Α

SERMON

PREACHED BEFORE THE

PEERS,

In the Abbey-Church at Westminster, November 7, 1666. Being a Day of Solemn Humiliation for the Continuing Pestilence.

PHILIP. iv. 5.

moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.

SOME graces are primary, radical, and fundamental; which, having their proper termination in God and Christ, are, therefore, as to their formal and immediate beauty, invisible to any eye, but His who searcheth the heart, and trieth the reins. So our repentance is said to be towards God,' and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ;' (Acts xx. 21) our faith and hope is said to be in God.' (1 Pet. i. 21) As the root, though the principal seat of life in the tree, is, under ground, unseen, but the fruits, flowing from that life, are visible; or, as the orator saith of a goodly structure, "fastigia spectantur, latent fundamenta;" so the most primitive and vital graces are in themselves known only to God, and to the heart which enjoys them; but in and by their fruits they may, and must be, known unto men. By our works, we must show our faith: (James ii. 18. Acts xix. 18) works, I mean, of transient charity, which properly terminate upon others, without us. In which respect, our Saviour, though he forbid us to do our works to be seen of men, in a way of ostentation, (Matth. vi. 1, 6, 16—18) yet he commandeth us to let our light shine before men, in a way of edification, and

to God's glory: (Matth. v. 16) and in order to the same end, the apostle here requireth us to "let our moderation be known unto all men."

ἐγούς.

The words contain a serious and weighty doctrine, ỏ Kúpios ylús. "The Lord is near:"-and a Christian duty from thence inferred, "Let your moderation be known unto all men;" or an exhortation to the exercise of a special grace, and a most solemn argument, because, "The Lord is at hand." In the exhortation is observable, 1. The virtue itself required, expressed by the concrete for the abstract, not without an emphasis, as I take it. Sometimes we find a concrete superlative expressed by an abstract; Jer. 1. 31, Behold, I am against thee, O pride;" that is, "O thou most proud :"-and here an extensive abstract expressed by a concrete, as if he should have said, "Let your tongue, your hand, your whole conversation show forth to all men, upon all occasions, this excellent and most amiable grace." 2. The peculiarity or characteristical difference of this virtue, intimated in the word ipv: not a bare philosophical, but a Christian moderation, such as becomes believers. 3. The conspicuousness thereof, yvwolýτw, let it be really, upon all occasions, "manifested," for the honour of Christ, and credit of religion. 4. The impartiality of it; it must be manifested" to all men;" not only unto good men, but unto the froward; that the mouths of adversaries may be stopped, their prejudices refuted, their enmities broken, and they won by the meek and humble conversation of believers to the obedience of the gospel.

In the argument unto this duty, it is considerable, how many ways the Lord is near unto his servants, for their encouragement in so difficult and excellent a duty near, ad auxilium,' to help them; near, ad solatium,' to comfort them; near, ad judicium,' to reward them; near, per inhabitantem gratiam,' to direct and enable them; near, per exauditionis clementiam,' to hear and answer them; near, per providentiæ œconomiam,' to support and protect them. 1. Believers are called unto a high and honourable condition, the ouría and dignity of being the Sons of God :' (John i. 12) and in that condition they may, by the power of corruption and temptation, be in danger to be puffed up with pride and arrogancy, above others, and to a supineness and

security of living, to sever their dignity from their duty. In this case Tò èixès, that is, as Suidas, Hesychius, and Favorinus render it, τὸ πρέπον, τὸ καθῆκον, οι προσήκον, that which is "decent or becoming," is to be known: we must walk 'secundum decentiam status Christiani,' so as becometh the sanctity and dignity of our high calling.

2. Again; being in common with other men exposed to the various vicissitudes of events; apt in prosperity to be corrupted, in adversity to be dejected, and, according to diversity of conditions, to express a dissimilar and uneven behaviour; here again, Tò èixès, "let your moderation be known," etažia vuxñs 207iotixñs, a serene, a pacate, and steadfast equability of mind, unshaken and fixed against all

events.

3. Again; being by the state of our Christianity, and by reason of the enmity which God hath put between the seed of the woman, and the seed of the serpent, to expect, as strangers in the midst of adversaries, manifold afflictions and injuries; (as the scripture hath assured us, Acts xiv. 22. 2 Tim. iii. 12) here also rò èixès, "let your moderation be known," sixα únoμovis, moderation of patience' in bearing evils, ἐπιείκεια εὐνοίας καὶ εὐγνωμοσύνης, a moderation of candour and equanimity: not putting suspicious and morose, but favourable, constructions upon actions which have an appearance of unkindness; and tieíxeia @paóτntos, a moderation of meekness and placability,' an easiness to be entreated, a readiness to forgive: as the philosopher saith of such men, that they are σvywμovixol, apt to pass by, and to pardon injuries.

