to rejoice in the hopes of the Glory of God because their Sufferings did really prepare and make way for their Glory So the same Apostle tells us 2 Cor. 4.17 18. Our light Afflictions which are but for a moment work for us a far more exceeding and Eternal weight of Glory whilst we look not at the things which are seen for the things which are seen are Temporal but the things which are not seen are Eternal 3 dly and lastly The assurance of our future Reward is a mighty Encouragement to Obedience and a Holy Life What greater Encouragement can we have than this That all the good which we do in this World will accompany us into the other That when we rest from our labours our works will follow us That when we shall be stript of other things and parted from them these will still remain with us and bear us company Our Riches and Honours our sensual Pleasures and Enjoyments will all take their leave of us when we leave this World nay many times they do not accompany us so far as the Grave but take occasion to forsake us when we have the greatest need and use of them but Piety and Virtue are that better part which cannot be taken from us All the good actions which we do in this world will go along with us into the other and through the Merits of our Redeemer procure for us at the hands of a Gracious and Merciful God a Glorious and Eternal Reward not according to the meanness of our Services but according to the Bounty of his Mind and the vastness of his Treasures and Estate Now what an encouragement is this to Holiness and Obedience to consider that it will all be our own another day to be assured that whoever serves God faithfully and does suffer for him patiently does lay up so much Treasure for himself in another World and provides lasting Comforts for himself and faithful and constant Companions that will never leave him nor forsake him Let us then do all the good we can while we have opportunity and serve God with all our might knowing that no good action that we do shall be lost and fall to the ground that every Grace and Virtue that we exercise in this life and every degree of them shall receive their full recompence at the Resurrection of the Just How should this inspire us with Resolution and Zeal and Industry in the Service of God to have such a Reward continually in our Eye how should it tempt us to our Duty to have a Crown and a Kingdom offered to us Joys unspeakable and full of Glory such things as Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard nor have entred into the heart of man And such are the things which God hath laid up for them who love him heartily and serve him faithfully in this World SERMON V. The danger of Apostacy from Christianity HEB. VI. 4 5 6. For it is impossible for those who were once enlightned and have tasted of the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come If they shall fall away to renew them again unto repentance seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh and put him to an open shame THESE words are full of difficulties and the misunderstanding of them hath not only been an occasion of a great deal of trouble and even despair to particular persons but one of the chief Reasons why the Church of Rome did for a long time reject the Authority of this Book Vol. V. which by the way I cannot but take notice of as a demonstrative Instance both of the fallible Judgment of that Church and of the fallibility of Oral Tradition for St. Jerom more than once expresly tells us that in his time which was about 400 years after Christ the Church of Rome did not receive this Epistle for Canonical But it is plain that since that time whether moved by the Evidence of the thing or which is more probable by the Consent and Authority of other Churches they have received it and do at this day acknowledge it for Canonical from whence one of these two things will necessarily follow either that they were in an error for 400 years together while they rejected it or that they have since erred for a longer time in receiving it One of these is unavoidable for if the Book be Canonical now it was so from the beginning for Bellarmine himself confesseth and if he had not confessed it it is nevertheless true and certain that the Church cannot make a Book Canonical which was not so before Ser. 5. if it was not Canonical at first it cannot be made so afterward so that let them chuse which part they will it is evident beyond all denial that the Church of Rome hath actually erred in her Judgment concerning the Authority of this Book and one error of this kind is enough to destroy her Infallibility there being no greater Evidence that a Church is not Infallible than if it plainly appear that she hath been deceived And this also is a convincing instance of the Fallibility of Oral Tradition For if that be Infallible in delivering down to us the Canonical Books of Scripture it necessarily follows that whatever Books were delivered down to us for Canonical in one Age must have been so in all Ages and whatever was rejected in any Age must always have been rejected but we plainly see the contrary from the instance of this Epistle concerning which the Church of Rome which pretends to be the great and faithful Preserver of Tradition hath in several Ages deliver'd several things This is a peremptory instance both of the Fallibility