of God, by which we are fealed unto the day of redemption.

I have now done with this argument, and what I have faid concerning immodeft and unchaste words, is of equal force against lascivious books, and pictures, and plays; all which do alike intrench upon natural modesty, and for that reason are equally forbidden and condemned by the Christian religion; and therefore it may fuffice to have named them. I shall only speak a few words concerning plays, which, as they are now ordered among us, are a mighty reproach to the age and nation.

To speak against them in general, may be thought too fevere, and that which the present age cannot fo well brook, and would not perhaps be so just and reafonable; because it is very possible they might be so framed, and governed by such rules, as not only to be innocently diverting, but instructing and useful, to put fome vices and follies out of countenance, which cannot perhaps be so decently reproved, nor so effectually exposed and corrected any other way. But as the stage now is, they are intolerable, and not fit to be permitted in a civilized, much less in a Christian nation. They do most notoriously minifter both to infidelity and vice. By the profaneness of them, they are apt to instil bad principles into the minds of men, and to lessen the awe and reverence which all men ought to have for God and religion: and by their lewdness they teach vice, and are apt to infect the minds of men, and difpose them to lewd and dissolute practices.

And therefore I do not see how any person, pretending to fobriety and virtue, and especially to the pure and holy religion of our blessed Saviour, can, without great guilt, and open contradiction to his holy profef fion, be present at such lewd and immodest plays, much less frequent them, as too many do, who yet would take it very ill to be shut out of the communion of Christians, as they would most certainly have been in the first and purest ages of Christianity.

To conclude this whole discourse; let us always remember that gravity and modesty in all our behaviour and conversation, in all our words and actions, are duties indispensibly required by the Christian religion, and

the

the great fences of piety and virtue; and therefore ought, with great confcience and care, to be preferved and kept inviolable: and when these fences are once broken down, there is a wide gap made for almost any fin and vice to enter in. Immodeft words do naturally tend to corrupt good manners, both in ourselves and others.

There is none of us, but would reckon it a very great infelicity to be deprived of that noble and useful facul-ty of speech, which is so peculiar to man, and which, next to our reason and understanding, doth most remarkably diftinguish us from the brute beafts: but it is a much greater unhappiness to have this faculty, and to abuse it to vile and lewd purposes. The firit may be only our misfortune: but this can never be without great fault, and gross neglect of ourselves; and much better had it been for us to have been born dumb, than thus to turn our glory into shame and guilt, by perverting this excellent gift of God, to the corrupting ourselves and others.

This, I hope, may be sufficient to restrain men from this vice, which I have all this while been speaking againft; at least to preferve those which are not yet infected, from the contagion of it; and, I hope, to reclaim many from so bad a practice. And if any be so hardened in their lewd course, that no counsel of this kind can make impreffion on them, what remains, but to conclude in the words of the angel to St. John, Rev. xxii. 11. He that is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still.

VOL. IX.

N

SER

SERMON CCXV.

The true remedy against the troubles of life.

JOHN xiv. 1.

Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe alfo in me.

The firft fermon on this text.

N which words our blessed Saviour does, upon a particular occafion, prescribe an universal remedy against trouble. And the particular occasion of this confolatory discourse, which our Saviour here makes to his disciples, was this: he had often told them of his fufferings: but the conceit which they had entertained of his temporal reign, would not suffer them to admit any thought of fuch a thing, as the sufferings or death of the Meffias; and therefore it is said, that these things did not fink into them, and that they understood them not ; men being generally very flow to understand what they do not like, and have no mind to. At last our Saviour tells them plainly, that how backward foever they were to believe it, the time of his fufferings and death was now approaching, and that he should shortly be betrayed into the hands of men, and be crucified and slain. At this his disciples were struck with great fear, and exceedingly troubled, both in contemplation of his fufferings, and of their own invaluable loss. To comfort them upon this occafion our Saviour directs his difciples to that course, which was not only proper in their present cafe, but is an universal antidote and remedy against all trouble whatsoever, and will not only ferve to mitigate our trouble, and support our fpirits under the fear and apprehenfion of future evils, but under present afflictions and sufferings; and to quiet and comfort our minds under the saddest condition, and forest calamities that can befal us. Let not your heart be troubled : ye believe in God, believe also in me.

He does not only forbid them to be troubled, and counsel them against it; such advice is easily given, but not fo easily to be followed: but he prescribes the proper remedy against trouble, which is truft and confidence in God the great Creator and wife Governor of the world; and likewife in himself, the blessed Son of God, and Saviour of mankind. Ye believe in God, believe also in me.

The words are variously tranflated: by some indicatively, Ye do believe in God, and ye do believe in me, therefore be not troubled; by others imperatively, Believe in God, and believe likewise in me; and then you can have no cause of trouble. Or else the first claufe may be rendered indicatively, and the latter imperatively; and so our tranflation renders the words, Ye do believe in God, believe also in me; as you believe in God the Creator and Governor of the world, fo believe alfi in me the Son of God, and the Saviour of the world., But which way foever the words be rendered, the fenfe comes all to one; that faith in God, and in our bleffed, Saviour, are here prescribed as the proper and most powerful remedies against trouble. Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.

In the handling of these words I shall do these two things.

First, I shall consider what fort of trouble is here forbidden, or with what reasonable limitations this general prohibition of our Saviour is to be understood, Let not your heart be troubled.

Secondly, I shall endeavour to shew what virtue and force there is in the remedy here prescribed by our Saviour, to mitigate and allay our trouble, and to fupport and quiet our minds under it.

First, We will consider what fort of trouble is here forbidden, and with what due and reasonable limitations we are to understand this general prohibition of our Sa viour to his disciples, Let not your hearts be troubled. And this we shall best find out by confidering the various objects of trouble, together with the several causes or grounds of them. And these may all be ranged under these three heads; evils past, present, or to come. For the ground of all trouble is some evil, either really and in itself so, or what is apprehended by us under that notion: and the several kinds of trouble, are either the reflection upon evils paft, or the sense of an evil that is present, or the fear and apprehenfion of fome future evil which threatens us and hangs over us.

I. For the first, The trouble caufed by reflection upon evils past, this must either be the evil of affliction or fin. The former of thefe, when it is past, is seldom any cause of trouble, the rememberance of past sufferings, and the evils which we got over, being rather delightful than grievous; fo that it is only the evil of fin, the reflection whereof is troublesome. And this is that which we call guilt, which is an inward vexation, and discontent, and grief of mind, arifing from the confciousness that we have done amiss, and a fearful apprehension of fome vengeance and punishment that will follow it; and there is no trouble that is comparable to this, when the conscience of a finner is thoroughly awakened.

Now upon this account our hearts ought to be troubled, and we can hardly exceed in it, provided our trouble do not drive us to despair, but to repentance: but there can be no fufpicion that this comes within the compass of our Saviour's prohibition.

II. As for the troubles caused by the sense of the present evils, either of loss or fuffering, though this do properly enough fall within the compass of our Saviour's prohibition, Let not your heart be troubled, yet it admits of several limitations; therefore in order to the fixing of its due and proper bounds, I shall briefly shew, what trouble for present evils and afflictions which are upon us, is not forbidden, and what is.

1. We are not here forbidden to have a just and due sense of any evil or calamity that is upon us; because this is natural, and we cannot help it; for there is a real difference of things in themselves; some things are in their nature good and convenient for us, and agreeable and delightful to our senses; and other things are in themselves evil, that is, naturally displeasing and grievous;