Sermons and discourses upon several occasions by G. Stradling ... ; together with an account of the author.

Sermons and discourses upon several occasions by G. Stradling ... ; together with an account of the author.

Table of contents

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Title page

The PREFACE.

A SERMON Preached on the Annunciation.

A SERMON Preached on Christmas-day.

A SERMON PREACHED The Sunday after Christmas.

A SERMON Preached on Candlemas-day.

A SERMON Preached on Good-Friday.

A SERMON Preached on Easter-day.

A SERMON Preached on Whit-sunday.

A SERMON Preached on Michaelmas-day.

A SERMON Preached on All-saints-day.

A SERMON Preached on the Fifth of NOVEMBER.

A SERMON Preached on the Fifth of NOVEMBER.

A SERMON ON 1 COR. XV. 19. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.

A SERMON ON ROM. XII. 1▪ I beseech you therefore, Brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living Sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

A SERMON ON ESAY V. 20. The former Part of the Verse. Wo unto them that call Evil good and Good Evil.

THE CONTENTS.

BOOKS Printed for and Sold by Tho. Bennet at the Half-Moon in St. Paul's Church-yard.

Books Sold by T. Bennet.

ERRATA.

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Georgius Stradling S.T.P. Decanus Cicestrensis Prebendarius Westmon:

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[Page]SERMONS AND DISCOURSES UPON Several Occasions.

By G. STRADLING, D. D. Late Dean of CHICHESTER.

Never Before Printed.

TOGETHER With an Account of the AUTHOR.

LONDON, Printed by J. H. for Thomas Bennet, at the Half-Moon in St. Paul's Church-Yard, 1692.

The PREFACE.

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'TWAS the ancient Modesty of those Ages, and Nations, who had a due Sense of Decency, to introduce great Works with the Lives, rather than the Elogium's of the Authours; and to distinguish a Preface from a Panegyrick. Afterwards, especially in the declining Age of the Roman Empire, Sophistry began its Reign; The Prologue, that anciently open'd the Play, was now spent in commendation of the Poet; and Men were drawn into an high esteem of the Writer by the Proëm, till they were undeceiv'd by the Book.

'Tis the unhappiness of those general Prefaces, that, if ever they avoid the guilt of falsity, they are necessarily liable to the charge of impertinence; as being unluckily joyn'd to those Books, that either do not deserve their praise, or do not need it. For which of those two Reasons, I give no commendation of these following Discourses, [Page] I leave the Reader to judge; it seeming at present more material to give a short, plain, and naked Account of the Authour.

Dr. Geo. Stradling then was born about the Year M DC XXI. at St. Donat's Castle in Glamorgan-shire, the ancient Seat of his Family. His Father was Sir John Stradling the fifth of those 200 Original Baronets, that were created by K. James upon the first Institution of that Order. His Father's propensity to Learning and his Progress in it, is easily discernable from those his Works that are yet extant; and whether it proceeded from the greatness of his parts, the agreeableness of his Temper, or the generality of his Studies, we shall hardly find any Gentleman whatsoever, that, among all the eminent Scholars of that Age, men of different Professions and very disagreeable Studies, appears by their Writings to have gain'd so Universal a respect and esteem.

Dr. George Stradling the Youngest of his Sons, follow'd the genius of his Family; and, tho' not then design'd for the Clergy, pursu'd however the best and most agreeable Studies of humane and polite Learning with great vigour and diligence, at first [Page] beyond Sea, and afterwards at home: For so it happened, that being very early sent to Travel, about the rise and first appearance of the Troubles in England, he grew acquainted with the modern Languages abroad, before he had obtain'd a familiarity with the Latin here. And therefore I have often wonder'd upon the Sight of many of his solemn Exercises in the University afterwards, that a Man that came so late to the Study of the Roman Tongue, should not only obtain so great an insight into the best Authours thereof, but should have made himself an intire Master of their Eloquence. Which strange improvement (which is not now common to many of those of his Profession, who are esteem'd Learned) can be attributed to nothing more, than the deep Impressions which the true Sense of the Authours of the best Age of the World, I mean that of the Augustean Century, first made upon his mind; so that afterwards, by frequent perusal of their Works, he, without the usual Art or Method, occasionally understood, rather than industriously learn'd, not only the true and genuine Phrase, but the best Cadence, Turn, and natural Beauties of the Roman Language.

[Page]It is observable, that when he came to the University of Oxford, after his Return from France and Italy, about the 18th. Year of his Age, he much addicted himself to the Study of Musick, and made so great Improvements in that Art, the grounds of which he had learn'd in his Travels, that no man in England was more valu'd for his Skill therein by the greatest Professors of it in his Youth, especially Dr. Wilson the Musick Professor of Oxford, in his Time, nor made better use of it in his declining Age to the diversion of his Leisure, or to the raising and heightning of his Devotion.

When he had for some Years resided in Jesus College, he, being descended from one of the Brothers of the Noble and Generous Founder of All-Souls College, Henry Chicheley, once Archbishop of Canterbury, was in the Year M DC XLII, deservedly and gratefully elected Fellow of that College; a Society exactly fitted to his humour and disposition; as that which according to its original Institution, had always preserv'd an equal Mixture of the Gentleman and the Scholar.

He was a Gentleman of that easie and affable Temper; and withal, of so considerable [Page] a Character then in the University, that, 'tis no wonder if he was much lov'd and regarded by most of his Cotemporaries in the College, and in a particular manner by Dr. Sheldon then Warden thereof. I have seen several Letters from him, when afterwards Bishop of London, which express'd a nearer Intimacy with our Authour, than the Distance of Age and Place that was then between them, generally seem'd to allow. And indeed as they were both of them Men of good Birth, and no mean Fortune, as their dispositions to the King's Cause were the same, the Evenness and Generosity of their Temper alike, their Breeding, Education, and the Tendency of their Studies, not different; it is hardly to be imagin'd, but that such an Agreement and Conformity of Mind, Fortune, Manners, and Studies, confirm'd by their long▪ Enjoyment of each others Conversation, should improve their Acquaintance into a lasting Friendship. To that worthy and generous Prelate, at last Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Stradling, who after the Restoration of the King, became his Chaplain, did in a great measure owe those Dignities and Preferments which he afterwards enjoy'd in the Church.

[Page]The Wars coming on, and most of the best Gentry in England appearing on the King's side, our Authour, according to the Inclination of himself and his Family, went into the Army, and was made Cornet in a Troop of Horse, rais'd by his Nephew Sir Edw. Stradling, for the Service of His Majesty; in which Station he behav'd himself with Courage and Resolution, till, after the loss of his Brethren, and other his Relations in the Field, the Army was disbanded by the King; and the common Despair of the Royal Party throughout the Nation, gave him opportunity of an honourable retreat to his Studies. At that time there was a Cessation of Arms, rather than a Peace; The Fury of the Conquerours was turn'd into deliberate Revenge, and those that were conquer'd had lost their strength rather, than forgot their hatred. The Visitors of the Parliament, that were not often inclinable to Forgiveness, did frequently take occasion to disturb our Authour in the Enjoyment of his Fellowship, and once had utterly ejected him, if his Alliance to two great Men of different Principles, had not happily secur'd him. Mr. Oldisworth, a Man of no small Learning, once Secretary to the E. of Pembroke, [Page] who had married his Sister, and Coll. Ludlow, a Gentleman now of late well known to the World, who had married his Neice, interpos'd so violently in his behalf, that even his Merits, and known Loyalty cou'd not procure his Expulsion. This kindness of his Relations, who were engaged on the other side, was so well resented by him, that afterwards in the Reign of K. James II. he was extremely pleas'd, when, upon the Alteration of Affairs in England, he had an opportunity offer'd to him of requiting the Obligation to one of the Parties, and indeed almost of paying the Debt in kind. And here you must excuse a very short Digression, if I acquaint you, that this was not the single Instance of his Life, wherein herdiscover'd his fix'd Principle, That no difference of judgment or opinion ought to hinder the mutual Offices of Friendship, Charity, and Benevolence; much less, the Exercise of the most indispensable Duty in the World, that of Gratitude. For 'tis well known to many now living, that in the time of the most exalted Loyalty, when men's outward Profession of Fidelity, was not so much the Test of their Zeal, as the Earnest of their Preferment, he ingag'd so far for his Friend, [Page] not in espousing his Tenet, which perhaps was erroneous, but in procuring his safety, that he, upon that Account, lost a Bishoprick, which had been often promis'd to him, and which seem'd in reality to have been otherwise design'd for him.

But to return to our Authour's Life—After the Restoration of K. Charles II. he had so great a Reliance on his Friend Dr. Sheldon Archbishop of Canterbury, that though he was unanimously nam'd, if not actually chosen Principal of Jesus College in Oxford, he declin'd the offer of that creditable Post, out of a Prospect, I believe, of greater Advantage by his Stay at London. His Preferments at last were the Deanry of Chichester, and the Precentorship of that Church, a Prebend of Westminster, a Rectory, a Sine-Cure, with another additional Dignity.

It is easie to be perceiv'd therefore, that he never made himself liable to the Censures of those that blame Pluralities, but it ought further to be known, for the prevention of other objections, that he was not willing to have accepted two Dignities seemingly incompatible in one Church, if he had not obtain'd a Promise from K. Ch. II. of annexing the Precentorship perpetually [Page] to the Deanry of Chichester. The small Revenues that belong to the Deanry of that ancient Cathedral, recommended this Design to his Care; and the meeting of the two separate Interests in one Person was the most probable Method of accomplishing it. The Advances made in this Affair; the Licence under the Privy Seal; the Consent of the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Opinion of very Eminent Council therein, are now in my hands: And tho' indeed the Design was always pursued with Earnestness, and Vigour by our Authour, yet so it hapned, that through others negligence, it not only, as Church-work usually, proceded slowly; but by reason of some Difficulties arising between a warm Bishop of that See, and Dr. Stradling then Dean thereof, was then wholly discontinued, and is now rather to be desir'd than expected.

I am well assur'd, That during his Life, the Rights of that Church were well defended; the Revenues of it improv'd: And the Fabrick beautified, and repair'd; and this is the rather probable, because, when his great Adversary had brought up to Court a Charge against him, it fix'd no other Crime upon him in that Station, [Page] than his too great Negligence and Remissness in promoting the Interest of the Crown in the Choice of Parliament men for Chichester.

The good Prelate Dr. Carleton, a man possibly of no ill Principles, but much heat, was angry that men that agreed with him in opinion, were not likewise of the same Frame and Temper, and equally violent in executing their Designs.

The Pulse of our Authour, it seems, did not beat so high, nor did his Blood circulate so quick, nor was he by the bent of his Nature so much fitted, for a popular and tumultuary Canvass; and therefore the want of Passions was by the zealous Bishop easily misinterpreted Lukewarmness, and the Observance of Decency in his Applications to the Electors, seem'd to inferr an indifference in the Choice.

I shall not be much concern'd to refute this Accusation, because, after our Authour's ingenuous and manly answer to it, a great Minister of State was pleas'd to assure him in a Letter, that His Majesty was satisfied, that he was both able and willing to promote the King's Service, with as much Zeal as his Accuser, and with much more Sincerity, Discretion and Success.

[Page]In the Year MDCLXVI. he was married to Margaret, Daughter of Sir William Salter, in the Chappel of Richking House in Buckingham-shire, the Seat of her Father.

He behav'd himself always to his Wife, who brought him a very large Fortune, not onely with Kindness, but with all imaginable Indulgence, and was happy, as in the Enjoyment of her for XV. Years, so in his numerous Issue by her, some of which are yet living; but I shall not enlarge on this Head, as thinking the World not much concern'd in the particular and exact Knowledge of the small Occurrences of a private Family. What I have farther to add, is, That our Authour, after a long Disease, at last died at Westminster, on the XVIII Day of April in the Year MDCLXXXVIII, and in the Year of his Age LXVII, and was buried in the Abby there, much desired and lamented by many; but especially by those few that had the happiness of his near and intimate Conversation.

Having thus given you the Memoirs of Dr. Stradling's Life, his Birth, Fortune, Manners, and Death; I shall proceed to draw from thence, and from the other Accidents [Page] of his Life, which would hardly bear a distinct Relation apart, the true and full Idea and Character of our Authour.

He was a Man then of a free, sweet, and condescending Temper, and withall of a deep and piercing Wit; so that his Conversation not only procur'd him the Love, but rais'd the Admiration of his Acquaintance. He was not open to many Visitants, but had the unusual happiness of being respected by Men of a different Humour, Party, and Temper, from each other, and who hardly agreed in any one thing, but the Esteem of him. And indeed, as he was a Man of strict Morals, and yet of an easie and agreeable Disposition, he gain'd a respect of the more rigid and moroso part of Mankind, and gave in the mean-while a liberty of access to those that allow'd themselves a greater latitude in Conversation. His Learning was by no means superficial, and yet his general Correspondence with Gentlemen of all sorts, had made it easie to him, and to his Company; and though it was not always in sight, yet was it ever ready, not so much to amuse Ignorance, as to refute Impertinence. It will appear by the use he made of Foreign Authours in his Works, that he travell'd not with the [Page] same Design as young Gentlemen of his Station and Quality were us'd to do, but as Pythagoras, Solon, and Lycurgus; he saw not only old Walls, ruin'd Amphitheatres, and antiquated Coins, but brought home with him the Histories, Polities, and Learning of each Nation; And indeed upon Comparison of his Discourses, with some of the same Subject written beyond Sea, you will find, that whenever he borrows any Foreign Thought, he so refines upon it, that you can hardly descry the Plagiary, but where you must apparently own the Conquerour; and not so properly discover his Thefts, as his Triumphs. As to his Preferments in the Church, it is easie to see in his Answer to Bishop Carleton's Charge, that he was neither forward, nor ambitious in attaining them, nor proudly sullen in slighting or refusing them; but carried himself so even between Contempt and Compliance, that he was equally rais'd above the meanness of flattering his Superiours, and above the Vanity of despising them.

By never writing or publishing any thing, but what the Duty of his Place requir'd, or publick Authority commanded, he shew'd himself not desirous of applause; and by [Page] his Care and Accuracy in the Excellency of those necessary performances, he appear'd not insensible of Reputation.

He was moderate in his Diet and Pleasures, and yet unhappily expos'd to the Gout and Stone, which for many Years allay'd the Enjoyments of Life, and at last occasion'd his Death. However, he had no reason to complain of Providence, who liv'd long, and well; belov'd by his many Friends, and rather envied than hated by his few Enemies; Noble in his Descent, and not uneasie in his Fortune; Whose Reputation in his Life was unquestionable, and whose Fame after Death will be lasting: Who was happy in his Marriage, Issue, Preferment, and Estate, and not wholly unfortunate in any thing, but what died with him, his Diseases.

The further Character of our Authour, the Reader may easily learn from his Works; in which his Temper and Disposition is as well discover'd, as his Sence display'd; and which are not only the Test of his Wit, but the best Image, Representation, and History of his Mind.

A SERMON Preached on the Annunciation.

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St. LUKE XI. v. 27, 28.‘And it came to pass as he spake these things, a certain woman of the company lift up her voice, and said unto him, Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked. But he said, Yea, rather blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it.’

AND it came to pass as he spake these things, a certain woman lift up her voice; And had she not done so, had all the Auditory been silent, [Page] the Stones would have immediately ery'd out and applauded the Speaker.Joh. 7. 46. And yet, though never Man spake as He did, the harder Jews were of full proof here against his Eloquence; A generation of Vipers, not to be charm'd by the wisest Charmer, who could as easily resist his Words as they had done his Miracles. Each of these might convince, but both together could not change them; so that their Infidelity over-mastering his Omnipotency, it prov'd a harder task for him to dispossess them, than the dumb man, v. 14. the occasion of our Saviour's discourse here, and of the Jews envy.

Yet could not their untoward disposition make void the word of God, especially when proceeding from the mouth of the Word Incarnate: Here, to be sure, it should not altogether miss of its effect; nor did the Seed sown by him wholly fall on such rocky ground, some part thereof met with a fitter soil to receive and cherish it. One there was, among the rest, of a more tender complexion, whom God's hand had chaft into a suppleness capable of his impressions. In the midst of all opposition from [Page] the Jewish Doctors, he raises up a certain Woman to check and frustrate it; His Truth opens her Mouth, as his Grace her Heart, to bless him whom they cursed, and to proclaim him a▪ Prophet whom they gave out for a Devil. Thus can the Almighty out of the mouth of Infants, or such-like weak Instruments, those that bring them forth, perfect his own Praises, and give them that courage to maintain his Cause which Nature had deny'd them. For let the learned Scribes and Pharisees revile him never so much, this single weak Woman here shall dare to defend his Truth against their Slanders, and magnifie his Person in spight of their malitious Contempt. And now her Tongue, mov'd by that Holy Spirit whom these Revilers blasphemed and resisted, pronounces not only Christ himself Blessed, but the very womb that bare him, and the paps that gave him suck; reflecting a Glory from the Son on the Mother, which our Lord was not unwilling she should share in; allowing her Blessed, though not most Blessed in that respect; granting it her as her privilege, not as the sole, much less the best reason of her Blessedness: [Page] A Blessedness others might not despair of, Men no more than Women, who by a diligent attendance to God's Word conceiving, and by a conscionable practice of its Precepts bringing Christ forth, might each of them become his Mother too; As if our Lord should have said, Thou, O woman, pronouncest the womb blessed that bare me, and the paps that I have suckt: And herein thou say'st true, for she is indeed even thus Blessed, and all generations shall call her so: but I will tell thee who are rather Blessed, They that hear the Word of God, and keep it.

I shall not pretend to tell you, as some here doe, who this Woman was, nor what her name; but 'tis not strange those persons should be able to find out unknown names, who can at their pleasure Saint folks, as they have done this Woman in the Text; it being as easie for them to Christen, as to Canonize. But of this the Text is silent, and 'tis not of such consequence to know who she was, as what she says; her Testimony being much more material than her Person. Which Testimony here directly points to Christ, and but glances at the Holy Virgin; it being usual with the Jews to [Page] magnifie the Parents of those they chiefly intend to commend, and not to be wonder'd at, if a Woman were so willing to extoll her own Sex; or a Jewish Woman the Paps and Womb of a Mother, who could fancy nothing beyond the Milk and Honey of her Canaan.

I shall not consider the words as they point to our Lord himself, (who is above our praises, over all, God blessed for ever)Rom. 9. 5. but as they occasionally reflect on his Mother; A subject proper to this day's Festival, and wherein there are two things considerable.

1. The Testimony given in by this Woman, and allow'd by Christ, that she that bare and nurs'd him up was Blessed.

2. A Way or Means propos'd by our Lord, whereby others as well as she, might be not only Blessed, but more Blessed than the very Mother of God, considered barely under that Relation; and that is, By hearing the Word of God, and keeping it.

Which two things, when I shall have briefly spoken to, I shall then in the close endeavour, 1. To shew you how the Holy Virgin was in this latter respect [Page] Blessed above all her Sex, anointed, like her Son, with the Oyl of Gladness above her fellows, in being as much the Mother of God, and as properly in a Spiritual as ever she was in a Carnal sense. 2. And, secondly, to stir you up to an imitation of those her Vertues and Perfections, which, as they entitled her to this more divine and blessed Relation, will us too, proportionably as they shall be found in every one of us.

The first thing that offers its self here is the Woman's Testimony allow'd by Christ, That she that bare him was Blessed; and for that very reason too. In the time of the Law 'twas accounted a great Blessing to be a Mother in Israel; Barrenness being then as infamous, as Fruitfulness was honourable. To have still preserv'd their Virginity, was in most people's conceit as bad as to have betray'd it; insomuch that some have more bitterly lamented that, than their untimely death, or which is more, their sins. The reason which the Jewish Doctors give us of this strange passion, was, Because the Messiah being to come, every one that was not barren might hope to be that person that should have the honour [Page] to bring him into the World. And as all the Daughters of Israel were most ambitious of it, so about the time Christ came in the flesh, the expectation of the Messiah's Revelation was very high and pregnant.

Whether this Woman in the Text took our Lord for the true Messiah, that great Prophet that should come into the World (which yet 'tis not improbable she might guess him to be by the visible power of his Miracles, and, which was as admirable, the force of his persuasions) is altogether uncertain; But this is certain, that she lookt upon him as an extraordinary person sent from God, and, as such, one that might justly ennoble his Parents and Relations. This, as it was a great Truth, so 'twas not all; and our Saviour did not only here allow this Woman's Testimony for good, but farther improve it, by expresly revealing Himself to be the Messiah, which is called Christ, Joh. 4. 25 the Holy One of Israel, and the glory of its People; a Monarch, but a spiritual one, to whose Sceptre all Nations and Souls should bow; such a King as had Heaven for his Throne, and the Earth for his Footstool; [Page] That the Desire of Nations was now come, so long before promised by God, foretold by the Prophets, expected by the Patriarchs, infinitely wisht by all just Men, with a desire equal to their necessities; And to be the Mother of such a Prince as this, to inclose Him in her bowels whom the Heaven of Heavens could not encircle, to be the Mother of God, Deipara: (A Title bestow'dRom. 1. 4. on the Blessed Virgin by a General Council, and which we may safely allow her:) This was more than to have descended from the Loins of the Kings of Judah, or the most glorious Monarchs of the Earth; An honour which the greatest Queens thereof would willingly have purchas'd even with the loss of their temporal Diadems; A thing which never happened but once, and can never any more, unless a Saviour could again be born; so that there can never any more be such a Mother, because never again such a Son. We reade, Gen. 5. 2. that the Sons of God joined themselves to the Daughters of Men, but that God himself should vouchsafe a poor Virgin that honour he is pleas'd to bestow upon his Church, to call her his Spouse, the [Page] great Creator, (He by whom all things Coloss. 1. 16, 17. Joh. 1. 3. Heb. 1. 2. were made, and do consist,) not disdain to be made the Son of his own Creature, and own himself as it were beholding to that Creature for something, which he that has all things had not, a garment of flesh (such a garment, as he can no more put off now than He can his Godhead, for, quod semel assampsit, nunquam dimisit.) This, I say, was a strange Condescension in the Almighty, and a peculiar honour done to the Holy Virgin, who was cull'd out for this purpose from the rest of Women, and may therefore very well be styl'd Blessed among, yea and above them, the top and glory of her Sex, as in whom the whole Trinity now met to consult, not as at the Creation to make Man, but Deum-Hominem, to unite God and Man in one Person of the Word; so that as the Father bespeaks the Son, Psal. 2. 7. Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee: The Blessed Virgin might to her immortal honour say too, This day have I conceived thee.

Nor was this all; To be such a Mother, was indeed a high Privilege; butEsay 9. 6. to be a Mother, and yet still a Virgin, [Page] wonderfull as that Son she brings forth. This had the Prophet Esay long beforeMat. 1. 23. foretold, ch. 7. 14. Behold a Virgin shall conceive: But the Prophet Jeremy, not content with that, gives it out for a strange and unheard-of thing, (and so indeed it was) more strange than Christ's coming into the house, the doors being shut, Joh. 20. 26. The Lord (says he, ch. 31. 22.) hath created a new thing in the Earth, a Woman shall compass a Man; i. e. A Virgin (still continuing such, otherwise sure it were no new thing) shall in her Womb inclose a Man child, and such a Man as the same Prophet styles Immanuel, God with us, chap. 8. 8.V. Scultet. Evangel. Exercit. lib. 1. c. 46. and chap. 9. 6. The mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, (enough to silence the incredulous blaspheming Jew;) so that these two Glories, like the two Luminaries of Heaven, met in the Mother of our Lord, (which never happened to any before, nor shall ever hereafter,) that of a Mother and of a Virgin; the Fruitfulness of the one, and the Purity of the other.

But these things, as they were the Holy Virgin's Privileges, and in some sort her Happiness too; so there was [Page] something that render'd her yet more blessed, by being a Blessing to us, in conveying to us the greatest good that ever could happen to Men. For as her Son is the Fountain of those living streams which refresh the Sons of Men; so was this Mother the golden Pipe to derive them to them. 'Tis of his fulness we all receive, but by her; The promise of our Redemption, as it was as old as our Fall; Gen. 3. 15. The seed of the Woman shall bruise the Serpent's head; so was it literally fulfilled in this Woman, of whom St. Paul says Christ was made, Gal. 4. 4. i. e. from whom He took the matter of that Body, wherein He wrought out our Redemption; the full import of St. Paul's [...] and St. John's too, Joh. 1. 14. For however the Anabaptist dream of a Body fram'd in Heaven, which pass'd through the Holy Virgin as water through a Conduit-pipe; yet cannot this fancy possibly consist with the work of Man's Redemption, which could not have been perform'd but in such a Body as his own; nor could the Seed of the Woman be said to bruise the Serpent's head, had not Christ been conceived of that [Page] Seed; nor the Promise renew'd to Abraham, Gen. 22. 18. In thy seed shall all the Nations of the Earth be blessed, have been made good, had not the Mother of our Lord descended from his loins too. And surely well may she be call'd Blessed, without whom we could never have been so, since 'twas she that furnish'd those Materials that repair'd our ruines, from whose Bloud also flow'd that most pretious One, which alone can cleanse and redeem us. Our Mother Eve could brag when she had brought forth her first-begotten, (and he but an untoward Child, for St. John tells us he was of that wicked one the Devil, 1 John 3. 12. as all other Reprobates are there said to be, vers. 10.) I have gotten a Man from the Lord, Gen. 4. 1. i. e. (as some interpret the words) That famous Man the Lord, fancying Cain to be that Seed of the Woman that should bruise the Serpent's head: But how truly may each of us now say, Possedi Deum per Virginem, I have gotten the Lord my Redeemer by the means of a pure Virgin, of whom my Saviour was made Man, that I might be made the Son of God. How much better may the Virgin Mary deserve the name [Page] of the Mother of all the Living than Eve did, Gen. 3. 20. who at best convey'd unto us but a Natural, whereas the former a Spiritual life, in giving us Him who is the Life: so far was Eve from being Mater Viventium in this sense, that she brought forth all her Posterity still-born into the World, dead in Ephes. 2. 2. trespasses and sins. She indeed hearkned to the Suggestions of an evil Spirit, but the Holy Virgin to the Message of a good one; If she were the Mother of the Living, then this, of the Predestinate; and if by the former Satan bruised our heel, by this Anti-Eve we crush his head, being instated in a better condition than we had forfeited. Now if they who were the first [...] Benefactors to Mankind were thought worthy of divine Honours, (the first occasion of Idolatry, there being nothing that renders a person more like God than to doe good, especially to oblige all Manking, nothing that could raise such Persons so high in the Esteem of Mortals as such a large and comprehensive Goodness,) surely none came so near the Almighty in this so divine a quality as the Holy Virgin did; by [Page] whose means not only the Inhabitants of the Earth, but, in some sort too, those of Heaven became certainly and immutablyCol. 1. 20. Blessed, confirm'd in such a state of happiness by her Son as they are uncapable of losing; And therefore well might the Angel pronounce her Blessed, who, with the rest of his Order, were so much obliged by her; And surely all generations of Men much more, who in part owe unto her their recovery, and those hopes they have of being one day [...] alike Blessed with them; and if St. Paul was Blessed in being a chosen Vessel to bear Christ's name, then the Holy Virgin much more, by conveying a humane Nature to him, who alone makes us partakers of the divine one. All these advantages had the Mother of God; glorious indeed, but not the chiefest part of her happiness; nor was she to value her self for her relation, purely considered in its self; Yea, rather, Blessed are they, says our Lord, who hear the Word of God and keep it.

Whereby it appears how little he set by any carnal propinquity, and how much nearer and dearer to him the Righteous are than his own bloud; not [Page] that he did in the least despise his Parents, (for his own Example preaches Subjection to them, Luke 2. 51.) but only preferr Spiritual kindred to Carnal, as he often does, letting us know, That Mar. 3. 32, 35. Luk. 8. 19, 21. to doe the will of his Father which is in Heaven, is, to be his Brother, Sister and Mother, Matth. 12. 50. That true Christian Heraldry is founded in Grace, and not in Bloud; That to be joined unto him in one Spirit is a closer Union than to be united to him in the flesh, and to be obedient to his Commands far more advantageous than to relate to his Person. Nay so little would our Lord have us too to prize such outward things as these, that unless in some cases we hate Father and Mother, Wife and Children, Brethren and our selves too, he plainly tells us, we cannot be his Disciples, Luke 14. 26. And for this reason Moses blessed Levi, Deut. 33. 9. Who said unto his Father, and to his Mother, I have not seen him, neither did he acknowledge his Brethren, nor knew his own Children; but observed God's Word, and kept his Covenant. This is certain, that all outward favours and privileges, how pompous soever in themselves, are wholly insignificant and [Page] ineffectual without the grace of Obedience, being at best but gratioe gratis datoe, non gratum facientes, rather ornaments than benefits; which as we are not thanklesly to over-slip, so neither presumptuously to over-ween. See how little account St. Paul makes of them, 2 Cor. 5. 16. Though we have known Christ after the flesh, have familiarly convers'd with him, been eye-witnesses of all those glorious things he did, as his Apostles; yet now henceforth know we him no more, we disclaim all such carnal acquaintance; and if we should know Christ no better, he would not know us, nor own us for his; we might be nearly related to him, and yet be far enough from him, and without him; for so 'tis expresly recorded of some of his Brethren, that they did not believe in him; Joh. 7. 5. So far were they from looking upon him as their Saviour, that they took him for no better than a mad-man, one besides himself, Mark 3. 21. (though in process of time some of them indeed became his disciples) and no doubt of Christ's Genealogy not a few were eternally lost. The Jews much prided themselves in being Abraham's sons, and yet one of them [Page] that calls himself so, fryes in Hell. What did it avail Saul to be a Prophet, or Judas an Apostle, when such privileges serv'd them for no other purpose but to enhanse their damnation? We reade not of any dignified with more glorious Prerogatives than these two, the Blessed Virgin and St. John the Evangelist; the one for bearing our Saviour in her Womb, and the other for leaning on his Breast; yet how little had these things benefited them, had not Faith and Piety seasoned such outward privileges, and made them as gracious as they were glorious. Happier Mary for bearing Christ's Sayings in her Heart, than Himself in her Womb; in that she partook of the Merit, than imparted the Matter and Substance of his bloud; 'Twas not so much the loveliness of her Motherhood, as the lowliness of her Handmaidship that He regarded; And how much happier St. John too, in carrying his Saviour in his own bosom, than in leaning on his. The far greater happiness of the two, but common to every one of us; The more excellent way being our spiritual relation, without which Christ will1 Cor. 12. 31. Heb. 2. 11. be ashamed to call us his Disciples, Brethren [Page] or Mothers. Bring then but a good Ear, but especially a good Heart; Let thy Saviour in by that, and get him form'd in this most sanctify'd Womb of thy Soul; i. e. conceive him by thy Faith in the hearing of his holy Word, and bring him forth by thy Obedience in the practice of its divine Precepts, and then shalt thou be a much happier Mother of thy Lord, than if he had been a part of thine own bowels; Thou hast his own Word for it; Yea, rather, Blessed are they that hear the Word of God and keep it; The proper way or means whereby every Christian is to be happy, and more happy than the Mother of God, meerly according to the flesh, and my next part.

Blessed are they, 1. That hear. And no doubt, a Blessing belongs to that in the first place. 'Tis a fundamental and original Duty, the Nurse of all other Duties we owe to God; Hearing and Receiving the Word being the inlet to Faith and Piety. 1. To Faith, for that comes by hearing, Rom. 10. 17. the sense of divine as of humane Discipline. 2. To Piety; so our Saviour, Job. 17. 17. Sanctifie them by they word, thy word is truth. [Page] For as the first Insinuations of Sin were conveyed by the Ear; so are the first Inspirations of Grace let in by the same door: with this, God began his Law, Deut. 4. 1. and with this, Christ his Gospel too, Mat. 17. 5. This is my beloved Son, hear ye him. And his voice alone we must hear, not the voice of strangers, Joh. 10. 4, 5. The proper object to which our great Shepherd here limits our Hearing; being the Word of God, not the uncertain Traditions or pretended Revelations of Fanatical Men, vainly pufft up by their fleshly mind.

I shall not press the necessity of a Duty so frequently and clearly requir'd by the Scriptures, nor indeed need I, Men being generally so fully persuaded of it:Jam. 1. 19. and 'twere to be wisht they were as swift to practice as they are to hear. All their devotion now is plac'd in hearing; (as if like Athenians, their whole time were to be spent in nothing else but either to tell or hear some new thing;) All their serving God is an Ear-service, as their profession little else but an Eye-service. We see many flock to Sermons and Lectures, just as they use to do to [Page] Plays and Shows, only to feed their Eyes and Ears. Man's whole Body is become1 Cor. 12. 16, 17. Eccles. 1. 8. one great Ear, and that such an itching one as is never to be satisfy'd with hearing, no more than their Eye with seeing. Such a [...] there is in this part, such a canine appetite and craving for spiritual food without any digestion, Omnia te adversum spectantia, a continual taking in there is without bringing forth any thing. This is certainly a common, and 'tis an evil disease under the Sun, which Satan labours all he can to nurse up; nor is it a small delusion of his to shrink us all into an Ear; for when he cannot draw us wholly from the service of God, he makes us single out one part from all the rest, to magnifie that, and cry it up alone, with neglect, and even with some disgrace to all besides it. Wherein how successfull his policy has been in these our days, appears by this, That the Church is generally so throng'd at Sermons, and so empty at God's service. It must needs appear strange to our reason, why hearing of the Word should so much get the start of, and eat out all the rest of the more substantial parts of God's service; [Page] whereas it is its self, although the first, yet but one part of it, and subservient to practice, and consequently as inferior to it as the means is to the end. And that the Primitive Church had this opinion of it, its practice evidently declares, which was to finish the Sermon before they began the Service, and by promiscuously admitting all sorts of people, Heathens and Infidels, Jews, Schismaticks and Hereticks, Catechumeni and Poenitentes, to the former; but totally excluding such persons from their Assemblies when the Liturgy began, as that part of divine Worship which none but holy and sanctified Men were in a due capacity, in their esteem, to partake of. I urge not this to decry Preaching or Hearing, but only to prefer doing to it as the more important Duty of the two, and to which the Blessing is chiefly appropriated, Joh. 13. 17. as it is Jam. 1. 25. and imply'd in the Text, which styles them Blessed that hear the Word of God, but much more them who keep it.

But then what is it you will say to keep it? Is it to be a little moved with it? To rejoyce in it for a little season, [Page] or to tremble at it? Why this is no more than what an Agrippa, a Herod, or a Felix might doe. A few sudden qualms of Conscience, and pangs of a superficial sorrow for sin; some faint desires vanishing like flashes of Lightning as soon as they appear; some insignificant resolutions of amendment and newness of life may be found in a Balaam, nay in the most profligate wretches; Or, lastly, is it to applaud the Preacher and his fine-spun Discourse, and to be ravisht with his Eloquence? Some indeed there were in the Prophet Ezekiel'sEzek. 33. 31. time of that humour, that reckoned of Sermons no otherwise than of Songs; the Musick of a Song and the Rhetorick of a Sermon, all was one with them; they could give a Prophet the hearing, commend his sweet air and delicate strains, and that was all; Their devotion expir'd with the harmony: They hear thy words (says God there speaking of them) but they will not doe them. And of such Auditors there are store enough at all times, who will afford the Preacher nothing but their Ears; and no sooner is the Sand run out of his Glass, but his Words are out of their Memories. Let [Page] us not mistake our selves; that word that must save the Soul, must be an engrafted Jam. 1. 21. word; not a superficial seed floating on the surface of the Heart, but taking deep root there, and springing up in the visible actions of a good life. 'Tis not the Conception, but the Birth of the new Man that makes us Christians; and better were it for us that this divine Issue should never come to the birth, than we want strength to bring it forth; and that Christ should never be form'd in us, than we prove abortive. But if by hearing we receive the immortal Seed of his Word; if by a firm purpose of doing we conceive, by a longing desire quicken, and by an earnest endeavour travel with it, then indeed God's Word, yea God himself, the eternal Word is incarnated in us, and we become as much his Mothers in the Spirit, as the Blessed Virgin was in the Flesh.

And herein was it that the Mother of God was in the best and most advantageous sense Blessed, as one in whom the Word was twice Incarnated, her Lord and his Gospel; much more Blessed in sucking the sincere Milk of the Word [Page] from her Sons Paps (those golden ones, Revel. 1. 13.) than in affording him her own. 'Twas her glory and her chiefest happiness that she kept all her Sons sayings, and pondered them in her heart; an Eulogy given her no less than twice in one Chapter of St. Luke, ch. 2. v. 19, 51. This sacred Ark had the two Tables of the Law and the better Manna laid up in it, which she continually treasur'd up in her heart, feeding upon it in her private thoughts, and digesting it in her practice; being as well a Daughter as a Mother of God, and her Soul more fruitfull than her Womb. So that this Mary too chose the better part: It was, I say, her Choice this; whereas to be the Mother of God but her Privilege. In this latter capacity she only furnisht her Son with a humane Nature, but in the former she procur'd her self a participation of his divine one. There Christ was made her Son, and here, her Saviour; and 'tis upon the account of her Faith Elizabeth blesseth her, Luke 1. 45. and so does St. Augustine pronounce her more happy, Percipiendo fidem Christi, quàm concipiendo carnem Christi; nay he plainly tells us, that this latter Conception [Page] had done her no good at all without the former, Nihil Mariae profuisset (says he)Lib. de S. Virginit. c. 3. nisi feliciùs Christum corde quam corpore gestâsset. To bear Christ in her Womb was little to the having the Holy Ghost in her Soul; and to conceive of him little to the bringing forth the fruits of the Spirit, Faith, Humility, Patience, Love and the like Graces, whereof she was a sacred Repository; like the Ark, overlaid and in-laid with Gold, adorn'd with outward Privileges and inward Graces, nay like that King's daughter, Psal. 45. 14. more glorious within than without. This Spouse of God shining out radiis Mariti, cloath'd with that Woman, Revel. 12. 1. with the Son of Righteousness, who deckt her with his light as with a garment. And how could it be otherwise? How was it possible that He on whom the Spirit rested and abode, should notEsay 11. impart of it to her in whom he so longJoh. 1. 31. ch. 3. v. 34. dwelt, and in greater measures than to any mortal, He who himself received not Coloss. 2. 3. the Spirit by measure? If in him were hid all the Treasures of Wisedom and Knowledge, surely the Blessed Virgin must needs have been highly enricht by them; and while he sanctify'd the Baptist [Page] in his Mother's womb, did he not think we much more sanctifie that Womb wherein, with himself, the fulness Coloss. 2. 9. of the Godhead dwelt bodily? where the whole Blessed Trinity met, the Father being with her, the Son in her, and the Holy Ghost over-shaddowing her? Surely being so near the Fountain of Grace and Glory, nay having it in her Soul, those single Perfections which singly meet in others, all concenter'd in this great Saint.

Among which give me leave to propose some of the more eminent ones to your imitation; as, 1. Her Faith, in crediting the Message of the Angel. 2. Her entire Resignation of her self to the WillLuk. 2. 29. of God, Ecce Ancilla Domini. 3. Her Modesty, in being troubled at the presence of a Man, and those Praises he bestow'd on her, being, it seems, unacquainted with such guests or addresses, a thing which now-a-days would perhaps be constru'd ill breeding. 4. Her Prudence in examining a Message, which at first blush seem'd to look like a Temptation, casting in her mind what mannerLuk. 2. 34. of Salutation that should be; so jealous was she of her honour, that she [Page] durst not trust the divine Messenger with so choice a Jewel, till she saw it should be safe; till he could find out a way to reconcile her, being a Mother, with her Purity, otherwise to her even an Angel of light had been but an Angel of darkness. This was not Unbelief in her (as 'twas in Zachary) but Caution; He indeed requir'd a Sign for that which was within the ordinary course of nature; She none at all, though in a business far above nature; not in the least questioning the thing its self, but desirous only to be inform'd of the mannerLuk. 2, 34. of it, since she knew not a man. 5. Add we to this her Devotion, in constantly visiting God's Temple, where, after our Lord's Ascension, we find her assembled with the Apostles and other Saints of God, Acts 1. 14. as in the frequent exercise of the Acts thereof, Meditation and Prayer; It being a general Tradition, that when the Angel delivered her his message, he found her on her knees; and, if we may credit St. Bernard, V. Tayl. Gr. Ex. r [...]. p. 17. (but how warrantably I know not) at that very instant begging earnestly for the Salvation of the World, and the Revelation of the Messiah. 6. Lastly, [Page] To crown all, her profound Humility, (that heavenly Ladder whereby God descended to her, and she mounted up to him) and that even in the midst of far higher Ecstasies and Revelations than the great Apostle was afraid of; And yet no pretence of Merit, no assuming to her self any portion of that glory which belonged unto God; and she wholly ascribes to him in these words, He that is Mighty hath magnified me, and Holy is his Name.

Which clearly shews how inconsistent with, nay how diametrically opposite to her Modesty and Humility those praises are which Popish flatterers so frequently bestow upon the Blessed Virgin, and how impossible 'tis to excuse their [...] that is, (as they are pleas'd to explain it) not so high a kind of worship as belongs unto God, and yet higher than what is due to any other Creature besides her self. A strange middle sort of Adoration, that has no ground or foot-step in Scripture, and no better than flat Idolatry. Prayer and Invocation are the Almighty's Prerogative; This Incense must not smoak but on his Altar; and the calves of the lips are a sacrifice which must be offered [Page] to none but to a God that heareth prayer, Psal. 65. 2. and can alone grant our requests. This he challenges as his peculiar right, Psal. 50. 15. Call upon me in the time of trouble; so will I hear thee, and thou shalt praise me. And to him the Saints of God have always address'd their Petitions, David for one, who, Psal. 5. 2, 3. professes that unto him he would direct his Prayer. And therefore 'tis observable that the Angel here salutes the Holy Virgin, but does not pray to her; and her self says, that all generations shall call her Blessed, not invocate her for Blessings, as the Papists doe; and not only so, but in other respects too equal her to God, as by freeing her from all sin, both original and actual, (whereas her self, by calling Christ her Saviour,Luk. 1. 47. professes her need of him,) so especially by making her a vast and inexhaustible Ocean of all perfection, the property of him alone in whom all fulness dwells, and of whose fulness we all (the VirginCol. 1. 19. Mary not excepted) have received: and all this upon a plain mistake of the word [...] which implies not any infus'd qualities, or inherent gifts, but God's meer gratious acceptation of her. [Page] And yet as great an affront as this is to the divine Majesty, there is yet one thing more intollerable, that these Men not content to allow the Virgin equal to her Son, will needs give her a kind of Command and Authority over him; as if now in Heaven he were to be subject to her as once on Earth, and she were a Queen - Regent to govern and comptroll him as it were in his Minority: Witness those expressions, Monstra te esse Matrem, and, Jussu Matris impera salvatori, words which I dare not English, and which their Rosaries and Litanies are stufft with. Nor does their Practice bely their Expressions; their Addresses being more to the Mother, than to the Son; and her Temples having almost swallow'd up his, which are now become Shops of lying Miracles; one of them especially, that of Loretto, all Wainscoted within with them; and its self the greatest of all, as having been carried, if we will believe them, from Bethlehem by Angels, and by them plac'd where now it stands. I shall not trouble you with a description of all their fopperies, their superstitious bowings, cringings, and lighting of Candles [Page] to our Ladies Images, their ridiculous dressing and undressing them, their vows, offerings and presents to these dumb Idols, so like the Cakes offered up to the Queen of Heaven, Jer. 7. and the like; which if they do not out-doe, at least they bid fair for Heathenish Idolatry; if this be not to worship the Creature more than the Creator, 'tis at leastRom. 1. 25. Gal. 4. 8. to doe service to her who by Nature is no God, and who can no more endure it than St. Paul could a sacrifice, Act. 14. or the Angel in the Revelations, chap. 19. 10. divine Worship; or, to come a little more home, than St. Peter, to be styl'd Universal Bishop of God's Church; a Title they will needs force upon him, though himself expresly disclaims it, 1 Pet. 5. 3. No; let us honour the Blessed Virgin as becomes the Mother of God, not as a Goddess; she is but a Creature how glorious soever, and we are not to make her an Idol, neither to invoke her Name nor adore her Person; we allow her God's Mother, but not his Rival; place her we may as near his Throne as Religion will suffer us, not in it (in the Throne God will beGen. 41. 40 greater than any) style her Queen of [Page] Saints, while Christ remains the Sovereign King of them, and 'tis honour enough for this Queen to be solo Deo minor, to be blessed even above the Angel that proclaim'd her so; yea, if they will have it, above all Saints and Angels too; but still below her Son, who is over all, God blessed for ever, Rom. 9. 5.

In a word, Our endeavour should be to copy out those Perfections which were so eminent in this Blessed Mother of our Lord; Her Faith, by our ready assent to God's Word; Her Devotion, by frequently meditating on it (a book which, like Ezekiel's rowl, must be eatenEzek. 3. and well digested;) Her Purity, byJam. 1. 27. keeping our selves unspotted from theJud. v. 23 World, and hating even the garmentRev. 14. 4. spotted by the flesh, always remembring that they who follow the Lamb are Virgins; Her Prudence, by trying the Spirits, by proving all things, but holding fast that which is good, suspecting even an Angel from Heaven, could he propose any thing to us that should seem to cross a Precept of Christ, and dreading not only every little stain, but the very suspition of it; Her Obedience, by an entire submission to God's revealed [Page] Will, and, which is the crown and perfection of all grace, her Humility. These are the Copies we are to transcribe, the best Gifts to be coveted, such as will adorn and perfect us, make us holy and glorious; other may have more pomp and lustre in themselves, these most use and benefit to us; and therefore let our aim be to be pure as the Mother of God, we who are commanded to strive to be perfect, even as our Father which is in Heaven is perfect. And if we hear the Word of God and keep it as she did, the Lord will as certainly be with us as He was with her, and we at last be with him where she now is, eternally Blessed in the fruition of the most Blessed Trinity, the Father, Son and Holy Ghost; To whom let us ascribe, as is most due, everlasting glory, &c.

Amen.

A SERMON Preached on Christmas-day.

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TITUS II. 14.‘Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purifie to himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.’

THE greatest blessing God could bestow upon us, or we receive, took its rise from Man's sin. The sin of the first Adam was the cause, or at least the occasion, of the Incarnation of the second. Had the former [Page] still continued in Paradise, the latter had not come down from Heaven: Innocence was to be lost before it could be recovered; nor was the Physician but for the sick, nor the Redeemer but for the captive.

But as the first Man did not therefore sin, or was ordained to sin, that the Son of God might be incarnated; so his Goodness, who can fetch light out of darkness, took advantage by that sin to manifest its self in its expiation, and his Wisedom contriv'd a way to make that very sin instrumental to a greater good than Man had forfeited; which gave occasion to a Father to style Adam's first Transgression Foelicem culpam, a happy crime, that procur'd him such a Redeemer as could doe him more good than 'twas in his own or Satan's power to doe him hurt, and so well repair his Ruine as to make it more advantageous to him than his Innocence. He is now a gainer by his loss, his falling so low has but rais'd him up the higher, being made more happy by his very unhappiness; so that where Man's sin did abound, God's grace has much more abounded.

[Page]And never sure did it more abound than at this time, when the Son of God took our humane nature upon him that he might unite it to his divine one; Visited us from on high, to this end, that he might redeem us; was born only to dye for us, cloathed with our flesh to be in a capacity to suffer in it, and by his own suffering to advance us to glory in Heaven.

And next to that his transcendent Mercy of giving us Heaven, is this; That He prepares us for it; That He is pleased to refine as well as to exalt us. We may now behold him as gratious in his Commands, as in his Returns; as kind in what He exacts from, as what He bestows upon us; His reforming our Nature being the greatest honour it ever received, next to his own wearing it. Had our Lord only pardoned our sins, and not removed them, the guilt indeed might have been gone, but not the shame; whereas now both are done away by Him, by his not only imputing Righteousness, but requiring it. So that his Incarnation, besides the primary end of redeeming us, has another too, which is to make us worth the redeeming, [Page] nay capable of being truly redeemed, that is, of being made Partakers of the fruit and benefit of his Redemption: For as Christ gives us his Righteousness, so he expects we should return him ours; We receive indeed all our Merit from Him, but upon condition that we afford him our Obedience. He will save us from our sins, provided we forsake them. Nor is it enough for us here to be innocent, if we be not holy; nor holy too, if not exemplary. Holiness is the Badge and Livery of our Profession, and Perfection the Crown of it. By that, we are his People; by this, his peculiar and chosen People indeed. A Title due to none but those who are not content to doe great things, if they be not ambitious still of doing greater; if they have not a Zeal in some measure answerable to their Obligation, and wholly give up themselves to Him, Who gave Himself for us, that He might not only redeem us from all iniquity; but withall, purifie us to Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.

In which Words we have,

1. The Person, in the Relative, Who.

[Page]2. His Bounty and Goodness, in the clearest, the highest, and most endearing Expressions thereof, His giving Himself for us.

3. The Design or End of this his Gift; and that twofold:

1. Redemption, That He might redeem us from iniquity, and from all iniquity.

2. Sanctification, That he might purifie us to Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.

Of these in their order.

I. Who this is that gave Himself forI. Person, Who. us, we reade in the verse before, That it is our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. But if you would fully know who He was, you must go to the beginning of St. John's Gospel, no one word being able to speak him out but that which Himself is there styl'd by, and which He always was. If we should say, That is God, we should not say enough, for He is also a Man: But how poor a thing is it to say He is a Man, when He is also a God?

St. Paul prefaceth this Article thus, Great is the mystery of Godliness, God manifested [Page] in the flesh: Great sure, when it is the vast Complexum of the Creator; and more, even a Creature too, where God is not all, and Infinity but a part. He who is in all things else, All in all, is here not the whole: He who did send, and who was sent; He who was given, and who gave Himself, shall make but one part, being indeed both but one. St. Paul in opposition to one Heresie, affirms Him to be really a Man; and in opposition to another, to be as really over All, God blessed for ever. This Infant was the Ancient of days, born at this time and before Eternity. Here you may behold Eternity beginning, and Immensity confin'd; a Virgin Mother, and an Infant God. This is that which St. Peter tells us the Angels desire to look into, but cannot see; Those Intelligences understand not this; They have with us the Benefit, not the Knowledge of it; And when themselves are saved by it, they can never understand how we came to be so. They are indeed naturally above us, (for God has made us lower than the Angels,) but now isPsal. 8. 5. our Nature set above them. The Scripture is very sparing in discovering those [Page] glorious Beings; yet this we reade, that they worship God and tend us, are ministring Spirits to his honour and our preservation. How did it surprize them, think we, after so many Ages to see Immutability change, and God become what He once was not? He turn'd the chiefest of their Order out of Heaven for endeavouring to be like Him; and Himself became like us to bring us thither. Their Maker made Himself a Man, and perhaps received some addition by this diminution. Before, He could indeed Command; but now He cannot only doe that, but, what is often more, He can also Obey. Besides, that He can prescribe Laws, He can now observe them; Give the Rule, and be the Example. Thus does Almightiness, if not increase, yet exert new vigour in the strength of its very Infirmities; and the Humanity becomes a qualification superadded to the Divinity; the Veil not only to cover, but adorn it.

The Stoicks have an impudent brag, That Men who live according to the rules of Vertue and their Sect, are to be preferred before God Himself; because, say they, He is good by the Necessity [Page] of his Nature; They, by the Wisedom of their Choice. Temptations never assault Him, but these have conquered them; that is, He is indeed without Temptations, but themselves above them. To compleat their happiness, there is nothing wanting but Immortality, which although they cannot attain; they do more than so, for they deserve it. See here now a supposition, which no Philosophy nor Impudence it self could ever fancy; God himself submitted to the duties, to the infirmities of a Man, to every thing of him besides the sin; nay, that He might be like us in every thing, He came as near sin as He could possibly, without the guilt of it; for He was made sin for us, though2 Cor. 5. 21. he would not commit any; He would be a Criminal, though without a Crime; or a Criminal with our Crimes, though not his own.

In this low condition of his see the Son of God's Love, bearing his wrath; submitting to, as if He were not One with Him; and besides forsaken by Him, as though He had not been his very Self. But that our Lord may not lose the Glories of his Humility, the Honour of his [Page] Manhood, the Exaltation which was due to his being humbled; so that the Man has gotten a name and a place above Angels, and only lower than the God Himself always was: He who was Heir of all things, is not ashamed of an Inheritance He hath obtained. This Title of his own procuring was thought not unworthy to be joined to that He was born with, and the Man hath got a Name the God disdains not to be called by. See now Him, who made the Heavens, for more than Thirty years together, behaving Himself as a Candidate for them; meriting what He was born to, as if his own Actions had been to instate upon him his Nature; his Obedience to qualifie him for his Supremacy; his Submission to God to assert his Equality with him; and from his very Humanity have a kind of Title to his Divinity. He has a Throne in Heaven due to his very leaving it; and that which He hath purchased so very glorious, that some have mistaken it for his Eternal one.

To all this which He hath obtained for Himself, let us add what He hath merited for us in that flesh He this day [Page] took upon Him, and wherein He wrought out our Redemption, offering up Himself to God, and giving Himself for us, the greatest gift He could give or we receive; whereof in the next place.

II. Who gave Himself for us. EveryII. Part, Christ's Bounty. word here has its weight. 1. He gave. 2. Gave Himself; and 3. For us.

1. He gave. A Gift this as much above Man's Desert, as 'twas above his Comprehension. 'Twas a free gift too; no Attractive here but misery; no Motive but his own goodness. The Romanists indeed, to establish their rotten Doctrine of Merit, will needs persuade us that some Ancient Fathers, before and under the Law, did ex congruo, if not ex condigno, merit Christ's Incarnation, or at least the hastning of its accomplishment. This conceit of theirs they mainly ground on Gen. 22. 18. where 'tis said to Abraham, In thy seed shall all the Nations of the Earth be blessed, Because thou hast obeyed my voice; As if that, Because, denoted the meritorious Cause of Christ's Incarnation to have been Abraham's Obedience; whereas Zachary ascribes it not to the Merits of [Page] any the most holy persons of old, but to God's mercy and free promise to the Forefathers, Luke 1. 72. St. Paul to the riches of God's mercy, Ephes. 2. 4. To his benignity and loving-kindness to mankind here, Tit. 3. 4. As our Lord Himself does also, John 3. 16. God so loved the World, that He gave his only begotten Son; and so well did that his Son love it too, that He gave Himself for us, says the Text.

2. Himself. And surely more He could not give. For as the Apostle speaks in another case, Because God could Heb. 6. 13. swear by no greater, He sware by Himself: So may we here, because He had no greater thing to give us, He gave us Himself. The Almighty could go no higher than this; Infinite goodness was here at its non ultra. He who is All in All, could bestow no more than that All. More then He could not give; but could He not have given less, and that less have been enough? Or might not the party offended have freely remitted the Offence without any farther satisfaction? or have obliged some other to make it? Sent some glorious Creature, some blessed Spirit of the noblest [Page] Order of created Beings to be a sufficient expiatory Sacrifice for Mankind, and so have sav'd Himself the trouble of an Incarnation? 'Tis not for us here to be too inquisitive, what God might have done; let us rather admire and extoll his Goodness for not contenting Himself with less than what He did, and withall dread the severity of his Justice not to be atton'd by any other Sacrifice than that of his own Son. And indeed the most glorious, the most innocent and perfect Creature God could make being but Finite; it cannot possibly be conceived how it could satisfie an infinite Justice; much less was it in the power of Man to satisfie for himself, of the party guilty to expiate its own guilt: This knot was too hard for any but a God to untie; Nay the Godhead its self, it seems, could not doe it without the assistance of the Manhood: For as the divine Nature could not suffer, so the humane one could not merit; This furnished the bloud, but that made it passable and valuable; None then but He who united both Natures in the Person of the word Incarnate; He who was [...] God and Man, could [Page] be a perfect Reconciler of both Parties. This, as his Justice and our Necessities required; so his alone Goodness prompted him unto, and his as infinite Wisedom found out the only way to doe it, by taking our Nature upon Him, and so giving Himself for us.

3. For Us. This circumstance does yet very much heighten the Blessing, and set off God's infinite Love to Mankind, That He should give Himself for us, us Sinners and Rebels, and for us alone. Were there no other Objects for his Mercy besides us? Were there not Angels to be redeemed as well as Men? Or were they not worth the Redeeming, who were by Nature so much above them? That God should pass by them, and only vouchsafe to look upon us, This is the great Mystery of his Love; And that He did so, is clear from Heb. 2. 16. Verily He took not on Him the Nature of Angels, but He took on Him the Seed of Abraham; whereupon He is called the Saviour of all Men, but not of Angels, 1 Tim. 4. 10. Whether it was because the sin of Angels had more ofV. Davenant. Colos. P. 92. Wilfulness in it, and less of Temptation; or because they did not All fall, as we [Page] did, some of them still preserving their Station, let the Schools dispute. These may serve for plausible Conjectures; but to find the true cause hereof, we must go out of the World, and seek it in the bosom of the Father, and in the bowels of his own Son, whose Love did even transform him into us this day; whereon He was born for no other purpose, but to dye for us, and by his meritorious Death rescue us from the slavery of Sin, the primary end of his Incarnation, and the third Thing to be spoken to.

III. That He might redeem us. ForIII. Part, 1. End. Redemption. the better comprehending the benefit we reap from the Incarnation of our blessed Lord; We must consider the main end and design of it, which, the Text says, was to redeem us. Now Redemption being a Relative, supposes Bondage. (For we cannot say his Irons are struck off, who never had them on; or pronounce him releas'd, who never was a prisoner.) Now such was all Mankind till Christ delivered it, by taking upon Him the form of a servant, and being made in the likeness of men. For as Aristotle hath made some men born slaves, and, [Page] as others tell us of a Law whereby all the Posterity of Captives were Bondmen; So in Divinity 'tis a certain truth, that not some, but all Mankind are born under the Fork, and that the Womb of our first Parent was like that in Tacitus, Subjectus servitio Uterus, a Womb from which issues a race of Slaves. Christ then found us in Captivity, and that, according to the Divinity of the Schools, a threefold one. 1. To Sin, as the Merit obliging. 2. To Death, as the Reward or Punishment. 3. To the Devil, as to the Executioner. And to each of these the Scripture hath assign'd a Dominion over us, and that in terms of the greatest subjection, and which in the conveyance of Power give the strongest Empire. For the first, St. Paul hath told us, That we are the servants of Sin, Rom. 6. 20. so far 'tis our Master; And in another place 'tis said to reign in our mortal Bodies, That makes it our Prince. Andver. 12. indeed as some have found out a platform of Government among the fallen Angels, who, though their Principles be crooked, yet being obey'd by Wills as crooked, observe an irregular Rule and a perverse Order even in Hell; so [Page] Sin rules in us too by Principles: For there is, saith St. Paul, a Law of Sin. Rom 7. 23. But then 'tis such a Law, as if it should be Treason for any Subject not to Murther his Natural Prince, or Adultery not to Ravish, or Blasphemy not to take God's Name in vain. 'Tis such a Law, as if two Anti-Tables should be written, which should make it Sin, not to break the Commandments. Lastly, Let the Apostle tell you what Law it is, 'Tis a Law Rom. 7. 23. of the Members warring against the Law of the Mind; and not only warring, but bringing it into Captivity, Rom. 7. 23. Sin herein far exceeding the Author of it; For he only aspir'd to be like the Highest, but Sin hath made an inversion in the Soul; advancing Sense into the Chair of Reason, and placing the Beast above the Man. And though it may leave us to a natural liberty in moral actions, (for 'tis harsh to think that Justice and Temperance are but guilded Sins,) yet for actions of Grace it has so glewed and settered the Soul, that it cannot possibly mount up to Heaven. 2. Next, for Death, Men have made a Covenant with that, saith the Scripture;Esay 28. 15. and, if Contract be not enough, we reade, [Page] Wisd. 1. v. 14. of a Kingdom of Death; so that Christ did not only find us Captives, but Captives slain. Teneo à primordio homicidam culpam, says Tertullian: Adam's Throat was our open Sepulchre; who, in that fatal Apple, did not only murther his Children like Saturn, but, like Thyestes in the Tragedy, did eat them. After that Transgression, there pass'd an Act upon us, It is appointed for Heb. 9. 27. all Men once to dye; Nay it were a degree of happiness to dye but once, if nothing remained for punishment (for nothing can suffer nothing.) But we were to be raised to another Death, and, like drowsie Malefactors, that had lain down with their Sentence, were to be awakened out of sleep, to be put upon the Rack.

3. The Scripture almost every-where styles the Devil the Prince of this World; His Kingdom had enlarg'd its self from that place, about which the Schools dispute, to every rebellion and disorder of the Soul; where as in a conquer'd Province, per cupiditates regnavit, saith St. Augustine, He reigned by his Proconsul Sins; There also making himself the Prince of Darkness, by our ignorance; [Page] and the Prince of the Air, by raising Tempests through all the Regions of Man, and exercising an universal and absolute Power over him. For such was his power in the World, when the Saviour of it came into it. There was then a general defection from God; Satan's Synagogue had in a manner swallowed up God's Church, who had but one corner of the World left him, and therein for a long time but a moving Tabernacle; and when a fix'd habitation, but one house, wherein a very few to serve him; while the Devil's Temples were every-where crowded with Priests and Sacrifices, and his Altars smoak'd in all places with Incense: so that the Earth, and the fulness thereof, seem'd now his; and he, though cast out of Heaven, to have reveng'd himself, in some sort, of God by thus dispossessing him, as it were, of the Earth. Nor was the Devil's power more Universal than 'twas Absolute, over men's Bodies and over their Souls too. Their Bodies he possest and tormented at pleasure, insomuch that his very Priests might have receiv'd Death with as much ease as they did his Oracles, entring into Men as he did into [Page] the Hoggs; hurrying them violently into perdition; commanding Parents to make their Sons and Daughters pass through the fire to him; tearing andLuk. 9. 39. Mat. 17. 15 bruising those he had got into, and casting them sometimes into the water and sometimes into the fire: Nor did he tyrannize less over Men's souls than bodies, blinding their understanding, putting out the light of natural reason in them; first corrupting their Judgments, and then their Manners; from Error in judgment, the passage being natural and easie, to Error in practice; and accordingly St. Paul tells us how vain men became in their imaginations, even to worship the Creature instead of the Creator; to change the glory of the uncorruptible God into Images made like to corruptible Men, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things; which made God give them up to all manner of uncleanness, as you may reade at large, Rom. 1. 21, &c. In such slavery had the Devil not only Heathens, (his own people, as I may call them,) but even the Jews themselves, God's chosen people; who after so many Miracles of Power and Mercies, so many excellent Statutes and Ordinances [Page] to direct them in the true manner of his Worship, as had not been delivered to any Nation besides, did not for all this fall short of the worst of Heathens either in matter of erroneous judgment or vitious practices: The profane Sadducee had corrupted all good Manners, and the hypocritical Pharisee perverted the Law by his false Glosses and Comments on it; so that when our Saviour appeared on Earth, an universal deluge of Wickedness had over-spread the face of it: And thus all Mankind being the Devil's by right of Conquest2 Tim. 2. 26. [...] taken by him as it were in War, (the true import of that word) and bound fast to him with his Chains of darkness of gross error and vitiousness; 'twas high time for the Son of God to come down, to rescue miserable Men from these several Captivities; which he did three manner of ways: 1. By Commutation. 2. By Conquest: and 3. By way of Ransome, or Purchase.

1. By Commutation. For when we were prisoners to Death by sin, God made an exchange, delivered his Son over to it for us, became our Scape-goat, like the Ram substituted in the place of Isaac; [Page] and, as the Apostle speaks, tasted death for every man, that we might not be devouredHeb. 2. 9. and swallowed up by it.

2. By Conquest, as it referrs to Power; and thus our Lord offered violence to Hell; snatcht us as brands out of its fire, and rescued us as so many preys out of the teeth of the roaring Lion; delivering Col. 1. 13. Heb. 2. 14. us from the power of darkness, and translating us into his kingdom; vanquishingRom. 16. 20. death, and him that had the power of death, the Devil, and treading him under our feet: And not content with that, he spoiled principalities and powers, makingCol. 2. 15. a shew, or as the word [...] imports, an example of them openly, and triumph'd over them in himself, or in his Cross.

3. By way of Purchase or Ransome, as it referrs to Justice. Thus Christ made a perfect satisfaction to God by laying down a price for us, and paying the very utmost farthing of our debt; and so came not only to give us an Example, as Socinians fondly dream, (which the Prophets of old might, nay every good and vertuous Man may still doe, and in this sense become our Saviour as well as He;) And therefore St. Peter plainly distinguishes [Page] these things, between Christ's suffering for us, and his leaving us an example, 1 Pet. 2. 21. And the Scripture every-where is express to this purpose, That Christ came to give himself a ransome for all, so says St. Paul, 1 Tim. 2. 6. Nay so says Christ Himself, Mat. 20. 28. He came to satisfie for us, theJoh. 16. 11. clear import of the [...] and the like words so frequently occurring in Scripture; and of those expressions of St. Paul, of Christ's being made sin and a curse for us; his2 Cor. 5. 19, 20, 21. Gal. 3. 13. Col. 2. 14. blotting out the hand-writing of Ordinances that was against us, and the like. These were the several ways whereby Christ freed us, and this was the main design and end of his coming in the flesh this day; and we can never truly value the Blessing of it, but by reflecting on the Misery of our former slavery, whereby we became Servants to Corruption,2 Pet. 2. 19. and so beneath and viler than Corruption its self, as the Servant is below his Master, (the Condition of every oneJoh. 8. 34. that committeth sin, and is at the mercy and under the power thereof, its eternal drudge, forc'd to go and come as it bids him,) and consequently lay under the [Page] guilt of Sin, and so obnoxious to God's Judgment, and under the sentence and condemnation of Death; all our lifetimeHeb. 2. 14. subject to this bondage too, and at the mercy of our most cruel and implacable enemy the Devil; who could have no power over us but what our Sin gave him.