of the Roman Church and of her Oral Tradition Having observed this by the way which I could not well pass by upon so fair an occasion I shall betake my self to the explication of these words towards which it will be no small advantage to consider the particular Phrases and Expressions in the Text. It is impossible for those who were once enlightned that is were solemnly admitted into the Church by Baptism and embraced the profession of Christianity Nothing was more frequent among the Ancients than to call Baptism 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Illumination and those who were baptized were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 enlightned Persons because of that Divine Illumination which was convey'd to the minds of Men by the knowledge of Christianity the Doctrine whereof they made Profession of at their Baptism And therefore Justin Martyr tells us that by calling upon God the Father and the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and the name of the Holy Ghost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the enlightned Person is washed and again more expresly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this Laver speaking of Baptism is called Illumination And St. Cyprian gives us the Reason because by virtue of Baptism in expiatum pectus ac
him to shew them a Sign from Heaven It seems they expected that God should give some immediate Testimony to him from Heaven as he did to Elias when Fire came down from Heaven and consumed his Enemies And particularly they expected that when he was upon the Cross if he were the true Messias he should have come down and saved himself And because he did not answer their Expectation in this they concluded him an Impostor Now what could be more unreasonable when he had wrought so many other and great Miracles perversly to insist upon some particular kind of Miracle which they fancied As if God were bound to gratifie the Curiosity of Men and as if our Saviour were not as much declared to be the Son of God by rising again from the Dead as if he had come down from the Cross Fourthly As to his Conversation they had these three Exceptions 1. That he used no severity in his Habit or Diet took too much Freedom as they thought came Eating and Drinking that is he freely used the Creatures of God for the end for which they were given with Temperance and Thanksgiving and did not lay those rigorous Restraints upon himself in these matters which many that were esteemed the most Religious among them used to do But he plainly shews them that this Exception was meerly out of their Prejudice against him For if he had come in the way of Austerity they would have rejected him as well They were resolved to find Fault with him whatever he did Matth. 11.16 Whereunto shall I liken this Generation John the Baptist came neither eating nor drinking and they say He hath a Devil He lived in a more austere and melancholly way he came in the way of Righteousness used great Strictness and Severity in his Habit and Diet and this they took Exception at Our Saviour was of a quite contrary Temper and that did not please them neither The Son of Man came eating and drinking and they say behold a Wine-bibber and a Glutton So that let our Saviour have done what he would he could not have carried himself so as to have escaped the Censures of Men so peevishly and perversly disposed 2. That he kept Company with Publicans and Sinners To which Exception nothing can be more reasonable than our Saviour's own Answer that he was sent to be a Physician to the World to call Sinners to Repentance and therefore they had no Reason to be angry or think it strange if he conversed with his Patients among whom his proper Imployment lay 3. They objected to him Prophaneness in breaking the Sabbath and that surely was plain that he could not be of God if he kept not the Sabbath-day The Truth was he had healed one on the Sabbath-day To this our Saviour gives a most reasonable and satisfactory Answer that surely it was lawful to do good on the Sabbath-day that that was but a Positive Institution but works of Mercy are Natural and Moral Duties and God himself had declared that he would have even his own Institutions to give way to those greater Duties that are of natural and eternal Obligation I will have Mercy and not Sacrifice And then from the End of the Sabbath The Sabbath was made for the Rest and Refreshment of Man and therefore could not be presumed to be intended to his Prejudice The Sabbath was made for Man and not Man for the Sabbath Fifthly Another great Prejudice against him was that Persons of the greatest Knowledge and Authority among them did not embrace his Doctrine John 7.48 Have any of the Rulers or Pharisees believed on him So that here was the infallible Rule and Authority of their Church against him There is no doubt but the Example and Authority of our Guides ought to sway very much with us and over-rule us in doubtful Cases but not against plain and convincing Evidence there we ought to follow and obey God rather than Men. There is sometimes a visible and palpable Corruption in those who are to lead us they may have an Interest to oppose the Truth And thus it was with the Pharisees and Rulers at that Time and so it hath been among Christians in the great Degeneracy of the Roman Church The Christian