by his Enemies into extreme danger of Death which he commonly expresseth by the same or the like words as Psal. XVIII 4. The sorrows of death compassed me and Verse 5. The sorrows of hell compassed me about and Psal. CXVI 3. The sorrows of death compassed me the pains of Hell gat hold upon me Yet trusting in the Promises of God amidst all these Calamities he rested assured of Deliverance and expresseth his Confidence of it in the words cited by the Apostle in the following Verses My flesh shall rest in hope because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see Corruption It was a Matter at that time received and on all hands granted by the Jews that David was a Type of the Messias that his Actions Sufferings and Deliverance prefigured the Office the Death and Resurrection of Christ who should descend from him and particularly the Apostle sheweth how this Passage was much more evidently and literally fulfilled in Christ than in David He indeed was delivered from his Enemies and died in Peace yet die he did and after Death his soul was left in hell that is among the Dead or in the place of departed Souls and his Body did see Corruption having been buried many hundred years But as for Christ he died indeed yet his soul was not left in hell neither did his Body see Corruption His Soul was presently reunited to the Body and even during the Separation not left by the Divine Nature which still continued to be joyned to it neither was his Body corrupted but raised up and united to the Soul in less than forty hours in which time the Bodies of deceased Men are wont to be corrupted According to the second Interpretation Christ was raised from a painful Death to an opposite State to a condition of Glory Happiness Power and Immortality The Sufferings of our Lord so lively described to us in the Holy Offices of the last week we cannot forget and over all these he eminently triumphed in his Resurrection upon this day He was then made subject to Death but is now become the Lord of life and set above the reach of Death For Christ being raised from the Dead dieth no more Death hath no more Dominion over him Rom. VI. 9. He then bore the wrath of God for the sake of Man He now dispenseth the Favours of God granted to Men. He was then subjected to the Contradiction of Sinners to the Will of his own Creatures appeared as the vilest of Men suffered as a Malefactor he is now entred upon his Kingdom raised above the Earth seated at the right hand of God Angels and Authorities and Powers being made subject unto him 1 Pet. III. 22. The words explained in their third Sense infer the overthrow of the Power and Dominion of Death effected by the Resurrection of Christ. The whole Design of our Lords Incarnation of his Death Burial and Resurrection was as it is expressed Hebr. II. 14. That he might destroy him that had the power of Death that is the Devil To do this all the parts of his Life contributed He converted Sinners from the Error of their way He confuted the Mistakes of the seduced World He founded a Church wherein open Enmity should be professed to the Devil He took upon himself the guilt of Death due to the sins of Men and all this Dispensation he gloriously finished in his Resurrection Therein he literally broke the bonds of Death he led Captivity Captive baffled the opposition and triumphed over all the Assaults of the Devil who had vainly imagined that by procuring the ever Blessed Jesus to be given up into the hands of wicked Men he had put an end to the Salvation of Mankind But to our eternal Happiness and to the Glory of our Redeemer his Designs and Attempts promoted that very end which he so much dreaded he knew not that it was the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God as it is in the precedent Verse that Christ should both die and rise again to perfect our Salvation that he was for a while to be subject to Death but that it was impossible he should be holden of it III. This was the third thing proposed to Discourse of that it was not possible that Christ should continue in the state of Death The Apostle foundeth the impossibility of it in this place upon the Determination of God to the contrary so that here it was not possible is no more than it was not Consonant to the decree of God it was not fit just or convenient as it is said Matth. IX It is not possible for the Children of the Bride-Chamber to mourn as long as the Bridegroom is with them that is it is not fit or convenient In this Sense then I shall consider it and 1. It was not possible or convenient that Christ should be holden of death because he was both God and Man the Divine was united to his Humane Nature It would have appeared surprizing to our Reason and been an Argument of little affection of God to Mankind if he should have suffered that very Body which had the Honour to be joyned to his own Nature wherein the fullness of the Godhead dwelled bodily to continue in Hell in the common state of Mortality or to see Corruption It was not possible that the Divinity should suffer that Nature to be corrupted or lye neglected among the Dead to which it self continued to be united even in the Grave This we of the Catholick Church do believe and if any should oppose this wonderful Union of the Divine and Humane Nature in the person of Christ his very Resurrection will convince their Error For to raise a dead Body to Life again must be allowed to be no less than the work of Omnipotence that it can be effected by God alone Yet it appeareth from the express words of Scripture that Christ had Power to raise up his own Body He saith of himself to the Jews John II. 19. Destroy this Temple and in three days I will raise it up Speaking of the Temple of his Body as the Evangelist subjoyns And again John X. 18. No Man taketh my Life from me but I lay it down of my self I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again Our Lord who came into the World to do the Will of his Father and to glorifie him would never have claimed this Power had it not been inherent in himself He therefore by his own Power reunited his Soul to his Body I mean not in Exclusion to the other persons of the Blessed Trinity who all concurred therein For Power being an essential Attribute of the Divine Nature continueth undivided in the Persons of it And therefore it is no Objection against the Truth of this that the Father is said in many places of the New Testament to have raised up his Son since he is the chief Person in that Blessed Trinity
Divine Power our Lord had exercised among the Jews for three years together and that not in private in a corner among his own Followers but in all the great Cities of that Nation in the Presence of multitudes in their Streets and Synagogues before the Scribes and Pharisees the most Learned and discerning Men among them in the solemn Festivals and Concourse of the Jews at Jerusalem where every Male was bound to appear three times a year before the Lord and where Christ never failed to be present and to declare his Mission by Miracles and by Oral teaching So that it is not improbable but that every Male of Judea arrived to Man's Estate had at the time of his Death personally seen some Miracle wrought by him Even at his Death such manifest Indications of his Divinity appeared that an unprejudiced Heathen the Roman Centurion who guarded his Cross could not forbear to confess that he was the Son of God that is in the Language of the Heathens a Divine Person Yet notwithstanding all these Proofs and Miracles it was found that the Jews retained their Infidelity that far from being converted by them even while the Sense of them remained they did affront and revile him accused him of Combination with the Devil even while they saw him cast out Devils and were scandalized at his Doctrine even before they had digested the Bread wherewith he had miraculously fed them as we read Joh. VI. What then could be concluded from this whole Carriage of the Jews but that they were a People whom no Arguments could perswade no Miracles could affect who deserved no farther to be regarded by God and who would have treated the visible Resurrection of Christ with no less Contempt than they had done his former Miracles It is at first sight somewhat incredible indeed that Man endued with a rational Soul could possibly so far deprave his Reason as to withstand such powerful Arguments and deny the Truth set in so clear a Light And some have not failed hereupon to object to the whole History of the Life of Christ that it is impossible he should have wrought so many Miracles since had he done it it cannot be conceived that the Jews should disbelieve him and deny Assent to his Revelations But alas who can account for the Perverseness of the Will of Man or the Failures of his Understanding A little reflection upon our own Experience of humane Life will convince us how gross and to us unaccountable Errors many Men commit How often a Matter which seems most clear and evident to us when proposed to others cannot or will not be understood by them To recurr to more particular Examples this very Nation of the Jews continued stubborn incredulous and rebellious amidst all the Miracles which Moses wrought in the sight of them They murmured against him even while they subsisted by his miraculous Ministry and notwithstanding all the wonderful Benefits and Punishments of God daily visible to them for Forty years together often renounced their Allegiance to the true God Nor are they the former Ages only which have committed such prodigious Mistakes even in our own Age we have no less eminent Instances of unaccountable Corruption of understanding in some Men which because they are ordinary and common we cease to wonder at but in Truth had the Ancients by Revelation foreseen them they would have no less admired the Folly of subsequent Ages than we now do the Errors of precedent times To name only one now among many who could have then believed that in the latter times of the World there should exist a large Society of Men who should pretend to eat their God to devour his Body ten thousand times and yet retain it whole to divide it into as many parts every one of which should be equal to the whole and infinite other like Absurdities And yet this we know the Papists do Upon the whole it ought not to be concluded that because such a Perverseness of Will or Corruption of Judgment cannot be well conceived by us or seems incredible to us judging according to the Nature of the things themselves that therefore it is impossible Mankind should be ever Guilty of them For it doth appear that there is no Error so gross no Miscarriage so enormous which Man may not commit And that if the Jews had seen and handled the Body of Christ after his Resurrection it is more than possible that they who had rejected so many antecedent Proofs would have been insensible of this also but it is most certain that they were not worthy to whom such a Favour should be granted It remains That I speak to the third and last Consideration that notwithstanding our Lord vouchsafed not to the unbelieving World the visible Presence of his Body after his Resurrection yet that he hath by other Methods offered to Mankind sufficient Arguments of reasonable Conviction of the truth of it This was absolutely necessary not only in Relation of the rest of the World who had not seen his precedent Miracles but also in regard of his undertaking to the unbelieving Jews whom demanding a Sign from him he had referred to his Resurrection from the Dead after three days continuance in the Grave And this he hath effectually performed by the Testimony of unexceptionable Witnesses his Apostles and other Discliples who as they were well assured of the Truth of it themselves so they were fitted and enabled to testifie it to the World beyond all Contradiction They had seen and Familiarly conversed with their Lord after his Resurrection handled his Body clearly perceiv'd that a rational Soul was united to it and the Divinity to both as before his Resurrection They were afterwards enabled to testifie this to all Nations of the World by the gift of Tongues and to do it successfully by the Power of working Miracles not only conferred upon themselves but upon whomsoever they laid their hands for that Purpose They confirmed the Truth of their Testimony by voluntary laying down their Lives by undergoing all the Hardships of Life the Persecution of the Jews and the Contradiction of Heathen Philosophers all which none can be supposed to have been done without an inward Conviction of the Truth of what they Preached And if they were indeed so convinced it is impossible that in forming their Judgment of it they should have been mistaken Or if it can be imagined that any should be so Vain-glorious as to forego the Pleasures of Life and suffer a Death in defence of what they knew to be false yet are we not in this Case permitted to believe it by Reason of the many and wonderful Miracles wrought by them by the various Operations of the Holy Ghost working in them and communicated by them by which God himself gave a concurrent Testimony to the Resurrection of Christ preached by them and set to his Seal that what they taught and affirmed was true But of this Head I need add no
Opinion of his extraordinary Happiness Himself in order recounted his Dignities and they admired them He reported the Favours of his Prince and they extolled them He boasted of his Grandeur and Riches and they proclaim'd him Happy Yet himself who best knew what Happiness he received from thence declared himself unhappy and all this to avail him nothing Lastly this was spoken by Haman whilst yet in full Favour with his Prince and expecting to receive greater Demonstrations of it He suffered no Apprehensions of losing his present Enjoyment Such thoughts indeed distract a worldly Man imbitter all his Pleasures and suffer him not to rest contented It would be impossible to him to relish any delight while afflicted with Fears and Doubts while despairing to retain his present Happiness He would grow Pale at the Prospect of an approaching Storm and instead of receiving any Complacency from his present Prosperity distract his thoughts with the fear of future Misery In such Circumstances an Epicure might well Confess that all the outward Advantages of his Life profited him nothing while he suffered inward Distraction from the Apprehension of his Fall which would render him so much more miserable by how much it deprived him of a greater Prosperity Haman at this time had no such Fears he had yet received no repulse at Court his Favour daily increased he had that very day received eminent Marks of his Princes affection and was the day after to receive yet more All this he was sensible of and all this he acknowledged in the close of his Speech Ver. 12. For he said moreover Yea Esther the Queen did let no man come in with the King unto the banquet that she had prepared but my self and to morrow am I invited unto her also with the King Far from fearing the loss of his present Greatness he probably hoped the increase of it and yet concluded that all this availed him nothing If then Haman under all these Circumstances missed of his desired end of being made Happy by worldly Enjoyments we may reasonably suspect some defect to be in the Nature of them upon the account of which neither Haman could nor any other can receive any real Happiness from thence And this I proceed in the Second place to treat of in some few Considerations First then nothing on this side Heaven is able to satiate the Soul of Man and however temporal Benefits may at a distance ravish the Imagination and create extraordinary Conceptions of their own Excellency yet