by whose Power the Soul of Christ was rejoyned to the Body 2. Christ was the Author of our Salvation the Founder of a revealed Religion and therefore it was not possible not convenient he should be holden of death The Resurrection of Christ was to be the ultimate and chief Proof of the Divinity of his Mission and Authority of his Revelations so clear a Testimony that the Reason of Man should not be able to withstand the Evidence thereof To this therefore he at all times refers as to the last and greatest Proof of his Mission This was the only Sign which he would give to the Jews demanding a Miracle in Confirmation of his Authority that as Jonas was three days and three nights in the Belly of the Whale so the Son of Man should be three days and three nights in the heart of the Earth Upon this he had fixed the Expectation of his Disciples and of all his Hearers and by this he was to set the Truth of his Doctrine and the Divinity of his Person beyond all Contradiction Had he left his Body in the Grave after all these Assurances the Jews might have insulted over his Disciples with as much Reason as Christians do over the Followers of Mahomet who promised to rise again after a Thousand years little imagining that his Name or Religion should continue so long in the World although now after more than a Thousand years expired the Impostor still lieth in Hell Had Christ not risen again the Apostle confesseth 1 Cor. XV. 14. Their preaching had been vain and your faith also vain But when so illustrious a Testimony of Divine Authority hath intervened when Heaven it self hath declared it so eminently to deny Assent would be to fight against God The Jews in the most violent Execution of their Hatred and Malice engaged to believe on him if he would come down from the Cross and save himself It had been no less easie for our Blessed Lord to have descended from the Cross than to have ascended from the Grave But first the Design of his Sufferings did not permit it since he was to lay down his Life as an Expiatory Sacrifice for the Sins of the World and then he would not suffer the Exercise of Divine Power manifested in restoring himself to Life to Labour under any doubts Had he descended from the Cross before he died he could not have attoned for the Guilt of our sin Had he descended immediately after his Death it would have been pretended that he had not died yet even this they would have Confessed to be miraculous but perhaps referred the Cause of it as they did his former Miracles not to a Divine Power but to Magical Operation Whereas this Pretence did wholly vanish in the Miracle of his Resurrection Since no Magick or Diabolick Power remaineth after Death In short so great was the Evidence of the Divinity of Christ arising from his Resurrection so undeniable the Fact and so important that the Apostles in all their Sermons imployed this as the chief Argument of Conviction And when they chose Matthias to the Apostleship described his Office to be no other than to witness the Resurrection of Christ. God had more than once before his Crucifixion declared him by Voices from Heaven by constant Miracles to be his Son yet so far is the Evidence of this inferiour to that Proceeding from his Resurrection that he is in many places said to have then adopted Christ for his Son because he then eminently declared to him be so As Acts XIII 33. The Promise made unto the Fathers God hath fulfilled in that he hath raised up Jesus again as it is in the Psalm II. Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee And Rom. I. 4. Jesus Christ our Lord declared to be the Son of God with Power by the Resurrection from the dead He was from all Eternity his Son as to his Divine Nature he was from the Incarnation his Son as to his Humane Nature but the Truth of this appeared to the World chiefly in his Resurrection 3. By the Resurrection of Christ we are assured chiefly that we also shall rise again and therefore it was not convenient that he should be holden of Death Christ had promised to his Disciples That where he was there they should be also When he therefore rose from the Dead and ascended into an incorruptible State of Glory they then raised their Hopes and conceived full assurance of Immortality Till then Mankind had found by long Experience that there was no Redemption from the Grave and by this alone could be convinced that either their Nature was capable of Immortality or that God would vouchsafe to confer it on them They might perceive in the Person of Christ the Dissolution of Death the Capacity of their Nature and the Favour of God and then considering their own Relation to Christ might hope to partake of the same Happiness Christ is the Head of his Church and what more natural than for the Members to follow their Head He was by his Resurrection declared to be the Son of God and himself hath often promised that his faithful Followers should be Co-heirs with him He is called the first born from the Dead the first fruits of the Resurrection which being accepted by God Entitled the whole Mass the whole race of Mankind to the same Favour Only it is required and that justly if that we desire to follow him in his Resurrection we must also imitate him in his Death For so the Promise runs in the whole VI. Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his Death we shall be also in the likeness of his Resurrection If we crucifie our Sin as it is there expressed if we as fully forsake all vicious Habits as he who dieth is bereaved of vital Actions if farther we imitate the Death of Christ in the Perfection of it that as he died but once but liveth for ever so we henceforward be dead unto sin but alive unto righteousness then we may reasonably assure our selves that we shall follow the Example of him the forerunner in our Resurrection which we have so nearly expressed in our Death we are then truly Members of himself the Head being made conformable to his Sufferings we are sanctified by the gracious Acceptation and raising up of him the first fruits of them that slept while we inviolably continue our Relation to him Others indeed were before him raised from Dead to Life as those raised by Elijah Elishah and by Christ before and at his Crucifixion But these were all to die again and so thereby gave no assurance of immortality to Mankind It was Christ alone who being raised from the dead dieth no more who in behalf of Mankind hath taken Possession of immortality which he hath acquired for us and will communicate to us unless we chuse rather to imitate the imperfect Resurrection of those mortal Men
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
were poured out upon the Apostles in so illustrious a manner as the Jews could not but take notice of the exact Completion of his Promise of sending the Comforter not many days after his Ascension in such a manner as drew the eyes of all the Inhabitants of Jerusalem both Jews and Strangers upon them and tended no less to demonstrate the Power than the Truth of Christ. The second Prediction indeed that of his Resurrection was fulfilled fifty days before but became not an Argument of Conviction to the Jews till now as being not till now publickly attested by the Apostles who were the Witnesses of it The Report of his Resurrection had been indeed rumoured in Jerusalem which put the Sanhedrim upon that shameful Device of corrupting the Soldiers who guarded his Sepulchre but the certain and publick Knowledge of it was not delivered till the Apostles were enabled and enboldened to proclaim and testifie it to the whole World by those Gifts which they received upon this day After the exact Completion of these Prophesies and the authentick attestation of them no excuse remained to the Jews whereby to extenuate their unbelief according to the Rules laid down by Moses they were now obliged to acknowledge Christ to have been a true Prophet and the true Messias and were convinced of their hainous Sin before commited by them in the Rejection of his Doctrine and Crucifixion of his Person the horror of which Sin might induce them the more readily to believe in Christ and lay hold of his Merits that so they might obtain Remission of it Otherwise they were to expect the most severe Execution of Divine Vengeance for their wilful obstinacy and disbelief as Moses had assured them in the same place Deut. XVIII 19. And it shall come to pass that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name I will require it of him This Sentence and therein the Prophesie of Christ was in a most eminent manner executed and fulfilled in the Destruction and intire Desolation of the whole Nation of the Jews about forty years after the Ascension of our Lord whereby the Apostles and Disciples of our Lord then alive acted by the Holy Ghost were farther enabled invincibly to plead his Cause against the opposition of the unbelieving World both Jews and Gentiles For however the Mission of the Holy Ghost and the Consequences of it did more especially convince of Sin the Jews who were then alive and had been guilty either of rejecting the Preaching or contriving the Death of our Lord yet it contributed no less effectually to manifest the Unreasonableness of all both Jews and Gentiles who either in that or in all Ages to come should reject the Faith of Christ when proposed to them For the Belief of him was to be proposed to all Creatures under Heaven and confirmed by Arguments drawn from hence which were so rational and convictive so clear and demonstrative that they could not be rejected without the most extream Perverseness and if rejected the Holy Ghost should hereby plead the cause of Christ against them and convince the whole World and their own Consciences also if rightly judging that in rejecting the Gospel they had sinned against their own Souls and that nothing remained to them but a certain fearful Expectation of the fiery Judgment to be most justly inflicted on them The second point of which the Comforter was to reprove or convince the World was of Righteousness the reason of which is assigned in the 10th Verse Because I go to my Father and ye see