And now that we are restored to this glorious Liberty of the Sons of God, let us stand fast in this our Liberty. The Son of God has done his part, He has made us free indeed, if we will beJoh. 8. 36. so, (for nothing can re-enslave us but our own wills,) and 'tis strange we should desire to be slaves when we may be free; nay, a strange choice this, rather to be Sin and Satan's slaves than God's free-men; To be not so much conquered by Hell, as willingly subject to it; not so much Press'd men, as Volunteers in its Service; To be led by Satan at his will, and with our own too; in love with his chains of darkness,2 Tim. 2. 28. and desirous to have our Ears bored through with his Awl in token of our Eternal vassalage. Doubtless Christ, by coming down from Heaven, never design'd Redemption for such [Page] willing Slaves; never intended to buy them who sell him, and that for naught, (as every Sinner doth;) nay, who sell themselves▪ with Ahab, to doe wickedly: He did not put such a price into fools hands that will not sue out their freedom with it; nor give men this liberty only to be licentious, and so no otherwise free than, as St. Paul Rom. 6. 20. expresseth it, from righteousness. Did He therefore break off Sin and Satan's yoke from our necks, that we should cast off his; or make us the Sons of God, that we should make our selves the Sons of Belial; impatient of any yoke, though it be of his own most easie and light one? Did He therefore cancel our old debts, that we should study to make new ones; as if the end of his coming in the flesh had not been to redeem us from our old Conversation, but to it? No sure: He came to buy us; Ye are bought with a price, says our Apostle; 1 Cor. 6. 20. and therefore ought we to glorifie God in our bodies, and in our spirits, which are Gods: God's, as well by right of Redemption as of Creation. If we be delivered by Him from the hand of our Ghostly Enemies, 'tis that we should [Page] serve Him without fear indeed, but not cast off his fear. And surely the obligation is very strong and binding, and the Consequence unavoidable; He hath saved us, and therefore we must serve Him; promote the honour of our Deliverer, and advance the interest of this our great Lord and Master. Servants, says the Philosopher, are but [...] living Tools or Instruments to be used or employed at the discretion of their Masters. They are not sui juris, not their own Men, and all that they acquire is for him they serve: Nay, by the Civil Law, ingratitude to their deliverer did make Men forfeit the benefit of their freedom. And surely, if we abuse Ours, and Him that bestows it, Our Lord may justly return us to our former slavery; make us Satan's slaves once more, who refuse to be God's freemen; and his slaves we are, while bound unto him by any one of his Chains; and since the least of them will be strong enough to tie us fast to him, let us break all his bonds asunder, and cast away all his cords from us.

An Obligation which lyes upon us as at all times, so now especially when we [Page] are to partake of the benefit of that Redemption Christ has wrought out for us: His Bloud was the price of it, (In whom we have Redemption through his bloud, the Remission of sins, Ephes. 1. 7.) and the Cross the Altar where that price was paid, or else there could have been no perfect reconciliation for us. So the same Apostle, Col. 1. 20. Having made peace through the bloud of his Cross, by him to reconcile all things. So that remission of sins, peace with God and with our selves, freedom from the slavery of Sin, Death and Satan; all this is the purchase of Christ's bloud shed upon his Cross, and apply'd to us in his blessed Sacrament, to which we are now invited. Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you, says Christ, Mat. 11. 28. In like manner does he bespeak us here too; Come unto me all ye that are in bondage to Sin and Satan, and I will release you; Subdue the power of them by my grace, and restore you at last to the glorious Liberty of the Sons of God; Let the door-posts of your Hearts be sprinkled with my bloud, and the destroying Angel shall pass, and not hurt you. O let [Page] us then hearken to His most gratious invitation; and having such encouragement, draw near, to his Holy Table, with a true heart in full assurance of faith; andHeb. 10. 22 for the time to come wholly give up our selves to Him, who gave Himself for us, this day of his Birth, by taking our Flesh, and now offers up Himself again for us at his Passion, whereof this Sacrament is so lively a representation, and seal of our Redemption. In a word, as Christ has redeemed us, so let us for the time to come walk as the redeemed of the Lord, and his peculiar people, that so we may obtain those Blessings which belong to such, both here and hereafter. Which God of his infinite Mercy grant, &c.

Amen.

A SERMON PREACHED The Sunday after Christmas.

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TITUS II. 14.‘Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purifie to himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.’

I Need not be very exact in repeating what I so lately delivered hence to you on these words, it being so fresh in your Memories: Only give me leave, for the better carrying on of this Second Part of my Discourse, to name the Heads I then proposed; which were these.

[Page]1. The Person, Who gave himself, Christ Jesus, God and Man.

2. His infinite Bounty and Goodness, in the clearest, highest and more endearing Expresses thereof, His giving himself for us. A free Gift, a great one too; for surely a greater thing God could not give than Himself; and an undeserved Gift; the parties on whom it was bestowed being Sinners and Enemies to God, and so in no manner of capacity to receive or deserve it.

3. The Design or End of that Gift; and that twofold:

1. Redemption, from the slavery of Sin, Death and Satan. And thus far I then proceeded. That which now remains to be spoken to, is,

First, What Christ chiefly design'd to redeem us from, and that is said to be Iniquity; and withall, the extent of that Redemption, All iniquity.

2. The other great End of Christ's giving himself for us, namely Sanctification; To purifie to himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.

Of these in their Order.

Who gave himself for us, that he might [Page] redeem us from iniquity; From our slavery and bondage to Sin, not from our subjection to Men. This was no part of that liberty Christ came to purchase for us. The Servant is still obliged to perform Obedience to his Master; nor does Christianity give Him here any Manumission. Servants, be obedient to them that are your Masters Ephes. 6. 5. according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ; that is▪ with all diligence and sincerity, as unto Christ, who sees your hearts, and lays this Command on you. Nor, 2dly, does the Law of Christ exempt Subjects from that subjection they owe to their natural and lawfull Princes: A Jewish conceit, which many primitive Christians were too ready to entertain, especially such as having newly shaken hands with Moses; thought that at the same time they cast off his Yoke, they might lawfully renounce all Obedience to Heathen Governors. We know the Jews expected such a glorious conquering Messiah, as should give them the Necks of their Enemies, and the Empire of the whole World; and accordingly, to strengthen this fancy, they wrested [Page] all those obscure passages of the Prophets to a literal, which were only meant in a spiritual Sense. A conceit more excusable in a people so long enured to a Carnal Oeconomy; which made their Thoughts so low, that they could rise no higher than the Milk and Honey of a Temporal Canaan. But our Saviour has expresly confuted this their gross error, Joh. 18. 36. by telling Pilate, that his kingdom was not of this World; no more than it was his business to cancel any natural or civil Obligations between Men, or break those bonds wherein they stood related and engag'd one to another. He came to save his people indeed, but, as the Angel expresses it, from their sins, and no otherwise; Mat. 1. 21. That is, not only from the guilt of them, and the punishment due to that guilt; but also to rescue and free them from the power and dominion of their sins, from that course of vitious living, wherein themselves, with the rest of Mankind, had before been engaged: A slavery which of all others being the saddest, (it being a kind of liberty to be given up to the lusts of Men, in comparison of being delivered up to those of [Page] our own hearts,) nothing but the Son of God could deliver us from it; and we find all his Attributes engaged in that task; his infinite Wisdom to find out a way to glory between God's Justice and Man's Sin; his infinite Power employed in accomplishing that way; his infinite Mercy discovered in pardoning, and his infinite Grace in subduing and conquering Sin. And that this was the great design of God's sending his Son into the World, and of his giving Himself for us, we learn from the 11 and 12 Verses of this very Chapter: The grace of God, says our Apostle there, that bringeth salvation, hath appeared unto all men, teaching us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts. So Acts 3. 26. St. Peter tells the Jews, that God having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless them; how? not in saving them from their Temporal enemies, but in turning every one of them from his iniquities. St. John says the very same thing too, though in different words, 1 Joh. 3. 8. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the Devil; the word there is [...], that he might dissolve, or loosen those chains [Page] of Satan, wherewith he had fast bound and kept all men in captivity to Himself. And ver. 5. of that chapter, Christ is said to be manifested to take away our sins, i. e. as to free us from the guilt of them, by his 1 Joh. 1. 7. Revel. 1. 5. Bloud; so from the 1 Cor. 6. 11. filth and stain of them, by his Spirit. Thus you see 'twas iniquity Christ came to redeem us from, and, how, as much as in us lyes, we frustrate the very end of his coming, and of his redeeming us, if we enslave our selves to those sins, from which he came to free us. If our own interest, even that of our eternal Salvation, be not enough, let the kindness and infinite love of God in stooping so low as to become one of us, to redeem us from those sins, which make us worse than the beasts that perish, oblige us to quit them. By undertaking▪ the Faith of Christ, every Christian ties himself to a strict life; Let every one, says the Apostle, that nameth the name of Christ, depart from iniquity, 2 Tim. 2. 19. and not only from some, but all kinds of it; from All iniquity, even as Christ redeemed us from All.

[Page]2. Without which addition our Redemption had been but lame and imperfect, but our Slavery had not been so; since any one unmortified Sin is enough to render us its Vassal. There are indeed too many Rimmonists among us, that would be content to allow Christ something, but not all; to part with many, but not every sin; to defie grosser ones, and utterly inconsistent with their Christian profession, but not such as they are pleas'd to call their failings of Infirmity and the spots of Children. These Men consider not what the Text says, That Christ having redeemed us from all iniquity; to retain any one known sin, is to despise and make void his Redemption, at least to themselves; and that to allow themselves in that one, be it never so small to their apprehension, is still to remain in the bond of iniquity, any part of Sin's wages entitling them to its service: For this, at best, is but partial Obedience to God; and every partial Obedience does as well imply our partial Disobedience to Him also. And where is that Man, who if he may have but one darling Sin, and be suffer'd to enjoy that, would not willingly [Page] bate you all the rest? That would not be exact in some duties, if he might commute for others? One Man will be as sober as you would have him, if he may be allow'd to be proud; and another as chast, so he may have leave to be revengefull. But these middle sort of people are like to get little benefit by Christ's Redemption; They have the fate of Neuters to be hated by both Parties; like Borderers, to be equally spoiled by both Nations. And surely if this state be not the worst, 'tis certainly the most troublesome, where the Man's Practices thwart his Principles; such a one is not less divided from himself than from his God; His single self is at least two parties; His Heart's the seat of a perpetual Civil War; He is often led Captive into both quarters; and while he renews his strength, 'tis only for a fresh defeat; and he lays in treasure to no other end, but to be worth another pillage. And there is one thing highly considerable in the case of this middle person, That he hath neither the comforts of Vertue, nor the pleasure of Sin; the satisfaction of doing his duty being sowred by his thoughts of the frequent [Page] omissions of it. When a Man loves God, and hates his Brother, is a severe and a proud person; such a one is just so excellent as to deserve our pity, because he hath undergone the trouble of doing some good, and miss'd the reward of it: In whom so much Vertue was in vain; so many good things to no purpose; and who possess'd such rare advantages, that it might be the more remarkable how he lost them too. These have the sad honour of being instances how near Men may come to Happiness, and yet fail of it; They shall have the miserable Comfort, that in them it shall be noted how much choice treasure may be cast away. Thus what the HistorianTacitus. says of a Nation, may be affirm'd of Mankind in a Moral sense, Nec totam libertatem pati possunt nec totam servitutem; That they would be neither absolute slaves to sin, nor wholly free from it; be neither under the law of Righteousness, nor altogether under that of Iniquity; that is, not wholly Christ's enemies, nor yet well his friends. But as it was his design to free us wholly from the slavery, so likewise to cleanse us from the stain and pollution of every [Page] sin; As to be our Redemption, so our Sanctification; He came to rescue, and withall, to refine us; To purifie unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works; The second great End of his coming in the flesh, and the last thing observable.

To purifie, &c. Of all the Religions which ever were yet in the World, there is not any that hath so provided for the regulating of humane actions as Christianity hath done. All others have rather been employ'd in Expiations for sin, than Deleteries of it; in performing such rights for which God should pardon them, rather than in doing such actions for which he should love them; the utmost of all their hopes being but for a Remission, whereas ours aim at a Reward. This bewails our infirmities, so as to draw us from them, and fit us for that happiness which it designs to procure us. And therefore He, who was the Author thereof, did never intend to justifie us by his Righteousness, unless he might also sanctifie us by his Spirit; or procure us pardon for past sins, without securing us, as far as we were capable, from future ones. That was indeed the [Page] proper task of his Priestly; This, of his Prophetick Office; There he did expiate, Here he continually teaches us, not only to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, but withall, to live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world; and that both by his Precepts and his Example; which how effectual they are, if duely observed and followed, to the cleansing of us from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, beyond whatever the World saw till He came into it, will easily appear to any that shall confront Christ's Precepts (particularly those delivered in his Sermon on the Mount) and his Practice with those of Heathens or Jews either. From the former of these two, what Purity could be expected, whose very Religion its self was Impurity? whose Divinity taught Men to violate Humanity, and whose ceremonious Worship was nothing else but a Solemnity of the foulest Vices. Their Practices and Principles, their Lives and Judgments, having been alike corrupt, as St. Paul describes them, Rom. 1. Nor was it possible how it should be otherwise, where Men's Sins and their Religion were the same thing; where their Gods and their [Page] Inclinations did equally contribute to Wickedness. The most abominable Sins we know among them had their Temples, where Theft, Drunkenness and Adultery were ador'd; and to prostitute their Bodies, was most sacred; and their very Altar-fires did kindle those foul heats, from whence 'tis that Uncleanness is so often in Scripture styled Idolatry. And this was the condition of the Heathenish World before our Lord's Incarnation. 'Tis true indeed, that the more intelligent part of Mankind was not so debauch'd in its Understanding, nor altogether so loose in its Practice. Some few possibly there were who did a little resist the common stream, and still retain so much of natural reason as serv'd them to discover the follies and impurities of others, but very little to reform either others or themselves. Something perhaps it did towards that too, and in all likelihood make way for the more easie admission of Christianity; which gave occasion to that unwary expression of one who styl'd Aristotle Christ's Forerunner in Naturals, as St. John Baptist was in Spirituals: And upon the like ground 'tis that others affirm Christ's Incarnation [Page] to be clearly deducible from Plato's Writings. How warrantably, I know not; but this I know, That some of the Heathen Philosopher's Vertues are little better than Christian men's Vices; and many of those Rules they give us to walk by very crooked; nor did the exactest of them strictly observe them, or follow their own Prescriptions. And to say the best of the Rules themselves, they were such as were fitted to the outward Man, and did not at all require that inward Purity of the Heart which Christ has severely enjoyn'd his Disciples; and is indeed the most effectual and only proper instrument to beget true Holiness in Men. Wherein the Christian Religion has as well exceeded the Jewish, as the Heathenish one; which entertain'd and amus'd its self rather with external performances affecting the Sense, than divine and spiritual, which alone could purifie the Soul. The reason the Apostle gives why the legal Sacrifices could not make him, who did the service, perfect, as pertaining to the Conscience, because they stood in meats, and drinks, and carnal Ordinances, Heb. 9. 9, 10. Nor could all their other Purifications [Page] doe much neither towards the cleansing of the Mind, which might be still in the Mire, while the Body was in the Laver, and remain as bestial as those Creatures to which it was beholding for its cleansing. Besides, that the Jewish Promises being so remote and obscure, so low and mean, and relating so much to this life, that 'tis question'd by some whether they pointed at all to any other; they could have but little influence on the more spiritual part of Man, which can never rest satisfied with what is so unproportioned to, and so much less than its self. All which defects are abundantly supply'd by Christ, who has not only given us better Precepts, but, as the Apostle says, established them on Heb. 8. 6. better and clearer Promises; such as in their nature are most apt to engage us, to cleanse our selves from all filthiness of 2 Cor. 7. 1. flesh and spirit, and to perfect holiness in the fear of God.

To all which we may add the powerfull assistances of God's grace, and the force and efficacy of Christ's example; whereby He has not only pointed out the way to us, but trac'd it Himself, being both the way and the truth. All such [Page] pressing Motives to Purity of life, that 'tis Morally impossible for any to name the name of Christ, and not to depart from2 Tim. 2. 19. [...] all Iniquity. And therefore Athenagoras in his Apology for Christianity, plainly tells us, (and 'tis a great truth,) That no Christian can be a bad man, unless he be a Hypocrite; or pretend to so holy a Master, and be so unlike Him: To behold the Lamb of God without spot or1 Pet. 1. 19. blemish, and be himself a Leopard. And surely He that shall consider how that the whole Discipline of the Jewish Religion was but Purity in Type, and all the Ceremonies of their Worship but so many Figures, or rather Doctrines of Cleanness, must needs grant that Purity which the Christian Religion advanc'd, and which the Mosaical one did but adumbrate, to have been of a far higher strain; and cannot but in reason confess there lyes now upon him a much stronger obligation to Purity, he being not only washt in Christ's own bloud, (that bloud which alone can purge his conscience from dead Heb. 9. 14. works to serve the ever-living God,) but baptized with the Holy Ghost and with Fire. And now tell me whether any can well pretend to be redeemed by that [Page] bloud wherein he finds no power to sanctifie him? Without doubt, whatsoever Christ worketh for us, He worketh in us too. If he clear us from the guilt of sin, he does likewise cleanse us from the pollution of it; If he free us from the obligation and the punishment, he does withall from the power and dominion of it; and while he quenches Hell-fire without, does at the same time quench that of Lust within us. These things are not to be separated; and when we find them so, or find our selves the same men Christ found us, still in our sins, though he has used all possible means to draw us out of them, we certainly frustrate all the ends of his Incarnation; He is not born for us, but against us: This Child is not set for our rise, but for our fall. His taking our Flesh will doe us no good, if we doe not walk by his Spirit; and that we shall not doe, if we be not Holy as well as Innocent; and not only perform▪ those excellent things He requires from us, but love and become zealous of them, that so we may be indeed his Peculiar People.

[Page]A Title which some in our days are pleased to appropriate to themselves, who yet shew little of that which must secure it; renouncing good works in their own practice, and decrying them in▪ others as the mark of Antichrist's, rather than of Christ's People. These are they who talk so much of Faith, and set it up in opposition to good Works, (an error worse than theirs, who make them joint Causes with Christ's Merits in our Justification;) such there were in our Apostle's time, who, because He did so much magnifie Faith to beat down the Jews conceit of being justified by the Works of the Law; did so far Idolize it, as to think all good works useless, when once they had taken upon them the profession of Christianity. And there are, and too many among us, who bury all thoughts of good works in a pleasing, but deceitfull Contemplation of Faith, as exclusive of those good works whereof 'tis so naturally productive; and which can no more be separated from it, than heat from light. 'Tis Faith indeed which aloneAct. 15. 9. purifies the heart; that is the very foundation and root of all other Graces; without which our Profession is but an [Page] empty Name, and our most glorious performances but so many glittering Sins; But then 'tis such a Faith as supposes good works, or else 'tis but a dead,Jam. 2. an invisible Faith; good works being the only evidences of its reality, whereby we approve our selves unto Men asMat. 5. 16. Heb. 13. 16. 1 Pet. 3. 15. well as glorifie God; stop the mouths of the Enemies of the Gospel, make our calling and election sure to our selves; and2 Pet. 1. 10. Tit. 2. 10. our profession good in the sight of others, by adorning the Doctrine of God our Saviour in all things, and by the practice thereof resembling Him, who went about doing good. And upon theseAct. 10. 38. and the like accounts we find our Apostle highly magnifying, and earnestly calling upon Titus to press the necessity of them, chap. 3. 8. This is a faithfull saying, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might be carefull to maintain good works: these things are good and profitable unto men; so profitable, that without them the Text expresly affirms they cannot be God's peculiar People.

And here we may see how strict an Exactor of them our Lord is, who is [Page] not content with our performance of, without our affection to them; nay, requires the very heat and fervor of thatVid. Leigh L. Com. p. 715, 716. affection; will have us doe, and withall be zealous of them, which is more than barely to doe them, and cannot possibly consist with any coldness or indifferency to them. Such a temper He requires, whose Zeal did even eat him up, that we should follow after righteousness, [...] 1 Tim. 6. 11. as the word is, eagerly pursue and even persecute it, be active and violent in quest thereof, never leaving off our pursuit till we have obtain'd it. He who, like Gallio, cares for none of these things, but is indifferent to them▪ shall be as little car'd for by God, and such as are neither hot nor cold in his service, he will spew out of his mouth. Nescit tarda molimina Spiritûs sancti gratia; God's Spirit fires that Soul it does inspire, making it active and industrious to improve his Graces, to add one link or other still to the Chain of them, To faith, 2 Pet. 1. [...]. vertue; and to vertue, knowledge; and so1 Tim. 6. 18. on: To strive not only to be rich in good works, but richer than others; and to be ambitious [...] still to excell and surpass all others in Goodness. [Page] It being their Lord's will that his people should not only be holy, but eminent; not barely innocent, but perfect too, as far as they are capable of perfection in this life, or, at least, to endeavour to be so.

And surely there cannot be a stronger Motive to persuade them to be so, than the honour and advantage such a Relation will procure them, as to be God's peculiar People, chosen by Him out of the rest of the World, admitted into his special favour and protection; a PeopleMal. 3. 17. Hos. 1. 10. whom He shall love and value as his chiefest Treasure and choicest Jewels. These alone He thinks worth the purchasing, even with his own dearest bloud; These alone have indeed the Benefit,Act. 20. 28. others but the Tender of it; For these was He born, and for these did He effectually1 Joh. 3. 8. dye. Not for them who build up those works of the Devil which the Son of God came on purpose to destroy: who in works deny him, and (as the Apostle characterizeth them, Tit. 1. 16.) are to every good work reprobate: Nay more than that, even zealous of bad ones, laying hold on Damnation; and are not only Candidates of, but Factors [Page] for Hell. Nor 2. for them who revel it upon the score of Christ's Righteousness; and while they turn his Grace into wantonness, and so deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ, (being upon that account no less Antichrist's,1 Joh. 4. 3. than they who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh;) yet take sanctuary in his Name, as if that Name were a charm against the Almighty's threats, or serv'd only for a gourd to sit securely under the shadow thereof. Is this to be God's peculiar People? Or did He in so much mercy chuse us out of the Heathen World, that we should be more wicked than Heathens for that very reason, because we are Christians, and therefore ought to be much better? And who is there, since the appearance of God's grace, whom so excellent a Religion as he professes, a Religion that came down from Heaven, renders more just and sober, more chast and temperate, or any way more vertuous than some of those very Heathens, whose Religion came from Hell? And yet stands high upon his profession, and thinks that shall bear him out. 'Tis true indeed, the Devil is not worship'd now, as then [Page] he was, with a Religion of Impieties; and yet the same, if not viler things, are made to consist with Christ's Religion, as well as with that of the Devil; and Men have found a way to yoke Christ with Belial, to reconcile his Doctrines of Purity and their own Sins together; nay to make this Holy time also nothing else but a more solemn opportunity of sinning, and themselves more Beasts, because God now became Man for them. But I forbear, and shall not dwell any longer upon so harsh a subject, as unfit for such a time of Jubilee as this is, for so it is, if we may believe an Angel; Behold I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people, Luke 2. 10. Let us then rejoice, but still in the Lord, as it becomes the Just and Righteous; and give thanks unto him for a remembrance of his Goodness to us; Let us walk honestly as Rom. 13. 13, 14. in the day, not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provisions for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof: Put him on by an application of his Merits, and an imitation of his Vertues; by our Faith in, and by our [Page] Obedience to Him, that we may celebrate this time with the Duties of it, make it a Festival of our services to Him for the everlasting benefit we still reap by it. God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness: He hath1 Thes. 4. 7. called us as to glory, so to vertue, the path-way to it, 2 Pet. 1. 3. 'Tis a great mistake to think, that because Christ came to redeem us from Sin and Hell, therefore the liberty he has purchased for us extends so far as to free us from Holiness too. No sure: As we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to good works, so were we redeemed, you see, by Christ to perform them, and in a more exact and higher way than ever the World before was acquainted with. God did, no doubt, pardon many things, not only in Heathens, but even in his own peculiar People the Jews, which he will not in us; our obligation to a stricter Holiness now being so much the stronger, by how much our light is clearer. The times of this Act. 17. 30. ignorance God winked at, (says our Apostle, speaking indeed of Heathens, but applicably to Jews too, in comparison of us, Christians;) He pass'd by many [Page] things in them, who had not such clear Revelations of his Will as after-times had; but now he commandeth all Men every-where to repent. For since God hath vouchsafed to come down Himself from Heaven to shew us the way to it; since Himself has gone before us in that way, and left such manifest prints of his divine Foot-steps, as we may trace him all along by: If after all this we will not follow him, but tread on still in those pernicious ways that lead to Hell, we are to blame our selves for putting a barr to our Redemption. Christ hath done enough for us, and yet something he has left us to doe for our selves, to redeem our selves from our vain Conversation; be zealous and fervent in the practice of those good works he commands and requires of us, that we may reap the benefit of that Redemption he hath purchased for us, while we give him the glory of it; the glory of his infinite Humility and Condescension in stooping so low as to take our vile Nature upon him; the glory of his Goodness in being so willing to succour and relieve us; and, lastly, the glory of his Wisdom and Power, who alone was able [Page] to contrive a way to doe it, and could bring it to pass. A Power this, beyond that of the Creation, (if any one Work of the Almighty may be said to be greater than another,) and more glorious too; That being call'd but the work of his fingers, Psal. 8. 3. This, of his whole Arme, Psal. 98. 2. There he only made us Men; Here, new Men.

To conclude; Let us beg of Him, who by taking our Flesh became our Brother, to make us such whom He may not be ashamed to call his Brethren; 1 Cor. 15. 49. That as He now bare the Image of the Earthly, by being made after our Image, so may we bear the Image of the Heavenly, by being made conformable to his. And let us bless Him who sent his Son to bless us, in turning every oneRom. 8. 28. of us from his Iniquities, as well as in satisfying for them. And since his Beloved Son has so lately wash'd ourRev. 7. 14. Robes, and made them white in his bloud; let us not defile them again, but keep them unspotted from the World, and hate even the garment spotted by the Flesh; purifying our selves as He is1 Joh. 3. 3. v. 13. pure, that we may with comfort look for that blessed hope mentioned in the [Page] verse immediately preceding, even the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; And when He shall appear, follow that immaculate and unspotted Lamb into those Regions of Bliss where now He is, and whither he has already exalted our nature; To which place God in his good time bring us all for the Merits of his only beloved Son and our blessed Redeemer; To whom with the Father, &c. Amen.

Soli Deo gloria.

A SERMON Preached on Candlemas-day.

[Page]

St. LUKE II. 22.‘And when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses, were accomplished, they brought him to Ierusalem, to present him to the Lord.’

THere are not any Writings so harmonious, and every-where consonant to themselves, as the Holy Scriptures. The Old and New Testament, like Glasses set one against another, reflect a mutual light; so that [Page] as Moses and the Prophets testifie of Christ, Christ bears witness to them▪ and all the Types of the Law have their Anti-Types in the Gospel which directly answer them.

Thus the Gospel for this day is but the Eccho to the Epistle. There the Prophet Malachi fore-tells, That the Lord the Messias, whom the Jewish Nation sought, should suddenly come to his Temple; and here we find Him, with his Blessed Mother, in that Temple, each of them appearing there in obedience to the Mosaical Law; the one to be purified, the other to be presented.

And as this day's Festival takes its denomination from these two legal Rites, so the Text expresly mentions each of them.

1. The Purification of the Mother, with the circumstance of its proper time, in the former part of it, When the days of her Purification were accomplished.

2. The Presentation of her Child, together with the several circumstances of the place where, and the Persons that presented him, in the latter, They brought him to Jerusalem; that is, as 'tis explain'd, ver. 27. His parents brought him [Page] into the Temple at Jerusalem to doe for him after the custom of the Law, which was to present him to the Lord.

Of these distinctly; and first of the Purification of the Mother. This we find expresly required by the Law of Moses, Levit. 12. 2. where 'tis said, If a woman have conceived seed and born a man-child, then she shall be unclean seven days; according to the days of her separation for her infirmity shall she be unclean. And 'tis added, ver. 4. She shall then, i. e. after the circumcision of her Male-child, continue in the bloud of her purifying thirtythree days, she shall touch no hallowed thing, nor come into the sanctuary untill the days of her purifying be fulfilled. Which legal Rite, as it did, no doubt, point to that spiritual Purification, which was to be made by the bloud of Christ, the immaculate Lamb, to be shed for allJoh. 1. 29. 1 Cor. 5. 7. Mankind on the Altar of the Cross; so did it insinuate to the Jews their Original corruption, that they, as well as other descendants of Adam, were conceived Psal. 51. 7. in sin, and brought forth in iniquity. For to what purpose should there be such care taken for the cleansing of the Vessel, had it not before been tainted? [Page] Or why should a Sin-offering be required, where there was no sin to expiate? The Law of Purification then evidently proclaims our uncleanness, and tells us that our very Birth infects the Mother that bare us. She might not, we see, till the seventh day converse with Men, nor till the fortieth day appear before the Lord in the Sanctuary, nor then without a burnt-offering for thanksgiving, and a sin-offering for expiation; and that of a double sin, viz. of the Mother that conceived, and, as St. Paul tells us, was first in the Transgression, and of the Son1 Tim. 2. 14. that was conceived. And this Rite, without question, the Holy Mother of God observ'd in conscience of that natural Corruption which was common to her with all other Men and Women, propagated to her as a branch of the first stock, and which, by the Oblation made by her, she publickly confessed to God and the Congregation. From whence it will follow, that as they are grossConc. Trid. Sess. 5. flatterers of Nature, who tell us she is clean; so they are no less Idolaters of the Virgin Mary, who exempt her from all stain, Original or Actual. For besides, that our Lord's sharp rebuke, Joh. 2. 3. [Page] implies some such fault as was inconsistent with a spotless impeccable condition; her willing submission to the Mosaical Rite here, and her professing her own need of a Saviour, Luk. 1. 47. are sufficient Arguments to stop their mouths, who will needs force those Eulogies upon her, which her self utterly disclaim'd both by word and practice.

But whatever stain there might be in her own Conception, 'tis certain, she was most free from any particular sin as to that of our Lord's, and rather sanctified than polluted by bearing Him, who could draw no infection from the loins of Adam, as not conceived in the ordinary way of Mankind, but by the vertue of the Holy Ghost over-shaddowingLuk. 1. 3 [...] her. Happy Mother! Whatever impurity then there might be in others, there could be none at all in the Son of God; and if the best Substance of a pure Virgin had in it any spot, it was sufficiently scowred off by that Holy thing which was conceived in her by the Holy Spirit; and did in a far more extraordinary way sanctifie that Womb wherein Himself lay▪ than that wherein the Baptist.

[Page]Upon all which accounts the Holy Mother of God might well have challenged an Immunity from all Ceremonies of Purification; she needed no purging, since she had no stain. This was for those Mothers whose Births were unclean; hers was from God, who is Purity its self; The Law of Moses reach'd only to those Women which had conceived in sin; she conceived not that Seed but by the Holy Ghost; That extended to the Mothers of those Sons which were under the Law, whereas hers was above it; yet does she not wrangle with the Law upon any of these scores, but cheerfully submits to a twofold Rite of Purification and Oblation; waves all her Privileges, and chuses Duty; subscribes to the Law of that God whom she carried in her Womb and in her Heart, the true Mother of Him who came to fulfill all Righteousness, Legal as well as Moral; and though he knew the Children of the Kingdom free, would yet pay Tribute to Caesar. These Rites then she observ'd, not for her self, but for us, to give us a fourfold Example, of Charity, Obedience, Humility and Gratitude.

[Page]1. Of Charity. Among other Acts, whereof this is not the least, not to scandalize our Neighbours: For as no man Rom. 14. 7. See v. 13. (according to St. Paul's rule) liveth to himself; We are oblig'd in all our actions to consider others as well as our selves; and many times to abridge our selves of our own freedom, to comply with their infirmities; and part with our dearest liberty, for their satisfaction. It was this, no doubt, which made the Blessed Virgin to do so, where the dispensing with her self for the observation of this Ceremony, must needs have given the Jews no small occasion of scandal. For when she brought her Son into the Temple, they who were wholly strangers to the great Mystery of the Incarnation, who neither knew Her to be the Mother, nor Christ to be the Son of God, but lookt upon them with an indifferent eye, as persons within the verge and compass of the Mosaical Law, and equally ty'd up to a strict observance of all its Ordinances, must needs have taken great offence at the omission of any the least of them: All such neglect would have been construed a breach of the divine Institution, which no [Page] Man's innocence or dignity could in their judgment have warranted. But as it is the property of true Charity not to seek her own; so did this Blessed1 Cor. 13. 5. Mother of God chuse to depart from her private right, rather than prejudice the common good, or violate the peace of the Church; and rather draw an inconvenience on her self, than yield the least occasion of offence to God's People. Thus did she abstain from all appearance of Evil; not from that only which was really so, but which had the face of, and lookt like it; avoiding as all crime, so all suspition thereof; and having an eye as well to her Reputation as her Innocence: A Temper scarce to be met with in this vitious and offensive Age; where Men are not content to be wicked, if they may not withall be scandalous; corrupt others as well as themselves, by putting stumbling-blocks in the way of their weak and blind Brethren. So far are they from yielding Obedience to those Laws they may have some colourable pretence to avoid, that they make it their great care and study wilfully to break those they are necessarily obliged to. All things are lawfull for [Page] such persons, and all things expedient too; Law and Honour, Reason and Conscience they can as easily shake off, as Sampson his withen Bands; defie the Magistrate and the Church; cry up Christian Liberty, to the ruine of Christian Obedience, without any regard either to other Men or themselves. Let them learn another lesson from the Mother of God; who would rather lose her own right, than give others a seeming offence; and let her Example teach us Obedience, though to the prejudice of our just Liberty: And let us not on the other side rashly censure them as Lawbreakers, who sometimes, perhaps, may omit a few little Punctilio's of the Law, not out of any Contumacy or Spirit of Opposition, but to gratifie the humour of a tender, though erroneous, Conscience.

2. A second Example we have here of Obedience. A Vertue few have, who yet pretend much to all others; but a Vertue, without which all the rest signifie little, and which is the best of Sacrifices. Had the Blessed Virgin presented her Son to God, and not her self too, even That very Offering would [Page] have little availed her. There she indeed offered up his Person, Here her own Will; which we can, for the most part, more hardly part with, than with our dearest and most beloved Children. But this Blessed Mother most willingly parts with both to God; as freely resigns up her self to Him here, as when she first received the happy news from the Angel, that God had design'd her to be that Person of whom he should take flesh, with an Ecce Ancilla, Behold the Handmaid of the Lord: She quarrels not with the Law, but observes every Iota and Tittle of it; The due time, when the days of her Purification were accomplished; the due place, the Temple; the due Oblation too, a pair of Turtle Doves; so officious was she in the Ceremony, as to admit of no excuse in any the least circumstance of her Obedience; and so defective are most of us, even in the main Duties of Morality. Surely that Soul is not fit for the Spiritual conception of Christ, that is not conscionably scrupulous in observing all God's Laws. 'Tis not in our own power to make choice of some part, where God requires an entire submission [Page] to the whole. His Commands exact our strict Obedience, even to to those things which seem to us of little importance: Our Measures here are not to be taken from the Nature of the things themselves, but from the Authority of that God which imposes them, whose Will, not our Reason, is to determine us; and there may be as great contempt of his Will in neglecting or refusing to obey it in lesser as in greater instances; nay, many times much greater, where the things are of a more easie observation; as the greatest Sin that ever Man committed was but the eating of an Apple. The instance of the Blessed Virgin's Obedience here, was in that which many now-a-days would think very trivial; 'twas but in a ceremonial part; the Mint and Cummin, not the weightier matters of the Law; yet since God required so punctual an observance of that, and the Blessed Virgin so exactly paid it, there will be little excuse left for Schismaticks, who despise the decent Ceremonies of the Church out of Piety and Devotion, thinking thereby to doe God good service; and less for them who wilfully [Page] disobey the more substantial important Precepts of the Gospel. If the Holy Virgin had such respect to the Law of Bondage and Severity, then surely ought we to pay a far greater to the Law of Liberty and Grace; and if she so religiously observ'd a Ceremony, which to her was but indifferent, with what care ought we to keep those Moral duties of the Gospel which require our Obedience, not out of Love only, but Necessity.

3. A third Lesson we may learn here from the Example of the Mother of God, and that is Humility, which was as signal here as her Obedience, and the cause of that Obedience: For all Obedience proceeds from Humility; which is as ready to take Laws from others, as Pride can be to give them. 'Twas this which submitted Christ to the Rite of Presentation, as it did the Blessed Virgin to that of her Purification; though his Innocence might well have exempted him from appearing in the crowd of Sinners, and her Purity from being rankt amongst the Unclean. It was no small derogation to her Honour to submit to such a Rite, whose very designment was to upbraid [Page] their guilt who observ'd it. They who are truly humble, are even ambitious of Contempt; catch at all opportunities which may debase them, and boast of that dishonour which turns to God's glory; as David danc'd on before the Ark, notwithstanding Michal's taunts: And his Language there is, that of every2 Sam. 6. 22 humble spirit, I will yet be viler. Thus would the Mother of God own her self legally unclean, who morally was not so; and bring her Doves to the Altar, who was more innocent and harmless than those Doves she brought; too faint an Emblem of her own spotless Purity, as the Lamb was of his, who knew no sin, though he was content to be made sin for us.

4. There is one Lesson more behind, and that is of Gratitude; which, though in the general, may concern all persons to pay their solemn Thanks to God in the Congregation, especially after any signal and notable Deliverance, which is one great Reason of this day's Festival among the Jews; yet in the particular instance of legal Purification, it may seem only to point to Mothers, and oblige them publickly to express their [Page] gratefull acknowledgment of God's mercy to them, in preserving them from the great peril of Child-birth. We see the first appearance of the Mother of our Lord was in the Temple to present the Lord with a burnt-offering as well as a sin-offering; That, as a Sacrifice of Praise; This, as a Confession of her natural Impurity. Which Jewish custom, no doubt as it gave just ground, so good warrant for that Office our Church prescribes for the Churching of Women; and though there had been reason enough to justifie the Equity of her Commands in the very Nature of the thing its self, yet sure the Authority of the ancient Church of God is here of great force and a leading president: For although the Political and Ceremonial Laws of the Jews are in the Particulars abrogated, yet not in the General; it is indeed so in the Circumstance, but not in the Substance. The Moral of that Rite will still remain a debt, as long as such a Deliverance continues a Blessing; which none can deny it to be, but they perhaps who never were acquainted with the danger from which Women in that case are rescued; or think there is no [Page] such thing as Gratitude due for any deliverance, though to an Almighty Deliverer. Let the Example of the Blessed Virgin teach them to be more thankfull for Blessings; who was no sooner either able or allow'd to walk abroad, but she travels to Jerusalem; she goes not to her own House at Nazareth, but to God's House, there to offer up her Thanks and Praises. If Purifyng were a Shadow, yet Thanksgiving is a Substance. Those whom God hath blessed with fruit of Body and safety of Deliverance; if they make not their first Journey to the Temple of God, have little reason to expect a second Preservation, since they can as soon forget the first as they usually doe their Pains: such Women partake more of the Unthankfulness of Eve, than of Mary's Devotion.

But then as that Devotion appears in the early Tribute of her Thankfulness, so that Thankfulness by more than verbal Expressions. She would not appear before the Lord empty; and although her Appearance was in formâ pauperis, yet something she would bring to the Altar. We are all willing enough to serve God of that which costs us nothing: [Page] such cheap Votaries are as frequent now-a-days, as to pray for fashion, or fast for frugality. Here is a present mean indeed in its self, but sutable to the Offerer's ability, and far more acceptable to God than the Widows two Mites, Mark 12. Her Poverty could not furnish her with any other Present but two Doves; she was not rich enough to provide such a Lamb as the Law required, but she could bring that Lamb which that legal one did typifie, and without which that other would not purifie; a Lamb which gave Vertue and Merit to her Offering, as it did to all precedent Sacrifices of the Law; an Offering greater than the Temple its self, and which sanctify'd that and the Altar too, even the Lord of the Temple, whom she presents to the Lord; the next thing to be considered.

The Blessed Virgin had more businessPart II. The Presentation. in the Temple than her own; she came thither as to purifie her self, so to present her Son, having nothing so pretious as himself to make Oblation of to God. And this also the Law of Moses requir'd, Exod. 12. and 13. 2. And the reason of [Page] that Rite God himself is pleas'd to give, Numb. 8. 17. why the Israelites should consecrate their first-born to him, to mind them of their great Deliverance, when he smote the first-born in Egypt to be a Memorial or standing Record of God's particular favour and mercy to that People, in that their miraculous Preservation from the destroying Angel, and withall a Type of Christ the true Paschal Lamb, whose Bloud should save all Mankind from a worse Destroyer, and free us from the Bondage, not of Egypt, but of Hell. And indeed the Anti-type here does in all points answer its Type; for Christ was both the Lamb and the first-born too; the only Joh. 3. 16. begotten Son of God, as well as the first-born Son Matth. 1. 25. of the Blessed Virgin, who bare none before or after him, whatever Heliadians dreamt: And therefore St. Paul calls him the first-born among many Brethren, Rom. 8. 29. A style justly belonging to him, both upon the account of Grace, as by whom we are born a-new, and made 1 Pet. 1. 3. 1 Cor. 5. 17. new Creatures, Ephes. 5. 2. So of Power too, as being the first-fruits of them that sleep, 1 Cor. 15. 20. and the first-born of the dead, Coloss. 1. 18. Upon all which accounts [Page] he belong'd unto God, not only as the Son of God by eternal Generation before time, and by miraculous Conception in time, but also by the common course of nature. But though he might have pleaded an Exemption from that Law, whereof he was the Author; yet, as good Princes use to observe those Laws themselves make, he was most willingly subject to this Rite of Presentation upon the same grounds his Holy Mother was to that of her Purification, to teach us the same Lessons of a most exemplary Obedience, Humility and Charity; when we see that he who was free from the common condition of our Birth, would not yet, since the Mosaical Law requir'd it, deliver himself from those ordinary Rites, which imply'd the weakness and blemishes of Humanity. And indeed, as it became him to countenance his own Institution, so did our Necessities, and his own Justice, require his Obedience to it. 1. Our Necessity did so, that by submitting himself to this Mosaical Rite as to that of Circumcision; and so making himself a debtor to the Law, he might redeem us who were under Gal. 4. 5. the obligation and curse of it. 2dly, His [Page] Justice, to make that full satisfaction to that Law which we had broken, and himself had obliged himself for our sakes to fulfill. For although He was the Most Dan. 9. 24. Luk. 1. 35. Holy, and Act. 2. 14. the Just One; and as such, out of the reach of any Law, which, as St. Paul tells us, is not made for the righteous Man, and much less for him who1 Tim. 1. 9. was Righteousness its self; yet was He, in some sense, the greatest of Sinners, namely, by Imputation, being charg'd with the Sins of the whole World, and consequently obnoxious to the Law as our Surety and Undertaker. Thus was He presented this day in the Substance, or as St. Paul, Rom. 8. 3. phrases it, in the likeness of our sinfull flesh, and in the same sense must be said to have been purified too; and therefore whereas some Copies with our Translation reade in the beginning of this Text, [...] Her purification; others, as Erasmus, have it [...] and some [...] His or Their Purification, including the Child as well as the Mother, both appearing this day in the habit and guise of Sinners, though each of them spotless; She by Grace, and He by Nature too.

[Page]2. For these and the like Reasons would our Lord be this day presented, and the place wherein was the Temple at Jerusalem, which received a second and better Consecration by his Presence, than it had done by Solomon's Dedication. This was God's House, and whither should the Son of God, who had no other, be brought, but to his Father's House? There God had a long time dwelt, At Salem was his Tabernacle, and his dwelling at Sion, Psal. 76. 2. And in that place 'twas fit our Lord should first appear. And this his first Offering in the Temple, which some have styl'd his Morning Sacrifice, was but a Preface to that his Evening one, which was to be made on the Cross. In the former, he was redeemed; in the latter, he did redeem us; giving himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God of a sweet-smelling savour, Ephes. 5. And as the Jewish Holy Priest was in several respects a Type of Christ; so his entring into the Holy of Holies was but a Figure of thisHeb. 9. his Presentation in the Temple, as well as of his Sacrifice on the Cross. Nor was that his Presentation any thing else but his solemn Consecration to his [Page] Priestly Office; and no place sure so proper for that as the Temple. But besides, that the Law required he should be presented here as the first-born; an obligation common to him with others, who in that consideration were God's peculiar Portion, and consecrated to him as soon as born: He was himself the Lord of the Temple; and as such, was concern'd to make his first appearance there, upon these several accounts: 1. To give Authority to his own Ordinance, to set his Seal to what himself had commanded. The same God was the Author as of the Gospel, so of the Law, of the Jewish Synagogue, as well as the Christian Church. Moses was but the Overseer of the Work, God the Contriver of the Building and the Architect; and there was not one Pin in the whole Structure, either of the Tabernacle or Temple, which himself did not precisely order, even to the meanest Utensils thereof he appointed all; every Ordinance, every little Rite and Ceremony was from him: Moses did all according to the Pattern shown him in the Mount; a Servant he was, and as such, faithfull in the House of God; but Christ was [Page] the Lord of it, and therefore in honour oblig'd to maintain whatsoever his Servant Moses had done by his order and direction. 2. He appear'd in the Temple to visit and repair it. It was now grown ancient and much decay'd, quite fallen from its primitive beauty and luster; All the glory thereof was without, only in the external Pomp and Magnificence of its Structure; nothing within it but dust and filth: the abomination of hypocrisie, and profaneness of desolation; and the worst thing there was the Priest himself: All was now very much out of order: God had long and often complain'd by his Prophets of the Profanation of his Sanctuary; and our Lord was constrain'd at last to cleanse it Himself, by whipping the buyers and sellers Matt. 21. 13. therein, who had made his House a House of Merchandize, and a Den of Thieves; wherein he express'd an extraordinary zeal, transporting him beyond the bounds of his natural meekness: Nor doe we find that ever he discovered so much holy Passion as in this instance: Thus, as himself tells us, for Judgment came he into the World; and this Judgment was to begin at the House of God; [Page] and as he came with his Fan in his hand to purge this his Floor, so the Prophet Malachi makes this the great reason of his coming to the Temple, Chap. 3. v. 3. That he might sit there as a refiner and purifier of Silver, to purifie the Sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they might offer unto the Lord an offering of Righteousness. Thirdly, He came to the Temple to put an end to it, i. e. to the Mosaical Oeconomy, whose very designment was at first but Temporary:Heb. 9. 10. Col. 2. 17. For the Temple, as the Tabernacle, was never intended for God's fixt and setledPsal. 40. 6. Habitation; and though the former was the more lasting of the two, yet neither of them was to be Eternal. The Prophet Daniel (as other Prophets before him) had expresly fore-told, that when the Messias came, he should cause the Sacrifice Dan. 9. 27. and the Oblation to cease; break down all Jewish Altars, and make the whole World his Temple: God had indeed long dwelt in the Temple at Jerusalem in his Spiritual and Typical Presence. There was nothing either plac'd or done within those Walls whereby he was not resembled; but now the body of those Shadows is come, and presents [Page] himself where he had ever been represented; and when that which was perfect was come, 'twas fit that which was imperfect should be done away: That Moses should veil to Christ; the Servant give up the keys of the House to his Lord, who was to erect his Church on the ruines of the Temple; chuse and order to himself a new Family, and govern it by better and more spiritual Laws. The true and full meaning of that of St. Paul, Rom. 10. 4. Christ is the end, i. e. the perfection of the Law; which he came not to destroy, but to fulfill; No more than the Temple, but in order to the erecting of a more glorious Fabrick; and when he pull'd down that once stately Building, he did it not in an instant, but by degrees; rent not the Veil thereof till at his Death, nor quite demolished it till a good while after; such respect had he for that place which himself had chosen, and so long honoured with his Presence, that he would not have it fall, but with a State answerable to its first rising; and when the legal Rites and Ordinances were dead, provided them a pompous Funeral and a solemn Interment.

[Page]4. To this I may add a fourth Reason, which is this; That he might at once represent and consecrate us all to God as the first-fruits of the whole lump: For as he was our Head, so did he appear as the Representative of all Mankind; the second Adam was as publick a Person as the first; and whatever Mischiefs were deriv'd from him to us in that common capacity, as great Advantages flow'd to us from Christ as an universal restorer: If we run away from God in Adam, and his shame has ever since made us hide our heads; Our Lord, by wiping off that disgrace, and regaining our lost innocence and honour, has, by his appearing in the sight of God for us, given us boldness now to come into and stand in his Presence.

These were the reasons of Christ's Presentation in the Temple; and surely it was never more glorious than when the Owner thereof was within the Walls of it: For now was the hour and guestEzek. 36. come, in regard whereof the second Temple should surpass the first. Now that Prophecy of Haggai received itsch. 2. 9. full accomplishment, when our Lord first appear'd in it. For that it could [Page] not be otherwise understood, 'tis evident; because if we consider the Wealth, the Majesty, the external Pomp and Structure of the first Temple, the second was not in these respects any wise comparable to it. But 'twas the Presence of Christ in the flesh that made the latter so far out-shine the former; the Prophet so interpreting himself, v. 7. The desire of Nations shall come, and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of Hosts: and then it follows, ver. 9. The glory of this latter house shall be greater than that of the former. So that that prediction could not be applicable to any other glory but that wherewith our Lord fill'd the Temple this day; and the rather, for that this Prophecy was not made till after the destruction of Solomon's Temple: an Argument sufficient to silence the most contradicting Jew, and force him to acknowledge whether he he will or no, that this Prophecy was never fulfilled till Christ was presented in the Temple. But our Lord, who foresaw that that gain-saying People would not be satisfied; for their farther Conviction, provided two such Witnesses as were beyond all exception, and such as might [Page] bear down all opposition to the truth of this prediction; Simeon and Anna, both of a reverend Age, and disciples of Moses; of a holy and unblameable Life, that waited for the consolation of Israel, and were led by the Spirit into the Temple on purpose to meet the Lord of the Temple, whom at this time they there expected and found. In all which respects, these two persons were most proper credible Witnesses of this truth, though there was something more to recommend Simeon's testimony, if the conjecture of many learned Men may here be of any force and credit, who make him the Son of Rabbi Hillel, the Master of Gamalael, St. Pauls Instructer in the Law, and withall a Priest, as in all probability he was, and 'tis not obscurely intimated by some Priestly Offices done by him in the Temple; as the taking of Christ in his Armes, and the blessing of the People in the behalf of God, acts peculiar to the Priest. And thus much may serve concerning the place, where our Saviour was presented; it remains now that I speak something of the Persons that presented him, the third and last Thing.

[Page]3. They brought him to Jerusalem; They, i. e. his Parents. The Law required this too; and they were as willing to perform this good Office, as the Law to exact it. That which God gives us, we should return to him, our Children especially. Children, and the fruit of the Womb, are an heritage and gift that cometh of the Lord, says the Psalmist, Psal. 127. 4. and we are to present them to him whose portion they are, and from whom we received them. And as they are not so much ours that beget, as his that bestows them; so should it be our endeavour to make them more his; than our own. Nor is it enough that we suffer our little ones to come to God, but we must bring them, when of themselves they cannot come, and as soon as we receive them. The care of Parents ought to supply the natural defects of their Children, by a timely Consecration of them to him, not only in their Baptism, (which yet some scarce baptized persons will not allow, though Christ's Circumcision, which was in effect our Baptism and his early Presentation in the Temple, directly confute their Opinion and Practice,) but in their [Page] future Education too, by bringing them up in the nurture and admonition of the Ephes. 6. 4. Lord, and teaching them to bear his yoke Lam. 3. 27. in their youth; which is Solomon's counsel too, Prov. 22. 6. Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will never depart from it. Those characters of Piety, which are imprinted in these smooth unfullied Tables, will not easily be raz'd out: They will be both fairer and more lasting; and these unstain'd Vessels will constantly retain a smack and tincture of that devotion which first seasons them. 'Twas St. Jerom's delightEpist. ad Eustoch. to hear Children balbutire Christum, smatter of Christ before they could well speak of him: and Basil bragg'd of Macrina his Nurse, a disciple of Gregorius Epist. ad Neocaes. Neocaesariensis, who by often repeating to him what she had learnt from her Master, made him suck Vertue from her with her Milk. They who first give up their Children to the World, and then to God, are as bad as those Israelites who ▪devoted them to Moloch. This Law, we see, requir'd the first-fruits of Persons as well as of Things; then surely there is reason we should give him the Flower of our. Childrens age, not [Page] the Bran. Such Morality we may learn from this Constitution of God, that the best of all kinds is fittest to be Consecrated to the Lord of all; and that every thing we have is too good for us, if we think any thing we have too good for him. Happy are those Children who derive a spiritual as well as a natural Life from their Parents; and as happy those Parents who beget them more to God than to themselves, and, with those of Christ, bring them to the Temple before they can walk to it; God will make those obedient to such Parents, who have been so carefull to make them so soon subject to himself; bless them mutually for each others sake, both here and hereafter.

But while I speak of the Mystery, let me not forget to mind you of the Duty it exacts from us. Every Circumstance here is Symbolical. If the Blessed Mother presented the Child to God, then must we present him too as our Saviour and Mediator, and with him our selves, to be a living Sacrifice, holy Rom. 12. 1. and acceptable to him. For unless we first present him, 'tis to no purpose to present our selves to God. If he go [Page] not first to the Temple, we had as good stay at home. God seems to speak to us here, as the Prophet did of Jehoshaphat to the King of Israel, 2 Kings 3. 24. Surely were it not that I regard the presence of Jehoshaphat, King of Judah, I would not look toward thee, nor see thee. If it were not for Christ, God would not regard either our Persons or our Gifts: All our Offerings and Devotions then must be united to this Holy Present, that by the Merit and Excellency of this Oblation we may exhibit to God an Offertory, in which he cannot but delight for the Combinations sake and Society of that his Holy Son, in whom alone Mat. 3. 17. he is well pleased. Appear ▪then we must before him in this our Elder Brothers habit, or we shall never steal away our Heavenly Father's blessing: For all we have is by and through him, and 'tis with him God gives us all things. Our Birth-right descends to us from this first-born of all the Creatures; All the Privileges of it; Our Kingdom and our Priesthood are derived from him, who Rev. 1. 6. 2 Pet. 2. 9. alone makes us Kings and Priests unto God. But then, 2dly, if we doe not present our selves and all our Offerings [Page] with Christ in that manner whereby himself was presented, we shall gain little by his own Presentation this day. And here three things offer themselves to our direction, how we may present our selves to God, and all we have, so as that our Presents may be acceptable to him.

This they will be, 1. If they be pure. 2. If early and of the best. 3. If offered up in the Temple: All coucht in the Mystery of this day.

First, Our Presents must be pure, and to this end we must purifie our selves before we presume to address our selves to God in his Holy Temple: For if our Persons be not pure, our Offerings will never be so; since God looks not to the Hand, but the Heart of the offerer. And as his Eye is upon the Righteous, and his Ear open to Their prayer; so the best Sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to him. Cain's Present, no doubt, was as rich as Abel's, but not so acceptable for the Donor's sake. Come we then into the Temple of God, but not till our selves be also his Temples; and those Temples so well swept and garnisht, that they may be a [Page] fit habitation for his Spirit. I will wash Eccles. 5. 1. mine hands in innocency, aad so will I go to thine Altar, says David, Psal. 26. 6. There is none of us that can pretend to be as pure as the Mother, much less as the Son of God; yet each of them would be legally cleansed before they would appear in the Temple. Nor was our blessed Lord brought thither till he had been circumcised, to teach us, that the spiritual Circumcision of our hearts is a most necessary qualification to make us fit presents for God: And as his Example preaches Purity▪ so doe his and the Blessed Virgin's Offerings here proclaim the Necessity of it; a Lamb and a pair of Turtle-Doves being the proper▪ Emblems of Cleanness.

Secondly, As our Presents must be pure and spotless, so early ones. And this not only the legal Offerings, a Lamb of a year old and two young Pigeons, did imply; but our Saviour's Example declares, who was no sooner born, but presented to God. Our young Services are most gratefull to the Almighty: His Soul delights in the first ripe fruits, Micah 7. 1. in the first-fruits of our Age, not the remains of our Harvest, Cain's [Page] Sacrifice. He cares not for such Trees as St. Jude speaks of, whose fruit withereth, and which bud not till the Autumn, verse 13. He who, Jer. 1. 11. made choice of the Almond-tree, because it blossom'd first. 'Tis true indeed that a late Sacrifice is not always refus'd, but an early one sure is most pleasing to him; and though the last Comers into the Vineyard had their penny, yet doubtless the first were the most welcome; and therefore Christ is said to have loved that young Man in the Gospel, who had kept all God's Commandments Mat. 19. 20 Psal. 71. 15. from his youth up: Besides, a late conversion is seldom true; for setting aside Abraham in the Old Testament, and Nicodemus in the New, we have not many instances of Men converted in their Old Age. And surely when we see how soon the Child Jesus was brought to the Temple, we ought not to think it reasonable for us to stay so long from it, till we must be fain to be carried thither like so many Carkasses to our Graves. This is not that fat of the Sacrifice God requires of us; The blind,Numb. 18. 12. the lame and the decrepid are not fit Presents for him.

[Page] Thirdly and Lastly, Our Presents will then be most acceptable when they are offered up in the Temple. As Christ's first publick appearance was there, so was his last too, a little before his Passion. Nor was it only in compliance to the Law that he first visited this place, but withall, to let us know where we are likeliest to find him. The Temple at Jerusalem was then God's only House,Deut. 12. 5, 6, 7. Dan. 6. 10. Psal. 138. 2. 68. 29. out of which no Sacrifice was acceptable, and towards which Holy Persons address'd themselves; where-ever they were, their Faces and their Hearts too were still towards this place. But our Devotion is not so limited, Jerusalem is now every-where, and every Christian Church as sacred as ever the Jewish Temple was, where, with Holy Simeon, we may meet our Lord and embrace him; admit him into our Heart, as he took him up in his Arms. In this place does God more particularly exhibit Himself, and Blessing to be sure will go along with him where-ever he goes. In such Holy places as this, as he has put his most Holy Name, so does he usually manifest his choicest Mysteries to us; and there is no doubt but he will doe so, [Page] provided we come thither, not with designs of Vanity and Curiosity, Sensuality and Prophaneness, but as Simeon and Anna did by the impulse and motion of his blessed Spirit. Thus then let us come to the Temple, and, with Holy David, wait for his loving-kindness in the Psal. 48. 9. midst of it; not forsaking the assembling of our selves together in this House of God, if we expect that Christ should make one of our number. If we fly from his Presence here, we shall withall run away from his Blessing. St. Thomas we know was not with the other Apostles,Joh. 20. 24. when Christ first appeard to them; and to that his Absence, some have imputed his Incredulity. If Peter be out of the Ship, he may sink; and if Shimei out of Jerusalem, he may dye for it. The Church is our best Sanctuary and securest place of Refuge. In this Ark we shall be safe. Here let Christ find us, and we shall find him, especially if he finds us in such a way and equipage as he expects to find us in; with that Evangelical Purity, Obedience, Humility, Devotion and Gratitude he challenges from us; He will then, no doubt, present us to his Father with himself; [Page] give Merit and Value to our Persons and Offerings by vertue of his this day's Presentation: Our Eyes shall then see his Salvation, and we at last, with Holy Simeon, depart in peace to meet him in the Heavenly Jerusalem, that Holy of Holies, whereinto this our High Priest is now entred, and where he ever liveth to present himself and his Merits, and make continual intercession to God for us, even the Church of the first-born which is written in Heaven, whither he bring us who is our Fore-runner andHeb. 6. 20. Harbinger to provide us Eternal Mansions there, through Jesus Christ, &c.

A SERMON Preached on Good-Friday.

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JOHN XIX. 37.‘And again another Scripture saith, They shall look on him whom they have pierced.’

THE Text points directly to Christ's Passion; The piercing therein mentioned clearly shows it; which being the last Act, takes in the whole Series of that Tragedy. Our Evangelist, in the Verse before, observes two things: 1. That the Souldiers brake [Page] the leggs of two Malefactors, but not of Christ. 2. That one of them with a Spear pierced his side, and thereout came water and bloud. Both which were literally fulfilled, according to the Scriptures, at our Lord's Crucifixion. But besides the literal, there is a spiritual Sense, which was also to be fulfilled, not only at the Conversion of some of Christ's Crucifiers, but of every Penitent Sinner, who should pierce Him with his Sins, as the Souldier did with the Spear; and should therefore be concern'd so to look upon him, as to be Himself too pierced with that sight. So that although the Prophecy here may seem, at first blush, to be confined to the Jews, it must be extended to all Christ's Piercers, whether Jews or Gentiles; To those, as to the Instruments; and to these, as the Occasion of Christ's Death and Passion: And accordingly, I shall, in the handling of the Words, have an eye all along to both; And therein observe unto you these four Particulars.

1. The Spectacle it self, or Object here presented to our view, couch'd in the Pronoun Him, i. e. Christ.

[Page]2. The Qualification of that Object, imply'd in the word Pierced; Christ, not as glorified, but as crucified; Not in his state of Exaltation, but Exinanition; Not as he is now sitting on his Throne, but as he was in the days of his Flesh, in a mortal condition, hanging on the Cross; a spectacle of infirmity to Men and Angels.

3. The Act it self here required; and that is Looking on.

4. And lastly, The Spectators, who are called to this sight, viz. As many as either did or should pierce Him, whether in a literal, or in a spiritual and mystical Sense, which will bring us All within the compass and into the number of his Piercers, as those who, upon a strict inquiry, will be found equally guilty of spilling the bloud of the Son of God, and to have pierced Him as much, perhaps, some of us more, than the very Jews themselves did, who were the immediate Actors in this Tragedy.

1. The first thing that offers it self here to our consideration is the spectacle or object of our sight, which in its natural order claims the precedency: For [Page] something must be lookt on, else our looking will be to no purpose. And that which is here proposed to us is worth our beholding, The Son of God, or rather more properly the Son of Man, who alone was liable to Vulneration, and could be pierced. That it is He, whom the Prophet Zachary, chap. 12. 10. from whom the words of the Text are borrowed, points to, our Evangelist's application here renders unquestionable; besides, that the Prophet David had long before applied them to Christ, Psal. 22. 17. They pierced my hands and my feet, clearly fore-signifying our Lord's Crucifixion. Which two plain Predictions of David and Zachary, because they pinch the Jews, they have therefore used more than ordinary industry and artifice to elude them; and their main shift is, to appropriate this latter Prophecy to King Josiah, but without the least shew and colour of truth. For although the piercing might collaterally and allusively suit with the manner of his Death, who is said to have been shot to death with an arrow in the fields; yet principally and directly it aims at Christ, who was God as well as Man, (which could not be [Page] affirmed of Josiah;) for such the Prophet Zachary says He was, making Him the same with Him who immediately before promiseth to pour upon Man the Spirit of Grace and Supplication, which can agree to none but God Himself. And so our Evangelist, Revel. 1. 7. plainly tells us, That the Person here pierced is such a one, as shall hereafter come in the Clouds; Nay, Christ himself says so too, that He shall one day come with power and great glory; and that All the Tribes of the Earth shall mourn when they shall then behold him; Matth. 24. 30. which is in effect what Zachary had foretold and St. John repeats.

2. Him then we are to look on, but how? not now as coming in the Clouds; That sight is reserved for another time, that of his second coming to judge the World; We are here directed to view him in another gate and posture, as one that was Himself judged and condemned by the World: For although to view him sometimes in the former manner may be very usefull, yet is it not so pertinent to our present occasion. The Text presents Him to us as pierced, in [Page] a suffering, not in a triumphant condition; nay, suffering all the outrages and indignities which the witty rage and malice of Men could expose him to. A prospect, I confess, very unpleasing to a Jew, nor indeed very gratefull to most Christians. No marvel if the Jew turns away his Eyes from such a sight as must needs upbraid him with his guilt. This were to bring his bloud upon him. And what Murtherer can take delight in viewing the Carkass of that person he has murthered? May he not justly fear that his Wounds should bleed afresh in his sight? Christ crucified is to the Jews a stumbling-block, says St. Paul, 1 Cor. 1. 23. and I wish he were not to the Greeks, i. e. to all Heathenish unconverted Christians, foolishness too. To the greatest part of them it is and ever was indeed a spectacle of horrour, but not to all of them. For we see the Text speaks of some, that should look on Him whom they had pierced; And some of them we find, Acts 2. did look upon Him with weeping Eyes and bleeding Hearts; with more joy, comfort and satisfaction than ever they had before lookt upon him with anger, rage and despight. And when that [Page] whole Nation shall see their error, when God shall remove that thick veil that is yet over their eyes, how clearly shall they then behold and cordially embrace Him as their only Saviour and Redeemer, whom once they rejected and crucified as the vilest of Malefactors? But to us, who own him, or at least pretend to own him as such, what sight can be more glorious, what more comfortable than of a crucified Saviour? And yet, alas! how few of us can endure such a sight? How soon are we cloy'd with it? How ready to say with St. Peter, when the least mention is made of his Sufferings, This be far from thee, O Lord. We distast what Christ embraced, and cannot endure so much as to think of what he refused not to undergo. How would his Miracles attract our Eyes, were they wrought before us! How should we be ravished at a second Transfiguration, and say with the Apostles who beheld it, It is good for us to be here! Should Christ ascend up again into Heaven in our sight, as he did in that of his disciples and followers;Act. 1. 11. should we not need an Angel, as they did, to check us for our too much gazing? And yet let me tell you, [Page] that such a prospect as that would not be more glorious than of a Christ nailed to his Cross, nor yet perhaps so usefull. It would rather raise our curiosity, than inflame our affections; rather amaze and astonish, than benefit us. The Text therefore gives us a more advantageous one of Him; It bids us look on him as pierced, and pierced even for us, who pierced him; It bids us view this Sun of Righteousness, more glorious in himself, more benign to us, in his Setting, than in his Rising; More beautifull in his Eclipse, than in his full Lustre; ToHeb. 12. 2, 3. look unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our Faith; who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, and despised the shame; and to consider him who endured such contradiction of sinners against himself. This was the aim of all St. Paul's preaching, We preach Christ crucified, 1 Cor. 1. 23. This, the top of his Knowledge; I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ and him crucified, 1 Cor. 2. 2. This, his only Glory; God forbid that I should glory, save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, Gal. 6. 14. And here to our joy and comfort may we view him, [Page] Redeeming us from the curse of the Law, Gal. 3. 10. Abolishing in his flesh the Enmity, the Law of Commandments, Ephes. 2. 14, 15. Blotting out the hand-writing of Ordinances that was against us, and nailing it to his Cross, Col. 2. 14. Reconciling the World to Himself, making our peace, expiating our offences, satisfying the Justice of an offended God, repairing our loss, and restoring us to a better condition than we had forfeited by our Transgression; In a word, vanquishing Hell, and opening Heaven for us. And ought not this to be matter of glorying to us? Can any sight be more worthy our beholding? Any object more deserve to be lookt on than such a one as this? At this time especially, when the Church solemnly invites us to this Spectacle? When, as St. Paul speaks Gal. 3. 1. Jesus Christ is evidently set forth crucified among us? This the Text prophetically tells us, Christ's crucifiers should doe; and indeed All that expect to have their part in the Merit of his Death and Passion must doe, that is, by a serious and oftenrepeated Meditation have Christ crucified always before their eyes. For we [Page] are not to look upon the words of my Text only as a Prophecy, but as a necessary Duty, obliging us to fix our eyes constantly on this object, Christ pierced for us; and that we may the better doe it, let us take a more particular and exact view of Him, and consider Him as pierced both in his Body and in his Soul; In every Member of That, in every Faculty of This, the better to estimate his Sufferings and raise our Devotion and Admiration.