when obtained they are found to be empty and trifling unable to satisfie the Desires of the Soul and fill its Capacity They are like the Fruit of Sodom which by their external Beauty attract the Eye but when touched crumble into Ashes While they are yet only Objects of Desire Men frame to themselves as it were Systems of Happiness to be enjoyed in them No sooner do they become Objects of Fruition but the meanness of them is discovered and after a full Enjoyment of them Man is forced to Confess this is not that he desired that which he proposed to himself He is never enabled by the Possession of them to say I am now completely Happy I here terminate my Desires He is forced to carry his Desires yet farther and seek true Felicity somewhere else which while constant to his Principle he can place no where else than in a greater Degree of the same Happiness This therefore he earnestly pursues yet never attains that Degree If he fixeth the measure of the Degree he may indeed arrive at that but when arrived finds himself as far as ever removed from true Happiness He turmoils and distracts himself experienceth the Vanity of former Projects invents new Methods of Happiness until Death puts an end to his Life and Designs together The greatest of these worldly Enjoyments are generally supposed to be Riches and sensual Pleasures The latter are common even to Beasts who are endued with Senses no less strong and lively than Men. And then surely none will so far debase his Nature as to level himself with Beasts by proposing to himself a Felicity of which they are no less capable It cannot be denied indeed that as we consist of Soul and Body God intended Happiness to each part that he put us into this World to make our selves Happy even in this Life but then as Soul and Body together constitute but one Person the Pleasures of either must be such as consist with the Nature of both As the Soul ought not to tyrannize over the Body by imposing on it unnecessary Rigours and Mortifications so the Excellency of the Soul ought not to be debased for the satisfaction of the Body A limitted use of Pleasures is not to be denied to the Body but then that very Limitation supposeth a better and more noble end of Man for the sake of which they are limited And after all the real Happiness of such limited Pleasures consists not so much in the report of the Senses enjoying them as in the reflex thoughts of the Soul forming to its self an Act of Complacency for having limited them according to the Laws of God The unlimited use of these Pleasures instead of conferring a real Benefit involves Men in Troubles and Anxieties in Cares and Dangers and when enjoyed endures but for a Moment no longer than the impression of Sense continueth when expired leaves only a Weariness and Nauseousness behind them So then sensual Pleasures conduce little to the Supreme end of Man unless we should be so foolish as to imagine that to be the utmost Happiness of Man which renders him happy but for a few moments And then as to Riches the natural use of them is subordinated to sensual Pleasures and the Conveniencies of Life and therefore can bestow nothing beyond them If any imagine as it cannot be denied that too many do that the very satisfaction of possessing Riches without any respect to the use of them bears any part in the Happiness of Man this is so gross and unmanly a Conception as nothing can exceed the wickedness of it nothing can equal the Folly of it This is a greater Depravation of Nature than all the Villanies of Sense or Sins of violence and if no Punishment attended it hereafter would rather deserve our Scorn than Envy The Acquisition of Riches is generally indeed at least indirectly referred to the Enjoyment of sensual Pleasures to be procured by them and as such can carry the Happiness of them no farther than the Nature of them will permit which we before considered Not to say that it is an invincible Argument of the unsatisfactoriness of Riches that those who seek after them seldom or never set bounds to their Desires and although in the acquiring of them they generally please themselves with the thoughts of commanding all sensual Pleasures when they shall have obtain'd them yet they seldom begin in earnest a Fruition of them ever proposing an end to themselves
thy Mind can affright thee from performing what is displeasing to it if thou darest not resist its Commands and quietly submitest to it how much more art thou obliged to revere the Omnipotence of God where Power and Goodness are sweetly joyned together where no Limitations can be found nothing excluded from the reach of it no Cessation to be expected If thou pretendest not to know this Power consider the Nature of God and judge whether Omnipotence be not a necessary Attribute of a most perfect Being If thou appealest to Sense view the Fabrick of the World pass through Heaven and Earth thou shalt discover the Footsteps of Omnipotence in every part of it If thou pretendest yet not to see what is most evident reflect upon the Faculties of thy own Soul and say who gave them to thee consider the Fabrick of thy Body who formed it for thee These are undeniable Marks of thy Subjection to an Almighty Power which even if thou dost deny it is by Faculties of Soul and Body created by him that thou canst deny it Thus we perceive that the Power of God is uncontroulable and infinite that he is able to inflict whatsoever Punishment he pleaseth on his disobedient Creatures And then lest we should vainly imagine this Power to be useless in respect of us and like antiquated Laws never put in execution we are told in the next place that God is excellent in Judgment also that he will most certainly judge Manking and punish them for the Omission of their Duty For so Judgment doth almost every where signifie in Scripture the infliction of Punishment upon Delinquents This is the chief Mark of the Divine Government of the World to take a Survey of the Actions of Men and punish them for the Violation of those publick Laws which are fixed to Mankind and prescribed for their direction Nothing but the most extreme stupidity can defeat the Success of this Argument of Divine Worship since this equally affects both the Wife and Foolish by striking their Imaginations with the fear of Misery A Fear which will affect the Mind of Man when no other Argument can prevail The Perfections of God may be slighted the Infinity of his Nature may be neglected his Power may be derided when not put in execution but the belief of Judgment to be inflicted upon Sinners will awaken the Consciences and affright the Thoughts of Men And that even altho' the manner of the Execution of this Judgment should be unknown to them as in natural Religion For let the Punishments be uncertain as to their quality let the time of their Execution be hid from Sinners yet this they cannot but know that God is the Supreme Governour of the World that as such he will exercise Judgment and that as his Power exceeds that of the most formidable Judicature on Earth so his Punishments will be correspondent exceeding what Man can inflict And herein appears the excellence of this Judgment mentioned in the Text. Humane Judicatures can take hold only of the external Actions of Men and even these may sometimes be hid from them the Power of the Offender may set him above the reach of Punishments they may be evaded by crafty Defences may be hindred by the Interposition of some greater Power may be avoided by Death and will certainly be finished by it But in the Execution of the Divine Judgment it is far otherwise There the most secret Actions of Men are call'd in question even their Thoughts cannot escape discovery The Judge cannot be blinded by crafty Insinuations nor diverted from his Resolution by extraneous Causes Nothing can rescue us out of his hands not even Death it self his Dominion extends beyond the Grave reaches the Soul of Man and surmounts the resistance of all created Beings If then Fear can affect Men if Punishments can deter them if Power can awe them if the certainty of all these can convince them they do all combine to secure the Worship of God and continue Religion in Mankind But then lest we should seem Slaves to God and Servants through Fear only he dispenseth Rewards as well as Punishments to Men. He is excellent in plenty of Justice in the words of the Text. He rewards the Obedience of Men to his Precepts not because any Reward was due to them but because he delighteth in dispensing his Benefits and then his Justice will require that he dispense them to the most worthy We are not ignorant how powerful an Argument Interest is in moving the Hearts of Men. What draweth Attendants to Princes or Servants to Great Men but the Power of rewarding them and the prospect of Preferment to be attain'd by their Favours This seldom fails to secure to them those Duties which are due from Dependants Honour and Service And if we would but raise our Souls from the Earth and carry them beyond the Objects of Sense it would no less effectually secure what is due to God from us Adoration of his Majesty and Obedience to his Laws The Rewards to be attained are far greater such as the Donor will not and such as all the other Powers of the World cannot take away from us such as shall not be determined by Time nor restrained by any Limitation The assurance also of obtaining them is far more certain being founded on the Promise of him who can give what he pleaseth and will give what he Promiseth whereas the Favours expected from Men may be defeated by Forgetfulness by Unfaithfulness may be intercepted by others may become impossible to be bestowed If then God by his Infinite and most certain Rewards cannot procure what Men obtain by their Petty and uncertain Favours Fear and Reverence we must deplore the Ingratitude and obstinate Perverseness of Men who refusing to hearken to the Arguments of obedience propos'd by God yield to those proposed by Men which yet affect the same Passion that of Desire but in a much lower Degree Lastly to secure in our Minds such Thoughts of God as are befitting his Majesty and Holiness lest our Adoration of him should be corrupted with any Suspicions of Injustice entertained at the same time it is added in the end of the Verse He will not afflict In this Life the Rules and Method whereby God dispenseth his Rewards and Punishments may be very obscure to us He may suffer the righteous to be afflicted he may permit the wicked to Prosper he may in appearance cut off the Hopes of good Men by present Miseries and encourage the Disobedience of bad Men by temporal Felicity His ways may be unsearchable and his judgments past finding out But from hence we must not conceive any Opinion of Injustice in God or Imperfection in the Administration of his Government Although the Secrets of Providence be unknown to us this we are assured of that he is infinitely Just and Holy and that being such he will not afflict The Mysterious Obscurity of Providence herein was the occasion of the
of Happiness and then are apt to murmur against God if they are not effected We scorn that imperfect Happiness which his Providence hath assigned us in the World we esteem it inferiour to the supposed Dignity of our Nature and think it impossible that so noble a Being should not enjoy some greater Happiness than what we find belongs to us in this Life This Happiness most Men place in the satisfaction of their Senses but then quickly perceiving that even more ignoble Beings enjoy the same satisfaction they turmoil themselves about enhancing the Pleasures of Sense To this Purpose they either seek after Riches or let loose the Reins to Luxury but after all finding themselves disappointed they become discontented because not obtaining a Happiness correspondent to the Esteem of their own Merits Or if any of better Education and more noble Thoughts seek this Felicity in the Perfection of their Souls yet are not they free from the like Mistake but aim at greater Perfections than their Nature will bear carry their Enquiries into Matters too hard for them and then become disquieted because the Knowledge of such things is denied to them because they find their Souls to be oft-times dull and devoid of Vigour and cannot hinder the Perturbation of them by Commotions from the Body and oft-times Experience the decay of their Faculties With these Thoughts they afflict themselves and imagining their Nature to be somewhat greater than it really is vainly endeavour to free themselves from all these Imperfections Such are the common mistakes of Mankind mistakes which few escape But then there are other particular yet frequent Mistakes derived from the same Fountain which are no less gross and far more prejudicial to the Interests of another Life From this irrational Opinion of their own Excellency many Men are tempted to believe that they lay an Obligation upon God when they execute his Commands and perform his Will They imagine the Benefit redoundeth to God and that it is no small kindness to him to hearken to his Proposals of Salvation and thence are often drawn into a false Perswasion that God will wink at their Impenitence rather than forfeit the satisfaction of saving them This Error hath prevailed so far that among many Christians it is believed that God may in a strict Sense be made a Debtor to Man by works of Supererogation and others perswade themselves into a belief of particular Decrees of Election and Predestination made in Favour of them They may pretend indeed for the ground of their Perswasion the arbitrary Will of God but the true Foundation of it will be discovered to be no other than a proud Opinion of their Excellency beyond their fellow Christians which makes them arrogant and morose and so possesseth their Brains that they imagine God to be in Love with them and ready to relax the general Terms of Salvation and forego his Commands of a strict Obedience for their sakes This false perswasion sometimes advanceth so far as to believe themselves placed by their extraordinary and at the same time unaccountable Excellency beyond the Obligation of the common Laws and Discipline of the Church and thence boldly invade those Offices which were never entrusted to them and disturb the publick Order of the Church as not obliged to perform those Duties which are owing to the whole Church in general and to all the Members of it in particular which Offence the Apostle more particularly complains of in this place These are the most notorious Errors which proceed from the unreasonable Conceit of Men concerning their own worth If we enquire into the Foundation of all these Pretences we shall find them very frivolous Man is far from such an excellent Being as these Pretences suppose him to be His Original is mean and common to him with the most ignoble Animals While yet an Infant nothing can be discovered in him which distinguishes him from brute Beasts except a greater Inability of helping himself Nothing of Reason can be discerned in him which must afterwards be instilled by Degrees by the Care and Diligence of others or if born with him yet exerts it self but slowly and would never become considerable without the direction of others So that it is no ill Conceit of the Philosopher that Man at first is born an Animal and afterwards becomes rational Were it not for this Education it is not improbable that Man would creep upon all four and imitate Beasts as well in the posture of his Body as in the brutishness of his Life When after a thousand Chances which might have destroyed him he is grown up to be a Man he still leads a more precarious Life than any other part of the Creation If any one of the Elements perform not their Office if the Earth should deny her Fruits or the Air its benign Influences if any one of ten thousand possible Accidents should light upon him his Life is ended which whilst it continueth is perplexed with continual Cares turmoiled with constant Labours exposed to infinite Adversities and after all supported with inconsiderable Pleasures For what greater Matter do we enjoy here below than more ignoble Creatures do Length of Life Agility Accuracy of Sense satisfaction of it and all carnal Pleasures are even common to them We can employ indeed the Thoughts of a rational Soul which is more than they can do but alas this Priviledge would have been scarce desireable had not God promoted Arts and Sciences among Men by raising their Apprehensions at first with extraordinary Revelations For although God did not at first reveal these Arts and Sciences yet would Man never have obtained that Sagacity which was necessary to the Invention of them if God had not raised them from the present Objects of Sense and excited them to the Improvement of Knowledge by communicating to them supernatural Revelations That part and that the greatest part of Mankind which have not yet received those Advantages do so little exercise these Faculties of the Soul that it would be no great increase of the Happiness of an unthinking Beast to be put into their Condition Or if all Men could naturally obtain clear and noble Thoughts of things yet would this but add little to their Happiness while uncertain of its future State for want of Revelation To a Soul which graspeth Eternity it cannot but be a continual Affliction to reflect upon the certainty of Death and the uncertainty of what will succeed it If he endeavours to remove these melancholly Thoughts by sensual Pleasures he will find little satisfaction in them if he gives himself up wholly to them he will soon grow weary of them When he hath run through all the Scenes of Pleasure and looks back upon his Enjoyments he will confess the Emptiness of them and scarce desire to retrieve them Such a Man when he comes to die may perhaps wish to live over his Life again but then 't is only in Hopes of obtaining greater Happiness