Religion was never more endangered nor never more corrupted than by those who have been in greatest Authority in that Church who ought to have understood Relegion best and have been the principal Support of it Men may err but God cannot So that when God sends a Prophet or by his Word does plainly declare his Will to us Human Example and Authority ceaseth and is of no force The last Prejudice I shall mention which the Jews had against our Saviour and his Doctrine was that it did abolish and supercede their Religion as of no longer Use and Continuance though it was plain it was instituted by God This had been a very specious Pretence indeed had not this been part of their Religion and had not their own Prophets foretold that the Messias should come and perfect what was wanting and defective in their Institution It was expresly said in their Law That God would raise unto them another Prophet like to Moses and that they should hear him when he came So that in truth it was the Accomplishment of all those Revelations which were made to the Jews and did not reprove the Jewish Religion as false but as imperfect And did not contradict and overthrow but perfect and fulfil the Law and the Prophets And thus I have gone over the chief Exceptions and Offences which the Jews took at our Saviour and his Doctrine and I hope sufficiently shown the Unreasonableness of them I have not now time to proceed to what remains But by what hath been said you may easily see upon what slight and unreasonable Grounds Men may be prejudiced against the best Person and Things and yet be very confident all the while that they are in the Right For so no doubt many of the Jews who opposed our Saviour and his Doctrine thought themselves to be Therefore it concerns us to put on Meekness and Humility and Modesty that we may able to judge impartially of things and our Minds may be preserved free and indifferent to receive the Truths of God when they are offer'd to us Otherwise Self-Conceit and Passion will so blind our Minds and biass our Judgments that we shall be unable to discern and unwilling to entertain the plain est and most evident Truths We see here by the sad Example of the Jews that by giving way to Passion and cherishing Pride and Self-Conceit Men may be so deeply prejudiced against the Truth as to resist the clearest Light and reject even Salvation it self when it is offer'd to them So that it is not in vain that the Scripture saith let every Man be swift to hear and slow to Wrath for the Wrath of Man worketh not the righteousness of God and exhorts us so earnestly to receive with
that this Assistance shall always be to the degree of Infallibility It was so indeed to the Apostles the miraculous Gifts of the Holy Ghost which were bestowed upon them for the more speedy and effectual planting and propagating of the Gospel in the World were a divine Testimony and Confirmation to the Doctrine which they delivered and having this divine Testimony given to them we are certain that they were secured from Error in the delivery of that Doctrine So that the Apostles had no other Infallibility but what depended upon and was evidenced by the miraculous Gifts wherewith they were endowed and therefore without the like Gifts none can with Reason pretend to the like Infallibility For Infallibility signifies an extraordinary Assistance of God's Spirit whereby those who are thus assisted are secured from Error This every confident Man may if he pleaseth pretend to but no Man is to be believed to have it but he who can give such Evidence of it as is fit to satisfie reasonable Men that he hath it Now the only sufficient Evidence of such an extraordinary Divine Assistance is the Power of Miracles This indeed is the great external Testimony of a Teacher come from God if he do such Works as none can do except God he with him and this Evidence the Prophets of old and our Saviour and his Apostles always gave of their Infallibility And if the Pope and general Councils can give the Testimony of such Miracles for their Infallibility as Moses and our Saviour and his Apostles did work we are ready to acknowledge it Such a Testimony as this would give the World a thousand times more Satisfaction concerning their Infallibility than all the subtil Arguments of Bellarmine and all their Writers But if they cannot they may dispute about it to the end of the World and every Man that hath but the same confidence may pretend to it with as much reason as they do But to proceed in my Argument here is a plain Reason why this extraordinary Assistance should be granted to the Apostles at first and another Reason as plain why it should not be continued afterwards It was reasonable and in some degree necessary that the Apostles should be thus assisted at the first publicacation of the Gospel namely to give satisfaction to the World that they were faithful and true Witnesses of the Doctrine and Miracles of Christ But since this Doctrine and these Miracles are recorded to Posterity by those very Persons that were thus assisted here is as plain a Reason why after the Gospel was planted and establisht in the World this Infallibility should cease So long as we have an infallible Foundation of Faith namely the Divine Revelation consigned in Writing and transmitted down to us by Testimony of undoubted Credit what need is there now