and Erroneous Conceits in Religion I say are more pernicious to it and hateful to God than direct Opposition and Blasphemy against it and Turks Jews and Infidels have not hindred the Progress and Propagation of the Gospel so much as the Scandalous Dissensions and the Unsutable Lives of the Professors of it And all this while the Ways and Modes of serving God are not the Service of God it self but Holiness Righteousness Charity Obedience Meeknees Peaceableness and the like All Manners and Forms of Worship are good that are consonant to Scripture conduce to Edification and establisht by Just Authority I say and establisht by Just Authority for 't is not allow'd to Private Men to be the Fashioners or Chusers of the Publick Way of Worship if this were permitted the Issue would be only Confusion and the Dissensions about the Circumstances of Religion would destroy the Substance and Essentials of it Christ laid not down his Life to establish these or those Rites or Forms of Worship but as himself professes To destroy the Works of the Devil And this is that which ought to be the Business and Concern of his Followers that about which all their Care and Sollicitude should be employ'd against which their Anger and Animosity should be directed I say to abolish Sin and to make Vertue and Piety flourish in the Earth And they that lay not the Weight and Stress of Religion in this are Impertinent and Trifling in the Faith and Impious in their Zeal they understand not the most Material and weighty Part of their Profession and instead of receiving an Euge or Well-done from Christ at the last Day they will receive a Check or Increpation as the Blessed Virgin did in my Text and not only so but a Renunciation and a Condemnation God give us Grace to be Wise in a Wise Religion and Holy in a Holy Faith and to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost be ascribed all Honour Glory and Thanksgiving now and for evermore Amen The Fourth Sermon DAN ix 26 And after threescore and two Weeks Messiah shall be cut off but not for himself THIS is one of the most clear and most Illustrious Predictions of the Passion of our Lord which is contain'd in Scripture it comprehending not only the several Stages of his drawing near to the World for its Redemption his Advances and Pauses but unfolding also the wonderful Mystery and seeming Contradiction in it viz. That the Salvation of the World should be wrought by the Cutting-Off or Destruction of its Saviour the Son of God made subject to the Violence and Out-rages of the Sons of Men. I call'd the Words a Prediction but I might have styl'd them a Description or Register of all the Passages in that strange and astonishing Transaction they declaring the Design and Circumstances the How and for Whose behalf and the precise Time however obscurely of the Death of the Messiah However therefore at this Day every Child is catechiz'd and perfect in this Point of Chronology imperante Augusto natus est Christus imperante Tiberio crucifixus est Christus in the Reign of Augustus Caesar Christ was born in that of Tiberius he was crucifi'd and none needs to have recourse to the dark Calculations of remote Ages for this matter yet with good Reason we may look back to Prophecies when they are fulfill'd and scan Aenigmatical Speeches even after they are expounded For though this seems to be seeking of Light in Shades and Darkness the retiring back again into Night and Obscurity after the Day-spring from on high hath visited us yet not only much Confirmation but much Illustration of things Believ'd may be fetcht from the remote Springs of Antiquity for not only the Evangelists write the History of Christ but also the Law and the Prophets in many things Evangelize as the Prophet Daniel does in my Text And after threescore and two Weeks Messiah shall be cut off but not for himself We may observe in the Words these two General Parts I. The Angels Prediction to Daniel of the Death of the Messiah or Christ After threescore and two Weeks Messiah shall be cut off II. His Correction of what he had said or rather Direction for the right understanding of his Prediction and to prevent misappreheâ—â—â—on He shall be cut off but not for himself In the first of these two General Parts the Angels Prediction I shall observe more particularly two things The Substance of it the Excision of the Messiah he shall be cut off And the Circumstance of the Time of it when it should come to pass After threescore and two Weeks I begin first with the Substance of the Prediction He shall be cut off This Term of cutting-off does usually imply in Scripture three things 1. The untimely destroying a Person from the Land of the Living 2. The destroying him as a Criminal or Malefactor 3. The destroying