The liberal soul shall be made fat, and he that watereth shall be watered again. They that cannot believe this, want the faith of Christians. Had any one in the apostle’s time reduced his wife and children to want, by his great charity to the poor, the apostle would have been so far from rebuking him, as a half-thinking fool, or exposing him to others, as guilty of madness, and grievous sin, that he would have told them, that he had consecrated himself and family to the church, that he and they were thereby become the dear objects of the church’s care and love, since their present distress was brought upon them by a boundless love and compassion for the poor.
I will now put the following case in as high terms as the Doctor can well desire. Let it be supposed that some good bishop, possessed of as rich a bishoprick as that of Winchester, should through his extensive charity for the poor throughout the whole diocese, be forced to use the utmost frugality in family expences, and to bring up his children in employments of labour, to help themselves to food and raiment; one a carpenter, in which business our Saviour is said to have laboured in his youth; another a maker of tents, the trade of the great apostle: and the rest in the like manner. Let it be supposed, that when he died, he left only twenty pounds a year amongst them, not to be possessed by any one of them, but only to be used by every one as sickness or age made them stand in need of it, with this injunction, that it should be given to other sick and helpless people, when there was no such amongst themselves: Let it be supposed that by his life and conversation, he had filled his wife and children with the true and perfect spirit of the gospel, that they loved and rejoiced in his memory for all the good he had done to them, desiring nothing, but to go through the world, in the same humility, piety, charity, love of God, and renunciation of the world, as he had done. Will the Doctor say that this bishop had ruined his wife and children; that half thinking had betrayed him into a most grievous sin, that he had by this life deny’d the faith, and become worse than an infidel? I will venture to say, that if such a bishop should ever appear in this kingdom, he would bid fair to put an end to infidelity through all his diocese, though it were the largest in the nation. Now if the Doctor does not know of any one either among the laity or clergy, who is ruining his wife and children by a greater and more blameable charity than that of this bishop, it must be said, that he has been in too much haste, that his zeal has not proceeded from knowledge; and that he has been throwing cold water upon charity, before there was any flame in it.
37. I now proceed to shew in a more general way the blameable nature of the Doctor’s discourse. The whole Christian world from the time of our Saviour to this day, has been praying, Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Sacraments, divine worship, and the order of the clergy, are appointed as ministerial helps for this end, to raise, set up, and establish this kingdom of God on earth. The fall of a man brought forth the kingdom of this world; sin in all shapes is nothing else but the will of man, following the workings of a nature broken off from its dependency upon, and union with the divine will. All the evil and misery in the creation arises solely from this one cause. There is not the smallest degree of pain or punishment either within us, or without us, but is owing to this, viz. that man stands out of his place, is not in, and under, and united to God as he should be, as the nature of things requires. God created every thing to partake of his own nature, to have some share of his own life, and happiness. Nothing can be good or evil, happy or unhappy, but as it does or does not stand in the same divine life in which it was created, receiving in God, and from God, all that good that it is capable of, and so co-operating with, and under him, according to the nature of its powers and perfections. As soon as it turns to itself, and would as it were have a sound of its own, it breaks off from the divine harmony, and falls into the misery of its own discord; and all its workings then are only so many sorts of torments. The redemption of mankind can then only be effected, the harmony of the creation can only then be restored when the will of God is the will of every creature. For this reason our blessed Lord having taken upon him a created nature, so continually declares against the doing any thing of himself, and always appeals to the will of God, as the only motive and end of every thing he did, saying, that it was his meat and drink, to do the will of him that had sent him.
38. * What now can be so desirable to a sensible man, as to have the vain, disorderly passions of his heart removed from him, to be filled with such unity, love, and concord, as flow from God, to stand united to, and co-operating with the divine goodness, willing nothing, but what God wills, loving nothing, but what God loves, and doing all the good he can to every creature, from the principle of love and conformity to God. Then the kingdom of God is come and his will is done in that soul, as it is done in heaven. Then heaven itself is in the soul, and the life and conversation of the soul is in heaven. From such a man the curse of the world is removed; he walks upon consecrated ground, and every thing he meets, every thing that happens to him, helps forward his union and communion with God. For when we receive every thing from God, and do every thing for God, every thing does us the same good, and helps us to the same degree of happiness. Sickness, and health, prosperity and adversity, bless and purify such a soul; as it turns every thing toward God, so every thing becomes divine to it. For he that seeks God in every thing, is sure to find God in every thing. When we thus live wholly unto God, God is wholly ours, and we are then happy in all the happiness of God. This is the purity and perfection, that we pray for in the Lord’s prayer, that God’s kingdom may come, and his will be done in us, as it is in heaven.
