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00 Preface - Sermons on Several Occasions · Philosophy and Faith

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  Speaker 1: Preface. The following sermons contain the substance of what I
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  Speaker 1: have been preaching for between eight and nine years last past.
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  Speaker 1: During that time I have frequently spoken in public on
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  Speaker 1: every subject in the ensuing collection, And I am not
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  Speaker 1: conscious that there is any one point of doctrine on
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  Speaker 1: which I am accustomed to speak in public, which is
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  Speaker 1: not here, Incidentally, if not professedly laid before every Christian reader.
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  Speaker 1: Every serious man who peruses these will therefore see in
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  Speaker 1: the clearest manner what these doctrines are, which I embrace
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  Speaker 1: and teach as the essentials of true religion. But I
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  Speaker 1: am thoroughly sensible these are not proposed in such a
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  Speaker 1: manner as some may expect. Nothing here appears in an elaborate,
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  Speaker 1: elegant or oratorical dress. If it had been my desire
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  Speaker 1: or design to write thus, my leisure would not permit.
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  Speaker 1: But in truth, I at present designed nothing less. For
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  Speaker 1: I now write as I generally speak, add populum to
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  Speaker 1: the bulk of mankind, to those who neither relish nor
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  Speaker 1: understand the art of speaking, but who, notwithstanding are competent
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  Speaker 1: judges of those truths which are necessary to present and
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  Speaker 1: future happiness. I mention this, that curious readers may spare
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  Speaker 1: themselves the labor of seeking for what they will not find.
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  Speaker 1: I design plain truth for plain people. Therefore, of set purpose,
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  Speaker 1: I abstain from all nice and philosophical speculations, from all
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  Speaker 1: perplexed and intricate reasonings, and as far as possible, from
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  Speaker 1: even the show of learning, unless in sometimes citing the
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  Speaker 1: original scripture. I labor to avoid all words which are
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  Speaker 1: not easy to be understood, all of which are not
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  Speaker 1: used in common life, and in particular those kinds of
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  Speaker 1: technical terms that will so frequently occur in bodies of divinity,
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  Speaker 1: those modes of speaking which men of reading are intimately
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  Speaker 1: acquainted with, but which to common people are an unknown tongue.
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  Speaker 1: Yet I am not assured that I do not sometimes
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  Speaker 1: slide into them unawares. It is so extremely natural to
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  Speaker 1: imagine that a word which is familiar to ourselves is
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  Speaker 1: so to all the world. Nay, my design is in
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  Speaker 1: some sense to forget all that ever I have read
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  Speaker 1: in my life. I mean to speak in the general
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  Speaker 1: as if I had never read one author, ancient or modern,
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  Speaker 1: always excepting the inspired. I am persuaded that, on the
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  Speaker 1: one hand, this may be a means of enabling mean
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  Speaker 1: more clearly to express the sentiments of my heart. While
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  Speaker 1: I simply follow the chain of my own thoughts without
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  Speaker 1: entangling myself with those of other men, and that on
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  Speaker 1: the other I shall come with fewer weights upon my mind,
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  Speaker 1: with less of prejudice prepossession, either to search for myself
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  Speaker 1: or to deliver to others the naked truce of the
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  Speaker 1: Gospel to candid reason them men, I am not afraid
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  Speaker 1: to lay open what have been the inmost thoughts of
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  Speaker 1: my heart. I have thought. I am a creature of
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  Speaker 1: a day, passing through life as an arew through the air.
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  Speaker 1: I am a spirit come from God in returning to God,
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  Speaker 1: just hovering over the great gulf till a few moments.
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  Speaker 1: Hence I am no more seen. I drop into an
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  Speaker 1: unchangeable eternity. I want to know one thing, the way
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  Speaker 1: to Heaven, how to land safe on that happy shore.
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  Speaker 1: God himself is condescended to teach the way for this
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  Speaker 1: very end. He came from heaven. He hath written it
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  Speaker 1: down in a book. Oh give me that book at
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  Speaker 1: any price. Give me the Book of God. I have it.
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  Speaker 1: Here is knowledge enough for me. Let me be homo
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  Speaker 1: unios Libri, A man of one book. Here, then I
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  Speaker 1: am far from the busy ways of men. I sit
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  Speaker 1: down alone. Only God is here in his presence. I open.
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  Speaker 1: I read his book for this end, to find the
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  Speaker 1: way to heaven. Is there a doubt concerning the meaning
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  Speaker 1: of what I read? Does anything appear dark or intricate?
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  Speaker 1: I lift up my heart to the Father of lights. Lord,
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  Speaker 1: Is it not thy word? If any man lack wisdom,
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  Speaker 1: let him ask of God. Thou givest deliberally and uprightest
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  Speaker 1: not thou hast said. If any be willing to do
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  Speaker 1: Thy will, he shall know. I am willing to do.