him by God himself and if not always immediately yet by his Appointment I shall give but one Proof of this of the many that might be brought Exod. 31.14 God gives this Charge by the mouth of Moses Every one that defileth my Sabbath shall surely be put to Death that Soul shall be Cut-off from among his people In which Words are exprest the Person 's untimely Death that he dyes as a Criminal and that God is the Author that dooms him to it Now Death is call'd a Cutting-off for two Reasons First Because a Cutting-off is the discontinuation of a thing from that to which it was before united or Secondly A shortning of it from the Measure it had or would have arriv'd to Thus the Untimely Death of a Person is the shortning of the Days he might have liv'd to and the separating him from the Society of the Living of which he was a Member And however strange and wonderful it is such was the End of the Messiah after all the glorious Prophecies and magnificent Elogies relating to his Person and his Kingdom as that he should be call'd The Wonderful the Mighty God the Everlasting Father the Prince of Peace that his Dominion should reach to the Ends of the Earth and to the End of Time he was Cut-off and Extinguisht like a Mortal Man after the fashion as the Psalmist speaks of common Princes Ye are styled Gods but ye shall dye like Men. Like Men nay he dy'd like a Malefactor and by God's Sentence and Decree And it was upon the account of his Tragical End and the misunderstanding of other Predictions of him especially that one Christ shall live for ever that both the Jews of old despised him and those of these Days blaspheme him calling him from the manner of his Death and the Structure of his Cross The Warp and the Woof It was by reason also of his Ignominious Death that the Heathen derided and reproach'd our Holy Faith saying We believ'd in a hang'd Man But neither Jew nor Gentile had any just Cause of Exception against
diligent Execution of his Apostleship Feed my Sheep And the Method which our Lord here prescribes to Peter must be observed also by us in advancing the Kingdom of God When thou art converted says he strengthen thy Brethren We must first set up the Kingdom of God in our own hearts before we attempt to erect it in others As he is unfit to be a Teacher that is not first well instructed himself So he is not fit to be a Reformer that is not first reform'd himself for his Evil Manners will certainly defeat his Sermon and instead of making others righteous by his preaching he will render himself ridiculous 'T is a Noble Undertaking to bring others to the fear of God but 't is an indispensable Duty to serve God our selves says S t James He that converteth a Sinner from the Error of his ways shall save a Soul from death that 's an Heroick Action and shall hide a multitude of Sins that 's a necessary Concern Self-reformation is the most Effectual Step we can make to promote God's Glory 't is such a Giantly Step as I may say as reaches from the Setting out of the Course to the End of it 't is like the first Step of the Sun above the Horizon which darts Rays to the furthest Circumference of it and fills the whole Hemisphere with Light and Vigour which these Words of our Lord seem to allude to Let your Light so shine before men that they may see your good Works and glorifie your Father which is in heaven Nothing so illustrates the Gospel nothing so powerfully converts Sinners and brings them to glorifie God as the Holy Lives of the Faithful But I urge not this to exclude other Endeavours to propagate Righteousness but to shew the great Force and Prevalence that Righteousness has to produce Righteousness I proceed to the Objects of our Love which are two God and our Neighbour 1. God Saint John speaks as if there were some difficulty in this Part of our Duty Our loving God says he He that loveth not his Brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen Implying though the Ear be Janua Scientiae the Gate of Knowledge the Eye is Janua Amoris the Gate of Love and that to excite this Passion 't is requisite some Visible Beauty be display'd But we may say to this Though we do not see God yet we may love him by what we see and hear of him nay with good reason we may be the more enamour'd on him because his Perfections transcend not only our mortal Senses but even all humane Conception and thus we may fall in love as Blind Men often passionately do by report and hear-say But more particularly there are three Motives why we should love God comprehended in the very Object The Lord thy God 1. Because he is God For that 's the Name of the highest Excellence and Perfection and they are only Glorious and Illustrious things that stir Love and Admiration in us we run not out to gaze upon Common