Vol. I. Mercy and Charity: Then shall we be able to affure our felves that we are the true followers of Jefus, when we are led by the same spirit, when we glorify God upon Earth, and finish the works which he has given us to do: And then shall we be able to lie down in the affured expectations of a bleffed Resurrection. This was the happy ftate of this excellent man; Death was his Meditation, Death his Expectation; and when he met it, he met it with a chearful and ferene foul; the Laft words I had from him when I bid him my laft farewel on Sunday, were, You and I fhall meet again in another World, I do not question it all. Ah! that we could all live fo as to have no fears, no doubts about eternal Life when we are come to die! O think of the bleffednefs of fuch a state! and then remember that this affurance arifes from the confcience of a well spent Life, that nothing but a faithful difcharge of our ftewardship can enable us to meet God with comfort, and give us an Inheritance with Saints in glory, and enrol us amongst the Spirits of Juft men made perfect.

A Ser

77

A Sermon Preached at the
Affizes held at Horsham.

Serm. 3.

ACTS XXIV. 16.

And herein do I exercise my self to have always a Confcience void of offence towards God, and towards Man.

D'

ID I defign to entertain you with the Character of St. Paul, I am fenfible I could not begin it more advantageously than with that of Felix, Tertullus, and the Jews his Profecutors; the Abilities and Corruption of the one, the Eloquence and Mercenarinefs of the other, the Bigottry, Malice, and Ill Arts of the laft, ferving moft fitly as foils or fhades to fet off and adorn his Vertue and Integrity; but purpofing to confider these words, not fo much as the Character of St. Paul, as the Rule and Standard of Christian Life in general, and confequently not to furvey the Hiftory of his Life, which in all the feveral inftances and parts of it would apparently justifie and make good this fhort Account he has given us of it, but to affift you to regulate

F 3

and

Vol. I.

and conduct your own. I will advance directly to the body of the Text, without stopping you by any Remarks or Reflections on any thing in the Context.

The words are part of the Apology which St. Paul made for his Religion and himself before the Tribunal of Felix. In the 14 and 15 Verses he wipes off the Afperfion of Novelty and Schifm caft by Tertullus on his Religion, afferting that it was no other than what was taught by the Law and the Prophets; in this he frees himself from the Calumny of Turbulency and Sedition, avowing boldly the Innocence and Integrity of his Life, Herein do I exercise my felf, &c. Where we have,

Firft,The great Business and End of St. Paul's Religion, to have a Confcience void of offence towards God and towards Man.

Secondly, His Diligence and Induftry in the purfuit of it; Herein do I exercife my self. Thirdly, The close connexion of this Verfe with the former by way of inference and deduction, fhews us the ground and motive of all this; namely, the belief of a Refurrection, ver. 15. And have hope towards God, which they themselves alfo allow, that there shall be a Refurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust.

Suppofing now that the Example of St. Paul paffes, as indeed it does, an Ob

ligation

ligation upon all Chriftians, to imitate Serm. 3. it; for it behoves us to be followers of him, as he was of Christ, 1 Cor. 11. 1.

Accommodating all this to our felves, I will begin with the Duty in my Text, and fhew you,

First, in general, what it is to have a Conscience void of Offence, and then more particularly, what it is as it relates, firft, to God, and next, to Man.

To have a Conscience void of Offence, speaking in general terms, is to have a Conscience neither abused by false Principles, nor over-power'd by inordinate Affections: a Confcience that neither misleads nor difturbs and tortures us; a Confcience that neither renders us fecure and confident in the wrong, nor upbraids us with any Hypocritical prevarication or willful violation of the right. To tuch

a Confcience you will eafily re fuch

two things neceffary, Illumination and Obedience. Illumination makes a right Confcience, Obedience a good one; both together a Confciense void of offence. I fay, both together; for firft, as to the neceffi ty of Obedience, in vain are the Dictates and Commands of Conscience, be it never fo well informed or enlightned, if Avarice and Ambition, Luft or Revenge, or any other irregular Appetite

F4

cannot

Vol. I. cannot pleasure, bafle, and infult them. Nor is the neceffity of Illumination less evident; Religion and Property are no more fecure from the Invasions of a seduced than a feared Confcience; falfe Principles may betray Men into all the Crimes, and give birth to all the Mifchiefs which Lufts and Paffions do; Men may be led by an abused Confcience to rend and divide the Church, to fubvert and betray our Laws and Liberties, and to expose our Religion and our Country; i. e. in one word, all that is dear to us, to the Infolence and Cruelty of a Foreign Enemy and a Popish Perfecution; this an abused Confcience may do, what can Luxury and Irreligion, the Luft of Money, the Luft of Power do worfe? This I have faid to convince fuch as would have a Confcience void of offence, of the indifpenfible Obligation they lie under, not only to act and live up to the Dictates of Confcience, but alfo to endeavour with all Meekness, Sincerity, and Impartiality to inform it aright; without the one you will fall under the many ftripes of the Servant in the Gospel, who knew his Mafter's will and did it not, Luke 12. 47. Without the other, under the Woe pronounced by the Prophet against such as call good evil, and evil good, Ifai. 5. 20.