they come from God I might have urged completion of Prophecies to prove the same First those in the Old Testament of the Messiah which so eminently came to passe in Christ that they sufficiently clear those Books to be Divine Next Christ's predictions in the New particularly those about Jerusalem which saith Eusebius He that will compare with what Josephus an eye-witnesse and no Christian writes of it or what our selves know of that Nation and that place indeed he must acknowledge the Divinity of his words But enough hath been said to prove they come from God and therefore we must so receive them as the Word of God with perfect resignation of our Souls and submission of our judgments denying every apprehension that would start aside from and not captivate it self to that prime truth which cannot be deceived nor lye and renounce all discourses Reason offers that resist such abnegation of it self and all our other faculties that is receive this Word of the Kingdom as a little Child I do not here affirm by saying this that our Religion does disdain or keep at distance from the services of any of Mans faculties for it sometimes admits them not as Ministers only but as Judges 'T is plain the senses were the first I do not say conveyance onely but Foundation of Faith which was built on the first Believers eyes and ears they heard the Doctrine saw the Miracles were sure they saw and heard them and so supposing the signs sufficient to confirm the Doctrine to have come from God were certain of their truth without any Authority of a Church to influence that faith into divine And S. John therefore does not onely call in and admit and urge their testimony That which we have heard which we have seen with our Eyes which we have looks upon and our hands have handled of the Word of Life that declare we unto you But our Saviour in the highest point of Faith appeals directly to their Judgment Reach hither thy finger and behold my hands and reach hither thy hand and thrust it into my side and be not faithlesse but believing And S. Austin also gives them the decision of a point of Doctrine which of all others now troubles the Church most for speaking of the Eucharist he sayes that which you see is Bread and 't is a Cup it is that very thing which your eyes tell you ' t is Tertullian also long before that had appealed to them in that very cause And in an instance where their sentence passes 't is not strange if Reason also take the Chair and do pretend to Judge And truly when the Scripture that does call those Elements Christs Body and his Blood does also call them after Consecration Bread and Wine and since they must be called one of them by a figure for they cannot be in Substance both and since that Scripture hath not told us where the Figure lyes hath not expresly said 't is this but in resemblance that in Substance Here if Reason that hath Principles by which to judge of Bodies which are expos'd to all the notices and trials of our several faculties and to which a Trope is not a stranger it can judge of figurative speeches when it therefore finds if it admit the figure in that form This is my Body 'T is but just the same which was in the Jews Sacrament the Paschal Lamb which they call'd the Body of the Passever though it were but the memorial a figure which was alwayes usual in Sacraments and is indeed essential to Sacraments And which is used in all things that are given by exhibitive signs But if it should resolve it to be Bread Wine onely in a figure besides a most impossible acknowledged Consequence that a man can be nourisht by them which the Romamsts dare not deny nor yet dare grant that men can feed upon a trope be nourish't with a figure besides this if Reason shall resolve that it must judge against all Rules it hath of judging by and judge in contradiction to known Principles and trample on all Laws of sense and understanding which especially when the Scripture hath no where defined expresly must be most unreasonable yea most impossible to judge that true that is to say believe that thing which it sees is most irreconcileable with known truths Here therefore Reason is not insolent if it give verdict by its proper evidences men are not bound to swallow contradictions as they do the Wafer or receive as a little Child that discerns the Lords Body no more then it does the repugnancies that are consequent to their Hypothesis concerning it Or to make another instance when the Scripture says God is a Spirit yet does also give him hands and eyes and ears and wings and these of strange prodigious dimensions neither tells us which of these is proper and which figure Here if Reason that can prove God cannot be a Body and cannot endure his God should be a monster shall be called in to passe sentence they that make Philosophy interpret Holy Writ in this case and give the last resort to Reason do no more usurp or trespasse on Religion then they that make use of Authours or a Dictionary judge of the sense of any Greek or Hebrew word in Scripture But notwithstanding this we may not think the mysteries of Faith are to be measured by the Rules of natural Reason so to stand or fall as they approve themselves to its discourse or Principles For though it be impossible that any Revelation can contradict right Reason truth cannot be inconsistent with truth yet it is very possible God can reveal those truths which we have neither faculties analogal nor principles or notions proportioned to nor any natural wayes of judging or examining And if those faculties which are not capable of cognisance will judge and judge of things removed from all our notices such as Spiritual Infinite Eternal being is and do it by principles gathered from the information