Persons but upon those that are famous for Greatness Learning Beauty Prowess and the like Now there is nothing Rare or Admirable of any kind but 't is in God in its Fullness and Perfection and for this reason Epicurus though he believed no Providence or that Men received any Good or Evil from the Gods yet he adored them and sacrificed to them merely because they were Glorious Beings Had we no other Cause to love God but for the Stupendous Perfections that are in him it were sufficient But we have greater reason to love him from the Second Motive Because we have the Honour of Relation to him he is The Lord Our God The Psalmist thought it a high Obligation to praise him because he was created by him I will praise thee because I am fearfully and wonderfully made But we have not only the Obligation upon us of Creation and Conversation which is a kind of continual Creation in common with all Creatures to love God but other Extraordinary and Distinguishing Favours viz. his calling us to the Knowledge of the Faith and the Blessed Consequences attending it and this ought to tune our Harps yet higher and to be the Subject of many Hymns and Psalms more But then Thirdly Our greatest Motive of all to love him is Because he Redeem'd us after we were lost restor'd us when by our Sins we were in a manner uncreated again when we had defac'd the Image of God in us our Innocence and Righteousness forfeited all our Felicity and were become the Bond-slaves of Satan then he rescued us from Eternal Damnation and made us again the Children of God So that as he is Deus or God to all Mankind to Christians he is also over and above Dominus a Lord i. e. a Redeemer and Saviour There is nothing so much obliges as Love and Benefits Celsus the Physician speaking of Philtres or Love-potions says Amor est naturale Philtrum Love is a Natural Love-potion and more powerful than those that are compounded of Drugs and by Incantations The most stupid of Creatures the dull Oxe and Ass the wildest and fiercest the Lion and Tyger are brought to love by good Usage though they know not the Nature of a Man they know if they receive Meat at his hands and be well treated by him and will love him and be obsequious to him And men were more insensible than the Brutes if when they have received of the Riches of God's Bounty and Goodness they refuse to love him because they have not seen his Person and cannot comprehend his Essence And God Isai. 1.3 complains of this stupid Insensibility in Israel The Oxe says he knoweth his Owner and the Ass his Master's Crib but Israel doth not know my people do not consider We love God as S t John says because he loved us first he began with us and our Love to him is at best a Gratitude or Retaliation if therefore the innumerable and inestimable Benefits of God work no return of Love in us to him we deserve not only to have our Names rased out of the Number of Men but to be allowed no place among the better natur'd Beasts but to be rang'd with Devils who are the only Enemies of God for his Goodness and Haters of him for that which is Excellent and Amiable in him The next thing I am to shew is In what Measure or Degree we are to love God The Words of the Commandment are Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Soul with all thy heart and with all thy mind On which three Expressions Commentators have many Observations and Criticisms but more nice than profitable for as Saint John says of the three that bear witness on Earth the Spirit the Water and the Bloud these three are one so I may say of these three Expressions in the Commandment however diversify'd that in importance they are but One and may be summ'd up
necessarily be a Consequence of his by the very Law as I may say of the Body or the Inseparable Conjunction of the Limbs to one another for it is not possible that the Head should be quickened and the Body mortified that the Head should be raised to Life and crowned with Glory and the Members remain in Death and Dishonour And 't is on this account that Christ is said To be the First-fruit of those that Sleep and not only in regard that none went before him but the First-fruit in relation to them that were to follow after him The First-fruits in the Law were Part of the Fruits of the Season one Sheaf of the Harvest which being lift-up and consecrated to God in the Name of the rest sanctified the Whole Crop So Christ being lift up as the First-fruit of the Dead consecrated and sanctified the Whole Harvest of the Dead And as Saint John says of every true Believer in point of Impeccability He cannot Sin because the Seed of God abideth in him i. e. none can be a Child of God's and a customary Sinner for these are irreconcileable So we may affirm with unspeakable Comfort in the