me no more The Justice of God had to the eyes of Men been clouded when he permitted his only begotten Son to be delivered up and crucified by wicked Men when he abandoned him to the Rage of his Enemies and rescued him not from the Insults of the Jews by an extraordinary Interposition from Heaven The Majesty of the Deity seemed then to be eclipsed and suffer diminution when subjected to the Contradiction and Affronts of unreasonable Men. Men naturally expect that God should even in this World declare in behalf of oppressed Innocence either by rescuing it from the Malice of its Enemies or taking a severe Revenge upon the Oppressors of it And even Christians who have a better and more certain Knowledge of the Methods of Providence cannot but expect and are allowed so to do that if no Discrimination be made between the Good and the Bad in this life yet at least that it shall be in the next when Innocence shall be crowned with Rewards which shall be enhanced by Patience in Sufferings and Violence chastised with Punishments which shall be so much the sharper if reserved intire to another World if no part of them be inflicted in this This a faithful Christian expects from the Justice of God and this the Scripture assureth them Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you and to you who are troubled rest 2 Thess. I. 6. And God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour Heb. VI. 10. If then this Justice may be securely hoped for from God by all the Members of Mankind how much more by the Son of God whose Person was of infinite Dignity his Sufferings fraught with the highest Aggravations of Misery and his Persecutors guilty of the most enormous Wickedness That the Justice of God might be therefore vindicated herein that Sin might no longer triumph and Innocence pass unregarded God exalted his Son to his own right hand seated him in the Heavens gave him Dominion over all things crowned him with glory and worship The knowledge of this was published to the World by the Mission of the Holy Ghost by whose Direction and Assistance the Apostles openly testified the Ascension of their Lord and by which all might be convinced what Place and Power Christ now obtained in Heaven who could showre down such glorious Gifts and Priviledges upon his Followers on Earth These were so many undeniable Testimonies that the Malice of his Enemies was defeated that our Lord was yet alive set above their reach and Insults and not only so but invested with supreme Majesty and Dominion able to protect his Church and punish his Enemies that his former Sufferings had not been then more calamitous than his present State was now glorious that if God had for a time withdrawn in appearance his Favour and Protection from his Humane Nature he had now in recompence exalted it to an eternal Throne in Heaven The last thing of which the Comforter was to reprove or convince the World was of Judgment and that for this reason Ver. 11. Because the prince of this world is judged It is a Principle even of Natural Religion that God is the supreme Judge of the World and that of invisible as well as visible Beings The Devil who is frequently in Scripture called the prince of this world had now for many Ages exercised an
uncontrouled Tyranny in the World He had withdrawn the far greatest part of Mankind from the worship of the true God and caused the worship of himself to become the publick Religion of all Nations except the Jews Even the Jews he had often seduced to Idolatry and Disobedience to the Divine Commands and had newly instigated them to imbrue their hands in the Blood of their Messias All these enormous Crimes this continued Rebellion against God and particularly the last and greatest the Death of Christ did require from the Judge of all the World a severe Punishment which is therefore called Judgment in the Text because a Sentence proceeding from the Rules of Justice This Sentence was to be executed under the Gospel of Christ as we are told above in the XII 31. Now is the judgment of this world now shall the prince of this world be cast out The Execution of it was to be performed by the Preaching of the Gospel which should destroy the Powers of Hell free Men from the Captivity of Sin and withdraw the World from the Worship of Devils This to those proud Spirits was the sharpest Punishment which could possibly be inflicted and this was begun by the Mission of the Holy Ghost and carried on and compleated by the Gifts and Graces derived down and continued to the Church from his blessed Influence From the Blessings of this day it was that the Apostles received Abilities and Courage to preach the Gospel to the uttermost parts of the Earth to beat down the strong holds of Sin to ruin the power of Satan to turn Men to the Knowledge and Obedience of God From the Continuation of these Blessings the Church hath been always defended from the secret and open Assaults of these infernal Spirits the Governors and Ministers of the Church have been enabled to preach the Truth and discharge their Office successfully