Consider we then Christ as pierced, 1. In his Body; Let us behold the Man, as Pilate exposed him to the eyes of the Jews, all in Bloud, all as it were one Wound, pierced in every part of his Body. His Head torn with thorns; his Face bruised with buffetings; his Shoulders crusht with the weight of that Cross which he first bare, before it bare Him; His Back plowed up with Whips, his Feet and Hands bored with Nails, and his very Heart pierced with the point of the Spear. I am not able to paint out those dire Sufferings Christ endured in his Body, but must draw a Veil over them and leave them to your own Meditations. [Page] And yet this is but the least part of what our Lord suffered for us, that which our bodily eye can discern; All this is but the outward piercing, and but, as it were, skin-deep, in comparison of the piercing of his

2. Soul. For what is the pain of the Body to that of the Soul? And this had its piercing too. What Simeon said of the Mother by way of Prophecy, That a Sword should go through her Soul, Luke 2. 35. was more signally verified of the Son of God. The Arrows of the Almighty did not only stick in his Flesh, but pierced his very Soul through. That Bloud, which streamed from him in his Agony, was not so much the Bloud of his Body as of his very Soul. And 'twas this piercing which drew that sad and lamentable complaint from Him, Matth. 26. 38. My Soul is exceeding sorrowfull, even unto death. Surely it was the apprehension of somewhat more horrible than either Pain or Death that made him so heavy and sorrowfull of Soul. Evils are wont to crucifie the Mind in the expectation, rather than in the suffering. It is a double misery both to fear and undergo it. God hath mercifully provided [Page] this ease for our Souls in the often ignorance of things that happen, that they streighten not our Thoughts ere they load our Backs. Who of us embraceth not Pain before Perplexity? How often doe we groan and cry for a ready dispatch in our lingerings? Defiring rather to dye, than to feel or fear death and live? Yet was our Saviour both terrified and crucified; Terrified in the apprehension of Wrath, and in the perpession of Death, crucified; Not only the sorrows of Death, but the very pains of Hell came about him; and God's dereliction was that which made up the greatest part of those pains, Mat. 27. 46. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? was That which most tortured Him. Christ's Enemies had now mocked, scourged, pierced Him, so that from head to foot every Member was deformed and dislocated, yet He opened not his mouth. He is silent and patient at all the violence Man offered him; He only complains of the absence of his God; He bewails not what He feels, but what He misses; and could have endured any misery, that could not abide to want hisV. Ga. pas p. 309. God. And what a loss, think we, was [Page] this to want the presence and favour of God, though but for a moment? which where it is perpetual does, in the judgment of Divines, make up the greatest part of Hell? But, you will say, How could God forsake Christ, unless Christ forsook Himself? Certainly God and Man were so unchangeably, so inseperably combined in Him, that so strict an Union could not possibly suffer the least Divulsion or Desertion. True indeed; And therefore the Godhead, at this time, denied the Manhood, not his Person, but his Patronage; not his Presence, but his Protection. Divinity here winks and withdraws it self from Humanity, that our Lord might now be bereft of all comfort and favour, who took upon Him to sustain the wrath of all. Well then might his Soul be heavy unto death, which had such a load as the sins of Mankind and God's wrath, due to those sins, hanging upon it. These were the Arrows of the Almighty that went through his Soul; This, The poyson thereof that drank up his Spirit; These, The Terrors of God that did set themselves in Array against Him, to useJob 6. 4. Job's expression. The spirit of a Man [Page] may well bear his infirmities; but a wounded spirit, a spirit so wounded as his was, by the hand and stroke of an omnipotent God, who could bear but He that was God's equal; and yet even He complains, who yet did bear it. How easily could He have vanquished the malice of Hell, who stoops at the power and anger of God? If any thing could add to this affliction, to this piercing of his Soul, on Man's part, it must have been those bitter taunts, those cutting reproaches he suffered from the ungratefull Jews, or rather those despights He foresaw Sinners should doe Him, who should make a mock of Him, and of those Sins which pierced Him; or, at least, so slender a reckoning of all his piercings, as to have no sense at all of them, and, as if they were a matter not worth looking on, should never bestow so much as one Thought upon them; nay, by their constant sinning, and that without any remorse, should crucifie afresh the Son of Heb. 6. 6. God, and put him to an open shame; treading 10. 29. him under foot, and counting the bloud of the Covenant, whereby they were sanctified, an unholy thing. All this, and more than our faint apprehensions can reach [Page] to, our Lord had in his prospect, and which pierced his very Heart by that foresight He had of it; and so brings us Christians within the compass of those that pierced Him.

Indeed the Text literally points to the Jews and their Assistants, the Roman Souldiers, as the Authors of Christ's crucifixion, and the immediate Executioners thereof. And it cannot be denied but that All of them had a hand or head in this Act. They brought him to, they stretcht Him on his Cross; They pierced his hands and his feet; they stood staring and looking upon Him, says the Psalmist, Psal. 22. 17. All of them, in their several degrees, were guilty of the Fact; some, as procuring his Death, as the whole Nation of the Jews; some, as commanding the Execution, as Pilate; others, as doing it, as the Gentile Souldiers: And we are ready, and not without good cause too, to condemn their cruelty. But this is only to mind the Evil they did, not what Evil Christ suffered: This is to be angry with them, but not to justifie our selves, who pierced him as well as they, and some of us more deeply than many of them did. [Page] Let us not mistake our selves. It was their Sin that did practise, but it was ours that procured our Lord's Death. We would fain shift our Sin on the Jews and Heathens, who were but the Instrumental causes here, whereas we are the Principals. 'Tis not the Executioner that properly kills the Man, nor yet the Judge; Solum peccatum homicida est; Sin only is the Murtherer, and every Sinner the Executioner of a Saviour. All Men are the Meritorious causes, for whose Transgressions He was pierced. The Lord hath laid on Him the Iniquity of us All, says the Prophet, Esay 53. 6. It was the Hypocrisie of our Hearts that mocked Him; It was the Bribery of our Hands that buffeted Him; The Oaths of our Mouths that spat in his Face; We betrayed Him with our wanton kisses; We whipt Him with the cords of our Oppression; We gave Him Gall and Vinegar to drink by our luxurious Intemperance; Our Pride in vain Apparel and Ornaments platted a Crown of Thorns upon his head, and stript him of his garments; In a word, our mighty Sins were the Nails which pierced his hands and his feet, and the Spear that was thrust into his side. [Page] The glory of the Lord was brought to shame for our shamefull lives; The Lord of life was put to death for our deadly sins, and the word became speechless for our crying Ones. So that I may justly bring this home to every Man in this Congregation, with the Prophet Nathan's, Tu es homo, 2 Sam. 12. 5, 7. Thou art the Man that piercedst Christ; and every one of us, were that question put to us seriously, which was once to him scoffingly; Matth. 26. 8. Prophecy who smote thee, may, without the gift of Prophesying, return the answer, It is We that smote Him.

We have now found out the Piercers here; And who but They ought to be the Spectators of that Tragedy which themselves have occasioned. Indeed all Mankind are the They in the Text, that have pierced, and therefore must look upon him. But what is it to look upon him? Is it only to gaze upon a Crucifix with the superstitious Papist, and have our Minds look one way, while our Eyes look another? Is it to look upon Him with dry Eyes and unrelenting Hearts? Or only to look, and no more? To afford him a passing glance of our Eye, and then fix it perhaps on some [Page] vain and sinfull Object? Surely the looking here implies more than so; it requires the Exercise of all our Senses and Faculties, in the judgment of the Hebrew Doctors, as Grotius on this place observes, out of Exod. 20. 18. and Jer. 2. 31. It requires our Memory to recall, our Understanding often to reflect and ruminate on Christ's Passion, and engages all our Affections about it. It exacts our most serious Attention, and our often-repeated Meditations. We must so look upon, as to look into Christ pierced for us; so look on, as never to look off Him; That by frequent viewing the dimensions of his Cross, we may be Eph. 3. 18. able to comprehend, what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height thereof, and to know the love of Christ, there dying for us, which passeth knowledge. St. Peter speaking of the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow, 1 Pet. 1. 12. tells us, ver. 13. that the Angels desire to look, or as the word [...] there imports, curiously to pry into them; and the more we doe so, the greater benefit shall we reap by it. For at every our looking here, some new sight will offer it self to us, to raise our admiration and exercise our affections: [Page] It will make us love Him who was pierced for us; and it will pierce us through with sorrow for having pierced Him: It will move our Pity, raise our Faith, and exalt our Hopes to their highest pitch. That we may then look upon Christ pierced to our benefit and comfort, let us doe it these five ways: With an eye of Pity and Compassion, of Sorrow and Regret, of Love, Faith and Joy.

1. With an eye of Pity and Compassion. And this is no more than what we commonly doe to all afflicted persons. The misery of Sufferers, be they who they will, naturally attracts our Eyes, and turns our Bowels towards them. At least we are apt to pity, if not so charitable as to relieve them. The poor wounded Man in the Gospel, who fell among Thieves, though he found no help from the Priest and Levite that passed by, but only from the good Samaritan, yet even they went near and lookt upon him, Luke 10. 32. We need no other Motive to pity any Lazar that lyes in the streets, than his wounds and sores exposed to our view. These sensible Arguments usually work upon and soften the hardest Hearts. Nay, the vilest Malefactors, when led to the Scaffold [Page] or the Gallows, draw Tears from our Eyes, though we know they suffer but what they deserve. Common humanity inclines us to compassionate them; and we consider not then so much who they are, as what they are to endure. Thus Pilate, to move the Jews pity, thought it enough to expose Christ to them all bruised and besmeared with Bloud; as conceiving that such a fight would stifle their Malice and raise their Compassion towards him. This, in his opinion, was enough to make a Jew relent. And can we consider our blessed Lord, all bruised as he was for us, and not so much as pity him? There are three things which usually dispose us to pity suffering persons; The greatness of their Misery, and the dignity and innocence of their Persons. Extraordinary Misery calls for extraordinary Pity towards any; but who can behold an innocent, and withall a great Person in distress, and yet be insensible of it, especially when himself is the cause of it? Even Herod and Pilate, and one of the Thieves too, proclaim'd our Lord's innocence; they took him for an innocent Man; and we who know him to be no [Page] less than the Son of God, who took upon him the form of a servant, and yet humbled Luk. 23. 14, 15. himself even to the death of the Cross, and that meerly for our sakes; ought to melt into Compassion as oft as we reflect on his direfull Sufferings, and, with St. Paul, be crucified with him, at least by a most sensible fellow-feeling of what he endured by our procurement, that he may not complain of us as he does of those hard-hearted Passengers, Lament. 1. 12. Have ye no regard all ye that pass by the way? Nay, since there never was any sorrow like his sorrow, nor any Person like Him that endured it; our Compassion ought in some measure to bear proportion to that his Sorrow, especially since we our selves were the Authors of it. And so,

2. Ought our Sorrow also to be answerable to his; They shall look on him whom they have pierced; so look on Him, as to be themselves pierced too with sorrow and grief for having pierced Him. This, in the Original Text, Zach. 12. 10. was a Prophecy of what Christ's crucifiers should doe: and in the following verse it is said, In that day there shall be a mourning in Jerusalem; which some [Page] construe of the day of God's vengeance upon the Jews for their Sins, especially for that of piercing Christ, by reason of the Calamities it should bring upon them. This is Theodoret and St. Hierom's Interpretation on this place, followed by our Dr. Hammond on Revel. 1. 7. That when the Jews should see Christ coming with Majesty to execute Vengeance upon his Crucifiers, in the day of his visiting Jerusalem, they should then, though too late, bemoan their own folly and madness. Which Prophecy so taken, is the same with that of our Saviour, Matth. 24. 34. Then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in the Heavens, and all the Tribes of the Earth shall mourn: and with that of St. John, Revel. 1. 7. Behold, he cometh with Clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also that pierced him: and all kindreds of the Earth shall wail because of him. Which last prediction began to be accomplished in that day, when Christ came in power to execute Vengeance on Jerusalem by the Roman Army; at which time, no doubt, they experienced that fatal ruine which they had imprecated upon themselves, His bloud be upon us and upon [Page] our Children, Matth. 27. 25. Though the final accomplishment shall not be till the last and great Day of Judgment, when He shall come in Person to inflict that heavy Doom of Condemnation, not only upon those who actually crucified, but upon All that reject Him: At which time it is impossible to imagine, what weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth; what howling and wringing of hands, what despair, horrour, and astonishment, what a bitter mourning and lamentation there shall be.

I could wish this were seriously, speedily and sadly thought on by all sorts of impenitent Sinners, that as they have their day of sinning, God will, sooner or later, have his day of punishing: And as the day of a Sinner's Impenitency is a day of carnal rejoycing; so the day of God's vengeance shall be a day of bitter mourning. Wo unto you, saith our blessed Saviour, who now laugh, for you shall mourn and weep, Luke 6. 25.

But although this be an usefull Meditation, I conceive that other interpretation to be more genuine and pertinent here, which construes this Mourning mentioned in the parallel Text of Zachary, [Page] not to be penal, but penitential. Indeed some Expositors glance at the Mourning Luk. 23. 27, 48. of the Women, which was in the day of our Saviour's Passion, when beholding his sorrows, their Bowels yearned, and their Eyes melted with Tears; At which time also others of the Spectators smote their Breasts, and were astonished. But this Mourning here relates not so much to the Spectators, as to the Actors in the Tragedy; to those not who saw, but who pierced him. And since in the fore-cited place of Zach. 12. 10. it is set down as an effect of the Spirit of Grace and Supplication, or, as some reade it, Lamentation, which was to be poured out upon them; and is mentioned there rather as a Promise, than as a Threat: It cannot rationally be expounded any otherwise, than to intend that godly sorrow, which shall in that day, in the day of the Jews conversion, be expressed by them for so heinous a crime. And doe we not find this Prophecy in part accomplished in St. Peter's Auditors, when they felt the very Nails and Lance wherewith they had pierced Christ, sticking fast in their own hearts, and piercing them with horrour? For so we reade, [Page] Acts 2. 37. that at his Sermon, they were pricked at their hearts, and said unto Peter and unto the rest of the Apostles, Men and Brethren, what shall we doe? The Spirit of Grace was then poured upon them, and so at once their Ears, Eyes and Hearts were opened to hear reproof, to see and bewail their wickedness: Nor was it a slight and superficial Sorrow, but a great and deep Mourning; so deep, that it went to their heart; and so great, that, according to the Emphasis of the Greek word, [...] there used, it was as if the sharpest points of many poysoned Daggers and Scorpion's stings had been all at once fastned in their hearts. Thus they who had shed the bloud of Christ by the instigation of the Devil, shed tears by the effusion of the Holy Ghost; and as they had cruelly wounded him to the death, they were penitently, and mercifully by his Word and Spirit themselves wounded with Repentance unto life. Which piercing, as it was in part accomplished in those few Converts fore-mentioned; so shall it have its fuller and more perfect fulfilling on the whole Nation of the Jews, when they shall see their error and be all turned [Page] unto Christ, as St. Paul tells us, Rom. 11. 11, 32. I heartily wish it may, as no doubt it was intended, be fulfilled in us too, and that my Sermon may have the same effect on you that it had on Peter's Auditors, That looking on Him whom we also have pierced, we may, with them, be pierced at the heart too. We find that at our Lord's crucifixion all Nature mourned, all the Creation groaned, Rom. 8. 22. The Sun put on blacks, the Earth trembled, the Rocks cleft asunder, and it were strange if we, of all God's creatures, should remain insensible, and express no sorrow when we behold the Lord of Nature suffering, and for us too. What a shame were it for us that the dumb, inanimate Creatures, should upbraid us as the Children their fellows in the Market-place, Matth. 11. 17. We have mourned to you, and ye have not wept. Let us then bear our part in this Quire of Mourners; but with this difference, that our Mourning be not so much outward as inward; not so much in the face as in the heart, a heart pricked with sorrow for having pierced Christ; and not so much for the smart, as out of the sense of our Sin; not so much for [Page] our selves, as for him, for his sake whom we have crucified; for no Tears prevail with God, but such as are wept over Jesus Christ: If he be not the flame in our Breasts that melts our Hearts; if he be not the Object that draws forth our Tears, though we should weep Bloud, our Bloud shall be but as Water spilt upon the ground: If we grieve, and not in and for Christ, our grief will be but Hypocrisie, at least but Formality. This is the Sorrow, this the Mourning which our piercing of Christ calls for as a proper effect of the Spirit of Grace and Supplication; and it must come in at the Eye; For the way to be pierced with Christ, is to look upon him. Iisdem quibus videmus oculis, flemus; The Eye is the instrument both of Sight and Sorrow: That must affect the Heart. What the Eye never sees, the Heart, as we say, never rues. If the Understanding be not convinced of Sin, our Hearts will never be moved at it. Sight of Sin must precede Sorrow for it. The Prodigal first came to himself, ere he returned to his Father. Look we then to Christ, but let us reflect upon our selves too, that our Eyes may dissolve into Tears, without [Page] which Christ's Bloud shall not wash away our guilt of having spilled it. Let us sorrow, but with a sorrow according 2 Cor. 7. 10 to God, such as may work in us repentance unto Salvation for having crucified the Author of it, and then we may look upon Him, to our comfort,

3. With an Eye of Faith; which is another prospect here mainly intended. For the looking on in the Text is an Allusion to the beholding of the brazen Serpent, Num. 21. 9 a Type of Christ crucified on the Cross, as himself tells us, Joh. 3. 16. It was not the brazen Serpent it self, but their looking upon it that cured the bitten Israelites. It was their Faith that did it, which came in at their Eye, though it usually does at the Ear, and gave it a healing quality; As it was not the Woman's touch, but her Faith that drew out Vertue from Christ to stanch her issue of bloud. It is the generally received opinion, that the Souldier who pierced Christ, one Longinus, was, when he did that act, blind; but by vertue of that pretious Bloud, which sprang on his Eyes from our Saviour's side, he had his Sight restored, and was hereupon converted, and after became a Bishop of [Page] Cappadocia, and in the end died a Martyr. What truth there is in the History, I know not; but very much surely there is in the Application: If by Faith we will look upon him whom we have pierced, that Sight shall not only clear our Eyes to discern, but touch our Hearts, and dispose them to embrace a Saviour. No spiritual Cure to be wrought on us without our Faith. We find that Christ in all his miraculous Cures of diseased Persons still required their Faith as a necessary preparative to their healing, as if Omnipotency it self could doe nothing without the Patient's belief; nor will the diseases of our Souls be ever remedied without the concurrence of ours too. The Prophet Elijah, by applying the Members of his Body to those of the dead Child, fetcht it again to life: Let us stretch every part of Christ pierced to our Souls, and they will soon be revived, be they never so dead in trespasses and sins.

4. We are to look upon Christ pierced with an Eye of Love. This, we know, naturally comes in at the Eye too; Oculi sunt in amore duces. Now as there is no such Attractive of Love as Love; so [Page] never was there any such Love as that of Christ in dying for us. It was our Sin that gave Him his Wounds, but it was his Love that made him receive them. And we may reade that Love,Esay 49. 16. to use the Prophet Esay's expression, in the Palms of his hands, that were stretcht out for us upon his Cross; In the Prints of the nails, which could never have enter'd Him, had not his Love made them a passage; And in the point of the Spear, which lets our Eyes into the very Bowels of his tender Love and Compassion towards us. Well may each of us say with the Holy Martyr Ignatius, My Love was crucified for me. If the Jews that stood by Him, when he was about to raise Lazarus, said truly, Behold how he Joh. 11. 36. loved him, when he shed but a few Tears out of his Eyes; much more truly may we say of Him, Behold how he loved us! for whom He shed his very Heart-bloud; the utmost Expression of Love, as Himself tells us, Joh. 15. 13. Greater Love than this hath no Man, to bestow his life for his friends; and yet greater love than this did he shew forth by laying down his life for us who were his Enemies; I say, by laying it down; [Page] for no man had power to take it from him, Joh. 10. 18. It was his own pure Love, not any force, that compell'd him to dye for us. And therefore our Obligation to love him ought to be so much the stronger, by how much his suffering for us was more free and voluntary.

5. Lastly, Let us look on Him whom we have pierced, with infinite Joy and Exultation; not for that we have pierced Him, which ought to produce a quite contrary Passion in us, but that he would suffer himself to be pierced for us, who only deserved to be so. What should have become of us, had he not undergone the punishment due to us? Where had we been, but for his Passion? It is by his stripes that we are healed; It is his meritorious Death that hath procured us Life; It is his pretious Bloud shed on the Altar of his Cross that hath reconciled us to God, that hath vanquished Death and Hell, and opened unto us the gates of Heaven, having thereby obtained eternal Redemption for us; which we shallHeb. 9. 12, 26. certainly partake of, if we will but look on him whom we have pierced, in such a manner as we ought to doe, with an Eye [Page] of Pity and Compassion, of hearty sorrow and contrition of Faith and of Love. If we will doe so, we may then lift up our heads, for our Redemption draweth nigh; We may then rejoyce too with joy unspeakable and full of glory, looking for that blessed hope, the glorious appearing of our Lord and Saviour at his second coming, to deliver us from this present evil World, and to restore us to the glorious liberty of the Sons of God. But, on the contrary, if either we will not look at all on Christ pierced for us, or so slightly as not to be in the least affected with that sight; nay, even despise his Sufferings; make a mock of Him, and of those Sins which pierced Him; persecute Him in his Members; rend his mystical Body by Discord, and his seamless Coat by Schism; corrupt the Purity of his Doctrine by Heresie, and shame Him and his Gospel by our vile and wicked Lives; We shall then have another, but a very dismal and uncomfortable sight of Him; not only the merciless Jew, who actually shed his Bloud, but the loose prophane Christian, who hath trampled it under foot, shall see him then to his eternal horrour and confusion. I say [Page] shall see him; see him whether he will or no. It shall not be in his choice whether he will see him or no. Every Eye, says St. John, shall then see him, even they also who pierced him, and all kindreds of the Earth shall wail because of him. The whole World then shall be the Theatre on which this sight shall be shown, and every Man thereon a several Spectator. And what a dreadfull sight shall that be to all unconverted Sinners, whether Jews or Gentiles, when Christ their Judge shall appear in a visible shape with those Wounds in his Body which they gave him! How successlesly shall they then cry unto the Rocks and Mountains to fall upon them, and cover them from the presence of this Lamb, once dumb before the Shearers; but then with his very voice, glorious and mighty in operation, breaking the loftiest Cedars in pieces! In vain doe we now put off this evil day from us, and, with St. Peter's mockers, question the promise of his 2 Pet. 3. 4. Coming. Behold he cometh, saith St. John, Revel. 1. 7. He is even now on his way, and will as certainly come, as if he were already present. Nay, is already come, if we may believe St. James, Behold the [Page] Judge standeth before the door, Jam. 5. 9. And who may abide his second Coming? when he shall come in flaming fire, to take vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel, which his Son preached? 2 Thess. 1. 8. His first Coming was in Humility and in Weakness, but his second shall be in Majesty and Power. How shall the Scene then be changed? And with what face shall the enemies of this Cross be able to look on him then whom they had here so often pierced? Consider we these things, and let us prevent one sight by another; and let every one of us prepare to meet our Lord in such a garb and posture, as that we may be able to look upon him then with comfort. And that we may so doe, let us beg of Him to look upon us as once he did upon his Apostle that denied him; that with him we may weep bitterly for having pierced him, and so fulfill the Prophecy of the Text in the best sense of it; in that of the Prophet Zachary, and not of our Evangelist, in the fore-cited Revel 1. 7. That we may here by Faith see him, with St. Stephen, [Page] sitting at the right hand, and there making intercession for us by those Wounds which we have given Him, that we may hereafter for ever behold him in Glory.

Amen.

A SERMON Preached on Easter-day.

[Page]

ACTS II. 24.‘Whom God hath - raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.’

THE precedent Verse, and this of the Text, represent Christ unto us in a very different condition; That, in the low ebb of his Exinanition; [...] Irenaeus. This, in a high pitch of his Exaltation. In the former we find him under the [Page] power of death; In the latter raised up to life; There a Worm, and no Man; Psal. 22. 6. Here more than Man, Declared to be the Son of God with power by the Resurrection Rom. 1. 4. from the dead.

Christ had given sufficient evidence of his Manhood in his natural Infirmities and Necessities; but, above all, in his Passion: But the main proof of his Divinity was to be taken from his Resurrection. A proof at this time most necessary, in relation to his greatest Enemies the Jews, who were so apt to triumph in his ruine, to fancy they had now prevailed against him; to say within themselves, Now that he lieth, let him Psal. 41. 8. rise up no more; and once more to lay that in his Dish, which they objected to him on his Cross; He saved others, Mat. 27. 42 himself he cannot save.

With these buisy mockers which gnashed upon him with their teeth; these Atheists that could say, Where is the promise of his return? and that had called him2 Pet. 3. 4. in express terms a Deceiver, St. Peter Mat. 27. 63 had to doe; and had not the Holy Ghost appeared a little before in a cloven tongue of fire on his head, his own could never have been able to make them credit such [Page] a thing as a Resurrection; Christ's much less, to whom they were so spightfull: It was necessary then that so great a Miracle should make way for another as great, which was to persuade them into a belief of Christ's Resurrection; Men so incredulous, that they would not Luk. 16. believe, though one rose from the dead, as Lazarus had done; who having brought them news from another World, they, for his pains, would needs have sent himJoh. 12. 10. back to the place from whence he came; so that nothing now but the sight of him they had so lately crucified (if yet that would doe) was sufficient to convince them; whom though St. Peter could not present to their Eyes, yet their Ears hear the certain news of his return from the Grave; That he that was dead, was now alive; That that body Rev. 1. 18. which had been sown in weakness, was now rais'd in power; by a power no less than divine, the power of an Omnipotent God; a power able to break in pieces the chains even of death its self; strong ones indeed to hold all others, but weak to hold him who was as well God as Man; Whom God hath raised up, &c.

[Page]From which words, Four things are to be gather'd.

1. The Certainty of Christ's Resurrection, set down here as matter of fact, Hath raised up.

2. The principal Agent, or rather, the sole efficient Cause of Christ's Resurrection, God; Whom God hath, &c.

3. The Manner how 'twas done, Removendo impedimentum, by taking away whatsoever might obstruct it; the rowling away the stone, as it were, from the door of the Sepulchre; the untying of a hard knot; Having loosed the pains of Death.

4. And lastly, the Necessity of all this; a most convincing and irresistible Argument, and therefore brought up in the rear to make all sure, Because it was not possible he should be holden of it.

Of these in their order, and of such practical Inferences as doe arise out of them: And first of the first Particular, the Certainty of Christ's Resurrection, in these words, Hath raised up.

1. There is not any truth in Scripture,Part 1. The Certainty of Christ's rising. which God has been so carefull, or (as I may so say) curious to secure as [Page] that of his Son's Resurrection; Which he did as by taking away all grounds of doubting of it, so by making use of all manner of proofs to ascertain it. For, first, whereas Sceptical Men might have questioned whether Christ died truly or no; or, if so, whether his disciples did not come by night and steal him away; These two grounds of suspition God took care to remove: The first, by that Evidence the Centurion gave in to Pilate of his real dying; besides that of so many Spectators, who beheld that stream of bloud wherein he poured forth his Soul unto death: And the second, by the exact care of the High Priest, who caused a vast stone to be rowled before the door of the Sepulchre, adding his Seal and Souldiers of his own chusing to guard it from the attempts of the Disciples; who, had they had a will, had neither power nor courage to break open a Sepulchre hewen out of a new entire Rock, or force such a strong guard as kept it; much less Money to bribe their silence, as the High Priests and Scribes did; And to say that his Disciples stole him away, whileMatth. 28. the stout Watch-men slept, was surely no better than a Dream, or rather not [Page] a Dream, but a studied Lie; and yet such a Lie too, as does most clearly confirm the truth of our Lord's Resurrection.

But then secondly, As God took away all cause of doubt, so did he draw Arguments from all Topicks to prove this great Truth. Heaven and Earth here gave in their Evidence: For not only the Souls of Holy Men were fetcht thence to be united to their Bodies for proof of that Resurrection by which themselves were raised; but the Blessed Inhabitants of Heaven, the Angels, came down on purpose to publish it to the Women, as these did to the Apostles, to whom Christ shewed himself alive too, after his Act. 1. 3. Passion, by many infallible proofs, and expos'd himself to their very Senses; who did not only see and hear, but converse and eat with him after he was risen from the dead, that they might not mistake his Body, as once they did, for a Phantasm; or Christ for a Spirit, having flesh and bones, as they found he had; and retaining still the marks and prints Joh. 20. 20. of the nails and spear, to shew the Identity, as well as Reality, of that Body which arose; The very Infidelity of an [Page] Apostle being not the least confirmation of our Faith too in this particular. Not to mention other instances, the Earthquake, the empty grave, the stone rowled away, the linnen cloths curiously wrapt up together as dead Witnesses, when there were so many living ones, Angels and Men; and among these, such as were ready to seal this Truth with their dearest Bloud; of such credit and honesty too, as might highly recommend their Testimony to our belief; of such Prudence, Experience and Holiness withall, as neither could betray them to Error, nor suffer them to abuse the credit of others: Such were the Holy Apostles, who with great power gave witness of the Act. 4. 34. Resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and whose principal office it was to doe so, as appears upon the Election of St. Matthias into the place of Judas, grounded upon this necessity, Act. 1. 21, 22. To whom we may add no less than five hundred Brethren at once, all agreeing in the same1 Cor. 15. 6, 8. Act. 1. 3. story: (Nemo omnes, neminem omnes fefellerunt;) which made their Evidence rise to such a strong demonstration, as was sufficient to stop the mouths of Christ's most contradicting Enemies, and [Page] open ours to confess with the Disciples and Primitive Christians, The Lord is risen indeed, Luk. 24. 34.

Thus we see how exact the Holy Ghost was, as in removing all such Doubts as might in the least obstruct our Faith; so in using all manner of Arguments to confirm and establish the undoubted Truth of Christ's Resurrection, not only to show the possibility of a Resurrection in general by so pregnant and visible an Example, but the importance of it in regard of ours, whereof our Lord's was the Fountain and Pledge.

1. I say, the clearing of the Truth of Christ's Resurrection was absolutely necessary, in regard of the slowness and indisposition of most Men, and in all times, to admit of the possibility of a Resurrection. The Philosopher, we see, could not digest it; To the Stoicks and Epicureans it became matter of laughter, who took it for some new Goddess, Act. 17. 18, 32. Nay, some of the Disciples themselves lookt upon it as a Fable, [...] Luk. 24. 11. A considerable Sect too among the Jews, the Sadducees, utterly deny'd it, Act. 23. 8. Simon Magus [Page] and the Gnosticks were of the same persuasion, and so was Marcion, as Tertullian informsDe carne Christi, e. [...]. De Resurrectione carnis, c. 56. 2 Tim. 2. 18. me, who deny'd the truth of Christ's flesh, and consequently his Nativity and Resurrection, as Valentinus's Disciple did the Resurrection of that Flesh he convers'd in. Some there were who affirm'd 'twas already past, as Hymenaeus and Philetus; Others turn'd it into a meer Vid. Tertul. de carnis Resurr. c. 19. Allegory, a Renovation, Matth. 19. 28. A state of the Gospel call'd a New Heaven and a new Earth, 2 Pet. 3. 13. And the World to come, Heb. 2. 5. And lastly, how doe all loose Christians decry it as a thing utterly inconsistent with their interest! It was requisite then that this foundation should be laid very deep in men's Hearts, which the Holy Ghost fore-saw so many would endeavour to over-throw.

2. 'Twas absolutely necessary to clear this Truth, in regard of the importance of it to Christ's glory, and the happiness of all true Christians.

1. To Christ's glory, which in the esteem of Men being much eclipsed by his Death, was to shine out brighter by his Resurrection; for nothing but this could take off that stain which his ignominious [Page] Sufferings had cast upon his Honour. And hence Christ scarce mentions his Death, but he still closeth with his rising again the third day. Which wasMat. 20. the reason of the Jews exquisite care to secure his Sepulchre, that the last error, Mat. 27. 64. as they call'd it, might not be worse than the first; That is, lest the reputation of a glorious Resurrection should bely and confute all their former Calumnies and Reproaches; as indeed it did: For by this his Resurrection his Godhead was clearly manifested, which else must needs have been obscur'd and call'd in question; there being nothing so unsuitable to a God as to suffer, especially to dye. A little loss of Bloud, we reade, made Alexander the Great quit all his Pretensions to Godhead: And St. Augustine tellsLib. 18. de civit. Dei, c. 5. us out of Varro, That the Egyptians made it Capital to affirm that their God Apis was dead, forbidding any mention of his Sepulchre: Nay, St. Peter, v. 29. concludes David inferiour to Christ from his Death and Burial, and Sepulchre, still remaining: For although Christ's Sepulchre did remain still to St. Peter's, as it does yet to our times; yet his Body did not abide in it as David's did, and [Page] still does in his; if we will take an Angel'sMat. 28. 6. word for it; Come see the place Luk. 24. 6. where the Lord lay: and again, He is risen, he is not here. For had he remained there, as David did in his Grave, he had then seen corruption, and so had been no God.

2. This Truth was to be clear'd and confirm'd in regard of our advantage: For had not Christ risen, we should still 1 Cor. 15. 17, 19. have remain'd in our sins, and been of all men most miserable, by depriving our selves of the Goods of this life, and having no expectation of those of a better: Nay, in a worse condition than the Beasts that perish, who innocently following their natural appetites, have nothing to check or restrain them. All our Theological Vertues would be to no purpose too; Our Faith, our Hope, our Charity vain, (the substance of St. Paul's whole discourse, 1 Cor. 15.) All our Moral Vertues also would be not only useless, but troublesome: Justice, Temperance, Fortitude, and the like, but so many insignificant Cyphers; adding nothing to the summ of our Happiness, but much to the abatement of it; Si post mortem nihil, ipsáque mors nihil. For [Page] who would stick to devour others, who should himself so quickly be made a prey to Death, and be swallowed up of the Grave? Who would deny himself the use of those Pleasures, which should never return? There would be no Hope for us, if no Resurrection; and no Resurrection for us to be sure, if Christ had not risen. Which consideration made the Apostles (one main part of whose Office, as I told you, 'twas, to be Witnesses of his Resurrection) to lay that still in all Churches as the first corner-stone in that spiritual Fabrick, as 1 Cor. 15. 4. St. Paul does, That Christ rose again according to the Scriptures, calling this his Gospel, 2 Tim. 2. 8. and placing it among his grand fundamentals, Heb. 6. 2, 3. as it is a principal Article of our Creed, which St. Peter offers here to his Auditors as most necessary for them to know in order to their Conversion, who would never have been persuaded to embrace a crucified Saviour, a stumbling-block to Jews, 1 Cor. 1. 23. and a rock of offence, which was to be taken out of their way that they might come to Christ; who being now represented to them in a more pompous and glorious shape of a [Page] triumphant Conqueror, might in some sort be more suitable to those Idea's they had of a Messiah, and so be more willing to become his Subjects. Thus did these few words, hath raised up, take away that veil that had hitherto been over their eyes, and made them see him they had pierced; and readily own him for their Saviour, who had so visibly been rescued from the Jaws of Death; that the bare mentioning of the matter of fact, whereof many of them had been eye-witnesses, without any other argument, was sufficient to change those late implacable Persecutors into Converts.

II. And here, to stop the mouth ofPart II. The sole Agent or efficient Cause of Christ's Resurrection, God. Carnal reason, which might be apt to fancy a Resurrection impossible, it was necessary for St. Peter, in order to a full persuasion and assurance of Christ's being truly raised from the dead, to let them know that this was done by a divine Power; That God, to whom nothing was impossible, was the only Agent here; He who could kill and make alive; Deut. 32. 39▪ That 'twas his Hand alone which brought this mighty thing to pass, his own right hand that had purchased himself this victory [Page] over Death: An Act beyond the activity of any created Being. Whence it is that the Resurrection is in Scripture called the power of God, Matth. 22. 19. and the glory of God, Luk. 11. 40. and the glory of the Father, Rom. 6. 4. Such power and such glory, as he can no more give away to another, than his Godhead. And therefore the Lord is said to descend from Heaven to raise the dead, 1 Thess. 4. 17. It being his own proper work that. For although an Angel shall blow the trump at the last day, yet the voice of the Son of God must be heard before the dead can live. Angels may gather the Elect Joh. 5. 25. from the four corners of the Earth, but God must enliven them. An act so incommunicably his, that the Devil cannot doe it. He who is God's Ape in other things, would fain be in this, or at least be thought able to effect it, to raise his credit among the Sons of perdition. For that Samuel the Witch of Endor call'd up, was but a counterfeit; he was not the Prophet himself, but Satan under his Mantle. Nay all those Heathens, who seem'd to have bid fair to such Miracles as Christ did, as Apollonius Tyanoeus and Vespasian, whom therefore Julian the [Page] Apostate opposes to our Saviour to lessen and decry him, although they are said to have done many strange things, yet doe I not find that ever they pretended to be able to raise the dead; As Pharaoh's Magicians, who could counterfeit most of Moses's Miracles, could not with all their skill put life into one single insect. Here they confess'd the finger of God: and such is the Resurrection, not only God▪s finger, but his arme; an equal act of Power in him to restore, as to create: which St. Paul going about to describe, uses such an Exaggeration of lofty Expressions, as no humane Eloquence can parallel; Ephes. 1. 19. That we may know, says he there, what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the work of the Might of his power, which he wrought in Christ when he raised him up from the dead. Where we may observe a sixfold Gradation, Power and Might, the Greatness and Might of his Power, the exceeding Greatness of his Power, and a working of the Might thereof; and yet all this still dull and flat, till he quickens it with an active Verb, [...], which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him up from the [Page] dead. An act proper to God the Father, who is entitled to it, ver. 33. and by St. Paul too, Gal. 1. 1. Yet so, as that he has communicated this Power to his own Son, Joh. 10. 17, 18. and 5. 21, 26. As the Father raiseth up the dead and quickneth them, even so the Son quickneth whom he will; who had a Power to lay down his life, and to take it again; to dissolve Joh. 2. 19, 21. the Temple of his Body, and in three days to raise it up; so that Christ here did as much rise as was raised up; and this the word [...] in St. Luke imports, a Verb of an active signification, implying a Power in himself to rise, and in that respect a certain argument of his being the co-essential and con-substantial Son of God, as the Apostle concludes him hence to be, Rom. 1. 4. in spight of all those his adversaries; who by denying him this Power, prove themselves worse enemies to him than the Jews were, who robb'd him of his Life; whereas these of his Divinity also, as far as in them lyes.

III. The principal and sole AgentPart III. Of the Manner. then in this great Work was God, the Father and the Son; And such an Agent [Page] was necessary, since the task was so difficult; the knot which Death had tied being so hard, required no less than a God to unloose it. Now by Death here is meant, not only a seperation of Soul and Body, (though that be the most natural import of the word,) but all those sad things that preceded, as so many Prologues to his last Tragedy, styled Propassiones; All those ingredients in the bitter cup he drank of: Such as were Christ's natural apprehensions of the terrors of Death, the curse of the Law, the load of our Sins upon him, and a lively sense of God's wrath due to those Sins, which put him into an Agony, and made him sweat great drops of bloud; and, to close up all, the bitter pangs of that cruel death he underwent to satisfie God's Justice: All which are compar'd here to the Pangs of a Woman in travail; from which God at last freed him, by raising him up to a life uncapable of pain or sorrow; making him forget his former Sufferings, as a Woman does her Pains when delivered of her Child, Joh. 16. 21.

This is implied in the word [...]; But because to loose the Pains seems a [Page] hard expression, and unloosing properly denoting the untying of some knot, and so supposing some chain or cord wherewith Christ was bound, and which God dissolved, which the following word [...] seems to make good; some conceive it better to interpret the word Pains by Bonds, as the Syriack does, calling them Funes Sepulchri, those adamantina mortis vincula, in the Poet; AndHorace. the rather, because the Psalmist promiscuously useth these words, Psal. 116. 3. The snares of Death compassed me round about, and the pains of Hell gat hold upon me. Both of them signifie no more, but the power of death; those Shackles and Manacles; which the Angel of the Covenant struck off from himself, and then from us; which could no more hold him▪ than the withy bands could Sampson; herein a Type of Christ, being but as Flax and Tow to him who was the Power of God; and though he might suffer himself to be entangled, yet could not possibly be holden of them. And that,

1. In respect of the Truth of God'sPart IV. The Necessity of Christ's not being holden. Word, viz. those many Predictions and Types of Christ's Resurrection, which [Page] else must have been voided. The Predictions are many and clear relating to this point; That of Esay 53. 8. That Christ should be taken from his prison; That of Hosea 6. 2. After two days will he revive us, and in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight: see Esay 26. 19. But most expresly that of the Prophet David, Psal. 16. 10, 11. That his flesh should rest in hope, and that God would not suffer his Holy One to see Corruption; which Prophecy could not be apply'd to David himself, as St. Peter here in the Verses immediately following tells his Auditors, because he did see Corruption; but only to Christ, who did not, and who did rise the third day according to the Scriptures, Luk. 18. 33.

As for those Types too, which shadow forth Christ's Resurrection, they are many and exactly representative of it; As Adam's awaking from sleep, a Type of the second Adam's from death; Sarah's conceiving when old; Isaac's being sacrificed, and yet living, Gen. 22. 12. An express figure of Christ's Resurrection, Heb. 11. 14, 17, Joseph's being taken out of the Pit, and lifted up out of the Dungeon, as [Page] Jeremy was too, and Daniel out of the Den of the Lions, Dan. 6. 23. And more clearly, by Christ's own application, Jonah's being taken out of the belly of the Jona. 2. 11. Whale, Mat. 12. 40. All which Types would be meer shadows without their substance, and insignificant Types, if they had wanted their Anti-types, and should not exactly have answer'd them; which they could not doe, if Christ could have been holden by the pains or cords of death.

2. Not possible, by reason of that indissoluble tye of Christ's Personal Union; (so strait, that Christ's Body, even in the Grave, was inseparably united to the Deity which drew it to it;) For although Death could dissolve his Natural, yet not his Personal Union; and therefore necessary it was, that his Body and Soul should be re-united, that so he might become a perfect Man, which could not be without his rising.

3. Not possible, in respect of God's immutable Decree so determining it; which being still of force, nothing could render ineffectual. God had anointed his Son from all Eternity as to be a Prophet and a Priest; so a King, to accomplish [Page] the work of Man's Redemption; none of which Offices could be fully executed, but upon supposition of his rising from the dead. (1.) The preaching of the Gospel was to follow that, Luk. 24. 47. (2.) As was also the preaching of Repentance and Remission of sins through his bloud; the Expiation whereof, as well as our Justification, (the not imputing our Sins to us) was an effect of his Resurrection, Rom. 4. 25. Who was delivered for our Offences, and raised again for our Justification. God having declared, by raising his Son from the dead, that he had accepted of his Death, as of a sufficient ransome for our Sins. For if Christ had remained still under the power of Death, his satisfaction could not have been perfect, neither could he have applied the Vertue thereof to us. And in like manner was Christ's Resurrection our Justification: For Christ beingV. Reyn. on Ps. 110. v. ult. our true pledge, after he had satisfied for us by his Death, returning unto Life, gives us a clear Evidence, and affords us a sure Argument, that God was fully reconciled, and Life purchased for us. Which assurance we could not have had, if Christ our pledge had still remained [Page] under the power of death, for as much as his continuance in his payment would ever have argued the imperfection of it. The summ of all is1 Cor. 15. 17. this, That our Justification was begun in Christ's Death, but was perfected by his Resurrection; That we have Redemption by his abasement, and Application of it by his advancement. (3.) Again, The pacification of our Consciences, the confirmation of our Faith, and the support of our Hope depended all upon the Exercise of his Regal Office, which was mainly to triumph over his and our Enemies; the last of them especially, Death; which he could never be said to have done, while he still remained under its Dominion: For then he had never ransomed Men from the power of the Grave, nor redeemed them from Death; but, as it followeth in Hosea 13. 14. Death had been his Plague, and the Grave his Destruction; and so ours too. So far should he then have been from swallowing it up in victory, or leading captivity 1 Cor. 15. 54. Ephes. 4. 8. captive, that himself should have been a slave and a captive to them; so far from spoiling Principalities and Powers, or making a shew of them openly; triumphing Col. 2. 15. [Page] over them, that the gates of Hell should have prevailed against Himself, and consequently against his Church, contrary to his express Word and Promise, Mat. 16. 18.

4. Not possible, as the word [...] implies an unsuitableness or incongruity, as well as an absolute impossibility; (for id possumus quod jure possumus;) And according to this notion of the word, 'twas impossible, that is, 'twas altogether unsuitable and unbecoming, as I may so say, God, to suffer Christ to be under the power and dominion of Death; It did not become his Love thus to forsake his only beloved Son; nor his JusticeJoh. 3. 35. to suffer his Holy One to see Corruption, to leave his Soul in Hell, i. e. the Grave, who had done no violence, neither was guile Esay 53. 9. found in his mouth; or to let him go without his reward, who by his active and passive Obedience; the Sufferings in his Life, and Obedience at his Death, had merited Heaven for himself and us;Psal. 110. 2: Phil. 2. 8, 9. It being most unfit that he should remain any longer in Death's prison, who had paid his own and our debt, even to the discharging of the very uttermost farthing. And to conclude this point; How unbeseeming [Page] the Power of God was it also, (even in the judgment of Reason,) That he that looseth the bands of Orion, should not be able to break Death's cords; That that Death, which God never made, (a meer privation,) should fetter him who made all things, and that nothingHeb. 1. 2. command Omnipotency its self; That the Devil should be said to have the power of death, and the Prince of life 2. 14. be under that power. Such Chains of darkness suit well with that roaring Lion, who goes about seeking whom he may devour; but not at all with the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, who was to rescue the prey out of his jaws. Certainly He that had the keys of Hell and Death could open the gates of Death to himself, as well as to all believers. The Grave to him was no other than a Womb, which soon grew weary of its load; and 'twas as natural for Christ to force his passage out thence, as for the Child, now ripe for the Birth, to drop from his Mother's Womb. If the Creature groans to be delivered from the bondage of her Corruption, it is but reasonable to imagine that the Earth could not chuse but be in pain, so long as she became an Instrument of her [Page] Creator's captivity; and 'twas as absolutely necessary for those Iron gates of death to let out the Lord of life, as it was for those Everlasting ones to be lifted up to receive the King of Glory into Heaven.

And into that place, whereinto hisApplicat. Resurrection has made a way for Himself, we hope one day to enter; that where the Head is, there the Members may be also. We have ground for this Hope from St. Paul, 1 Cor. 6. 14. God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power. He can, for he did raise up others before he raised himself; Mar. 5. Jairus Daughter, Luk. 7. the Widow's Son, Joh. 11. Lazarus after four days rotting in the Grave, are all pregnant instances of his Power; Et ab esse ad posse valet consequentia; What he has done, he can still doe; unless we shall fancy his Arme shortned, or that the Ancient of days has lost his strength. And that he will, we have his own Word for it; Joh. 6. 40. Whosoever believeth in me, may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day. If he can and will, why should we doubt [Page] of it? Who hath resisted his Will? Or what can tie up his Hands? Death, we see, could not; her Cords were too weak to Manacle him; and why should we think they can now hold us? He that could break them off from himself, can he not dissolve ours too? Let me then put St. Paul's question to the most doubting Sceptick, Act. 26. 8. Why should it be thought an impossible thing that God should raise the dead? Since we see he has effectually done it in the Person of Christ, and every day does it in Nature. For what is Nature its self but a continual Resurrection? We may see it every Day in a perpetual orderly Succession of Nights and Days, in the Setting and Rising of the Sun, in Winter and Spring. The Serpent's casting off his old Skin; the Eagle's renewing his strength with his Beak; (not to mention the Phoenix rising from her Ashes, which yet some of the Fathers, as Clement and Tertullian V. Tertull. de Resurr. Carnis, cap. 13. use as an argument to prove the Resurrection;) the Seed corrupted in the Earth, and thence springing up into a full Ear, our Lord's and St. Paul's instances, allJoh. 12. 24. 1 Cor. 15. 36. Emblems, or rather Demonstrations of it. Our very Bodies (to go no farther [Page] than our selves) even in our life-time are continually altered, and those we now carry about us are not the same they were a few years past; so that we may change the Tense and reade, not that we all shall be, but that we are continually 1 Cor. 15. 51. changed. Our sleep, what is it but a shorter death, and our awaking thence but a return to life? What are Church-yards but [...] Sleepinghouses, from whose Graves, as from so many Beds, we are one day to be raised up by the sound of the last trump? And as Nature, so Art shadows forth a Resurrection; That Art, whereby a little rude piece of Earth is refin'd into pure Metal; whereby a Chymist can raise a flower out of ashes, at least to shape and colour; And shall not God be able to change our vile Bodies, and make them like unto his glorious Body? And when he has turn'd Men into destruction, to say, Come Psal. 90. 3. again ye Children of Men. If the Disputer of this World, the conceited Rationalist should deny a possibility of a return from a privation to a habit, a re-production of the same thing once corrupted; Let me ask him, why that God who created our Bodies out of nothing, [Page] cannot be able to recall them out of something? For since even Philosophy its self will grant, that in every dissolution the parts dissolved doe not perish, the Materials still continuing; All the Skill here will be but to join and reunite the scattered parcels. Quasi non majoris miraculi sit animare quàm jungere. Tertullian's reasoning here is very concluding;De Resurr. Carnis, cap. 11. and we cannot resist the argument. Utique idoneus est reficere qui fecit; quanto plus est fecisse quam refecisse; initium dedisse quàm reddidisse. Ita restitutionem carnis faciliorem credas institutione. An Artificer can take a Watch or Clock asunder and put it together again; and shall not the great Creator be able to doe as much here, to re-unite what he has severed, having still reserved the loose scattered pieces and fragments? The separation of our Bodies and Souls by death, as 'twas violent; so their desire of re-union being natural, shall not be frustrated. They are incompleat Substances in that state, and long for their perfection, which is their re-union; for by that are the spirits of just Men departed made perfect, and God will not leave them in an imperfect condition, lest a [Page] power and inclination should for ever be in the root, and never rise up to fruit. This may suffice to silence, though not to satisfie Natural reason; especially if we consider, that many Philosophers have had strong apprehensions of a Resurrection upon the dissolution of the World by fire; a reduction of all things to a better state, as Seneca terms it.V. Sen. Nat. Qu. lib. 3. cap. 26, 27. Nor was there any Article of the Faith more generally believed among the Jews than this, as appears by Joh. 12. 24. and Act. 23. 8. The Patriarchs were certain of it; witness their great care before their death, to have their Bones carried away by the Children of Israel out of Egypt, that they might be buried in Abraham's Field; out of a hope, no doubt, of being the first that, by vertue of Christ's Resurrection, might rise from the dead; as 'tis very probable they were of the Number of those many Saints which arose and came out of their Graves after his Resurrection, and went into the holy City, and appeared unto many, Matth. 27. 53. But then to the Faith of a Christian, nothing is so easie as a Resurrection; since God's Word clearly tells us, That Christ is our Resurrection [Page] and our Life, Joh. 11. 25. and that our life, which is now hid with him in God, shall one day be revealed, Colos. 3. 3. That God is not the God of the dead, but of the living, Matth. 22. 32. Nay, the Lord of dead and living, Rom. 14. 9. For that he will one day raise them up to life again. For the dead Bodies of Saints, while they lye rotting in the Grave, being still united to Christ, as his Body there was to the Deity, cannot be for ever separate from him; the Members must at last be joined to their Head. If the first-fruits be risen, the1 Cor. 15. 20. whole lump shall follow. Not one hair of Mat. 10. 30. our head shall perish. He that numbers the sand of the Sea, numbers our dust; nor can the least Attom escape him. All our Psal. 139. 15. members are written in God's book. He that puts our tears into his bottle, locks up the pretious dust of his Saints in his Cabinet, can recall our dispers'd Ashes, and require our Bloud of every Beast that has drunk it; fetch those several parcels of us which have been buried in a thousand living Graves, and been made a part of those Graves which have devoured them. God can make the Esay 26. 19 Earth cast out her dead, cause the [Page] Sea to disgorge them, and our dry bones to gather together, as in Ezekiel's Vision, ch. 37. He that calleth all the Stars by Exod. 33. 12. Luk. 10. 20 their names, knows his by name, (for their names are written in Heaven,) and will call them by their names as he did Lazarus, bid them come forth, and by bidding enable them to doe so, in spight of all their bands. Now that we may be of the number, and partake of the lot of these happy ones, we must hear Christ's voice here, calling us to repentance and newness of life, that we may hear that with comfort which shall hereafter call us to Judgment, and be able to answer it with joy and confidence, Here we are. Let us be sure of our part in the first Resurrection, that the second death may have no power over us. All shall one day be raised; All must one day appear before the Judgment-seat of2 Cor. 5. 10. Christ, good and bad; But there is a Resurrection of damnation for these, and for those, of life. Both shall come out of their Dungeons; but the one like Pharaoh's Baker, to an Execution; the other, like his Butler, to an Exaltation; The former shall have [...] the latter only, [...] Sinners shall arise, [Page] but the godly be quickned. How happy would it be for wicked Men, if theyMat. 26. 24 should never have been born, or should never rise again, since they shall rise no otherwise than as drowsie Malefactors, who lying down with their Sentence, are afterwards awakened to be set on the Rack. But 'tis not so with the Godly, who sleeping in Christ, doe rest in hope. I would not have you ignorant, Brethren, 1 Thess. 4. 13, 14. concerning them which are asleep, says St. Paul, that ye sorrow not, even as other which have no hope: For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again; even so them also which sleep in Jesus, will God bring with Him. What doest thou fear then, O good Christian? Sin? Behold the Resurrection of thy Redeemer publishes thy discharge. Thy Surety has been arrested and cast into the prison of his Grave for thee. Had not the utmost farthing of thine Arrearages been paid, he could not have come forth. But now that thou seest, he is come forth; now that the summ is fully satisfied, what danger can there be of a discharged debt? Or is it the Wrath of God thou dreadest? Wherefore is that but for Sin? And if thy Sin be defrayed, that quarrel [Page] is at an end; And if thy Saviour suffered it for thee, how canst thou fear to suffer it in thy self? Surely that infinite Justice hates to be twice paid. He is risen, and therefore he hath satisfied. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather that is risen again, Rom. 8. 34. Lastly, Is it Death that affrights thee? Behold thy Saviour overcoming Death by dying, and triumphing over it in his Resurrection. And canst thou fear a conquered Enemy? What harm is there in this Serpent but for his sting? (The sting of death is sin.)1 Cor. 15. 56. And when thou seest that pull'd out by thy powerfull Redeemer, how can it now hurt thee? It may possibly hiss at, but it cannot bite thee: Look upon the Serpent lifted up for thee on the Cross; and this Serpent's sting, if it has any to wound, it can have none to kill thee. If thy Saviour has not quite destroy'd this thine enemy, at least he has brought it under and made it subject; like the Gibeonites, if not banished, 'tis enslaved, and made now instrumental to Christ's Kingdom. Loose thou then the bands of thine iniquity, and those of death, which Christ has broken, [Page] shall no more be able to hold thee, than they could doe him. Death in its most affrighting shapes to thee is but a scare-crow, 'tis but the shadow of death, while God is with thee; Nay, 'tis but an [...] a going out, a departing in peace to a Holy Simeon. 'Twas no more between God and Moses, but go up and dye, as 'twas said to another Prophet, up and eat. Ever since our Lord has swallow'd death up in victory, our Tombs become Death's Graves more than ours. Sepulchrum 1 Cor. 15. 54. non jam mortuum, sed mortem devorat; says a Father. Our Bodies are not lost in the Earth, but laid up to be improved; like Porcellane-dishes, which the ground does not consume, but refine. In the Transfiguration, that body of Moses, which was hid in the valley of Moab, appeared glorious in the Mount of Tabor. And though we appear now like Aaron's dry rod, yet that dry rod shall at last bud and bring forth fruit unto glory. The Israelites garments▪ indeed, in the Wilderness, waxed not worse for wearing; but though our Bodies, which are the garments of our Souls, doe so, and are rent and torn by afflictions and [Page] death, yet God can and will mend them: Nay, when these Temples of the Holy Ghost we carry about us are dissolved, he will so build them up, that as it was said of the first and second Jewish Temples, Haggai 2. 9. the glory of our latter houses shall be greater than that of the former.—Diruta stante Major Troja fuit—God will bless us as he did Job, more at our latter end than at our beginning, and Exalt us, as he did Christ, by our Sufferings. If with him we drink of the brook in the way, (tast of his Cup) he will lift up our heads too. We shall be like him as now He is. A golden Head, and Members of Clay, suit not well together. This is our great comfort, that Christ is risen; for if the Head be above water, the Body is safe. Joseph is alive (said Jacob) and that news revived the drooping Patriarch. So when we hear that Christ, our elder Brother, the first-begotten from Rev. 1. 15. the dead, is alive too, let us take courage, go and find him out, seek him not in the Grave, (He is not there, he Luk 24. 6. Mat. 28. 6. is risen; and why should we seek the living among the dead?) but in Heaven, [Page] where he now is; and set our affections on things above, and not on things below. It befits us not to lye in our Beds of ease and pleasure, to lye sleeping there when Christ is up: such a spiritual Lethargy does not suit with a Resurrection. How are we conformable to Him, if when He is risen up, we remain still in the Grave of our Corruptions? How are we Limbs of his Body, if, while He hath perfect dominion over death, death hath dominion over us; if, while he is alive and glorious, we lye rotting in the dust of death. O let us then rouseApplic. to the Sacrament. our selves up this day with the Lion of the Tribe of Judah: Let this be our Resurrection-day too; and that it may be so, let it be our Passion-day also, as it is our Lord's: For as he rose this day for us, so does he now this day dye for us too. And although St. Paul tells us, Rom. 6. 9. That Christ being raised from the dead, dieth no more; and that death▪ hath no more dominion over him; or, to speak in the Language of the Text, that he be not holden of it; yet in regard of the constant vertue and benefit of his Death and Passion, he may be said to [Page] dye daily for us, who receive him worthily in the Blessed Sacrament. Let me then bespeak you in the words of St. Thomas, utter'd upon another occasion, Joh. 11. 16. Let us also go and dye with him; Dye with him unto sin, that we may live unto God through him, Rom. 6. 9, 10. Let us feed on him by Faith, flock like true Eagles to his Holy Carcass, and eat thereof that we may live. This is the way to be raised to glory: Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my bloud, hath Eternal life, (is even now in possession of it,) and I will raise him up at the last day, says Christ himself, Joh. 6. 54. The very touch of the Prophet Elias's bones, Ecclesiasticus 48. 5. could raise up a dead Man to a Temporal; and shall not the sense and application of Christ crucified be able to quicken us, who are dead in trespasses and sins, to a spiritual and immortal Life? O letHeb. 13. 20, 21. us then be planted with him in the likeness of his Death, that we may be also in the likeness of his Resurrection, Rom. 6. 5. Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, [Page] that great Shepherd of the Sheep, through the bloud of the Everlasting Covenant, make you perfect in every good work to doe his Will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ: To whom with the Father, &c. Amen.

Soli Deo gloria in aeternum.

A SERMON Preached on Whit-sunday.

[Page]

JOHN XVI. 7.‘Nevertheless, I tell you the truth; it is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.’

WE find the Disciples here in a very sad and disconsolate Condition; Christ had told them, that He was going his way to Him that sent Him, V. 5. and thereupon Sorrow [Page] had filled their hearts, V. 6. And no marvel; for they were to be separated from one who hitherto had been their only comfort and support. Had we been under the same circumstances, we should, no doubt, have equally resented that loss. They had had the happy advantage of beholding his glorious Miracles, wrought by his All-powerfull Voice, in the cure of Diseases, in the confusion of Devils, and the raising of the Dead; They had heard those his ravishing Discourses, which forc'd his most implacable Enemies, in spight of all their prejudice against Him, to confess, That never Man spake as He did: They had been Eye-witnesses of that Eminent Holiness, that pure and unspotted Innocence, which gave beauty and lustre to all his actions; and of that glory too, which discovered Him to be the only Son of God, full of Grace and Truth. And now unless we can suppose them void of all natural affection and humanity, they must needs have been highly concern'd to hear that He was to leave them. Happy sure not only the Womb that bare, and the Paps that Luk. 11. 27 gave him suck; but the Ears which heard, [Page] the Eyes which saw, the Feet which followed, and the Hands which ministred unto Him. Abraham rejoyced to Joh. 8. 56. see the Lord's day, though at a great distance; and St. Augustine could not propose a greater satisfaction to himself, next to the Beatifical Vision, than to have seen Christ in the flesh. But these Disciples had not only the happiness to see Him, but withall, to be of his train; to be instructed by his Divine Lessons, comforted by his Christian Promises, animated and encouraged by his Example, and fortify'd by his Aid and Assistance. Upon all which accounts, our Lord Himself pronounceth them Blessed above those Prophets and Righteous Men, who wanted such advantages, Mat. 13. 16, 17.

Blessed then they were in this, as well as other respects; and therefore by how much the enjoyment of Christ's presence was beneficial unto them, by so much the more was the very apprehension of losing Him harsh and unpleasing: For although our Lord's Ascension-day (which was the day of his leaving the Earth) was to Him a day of Glory, yet to the Disciples it could [Page] not be but a day of Sorrow: It was his going to the Father indeed, but it was a going from them. And how could it be, but that these Children of the Bridegroom should mourn when the Bridegroom Mat. 9. 15. was to be taken from them? This sole Consideration was enough to beget sorrow in them; but there were other Circumstances which help'd to fill up the measure of it; and the chiefest this, That He was to forsake them in their greatest needs: For troubles were now hard at hand, persecutions were suddenly to arise, a storm was coming, and all lookt black; they were to be put out of the Synagogues; nay, the time was now coming, That whosoever should kill them, should think that he did God good service, v. 2. So that to lose a friend, such a friend and at such a time, was a very uncomfortable prospect, and there was but too much reason that their hearts should be filled with sorrow. Nor does our Lord altogether blame it. 'Twas not his business to root out those affections which Nature had given Men, but to moderate them. He that took our infirmities, was not severe to those of his disciples. It was indeed a mistake [Page] in them to think that their Lord's departure would be disadvantageous to them, but a mistake of carnal Love to his Person, that was so dear to them, which he minds them of, and rectifies; Quam incertoe providentioe nostroe! How shortsighted are the best of us, even in those things which most nearly concern us! How apt are we to fancy a loss in our greatest benefit! How earnestly bent many times on that which would be inconvenient, if not mischievous, to us! And how ill a Judge is flesh and bloud, of what tends to God▪s glory and Man's good! St. Peter had no sooner been allarm'd with the news of Christ's Passion; but he presently suggests, Be it far from thee, O Lord, Matth. 16. 21, 22. And while He and the rest of the Disciples here were possessed with Carnal thoughts, how ill did they relish Spiritual things? Nothing so much barrs up Men's minds against God's truths as worldly prejudice. While they thought Christ was to reign on Earth, they could not so much as dream of Heaven. Upon the strength of this fancy, so deeply rooted in them, they give all for lost if they lose their Master. It was high [Page] time then for him to shew them their error, to let them know, That that supposed loss would be their gain, and the cause of his absence, if well understood, would raise a joy in them above their present sorrow; since his going away for a time was only to prepare a place for them to all Eternity, where He and they should one day so meet, as never more to be parted. In the mean while He assures them, That he would not leave them comfortless, but after his departure send one from Heaven who should more than supply the defect of his Presence on Earth, even the Comforter Himself, who yet could not come till He were gone: A truth, which though never so ungratefull, yet being profitable, they must hear, and that from the mouth of Truth it self: Nevertheless, I tell you, &c.

In the handling of which words, I shall briefly and plainly discourse of these following Heads: Shew you,

1. Who the Person promised here is, and how described.

2. Who was to send him.

[Page]3. When, not till Christ was gone away.

4. How expedient it was that the Holy Ghost should come, and that not only to the Apostles, but to all faithfull Believers, by representing to you the infinite Benefits we and all the Faithfull do reap by his coming.

Of these in their order: and,

1. Of the Person promised here, and his Office.

It cannot be deny'd but that the knowledge of the Third Person in the Ever-blessed Trinity was a Mystery lockt up for many Ages. Holy Men of old spake indeed as they were moved by the 1 Pet. 2. 21. Holy Ghost; but 'tis to be question'd whether they were well acquainted with Him they spake by: They were his Organs and Instruments, but at that time perhaps little sensible of that divine Breath that did inspire them. He was scarce at all known before under the legal Dispensations; those passages of Scripture being dark and obscure which point at him, and Men not ripe then for so high a Revelation: Which is so true, that till the Holy Ghost came [Page] down upon the Apostles, and appeared in cloven tongues as of fire on their heads, the knowledge of him was very imperfect; It being reported of some, (who had been baptized into John's baptism,) Act. 19. that they had not so much as heard whether there were any Holy Ghost; not that they had never heard any thing at all of his Being, (having been baptized by John, who had seen him descend upon Christ at his baptism in the visible shape of a Dove, Mat. 3. Joh. 1.) but that they had not yet been so throughly acquainted with his Gifts and Graces, as afterwards they were. Our Blessed Lord then was the first who clearly revealed him in his Gospel, especially in that of our Evangelist: As Joh. 14. 26. he promiseth Him to his Disciples to be their Instructer; But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things. He repeats it again, chap. 15. 26. When the Comforter is come whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of Truth which proceedeth from the Father, He shall testifie of me. And so here in the Text, where there is such a manifest discovery both of his Person and Godhead, [Page] that none but an Arrian or a Macedonian; none but He that resists, can doubt of his Existence. Taking therefore this truth for granted, I shall only speak to his Office, described here by2. Office Paraclete. the word [...] which signifies two things: 1. A Comforter. 2. An Advocate.