point of our Immortality A true Believer cannot be held in Death because God's Seed abideth in him i. e. Death and a Seed or Principle of Immortality are inconsistent with one another And thus we see we have not only Matter of Congratulation for Christ's Victory over Death and the Grave but the highest Cause of Jubilee and Rejoycing for our own Deliverance from this heavy Curse and Punishment of Sin As Sin subjected us to the Dominion of Death the Spirit of Sanctification breaks the Bonds of the Tyrant asunder and enables us to conquer this Conquerour of Mankind as Disobedience shut the Gates of Heaven against us Obedience sets them open again Holiness of Life in the Faith of Christ in this World is the Ticket whereby we receive Happiness and Immortality in that to come The Young Phoenix is said to spring out of the perfum'd Ashes and Reliques of the Old but though this be never so fabulous I am sure we shall be renewed and quickned to Eternal Life from the perfum'd Reliques of a Holy Life the remaining Good Works and Graces the Spirit of God wrought in us which as S t John says can never dye but will follow us into the other World If therefore we give our selves up to be led and governed by the Spirit of Christ in this Life conform our selves in all things to his Divine Will if the Spirit of Christ conducts us safely to use the Psalmist's Expression through Fire and Water i. e. through the Sharper Tryals of Afflictions and the Softer Allurements and Temptations of the Flesh and the World he will carry us also safe through the Regions of Death and the Grave pass us indemnified by the Gates of Hell and neither the Malice of Devils the Weight of our Tomb-Stone the Load of our Flesh or the yet greater Load of our Infirmities shall hinder but our Bodies shall be raised and so winged that they shall overtake their Souls and be joined to them that took their Flight so long a time before them and both of them together shall be transported in Triumph to Heaven and crown'd with Immortality and Glory the Assurance and Pledge of which Christ has given us this Day in his own Resurrection To God the Father Son and Holy Ghost be ascribed all Honour Glory Worship and Thanksgiving this Day forth and for evermore Amen The Seventh Sermon PSALM ii 6 Yet have I set my King upon my holy Hill of Sion WIsdome does not only do her Works well but perceives that she does so delights in their Beauty exults in remembrance of the master'd difficulty and triumphs over the conquer'd Opposition Thus God stood-off as 't were from his great work of the Creation when he had finish'd it applauded and bless'd it prided himself as I may say in his noble performance in that he had brought Light out of Darkness Order out of Chaos a World out of nothing In the like manner when he had here compos'd the Distractions and Confusions both in the Church and State of Israel by establishing David literally and Christ mystically on the Throne of the Kingdom he glories in having brought about his great Design laughs at the fruitless Opposition of his Adversaries at home and abroad of the Philistines the Moabites the Ammonites the Damascens the Amalekites of the King of Zoba and of all the turbulent and ambitious Spirits of the House of Saul delights to recount their Might and their Machinations the more to signalize their Overthrow and to make his Victory illustrious For after all their rage their malice their Counsels their Combinations their seeming successes against him the Issue was this Yet have I set my King upon my holy Hill of Sion We may observe in the Words these three things I. The Person establisht My King i. e. David Literally so called and Christ Mystically II. His Establishment I have set my King upon my holy Hill of Sion III. God's Glorying in the Fact that he had done it with such a Non obstante notwithstanding such Opposition and Contradiction Yet have I set my King I. The Person establisht My King God's King Not only holy Scripture but the Writings of Heathens declare Kings to be Sacred Persons descended more immediately from the Gods and more particularly depending on them Kings are from Jupiter says Callimachus and nothing ever descended more sacred from him And Theocritus Kings are the special Care of the Gods And this Epithet's affected by Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God lov'd Kings Indeed all Kings in general are God's derive their Authority from him govern by his Permission and Providence as himself testifies By me Kings Reign But then he delights in a more especial manner to style Good Kings his to appropriate their Persons and owne their Causes to interpret all things done to them as done to himself as at Verse 2. Why do the Rulers take Counsel together against the Lord