of a fixt and standing Infallibility in the Church But having handled this Argument more at large else-where I shall insist no further upon it here I have now done with the three things I propounded to discourse upon from this Text. You have heard what Authority our Saviour had given him what Commission he gave to his Disciples and what Assistance he hath promised to the Pastors and Governors of his Church to the end of the World namely such an Assistance as is suitable to the exigencies of the Church in the several Ages and States of Christianity which Assistance was at first very extraordinary and miraculous God was pleased to give witness to the first Teachers and Publishers of the Gospel with signs and wonders and divers Miracles and Gifts of the holy Ghost and this at first was in a very great degree necessary it not being otherwise imaginable how Christianity could have born up against all that Force and violent Opposition which was raised against it But this extraordinary assistance was but a temporary and transient Dispensation God did as it were pass by in the strong and mighty Wind in the Earthquake and in the Fire but he was in the still Voice that is he designed to settle and continue in that Dispensation in that more calm and secret way of Assistance which offers less Violence to the Nature of Man but which was intended for the constant and permanent Dispensation So that we have no reason to think that God hath now forsaken his Church though he be not with it in so sensible and extraordinary a manner But then if any particular Church desire and expect this blessed Presence and Assistance of God's Holy Spirit we must remember that there is a Condition to be performed on our parts For how absolute soever this Promise may be in respect of the Church universal it is certainly conditional to any particular Church as sad experience in many Instances hath shewn God hath long since left the Church of Jerusalem where the Gospel was first publisht he hath left the Church of Antioch where the Believers of the Gospel were first call'd Christians he hath left the famous Churches of Asia to that degree of Desolation that the Ruins and Places of some of them are hardly at this day certainly known And this may also be the fate of any particular Church not excepting Rome her self for all her Pride and Confidence to the contrary Behold therefore the Goodness and Severity of God towards them that fell Severity but towards us Goodness if we continue in his Goodness otherwise we also shall be cut off This as I observed before is spoken particularly to the Roman Church the Apostle supposeth that the Church of Rome her self may be guilty of Apostacy from the Faith and cut off by Unbelief and indeed seems to foretel it which how it consists with their confident Pretence to Infallibility let them look to it And let all particular Churches look to themselves that they do not forfeit this Promise of Divine Assistance For Christ hath not so tyed himself to any particular Church but that if they forsake him he may leave them and remove his Candlestick from them There have been many sad Instances of this since the first planting of Christianity and we have no small Reason to apprehend that it may come to be our own case for certainly we have many of those marks of Ruin among us which did foretel the Destruction of the Jewish Church and Nation horrible Prophaness and Contempt of Religion Division and Animosities to the highest degree and an universal Dissoluteness and Corruption of Manners And why should we who do the same things think our selves exempted from the same Fate What can we expect but that God should deal with us as he did with them Take away the Kingdom of God from us and give it to a Nation that will bring forth the fruits of it The Condition of this great Promise here in the Text to the Pastors and Governors of the Christian Church is the faithful Execution of their Commission if they do sincerely endeavour to gain Men to the Belief and Practice of
by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not a Natural but a Moral Impossibility that which cannot be done according to the Orders and Constitutions of the Church that is the Church did refuse to admit Apostates and some other great Offenders as Murderers and Adulterers to a course of Penance in order to their Reconciliation with the Church This Tertullian tells us was the strictness of the Church in his time Neque Idololatriae neque Sanguini pax ab Ecclesiâ redditur they admitted neither Idolaters nor Murderers to the reconciliation of the Church Though they were never so penitent and shed never so many tears yet he says they were jejunae pacis lacrimae their tears were in vain to reconcile them to the Peace and Communion of the Church He says indeed they did not absolutely pronounce their case desperate in respect of God's Pardon and Forgiveness sed de veniâ Deo reservamus for that they referr'd them to God but they were never to be admitted again into the Church so strict were many Churches and that upon the Authority of this Text though the Church of Rome was more moderate in this matter and for that Reason call'd the Authority of this Book into question But I see no reason why these Words should primarily be understood of restoring Men to the Communion of the Church by Penance but they seem