1. A Comforter; and such He was to be, 1. To the Apostles themselves. 2. To the whole Church. 3. To each faithfull Believer.

1. To the Apostles themselves: It was indeed a seasonable time to talk to them of a Comforter, when sorrow and distress were coming upon them, and they were to be as sheep without a shepherd. They had left all for Christ; but while he was with them, they found all in Him, who was dearer to them than all their possessions. While He lived with them, their joy and satisfaction was full and compleat; but a joy that was to last no longer than his Corporal presence, which the Holy Spirit was to supply, and that abundantly. For although they could no longer have recourse to their Lord for Resolution of Doubts, or Protection from Dangers; [Page] yet should they not want an Oracle to clear the one, nor a Sanctuary to secure them from the other; The Holy Ghost should both enlighten their Understandings, and dispell their Fears; Being endewed with power from on high, Afflictions themselves should prove Consolations unto them; and they should find more satisfaction in their very Sufferings, than worldly Men in their highest Enjoyments; as we find they did, Act. 5. 41. when departing from the presence of the Counsel, they rejoyced, and that with joy unspeakable, that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for Christ's Name.

But then 2. The Holy Ghost was to be a Comforter, not only to the Apostles, but to the whole Church of God. The Father under the ancient legal Dispensation was a severe Law-giver; rewarding Obedience, and strictly punishing Rebellion. He appeared terrible on Mount Sinai; Nothing was to be seen there but Fire and Smoak, and thick Darkness; Nothing to be heard but Thunder, and the Trump of an Angel; insomuch that Moses himself trembled and quaked; Such an Appearance suiting well with the Promulgation of the Law, as denouncing [Page] nothing but Woes and Curses to Offenders. But under the Gospel-Oeconomy there was another face of things. The Son of God, while in the Flesh, had no such marks of terror and severity attending him, more proper to a Creator than a Redeemer: He came not with a Rod, but in the Spirit of Meekness. His condition was a condition of Humility, agreeable to one whose Kingdom was not of this World; and suitable to his appearance in the Flesh was that of the Holy Ghost, whose descent was indeed in Fire, but to warm and cherish, not to consume; In a mighty rushing Wind to represent his divine Power and Efficacy, not his Impetuosity. 'Twas not such a Wind as God came to Elijah in, which rent the Mountains and brake 1 King. 19. 11. the Rocks in pieces. The motions of the Holy Spirit are not violent. He does not affright those He lights on, nor create Fear, but Love in that Heart he fills. 'Tis He that makes us cry, Abba Father; That begets in us a holy generous Confidence, and speaks peace to his People. The cords he brings with Him are those of a Man, such as chain and captivate Hearts. The Oeconomy of the Divine [Page] Spirit was to be an Oeconomy of Sweetness and Consolation to the Church, becoming the Gospel of Peace and the God of all Consolation.

3. The Holy Ghost was to be a Comforter to all true Believers, not only as begetting Faith in their Hearts, and dispelling that Darkness which naturally possesseth their Understandings, but as giving them Peace of Conscience, and that unspeakable joy which the World is unacquainted with, and cannot take from them. Hence He is said to seal them unto the day of their Redemption, Ephes. 4. 30. To be the Earnest of their heavenly Inheritance, and to make them fore-tast the joys of Heaven here on Earth. What comfort, what ravishing joys does he still raise in the Souls of all the Faithfull, by the apprehension and sense he gives them of the Love of God, and that certain hope they have by him of enjoying Him in Heaven? Grace is the Paradise of the Soul, Holiness its Crown; and the assurance it has of God's Love to it, the choicest flower of that Crown. Nor is he thus only a Comforter to each true Believer, but he is so too as his Teacher; and another-guess Teacher [Page] than Men are to one another. For let their Methods of Teaching be never so perspicuous, and their care and pains to inform us never so great; yet when all is done, they cannot communicate unto us either clearness of Apprehension▪ faithfulness of Memory, or soundness of Judgment; and where they find us dull or stupid, all their pains and skill are but thrown away upon us. But the Holy Ghost does so teach, as withall to change the natural temper and disposition of men's Minds; working so upon their Understandings, by the clearness and evidence of those Reasons he proposeth, that they are not able to resist or stand out against the force of his Demonstrations; drawing them to Him in so sweet, and yet effectual a manner, that although sensible of the effect, yet the way of his Attraction is as imperceptible to them as the power thereof is uncontroulable. The Manner of the Holy Spirit's operation on Believers now is very different from that on the Prophets of old; which was so forcible, that Elisha could not Prophecy without the help of Musick to compose and tune his Spirit. But under the Gospel-Dispensation [Page] the Holy Ghost deals otherwise with his Servants. No such Enthusiasms or Transports here; Their Understandings are enlightned without any disturbance to their Bodies; They receive the Holy Ghost's Inspirations without the least astonishment or discomposure, while he gently glides and descends into them like rain into a fleece of wool, in the Prophet David's expression, Psal. 72. 6.

And thus the Holy Ghost is a Comforter. But then, 2dly, He is withall an Advocate. The word [...] properly signifies so much; one that maintains the Cause of a Criminal, or at least of an Accused Person. Now the Spirit does so by justifying our Persons and pleading our Causes against the Accusations of our Spiritual Enemies, 1. Against the Severity of God's Law, and that most righteous undeniable Charge of Sin laid thereby upon us. 2dly, Against the Devil, who, we know, is styled the Accuser of the Brethren; and doth not only load our Sins upon our Consciences, but farther endeavoureth to exclude us from the benefit of Christ, by charging us with Impenitency and Unbelief. Here the [Page] Spirit enableth us to clear our selves against this Father of lyes, to secure our Title to Heaven against the Sophistical Exceptions of this our subtle Adversary; and when by Temptations our Eye is dimmed, or by the mixture of Corruptions our Evidences defaced, he, by his Skill, helpeth our infirmities, and bringeth those things which are blotted out and forgotten, into our remembrance again, Joh. 14. 26. He admonisheth and directeth us his Clients how to order and solicit our own business, what Evidences to produce, how to manage and plead them, making up our failings by his Wisdom; and not only so, but (as the word Paraclete here imports) he intercedeth also with God for us; not in such a manner as Christ is said to doe, whom St. John also calls [...] our Advocate with the Father, 1 Joh. 2. 1. For as much as that Bloud which He shed for us on the Cross speaks for us better things than that of Abel, and continually pleads our Pardon before the Tribunal of God; but the Holy Ghost is said to make intercession for us with Rom. 8. 26. groanings which cannot be uttered, because he stirreth us up to Prayer, prompting [Page] and teaching us also how to pray as we ought to doe in all our Necessities: So that as Christ is the first Advocate, by working our Reconciliation with God; so is the Spirit our other or second one, by testifying and applying the same unto our Souls.

2dly, He is our Advocate, not only in respect of God, but of Men too, by maintaining our Cause against the World, against Tyrants and Persecutors.

1. Against the World, as oft as it accuseth us by false and slanderous Calumniators, laying to our charge things we never did: The Spirit in this case maketh us not only plead our Innocency, but rejoyce in the Reproaches of Christ; count our selves happy in this, that it is not such low marks as we are, which the malice of the World aimeth at; but the Spirit of glory and of God, which resteth upon us, who is on their part evil spoken of, 1 Pet. 4. 14.

2dly, Against Tyrants and Persecutors. Whence it is that our Saviour, Mat. 10. 19. bids his Disciples not be concern'd what they should speak, when they should be delivered up to Men, because it should be given them in that same hour what they [Page] should speak. And he adds, vers. 20. It is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you. And we know how that God in all Ages did by the mouths of Infants maintain his Truths, to the shame and confusion of Tyrants, who endeavour'd to suppress them.

But here it may be objected; Was not the Holy Ghost given to the Jewish Church before the coming of Christ? Did He not comfort and support them under a long and tedious expectation of his appearance? Was He not then a Teacher of the Faithfull? and when that Cloud of Witnesses suffered for the Cause of the God of Jacob, when they were sawn in pieces and stoned, was not the Holy Ghost their Advocate as well as the Martyrs under the Gospel? Did He not speak by the Mouth of Daniel, when cast to the Lions, and of the three Children who chanted out the Praises of God in the midst of the flames of the firey furnace? How then does our Lord say here, If I go not away, the Comforter will not come to you, since, so many Ages before, He was come, and as a Comforter too? For Resolution hereof, we [Page] are to observe, That although the Three Persons of the Blessed Trinity be equally the Principles of all those Acts they produce without, according to the received Maxim of the Schools; yet withOpera Trinitatis ad extra sunt indivisa. a considerable difference in relation to those three distinct Oeconomies or Dispensations towards the Church. That of the Father lasted till the Coming of Christ in the Flesh; yet so, as that in that space of time 'tis generally believed, that the Son of God did sometimes appear, as to Abraham, Jacob and Joshua, (being a kind of Essay or Prelude to his Incarnation,) and the Holy Ghost did then also impart some degree of Efficacy to the Faithfull. However, This is properly to be reckoned the Oeconomy of the Father. The second, was That of the Son, from his Incarnation to his Ascension; yet so, as that the Father made his voice to be heard at Jordan and Mount Tabor; This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased, hear ye Him. As at another time, in the Audience of the People, Joh. 12. 28. I have both glorified it, and will glorifie it again. Then also did the Holy Ghost appear in the form of a Dove; yet still this is to be [Page] accounted the Oeconomy of the Son; That of the Holy Spirit commenced from his Descent upon the Apostles, and shall last unto the end of all things; Differing herein from the other two, That in the two first Dispensations Men's senses were usually affected with some extraordinary, miraculous and sensible Objects; God the Father shewing himself in a Cloud and Pillar of Fire; giving out his Oracles from between the Cherubins; consuming the burnt-offerings with Fire from Heaven, and filling the Sanctuary with his Glory: And the Son of God conversing so familiarly with Men, that it made St. John say, That which was from 1 Joh. 1. 1, 2, 3. the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the word of life, declare we unto you. Whereas, I say, All was, as it were, visible and palpable here; 'Twas far otherwise in the Dispensation of the Spirit; The Heavens were not seen to part, nor was God's terrible Voice heard in the Air; no Shechinah, no Glory or sensible Mark of the Presence of the living God in his Temple. For which reason the third Person in the Trinity has the [Page] Special Name of Spirit given Him. For as He is styled Holy in respect of that Sanctification he worketh in us; (though that same Title belongs also to the other two Persons, as having the same Spiritual Essence;) yet the Holy Ghost bears the name of Spirit, in regard of his altogether Spiritual Dispensation, and those Graces he imparts to each faithfull Soul, which are Heavenly and Spiritual; such as are the Knowledge of the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven, and his inward Vertues and Consolations. As for Knowledge, it was so weak and imperfect under the Ancient Oeconomy, that in respect of that our Lord preferrs the least in the Kingdom of Heaven, i. e. the meanest Christian, to all the Prophets, not excepting the Baptist himself. Nor can it be deny'd, but that the very first Principles and Rudiments of Christianity do far surpass the highest Attainments of the Law. The Jews were under a Cloud, and the Doctrine of the Prophets was but as a light shining in a dark place. All was then Shadow, or rather, Night; and Moses his Veil was over the Eyes of the whole Nation. God made himself known to the Jews, as the God of Abraham, [Page] Isaac and Jacob, not as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; of whom They had a very wrong Notion, looking upon him as the Conqueror of the World: such was the very Apostle's fancy of him, and that even after his Resurrection, Act. 1. The ineffable Mystery of the Trinity, that of Godliness, which without controversie is great, God manifested 1 Tim. 3. 16. in the Flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of Angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the World, received up into Glory, were then all riddle. And as our Knowledge now is far clearer than that of God's ancient People was; so is our Consolation and Joy also, being established on better Promises, revealed with more Evidence, and embraced with more Firmness and Certitude. Death is now swallowed up in victory, and hath lost its sting; so that our Fears are less, as our Hopes are stronger, sweeter and more comfortable; being now not under the Spirit of Bondage, but of Adoption, which makes us go boldly to the Throne of Grace. The Result of all is this; That the Oeconomy of the Spirit followed that of the Father and of the Son; That the Holy Ghost was not properly [Page] to be styled a Comforter, till Christ went up from Earth to Heaven; and that if our Lord had remained here below, the blessed Comforter would not have come down in that plentifull Effusion of his Gifts and Graces, as he did after our Lord's departure, which is the Third thing proposed▪ But before I enter upon this subject, I shall first take notice of the sender of Him, which our Lord says was Himself.

I will send him unto you. Christ hadPart II. before told his Disciples, That He would pray the Father that He would send them another Comforter, Joh. 14. 16. & v. 26. That the Father would send Him in his Name. But chap. 15. 26. (as here in the Text) He takes it upon Himself to send him; I will send Him unto you from the Father. And both with Truth: For the Father and the Son sent, and had an equal share in sending Him. He is therefore called The Spirit of the Father, Mat. 10. 20. and The Spirit of the Son, Gal. 4. 6. For he proceedeth from both. From the Father 'tis said expresly, Joh. 15. 26. and from the Son, if not in express terms, yet virtually imply'd, in that He is said [Page] to be Rom. 8. 9. 1 Pet. 1. 11. Phil. 1. 19. the Spirit of Christ as well as of the Father, and must therefore come from Him, because sent from Him too. The only difference being this, That the Holy Ghost is sent by the Father as from Him, who hath, by the Original Communication, a right of Mission, which denotes only distinction of Order: The Father being as the Spring, the Son as the Fountain; and the Holy Ghost as the Stream flowing from both. From whence we may collect two Things:

1. That the Holy Ghost is a real distinct Person from the Father and the Son, in as much as He is sent by them. For how can He be the same with them that send Him? If he proceed from the Father, he must be distinct in subsistence; and if his Coming depended on the Son's going away, and sending Him after he was gone, He cannot be the Son, who therefore departed that He might send Him.

2. It follows hence, That the Holy Ghost is equal to the Father and the Son; For whatsoever proceedeth from God, must be God; whatsoever partakes of his Essence, must be equal with Him. And surely if the Son have the [Page] same right of Mission with the Father, as we learn from the Text, he must be acknowledged to have the same Essence with him too. And had not the Holy Ghost been Equal with the Son, as with the Father, how could He have supplied his Place? Or what Expediency could there have been in the Holy Spirit's coming, when, being less than Christ, he could have never been able to doe as much as Christ did, and so the exchange must needs have been to the Apostle's loss, and not, as Christ himself had told them it should prove, to their benefit and advantage? St. Augustine's Prayer then was not impertinent; Domine, da mihi alium Te, alioqui non dimittam Te; Give me, Lord, another as good as thy self, or I will never leave Thee, nor ever consent that Thou shouldst leave me. Nor is it any diminution to the Deity of the Holy Ghost, that He is said here to be sent by the Son. These Expressions, To be sent, or, To come, and the like, being not Expressions of disparagement; For He was so sent as to come too, and to come of his own accord; His coming being free and voluntary. He came in no servile manner, [Page] but as a Lord; as a friend from a friend in a Letter, the very Mind of him that sent it; which shews an agreement indeed and concord with Him that sent him; but implies no Inferiority, nor any the least degree of Subjection. 'Tis the Spirits honour to be sent to be a Leader; and though sent He be, yet is He as free an Agent as He that sent him. Tertullian calls Him Christi Vicarium, Christ's Vicar on Earth; But if that argued any inequality in the Spirit, it might as well in the Son too, who is styled in Scripture the Angel and Messenger of God, and is said to go about his Father's business that sent Him.

But to leave this Argument, as morePart III. proper to convince a Macedonian Heretick, than needfull for any true Believer; I shall proceed to the third Thing, namely, The time when the Holy Ghost was to be sent; and that was after our Lord's departure; If I depart, I will send him unto you. But what necessity was there, may some say, of Christ's departing in order to the Spirit's Coming? Might He not have tarried here, and the Spirit have come for all that? Was the stay [Page] of the one any lett or hinderance to the coming of the other? Or might not Christ have sent for, as well as go away himself to send him? To this I say, 1. That it was decreed from all Eternity; That God the Father should draw us to his Son, Joh. 6. 44. 2dly, That God the Son should instruct us, chap. 17. 6, 8. And, 3dly, That God the Holy Ghost should assist and establish us in all Truth; And so the whole Work of our Redemption should be ascribed to the Father as electing; To the Son as consummating; and to the Holy Ghost as applying it: God the Father had done his part; God the Son was at this instant doing his too; It remained only that the Comforter should come to perfect both, which could not be till the Son had performed his Task here on Earth, and should go away to Heaven. For the Acts of the Holy Ghost pre-suppose those of a Redeemer. 'Tis the part of that Blessed Spirit to inflame our Souls with the Love of God; but in order to this effect, 'tis absolutely necessary that the Redeemer should first appease God. Our first Parent was not able to endure the terror of the voice of his provoked Majesty, [Page] but was forc'd to hide his head. And what is each Sinner but as Flax before the consuming fire of his Justice? Till our Redeemer then had disarm'd that Justice; till he had made men's Peace and Reconciliation, the Holy Ghost could not excite any motions of Love in them. It was the design of his Spirit to imprint his Image in their Hearts, which consisted in true holiness and righteousness: But how could that Image be imprinted on them, till they were first adopted his Children? Or how could they be owned for his Children, but in and through Christ his only begotten and beloved Son? That Peace, which his Holy Spirit brings into and settles in our Consciences, is founded in that other which our Mediator hath procured and merited for us by his Death and Sufferings; nor could our Minds ever have been calmed, had not the Lamb of God taken away the sins of the World. Our Peace was to be prepared by the Father, ere it could be purchased by the Son; and purchased by the Son, ere it could have been applied by the Spirit. The Gift of the Comforter was an effect of Christ's Intercession, I will pray the [Page] Father, and He shall send you another Comforter; And it was requisite that He should go away to send that Comforter, since he was the Effect of his Intercession, and that Intercession the last Act of his Sacrifice in the Heavenly Sanctuary.

But then, 2dly, it was not fit that Christ should bestow his best and most excellent Gifts on us, till he had recovered his first Majesty; or that the Members should be thus adorned, till the Head was perfectly glorious. 'Tis at the time of their Coronation and Triumph that Kings and Emperors scatter their Largesses; When our Lord had ascended up on high, and had led Captivity captive, Eph. 4. 9. then was it a proper time for him to give gifts unto men; and among the rest of his Gifts, the Fountain and Giver of all Gifts and Graces, the Holy Spirit it self. This St. Peter tells his Auditors, Act. 2. 33. That Christ being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear. Christ was first to rise from the dead, and to be glorified, before he could send down the Spirit: [Page] And this we learn from Joh. 7. 39. where 'tis said, That the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified; nor could he be fully glorify'd without the descent and testimony of the Spirit. For, 1. It had been some impeachment to Christ's equality with the Father, had our Lord still remained on Earth; for as much as the sending of the Spirit would have been ascribed to the Father alone, as his sole Act. This would have been the most, That the Father, for his sake, had sent Him; but He, as God, had had no honour of sending Him. 2. Nor indeed till he ascended up to Heaven, could he have been fully glorified on Earth; his appearance here having been very mean, void of all pomp and state; nothing about Him to strike men's Senses; nothing of worldly grandeur to affect them who conversed with him; neither wealth nor honour; exposed he was to want, and other inconveniencies of life, and put at last to a cruel and an ignominious Death. What strong prejudices had both Jews and Gentiles against Him upon this account? And how could those prejudices be removed, so long as he [Page] continued in that low state and condition? But they were now quite taken away by the descent of the Holy Ghost, which he had so often promised to send after his departure; and which when they saw he made good, their mean opinion of him was soon changed into veneration, when they saw him, who was made a little lower than the Angels, (nay, who hadHeb. 2. 9. appeared on Earth lower than the lowest of Men,) for the suffering of death, crowned with such glory and honour: And how can we but adore Him as God, when we now behold Him, that once stood before Herod and Pilate as a criminal, exalted above all the Kings and Potentates of the Earth, whose pride and glory now it is to be his Disciples, to doe him homage, and to lay down their Crowns and Scepters at the foot of his Cross? We now see Temples every-where erected to his honour; The most remote obscure Regions of the World enlightned by his beams; That Jesus, once so much despised, become now the glory of the Earth; His Name dreadfull to Devils, adored by Turks and Infidels, so that his Kingdom knows no bounds, as it shall never have an end. Had he [Page] still remained here below, he had been lookt upon as no better than what the Arrians once styled Him, [...] But now his Godhead is as visible to each Christian, as his Manhood heretofore was to each Man; the Spirit of God, whom He sent down, having born witness to Him in all those wonderfull Signs and Miracles that were wrought by his Apostles through his Name. And thus we see how that Christ could not have been glorify'd on Earth as God, had he not ascended up into Heaven, and from thence sent down the Holy Ghost.

Nor 3. could the Holy Ghost himself otherwise have been discovered. Christ's stay here would have been a lett to the manifestation of his Godhead also, which appearing in those many great signs and wonders done by Him, had not our Lord gone away, those glorious Works would in all probability have been wholly ascribed unto him; and so the Holy Ghost should have lost that honour which was due to him, while his Deity should have been concealed from the notice of the World.

[Page]4. A fourth reason of the necessity of Christ's departure, respects his Apostles and all other his Disciples. 1. His Apostles, who we know were to be sent abroad into all Coasts, to be dispersed over the whole Earth to preach the Gospel, and not to stay in one place. Now Christ's corporal Presence could herein have availed them little in order to this purpose: He could not have been with St. James at Jerusalem, and St. John at Ephesus, whatever Ubiquitaries, Papists or Lutherans, say to the contrary, in flat contradiction to all Philosophy and Scripture too, which allows not this priviledge to Christ's Body now glorified; Whom the Heavens must receive, saith St. Peter, untill the times of Restitution of all things, Act. 3. 21. There He must be till He comes to fetch us to Him; and when He promised his Apostles to be with them, always even to the end of the World, Mat. 28. 20. He meant no otherwise than by his Holy Spirit, who should comfort and guide them into all Truth. And therefore it was expedient for them, as our Lord says here in the Text, that himself should go away to make room for the Spirit, as fitter for [Page] his Disciples in their dispersed disconsolate condition, since He could be and was present with them all, and with every one of them by himself, as filling the compass of the whole World; which cannot be affirmed of our Lord's bodily Presence. 2. Besides, had this manner of Christ's Presence been possible, without confounding the Properties of his humane and divine Nature; it had been very inconvenient for his Apostles that He should still have remained with them, considering how carnally affected they were to him; Nay, very convenient it was for them that he should withdraw his Presence, when they grew too fond of it; as we see Mothers deal with their little Children in the like case. We know nothing would satisfie them but Christ's Flesh and his fleshly Presence, nothing but that still them; And we know who said, If thou hadst been here, Lord: As if absent, he had not been as able to doe it by his Spirit, as present by his Body. We know also that St. Peter would have built him a Tabernacle Mat. 17. 4. to keep him still on Earth; and ever and anon his Disciples were dreaming of an Earthly Kingdom, and their chief [Page] Seats therein. All their Thoughts and Fancies being gross and carnal, 'twas time to refine them. They were not to be held as Children still, but to grow to Men's estate, to perfect age and strength. If they had hitherto known Christ after the flesh, 'twas fit that henceforth they2 Cor. 5. 16. should thus know him no more; And so 'tis for all Christians too, who so long as they should stand affected in like sort as the Apostles here were, would, no doubt, run into the same error with them, as to conceit they could not be without Christ's bodily Presence, though the Spirit it self should supply it. Surely 'tis much better for us by faith to converse with Christ in Heaven, than by sight to behold him on Earth. Because thou hast seen, thou believest, says he to St. Thomas; Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet believe, Joh. 20. 19. Better it is for us to look to those things that are not seen, than to those that are seen. The time will come when it shall be our chiefest happiness to see our Redeemer, as Job says, with these fleshly Eyes we carry about us: But that we cannot now doe; or, if we could, that very sight would but astonish and confound [Page] us. The only Glass to behold him in here, is his Gospel; as the only place to find him in, is Heaven. Thither he is now gone from us, and 'tis well for us, as it was for his Apostles, that he is so, and so hath left us to the guidance and conduct of his Spirit. Nay I dare say farther, that 'tis expedient for us Christians that Christ should withdraw even his Spiritual Presence from us in some cases. As, 1. when we grow faint in seeking, and careless in keeping him. When, with the Spouse in the Canticles, we lye in bed and take himCant. 3. 1. there. When, 2. we grow high conceited of our selves, and say with David, We shall never be moved, Psal. 30. 7. But then may it not be said, If Christ leave us, if he withdraw his spiritual Presence from us, shall we not then fall into Sin? And can that be expedient for any one of us? It is good that I have been in trouble, for before I was troubled I went wrong, says David, Psal. 119. 67. But is it good for any of us to fall into Sin? If I should say so, I have St. Augustine's warrant for it, Audeo dicere, I dare affirm, says that Father, Expedit superbo, ut incidat in peccatum; It is not [Page] amiss sometimes for a proud Man to fall (with David and Peter) into some notorious Sin, to fill his Face with shame, and to teach him Humility; That this Messenger of Satan should sometimes thus2 Cor. 12. 7. buffet him, as he did St. Paul, to keep him down; for the Holy Ghost will not come to him, till he find him in this posture; He will come to none, rest on none, nor give grace to none but to theEsay 57. 15 1 Pet. 5. 5. humble. In all respects then we see how expedient it is that Christ should leave us; that he should withdraw himself from us, as he did from his Apostles; that he should go away to prepare a place for us, where we may be with him for ever; and that we should prepare our selves, too for that better place he hath prepared for us, by withdrawing our Thoughts and Affections from that we now are in. For if that fond affection the Apostles had for his corporal Presence was a hinderance to the Spirit's coming to them; much more will our impure earthly ones keep him off from us. Nor ought we to be troubled, but rather to rejoyce, that Christ, our forerunner, Heb. 6. 20. is gone before to take possession of a heavenly place for us in his flesh; [Page] or, to imagine, that we shall lose any thing by his absence, as if his Spirit could not abundantly make up that loss; or that with his bodily Presence he had withdrawn his love or care from us. In the midst of his Glories he still minds us; He is not only a compassionate High-Priest to pity, but an Advocate to plead, and an Intercessor still to mediate for us. Amidst the Angelical Acclamations and Hallelujahs, he not only hears our sighs and groans, but joyns in the Consort, and shares with us too in our Sufferings. Nay, it is now that he is most intimately present with us, that he dwells in our hearts by faith; and if thereby we hold him fast, he will then never leave us, at least never leave us comfortless, no more than he did his Apostles, but will send the Holy Ghost to comfort us as he did them, for his promise of sending him was not so ty'd up to them as to exclude us, but is general here to all the faithfull, If I depart, I will send him unto you. And thus we see how expedient and necessary it was that our Lord should depart, that his Holy Spirit might come to us; That without his Ascension-day there had been no Pentecost [Page] for us, and so we should have wanted our Comforter and all those inestimable Blessings He brings along with Him. 1. For had He not come, the work of our Salvation had been but half done. 'Tis true indeed that our Lord, just as he breathed out his Soul on the Cross, did pronounce a Consummatum est; and if we consider the Work it self, he compleated all he came to doe for us here below, (for he exactly performed the part of a Mediator, by putting an end to all the Ceremonies of the Law which prefigured Him,) but in regard of us, and making that his work ours, all had not been finished without the Coming of the Holy Ghost. For, to speak after the manner of Men, we know a Word, though written, a Deed, is of no force till the Seal be added; 'tis that which makes it Authentical. Christ is indeed the Word, but the Holy Ghost is the Seal, In whom ye are sealed unto the day of Redemption, Ephes. 4. 30. 2. Nor is this all: The Will of a Testator is of no force, when sealed, till Administration be granted; Christ is the Mediator of the New Testament, Heb. 9. 15. But the Administration is the Spirit's, 1 Cor. 12. 11. [Page] And without that the Testament is of no advantage. 3. Besides, to make our Estate good, is required Investiture: so that although Christ hath made a purchase, and paid a price for us; yet what would this advantage us without Livery and Seizin, which the same Apostle calls The Earnest of the Spirit? 2 Cor. 5. 5. Lastly, What are we at all the better for what Christ did for us, if we be not joined to Him, as He was to us? and 'tis by his Spirit that we are joined unto Him: For he that hath not Christ's Spirit, is none of his, Rom. 8. 9. and then Christ will profit him nothing. From whence it plainly appears, That what the Father and the Son did for us, could not be compleat or available without the concurrence of the Holy Ghost: They could doe nothing for us without Him, nor we any thing for our selves, in order to our Salvation. For, first, without Holiness we cannot see God, who is therefore called Holy, because he is the cause of Holiness in us, his Office consisting in the sanctifying of us. We are by Nature void of all saving Truth, 1 Cor. 2. 10, 11. None knoweth the things of God, but the Spirit of God; And 'tis [Page] the Spirit that searcheth all things, and revealeth them unto the Sons of Men; That dispells their Darkness, enlightens their Understandings with the knowledge of God, and works in them an assent unto that which by the Word is propounded unto them. Again, 2dly, Unless they be regenerate and renewed, they are still in a state of natural Corruption; Now 'tis the Holy Spirit that regenerates and renews us. According to his mercy he saveth us by the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, Tit. 3. 5. And, Except a man be born again of Water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God, Joh. 3. 5. We are all at first defiled by the corruption of our Nature, and the pollution of our Sins; but we are washed, but we are sanctified, but we are justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God, 1 Cor. 6. 11. Thirdly, We are not able to guide our selves, and 'tis the Spirit that leads, directs and governs us in our Actions and Conversations, that we may perform what is acceptable in the sight of God. 'Tis He that giveth both to will and to doe; and, As many as are thus [Page] led by the Spirit of God, they are the Sons of God, Rom. 8. 14. Fourthly, If we be separate from Christ, we are as branches cut off from the Tree, which presently wither away for want of sap to nourish them. Now 'tis the Spirit that joins us to Christ, and makes us Members of that Body whereof he is the Head; For by one Spirit we are all baptized into that one Body, 1 Cor. 12. 13. And hereby we know that God abideth in us by the Spirit which he hath given us, 1 Joh. 3. 24. Fifthly, Till we be assured of the Adoption of Sons, we have no comfort, no hope; for 'tis that which creates in us a sense of the Paternal love of God towards us. The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us, Rom. 5. 5. And the Spirit it self beareth witness with our Spirit, that we are the Children of God, Rom. 8. 16. who is therefore said to be the Pledge and the Earnest of our Inheritance. In a word; had not the Holy Ghost been sent to us, we could have done nothing to any purpose; no means on our part would have availed us: Not Baptism, which might wash spots from our Skins, nor stains from our Souls; [Page] No laver of Regeneration without renewing of the Holy Ghost, Tit. 3. 5. Not the Word, which without the Spirit would have proved but a killing letter: Not the Sacrament; The Flesh profiteth nothing, 'tis the Spirit that quickneth, Joh. 6. 63. Lastly, Not Prayer, which without the Spirit, is but lip-labour: For unless he help our infirmities, and make intercession for, and with us, we know not what we should pray for, as we ought, Rom. 8. 26. To summ up all; It was expedient, nay absolutely necessary, that the Spirit should have his Advent as well as Christ. Christ's Advent was necessary for the fulfilling of the Law; and the Spirit's, for the compleating of the Gospel: Christ's, to redeem the Church; and the Spirit's, to teach it: Christ's, to shed his bloud for it; and the Spirit's, to wash and purge it in that bloud: Christ's, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord; and the Spirit's, to interpret it: The one without the other is imperfect. Christ's Birth, Death, Passion, Resurrection, are good news, but sealed up, a Gospel hid, till the Spirit come and open it. Of such importance was his coming, and so expedient, yea and necessary [Page] for us it was, that our Lord should go away to send Him to us.

And as he did send Him to the Apostles, in an extraordinary manner, in cloven tongues, like as of fire, as at this time: so all Christians have a promise of the Comforter, though not of the firey tongues. The promise is to you and to your Children, and to all that are a-far off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call, Act. 2. 39. That is, To all that wait for, and are in such a fit posture and condition to receive Him, as the Apostles themselves were: To all, that are like Him, Holy, Pure, Charitable, Peaceable; That have those fruits of the Spirit, mentioned Gal. 5. 22, 23. That are void of carnal sensual Affections, than which nothing will more obstruct his entrance, He being a Spirit, and having therefore no commerce with the Flesh. Christ carnally apprehended, we see, could not avail any thing; and so long as our Thoughts and Desires run after things here below, his Spirit from above will not fill or inflame them. Therefore sur sum corda, let us lift up our hearts towards Him. He will meet us, and Christ will send Him to us, if we meet Him in his way; Send Him, if we send for Him [Page] too, if we send up our Prayers to fetch Him down. For being a Spirit of supplication, Zach. 12. 10. the proper means to obtain Him is Prayer. And surely He is worth the asking for, being the greatest gift God can give us, or we receive; In giving whereof, He is said to give us all things, Mat. 7. 11. In whom we have a Teacher, to instruct, The Spirit of Truth, to lead us into all Truth, necessary for us; An Advocate, to plead for and defend us; A Comforter, in all our outward and inward distresses: so that Direction, Protection, Consolation; and all that is beneficial to us, or we can desire, we have in Him. But then when we have got, let us be sure to retain and to cherish Him; not chase Him away, for then we had better never to have had Him: Be sure not to resist Him by our Pride, quench Him by our Carnality, and so grieve Him who is our Comforter; if so, the following Verse here will tell us, That He can Reprove as well as Comfort. But on the other side; if we obey his Motions, submit to his Dictates, follow his Guidance and Direction, in a word, be led by Him; we shall then be the Sons of God, and the [Page] only-begotten of the Father will not fail to send him to us, as He did to his Apostles; Then especially, above all other times, when we eat and drink his flesh and bloud in the Holy Sacrament: For as his Bloud was the meritorious Cause to procure us his Spirit; so is his Holy Sacrament the Pipe or Conduit to convey Him unto us. For hereby we are all made to drink into one Spirit, 1 Cor. 12. 13. And then as there is plentifull Redemption here on Christ's part; so if we duly partake of that Redemption, there will be plentifull Effusion of his Spirit on us. Which God of his infinite Mercy grant, &c. Amen.

Soli Deo gloria in aeternum.

A SERMON Preached on Michaelmas-day.

[Page]

HEB. I. 14.‘Are they not all ministring spirits, sent forth to minister for them, who shall be heirs of salvation?’

'TIS the great happiness and priviledge of Saints to be under the care and protection of an Almighty God: Others have the benefit of his general Providence; These of his particular Love and Kindness. The clearest Evidence of that his Love appears in sending his only beloved Sonoh. 3. 1 [...]6. [Page] into the World to merit Salvation for them; and next to that, in employing Angels to further it; He being our alone Saviour, These our Guardians and Assistants. Wherein the Almighty has abundantly provided, as well for the honour as the security of his Servants. For what greater honour, next to the having Christ for our Brother, than that we should have such glorious CreaturesPsal. 8. as Angels for our Ministers? Their Nature, we know, places them above us, and yet God's Love and their Humility sets them here below us. Even while those excellent Spirits attend on the Throne of God, we may see them waiting on us Men; While they behold his Face there, they cast a benign aspect on us here. These bright Morningstars do at the same time praise Him, and assist and guide us; Their Employment in Heaven does not exempt them from their Services on Earth, dividing them as it were between those two places, ever ascending and descending, i. e. perpetually employ'd in discharging their Duties to their Creator, and for his sake performing all good Offices to their fellow Creatures.

[Page]2. And hence it is, That in consideration of those great and various Benefits she receives by their appointed Aid and Ministration. The Church has set apart this Day as to praise Him who makes use of such glorious Instruments for her safeguard and protection; so gratefully to commemorate those advantageous Services they doe her. And although the Title of this Festival carries but a particular denomination of St. Michael's Day, yet does the Church herein celebrate the general Memorial of all Angels; and the Text I have chosen leads us to it, as the Scope thereof does to the whole Chapter; wherein the Apostle's design is to compare Christ with Angels, and to prove his Superiority over them, which He does by several Arguments taken.

1. From his Sonship: He God's Son

Job 1. 6. 38. 7. Luk. 3. 38. See Phil. 2. 10.

by Eternal generation, These only by Creation and Resemblance, v. 2.

2. From his Name, more excellent than that of Angels, v. 4.

3. From the Worship peculiarly due to Him, even from Angels themselves, v. 6.

[Page]4. From his being the Head of Angels, who, at best, are but his Ministring spirits, v. 7.

5. From his Kingly Authority over all Creatures, Men and Angels too, v. 8.

6. From his creating the Heavens and the Earth, which Angels neither did, nor could doe, v. 10.

7. And lastly, from his sitting as Equal with God at his right hand; whereas the most glorious Angels doe but stand there as Ministers of his Will and Commands, and to serve the necessities of his Chosen ones, in the question here put,

Are they not all, &c.

In which Words you may observe,Divis.

1. Something imply'd or suppos'd; and that is, Their Existence, Are they not, &c. The Apostle speaks of them as of persons really and actually subsisting.

2. Something plainly exprest; and those are four Particulars here mention'd:

1. The Essence or Nature of Angels; They are Spirits, i. e. intellectual, immortal and incorporeal Substances.

2. Their Office, Ministring spirits, and that without any reserve; All of them such, none excepted, not the most glorious, not the most excellent of their Order.

3. Their Commission from God who sends them forth, deputing them their several Ministerial Charges and Employments.

4. The End or Design for which they are employ'd, viz. God's glory and the benefit of those who shall be heirs of Salvation.

These be the several Stages through which I shall lead you: And first, of the Existence or Being of Angels, suppos'd in the question, Are they not all, &c.

1. Since the Being of Angels is herePart 1. Their Existence. suppos'd and taken for granted, one would think there should need no farther proof of it; and surely 'twould be needless, did not the Infidelity of some Men make it necessary. And 'tis strange [Page] that Divine Revelation should not be sufficient to settle this Truth among Christians, which Heathens by the dim light of Nature have so clearly discern'd. For what-ever mistakes they were guilty of as to the Nature, they believ'd the Existence of spiritual Substances; and we find them very curious in ranking and disposing them into their several Classes, and describing the Hierarchy of their [...] with as much exactness, (I had almost said, as good ground) as the pretended Dionyfius has done that of Angels, whom the Schoolmen so passionately doat on. And the same reason which taught Heathens so much Divinity, fetches this Truth also from the Order of Nature, which seems to require it. For as here we find some things without life; others living, but without sense; some again sensible, and others rational, yet so as to be of a mixt Nature, partly Corporal and partly Spiritual; there would want one main link in the Chain of Providence, had not the Divine Power made some Creatures purely Intellectual, such as might be a Mean between God and Man, as Man is between them and [Page] Beasts, to prevent a chasm or vacuum in Nature. Besides, since every part and place in the World is fill'd with Inhabitants proper for it; it seems but requisite, that the highest Heavens should not be left void of such as might be fit to dwell in those pure and glorious Mansions.

But not to build so necessary and important a Truth on meer rational Conjectures, we have a more solid foundation for it, which is Divine Revelation; the Scriptures every-where not only mentioning the Being of Angels, but giving us a clear account of their Creation, of their manifold Apparitions and Discoveries to Men on Earth, together with their several Actions and Operations; All which clearly demonstrate their Existence.

For the first: Their Creation may be gathered, though it be not set down in express terms from the first and second Chapters of Genesis, where they are styl'd the Host of Heaven; an usual Title afforded to all Creatures in Scripture-language, but in a more especial manner appropriated to Angels, as 'tis by the Psalmist, Psal. 148. 2. and most [Page] suitable to them in regard of their great Power and exact Order. And so all Expositors allow it. 'Tis true indeed, there is no such express mention of the Creation of Angels in Moses's Writings, as in those of the other Holy Pen-men; which he omits, not so much, as some would have it, to prevent Idolatry in the Israelites, who, had they known Angels, would have been apt to have ador'd them: as for these two Reasons: 1. Because Moses applies himself to the simple Capacity of that People, and describes the Creation of visible and sensible things, leaving spiritual as above their lower apprehensions; and, 2dly, lest Men should think God needed the help of Angels either in the production or disposition of other Creatures; As if the Fabrick of the World had been too great a Task for Himself alone to undertake, as Heathens and some Hereticks also have fancied, to the manifest derogation of the Divine Omnipotency.

But for what reason soever Moses forbore to speak out here, the Psalmist is plain enough; By the Word of the Lord were the Heavens made, and all the Host of them by the breath of his mouth, Psal. [Page] 33. 6. and clearer yet, Psal. 104. 4. He maketh his Angels spirits, and his Ministers a flaming fire. And whereas our Apostle. v. 4. tells us, That God made the Worlds, Colos. 1. 16. He explains the meaning of that expression by things visible and invisible; and these invisible things by Thrones, Dominions, Principalities V. Grot. in locum. and Powers, the usual Titles Angels are design'd by. So void of all Reason, as well as of Religion, is that bold, or rather impudent, Assertion of the AuthorPart 3. c. 34. of the Leviathan, concerning the Creation of Angels, there is nothing delivered in Scripture.

2. A second proof of the Existence of Angels may be taken from their sundry Apparitions, both before and underV. Bucan. l. 1. p. 77. the Law, and in the first dawning of the Gospel. There is nothing more certain than that under those several Dispensations, especially at the beginning of them, such Apparitions were very frequent. Holy Men in those times had a familiar acquaintance and correspondency with Heaven. 'Twas no news then to see an Angel of God. The Patriarchs scarce convers'd so much with Men as with blessed Spirits. They were [Page] their Guests and their Companions; of their Family and of their Counsel. Nothing of importance was done either at home or abroad without their privity and direction. And he must be a great stranger to the New Testament that finds them not there too very often among the Servants of God. For though God had for a long time withdrawn from the Jews all means of supernatural Revelations, yet at the first publication of the Gospel he began to restore them. 'Twas no marvel, that when that wicked people became strangers to God in their Conversation, God should grow a stranger to them in his Apparitions. But when the Gospel approacht, he visited them afresh with his Angels, before he visited them with his Son. Joseph, Mary, Zachary, the Shepherds, Mary Magdalen, the gazing Disciples at the Mount of Olives, Peter, Philip, Cornelius, St. Paul, St. John the Evangelist, were all blessed with the sight of them. In succeeding times, 'tis also very credible what Ecclesiastical Writers report, That the good Angels were nowhit more sparing of their Presence for the comfort of Holy Martyrs and Confessors, [Page] who suffered for the Name of Christ. I doubt not but Constant Theodorus saw and felt the refreshing hand of the Angel no less than he reported to Julian the Persecutor; Nor do I question but that those retired Saints too of the prime Ages of the Church had sometimes such heavenly Companions for the Consolation of their forced Solitude, as St. Jerome reports of them. But this is evident too, that the elder the Church grew, the more rare was the use of these Apparitions, as of all other Miracles, Actions and Events; not that the Arme of God is shortned, or his Care and Love to his abated, but that his Church being now setled in an ordinary way, has no need of any extraordinary ones, no more than the Israelites Luk. 16. 31 Gal. 1. 8. had of Manna when they were once got out of the Wilderness. Nay, such extraordinary ones now would perhaps be not useless only, but dangerous; and we may justly suspect those strange Relations of the Romanists concerning later Angelical Apparitions to Saints of their own Canonizing, when we see them made use of to countenance Doctrines of Men. And yet notwithstanding [Page] their false play here, 'tis hard to say that all those instances which sober learned Men have given us of Modern Apparitions are utterly incredible. But it has often fallen out indeed that Evil spirits have appeared in this wicked and corrupt Age more than good ones. The frequent experience of later days gives in here its Evidence, and 'tis unreasonable wholly to reject it, there being no other reason but this to doe so, that our selves doe not see what others so peremptorily affirm they did, which were to call in question all that our own Eyes have not been witnesses to; and if we will believe nothing but what we see, we may as well doubt whether there be Souls as Devils. And yet so far as men's Eyes may discern Spirits, they may doe it in those possessed Bodies they usurp. For that such Possessions have been and still are in the World, (though more frequent in our Saviour's time than ours) is as hard to deny as that there are Witchcrafts, which yet many will not allow of; and the Papists would take it ill we should deprive them of this one great Argument to prove the truth of their Doctrines, [Page] who, though they feign Possessions where there are none, and conjure up imaginary Devils that they may have the credit to lay them, yet this is no good reason to say there are no such things at all. And this once granted, as we must needs doe, unless we will contradict all credible sensible Experience, there will be no ground left to dispute the real Being of bad Angels, which is an Argument of equal force to prove that there are good ones.

But then 3dly, What if we do no longer now-a-days see Angels in visible shapes, may we not discover them by their several actions and operations? And do not these necessarily imply the Being of things? Now, besides the Testimony of Scripture, which represents Angels standing, moving, talking, and the like; It is apparent that there are many effects in Nature, which as they cannot be attributed to any natural Causes, unless we will have continual recourse to Miracles, we must of necessity conclude them to be of a higher Efficiency. Those many more than ordinary Tempests, devouring Earthquakes, [Page] firey Inundations and Apparitions, which have been seen and heard of so many, though they may indeed have natural Causes; yet 'tis highly probable that these things are not the ordinary Effects of Nature, but that the Almighty, for the Manifestation of his Power and Justice, may set Spirits, whether good or evil, on work, to do the same things sometimes with more State and Magnificence of horror: As the Frogs of Egypt, ordinarily bred out of putrification and generation, were yet for a plague to that wicked Nation supernaturally also produced. I might instance in sundry miraculous Preservations, whereunto, in all probability, Angels concur. How many have fallen from very high Precipices into deep Pits, past the natural probability of hope, which yet have been preserved not from Death only, but from Hurt? How many have been raised up from deadly Sicknesses, when all natural Helps have given them for lost? God's Angels, no doubt, have been their secret Physicians. Have we had instinctive intimations of the Death of some absent friends, which no humane intelligence [Page] had bidden us to suspect, who but Angels have been our Informers? Have we been kept from Dangers, which our best Providence could neither have foreseen nor diverted, we owe these strange escapes to our invisible Spies and Guardians? And thus Gerson attributes the wonderfull preservation of Infants; from so many perils they usually run into, to the super-intendency of Angels. Indeed where we find a probability of second Causes in Nature, we are apt to confine our Thoughts to them, and look no higher, yet even there many times are unseen Hands. Had we seen the House fall upon the Heads of Job's Children, we should perhaps have ascrib'd it to the natural force of a vehement Blast, when now we know it was the work of a Spirit. Had we seen those Thousands of Israelites falling dead of the Plague, we should have complain'd of some strange infection in the Air, when David saw the Angel acting in that Mortality. When the Israelites forcibly expell'd the Canaanites, nothing appear'd but their own Arms; but the Lord of Hosts could say, I will send mine Angel before [Page] thee, by whom I shall drive them thence, Exod. 33. 2. Nothing appear'd when the Egyptians first-born were struck dead in one night; the Astrologers would perhaps say they were Planetstruck, but 'twas an Angel's hand that smote them. Balaam saw his Ass disorderly starting in the path; He who formerly had seen Visions, now sees nothing but a Wall and a Way; but his Ass (who for the present had more of the Prophet than his Master) could see an Angel and a Sword. Nothing was seen at the Pool of Bethesda but a moved Water, when the sudden Cures were wrought, which perhaps might be attributed to some beneficial Constellation; but the Scripture tells us; that an Angel descended and infused that healing quality into the Water. Elias could see an Army of the Heavenly Host encompassing Him, when Gehezi could not till his Master's Prayers had opened his Eyes. We need not make use of Cardan's Eye-salve to discern Spirits in the Air; our Reason may discover them, though our Eyes cannot; and by the manifest good Effects they produce, we may boldly say, Here hath been an Angel, [Page] though we have not seen Him.

All this may serve to confute the ancientAct. 23. 8. Error of Sadducees, who made Angels to be nothing but good Motions or good Thoughts, turning them into an Allegory, as Hymeneus and Philetus did the Resurrection. And 'tis observed, that they who deny'd Angels, did withall deny a Resurrection, and both upon the same ground; their loose temper which prevails so much with their Successors, inclining 'em to baffle themselves out of the belief of those things whose real Being brings them so little advantage. 'Tis not strange that such men's Senses should swallow up their Faith, since it deprives them of their Reason; though probably such fancies are rather the issues of their Desires, than of their Judgment. Behold here a cloud of Witnesses against them; not Revelation only, but even Sense too, backt with Reason, Authority and Experience of all Ages, and of all Conditions of Men, Good and Bad, Heathens and Christians. If nothing will satisfie their curiosity but a Vision, I must tell them, that the commerce we have with Spirits is not now by the Eye; nor shall [Page] any thing confute their Infidelity but Hell, where to their cost, they shall meet with those Devils, whose company they are here so fond of; and yet their very Infidelity methinks, were they not stupid as well as impious, might serve to rectifie their belief here; which being the unquestionable effect of Satan, is no small evidence of his Existence. I shall not stand to confute them, the Text does it for me; If their Faith be not strong enough, their Eyes to be sure will be too weak to discern Angels; these cannot be the Objects of Sense, since they are Spirits; which points to the first thing exprest here, their Nature.

Spirits.] 'Tis an easier matter toPart. I. Their Nature. prove that there are Angels, than to describe what they are. Spirits have so little affinity with our Natures, that 'tis no marvel, if they exceed our Apprehensions. But this notion suggests so much to us, that they are intellectual Substances, immaterial, incorporeal, and consequently immortal. In all which capacities, most resembling the Almighty, and the fairest Copies of the great [Page] Original of all things. Yet are they not void of all kind of matter, no more than the Soul of Man is; it being peculiar to the Father of Spirits to be one most pure and simple Act; whereas every created Being, though never so refin'd, admits of some dross, some alloy; is compounded either by natural composition, as consisting of matter and form, or at least Metaphysical, of the Act and the Power. Yet so far we may and ought to allow Angels to be immaterial, as not to consist of any corporeal matter, though never so fine and subtle; for this were to destroy the very Nature of a Spirit and our Saviour's argument, whereby he convinced the Disciples that he was no Spirit as they took him for: Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I my self, for a Spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have, Luk. 24. 39. I shall not trouble you with any Philosophical discourse, to prove Angels incorporeal, nor with those tedious and impertinent Niceties of the Schools grounded upon their being so; How Millions of Angels can lodge together in one point, as a Legion of themLuk. 8. 30. did in one Man; How they move in [Page] an instant, and pass from one extream to another, without going through the middle parts, and the like curious matters contributing nothing at all to our edification. Some passages there are indeed in Scripture which at first blush seem to favour the corporeity of Angels, but in effect make nothing for it. As, first, that they have often appeared to Men in visible forms and shapes, and perform'd such actions as are proper to us, as eating, drinking, and the like; All which was by divine Dispensation for a time, the better to accomplish their enjoyn'd Duties. Yet were those Bodies, whereby they perform'd such actions, no other than assum'd ones; they were no part of their Natures, but only as Garments are to us, and were laid aside when there was no farther use of them: which being made of Air, quickly resolv'd into it, and vanisht away as their Meat also did. One passage there is in the 6th of Genesis, which being mistaken, has occasion'd gross conceits in some of the Nature of Angels; 'tis on the second Verse of that Chapter, where 'tis said, That the Sons of God saw the Daughters of Men that they were fair, [Page] and took them Wives of all which they chose. The not understanding of which place has betrayed many, and among those some Ancient Fathers of the Church, as Justin Martyr, Tertullian, V. Crackenthorp. Metaph. p 85, 86. Lactantius, Ambrose, and Sulpitius Severus, into so foul an error, as to conceit, That those Sons of God were no other than Angels, who being enamoured with the Beauty of Women, and defiling themselves with Lust, of Angels became Devils: and which is yet as ridiculous a Paradox, That those Gyants there mention'd were their Off-spring: As if those blessed Angels, who continually behold the Face of God, could be taken with the Beauty of a little varnisht Dust and Ashes; As if Spirits could beget Men, or Holy Spirits wicked Men. Nay, Tertullian Lib. de Veland. Virgin. c. 7. (who as he had greater Parts than most of the Fathers, so had greater Errors too) to establish one Error by another; adds withall, That for this reason the Apostle bids Women be Veil'd in the Church, lest some of the Angels1 Cor. 11. 10. should once more be Captivated by them. Thus does one gross mistake usually draw on another as gross; and the first great one proceeds only [Page] from hence, That in many Copies of the Seventy Interpreters, heretofore the word Angel crept in, as St. Augustine has observ'd. But that those Sons of God were not Angels, but Men, and of the Posterity of Seth, besides the express words of Moses, both St. Cyril andIncubi Succubi. St. Augustine have at large demonstrated. And what some erroneously have fancy'd of the good, others as ridiculously have done of bad Angels, which Aquinas and Fr. Valesius maintain as aPart. 1. Sum. Qu. 51. Art. 3. probable opinion; and accordingly Bellarmine himself is not asham'd to affirm, That Antichrist shall be born of the Devil, and a Woman. (Surely none so fit to be his Father as the Devil, the Father of Lies; nor to be his Mother, as the great Whore in the Revelations.) And therefore one of his Tribe in a book to the like purpose, fraught with no less malice than absurdity, endeavours to prove that Luther was so. But 'tis no marvel that they who hold that Accidents can subsist without their Subjects, should also with equal contradiction to Philosophy, affirm, That Devils can be the Fathers of Men; or they who can paint God the Father in a piece of Arras, [Page] should make Angels corporeal. All this, I say, proceeds from a false apprehension of the Nature of Spirits; and Philastrius ranks such Opinions among his other Heresies, which Wierus at large shows, to be as void of Sense as they are full of evil Consequences. For we find that Heathens, who held the Corporeity of their Deities, did withall render them obnoxious to all those vile Lusts and Impieties, which the most profligate Wretches on Earth were capable of committing, and found opportunity of doing so upon the strength of that prevailing fancy. To which purposeLib. 18. Jud. Antiq. c. 4. I might produce several instances, and among them one famous one, recorded by Josephus of one Paulina, the Wife of Saturninus, in the Reign of Tiberius, a noble, beautifull and vertuous Lady, whom one Dacius Mundus, by the assistance of the Priests of Isis, much abus'd upon such an account. These are the wicked Consequents of drawing Spirits into a participation of our Natures, and then of our Vices. I shall not dwell any longer on this subject, nor trouble my self to satisfie their curiosity, who cannot understand how such [Page] incorporeal Beings can be capable of that punishment by Fire, which the Scripture says shall be their, as well as their associates, portion. Surely no Man ought to question how they can be lyable to such a punishment, that finds a Soul within him troubled with Passion, even while no offence or distemperature ariseth from that corporeal part; nor how such spiritual Beings can be wrought on by material Fire, till he can understand what nature Hell-fire is of. That they shall suffer by it, the Scripture assures us, but how, it tells us not; nor can our best Reason tell us, no more than St. Augustine's could tell him, who plainly here confesses his ignorance. Our care should be not to examine what Hell-fire is, but to avoid it; and though we cannot resolve all those difficulties which arise from the Nature of Angels, yet since the Text here tells us they are Spirits, we must have so much Faith as to believe it, and consequently that they are Immortal; it being impossible that Spirits, as such, should be Mortal, since there can be no internal Cause of their corruption, nor any external physical one: but God, who [Page] as he made them of nothing, can indeedPs. 104. 29. reduce them to nothing. In which respect no Creature is Immortal, none but the great Creator of all things, who alone, as the Apostle tells us, hath immortality, 1 Tim. 6. 16. as eternally subsisting by himself, and by no other. But not to speak of the absolute Power of God; 'tis certain, that as to their Nature, Angels are immortal; and therefore by God's Decree too 'tis said of them that have their share in a blessed Resurrection, that they cannot dye for this reason, because they shall then be [...], as the Angels in Heaven, Luk. 20. 36. And this is a quality as proper to bad as good Angels, who though Devils are still Spirits, and shall remain objects of God's everlasting Justice as the elect Angels of his Love and Mercy. For though they lost their Purity, they can never lose their Nature. All of them then are Spirits, and so by Nature immortal; and those good ones which kept their station,Heb. 9. 5. glorious, Mat. 24. 36. heavenly, and 1 Tim. 5. 21. elect ones, and yet such noble Creatures as these has God design'd for the Ministry of his Saints: The second Particular to be considered.

[Page] Ministring Spirits.] To God himselfPart. II. Their Office. in the first and chiefest place; They are his Creatures, and consequently his Servants. The Psalmist expresly calls them so, Psal. 103. 21. O praise the Lord all ye his Hosts, ye servants of his that doe his pleasure: and Psal. 104. 4. his Ministers. Such they are, and Estius well observes it out of the Text; Non dicit Apostolus, says he, eos mitti in Ministerium hominum, sed propter homines, quod est longè diversum. They are God and Christ's Ministers, but employ'd by them for the procuring and furtherance of the Elects Salvation. So that their Looks and Services are directly levelled towards God, and but glance and reflect from Him upon us. All things, says our Apostle, even Thrones, Dominions, Principalities and Powers, were created as by Him, so for Him, Col. 1. 16. For Him in the first, and for our help and benefit in the second place. And therefore they adore and ascribe glory to him, Esay 6. 3. & Luk. 2. 14. They stand in his presence, ready to execute his Commands; some of them being for this very reason, says a School-man, styl'd Thrones, because they [Page] still attend on God's. Hence the Ark of God's presence was between the two Cherubins, Exod. 25. 22. And as the Psalmist, in allusion to that place, represents Him sitting between them, Psal. 99. 1. so riding and flying upon them, Psal. 18. 10.Dan. 7. 10. in regard of that quick and ready Obedience they perform to his Commands, and to Christ as the Head of his Church, as 'tis ver. 6. Let all the Angels of God worship him. They proclaim'd his Conception, Mat. 1. 20. and his Birth, Luk. 2. 11. They Ministred to Him at his Temptation, Mat. 4. 11. Comforted Him in his Agony, Luk. 22. 43. Waited on Him at his Sepulchre, Mat. 28. 2. At his Resurrection, Mat. 28. Ascension, Act. 1. And give glory to the Lamb now in Heaven, Revel. 5. 11, 12.

But as their chiefest and immediate Services are for God, so by his appointment do they minister to his Elect, to their Bodies and Souls.

1. Their Bodies. These are not without their care; the very dead Bodies of Saints they have a care of, Jude 9. much more of the living. And our Lord deters Men from doing any hurt to his little ones by this argument, that [Page] the Angels of God are appointed for their Guardians, Mat. 18. 10. and when the Psalmist says, There shall no evil befall thee, nor any plague come nigh thy dwelling, Psal. 91. 10. He gives the reason, ver. 11. For he shall give his Angels charge over thee to keep thee in all his ways; They shall bear thee up in theirGen. 24. 7. hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. It is impossible to describe the variety of their assistances to us here below. One while they lead us in our way as they did Israel, another whileGen. 32. they fight for us as they did for Joshua; They purvey for us as for Elias, foretell our danger as to Lot, Joseph and Mary, and free us from it as they did St. Peter, and the three Children; TheyAct. 12. 7. cure our Diseases as at the Pool of Bethesda; They instruct us as they did Daniel and St. John; The Law was given by them, Act. 7. 53. and they were the first Preachers and Publishers of the Gospel, Luk. 1. 31. ch. 2. 10, 11. And1 Pet. 1. 12. as God made them instruments to convey Knowledge to his Church; so by the Ministry of the Church, as it were in requital of that good Office, the manifold Wisdom of God is made known [Page] unto them too, Ephes. 3. 10. Do we run on in our own evil ways, they resist us as they did Moses, Balaam, and St. John, who would have adored them, restraining our presumption as the Cherubin before the Gate of Paradise. Does Satan tempt us to Sin, they rebuke him, and hinder him when he is most busie, as in the case of Joshua the High Priest, Zach. 3. 1. They remove our hindrances from good, and our occasions of evil; mitigate our temptations, comfort us in our sorrows, further us in our good purposes, assist us in our devotions,2 Kin. 2. 11. Luk. 16. 22 Mat. 24. 31 13. 30. 1 Thes. 4. 16. present our prayers and holy performances to God, promote our conversion and rejoyce at it; and as if this life were too narrow a bound for their Charity, they extend it to the next, carrying up our Souls to Heaven, when our Bodies return to the Earth, as they shall gather together the Elect of God at the last day, when those Reapers shall separate the Tares for the fire, and the Wheat for God's barn.

This is their Ministry to the Saints of God. But what need of it, some will say? Is it not the Lord that orderethPsal. 37. 23. all our steps? And have we not [Page] Him for our help who never slumbereth nor sleepeth? Did he need the Ministry of Angels in the Creation of the World? and if not there, why in the Government of it? True indeed, he needed it not, nor does need it, yet is he pleas'd to use it, to manifest and illustrate the Order of his Providence in the conduct of his Creatures, resigning some part of its administration and execution to them, while he reserves the whole authority to himself; Not out of any inability or necessity as Earthly Princes, who make use of others Eyes and Hands in the managing of their affairs, since they cannot be present everywhere but by their Substitutes, but to express his Wisdom in this Order and Power in this subordination and dependence of one Creature on another, and of all upon himself. Nor does that Wisdom more clearly appear any-where than in the choice of those instruments which he has design'd to govern the World under him. The Kings of the Earth do not always observe the strict Rule of Justice in the distribution of Charges and Employments, allowing something to Favour and something to [Page] Passion, setting many times such persons over others as are fitter to be commanded than to command, assigning blind Guides to the more clear-sighted: But the All-wise God disposeth things in a far different manner; He chuses out the noblest, strongest and most enlightned Creatures to guide the meanest, most infirm and least knowing; makes his Angels so many Intelligences, not only to move and turn about the Heavens, but to regulate and steer the motions of all sublunary affairs. So that the Ministry of Angels is so far from extenuating, that it very much extolls the Goodness and Greatness of the Almighty towards us, in the execution of his high and holy Providence. It adds to God's glory, and to the honour of Angels themselves to be employ'd by him in so many good and great Affairs; It advances the order and beauty of the Universe, while no creature in it is idle; It begets a greater and more strict friendship between Men and Angels, and affords us strong Consolation in having such a powerfull and mighty Protection.

[Page]For these and the like reasons it seems good to the Almighty to use the Ministry of Angels; and as they are most zealous for his glory and the good of Mankind, especially since 'tis reconcil'd to God by Christ, so is there not one amongst them but is most willing here to be employ'd. All of them, says the Text, are Ministring spirits. It has been a question much disputed, whether every one Man have a particular Angel for his Guardian. I find several of the Ancient Fathers, most of the School-men, and some Protestant Divines on the affirmative. And were this the worst opinion of the Romanists, we should not quarrel much with them, since some passages of Scripture seem to favour it. Whether this be so or no, I shall not here undertake to determine, nor indeed need I. For to what purpose were it to prove that every Man has a peculiar Angel assign'd him, when we are here and elsewhere so clearly told that all of them do serve every one of us, while we serve and obey God. He hath given his Angels charge over thee, says the Psalmist in the fore-cited Psal. 91. 10. i. e. many Angels over one particular [Page] Man. And as we find more than one appointed to carry Lizarus's Soul into Heaven, Luk. 16. 22. so sometimes we reade of one Angel attending many Men, as in the case of Israel in the expulsion of the Canaanites and Amorites, Gen. 24. 7. and at other times of many Angels attending one Man; as in that of Jacob, Gen. 32. 1, 2. and of Elisha, 2 King. 6. 17. 'Tis not for us to limit the Almighty, nor to retrench that guard He has assign'd us. While we have an heavenly Host aboutMat. 18. 10 us, why should we content our selves with one single Assistant? And when we are certain of their protection, why should we dispute their Number? And as it may seem some scanting of the bountifull provision of the Almighty, who is pleas'd to express his gracious respects to one Man in the allotment of many Guardians; so a Platonick piece of Divinity in the School-men, to reduce them to one single one, for each individual person.

But to let this pass as an innocent, though perhaps erroneous Opinion, their conceit of an exterior and interior Mission, whereby some are said to illuminate others, and fit them for their [Page] several Charges, but never to stir abroad themselves, may justly, in St. Paul'sCol. 2. 18. expression, be styl'd an intruding into things which they have not seen nor can see, and is indeed no better than a flat contradiction to the Text, which tells us, That All, none excepted, are Ministring spirits, to serve the necessity of God's Elect ones. These blessed Spirits know no such state, as to think it a disparagement to wait on the meanest Saint. When God sends them, the best of them go, be the errant never so slender. They measure not their Obedience by the lowness of their employment, but the Will of him that employs them, thinking no message beneath their Dignity, which God is pleas'd to put them upon. The highest Angel does not esteem himself too good toMat. 20. 28 obey his Commands in the lowest instances of Obedience. And since the Son of God came down on Earth to minister to Men, no Arch-angel will deem it an abasement unbefitting him to serve them. The measures of humane Grandeur are not to be apply'd to that of Heaven, where every abasement (if there can be any such thing in doing [Page] God's Will) is Exaltation. Let us then imitate them in their humble submissions to their Maker; but then let our Prudence be as Angelical as our Humility; if that teaches us to go when God sends us, this should teach us also not to stir or act till he sends us; which leads me from their Office to their Commission, They are sent.

The very name Angel signifies a Messenger,Part. III. Their Commission. and consequently implies a subordination and dependence on some superior Being that employs him. 'Tis a name of Office, not of Nature; This belongs to him as he is a Spirit, That, as he is an Agent. God is the supreme cause and disposer of all things, Angels but his instruments. They act not but by his Commission; nor do they run, till he sends them. The Heavenly Host do nothing without Orders from their General, and, like the Centurion's Souldiers in the Gospel, go and come when he bids them. He gives his Angels charge, Psal. 91. 11 says the Psalmist, and as his Ministers Ps. 103. 21. they doe his pleasure; not their own, ours much less; They are not our Familiars. And though their Help be [Page] more powerfull, yet is it not more absolute than that of other means, since it dependeth still on the Will of God too; and what-ever Message they deliver, or Commands they execute, 'tis that Will still that gives them Motion and Authority. And therefore when St. Stephen says the Law was receivedActs 7. 53. by the disposition of Angels, we must not fancy them to be Authors of it, but only the Heralds. 'Twas Christ that gave, these did but publish it. The Law was ordained by Angels, but still in the hand of a Mediator, Gal. 3. 19. The Ministry was indeed of Angels, but the Authority of Christ. And therefore Junius renders those words, Act. 7. 53. You have received the Law in the midst of the ranks of Angels, i. e. among them, attending God, when he delivered it. Thither then they came only to assist at the Ceremony, not as Law-givers, but Attendants, That being a Title peculiar to the one great Law-giver, who gives Laws as well to Angels as to Men. These they constantly observe; and if we doe so, they shall be Ministring spirits to us, for their Employment lasts still, and the word [...] a Particle [Page] of the Present tense implies it: Thus as they are God's Ministers, they shall still be ours too, if we be God's Servants, and consequently heirs of Salvation: The last Particular.