and against his Anointed Conspiracies against the King are reckoned Conspiracies against God the resisting his Anointed the resisting himself And thus if it be a Glorious thing to be a King 't is a Blessed to be a Good King for as splendour attends Majesty and Greatness protection and safety and felicity and the love of Heaven attend Righteousness But let us see why David is here more particularly call'd God's King than others The First Reason we may say was Because he was a King of God's Making because he brought him to the Throne having no Title by Birth to it à Caulis Ovium tuli te I called him from the Sheep-hook to the Sceptre And as those Persons which are of our Election preferring or favouring we call Ours this is my Scholar my Souldier my Officer because he was of my nomination my chusing my advancing so David was called God's King
the Pusillanimity or Undisciplin'd Temper which soever it is of such Believers one of whom could say If our Misfortunes proceed from our Enemies we ought to bear them with Fortitude if from God with Patience Others again expound Why does a living man complain a man for the punishment of his Sin Why does any man complain or murmur at his Punishment and not rather at himself for doing such things as brought the Punishment upon him In this Variety of Interpretations I shall adhere to that which I toucht upon in my Introduction as the fullest and most comprehensive of the rest viz. Why does any man amuze himself with idle and fruitless Bewailing the Punishment of his Sins and not rather set to remove the Punishment by putting away his Sins Or as the Prophet speaks By searching and trying his ways and turning again to the Lord. And so the Words have these two Parts I. A Condemnation of the Course which Men ordinarily take under God's Judgments sent on them for their Sins They complain II. The Recommendation of a better Course which is To search and try their Ways and turn to the Lord. I begin first with the Prophet's Condemnation of the Course Men ordinarily take under God's Judgments sent on them for their Sins They Complain The Complaint of a man under the Punishment of his Sins may be blameable in many Respects and deserve the Check imply'd in this Question Wherefore doth a living man complain But I shall insist only on three 1. It may be blameable in respect of the Complaint it self For if it be a mere Complaint without any Endeavour to get out of the Misfortune 't is either an Action without all Design and Purpose and so is irrational and foolish or else it pronounces that there is no Redress of the Evil a man lyes under and then the Complaint is false for there is no Case and Condition at least of a Faithful Person so miserable as to be also Desperate and helpless but as Saint Paul says of Temptation That God will not suffer his Servants to be tempted above what they are able but will with the Temptation also make a way to escape So in the Punishment of Sin God does not inflict any so irreversibly that there is no Evasion out of his Displeasure but if the Sinner make due Application to his Goodness he will remove it or so support and comfort him under it that it will countervail a Deliverance That therefore which is here tax'd in the frequent Practice of men is a lazy fruitless bemoaning themselves as if they were excluded all possibility of future Comfort as well as the present possession of it a vain and affected Delight to ask our Prophet's Question Chap. 1.12 of all they meet but without just cause Was there ever Sorrow like my Sorrow wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me insinuating that great Severity is exercised towards them which they have not deserved and that they are of the Number of the Innocent that are afflicted of the Noble that are Unfortunate and they complain in this fond manner till at last they grow in love with their Complaints find a Consolation in the Want of Consolation the conceived Singularity of their Condition converting their Disasters into Glory and a kind of Shadow of Comfort But if these Persons in the mean time would search their own Hearts and make Inquisition into their Lives past they would find Cause enough for God's Wrath and confess that their Sufferings were the least part of their Demerit and their Plumes of Vanity would flag and sink this fond Imagination That Satisfaction was rather due from God to them than from them to God would be changed into a sad Repentance and they would seek a Solid Comfort by humbling themselves before his Divine Majesty in Sack-cloth and Ashes and not in the vain Complacencies and Ravings of an abused Fancy But such is the Folly of men like the Prodigal Son before he came to himself they set themselves to feed on Husks when in their Father's House