of our Senses and by analogy with things of another kind corporeal finite things that are about us reason need not be informed how liable such judgments must be to mistakes and how that which we call repugnancy in one may have no place in the other Here therefore to submit our understandings and believe is but modest justice and to receive as Children what our Heavenly Father sayes And therefore they that will presume to comprehend whatere they are commanded to believe and those that will believe nothing but what they are able to comprehend are alike insolent if not pernicious T is true God by the Gospel hath revealed and brought to light many things which before appeared onely as he himself did in the Temple in a Cloud namely concerning the Divine nature Persons Properties and the Eternal being and the Incarnation of his Son but still as God himself is said to do these also dwell in Light that no man can approach unto Which he that will
all diligence exprest by words that import all strife imaginable as Running Wrestling Fighting Warring And persevere also by patient continuance in well doing Rom. 2. 7. and he hath nothing else but vengeance for all others 2 Thes. 1. 8. and we have neither Christ nor Gospel nor Religion but with these terms But I shall wave all this and bound my self within the present words Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his Life for his Friends Ye are my Friends if ye do what I command you When Christ is boasting of his love making comparisons and vying friendships with mankind nay more contriving heights and depths of Mercy such as Man hath no comprehension nor fathom for when he was preparing to do an act of compassion almost equal to his Divinity when he had resolutions of so much kindness as to give his life that he might shew kindness Yet could he not then find in his heart to offer or declare one jot of kindness to the men that will not do what he commands but in the midst of such agonies of compassion he thought of nothing but infinite indignation and eternal vengeance to the disobedient I have but now given my Body and my Blood even to the Traitor Judas to one who is a Devil I am going to give my life even for my Enemies for the World But I will give no love to any have no friendship with any but the virtuous no though they be my own Disciples ye are my Friends ye my companions and Apostles are my Friends onely on this condition if ye do what I command you And then is it not matter of Astonishment to see men fancy they have a right in all Christ's Actions and Sufferings presume upon his favour and their own happy condition though they do nothing or but very little towards this and the main of their life be disobedience as if all Christ's commands appointed them to do no commands and Christianity were but a liberty from virtue To pass by those that do nothing but Evil that which the Devil does suggest or their flesh dictate and to consider the Demurer sort of Christians that pretend a respect to Christ and to Religion and see what they will do Why sometimes you may find them troubled at their vices and themselves and those troubles breath out in Sighs and in warm wishes that they could do that which Christ prescribes to will is sometimes strongly present with them but to perform they know not how Alas Christ does not tell you that you are his Friends if you wish well to him and his Commands but he requires that you shall do them These are but vapours of a troubled Soul which howsoever they may chance rise warm catch a strong suddain heat breath up in flashing thoughts They are but meteors little shooting flames that onely do catch fire and fall and dye shew fair but they warm nothing And so these thoughts do never heat the heart into Devotions and holy resolutions the fire is not strong nor does it live enough to melt and work away the filthinesses of the Soul No though they grow to aversations For you may find such men when wearied with the pursuite of their sins hating their customes and the engagements to the practise of them complaining thus I know 't is ill and 't is against my heart that I obey the motions of my passions or Lusts The incitations of my Appetite the usance of the World the obligations of civility or mistaken honour do indeed prevail upon me but 't is with great reluctancy of mind that I yeild to them but I cannot avoid it There are not few that satisfie themselves with this condition Now sure Christ does not say Ye cannot be my Friends except you sin against me and against your Knowledge and your Conscience too 'T is strange that men should think the Heathen instance of a Witch that cryed Video meliora proboque Deteriora sequor I know and do approve of better things but cannot choose but follow these that are the worser strange that this Fury that had the Devil for Familiar should make Christ a friend that this should be the state of Gospel Saints and of Gods favourites 'T is possible some therefore go yet further to good purposes towards Obedience and have holy Intentions but this is not sufficient neither if to do his Commands be necessary for to purpose and intend to do them is not certainly to do them Yet where are any that do aim at doing any more and there is none of these but does presume upon his interest in Christ and satisfies himself and is secure Yet is it hard to find a ground of this their confidence unlesse it rise from the unhappy use they make of Gods preserving Mercies and his kindness to them in the concernments of this life They see without their cares and upon very weak intreaties indeed against all provocations both of God and danger yet his protections secure them although they neither mind the asking them nor mind the walking