Who shall be heirs of Salvation.] i. e. ToPart. IV. The End or Design of their Ministry. those that shall one day possess, what they now doe certainly expect and wait for. They who are already in Heaven, need not the assistance of Angels, being themselves, though not Angels, yet like them, and equally happy in the fruition of the same God. Their Ministry is necessary to bring us thither, but ceases when we are there. They are our Guides here, There they shall be our Companions. Nor are their Services design'd but for those whom God has chosen out of the rest of lost Mankind to fill up the void places of Apostate Spirits. For as Christ himself is by our Apostle styl'd the Saviour of all Men, but in an especial manner of those that believe: So may Angels be said to be, in some sort, Ministring spirits to Mankind, but with a reserve to those who are God's chosen Vessels. Those may possibly have their common [Page] protection, but their particular attendance is on these. For as the Almighty makes his Sun to shine as well upon the just as the unjust, and sometimes more gloriously on the latter than the former; so is it in the Ministry of Angels, from which even wicked Men may reap a general benefit, in some instances more perhaps of an external help and assistance than the good, while the best of their Offices are reserved for the best. We know, that whosoever stept down first into the Pool of Siloam, wasJoh. 5. 8. cured, whether good or bad; and the Angels brought down Manna in the Wilderness to the rebellious, as well asPsal. 78. 25. to the obedient Israelites. These are favours scattered promiscuously on all; which God is pleas'd to deal out to all Men by the hands of his Ministers, the Angels. But they come not down on the Ladder, but to his Jacobs; nor rescue any out of the spiritual Sodom, but his Lots. Nor did the Almighty ever design them to be Ministers for goodPsal. 91. 12. Mat. 18. 10 to any but the Righteous: Over them he gives his Angels charge, and They are styl'd Their Angels, with an Emphasis; and, Psal. 34. 7. The Angel of the [Page] Lord tarrieth round about them that fear 2 Tim. 2. 10. him, and delivereth them. And, as our Apostle, endured all things for the Elect sake; so doe the Angels doe all for them: To this purpose 'tis observed, That God never speaks by his Angels, but he puts some character on those he speaks to; as such as fear the Lord, are heirs of Salvation, and the like. And this is so true, that if wicked Men enjoy any good in this life by the Angels, 'tis for the Elect's sake they doe so. I will bless them that bless thee, says God to Abraham, Gen. 12. 3. Even Reprobates fare the better here for the Saints. God sometimes gratifies his Children with the Temporal preservation of the wicked, as he did St. Paul with the Lives of those Infidels that were in the Ship with him, Act. 27. 24. and Lot with all that were in Zoar. The Jews have a Saying, Absque stationibus non staret Orbis; The Prayers of God's People uphold the World. The Holy Seed are Statumen Terrae, Esay 6. 13. with David, They bear up the Pillars of the Earth. Hippo could not be taken, while St. Augustine lived; nor Sodom destroy'd, while Lot was in it. And St. Ambrose is said to have been [Page] the Wall of Italy. And therefore 'tis ill policy, as well as impiety, in any to wrong the Saints of God, much more to endeavour to root them out of the World, as Heathen Persecutors did. Wherein they resembled the Stag in the Emblem, that by feeding on those Leaves which hid him from the Hunter, did but betray themselves to his fury; and, Sampson-like, by pulling down those Pillars, brought the house upon their own heads. Were it not for the Elect, God would make a short work in the Earth, and no flesh should be saved.Rom. 9. 28. Every Angel of his would then be a destroying one; so that whether they preserve or punish the wicked 'tis still in order to the Salvation of those who shall be the heirs of it.

And now what remains, but that while we behold God's Angels ascending and descending, we make their Ladder ours too, to mount up to God, who sits at the top of it, and employs them for our good, and with them give him the glory of those his benefits, which they convey unto us: For all the helps and assistances they afford us, [Page] are nothing without his. And therefore when God promised Moses that an AngelExod. 33. should go before Israel, but withall threatned them with the subduction of his own Presence; I marvel not if that Holy Man were no less troubled, than if they had been left destitute and guardless; and that he ceased not his importunity, till he had won the gratious Engagement of the Almighty for his Presence in that whole Expedition. For what is the greatest Angel in Heaven without his Maker? Or what are their Services to us, if his Favour go not along with them? Let him then have the chiefest glory who is the Author of them. The Psalmist directs us to this duty; For no sooner had he said, Psal. 34. 7. The Angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him: but he adds in the following Verse, O tast and see how gratious the Lord is; To let us know whom we are beholding to for all the good Angels doe us, and to whom we are to pay our Thanks.

Yet while we pay the main tribute of our Thanks to God, he is content we should have a respect too for his Ambassadors. They are to be honoured [Page] for his sake, and next to him that sends them. Nor can any Reverence be too high, which diminishes not of that we owe to our common Maker. We ought to be willing to give them so much as they will be willing to take from us. If we go beyond these bounds, we offend them, as much as St. John did, when he would have ador'd them. TheRev. 19. 10 excess of Respects to them, have turn'd to abominable Impiety; which, however St. Hierome seems to impute to the Jews ever since the Prophet's time; yet Simon Magus was the first that we find guilty of this impious flattery of the Angels; who fondly holding that the World was made by them, could not think fit to present them with less than divine Honour. And near a-kin to these were the Angelici of old, who professing true Christianity and Detestation of Idolatry (as having learn'd that God only was to be worshipped properly,) yet reserved a certain kind of lesser Adoration to the Angels. Against this opinion and practice, the Apostle seems to bend his style in his Epistle to the Colossians, forbidding a voluntary humility in worshipping of Angels, whether [Page] grounded upon the superstition of ancient Jews, as St. Hierome; or the Ethnick Philosophy of some Platonicks, as Estius imagines; or the damnable Precepts of the Simonians and Cerinthians, as Tertullian, we need not enquire. Nothing is more clear than the Apostle's Inhibition, nor more evident than the Papists direct opposition to that Inhibition, who are no less guilty of the same voluntary humility than they were, who thought it too much boldness to come immediately to God, without making their way to his favour by the Mediation of Angels; which whether it be not justly to be charged on Papists, let any sober Man judge. Surely as the Good Angels deserve our Reverence, so do they not desire our Adoration. The Evil Angels indeed still required it, and the Devil begg'd it of Christ, that he would fall down and worship him, Mat. 4. 9. but the Good refuse it, Revel. 19. 10. And therefore St. Bernard is too liberal, when he tells us, we owe to the Good spirits Reverence for their Presence, Devotion for their Love, and Trust for their Custody. The former indeed we doe, and we come short of our Duty to them, [Page] if we entertain not in our Hearts a high and venerable conceit of their wonderfull Majesty, Glory and Greatness, and such a reverential awe of their Presence, as to doe nothing which may offend them. Take heed that ye despise not these Exod. 23. 21. little ones, says our Lord, for their Angels are with my Father in Heaven. They may perhaps forgive us, these will not. And therefore we shall doe well to consider whether they who behold the face of God, will endure to look upon us (much less to assist us) when we doe that which makes God turn his face from us. We are a spectacle to Angels as well as Men, 1 Cor. 4. 9. They are observers and witnesses of all our Actions, but especially of our religious Duties. And for this Luk. 1. 10, 11. cause ought the Woman to have power on her head, because of the Angels, says St. Paul, 1 Cor. 11. 10. While Zachary and the People were praying, he sees an Angel of God; who, as Gideon's Angel went up in the smoak of the Sacrifice, came down in the fragrant smoak of his Incense too. Those glorious Spirits are indeed always with us, but most in our Devotions; They rejoyce to be with us, while we are with our God; nor will they any [Page] longer be with us, than while we are with Him; while we keep in his ways, they will keep us safe; if we go out of his Precincts, we forfeit their Protection: They will certainly leave us, when we forsake God; and when the Good ones go from us, the Evil will come to us, as in Saul's case: And therefore, to prevent1 Sam. 16. the coming of the bad, let us be sure to make the good ones our friends; which we shall best doe, by being like them, by imitating them in their Obedience, as our Saviour bids us, in their PurityMat. 6. 10. and Humility, as also in their Charity, by ministring to others, though never so mean, as they doe to us, who are so much below them, that so we may be the true heirs of Salvation; be sure of their Protection here, and enjoy their Society hereafter. Which God of his infinite Mercy grant for his sake, who is the Angel of the Covenant, &c. Amen.

Soli Deo gloria in aeternum.

A SERMON Preached on All-saints-day.

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COLOS. I. 12.‘Giving thanks unto the Father which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light.’

SAint John reflecting on the Honour and Dignity of God's Children, is so affected with that very Thought, that in a Divine Rapture he breaks forth, Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the Sons of God! 1 Joh. 3. 1. And [Page] then describing the future happiness that Relation should entitle us to, he does it in such terms as shew it unconceivable, ver. 2. We are now, says he, the Sons of God, but it doth not yet appear what we shall be. In like manner St. Paul speaking of the Joys above, describes them Negatively; telling us rather what they are not, than what they are: Eye hath not seen, nor Ear heard, neither have entred into the Heart of Man the things which God hath prepared far them that love him, 1 Cor. 2. 9. That is, they exceed the apprehension not only of humane Sense, but Understanding.

Now if any could have given us an exact description of those things, then surely these two Apostles: For since Heaven did as it were come down to the one in Visions and Revelations; and the other went up thither, having been caught up into it: Who fitter than these Persons to display the Glories of that Place which themselves had seen? And yet we see the only account they give, or indeed could give us of them, is but this, That they are unaccountable; not to be reacht by Thought, nor to be known but by Enjoyment.

[Page]But how obscure soever or inexpressible those Glories appear to such as expect them; This is certain, that they are reserved and laid up in a sure place for as many as God shall account worthy of them. An Estate they have in Reversion, though now incapable of its actual Possession, during their minority. They are Heirs apparent of Salvation, Heb. 1. 14. even in this their nonage, and are as sure of Heaven as if they were already in it. For it is their certain Inheritance. Yet, lest any should wax proud of their Title, they are to remember, that they owe it not to themselves, but to the mere goodness of their Heavenly Father, who both gives them the thing it self and their capacity for it. Gives them Heaven, and makes Heavenly too, and therefore may justly challenge their most hearty acknowledgment of so great a Mercy; which is that the Apostle requires of these Colossians, That they should give thanks to the Father, who had made them meet to be partakers of the Inheritance of the Saints in light.

So that we have in these words,

1. A Description of the future Happiness of God's Children, consisting of two Particulars:

1. That it is their Inheritance.

2. An Inheritance in light.

2. The Persons who are the true Heirs and Proprietaries thereof, The Saints.

3. The Manner of its Conveyance to them, and that is, by Freegift; It descends not to them by any natural succession, nor is it the fruit of their own pains or purchase; But 'tis God the Father that makes them both Partakers, and meet Partakers thereof.

4. Lastly, Here is a Duty on their part to be performed, arising from so high an Obligation, That since the Father had been so bountifull in bestowing on them so goodly an Inheritance, they should not fail to be thankfull to Him for it, Giving thanks, &c.

These be the Parts, whereof briefly in their order; And, first, of the Inheritance it self, with the Nature and Condition thereof, An Inhertaince in light.

[Page] An Inheritance, [...] in the Singular, [...] There is it seems but one common Inheritance, as but oneJude 3. common Salvation, wherein all God's Saints are Heirs in solidum. And let not this trouble any of them. For Heaven is big enough and God sufficient for All. There, not the Elder Brother is the only Heir, and goes away with the Inheritance, when many times the younger are Beggars; but we shall All be Heirs and Co-heirs with Christ. Earthly Inheritances are indeed impaired and lessened by being parcelled out; But this Inheritance in light, like light, loseth nothing by being communicated to All, wherein every one shall have his Part, and that Part shall be his All. Each vessel of honour shall be filled up, it shall have as much as it can hold, and that is as much as it shall desire. All shall shine as stars in the Kingdom of their Father, though with different lustre, As one star differeth from another star in glory; 1 Cor. 15. 41. Joh. 14. 2. All shall be in their Father's house, but in several Mansions, and with several Portions assigned them. Which difference shall be so far from abating, [Page] that it shall increase their mutual Glory, when none shall complain that another hath too much and himself too little; when each other's share shall be his own, and more his own for being another's; so that he shall be glorified in that very glory wherein his fellow Saint shall outshine him, and his own Crown for this reason be brighter, because his Neighbour's shall be so.

And as this Inheritance here is but one, so is it a durable one. That very name speaks a lasting Title. What comes thus unto us we look upon as our own, and our own for ever. And indeed without Propriety, and that perpetual, all we have or enjoy is nothing. We are at best but usu-fructuaries, not true Possessors. Glorious things are spoken of Psal. 87. 3. the City of God, and we may say of them what the Queen of Sheba said of the Glory of Solomon's kingdom, that the half thereof is not told us. But surely1 Kin. 10. 7. among those many glorious things spoken of it, nothing is more glorious than this; That it is a City which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God, Heb. 11. 10. And that in Heaven we have an house not made with hands, 2 Cor. 5. 1. [Page] but eternal. An House that shall last as long as its Builder, and whose Inhabitants shall last as long as both, and dwell therein for ever. For what would all the Glories of Heaven be to us, if we had no other advantage but what Solomon says worldly men have of their riches, to behold them with our eyes. Eccles. 5. 11. What should we be the better for them, if we might never enjoy them, and have no right to the place where they are to be found? What is a Kingdom to him to whom it belongs not? Or a Crown of glory to that man whose head shall never wear it? Had we such a sight of all the kingdoms of the world and of the glory of them as the Devil shewed our Saviour, but withall as little right to any part of them as that Tempter could give Him; That glittering sight might perhaps dazle our eyes, but never raise any other passion in us, than that of Envy towards them who should enjoy them. And thus it would be with us as to the kingdom of Heaven. To behold this spiritual Canaan afar off without any hope of ever possessing it, to view it as another's Countrey, not our own; would be but such a sad and [Page] melancholy prospect as the rich man had when he saw Lazarus in Abraham's bosom, or as our Lord gave the Jews, when he told them, that they should see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and all the Prophets in the kingdom of God, when they themselves should thence be thrust out, Luk. 13. 28. There is no true satisfaction to be had in any thing wherein we have no Interest, no lasting Propriety. Without this, Heaven it self would be a Hell to us, as it is to the Damned. But 'tis the peculiar advantage and comfort of God's Saints, that they can look upon it, even while here below, as their Inheritance; Christ hath entail'd it upon them, Matt. 25. 34. Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you. They have his word for it, which is as sure to them as Free-hold.

II. But what kind of Inheritance is prepared for them? The Text tells us, 'Tis an Inheritance in light, and that in opposition to another sort of Inheritance (if I may so call it) styled in the following Verse the power of darkness, Vers. 13. yea and Darkness it self, Act. 26. 18. As that which lies in darkness, is maintained [Page] and upheld by it, and shall bring men, without repentance into outer darkness, into the blackness of darkness Jude 13. for ever. From which dismal state the godly being delivered, are said to be called out of darkness into God's marvellous light, 1 Pet. 2. 9. Out of the darkness of ignorance (the natural state of man) into the light of the glorious Gospel Eph. 4. 18. 2 Cor. 4. 4. of Christ, which will at last bring them to that of eternal glory. So that the Inheritance here is an Inheritance in light in two respects: 1. In respect of the light of Faith, and the knowledge of God, which englightens us in this life. And 2dly, In respect of that light of Glory which shall adorn and crown us in the next. We have here the outward light of the Word before us, and the inward light of the Spirit within us; And if we walk in these lights as children of the light, we have a promise of shining forth hereafter as the Sun in the kingdom of our Father, Matt. 13. 43. Both which lights are in effect but one; That of Faith, a light in part; and that1 Cor. 13. 12. of Glory, a full and perfect light. For Grace is nothing else but the dawning of Glory; They differ not in substance, [Page] but in degree, no otherwise than as light in the Sun when it first peeps out above our Horizon, from that of the same Sun when it is in its Vertical point, shining out in its full strength. Both these lights, I say, of Faith and Glory, make up but one great united Light. And therefore 'tis [...] in the Text, An Inheritance not in lights, but in light; There being but one Light, as there are but one sort of Inheriters thereof, The Saints.

For who fit to partake of this glorious unspotted light, but they who are so themselves? or, who have a proper right to this Inheritance, but the Children of the most Highest? Psal. 82. 6. So St. Paul argues, Rom. 8. 17. If Children, then Heirs, Heirs of God, and joint Heirs with Christ; Heirs of God indeed, but through Christ, Gal. 4. 7. Holding their Inheritance in Capite, in the right of Him, who is the Heir of all things, Heb. 1. 2. He the natural Heir, They but adopted ones, Rom. 8. 15. But still in Him, Ephes. 1. 5. Having predestinated us unto the Adoption of Children by Christ Jesus unto himself. Whence they claim the Inheritance by promise also. [Page] For being Christ's, says the same Apostle, they become Abraham's seed, and Heirs according to the promise, Gal. 3. 23. And so Heb. 9. 15. They receive the Promise of an eternal Inheritance. Not that they have not the Promise also of temporal Inheritances: (For Godliness hath the Promise of the life that now is as well as of that which is to come, 1 Tim. 4. 8.) But because the Heavenly is setled only upon them, whereas Temporal Inheritances may, and do, fall to their share, and that in large Proportions, who have neither part nor lot in the Heavenly. I have blessed Ismael, says God, Twelve Princes shall he beget, but my Covenant will I establish with Isaac, Gen. 17. 20, 21. Esau had the like Temporal blessing as Jacob had, But not with a, God give thee the Dew of Heaven, Gen. 27. 28. God gives gifts unto men, even to the rebellious, Psal. 68. 18. Common, giftless gifts; But the Inheritance, and, to abide in his house for ever, is for the Children, Joh. 8. 35. Nor will these be put off, or sent away, with a few gifts, as the sons of Abraham's Concubines were; nothing less will content them than the Inheritance it self. [Page] The Children of this world indeed have Gen. 25. 6. their Portion in this life, and they are satisfied with it; This is our Portion, and our Lot is this, say they, Wisedom 2. 9. But the Children of light, and of a better world, reckon otherwise, The Lord himself is the Portion of mine Inheritance, says David, Psal. 16. 6. They are fellow Citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem, Ephes. 2. 19. Their [...] their Burgeship, is there; They live accordingPhil. 3. 20. to the Laws of Heaven, and, even while on Earth, enjoy the Priviledges thereof; being even now Heirs of a kingdom, Jam. 2. 5. The wise that shall inherit Glory, Prov. 3. 35. Heads destinated to a Diadem, in Tertullian's expression, which their Heavenly Father hath prepared for, and will at last put upon them, who alone too makes them fit to wear it, meet to be Partakers of the Inheritance of the Saints in light.

III. How differently soever the Children of God may share in the same Inheritance; This is certain, that every one's share therein shall be the Gift of his Heavenly Father. The word [...] here imports it; The Apostle alluding [Page] to the Division of the Land of Canaan, (a Type of Heaven,) which God had appointed to be done by lot, wherein Himself we know had the main hand; according to that of Solomon, Prov. 16. 33. The lot is cast into the lap, but the whole disposition thereof is of the Lord. Thus it was in the Choice of Matthias to the Apostleship, Act. 1. And thus it is as to our share in the Inheritance of Glory; It falls to us by lot, by the disposition of God the Father; we have no part here but what he gives us. And if so, then no merit of Condignity, nor so much as of Congruity, can be pleaded by us.

And truly one would think it were sufficient to partake of the Inheritance, without making out our own Title to it; That we might be content to be Heirs, without coming in as Purchasers; or, if we will needs be so, to be Purchasers on Christ's score, and not our own. But this is too low and mean for some men, who come with Counters in their hand, ready to reckon with God, to shew Him how much he is in their debt, and who stick not to tell Him to his face, that He is an unjust Master, [Page] if he pay them not their due wages.

But, 1. Our Lord Himself hath told us, That God is beforehand with us; That whatsoever we can doe is due from us to Him; That when we shall have done all those things which are commanded us, we must say, that we are unprofitable servants, and have done but that which was our duty to doe; Luk. 17. 10. And then what merit can there be in paying just debts?

And, 2. St. Paul hath told us, That we can doe no good thing without Him too, who worketh in us both to will and to doe of his good pleasure, Phil. 2. 13. So that He crowns His own gifts in us, and rewards not our deservings.

Besides, 3. Our goodness extendeth not to God, says David, Psal. 16. 2. And being unusefull, how can it be meritorious? Nay, our best works are so imperfect and so sinfull too, that the utmost they can expect is but a Pardon, and not a Reward; And were they never so good and perfect, yet what proportion can they bear to such a Reward as an Inheritance in light? Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, to a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory? [Page] 2 Cor. 4. 17. where we must not let pass an elegant Antithesis; For Affliction there is Glory; For Light affliction, a Weight of glory; And for Momentary affliction, an Eternal weight of glory; to shew the vast disproportion between these things; so vast, that even Martyrdom it self (the highest, utmost proof of our love to God) is, in St. Paul's account, nothing in comparison of that Glory we expect; For I reckon, says he, that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us; Rom. 8. 18.

IV. And lastly, The very word Inheritance excludes all Purchase on our part. For this were to renounce Succession, to cast off all Filial Duty and Affection, not to own our selves Sons, but mercenary Purchasers; yea, and Purchasers of an Inheritance already purchased for us by Christ, and for his sake freely bestowed upon us by our Heavenly Father out of His own pure Goodness and Bounty, to which alone we must ascribe it. For we all (the best of us) have sinned, and come short [Page] of the glory of God, Rom. 3. 23. And we are told, ch. 6. 23. that, The wages of sin (our proper wages) is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. The Apostle might have said (and indeed the Antithesis or Opposition there seem'd to require it) But the wages of Righteousness is eternal life; But he altered the Phrase on set-purpose, and chose rather to say, The gift of God is eternal life; That we might from this change of the Phrase learn, That although we procure Death unto our selves, yet 'tis God that bestows eternal life on us; That as He hath called us to his kingdom and glory, 1 Thess. 2. 12. so he gives that glory and that kingdom for no other reason but because, He is pleased so to doe; It is your Father's good pleasure, for into God the Father's good pleasure Christ resolves it, to give you a kingdome, Luk. 12. 32. No merit, nor so much as any good disposition in us for it; He propares it for us, Matt. 20. 23. And he prepares us for it too here in the Text, by making us meet to be partakers thereof.

For what meetness could he find in us for such an Inheritance? Title to it we have none, being by nature the Children [Page] of wrath and disobedience, Eph. 2. 2, 3. Mere Intruders here and Usurpers, The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and we, the violent take it by force, Mat. 11. 12. Qualifications proper for it we have none too; That, An Inheritance in light, we, darkness; That, An Inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away, 1 Pet. 1. 4. we corruptible, polluted, and still decaying. [...]—cries out our Apostle, We are not sufficient, not fit (for the word signifies either) as of our selves, but our sufficiency, or fitness, (call it which you will) is of God, 2 Cor. 3. 5. 2 Pet. 1. 4. who as He makes us Partakers of his divine Nature, so meet Partakers of the divine Inheritance, not by pouring out the divine Essence, but by communicating to us those divine Qualities which will fit and prepare us for the Sight thereof; by putting light into our Understandings and holiness into our Wills, without which no man shall see the Lord, Heb. 12. 14. By cleansing our hearts, and washing our hands, that so we may ascend into the hill of the Lord, dwell and rest in his Tabernacle, Psal. 15. 24. He gives us Faith, and with that a Prospect of our [Page] Inheritance; and He gives us Hope, and with that an Interest therein; And, to summ up all in one, He gives us his Holy Spirit, the earnest of that Inheritance, Eph. 1. 14. who worketh all our works in us, writes his laws in our hearts, and byEsay 26. 12. Jer. 31. 33. softning, makes them capable of his divine Impressions: In short, That divine Spirit, which by Regenerating makes us new Creatures, and so fit Inhabitants for the new Jerusalem, calling us first to Vertue, and then to Glory: to that, as the Way; to this, as the End, 2 Pet. 1. 3.

2. But besides this divine Operation, we need divine Acceptation also, whereby we may be accounted worthy of the Kingdom of God, our Inheritance, 2 Thess. 1. 5. For all our works and graces here being imperfect, can never capacitate us for it without God's gratious Acceptance. And therefore [...] saith St. Chrysost. here. 'Tis God's [...] not our [...] his dignifying of us, not our own dignity, that renders us worthy. And, [...] He makes us accepted in the Beloved, Eph. 1. 6. And when the Saints of God are said to be worthy to walk with Christ in white, Rev. 3. 4. 'tis because He casts [Page] his garment of Righteousness about them; and if their good Works (which yet are but God's own gifts) weigh down, 'tis because He puts his grains of Allowance into the Scale.

But what need all this, either Divine Operation or Acceptation, to make us meet partakers of the Inheritance in light, may the Enemies of God's Grace here say? What need we go farther than our selves and our own Nature for it? For Pelagius will tell us, That we are in as good a condition now as Adam himself was before his Fall; Our Faculties the same, as strong and as able as ever; Our Understandings as clear to discern, and our Wills as free to chuse good and evil; That all the harm our first Parent did us, was but to give us a bad Example, which 'tis our fault if we will follow, and since our Happiness depends on our selves, that we are to blame our selves, if we miss of it. And although some have thought this too gross to make Man the sole Author of his own Fate, yet they have very little mended the matter, by so parting stakes between God and him, that they still allow the latter the better share in the work [Page] of his Salvation. For they deny all preventing Grace (the proper mark of a Semi-Pelagian) although they are pleased to grant a concurrent and subsequent one on God's part to enable him to doe his work with more ease and sureness, which otherwise would cost him more pains and hazard. However they so far agree with Pelagius, as to place this meetness for the Inheritance in Man himself, putting it into his own power to dispose himself to his Conversion by an Act of his own Free-will, antecedent to God's Grace. A piece of Heathen Divinity borrowed from Seneca and Tully. For Seneca in a Stoical brag could say, That we live, is from God; but that we live well, is from our selves. And, This is the Judgment of all Mankind, says Tully; That Prosperity is to be sought of Cicero de Nat. Deor. God, but Wisdom to be taken up from our selves. On which Saying of his, St. Augustine passes this Judgment, That by making August. de Civit. Dei, lib. 5. Men free, he made them sacrilegious. For what greater Sacriledge than to rob God of his Power to convert us, or at least to let him go but as a sharer with as therein? When, as to the first Act of our Conversion, we are as purely [Page] passive as to that of our Creation or Resurrection. We cannot create our selves, and, being dead in trespasses and sins, no more raise up our selves to a spiritual, than to a natural life: No, God must convert us, that we may be converted: Turn thou us unto thee, O Lord, and we shall be turned, says the Prophet Jeremy, Lament. 5. 21. & Jer. 31. 18. Nay, The very preparations of the heart in Man are from the Lord, says Solomon, Prov. 16. 1. And, It is God who worketh in us both to will and to doe, says St. Paul, Phil. 2. 13. We cannot come to Christ, except the Father draw us, Joh. 6. 44. Nor when we are drawn to Him, doe any thing without Him; Himself plainly telling us so, Joh. 15. 5. Without me ye can doe nothing; He does not say a little, but nothing. God must prevent and follow us with his Grace, plant good inclinations in us, and nurse them up too. He hath chosen us in Christ before the Foundation of the World, that we should be Holy, Ephes. 1. 4. not that we were so before he chose us. He chose us first too, Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, Joh. 16. 15. 1 Joh. 4. 10. He chose us also out of his own love, and then loved us for [Page] his choice, and made us Holy by his very chusing us. No Prevision of our Faith or Good Works, but his own free Goodness and Mercy determined his choice; He found us not meet to partake of the Inheritance, but made us so, says the Text; Could we make our selves meet, we might thank our selves and not the Father, as the Apostle here exhorts the Corinthians and us to do, in the last place.

Giving thanks to the Father, or, as some Translations have it, To God the Father. God is content we should have the Benefit upon this easie and pleasant condition, that we give Him the glory of his Blessings. And surely he that grudgeth Him so little for so much, deserves not the continuance, much less the increase of any of them. Still to partake of the streams of the divine Bounty, and never to bless, not so much as to mind the Fountain; still to be receiving and never returning, argues an ingratitude as void of all Ingenuity as of Piety. Rivers pay their Tribute to that Ocean from whence they flow, unto the place from whence they come, thither they return, Eccles. 1. 7. Nature teaching us to make our Returns thither, from whence we derive [Page] our Benefits. Praise and Thanksgivings are the Reflection of God's glory upon Himself; the constant employment of Saints in Heaven, and most becoming those on Earth, who hope to share with them in their Inheritance; so that of all others it becometh most the Just to be thankfull, Psal. 33. 1. And indeed it is not only a becoming thing, a piece of Decency this, but of Justice. For Thanks are a Debt we must always be paying to God; A Rent our great Landlord requires and indents for, the omission whereof will forfeit our Tenure. Offer unto God thanksgiving—and call upon me in the time of trouble; so will I hear thee, and thou shalt praise me, Psal. 50. 14, 15. But then let us be sure to be thankfull to Him, and to none besides Him, since He is the only Author of all our Good. For to misplace our Thanks here, would be as bad as to deny them; Nay, to pay this our Rent to a wrong Landlord, worse than not to pay it at all to the right one. God will by no means give this his Glory to another, nor suffer any to share with Him in our Thanks, since from Him alone we receive All those Thanks are due for. We must then give [Page] them to God alone, and to God the Father, as some Translations have it; not excluding the other Persons in the Trinity, but chiefly directing our Thanks to Him; who as He is the Fountain of the Deity, and of all operations in the Divine Nature, so of all our gifts and graces too, Every good and every perfect gift (whether of Nature, Grace or Glory) coming down to us from the Father of lights, Jam. 1. 17. especially the Inheritance in light, which is so peculiarly his gift, that our Saviour appropriates it to Him, telling his Apostles, Mat. 20. 23. That it is not his to give, but the Father's. Hence that Blessing of St. Paul, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ, Ephes. 1. 3. directing his Thanks to Him as the Original of all our Blessings, whether Temporal or Spiritual. Now of these two sorts, the latter being far the greatest, our Thanks for them ought to be so too. We are to thank God then, 1. That He hath made us partakers, and 2. meet partakers of the Inheritance in light. First I say, That He hath made us partakers of so glorious an Inheritance [Page] as that in light, it being nothing less than his very self, who is Essential 1 Joh. 1. 5. light, and who dwelleth in that light, which no Man can approach unto, 1 Tim. 6. 16. A rich and a glorious Inheritance indeed, fitEph. 1. 18. for the Majesty and Mercy of an Almighty God to bestow, the unvaluable Bloud of his Son to purchase, and the dearly beloved of his Soul to enjoy. How thankfull ought we then to be for being made partakers of such an Inheritance, as is as far above those here below, as Heaven is above the Earth, or God above All things! But this is not All. We are in the second place to thank God the Father for making us meet partakers thereof, which is a greater Blessing than we are aware of. We would fain have the Inheritance at any rate, but we consider not whether we be fit for it or no; and if we be not, Heaven it self will be no place of Happiness to us, nor shall we take pleasure therein. For Pleasure being nothing else but the suitableness of the Object to the Faculty, (because things agreeable alone can agree together,) then what satisfaction should we find in Heaven, while our selves were altogether Earthly? [Page] Light is a pleasant thing to an Eye prepared for, and that can bear it; not to that of a Bat or of an Owl, nor to that of a Man that should suddenly be brought into it out of a dark Dungeon; it would rather blind his Eyes than delight them. And what would the Inheritance in light be to a Child of Darkness, but as the pleasure of a rational Man is to a Beast, or of an Intelligence to a bruitish Man? He who is wholly taken up with Sensual Objects, and so unacquainted with Intellectual, rests there and seeks no farther. Tell a Mahumetan of such a Heaven as the Gospel describes, and you may then make him fall in love with that place; when you can persuade a Hog to leave his Stye for a Palace; or that to lye in perfumes, were better for him than to wallow in the mire. What a Transcendent blessing then is it, and how thankfull ought we to be to God for it, that He makes us meet for the Inheritance above, in order to our better partaking of it; that He gives us his Grace here as a preparative to Glory hereafter; makes us Holy in this life, that we may be capable of being Happy in the next; his Goodness being not [Page] more conspicuous in the reward He designs us, than in the manner of bestowing it; in giving us a Crown of Glory, than in fitting our Heads for it? 'Tis a greater honour to be accounted worthy of it, than to wear it; As Vertue is beyond a Title, and a Man more than a Place.

And now since our lot is fallen unto Psal. 16. 7. us in so fair a ground, and that we have so goodly a Heritage, let us highly value it; make it our chief Treasure, that our Hearts may still be there, where we have such a glorious Inheritance laid up for us, and such an indefeisible Estate, as shall never be either in another's power to defeat us of, or in our own to lose when once possest of. How do we value our Earthly Inheritances! How dear are they to us! How loth are we to part with them! The Lord forbid it me that I should give the Inheritance of my Fathers unto thee, said Naboth to Ahab, when he would have wrested it from him, 1 King. 21. 3. And yet this being but an Earthly Inheritance, whereas ours is an Heavenly; He chose rather to part with his Life, than with the Inheritance of his Fathers; and we are willing to [Page] part with the Inheritance of the Saints in light for nothing, to sell our spiritual Birthright with profane Esau, for a mess of Pottage, while every trifling Argument shall make us disbelieve, and every trifling Lust make us forfeit it. Is the price of Christ's bloud, the purchase he has made for us of an Eternal Inheritance, become so cheap unto us in comparison of those uncertain perishing ones which the malice of Men can, and death in a very short time will be sure to strip us of, so subject to alteration and decay, so polluted and defiled? The Inheritance of the Saints in light is by St. Peter described by three such properties so peculiar to it, that they are not to be found in worldly ones. He tells us, 1 Pet. 1. 4. That 'tis an Inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away. Now, 1. Worldly Inheritances, even Kingdoms are Transitory, whereas that of Heaven cannot be moved, Heb. 12. 28. Estates here shift their Landlords; what is one Man's to day, is another's to morrow; nay, all the evidence Men have of their Estates here, shall one day be burnt with the World, and be made void at the Day of Judgment. And yet [Page] how do they call their Lands after their Psal. 49. 11. own names, when those names and those very lands that are called after them, shall perish together; when they who are Owners of them shall one day become part of their own lands, retain nothing of all their Possessions but Graves, and in a short time scarce be distinguished from that Earth wherein they were buried. 2. Again, Should Inheritances here be continued to their Owners never so long, yet are they fading, still losing their beauty, verdure and lustre; there is some moth or canker that continually frets, and at last eats them up. But in Heaven, as we shall have an Incorruptible so an Immarcessible Crown; 1 Cor. 9. 25. Not like Olympick ones, of Bays or Herbs, which immediately withered, even on the heads of those that wore them, but always fresh and green. 3. Lastly, Worldly Inheritances are so far from being undefiled, that their Owners may well blush when they consider how many times they come by them; with how much sin Themselves enjoy, and Others, to whom they must leave, shall spend them. Yet as pitifull things as they are, how thankfull [Page] are we to those who bequeath them to us! And if we think we have reason to be so to Men for such mean Inheritances, how much more ought we to be to our Heavenly Father for this Inheritance in light? Now since we cannot be thankfull to him for an Inheritance which we are not well assured does belong unto us, it will concern us here to try and secure our Evidence; and for that we need go no farther than the Text. If, as that tells us, it be an Inheritance of Saints, and an Inheritance in light, what Right or Title can we pretend to it without being our selves Saints and Children of the light? And if, as St. Peter hath described it, it be an Inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, how can we hope to partake of it, unless our Corruptible even here put on Incorruption, and we endeavour to be pure, as God, who is our Inheritance, is pure? 1 Joh. 3. 3. Heaven is no place for the polluted. Into the Heavenly Jerusalem shall in no wise enter any thing that defileth, or is defiled, Revel. 21. 27. Nor will Christ receive any into his Kingdom but whom He shall find, when He cometh, without spot and blameless, 2 Pet. 3. 9. [Page] If these things be found in us, Innocence, Vertue and Holiness of Life, an entrance shall then be ministred unto us abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, 2 Pet. 1. 11. And so when St. Peter bids us give diligence to make our calling and election sure, 1 Pet. 1. 10. He shews us the way how to doe so, and that is by adding to our faith vertue, and to vertue knowledge, and so on, verses 5, 6, 7. by practising the Vertues of the Moral Law there set down. These are the clear Evidences of the Inheritance in light, as well as the means to attain it; which we are to find in our selves continually, and to clear up, still fearing lest any of us come short of our Inheritance, Heb. 4. 1. If we doe these things, we shall never fall. Let our2 Pet. 1. 10. Inheritance be as sure as God can make it, yet is it not sure to us, till our Consciences can bear us witness that we are the Children of God by obeying our Heavenly Father.

And since he has provided such a glorious Estate for those that doe so, how ought we to despise those poor [Page] Inheritances He allots us here below, in comparison of what He prepares for us above? How willing to part with those for that, when He requires it, and we cannot keep both? Heaven will make up all our losses here; it will pay for all at last. And this is the main Argument the Apostle useth here to persuade the Colossians unto all patience Ver. 11. and long-suffering with joyfulness, in the precedent Verse, because by outward afflictions God did make them meet to be partakers of such an Inheritance in light, as could not be taken from them, as their Earthly Ones daily were by Heathens, Tyrants and Oppressors; That, with other Saints of God, they should take joyfully the Heb. 4. 34. spoiling of their goods, knowing in themselves that they had in Heaven a better and an enduring substance. Lastly, As God the Father first makes us meet to be partakers of the Inheritance of the Saints in light; so when he has once made us meet by his Grace, let us endeavour, by the assistance of that Grace, still to make our selves meeter, always blessing and thanking him [Page] as for all sorts of Blessings he bestows upon us, so in an especial manner for this in the Text, for the blessed hope and assurance he gives his Saints of partaking one day of such an Inheritance, as is All Blessedness. Here He crumbles his Blessings unto us, we have them here by Retail; In Heaven we shall have them all in a lump, and that for ever: All the satisfactions and enjoyments of this present life are so thin, empty and comfortless, that we have need of patience to be able to endure them. The Prophet David found them so; and had He not had a prospect of far better things, as a Cordial to cheer up and enliven his Heart, it would quite have failed him; I should utterly have fainted, but that I believe verily to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living, Psal. 27. 15. Let this Faith bear up our drooping spirits, as it did his; And let our Thoughts continually dwell on Heaven, and on the Happiness we shall there enjoy, when we shall come into the City of the living God, the Heavenly Jerusalem; to an innumerable Company [Page] of Angels; to the general Assembly and Church of the first-born, which are written in Heaven; and to God the Judge of All, and to the Spirits of just Men made perfect, who now partake of the Inheritance in light: To which blessed Society God bring us all, Amen.

Soli Deo gloria in aeternum.

A SERMON Preached on the Fifth of NOVEMBER.

[Page]

St. Matt. VII. the former part of v. 16.‘Ye shall know them by their fruits.’

THE main design of Satan, as it hath ever been the same to ruin the Church of God; so his arts and methods to compass it have been various and different. Sometimes he hath endeavoured to destroy her by force, otherwhiles to undermine her by subtlety. His first attempt was to crush her in the Birth; and the second Man that ere was born, dy'd a Martyr. Ever since, the Church has been an Acheldama, [Page] a Field of Bloud, and its Kalendar markt all along with Red letters; the profession of truth having still been fatal as to its Author, so to all his followers in succeeding Ages; distinguishable not so much by the several Reigns of Heathen Emperors, as those various storms that in their times have fallen upon Christians.

2. But as these storms were ever blown away by the breath of God, and Satan, by strictly winnowing the Church, gat nothing thereby but his own tares; when he saw that Phoenix grew fruitfull from her own ashes, and the fertile bloud of her Martyrs did but bring her in a larger harvest of Proselytes: He then shifted the Scene, laid aside those terrible Arguments of Racks and Gibbets to compell Men to come into his Kingdom, and took up other more plausible and insinuative, the allurements and blandishments of this World to baffle them out of the rewards of another, thinking by out-bidding Christ to gain a more numerous party to himself; wherein how successfull he has been, the frequent Apostasies of Men in all Ages do abundantly testifie.

[Page]3. Lastly, As he met with some of a stouter and wiser temper than to be prevail'd on by either of these Methods, Men not to be beaten off from their Profession by threats, nor drawn away from it by such mean hopes as this World could afford them; His subtlest policy has been to work upon their Judgments, to deprave their Understandings, by poysoning the very Fountains of Knowledge, the Scriptures. To which end he made choice of corrupt Teachers as the most proper Engines, who under pretence of greater light and stricter severity, might easily beguile unstable Souls; and by speaking perverse things, Act 20. 30. draw Disciples after them.

Such were the false Prophets mention'd in the precedent Verse, of whom our Saviour bids us beware, as the most dangerous Enemies of the Gospel; and by so much the more dangerous, by how much the more sly and cunning; who since they should come in their Sheep's-cloathing, in the disguise and with the taking pretences of Innocence and Meekness, when inwardly they were ravning Wolves, full of Hypocrisie, Malice and Cruelty, he gives [Page] us here a badge or cognizance whereby to distinguish them; Ye shall know them by their fruits.

Our Saviour speaks here in general of false Prophets, and by them, no doubt, principally designs all such cunning Seducers, as should in process of time pervert the Truth of the Gospel, by introducing damnable Heresies into the Christian Church; yet so as to glance at the Scribes and Pharisees, who by their false Doctrines and Glosses had corrupted the Mosaical Law, as he shows they did all along, ch. 5. expresly naming them there, ver. 20. and not obscurely describing them here by their Sheep's-cloathing, the ordinary habit of the true Prophets in the time of the Law, and abus'd by these false ones, who had nothing of those Prophets but their Mantle.

Accordingly I shall consider these words in a twofold Capacity; First, As they relate to all false Prophets in general; And, secondly, as they concern the Scribes and Pharisees, and their Successors in particular. And so the Parts will fall out to be three.

1. That notwithstanding all their paint and daub, false Prophets are to be found out by the true Disciples of Christ; Ye shall know them.

2. That the proper marks or signs, whereby to distinguish them, are their fruits; Ye shall know them by their fruits. This for the Doctrinal part.

3. The third thing shall be the Application of it; where, after some reflexion on the Scribes and Pharisees here pointed at, I shall endeavour to show you, how far their Modern Successors may be concern'd in their imitation, which I suppose will bring all home to our present occasion.

I begin with the first thing proposed, The discovery of False Prophets, Ye shall know them.

That the Church of God has everPart. I. been pester'd with False Prophets, and shall still be so to the end of the World, we learn from 2 Pet. 2. 1. There were false Prophets among the People, even as there shall be false Teachers among you. A Prophecy sufficiently verified by the constant experience of former and latter [Page] Ages; God in his most wise Providence so permitting it, partly for the 1 Cor. 11. 13. Deut. 13. 3. 2 Thess. 2. 10. Esay 29. 13, 14. tryal of men's Faith; partly in his just Judgment on those who love not the Truth; and partly for the clearing of that Truth, by that very opposition that should be made against it. For these and the like reasons, as the Scripture plainly tells us, there must be Heresies; so does it at the same time assure us, that they may easily be discovered, if we will but make use of that reason God has given us. I know there are who can by no means endure to have their Opinions sifted, nor their Authority questioned; but they are the false Prophets of the Text. Unsound Doctrines can no more endure the touch, than false Wares the light. Their Sacra Eleusinia, Mysteries of Iniquity, are venerable only by not being understood; like the Turkish Alcoran, they must not be lookt into; because the very discovery of such fallacies is their confutation. Wherein the prudence of Romish Inquisitors is to be commended, like that of the unjust Steward, though not their honesty; Nor can I blame them for not allowing Men the use of so dangerous [Page] a weapon as their Reason. But our Faith is not to be pinn'd on others sleeves, be they never so great or learned; nor are we to see with other men's Eyes, be they never so quick-sighted. Our blessed Lord having taught us to call no man Master on Earth but Himself;Mat. 23. 10 we must wholly resign up our Understandings to Him, to others no farther than our Reason tells us they submit to his. And such a judgment of discretion cannot be deny'd the meanest Christian, without plainly contradicting those Scriptures which exact it. St. John bids1 Joh. 4. 1. us try the spirits, and St. Paul prove all 1 Thess. 5. 21. things. Himself appeals to other judgment; I speak as to wise men, judge ye 1 Cor. 10. 15. what I say: And the practice of this Duty is commended in the Beraeans, in that they searched the Scriptures whether Act. 17. 11. those things were so, as the Apostles preacht, although they were assisted by an infallible Spirit. And this is no more than what sober Reason will allow. For as we are not to condemn all Opinions of Men, because there may be Truth among them; so neither to approve all, because some must needs be false; The danger being equal of [Page] swallowing all by a blind credulity, or rejecting all by a rash precipitancy. If we reject all, we shall never be in the right; and if we embrace all promiscuously, to be sure shall ever be in the wrong. Therefore unless we will expose our selves to an inevitable necessity of an eternal delusion, we must not be debarr'd such a sober exercise of our Understandings as may enable us to distinguish between the Doctrines of God and those of Men; it being impossible to know the false Prophets from the true, but by stripping them thus of their sheeps-cloathing.

But who shall know them? Our Lord here furnishes an Answer to this Question, Ye shall know them. Ye, myJoh. 7. 17. Disciples, Ye that doe my will, shall know of the doctrine, and judge of those that bring it. There is a strong Emphasis in this Pronoun, Ye. If so many be misled by false Prophets, 'tis a clear Argument, that they are none of Christ's Discipiles. Nor is it strange that all others should be imposed on. For while some are naturally ignorant, and cannot; others are wilfully negligent, and care not to try what is offered them by [Page] any hand (frighted from an Enquiry either by the imaginary difficulty or trouble of it) either unable to judge what is true, or desirous for their ease to imbrace any thing, be it never so false; Again, while a third sort are of so squeazy a stomach, that they cannot digest any thing but what suits with their carnal appetite, nor relish any Doctrine, but what makes for the interest of that Flesh they are enslaved to: 'Tis easie to see why they are so obnoxious to the attempts of those who lie in wait to deceive them, and by working on their natural or affected ignorance; or, which is worse, their vices, blow them like glass into any shape or form at the pleasure of their breath. Nothing is so natural to all men as to err; and nothing more common than for most men to be deceived, especially when themselves are so willing, and God in his just judgment suffers them to be so, sending them strong 2 Thess. 3. 10, 11. Rom. 1. 28. Heb. 13. 9. delusions, because they receive not the love of the truth, that they should believe a lie; and delivering them up to those whose interest it is still to keep them in it, and whose business, to beguile unstable Souls that have no ballast in them; [Page] Their Proselytes being usually such as are weak or loose, men that have lostMat. 24. 5. either their reason or their conscience.

This being the condition of the greatest part of mankind (to be blinded with ignorance or prejudice against the Truth, and of corrupt lives) no marvel if they be so easily deluded by those who come with all deceiveableness of unrighteousness, with their [...] their slight of Eph. 4. 14. hand and cunning craftiness, creeping first into men's houses, and then into their hearts and affections, dazling the eyes of such silly people with glittering pretences of stricter severities, with aCol. 2. 18. shew of wisedom, and neglect of the body, of self-denial, rigorous observances1 Tim. 6. 20. and mortifications, of notions of a higher and sublimer strain, oppositions of science falsly so called, that puzzle their own and others understandings,1 Pet. 2. 18. and of greater favour and liberty to nature, while they promise liberty, and allure through the Lusts of the flesh and a thousand such artifices; No marvel, I say, if every one has not wit enough to discover such gaudy impostures, nor grace to withstand them. These are disguises able to deceive, if it were possible, the [Page] very Elect. But that they shall not, we have our Saviour's warrant for it, Matt. 24. 24. The gates of hell shall never finally prevail against the Church nor the true Members of it. Their eyes can see through the sheeps-cloathing, and pierce into that corruption which lies under the painted sepulchres. In vain is the Net spread in the sight of these Birds, not to be caught with such chaff. Ad populum phaleras, Christ's Disciples will soon smell out a Cheat be it never so well laid, these Children of light being in their generation not be outwitted by the children of this world. They will not dance after every Seducer's pipe, nor be charmed by every Siren, charm he never so wisely. Christ's Sheep are rational, and will not follow a Stranger. They are all taught of God, and haveJoh. 10. 5. 6. 45. 1 Joh. 2. 27. an Unction from above which teaches them all things, to discover errour and truth, that they may avoid the one and embrace the other. True indeed, the1 Cor. 12. 10. Apostles had a more extraordinary gift of discerning Spirits than others had, and St. John, upon the very sight of a Cerinthus, could immediately pronounce him Satan's First-born: But every true [Page] Disciple of Christ has as infallible a lightV. Aquin. 22. Qu. 8. Art. 4. to guide him, which is a holy prudence, and a sanctified reason, that is, as the Apostle phrases it, senses exercized to Heb. 5. 14. 1 Cor. 2. 15. discern good from evil. Let him then make use of these, and they will safely direct him in his choice; nor will the Spirit of God be wanting to him, if he be not wanting to himself. Should an Angel from Heaven object against theGal. 1. 8, 9. truth, he would not yield to him; or, Should an Angel of darkness transform himself into an Angel of light, his own natural ugliness would soon betray him at last to the eye of a Disciple of Christ, and his noisome stench to his Nose. Satan and all his Minsters have a cloven foot that will shew them; Be their leaves never so glorious or flourishing, yet these trees shall be known by their fruits, which is the Second thing to be considered.

By their Fruits]. Not by any secretPart. II. character of Reprobation nor mark of the Beast stampt on their foreheads, which some with the advantage of their Enthusiastical Spectacles can so plainly see, when they are invisible to all other [Page] men's eyes; not by the blossomes of good purposes, nor the thin fig-leaves of a hollow profession; (For Satan mayMark 5. 7. 16. 17. confess a Christ as well as a St. Peter, and Pirates may hang out the Flaggs of those Princes whose Subjects they intend to rob; every one can wear Christ's Livery, and none boast more of it than they who are the Devil's servants, as you may find these false prophets here did, v. 21, 22, 23.) 'Tis not by such signs as these then that we must know them, but by their fruits, i. e. by their doctrines, as some; by their practices, as others understand them; or rather indeed, by both of them joined together, and so making up a full and complete Criterium, whereby to judge of them.

And, first, We may know them by their doctrines: For indeed these be the proper and genuine fruits of a Prophet; Nor can we better judge of the quality of a Messenger than by the nature of that message he delivers. They who make no other use of their being counted Prophets, but to infuse higher degrees of all kind of Piety and Charity, without doubt are sent from God (for the Devil would never help them to [Page] credit and reputation in the World, who should employ it only to the advancement of Piety.) On the other side, if their design be to infuse into their Followers seeds of impiety and injustice, of uncleanness and uncharitableness, of fedition and rebellion, be their pretences never so specious, or their behaviour never so fair, to be sure they are to be rankt among the false prophets. The wisedom that is from above, says S. James, Jam. 3. 15, 16, 17, 18. is first pure, then peaceable, easie to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisie; whereas, that which descendeth not from above, is earthly, sensual and devilish; always levelled at interest, lust, or pride. And therefore St. Paul yokes seducing spirits and doctrines of Devils, 1 Tim. 4. v. 1. To let us know that the latter is an infallible sign of the former. But here it may be objected; How can we know doctrines to be true or false? To this I answer, 1. Negatively; Not by the maxims of natural reason, which are so far from being infallible, that, if extended beyond the sphere of Philosophy, for whose Meridian only they are calculated, they are for the most part defective, [Page] if not wholly false; stretch them never so far, they can never be adequate to those things which are to be believed, nor any foundation for a divine Faith, all assent wrought by them in the Soul being but opinion or science. Nor, 2. from Antiquity, which is so far from being a certain rule, that it can be no certain mark of Faith. Nor, 3. by the writings of learned men, which at best can never pretend to infallibility, and being humane judgments, can make up no more but a humane testimony, and which can never exactly be known by all men, some having neither skill nor leisure to inquire, much less ability to find it out. 2. I answer Positively; That the Scripture is that which must direct us in our search for Truth; this alone being a Rule in it self infallible, as dictated by an infallible Spirit, in respect of us also clear and known, and in respect of doctrines, to be examined, full and adequate: And to this we are sent by Moses to judge of a Prophet, Deut. 13. 1, 2, 3. where though a Prophet should work Miracles, or foretell things to come, yet if he delivered any doctrine contrary to [Page] the Precepts of the Law, he was to be rejected. The very Rule St. Paul gives us too, 1 Tim. 6. 3. If any man teach otherwise, or any other thing ( [...]) and consent not to wholsom words, Tit. 1. 1, 9. 2 Tim. 1. 13. 4. 3. even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness, he is proud, knowing nothing. So Gal. 1. 8, 9. Though we or an Angel from Heaven preach any other Gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. Here then is the Test all doctrines are to be brought to, viz. to the Written Word of God▪ to the Law and to the Testimony; we must weigh them all in the Balance of the Sanctuary, and judge of them by that Analogy and Proportion of Faith mentioned Rom. 12. 6. That form of doctrine delivered, Rom. 6. 17. and of sound words, 2 Tim. 1. 13. That [...] the whole Body, as I may call it, of divine Truths, between the parts and members whereof there is an exact harmony; so that as in the natural body a member would become monstrous should it exceed its due proportion to the other its fellow members; if we carefully compare a doctrine concerning [Page] one Article with a truth concerning others, we may then exactly judge of the part by its symmetry and proportion to the whole. Where-ever then we find any doctrine either expresly contained in Scripture or deducible thence by necessary consequence and agreeing to the Analogy or Proportion of the Christian Faith, we may conclude it is of God: if not, to be none of his. Every spirit that confesseth not 1 Joh. 4. 3. that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, (that denies his Incarnation or his Gospel) is not of God; no more than that doctrine can be, which tends to the drawing us off from Christ, and the promoting the interest of Sin and Satan; and they who bring any such doctrine are infallibly Satan's Emissaries, not Christ's Apostles; Their very Speech bewrayeth them, and we may easily distinguish them by their Shiboleth; Their corrupt and abominable doctrines will certainly tell us whom they belong to.

2. A Second sort of Fruits, whereby we are to distinguish false Prophets from true ones, are their corrupt practices, the natural issues of their corrupt doctrines. Heresies are indeed properly seated [Page] in the Understanding, and yet Saint Paul ranks them among the works of the Flesh, Gal. 5. 20. because they dispose us to, and ever determine in them. Men first dream, says St. Jude, Vers. 10. i. e. are intoxicated with their own fantastical and carnal opinions, and then defile the flesh; first cast off all obedience to God, and then to men, by despising Dominions, and speaking evil of Dignities. It has therefore been a constant Observation, that most Hereticks have been Ill-livers; and the Scripture1 Thes. 2. 5. 1 Tim. 6. 5. 2 Pet. 2. 3. 3 Joh. 9. Act. 20. 29. 2 Cor. 11. 13. 2 Tim. 3. 6. Jude v. 4. Esay 30. still brands them, where-ever it mentions them, sometimes with the Character of Boasters, otherwhiles of Flatters and Menpleasers; sometimes representing them as Self-seekers, and doing all for filthy lucres sake; at other times, as ambitious and affecting pre-eminence; sometimes cruel as Wolves; and sometimes subtle and insinuative as Serpents, working upon the weakness of silly People laden with iniquity, 2 Pet. 2. 3. as Satan did on Eve, and soothing them in their Corruptions, to keep them fast and maintain a Party, being full ofJude v. 8. all impurity themselves, notwithstanding all their braggs of extraordinary light and sanctity, such as the Scripture [Page] describes the Gnosticks to be, who professing to know God (much better thanTit. 2. 16. all other Christians) did in works deny him, and were abominable, disobedient, and to every good work reprobate. 'Tis true indeed, that the first addresses of false prophets are usually made with all the semblances and exterior appearances of holiness; but those appearances prove no better at last than fantastical illusions; like false meteors, which after a little blaze usually expire in a stench. Nemo potest diu personam ferre. Those vizards Seducers put on either fall off of themselves, or are so transparent, that every prying eye may see through them. The sheeps-cloathing is too thin a veil to conceal the Wolf, though he wrap himself up never so close in it. The very affectation of Sanctity renders the pretenders to it suspected; and their too much subtlety oft betrays them, nothing being so gross and palpable as too curious a disguise. Truth as it is always constant to it self, the same yesterday, to day, and for ever; so are they who teach and follow it. Their lives will still be answerable to their Principles, and we shall seldom or [Page] never find them halting. They are no wandring Planets, but fixt Stars, that know no excentrick motions. 'Tis not so with them who have but the form of godliness; These wax worse and worse, and2 Tim. 3. 9, 13. their folly will at last be made manifest to all men who have but any common reason and prudence to try them. Their golden heads are supported by feet of clay; If they seem to begin in the Spirit, they end in the Flesh. Sometimes you shall find them stooping low, but 'tis to mount the higher; at other times soaring high, but if you follow them with your eye, you shall quickly see them lighting on some carrion. Their pretence is Zeal, but their design Gain; God is in their mouths, and Diana▪ in their hearts. Notwithstanding all their feigned mortifications and abstinences, 'tis their Belly they serve, and not Christ. Observe then their carriage all along; This truly speaks a man, and what he does and does constantly, to be sure, That he is. For though every bad act denominates not a Sinner (as we are not to call Noah a Drunkard, because he was once overtaken with Wine) yet a bad habit does. Some withered or blasted [Page] fruit may possibly be found on a good tree; but that must needs be a bad one which constantly yields bad fruit. Here then is the tryal of a false Prophet; and therefore the Pharisees themselves did not argue amiss, Joh. 9. 16. This man is not of God, because he keepeth not the sabbath-day. The Proposition was sound, had they not mistaken themselves in the Assumption. He that keepeth not the Sabbath is not of God. We may safely reason in like manner; He that transgresseth Christ's Law, can never be a true Disciple of his, no more than he who teaches men to doe so, his true Apostle.

But because each of these fruits distinctly considered may prove but a partial and incomplete Rule whereby to judge of men, according to that of Seneca, De toto, non de partibus, judicandum; Let us put both together, and we shall be sure then not to be mistaken. The doctrines and practices of men in conjunction will prove a true glass to shew them in; But take them apart, and each of them may perhaps misrepresent them. For as a false Prophet does not always deliver false doctrine, [Page] but may sometimes speak well, though he doe ill (as the Scribes and Pharisees Mat. 23. 2, 3. when they kept to the Law of Moses were to be listned to, though not to be imitated) so neither does every true one always deliver true doctrine: The best, being fallible in their judgment, may themselves be deceived, and consequently deceive others who rely too much upon them. On the other side we know that, as many false Prophets may act their part so well that many times we may take them for true; so they who are really true ones, by reason of those failings which are incident to men, may possibly sometimes be mistaken for false ones. 'Tis the constant aim then of men's doctrines and their setled habitual course of life which must give us a clear sight and judgment of them. They who break God's commandments, and teach men to doe so, and that constantly, can never be other than false Prophets; since Faith and a good Conscience cannot possibly be parted.1 Tim. 1. 19.

And now, having explain'd our Saviour's Rule, give me leave to apply it in the first place to the Scribes and [Page] Pharisees, and in the next, to those who are their genuine Successors; The last and main thing I purpose to insist on, and wherein I must bespeak your farther patience and attention.

We find the Scribes and Pharisees yoakt all along in the New Testament, and their principles and practices agreed well. All the difference between them was but this, That the former were more Textual, and the laterLuk. 11. 45. more Traditional; Those were, as I may term them, the Schoolmen; These the Casuists; Each of them in high esteem among the People. But the Pharisees were ever reputed the strictest and most exquisite Sect, not only by the generality of the Jews, but by St. Paul also, who was himself both the Act. 26. 5. Phil. 3. 5. Son, and the Act. 23. 6. Disciple of a Pharisee, and seems to give it the Act. 5. advantage and precedency to all other Sects among the Jews, as Tract. de vita sua. Josephus also does, as well for Learning as Piety, [...] That for exactness in all points they exceeded all others whatsoever.

[Page]Now these men, by the opinion all had of their great skill in the Law, and their exemplary holiness, had ▪so bewitch'd the hearts of the Jews, that there was no holy man amongst them which was not termed a Pharisee, and they seem'd to have so ingross'd all piety to themselves, that it became a familiar proverb and unquestionable truth among the People, That if the many mansions of heaven could allow quarter but to two Tenants, The one must be a Scribe, and the other a Pharisee. And as it cannot be deny'd but that in some things they expounded the Law not amiss, (since our Saviour grants it, Matth. 23. 2, 3.) so on the other side 'tis certain, that they were very strict Observers of the Letter, and to all appearance of the Duty of it; For they prayed often, fasted twice a week at least; yea, their very meals were abstinences, and their outward mortifications might vye with those of Baal's Priests or the severest Flagellants. No men were more exact in their Tithes; if God would have aLuk. 18. 12 Sabbath kept, they over-keep it; if he commanded the wearing of Philacteries, they will enlarge them. These and many [Page] the like I might instance in, which they observed even to Superstition; so that, as St. Paul speaks of himself when he was one of them, touching the righteousness Phil. 3. 6. which is in the law they were so blameless, that they were not liable to any humane exception.

And yet all this was but the sheeps-cloathing, the Wolves are still behind, and you may discover them by their Principles and Practices, both soured with the leaven of Hypocrisie which leavened their whole lump, and is so rank and strong, that you may easily both taste and smell it. I shall give a sey of each, and that briefly. And,

1. Of their Principles and the drift of them. Among which their Traditions shall lead the Van. God had forbidden to add or diminish ought from his Law, Deut. 4. 2. And they did both, embase the pure metal of his Word by the alchimy of their brass and leaden Commentaries, or clip his Coin by unjustifiable Defalcations. This was their Cabala or Talmud, those [...], or fantastical suppliments of their Doctors, whereby they would needs fill up those gaps which they found in the Mosaical [Page] Law, and teach the Almighty a better way of worshipping Him than Himself could prescribe, as if that rule He had given them had been too scant a measure for their overgrown devotion; And hence our Saviour plainly tells them, That they transgressed the commandments of God, teaching for doctrins the commandments of men, Mat. 15. 3, 9.

2. A second Principle of these Rabbi's was, That the due observation of the Law consisted in a bare external obedience thereunto (the opus operatum) and that the forbearance of an actual Commission was a full compliance with all the negative Precepts thereof: So that, in the Pharisees account, to be a just or an innocent man was no higher a perfection than what Seneca condemns, Ad legem bonum esse, and that which a Heathen would not grant sufficient to make a man honest in the sight of men, was enough, in their reason, to render him upright in the sight of God. And that this was their conceipt of the Nature of obedience appears by those many false Glosses our Lord confutes, ch. 5. For instance, God's Law inhibited Murther, the Pharisees confin'd it to the [Page] hand, and Christ extends it to the heart and tongue. The act of Adultery withMat. 5. 21, 22. them was the only Crime, whereas Christ makes the very eye and thoughtv. 27, 28. guilty. In a word, All obedience in their accompt was no more than what the Magistrate would be satisfied with; it laid no restraint on the heart, but only on the outward members, consisting, as they shap'd it, in a bare Omission of such things as humane justice could take cognizance of, or a forc'd compliance with the Letter of the Law, whether the mind or conscience were concerned in it or no; A principle which serv'd to render men cautious, rather than truly good, and to advance formality and hypocrisie.

3. And as this was their conceipt of the Nature, so did they entertain another as false concerning the Merit of their obedience. For we find him in the Gospel giving in to God a swelling Catalogue of his own seeming vertues in an Eucharistical boasting, Lord, I Luk. 16. 15. 18. 9. Mat. 9. 12, 13. thank thee. Remission of sins was a thing a Pharisee stood not in need of, who could not only fulfill the Law, but exceed it. Which legal Righteousness [Page] of theirs St. Paul hath taken great pains to beat down, but could never beat the Pharisee off from it, who was not content to stand upon equal terms, unless he might have the advantage of his Maker.

4. A fourth strange opinion of theirs was, a fancy they had of a temporal flourishing Messiah, which serv'd to promote their carnal ambition by filling their heads with designs of worldly grandeur, and begetting a contempt in them of and hatred to all other Nations, while they look'd upon themselves as the only true Subjects of their misshapen Messiah, and on all others as Rebels to Him, and consequently such as they were obliged to persecute with Fire and Sword, and by force of Arms to compel to come into his kingdom, and so to prepare the way of the Lord, (as we see our modern Chiliasts have attempted,) hating all foreign Princes as Usurpers, and deeming it no better than a sinfull Vassalage, to stoop to a Heathen Sceptre; and dispensing with their oaths and obligations upon the accompt of their Religion and Customs: which was the ground of their frequent [Page] Rebellions, especially against the Roman Emperors, and of the final Ruine of their State and Religion.

I might here give you in a larger Catalogue of other their erroneous doctrins; Concerning their over-strict observation of the Sabbath; Of an Astronomical Destiny and Fatality held by them; Of Vows of Continency, though notMat. 16. 14 perpetual; Of the necessity of Washing Cups and Pots, with a farrago of more ridiculous and burthensome Ceremonies, as Abstaining from certain kinds of Meats as naturally unclean, though God himself had not prohibited the use of them; and many such like Fopperies their Talmud is stuff'd with, which is nothing else but a Shop and Legend of such Impertinences. But by those main doctrines I have mentioned, and which are indeed of the very essence and constitution of a Pharisee, 'tis easie to discover their design and drift, how full of impiety they were, tending to the disparaging of God's Laws and the weakning of that Obedience which was due to them and men's too, and to the fomenting of hypocrisie, superstition and [Page] rebellion; the natural conclusions of such false and dangerous premises.