the very hired Servants have their fill of Bread they mourn and suffer misery when Musick and Feasting a Ring and Robe of Honour i. e. the highest Content is prepared for them and attends only their sueing for it 2. Mens Complaints may be blameable and reproveable in regard of the Persons against whom they make them Men commonly complain against Fortune as if the World were governed as blindly as they govern their particular Affairs against their Enemies when their Enemies have no more power over them than their Sins give them and God over-rules the most Potent Malice and makes a Good Mans Enemies to be at peace with him they complain against themselves as if their Misfortunes proceeded only from some false or imprudent Step which they had made and that they were the Efficient as well as Meritorious Cause of their Sufferings or what is yet worse and more dangerous they charge themselves with Unkindness to themselves that they are not indulgent enough to their own Content deny themselves the Satisfactions that are in their power and this makes them often seek to drown their Cares as they call them in Wine to alleviate their Misfortunes by Debauchery as Thetis in the Poet perswades her Son Achilles to comfort his approaching Fate with the enjoying of young Women But Sin is a sad Refreshment of Sorrow and the Enlargement which men endeavour to procure from the Arrests of God's Judgments by letting loose the reins of Lust is like the Relief an Hydropick Person seeks in large Draughts of Drink which gratifie his Thirst but quench withal the little Spark of Life remaining to him and remove not his Distemper but make it incurable Or else we may liken this wicked Course which Men take to ease their Sorrows to Saul's seeking Counsel from the Witch when the Oracles of God were silent he learned by such his Apostasie his approaching Destruction but he assured it also The Church of Rome has as many appropriate Saints as they have Needs and Distresses and every Complaint of theirs has a Patron to redress it S t Christopher at Sea S t Roch in the time of Infection S t Anthony when their Cattel are diseased our Lady of Good-Succour for Women in Child-bed c. But God is all the while pass'd by and all these that I have named deservedly forfeit Help from him that can only give it while they perversly seek it where 't is not to be had 3. Mens Complaints may be blameable in respect of the Nature or Manner of them when though they be rightly Addressed i. e. to God yet the Complaint it self is not Right not qualify'd with the Conditions God requires with Faith Holiness Humility c. First If men complain without Faith they complain to God as they do to their Fellow-Creatures they tell him a Tale of their Wants and Discontents unload their Breasts of their Evils but find no Redress and we
our Lord for his Violent and Untimely Death I say there was nothing strange or hard to be digested by either of them in this thing For 't was the Practice of them both to sacrifice the Innocent for the Guilty the Unoffending Victimes for Offending Men Nay 't was usual among the Gentiles for the Noblest and most Sacrosanct Persons their Kings and Generals and holy Virgins to devote themselves to Death for the Preservation of their Country Why then should the Devoting of Christ for the Salvation of the Whole World be held irrational and foolish by them Why did they despise in another Religion what they held Honourable in their own And the Jews had yet less reason to be scandaliz'd especially the most Learned among them who were yet only offended who saw their Messiah daily slain before their Eyes in so many Rites and Mysteries the Paschal Lamb the Scape-Goat the Goat for the Sin-Offering in a word all their Expiatory Sacrifices were Prefigurations of Christ's Passion Beside those that were Learned were sensible That the Way of propitiating God by the Bloud of Beasts was of it self Irrational and had no Efficacy in it but as it related to the Bloud of Christ. The Jews therefore with less reason than the Gentiles disclaimed the Messiah coming in the Guise of a Sacrifice and drencht in his own Bloud when 't was his Bloud alone that sanctify'd all their Forefathers and their own Offerings and distinguisht their Temple from a common Shambles or Slaughter-house The reason that the Cross of Christ has given such Scandal in all Times and that so great a Part of the World have thought it Monstrous That a Divine Person should undergo an Ignominious Death arises from the Slight Apprehension Men generally have of Sin and their ignorance of the Malignity of its Nature they look upon it as a mere Transient Act and think that the Guilt of it passes away as soon as the Fact they have no Unkindness to their own Wicked Ways and