and all the Members of the Church have been established in the Faith and supported against all the Temptations of wicked Spirits So eminently did God upon this day exercise Judgment upon the Prince of this World that thenceforward his Kingdom continually decreased his Oracles were silenced his Altars abandoned his Worship relinquished his Disciples diminished until a glorious Church was founded in all parts of the Earth which by a solemn Engagement her Vow in Baptism professeth Enmity unto him Upon all these accounts did the Holy Ghost as a most faithful Advocate at his first Mission plead the Cause of Christ against his Adversaries whether the Devil or the Jews his Persecutors and upon the same accounts doth that blessed Spirit who was promised to remain with the Church till the end of the World and execute the Office of Advocate till the Consummation of all things still continue to plead the Cause of Christ against all his Enemies and that he should do so is highly requisite The Devil still assaults the Church by open Force or secret Temptations and to these the Holy Spirit opposeth his Gifts and Graces Infidels and Hereticks still profess Unbelief to the Doctrines of it and to these he opposeth the same Arguments of Conviction which were before manifested to have proceeded from his Mission All these remain yet in their full force Lastly even in the bosom of the Church among the Professors of Christianity are many to be found against whom it is necessary that the Holy Spirit should still plead the Cause of Christ which they discredit by their Sins and blaspheme by their Lives crucifying afresh the Lord of life and putting him to an open shame In that no less guilty than all those Enemies of Christ which the Holy Ghost at his first Mission was to convince For did the Jews disbelieve the Doctrine of Christ before the undeniable Confirmation added to it in the Mysteries of this day These Men by their Actions proclaim their Unbelief even after the Reception of this Confirmation Did the Spirit of God take so much pains to manifest the unerring Justice of God in the distribution of Rewards and Punishments After all these Men live insensible of either slighting his Rewards and defying his Punishments Did Christ come into the World and die a painful Death Did God exert his Power in so many Miracles Did the Holy Spirit descend as upon this day to put an end to the Empire of the Devil These Men by Perseverance in Sin endeavour to re-establish it in the World and do effectually restore it in their own Souls Justly therefore may this Eternal Advocate implead these Men before the last Tribunal I have conveyed the Knowledge of the true God even to these Sinners I have convinced them of the Truth of the Christian Faith at least they will pretend themselves to have been convinced I have nourished this Knowledge by causing the Holy Scriptures to be writ for their Edification I have endeavoured the Improvement of it by the constant Exhortation of those my Officers which I have settled in the Church I have assisted it by the grant of all necessary Graces as often as desired yet notwithstanding all this they have lived as if they knew not of it much less as if they were convinced of it All my Graces and Sollicitations of them have produced no other effect than to render their Sin the more hainous in that they have wilfully disobeyed my Commands slighted my Directions contemned my Exhortations and stifled my Motions All false Perswasions which might betray them to Sin and Disobedience I have long since corrected If they imagine the Disbelief or which is all one the Neglect of my Doctrines to be no hainous Crime I have long since convinced the World of Sin If they fancy God not to be an unerring and infallible Judge in the Dispensation of Rewards and Punishments I have long ago reproved the World of Righteousness If they pretend the Temptations of the World the Flesh and the Devil to be irresistable I have long since judged the prince of this world taken away his Kingdom and limited his Power These then are the most criminal Enemies of the Name of Christ who being by me convinced of their Duty to obey his Laws refused to perform them who serving under his banner and kindly intreated by him deserted his Service and delivered up themselves to his and their own Enemy from whose Tyranny I had before freed them What then shall we plead in behalf of our selves at that dreadful day Shall we alledge want of Conviction That we pretend not to or if we should the Holy Ghost hath by the Wonders and Benefits of this day effectually confuted that pretence Shall we say that we believed not God to have been in earnest when he allured us with Rewards or threatened us with Punishments That Plea is removed by the Assertion of the Righteousness of God made upon this day Or shall we excuse our selves with want of extraordinary Assistances and Graces of the Holy Spirit enabling us to perform our Duty and overcome
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