2. Nor did their Actions bely theirMatt. 23. Principles; If we look into their carriage, we shall find there nothing but Hypocrisie, a mere form of godliness, Luk. 11. 27 without the power of it. Painted Sepulchres they were, offering to the purblind view of men the scum and outside of their nobility and merit in the large characters of Marble Statues, Heraldry and Epitaphs, while they entertained the all-piercing eye of God with the nasty prospect of a Charnel-house. For such they were, cramm'd with the bodies of those martyr'd Prophets whose bones they so hypocritically enshrin'd. Bodily worship (which is but the rinde and bark of Religion) was the main of the Pharisees sanctity, which usually concluded like the Turkish Lents afterMat. 6. 16. 2. 5. 23. 23, 24. the vizarded austerity of a few spare hours in nightly Bacchanals. They would not fast without a smeared or disfigured Face, nor give alms without a Trumpet,19. 13. nor pray without Witnesses and vain repetitions. Strict observers they were of the mint and cummin, and as great neglectors [Page] of the weightier matters of the law, judgement, mercy and truth. They could strain at a Gnat, and swallow a Camel; were so much for Sacrifice, that they neglected Charity; observed the Sabbath,Matt. 12. but had no Love; laying heavy loads on others, which themselves would not touch with one of their fingers. GodDeut. 6. had charged them to bind the Law to their hand and before their eyes, meaning thereby the meditation and practice of it; and they extended the dimensions of their Philacteries to fill the gazing eyes of the People, bearing them not in their hearts and lives, but in their foreheads, hands, and heels also, as whipt and branded Malefactors have no more of Law than what is legible in red letters of Justice on their backs or fists. In a word, all they aimed at in their works of Charity was, to be seen, and Mat. 6. 1, 2, 3. 15. 8. get glory of men, to make clean the outside of the platter, and draw near unto God with their lips, when their hearts were far from him.

This is the description our Saviour gives of their Hypocrisie; Nor was their Ambition less in affecting the Title of [Page] Rabbi's, and greeting in the markets, the Matt. 23. Luk. 16. 7. 20. 46. highest seats in the Synagogues, and the chief rooms at feasts. This was their carnal; and their spiritual Pride, which is worse, was as great, while their enthron'd righteousness lookt down on the integrity of all the World besides as its footstool. They were not as other men; true indeed, for they were much worse, for this very reason, because they thought themselves so much better. And upon this accompt they avoided all communication with any but those of their own Tribe. TheyMat. 9. 11, 12, 13. would not board with a Samaritan or a Publican, falling foul with Christ for tasting of their bread (a crime as bad with them as to eat Swines-flesh) herein shewing themselves the true Successors of those in the Prophet Esay, 65. 5. whose Motto 'twas, Stand a-part, Come not near me, for I am holier than thou. And thus we find the Pharisee praying by himself, leaving the despised Publican in the utmost Porch of the Peoples Court, whom he brands with the odious contemptibleMat. 7. 1, 3, 4. 11. 18, 19. name of This Publican, Uncharitableness being the natural brat of Pride, and none more ready to spy a mote in another's [Page] eye than he who has a beam in his own.

To their Hypocrisie and Pride, I may add their excessive Covetousness andLuk. 16. 14. Extortion charg'd upon them, which was so unsatiable, that their throat was an open Sepulchre, swallowing up whole Widows houses and the Estates of Orphans, dress'd in the poynant Sawce of their owners Tears, and eaten with their leavened Bread of deceit in a traiterous Executorship. And what was their Corban, but an art to fill their Treasury, by cheating Parents of their due upon the score of Religion? Or what were all their subtle arts to gain and uphold a Party, but Interest? Wherein their blind zeal and industry did vye with their policy, compassing Sea and Land to make Mat. 23. 15 but one Proselyte; who when they had made him such, would be sure to be twofold more the child of Hell than themselves. As Renegadoes among the Turks exceed the Natural Turks in their hatred and malice to Christians, and for that reason have priviledges above the Natives. And indeed 'tis hard to say which was greater, their Malice or Cruelty, to those who refused to subscribe to such [Page] dictates as they Magisterially deliveredMatth. 10. 16, 17. 23. 2. Joh. 12. 42. v. 10. Mat. 12. 24 & v. 38. ch. 16. 1. ch. 8. 11, 12 ch. 21. 33. v. 45, 46. Joh. 12. 42, 43. out of Moses's Chair, which were to be received as infallible Oracles. Of such invincible Incredulity too, that though they continually required Signs and Miracles, yet none, though as clear as light, could convince them; so far were they from believing Christ, that they were most jealous lest any others should doe so. Doe any of the Pharisees believe on him? Joh. 7. 48. Nay, Were there not many that durst not confess him, lest they should be cast out of their Synagogues? Thus would they neither enter into the kingdom of Heaven themselves, nor suffer others, who were willing to doe so; Taking away that key of knowledge, which mightLuk. 11. 52 unlock the gate thereof, and hoodwinking the people that they might not find their way thither, being very jealous lest Christ should shew it them, or the Multitudes run after any but themselves, every Proselyte of Christ'sJoh. 12. 19. being an Apostate from them: And accordingly they dealt with him; thrusting some out of their Synagogues, scourging others, contriving the death of a third, and finally of Christ himself; who as He was a Rock of Offence to them, [Page] so by falling on them at last, ground them to powder.

To conclude this point, (for 'twere endless to follow a Pharisee through all his windings and turnings) They were as great Boutefeus in their time, as Jesuits are in ours, sowing Sedition and Rebellion where-ever they went, especially against the Romans, whom theyJoh. 11. 48. most suspected and feared as those who would take away their place and nation, which at last they did, being enraged by the frequent insurrection of the Jews whom the Pharisaical Zealots continually stirr'd up, as you may reade at large in Josephus.

Thus have I shown you the Pharisee, the grand Original, as I may so style him, of all succeeding False Prophets, pluckt off his vizard and his sheepscloathing, in this brief account I have now given you of his Doctrines and their Tendencies, together with his practical Commentary on his corrupt Text. 'Twere to be wisht that that Hypocrisie, which was the very soul and form of a Pharisee, had not by an unhappy kind of Transmigration pass'd into others. This spreading Leprosie, [Page] like the Jews themselves, is the Catholick plague of all other Sects too, and particularly of those many ones among us; so that that leaven or bread of faces, grown stale in Jewry, is now become the ordinary Entertainment at an English Table. The Wolf, which by the care of our prudent Ancestors, has been long since banished, hath of late days, to our great annoyance, cross'd the Seas, and walkt uncontroll'd in the staple dress of the Land, our sheeps-cloathing. The difference between that of the ancient and of our modern ones being only this, That theirs was of a courser, and ours is of a finer-spun thread. Were they dress'd up in all manner of gaudy appearances, we out-shine them. Their Fringes were neither so long, nor their Phylacteries so broad. Our Pharisees out-doe them in Eyes lifted up to Heaven, in sowred Looks, whining Tones, seraphical Expressions and starcht Behaviour. Our Principles are of a higher strain too. If they justled out God's Law with their Traditions, we quite extinguish the Gospel with our New Lights. Did they corrupt That with their Cabalistical Glosses, we wrest This [Page] to our own and others Damnation by our false and carnal Interpretations, making it speak to Interest and Ambition. If they plac'd Religion in the Hand, we place it in the Ear, in those many Sermons we hear, but never practice, gadding after those corrupt Teachers we heap up to our selves. While Pharisees boast of their legal Righteousness, we quite cast off that and Evangelical too, being above the Ordinances of God; some among us making perfection to consist in sinning, and not being troubled at it; others by a contrary, but as bad an error, being so far from owning an Inherent Righteousness, that they make it wholly Imputative, crying up Faith even to the decrying of all good works, and making Christ's Cross a Ladder to get up to Heaven by, though they never climb one Round of it. Were ancient Pharisees so over-strict in keeping the Sabbath, some among us are as strict, even to the exclusion of Charity and Mercy. Wherein did their Stoical fatality differ from our absolute Decree? Or their Temporal conquering Messiah, from that which our Millenaries have shap'd to themselves? I dare say in [Page] these and many the like instances, our Christian Pharisees doe as far surpass the Jewish ones in their corrupt Doctrines, as in all the pernicious Consequences of those Doctrines, either in Hypocrisie or Ambition, Covetousness or Cruelty, Hatred and malitious Uncharitableness to all Dissenters, blind Zeal and indefatigable Industry in gaining Proselytes; or lastly, in all those factious, schismatical and rebellious Practices, which the most Pharisaical Zealots among the Jews were ever guilty of, and that upon the very same account of a more peculiar relation to God.

I cannot stand to make out the Parallel, but must leave it to your own thoughts; being in pursuit of other Wolves wrapt up in as fair a sheepscloathing as any of those I have mention'd, and who come to us with all deceivableness of unrighteousness. Give me leave to uncase them too, and that I shall endeavour to doe, by displaying their Doctrines and Practices; the natural fruits whereby we are to know Them also.

[Page]As to their Doctrines, I shall instance1. Popish Doctrines. first in their Traditions; which they not only equal to the written Word of God in the modest language of the Council of Trent, requiring them to be received with the same affection of godliness and reverence that is due to the books of the Old and New Testament, but impudently preferr them, as most of their eminent Doctors doe; for this reason, because the Scriptures, say they, have no Being, unless they be established by Traditions; whereas Traditions without Scripture are firm and stable in themselves; Thereby charging the Holy Writ with obscurity and imperfection, which the Pharisees never had the face to doe, whose corrupt Glosses and Interpretations were Orthodox in respect of those which these Men give us, and which doe indeed much more make void all the Commandments of God than ever theirs did. For we do not find that the Jewish Pharisees were wrong as to the first and second Commandments, whereas the Doctrines of the Romish ones are injurious to both; 2. Not only to the first by dispensing with God's Laws, and coyning [Page] new ones▪ which they obtrude on the Consciences of Men as equally binding; but to the second much more, having quite raz'd it out of their Decalogue, and divided their Worship between the Creator and his Creatures, not the highest only, as Saints and Angels, but the very lowest and most contemptible of them, even Stocks and Stones (for such are their Images) which rather than they will forego, they will part with one of God's Commandments. 3. What are their many impertinent repetitions, but so many takings of God's Holy Name in vain? Or their Maxime of not keeping Faith with Hereticks but a Doctrine of flat Perjury? 4. The Sabbath, which was sacred even to Superstition with a Pharisee, has far less respect with them than a Saint's Holy-day, though of their own Canonization. 5. When God commands us to be obedient to our civil or natural Parents, they can not only dispense with our Allegiance to, but give us withall remission of Sins as a reward for our Treason to the former; and by their Pharisaical Corban defeat the latter of that Obedience which is due to them from their Children; forcing them sometimes [Page] into Monasteries as unwilling and oft-times blemisht Sacrifies, against their own and not seldom their Parents consent too. 6. & 7. What excellent Doctrines they deliver concerning Murther and Adultery, let the Provincial Letters tell you. He that kills an Excommunicated person, with them is no Murtherer; and let him be never so wilfull a one, he shall be sure to find protection at their Altars: And how severe exactors they are of that Continency they so religiously profess, their publick allowance of Stews and Fornication, even to the preferring it to Marriage in Ecclesiastical persons, does abundantly witness. 8. I might tell you how little conscience they make of Sacriledge too, (the worst of Thefts) as appears by their exposing all to sale, Heaven and Earth, Hell and Purgatory to boot. 9. Have not their jugling Doctrines of Equivocations and mental Reservations made all sober and just Men hiss at them as false witnesses? 10. And have they not with the Pharisee, restrained the Tenth Commandment to consent of Will, and made Lust and the first motions of it no Sin at all? One Commandment [Page] indeed they have taken out, and to make up the number have cut the last into two; one while making two of one, and another while of those two they make none, and so of any other Commandment when they please they can make any thing. Surely 'twas not without good reason that the Pope in the first Session of the last Council of Lateran laid the Scriptures at his feet, to let us know that it was his and his Successor's design to trample them under them.

What He and his false Prophets have done to the Law, you have heard; and what they doe to the Gospel, will appear by such Anti-christian Doctrines, (whereof I am now to give you some brief account) which destroy the Truth and Purity of it. 1. The Truth of it, as their cunningly devised Fables, 1. That of Transubstantiation, a flat contradiction to Philosophy and our very Senses, a scandal to Jews and Mahumetans, and which nothing but their Covetousness and Ambition (both which 'tis most excellently fitted to) could invent; there being, if well examined, no real proof in Scripture for, but many [Page] irrefragable ones against it. 2. That of Purgatory borrowed from Virgil, and countenanced neither by the Word of God nor remoter Antiquity. 3. That of Miracles they so much boast of, but can never show us (their Scene being always laid so far off, that they know none but their own befooled Bigots will be at the charge or pains to hunt after them,) or if they could, ought not to baffle us out of the belief of those Truths which the Scripture so plainly delivers, the pretences of such Lying Wonders being those very marks which Deut. 13. 12, 3. Moses, Mat. 24. 24. & v. 21, 22. Christ, and 1 Tim. 4. 2▪ 2 Thess. 2. 9, 10, 11. St. Paul brand false Prophets with, and coyn'd by them to no other purpose but to tempt God and give credit to such untruths as doe apparently contradict and over-throw his Precepts. He that shall compare Popish Legends with the Jewish Talmud, or even the Alcoran its self, must be forc'd to confess, that the former are many of them sober Histories to these spiritual Romances. But 'tis no marvel that the generality of Popish Prophets should doat so much on such usefull Lies, when one of their Popes has been pleased toLe [...] 10. style Christianity its self a Profitable Fable.

[Page]2. Other Doctrines of theirs doe weaken the force and destroy the purity of the Gospel; some of them nursing up formality, and consequently stupidity and dulness of Devotion; others all manner of looseness and debauchery, spiritual and carnal Pride, Covetousness and Injustice, Uncharitableness, Superstition and Rebellion: I need but point at them.

1. Can any thing contribute more to Hypocrisie and flatness in Devotion than their Pharisaical Doctrines of External Performances, the meer Opus operatum, (as bad Divinity as 'tis Latin,) and which being in St. Paul's account but bodily exercise, leaves nothing for1 Tim. 48. the Mind to doe: which whether it be present or no, the matter is not great with them, who can allow of a Sacrifice without Fire and without a Heart; And accordingly we find that all men's Devotion there is but feet or lip-labour, consisting in Pilgrimages and gadding after such Saints, as 'tis a question whether many of them be not now in Hell; I am sure 'twas much disputed by most Universities of Europe whether Thomas Becket were saved or damned, and the [Page] greatest part concluded for the latter, and yet this Man is reputed the great Patron of the English and his Anniversary Festival kept with great Solemnity in Rome in the Colledge of English Jesuites, who in their Refectory or Dining-room show us also the Pictures of Garnet and such-like Tyburn Saints; Their Religion, I say, consists in running after such Saints as these, and dealing out their Prayers to them by tale and measure, mumbled over like Charms, all whose force lyes in an External application of them, and are as much understood by the People as by those Images they are made to. Thus did the Jews rest in the Law, and thus doe Papists in all those Duties which are enjoyn'd them by their Confessors; who if they can but perform their task, or others doe it for them, think themselves safe enough, and can satisfie their Consciences that they have done all that was commanded them, though they have done but the least part of what God has required of them.

2. Can any thing be more effectual to debauch men's Manners than their [Page] Doctrine of Repentance and the Power of the Keys, whereby they can turn Attrition into Contrition, when they please, and make a very Judas a true Penitent if he can but say he desires to be so. What is there here required which a Libertine will not admit? To sin and to confess, to confess and sin on; to be drunk and vomit, to vomit and again be drunk, who would dislike? But then have they not very severe strict Rules, some may say? and doe they not enjoyn harsh Pennances and Mortifications? They doe indeed make as fair a show in the Flesh as any Pharisee whatsoever, and bind as heavy burthens on other men's shoulders which themselves touch not with one of their fingers, and can remove from others with a wet one, either by a total Remission, a complying Interpretation, or a Commutation, where a little Alms shall make amends for a great deal of Injustice, and an Indulgence dispense with not only past but future sins too, be they what they will, or the party what he please; sold many of them at Fairs with blanks for names and crimes too, ratable at summs proportionable to the Purchaser's [Page] abilities, where a Man may buy himself out of Hell while he lives, and his Executors and Friends out of Purgatory when he is dead: From whence it is evident, That these Lions are not so fierce as they look, nor so terrible as they paint themselves; that although nothing be so dismally strict in appearance, yet nothing is so loose as they in effect. Trace these Worshippers of Bel by the print of their feet in the ashes, and you shall find whither they go, and what their pretended Abstinences end in. And yet should they in the austerity of their Will-worship go beyond us, I am sure Baal ▪s Priests went beyond them; such things make them not better than us, or make Baal's Priests far better than them; while they leave that which God commands them, to doe that for which He will never thank them.

To this I might add, as a great Motive to dissoluteness, their Catholick implicit Faith, while they require Men to believe at a venture as the Church does, and so save them the labour of searching. A Doctrine easie to flesh and bloud, and excellently fitted to the designs, [Page] as their perpetual Vow of Continency does promote the Lusts of it, exposing some to an inevitable Temptation by denying them those remedies which the Gospel freely allows every Man.

3. Can any thing more advance the pride of Nature than their Pharisaical Doctrines of Merit and Supererogation, which teach Men to purchase their own Glory without being beholding to God's Mercy, and by fulfilling his Law, to out-brave his Justice? Nay, that they can doe more than they need, and may, if they please, help their neighbours too? What an excellent lesson is this to make Nature run mad of self-conceit, while it is assured that it can carve out its own destiny by an exorbitant freedom of Will, that Men can dispose themselves to Conversion, work out their own Salvation without Christ's help, or, if not themselves, with the assistance of others, who can furnish them with a supply out of their super-abundant stock of Merits. Thus while they run away with such fond conceits, they become careless and negligent of doing any good themselves, while they are made [Page] to believe that others can doe it for them, as if the lashes of Saints (supposing them such) could heal us as Christ's stripes doe, that God's Justice would suffer its self to be paid with any other coyn than that which bears his Son's image and superscription, or that his bloud could not be able to cleanse us without being mixt with the water of our own or other men's tears. What can be more effectual I say than this, to puff up Men with spiritual pride, or more derogatory or injurious to the Saviour of the World? And yet this is the Doctrine of the false Prophets of Rome, who stick not, some of them blasphemously to affirm, That we are more beholding to the Mother's milk than to the Son's bloud.

And as their Doctrine of Merit and Supererogation promotes spiritual pride; so does that of the Pope's Infallibility and Supremacy as much foment their spiritual and carnal too, while by the former they allow no more possibility of Error in St. Peter's, than the Pharisees did in Moses's Chair, and consequently exclude all hope of any Reformation [Page] of the Pope's abuses, which all Men must swallow and digest as the dictates of God's Spirit, to whom he entitles them, and from which there lying no Appeal, he may Lord it as he pleases over God's heritage, let his pretended Predecessor say what he will to the contrary, 1 Pet. 5. 3. and over all the Princes of the Earth too by vertue of his Dabo tibi claves, in spight also of the same Apostle, 1 Pet. 2. 13, 14. Doctrines which serve to swell him up with Pride, as that of Transubstantiation fills all his Emissaries with it too, which giving them a power to make their God, must needs make them look upon themselves as some great ones, and the people admire and stand in awe of them who can create their Creator, and, which is worse, sell him too, as some of them doe, at a lower price than Judas did his Saviour, though others can sometimes raise the Market, when they see occasion. And surely there is nothing more certain than that they doe so as by vertue of this, so of their other fore-mention'd Doctrines of Purgatory (whereof the Pope keeps the Key as well as of Heaven, and has kindled a fire there on [Page] purpose to make his Pot seeth) of Masses for the Dead, who are to be released thence by their own or friends Money, and Indulgences to the Living, that when they come thither they may also find a quick dispatch, being, in their description of it, as hot, though not so close a quarter as Hell its self; wherein Men desiring to continue as short a time as possibly they can, would be glad at any rate to provide themselves a Pass-port to an easier place.

To which Doctrines I might add their forbidding of Marriage to many degrees of Men, a subtle way too of driving on their Trade of Merchandize; For the more Prohibitions, the more Dispensations; and the more Dispensations, the more Money, (No Peny, no Paternoster with them.) Thus doe their Doctrines empty themselves still into the Churches Treasury, and the Sins of the whole World must be taxed to increase St. Peter's Patrimony, (though himself could tell us he had neither Silver nor Gold,) and rather than the Pope's Coffers shall stand empty, he will set a price upon Damnation its self, and the very Stews shall become Tributary to his [Page] Holiness's Purse, that so that very Purse may maintain his Grandeur to the lessening of that of all other Princes. That these are the aims of such-like Doctrines, is plainly discernible by any that have not lost their Senses; And surely Purgatory yields him so considerable a Rent that (as Bishop Jewell well said) the Pope would be content to lose Heaven and Hell too to save that; And nothing can render his Indulgences tolerable but this one Consideration, That they gave the first occasion to the Reformation of this, and all other his Abuses.

The time would fail me to discover the aims of other Popish principles; How some of them doe preach downright Falshood and Injustice, such as are the Jusuitical Maximes of, No Faith to be kept with Hereticks; of Equivocations and mental Reservations, whereby they can make any thing signifie any thing; of Probabilities and rectifying of Intentions, mentioned at large in the Provincial Letters, and which the Jesuites have made such excellent use of for deciding Cases of Conscience: To which I might add, Their uncharitable and non-sensical Principle of their Particular [Page] Churches being the Universal Catholick one (as the Pharisees and Donatists of old, and our over-strict Precisians of late) dooming all to Hell who are not of their cut and garb, as if none could be saved that were out of their Ark: Besides those innumerable, burthensome and superstitious Ordinances they load men's Consciences with; (A yoke, as they make it, heavier than that of Moses, whose whole loins are not so thick as their little finger.) But I forbear, and shall conclude this part with a brief account of their Doctrine of Obedience to Magistrates; which how destructive 'tis to all civil Government, will appear by the very proposing of these four Particulars.

1. That they so exempt all Ecclesiastical persons from Subjection to Princes, as to allow these no co-active, but only a directive Power over them.

2. That by the Seal of Confession they tye up their Priests from revealing any traiterous Plots of Rebels against their Soveraigns.

3. That the Pope by his Authority can, when he pleases, absolve Subjects from their Oaths of Fidelity to them.

[Page]4. That 'tis not lawfull for Christians to obey an Heretical Prince.

By which Maximes 'tis evident how impossible it is for any Man that believes them to be a good Subject. He must be no Papist if he be true to his Prince, since he can be so no longer than the Pope will suffer him. Whatever such a Man's practice may be (as, no doubt, many noble Gentlemen of that persuasion have been Loyal to their last breath,) yet his Principles are rebellious; and if his natural generosity, or some other respect, keeps him fast to his King, his Religion I am sure does not bind him. And when there happens a contest between Honour and Religion, 'tis odds but the latter will carry it. For put the case the Pope should command one thing, and the King another, I would fain know, whether of the two a Papist conceives himself oblig'd to obey; If he says, His King, he can be no good Roman Catholick; If the Pope, (as he must say, unless he will renounce his profession,) 'tis impossible for him to be a good Subject, since the Pope, whom with Bellarmine he acknowledges the Head of the Church, [Page] one that cannot err, and that has power to make Articles of Faith according to the determination of the Council of Trent, hath ex Cathedra declared these forenamed Principles of Rebellion to be such Articles of Faith, and the denying them to be so, no less than Heresie.

You see the doctrines of these falsePractices of Romanists. Prophets of Rome, and they have exemplified them all by their practices. The Pharisees were great boasters of their Father Abraham, and so are these of the Fathers of the Church, as if they were their only legitimate offspring, and the sole heirs of their learning and piety. And these two they have so engross'd to themselves, that they look upon all the world besides as bankrupt. As to learning, 'tis so confin'd to the Colleges of Jesuits, that, if we may believe them, it very seldom travels beyond their walls; who being the only Rabbi's have appropriated to themselves the swelling Titles of Angelical, Seraphical, and the like; All besides them having but one eye, while these, like the Chineses, have two. As to piety and devotion, the [Page] Catholick-church, like the Temple of the Lord among the Jews, is ever in their mouths; They are the only godly Party, the Favorites and Minions of heaven; Nothing to be seen in their Churches but miracles, and nothing on their Walls but devotion; and indeed all their religion is but paint. The very habit of a Monk with them is miraculous beyond St. Paul's handkerchief, and a Franciscan's frock wrapt about a dying man, shall as infallibly make him a Saint, as Rablais his gown a Physician. All the Pharisee's arts of dawbing and pargetting are but rude and gross, and his colours faint to those of a Mendicant. View him with his shaven head, his long beard and longer beads, his ill habit and worse looks, prostrating his body to the ground before his woodden god, and what Pharisee can compare with him? And yet this is the best side of the man and of his religion, which, like an Egyptian Temple, belies and shames its fair frontispiece with some ridiculous Ape within. There is no such hypocrisie as that which lurks under a Cowle, no pride to that of a feigned and voluntary humility, nor any such [Page] lewdness as that which is gilded over with devotion. Should I lay the dirt of their Cells before you, or rake up the bones of buried Infants, the prospect would be too nasty and dismal. We know what good use they make of their Confessions. They who are well acquainted with them find them one thing abroad and another at home; one thing at their Altars and another in their Chambers. These Pedlers of devotion carry all on their backs abroad, while their storehouses lye empty. They can appear to the eye of the world like so many Baptists with their Camels hair and leathern girdles, which they brag of, as Antisthenes of old did of the rents of his garment, that served only to let in light to sober Spectators to view the Wearer's vanity. And what is all their Tinsel devotion, but a Pharisaical will-worship? That rabble of insignificant and superstitious ceremonies, wherein they out-doe the most hypocritical Pharisees in Crosses, Relicks, Agnus's, Exorcising of devils of their own raising, and ridiculous cringings and postures, not to be found among the Pharisees, whose behaviour was sober and grave [Page] in comparison of that antick Mascarading and religious Mummery practised by these Romish Augurs who cannot chuse but laugh sufficiently at themselves for them, and do no doubt much more at them who are so silly as to admire them. The Pharisees had their superstitious washings 'tis true, but they had no holy water to fright away the Devil, nor did they wear their Philacteries as these men doe a piece of St. John's Gospel about their necks to charm him. Indeed those many Sects of religious orders among Papists derive from them, but are far more numerous and ridiculous, exceeding them as much in their Crimes as they doe in their Fopperies. Did they compass sea and land to gain a Mat. 23. 15 Proselyte, these will run farther than the Indies to gain Souls, that is, to extend Empire, like subtle Foxes, preying far from home, or rather, going about like 1 Pet 1. 8. roaring Lyons, seeking whom they may devour. And, when they have gained men, they make them much more the children of the Devil than themselves, being sure, when once they have them, to keep them fast and tame enough, either by a gross ignorance, or the consciousness [Page] of those sins which they have pickt out from them by Confessions, and which they continually nurse up by their Indulgencies. Had the Pharisees subtle ways to entrap men, these their disciples can out-wit them, and a Pharisee is but a Dunce to a Jesuit in his art of Legerdemain, spiritual juggling and holy frauds, whose fundamental Principle 'tis, That Gain is Godliness; If the1 Tim. 5. 6. Pharisees were covetous, these have hearts exercised with all manner of covetous practices. Let the Quarry be never so mean, these Hauks will stoop to it. To say the truth, The religion of these men is founded in policy and interest, and the whole current of their doctrines and practices run that way; as 'tis easie for any one to see that well considers them. 'Tis this that sets the Fryars and Jesuits together by the ears, all the quarrel between them being this, Who shall bring most grist to their several mills. A man can scarce die quietly for them here, and much less abroad. There you may behold their numerous Orders flocking to departing men like Vultures to a Carcass, and weeping over those preys like Crocodiles. They will [Page] watch, talk and hare men into their religion, not so much by the fear of that Hell they set before them, as of those many Devils in Prophets mantles, which then visibly torment them, and which 'tis good policy to keep by them, lest others, like fresher Flies swarming in, should suck out that little bloud which the former had left in their purses to defray the charges of a burial. One poor widow's cottage fill'd the panchMat. 23. 14 of an old Pharisee, but large Patrimonies and fair Revenues will not stop the throat of a Jesuite, who is always building that he may still be begging, and although he devours the Land like Pharaoh's lean kine, yet he still looks hunger-starv'd. This sets all other Orders desperately against him, and indeed they have reason to be angry with him. For though they have as good a mind to money as he can have, notwithstanding their rule will not permit them to finger it, yet they fall very much short of him in their Art of Coinage. So that as Josephus, speaking of the Pharisees, says, they had [...], bare greater sway with the people, and so made greater advantage of [Page] them than the Scribes; the Jesuits carry away the Trade from all other Romish Merchants, and drive it on with greater policy and interest, having an Oar in every Boat, and a hand in every Purse; their Emissaries in all private Families, and their Spies in all publick Counsels, entring, like those Frogs the Psalmist speaks of, even into Kings Chambers, over many whereof they have got so great an Ascendant, as to be able to steer all their Affairs by their own private Compass; their Ambition being not content with the highest seats in their Synagogues, unless they may have them too in Princes Cabinets.

And truly how they serve even Princes of their own religion when they suspect them, their Attempts on the persons of some late Kings of France, and Practices at Venice do clearly manifest, for which they were, with shame enough to themselves, turned out of the Foregates of those States, but, to the wonder even of the Loyaller Romanists, received in again at their postern ones. And now they are as busie in all places as ever, though most with us, whom of all others they hate and whose [Page] ruine they most study, carrying it on with the utmost policy that Satan and their own Malice can furnish them with. For what are their Seminaries abroad, but so many Nurseries of Rebellion and Mischief, where the most pregnant Wits of our debauch'd Youths are trained up in all the methods of Satan? These they send out thence, as out of a Trojan Horse arm'd at all points against their Lawfull Prince, and that Religion many of them have forsaken, which they conceive themselves the more obliged furiously to persecute, to give the more colourable pretences to their defection, and a firmer pledge of their future fidelity to their Party. These are the fittest Decoys to fetch in more game, having been themselves first decoy'd into the Pope's Net by the alluring hopes of those great Preferments which were often promised, but never intended them. But having once got them fast there, he is sure to hold them. Vestigia nulla retrorsum. Or if they come back, 'tis only to trouble our waters, the better to fish in them; nay, 'tis to scatter fire where-ever they go, that they may warm their hands by those [Page] flames they kindle. Ever since these Comets have appeared, nothing has been seen in Christendom but War and Bloud-shed. And who is able to describe those black Arts they use to disturb us, who, like Cameleons, can take all colours upon them but white; Be all things to all men, but in another sense than St. Paul was; Take all shapes upon them, and all disguises, of Agitators, Ranters, Levellers and Quakers? Come into all Companies with false faces and falser hearts: A man may sooner find them in our Churches than in their own Colleges abroad by their own names, but here they have so many that 'tis much they should remember them. And indeed, what is a Jesuit, but one great Equivocation? what does his extemporary preaching on a stall in the corners of streets at Rome, and that Trade which every Novice with him is obliged to take upon him, spell, but an illuminated Cobler or a Butcher here, who crying up the Spirit, and decrying Universities, and running furiously at Anti-christ, but meaning our Church, shall pass for a sanctified brother, when in effect he is a most unsanctified hypocrite, one that [Page] makes a false thrust at the Pope, but really wounds his Prince, and does but more cunningly and safely spread his error, while he seems to declaim against and smother it. That learning which has been found under a russet Cloak, did not proceed from Inspiration, the very art of decrying discovered it self, and sometimes the Author. Such instances we have had of their detection in our late times of trouble, but now they walk not in vizards, nor, like the Pestilence, in the dark, but in the face of the Sun it self, and are in every corner of the Land, there being scarce a house which is not haunted by these spirits. 'Tis as possible to fathom Satan's depths as theirs, and so various are the changes of these Protei, that they cannot sit down to be drawn, and they are so in every place, that 'tis hard to find them long in any. But that these Wolves are thick among us, we may find by the daily lessening of our flocks; And we know who it is that sends them out, He who like Romulus has suckt one, whose interest those lesser ones serve, and are but as so many Jack-calls to fetch him in store of prey. Alas! they do but hunt [Page] for him, nor is he content with small game. He will have Sceptres bow to his Mitre, and Kings to kiss his Feet, that in requital of their submission, he may tread upon their Necks. This has been his practice for many past Ages, but indeed this later one has taught him better manners, since Kings by long experiences of his insolency have learnt so much dear bought wit as to keep their Consciences and their Kingdoms too. There is nothing more certain than that Popes for above a thousand years have both taught and practised rebellion, though not with equal success; and this 'twere easie to prove out of the Popish Histories themselves and those Historians who have written their Lives, but I need not to those who are so well vers'd in them. I shall only desire you to look a little back to the French Holy League, and see who 'twas that headed it, even He that exalteth himself above all that is called God, and loves to raise Tempests in States and Kingdoms, that he may enrich himself by their wrecks. And to this purpose, like another Aeolus, he lets fly his boisterous Winds, his Seminary Priests and Jesuits. Alas! He [Page] is the principal Author of our disturbances, These but the Instruments, who like so many Puppets, dance by the motion of his hand. 'Tis no marvel if these his sworn Vassals, his Janizaries in continual pay, should advance the Interest and fight for the Cause of their great Lord and General, wherein themselves are so much concern'd: Nor do they boggle at any thing that may promote it, be it never so impious, while the good of the Catholick Cause, as the Pharisaical Gold did their Altar, shall sanctifie all their lewdest practices: 'Tis no marvel, I say, that such men should doe any thing who are members of such a Church, whose tender mercies are cruelty; whose piety, butchery; religion, faction; devotion, sedition; zeal, fire; and martyrs, traytors. Surely such Cannibals as daily devour their God, will make no bones to swallow up whole States, or, which is worse, to blow them up.

This was their attempt this day, and this is still their design no doubt. 'Tis no Fable this, but a History. Habemus confitentes reos. What need we any farther Witnesses than the Parties themselves. [Page] All Garnet's tricks and equivocations at last fail'd him, when, being put to it, he could not deny but that he had a head and hand in it; confessing withall that his principal motive to this villany was, an Excommunication thundred out against Queen Elizabeth by Pius Q. and Sixtus V. which sticking still on King James as not repealed, but rather confirmed by their Successors, obliged him in Conscience to attempt the Murther of his Sovereign, in obedience to the Pope, his greater Lord. This Bill was produc'd in the indictment of the said Garnet, and gave occasion to the Oath of Supremacy. So that the matter of fact being as clear as the confessions of the Contrivers and Instruments themselves could make it, all the subtlety of Papists can never disprove or disguise it. Here is no shift, no starting-hole left them. The Mine was contrived at Rome, though 'twas to be sprung here, at Westminster. The Pope himself laid the Train, which his Ministers by his order were to give fire to. And how near were they to doe it, and we to be undone! There wanted but a little light Match to have sent up a [Page] Church and State into the air. Nor did our Enemies make any doubt but that they should have seen us flying there; and, which was their charity, that our Fall thence should have been as low as Hell. However, lest the Plot should possibly fail (as through God's infinite mercy it did) of its intended effect, they had a Declaration ready to indict the Protestants of that Treason. For the Brat would have been too foul for the Pope to father, though himself very well knew it was his own natural issue, and all the world besides. And indeed the very shape and complexion of this Monster shews it not to be of an English Extraction. Nothing but the Pope and the Devil could lay such a Cockatrice's Egg, nor any but a Jesuite hatch it. Let them take it between them, and let it remain an eternal blot upon them and their religion, guilty of a design than which nothing yet ever lookt more like Hell, the darkness and the flames of it being all in it.

I need not display the horror of it, the very prospect thereof being ghastly beyond all expression; Let your thoughts supply the defect of my rhetorick [Page] and tell you whether such fruits as these be the fruits of the Spirit of God, or of his true Prophets. Surely their Vine is the Vine of Sodom, their Grapes are Grapes of Gall, and their clusters bitter. And yet how many are there that can relish no other but what an Italian soil produceth, though they be as mortal as those of the forbiddentree. Without doubt our English palats have been strangely corrupted of late days, that we should be so bewitch'd and intoxicated with the cup of Rome's abominations, as to suck out the very lees and dreggs thereof with such delight and pleasure. I know the troubles of our late Wars have given the Romish Emissaries opportunity of beguiling many, who, discontented with their sufferings at home and pincht with necessity, or offended with the many Sects which the licentiousness of the War had begot, or couzened with the pretences of antiquity, vanity, glory and splendor of the Romish Church, and perhaps allured by those pleasing doctrines and opinions whereby their Casuists gratifie Sinners, have revolted from us, and do still revolt. Much talk there [Page] is of the increase of Popery, and if true, 'tis not much to be wonder'd at, (for a Plague is infectious and a Gangreen spreading, and evil as well as good communicative.) But surely Papists need not bragg much of their gain when they consider how and whom they get. They are such as we can spare them, men that had no religion till they found them one, and whose noreligion was better than what they have gotten; who living like Atheists, that they may seem at least to be of some religion, pretend to be Papists, and being cast out by us, were fit for them to receive. These be their prey; These, their spoils. I envy them not such Proselytes who add nothing to the repute of any side but number, nor do we lose any thing but what would shame us; our Church being but the purer for having such dreggs purg'd out. Ancient Rome had at first wanted men to inhabit it, if Romulus had not opened an Asylum; and modern Rome would not be so much replenished, if there were not a Sanctuary there for such Converts. Let me bespeak such as St. Paul did his Galatians, O ye foolish Gal. 3. 1. 4. 19. 10. People, who hath bewitched you, that ye [Page] should not obey the truth? That having known God as ye have done, ye should turn again to weak and beggarly Elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage; Lick up your vomit, and forsake the truth of God, to follow lies and Jewish fables. For, what is Popery, but one great one? what are its new doctrines, but old heresies patch'd and trick'd up, and only so old as to be rotten? Look into its practices too, whether that which Tacitus says ofAnn. lib. 15 Rome heathenish be not as true of Rome apostate, That all shameless and heinous enormities ran into it as into a common sewer. Christian-Rome now (if I may give it that name) is no more like what once it was than Jesuits are like Apostles. And yet these be the men ye doat on, and if you can get any one of their Tribe into your houses, you can say to your selves as Micah did, Judg. 17. 13. Now I know the Lord will doe me good, because I have a Priest. Such a Priest indeed as his was, who like a Serpent cherisht in your bosome, will sting you to death. Let me apply the old Proverb, 'Tis ill going in Procession where the Devil says Mass; Sure I am, that if once these [Page] evil spirits get possession of you, you will find it a harder task than you are ware of to turn them out.

But in vain do I speak to such men as are fast in the Snare; Let us take heed how we fall into it. To this end let us compare the doctrines of Protestants, contained in their several publick Confessions, with those of Papists set forth by their Council of Trent; and such a comparison will shew who are the true or false Prophets, whose doctrines suit best with the Gospel and the Analogy of Faith, and whose practices with those of Christ and his Apostles. I dare say, should a sober rational Heathen, who had seriously read over the New Testament, judge impartially between us, his very natural reason would tell him, that all that Popish trash, which is obtruded on men as Gospel, does not so much as look like it. I put this case, becaûse we had the likeSee Mr. Breval's Sermon. instances in a late converted Jew, who upon a serious consideration of each Party's tenets chose rather to be baptized with us, (though much to his own temporal disadvantage) than with them, merely upon such an account.

[Page]But to come nearer home to our present purpose, and to speak to the point of Obedience, I confess indeed that some Protestants in the World have been Rebels. But there is no Protestant Church that ever taught and constantly maintained Rebellion, or allow'd the practice of it, as that of Rome does. I appeal to their several Confessions extant in print. The difference between Protestants and Papists in this case is indeed this, That disobedience with them is a crime, and with these a law; That they punish Rebels, and the Pope rewards them, promising them no less than Remission of sins and Eternal life; That they abhor the Murtherers of Kings, but the Pope sets them on by his Excommunications, and after the murther is committed, makes Panegyricks on them.

But whatever the doctrines and practices of other Churches may be, nothing can be more clear of Rebellion than the Church of England is. Let any man judge of their doctrine as to that point by the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy, which Priests and Jesuits will no more own than they will doe us for a Church, and can no more swallow [Page] such a morsel than a Pharisee could Swines-flesh. Some Priests indeed, as Blackwell for one, took the Oath of Supremacy, and Withrington wrote a book in defence of Obedience to the Civil Magistrate; but were so far from having any Thanks from, that they were severely checkt by their Masters. But as to the generality of these False Prophets, they are still the same, and bear the same bad fruit. These Wolves in Sheeps-cloathing will sooner change their Hair than their Opinions. Try them by this Shiboleth, and they willJudg. 12. quickly appear to be Ephraemites. 'Tis true indeed some who would be thought Protestants, have been guilty of the same Jesuitical Doctrines and Practices, but they were no more Protestants than Jesuites are Protestants; They went out [...] Joh. 2. 19. from us, but were not of us. They never suckt such Principles from the Breasts of that Church they were born in, but from those Emissaries of Rome who debaucht them. Before the Troubles began we were most of us Orthodox. 'Twas Anarchy brought in Schism into our Church, and Rebellion into [Page] our State. While Penal Laws were in full force, we could scarce ever see a Priest, but in a Prison, or on a Gallows. Let not Rome then charge our Church with their own Principles, nor tell us we have been Rebels, since they made us such. No true Member of our Church ever was, nor indeed could be one; He could no more be a bad Subject, than a Christian (as Athenagoras said) could be a bad Man. Many of us have died for our Prince, but none of us have taught to kill him either by Precept or Example, as some Popish Priests have done, or else they are very much bely'd. Our Ministers were never found preaching Rebellion in Conventicles as Jesuites have been found to doe, some faces having been seen there which never appeared to any before but in Rome or Madrid. In a word, we have confuted the Church of Rome as much by our Lives as by our Writings in this point, and undergone as many tryals for the defence of this Truth, as Primitive Christians have done for that of their Religion. Patience and Meekness are the fruits we [Page] own, others are of a forreign growth. By these our Church desires to be known; and when the Church of Rome can shew the like, she shall be ours too; but she must then cease to be what now she is. But if she will not come to us, as 'tis to be feared, her pride will not suffer her to bow, though it be to the Sceptre of Christ; let us not go to her, but keep where we are, nor forsake our own Church till we can be sure to find a better. And surely no better argument of her being a good one than this, That the Church of Rome persecutes her, as Nero did her, when once Apostolical. And should the time ever come that she should use her strongest and best arguments, Inquisition and the Faggot, I hope, by God's help, we should be as ready to confute them by our Patience, as we have done others by our Pen. But God who in his Mercy has so miraculously▪ preserved us from their fury this day, will, no doubt, still doe so, while we continue true Sons to him and his Church: Nor is it possible that his Vicegerent should ever [Page] have a good opinion of those False Prophets who would have blown up his Grandfather, and in Him himself; and would, no doubt, were there the like occasion, endeavour to blow up his Royal Person, their principles and their malice being still the same.

To summ up all, Let us bless God that we can meet here to bless him. Without the wonderfull Mercy of this Day some of us had never been, and perhaps this Church had not too. No place then so fit to praise God in, since 'tis its self so great and signal a Monument of his Goodness in its own and our preservation. And while we praise him with joyfull Lips, let us at the same time beg of him still to preserve our Church and the Nursing Father of it, our Soveraign, from all attempts and practices against his Crown or Person, either by Heretical or Schismatical Men, Forraign or Domestick Traytors, praying God that under him we may lead a quiet and peaceable life, in all godliness and honesty, and that obeying God, and his Laws, God may own us for his, by those fruits of righteousness we [Page] bring forth, that so having our fruit unto holiness, we may obtain everlasting life, through Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour; To whom, &c. Amen.

Soli Deo gloria.

A SERMON Preached on the Fifth of NOVEMBER.

[Page]

JOHN XVI. 2, 3.

They shall put you out of the Synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doth God service.

And these things will they doe unto you, because they have not known the Father nor Me.

THAT Religion is the great Instrument of that happiness they expect hereafter, is what all good men doe believe; And that it is withall a special means of procuring Temporal happiness, is what the most unbelieving doe allow, by making it, or at least the pretence thereof, so necessary to the ▪well-being and support of humane Societies, that without this foundation they cannot, in their opinion, [Page] possibly subsist; And therefore Politick men finding this Engine so forcible to turn and manage the World, have always successfully employ'd it to that purpose, and governed others, though Themselves were least governed by it.

And certainly if the bare appearance of Religion hath been thought, even by the worst of men, so effectually conducing to the peace and benefit of Mankind; It is a plain confession, that the Reality thereof must needs be much more, and that not only by a Divine, but also by a Moral Causality. For besides that Religion, by over-awing men's Consciences, keeps them firm and steady in their Obedience to Magistrates; It does in its own Nature and Constitution carry such a mollifying uniting Vertue in it, as is apt to soften the most obdurate, and pacifie the most turbulent Minds, having such a powerfull Influence as well on the Persons as Actions of Men, that it turns Wolves into Lambs; and where it once lays hold on Conscience, is the strictest band of humane Laws, the best security for Princes, and the greatest Endearment of Obedience, which can never be firm and lasting [Page] without it; It being impossible that He should ever be true to Man, that is not so to God. But if this be the natural Effect of Religion, how comes it then to pass that it is not constant? If it disposeth Men to Peace and Order, why does it so often break them? How comes that, which is the Cement of humane Societies and the bond of peace, to be such a Make-bate in the World, as we see it is by those bitter Feuds and Animosities, those mortal and implacable Hatreds, it raises and foments everywhere to the ruine and destruction not only of private Families, but even of States and Kingdoms? This, I confess, is a fatal Consequent and an accidental Event, not any proper and natural Effect of Religion, but rather of men's Lusts, Passions, or their Mistakes about it; Of the Hypocrisie of some, who make it a stalking-horse to temporal Interest, carrying on their worldly designs under its Mask and Vizard; As the Pharisees Mat. 23. 14▪ made long prayers to devour Widows houses; or, Of the misapprehensions of better-meaning people, who fight against God under his own Banner, break his Laws in pure Obedience to [Page] them, and while they turn his Servants out of their Synagogues and kill them into the bargain, think thereby to doe their Master service; with these in the Text.

One would think it should have been impossible for any Men to be so persuaded, but that our Lord hath here plainly foretold it, and the Experience of all Times, and of ours especially, hath abundantly verified his Prediction. For we see Men, though most opposite in their Judgments, yet perfectly agreeing in this Point, That whosoever is not with, is against Them; and whosoever is against Them, is against God, and so to be run down as an Enemy to him. So that when once people make their own God's quarrel, no quarter then is to be expected from them; and to be remisly cruel, shall pass with them for a doing of the work of the Lord negligently. And this shall justifie, yea and sanctifie all inhumane bloudy acts, propitiate for all other faults, and turn Murther it self into a Sacrifice; and by slaying all that stand in their way, Men shall consecrate themselves to the Lord, as they are said to doe who slew the Idolaters, Exod. [Page] 32. 29. or, as 'tis in the Text, [...], which the Chaldee Paraphrase renders, Offer an oblation unto God. Now it seems very strange how any Man should be able so far to subdue his Reason, as to persuade himself that to persecute, excommunicate, nay and to kill another meerly for differing from him in opinion, can be an acceptable service unto God. But what Natural Reason boggles at, Religion we see, or rather a false conceit thereof, not only swallows but digests as a pleasing Morsel, making some doe that out of choice, which others doe out of rage and frenzy, and corrupting their Judgments to that pass, as to persuade themselves they doe best where they doe worst. Such were the Persons our Lord speaks of, forewarning his Disciples that they might not be offended, v. 1. when they should be counted as sheep appointed to be slain; Psal 44. 2 [...] when they should see themselves set apart for the Altar, killed all the day long for his sake and the Gospel; Appointed unto death in the design and intention of their cruel and implacable Enemies, who should not only safely, but meritoriously kill them as so many proscribed [Page] Persons, on whose heads rewards are set, and who thereby should not only deserve well of Men, but of God.

1. Now who they were that should

Divis.

doe so, and what were the Reasons or Motives prevailing with them to make them think they should doe God service by such violent ways as the putting Christ's Disciples out of their Synagogues and killing them, I shall in the first place inquire into. And then in the next,

2. I shall shew you our Saviour's judgment of, or rather, the heavy doom He passeth here upon all such Men and their Practices, as proceeding from perfect ignorance, from their not knowing the Father nor Him; And wherein this their Ignorance did consist, shall be my second Inquiry. Which two Heads of discourse, when I shall have gone thorough, I shall

3. In the third place conclude with some Application.

The first thing to be inquired into, is,Part. I. who They were our Saviour here points to. And to this Query my Answer in [Page] short is, That they were three sorts of very different people, Jews, Heathens, and Christians.

1. Jews, Against whom these words are here directly levelled. For who could those be that should put Men out of their Synagogues but the Jews, especially the leading Men amongst them, The Scribes and Pharisees, The Elders or Sanedrim, who were the Highest Ecclesiastical Court in that Nation? Had they not agreed among Themselves, That if any man did confess that Jesus was Christ, he should be put out of the Synagogue? Joh. 9. 22. And in pursuance of that Order and Agreement doe we not find that they did cast out the blind Man for owning Christ to be the true Messiah, ver. 34? Nor did their rage stop here, but as in process of time they proceeded to the Murther even of the Son of God Himself, so to the Persecution of all his Followers, They both killed the Lord Jesus, and have persecuted us, says St. Paul, 1 Thess. 2. 15. Adding this farther character of them there, That they pleased not God, and were contrary to all Men; That is, to all that were not of their way, but to [Page] Christians above all others. Which is that our Lord had expresly foretold they should doe, Mat. 23. 34. and St. Stephen upbraids them for having done, Act. 7. 52. And we see what havock St. Paul himself made of the Church before his Conversion, breathing out threatnings and slaughter against the Disciples of the Act. 8. 3. 9. 1. Lord; And himself tells us why he did so, namely out of a full persuasion that he was in conscience obliged to persecute Christians, who were, as he then thought, the main Enemies of the Jewish Religion; I verily thought with my self (says he) that I ought to doe many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth, Act. 26. 9. And he tells us, Phil. 3. 6. That out of zeal he persecuted the Church; Affirming the same of theGal. 1. 14. other Jews, being all zealous of the law, Act. 21. 20. So that all his and their rage against Christ and his Disciples proceeded from their great Zeal to the Mosaical Law. For the Mosaical Law having been of divine Institution, they lookt upon all those that opposed it as professed Enemies to God, as guilty of the highest presumption and sacriledge, who should endeavour to repeal and [Page] make void what God Himself had once enacted. And then what more acceptable service, think we, what better sacrifice could they offer up to Him than the bloud of such Miscreants, who should presume to set up a way of Worship in opposition to what Himself had prescribed? We find this charg'd upon St. Stephen as his great crime, That he should affirm, That Jesus of Nazareth should destroy the holy Place, and change the customs which Moses had delivered them; Act. 6. 13, 14. And so strongly were the Jews possessed with a conceit of their being the peculiar People of God, that they could not endure the least mention of any others sharing with them in this Priviledge, insomuch that they could hear St. Paul with patience enough till once he spake of his being sent to the Gentiles; They gave him audience till then, says the Text; And then cryed out, Away with such a Fellow from the Earth, for it is not fit that he should live; Act. 22. 21, 22. Contradicting and blaspheming the truth Paul preacht unto them; Act. 13. 45. And stirring up the devout and honourable v. 15 Women, that is, such as had embrac'd [Page] the Law of Moses and the Jewish Religion, being led with blind Zeal against the Gospel which they knew not, and so were the fittest Agents to their Party and for their turn, to promote Persecution against the Church, as having a great Interest in men's Affections. All this plainly shews, that what the most part of the Jews did in opposition to the Gospel, was out of pure Zeal to the Law, and out of a conscientious, but blind, Persuasion; That▪ it was their Duty to persecute and destroy All that were Enemies thereunto, wherein many of them did bono animo errare, err with a good Mind and holy Intention, Thinking thereby to doe God service.

But although the Generality of the Jews did Think so, yet some, and They the leading Party among them, did think to doe themselves some service as well as God, driving on their Politick designs under the fair and colourable pretence of Religion. Of this sort were the chief Governors, who dreaded the ruine of their Synagogue; That their Law and Government would sink together; and that Christianity, if not timely crusht, [Page] would sweep away both. This appears clear from that saying of theirs, Joh. 11. 48. If we let this Man (that is, Christ) alone, All men will believe on Him; And then what will become of our Power and Authority? The Romans shall come and take away both our Place and Nation. This was their great Fear; They saw that the World was already gone after Joh. 12. 19. Christ; And if things should go on at that rate, they should then be left alone, and the People should fall off from them from whom they suckt no small advantage. It was this Apprehension that vexed them at the heart; This made them straitly threaten the Apostles not to preach any more in Christ's name, left a doctrine, so dangerous to them, should spread any farther; Act. 4. 17, 18. The Law was their great Pretence, but Interest their chiefest Motive to persecute Christians, who were such dangerous Enemies to their Religion, and, which was more considerable to them, to Themselves, to their Sway and Authority; And both these meeting together, would not fail to give their rage the keenest Edge. But this consideration was not perhaps that which moved the generality of [Page] the People, who had no such deep reach, and had more sincere Hearts and honest Intentions, being but so many Tools in the hands of more cunning Designers. These men being possessed and acted by a Religious frenzy, bore all down before them, not valuing their own Lives to be masters of other men's. Such were those devout Assassins who had bound themselves under a great Curse, (an Oath of Execration,) That they would neither eat nor drink till they had killed Paul▪ Act. 23. 12. Like those among the Mahumetans, who strongly deluded and besotted with their Superstition, count it meritorious to murther any Enemy thereof, though Themselves perish in the Attempt. And thus you see who were the principal Persons our Lord here aims at, to wit, the Jews; And what were the main Grounds and Motives that transported them with such rage and fury against Christ's servants, a blind zeal for their Law, and a strong persuasion that they were bound in duty and conscience to use all manner of violence against them, who were, in their account, utter Enemies to their Law, and consequently to Themselves [Page] as well as to God, the Author of it.

2. But these were▪ not the only People here pointed at. The time cometh, faith our Lord, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doth God service. That Time was not yet come, but it was coming, and near at hand too, when every one, as much bigotted as the Jews could be, should think they should perform the same service Deo opiniativo, as St. Augustine phraseth it, to what they took for God, to those false Gods they worshipped as the Jews did to the true, by mingling theirs as Pilate once did the Galileans bloud with their Sacrifices. Luk. 13. This points to Heathens. So Tertullian, speaking of Maximilian, tells us, That he thought the bloud of Christians a most pleasing Sacrifice to his Gods; Christianorum sanguinem Diis gratissimam esse victimam. Budoeus is of opinion,In Pandec. that St. Paul, speaking of Christians, being accounted as the filth of the World and the off-scowring of all things, [...] and [...] 1 Cor. 4. 13. Alludes to those Expiations, in use among Heathens, where certain condemned Persons were brought forth with Garlands on their heads in manner of [Page] Sacrifices, and offered up to Neptune, being termed [...] And Suidas Suidas, in [...] tells us, that for the removal of the Pestilence they sacrificed certain Men to their Gods, whom they styled [...] Filth, loading them with revilings and curses. Such were all Christians accounted among Heathens, who lookt upon them as the vilest sort of men upon Earth, fit to be offered in Sacrifice to their Gods. For,

1. They thought them guilty of the highest immoralities and debaucheries, adultery, incestuous copulations, murthering and eating their own Children in their nocturnal private Assemblies; and then no marvel if they thought their utmost severity towards them to be an act of Justice and of Religion too, as being in their apprehension the Causes of all those publick Calamities that befell the World.

2. They look'd upon them as profane, atheistical men, and so worthy to die, because they did not worship the heathen Deities, nor had any Altars or Temples. For so the Charge runs against them in Tertullian, Deos non colitis; and in Minutius Felix, Nullas aras [Page] habent Christiani, nulla templa. Nay, They look'd upon Christians as Affronters of the Gods and of Religion, That laugh'd at their Sacrifices, despised their Temples, and threw down their Altars and Images. And hence they passed for [...] Atheists, as Socrates did, who was thought to believe that there was no God, because he had a very mean opion of those the World then worshipped. The very same crime objected to Christians, of being of no Religion, because they would not embrace the heathenish Superstition. So the Pagans in Arnobius, Christus ex orbe religiones expulit, Their Master Christ had driven all Religions out of the World. He had indeed destroyed all those false worships the besotted World ran after, together with their ridiculous, abominable Deities, having silenced their Oracles, and forc'd those Gods they worshipped to confess themselves to be no other than Devils; As his Disciples and primitive Christians could and did frequently drive them out of those bodies they possessed; which was such an affront to their Gods as Heathens were not able to endure, and thought themselves concern'd to vindicate [Page] by the utmost severity that either wit or malice, helpt on by the Devil himself, could find out. And then,

3ly. What Cruelties think we were left unexercised upon Men, who, besides the ruine of their Religion, had, in their apprehension, designs, against the State too, and where-ever they were, were thought still to endeavour the undermining of their Empire? Which though it was a pure groundless calumny, yet the Apostles finding this apprehension so deeply rooted in their minds, thought it necessary earnestly to press subjection to heathenish Princes and Governours, to take off this foul aspersion; And the rather, because the malicious Jews did still labour strongly to possess all in Authority with such an opinion of them, as if they were Enemies as well to their State as to their Religion. Thus Christ himself was accused of perverting the Nation, of forbidding to give Tribute to Cesar, and of saying, that He Himself was a King, Luk. 23. 2. St. Paul, of being a pestilent fellow, and a mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout the world, Act. 24. 5. And the Charge was general against all the Apostles, That they had [Page] turned the world upside down, Chap. 17. v. 6. Calumnies invented and fostered by the Jews; It being expresly said, Chap. 14. vers. 2. That the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles, and made their minds evil affected against the brethren, envenoming them with hatred and prejudice against them, as People hating their Government as well as their Worship, though in effect none did it more than the very Jews themselves. There is no doubt but that Interest as well as Religion set Heathens so much against Christians, and the latter not the least. For besides that they had been in a long and uninterrupted Possession of their idolatrous way of worship, and so thought themselves to have the advantage of time over Christians, who were in their account but Upstarts; They could not digest such an absurd Religion as did teach, that a crucified Man could be a God; And so morose and strict a one, as not to allow them their old luxury, hatred, pride, envy, and all those abominations whereof their very Religion was made up, nor suffer them to be as wicked as they desired and the Devil would have them to be; [Page] And therefore by the insinuations of his chief Instruments, the Priests, who were undone if this new way should prevail, did he labour to root them out from off the face of the Earth, as a most pestilent sort of people: A work, in their opinion,Joh. 4. 18, 19. & 7. 7. very meritorious, as no doubt it was, to their Gods. And therefore Suetonius in the Life of Nero, amongst other good things done by him reckons, Persecutiones Balz. Soc. Christian. cap. 4. contra Christianos factas; And that bloudy Tyrant and Persecutor Dioclesian, in an Inscription engraven on a Monument he had set up, makes his brags, that he had purged the Earth of the Christian Nation, abolished the Christian Name in all parts of his Empire, and propagated the worship of the Gods; Superstitione Christianorum ubique deletâ, & cultu Deorum propagato. Wherein he reckoned without his host, having, to his great grief and sorrow, liv'd to see the ruine of Heathenism, and the establishment of Christianity by Constantine; which did so enrage Julian the Apostate, that, finding all his Arts to destroy the Faith ineffectual, he vowed, that if he sped in his Expedition against the Persians, he would at his return offer up the [Page] bloud of all Christians to his Gods. And thus you see our Saviour's prediction verified in respect of Jews and Heathens, and what were the grounds and motives of their hatred and rage against Christians; blind zeal, blended with worldly Interest, which made them think that by persecuting them to death they did God service.

3. But we are not to confine our Lord's prediction wholly to the Jews and Gentiles, but to extend it even to Christians themselves, who have verified it in its most rigorous and worst sense. And truly 'tis a sad thing to consider, how no sooner Jews and Heathens had laid down the quarrel, but that Christians took it up, carrying it on against themselves with as much heat and fury as ever the former had done. The mutual Contests between them, even in the earlier times of the Gospel, were so bitter and intemperate, so fierce and bloudy too, that they have been objected to them by Pagans, and derided in their open Theatres. Clemens Alexandrinus bringeth in Heathens upbraiding them with their quarrels; And Ammianus Lib. 22. Marcellinus, a heathen Author, hath [Page] observ'd long since, That no Beasts were so cruel to one another as Christians in his time were. And there was but too much ground for his observation, when he could see them not only reviling and libelling, as in the Council of Nice, but killing and treading down each other in that of Ephesus. What would he have said, had he lived to behold those fatal▪ Tragedies which have been acted since on the Theatre of the World upon the score of Men's different persuasions? How have they put one another out of their Synaguoges, cast them out of their Churches by Excommunications, and, by worrying them to death, turned them out of the World too, and so, as much as in them lay, destroyed peoples Souls as well as their Bodies? I dare say that Jews and Heathens put together have not spilt so much Christian bloud as Christians themselves have done. For proof whereof I might appeal to Massacres foreign and domestick, Croysades, Persecutions raised and carried on against Men with the utmost rage and violence, merely for not being able to bring their Judgments to the same pitch and level with that of their Persecutors; [Page] not to mention the bloudy design of this Day, which, had it taken effect, would at once have blown up a Church and a State; And all this with the same pretences of holy zeal and pious intentions that Jews and Heathens had, and with as equal ignorance too. For however they thought hereby to doe God service; yet God Himself we see does not think so, nor Christ neither, who chargeth all such Zealots with utter ignorance, both of the Nature of God the Father, and of Himself also; These things will they doe unto you, says He, because they have not known the Father nor Me. Which leads me to the second Head of my Discourse, to wit, Our Lord's Judgment of, or rather, Sentence of Condemnation past here upon all such persons and their practices.

They have not known the Father nor Me.

I know not what good opinion somePart. II. may have of Ignorance in matter of Devotion, so as to make it the Mother thereof; I am sure the Scripture all along makes it the source of all impiety; of atheism, oppression, cruelty and of all that confusion that is in the World; [Page] Have they no knowledge, that they are all such workers of mischief, eating up my people as it were bread? Psal. 14. 8. It was this Ignorance that crucified Christ; Had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory, says St. Paul, 1 Cor. 2. 8. And he thanks his ignorance for his persecuting and blaspheming, 1 Tim. 1. 13. They are the dark places of Act. 3. 17. the earth that are full of the habitations of cruelty, Psal. 74. 20. And when men walk on still in darkness, all the foundations of the earth are out of course, Ps. 82. 5. That is, There is nothing then but confusion in the world. They proceed from evil to evil, because they know not me, saith the Lord, Jerem. 9. 3. And here we see that Christ Himself chargeth all the cruelty, that should be exercised on his Servants, upon men's not knowing the Father nor Himself.

But wherein did this their Ignorance consist? It consisted, I say, in these two Things.

1. In that they thought that such violent courses as they took to bring men in to them, as their putting them out of their Synagogues, and their killing them, could be an acceptable Service to God.

[Page]2. That their pious Intentions, Their thinking thereby to doe God service, could be able to bear them out, and justifie this their way of proceeding.

1. I say first, That they were grosly mistaken in thinking that those violent courses they took could possibly please God. This was their [...] their First grand mistake. For there was nothing in the Divine Law to shew God's approbation of any such thing. Nor do we find that the ancient Jews, who alone worshipping the true God, and being his peculiar People, might in that regard have had some colourable pretence to persecute all, that were out of God's Covenant, as enemies to Him, did notwithstanding use any rigorous, much less barbarous and cruel ways, to compell men to come into their Church. The Law indeed required the life of an Apostate to Idolatry, whether 'twere a single Person or a City, Deut. 13. And therefore to prevent the Jews running into Idolatry, to which they were so prone; Death, which was the only proper restraint in that case, was put into the Law by God, who was Himself then the Supreme Magistrate in that Theocracy, [Page] against whom it was exact Rebellion and Treason to take another God, and therefore was by Him punished with Death. But this Law concerned those only who were within the Pale of the Jewish Church; nor do we find that any who were without, were forcibly compelled to come into it. This was wholly left to their own choice, and they were suffered to go on in their own way, without being obliged to receive the Mosaical Law. It was never God's method this, to drag men to his Service, nor otherwise to work on their understandings than by rational convictions. He might have made use of his great Power to confound, but he hath always pleaded with men by way of Argument, a Way most suitable to the nature of reasonable Creatures and to his own, abhorring all manner of cruelty, and by his forbearance, long-suffering Rom. 2. 4. Exod. 34. 6 and goodness seeking to lead men to repentance; And therefore they who have any other apprehensions of a Divine Being, measure Him by their own fierce and inhumane Temper, thinking wickedly that he is such a one as themselves; and, be they who they will, They know not the Father.

[Page] Nor do they know the Son neither; I say, Whosoever employ any violent ways or means to force men's consciences in matter of Religion, do not know Christ. Let me not here be mistaken, as if I were against all manner of legal compulsion. I deny not Magistrates the power of constraining them to outward acts of Justice, Honesty and Religion too, who are destitute of the inward Vertues, such acts falling within their Jurisdiction, serving to preserve Civil Societies, of whom Magistrates are properly Lords, and who do obtain their ends, if the outward acts be done. There are two Swords among Christians, theLord Bacon, Essay 3. spiritual and the temporal; and both these have their due office and place in the maintenance of Religion: But we may not take up Mahomet's Sword, or, like unto it, that is, We must not propagate Religion by sanguinary Persecutions, nor force consciences so long as men's opinions destroy not faith or morality, that they keep them to themselves, and do not spread them, to the ruine of the established Religion and Government. For when they doe so (as some Peoples very Religion is treasonable) [Page] the Treason, not the Religion, is then punished by the Magistrate. But setting a-side this case, I say, That as all outward compulsion to oblige men to quit their present Persuasion without any rational conviction, is directly contrary to the Will of God the Father, (as I have already shown you) so to that of his Son Jesus Christ, as will appear upon these three following accounts.

1. Because it crosseth the very end and design of his Coming into the world, and is expresly contrary to his Doctrine and Example.

