Dissenters, do not think fit to observe this day of humiliation; yet,
since it would be very proper in them, upon some occasions, to renounce
in a public manner those principles upon which their predecessors acted;
and it will be more prudent in them to do so, because those very
Puritans, of whom ours are followers, found by experience, that after
they had overturned the Church and state, murdered their King, and were
projecting what they called a kingdom of the saints, they were cheated
of the power and possessions they only panted after, by an upstart sect
of religion that grew out of their own bowels, who subjected them to one
tyrant, while they were endeavouring to set up a thousand.
_Fourthly_: Those who profess to be followers of our Church established,
and yet presume in discourse to justify or excuse that rebellion, and
murder of the King, ought to consider, how utterly contrary all such
opinions are to the doctrine of Christ and his apostles, as well as to
the articles of our Church, and to the preaching and practice of its
true professors for above a hundred years. Of late times, indeed, and I
speak it with grief of heart, we have heard even sermons of a strange
nature; although reason would make one think it a very unaccountable way
of procuring favour under a monarchy, by palliating and lessening the
guilt of those who murdered the best of kings in cold blood, and, for a
time, destroyed the very monarchy itself. Pray God, we may never more
hear such doctrine from the pulpit, nor have it scattered about in
print, to poison the people!
_Fifthly:_ Some general knowledge of this horrid rebellion and murder,
with the consequences they had upon these nations, may be a warning to
our people not to believe a lie, and to mistrust those deluding spirits,
who, under pretence of a purer and more reformed religion, would lead
them from their duty to God and the laws. Politicians may say what they
please, but it is no hard thing at all for the meanest person, who hath
common understanding, to know whether he be well or ill governed. If he
be freely allowed to follow his trade and calling; if he be secure in
his property, and hath the benefit of the law to defend himself against
injustice and oppression; if his religion be different from that of his
country, and the government think fit to tolerate it, (which he may be
very secure of, let it be what it will;) he ought to be fully satisfied,
and give no offence, by writing or discourse, to the worship
established, as the dissenting preachers are too apt to do. But, if he
hath any new visions of his own, it is his duty to be quiet, and possess
them in silence, without disturbing the community by a furious zeal for
making proselytes. This was the folly and madness of those ancient
puritan fanatics: They must needs overturn heaven and earth, violate all
the laws of God and man, make their country a field of blood, to
propagate whatever wild or wicked opinions came into their heads,
declaring all their absurdities and blasphemies to proceed from the Holy
Ghost.
To conclude this head. In answer to that objection of keeping up
animosity and hatred between Protestants, by the observation of this
day; if there be any sect or sort of people among us, who profess the
same principles in religion and government which those puritan rebels
put in practice, I think it is the interest of all those who love the
Church and King, to keep up as strong a party against them as possible,
until they shall, in a body, renounce all those wicked opinions upon
which their predecessors acted, to the disgrace of Christianity, and the
perpetual infamy of the English nation.
When we accuse the Papists of the horrid doctrine, "that no faith ought
to be kept with heretics," they deny it to a man; and yet we justly
think it dangerous to trust them, because we know their actions have
been sometimes suitable to that opinion. But the followers of those who
beheaded the Martyr have not yet renounced their principles; and, till
they do, they may be justly suspected. Neither will the bare name of
Protestants set them right. For surely Christ requires more from us than
a profession of hating Popery, which a Turk or an atheist may do as well
as a Protestant.
If an enslaved people should recover their liberty from a tyrannical
power of any sort, who could blame them for commemorating their
deliverance by a day of joy and thanksgiving? And doth not the
destruction of a Church, a King, and three kingdoms, by the artifices,
hypocrisy, and cruelty of a wicked race of soldiers and preachers, and
other sons of Belial, equally require a solemn time of humiliation?
Especially since the consequences of that bloody scene still continue,
as I have already shewn, in their effects upon us.
Thus I have done with the three heads I proposed to discourse on. But
before I conclude, I must give a caution to those who hear me, that they
may not think I am pleading for absolute unlimited power in any one man.