presumptuous Opinion of a peculiar unaccountable Love of God dispensing with the Necessities of these Conditions in any one or indulging to him more than to another Such are the Presumptions indeed and such is the ordinary Success of Favorites on Earth where Favour is often distributed not according to the Merits but the Fancies of Men. But with God it is otherwise the Reasons of whose Favour are certain fixed and universal Equally distributed to all who shall perform the Conditions of it bestowed on none who shall not qualifie himself by performance of these Conditions May we all therefore upon a full Conviction of the impartiality of God in the distribution of his Favours seriously apply our selves to the acquisition of 'em by the ordinary and certain Means Then shall we not doubt to obtain our Desires the assurance of which our Lord giveth to us in this blessed Sacrament that as surely as we here eat his Flesh and drink his Blood so surely will he compleat his Promises to us of Happiness hereafter The Sixth SERMON PART I. Preach'd on the 1st of Sept. 1689. At LAMBETH CHAPEL 1 Pet. V. 8 9. Your Adversary the Devil as a roaring Lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour Whom resist stedfast in the Faith IT is not the least Benefit of the Christian Religion that it makes known to Men the Causes and Occasions of that depravity of Nature and proneness to Sin that aversion to their Duty and readiness of complying with unlawful Suggestions which all discover in themselves All cannot but take notice that it is not without Labour and Difficulty without assiduous Care and Vigilancy that any habits of Piety or Vertue can be formed that it cannot be without strugling against the natural Desires and over-ruling the Propensity of the Soul when negligence alone or letting loose the Reins to the natural Appetite will produce an habit of Vice Whereas if we consider the nature and the end of Man we might rather hope the contrary since the performance of his Duty is no more than the end of his Creation and all things naturally tend to the acquisition of their end And Vice being a deviation from that end doth thereby become unnatural Yet the Experience of that Depravation of the Will of Man which we complain of is so undeniable that it hath put Men in all Ages upon enquiring into the Causes of it Some resolved it into Fate others into the contexture of the Body some into the malign Influences of the heavenly Bodies and not a few into the innate Principles of the Soul But as all these Conceptions were gross in themselves they could give no satisfaction to the Mind of Man and the matter would have still continued to have been Unaccountable without the assistance of Revelation Nor doth all Revelation clear this Doubt In the Jewish Religion little light was added to it it is Christianity alone which fully manifests the Causes and Occasions of this Unhappiness and as the discovery of Diseases facilitates the Cure of them thereby enables us to avoid or at least overcome the Contagion of it The Occasions manifested by Revelation only are two the Corruption of our Nature succeeding the fall of Adam or Original Sin and the temptation of evil Spirits or Devils The knowledge of both is of great concernment to us that so we may be able to apply fit Remedies to them yet the nature of both is little known by the ordinary Sort and frequently mistaken by the more knowing Sort of Christians I intend at this time to discourse of the latter taking occasion from the words of the Apostle who enforceth his Exhortation of Sobriety and Vigilance from the consideration of the constant Danger whereto Christians are exposed by the perpetual Snares and Temptations of the Devil who as their Adversary walketh about seeking their Destruction from the violence of Rage and Force wherewith he assaults the Faithful denoted by comparing him to the most terrible of Wild Beasts when enraged as a roaring Lion and from the miserable Consequence of being seduced by him which is to be devoured by him as utterly deprived of spiritual Life and Happiness as that Man is of natural Life who is devoured by a Wild Beast For Your Adversary the Devil as a roaring Lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour Whom resist stedfast in the Faith Which Words will oblige me to treat of I. The manner and method of the Temptations of the Devil II. Our Duty Ability and Means of resisting him First then Altho' the manner whereby the Devil tempteth us be very obscure as are all the Actions of immaterial Beings and altho' it becomes us not to determine rashly what we do not certainly know yet our enquiries herein will be Lawful while guided by Reason and useful because teaching us a Matter which doth so nearly concern us rectifying our Mistakes which may be fatal to us and convincing the opposition of unbelieving Men who mock at this Article of our Belief And here it is not my present purpose to prove the Existence of such evil Spirits For altho ' the common and constant Opinion of Mankind herein produced by their visible Effects doth render it highly probable