fansie God has none neither that any Trifle will make Compensation for them or that God will pass them by without any Compensation at all But if they would weigh the Odiousness of Sin to God by its Contrariety to his Holy Nature and the fearful Judgments he has denounc'd against it and that it cannot go unpunisht if God be just and true i. e. if God be God Again if they would consider that the Greatness of an Offence arises in proportion to the Greatness of the Person Offended and then compute what would be a Competent Satisfaction for offending an Infinite and Eternal Deity they would not think it monstrous ut medela responderet morbo that a Divine Person should be found only worthy to do Right to a Divine Person Men may well be astonisht at the Goodness of God and adore his Mercy that he vouchsaf'd to give his Son to be a Ransom for Sinners but none can justly wonder that he requir'd so Honourable an Amends for the Violation of his Majesty or that a less Sanctity than Christ's was sufficient either to intercede for or to Counterpoise the Guilt of the Whole World But as there are those that despise the Cross of Christ and count the Bloud of the Covenant as the Apostle speaks an unholy thing so there are those again on the other side who are no less Enemies to it by ascribing to it what was never the Will or Meaning of our Lord that they should and these are of two Sorts Those of the Church of Rome who Superstitiously and Idolatrously Worship the Cross ascribe to it the Power of driving away Devils conferring Divine Graces and the like The others are those among us who teach That since Christ has Suffer'd all Guilt and Condemnation for Sin is taken away in respect of Believers like those in the Apostles time who affirm'd That after the Faith of Christ was once entertain'd all that was necessary for Salvation was perform'd and men need not be sollicitous for their future Behaviour whether 't were Righteous or Unrighteous But S t Paul Heb. 10.26 stops the mouths of all such as thus pervert the Grace purchas'd by Christ's Death If we sin wilfully says he after we have received the Knowledge of the Truth there remains no more Sacrifice for Sin but a certain fearful looking for of Judgment and fiery Indignation As if he would have said Although Christ cannot be Cut-off any more in his Person yet he may and will be Cut-off again in the Fruits and Benefits of his first Cutting-off from those that abuse them Which Words though spoken of Apostates to the Faith will hold true also of Subverters of the Faith And there is a Passage in this Chapter of Daniel before us well worthy the observation of all those who sin now presumptuously under the Gospel which is this When the Angel had reveal'd to Daniel the Time when the Captivity in Babylon should expire and that the People should return and rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple and not only so but that the long-promis'd and much-desir'd Messiah should be given them and the Prophet thought all was now well and nothing could be added to the Felicity of the Nation immediately it follows that after so many Weeks again for the succeeding Transgressions of the People the so-long'd-for Prince and Saviour the Messiah should be cut-off as if he had never been So that he should be given in a manner and not given unto the Nation but be the Cause of a Second and Greater Destruction than the foregoing Captivity even the final Rejection of the House of Israel And 't is dreadful to consider that the giving of a Saviour to many Christians shall have the like Success that by reason of their Presumption of I know not what Favour and Election of God's and their Continuance in their Unreform'd Lives this Blessing shall be turn'd into a Curse and He that was cut-off For them shall be again cut off From them and the Private State of their Souls like the Publick State of the Jews shall be much more Calamitous after their Redemption than before And now what Use shall we make of this first Branch the Substance of the Angels Prediction the Excision of the Messiah He shall be cut off Shall I exhort you after the manner of the Church of Rome to set before you Pictures of our Lord's Passion representing his macerated and dilacerated Body hanging on the Cross between two Thieves and attended by his Virgin Mother fallen into a Swoun and expect that the like Effects of an o'r-whelming Sorrow may be seen in you No I shall rather desire that all such Pageantry and Ostentation of misplaced Grief may be remov'd far from you and as our Lord directed the Women who wept for him when he bore his Cross to Mount Calvary to spend their Tears on the right Object Daughters of Jerusalem weep not for me but weep for your selves and your approaching misery So let