39. And this we may be sure is not only necessary, but attainable by us, or our Saviour would not have made it a part of our daily prayer. It may then justly be asked, have we yet obtained that, which we have been so long, and so universally praying for? Can we look upon the church of this nation, as drawing near, or even tending to this state of perfection? Can we be carried to any one parish, either in town or country where it can with truth be said of any one pastor and his flock, that there the kingdom of God is coming and his will begins to be done on earth, as it is done in heaven? Can we therefore find any one parish, where the pastor has not great reason to reject the Doctor’s discourse, and to pray both for himself and his flock, that they may enter much farther into the spirit and practice of Christianity, than they have yet entered, that the gospel may have much greater power over them, than it hath yet had; and that they may all see what it is that has made so divine, and powerful a religion, so without its proper effect upon them? For if the case be thus, if we stand at this amazing distance from that state of perfection to which Christ has called us, do not heaven and earth seem to call upon every minister of the gospel, to take some share to himself of this miserable state of things, and to endeavour to convince both himself, and his flock, that they have not yet been Christians in true earnest, that they have professed Christ with the tempers of Jews and Heathens, that they have not yet enough renounced the world, not enough denied themselves, not enough emptied their hearts of passions hurtful to piety, not enough offered and devoted themselves to God, not enough made the spirit of religion the spirit of their lives, not enough sought for strength and deliverance from sin, by a firm and living faith in Jesus Christ; not enough prayed and desired that they might be born again of God, so that Christ may be truly formed in them; not enough prayed and desired to be every where, and on all occasions under the perpetual influence and guidance of the Holy Spirit, that they may think and say, and do every thing by his holy inspiration; not enough looked to that first and great commandment, of loving God with our whole heart and strength: not enough endeavoured to keep the next, that of loving our neighbour, as ourselves; not enough renounced such fashions, customs, and conformities to the world, as corrupt the heart, and grieve and separate the Holy Spirit from it.
40. Now which way soever we consider the lamentable state of religion amongst us, no remedy can be procured by us of the clergy, but in this one way, that every individual of the order, from the highest to the lowest, begin in right earnest with himself, open the book of his own heart and life, and consider seriously, in the presence of God, whether, according to his degree in the ecclesiastical function, the world has its due share of salt and light from him; whether all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life have been so openly, so constantly discouraged, and renounced by him, that the whole form of his life has been one kind, continual call to all orders of Christians, to set their affections on things above, to mind only the one thing needful, to have nothing at heart, but to be in Christ new creatures, seeking, intending, desiring nothing, thro’ the pilgrimage of this life, but to live unspotted from the world, and to obtain every height of holiness, and heavenly affections, which becomes those who are to be called sons, and heirs of God with Christ Jesus.
41. If religion was at this time in a most flourishing state amongst us, abounding with such congregations as made up the primitive church, it would be great injustice to suppose that the clergy had not, under God, been the chief instruments of building it up to such a state of perfection. Seeing then an universal corruption of manners is on all hands confessed, to have overspread this Christian nation, and the true spirit of religion is hardly any where to be seen, nothing can be more reasonable than for every clergyman, wherever his lot is fallen, to suspect himself to have, in some degree, contributed to this common calamity, and to try to discover his own state, by such questions as these, laid home to his conscience. If Christianity has not done that to my flock which is the only end of it, is there nothing of this failure chargeable upon my conduct over it? Can my righteous Judge lay nothing to my charge on that account? Can my own heart bear me witness that I was not driven by human passions, but stayed and waited till the Holy Spirit called me to this office? Have I not undertaken the care of other souls, before I had any true and real care of my own? Have I not presumed to convert and strengthen others, before I was converted myself? To preach by hearsay of the grace, and mercy, and salvation of the gospel, whilst I myself was an obedient slave to sin? Have I not taken upon me to lay open the mysteries of God’s love in Christ Jesus, before they had their proper entrance into my own soul? Have my own repentance, compunction, deep sense of the burden of sin, and want of a Saviour taught me how to make the terrors of the Lord known in the deep of every man’s heart, and to awaken and pierce the consciences of sinners? Has, my own true and living faith in Christ my Saviour, my own experience of the atoning, cleansing, sanctifying powers of his precious blood, enabled me with great boldness to tell all sinners, that to the faith which worketh by love, Christ always and infallibly saith, what he said in the gospel, Thy sins are forgiven; thy faith has saved thee; go in peace.