It is true, all power is from God, and, as the apostle says, "the powers
that be are ordained of God;" but this is in the same sense that all we
have is from God, our food and raiment, and whatever possessions we hold
by lawful means. Nothing can be meant in those, or any other words of
Scripture, to justify tyrannical power, or the savage cruelties of those
heathen emperors who lived in the time of the apostles. And so St Paul
concludes, "The powers that be are ordained of God:" For what? Why, "for
the punishment of evil doers, and the praise, the reward, of them that
do well." There is no more inward value in the greatest emperor, than in
the meanest of his subjects: His body is composed of the same substance,
the same parts, and with the same or greater, infirmities: His education
is generally worse, by flattery, and idleness, and luxury, and those
evil dispositions that early power is apt to give. It is therefore
against common sense, that his private personal interest, or pleasure,
should be put in the balance with the safety of millions, every one of
which is his equal by nature, equal in the sight of God, equally capable
of salvation; and it is for their sakes, not his own, that he is
entrusted with the government over them. He hath as high trust as can
safely be reposed in one man, and, if he discharge it as he ought, he
deserves all the honour and duty that a mortal may be allowed to
receive. His personal failings we have nothing to do with, and errors in
government are to be imputed to his ministers in the state. To what
height those errors may be suffered to proceed, is not the business of
this day, or this place, or of my function, to determine. When
oppressions grow too great and universal to be borne, nature or
necessity may find a remedy. But, if a private person reasonably expects
pardon, upon his amendment, for all faults that are not capital, it
would be a hard condition indeed, not to give the same allowance to a
prince, who must see with other men's eyes, and hear with other men's
ears, which are often wilfully blind and deaf. Such was the condition of
the Martyr, and is so, in some degree, of all other princes. Yet this we
may justly say in defence of the common people, in all civilized
nations, that it must be a very bad government indeed, where the body of
the subjects will not rather choose to live in peace and obedience, than
take up arms on pretence of faults in the administration, unless where
the vulgar are deluded by false preachers to grow fond of new visions
and fancies in religion; which, managed by dexterous men, for sinister
ends of malice, envy, or ambition, have often made whole nations run
mad. This was exactly the case in the whole progress of that great
rebellion, and the murder of King Charles I. But the late Revolution
under the Prince of Orange was occasioned by a proceeding directly
contrary, the oppression and injustice there beginning from the throne:
For that unhappy prince, King James II., did not only invade our laws
and liberties, but would have forced a false religion upon his subjects,
for which he was deservedly rejected, since there could be no other
remedy found, or at least agreed on. But, under the blessed Martyr, the
deluded people would have forced many false religions, not only on their
fellow-subjects, but even upon their sovereign himself, and at the same
time invaded all his undoubted rights; and, because he would not comply,
raised a horrid rebellion, wherein, by the permission of God, they
prevailed, and put their sovereign to death, like a common criminal, in
the face of the world.
Therefore, those who seem to think they cannot otherwise justify the
late Revolution, and the change of the succession, than by lessening the
guilt of the Puritans, do certainly put the greatest affront imaginable
upon the present powers, by supposing any relation, or resemblance,
between that rebellion and the late Revolution; and, consequently, that
the present establishment is to be defended by the same arguments which
those usurpers made use of, who, to obtain their tyranny, trampled under
foot all the laws of both God and man.
One great design of my discourse was to give you warning against running
into either extreme of two bad opinions, with relation to obedience. As
kings are called gods upon earth, so some would allow them an equal
power with God, over all laws and ordinances; and that the liberty, and
property, and life, and religion of the subject, depended wholly upon
the breath of the prince; which, however, I hope was never meant by
those who pleaded for passive obedience. And this opinion hath not been
confined to that party which was first charged with it, but hath
sometimes gone over to the other, to serve many an evil turn of interest
or ambition, who have been as ready to enlarge prerogative, where they
could find their own account, as the highest maintainers of it.
On the other side, some look upon kings as answerable for every mistake
or omission in government, and bound to comply with the most
unreasonable demands of an unquiet faction; which was the case of those
who persecuted the blessed Martyr of this day from his throne to the
scaffold.
Between these two extremes, it is easy, from what hath been said, to
choose a middle; to be good and loyal subjects, yet, according to your
power, faithful assertors of your religion and liberties; to avoid all
broachers and preachers of newfangled doctrines in the Church; to be
strict observers of the laws, which cannot be justly taken from you
without your own consent: In short, "to obey God and the King, and
meddle not with those who are given to change."
Which that you may all do, &c.
ON THE POOR MAN'S CONTENTMENT.
PHILIPPIANS, CHAP. IV. PART OF THE 11TH VERSE.
"I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content"
The holy Scripture is full of expressions to set forth the miserable
condition of man during the whole progress of his life; his weakness,
pride, and vanity; his unmeasurable desires, and perpetual
disappointments; the prevalency of his passions, and the corruptions of
his reason; his deluding hopes, and his real, as well as imaginary,
fears; his natural and artificial wants; his cares and anxieties; the
diseases of his body, and the diseases of his mind; the shortness of his
life; his dread of a future state, with his carelessness to prepare for
it: And the wise men of all ages have made the same reflections.