worthy of them The man whose Sins not Prayers prepare him for his Bed he sleeps well perhaps more soundly than he who at his Bedside throws himself on his face into Gods arms and there bequeaths himself to the Securities of the Almighty And he whose Sleeps onely refresh him for returns to Sin does often live as long as safely and as merrily as he that daily most Religiously does beg Protections from above And others that afford the Lord some little homages themselves some Prayers when their pleasures or occasions permit God hath a care of them and their desires flow into them all does succeed well with them Now they take confidence hence to conclude these are the tokens of Gods friendship and all his mercies will come in at the like easie rates that such a short petition as committed them to the refreshments of the night and after which they wak't into renewed strengths and pleasures such another shall lay them down in safety to the sleeps of that long night that afterwards will break in happy Resurrection For why God will not sure fail his own mercies but be as friendly to their Souls as he is to their Bodies And thus God's Preservations here in meer defiance of our provocations which are the arts of his long suffering his strivings of Compassion meerly to give us opportunities of being reconciled to him and to invite us to be so while we make them occasions of carelesness and security they are so far from being pledges of his Friendship that they have all the aggravations of affronted goodnesse become temptations and degrees of Ruin 'T were fine indeed if Christ's eternal preparations for his Friends would come in to us without care or doing any thing as an accession to our pleasures if when we had lived many years as in a Garden our dayes all flower'd with delight we might expire into
by early engagements tyed themselves to the observation of its duties if principles of probity in Nature fomented by others instil'd with Education have made impressions of duty on the mind and wrought a reverence and awe of God and of Religion which is a fence about them and does keep off Vice by making it seem strange uncouth and difficult while these fears and aversations are rooted in them why then the first thing that they do as soon as Youth and the Temptations do stir within them is to poyson these their own Principles by evil Conversation and from that and Example take infusions which shall impregnate them with humours of being in the fashion of the World Thus they labour to strangle the then troublesome modesties of Nature and of Virtuous breeding thus they look out ill Company to infect themselves And surely they that seek the Plague and run into infection we have cause to fear they have a Resolution to dye But Secondly If notwithstanding this in the first practises of Vice their former Principles stir and ferment within and fret the Conscience set that on working why then if the sin sting gently do but prick the heart and make an out-let for a little gush of Sorrow then in spight of Scripture they do teach themselves to think that grief Repentance and by the help of that conceit this sorrow cools and doth allay the swelling of the mind washes away the guilt and thought of the commission they have been sad and they believe repented as if those stings opened the fountain for transgression and those little wounds did flow with Balsom for themselves And by this means that sting of the old Serpent fin while it pretends to cure by hurting thus proves indeed the Tempter to go on For if this be all why should a man renounce all the Contents and satisfactions of his Inclinations and mortifie and break his nature to avoid a thing which is so easily repented for No if it be no worse they can receive this Serpent in their bosome dare meet his sting and run upon these wounds and they do so till the frequent pungencies and cicatrices have made the Conscience callous and insensible the heart hardned But if their first essays of sin were made unfortunate by Notoreitie or some unhappy circumstance and so the wound were deep and the Conscience troublesome and restlesse because this is very uneasie these inward groans make discord in their cheerful aires make their life harsh they therefore find it necessary to confront the shame with Courage of iniquity go boldly on that so they may outlook it sear their own Conscience that its wounds may not bleed And as those Fiends of Men who Sacrific'd their Children in the fire to Moloch that they might not hear their Infants shreek nor their own Bowels croke had noyses made with Timbrels to out-voice them So these to drown the cryes and howlings of their wounded mind put themselves in perpetual hurry of divertisement and vice make Tophet about themselves and with the noyse of Ryots overcome all other because they will not hearken to those groans that call for the Physician of Souls and then sure these resolve to dye Nay if this will not keep them quiet you may see them sometimes ruffle with their own Consciences defie present Convictions in the very instant of Commission men so set on Death that they Condemn themselves in that which they allow And though a man would think there should be little satisfaction in those pleasures which Condemnation thrusts it self into and which have an alloy of so sad apprehensions yet such are it seems the satisfactions of sin For while it stabs and gashes He brave Hero of Iniquity can charge the wounds and take the Vice Yea Thirdly though the Lord himself appear and take part in the Quarrel joyn with our Principles and Conscience against the fin and with importunate calls alarm us give us no rest ordain a Function of men by whom he does beseech us dresses their Messages