altho' the nature of Things and the Existence of other immaterial Beings differing only in accidental Qualities prove it to be possible and altho' Divine Revelation added to all these hath put it beyond all Doubt yet it is not my design to improve and urge these Arguments since we enquire not after the Existence of Devils but the Manner of their Operation It will however be necessary to speak somewhat of their Nature and the Motives which induce them to busie themselves in tempting Men. Their Nature is the same with that of the blessed Angels from whom they differ no otherwise than as bad from good Men save that as the Purity of Angels exceedeth that of the best Men So the Wickedness of Devils exceedeth that of the worst Men They were once at their first Creation of the same Order with Angels endued with the same Faculties and enjoyed the same Happiness but when through Pride and Ambition they rebelled against God disobeyed his Commands forsook that Station wherein he had placed them and aimed at higher Dignities they were deprived of their former Happiness and thrown down from Heaven That whereas before they were infinitely happy in reflecting upon the Purity of their own Nature the Favour of God and that perpetual Communication of Light and Joy which the Angels may be supposed to receive from God in extraordinary Emanations they having now debased their Nature by violating the end of their Creation drew upon themselves the displeasure of God and being deprived of the Fruition of any Divine Illuminations were reduced into that State of Darkness which the Scripture describeth The thoughts of this Loss could not but infinitely disquiet them as soon as they perceived the Disappointment of their ambitious Designs and as they
Nature will be so far from helping it that it will infinitely aggravate the sharpness of its Pains For its Immortality will render them eternal and its Understanding will heighten the sense and feeling of them In this Life Sinners often are pleased with their own miserable Condition and Fancy themselves seated in Paradise when environed with Pleasures and glutted with Enjoyments They can stifle the Dictates of their Consciences and securely make use of their imaginary Happiness But in Hell their fire is not quenched and their worm dieth not The Sharpness of their Torments will not suffer them to rest And if those should be extinguished yet will they still be tormented with an inward Fire so much the more violent because then they will be certainly convinced in Judgment that they acted against their own Interests and the plain Rules of Reason in running the Danger of eternal Punishments for the sake of a few gross and trifling Pleasures We may next consider the peculiar influence of that Sin which our Saviour here chiefly intends This is the Sin of Apostacy or denial of the true Religion against which Christ fore-arms his Followers by inculcating this necessary truth of preferring the goods of the Soul to those of the Body For this foul Sin is ever committed for some temporal End being too odious to recommend it self without some outward Advantages Men deny not their God out of a dislike or disbelief of him but to secure to themselves a Fortune in the World prevent some Inconveniencies or gratifie some Lusts. This is a Crime of the same Nature and Contagion with Idolatry under the old Law For to worship a false God is the same thing as to deny the true one and the first cannot be done without the latter How heinous God accounted this appeareth from the whole Tenour of the Mosaick Law which is chiefly directed against this Sin alone All the Writings of the Prophets are employed against it and all the Judgments which God ever inflicted upon his People of Israel are solely owing to this Cause Insomuch as there is no Record left in sacred History of any Pardon ever granted to the Commission of this Sin And indeed a wilful Apostacy from the true Religion dissolves the very Union between God and Man and leaves no place for Pardon Such a Person openly by his Act proclaims to the World that he will have nothing to do with God bids defiance to him and disclaims his Pardon It would prostitute the Divine Mercy and make it cheap and easie to bestow it upon such execrable Villanies which do violence to Heaven and are the very last Efforts of Impiety This cannot but degrade the Soul from its Affinity to God and debar it from all nearer approach to his Presence We cannot hope to have any Interest left in God after a denial of him nor can without Horror entertain any remembrance of him How then shall we make our Souls happy with the continual Meditation of his Perfections or please our selves with the Hopes of the future Fruition of him In that Case it will be our Interest to banish all thoughts of God and remove from our selves as far as possible all Considerations of a future State that so we may not be alarmed with the dread of an angry God and the Terrors of future Torments Thus a denial of God against the Light of our own Consciences doth not only render us