest in Christ Jesus. To show this, I shall now pass to my third

point.

III. To what sort of persons does Solomon in the character of a

worldling address himself, when he says, "Be not righteous over-much,

neither make thyself over-wise: why shouldst thou destroy thyself?" Not

to the wicked, tis plain; for besides that it would have been an

unnecessary precaution, he turns to these in the next verse with

another kind of warning, which however has some analogy with this. "Be

not over-much wicked, neither be thou foolish, why shouldst thou die

before thy time?" Was it then to the righteous, in a common way; that

is, to such as content themselves with the observance of the absolute

essentials of God's laws? Surely our adversaries will not allow this,

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