with Promises of that which God is blessed in and arms them too with Terrors such as Devils tremble at and joyns his Holy Spirit too that Power of the Highest sends him in Tongues of Fire that he also may Preach this to our very Hearts and fright us with more flame And yet the sinner breaks these strengths and vanquishes the Arts and strivings of Divine Compassion If these Embassadors speak Charms it is but what God tells our Prophet in this Chapter v. 32. And lo thou art unto them as a very lovely Song of one that hath a pleasant voyce and can play well on an Instrument And it does dye like that as it there follows They hear thy words but they do them not And if they flash in Hell against their vices in torrents of threatning Scripture they concern themselves no more than they would in the story of a new Eruption of Mount AEtna or Vesuvius Yea they do quench the Spirit and his fires do not like the deaf Adder stop their ears against his whisperings and the charms of Heaven that were a weaker and less valiant guilt but are Religious in hearing them curious that they may be spoke with all advantages to make it harder not to yield and live that so they may expresse more resolution to perish and with more courage and solemnity may sin and dye Nay more when God hath found an Art to draw themselves into a League and Combination against their vices bound them in Sacraments to Virtue made them enter a Covenant of Piety and seal it in the Blood of God and by that foederall Rite with hands lift up and seizing on Christ's Body and with holy Vows oblige themselves to the performances or to the Threats of Gospel which they see executed in that Sacrament before their eyes see there death is the wages of iniquity they shew themselves its damned consequences while they behold it tear Christ's Body spill his Blood and Crucifie the Son of God yet neither will this frightful spectacle nor their own ties hold them from sin and ruine they break these bonds asunder to get at them The Wiseman sayes that wicked men seek death and make a Covenant with it and so it seems But sure they are strange wilful men that seek it at Gods Table in the Bread of Life that will wade through an Ocean of mercy to get at Perdition and find it in the Blood of Christ will drink Damnation in the Cup of Blessing men that poyson Salvation to themselves They that contract thus for Destruction and tye it to them at the Altar with such sacred Rites and Articles are sure resolv'd and love to dye Fourthly God had provided other Guards to secure men from sin and Death the Censures of the Church of which this Time was the great Season and the discipline of abstinence we now use is a piteous relique all that the world will bear it seems But as the
to be to him the same as Appetite to Tantalus that which he must not satsifie and is his hell 'T is easie if the lust be got no further than the Eye to pull them out together but if through that it shoot into the Blood and Spirits mix heats with those if it enwrap the heart twist with its strings and warm the Soul with its desires so that it Spirit all the motions all the thoughts and wishes of the heart when it is thus to make the heart to stifle its own motions stab its thoughts and strangle all its wishes to untwist and disentangle and to tear it thence if this be to be Circumcised with the Circumcision of Christ and he that hath not the sign of this the Seal of the New Covenant as he that in the Old had not the other was must be cut off our long habituated hardned Sinners must not think that there is any thing of true Repentance in their easie perfunctory sleight performances there is something like Death in the Duty which yet is required of us farther under variety of more severe expressions for we are bid thirdly to slay the Body of Sin Rom. 6. 6. to mortifie our members Col. 3. 5. and to crucyfie Gal. 6. 14. which how it may be done the next consideration of S. Pauls condition in the Text and my next part declare I am Crucified with Christ that is first as he was by being made conformable to his Death And truly should we trace him through all the stages of his Passion we should hardly find one passage but is made to be transcribed by us in dealing with our sins First he began it with Agony when his Soul was exceeding heavy for it labour'd with such weight of indignation as did make the Son of God to sink under the meer apprehension And he was sorrowful unto Death so as that his whole body did weep blood The Sinners passion his Repentance is exactly like it it begins alwayes with grief and sense of weight whoever is regenerate was conceiv'd in sorrow and brought forth with pangs and the Child of God too is born weeping And for loads the Church when she does call us to shew forth this Death of Christ as if she did prescribe that very Agony requires that we should find that Garden at the Altar makes us say we are heartily sorry for our misdoings the remembrance of them is grievous unto us the burden of them is intollerable So that the Sinner's Soul must be exceeding heavy too Secondly There he is betrayed by his own domestick sold for the poorest price imaginable as a Slave for thirty pieces of silver I shall not mind you what unworthy things the love of Money does engage men to to sell a Christ a Saviour and a God! and rather than stand out at such a base rate as we scorn to buy a sin at every single act 's engagement to Damnation costs more than the Ransom of the world is sold for and the Blood of God is purchas'd cheaper than any one opportunity of vice does stand us in But I onely mind you here that he shall have a better hire that will but be a Judas to his own iniquities do but betray thy Regent sins deliver them up and