But all these are general calamities, from which none are excepted; and
being without remedy, it is vain to bewail them. The great question,
long debated in the world, is, whether the rich or the poor are the
least miserable of the two? It is certain, that no rich man ever desired
to be poor, and that most, if not all, poor men, desire to be rich;
whence it may be argued, that, in all appearance, the advantage lieth on
the side of wealth, because both parties agree in preferring it before
poverty. But this reasoning will be found to be false: For, I lay it
down as a certain truth, that God Almighty hath placed all men upon an
equal foot, with respect to their happiness in this world, and the
capacity of attaining their salvation in the next; or, at least, if
there be any difference, it is not to the advantage of the rich and the
mighty. Now, since a great part of those who usually make up our
congregations, are not of considerable station, and many among them of
the lower sort, and since the meaner people are generally and justly
charged with the sin of repining and murmuring at their own condition,
to which, however, their betters axe sufficiently subject (although,
perhaps, for shame, not always so loud in their complaints) I thought it
might be useful to reason upon this point in as plain a manner as I can.
I shall therefore shew, first, that the poor enjoy many temporal
blessings, which are not common to the rich and the great: And,
likewise, that the rich and the great are subject to many temporal
evils, which are not common to the poor.
But here I would not be misunderstood; perhaps there is not a word more
abused than that of the poor, or wherein the world is more generally
mistaken. Among the number of those who beg in our streets, or are
half-starved at home, or languish in prison for debt, there is hardly
one in a hundred who doth not owe his misfortunes to his own laziness,
or drunkenness, or worse vices.
To these he owes those very diseases which often disable him from
getting his bread. Such wretches are deservedly unhappy: They can only
blame themselves; and when we are commanded to have pity on the poor,
these are not understood to be of the number.
It is true, indeed, that sometimes honest, endeavouring men are reduced
to extreme want, even to the begging of alms, by losses, by accidents,
by diseases, and old age, without any fault of their own: But these are
very few in comparison of the other; nor would their support be any
sensible burthen to the public, if the charity of well-disposed persons
were not intercepted by those common strollers, who are most
importunate, and who least deserve it. These, indeed, are properly and
justly called the poor, whom it should be our study to find out and
distinguish, by making them partake, of our superfluity and abundance.
But neither have these anything to do with my present subject; For, by
the poor, I only intend the honest, industrious artificer, the meaner
sort of tradesmen, and the labouring man, who getteth his bread by the
sweat of his brows, in town or country, and who make the bulk of mankind
among us.
_First_: I shall therefore shew, first, that the poor (in the sense I
understand the word) do enjoy many temporal blessings, which are not
common to the rich and great; and likewise, that the rich and great are
subject to many temporal evils, which are not common to the poor.
_Secondly_: From the arguments offered to prove the foregoing head, I
shall draw some observations that may be useful for your practice.
I. As to the first: Health, we know, is generally allowed to be the best
of all earthly possessions, because it is that, without which we can
have no satisfaction in any of the rest. For riches are of no use, if
sickness taketh from us the ability of enjoying them, and power and
greatness are then only a burthen. Now, if we would look for health, it
must be in the humble habitation of the labouring man, or industrious
artificer, who earn their bread by the sweat of their brows, and usually
live to a good old age, with a great degree of strength and vigour.
The refreshment of the body by sleep is another great happiness of the
meaner sort. Their rest is not disturbed by the fear of thieves and
robbers, nor is it interrupted by surfeits of intemperance. Labour and
plain food supply the want of quieting draughts; and the wise man
telleth us, that the sleep of the labouring man is sweet. As to
children, which are certainly accounted of as a blessing, even to the
poor, where industry is not wanting; they are an assistance to honest
parents, instead of being a burthen; they are healthy and strong, and
fit for labour; neither is the father in fear, lest his heir should be
ruined by an unequal match: Nor is he solicitous about his rising in the
world, farther than to be able to get his bread.
The poorer sort are not the objects of general hatred or envy; they have
no twinges of ambition, nor trouble themselves with party quarrels, or
state divisions. The idle rabble, who follow their ambitious leaders in
such cases, do not fall within my description of the poorer sort; for,
it is plain, I mean only the honest industrious poor in town or
country, who are safest in times of public disturbance, in perilous
seasons, and public revolutions, if they will be quiet, and do their
business; for artificers and husbandmen are necessary in all
governments: But in such seasons, the rich are the public mark, because
they are oftentimes of no use, but to be plundered; like some sort of
birds, who are good for nothing, but their feathers; and so fall a prey
to the strongest side.
