I, 2. spiritual comfort and temporal quiet do concur and SERM. cooperate, we see intimated Acts ix. 31. Then had XXX. the churches peace throughout all Judea, and Galilee, and Samaria, and were edified: and walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied. St. Paul advised the Christians of his time, liable to persecution, to make 1 Tim. ii. prayers for all men, (and especially for those in eminent power,) that they might lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty; to pray for them, that is, to pray that they might be so disposed, as not to molest, interrupt, or discourage them in the exercise of virtue, and practice of piety. For these by a tranquillity of mind, a sedateness of affections, a competency of rest, and leisure, and retirement, a freedom from amazing fear, distracting care, and painful sense, are greatly advanced; of which advantages by contentious broils and enmities we are deprived, and encumbered with the contrary impediments. They breed thorny anxieties, and by them choke the seeds of good intention they raise dusky fumes of melancholy, by them intercepting the beams of spiritual light, and stifling the flames of devout affection. By them our thoughts are affixed upon the basest, and taken off from the most excellent objects; our fancies are disordered by turbulent animosities; our time is spent, and our endeavour taken up in the most ungrateful and unprofitable employments, of defeating the attempts, resisting the assaults, disproving the calumnies, countermining the plots of adversaries; they bring us upon the stage against our will, and make us act parts in tragedies, neither becoming, ὁ Ἥρεμον καὶ ἡσύχιον βίον, a retired and quiet life. BARROW, VOL. II. d L SERM. nor delighting us. They disturb often our natural XXX. rest, and hinder us in the despatch of our ordinary business; and much more impeach the steadiness of our devotion, and obstruct the course of religious practice. They tempt us also to omissions of our duty, to unseemly behaviour, and to the commissions of grievous sin; to harsh censure, envious detraction, unwarrantable revenge, repining at the good successes, and delighting in the misfortunes of others. Many examples occur in history, like those of Hanno the Carthaginian, and Quint. Metellus, (Pompey's antagonist,) who, in pursuance of some private grudges, have not only betrayed their own interests, and sullied their own reputations; but notably disserved and damnified the public weal of their country and so will our being engaged in enmity with men cause us to neglect, if not to contradict, our dearest concernments; whence we should carefully avoid the occasions thereof, and by an innocent and beneficent conversation oblige men to a friendly correspondence with us. 7. We are obliged to perform these duties of humanity, because by so doing we become more capable of promoting goodness in others, and so of fulfilling the highest duties of Christian charity; of successfully advising and admonishing others; of instructing their ignorance, and convincing their mistakes; of removing their prejudices, and satisfying their scruples; of reclaiming them from vice, error, faction; and reconciling them to virtue, truth, and peace. For by no force of reason, or stratagem of wit, are men so easily subdued, by no bait so throughly allured and caught, as by real courtesy, gentleness, and affability; as on the other side, by a sour and XXX. peevish humour, supercilious looks, bitter language, SERM. and harsh dealing, men are rendered indocile and intractable, averse from better instruction, obstinate in their ways, and pertinacious in their conceits. Easily do men swallow the pill gilded with fair carriage, and sweetened by kind speech; readily do they afford a favourable ear to the advice seeming to proceed from good-will, and a tender care of their good: but the physic of wholesome admonition being steeped in the vinegar of reproach, and tempered with the gall of passion, becomes distasteful and loathsome to the patient: neither will men willingly listen to the reasonings of those, whom they apprehend disaffected to their persons, and more desirous to wound their reputations, than to cure their distempers. The slightest argument, the most simple and unpolished oration, issuing from the mouth of a friend, is wonderfully more prevalent, than the strongest demonstration, than the most powerful eloquence of an enemy. For obliging usage and courteous speech unlock the affections, and by them insinuate into the reason of men: but surly deportment and froward expressions dam up the attention with prejudice, and interclude all avenues to the understanding. An illustration of which discourse we have from comparing the different practice of the Jews, and the ancient Christians, with the contrary successes thereof. The Jews, by their seditious and turbulent practices, by their insolent contempt, and implacable hatred of others; (for you know what Tacitus saith of them: Apud ipsos fides obstinata, mi- Hist. lib. v. sericordia in promptu, sed adversus omnes alios hostile odium ;) by their perverse and unsociable humours, declining all intercourse, and refusing ordi XXX. SERM. nary offices of humanity (so much as to shew the way, or to direct the thirsty traveller to the fountain) to any not of their own sect, did procure an odium, scorn, and infamy upon their religion, rendered all men averse from inquiring into, or entertaining any good opinion thereof, and so very little enlarged its bounds, and gained few proselytes thereto. But the Christians, by a mild, patient, and peaceable behaviour; by obedience to laws, and compliance with harmless customs; by perfect innocence, and abstinence from doing injury; by paying due respects, and performing civil offices and demonstrations of benevolence; by loving conversation, and friendly commerce with all, commended their doctrine to the regard of men: and by this only piece of rhetoric (without terror of arms, or countenance of power, or plausibility of discourse, or promise of temporal reward) subdued the faith of men, and persuaded a great part of the world to embrace their excellent profession. Tertull. "We converse with you like men, we use the same diet, habit, and necessary furniture: we have "recourse to your tribunals; we frequent your mar"kets, your fairs, your shops, your stalls, your sham❝bles, your baths: we cohabit, we sail, we war, we "till, we trade, we maintain all manner of commerce "with you;" saith the Christian apologist to the pagans, in behalf of the ancient Christians. Which kind of practice they derived not only from the sweet temper and noble genius of their religion, but from the express institution of the first teachers Thus the ancient Christians: but when religion declined, dissension and ill-will did grow; so that the heathen historian (Am. Mar. lib. xxii.) could say of Julian: Nullas infestas hominibus bestias, ut sunt sibi ferales plerique Christianorum, expertus. XXX. ψύχους. thereof, and from their exemplary practice therein. SERM. For both by doctrine did the apostles exhort, and by their example incite them to adorn the gospel, and render the discipline of Christ amiable by their meek, gentle, compliant, and inoffensive conversation; and thereby to allure others to a willing entertainment thereof. To this purpose are those exhortations, Phil. iv. 5. Let your moderation (Tò ETIIKès iμãv, your equity, or gentleness) be known to all men : and, 1 Thess. v. 14.-Comfort the afflicted, sup- Tous λyoport the weak, be long-suffering toward all. Be ye all careful not to render evil for evil, but always pursue goodness toward each other, and toward all: and, Gal. vi. 10. As we have opportunity, let us do good to all men: and, Tit. iii. 1, 2. Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to be ready to every good work, to reproach no man, not to be contentious, but gentle, shewing all meekness to all men: and, 2 Tim. ii. 24, 25. The minister of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient; in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; (or those that are otherwise disposed, τοὺς ἀντιδιατιθεμένους:) f peradventure God will give them repentance to the acknowledgment of the truth: where gentleness toward all, and meekness toward adversaries, are oppositely conjoined, with aptness to teach and instruct; the one qualification so effectually predisposing to the other: and it is beside intimated, that gentle and meek treatment are suitable instruments ordinarily employed by God to convert men from error to truth. 8. We are bound hereto in compliance and conformity to the best patterns; God, Christ, the apo |