to be meant of restoring Men to the Favour of God by Repentance of which indeed their being restored to the Communion of the Church was a good sign This the Apostle says was very difficult for those who after Baptism and the several benefits of it did apostatize from Christianity to be recover'd again to Repentance Seeing they crucifie to themselves the Son of God afresh and put him to an open shame This is spoken by way of Aggravation of the crime of Apostacy that they who fall off from Christianity in effect and by interpretation do crucifie the Son of God over again and expose him to shame and reproach as the Jews did for by denying and renouncing of him they declare him to be an Impostor and consequently worthy of that death which he suffered and that Ignominy which he was exposed to and therefore in account of God they are said to do that which by their actions they do approve so that it is made a Crime of the highest Nature as if they should crucifie the Son of God and use him in the most ignominious manner even tread under foot the Son of God as the expression is to the same purpose Ch. 10.29 Thus I have endeavour'd as briefly and clearly as I could to explain to you the true meaning and importance of the several Phrases and Expressions in the Text the sense whereof amounts to this That if those who are baptized and by Baptism have received Remission of Sins and do believe the Doctrine of the Gospel and the Promises of it and are endow'd with the miraculous Gifts of the Holy Ghost if such persons as these shall after all this apostatize from Christianity it is very hard and next to an impossibility to imagine how such Persons should recover again by Repentance seeing they are guilty of as great a Crime as if in their own Persons they had put to Death and ignominously used the Son of God because by rejecting of him they declare to the World that he suffered deservedly Having thus explained the words in order to the further vindication of them from the mistakes and misapprehensions which have been about them I shall endeavour to make out these five things 1 st That the Sin here mention'd is not the Sin against the Holy Ghost 2 dly That the Apostle does not declare it to be absolutely impossible but only that those who are guilty of it are recover'd to Repentance with great difficulty 3 dly That it is not a partial Apostacy from the Christian Religion by any particular vicious Practice 4 thly That it is a total Apostacy from the Christian Religion and more especially to the Heathen Idolatry which the Apostle here speaks of 5 thly The Reason of the difficulty of the recovery of those who fall into this Sin 1 st That the Sin here mention'd is not the Sin against the Holy Ghost which I have heretofore discoursed of and shewn wherein the particular Nature of it does consist There are three things which do remarkably distingush the Sin here spoken of in the Text from the Sin against the Holy Ghost described by our Saviour 1 st The Persons that are guilty of this Sin here in the Text are evidently such as had embraced Christianity and had taken upon them the Profession of it whereas those whom our Saviour chargeth with the Sin against the Holy Ghost are such as constantly opposed his Doctrine and resisted the Evidence he offer'd for it 2 dly The particular nature of the Sin against the Holy Ghost consisted in blaspheming the Spirit whereby our Saviour wrought his Miracles and saying he did not do those things by the Spirit of God but by the assistance of the Devil in that malicious and unreasonable imputing of the plain Effects of the Holy Ghost to the Power of the Devil and consequently in an obstinate refusal to be convinced by the Miracles that he wrought but here is nothing of all this so much as intimated by the Apostle in this place 3 dly The Sin against the Holy Ghost is declared to be absolutely unpardonable both in this World and in that which is to come But this is not declared to be absolutely unpardonable which brings me to the 2 d Thing namely That this Sin here spoken of by the Apostle is not said to be absolutely unpardonable It is not the Sin against the Holy Ghost and whatever else it be it is not out of the compass of God's Pardon and Forgiveness So our Saviour hath told us that all manner of Sin whatsoever that men have committed is capable of pardon excepting only the Sin against the Holy Ghost And though the Apostle here uses a very severe Expression that if such persons fall away it is impossible to renew them again to Repentance yet I have shewn that there is no necessity of understanding this Phrase in the strictest sense of the word impossible but as it is elsewhere used for that which is extreamly difficult Nor indeed will our Saviour's Dclaration which I mention'd before that all Sins whatsoever are pardonable except the Sin against the Holy Ghost suffer us to understand these words in the most rigorous Sense 3 dly The Sin here spoken of is not a partial Apostacy from the Christian Religion by any particular vicious Practice Whosoever lives in the habitual practice of any Sin plainly forbidden by the Christian Law may be said so far to have apostatized from Christianity but this is not the falling away which the Apostle here speaks of This may be bad enough and the greater Sins any Man who professeth himself a Christian lives