directly affected not his Mind which still remained untouched exposed indeed to the ordinary assaults of the Devil which assaults as they were not suspended by God so neither were they assisted by him Which assaults how they are affected by the natural power of the Devil I come next to enquire having first observed to you that although we could not conceive or explain the manner of it we should have no reasonable cause to doubt of it Our own experience will not suffer us to admit such doubts and that the Faculties and Operations of immaterial Beings are imperceptible to us we have the example of our Soul which although it be so nearly related to us we know but very imperfectly the manner and spring of all her Actions The Devil is said to tempt us two ways properly and improperly Innumerable Examples of each may be brought from Scripture The latter is not hard to be conceived and is no more than this that as the Devil was the first Apostate and Rebel against God and still continueth his opposition to him so he is the Captain and Head of all which opposeth God as are the Lusts the Passions and the Sins of Men Which being excited by sublunary Objects by worldly Pleasures whatsoever is done by these in opposition to God is ascribed to him as done after his Example and under his Banner Since his Fall the World is in a manner divided between God and him whatsoever is good and excellent proceeds from God and is done by his Influence Command Direction and Perswasion Whatsoever is bad and repugnant to the Laws of God is done by the example of the Devil by imitating him following his Conduct and entring into his Government For thus all Beings disobedient to God may be said to constitute one Society whereof the Devil is the Head And because this Society busie themselves wholly in the things of this World and are deluded by gross Pleasures he is called the Prince of this World and the Prince of the Air not that he hath or ever had the disposition of things here below the disposal of Kingdoms or distribution of temporal conveniencies or inconveniencies which hath been the mistake of some Such Power never belonged to him He told our Saviour indeed in tempting of him that all the Kingdoms of the World and the Glory of them were his and that he would give them to him if he would fall down and Worship him But he was a Liar from the Beginning it was more than he could perform The Devil is said properly to tempt Men by acting immediately upon their Souls by suggesting wicked thoughts unto them by instigating them to Wickedness and Disobedience And this is that temptation by which we so much suffer which we so much fear and by which he executes his Malice and Hatred upon Mankind There are but two possible ways by which this can easily be supposed to be performed since an extraordinary Derivation of Power from God is rejected The first is by moving the imaginations of Men and producing whatsoever Thoughts and Ideas he thinks fit by moving their Animal Spirits which in Man have so near a Connexion with the thoughts of the Soul that such motions in them will infallibly and unavoidably produce such thoughts in the Soul Now it is not impossible to conceive that the Devils as they are most sagacious Spirits and of long experience may have observed and found to which motions of the Spirits such and such thoughts of the Soul are annexed and accordingly procure those motions as often as they desire to introduce such thoughts For it is highly probable that all immaterial Beings have a natural power of moving matter We find that in our own Soul which is the lowest of all such Beings that moveth our Spirits and by the assistance of those our whole Body It no sooner formeth an Idea but the Spirits attend the Formation of it and are moved according to its Diversity There is no more necessary Connexion between the Thoughts of the Soul and the Motions of the Body than between the latter and the Thoughts of any other immaterial Being So that the Devil may well be supposed to be able to make impressions on our Imagination by the Motion of these Spirits Yet it will not follow from hence that he is able to move or disorder our whole Bodies since to the former is required the consent of our Will which is in our own Power and doth not necessarily follow any Motion of the Spirits To the latter is required a Power transcending the ordinary Laws of Nature whereby the Causes and Effects of Health and Strength are settled and preserved which are not in the least violated by such Motions in the Brain as produce a bare Idea or naked Conception of any thing This way of impressing Thoughts in our Mind is possible But it is more probable that all immaterial Beings can communicate Thoughts and make impressions on each other Without this it not be imagined how a Society of Angels or Devils can consist and yet that there are a Society of each the Scripture assures us If one Man cannot immediately impress a Thought in the Soul of another it is no wonder We are here inchained in a Body in which state no approaches can be made to us but by the Organs of the Body Nature hath provided another way for Men to communicate their Thoughts which when it shall cease by putting off the Body we have just ground to believe that we shall obtain that Priviledge common to other imaterial Beings of communicating our Thoughts to each other by immediate influence At least it is most certain that Angels and Devils have that Priviledge because they have formed Societies which they could not have done without it And if they can impress any Thoughts upon each other that is upon Beings of equal Dignity they are surely much more able to do it upon those of an inferiour Rank and Capacity such as are the Souls of Men. Both these ways are possible but that the Devils do tempt us by either of these Methods I dare not determine It is sufficient to shew that what we believe concerning the Temptation of evil Spirits is possible and agreeable to Reason And this I have spoken to you as Persons desiring satisfaction in the Truth of this Article of Christianity I will now return and speak to you as Christians firmly perswaded of this Truth that the Devils do tempt us From what hath been said you may take a just Estimate of the efficacy of the Devil's Temptations and our Ability to resist him He can proceed indeed no farther than to suggest the first Cogitations of any Object and if Man also stopped here he would never forfeit his Innocence the Devil would never obtain his desired End He can do no more indeed yet this he improves to great advantage and with that success which we all lament He knoweth the Constitutions of all Men and
short if the Devils bring great Detriment to the spiritual Interests of Mankind the Angels bring no less advantage to it that it may be questioned whether it were more eligible for Man to suffer the Temptation of evil for the Assistance of good Spirits or to want them both together Only the same Caution which we before observed to be necessary in procuring and continuing the Grace of God is also required here that we render our selves worthy of it by a diligent Concurrence and that as we should not by our Perverseness grieve the Holy Spirit of God so neither should we by our Negligence and obstinate Perseverance in Sin grieve the Holy Angels And this is the only Reward which for all their Labour and Care bestowed on us they require of us that together with them we pay a due Obedience to our common Master that we defeat not their Charitable Designs by our own Wilfulness Worship and other Signs of Divine Honour they affect not nay this they will not receive from us The end of their Labour is to procure Happiness to Man and the Reward of it next to the Conscience of having obeyed their great Master is the satisfaction of their Success in it Their only aim is that we would joyn with them here in paying intire Obedience to our common Creator that so we may joyn with them hereafter in singing Praises to him To him therefore be ascribed the Glory and Thanks of all their Charitable Operations in relation to Mankind to him be rendred all Praise and Honour who at first Created such excellent Beings and afterwards sent them forth to Minister to our Salvation who hath placed in us Souls not unlike to these noble Beings and hath Promised that if we be not wanting to our selves he will in due time make us fully like unto them To him with his Son and blessed Spirit be ascribed all Power Might Majesty Dominion and Adoration henceforth and for evermore The Eighth SERMON Preach'd on the 20th of Octob. 1689. At LAMBETH CHAPEL St. Mark VIII 36. For what shall it profit a Man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own Soul IT is the peculiar Character of the Christian Religion that it is adapted as well to the Interest as the reason of Mankind that it is not only Consentaneous to our Natures but advantageous to our Persons that it not only prescribes to us our Duty but directs us in the way of Happiness Herein it infinitely surpasseth even all the more refined Systems of the Gentile Divinity and Philosophy They pretended to no more than to refine our Reason and enlighten our Understanding by the Knowledge and consideration of Truth But then they could produce nothing wherewith to satiate the unbounded Appetite of the Will and create a real Happiness Many of them indeed asserted the immortality of the Soul but neither hoped a Resurrection of the Body nor any reward of the Soul beside the Conscience of a vertuous Life The Jewish Oeconomy indeed had a reward annexed to it but such as fell infinitely short of the Desires of Mankind and the Capacity of rational Beings as being wholly restrained to the Pleasures of this Life and appropriated to the more ignoble part of Man the Body Whereas our Saviour in this last Revelation of God communicated by him to the World whereby the Happiness of Mankind was fully to be compleated and our Natures raised to the highest Perfection hath consulted not only the Reason but the interest of Mankind He hath satisfied the first by giving us a spiritual and rational Religion not tied up to the beggerly Elements of the World nor wholly immersed in Rites and Ceremonies but agreeing to the Dictates of Nature and first Principles of Reason And then in the second Place he hath advanced our Interest by proposing to us an infinite and eternal Reward far surpassing all the Pleasures and Delights of this World Our most Wise and ever Blessed Law-giver knew very well that the greatest part of Men are more moved with Arguments of Profit than with Considerations of Duty The latter only affect our Understandings but the first strike our Senses and ravish our Will He might as well by the right of Creation as Redemption have enjoyned to us all the Precepts of the Christian Religion without annexing any Reward to the performance of them It had even then been our Duty to obey and a sufficient Happiness by obeying to serve the great ends of our Creator And therefore all the Patriarchs before Abraham served God without any express promise of a Reward much less a Reward of that Nature and Value as is proposed to us Christians They might indeed justly hope for the Favour of God but then that Favour might consist only in providing them food and Rayment and other common Benefits of humane Nature and could not with any certainty be extended farther Since our Saviour therefore together with a most excellent Religion hath delivered to us an assurance of eternal Happiness and requireth our Obedience for no other end than that we may thereby obtain this Reward as we ought to admire and magnifie the infinite Goodness of God so must we condemn our own extreme Folly if we neglect or contemn so great Happiness This is an Argument highly accommodated to the Understanding and Capacity of all Men and therefore is very frequently urged by Christ who beginneth his Sermon upon the Mount in the V. Chap. of St. Matthew with affixing this Promise to the greater and more arduous Duties of the Christian Religion that so the Difficulty of these might willingly be overseen by us upon the Prospect of the Greatness of our Reward So Matth. XIII 44. he compareth the Kingdom of Heaven to a Treasure hid in a Field the which when a Man hath found he hideth and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath and buyeth that field and in the following Verses to a Merchant selling all his Estate to buy on Pearl of great price By which Saleâ— and by the Joyfulness attending it he intimates that all worldly Considerations are to be foregone when they stand in Competition with the hopes of another Life A Position which might justly be esteemed a Paradox if that infallible Mouth had not pronounced it and Reason did not in some measure assure us of the Truth of it But such was both the Wisdom and Goodness of our Saviour in prescribing to us a rule of Life that he chose to make use of all the Arguments wherewith either the Will or Understanding of Mankind could be incited to engage us to the Observation of it that so if the Duty we owe to God for the Benefits of Creation Preservation and Life could not enforce us if the wonderful Love of our Redeemer dying for us could not perswade us if Gratitude to both could not oblige us if neither Reason nor Authority could prevail with us to endeavour the Perfection of our Nature by