2. Because it is a very improper way to advance Religion by. And,

3. Such as does not serve their purpose who make use of it, which is, To gain Proselytes to their Cause.

1. I say, It crosseth the very end, &c. For as God the Father was not in the 1 King. 19. 11, 12. whirlwind, but in the still voice; so his Son's coming into the world is said to be like rain coming down into a fleece of Psal. 72. 6. wooll, scarce to be heard; He shall not strive nor cry, neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets, says the Prophet Esay, speaking of Christ, ch. 42. v. 1. His behaviour was, to be mild and gentle, [Page] not boisterous and clamorous; such a way becoming Him who was the Prince of Peace, whose business it was to reconcile men to God and to themselves, and who came not to destroy men's lives, but to save them. He tells us indeed inLuk. 9. 56. one place, that, He came not to send peace on earth, but a sword, Matt. 10. 34. or as it is in St. Luke, ch. 12. v. 51. divisions; yea, and such divisions as should set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, v. 35. that is, He foresaw what would be the event of his coming, That the nearest Relations would hate and persecute one another to death upon the score of Religion; That different pretences thereunto would separate those whom nature and bloud had most closely link'd together; That none here would pardon less, than they who were by nature obliged to love most; And we see how sharp-edged this Sword has always proved, even to the cutting asunder all natural and civil tyes and obligations, so that a man's greatest foes are many times those of his own houshold. Now this was no natural, but an accidental effect of Christ's coming, and of that Doctrine [Page] He brought with Him, whose proper character it is to be pure, and then peaceable, Jam. 3. 17. mild and gentle, not, like the Law, a killing letter, much less like Draco's Laws writ in bloud, but admirably fitted for the perfecting men's Natures and the sweetning of their Tempers and Spirits, and calculated for the peace and order of the World; which how inconsistent it is with those violent ways of Excommunications and Murthers some Men practice against such as differ from them never so little in opinion in matters of Religion, I cannot see. Nor indeed can I find any thing in the Gospel, in the Doctrine or Practice either of Christ Himself, or of his Apostles, to authorize or countenance any such violent proceedings, but enough to condemn them. When an enemy had sown Tares in the field, and some over-hasty people were presently for plucking them up, our Lord we see forbids them, and will have them both grow up together till the harvest, when God should make the separation; Matth. 13. 28, 29, 30. So when the Disciples would call down fire from Heaven to consume the Samaritans, who were both Schismaticks and [Page] Hereticks, He checks them for it, telling them, That they knew not what Spirit they were of; Luk. 9. 54, 55. That however the doing so might suit with the firey temper of Elias, it did not at all with that of his Disciples. It is not for Christianity to assume a power to inflict itself; nor is it commissionated to plant it self with violence, or to destroy all that refuse or oppose it. If it be to be writ in bloud, 'tis in that of its own Confessors only, as it was in that of its Author, whose practice was as mild and gentle herein as his doctrine. For when some of his Disciples being scandalized at the eating of his flesh, went back and walked no longer with Him, (which was direct Apostasie,) does He use any menaces or force to reduce them? No; He leaves them to themselves, and only cautions his Disciples to beware of their pernicious Example by gently expostulating with them, Will ye also go away? Joh. 6. 67. And when He afterward sent out those his Disciples to convert the World, He sent them forth as Lambs among Wolves, Luk. 10. 3. which does not found like a Commission to tear and worry them that [Page] would not come into the flock, but rather to be torn and worried by them. Their Commission was to preach the Cross, not to inflict it. And when any City would not receive their Doctrine, all they were to doe in such a case was only to shake off the dust of their feet against it; That is, to suffer nothing of theirs to cleave unto them, to have nothing more to doe with them, but to leave them to their own ways and to God's judgment. How well our Modern Apostles have copied out this Doctrine and these Examples, I leave it to all the World to judge. Surely those qualifications, which St. Paul requires in the servants of the Lord, not to strive, but to be gentle unto all men, and in meekness to instruct those that oppose themselves, 2 Tim. 2. 24, 25. are not to be found in them who now call themselves Converters, who carry the Gospel in one hand, and a Sword in the other; That if Men will not receive That into their Heads, They shall be sure to have This sheath'd in their Bowels.

2. But this, as it is a most unchristian, so is it a very improper way to advance Religion by; it being impossible [Page] to settle That by violence, which cannot be forc'd; and where 'tis forc'd, 'tis not Religion. The Understandings and Wills of Men are not to be bound with the same fetters their Bodies are. The Apostle indeed says, There is a way of bringing every thought into Captivity to the obedience of Christ; but he tells us withall, that the weapons, by which that victory is obtained, are not carnal, 2 Cor. 10. 4. One may as well invade and think to get a conquest over thoughts, and chain up a mind, as force a Man to will against his own will. Not whole Armies can besiege ones Reason, nor Cannons batter his Will. Religion is seated in those Faculties, to which outward force can have no access. The Sword hath no Propriety that way; Silence it may, but it can never convince, and rather breed an aversion and abhorrence of that Religion whose first address is in bloud and rapine. For,

3ly, It is certain that all compulsion here gains nothing to any Cause, but the infamy of those rigours that are used to promote it. Outward force may make a Man more a Hypocrite [Page] than he was before, but never more a Convert; It may tye up his Tongue or his Hand, not change his Heart; make him perhaps dissemble his Opinion, but never constrain him to alter it. And what is the advantage that is got by such Proselytes, who shall still bear an Enemies heart towards those who force them outwardly to profess what inwardly they abhor, and to be of their Church when they cannot make them of their Religion? I doe not think that those Christianos nuevos, those new Christians, as they call them in Spain; That is, such as the Inquisition has made Christians of Mahumetans, doe much love the Religion they turn to, and much less those who turn them to it by employing Fire and Faggor. These indeed are undeniable Evidences of cruelty in them that use them, but slender Motives of credibility to beget belief in them that suffer by them. And this way will not fail to multiply enemies, instead of procuring friends to any Cause, though never so good. For as Persecution to the true Church is but as the Pruning to the Vine, which gains in its bulk and [Page] fruit what it loseth in a few luxuriant branches lopt off; so even Heresies themselves thrive by being prun'd too; the cropping of these Weeds does but serve to thicken them; the bloud of the Devil's Martyrs proves as much the Seed of his Synagogue, as that of Gods Saints does of his Church; and the destroying of the Persons of Hereticks, supposing them such, does but add life to their Cause. And indeed what encouragement have Men to receive a Religion from their Oppressors? or how can they think that they, who torture and kill their Bodies, are really concern'd to save their Souls? And while the felicities of another World are recommended to them only by such as doe deprive them of all in this, we cannot wonder at their little appetite to embrace them, or to find the oppress'd Indians protest against that Heaven where the Spaniards are to be their Cohabitants. Add we to all this, That such Motives as these can never demonstrate Truth. For how successfull soever their force proves, yet it cannot prove the Doctrines true. For by that argument it proves the Religion, it [Page] goes about to settle, true; It proves that that which it destroys was true before, while it prevailed and had the power. And then such a testimony is given to the truth of Christianity which Heathenism had before, and Turcism hath since. And thus you see how all violent ways to propagate the Faith, cannot be acceptable to God the Father, as being directly contrary to his Nature and Will; nor yet to his Son, since they cross the very end and design of his coming into the World, his Doctrine and Practice; Fly in the very face of Religion it self, and can never serve their turn who make use of it: From all which it follows, That they who pursue such ways, neither know God the Father, nor his Son Jesus Christ.

I know what is commonly said by some who practice this way of compulsion, in excuse and defence of it; That many who serve God at first by compulsion, may come after to serve him freely; That these sorts of Conversions doe not augment the number of Saints, but they diminish that of Hereticks; That although some among them may prove bad Converts themselves, yet they [Page] have Families to be saved, that their Children may make good Christians; and though the stock be naught, yet the branches may be sanctified. But the answer hereunto is easie; That neither good Intents nor casual Events, can justifie unreasonable Violence; which instead of rendering Men orthodox Christians, makes them rather Atheists, Hypocrites and Formalists: For being constrained to practice against Conscience, they soon come at last to lose all Conscience: Nor are Men to owe the Salvation of Souls to any unwarrantable proceedings, because they must not doe any present evil in prospect of any future good: This was another gross error of these persons in the Text, as I am now to show you in the next place.

2. The Jews here thought their Zeal to the Temple, and their Ritual Observances so invincibly meritorious, that no crime could defeat it. And we see how apt many Christians are to ascribe so much to the force of a good meaning, as if it were able to bear the stress and load of any sins that can be laid upon it. A good purpose shall hallow all [Page] they doe, and make them boldly rush into the most unchristian practices, in prosecution of what some call, The good old Cause; others, The Catholick Faith. For how doe Men swallow down the deadliest Poyson, Perjury, Sacriledge, Murther, Regicide, and the like, in confidence of this their preservative, and say grace over the foulest sins! How many have made themselves Saints upon that account that would never have been such upon any other! And how much Religion groans under the Reproach of all those Evils which zeal and good meanings have consecrated, is notorious to all the World. Men call the over-flowing of their gall Religion, and value their Opinions so high, and their eagerness in abetting them, that they think the propagating of them so important a service to God, as will justifie, all they doe in order to this end. Now not to speak of their Error in the choice of their Opinions, That of many opposite, one only can be the Right; my present business shall be to shew you, 1. The Impiety, and 2. The Danger of this strong delusion, in respect of that [Page] Malignant influence it has on Practice.

For the clearing of which two things, we are to observe, That to the making an Action good and warrantable, these three things are requisite: 1. A good Intention in the Doer. 2. That the Matter of the Action be in it self good; and 3. That it be rightly circumstantiated. For a failure in either of these three things quite vitiates the whole Action.

1. The first thing necessary to a good Action, is a good Intention in the Doer. This we learn from Matth. 6. 22. If thine Eye (that is, thy Intention, for so Interpreters generally understand it) be single, thy whole Body shall be full of light. Be the matter of an Action never so good, yet if a Man's aim and intention in the doing of it be not so, all is stark naught. For, Actus moralis specificatur ex fine; And, Finis dat speciem in moralibus. And as the End is the first thing that sets an Agent a working, so is it the last that perfects its work. Nay, so valuable in the sight of God is a good Intention, where-ever it be found, That as He sometimes prevents an evil Act in [Page] him in whom He discovers a good Intention, as in Abimilech; so does He sometimes reward a good Purpose, tho' it proceeds not to act, as in David. Tis true, that a good End alone does not justifie any action; but it is as true that there can be nothing good or tolerable without it; And although a good meaning doth not wholly excuse, yet an evil one wholly condemns it.

But then, 2dly. Besides a good Intention, two things more are requisite to the making an Action good. 1. That the Matter of it be such. 2. That it be rightly circumstantiated.

1. That the Matter thereof be good. For our Intention, as our zeal, must be always in a good thing. And a thing isGal. 4. 18. then good, when it is conformable to that Rule which is the measure of its goodness, namely God's Will revealed unto us in his Word, which if it condemn an Action, no Intention, how good soever, can warrant it.

2. That it be duly Circumstantiated; That is, that all necessary circumstances be found in it. For, bonum ex integra causa, malum ex quolibet defectu; A thing may be evil upon one circumstance, but [Page] it cannot be good but upon All; and every partial defect in the Object, End, Manner, or other such-like circumstances, is sufficient to render the whole action bad; but to make it good, there must be an universal concurrence of all requisite conditions in every of these respects.

These principles being taken for granted, (as I think no good Christian will question the truth of them,) the Conclusion is clear and evident, That no Intention, how good soever in it self, can make any Action good, where either the Matter thereof is bad, that is, Repugnant to the revealed Will of God, or it fails of those necessary circumstances that must concur to its goodness. And the main Reason hereof is, Because no good purpose can alter the nature of Good and Evil; It can neither alter the nature nor change the degree of Sin, so as to make it less in one Man than in another, because the nature of Good and Evil depends not on Man, but on the Will of God; And the differences between Good and Evil, and the several degrees of both, doe spring from such Conditions as are intrinsecal to the [Page] things themselves, which no outward Respects, much less men's Opinions, can vary, nor sanctifie the use of them. What is evil in some circumstances, may be good in other; but if the thing be wholly bad in it self, it can never be made good till there come a cause as great to change the Nature as to make it. Nor is sin de numero eligibilium; It can neither be chosen for its own sake, nor in reference to any farther end. E malis minimum, may hold true in Evils of pain; but in Evils of fault or sin, E malis nullum, is the Rule. For as there is neither form nor beauty in sin that we should desire it, so neither any good use we can put it to. For that, Actio peccati non est Ordinabilis ad bonum finem, is the common Resolution of the Schools. 'Tis true indeed that God can, and many times doth, order the very sins of Men to a good end; but that is beyond our skill; nor must we commit any, though accidentally and in the event it may possibly turn to his glory. We are not to tell a lye, although through it the truth of God may more abound to his glory; as St. Paul speaks, Rom. 3. 7. And the reason is, because God Himself, whose [Page] Will ought to be our Rule, hath expresly forbid us so to doe. Will ye speak wickedly for God? or talk deceitfully for Him? says Job, ch. 13. 7. Will He borrow Patronage to his Cause from falsehood? Or will he be glorified by those Sins which he forbids and abhorrs? I find indeed a sort of people in Esay 66. 5. who when they hated their Brethren and cast them out for God's name sake, (either out of their company, as not fit to be convers'd with by their lesser Excommunication; or out of their Synagogue, as deservingV. Hammond on Joh. 9. 22. to be cut off from the Congregation of the Faithfull, by their greater one,) could wipe off all their crime by saying, The Lord be glorified. But what says God Himself of them? They have desired their own ways, and their Soul delighteth in their Abominations; They did evil before mine eye, and chose that in which I delighted not; ver. 3, 4. That is, they did their own Will, not mine; and pretended to advance my Glory in such a way as themselves fancied, but I never allow'd of. God will as soon part with his Glory as have it thus promoted. With Him it is much the same thing, to be made the End as [Page] the Author of Sin; and whether we doe good to a bad end, as the Pharisees did, or evil to a good one, with these in the Text, we are equally guilty in the sight of God, who will be sure to punish us even for our good but unwarrantable Intentions; As He did King Saul for reserving the best of the flocks of Ameleck, which he had devoted to utter destruction, though it were for a Sacrifice; And King Uzzah for putting forth his hand to support the tottering Ark, (out of a very good intention, as he thought,) because that was no part of his, but of the Levites office. Does St. Paul justifie himself for having persecuted the Church of God, though with a very good intention? So far was he from that, that he calls himself the chiefest of sinners 1 Tim. 1. 5. for the Commissions of that time, wherein he says, he served God with a Act. 23. 1. pure conscience, and did what he thought in his heart he was obliged to doe; His good conscience could not then, in his account, sanctifie his actings, nor make his bloudy hands undefiled; 'Twas blasphemy and persecution for all 'twas Conscience; I was before, says he▪ a blasphemer and a persecuter, and injurious; v. 13. [Page] So that a conscientious, or, which is here the same thing, a well-meaning Man, may for all that be the chiefest of sinners; nor will it avail any one to shroud his soul actions under handsome intentions. What more abominable than Idolatry? or what more acceptable service to God than to destroy it? And yet those Christians who in a preposterous Zeal, and, as they thought, a good Intention, brake down Heathen Images, and deservedly suffered for it, were never thought fit to be received by the Church into its Martyrology. The persons here had as good a pretence as could be; it was to doe God service. What better Intention? And yet they excommunicated and killed Christ's Disciples; What Action could be worse? Are they thankt for their pains? Nay, are they not therefore charged by our Lord with gross Ignorance, with not knowing the Father nor Himself?

This may suffice to shew the Impiety of this opinion, That a present Evil may be done in prospect of a future Good: Give me leave now, in a word, to shew you also the Mischief of it, the bad Influence it has on practice. It is [Page] impossible for me to tell you what destruction Psal. 46. 8. it hath brought, and daily brings, upon the Earth; How many Churches it hath devoured, how many Countries depopulated, how it hath filled the World with bloud and rapine, and must of necessity still confound it, by begetting and for ever perpetuating religious feuds and quarrels among Christians. For while each Party thinks he has God on his side, and that he has as good a right to his Opinion as he that opposeth it hath to his, which is a strong persuasion that he is in the right till he be convinc'd that he is in the wrong; There can be no end of quarrels and divisions. For this gives all men an equal right to persecute as many as differ from them in Religion. For by the same reason that I have a good opinion of my persuasion, and call it true, because I think it so; Another, who is as strongly convinc'd of the truth of his, may justly and upon equal pretence doe the like. It matters not where the truth or error lyes, the mischief is still the same; For so long as men continue in such a persuasion, be it right or wrong, they will be sure to act vigorously according to [Page] it; And it is certain that they who use bad means to compass a good end against others, doe arme them with the same power, resolution and justice to employ the like, when ever occasion serves, against themselves.

And thus you see both the Impiety and the Mischief of pious but misguided Intentions; which though not allowable in ordinary practice, yet in cases extraordinary some think may be justify'd by that common Maxime, That All great Actions have aliquid Iniqui, something bad in them, which publick advantage afterwards makes amends for. How far this may go in State-policy, I know not; but I am sure it will not pass for good Divinity, if our Saviour's word here may be taken, or St. Paul's Rule be good, Rom. 3. 8. That we must not doe evil that good may come of it; Not any the least Moral Evil for the greatest either Temporal or Spiritual Good whatsoever. Which Rule some finding too strict and severe for them, and those designs they carry on, as utterly inconsistent therewith, usually plead the Examples of some holy Men in Scripture, who having served God [Page] by strange violences of fact, have for his glory laid hold on Instruments not fit to be used by a Christian: As for example; Jacob's telling a down-right lye to get his Father's blessing; David's making use of Hushai as a spy; Elias and Jehu's causing a sacrifice to be proclaimed to Baal with intent to destroy that Idol and its Worshippers, and the like Instances of humane frailty, which God was pleased to over-look and pardon in those that did them, but never intended them as Patterns for us to imitate. Many things have been done by good men in their heat, which had God's approbation after they were done, but not his Law to countenance the doing them, and therefore can be no certain Rule for us to go by.

From what has hitherto been said, we may now perceive what ill Commentators they are of those words of our Saviour (Compell them to come in) who put this sense upon them, by threats and torments force them into the Church. Than which Doctrine nothing certainly can be more unreasonable but the way of excusing it by a good meaning, a [Page] fair pretence of advancing God's glory by any, though never so bad means; as if God would be served by taking in the Devil into his service. Surely as the wrath of Man worketh not the righteousness of God; so neither can any good end ofJam. 1. 20. his, if carried on by bad instruments, advance his glory. He may make great allowances to the miscarriages of sincere, but he will never doe it to the errors of such wicked Intentions, as are besides his Commission, yea and against his express Will and Command.

Now as this was the Jews and Heathens way, so I could heartily wish that many Christians did not follow it. The former, to wit, the Jews, had still recourse to their Excommunications, and both Jews and Gentiles fell to killing Christs servants out of equal Zeal and pious Intention no doubt; The one, for their Law; and the other, for their blind Superstition. But neither of these two ways suit with true Christianity. As for Excommunication, which some Men are so apt immediately to fly to upon every trivial occasion, they doe not well siconder what a dreadfull thing it is.

[Page]A forestalling of the great-day of Judgment; It is the delivering up of a 1 Cor. 5. 5. 1 Tim. 1. 20. Mat. 18. 17 man to Satan, a declaring him to be as a Heathen-man and a Publican, one that has nothing to doe with the people of God, but is to be cast out of their Church and Company. Now as this is the last Remedy to reclaim Sinners by; so is it but rarely to be made use of, and but in cases extraordinary. We do not find that our Lord Himself ever practised it, nor any of his Apostles, except St. Paul, and he but in one Instance. He bids us indeed, Reject an Heretick after the first and second admonition, Tit. 3. 10. Not presently anathematize, much less kill him. I would they were even cut off that trouble you, says he, Gal. 5. 12. It was but an I would, I could wish it done. And when himself did it, it was but to one single person, and that for an enormous crime, Incest; nor was it done at last, but with much solemnity too, by calling on the name of Christ, 1 Cor. 5. 4. so seldom, even scarce at all, were these spiritual arms employed even by those who were Boanerges's, Sons of thunder, and surely knew best how to manage them. And when they did it for the destruction [Page] of the flesh, that is, for the mortifying and destroying the old man (for that only is meant there by flesh) they did it for the saving of men's souls, That their spirits might be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus, v. 5. Excommunications are such edge-tools as will cut their hands who have not skill to manage them, but seldom or never hurt or hit those at whom they are lanc'd at randome. Is it not then strange that some men should think to approve their Christianity by ruining that of their Brethren, or to secure themselves of Heaven by keeping others out of it? Though with these men in the Text they should think it a service to God to kill men's bodies, methinks they should not think it one to destroy their Souls. How the Council of Trent can be excused in this particular, I understand not. For who-ever looks into the Canons of that Council will find, That as there is scarce any one there without its Anathema; so that most of them are either for such matters as cannot deserve so heavy a Censure, or for such plain Scripturetruths as deserve none; being some of them of Christ's own Institution. Nor [Page] are these Church-weapons for the most part Bruta Fulmina; They carry a fatal Train after them; Deposition, Absolving Subjects from their Oaths of Allegiance to their natural and lawful Sovereigns, who are thereupon abandoned to whosoever shall think it fit to kill them, follow close upon them. These Thunder-claps are not without their Thunder-bolts, which will be sure to doe Execution one way or other, either on men's Souls or on their Bodies, if not on both. So that when once People are devoted to Hell, all the mischiefs of the Earth immediately pursue them. The Instance of this Day's intended work is an evident demonstration of this Truth. For he who was a main Instrument in the design and management thereof, did at his Examination confess, ThatGarnet. his principal motive to this villanous attempt was an Excommunication thundred out at first by Pius Quintus against Queen Elizabeth, and kept still on foot by Sixtus Quintus, which sticking on King James, oblig'd him in conscience to attempt the murthering of his Sovereign in obedience to that Bull. And how did he excuse that Fact? Was it [Page] not by his pious intention to promote God's glory and the good of the Catholick Church? A fit cover for such a foul fact, but commonly made use of by such as himself was, in justification of the like wicked practices. St. Paul we see hath expresly doom'd all those that doe so to no less than eternal Damnation. Rom. 3. But those men and he are not agreed in this point. For should his doctrine be good, what would then become of all their Piae Fraudes, Feigned Legends and Miracles, Indices Expurgatorii, Equivocations and mental Reservations, Allowance of common Stews for the preventing unnatural Lusts, that is, of one Sin to hinder another: For which, and the like, the Catholick defence is the Catholick cause, and men's pious Intentions; which in case they should prove never so faulty, yet a little rectifying of them will rectifie all that is amiss in them. A piece of spiritual Chymistry this, of late Invention, which can extract the finest gold out of the basest metal, to guild over all the Villanies which the heart of man can devise, or his hand execute. I know not whether [Page] any can really think that by such vile artifices they can doe God any service; But I am apt to believe that they rather think to doe themselves one, and that 'tis the same humane policy, not to give it a worse name, and not Religion, that acts such men, which did these persons in the Text. But if any men do in good earnest think they doe God any service thereby, It is such a one as our Lord Himself here flatly tells them neither his Father nor He will ever thank them for.

But since it will be in vain for me to tell them so who will not take Christ's own word for it; I shall turn my discourse to you who now hear me, and for the preventing any such dangerous errour in you, leave some few Rules of caution and direction with you, and so conclude.

1. And the first shall be concerning your Zeal, That you be as carefull and industrious to employ it in a good as some do theirs in a bad cause, but with this proviso, That your Zeal be a right and well-temper'd one. A right one it will be, if it be alway in a good thing; Gal. 4. 18. [Page] And well-temper'd, if it be according to knowledge, Rom. 10. 2. St. Paul's rules both. If your Zeal be not in a good thing, it will doe the same mischief that fire does out of its proper place, the hearth; And if it have not light to see its way by, it will prove very dangerous company in the dark, and lead you into bogs and precipices. There is nothing so pernicious to man as a blind frantick zeal, which instead of eating them up who are possess'd with it, eates up God's people, as if they were bread; Nor is there any thing so injurious to God, it being common for people in their indiscreet and furious zeal for God, to run farthest from Him, and either to break the two Tables of his Law with Moses, or at least, to dash them one against the other. And can we think they should ever doe God service, who know not what they doe themselves? May not he say to such Zealots what King Achish did of David, 1 Sam. 21. 15. Have I need of mad men? And does not too much ignorant zeal much more than too much learning make men so? Surely there is no madness to the religious one, which, like the Devil in the [Page] possessed man in the Gospel, casts them sometimes into the fire, and sometimes into the water, that is, into contrary excesses and extravagances, scattering mischief where-ever it goes, turning the World into a Chaos, and the Church into an Acheldama; while Melancholy is made the seat of Religion by some, and Frenzy by others, what can follow thence but confusion? And therefore we ought to have a special care that our Zeal be guided by knowledge and discretion, lest we over-shoot our selves with these men here, and when we put Christ's servants out of our Synagogues, and kill them too into the bargain, we become so foolish as with them also to think we shall thereby doe God service.

2. Our next caution must be, that we be well assured of the soundness of the Principles we act by. What a dangerous thing it is to be herein mistaken our Saviour tells us, Matt. 6. 23. If the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness? that is, If thy mind and conscience be defiled, Tit. 1. 15. if thy Judgment be corrupt, how great and dangerous will those mistakes prove [Page] that mislead thee! For the farther thou shalt go on in thy wrong way, the more shalt thou be out of the right one; And when thou art once out, it will be impossible for thee to get into it again, so long as those false Guides, which are as so many Satans standing at thy right-hand, still prompting and tempting thee to evil, shall remain in thee. He that commits a sin by principles hath nothing to retrieve him from his errour while he retains such principles, and as long as he is under the power and guidance of ill ones, they will not only dangerously expose, but highly encourage him to evil, by turning the greatest crimes into merit, and making him hope to gain Heaven by such practices as directly lead him to Hell. The Physicians maxime, That an error in the first concoction is never to be mended, holds as true in Religion as in Nature. And therefore it highly concerns us, that our first choice here be right, lest we set out amiss, and offend God most, even there where we think most to please Him.

3. The last Use I shall draw from my Text is an Use of Direction or [Page] Tryal, how to judge of the Truth and Goodness of a Religion, and that is, by the Mildness and Harmlesness thereof. This is the proper Chraracter of true Christian Religion; It has all of the Dove, and nothing of the Vulture in it. That which breathes nothing but Curses and Slaughters, to be sure is not of God the Father, nor of His Son. I think there is no true Member of our Church that understands his Religion well and the nature of it, but would be willing to submit it to this Test; But I can scarce believe that they who talk so much of the Cruelty of ours would be content to put the Truth of their Religion upon this issue. We need but compare Q. Mary and Queen Elizabeth's Reigns to see which of the two Religions they were of was the mildest. No fire and faggot to be seen in the latter's time; Even that bloudy Butcher Bonner, who shew'd no mercy to any Protestant, found his share in hers; He was only put under a little restraint, but such a mild one as differed very little from liberty, and ended his days in peace. I am sure that the design of this [Page] day was no good argument of the good nature of that Religion which the Designers profest, no more than a standing Inquisition is. Many who are persecuted abroad for their Religion run to us for shelter and protection; But we send out none hence to complain of our like usage toward them. Some indeed are so confident as to deny there is any such thing, though many of us see it done abroad, and whole shoals of suffering people daily flocking hither do themselves tell us so, and should they not, their very wants and miseries would lowdly proclaim it. But that which seems strangest to us is, to hear some of our brethren, or at least such as pretend to be of the same Religion with us, talk so much of that Egyptian slavery they have been rescued from. I think there are no footsteps of any Bricks or Lime kills yet remaining amongst us; Nor do I believe that we were ever such severe. Task-masters to any of them as they were to us All when it was our chance to be under them. Their little finger then was heavier upon us than all our loins ever were to them. Those very [Page] people who now cry out so much on former Persecution, may remember, if they please, That there was a time when themselves were the Persecutors, and we the Sufferers. The only difference between them and us is this, That what they did was against Law, and what we did was by it. In a word, Our answer to both these sorts of men is this, That as we never had any hand in the business of this Day, so neither in that of the 30th of January. Now if the innocent Doctrine of our Church and our constant practice suitable thereunto will not sufficiently plead for us, we have then no other Apology left us but that of St. Paul in the like case, With us it is 1 Cor. 4. 3, 4. a very small thing that we should be judged of you or of man's judgment: He that judgeth us, and you too, is the Lord, who will, one day, make manifest the counsels of the heart, and then shall every man have praise of God. In the mean time let us keep to our Rule, Doe all indeed to the glory of God, but doe it in such a way as Himself will have it done by. We are to look to our way, God will take care of his own concerns. [Page] 'Tis high presumption in us to goe about to teach Him how He should be obey'd. If we will serve Him acceptably, Let us doe it according to His own will and prescription. Then shall we doe Him service indeed, and when our great Master shall come and find us so doing, He will then, to our unspeakable comfort, say unto us, Well done ye good and faithfull servants, enter ye into the joy of your Lord, Which he bring us unto, &c. Amen.

Soli Deo gloria in aeternum.

A SERMON ON ‘

1 COR. XV. 19.

If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.’

[Page]

THAT all men have an apprehension of another Life (which Tully calls, Saeculorum quoddam Tusc. Qu. lib. 1. augurium futurorum, A kind of presage of a future world) is hereby evident, That they so infinitely desire and labour to extend their memory beyond the limits of this, to make their fame outlast their persons, to survive themselves in their Issue, or in an Inscription, and that sometimes engraven on the very houses of corruption, their Sepulchres, fancying a remainder of Life even [Page] in the abodes of death; or, which is yet stranger, to perpetuate their fame by their very infamy: So dreadfull a thing to Man is the very thought of Annihilation. And by how much stronger men's apprehensions have been of another Life; by so much has their contempt of this been the greater. ThisReditur [...] parcere vitae. Lucan. of the Druids. made some Heathens so prodigal of a Life which in their opinion should return; And as it made them valiant, so has it in all Ages made Christians more. It brought them cheerfully out into the Field, and these more cheerfully to the Stake. And indeed as the meditation of death is a good remedy against the fear of it to those who look beyond it; so if it bound up men's thoughts, and shut up their prospect within the grave, if it be considered as ultima rerum linea, that, beyond which there remains nothing, not as a passage to another Life, but an utter close of this, it cannot but fill their Souls with the greatest horror and amazement. Now nothing can well remove this but the Doctrine of Christianity, and 'tis the great scope and design of it to doe so. It represents death to us not as an annihilation, but a [Page] change; not as a ruine, but a dissolution; not as a bare privation of this life, but a door to another: So that when we dye now, we leave nothing behind us but our mortality; part with nothing but our corruption; nor are we so much buried in our graves, as laid up, they being but so many beds from whence we are to be rouzed; when Christ, who raised himself, shall raise us up, he who is the Head draw us after Him, who are the members; without which blessed hope we should still remain in the chambers of death, the pit should not only swallow us up, but shut her mouth upon us; our graves should devour our hopes with our selves, and we should not so much dye, as in St. John's expression,Rev. 2. 23. be slain with death. But now since Christ hath abolished death, and2 Tim. 1. 10. brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel; now that he has not only discovered but imparted it to us, the face of things is quite changed; That which we dreaded before, we now expect; what was once a threat, is now become a promise; our greatest hope is in that which was our greatest fear; If death affright us as natural men, it [Page] comforts us as Christians; If we be its Prisoners, we are the Prophet Zachary'sZach. 9. 12 prisoners of hope; It does but the office of a gentle Gaoler, only unlock our Prison door, to let us out thence into everlasting Mansions.

Of all Articles then of the Creed, there is none more comfortable than that of the Resurrection to good Christians, nor any so important even to their tranquility in this life, whose miseries are so great and whose satisfactions so thin and empty, that without hope of some release from them, they should be more condemn'd to live than to dye; Their life it self would even kill them; They should sink under the perpetual apprehension of a future nothing, hate life and still fear death, that is, not enjoy themselves here, and be afraid of losing themselves for ever hereafter. Upon which score 'tis that our Apostle here is so earnest and so concerned in asserting the necessity of a Resurrection, which Heathens and Sadduces Act. 23. 8. utterly denyed, and many weak and seduced Christians scarce believed (some affirming it already past, others turning2 Tim. 2. 18. it into a mere Allegory.) The former [Page] he labours to convince by reasons fetch'd from nature; The latter here in the Text by an argument ad hominem drawn from the particular interest of Christians, who of all others should most suffer, if their hopes should determine with this life: A sad and uncomfortable Consequence would then follow to All, but a most absurd one also to these; Others should then be miserable, but these of all others most miserable; For,

If in this life, &c. we Christians, we Apostles especially and Ministers of Christ, should be of all men most miserable.

In which words you may observe,

1. A false hope, a hope in Christ in this life only, with its effect, misery, and greater misery to Christians than to thers, who, upon such a supposition, are pronounc'd of all men most miserable.

2. A true hope, a hope in Christ not in this life only, with its effect also, Happiness. For if the other make its owners miserable and most miserable; Then this, by the Law of contraries, happy and most happy; Happy in this world as well as in the other; Though [Page] there most, because there is most happiness; yet here too, because here is some.

The first hope and its effects are more plainly exprest; the second and its effects as necessarily imply'd, and both of them together make up the full contents of the Text.

I shall not consider the Parts so minutely as I have proposed them, but draw out the substance of them into these three following Propositions which naturally result from the Text.

1. That they who have no other hope but what this life affords them, are miserable.

2. That upon supposition of no better hope, all good Christians, but the Ministers of Christ especially, should be not only miserable, but of all other men most miserable.

3. That there is another Life to come, the expectation whereof makes them who have it most happy both here and hereafter.

Of these in their order. And first,

That they who have no other hopePart. I. but—

And indeed how can they be otherwise, [Page] since this life is so? Our early tears prognosticate our future unhappiness, and we come into this world with as much sadness as we go out of it with horror. Some have curst the dayJob 3. of their birth, with Job; others have not thought fit to allow that Title, but to those days wherein Martyrs have suffered. Some Philosophers have affirmed,Cic. Tusc. Qu. lib. 1. that man's chiefest happiness had been not to have been born at all; his next, to have dyed as soon as born. Nay the Scripture it self represents our Blessed Saviour groaning when he raised up Lazarus from the dead, for this reason say some, because he saw himself as it were oblig'd by his Sisters tears to fetch him back from the happiness of the other to the miseries of this wretched life. Nor can I much wonder at their fancy who have conceited that our Souls were thrust into these our Bodies as into so many prisons, since those which are most conveniently, are but ill lodg'd there, our Bodies at best, being but so many hospitals, if our Souls be any better; for as diseases plague the one, so passions and lusts as much torment the other. And here should I [Page] declame on the miseries of humane life, the common beaten theam even of those who know no other, 'twere easie to be Eloquent. But not to speak of those accidents which befall it, we need not charge our Miseries on our Fortune, we owe them to our very Nature. Every man is a several Enoch, miserable by his very frame and make, and 'twere needless to borrow arguments from any thing but himself to prove him such, or go about to demonstrate what he feels. His own Experience shows him wretched in what he suffers, and Reason will so even in what he enjoys. The Evil he endures sadly afflicts him, and the Good he possesses does not much affect him; His Sorrows are many and great, and his Joys but few and small; Those come unmixt, These at best but alloyed; so that Man is wholly miserable, and but half happy. I shall not trouble my self to prove that he is miserable in what he suffers, for he finds himself so; but, which I conceive more proper to my present purpose, endeavour to demonstrate, that the things of this life, were they as high as fancied, could never create any true satisfaction, [Page] and consequently must leave a Man to misery, even in that condition wherein he takes himself to be most happy. And this will appear upon a threefold account. 1. Because they are unsatisfactory. 2. Because not lasting. 3. Because, upon supposition of no other life, the continual fear of death would render the enjoyments of them most imperfect.

1. Because they are unsatisfactory, as not 1. bearing any proportion or fitness to the Soul. They are material, and This spiritual. The Soul of Man being a substance of unbounded Desires, can never be pleas'd but with what is infinite. 2. And this dissatisfaction we receive from things here below, appears then most when we come to a trial: Our Enjoyment best confutes our Opinion of them; then 'tis we find that they are bigger in our eye than in themselves; in our desire, than in our review of them; and that our expectations are far larger than our fruitions. These Apples of Sodom shew fair and beautifull, but the least touch turns them into dust, and presently discovers all their painted beauty to be but Appearance [Page] and Illusion. 3. Add we to this, that there can be no surer mark of the dissatisfaction we find in the things of this life, than that they presently cloy us. Our continued enjoyment of the best of them tires us out, as Happiness is said to have done Polycrates, and Fortune Galba; We must be beholding to their variety for their comfort, nay to some evil to make us relish any good in them. This is that which Heathens themselves have express'd in those Metamorphoses of their Gods; thereby intimating, that great Persons, tired out with their own Happiness, have been forc'd to descend to the Actions of their Inferiors; to disguise themselves sometimes, to ease themselves of the very burthen of their Honours, and lay aside that Grandeur which importun'd them: so that the perpetual presence of the same objects is scarce to be endured, though they tire us no otherwise than as they are always the same. And now let Philosophy tell us there is no vacuity in Nature; Divinity and our own experience will assure us, that there is nothing else in the things of it.

[Page]2. But then secondly, Were the things of this life never so full in themselves and satisfactory, yet, being not lasting, all the satisfaction we find in them can be but as they are, short and fading too. What was said of Drunkenness, That 'tis but a short and merry Madness, is as true of all those brittle Comforts which carnal Men have in outward things; they are no better than one day's vanities; born this light, and not seen the next; things of so swift and dispatching a nature, that they just last long enough to have it pronounc'd of them that they have been; having two characters stampt upon them by St. Augustine, that they make wretched and forsake, these two glassy properties, that they are glittering and breaking; like some pieces of dry wood that imitate light, to whom belong these poor accomplishments, to shine and to be rotten. And as these things are short, so are men too; They forsake men, and men must leave them; As the fashion of this world still passeth away, so those that2 Cor. 7. 31. are in it; These earthly Tabernacles vanish like enchanted Castles; and they that dwell in them; The Inhabitants [Page] decay as well as their Houses, and both, if no other life, must for ever lye buried in their own rubbish.

3. Which sad apprehension of a future Annihilation, is the third thing which, of all other, makes a Man miserable, and represents Death most terrible. Annihilation is a thing of so dismal an aspect, that some prefer a bad being to none, and think it better to be for ever miserable, than for ever not at all to be. Now he that looks upon death not as a change, but as an irreparable ruine, can never tast the joys of life; the constant apprehension of this future nothing, makes every thing to him as nothing; That bitter pill shall still soure his delights more than the want of one surly Jews knee did Haman's felicity. What pleasure can that Malefactor take in any thing of this world, who every minute expects his Execution? Or what relish can that man find in the choicest delicacies of Nature, who, with Damocles, sits at the Table with a Sword hanging by a little thread, ready to fall with its point upon his head? Every morsel to such a person is gall. 'Tis so with him that sees [Page] his pompous Scene of Greatness waited on by a fatal Catastrophe. And therefore Tully speaking as a right natural Man, is plain when he tells us, Mortis timor tollit omnem vitoe jucunditatem. This was a sad Tolling-bell to the triumphing Emperor, Hominem te esse memento; as it is to him that lives like a God in a kind of All-sufficiency of outward enjoyments, that he must dye like a Man, nay like the Beast that perisheth. Such a persuasion would make a Socrates look pale at the sight of the Hemlock, in spight of all those Cordials his Philosophy could furnish him with; and indeed it were easie to prove, that all those remedies it affords to abate the terror of death, are very ineffectual, and the Philosophers themselves but miserable Comforters, and that, upon supposition of no other life to come, that so famous saying of Solon, That no man was happy till dead, would rather give him a place among the greatest fools than wise men of his time; and that part of Roman Valour so much magnified, for men to offer violence to themselves, would, no doubt, appear as full of Madness to a natural Man, if well [Page] considered, as it does of Impiety to a Christian, if by depriving himself of his being, he must for ever put himself out of a capacity of any future enjoyment.

By these considerations you may now perceive how miserable that person needs must be who confines his hope to the things of this life, so unsatisfactory, so brittle, so perishing in their use as he that uses them too, especially when a man is persuaded he must shortly so perish as for ever not to be. Such a man is most unhappy in his misery, because no prospect of a better condition can lessen or alleviate it; and as miserable too in his fancied happiness, because at best 'tis very low and but half possessed; miserable in what he suffers now, but much more in what he expects hereafter: In a word, such a one is most miserable in his misery, and cannot at all be happy in his happiness, because he imagines a time coming, when he shall be neither miserable nor happy, but eternally nothing.

II. If this then be the condition ofPart. II. a meer natural Man; then certainly [Page] that of a Christian is yet more miserable, if his hope also be in this life only; Which is the second Observation. If we consider what God's Saints have in all ages endured, and must continually expect, we shall find that out of Hell none have suffered more. For proof hereof, I need send you but to 1 Cor. 4. or rather to the 11th to the Hebrews, where the bare recital St. Paul makes of their sufferings would fright us, nor can our ears well bear what they endured. If any misfortune befell the Roman State, then presently, Christiani ad Leones. If1 King. 18. 17. Israel be afflicted, then Elias must be the troubler of it. Man is born to troubles Job 5. 7. as the sparks fly upward, says Job; but the good Christian is engag'd to more than the Man is born to. 'Tis that he must expect; if he be to receive a hundredfold in this time, 'tis with perfecutions: He that will live godly must Mar. 10. 30 suffer them, says St. Paul, 2 Tim. 3. 12. And, In this world ye shall have trouble, says Christ, Joh. 16. 33. Such a man's profession is scandalous, and his example odious. For not being of the World, to be sure the World will hate him. Which as it is true of all good Christians, so [Page] of Christ's Ministers especially. As they have a double portion of God's Spirit, so of afflictions. If others be chastned with Whips, then these with Scorpions. For besides their common profession, the nature of their office will expose them to troubles. They that convince the world of sin, shall stir up its malice; and while they defie the powers of darkness, inevitably procure their hatred.

And here, for the better making good my assertion, that Christians of all other men are most miserable, I shall premise these two things. 1. That the stronger men's apprehensions are of evil, the quicker the sense of them. 2. That the higher their hopes, the greater their misery in the disappointment of those hopes. For,

First, The apprehension, if strong and active, ever gives an edge and sting to misery. The soundest body is most sensible of pain; and the quickest reason of misfortune. Expectation and apprehension heighten Evils; the first anticipates, and the second exasperates them. Now these two are highest in Christians. For whereas wicked Men, who [Page] are so immers'd in the things of this life, that they scarce give themselves leisure to think of those of another, doe far less apprehend them: Christians who suffer their thoughts to dwell upon such unpleasing objects, are most sensible of them, and that wrath of God which may justly seize upon all offenders; and consequently they suffer these terrors with much more troubled minds. And without question the keenness of Christ's apprehension of what sin deserved was a high aggravation of what he suffered. In which respect Christians also are more unhappy than the most bruitish men, yea than the beasts that perish. For whereas these feel their misery when it comes, but doe not anticipate it; those shall doe what the Devils deprecated, continually torment themselves before the time, and but with imaginary Evils, if there be no such thing as a Hell; Mortality and corruption would then make unreasonableness its self a priviledge, and the Atheist would in this life be far happier than the best Christian, and still happier than he is, if he could bring himself to have as little [Page] reason, as he has religion. There is no doubt, but that (supposing no other life) his enjoyments here would be so much the greater, as his fears were less. Thus the Hog makes good cheer in a tempest, while Men make vows and prayers; he is secure, while the Philosopher looks pale and affrighted, and owes that tranquillity to his stupidity which the others Philosophy and Reason shall but disturb. 'Tis certain that still as a man's apprehensions of another life have been less, his enjoyment of this has ever been more free and full. The Epicure who denied a God, or at least his Providence, did little trouble himself with his Anger; while he fancied such a Deity as would not disturb men's pleasures, so he might peaceably enjoy his own; himself became as voluptuous as that God he made, and so 'twas his whole business to create himself an imaginary Paradise, while he thought there was no real one. This made such persons give themselves over to all licentiousness; for their Principles being loose, their Lives could not be strict; while their opinions were so low of the Soul, their care could not be [Page] but great for their Bodies; The Immortality of the Soul once denied, the concerns for it could not be much, it being not probable that such men should please themselves with a pretence of vertue, who deny'd the future rewards of it. And from such premises that conclusion here mentioned by St. Paul Ver. 32. could not but follow; Let us eat and drink, for to morrow we dye. It is but reasonable to imagine that they who thought they should dye like beasts, should live like them; husband that life the best they could, which should never return when once gone, and make it as pleasant as they saw 'twas short. Which, if there were no other life to come, was, no doubt, a rational course and the highest wisedom. And this supposed, The Children of this World must needs be wiser than the Children of Light; Martha's choice much better than Maries; That Cardinal who said he would not change his part in Paris for that in Paradise, appear as wise as we can imagine him Atheistical; and those men's profession, Malachi 3. That 'tis a vain thing to serve the Lord, and little profit to be found in keeping of his Ordinances, were to be lookt [Page] upon as the highest reason; The true Christian should be of all other the most unprofitable servant; To be vertuous and to be vitious would be all one, or rather, to be vertuous would be but a trouble and a check to us, nothing else but a subtle invention to debar our selves of the benefit of the good things of this world, when no better were to be expected.

2. The second thing I laid down in order to the proving the Christian more miserable than all other men, upon supposition of no future state, is this; That the higher men's hopes are, the greater their misery in their disappointment. If hope, but deferr'd, vexes the Soul; then hope, utterly frustrated, must needs confound it. Which is so true, that the higher we rise in our expectations, the greater must our fall be when we find them defeated. Now no profession bids higher than Christianity. It bids the poorest beggar look upon himself as a King, one born to a Throne, and by filling him with expectations of a Sceptre, which he shall never have, turns that Heaven he strongly fansies into a fool's Paradise. His fall from that place he [Page] so eagerly aspires to, is like that of Lucifer from that he was once possess'd of. He hopes to shine as a star in the firmament, when his glory must suffer an eternal Eclipse. Thus does he please himself with an empty title, when he shall never enjoy the Inheritance; and so in pursuance of a dream shall he lose the more solid comforts of this life, and let go a substance to catch at shadows of good things to come, if those good things be only in his Imagination; if that death, which puts an end to his misery, shall add a greater one, by for ever depriving him of his fancy'd enjoyments.

I shall add this one Consideration more, that Christians, as they are more miserable than other men by their Profession; so do they make themselves yet more miserable by their severe Principles of Mortification and Self-denial, debarring themselves of those Comforts and Satisfactions which others freely enjoy. Thus shall the very Religion they profess persecute them more than another's rage and envy; and while the World shall deprive them of things convenient for this life, they shall do more, [Page] of things necessary; That shall deny them things lawfull; They themselves things expedient too. If Providence has given them a plentifull fortune, their Religion shall forbid them the full and free use of it. They must be poor in spirit in the height of honours; low in their desires, though never so high in wealth and plenty; Thus in the midst of enjoyment do they scarce enjoy; their Appetite must be curb'd in the opportunities of its utmost indulgence; and while good things are presented to their view, they must not reach out their hand to them, neither touch, taste nor handle, nor use the World, but as if they used it not. In which respect as they suffer more than others, so shall they enjoy less too, while they lose the good things here, and fail of those hereafter.

But here some may object; That although there were no God nor life to come, yet there is so much satisfaction in living according to the rules of right reason and vertue, that even that consideration should oblige men to doe so, and so make them most happy.

[Page]I confess that to live according to the rules of right reason is most agreeable to humane nature and conducing to happiness in this life, and that they who keep closest to such rules, should have a considerable temporal advantage over those that break them. For sobriety, temperance, meekness, chastity and the like, do no doubt add as well to the pleasure as length of men's days, and therefore Christians, who best observe and practise those Vertues, must needs upon this account enjoy themselves most in this World, although they should fare no better than others in the next. But to this it may be reply'd; That besides that the use of Vertue should be very mean, if it should no otherwise make us happy than beasts are, who contenting themselves with what merely sufficeth nature, are more vigorous, and some of them longer liv'd than men; It may be questionable, whether a dry Platonical Idea of a Vertue perishing with our selves or a bare moral complacency in it, might in the balance of reason weigh down those other more sensual delights which gratifie our lower faculties, or a severe and morose Vertue [Page] have charms in it equal to all those various pleasures which sooth and flatter our appetites; much more whether a calamitous one, such as that of a Christian usually is, a vertue still under a cloud, and ever as it were on the rack, persecuted, hated and afflicted here, and never to be considered hereafter. Far be it from me to decry moral Vertue, which even Heathens have granted to be a reward to it self, but surely in the supposed case of annihilation, very short of a full and complete one, and to cry it up, as some doe, to the weakning of our belief and hope of the Immortality of the Soul, however at first blush it may seem plausible, is in effect no better than a subtle invention to ruine Vertue by it self, since it cannot possibly subsist but by the belief and support of another life. For setting this aside, what would Vertue be but a bare Notion? what but a gaudy rattle to still and please Children? but of little force to persuade men to quit a present sensible delight for a bare Philosophical, though never so taking Speculation. Vertue may carry a big Title, she may appear the fairest thing of the world [Page] and be the least usefull, while men expect no other advantage of their good actions but the content of having done them. 'Tis what she brings charms us more than her self, her beauty would have no attractive had she no dowry; she would soon be laid aside as the most unprofitable thing of the Earth, did she not give us assurance of some better reward hereafter than what she now bestows. The joys vertuous actions afford do so far affect us as they are an earnest of greater, and those satisfactions which spring from good deeds are so far to be prized as they promise and entitle us to higher ones. If we are pleased in doing good here 'tis that we may hereafter find it, and if we sow in grace, 'tis because we hope one day to reap in glory. Vertue without Immortality can never content us, and our longings after that are strong arguments of it; when we wish we prove it, and that we may attain it 'tis evident, because we so passionately desire it. O Sen. quàm vilis & contempta res est homo, nisi supra humana se erexerit, says the Moralist. That man is not so much as a man, that is not a great deal more than so, [Page] that raises not himself above himself, that looks not beyond his threescore and ten years, nor above the ground he treads on. The vilest worm were happier than he, if his hopes were laid up where his body shall be. He has a Heaven in prospect, and the expected joys of that quite swallow up his miseries on Earth. Now indeed is the time of his sowing, but not of his harvest; His work is here, but not his wages. His good Master that employs shall one day fully pay him, who gives him some of that pay in hand, but bids him look for more; and that blessed hope bears him up against all the discouragements of this life, sweetens his afflictions here, and makes him happy in his very unhappiness, while he comfortably expects to be more happy than he can now fansie himself ever to be, because he is fully persuaded that there is another far better and more glorious life in reversion, which brings in the third and last Observation.

III. That there is another Life remaining,Part. III. the Expectation whereof makes a [Page] Christian of all other men most happy both here and hereafter.

This I am not now to prove to Christians, because it is a truth to be supposed by them, as it is in this Text by St. Paul. Christ has sufficiently demonstrated it by his rising from the dead, and the force of our Apostle's argument here would be quite lost, if we should in the least doubt of it. And to speak clearly, This grand Article of the Christian Faith, The Resurrection, is a Truth to be taken for granted by all good Christians. Infidels may deny it, Atheists may wish it were not, but all good Christians must confess and hope it. They have little reason to question that, which 'tis their highest interest should be. All their designs are laid in it and their hopes built upon it. If they be2 Tim. 2. 12. content to suffer here, 'tis in hope to reign hereafter. If with Christ they be willing to endure the cross and theHeb. 12. 2. shame of this life, 'tis for the joy that is set before them in the next. A joy which throughly apprehended cheers them up in their greatest dumps, enlightens their very dungeons, turns their prisons [Page] into Palaces, their Hell into a Heaven, their torments into delights, and their beds of hot burning coals into those of down. It makes their afflictions infinitely more pleasant than the Epicures most exquisite pleasures can be. A joy before which sorrow can no more stand than a mist before the Sun, that presently chases away that evil Spirit of Melancholy, which seizes the happy Worldling in the midst of all his jollities, damps his spirits, makes his chaplets of Roses wither on his head, and is that stinking fly which spoils his most fragrant ointment, as oft as he shall seriously consider, that he must one day become a part of his own lands, lye down for ever in the dust and his honour with him; which yet is the best he can expect. For such a one can no otherwise look upon Death than as a Serjeant to arrest him, whereas to the good Christian 'tis but a Messenger of joyfull tydings to tell him that his corruption must put on incorruption. This is his hope, and 'tis founded in Christ's Resurrection, who ever since he tasted Heb. 2. 9. death for us, hath sweetned that bitter Cup; so bitter before that time, that [Page] St. Paul assures us, That through fear of Heb. 2. 15. death men were all their life-time subject to bondage. For it made their pleasures less delightfull, their vertues more harsh and tedious, and all their afflictions most insupportable. Whereas now they are so far from being insupportable, that they are most easie to us, who know, that being light, and but for a moment, 2 Cor. 4. 17. they work for us a far more exceeding eternal weight of glory. How sad and deplorable then must their condition be who are without this hope, and without God in the world, as the Apostle describes Heathens to be; and yet how many Christians content themselves with no better, whose thoughts are bounded with the same objects their sight is, that of all the parcels of time regard but the present, and of all things but the face and appearance, men that only mind earthly things; of so low and base a spirit, that their Souls are but as salt to them, and of so brutish a temper, that such a Transmigration as Pythagoras fansied a punishment to bad men, would with them pass for a happiness, and, with the Devils, they would make it their desire that they might be suffered [Page] hereafter to enter into Hogs. Such men dare not openly deny an Immortality, and yet they will not believe it; or, if they do, 'tis so faintly, that their lives wholly confute their judgments. 'Tis strange to see how many there are that having nothing but frost in their veins and earth in their face, do yet so much doat on that life which they have now scarce any part in; whose faith reaches no farther than their senses, and yet scarce retain they those senses; whose frame should lift them up above the Earth, and their affections carry them wholly to it; They are unwilling to leave the World, though they see they cannot keep it; in their weak and enfeebled bodies they carry strong desires to it, being dead to every thing but to the pleasures thereof, which yet they cannot now enjoy, because they cannot taste, and do then covet most when they are just leaving them: Than which as there cannot be a greater folly, so let us take heed how we imitate it, learn to look off from these temporal things 2 Cor. 4. 18. which are seen, to those eternal which are not seen; get such a perspective of faith as may draw Heaven nearer to us, [Page] shew us those glories which Christ has prepared for us and already taken possession of in his own flesh, that so ours may rest in hope and one day inherit His kingdom. And now since Christ has given us an assurance of Immortality, let us endeavour to lay the foundation of a happy one in this life, to work it out even in this world, this common shop of change, work it out of that in which it is not, out of riches by not trusting in and well using them, out of the pleasures of this world by loathing and forsaking them, out of the flesh by crucifying it with the lusts and affections thereof, and out of the world it self by overcoming it. Lastly, and above all, let us labour to secure this blessed Immortality which lies before us by such good works as may follow us through the huge and unconceivable tract of Eternity. Else we may be so eternal as to wish we were mortal; wish against our interest, that in this life only we had hope; make our selves, who now fear death to dread immortality too, hope that there were no eternal joys, and tremble at the thoughts even of that everlasting bliss which our ill lives [Page] should give us no just ground to hope for. But if while we enjoy this life we make lasting provisions for the next, by good works, then do we truly hope in Christ, and then the seeds of Vertue and Piety well cultivated here, shall hereafter yield us the happy fruits of a glorious Immortality; which he grant us who hath brought life and immortality 2 Tim. 1. 10. Col. 1. 27. to light through his Gospel, Jesus Christ in us, the hope of Glory; To whom with the Father, &c. Amen.

Soli Deo gloria in aeternum.

A SERMON ON ‘

ROM. XII. 1▪

I beseech you therefore, Brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living Sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.’

[Page]

SAint Paul being from a Jew converted to a Christian, hath taken great pains not only to prove the reasonableness of his doing so, but that Judaism it self was to be Christned, the legal Washings to be at last baptized; That whole Oeconomy to be done away, that it might be made complete, and to be destroyed, that it might be perfected. And it was well [Page] that it was to be so; For the Law could not justifie, because its performances were but low, its Promises but near, and its strength weak. The Law then could not justifie had it been observed, but being broken it could condemn; so that our Saviour, to upbraid the Jews, refers them not only to himself, but to Moses in whom they did trust. And indeed 'tis as visible that the Jews did break their Law, as that they did boast of it; They were equally zealous in observing, and industrious in transgressing it; Instead of Religion they had brought themselves to be a Sect humorsome and peevish, arrogant and censorious; All the world was to be of their way, and yet themselves not of it; so that they were as I may so say, Idolaters of the true God, whose Circumcision was uncircumcised; As if that fact of Moses when he brought the Law had been the Type of the future observance of it, when at the time of bringing the Tables, he brake them.

But not to upbraid the Jews with their failings, let us see what use there is to be made of them; while they perform the letter, let us obey the meaning; [Page] while their Sabbaths are lazy, let ours be holy. They wrote the Law on their Garments, let us write them on our Hearts; They boasted of it, let us doe it; While they sacrifice their Beasts, let us offer up to God the more precious bloud of his own Lamb, and with that bloud our selves. For we Christians as well as the Jews have an Altar, saysHeb. 10. 13. 1 Pet. 2. 9. Apoc. 1. 6. St. Paul; and are Priests too, a royal Priesthood, says St. Peter; Aaron and his Successors offered up Bulls and Rams, unreasonable Creatures, that were first slain, and then offered; But we our Bodies, and those such living Sacrifices as make up a reasonable Service. No Calves Hos. 14. [...]. here to be presented, but those of our lips. For a Lamb and a Dove, meekness and innocence, and for a Goat, our Iusts must be sacrificed. No death here, but of inbred corruptions; no slaughter, but of the old man, whose death enlivens our Sacrifice, and so fits it for an Everliving God; and makes it Holy, and so becoming a Holy God. And if we crown our Sacrifices with such flowers, they must needs send forth a sweet and acceptable odour to God, and pass with Him not only for a Sacrifice, but, which is [Page] more, be heightned to a reasonable Service.

And this our Gratitude calls for and our Interest. We owe it to God, as to our Creator, who made our Bodies, and as to our Redeemer, who hath purchased them. We owe it to our selves too, if we will be happy in the enjoyment of God, who as He is not a God of the dead, but of the living, will have a living Body for a Sacrifice, and not a Carkass. And this in all respects is so reasonable, that it may well be matter of wonder, why our Apostle should spend so much passionate Rhetorick to persuade us to give up that unto God, which 'tis our highest advantage He should vouchsafe to accept. But then sure it will be a much greater wonder, if we shall refuse to hearken to his so pathetical and earnest Entreaty, conjuring us by the mercies of God, with such humble condescention and submissive insinuation, calling us His Brethren, whom he might have commanded as our spiritual Pastour and Father in Christ; And all this but to make us more our selves by being God's.

[Page]The Text then consists of two Parts, a Preface, and a Duty.

I. The Preface in the former part of the Verse, I beseech you, where we may observe,

1. The Apostle's method of proceeding here, not by way of Command, but Entreaty, I beseech you, and that too back'd with a double Argument, The former couch't in his affectionate Compellation, Brethren; The latter drawn from the Bounty and Goodness of God, appearing in his Mercies, which the Illative Particle Therefore points to, implying a former experience and taste of.

II. The Duty, comprehended in the latter part of the Text, That ye present, &c. Where we have,

1. What we are to present, Our Bodies.

2. How we are to present them, by way of Sacrifice.

3. The Properties of that Sacrifice, which must be, 1. A living, 2. A holy one; And, which is rather an effect or consequence, than a property, as such, it will be acceptable.

[Page]4. And lastly, Here is the Conclusion of all, by way of an Exegesis, or farther Explanation, what such a Sacrifice imports, viz. A reasonable Service.

Of these in their order; And, first, of the Preface, and that very briefly, for I must not detain you long in the Porch.

I beseech you. The Apostle might have said, I command you; But such a smooth way best became a Preacher of the Gospel. The Prophets indeed take another Course suitable to the Preaching of the Law, which is usually delivered as it was first promulged, in thunder and lightning, every sentence in the Law carrying death in it, and every letter thereof being a killing one. But Christ's Embassadors are to use a different dialect; We pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled unto God, is our Apostle's language, 2 Cor. 5. 20. And such Court-ship as this commonly prevails more on men than severe and sullen arguments, and gentle insinuations do better persuade them than the peremptoriness of strict reason commands; It being an easier matter to surprize than [Page] force, to lead than to drag them to duty.

But then, secondly, I beseech you, Brethren; A word of humble condescension in so great an Apostle, especially to inferior Christians; A more charming word than Cesar's, Commilitones, whereby St. Paul, like a skilfull Orator, labours to beget a good opinion of his Person, the better to make way for his Advice, which is seldom ineffectual where the Party to be persuaded has a good opinion of its Author; The affection of a Brother disposing him to a more ready entertainment of his Counsel.

And yet, thirdly, As if the Apostle suspected the weakness and insufficiency of this motive, He adds a stronger, The Mercies of God; That if they would not hearken to him for his own, they would doe it for God's sake; A God whose mercies were more infinite than their sins or their necessities could be. Now mercy as it is an endearing, so is it withall an engaging word; It doth cover sin and present it; It makes disobedience to be unkindness, and ill manners to be ill nature. If an enemy had [Page] done me this dishonour, I would have born it, says the Psalmist, Psal. 55. 12. When Caesar shall receive death from the hand of Brutus, the hand is more grievous than the death it brings, to behold that was more insupportable than endure it. Our blessed Lord, who had greater Agonies of love than sorrow is now capable of, finds no greater sorrow than to see his love neglected. Our Intemperance fills his Cup with a more bitter Gall; our Ambition wreathes him a sharper Crown; our ranking Religion, among other stratagems, places him again among worser Thieves; and that we own Him in words for our Lord, is but the civility, or rather mockery of Pilate, who when he nail'd Him to the Cross, cry'd out, This is Jesus, the King of the Jews. If he be a King, and his Subjects not obey Him; if a Father, and his Sons abuse him; if a Lord, controll'd by his Servants; or a Saviour, and condemn'd by those he saves: The Sufferings are enhansed by the Authors of them; Nay, what he suffers from us, receives weight from what He deserves of us; so that He bears the burthen of his own Merits; is afflicted with [Page] his Love, and grieved with his own Compassion; That very kindness which doth endure, makes it not to be endured; His tenderness becomes to Him a burthen so insupportable, that nothing but love could bear it from us, and yet that very love doth make it more insupportable. I beseech you therefore by the Mercies of God, &c.

Of all those things which have a black character, Ingratitude is the most confessed so; The Vice this not of a Man, but of a Fiend. Kindness is Obligation, and the cords of a Man stronger than those of Iron. The consideration of the Mercies of God should not only make us doe our Duty, but love it; not only submit to God's Commands, but be glad of them; It should make us rejoyce when we have an occasion to deny our selves for his sake; for then indeed we can only discover whether we are gratefull in earnest. Who, the most profligate wretch, would not serve God if it were to be done only by gratifying of his own pleasure; if God were to be pleased only by doing what his own lust would prompt him to? But this consideration chiefly should [Page] make us enamoured with our hardest duties, that they are opportunities of discovering our thankfulness for past blessings. And is any so stupid as to reflect on the Mercies of God, and not be refresht with the very thought of them? Doubtless they are as it were once more received by being considered, nor can we thank God for them without enjoying them over again; we recall past Favours by remembring them, and double our present Mercies by taking notice of them. But for the most part so unworthy are we as not to value Enjoyment till Want teacheth us to doe so; God is to be angry with us to make us love Him, to remove his Mercies to make us tast them; and he has little reason to continue these Mercies to us, which are only valued when He takes them from us.

And yet methinks St. Paul is as high in Rhetorick as he is in Devotion, when he beseeches us by the Mercies of God. If his Love cannot prevail, his Empire surely should not. His Commands, one would think, should be of less force than his Promises; for They indeed lay hold upon us, but These within us. [Page] St. Paul then hath here used his strongest argument; when he beseecheth, he doth most effectually command; and the most sweet, but withall the most powerfull Motive is the Mercies of God. The word here implies Tender compassions, even beyond those of Mother; Bowels of Mercies, not one Mercy, but aEsay 49. 15. cluster of them; nor those common ones, promiscuously scattered on good and bad, but such as concern our Souls and better life, which the Illative Particle Therefore implies; sending us back to the former part of this Epistle, wherein the Apostle had at large discoursed of God's infinite Mercies from all Eternity prepared for us, of our Predestination, Election, Justification in Christ, and the like. These are those Bowels of Mercies, by which the Romans and we are conjured, The Mercies of God indeed; for who but He could bestow them? And who so hard a Flint, whom such soft Feathers cannot break? Who such an Adamant, whom the Bloud of God shed for him cannot soften? Who as he gave Himself for us, may well expect we should offer up our selves unto Him; Which leads me to the main Duty of [Page] the Text, in these words▪ That ye present your Bodies, &c.

And here the first thing to be considered,Part II. The Duty is, What we are to present unto God, to wit, Our Bodies, and those, first, in the most strict and literal sense, as being the most visible part of our Christian Sacrifice, the Organs of our Souls whereby they both work and discover their Operations. There is indeed a hidden man of the heart, as St. Peter calls it, 1 Pet. 3. 4. whose inward Oblations are as invisible as that God to whom they are made, and only discernable by that Eye, to whom all things are naked; But there must be something visible that must take and affect ours. The smoak of our Incense must yield a pleasing odour to Men as well as to God, and the fire of our Sacrifice blaze out on the Altar. There are who would exempt their Bodies from the Service of God. God, say they, is a Spirit, and Joh. 4. 24. must be worshipped in spirit and in truth, and Evangelical worship is Spiritual worship. These Men are so Angelical, that they forget themselves to be Men; and yet St. Paul will tell them that the [Page] very Angels themselves have their knees; Phil. 2. 10. and we find that Holy Men have ever employ'd them in the Worship of God, and yet never thought their Worship the less spiritual for all that. The Prophet David calls for falling down and worshipping, and kneeling before the Lord: Nay our Lord Himself in his prayers lay prostrate on his body, and bowed his head on the Cross with adoration as much as languor; thereby teaching us, that our addresses to God are not the less spiritual for being mannerly. 'Tis true indeed that an humble Body and a stiff unpliant Soul doe ill suit together. The service of That, like the Mint and Cummin, is not to be left out, while the inward devotion of the Soul, like the weightier matters of the Law, claims the precedency, and is the main part of our Sacrifice; without this the bowels thereof will not be sound and entire, but like Caesar's portentous Sacrifice, want a heart, or resembling that hypocritical one of him in Lucian, who presented his Deity with an Oxes bones covered with the Hide, when the Flesh and Entrails were gone. But St. Paul has made up the Christian Sacrifice [Page] full and compleat, 1 Cor. 6. 20. Glorifie God in your body and in your spirit; and he has given us a very good reason why each of them should be employ'd, because both are God's; both bought with a price; and therefore 'tis no less than such a kind of Sacriledge, as was that of Ananias and Saphyra, to keep back any part of this price, to make any reserve where all is God's. Our Bodies and Souls cannot be parted here, and 'tis the Devil that would fain divide them. And therefore well knowing that God would be glorified in both, he required but one part of Christ for his share, only the homage of his outward Man; being assured, that if God had not both, he would have neither.