thou shalt have everlasting Heaven Thirdly we find him next carryed before the High Priest And the strictest times of Christianity would serve their sins so to receive his doom upon them to be excommunicated into reformation But I shall not urge how we can discover to a Physician our shames all our most putrid guilts as well as Ulcers and make him our Confessor in our most secret sins neither will I be inquisitive why the Physicians of our souls are balk'd but will passe this part of the Conformity and follow Christ to Pontins Pilate And for this part we our selves are Fitted the whole furniture of a Judicial Court all that makes up both Bench and Barr is born within us God hath given us a Conscience whereby we are a Law to our selves Rom. 2. We have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Jews did want such evidence as is sufficient to condemn us the same Conscience that is privy to our doings and stands by our thoughts and sees through our intentions is a thousand witnesses And that there may be a Prosecutor our own thoughts accuse us saith S. Paul and if we will give them way will aggravate each Circumstance of guilt and danger bark and howl and cry as loud against us as the Jews did against Christ for Sin is of so murthering a guilt it will be sure to slay it self and that he may not want his deserved Ruin the Sinner makes his own Indictement yea and his own Sentence too for our own heart condemns us saith S. John And when ever it does so Oh that we would follow it through all the gradations that brought Christ to Death and use our wickednesse as he was us'd strip it from its Cloaths bare it from its fair pretexts it useth to be drest in Lay our anger naked from all those excuses which our provocations that either wrath or humour will be sure to think intollerable do make for it strip our pride and vanity from those paints and dresses which the Custome of the Age that does require and warrant strange things dawbs the sin with use our Luxuries and Intemperances so and the other greater and more thirsty dropsie that of Wealth and of unjust unworthy gains which there are richer Luxuries in too And there are none of these but have their pleas their colours which they set themselves out in to please the Appetite and to deceive the Mind all which we must strip off and then when we have laid them naked spit upon them vomit all our spleen and contumelious despite at that which hath made us so ugly in Gods sight scourge it with Austerities and buffet it as they did Christ and S. Paul did himself 1 Cor. 19. 27. And when the Body of Sin is thus tamed and weakened it will be easie then to lead it out and crucifie it A Crucifiction this that does make our Good-Friday be a day of Expiation and Atonement to us A sight which next to that of his own Son upon the Crosse is the most acceptable to the Lord when he does see us execute his Enemies although they be our selves and Crucifie the dear Affections of our bosome as God did This is indeed to be conform'd unto the death of Christ. If I might have leave to go before you and to let you into the Example draw the Curtain from before the Passion I would call my Sins out drag them to behold that prospect hale them into the Garden shew them how he was us'd there You my Extravagancies of my youth my mad follies and wild jollities come see my Saviour yonder how he swoons when guilt began to make approaches towards him and can I make my self merry with nothing
Revenge or Interest and that warm shine that kindles there pretended Angels of Light is but a flash of Hell a glory about a fiend Therefore afterwards none was more forward than S. Peter was to presse submission to the Magistrate though most unjustly persecuting for Religion talks of no Fire but the fiery trial then in Epist. 1. Cap. 4. and If ye suffer for the Name of Christ the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you he knows what manner of Spirit such are of When they are in the place of Dragons then the Holy Ghost and God is with them when the darknesse of the shadow of death is on their Souls even then the Spirit of glory resteth on them Accordingly the after-Fathers urge the same not onely towards Heathen Emperours but relapst Hereticks and Apostates As Julian and Constantius Valens Valentinian and upon the same account S. Ambrose sayes Spiritus Sanctus id locutus est in vobis Rogamus Auguste non Pugnamus The Holy Spirit spake these words in you we beg O Valentinian we oppose not And S. Greg. Nazianzen sayes to do so was the Christian Law most excellently ordained by the Spirit of God who knew best to temper his Law with the mixture of what is profitable to us and honest in it self They knew what manner of Spirit that of Christianity was It does assume no power to inflict it self 'T is not commission'd to plant it self with violence or destroy those that refuse or oppose it It wages War indeed with vices not with men And in the Camp of our Religion as once in Israel there is no Sword found but with Saul and Jonathan his Son only the Princes Sword Our Spirit is the Dove no Bird of prey that nor indeed of gall or passion If Christian Religion be to be writ in Blood 't is in that of its own confessors only if mens false Opinions make no parties nor mischiess in the State we are not to make them Martyrs to their false opinions and if they be not so happy as to be Orthodox send them down to Hell directly tear out one anothers Souls to tear out that which we think an error Sure they must not root out smutted Corn that must not root out Poppy we may let that which is a little blasted grow if we must let the Tares and Darnel grow The Souldiers would not crucifie Christ's Coat nor make a rent there where they