to the Soul We believe indeed That our Bodies shall be hereafter invested with Immortality and made Partakers of the Glories of Heaven but then they shall be changed into a spiritual Nature devested of these gross Senses which now accompany us and are the great Instruments of our Worldly and admired Pleasures For then There will be neither eating nor drinking marrying nor giving in marriage but we shall be like the Angels of heaven in the Fruition of purely spiritual Delights Which is an invincible Argument of the Vanity and Vileness of earthly and carnal Enjoyments that we cannot be made happy without the loss of them If they had been indeed of any real worth God would have continued them to us in another Life But since he hath made way to the Consummation of humane Happiness by the Abolishment of all gross and sensual Pleasures and despoils the Body to enrich the Soul We cannot but conclude these transitory Enjoyments are light and trifling incompatible with real Happiness and unworthy the Spirits of just men made perfect I come next to consider the Excellency of those peculiar Perfections and Rewards which the Soul is capable of beyond the Body Those Pleasures of which alone our Body is capable and which we are apt so much to admire here below consist only in the Gratification of our Senses Delights which are so far beneath true Happiness that they are common to Beasts finite short and contemptible The frequent Repetition of them may be thought to increase their worth but then this very Repetition becomes nauseous and is nothing else but the Reiteration of the same thing The desire of them is commonly produced by an irregular Appetite but always by the infirmity of our Nature and when performed they leave no Satisfaction behind them They cloy the Appetite and by their frequency become troublesome and even odious to us are finished in a few moments and then leave nothing grateful behind them But which is chiefly to be considered end with our Life and even in Life may be obstructed by Diseases and Calamities An eminent Instance of this we have in Solomon in whom all the Greatness and â—leasures of the World were joyned He presided over a mighty and powerful People and that in greater Glory than all the Kings before or after him So that if Ambition worldly Honour and Pomp could make him Happy he possessed them all in great abundance If the Fame of Wisdom and a profound Veneration among neighbour Nations could increase this Happiness it was not wanting to him to whom the Queen of Sheba came from the farthest parts of the East to hear the wisdom of his mouth If Riches can confer any thing to this desired Perfection none can put in a better Claim for it than he in whose time Gold was esteemed no more than Iron and Silver as stones for the abundance of it Lastly if the Pleasures of Sense can compleat our Happiness none had greater Advantages than he at whose Command was the most fruitful part of the World and who was Blessed with a profound and uninterrupted Peace all his Life And least we should imagine that he made no use of all these Advantages and supposed means of Happiness he assureth us Eccles. II. 10. That whatsoever his eyes desired he kept not from them nor with-held his heart from any joy Nay by a strange kind of Curiosity that he might leave nothing unattempted he tells us That he gave his heart to know madness and folly Eccles. I. 17. One who had all these Advantages had run thro' all the Scenes of Pleasure and could by his exquisite Wisdom and Knowledge of the Nature of things heighten and refine these Pleasures must be allowed to be a competent Judge of the worth and value of them Yet after all he gives this Verdict of them Vanity of Vanities all is Vanity If then no real Happiness if no solid Pleasure can be had from the Enjoyments of Sense from Riches and the outward Pomp of the World we must recurr to the Faculties of the Mind where we shall find an Happiness truly solid and which is more eternal None but a vast and infinite Good can satisfie the unbounded Desires of our Mind nothing less than Eternity it self can satiate an immortal Being For however our Souls be finite as all other Creatures are yet our Wills have no limits but continually desire somewhat more unless that Good which they already possess can receive no farther Additions This Good is no other than God who alone can fix our restless Wills and by his infinite Perfections ravish them with Wonder and Pleasure at the same time This is a Happiness truly peculiar to spiritual Beings who alone can contemplate the Majesty and inimitable Goodness of their Creator and by so doing secure to themselves an Happiness infinite in it self not inferior to the vast Desires of the Will which surviveth all the changes of Fortune Malice of Men and even Death it self If we cannot or will not believe the Greatness of these spiritual Pleasures their convenience to the Nature of our Souls and the infinite duration of them 't is because we are unacquainted with them immersed in gross and earthly Delights so far that we are neither willing nor perhaps able to receive these greater and more real Enjoyments by attending so much to the things of this World we have even changed the Nature and Nobleness of our Souls and from Guides and Directors made them mere Instruments to our Bodies devested them of all remembrance of their Divine Original degraded them into a servile Condition and were we not sometimes put in mind of the interest of another World should perhaps forget that we were created in a Condition little lower than the Angels Thus far Reason teacheth us That the interests of the Soul are to be preferred to those of the Body Revelation doth the same no less fully This was the great end of the Christian Religion to wean our Affections from worldly Pleasures and fix them upon things above to withdraw us by degrees from the Earth and seat us at last in Heaven To this the whole Genius and Temper of our Religion plainly tends commanding us to be ready at all times to take up the Cross undergo Persecutions embrace Afflictions and even suffer Death when the interest of our Souls requireth us to do it Thus our Saviour tells us He who loveth Father and Mother Wife or Possessions beyond him is not fit to be his Disciple and among other Precepts commands that his Followers should deny themselves that is be ready to part with all the Pleasures of the World and imaginary Delights of Nature when they stand in Competition with the interests of another Life This Duty is so strict that for the Observation of the most minute Precept all Considerations of wordly Profit and Pleasure must be foregone and the whole Body destroyed rather than the Soul in the least be injured Our
Lives as it was highly generous so it was extremely difficult to retain a good Conscience and therewith the Hopes of Salvation This was a Difficulty indeed so great that your own Imagination will amplifie it more than any words I can use for that Purpose If it seem strange to us that God should suffer his chosen Servants to be thus afflicted and exposed to the Insults of wicked Men we must reflect upon the Condition of those Christians before they entred upon the Profession of Christianity That the far greater part of them had spent their Lives in the open Exercise of all those Sins to which the Temptations of the World the Flesh or the Devil could incite them and that without any remorse of Conscience or intervals of Piety This the Apostle chargeth them with in the 3d. Verse of this Chapter It was incongruous to the Divine Justice to suffer such enormous Sinners wholly to escape unpunished and therefore his infinite Wisdom so ordered the state of the World and of the Church at that time that they should undergo sharp Afflictions and Persecutions in this Life that so without any Diminution of his Justice he might receive them to Mercy in another World Not that the most Glorious Martyrs have been the greatest Sinners or that temporal Calamities do always attend the Sins of the Faithful But as in a general Persecution brought upon the Church for the precedent Sins of the greater part of it it would have been unreasonable for any particular Men altho' not Partakers of the Sin to have requir'd to have been excused from partaking in the general Calamity So neither may we flatter our selves that we are more righteous than those first Christians were before their Conversion for this Reason only because we are not punished in the same visible manner but ought rather to fear that a far greater Punishment is reserved to us hereafter if by a timely and hearty Repentance we prevent not the Execution of it This precedent sinful Course of Life was another great Difficulty to the Christians of those days who had contracted before their Conversion long and fixed habits of Vice effaced by disuse all Notions of natural Religion and Honesty which to restore could be the work of nothing less than an extraordinary Diligence and Application If to these peculiar Difficulties of those Times we add the common Difficulties of Christianity we shall soon perceive what just Reason the Apostle had to say That the Righteous are scarcely saved I will not here insist upon the Difficulty of particular Duties the depraved Nature of Man and the Solicitations of evil Spirits with many other disadvantages of Piety which we experience and lament That which chiefly deserveth to be considered is the spiritual Nature and Futurity of the Reward proposed by it Man in almost all the Actions of Life is inured to follow the Perceptions of Sense which are easily formed and affect the Mind without any precedent Preparation of it He is assured of the Existence and certainty of those Objects which Sense presenteth to him without entring into a serious Inquiry or forming any Conclusions by the strength of his own Understanding Whereas the Rewards proposed by Christianity being purely spiritual and Men not put into the present Possession of them they cannot obtain nor yet conceive them without a regular proceeding of Judgment They must first consider the Nature of God his Dignity Power and other Attributes their own dependence on him the Manifestation of his Will and the Contrariety of their own Actions to it the necessity of Repentance the certain Immortality of their Soul and the possible Immortality of their Body the assurance of both from him who can perform it and cannot lie and the end for which such Immortality shall be conferred to receive then the Reward or Punishment of the good or bad Conduct of this Life All this must be first considered and examined before any Conviction can be formed of the truth of Christianity And when the Mind is thus convinced there wants a second Series of Thoughts to convince Mankind that to embrace this Truth is their real Interest The Rewards proposed by it are chiefly spiritual they affect not the Senses nor strike the Imagination by which Man is wont to measure the fruition of all Pleasures He relisheth but little the Pleasures and satisfaction of the Mind he scarce knoweth wherein they consist And that which draweth nearest to it in this Life the Conception and Meditation of intellectual Objects he finds himself soon weary of it or perhaps is wholly unacquainted with it And when all these disadvantages are overcome here is still required another train of Thoughts to fix the Mind in a constant Expectation of the Reward notwithstanding the bestowing of it is deferred till another Life If then so much Consideration be required to render the Arguments of Christianity effectual if the Nature of the Reward be so hardly conceived so far removed from present Fruition and so little grateful to those Organs of Sense by which Men are wont to judge of the Excellency of Fruitions it may easily be foreseen that the Promises of the Gospel will lose their Efficacy upon the greater part of Men. For how small a part of Mankind allow their Souls to entertain any Conceptions beyond what Sense administreth to them How few ever entertain a Thought of immaterial Beings or spiritual Interests Not that any extraordinary strength of Mind is required to form such Thoughts and Convictions The Providence of God hath so ordered it that these things are brought home to every Man's understanding and frequently urg'd upon them It is only required of them that they would retain such Thoughts improve them and Act upon them But even this is irksome to his depraved Nature he seeth and feels his Body his Soul he little knows the Pleasures of the Body are always present to him the noblest Pleasures of the Soul are removed at a mighty distance He is convinced of the one by his own Experience for the other he must rely upon the assurance of Reason And this disadvantage betrays him either to neglect the Consideration of the Interests of the Soul or to prefer the Concerns of the Body before them unless by frequent Meditation and diligent Attention he hath formed a full Conviction both of the Truth and the value of them that as they will certainly follow the performance of the Conditions prescribed by the Gospel so even the Reversion of them is infinitely more to be esteemed than the present Possession of all corporeal Pleasures Another Difficulty alike common to all is the Extensiveness of the Duty required That it includeth every Action of Man and that the defect of any one part destroyeth the benefit of the whole that it is not sufficient to exercise this or that Vertue in the highest degree unless the whole Life be uniform and deficient in none of the parts of it Which putteth a Christian
