SERM. faithful, modeft, loving, refpectful, diligent, apt willingly to yield due fubjection and service. II. Col. iii. 22. 1 Pet. ii. 18. Rom. xiii. 1. It inclineth princes to be juft, gentle, benign, careful for their subjects' good, apt to administer justice uprightly, to protect right, to encourage virtue, to check wickedness. Answerably it rendereth fubjects loyal, fubmiffive, obeTit. iii. 1. dient, quiet, and peaceable, ready to yield due honour, 1 Pet. ii. 13. to pay the tributes and bear the burdens imposed, to dif1 Pet. iv. 9. charge all duties, and observe all laws prescribed by their governors, conscionably, patiently, cheerfully, without reluctancy, grudging, or murmuring. Phil. ii. 14. Eph. vi. 4. It maketh parents loving, gentle, provident for their Col. iii. 21. children's good education, and comfortable subsistence; Eph. vi. 1. children again, dutiful, respectful, grateful, apt to requite Col. iii. 20. their parents. 1 Tim. v. 8. Eph. v. 25. Husbands from it become affectionate and compliant Col. iii. 19. to their wives; wives fubmiffive and obedient to their Eph. v. 22. husbands. 1 Pet. iii. 7. Tit. ii. 5. Col. iii. 18. It difpofeth friends to be friends indeed, full of cordial 1 Pet. iii. 5. affection and good-will, entirely faithful, firmly constant, induftriously careful and active in performing all good offices mutually. Gal. vi. 2. 10. Phil. iv. 8. It engageth men to be diligent in their calling, faithful to their trusts, contented and peaceable in their station, and thereby serviceable to public good. It rendereth all men just and punctual in their dealing, orderly and quiet in their behaviour, courteous and com1 Theff. iii. plaifant in their conversation, friendly and charitable upon 2 Cor. ix. all occafions, apt to affift, to relieve, to comfort one an 12. It tieth all relations more fastly and strongly, affureth and augmenteth all endearments, enforceth and establisheth all obligations by the firm bands of confcience; set afide which, no engagement can hold fure against temptations of intereft or pleasure. Much difference there is between performing these duties out of natural temper, fear of punishment, hope of temporal reward, selfish design, regard to credit, or other the like principles, and the difcharging them out of religious confcience: this alone will keep men tight, uniform, refolute, and ftable; whereas SER M. all other principles are loose and flippery, will foon be fhaken and falter. In confequence to those practices fpringing from it, piety removeth oppreffion, violence, faction, diforders, and murmurings, out of the ftate; fchifms and scandals out of the church; pride and haughtiness, floth and luxury, detraction and sycophantry, out of the court; corruption and partiality out of judicatures; clamours and tumults out of the street; brawlings, grudges, and jealoufies out of families; extortion and cozenage out of trade; ftrifes, emulations, flanderous backbitings, bitter and foul language, out of conversation: in all places, in all focieties it produceth, it advanceth, it establisheth, order, peace, fafety, profperity, all that is good, all that is lovely or handfome, all that is convenient or pleasant for human fociety and common life. It is that which, as the Wife Man Prov. xiv. faith, exalteth a nation; it is that which establisheth a throne. 34. xvi. 12. XX. 28. xxix. 14. viii. 15. It is indeed the best prop and guard that can be of xxix. 8. government, and of the commonweal: for it fettleth the body politic in a found conftitution of health, it firmly cementeth the parts thereof; it putteth all things into a right order and steady course. It procureth mutual respect and affection between governors and fubjects, whence ariseth safety, ease, and pleasure to both. It rendereth men truly good, (that is, just and honest, sober and confiderate, modest and peaceable,) and thence apt, without any conftraint or ftir, to yield every one their due; not affected to needlefs change, not difpofed to raise any difturbance. It putteth men in good humour, and keepeth them in it; whence things pass smoothly and pleasantly. It cherisheth worth, and encourageth industry; whence virtue flourisheth, and wealth is increased; whence the occafions and means of diforder are stopped, the pretences for fedition and faction are cut off. In fine, it certainly procureth the benediction of God, the fource of all welfare and prosperity: whence, When it goeth well with the Prov.xi. 10. righteous, the city rejoiceth; and, When the righteous are xxix. 2. SERM. in authority, the people rejoice, faith the great politician Solomon. 12. It is therefore the concernment of all men, who, as the Pfal. xxxiv. Pfalmift fpeaketh, defire to live well, and would fain fee 1 Pet. iii. 10. good days; it is the fpecial intereft of great perfons, (of the magistracy, the nobility, the gentry, of all persons that have any confiderable intereft in the world,) who would fafely and fweetly enjoy their dignity, power, or wealth, by all means to protect and promote piety, as the beft inftrument of their fecurity, and undisturbedly enjoying the accommodations of their state. 