could find no seame But now men strive so for the Coat that they do rent his Flesh to catch it and to gain an inclosure of the name of Christians tear all other members from the Body of Christ care not to sacrifice a Nation to a supposed Error will attempt to purge away what they call drosse in a Furnace of consuming flame The Christian Spirit 's fiery tongues must kindle no such heats but his effusions call'd Rivers came to quench such fires Effusions that were mistaken for new wine indeed but never lookt like Blood Nor are they that retain to this Spirit those that have him call'd down on them in their Consecration impowered for such uses When Christ sent his Disciples to convert the World Behold saith he I send you forth as Lambs among Wolves And sure that does not sound like giving a Commission to tear and worry those that would not come into the Flock The Sheep were not by that impowered to devour the Wolves Our Lords directions to his Apostles when a City would not receive their Doctrine was shake off the dust of your feet let nothing of theirs cleave to you have no more to do with them cast off the very dust that setled on your Sandals as you past their Streets And surely then we must be far from animating to give ruine to and seize the Sword the Scepter and the Thrones of Kings if they refuse to receive Christ or his Kingdom or his Reformation or his Vicar If I must not have the dust of any such upon my feet I must not have their Land in my possession their Crowns on my head their Wealth in my Coffers their Blood upon my hands nor their Souls upon my Sword It will be ill appearing so when we come to give an account how we have executed our Commission and shall be askt did I send you to inflict the Crosse or preach it to save mens Souls or to destroy their lives yea and Souls too And when in those Myriads of Souls that have perisht in the desolations which such occasions have wrought their Blood shall cry from under the Altar as being sacrific'd to that duty and Religion which was the utmost that they understood it so be that there were no Treason to discolour it and they that did inflict all this appear but Christian Dioclesians and stand at that sad day in the train of the Persecutions on the same hand O then those Fires which these Boutefeus called for and kindled shall blaze out into everlasting burnings And now it may seem strange that they who most of all pretend the Spirit of Christ are yet of the most distant temper in the world from that of Gospel alwayes endeavouring to do that which our Saviour here checks his Disciples for proposing and did threaten Peter for attempting There are among ourselves that seem to live by Inspiration that look and speak as in the frame of the Gospel as if every motion were impulse from Heaven and yet as if Christ had fulfilled his promise to them without metaphor baptized them with the Holy Ghost and fire only that they might kindle fire and the unction of the Spirit did but add oyl to those flames as if the cloven Tongues of fire in which the Spirit did descend were made to be the Emblems of Division and to call for fire these mens life their garb their very piety is faction they pray rebell and murder and all by the Spirit 'T is true indeed they plead now what we seem to say that they should not be persecuted for not being satisfied in their Conscience so they mince their breaking of the Laws for which they suffer But do these know themselves what manner of Spirit they are of or are we bound not to remember when they had the Power how they persecuted all that would not do at once against their King their Conscience and the Law And we do thus far know what Spirit they are of that if they have not yet repented of all that then it is plain if they can get an opportunity they will do it all again nay they must by their Spirit think themselves obliged to do it But these are not all those that above all the World pretend to the Infallible assistance of the Spirit our Church is bold in her offices of this day to say do turn Religion into Rebellion she said it more severely heretofore and the attempts of this day warrant the saying when not
in the acknowledgments of one of their own tribe who in the anguish of his Torments does confesse this of them from his own experience But worse things will appear when we have seen that God hath done all this to us with more advantage than this man in Hell did think sufficient or indeed desire which was my next undertaking and I shall manage it in the same order First If one went unto them from the dead sayes he they will Repent And now to answer that Christ is come from the dead an Article this is that made its way through all the Swords and all the Racks and torturing Engines that the powerful witty malice of a whole World could find out and execute And shall it find its death among the softs and glories of its own victorious profession when it was instant Ruine to acknowledge the belief of it then myriads ran into the flames at once to own and to partake Christs Resurrection but now they that professe it are so well here in this Life that in defiance of their own profession they will not think there is another Life It is not out of Principle they doubt as it were easie to demonstrate but out of improbity They have an aversion to severe Piety and are uneasie under any thing that does engage to it and must therefore work themselves out and here they storm Unkind men to themselves not onely in imprudence who adventure all upon such hazards but in disparaging themselves who being men of reason and that set it up to such an height as to make it contend with God and dispute out his Power of raising them again yet can think such a reasoning Soul was given them for no other end but to procure for and to animate the organs of their sensuality But this is dasht if Christ be risen because His Resurrection did make Faith that he would Judge the World in Righteousnesse on purpose to make them Repent Acts 17. 