advantage by it They could not but conclude indeed that the Justice of God did require a Discrimination of the good and bad But then it did not appear that because the bad were to be punished the good must be Rewarded with any supernatural Favours It was a sufficient Reward to Man for his Obedience to the Divine Laws that he had received his Being and all the Benefits of his Life from God and enjoyed them upon no other Condition Or if an extraordinary Reward might be reasonably hoped for from the Consideration of the Divine Justice yet could no Man in that State conceive an Assurance of his Title to it since no such Reward could be claimed but upon account of an absolute and most perfect Obedience and every one was Conscious to himself that he could not put in any such Claim Lastly to remove all this Anxiety it was not sufficient to renounce all hopes of future or supernatural Happiness and live regardless of it For the natural Reason of Man would still suggest to him that this was his Duty and that was unlawful to him If he slighted the Suggestions his Conscience would afflict and torment him would upbraid him with it and cause him to condemn himself If he endeavoured to stifle these Suggestions he would find it to be impossible and if he could effect it he must conceive himself to be reduced to the State and Condition of a Beast Upon the whole the Mind of Man could not but labour with great Anxieties grow restless and impatient under the Burden of Natural Religion and be thereby necessitated to betake it self to the direction of Christ who promiseth Rest and Satisfaction to it But our Lord in this place more particularly referreth to the severity of the Jewish Dispensation a Religion encumbred with so many Rites and Ceremonies so many positive Precepts and Observations that St. Peter justly complaineth of it in Acts XV. 10. as of a Yoke which neither their Fathers nor themselves were able to bear Nor indeed was it at first intended to perfect the Nature of Mankind or immediately to procure Happiness but rather to guard that stiff-necked People from the sin of Idolatry to which they were so strongly inclined that while they were busied about these Legal Observations they might be drawn off from superstitious Rites and even conceive an hatred of them Otherwise they contributed little to raise the Soul of Man to improve his Faculties or give him Assurance of what he most desired an Happiness equal to the Capacity of his Nature They are not undeservedly called the weak and beggarly Elements of the world by the Apostle and are by God himself in Ezek. XX. said to be statutes that were not good and Judgments whereby the observers of them should not live to have been given in his Anger in Punishment of their many Rebellions and Apostacies And indeed if we consider the great number of their positive Precepts Ceremonies and Observations how little they contributed to the cleansing of the Will or enlightning of the Understanding how obscure the Reasons of them were and how inconsiderable the Reward annexed to them we must conclude it to have been an Institution infinitely more severe than what was afterward introduced by Christ. There was â—ndeed a Reward adjoyned to it but â—hat so far beneath the Capacity of humane Nature that it could by no means terminate the Desires of the Soul And even this Reward they found by Experience to be common to the Observers and Violators of the Law and if it had been appropriated to the good alone yet was subject to as many Variations as was the Body which it principally concerned Again it could not but be a sensible Vexation to a considering Mind that they were treated by God at such distance debarred the Knowledge of the Reasons of those Ceremonies which were required of them were left wholly in the dark as to the Intention of God in prescribing of them could discover no Reasonableness or Excellency in them no Agreeableness between them and their own Nature It was not allowed them to enter into the Holy of Holies to understand the Reasons why such carnal Observations were imposed on them Or if they had understood them yet when they viewed the number the extent and the Difficulty of them they even despaired to perform them They had indeed all the Reasons common to Natural Religion and some peculiar to themselves to expect from the Divine Justice a better and more noble Reward But then the Nature of Legal Righteousness consisting in an universal and unsinning Obedience extinguished their hopes and subjected them to the fear of all the Punishments denounced against the Transgressors of the Law which had provided Remedies expiatory Sacrifices for Sins of Omission inadvertency and a lesser Guilt but gave no hopes of Pardon to Sins of a more hainous Nature had assigned no Sacrifices for their Expiation nor allowed any means of Pardon for them Amidst all these Difficulties the Mind was afflicted being Conscious of her own Offences but not discovering the Remedies of the guilt despising the unsatisfactoriness of temporal Felicity yet promised no better obliged to the Observation of a multitude of Precepts but taking no Complacency therein fearing the wrath of God and yet scarce able to avoid it Thus was the Jewish Religion in it self an heavy Burden even without the addition of Pharisaical Interpretations who by their Scruples Niceties and Supererrogations had at that time almost doubled the weight of it In relief of all these disadvantages our Lord invites the wearied Soul to take refuge in his Religion assureth her of Rest and Satisfaction therein ease of Scruples and removal of Anxiety in the 28th Verse bids his Disciples not be disquieted with the Conscience of their past Sins nor despair of Pardon not fear to approach to him as the Jews did to Mount Sina when the Law was delivered by God from thence for that himself was meek and lowly in heart in the 29th Verse ready to forgive their Sins upon sincere Repentance condescending to their Infirmities willing to lay open all the Mysteries of his Religion to their Understandings to adapt it to the meanest to treat all with a constant Sweetness and Gentleness to fill all the Faculties of their Souls with the Promise and assurance of a Reward which should be nothing Inferior to their most extended Desires The farther Consideration of these things will fall under the Second Head proposed Namely II. The Easiness of the Yoke and Lightness of the Burden imposed upon Mankind by the Commands of Christ separated from the Comparison of other Systems of Religion and as it more nearly respects our Practice and Observation of the Duties of it This Yoke is no other than the performance of all Christian Duties or of the Commands of Christ which word St. John makes use of to express the same Sense 1 Joh. V. 3. For this is the love of God that we keep his
before mentioned that is unless we rise from Sin to die again Lastly the Justice of God and the incomparable Humility and Patience of Christ manifested in his Sufferings rendred it not possible not fit that he should be holden of Death He died not for his own but for the Sins of others and to demonstrate that his own Guilt drew not that Punishment upon him it was agreeable to the Justice of God to raise him up to relieve the Cause of oppressed Innocence and not suffer his Persecutors any longer to triumph in their wickedness Further by his exact Obedience by his inimitable Patience in suffering the Pains and his admirable Humility in undergoing the Shame of the Cross he did deserve to be raised up that as he had humbled himself in so extraordinary a manner so he should be exalted to a no less illustrious Glory And therefore the Sufferings and Humility of Christ are frequently assigned as the meritorious Cause of his Exaltation It was long before Prophesied of him Psal. CX 7. He shall drink of the brook in the way therefore shall he lift up his head And after his Passion and Ascension it is said of him by St. Paul Philip. II. He humbled himself and became obedient to death even the deash of the Cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him The first step of his Exaltation was his Resurrection which therefore was to relate to both those parts of his Humane Nature which had undergone that meritorious Humiliation Not only his Soul had suffered Agonies and the Contradiction of sinners had resigned it self intirely into the hands of God and submitted quietly to the Execution of that bitter Sentence which was inflicted on him as the Representative of sinful Men had endured the Shame of the Cross the insults of his Enemies a violent Separation from the Body with invincible Patience and Charity But also his Body had partaken in his Agony had sweat drops of Blood had endured Scourgings and Buffettings Crucifixion and the wound of the Spear Both Soul and Body therefore were to share in the Reward of all these Sufferings which began to be bestowed on him in his Resurrection His Body was to be raised from the Grave and his Soul being in no other Sense capable of Resurrection was to be reunited to the Body and both to continue for ever joyned since by his Death and Resurrection he is become the Mediator of a new and eternal Covenant Thus I have passed through the several parts of the Text and from the whole I shall make but one Inference proper to the Solemnity of this day If the Resurrection of Christ be the great and ultimate Confirmation of the Christian Religion that upon which our Faith is founded our hopes are raised that by which the Mystery of our Redemption is compleated the Author of it Crowned and advanced to be the Head of all the faithful who look for the same Resurrection it becomes us to celebrate this Festival Dedicated to the Memory of it with a suitable Religion We are not to account it an Arbitrary institution or the invention of the Church that this day is accounted Sacred beyond all others of the Year Our Lord hath made it so by rising from the Dead and compleating the Redemption of Mankind on it No revealed Religion was yet ever professed in the World which did not celebrate some certain and solemn Festivals at fixed times of the year and to cast off the publick Solemnization of those Festivals upon which the most illustrious Acts of the Life of our Saviour were performed is no other than in Fact to deny all belief in him and relation to him It is not enough to say that he hath declared he will be worshipped in Spirit and Truth He was himself then going up to Jerusalem to celebrate a solemn Festival when he spake those words And surely unless there be solemn times and places of worshipping him in Spirit and Truth it will never appear that he is so worshipped nor is he worshipped in Truth when Men pay no external Acknowledgments of those eminent Benefits which he hath truly obtained to them Himself hath consecrated this day by his rising from the Grave on it The Apostles have Dedicated it to this sacred Use by their own and by Divine Authority The Jews had before celebrated one day in seven in Recognition of their adoring that God who had created the World in Six days and rested on the Seventh and that Seventh day which they celebrated rather than any other of the Week was sanctified in Memory of their Deliverance out of Egypt wrought upon that day as it is Deut. V. 15. Remember that thou wast a Servant in the Land of Egypt and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence by a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm Therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath day As the Jews therefore dated their Seventh day for ever from that day of their Deliverance out of Egypt so the Apostles began and the Church hath to this day continued to date their Seventh day from the day upon which their Redemption was compleated A Redemption so far greater than that given to the Jews from the Bondage of Egypt that well might the day instituted in remembrance of their Deliverance give way to the day celebrated in Honour of our Redemption This change therefore was made by the Apostles immediately upon the Resurrection of our Lord and even before his Ascension and so no doubt by his personal Direction and Approbation For all the religious Assemblies we find of them both before and after his Ascension were upon the first day of the Week That so as the Jews acknowledged their belief in God the Creator of the World by celebrating one day in seven and manifested their Worship of that God who brought them out of Egypt by Solemnizing for ever that Seventh day in which he brought them out So we Christians should declare that we worship the same God the Creator of the World by celebrating one day in seven and also manifest that we worship him in and through Jesus Christ by Sanctifying for ever that Seventh day upon which the great and last Act of our Redemption wrought by him was performed which is therefore in Scripture called the Lords Day Rev. I. 10. Farther as the particular Day of the weekly Festival of the Jews was determined by their Deliverance out of Egypt wrought upon the Seventh day so the far greatest of their Annual Solemnities was instituted in Commemoration of that Deliverance effected in the first Month of the year This God did institute by a special Command which was at large repeated to you in the first Lesson of this day And exacted the Observation of it with so great Rigour that he declared That Soul which did not keep this annual Feast should be cut off from Israel And can we imagine that God should require such eminent external Testimonies
them For however the external Circumstances of place and time are required but in Conjunction with the more essential Conditions of Prayer yet they are still required The necessity of publick Worship whereof Prayer is the principal part was in the former Discourse largely treated of This Worship cannot be reduced into Practice unless it be determined to certain places and times To speak of the times of Worship is not my present Purpose And if the places of it be not fixed no publick Worship can well consist The Apostle therefore in commanding Prayers to be offered up every where hath not therein taught that all places are equally fitted in which Prayers may be made He hath taken away the Singularity of one place and the Appropriation of all publick Worship to that alone but continued the necessity of fixing some certain places in all parts of the Believing World for that Purpose not left it indifferent whether Men pray to God in a place dedicated to religious Uses or in a place made common to all the ordinary Uses of Life The Christian Religion hath taken away whatsoever was merely Ceremonial in the Jewish Religion but retained all which was derived from the Law of Nature or the light of Reason And that the Consecration of certain places to the worship of God and appropriating them to that use alone is such will be useful to manifest since there are not wanting some who decry all difference between sacred and prophane places First then it was not in the Institution of the Jewish Religion that God began to be a God of order and Decency those Attributes were eternal in him and evidently appear in that most beautiful and harmonious Order of the World and all the parts of it which himself hath fixed in the Creation of it Which is contrived with the most exact Symmetry disposed in a most beautiful Order and continued in it The Worship which Man pays to God being founded upon his Attributes and the knowledge of those Attrributes chiefly appearing by the Effects of them it is Consonant to Reason that Man should direct his Worship with respect to them If then in the visible Operations of God such a decent Order be every where Conspicuous in the publick Worship of him the same Order ought also to be maintained otherwise no Acknowledgment is made no Homage paid to that divine Perfection which was the Principle of that Order and Decency which we see and admire in the Creation God hath not only formed what was absolutely necessary for the Life of Man but also added infinite variety of Lights Minerals Plants and Animals for his Delight and for the Ornament of Life Since therefore the Rules of Divine Worship are to be taken from the Divine Perfections manifested by their Operations this conduct of God in creating and governing the World doth not only warrant the Addition of Ceremonies and many Circumstances to the more essential Parts of Worship but also makes it to become a Duty And to accuse such Additions and external Ceremonies of Superstition is no less unreasonable than to question the Wisdom of God who hath added to the Creation many things not necessary yet ornamental to it How incongruous would it be to worship the God of Order and Decency in an irregular and slovenly manner how improper a return for the additional yet unnecessary Conveniences of humane Life to adore the Author of them without any Order or external Decency The Sense of this induced men before the Institution of the Jewish Religion to dedicate certain Places to the Worship of God and set them apart for that use only The Monuments of those times are few being all comprized in the Book of Genesis yet therein we find evident Footsteps of such Dedications more particularly in Gen. xxviii 16. where Jacob enjoying a Vision at Bethel because it was a Mark of the Divine Presence immediately concluded that the Place was dedicated to his Service And he said surely the Lord is in this place and I knew it not How dreadful is this Place this is none other but the House of God and this is the Gate of Heaven Which Reflection of Jacob proveth it to have been the Custom of the Patriarchs to Dedicate certain Places to be the Houses of God and to have been their Belief that in those places God was more peculiarly present And to manifest that his Notion of the House of God was no other than of a Place of Worship he immediately addressed himself to worship God in it as it follows in the 18th Verse I might add that the Dedicating certain Places to this use was not the Practice of the Patriarchs alone but of all Ages and Men professing any Religion whether true or false which general Practice and Perswasion is in all other Cases allowed to be a certain indication of the Voice of Nature But I proceed to observe the Reason of it where it may be considered that as God is the Author of Soul and Body of Heaven and Earth of Life and all the Conveniencies of it so he requireth as a just and necessary Act of Adoration that some part of every one of these should be dedicated to himself as an Acknowledgment of his Dominion over the whole Thus the Operations of the Soul pay Homage to him in the more essential parts of Worship the Body in the Concomitant Parts of it that is in the external Gestures of Adoration we acknowledge to have received our Goods and Wealth from him by offering up some part of it to himself to be employed as he shall direct which in the Jewish Religion consisted chiefly in Sacrifices and Oblations in the Christian Religion in Acts of Charity We confess him the Author of Life by dedicating certain times of it to his Service and we confess him the Lord of the whole Earth by appropriating and submitting some parts of it to his immediate Service By this his Right and Title to the whole Earth is eminently acknowledged and the Vassallage of Man the Inhabitant of it is declared Further the Erection and Dedication of Churches to the Worship and the Honour of God is an illustrious Testimony of the publick Religion of any Nation or Country and upon that Account is both useful and necessary It is our Duty to proclaim our Subjection to God and Belief in him by all significative Expressions to testifie it to the whole World and if it be possible perpetuate the Memory of this our Profession to all Ages and communicate the Knowledge of it to all men This Fabricks dedicated to the Service of God do most naturally signifie which are so many standing and lasting Monuments of our Belief in that God to whose Service they were appropriated For this Reason we often find in the Book of Genesis that the Patriarchs erected Pillars and Heaps of Stones to be so many lasting Monuments of their Belief in God and Subjection to him And how graciously God accepted such visible