unhappy but causeth us to endeavour to become yet more unhappy by a total and wilful stifling of all Thoughts and Meditations of God in which alone true Happiness consists And this is true not only in the Case of notorious Apostacy when any one openly renounceth his Religion and denieth his belief of the true God which Case in these peaceable times of the Church doth not often happen but also in the Commission of every deliberate Sin which in truth is a no less formal Apostacy from God than that before-mentioned where the Sinner puts in the Scale the present Pleasure and Convenience of the Sin with the future Consequence and Divine Prohibition of it and after having weighed each rejects the Command of God of which he is very Conscious and prefers the present Satisfaction of the Sin This is done in every deliberate Sin and this is indeed a no less true Apostacy than an open denial of God For this we may be assured that whosoever upon a deliberate Choice prefers the seeming Pleasures of any sin to the Command of God would never foregoe all the Pleasures of this Life and even Life it self in obedience to the Will of God It remains that I make some Application of what hath been said First then if the Interests of the Soul be much greater than those of the Body and the Happiness of the Soul consists only in the due Contemplation of God and the possession of Piety and Vertue let us endeavour to render our Soul even in this Life as Happy as we possibly can It is not reasonable that all the Cares of our Life should be employed in providing Necessaries or rather Superfluities to the Body or attending to the Pleasures of it That no farther use should be made of the Soul than to serve as a Slave to the Body to heighten its Enjoyments and refine its Pleasures Let us remember that we carry about with us a more noble Being which deserveth our Care in the first place and cannot be neglected without the loss of Happiness May not God justly say to Mankind I have given to you great and Celestial Souls endued with wonderful Perfections and capable of much greater when rightly cultivated your Bodies I formed from the Clay of the Earth but your Souls I sent down from Heaven the one I permit to return to Corruption but the other I have invested with Immortality How justly might I expect that you would have valued these two according to their several worth and Dignity That you should not indeed starve the Body nor Tyrannize over it but however attend chiefly to the Concerns of the Soul that it might not fall short of that Happiness which I intended for it nor be deprived of those spiritual Enjoyments which it is capable of But alas Man is turned back and grown foolish employeth himself with all his Diligence to procure Pleasures for his Body rises early sits up late and eats the bread of carefulness to heap up Riches for the Continuation of these Bodily Enjoyments makes this the only Business of his Life and thinks of nothing else As for his Soul he makes it a Slave to his Body refuseth to receive Directions from it and sometimes forgets that he hath any What shall we answer to these Expostulations of God I fear we cannot plead Innocence Our Actions and the whole Course of our Lives demonstrate the contrary We are continually busie about enlarging our petty Acquisitions in the World we trouble and turmoil our selves about the Conveniencies of the Body but
his own immediate Power or by those Commissioners to whom he hath delegated part of his Power Not to prevent the Justice of God herein and forestall his Judgment For that is the meaning of those words But rather give place unto wrath Leave room for the Wrath or just Anger of God against such Sinners to take place and display it self Do not you therein arrogate to your selves the Office of a Judge and by pretending to punish the Offender prevent the Punishment designed by the proper Judge The Reason follows and that not new but delivered many Ages since in the Old Testament For it is written Vengeance is mine I will repay saith the Lord. I am the Supreme Judge of the World the Lord of all Mankind To me only as such it belongeth to execute Judgment and punish the demerits of Men. Whosoever takes upon him to avenge himself violates my Authority and invades my Office An hard Lesson this as it should seem to restrain the natural Passions of Man to forbid the returning of Evil to avowed Enemies to tye up the hands of Men and that not only as it may happen from retaliating past Injuries but also from preventing future Wrongs Nay to reluctant Minds this generally appears and is represented as yet more Difficult as destroying the Peace of the World taking away the means of Self-defence and exposing the Observers of it to the Injuries and Tyranny of all other Men. Yet if the Matter be well considered nothing is more reasonable or more conducing to the Peace of the World that as it may be universally affirmed of the Doctrine of Christ that it is in all things agreeable to humane Reason and the Law of Nature so more eminently it will appear in this point