To prave this point, the main reason is because we are responsible for every talent. Now the example of the godly is one of the talents. They that live among humble and mortified christians have more advantage than others have ; they are entrusted with another talent for which they are to be responsible to God. That you may be sensi- ble of it, I shall show how many advantages you have by the examples of the godly.
1. It is a means of grace appointed by God, and as all other means, it hath a ministerial, natural efficacy. The word is a means, and the word hath a ministerial efficacy. It is a rational way to deal by coun- sel, and the voice hath a natural force to work on the affections. So the conversation and example of the godly is a means God hath appointed, and it doth naturally provoke and draw us forth to imitation.
VeR. 7.] SERMONS UrON HEBREWS XI. 209
Saitli the apostle, 1 Peter ii. 12, ' Having your conversation honest among the gentiles, that whei-eas they speak against you as evil-doers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.' The first visit that God giveth the soul may be by their example. It is an ordinance of God that a man should seek to work upon his neighbours, by an innocent and comely carriage to draw them to God and religion. There is w^aQr] €pi<;, an innocent emulation planted in our nature, by which we are moved, not only to imitate others, but to excel them ; therefore God would have us display the lustre of a godly conversation. So it is an ordinance of God that a woman should seek to gain an unbelieving husband : 1 Peter iii. 10, ' That if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives.' The wife, by lying in the bosom, and by the intimacy of converse, and as being void of suspicion of par- tiality, hath an excellent advantage to instil the knowledge of God and a care of religion, or at least to take off his prejudices by her holy con- versation. For the apostle means there by ' winning,' not a formal conversion, but to gain them to a good liking and better opinion of the ways to God, that so they may wait upon the word, by way of prepar- ation to receive further manifestations and discoveries of God. We are provoked by their endeavours ; example hath a natural force this way ; we love to do as others do, and to follow the track.
2. It confute til atheism, and those prejudicate and hard thoughts which men have against religion. Godly men are God's witnesses to the world that there is a reality in religion ; the}^ give a testimony to it by the strictness and mortifiedness of their lives. Certainly when men can abjure and renounce all the pleasantness of their lives, and all their dear contentments for the interest of religion, there is somewhat more in it than a mere notion and imagination, or a mere naked pre- tence. As the primitive christians, when they were so just, temperate, willing to suffer for the cause of God, the heathens cried out. It is impossible but that these men must be moved by some reasonable principle. Isa. xliii. 12, ' Ye are my witnesses, saitli the Lord, that I am God.' Now miracles are ceased, God will leave the world no other confirmation of the truth of religion, but the efficacy of the word upon the conscience and the conversation of believers : John xvii. 10, ' I am glorified in them,' and ver. 17, ' Sanctify them by thy truth ; thy word is truth.' By their innocency, strictness, and sanctification, they dis- cover the truth of the word unto the world ; which certainly should make cliristians very strict in their lives, for the honour and glory of the Lord Christ lies at stake. There is no such dangerous temptation to atheism as the scandalous lives of professors. They that pretend to special nearness to God, when they fall, it makes the world believe that Christianity was a fancy ; as when one surprised a christian in a filthy act, he cried out, Cliristiane ! uhi JDeus tuus ? — Christian, Christian ! where is thy God ? And as it confutes the privy atheism of the heart, so it confutes those devised scandals by which they would blot and stain the glory of religion. Worldly men cannot endure to be out- shone ; and because they have no mind to be as good as others, they would fain make others to be as bad and as vile as themselves ; there- fore they are full of hard thoughts and hard speeches against good men. VOL. XIV. " 0
210 SEK3I0NS UPON HEBREWS XI. [SeK. XXXYIII.
Now nothing convinceth the world so much as the godly life of profes- sors. As the apostle speaks of the gravity of church-rQeetings : 1 Cor, xiv. 25, ' Falling down on his face, he will worship God, and report that God is in you of a truth.' When he shall see the christian assemblies managed with such awe and reverence, and all things dis- posed in a comely manner, it would be a means of conviction, and bring him to fall down on his face, and say, Surely God is here. So, if christians did not let fall the majesty of their conversation, the pre- judices of the world would soon vanish, and those that live about yon would be forced to say, Certainly God is with these men. Of all apologies, the real apology is the best : 1 Peter ii. 15, ' That with well- doing you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men ; ' what we translate ' put to silence,' in the original, is (}>Lfxovv, that you may muzzle or bind up the mouth of a wicked man, that he cannot bark against religion. I like apologies well that are made to take off the prejudices of the world ; as those of Tertullian and Justin Martyr for christians, and others for reformed churches. But there is no apology like your own lives to put an end to all the reproaches of the world, for works are a visible evidence of our sincerity ; and so far the world seeth that the ways of God are to be approved and respected.