Scripture is faid to be the footstool of God Upon all these Reasons it was necessary just and convenient that Christ should ascend into Heaven II. And that he really did ascend thither which was the 2d Head proposed evidently appeared from the History of his Ascension recorded in the Gospels and Acts of the Apostles That Body of Christ which the Apostles had felt and handled that with which they had conversed for forty days together that whereof they were assured by many infallible Proofs that it was no other than the material Body of Christ which hung upon the Cross and was laid in the Grave which was united to the Soul again and had performed all manner of vital Actions that very Body they saw ascend into Heaven For that Jesus who had rose again and conversed with them who had led them out of Jerusalem and was visible and present to them till the very moment of his Ascension as he was yet speaking with them was parted from them and carried up into Heaven as we read Luk. XXIV Which refutes the Opinion of those ancient Hereticks who taught that Christ ascended in Spirit only having first put off and returned to the several Elements that Body which he had received from them Again that Body which the Apostles saw and felt to be locally present with them upon Earth they saw soon after to be really removed from the Earth and carried into Heaven For as it is related in the sacred History When he had spoken unto the Disciples and blessed them which being performed by laying his hands upon them testified his real and corporeal Presence with them in that moment in the next moment even while he blessed them he parted from them and while they beheld he was taken up and a cloud received him out of their sight Which proved his Ascension to have been a true proper and local Translation from the parts here below to those above and that at that moment he was indued with a perfectly humane Body whatever glorious Changes it underwent after its Reception into Heaven the Seat of Immortality and Spiritual Beings Other Circumstances deserve to be observed in the History of this Ascension And First Our Lord at his Ascension was pleased to call together many if not all his Disciples and admit them to the sight of it a Favour which was not vouchsafed to them at his Resurrection The Conduct indeed was different but the Reason not unlike in both Cases Both the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ were thenceforth to pass into necessary Articles of Belief to the principal supports of the Faith and Hopes of Mankind both therefore was to be placed beyond all doubt and contradiction by the Attestation of many and credible Witnesses To effect this at his Resurrection it was not necessary that any witnesses should be present since the Actions of Life visibly and in the Presence of many performed by him after his known Crucifixion and Burial abundantly and even demonstratively proved that he was really risen from the Dead They were well assured that some few days before he was truly Dead their Senses assured them that he was now truly alive Whence they might as certainly conclude that he was risen from the Dead as if they had actually seen his Resurrection Whereas in the Case of his Ascension he was to be taken from them no more to be seen by them in this Life no Mortal was thenceforward to see his State of Glory or testifie his Station in Heaven upon which account it was absolutely necessary that his Disciples should be present at his Ascension and be Eye-witnesses of that Action which afterwards they were to testifie and preach to others In the second Place it deserveth to be observed that the Testimony of Angels was added to that of the Apostles Those blessed Spirits far from repining that the Nature of Man in Christ was by his Ascension exalted to a superior Degree of Glory descended from Heaven to bear the glad Tidings of his Arrival there as at his Nativity they had done to proclaim the Descent of the Deity upon Earth For it follows Acts I. 10. Behold two Men stood by them in white Apparel which also said Ye Men of Galilee why stand ye gazing up into Heaven This same Jesus which is taken up from you into Heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into Heaven Nor was this Apparition of Angels an empty Pageant or an unnecessary Addition to the Glory of our Lords Ascension By their Ministry and Attendance they demonstrated the Divinity and Dignity of his Person by their Testimony concerning his Ascension they proved the truth of it The Apostles indeed saw him received upon the Clouds they looked up and followed him with their Eyes as far as their sight could reach but that being terminated in the lower Regions and not able to penetrate into the highest Heavens their Sense could not assure them that their Lord was carried thither To evidence therefore the truth of it it remained that God by these ministerial Spirits should declare it to the Disciples These Angels were wont to Minister before and see the face of God in Heaven they were known to come down from thence They testified that Christ had ascended thither from whence they had descended and thereby perfected the Testimony of the Disciples concerning the Ascension of Christ into Heaven whose sight could not reach so far Farther these blessed Spirits not only brought Evidence to the Disciples of the real Ascension of their Master into Heaven but also gave them Comfort and alleviated their sorrow conceiv'd for his Departure by adding those words This same Jesus which ye have seen taken up from you into Heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into Heaven Elisha had seen his Master Elijah carried up into Heaven yet knowing not certainly how the Divine Goodness would dispose of him and despairing of ever seeing him again he entertained the sight with Grief and in Testimony of it rent his Clothes Nor had the Disciples been free from the same Anxiety without the present Consolations of these Angels When their Lord had before his Death declared to them his Resolution of returning to the Father John XVI they could not dissemble their Grief as himself observeth Verse 6. Because I have said these things unto you sorrow hath filled your heart And immediately before his Ascension still retaining their erroneous Opinion of a temporal Kingdom to be founded by him they had asked him whether he would not at that time restore the Kingdom unto Israel which hopes were totally defeated by his Departure into Heaven Both these occasions of Sorrow therefore the Angels happily do remove in these words They assure them that the Presence of their Master shall not be for ever taken from them but themselves should see him return in the last of days and that they may not imagine his Kingdom to be abolished they
therefore it cannot be revealed by God We must have therefore some rule whereby to direct our Assent and Judgment in this Case and that is very obvious For the understanding necessarily at least reasonably inclining to that part which carrieth the greatest evidence along with it if the Evidence of the Revelation of any Proposition be greater than the Evidence of its falsity we must in obedience to the Laws of reason embrace and believe it But if the Evidence of its falsity exceeds the Evidence of its Revelation we may safely reject it Let us therefore compare the Evidence of both sides Matters of Revelation may concern either finite or infinite Nature Examples of the first sort in the Christian Religion are all such Propositions as relate to the natural Body of Christ Of the second all such as respect the Divine Nature In the first Case which exceedeth not the natural Capacity of our Understandings nothing can be true which may not be fully conceived by us For altho' many Properties and Qualities of finite Beings may lie for ever undiscovered to the natural light of Reason yet when discovered to us they may be easily conceived by us if they carry any truth with them So that whatsoever in finite Natures is inconceivable to us can be no part of Divine Revelation For we cannot imagine any Revelation to be made without an intended Obligation of Assent now since God hath required us to judge according to the greater Evidence he could never require us to believe a Proposition the Evidence of whose falsity exceeds the Evidence of its Revelation And since we are proper Judges of the Nature of finite Beings when discovered to us not to be able to conceive any Proposition relating to them is an unanswerable Argument of the falsity of it since if it were true we should be easily able to conceive it and reconcile it to all other truths and the received Laws of Reason And upon this account the Doctrine of Transubstantiation can never be any part of a revealed Religion But in Matters relating to infinite Beings it is far otherwise In those it is no Objection against the truth of them that we are not able to conceive them as we before shewed The only internal Argument which can be used in this Case against the truth of any Revelation must be founded upon a Contradiction included in it to wit if the Revelation proposeth any thing which destroyeth the Idea of the Object or which is all one introduceth a Conception which cannot consist with it Such would be to affirm there are two or more God's or that he is a corporeal Being and such like For the very Notion of God being no other than that of an infinite and most perfect Being the Primary cause and Author of all other Beings to suppose any other Being independent from him or himself to be capable of Division and Limitation the inseparable Property of all corporeal Beings would destroy the Notion of him In this Case we should affirm and deny the same thing or which is all one Contraries of the same thing wherein consists the absurdity of a Contradiction So that the only internal rule which is left us to judge of any Revelation concerning the Divine Nature is whether or no it includeth a Contradiction either in Terms or by Self-evident consequence For no other consequence can be allowed in this Case since the consequences upon which a Contradiction is to be founded must be of equal evidence with a Contradiction in Terms which is always Self-evident If we apply these Rules to the question of the Trinity it will be no hard Matter to determine it For God being confessedly an infinite Being and the Doctrine of the Trinity a Matter relating to his Nature and Properties we may from hence perceive that we are not to require a distinct Knowledge of it but only whether it be Contradictory And first it is manifest that it includeth no Contradiction in terms For we do not say That there is one God and three Gods which would be all one as to say there is one God and not one God Neither do we say There is one Person in the Deity and three Persons which would be all one as to say There is one Person and not one Person Nor do we say that the Father is the Son at the same time that we say he is not the Son These are the only imaginable Contradictions in terms and these are no part of the Doctrine of the Trinity The consequential Contradictions chiefly insisted on by the Adversaries of the Trinity are these Two 1. If there be three Persons and each Person be God then there are three Gods which is Contradictory to an allowed Proposition there is but one God 2. If these three Persons agree in a third viz. in the Nature of God they must agree among themselves and so there will be but one Person which is contradictory to the Proposition laid down viz. There are three Persons The first Consequence is founded upon this Proposition There cannot be a plurality of Persons without a plurality of Natures The second upon this there cannot be a communication of Natures without an Identity of Persons Now who will say that either of these Propositions is self-evident nay that they carry the least evidence with them since nothing can be evident to us of which we cannot judge and we cannot judge of these two Propositions unless we fully understood the very Nature of God It is generally imagined indeed that it cannot be so in finite Beings but that is no Argument that it cannot be so in infinite Beings nor are we yet sure that it cannot be so in Finite Beings For even in the Soul of Man there is no small resemblance of it where are several Faculties which can operate independently from each other and yet all singly possess all the Properties and Qualities of the Soul consider'd as such as its Immateriality Immortality and such like So in the Deity there are several Persons obtaining distinct Operations but partaking in all the commune Attributes of the Deity such as Eternity Omnipotency and others After all it must be acknowledged by all sober Men that the Difficulties upon which the Adversaries of this Doctrine proceed are far less evident than are the general Motives of Credibility of the Christian Faith as that Christ died and rose again performed many Miracles which were attested and confirmed by his Disciples who were Eye-witnesses of them wrought other Miracles in testimony of them and at last laid down their Lives for the same Cause having first consigned the memory of them to Writing which hath been invariably handed down to us in all Ages These Arguments are plain obvious and certain whereas the forementioned Difficulties are obscure and inconceivable to many and to all uncertain There are indeed many Erronious Christians and have formerly been more who pretend that Christ and his Apostles revealed no such thing