30 31. So that this his first expectation is most fully answered to us But Secondly if Lazarus would go one out of Abraham's Bosom then they would Repent And hath there not a greater than Lazarus been with us one not out of Abraham's but Gods Bosom even the Son of his Bosom one that himself prepar'd those Joyes for them that would believe him and obey him one that from all Eternity enjoy'd them in the Bosom of the Divinity And who could better reveal them to us than the Authour and the God of them who knew them more than he that did create them and possess them Yea when this Son of God would be Incarnate and take Flesh and was to carry it through all the Miseries that Sin deserv'd and God's Wrath could inflict he thought these Joyes encouragement enough to do it willingly these Pleasures were worth agonies which none but a God could suffer Heb. 12. 2. Now sure he that prepar'd these Joyes did understand them and he that is the Word of God knew best how to reveal them too And now how poor a wish was that of our Rich man Let Lazarus go tell them why a Person of the Trinity hath told us indeed how could God do more than come himself to reveal the truth of them and himself dy for them to reveal the greatness of them Good God! that no body could serve thy turn to tell us of the pleasures of thy Bosom but the Son of thy Bosom that thou shouldst think it worth an Incarnation to reveal them and we not think it worth a little Reformation to have them that he should part with Blood and give his Life for those Joyes and we not be content to forsake a Custom to give away the pleasures of a Lust the neither pleasures nor profits of an Oath the sick delights of an Excesse nor the vexations of a Passion in exchange for them what will Hell say to us when one there said if Lazarus will go they will repent If Lazarus Thirdly one that saw me in Hell and so can testifie the Torments of this place yet God hath out-done this too Our Creede will tell us who descended into Hell and the Psalmist saying concerning him God should not leave his Soul in Hell S. Austin asks Quis ergo nisi infidelis negaverit fuisse Christum apud inferos 'T were easie for me to produce enough besides that say so Clem. Alex. Origen Hier. Greg. Naz. Fulgent Euseb. Emissenus Caesarius Anastas Jobius Damascenus Oecumenius c. But because we are not agreed what he did there I 'll take a surer medium That no Lazarus can decipher the condition of a Sinner after the pleasures of his iniquity have left him to the recompences of it so well as Christ who not onely did prepare the Plagues and therefore can describe them but also himself bore the pains and found a few hours bearing them to be too heavy for him is most evident His Agonies will give you a relation beyond the skill of Lazarus that saw the Torments or of all that suffer them Look but into the Garden and see if you do not behold there a more dismal Landshape than that which Lazarus had beyond the Gulf and was desir'd to give account of there you shall find Christ at the first approaches saying my soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death Mat. 26. 38. As if the only apprehension of his sufferings had inflicted them and he could not live under the thoughts of them and then he went a little farther and fell upon his face and prays saying O my Father if it be possible let this Cup passe from me And what was there in this Cup which so empoyson'd it as to make it dreadful to the Son of God Oh 't is the Sinners potion that he must swill to everlastingness and when he was in this condition there oppeared an Angel from Heaven strengthning him Luc. 22. 43. yet v. the 44. we find him still in an Agony Angels cannot comfort one that is sensible of the guilt of sin upon him and he prays more earnestly in that same place Abba Father all things are possible with thee take away this Cup from me He does not leave an Attribute unattempted he does adore the Majesty for he falls upon his Face and Prayes A Person of the Trinity prostrated in the dust to deprecate those pains he wooes him to it Abba Father canst thou deny thy well-beloved onely begotten Son thy Son that is thy self when he comes to thee with such tender compellations of kindness with words of so much bowells Abba Father he takes hold too of his Omnipotence all things are possible with thee and he does it with all the earnestnesse possible to such a person for saith S. Luke there he does it more earnestly and his sweat was as it were great drops of Blood falling to the ground and what Agony is there in the torment when there is agony in the deprecation of them such a passion could not be prayed
