of an enemy; he loses to God the service of many years, and cuts off himself from a fair opportunity of working his salvation, in the main parts of which we shall find a long life and very many years of reason to be little enough; he betrays the interest of his relatives, which he is bound to preserve; he disables himself of making provision for them of his own house; and he that fails in this duty by his own fault 'is worse than an infidel;' and denies the faith, by such unseasonably dying, or being undone, which by that testimony he did. intend gloriously to confess; he serves the end of ambition and popular services, but not the sober ends of religion; he discourages the weak, and weakens the hands of the strong, and by upbraiding their weariness, tempts them to turn it into rashness or despair; he affrights strangers from entering into religion, while by such imprudence he shall represent it to be impossible, at the same time, to be wise and to be religious; he turns all the whole religion into a frowardness of dying or beggary, leaving no space for the parts and offices of a holy life, which, in times of persecution, are infinitely necessary for the advantages of the institution. But God hath provided better things for his servants: "Quem fata cogunt, ille cum venia est miser;" "he whom God by an inevitable necessity calls to sufferance, he hath leave to be undone;" and that ruin of his estate or loss of his life shall secure first a providence, then a crown. At si quis ultro se malis offert volens, Seque ipse torquet, perdere est dignus bona, 'But he that invites the cruelty of a tyrant by his own follies, or the indiscretions of an insignificant and impertinent zeal, suffers as a wilful person, and enters into the portion and reward of fools.' And this is the precept of our blessed Saviour, next after my text, " Beware of men." Use your prudence to the purposes of avoiding their snare. Τῶν θηρῶν βροτὸς μᾶλλον ἀνήμερος. “ Man is the most harmful of all the wild beasts." "Ye are sent as sheep among wolves; be, therefore, wise as serpents:" when you can avoid it, suffer not men to ride over your heads, or trample you under foot; that is the wisdom of serpents. And so must we; that is, by all just compliances, and toleration of all indifferent changes in which a duty is not destroyed, and in which we are not active, so preserve ourselves, that we might be permitted to live, and serve God, and to do advantages to religion; so purchasing time to do good in, by bending in all those flexures of fortune and condition which we cannot help, and which we do not set forward, and which we never did procure. And this is the direct meaning of St. Paul: "See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil;" that is, we are fallen into times that are troublesome, dangerous, persecuting, and afflictive; purchase as much respite as you can; buy or 'redeem the time' by all honest arts, by humility, by fair carriage and sweetnesses of society, by civility and a peaceful conversation, by good words and all honest offices, by praying for your persecutors, by patient sufferance of what is unavoidable. And when the tyrant draws you forth from all these guards and retirements, and offers violence to your duty, or tempts you to do a dishonest act, or to omit an act of obligation, then come forth into the theatre, and lay your necks down to the hangman's axe, and fear not to die the most. shameful death of the cross or the gallows. For so have I known angels ascending and descending upon those ladders; and the Lord of glory suffered shame and purchased honour upon the cross. Thus we are "to walk in wisdom towards them that are without, redeeming the time:" for so St. Paul renews that permission or commandment; give them no just cause of offence; with all humility, and as occasion is offered, represent their duty, and invite them sweetly to felicities and virtue, but do not, in ruder language, upbraid and reproach their baseness; and, when they are incorrigible, let them alone, lest, like cats, they run mad with the smell of delicious ointments. And, therefore, Pothinus, bishop of Lyons, being asked by the unbaptized president, Who was the God of Christians?' answered 'Eàv s äios yvwon,' If you be disposed with real and hearty desires of learning, what you ask you shall quickly know; but, if your purpose be indirect, I shall not preach to you, to my hurt, and your no advantage.—Thus the wisdom of the primitive Christians was careful not to profane the temples of the heathen, not to revile their false d Col. iv. 5. gods; and, when they were in duty to reprehend the follies of their religion, they chose to do it from their own writings, and as relators of their own records: they fled from the fury of a persecution, they hid themselves in caves, and wandered about in disguises, and preached in private, and celebrated their synaxes and communions in grottos and retirements; and made it appear to all the world they were peaceable and obedient, charitable and patient, and at this price bought their time. Καιρὸς γὰρ, ὥσπερ ἀνδράσι Μέγιστος ἔργε παντός ἐστ ἐπιστάτης. As knowing that, even in this sense, time was very precious, and the opportunity of giving glory to God by the offices of an excellent religion was not too dear a purchase at that rate. But then when the wolves had entered into the folds, and seized upon a lamb, the rest fled, and used all the innocent arts of concealment. St. Athanasius being overtaken by his persecutors, but not known, and asked whether he saw Athanasius passing that way, pointed out forward with his finger, "Non longè abest Athanasius," " the