Let us proceed, on the other side to examine the disadvantages which the
rich and the great lie under, with respect to the happiness of the
present life.
First, then; While health, as we have said, is the general portion of
the lower sort, the gout, the dropsy, the stone, the cholic, and all
other diseases, are continually haunting the palaces of the rich and the
great, as the natural attendants upon laziness and luxury. Neither does
the rich man eat his sumptuous fare with half the appetite and relish,
that even the beggars do the crumbs which fall from his table: But, on
the contrary, he is full of loathing and disgust, or at best of
indifference, in the midst of plenty. Thus their intemperance shortens
their lives, without pleasing their appetites.
Business, fear, guilt, design, anguish, and vexation are continually
buzzing about the curtains of the rich and the powerful, and will hardly
suffer them to close their eyes, unless when they are dosed with the
fumes of strong liquors.
It is a great mistake to imagine that the rich want but few things;
their wants are more numerous, more craving, and urgent, than those of
poorer men: For these endeavour only at the necessaries of life, which
make them happy, and they think no farther: But the desire of power and
wealth is endless, and therefore impossible to be satisfied with any
acquisitions.
If riches were so great a blessing as they are commonly thought, they
would at least have this advantage, to give their owners cheerful hearts
and countenances; they would often stir them up to express their
thankfulness to God, and discover their satisfaction to the world. But,
in fact, the contrary to all this is true. For where are there more
cloudy brows, more melancholy hearts, or more ingratitude to their great
Benefactor, than among those who abound in wealth? And, indeed, it is
natural that it should be so, because those men, who covet things that
are hard to be got, must be hard to please; whereas a small thing maketh
a poor man happy, and great losses cannot befall him.
It is likewise worth considering, how few among the rich have procured
their wealth by just measures; how many owe their fortunes to the sins
of their parents, how many more to their own? If men's titles were to be
tried before a true court of conscience, where false swearing, and a
thousand vile artifices, (that are well known, and can hardly be avoided
in human courts of justice) would avail nothing; how many would be
ejected with infamy and disgrace? How many grow considerable by breach
of trust, by bribery and corruption? How many have sold their religion,
with the rights and liberties of themselves and others, for power and
employments?
And, it is a mistake to think, that the most hardened sinner, who oweth
his possessions or titles to any such wicked arts of thieving, can have
true peace of mind, under the reproaches of a guilty conscience, and
amid the cries of ruined widows and orphans.
I know not one real advantage that the rich have over the poor, except
the power of doing good to others. But this is an advantage which God
hath not given wicked men the grace to make use of. The wealth acquired
by evil means was never employed to good ends; for that would be to
divide the kingdom of Satan against itself. Whatever hath been gained by
fraud, avarice, oppression, and the like, must be preserved and
increased by the same methods.
I shall add but one thing more upon this head, which I hope will
convince you, that God (whose thoughts are not as our thoughts) never
intended riches or power to be necessary for the happiness of mankind in
this life; because it is certain, that there is not one single good
quality of the mind absolutely necessary to obtain them, where men are
resolved to be rich at any rate; neither honour, justice, temperance,
wisdom, religion, truth, or learning; for a slight acquaintance of the
world will inform us, that there have been many instances of men, in all
ages, who have arrived at great possessions and great dignities, by
cunning, fraud, or flattery, without any of these, or any other virtues
that can be named. Now, if riches and greatness were such blessings,
that good men without them could not have their share of happiness in
this life; how cometh it to pass, that God should suffer them to be
often dealt to the worst, and most profligate of mankind; that they
should be generally procured by the most abominable means, and applied
to the basest and most wicked uses? This ought not to be conceived of a
just, a merciful, a wise, and Almighty Being. We must therefore
conclude, that wealth and power are in their own nature, at best, but
things indifferent, and that a good man may be equally happy without
them, provided that he hath a sufficiency of the common blessings of
human life to answer all the reasonable and virtuous demands of nature,
which his industry will provide, and sobriety will prevent his wanting.
Agur's prayer, with the reasons of his wish, are full to this purpose:
"Give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with food convenient for
me; lest I be full and deny thee, and say, 'Who is the Lord?' Or, lest I
be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain."
From what hath been said, I shall, in the second place, offer some
considerations, that may be useful for your practice.
And here I shall apply myself chiefly to those of the lower sort, for
whose comfort and satisfaction this discourse is principally intended.
For, having observed the great sin of those, who do not abound in
wealth, to be that of murmuring and repining, that God hath dealt his
blessings unequally to the sons of men, I thought it would be of great
use to remove out of your minds so false and wicked an opinion, by
shewing that your condition is really happier than most of you imagine.