severe a shape and gives the lineaments of so fierce displeasures against sin as do exceed all comprehension There was a passion in Christs Prayer to prevent his passion when he deprecated it with strong cryes and tears yea when his whole body wept tears as of blood to deprecate it and yet he cryed more dreadfully when he did suffer it The nayles that bor'd his hands the spear that pierc't his heart and made out-letts for his blood and Spirits did not wound him as that sting of death and torments sin did which made out-lets for God to forsake him and which drove away the Lord that was himself out of him Neither did his God forsake him onely but his most Almighty attributes were engag'd against him Gods Holinesse and Justice were resolv'd to make Christ an example of the sad demerit of Iniquity and his hatred of it Demerit so great as was valuable with the everlasting punishment of the World fal'n Angels and fal'n Men for to that did it make them lyable Now that God might appear to hate it at the rate of its deservings it was very necessary that it should be punisht if not by the execution of that sentence on Mankind as on the Devils yet by something that might be proportionable to it so to let us see the measures God abhors it by to what degrees the Lord is just and holy by those torments torments answerable to those attributes Now truly when we do reflect on this we cannot wonder if the Sinner be an enemy to the Crosse and hate the prospect of it which does give him such a perfect copy of his expectations when our Saviours draught which he so trembled at shall be the everlasting portion of his Cup For if God did so plague the imputation of Iniquity how will he torment the willful and impenitent commission of it But then when we consider those torments were the satisfaction for the sins of man methinks the sinner should be otherwise affected to them Christ by bearing the Cross gave God such satisfaction as did move him in consideration thereof to dispence with that strict Law which having broken we were forfeit to eternal death and to publish an act of grace whereby he does admit all to pardon of sins past and to a right to everlasting Life that will believe on him for sake their sins and live true Christians He there appears the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the World for that he does as being a Lamb slain then he was our Sacrifice and that Crosse the Altar And the humbled sinner that repents for notwithstanding satisfaction God will not acept a Sinner that goes on by all those Agonies his holynesse would not be justifyed if when he had forsaken and tormented his own Son for taking sin upon him he should yet receive into his favour and his Heaven sinners that will not let go but will retain their sins but the penitent may plead this expiation Lo here I poor Soul prostrate at the footstool of the Crosse lay hold upon the Altar here 's my Sacrifice on which my sins are to be charg'd and not on me although so foul I am I cannot pour out tears sufficient to cleanse me yet behold Lord and see if there ever were any Sorrow like the sorrow of thy Son wherewith thou didst afflict him for these sins of mine And here is Blood also his Blood to wash me in and that Blood is within the Vaile too now and that my offering taken from the Crosse up to thy Throne thou hast accepted it and canst not refuse it now my Advocate does plead it and claims for me the advantage of the Crosse. Now that men should be Enemies to this and when they are forseit to eternal Ruine hate that which is to redeem the forfeiture that they should trample on the Crosse whereon their satisfactions were wrought tread down the Altar which they have but to lay hold on and be safe wage war with beat off and pursue a Lamb that Lamb of God that comes to take away their sins and make a spoyl and slaughter of their Sacrifice hostilely spill upon the ground that Blood that was appoynted for their Blood upon the Altar for their blood of sprinkling and was to appear in Heaven for them It men resolve to be on terms of Duell with their God and scorn that Satisfaction shall be made for them by any other way than by defiance and although their God do make the satisfactions for them to himself yet not endure it but choose quarrel rather this is so perverse and fatal an hostility as no tears are sufficient to bewail But possibly men sleight these satisfactions because some terms are put upon them which they know not how to comport with the merits of the Crosse must not be accounted to them but upon conditions which they are not able to perform they are required to master all their wicked Customes their untam'd appetites and settled habits to keep under their Concupiscence to calm their inclinations and their passions Now on such severe articles friendship with the Crosse they think is too hard bought But therefore Secondly that Crosse was the consideration upon which Grace is offer'd us whereby we are enabled to perform all this the power to will and strength to do all necessary aids from Heaven are granted to us as Christ merited them for us by his Sufferings and that Blood he shed upon the Crosse it is the Fountain 't is the Ocean of all grace And if temptations storm thee lay hold on that Crosse it is the Anchor of Salvation thou hast hold on tell thy God although thou art not able to resist and stand thou hast the price of strength that which did purchase it was paid down for thee on the Crosse and is at his right hand he hath it give me therefore grace for it let me have the value of that Blood the Blood of God in spiritual succours which may make me able to resist thy Enemies and do thy will Now God will never be unjust to deny any man those aids that were so dearly purchast for him and for which he hath receiv'd the price And then that men should be Enemies of the Crosse which is their Magazine of strength against their Enemies As men that do resist the having grace least it should change their inclinations as men that will not be impowered against Vice but will oppose the Aids of Heaven fight against the succours that are given them and destroy their own forces least with them they should be able to encounter sin and overcome it Thus wilfully to run against and charge their Anchor of Salvation to poyson to themselves the Fountain the whole Ocean of their graces is the state of them onely that do resolve and that had rather perish Once more on that Crosse was wrought a reconciliation betwixt God and Man and that upon such terms of honour to us Men