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  Speaker 1: Let me know thy will. I then search after and
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  Speaker 1: consider parallel passage of scripture comparing spiritual things with spiritual
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  Speaker 1: I meditate thereon with all the attention and earnestness of
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  Speaker 1: which my mind is capable. If any doubt still remains,
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  Speaker 1: I consult those who are experienced in the things of God,
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  Speaker 1: and then the writings, whereby being dead, they yet speak.
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  Speaker 1: And what I thus learn that I teach, I have
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  Speaker 1: accordingly set down in the following sermons what I find
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  Speaker 1: in the Bible concerning the way to Heaven, with a
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  Speaker 1: view to distinguish this way of God from all those
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  Speaker 1: which are the inventions of men. I have endeavored to
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  Speaker 1: describe the true, the scriptural, experimental religion, so as to
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  Speaker 1: omit nothing which is a real part thereof, and to
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  Speaker 1: add nothing thereto which is not. And herein it is
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  Speaker 1: more especially my desire, first to guard those who are
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  Speaker 1: just setting their faces toward Heaven, and who, having little
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  Speaker 1: acquaintance with the things of God, are the more liable
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  Speaker 1: to be turned out of the way from formality, from
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  Speaker 1: mere outside religion, which has almost driven heart religion out
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  Speaker 1: of the world. And secondly to warn those who know
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  Speaker 1: the religion of the heart, the faith which worketh by love,
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  Speaker 1: lest at any time they make void the law through faith,
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  Speaker 1: and so fall back into the snare of the devil.
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  Speaker 1: By the advice and at the request of some of
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  Speaker 1: my friends, I are prefects to the other sermons contained
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  Speaker 1: in this volume, three sermons of my own and one
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  Speaker 1: of my brothers, preached before the University of Oxford. My
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  Speaker 1: design required some discourses on those heads, and I preferred
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  Speaker 1: these before any others, as being a stronger answer than
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  Speaker 1: any which can be drawn up now. To those who
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  Speaker 1: are frequently asserted that we have changed our doctrine of
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  Speaker 1: late and do not preach now what we did some
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  Speaker 1: years ago. Any man of understanding may now judge for
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  Speaker 1: himself when he has compared the latter with the former sermons.
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  Speaker 1: But some may say I have mistaken the way myself,
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  Speaker 1: although I take it upon me to teach it to others.
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  Speaker 1: It is probable many will think thus, and it is
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  Speaker 1: very possible that I have. But I trust whereinsoever I
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  Speaker 1: have mistaken, my mind is open to conviction. I sincerely
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  Speaker 1: desire to be better informed. I say to God and Man,
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  Speaker 1: what I know, not teach thou me. Are you persuaded?
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  Speaker 1: You see more clearly than me? It is not unlikely
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  Speaker 1: that you may then treat me as you would desire
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  Speaker 1: to be treated yourself. Upon a change of circumstances, point
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  Speaker 1: me out a better way than I have yet known.
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  Speaker 1: Show me. It is so by plain proof of scripture.
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  Speaker 1: And if I linger in the path I have been
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  Speaker 1: accustomed to tread, and am therefore in willing to leave it,
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  Speaker 1: labor with me a little, Take me by the hand,
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  Speaker 1: and lead me as I am able to bear. But
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  Speaker 1: be not displeased if I entreat you not to beat
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  Speaker 1: me down in order to quicken my pace. I can
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  Speaker 1: go but feebly and slowly at best, then I should
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  Speaker 1: not be able to go at all. May I not
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  Speaker 1: request of you further not to give me hard names
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  Speaker 1: in order to bring me into the right way. Suppose
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  Speaker 1: I were ever so much in the wrong, I doubt
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  Speaker 1: this would not set me right, rather would make me
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  Speaker 1: run so much the farther from you, and so get
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  Speaker 1: more more and more out of the way. Nay, perhaps
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  Speaker 1: if you are angry, so shall I be too. There
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  Speaker 1: will be small hopes of finding the truth. If once
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  Speaker 1: anger arise you Tekapnos, as Homer somewhere expresses it, this
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  Speaker 1: smoke will so dim the eyes of my soul that
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  Speaker 1: I shall be able to see nothing clearly. For God's sake,
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  Speaker 1: if it be possible to avoid it, let us not
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  Speaker 1: provoke one another to wrath. Let us not kindle in
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  Speaker 1: each other this fire of hell, much less blow it
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  Speaker 1: up into a flame. If we could discern truth by
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  Speaker 1: that dreadful light, would it not be lost rather than gain?
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  Speaker 1: For how far is love, even with many wrong opinions,
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  Speaker 1: to be preferred before truth itself? Without love, we may
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  Speaker 1: die without the knowledge of many truths, and yet be
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  Speaker 1: carried into Abraham's bosom. But if we die without love,
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  Speaker 1: what will knowledge avail? Just as much as it avails
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  Speaker 1: the devil and his angels. The God of Love forbid
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  Speaker 1: we should ever make the trial. May he prepare us
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  Speaker 1: for the knowledge of all truth by filling our hearts
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  Speaker 1: with his love, and with all joy and peace in believing.
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  Speaker 1: End of section zero.