'Tis in all respects their best wisdom and policy; that which will as well preserve their outward state here, as fatisfy their consciences within, and fave their fouls hereafter. All the Machiavelian arts and tricks, all the fleights and fetches of worldly craft, do fignify nothing in comparison to this one plain and eafy way of fecuring and furthering their interests. If then it be a grofs abfurdity to defire the fruits, and not to take care of the root, not to cultivate the ftock, whence they fprout; if every prince gladly would have his fubjects loyal and obedient, every mafter would have his fervants honeft, diligent, and obfervant, every parent would have his children officious and grateful, every man would have his friend faithful and kind, every one would have those just and fincere, with whom he doth negociate or converfe; if any one would choofe to be related to fuch, and would efteem their relation a happiness; then confequently should every man in reafon ftrive to further piety, from whence alone thofe good difpofitions and practices do proceed. II. Piety doth fit a man for all conditions, qualifying him to pass through them all with the best advantage, wifely, cheerfully, and fafely; fo as to incur no confiderable harm or detriment by them. Is a man profperous, high, or wealthy in condition? Piety guardeth him from all the mifchiefs incident to that flate, and disposeth him to enjoy the beft advantages thereof. It keepeth him from being fwelled and puffed up with vain conceit, from being tranfported with fond II. complacence or confidence therein; minding him, that it SERM. is purely the gift of God, that it absolutely dependeth on his difpofal, fo that it may foon be taken from him; and that he cannot otherwise than by humility, by gratitude, by the good use of it, be fecure to retain it; minding him alfo, that he shall affuredly be forced to render a strict account concerning the good management thereof. It preferveth him from being perverted or corrupted with the temptations, to which that condition is most liable; from luxury, from floth, from ftupidity, from forgetfulness of God, and of himself; maintaining among the floods of plenty a fober and steady mind. It fenceth him from infolence, and faftuous contempt of others; rendereth him civil, condefcenfive, kind and helpful to those who are in a meaner state. It instructeth and inciteth him to apply his wealth and power to the best uses, to the service of God, to the benefit of his neighbour, for his own best reputation, and moft folid comfort. It is the right ballaft of profperity, the only antidote for all the inconveniences of wealth; that which fecureth, sweeteneth, and fanctifieth all other goods: without it all apparent goods are very noxious, or extremely dangerous; riches, power, honour, ease, pleasure, are so many poisons, or so many snares, without it. Again, is a man poor and low in the world? Piety doth improve and sweeten even that state: it keepeth his spirits up above dejection, desperation, and difconfolatenefs; it freeth him from all grievous folicitude and anxiety; fhewing him, that although he feemeth to have little, yet he may be affured to want nothing, he having a certain fuccour and never-failing fupply from God's good providence; that, notwithstanding the present ftraitness of his condition, or fcantnefs of outward things, he hath a title to goods infinitely more precious and more confiderable. A pious man cannot but apprehend himself like the child of a moft wealthy, kind, and careful father, who, although he hath yet nothing in his own poffeffion, or paffing under his name, yet is affured, that he can never come into any want of what is needful to him: the Lord of all things (who hath all things in heaven and earth at his difpofal, . II. SERM. who is infinitely tender of his children's good, who doth inceffantly watch over them) being his gracious Father, how can he fear to be left deftitute, or not to be competently provided for, as is truly best for him? This is the difference between a pious and an impious man. Is the pious man in need? he hath then an invifible refuge to fly to, an invisible store to furnish him; he hath fomewhat beyond all prefent things to hope in, to comfort himself with: whereas the impious perfon hath nothing befide prefent appearances to fupport or folace himself by; the which failing, down he finketh into dejection and defpair. Is the good man in affliction? he knoweth that it cometh not on him without God's wife appointment, nor without good intention toward him, for probation, exercise, and improvement of his virtues, or for wholesome correction of his bad difpofitions; that it is only phyfic and difcipline to him, which fhall have a comfortable iffue; that it shall last no longer than it is expedient for him that it should: wherefore he patiently submitteth to it, and undergoeth it cheerfully, with the fame mind wherewith a patient swalloweth down an unfavoury potion, which he prefumeth will conduce to his health b. Never, indeed, hath any man enjoyed more real content, or hath been more truly satisfied, than good men have been in a seeming depth of adversity. What men ever upon earth have been more forely afflicted, have underwent greater loffes, difgraces, labours, troubles, diftreffes in any kind, than did the holy Apoftles? Yet did they moft heartily rejoice, exult, and triumph in them all. Such a wondrous virtue hath piety to change all things into matter of confolation and joy. No condition in effect can be evil or fad to a pious man: his very forrows are pleasant, his b Scimus amicos Dei ab amantiffimo, mifericordiffimo Patre Deo mala ifta pœnalia recipere, non ut pœnam feu vindictam iracundiæ, fed magis ut correctiones et medicamenta ftultitiæ, et adjumenta virtutis, ut malleationes five fabricationes, et tunfiones, five ablutiones, et candidationes. Guil. Par. de Sacram. - Εκείνους μὲν γὰρ ἐπεκούφιζεν ἡ χαρὰ τῆς μαρτυρίας, καὶ ἡ ἐλπὶς τῶν ἐπηγγελ μένων, καὶ ἡ πρὸς τὸν Χρισὸν ἀγάπη, καὶ τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ πατρικόν, Eufeb. v. 1. Mart. Lugd. |