4. Again; having with other men a share and right in publick justice, and, out of the debt of self-love, being engaged thereby to preserve our own interests, we may be tempted to rigour and extremity in the means thereunto, and to lay hold on the utmost advantages against our brother. Here also the exhortation is seasonable, that "our moderation be known;" that we be rather ready to part from our own right, than to prosecute it xpi6odixaíws, with the strictness of a rigorous inflexibility and so the philosopher saith, that Tò èmixès is ἀναπλήρωμα, a supplying of the defect, and ἐπανόρθωμα ' a rectifying and mitigating' of the rigour, of legal justice. 5. Again; because we have the human nature burthened

with the same common infirmities, and are of like passions with other men, we may be easily tempted and transported many ways into inordinateness and excess; we may use our knowledge and liberty undecently and exorbitantly, to the defiling of ourselves; we may use them uncharitably, to the grief and scandal of our brethren; (as the apostle showeth, Rom. xiv. 15, 21. 1 Cor. viii. 9, 10, 12, 23, 28, 29, 32. 1 Pet. ii. 16) we may use our power and authority sharply and severely, to the grieving, rather than benefiting our poor brethren;-in all such cases the apostle's exhortation is seasonable," Let your moderation be known;" μETPIÓτns, Xenotóτns, piλav@pwría; moderation in judgement, not to disquiet the church, or offend our brethren with every unnecessary opinion of our own; not rigidly to insist on our liberty, to the grief and scandal of our brethren. Moderation of power, not to be xpißodixas, severe exactors of the extremity of justice; but to adorn our authority, and render it amiable with clemency and meekness. Moderation of passions, not to be transported with excessive delights, overwhelmed with inordinate sorrows, or possessed with any other unruly or tempestuous affection, to the suffocating of reason, and dishonour of religion; but to let grace and wisdom hold the reins, and keep within just bounds of temper and sobriety, whatsoever offers to break forth into undecency and excess. We see the wide extent and comprehensiveness of this most amiable grace. Give me leave to speak a word or two to each of these particulars, and then I shall proceed to that which follows.

1. We must walk secundum decentiam et dignitatem statûs Christiani,' so as becomes the gospel, that we may credit and honour our most holy profession, as those who have a Lord to rejoice in, a God to pray unto, a blessed appearing of a glorious Saviour to wait for, as a people whom God hath formed for himself, to show forth his praise. (Isai. xliii. 21) This is the frequent exhortation of the apostle, that we walk worthy of the vocation' wherewith we are called; (Eph. iv. 1) as becometh the gospel of Christ;' (Phil. i. 27) so as we have learned and received Christ Jesus the Lord;' (Col. ii. 6) worthy of God,' who hath called us to his kingdom and glory; (1 Thess. ii. 12) as 'becometh holiness,' as a 'peculiar people,' that we may

adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things,' (Tit. ii. 3, 10, 14) and may show forth the praises of him, who hath called us out of darkness into his marvellous light.' (1 Pet. ii. 9) And truly there is nothing deserving such lamentation as this, to consider how few there are, who live consonantly to the gospel: which will too evidently appear, if we consider the law of Christ, the vow of baptism, and compare our conversations with them. Are not these the laws of Christ? He that hateth his brother, is a murderer; -he that looketh on a woman lustfully, is an adulterer;— that we resist not evil;-that we love our enemies;-that we lay not up for ourselves treasures in earth, but in heaven;-that we enter in at the strait gate ;-that he who will come after him, must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow him;-that we learn of him to be meek and lowly, who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, threatened not;-in one word, that we should walk as he walked, and observe all things whatsoever he hath commanded us; and have we not solemnly vowed all this in our baptism? wherein we promised to keep a good conscience towards God; and did, in the presence of God and angels, renounce the devil, the world, and the flesh, with all their pomps, vanities, and lusts; and so not only subscribe to the truth, but undertake the practice, of those necessary doctrines. And if we should now compare the lives of men amongst us, their barefaced and open profaneness, their daring atheism and blasphemy, their oaths and curses, their luxuries and excesses, their wantonness and impurities, their variance and wrath, their contentions and defiances, their bloodshed and duels, their implacableness and revenge, their inordinate love of the profits and pleasure of the world more than of God, their utter unacquaintance with the yoke of Christ, and the narrow way that leadeth unto life;-if, I say, we should lay together Christ's laws, and our lives, our most solemn vow, and our most perfidious violations of it,-might we not most confidently conclude, aut hæc non est lex Christi, aut nos non sumus Christiani ;" either this is not Christianity, or we are not Christians.-And so Tertullian, Justin Martyr, and other antients, are bold to affirm of such men, "That they are not Christians."-Johannes Picus Mirandula professed, "That he had an amazement upon him, when

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