But not to trouble you with the proof of so clear a truth, let it be our endeavour so to present each part to God that it may be acceptable. And first, Our Bodies. The Psalmist prophetically bringing in Christ into the World, shapes him a Body; A Body hast thou prepared me; Psal. 40. 5. For what end and purpose? It follows, ver. 7. To doe thy will, O God. And we mustHeb. 10. 5. [Page] endeavour so to fit and prepare ours, that by them God's will may be done too; And that we shall doe, by making them, as much as in us lyes, Spiritual and Angelical, active and nimble in the Service of God, by laying aside every weight that clogs and renders them unapt for that service; by keeping them under, and making them servants to those Souls which have a natural right over them; by preserving these garments of the Soul unspotted from the world and by Jam. 1. 27. Jud. 23. the flesh, so far should we be from presenting God with Bodies worn out in the drudgery of Sin and Satan, and which have as it were pass'd through the fire to Moloch, to whom our Souls, like Mezentius guests in the Poet are ty'd as to so many loathsome Carkasses; Bodies not of God's making, but of our own; ours indeed, appropriated to us, but not such as the Apostle here beseecheth us to offer up unto God. But then,

2. As our Souls doe as far exceed our Bodies, as Jewels doe their Caskets; so should our main care be for them, so to adorn and enrich them with all spiritual graces, that they may be fit presents for God. For if our Souls, which [Page] are but like Salt to keep our Bodies from Corruption, shall themselves be rotten and unsavoury, wherewith shall they be seasoned? Now as these have their fleshly part too, which must be mortified and consumed; so have they their spiritual part, which must be refined. St. Paul calls it the spirit of our mind, Eph. 4. 23. wherein we are chiefly to be renewed, viz. the superior faculties of Reason and Understanding, which we are to offer up unto God as the purest part of our Sacrifice, and which is properly our Reasonable service. For God who is a God of Understanding, is to be worshipped purâ mente, in those faculties which carry in them a more express character of his Image, and whereby we doe in a more especial manner partake of the divine Nature, as we doe by our Reason, which in a Heathen's expression is nothing else but Deus in Sen. Ep. 31▪ & 41. humano corpore hospitans. And this we give up to Him when we wholly resign it up to his Wisedom; when we sacrifice this our Isaac at the foot of his Altar. We give Him our Wit by maintaining his Truths, and our Memory by treasuring them up; We give Him our [Page] Thoughts, by meditating on his Word and Works; Our Wills, by thoroughly conforming them to his Will; and our Affections, by setting them on things above.

3. And this is properly that Sacrifice which the Text enjoyns us, alluding to that manner of Worship, which was ever in the World, and is as ancient as Religion it self. 'Twas so before and under the Law; Abel, Noah, Job sacrificed then. And under the Law the Jews were expresly commanded so to doe, Exod. 8. 20. & 10. 26. And as Nature did of old, so does it still prompt Heathens to this way of worship, thereby doing homage to the great Creator, and acknowledging him Lord of all things, and themselves absolutely depending on Him. For Almighty God, from whom we had all our subsistence, hath in all Ages required one thing of us back again, that we should repay something as an acknowledgment that he deserv'd all; and hence probably came the Original of Sacrifices. But the Jews were instructed in another super-added meaning of that custome besides, viz. That God was not only to be adored as a Lord, but to be appeased as a Judge; [Page] his Empire, by being so owned, was to be dreaded too. When we slew our Beasts, we were to remember that our selves deserv'd that death we inflicted, and punished only what we were to have endured; That innocent Beasts were to be offered up for guilty Men;Heb. 10. 3. and what was due to the Sacrificer, was to be laid on the head of the Sacrifice.

‘Et viles animas pro meliore damus.’ Ovid. Fast.

Poor man! whose sin hath brought him to so great a distance from his Maker, that the very Beasts must set him nearer. Sin hath strangely transform'd us, that we are not to approach Heaven, unless a Brute make way. Man is plac'd in a strange order of being, when 'tis a disputable case whether Beasts are below or above him. On the one hand we command them; on the other they attone for us; Here, we give Laws to them; There, we beg pardon by them; We feast upon, and we sacrifice by them; They are our luxury, and they expiate it; by them we sin and we pray, who make up so much of our crime and our devotion too; make up a great part of our guilt, and then remove it. Here God hath certainly represented unto us [Page] the meanness of sin by the vileness of the price that is paid for it; and Man is fallen into an order below that, out of which he takes his Intercessor. But however the Jews or other Nations might think that Sacrifices could remove the guilt; certainly they did but upbraid it, and rather signifie our death than remove it. It is not possible that the Heb. 10. 4. Psal. 50. 13 bloud of Bulls and of Goats should take away sin. There is need of better bloud to satisfie the God that is offended; and there must be other Purgations for the Conscience that is defiled. The Law was in its Ways and Institutions too weak for so high a purpose; It could little more than adumbrate what the Gospel did perform. St. Paul, who understood the Nature of Judaism, handles that argument in all his Epistles, especially in this and that to the Hebrews, and there useth those terms which express not how the Law of Christ doth oppose that of Moses, but how it doth exceed it; how it does accomplish what that did barely signifie, and by their figures expresses our duties. He does not take away Sacrifice (for without Sacrifice no Religion) but only change it. [Page] For the Law being changed, it is necessary that the Sacrifice should be so too; That what was before Carnal, should now be wholly Spiritual; That now Men should be sacrificed instead of Beasts; That Innocence and Meekness should be the Dove or the Lamb, and Lust the Goat; The Heart the only Altar, Mortification the Knife, and Charity the true Fire. In a word, Devotion now is the proper Sacrifice of a Christian, and Himself the Temple, the Priest and Sacrifice too.

Whereby we may clearly see how much more favourably God deals with us Christians than he did with the Jews, among whom certain persons had right to sacrifice, and at certain places and times, whereas now those distinctions are quite taken away, every Christian being a Priest of a nobler order than that of Aaron, and not confin'd either to time or place. 2ly. In that God requires not now of us such an expensive Devotion as formerly he did of the Jews; no herds of Bulls and Rams, nor Rivers of oil, no such costly Sacrifice as Solomon offered up at the Dedication of the Temple, and such as would perhaps [Page] undo us. We need not go to the herds to fetch an Offering: were we now to sacrifice as did the Jews, the loss of a Beast would perhaps restrain us more than the sense of God's anger or our own demerit. But here he that cannot give a Lamb for his Transgression, may give some of himself, offer hunger for shew-bread, and thirst for a drink-offering, consecrate a meal instead of a beast, and shed a sowr fasting sigh for incense. And such an easie way no doubt we will well like of, who as we can object that legal Sacrifices were an insufficient expiation, can at the same time quarrel with them too for being an expensive one. When we rejoice that we are to be atton'd by a nobler Sacrifice, we are better pleasedDeum frugi colere. perhaps that it is also a cheaper one. But are our Beasts spared from the Altar think we only to glut our Tables? Hath the great God remitted them only for the sake of our other God, our Bellies? Is our devotion chang'd only to gratifie our lusts? or, shall we be content to offer up to God what costs us nothing? God did indeed once say, That He did not eat the flesh of Bulls, or drink the bloud of Goats; But there is a sense [Page] in which he does doe both, viz. when a poor Man feeds upon them; Then do we attone for Gluttony, when we feed the Hungry; Restitution expiates for Injustice, and Charity for Rapine. And thus St. Paul calls Alms, An odour of a sweet smell, A sacrifice acceptable, wellpleasing to God, Phil. 4. 18. Heb. 13. 16. And not only our Charity, but our Ps. 141. 2. Rev. 5. 8. Prayers, Phil. 2. 17. our Faith, Psal. 50. 14, 23. & 116. 15. Heb. 13. 15. our Praises, our Obedience, our Repentance and Mortification are in Scripture language Sacrifices too, and such, as without them, all others are but abominations to the Lord, Prov. 15. 8. Dead Carkasses, not living Sacrifices, which is the first property here required to render them acceptable.

I beseech you, Brethren, that you present your bodies a living Sacrifice; And that 'twill be, 1. If it be a dying one. The Beasts heretofore we know dyed, when they were sacrificed. Mortification is the life of a Christian: If ye through the spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body, ye shall live, says our Apostle, Rom. 8. 13. 2. A living; That is, A quick and active Sacrifice? The Soul of a Christian as well as of a Man, is [Page] [...] a kind of perpetual motion. And therefore those Blessed spirits, whosePsal. 104. 4 activity in God's service Christ proposeth to our imitation, are by the Psalmist styled, a flaming fire, active and restless for God's glory. That Maxim in Tully, De natura deorum, Qui nihil agit, esse omnino non videtur, is most true in matter of Piety; Here 'tis the same thing not to be, as not to be doing; Nor was it without reason that the Stoick observing one given over to a Lethargy of Ease and Idleness, pronounceth him morally dead, and makes his Epitaph, Vacia hic situs est, so does Saint Paul, her that lives in pleasure, That she is dead while she liveth, 1 Tim. 5. 6. And surely we may well conclude him sick in Religion whose Pulse beats slow, and dead, when it ceases, and to have a name only that he lives, Rev. 3. 1. 3ly. Those things we count living that move of themselves, not like an Engine, or Automatum, Alienis mobile nervis. Compelled service to God is but a lame offering, and as unacceptable in the Gospel as it was in the Law. Heathens counted it an ill presage when their sacrifices did not as it were court their own [Page] deaths; nor will ours pass for any better in the sight of God, if they come with reluctancy and dragg'd as it were to his Altar. The word [...] here implies a voluntary Act, an offeringup of our selves, not a being offered up. God who gives us all things freely, does Himself also love a chearfull giver. Lastly, Our Sacrifice will then be a living one, when 'tis offered up in Faith and Love. For as Faith is the true life of a Saint, (The Just shall live by faith, says the Prophet, Habac. 2. 4.) so without that 'tis impossible to please God, says our Apostle, Heb. 11. 6. Our gifts will be as unacceptable without our persons as Cain's Gen. 4. 5. 1 Cor. 13. 3. Mat. 5. 23, 24, 25. was. And where there is no Love, our hand only presents them, not our heart, the only true Altar that sanctifies our gifts. But then, 2ly. As our Sacrifice must be a living, so a holy, one; For without holiness it can never please a holy God. And we find that for want of this necessary qualification, he often Esay 1. 11. 66. 3. Hos. 5. 6. 6. 6. Psal. 50. 8. ad 14. 1 Sam. 15. 22. disclaims, nay seems to abhorr, what Himself had commanded in the time of the Law.

[Page]Now to make our Sacrifices holy two things (shadowed to us by legal Sacrifices) are requisite.

1. That they be entire, and that in all their parts: For as God would not then endure a maimed Sacrifice, Levit. 22. 22. Mal. 1. 8. so neither will he now away with it. The whole Spirit, Soul and Body, all, and every part must be God's. Lust must not have the Eye, nor Folly the Ear; Oppression must not have the Hand, nor Covetousness the Heart. There is no serving God by halves; no serving Him and Mammon too. The true Mother would not suffer the Child to be divided, nor will our heavenly Father his. 'Twas Ananias and Saphira's sacriledge to keep back part of what they had once voluntarily offered up; and 'twill be no less in us too.

2. The Sacrifices of the Law were to be pure and separate from commonAct. 10. 14. use, Levit. 3. 1. and 12. 5. such our Apostle makes Christ, our Sacrifice, undefiled and separate from sinners, Heb. 7. 26. and without spot, says St. Peter, 1 Pet. Lev. 22. 20 1. 19. such must ours be too, spotless, pure, and separate from the world, the least touch of that will pollute it. And as [Page] we are to keep our selves unspotted from the world, Jam. 1. 27. so are we likewise to hate even the garment spotted by the flesh, Jude, v. 23. In a word, We must cleanse our selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit ere we presume to present 2 Cor. 7. 1. our selves unto God.

Now as Holiness in the Gospel-sense commonly signifies the whole complexum of Duties and Graces; so has it sometimes there a distinct peculiar signification both as to the Body and to the Soul. And here, according to the observation of a late excellent Annotator, the Purity of the Body is particularly designed in opposition to the Uncleannesses practised by the Gentiles and applauded by the Gnosticks; A sort of Christians, if they might deserve that name, whose practices made the name of Christ to be abhorred by the soberer Jews. And indeed whosoever shall look into the first Chapter of this Epistle and there observe what manner of lives the Heathen Romans led, will allow this Interpretation as most pertinent to the scope of our Apostle. For when they did no longer like to retain God in their knowledge, they quickly left off to be [Page] men, and when they ceased to hearken to their natural reason, they soon fell into a reprobate sense. For they not only changed God into Stocks and Stones, but their Worship into most abominable Wickedness; not only made the vilest Creatures, Deities; but the foulest Actions, Religion; they turned a Passion and a Disease into a God, and Sin into Devotion; They thought it a most sacred thing to prostitute their Bodies, and their very Altar-fires did kindle those foul heats; whence Uncleanness is so often called Idolatry in Scripture. Practices taken up and even out-done by viler Christians, and that in the first and purest times of the Gospel, and frequently objected to them by the Jews, who could boast, and that with some colour of truth, that their Doctrine was opposed not so much by sharp Intellectuals, as by debauch'd Morals. And not only the Jews, but Heathen Philosophers also, as Hierocles for one, could make the same objection, and upon the same score, detest the Religion of Christians, or rather, as he mistook it, the Wickednesses of the Gnosticks, which made the name of Christ to be evil spoken [Page] of throughout the whole World, and are indeed directly opposite to the Spirit of Christ which is a Spirit of Purity, and to the Rule of the Gospel, which every where forbids us to walk in the lust of concupiscence as did the Gentiles who knew not God; and which commands every Christian to possess his vessel 1 Thess. 4. 1, & 3, 4. [...] in sanctification and honour; there being no Vice so dishonourable to a Man as that of fleshly impurity, which turns him into a Beast, making him have as foul a Name as a Body, as loathsome a Character as a Carkass, rendring him despised by all Men, and not the least by himself; when David fell into this sin, at his repentance he prays for his free spirit once again; he found thatPs. 51. 12. thereby he had lost not only the Spirit of God, but of a Man, being asham'd of himself and afraid of his servants. The strange woman's house, says Solomon, leads to death; and sure a death 'tis where the poor wretch is not less corrupt than if he were buried; and that ditch he mentions is no less noisome than the Grave. He goeth on and tells us, That her house leads to hell, and doubtless 'tis a part of it, where there [Page] is not only the stench but the heat of it, all its Attendants, whether sin or punishment, the blackness, and the flames withall being found in it. 'Tis not for this place to describe what such persons deserve and endure; The very reproof of this sin must consist of such foul things as a modest man will scorn to name. Surely such persons as these are not like to be a sweeter sacrifice to God than they are to themselves, being scarce a proper Holocaust for the Devil. Behold then what a severe Master our Lord is, who forbids his Followers shame and filth, will not suffer us to be the loathing of all the world and of our selves, enjoyning us such a purity of body as will not only save our Souls, but our Reputations too, requiring of us a pure conscience, a clear body, and a fair fame, and giving us such Laws, as will secure unto us both health and honour, and, which is more, render us acceptable to God as well as to all good men.

These Laws if we observe, we shall then be fit Sacrifices for God, and acceptable ones too, especially if they have these Conditions in them.

[Page]1. Purity; I will wash my hands in Innocency, O Lord, and so will I goe to thine Altar, Psal. 26. 6.

2. Humility, implied in the very nature of the Sacrifice under the Law, which was to be destroyed by the Fire or the Knife. Humility does as it were waste and consume to nothing, makes us as an Holocaust, a whole Burnt-offering, nothing in our selves, nothing in respect of God; and this exaninition exalts all God's graces in us. He needs none of our Presents, we enrich him not with them (our goods and our persons are nothing unto him) but we benefit our selves by a just apprehension of our own emptiness and unworthiness.

3. Sincerity, which sets a high value on our meannest gifts. The Heathen Poet could put the question, In Templo quid facit Aurum? and he calls for Compositum jus fasque animi—a true sincere heart and mind, and with these, says he, farre litabo. If we bring our Sheep to God's Altar, and them alone, we had as good leave them behind us as an unprofitable Carriage. Wherewithall shall I Micah 6. 6, 7, 8. come before the Lord? with Burnt-offerings [Page] and Calves of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with Thousands of Rams, or Ten Thousand Rivers of Oil? No, learn another Oblation. He hath shewed thee, O man what is good, and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? God looks into the inward Frame of the Heart, and values not the offerer by the gift, but the gift by the offerer.

4. Lastly wilt thou offer up an odour Eph. 5. 2. of a sweet smell well-pleasing unto thy God; Let thy Saviour's Merits perfume thy Sacrifices; For if they be not sprinkled Heb. 9. 22. with the Bloud of this Lamb of God, they will smell as rank as a Carkass.

There remains one thing more in the Text, and that is, that the Apostle here calls the Christian Sacrifice, a Reasonable Service, which seems to imply that lagal ones were in the Letter, and as the Jews understood and practised them, a Service scarce Reasonable. Not that in its time it was altogether unreasonable, (For it had been commanded by God, whose Will is Man's highest Reason, as a service very fit for a carnal People; who being as it were Children under the Pupillage of the Law, were [Page] most taken with an External gaudy Pomp of Religion; Besides that Sacrifices were Ps. 50. 5. Seals of the Jew's Covenant with God; Ge. 8. 20▪ A solemn profession of gratitude for Mercies received, and very proper Instruments to keep them from that Idolatry, to which they were so naturally prone) but only, I say, comparatively, in opposition to the Christian way of worship which is so far above it. For the Jewish service consisted in such things as had no suitableness to the Nature of God, (For what are Bloud and Smoak to the God of Spirits?) and were but shadows of better things, but such shadows as did darken them, and were mistaken for those very things of which they were but Types, and so did hinder that very good they were intended to promote. They did so quite defeat the End for which they were commanded, that God often professeth with Truth and anger too, that he did not command them at all; As in Esay 1. 13. Incense is an Abomination unto me; If ever it dare to approach Heaven, it shall only serve as a Cloud to darken it; New Moons, Sabbaths, and the Calling of Assemblies I cannot away [Page] with, it is Iniquity, even the solemn Meeting. The Sabbath was grown to be that Day of whose Rest God was most weary. It was a question which was most abominable, to see their Altars swim with Bloud, or their hands to be so full of it; Their Devotions might vye Iniquity with their sins, nor did they least provoke God when they thought they did most appease him. And 'tis observable that the greatest Sacrificers under the Law were mostly the greatest Sinners, being so taken up with the Ceremony, that they wholly neglected the Substance. And therefore at best these things being but Relativi Juris and not for themselves, when they came alone, or with no better a retinue than those Sins aud Irregularities they did countenance, no wonder if God removed them as he did the High Places, if he cut them down as he did the Groves and stamp them to Powder like the abused Brazen Serpent, especially when he saw that the Jews rested in them, and made them the only considerable thing in their Worship, as if God were to value a Man not by the greatness of his Soul but the largeness of his Ox, that his [Page] only Excellencies were his Cattle, and his Vertues those alone which grazed in his Pasture.

It was high time then for God to put an end to these Typical Services, which were every where so grosly mistaken, as if because they were expensive to Man, they were to be accounted beneficial to God. They thought (as Himself complains, Ps. 50. v. 13.) That He did eat the flesh of Bulls and drink the bloud of Goats) (a ridiculous fancy Heathens had too, as appears by Lucian, who makes himself merry with it, and 'tis not improbable but that the grosser Jews had the like) and accordingly they were made use of not only as an Attonement but as a Bribe, to pacifie the Almighty by such a vile Trick. Heaven in their Conceipt was to be reconciled by the Vices of the Earth, by gifts to be corrupted, that so by pardoning Men's sins, he might share in them too. Had not the Antecedent been abominable, the Consequent had not been amiss. If God would be luxurious with their Luxuries, He was not to revenge them, not to punish the sin He shar'd in, nor to be angry with that guilt He [Page] did partake of, and if He would be content to receive one part of the Rapine, surely He could not in reason punish the other. This in short may serve to shew how little reason there was in the legal Sacrifices in themselves barely considered; And therefore we find that for a long time they were not commanded, but freely offered by men out of their Zeal, which alone recommended them unto God, and not any Excellency they had in their own Nature, being not good but only in respect of what was worse, (It being better to sacrifice to God than to Devils) nor otherwise than as Types of the Lamb slain from the Foundation of the World, and did therefore vanish as soon as He was once offered upon the Cross: Whereas true Religion remains still a Juge Sacrificium, and is more lasting than the Heavens themselves; which as it was long in the World before any Command came forth for Sacrifice; So is it now most glorious when Jewish Altars are down. 'Tis not confin'd to time or place, nor ever to be dispenc'd with as we find legal Sacrifices oft-times were; And as 'tis in the sight of God the best of all Sacrifices (who requires [Page] Mercy and not bruitish Oblations) so isHos. 6. 6. Jer. 7. 22, 23. it a most Reasonable Service, being not founded in mera voluntate imponentis, but in the Reason of the thing it self; the Sacrifice not of a Brute Beast, but of a man endued with Reason, and withal most suitable to the Nature of God, who as He is a Spirit, will be worshipped in Spirit and in Truth: and as He is a most wise God, will not away with the Sacrifice of Fools, Eccles. 5. 1. ButLev. 2. 13. Mar. 9. 49. will have the Evangelical as well as the Legal Sacrifices salted with salt, our Col. 4. 6. words and actions seasoned with discretion. For we are fed with the [...] as1 Pet. 2. 2. well as with the [...] as well with the Rational as with the sincere milk of the Gospel; so far is Christian Religion from divesting men of their reason, that it strictly requires them to be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh them a reason of the hope that is in them; 1 Pet. 3. 15. Being in it it self, as 'tis easie to demonstrate, of all other the most Reasonale service; and to present God with any other worship, were but to offer strange Fire before him.

[Page]And now let me bespeak you in like manner, as Naaman's Servants did their Master, 2 Kings 5. 13. If the Lord had bid us do some great thing, should we not do it? Might he not require of us as of the Jews whole Herds of Cattle, and Woods of Spices and Incense? Nay, which is more, the Sacrifice of our Bodies in the most strict and severe Sense? He might surely as being Lord of all, but here we see He does not. No other Bloud now to be shed, but what St. Bernard calls sanguinem animi vulnerati, that of a wounded troubled Spirit, of a broken and contrite heart. Slay thy lustPs. 51. 16. and thou shalt offer him a Beast; give him thy Reason, or, which is perhaps dearer to thee, Thy Will, and thou shalt sacrifice a Man to him; He will accept thy Tears for drink-offerings, and prefer thy very Fasts to meat-offerings. Thou needest not appear before thy God empty, while thou presentest thy self to him; every part of thy Body and every faculty of thy Soul, nay, every thing thou possessest, and which many times thou accountest more pretious than that very Soul of thine, may be a Sacrifice and a far more acceptable one too, than all the [Page] Beasts of the Forrest. Give the Lord thy Heart, and that will be the Fat of thy Sacrifice; As thy Charity the true fire of it, without which the Incense of thy Prayers and of thy Devotions will not smoak nor ever ascend up to Heaven; nay, without which Martyrdom it self will prove a vain and insignificant oblation, and though thou shouldst give thy 1 Cor. 13. 3. Body to be burnt, yet thou shouldst be nothing. In a word, give thy God thy self, and in such a manner as He requires thee to do it, and thou canst give him no more, and yet when all this is done, no more than what he first gave thee. Thus shalt thou make him Thine, and be infinitely more thy self by being His. 'Tis like laying up Treasure in the Temple, which thereby becomes more sacred and more assured too.

But then in the last place, let us remember that what we have once solemnly dedicated to God, cannot without Sacriledge be alienated. Our Bodies being once his, they are no more then our own. For to whom we yield our selves Servants to obey, his Servants we are to whom we obey, Rom. 6. 16. Our gifts [Page] here like God's must be without Repentance; nor can we recall, much less employ them to any other use, either of the World or Satan, as we cannot serve God and Mammon; so neither ought we to give him the Lean, and this the Fat of our Sacrifice. If our God will not part stakes; surely he will not content himself with the worser share.

Let us then give him all, and that all will be our Heart and our Affections, that when we appear before him, our Souls may ascend up to him as the Angel Judges 13. 20. did in the flame of the Altar, and that Flame may still be kept alive upon it, be a continual Sacrifice, such as may never cease, and we may do that constantly on Earth, which shall be our Eternal Employment in Heaven, still praise and adore our Creator. Then shall he change these our Sacrifices into everlasting Temples for himself to dwell in; what we now present him natural Bodies turn into spiritual, and make these our vile ones like unto his glorious one. Which God of his Infinite Mercy grant, &c. Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria in aeternum.

A SERMON ON ‘

ESAY V. 20. The former Part of the Verse.

Wo unto them that call Evil good and Good Evil.’

[Page]

THE great Creator has never been wanting to Man in prescribing him such Laws as might be sufficient if obeyed, to make him happy, whether we consider him in the State of Primitive Integrity, or out of it. In the former God so left him in the hands of his own Councel, as to make himself his own Rule. Nature was to him instead of Revelation; he had then the Tree of Knowledge of [Page] Good and Evil planted in him; Conscience was his Oracle, and Reason his Guide, and to know his Duty was but to consult himself. God did not only wind him up as a Watch to a regular Motion, but did withal place in him a Sun-dial▪ to set himself by, if he should go false; so that his very Essence and Rule was then so much the same, that to transgress was not so much to break a Law, as a Man.

Nor did he by his Fall wholly forfeit all his natural Advantages, either to himself or his Posterity. For though our first Parent brake the natural Tables, as Moses afterwards did those of Stone, yet from the scattered pieces thereof set together, we may all of us, though imperfectly, spell out our Duty. The worst of men are born with a certain Decalogue; Their Souls are not mere Rasae, Tabulae, there is a Book of Conscience wherein the different Characters of Good and Evil are plainly legible, and by the help of those practical Notions, which make up the Law of Nature, each Pagan may confute an Infidel, and each Sinner himself. That there is a God to be worshipped, is founded [Page] in that natural Dependence Rational Creatures have on their Creator; and that Good and Evil are different things, is the Voice and Dictate of Natural Reason too, which he that contradicts, unmans himself, and is to be lookt on as a Monster in Nature.

Such there have been in all times, and which is strange, even in those of Divine Revelation; for we find the Jews themselves upbraided here with this Impiety; which was so much the grosser in them, because besides the unwritten, they had withall a written Law to instruct them better; Both in effect the same, the same Precepts in stone and in the heart; The Mosaical Law being nothing else but a Digest of that of Nature, where the only difference is in the Clearness of the Character. For Moses did but display and enlarge the Phylacteries of Nature; This was still the Text and all his Precepts, but so many Commentaries on it. He did but trim up that Candle of the Lord, natural Reason, which before burnt dim; set off Vertue with a better Lustre, and expose Vice in its proper shape and hue, giving That all its natural Advantage, to charm [Page] the Eye, and painting out This in such lively Colours as might represent it in its utmost Deformity. Yet such was the perverse blindness of some, that they could see no difference here at all, no distinction between an Angel of Light and a Fiend; Good and Evil were to them both alike, or rather not alike, for they preferred Evil to Good; did not only confound the Names and Nature of these things, but in a cross manner misplace them, putting Darkness for Light and Light for Darkness, like those Antipodes to mankind, who by their strange way of living turn Day into Night and Night into Day; This is that abomination the Text takes notice of, which drew this severe Imprecation from the Almighty, uttered by the mouth of his Prophet.

Wo unto them that call Evil good, &c.

Which words seem to point to the Jews, but are indeed directly levelled at all those who remove the natural Landmarks and Boundaries of Moral Good and Evil, and they present us with these three Observations.

1. That there is a Real and Natural difference between Vertue and Vice, called here Good and Evil.

2. That there always have been (and still are) such as labour to take away this Difference, Men that call Good Evil and Evil Good.

3. That to do so, To endeavour to alter the Nature and Property of Moral Good and Evil, is such a heinous provocation as will inevitably bring a Curse upon it.

Of these in their Order. And,

1. That there is a real and natural Difference between Vertue and Vice, called here Good and Evil.

It seems the Academician and Epicurean Sects were rife in the Prophet Esay's Days, who being a loose sort of men, and impatient of all natural and moral Restraints, would fain perswade themselves and all others, That nothing was in it self good or bad, that there was no such distinction in Nature, but only in the opinion of men, who were pleased to make an inclosure, where God and Nature had laid all in common. Nec natura potest justo secernere iniquum, [Page] was their fundamental Principle. A Principle which because I find taken up and improved by some of the like depraved Judgment, and it is the very Source and Fountain of much of that Corruption that is in the World, deserves to be considered, and the direct way to disprove it will be to make out a real and natural Difference between moral Good and Evil; which I shall endeavour to do. 1. From the Nature of a Divine Being. 2. From our own Make and Constitution. 3. From the natural Beauty of Good and Deformity of Evil, whereof every Man's Reason is the proper Measure and Judge. 4. From such contrary Effects as must of necessity argue a Contrariety in their Causes.

1. The first proof of this Truth I shall fetch from God Himself, in whose very Nature and Being the difference between Good and Evil is conspicuous. For 'tis evident, that there is something simply Good and something simply Evil even to Divine Being; something which God is by the Necessity of his Nature, and something which by the same Necessity He cannot be. For should I ask [Page] Epicurean Christians, whether God can be other than what He now is, or the Scripture represents Him: They must needs resolve the question in the Negative, unless they will deny Him to be God; or, which is the same thing, grant him mutable: Immutability being so essential to him, that what he now is he ever was, and what he ever was he ever shall be, and cannot chuse but be so. Now God from all Eternity was just, mercifull, good and true; 'Tis the Description he gives of Himself, Exodus 34. 6. The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long suffering and abundant in Goodness and Truth. And were not these his essential and unalterable Properties, the Reverse of that Description might as well befit him, which were the highest Blasphemy imaginable, and the Manichees needed not to have invented two distinct Principles of Good and Evil, when by the Epicurean Doctrine, these so contrary things might well enough be reconciled to one and the same Divine Being; whereas the Scripture tells us; that some things are impossible for God to do, As to lye Heb. 6. 18. Gen. 18. 25 and to be unjust. And surely what [Page] He cannot, Man ought not; What is good or bad to Him, must be so to us too; and what is contrary to the divine, can never be a part of humane Perfection. If God cannot be other than good, mercifull and just; Man, who was created after his Image, must of necessity resemble his Creator, and the Copy to be complete in all points, answer its Original.

2. As indeed it does. For upon this account of a natural resemblance 'tis that we are said to be Partakers of the 2 Pet. 1. 4. divine Nature, and God has so wrought and woven his Image into the very frame of our being that (like Phidias his Picture in Minerva's Shield) it can never be totally defaced without the ruine of that frame. And herein also the differences of Good and Evil are apparent. For our Passions, Fear and Shame especially, do manifestly betray them. Omne malum aut timore aut Apologet. c. 1. pudore persudit▪ natura. Nature, saith Tertullian, hath dasht every Vice with Fear or Shame. As for the first of these, Fear; The continual Frights, the pale Countenances, and broken Sleeps of wicked Men do plainly argue the inward [Page] dissatisfactions of natural Conscience when they doe amiss; the guilt of the heart usually spreading it self over the face: As on the other side, Innocence is ever quiet and bold, and they who act by the rules of right reason, always calm and serene. Of which so apparent contrary effects no better account can be given than this, that there is something in its self so bad, that natural Conscience startles at it, and Reason abhorrs; And something so good, that at first blush it gains our approbation and commends it self to our choice. Nor is it enough to say, That such Fears proceed from a false prepossession, fomented by ignorace and custom, of God's being angry with Men for their faults, which makes them timorous; As Children are apt to fear every thing in the dark. For were this an effect only of such an erroneous persuasion, it could never be so universal as we find it is. All panick fears and groundless misapprehensions dye as soon as born; whereas those which are founded in nature are perpetual and lasting. Time, says Tully, confutes those Errors which owe their rise to Opinion, but [Page] confirms and strengthens the Sentiments of Nature; And therefore whatsoever does constantly maintain it self must needs be more deeply rooted than in uncertain apprehensions. The Epicureans we know have still made it their business to deliver Men of those natural Terrors by openly preaching Impiety (As the Prophet David too complainsPsal. 14. 1. of some such Fools as denied a God, or at least his Providence) But all in vain. For 'twas not in the power of all their Sophistry, assisted by Men's strong Inclinations to Profaneness and Licentiousness, to suppress and stifle those implanted Notions; Nature and the Fear of God's wrath still prevailed against all those petty Arts. They could doe no good upon the Authors themselves, much less upon their Disciples; And common experience shews, That the more wicked Men strive to subdue, the fiercer their Consciences are, and that when Impiety hath invented all the ways it can think of to satisfie its self, it usually takes Sanctuary in Superstition; The stoutest Offenders to find ease must at last betake themselves to their Devotions; Their Fears still [Page] drag and hale them like unwilling Sacrifices to the Altar: Or, if Religion cannot lay that evil Genius that haunts them, they will seek to charm it by drowning their Reason in Sensuality, which recovering it self a-fresh, grows more importunate and troublesome than ever; It faring with such Men as it does with drunken Malefactors, who, when those fumes of wine wherewith they strive to smother their discontents and abate the edge of their melancholy, are evaporated, and their sober thoughts have leisure to reflect on their Crimes, tremble at the apprehension of those Racks and Gibbets that are preparing for them. Which is so true, and so common to all Men, that they who have no cause to fear others, do notwithstanding fear themselves, and never more than at the approaches of Death, which as it is most dreadfull and ghastly to the bad, so is it most welcome and lovely to the innocent and vertuous, who by clearing their accompts here, secure themselves from the danger and apprehension of an afterreckoning.

And as the Passion of Fear discovers a natural difference between good and [Page] bad, so does that of Shame no less; which, as soon as our reputation is wounded, veils the face with a ruddiness, as if it proceeded from that wound. And so apprehensive is Nature of every little thing which seems to reproach it, that a bare suspition thereof shall many times create a bashfulness; and innocence it self will sometimes be dipt in a blush as well as guilt; not for any conscious ground in its own bosome, but out of a timorous apprehension of sinister thoughts in others. We see that 'tis not in the power of the worst Men wholly to master this Passion; and he that is most deep in the guilt of a sin, will labour all he can to avoid the imputation of it. Whence is it that the most impudent, whose faces continual sinning hath hardnes against the tenderness of a blush, seek corners to hide their foulest actions? Why do they not act them without doors and in the face of the Sun with the Cynicks? or, why do they varnish them over with false colours? Does not Hypocrisie it self wear the mask of Piety and the mantle of Religion? Does it not still appear abroad in its garb and dress, and though it want the [Page] substance, court the shadow of it? And when this Satan transforms it self into an Angel of light, will it not doe all it can to hide its cloven foot? Did not Vice take upon it some fair disguise, surely no Man would entertain so vile a guest. Covetousness must be called good-husbandry, and prodigality, generosity; And the lewdest Persons many times do most affect the reputation of being chast. Est aliqua' prostitutis modestia, & ipsum lupanar honestum est. What sad shifts do Men betake themselves to when they are obnoxious to any thing that looks base in the world, and to avoid a just blame, what unjust excuses will they not take up? or, If they cannot wholly excuse, at least they will extenuate their error by necessity, humane frailty, ignorance, false information or guile; and with Pilate, wash their hands of it, if they cannot cleanse their consciences. Which evidently shows, that the hardest hearts have sometimes tender foreheads. Charge a Malefactor never so home, he will hardly confess his crime to the rack, and perhaps better endure that; or, which is a harsher punishment, his own guilt, than he [Page] will dare to publish it, a secret smart being not so quick as a publick shame. Which is a sufficient indication of the deformity of Vice, of whose least approaches Nature is so tender. And so sensible are Men of what it owns as its disgrace, that they are ready to fly in the face of those that upbraid them with it. Such a vile Master is Vice, that the greatest Slaves to it dare not wear its livery; Its best Friends scorn to be Retainers to it; They may love the Treason, but naturally hate this Traytor; and so loth are they to father such a brat, that although they doe all they can to procure themselves a bad name, yet even then are they most studiously concerned for the reputation of a good one.

But here some may say; Are not many things reputed vile and dishonourable which in themselves are not so? True indeed; But then this false apprehension can never alter the nature of the things themselves. Satan will still be a Devil, though we cloath him with a garment of light, nor is he one jot less ugly because some put a glory about his head; no more than a good Angel [Page] is black, because Ethiopians, to flatter their own hue, paint him so. There are I confess who blush at Vertue, and think Modesty the only thing to be asham'd of; A Vertue which in the common esteem of some not only beggars all other vertues, but reproaches them. But how few are such monsters in comparison of the rest of mankind? And what incompetent Judges of what is vile or honourable? From these we must appeal to the general sense of sober mankind as to the true value of things. Did ever any rational sober Man commend another for his rudeness and debauchery? Was any man's lust and intemperance ever reckoned among his Titles of honour; who ever yet raised Trophies to his Vices, or thought to perpetuate his Memory by the glory of them? Where was it ever known that Sobriety and Temperance, Justice or Charity, were thought the marks of reproach and infamy? Nay, so far from this thought are the most profligated Wretches, that they have a secret honour and value for those that are good, and while they seem to marvel at and even hate all those who refuse in [Page] a vitious compliance to run on with themselves into the same excesses of riot, they do at the same time inwardly admire and applaud them. Shew me a Man so bad that would have another like himself whom he has a real kindness for? What Father, though never so vitious, would be content his Son should imitate him; that would rather have him a drunkard than a sober man, or be gladder to meet him in a Stews than in a Church? Some possibly to shew the goodness of their wit in being able to maintain a Paradox, may extol Vice as others have done Gouts and Fevers, but who, without violence to his reason, can seriously prefer it to Vertue? There cannot then be a plainer Evidence nor a more convincing Argument of the natural difference between Vertue and Vice than this, that the general sense of sober mankind, which in the judgment of Tully is the very Law of Nature, (In genere consensio omnium gentium Tusc. qu. 1. lex naturoe putanda est) immediately approves the one as honourable, and condemns the other as base and ignominious. And thus from these two Passions of Fear and Shame, the real difference [Page] between moral Good and Evil is demonstrable, which being found in us, not as Christians, but as Men, the opposition clearly appears natural.

But not to rely solely upon the judgment of Passions, let Reason here give in its Evidence. This Christ calls the eye of the understanding, and the light that is in us, Matt. 6. 23. Nazianzen, [...], a domestick impartial Judge of Good and Evil; A natural Monitor, which, like Socrates's good Genius in Apuleius, is every one's Overseer and Guide, to advise and direct him. The measures then of Good and Evil are to be taken from that proportion or disproportion they bear to this prime Canon, which like a direct Line does at the same time shew what is streight and what is crooked by its application thereunto; discovers as natural a comeliness in Vertue and deformity in Vice as the Eye does in any of those sensible objects that lye before it. And as it is impossible for sense to be mistaken about its proper object, supposing all necessary conditions to the right use and exercise of it: so is it as impossible too for natural reason to be deceived [Page] in matters which are within its proper verge and cognizance. One man's judgment may perhaps vary from another's in determining what kind of external beauty were best, but 'tis hard for any Man to persuade himself that deformity is beauty, or that Thersites was a more gracefull person than Achilles, as Homer describes them. Herein while the Eye judges according to the exactness of colour and proportion which are the Elements of beauty, it cannot be impos'd on. And therefore the Philosopher said, 'twas the question of a blind man to ask what was beauty? because 'tis such a thing as every man must needs see and know that has his eyes about him. The same may be said of Vertue and Vice, whose beauty or deformity consists in that proportion or disproportion each of them bear to a man's natural Reason. Which made Isocrates affirm, That if it were possible for Vertue to take a humane shape; 'twould infallibly charm the beholder; and we may as truly say on the other side, that if a Man could behold Vice in its native ugliness, it would as certainly affright him. And therefore, to make [Page] their Children abhorr Drunkenness, some have thought it enough to represent it to them in their Slaves; and Seneca, to cure an angry Man, only bids him look into his Glass. And surely could not Reason as well tell a Man what were good and bad to him, as Sense does Beasts what is so to them, he should be worse provided than the meanest sensitive Creatures; And 'twere no less than a contradiction to say, that God should give him such discerning and electing faculties as Reason and Will where there should be no difference at all between those things it were to judge of or chuse. From whence we may rationallyDeu. 30. 19 conclude, that he has distinguished good from evil by those several marks he has put upon them, and sets Reason as a competent Judge to decide all moral Controversies, which by her first seeds of light manifestly discovers an honourable beauty in goodness, and an inseparable blot in wickedness. Nor is it a Paradox to affirm, that there is as wide an opposition between some moral as between the most distant natural things; For example, between Truth and a Lye, as between Light and Darkness, [Page] or Being and not Being. For truth results from the being of things which it represents, and every lye is as it were the Image of not being. And therefore the perfection of Man's understanding consisting in the knowledge of things which exist conformable to the nature of their being, and consequently in truth and veracity, there follows anatural rapport or relation between the truth of things themselves and our understandings which are perfected by it and cannot chuse but hate a Lye as soon as they discover it, as a cheat put upon them, and an abuse to Nature which has given Men language for no other use and purpose but to express the reality of their conceptions suitable to the things themselves, at least as they are apprehended; and they who abuse the credit of others do as much as in them lies destroy all commerce among men, by weakning that fidelity which entertains and supports it: which is the reason why Lyars are so hated and scorned by all mankind, and that even they who know themselves to be so, are so angry with all that call them by that name, that many times they will not be satisfied without washing off that reproach with the bloud of [Page] the Reproachers. I might here instance in other Vices; as disobedience to natural and civil Parents, injustice, cruelty, ingratitude, and shew in what a direct opposition they stand to and are condemned by nature too; but I proceed to the last argument or reason of the natural difference between moral good and evil, which I shall fetch from the prime design of Nature, viz.

4. Self-preservation. It cannot be deny'd but that whatsoever opposes and contradicts that must needs be an enemy, and whatsoever maintains it, a friend to Nature. Now 'tis evident that whatsoever is morally is also naturally good; and that as Vice tends to the ruine of humane nature, so Vertue to its conservation, and that not only by a divine benediction, but by a natural efficiency. Let us then cast up our several mischiefs, and see how many of them are owing to our vertues; whether Temperance did ever drown our parts, or Chastity make us roar under the Chirurgeon's hand; whether the sleeps of sober men be not sweet, and their appetites constant; whether the symmetry of Passions in the meek, their freedome [Page] from the rage of them, with that admirable harmony and sweetness of content, do not by making them chearfull, render them healthy too. Whereas the contrary of these do manifestly impair our bodies, waste our estates and ruine our reputations. For what are the fruits of Intemperance but Collicks, Surfeits, Aches, and the like? Who hath Pro. 23. 29. woe and sorrow, redness of eyes, contention and wounds▪ but the Drunkard? What vast expence doth the Glutton put himself to, not to allay his hunger, but to provoke it? How dearly doth he buy new wants? when a small cost would relieve nature, how much is he at to oppress it? And how does he many times pay more than one Farm for a Fever? And yet when all this is done, the best that can be expected is, that the feast must be fasted of. Whereas it often proves worse than so, that a horrid potion must purge off the too full goblet, and it shall cost as much to remove the Surfeit as to procure it, and yet after all this charge and trouble the Man can scarce hope to be so well as he was before it; such enemies are Vices to our health, and they are no less [Page] to our reason. For whereas Vertues improve our understandings by subduing our lusts and moderating our passions; These fully and darken our minds, and by clogging our spirits, render them unapt for higher and nobler acts of reason. Even the most refined ones, such as envy, hatred, pride and malice, tincture the mind with false colours, and so fill it with prejudice and undue apprehensions of things. Let experience here give in its verdict; and if it be so that Vertue preserves Nature, and Vice destroys it, they cannot possibly be the same things; such different effects arguing a manifest contrariety in their causes.

And were it not so, were not the opposition here very natural, I know not how natural Men, without any help of divine Revelation should by the mere Light of their reason be able so clearly to discern and so exactly to make it out as some of them have done. A task well performed by Tully in his Offices, Et de finibus bonorum & malorum, wherein the several bounds of moral good and evil are so precisely set out (as they have been by some ancient Philosophers, especially Aristotle) that Reason [Page] and Scripture do herein little differ; Non aliud natura, aliud sapientia dicit: Nature and Revelation speak the same things, and we may well say with Tertullian, Tam facilè pronuncias quàm Christiano necesse est; Reason here utters baptized truth, and each man's Soul is Christian. And therefore the same Father, in his Book De Testimonio Animae, draws such a plain Confession of these Truths from a Heathen Soul, that he wonders how a thing not Christian should have so much Christianity as to rejoyce at good actions, and to grow sullen after bad; to promise itself a reward for Vertue, and fear a judgment to come for Vice; Rather than be an Atheist to commit Idolatry, and rather than God should not be worshipped, to offer Sacrifices to the Devil, and then concludes, That 'tis all one here to go by Reason or Revelation; Nec multum referre an à Deo formata sit Animae conscientia an à literis Dei, that the difference is little between the Book of the Law and the Conscience of a Man. Some Principles of Law breathed into us with our Soul being so manifest, that they are seen by their own light, and stand upon their own bottom. [Page] Nature approves them, and condemns the contrary; and this we learn from St. Paul himself. For as Rom. 1. 26. he brands some vile Practices of the Gentile Romans, as so many Violences and Contumelies to Nature; and Ephes. 5. 12. mentions other things done by them in secret, which 'twas a shame to name, that is, such as were in the very Nature and Constitution of them shamefull: So Phil. 4. 8. He speaks of other things that were true and honest, just, praise-worthy and of good report; and to shew the difference of such things to be natural, he appeals in a certain case to the Judgment of Nature, 1 Cor. 11. 14. Doth not even nature it self teach you? (not general custome as Grotius there, the word [...] refusethDe Com [...]. that interpretation, and the learned Salmasius clearly confutes it.) And our Lord himself doth the same too, Luke 12. 57. Why even of your selves judge ye not what is right? As if he should have said, you need go no further than your selves to learn your Duty, your own Reason is able to tell you what is right and what not.

[Page]But there are, whom nothing can satisfie,Part. 2. and though God and Nature, the general Sense and Reason of Mankind, and Scripture to boot, do make a plain difference between Good and Evil, yet either will own none in the Nature of the things themselves, or else are so partial as to give Evil the precedency to Good, if we may measure their Judgments by their Lives and Conversations; Those I may term speculative, and these practical Epicureans.

1. Of the first sort are they who resolve all Morality into the Wills and Pleasures of Legislators, that will allow nothing to be good or bad, but what civil Magistrates in order to politick Ends shall declare to be so; making all under them with the first matter equally susceptible, of whatsoever Forms they shall please to introduce: As if Vertue and Vice, like Coin, were to have a publick stamp upon them to make them currant, or that Morality like changeable Taffety, were to vary according to the different Reflection of that Light men cast upon it. An opinion, which if it should prevail, would leave no moral [Page] Honesty, much less Religion in the World. For should Governors be as bad as they who broach this Doctrine are and would have them to be, what a strange Rule should Mankind have to go by? And if publick Interest were to be the Measure and Standard of Good and Evil, when that should alter (as nothing is more variable) what is now a Vertue, might perhaps in a short time become a Vice, and so Rewards and Punishments, have their Vicissitudes also, and at last interfere. 'Tis certain that some Laws have been enacted that were so many direct Violations of the Law of Nature, and contrary to the general Sense of Mankind, and that such might still be made, 'tis not impossible, while there remain in men the same unreasonable Lusts and Passions; whereof such Laws were the results; and yet these, if they have the publick Seal upon them, shall be as good and binding as the best that ever were established in the opinion of these Promoters of a moral Indifferency; whereas in the Judgment of all Learned men, humane Laws are then void and null, when they do in the least swerve from that of Nature. [Page] And 'tis a great Error to think that men's Laws do make things morally good or bad, whereas they do but declare them to be so; supposing them to be such in their own Natures, and deriving all their Vertue from that very supposition. They take it for granted that there are such things as Vertue and Vice, and add Rewards and Punishments to invite or deterr us from what naturally we are prone or averse to, but would not so readily embrace or decline without these External motives or restraints. All they do here is to graft on Natures stocks, to cherish and nurse up those Seeds of Vertue which are already in our very Being and Constitution. For before there were any positive Laws of men there were Natural, certain moral Principles of Good and Evil, which Reason obliged all men to; As, To do as we would be done to, to worship God, obey and honour Parents; The latter so congenial to us, that Moses and other Legislators have thought it superfluous to order any Punishment for parricide, imagining none could be so unnatural as to commit it. Such natural Obligations are antecedent to any [Page] humane Constitutions, and in the Judgment of Aristotle as fixt, and determined as any physical Beings: So that as there will be Colours though there were no Eye to view them; there will be such a thing as Virtue and Vice, though there were no Law either for or against it.

Nor can any pretence of publick Interest alter their Property. Utilitas prope justi mater & aequi, though in some sense very commendable, (for all Laws should aim at the publick good, without which they should be no better than Snares and Traps) yet in that wherein some take it, 'tis in no wise tolerable; Their meaning by it being in short this, that there is no Interest but what is merely secular, that Vertue and Vice are in themselves insignificant things, to be taken up or laid down as they are subservient to politick Ends; As if God and Nature were to stoop to Mammon, or that the distance between Honestum and Utile were so irreconcileable, that 'twere impossible for them to meet together. An Error as old as Tully's Days, which he complains of and confutes, which excellently serves the turns of loose men, who cannot better [Page] defame and exterminate Morality than by persuading the World 'tis an useless thing, as indeed it is to them that desire not to be bound up by it, and therefore decry it in all others, especially them who are to make Laws and see them executed, who if they should be vertuous must of necessity shame and punish all those who resolve to be vitious. But could these men once persuade Legislators, that just and unjust were things indifferent and alterable at their pleasure, they would no doubt at last as easily persuade themselves too that obedience, and disobedience to them were as arbitrary and indifferent. What disorder and confusion this one Principle would introduce into the World, that Vertue and Vice were founded only in humane Constitutions and politick Interest, and not in the Nature of the things themselves, is easie to judge by putting this one Supposition. Suppose the reverse of all we now call Vertue were solemnly enacted, and the Practice of Fraud, Perjury and Falseness to a man's word, and all manner of Vice and Wickedness were established by a Law. I ask now if the cafe between Vertue and Vice [Page] were thus altered, would that we call Vice in process of time gain the reputation of Vertue, and that which we call Vertue grow odious and contemptible to humane Nature? If it would not, then there is something in the Nature of Good and Evil, of Vertue and Vice, which does not depend upon the pleasure of Authority, nor is subject to any Arbitrary Constitution. But that it would not be thus is most certain, because no Government could subsist upon such Terms. For the very enjoyning of Fraud and Rapine, Perjury and breach of Trust doth apparently destroy the greatest End of Government, which is to preserve men in their Rights against the Encroachments of Fraud and Violence. And this End being destroyed, humane Societies would immediately fly in pieces, and men would necessarily fall into a state of War. Which plainly shows that Vertue and Vice are not Arbitrary things, but that there is a natural immutable and eternal Reason for that we call moral Good, and against that we call moral Evil. God has established these things upon as firm and solid a Basis, as [Page] he has done the Earth which none can remove. And therefore what Tertullian Apolog. c. 5. Ironically said of the Roman Senate, that would not allow Christ a Room among their Gods at the Instance and recommendation of Tiberius; Nisi homini Deus placuerit, Deus non erit; is applicable to all those who make the Wills of Legislators, the Measure of Good and Evil; Vertue, must not be Vertue, nor Vice, Vice, without men's Consent and Approbation.

2. But besides these there is another sort of men, who not content to make Good and Evil indifferent, are so wickedly partial as to prefer Evil to Good. These are all practical Epicureans, who set up Anti-tables in opposition to those of God and Nature, live as if they aimed at being scandalous as well as vitious, and loved the Guilt as well as the Pleasures of Sin, that give all the reputation they can to Vice, which is the natural Reward of Vertue, decry all Goodness in themselves and others, and stamp God's Image on Satan's Dross. Such are all they who as St. Paul says, glory Phil. 3. 19. Tacitus. in their shame, Quorum novissima voluptus infamia est (the Character which the [Page] Roman Historian gives of a prodigious Impiety) that boast of their Infamy; one of his Atheism, another of the Trophies of his Drunkenness, and a third of the Variety of his Uncleanness. Pride compasseth them about like a Chain, Psal. 73. 6. They deck themselves with it as with a Robe of Honour, wear it as their Ornament, and bring it forth into open view like Agrippa and Bernice in the Acts, [...], withAct. 25. 23. much Pomp and State, glorying as much in the Scars they receive in Satan's service as ever St. Paul did in the Marks of the Lord Jesus, and have not so much as the Religion of Hypocrisie. Sin isEphes. 5. 11. called the Work of Darkness, because they who commit it usually hate the Light; and therefore They that are drunk, are drunk in the Night, says the1 Thes. 5. 7. Apostle. This was wont to be the Custom: Vice durst not show its ugly Face by day. But how many turn the Works of Darkness into Works of Light, and produce them on the Theater of the World; not content with the Conscience of them, unless as the Pharisees dealt their Alms and said their Prayers, they may do them so as to be seen of men.Matt. 6. 5. [Page] And hence it is that many belye themselves in Sin, usurp Vice, and steal the glorious Reputation of exceeding Sinfulness, as if the Impiety were meritorious, and the shame of doing ill the only thing to be ashamed of. St. Augustine in his Confessions complains of himself, that in his younger Days he did so; that in compliance with some of this shameless humour, he did often boast of imaginary Vices, and attributed Sins to himself he never had committed, being more afraid of displeasing his vile Companions than his God. And doubtless many, to avoid the Imputation of Temperance, and the Scandal of a singular and affected Sobriety, labour all they can to be thought more wicked than sometimes they are. Nor is it enough for such to wear out all the Impressions of the Law written in their own Hearts, and wholly to subdue their own Consciences, unless they may shame and baffle all Goodness out of those of other men, by setting off Vice with all Lustre and Advantage that possibly may recommend it to their esteem; while on the other side they labour as much to put Vertue out of countenance and [Page] render it unfashionable and ridiculous, by the antick Dress they give it, cloathing it, as the Jews did our Lord, in a Fool's Coat, to move Laughter and Contempt; the Business of every drolling Buffoon, who thinks he cannot better disparage Vertue, than by representing it as a melancholy and pedantick thing, an Enemy to good Manners and civil Conversation; a Contradiction to Nature, and a restraint on that Liberty and those Appetites it gives us. Now if this be not to cast off all discriminating Notions of Good and Evil; if this be not to expose Nature Travesty, and by a perverse kind of Heraldry to set Evil before Good, 'tis hard to say what it is: Doubtless of all other men, these best deserve the Prophet's Character here, and fall directly within the Compass of his Curse. The last thing to be considered.

The Law of Nature, of which MoralityPart III is the most considerable part, is so unchangeable, that some, how warrantably I know not, do affirm 'tis not in the Power of God himself to alter it. 'Tis hard to say that he that has [Page] Power to make a Law, cannot alter it, since in some Instances we find he has done so; but they are indeed more rare than his miraculous Dispensings with the ordinary Course of Nature. And as God is pleas'd sometimes to vary that to show himself Lord of Nature, so has he sometimes changed this, to let us know He is that one Lawgiver St. James Jam. 4. 12. speaks of, who can prescribe to the Conscience. To endeavour then to alter the property of moral Good and Evil is to entrench upon the Almighty's Prerogative, and to call Evil Good; to stamp our Impression on his Bullion, is the worst sort of Coinage, and no less than flat Rebellion against the Supreme Majesty of Heaven. Job expreslyJob. 24. 13. Heb. 6. 4. calls it a rebelling against the light, the Light of Nature, ch. 24. ver. 13. A Sin in some measure against the Holy Ghost too, (all natural as well as revealed Light being from Him) especially when it is done out of that reprobate or injudicious mind Heathens were given up to, who held the truth in unrighteousness; i. e. did by their wickedRom. 1. 18. lives and conversations, so imprison those common notices of God and Morality, [Page] which naturally shined in▪ their Understandings, that they could no more appear or come forth than men that are shut up close Prisoners in a dark Dungeon. This was the great Crime of the Heathen World, and for this Cause God gave them up to vile Affections to be directed by such a crooked Rule as they had framed to themselves, and be led by the Wisp of their false Imaginations, over Boggs and Precipices into ruine. 'Tis usual with God as to make one Sin the punishment of another; so to suit Punishments to Crimes. Thus when Heathens abused natural Light, he suffered them so far to be besotted, as not only to worship Stocks and Stones, but Vices and Sins. Thus while some Jews abused revealed Light, he threatens themZeph. 11. 17. See Micah 3. 6. with putting out their Light in obscure Darkness; as he does Christians who go against the Light of the Gospel, to remove their Candlestick, and send them strong Delusions to believe a Lye, take Darkness for Light and Light for Darkness. And if the Light that is in Man Mat. 6. 23. be Darkness, how great must that Darkness be? Surely by so much the greater, [Page] by how much their Light was so. And therefore Christians, who besides the Natural and Mosaical, have the glorious Light of the Gospel to direct them as to the Measure of Good and Evil, must needs be much more inexcusable, ifJude 10. they shall err in their choice, and in what they know naturally as brute Beasts, in those very things corrupt themselves, and so have nothing left to distinguish them from Heathens, but a better Name and worse Practices. For how many Heathens were there, who if they should now appear on the Stage of the World, would shame most Christians of it? What Justice, Temperance, Frugality, Conscience of Oaths and Promises, Severity and Strictness of Life among them? and what Injustice, Intemperance, Prodigality, Falseness and Universal Depravation of Manners among these? Certainly if our Righteousness exceed not theirs, We shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; But if our Unrighteousness shall exceed theirs, what Hell will be deep or dark enough for us? Shall not Uncircumcision, which is by Nature, if it fulfill the Law, judge thee who by the Letter and Circumcision [Page] dost transgress the Law, said St. Paul to the Jews? Let every Christian make particular Application to himself, and see whether with the Advantage of a far clearer Revelation he does not come short of Jews, nay whether he makes any Conscience of doing those things which the bare Light of natural Reason taught Heathens to abhor; and yet while he damns them for their moral Vertues, he can absolve himself, though guilty of their foulest ones. It were to be wisht that many Christians were but as good as some Heathens were, that they would at least follow Nature (the Dictates of natural Reason) their Errours would be fewer, and their Accompt less; and were they faithful in this smaller Talent, God would then entrust them with a greater. The common Notices of Good and Evil are the natural Man's Book, as Papists say Images are Laymens; and he that well studies this Book and is learned in it, may not despair of taking a higher Degree of perfection in the School of Christ, Christianity being nothing else but Nature refined and exalted, and all the Laws of Christ concerning [Page] moral Actions, the very Law of Nature but in a clearer Character, and more correct Impression. Indeed the Light of Nature is but dim and its Assistance weak, and they who followed that did but grope in the Dark, and were apt ever and anon to stumble. And no Marvel: For some Evil does so well imitate Good, that 'tis hard for a natural Eye to make out the just Bounds and Limits of each of them. The [...] or Rule that marks out Vertue from its neighbouring Vice being not so plain in every place as to chalk out exactly, to this point thou may'st come and no farther; and therefore we find the best Philosophers, Ethicks, so imperfect, that some Heathen Vertues are little better than Christian men's Vices. Besides the Universal ill practice of mankind, by putting a false gloss on Evil did so disguise it, that the mistake of that for Good was very easie. But Christ having in his Gospel given us such exact Rules whereby to judge of them, One would think it were impossible now for men to be deceived. And yet we find nothing so common, and the moralists Observation most true,—Pauci dignoscere [Page] possunt vera bona atque illis multum diversa—For while some look upon these things through such false Glasses as do alter their shape and proportion, or their Organ is vitiated by some such bad humour as discolours every Object presented to it; while the strength of passion blinds some men's reason or the pleasures of sin corrupts it, and wicked men do so cunningly suit their Principles to others bad Tempers, that they are presently swallowedSee 2 Pet. 2. 18. without chewing; 'Tis hard to know things that are excellent, [...] as the Apostle's word is, Phil. 1. 10. things that differ, especially men being willing to believe all lawfull that gratifies their vitious humour and inclination. And this was it which rendred the Heathen Divinity so plausible to the World, and the vile Doctrines of Gnosticks to loose Christians, that it brought in such Shoals of Proselytes to them. Upon all which Accounts David's Prayer will be very seasonable for every one of us, Psal. 119. 66. Teach me, O Lord, good Judgment and Knowledge. In the Original 'tis, good tast, to try and relish what is good; or in the Language of the Apostle, [Page] give me Senses Exercis'd to discern Good and Evil. And while we thus begHeb. 5. 14. God's Light and Direction, let us as Christ bids us, make our Eye good andMat. 6. 22. single, by clearing it from all carnal prejudice, and that Dust and Filth which Satan and the World cast into it, still rubbing and polishing natural Truths, that they may shine out brighter and continually blowing up these Sparks into a flame. Thus if we be not wanting to our selves God will improve our natural into a divine Light: He will show us what is good by lifting up the Light of his Countenance upon us, and enable us not only to call every thing by it proper Name, Good, good, and Evil, evil; but withal to chuse the one and refuse the other; That so the Curse of the Text may be turned into a Blessing, and the Seeds of moral Vertue well cultivated here, may yield us the Fruit of a blessed Immortality hereafter; Which God of his infinite Mercy grant, &c.Amen.

Soli Dei Gloria in aeternum.

FINIS.

THE CONTENTS.

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SERMON I. SAint Luk. XI. 27, 28. And it came to pass as he spake these things, a certain woman of the company lift up her voice, and said unto him, Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked. But he said, Tea, rather blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it. Pag. 1

SERMON II. Tit. II. 14. Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purifie to himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. p. 34

[Page] SERMON III. Tit. II. 14. Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purifie to himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. p. 61.

SERMON IV. St. Luk. II. 22. And when the days of her purification according to the Law of Moses, were accomplished, they brought him to Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord. p. 87

SERMON V. Joh. XIX. 37. And again another Scripture saith, They shall look on him whom they have pierced. p. 124

SERMON VI. Acts II. 24. Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should be holden of it. p. 159

SERMON VII. Joh. XVI. 7. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth; it is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter [Page] will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. p. 197

SERMON VIII. Heb. I. 14. Are they not all ministring spirits, sent forth to minister for them, who shall be heirs of salvation? p. 242

SERMON IX. Colos. I. 12. Giving thanks unto the Father which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light. p. 287

SERMON X. St. Matth. VII. 16. Ye shall know them by their fruits. p. 321

SERMON XI. Joh. XVI. 2, 3. They shall put you out of the Synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doth God service. And these things will they doe unto you, because they have not known the Father nor Me. p. 399

SERMON XII. 1 Cor. XV. 19. If in this life only we [Page] have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. p. 458

SERMON XII. Rom. XII 1. I beseech you therefore, Brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living Sacrifice,

SERMON XIII. holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. p. 490

SERMON XIV. Esay V. 20. Wo unto them that call evil good, and good evil. p. 529

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AThenae Oxonienses: or, an Exact History of all the Writers and Bishops who have had their Education in the Ancient and Famous University of Oxford; from 1500, to the End of the Year 1690; Representing the Birth, Fortune, Preferments and Death of all those Authors and Prelates; the great Accidents of their Lives; the Fate and Character of their Writings: The Work being so compleat, that no Writer of Note of this Nation, for near Two hundred years past, is omitted, fol. 2 Vol.

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The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus the Roman Emperor: Translated out of Greek into English, with Notes: by Dr. Causabon. To this Edition is added, the Life of the said Emperor: with an Account of Stoick Philosophy; As also Remarks on the Meditations: All newly written by the famous Monsieur and Madam Dacier.

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The Works of the Learned, or an Historical Account, and Impartial Judgment, of the Books newly Printed, both Foreign and Domestick: together with the State of Learning in the World. Published Monthly, by J. de la Crose, a late Author of the Universal Bibliotheque. This first Volume beginning in August last, is compleated this present April; with Indexes to the whole.

The Bishop of Chester's Charge to his Clergy at his Primary Visitation, May 5. 1691.

Five Sermons before the King and Queen: by Dr. Meggot, Dean of Winchester.

A Sermon before the King and Queen, by the Lord Bishop of Worcester.

A Sermon before the House of Commons on the Thanksgiving-day: by Dr. Jane, Dean of Gloucester.

ERRATA.

PAg. 148. lin. 13. for [...] read [...] P. 149. l. 2. dele 11.

P. 237. l. ult. for nor, r. not.

252. l. 14. for miracles, r. miraculous.

264. l. 21. for Dacius, r. Decius.

275. lin. penult. r. abasement.

278. l. 1. for Particle, r. Participle.

289. l. 19. r. makes them heavenly.

331. l. 14. r. not to be.

338. l. 17. for flatters, r. flatterers.

Information about this book

Title statement

Sermons and discourses upon several occasions by G. Stradling ... ; together with an account of the author.

Stradling, George, 1621-1688.

Edition statement

1692

Publication

Publisher

Text Creation Partnership,

Place of publication

Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) :

Date

2005-10 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1).

ID [DLPS]

A61711

ID [STC]

Wing S5783

ID [STC]

ESTC R39104

ID [EEBO-CITATION]

18213131

ID [OCLC]

ocm 18213131

ID [VID]

107172

Availability

This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal. The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission.

Series

Early English books online.

Notes

(EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A61711)

Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 107172)

Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 1131:5)

Source

— Sermons and discourses upon several occasions by G. Stradling ... ; together with an account of the author., Stradling, George, 1621-1688., Harrington, James, 1664-1693..

Extent

[16], 570, [6] p., [1] leaf of plates : port.

Printed by J.H. for Thomas Bennet ...,. London :: 1692.. ("Never before printed.") ("Edited by James Harrington."--NUC pre-1956 imprints.) (Engraved frontispiece portrait of author.) (Errata: p. [6] at end.) (Reproduction of original in the Huntington Library.)

Creation

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