to have restored the depraved Notions of natural Reason and to have introduced a right Sense of the Duty of Man in Relation to the suffering and returning of Injuries To clear this we must first fix a right Notion of Revenge and it will then be manifest that the Execution of it belongeth to God alone And here in the first place Self-defence is to be distinguished from Revenge the want of which distinction hath mightily promoted the cause of Revenge while all the Arguments which warrant a Self-defence Men have employed in Assertion of Revenge Christianity forbids not those lawful means of Self-preservation which Nature allows and hath not herein in the least abridged the Priviledges of Mankind It is still lawful to repel force with force to seek the Preservation of Life and Fortune even with the Destruction of an Adversary if it can be obtained no other way provided that this Priviledge be never employed to the disturbance of the publick Peace of the World or in opposition to those lawful Powers to whom both Life and Fortune are subjected So far was God from disarming his People in this Case and forbidding to them the means of Self-defence that he often exhorts them to fight their Battels Couragiously sent them Prophets to conduct them endued their Commanders with Wisdom and Valour and was even Content that his own positive Precepts should yield to Self-defence when the latter could not be maintained without the Violation of the former as in the Case of fighting on the Sabbath day A plain Argument that Self-defence is not only permitted by God to Men but even commanded to them otherwise it could never take place of a positive Divine Precept and that it is a Sin to neglect the lawful means of Self-prefervation In the Gospel our Lord bids us indeed If any one smites us on the one Cheek to turn to him the other also and if he takes away our Coat to give him our Cloke also But all this as it appears from the Context to have been spoken in opposition to that eager Prosecution of Revenge which was familiar to and thought lawful by the Jews so it plainly amounts to no more than this that rather than to endeavour Revenge properly so called rather than to delight in the Misery of an Enemy retaliated by us upon him we should suffer a yet much greater Loss that it were more preferable to endure a double Injury than to contract the guilt of Malice or Revenge Otherwise our Lord who professeth it far from his Intentions to alter the least Tittle of the Moral Law hath neither forbidden nor discountenanced a Self-defence when free from Revenge and Malice On the contrary he hath ratified and approved and even instituted the Civil Magistrate for St. Paul calls it the Ordinance of God and put the Sword into his hand on purpose to punish Malefactors and repel the Injuries of one Man from another by violence For upon this Principle of Self-preservation all Government is founded and every Act of it every Punishment inflicted on a Malefactor is done in Prosecution of the same Design Thus doth not this Self-defence in the least interfere with the Prohibition of Revenge since it necessarily includeth not Hatred or desire of Revenge or if it should include it it hath passed its Bounds and is to be called by another name The sole end of Self-defence is to preserve Life or Goods not to offend any other whereas the Nature of Revenge consists wholly in designing or desiring the Death Loss or Misery of another not as contributing to our own Self-preservation but as returning and punishing his Malice and hatred to us Thus Revenge being separated from the Cause of Self-defence will easily appear what it truly is and will want those Arguments to recommend it which it borrowed from the latter It is the desire or endeavour of bringing Evil upon another Man solely or chiefly for this end that he may suffer some loss or grief when we return an Injury to any one for this only Reason because we have received one either real or imaginary from him Thus Self-defence may easily degenerate into Revenge when a Man not Content to have secured his own safety to have disarmed his Enemy or to have made a fair retreat presseth upon his Adversary pursueth his advantage and seeketh the hurt or destruction of him when any one Projects how to return a like Injury to that he hath received when he conceiveth a personal Hatred of the Man studieth to create some disadvantage to him at least retains so much Malice in his Heart that he envieth and maligneth him and should entertain his Misfortunes with Complacency The methods and kinds of Revenge are as different as are the secret workings of Malice nor can either Malice or Envy be ever found without the conjunction of Revenge and Imagination of some past Injury It is said that Cain slew his Brother out of Envy yet was that Envy accompanied with the desire of Revenge for having as he thought robbed him of the favour of God by procuring the greater share of it to himself Other Acts of Revenge may more eminently appear to belong to that Denomination as when Joab killed Abner for the