42. * Can my own heart, and God who is greater than our hearts, bear me witness that in my sacred office I have not sought myself, or my own things, but the things of Jesus Christ? If I have changed one flock or station for another, or added one cure to another, have I done it in singleness of heart, as unto the Lord and not for myself? Has all that I have sought or done of this kind, been only from this motive, that I might be more faithful to him that hath called me, and be more and more spent and sacrificed for the salvation of souls? Have I neglected no means of fitting and preparing myself for the illumination of God’s Holy Spirit, which alone can enable me in any measure to speak to and work upon the hearts and consciences of men? Have I earnestly longed, and laboured after every kind and degree of inward and outward holiness, and purity of body, soul, and spirit, that my standing at the altar may be acceptable to God, and my prayers and intercessions for my flock avail much before him? Has my own self-denial, renunciation of the world, and love of the cross of Christ, enabled me to preach up those duties in their full extent? Has my own strictly pious use of the things of this world, my own readiness to assist every creature to the utmost of my ability fitted me to call others to these things with power and authority? Have all ages and conditions of people under my care had their proper instruction and warning from me, so that I have spared no folly, vanity, indulgence, or conformity to the world, that hurt mens souls, and hinder their progress in piety? Have I done all that by my prayers and preaching, life and example, which Christ expects from those whom he has enjoined to feed his sheep? Can my flock by looking at me see what virtues they want? Can they by following me, be led to every kind and degree of Christian perfection! Lastly, has the will of God been the beginning and end, the reason and motive, the rule and measure, of my liking or disliking, doing or not doing [♦]every thing among those people with whom I have lived as their minister?
[♦] removed duplicate word “every”
43. These are a few of such questions as the present state of religion in this island calls every minister to try himself by. For as the order of the clergy is instituted for no other end, but for the preserving of true piety in the world; so when any age is more than ordinarily sunk in vice and impiety, the whole order of the clergy, and every member of it, have great reason not only to be deeply afflicted, but greatly affrighted at it, and to suspect their own conduct, since that which is their particular work, has had so little success. They have great reason to apprehend, that it is some degeneracy of spirit, some general negligence, some want of example, some failure in doctrine, some defect in zeal and care of their particular flocks, that too much contributes to so general a corruption of manners. This does not suppose, that it is in the power of our order to regulate the manners of people as we please; it only supposes, that of all human means it has the greatest effect, and that when any nation or people are very bad, it behoves the clergy, who have any right sense of the nature of our order, any true love for our brethren of it, to awaken and stir up one another to a faithful diligence in our callings; not such as may secure us from public scandal, and the laws of the land, but such diligence as the nature of our office, the spirit of the gospel, and the present decay of religion call for. Let us beseech one another, deeply to consider the great need that this poor nation hath of a zealous, pious, exemplary, disinterested and laborious clergy; to consider the dreadful judgments of God, that may justly be expected to fall first upon our own heads, if this only remedy is not procured by all of us, according to the utmost of our ability. It is now no time for ease, indulgence or worldly repose; all is to be renounced, all is to be sacrificed. Our religion is founded on this doctrine.—That we are to be born again of the Holy Spirit;—that there is no sanctification of the heart, no illumination of the mind, no knowledge of divine mysteries, no love of holy things possible to be had, but in and by the motion and life of this Holy Spirit in us;—that its life, motion and power in us, increase according to our faith, prayers and desires of it.