man is not far off," a swift footman will easily overtake him. And St. Paul divided the counsel of his judges, and made the Pharisees his parties by a witty insinuation of his own belief of the resurrection, which was not the main question, but an incident to the matter of his accusation. And when Plinius Secundus, in the face of a tyrant court, was pressed so invidiously to give his opinion concerning a good man in banishment, and under the disadvantage of an unjust sentence, he diverted the snare of Marcus Regulus, by referring his answer to a competent judicatory, according to the laws: being pressed again, by offering a direct answer upon a just condition, which he knew they would not accept; and, the third time, by turning the envy upon the impertinent and malicious orator; that he won great honour, the honour of a severe honesty, and a witty man, and a prudent person. The thing I have noted, because it is a good pattern to represent the arts of honest evasion, and religious, prudent honesty; which any good man may transcribe and turn into his own instances, if any equal case should occur. For, in this case, the rule is easy; if we are commanded to be 'wise' and redeem our time,' that we serve God and religion, we must not use unlawful arts which set us back in the accounts of our time, no lying subterfuges, no betraying of a truth, no treachery to a good man, no insnaring of a brother, no secret renouncing of any part or proposition of our religion, no denying to confess the article when we are called to it. For when the primitive Christians had got a trick to give money for certificates that they had sacrificed to idols, though indeed they did not do it, but had corrupted the officers and ministers of state, they dishonoured their religion, and were marked with the appellative of 'libellatici,' 'libellers;' and were excommunicated, and cast off from the society of Christians, and the hopes of heaven, till they had returned to God by a severe repentance. "Optandum est, ut, quod libenter facis, diu facere possis;" "It is good to have time long to do that which we ought to do:" but to pretend that which we dare not do, and to say we have when we have not, if we know we ought not, is to dishonour the cause and the person too; it is expressly against confession of Christ, of which St. Paul saith, " By the mouth, confession is made unto salvation;" and our blessed Saviour," He that confesseth me before men, I will confess him before my heavenly Father;" and if here he refuseth to own me, I will not own him hereafter. It is also expressly against Christian fortitude and nobleness, and against the simplicity and sincerity of our religion, and it turns prudence into craft, and brings the devil to wait in the temple, and to minister to God; and it is a lesser kind of apostasy. And it is well that the man is tempted no farther; for, if the persecutors could not be corrupted with money, it is odds but the complying man would; and though he would, with the money, hide his shame, yet he will not, with the loss of all his estate, redeem his religion. Λυπηρῶς δ ̓ ἔχει, εἰ τοῖς ἐμαυτῆς τὸν βίον σώζω κακοῖς· 'Some men will lose their lives, rather than a fair estate:' and do not almost all the armies of the world (I mean those that fight in the justest causes) pretend to fight and die for their lands and liberties? and there are too many also, that will die twice, rather than be beggars once, although we all know that the second death is intolerable. Christian prudence forbids us to provoke a danger; and they were fond persons that ran to persecution, and, when the proconsul sat on the life and death, and made strict inquisition after Christians, went and offered themselves to die; and he was a fool, that, being in Portugal, ran to the priest as he elevated the host, and overthrew the mysteries, and openly defied the rites of that religion. God, when he sends a persecution, will pick out such persons whom he will have to die, and whom he will consign to banishment, and whom to poverty. In the mean time, let us do our duty when we can, and as long as we can, and with as much strictness as we can; walking anpics (as the apostle's phrase is), 'not prevaricating' in the least tittle: and then, if we can be safe with the arts of civil, innocent, inoffensive compliance, let us bless God for his permissions made to us, and his assistances in the using them. But if either we turn our zeal into the ambition of death, and the follies of an unnecessary beggary; or on the other side turn our prudence into craft and covetousness; to the first I say, that God hath no pleasure in fools;' to the latter,' If you gain the whole world, and lose your own soul,' your loss is infinite and intolerable. SERMON XXI. PART II. 4. It is the office of Christian prudence so to order the affairs of our life, as that, in all the offices of our souls and conversation, we do honour and reputation to the religion we profess. For the follies and vices of the professors give great advantages to the adversary to speak reproachfully, and do alienate the hearts, and hinder the compliance of those undetermined persons, who are apt to be persuaded, if their understandings be not prejudiced. But as our necessary duty is bound upon us by one ligament more, in order to the honour of the cause of God, so it particularly binds us to many circumstances, adjuncts, and parts of duty, which have no other commandment but the law of prudence. There are some sects of Christians which have some one constant indisposition, which, as a character, divides them from all others, and makes them reproved on all hands. |