Saviour gave us an eminent Example of this in himself who in that Life which he was pleased to lead on Earth for the Salvation of a miserable and wretched World used none of all those Pleasures which we so much admire and greedily hunt after denied to himself even the Conveniencies of Nature and therein put his Body to greater Hardships than the very Beasts For the Foxes have holes and the Birds of the Air have nests but the Son of Man had not whereon to lay his head As for Pains and Torments which we so much dread and are certainly the greatest Calamities which can attend the Body he willingly underwent them suffered himself to be Crucified as a Malefactor chiefly indeed to appease the Divine Anger and atone for our Sins but in the second place to give us an Example with how great readiness and Patience we ought to submit to all Afflictions and even Death it self when they tend to promote the interests of the Soul If then the Commands of God and the Example of Christ can perswade us if Divine Revelation and the remembrance of the Holy Jesus can move us there is no doubt to be made of this great Truth so plainly taught and revealed in Scripture that I will not any longer insist upon it I pass to the second Proposition that the Interests of the Soul are destroyed by Sin or Disobedience to the Laws of God These Laws were at first given to direct the Soul in the way to Happiness and when complyed with fail not to obtain their End No wonder then if when we neglect these means we miss the End and by pursuing contrary Methods render our selves miserable That ye may the better be convinced of this I will speak of the Effects of Sin upon the Soul in general and of this Sin of Apostacy to which our Text more peculiarly relates in particular As to the first then we may observe That sin is contrary to the very Nature of the Soul which is a rational Being and as such ought to govern and direct its Actions according to the Laws of Reason Otherwise it would be worse than insensible Beings which all perform the several ends of their Creation and by so doing perform the Commands of their Creatour Whereas the Soul in contracting Habits of sin violates the Laws of Reason debases its own Nature rebels against God and overthrows the end of its Creation For for this very end our Souls were created that they should Act as spiritual Beings and govern themselves by the Principles of Reason inserted in them For this Purpose God gave us an understanding to distinguish between good and evil that we might be able to imitate the Perfections of our Creatour in Vertue and Holiness and by a strict Observation of the Rules of Life formed by our Reason at least maintain if not advance our Nature When afterwards through the Ignorance and Degeneracy of Men these Rules were corrupted and our Judgments blinded God gave us a standing Revelation to ascertain to us our Duty and let us know what we have to do The performance of this was the end for which we were sent into the World had Reason given us and a Soul assigned to us To neglect our Duty then or violate it by the Commission of Sin is no other than to deny and disclaim our Nature defeat the ends of our Creation and degenerate into a miserable sort of Beings For as Sin turn'd Angels into Devils so it doth the Souls of Men into somewhat worse than Devils 'T is true they will still continue Souls but that doth but augment their Misery because being immortal they will never cease to be miserable always gnawed with the Conscience of their degenerous Actions and the Horror of their own depraved Natures Secondly Sin destroyeth the very formal Happiness of the Soul which consists in the Love of God the Contemplation of his Attributes and the Admiration of his Perfections as we before proved And in these will consist the Joys of Heaven in a constant and serene Meditation upon the unparallel'd Perfections of our Creatour in an ardent and perpetual Love of him and Conscience of being loved by him Now Sin sets a Man at Enmity with God makes him unworthy his Favour and hinders all such Contemplation For how can we think on him with delight whom we account our Enemy Or how can we not esteem him our Enemy whose Laws we violate and whose Precepts we contemn The Conscience of this Divine Anger alone is a greater unhappiness than can be easily imagined When a Soul is forced to say God hath created me and doth now preserve me but thinks me unworthy of his Benefits and esteems me as the worst of his Creatures 'T is true he gave me Reason and Understanding but they are to my Destruction and Misery I acknowledge him to be an infinite Being worthy of all love and dread but he denieth to me the influences of his Favour doth not indeed annihilate me but 't is because he reserveth greater Punishments for me He put me here into a State of Probation on Earth that I might fit my self to be his Attendant in Heaven but now he hath excluded me from all Hopes of his Favour and destined me to be a Companion of Devils Such melancholly Thoughts will render the Soul truly miserable and not only unhappy but uncapable of Happiness For a Soul corrupted with Sin is no more capable of the Joys of Heaven than is a blind Man of seeing the Light of the Sun They are Delights of a purely spiritual Nature and consist in an intire Conformity to the Will of God so that if Heaven should by an unaccountable Miracle be bestowed upon wicked Men the Pleasures of it would neither relish with them nor be grateful to them Lastly Sin defeats the future Interests of the Soul by excluding it from its intended Reward and engaging it in eternal Punishments For in this Life the Soul is no more than Probationer for another being a Being of it self capable of Perfection and by the singular Mercy of God to be endowed with it So that it Acts here only in order to the Attainment of that great Perfection which we hope for hereafter and by a prudent use of this World gaineth Admittance into the next where it shall be received to the immediate Presence of God and him whom it now views darkly and imperfectly shall then see face to face This will give the last Perfection to our Natures and raise them to the highest pitch to which they can be advanced But Sin depriveth the Soul of this Happiness and thereby permits it not to obtain its end A Loss much greater than Thought can imagine or Tongue express but still greater when considered not only as a bare loss of the Joys of Heaven but a fall into the bottom of Hell where such Punishments will be inflicted as will make the Soul desirous of Annihilation And then the Excellency of its
the Miscarriage of either if it concerns matters of Obedience to himself or of ordinary Duty In which case it is no less Fatal or Criminal to pervert the Understanding than to corrupt the Will and then to plead Ignorance or a mistaken Conscience will be no more allowed than to plead Drunkenness for Crimes committed in that absence of right Reason There is not in all History a more enormous Sin to be found than the Infidelity of the Jews and the Crucifixion of their Messias by them none so severely branded in Scripture or punished with so remarkable a Judgment in this Life Yet our Saviour hanging on the Cross declared that those his Persecutors knew not what they did And altho' he then out of the abundance of his Charity interceded for their Pardon yet the Justice of God would not grant it much less continue to them the former Favours of Heaven And such would have been the visible and publick Preaching of Christ after his Resurrection Farther the Honour of God was engaged herein nor was it agreeable to the Divine Majesty that the Person of Christ after his Resurrection should be exposed to the publick view of the Nation of the Jews Reason did require and all the Prophets had foretold that the Messias should pass through a double State that is of Humiliation and Glory In his State of Humiliation before his Death he had undergone all the Miseries Ignominies and Calamities to which humane Nature is subject He was pressed with the want of the Necessaries of Life was afflicted with the Insults Provocations and Injuries of the Jews was delivered up into the Hands of wicked Men to be treated at their Pleasure To these meritorious Sufferings was to ensue a State of Glory wherein Christ should be placed far above the Rank and the Power of mortal Men should be exempted from the infirmities of Nature and enter upon an everlasting Kingdom This State of Exaltation was begun in his Resurrection perfected by his Ascension and continued without interruption to all Ages It was not then agreeable to the Divine Honour that the Sacred Body of the ever Blessed Jesus now exalted to a State of Glory should be again subjected to the Attempts and Persecution of the Jews That it should be exposed to the rage of Men and reduced to his former mean Condition Yet all this could not have been avoided if Christ had appeared publickly among the People after his Resurrection The same Hatred and Persecution would have returned unless he had pleased by a Miracle to rescue his Body from their Attempts A Miracle indeed was no less easie to his Almighty Power than any other ordinary Operation Yet the Honour of God is concerned not to work Miracles but for great Reasons and the Impiety of that People deserved not to have a Miracle conferred on them Or had Christ appeared openly among them even altho he could have been secured from their Persecution it must either have been in his former meek and humble Habit and as such they would have despised him or what they greedily expected as a glorious Prince armed with Power and temporal Greatness and that was contrary to his Design who declared his Kingdom not to be of this World Nor in this respect only was the publick appearing of Christ after his Resurrection contrary to his Design for which he came into the World To have then publickly manifested himself for this purpose to have removed the incredulity of the Jews and convinced them of the Truth of his Mission would have been to have continued his Prophetical Office after his Crucifixion For therein did his Prophetical or Ministerial Office consist in declaring the Will of God in preaching of Repentance in converting of Sinners This Office was to expire with his Life and after his Resurrection his State of Glory and therewith his Regal Office was to commence Upon which account himself when ready to expire upon the Cross said It is finished All the parts of his Ministerial Office were now fully compleated not to be personally renewed again He had performed all that the Divine Wisdom had determined to be effected by him in Person towards the Conversion and Salvation of the World the rest he was to commit to his Apostles and their Successours Himself was no longer to remain in the form of a Servant which he had taken on him but entring upon his Kingdom to govern that Church which he by his former Preaching and Death had founded I proceed to the second Proposition namely II. That even if Christ after his Resurection had appeared and conversed Publickly it would yet have failed to produce an universal Conviction and remove all Doubts This is undeniably manifest in respect of our selves for whom we are most concerned and of all Ages subsequent to that time For allowing that the whole Nation of the Jews had been ocular Witnesses of the Resurrection of Christ yet all other Persons both of that and all succeeding Ages would have had no other Proof than what we now have that is the Testimony of those who saw him after his Resurrection All others even in that case would have equally wanted the Demonstration of Sense and must have depended upon the Relation of others So that all the certainty which any can have of Matters seen and related by others we have unless we imagine that five hundred cannot as certainly judge of a plain Matter of Fact as so many millions And even if so many millions had seen it we should not have expected that every one should severally commit it to writing and so testifie it to us we must still have relied upon the Testimony of some few Historians and that in this case we have So that notwithstanding the number of ocular Witnesses was then confined to five hundred we who were not Blessed with that Sight have the same Evidence of it as if all the Members of Mankind then living had seen it Whatever force therefore the Objection might have in that Age it hath none in ours We have sufficient Arguments offered to us to prove the Truth of it equal and even Superiour to those upon which we believe the Truth of any Matter of Fact which our selves did not see And if we reject these Arguments it is not probable that even Demonstration would move us if it could be had For whatever Men may pretend in excuse of their Infidelity it is most certain that he who will not believe what is proposed to him upon reasonable altho ' but probable Motives will not even yield to Demonstration if the Truth proposed opposeth his Lusts and Passions And this indeed is the true cause of all those Doubts which unreasonable Men produce in defence of their unbelief It would be too gross and shameless to assign the true Cause and alledge that they will not submit to the Yoke of Religion because it checks their Vices restrains their Lusts forbids the Gratification of many beloved Passions They
Miracle wrought by him was yet present to confess he came in the Flesh while his Body was yet visible to acknowledge his Resurrection from the Dead when the Senses of every Man proclaimed no less all this would have been so slight an Argument of the right use of Reason so little deserving any Commendation or Reward that it would be no more than the necessary result of the Faculties and even not in the Power of the Will to avoid But when the Object is removed from the Sense and yet discovered by Reason when the Eye doth not see what the Affections still embrace when the Soul ceaseth not to hope upon probable and just Motives what it never received by Demonstration of Sense this is indeed a noble Act of right Reason worthy of a spiritual Being and worthy of a Divine Reward And such a Reward hath our Lord annexed to it pronouncing Joh. XX. 29. Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed This Blessedness Christ by his Ascension hath communicated to the whole Church which without that had wanted the Qualification of a rational and well grounded Faith to acquire the Favour of God Further the Ascension of our Lord and therein his Exaltation to the supreme Degree of Glory was in Justice due to his precedent meritorious Sufferings which are therefore assigned as the cause of his Exaltation by St. Paul Phil. II. He made himself of no Reputation and took upon him the form of a Servant c. wherefore God also hath highly exalted him c. The Humility manifested by him in his Incarnation in the whole Course of his Life and in his Passion infinitely surpassed all the Examples of former times That the Son of God should vouchsafe to descend from his Seat of Glory in Heaven to leave the Bosom of the Father and cloath himself with the Infirmities of humane Nature that in this Nature he should not take upon him the Majesty of a Prince nor so much as allow himself the ordinary Satisfactions and Pleasures of it but live an afflicted Life and die a shameful Death and all this for his own Creatures who far from deserving such a Favour from him had rebelled against him from their Creation would lay violent hands upon themselves and continue their Contempt of his Authority till the Dissolution of all things this was such an extraordinary Humiliation that none other but the Son of God could have effected And therefore was in Justice to be Crowned with such a Reward as none but the Son of God could receive namely that that Body which had been thus depressed should be raised above all Creatures should be placed above Angels and Archangels should be advanced to the immediate Presence of God should for ever remain united to the Divine Nature and therewith be translated into the principal Seat and Throne of the Deity that is into Heaven Lastly To name no more Reasons it was necessary for Christ to ascend into Heaven that so he might fulfill all righteousness perform all which the ancient Prophets had foretold of the Messias or he had denounced of himself It was long since Typified by the Ceremonies used by the High Priest among the Jews in the Day of Propitiation which represented the Final Attonement to be made by Christ for the Sins of the World It was commanded by God that the High Priest should enter but once every year into the Holy of Holies that is upon that Day when with the Blood of the Sacrifice he passed thro' the Tabernacle and the parts of it into that place It was a received Opinion among the Jews that the Holy of Holies represented the Heaven of Heavens and the Tabernacle this visible World From which Opinion joyned with the legal Ceremonies of that day it appeared as the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews argueth IX 11 12. That the High Priest of the good things to come by a greater and more perfect Tabernacle not made with hands was to enter into the holy place having obtained eternal Redemption for us That he should lay down his Life as an Expiatory Sacrifice for the Sins of the People and being slain should pass thro' all the Stages of this World here below and ascending into the highest Heavens the Throne of the Divine Majesty should there present his Blood Blood of that inestimable value as need not be shed and presented every year but as he once appeared in the lower World to put away sin by the Sacrifice of himself so once for all he ascended into the higher Heavens not to appear again until he shall come in the Clouds with Majesty and great Glory to judge the quick and Dead The same was fortold by the Prophet David Psal. LXVIII 18. and from thence urged by St. Paul Ephes. IV. 8. Thou hast ascended up on high into Heaven as it is in the common Acceptation of the Original word thou hast led Captivity Captive thou hast received Gifts for Men. A Prophesie which notwithstanding all the Pretences of the Jews can neither be applied to Moses nor to Joshua nor to David himself nor to any illustrious Conqueror of that Nation who never ascended into Heaven but to Christ alone who really and bodily ascended into the highest Heaven unto the Throne of the Majesty of God By his Death and Resurrection he subdued Sin Death Hell and the Devil and in his Ascension visibly triumphed over them and led them Captive When that Body which by the Sacrifice of it self had destroyed Sin was in Reward of that meritorious Suffering advanced into Heaven there to be continually present with God when that Body which had been subjected to Death and afterwards was raised from it received now a certain Proof of its Immortality was raised into Heaven where is no place of Corruption left when the Captain of Man's Salvation visibly ascended unto the eternal Place of Happiness having first Promised to draw all his faithful Followers after him and from whence he dispensed the precious and glorious Gifts of the Holy Ghost to the Sons of Men. If these Prophesies and Types foretelling and prefiguring the Ascension of the Messias should seem obscure yet it cannot be denied that the Messias was to receive a glorious Kingdom This we are well assured the Nature of our Lords Office the Design of his Coming the Dignity of his Person permitted him not to receive on Earth and therefore it was necessary he should ascend into Heaven there to take Possession of it It had been a mean Reward to his Humility Patience and Sufferings preceding his Resurrection to have been advanced to a temporal Kingdom to be dignified with a Reward common oft-times to the worst of Men. The greatness of this World was inconsistent with his Design the Pleasures of it were contemned by him and that Divinity which was no longer to be clouded or depressed but to shine forth in its full Lustre could find no fit Habitation upon Earth which in
add that he shall return in like manner as they saw him go that is in Power and great Glory as our Lord describeth his coming to Judgment Matth. XIII 26. It will be of little use to inquire into what part of the Heavens the Body of our Lord was translated yet not unfit to observe that our Lord is said to have ascended into those Heavens by which the most glorious Presence of the Divine Majesty is in Scripture expressed Thus it is said of him Ephes. IV. 10. He that descended is the same also that ascended far above all Heavens and Hebr. VII 10. That he was higher than the Heavens and Heb. IX 12. passing into the holy place even into Heaven it self to appear before the Presence of God that is he was advanced to the same state of Glory with God the Father his Body was translated to the place of his more immediate Presence in Heaven which is fully expressed by his sitting at the right hand of God To determine the place whether in the third in the fourth or above the Heavens is rash and unwarrantable But this we may be assured that whatsoever part of Heaven is the immediate residence of the Divine Majesty whatsoever Region is most Holy whatsoever Place is of greatest Dignity in those Celestial Orbs thither Christ ascended and there now Reigns in Glory III. The Advantages which the Church and all the Members of it received from the Ascension of Christ are many and great The first and most eminent Benefit derived from it was the Mission of the Holy Ghost of which I spoke before A Benefit which was indeed more sensible in the Apostolick times when it communicated to many the gift of Tongues the power of working Miracles or a prophetick Spirit but is at this day no less advantageous since by the Influences and Operations of the Holy Ghost the Church is still maintained the Faithful are enabled to perform their Duty and the unfaithful are converted Thus the Ascension of Christ became a lasting Benefit to all his Followers procuring to them those Graces which otherwise could never have been obtained The Ascension of Elijah made one Elisha left a double Portion of his Spirit with one Disciple to be communicated to no other but the Ascension of Christ was of universal Benefit producing blessed Effects which should extend to all Believers and to all Ages A second Benefit of the Ascension of our Lord is the Confirmation of our Faith which from thence received firm Assurance of the truth of his Doctrine and the Divinity of his Person He had proclaimed to the unbelieving Jews as well as to his own Disciples in the VI. of St. John that he would ascend into Heaven What and if ye shall see the Son of Man ascend up where he was before After his Resurrection he said unto the Women Go to my brethren and say unto them I ascend unto my Father and your Father It was not therefore unexpected to the Apostles they were acquainted with his Resolutions herein and when they faw effected what he had before foretold them they could no longer doubt that he was the true Messias Thus although the prophetical Office of our Lord expired upon the Cross all his subsequent Actions offered convincing Arguments to Mankind of the truth of his Mission and the certainty of those things he taught No greater Proof of either could be imagined than his Resurrection from the Dead and when to this was added his Ascension into Heaven there was no more place left for doubt Thus the Faith of the Apostles was confirmed by the Ascension of Christ but their Hopes were much more exalted By this glorious Triumph they saw him put into Possession of that ample Power which they so long wished to be assumed by him which might enable him to reward his Followers and effect those Promises which he had made to them In John XIV he had told them there were many Mansions in his Fathers house and that he went before to prepare a place for them intending to receive them afterwards to himself that where he was there they might be also The former part of the Promise they saw to be effected in his Ascension and thence conceived assured Hope that the latter would be accomplished There can be no greater Motive to believe the truth of Prophecies or Promises than to consider the performance of those which went before The same foreknowledge of our Lord which foresaw the Exaltation of himself could as easily foresee the like Reward to be given to his Followers and the same Power which advanced him to the right hand of God could exalt whomsoever he pleased into Heaven So that his Power could not be questioned and his Will therein he had often declared assuring them Joh. XII 32. When I am lifted up from the Earth I will draw all Men unto me Herein the Hopes of all Mankind received increase and strength They had all impatiently wished for Immortality it was easie to believe that their Souls should still exist but their Bodies were equally parts of themselves They were equally concerned for the future Happiness of both yet that either should be hereafter Happy they were assured only by the Revelation of Christ. He affirmed it he promised it he confirmed it by wonderful Signs and Miracles yet it could not but seem strange that Flesh and Blood should inherit the Kingdom of God that such a gross corporeal Being should be admitted to the Society of Angels that Man who was excluded from an Earthly Paradise should be taken up to the immediate Presence of God All this did seem incredible till they saw an Example of it in the Body of Christ which consisting of the same Flesh and Blood partaking of the same Nature was visibly received into Heaven and placed in eternal Happiness By this they were convinced that the like Immortality of their own Bodies was not impossible and while they considered the Promises of Christ and their own Relation to him that he was the first Fruits of humane Nature their forerunner which is entred into Heaven for them the Captain of their Salvation and the Head of their Society they were fully satisfied that it should in time be granted to them since what he foretold of his own Ascension they saw effected since it was but natural to follow their Captain their Head and their Forerunner and with him to be received into the place of their desired Happiness Farther as Christ is our King and our Priest the Benefits which we hope to receive from either of those his Offices received increase by his Ascension into Heaven As King he is thereby invested in the actual Dominion of his Church enabled to bestow upon her all those Graces and extraordinary Assistances which are necessary for her Well-being As our Priest his Intercessions with God the Father in our behalf are made much more prevalent by his personal Presence with him Under the Law the Efficacy of
the Propagation of it Afterwards for several Ages the peaceable Principles of the Gospel seldom wanted their effect in private Christians And even wrought so far in publick Societies professing Christianity that for more than five hundred years after Christ it is certain that Christians never warred against others of the same Communion Nor is the blessed Effect of it wholly expired in these degenerate times Witness that great number of Christians which still frequent the Holy Sacrament of whom it is charitably be to supposed that none presumes to approach this holy Table without an entire Resolution of forgiving Injuries and maintaining Peace with all Men. The last part of the Angels Doxology is Good-will towards Men Which expresseth much more than Reconciliation of God to Man implying no less than his favour and kindness to them using the very same word in the Original which God did of his Son when he said of him This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased The Incarnation of Christ and therein the Assumption of the humane to the Divine Nature so far propitiated God in regard to Men that he not only forgave their Sins and was reconciled to them but also admitted them to his Favour made them capable of even preter-natural Happiness even of enjoying himself in Heaven Insomuch that he who had once thro' abhorrence of their Sins repented himself that he had made them and resolved that his Spirit should not always strive with them did now adopt them for the Darlings of his Creation and as the Original word in the Text implieth even took Pleasure in them vouchsafed to Honour theirs by joyning it to the Divine Nature in the Person of his Son and therein raised it to a degree even above that of Angels not only admitting them to that Pardon of past Sins which was never vouchsafed to the Angels but also sending the Prince of Angels and the Lord of Glory to take human Flesh upon him who afterwards ascending with it into Heaven should thereby consecrate the whole Mass of Mankind of which his Body was the first Fruits and thereby make it capable of the same Glory And surely no greater Argument of the Good will of God towards Men or of his delight in Mankind could be desired than to raise them to the Society of himself in Heaven This was the Effect of the delight which he testified to take in his beloved Son the utmost Reward of his obedience that he advanced his Human Nature to his own right hand in Heaven for his Divine Nature was placed there from all Ages and for his Sake admitted all those who should imitate his Life and Obedience to the same Glory The possession of Heaven wherewith the Human Body of Christ is now invested is an Argument that our Nature is capable of it and an Earnest that we shall in due time be raised to the same Honour For Christ our forerunner is entred into Heaven for us Yet are we not left without other visible Pledges of the same hope more particularly this blessed Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ wherein is lively represented the Truth of his Human Nature and our relation to it The Bread declares his Body the Wine his Blood the breaking of the Bread the Mortality of his Body the pouring out of the Wine the shedding of his Blood to purchase Redemption for Mankind The Distribution of both to every Communicant manifests that they are peculiarly concerned in all this that they are Members of the Mystical Body of Christ and by receiving his Figurative Body are assured of obtaining in due time the same Happiness with his true Body now in Heaven By these Figures of his true Body we openly profess our Belief of his Incarnation that he really took Human Flesh upon him for our Sakes and not only in appearance as was the vain Imagination of ancient Hereticks for that cannot be so much as represented which is not real We acknowledge his Divine Nature at the same time by that Adoration both of Mind and Body which ought to accompany this religious Action We profess our Belief that he came in the fulness of time and that in time all the ancient Prophesies were fullfilled in that we celebrate the very time of his Coming as the Intention and the Offices of this Festival directs Lastly We secure to our selves the Benefits of this wonderful Mystery if we do all this with sincere Faith Repentance and Charity So shall we give occasion to the Holy Angels to renew their Hymn to sing Glory to God who is honoured by this Devotion and Thankfulness of his Servants Peace on Earth wherein Men are hereby reconciled to God and to each other and Good-will towards Men who are hereby admitted to the Favour of God and will be hereafter to the Fruition of him Which God of his infinite Mercy Grant FINIS