Enhance its Guilt As it would look like a very strange and odd Commendation of a Tree to Apologize for the Sourness of its Fruit by pleading that all its goodness lay in the Root But in the discourses of Reason such is the weakness and shortness of its Reach that it seldom suggests Arguments à Priore for any Thing but by a low and humble Gradation creeps from the Effects up to the Cause because these first strike and Alarm the Senses and therefore St. James speaks as good Philosophy as Divinity when He says Iam. 2.18 Shew me thy Faith by thy Works Every Action being the most lively Pourtraicture and impartial Expression of its Efficient Principle as the Complexion is the best Comment upon the Constitution For in natural Productions â—here is no Hypocrisy Only we must observe here that Good and Evil Actions bear a very different Relation to their Respective Principles As it is between Truth and Falshood in Argumentation So it is between Good and Evil in matters of Practice For though from an Artificial contrivance of false Principles or Premises may emerge a True Conclusion yet from True Premises cannot ensue a False So though an Evil Heart may frame it self to the doing of an Action in its kind or Nature Good yet a Renewed Sanctified Principle cannot of its self design Actions really Vitious The reason of which is Because the former in such a Case acts upon a Principle of Dissimulation and no Man by dissembling affects to appear worse than he is but better But all this while I speak not of a single Action but of a Conversation or Course of Acting For a Pious Man may do an Evil action upon Temptation or Surprize but not by the Tenour of his standing Principles and Resolutions But when a Mans Sin is his Business and the formed Purpose of his Life and his Piety shrinks only into Meaning and Intention When he tells me His heart is right with God while his hand is in my Pocket he upbraids my Reason and outfaces the Common Principle of natural discourse with an Impudence equal to the Absurdity This therefore I affirm That he who places his Christianity only in his Heart and his Religion in his Meaning has fairly secured himself against a discovery in case he should have none but yet for all that shall at the last find his Portion with those who indeed have none And the Truth is those who are thus intentionally Pious do in a very ill and untoward sence verify that Philosophical Maxim That what they so much pretend to be Chief and First in their Intention is always Last if at all in the Execution Thirdly The third and last false ground that I shall mention upon which some Men build to their Confusion is Party and Singularity If an implicite Faith be as some say the Property of a Roman Catholick then I am sure Popery may be found where the name of Papist is adhorred For what account can some give of their Religion or of that Assurance of their Salvation which they so much boast of but that they have wholly resigned themselves up to the Guidance and Dictates of those who have the Front and Boldness to usurp the Title of the Godly To be of such a Party of such a Name nay of such a sneaking look is to some the very Spirit and Characteristick mark of Christianity See what St. Paul himself built upon before His Conversion to Christ Acts 26.5 I was says He after the strictest Sect of our Religion a Pharisee So that it was the Reputation of the Sect upon which St. Paul then embarked His Salvation Now the Nature of this Fraternity or Sect we may Learn from the Origination of their Name Pharisee it being derived from Parasch separavit discrevit whence in Greek they were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 separati So that the Words amount to this That St. Paul before He was a Christian was a Rigid Separatist But Singularity is not Sincerity tho' too often and mischievously mistaken for it And as an House built upon the Sand is likely to be ruined by Storms so an House built out of the Road is exposed to the Invasion of Robbers and wants both the Convenience and Assistance of Society Christ is not therefore called the Corner stone in the Spiritual building as if He intended that His Church should consist only of Corners or be driven into them There is a By-path as well as a Broad-way to Destruction And it both argues the Nature and portends the Doom of Chaff upon Agitation to separate and Divide from the Wheat But to such as Venture their Eternal Interest upon such a Bottom I shall only suggest these two Words First That admitting but not granting that the Party which they adhere to may be truly Pious yet the Piety of the Party cannot sanctify its Proselytes A Church may be properly called Holy when yet that Holiness does not diffuse it self to each particular Member the Reason of which is Because the whole may receive Denomination from a Quality inherent only in some of its Parts Company may occasion but it cannot transfuse Holyness No Mans Righteousness but Christs alone can be imputed to another To rate a Man by the Nature of his Companions is a Rule frequent indeed but not Infallible Iudas was as much a Wretch amongst the Apostles as amongst the Priests And therefore it is but a poor Argument for a Man to derive his Saintship from the Vertues of the Society he belongs to and to conclude himself no Weed only because he grows amongst the Corn. Secondly Such an adhesion to a Party carries in it a strong suspicion and Tang of the rankest of all ill Qualities Spiritual Pride There are Two Things natural almost to all Men. First A desire of Preheminence in any Perfection but especially Religious Secondly A Spirit of Opposition or Contradiction to such as are not of their own Mind or Way Now both these are eminently gratifyed by a Man's listing himself of a Party in Religion And I doubt not but some are more really proud of the affected sordidness of a pretended Mortification than others are of the greatest affluence and splendor of Life And that many who call the Execution of Law and Justice Persecution do yet suffer it with an Higher and more pleasing Relish of Pride than others can inflict it For it is not true Zeal rising from an Hearty concernment for Religion but an ill restless cross humour which is imped with Smart and quickned with Opposition The Godly Party is little better than a Contradiction in the Adjunct for he who is truly Godly is humble and peaceable and will neither make nor be of a Party according to the Common sence of that word Let such Pretenders therefore suspect the Sandiness and Hollowness of their Foundation and know that such Imitators of Corah Dathan and Abiram build upon the same Ground upon which they stood and into which
but not its Channel The Water arises in one Place but it streams in another and Fountains would not be so much valued if they did not produce Rivers One great End of Religion is to proclaim and publish God's Sovereignty and there is no such way to Cause Men to Glorify our Heavenly Father as by Causing our Light to shine before them Which I am sure it cannot do but as it beams through our good Works When a Man leads a Pious and Good Life every hour he Lives is virtually an Act of Worship But if inward Grace is not exerted and drawn forth into outward Practice Men have no Inspection into our Hearts to discern it there And let this be fixed upon as a standing Principle That it is not possible for us to Honour God before men but only by those Acts of Worship that are observeable by men It is our Faith indeed that recognizes Him for our God but it is our Obedience only that declares Him to be our Lord. Secondly The other End of Religion in this World is the good and mutual advantage of Mankind in the Way of Society And herein did the admirable Wisdom and Goodness of God appear that He was pleased to calculate and contrive such an Instrument to govern as might also benefit the World God planted Religion amongst Men as a Tree of Life which though it was to spring upwards directly to Himself yet it was to spread its Branches to the Benefit of all below There is hardly any Necessity or Convenience of Mankind but what is in a large measure serv'd and provided for by this great blessing as well as Business of the World Religion And he who is a Christian is not only a better Man but also a better Neighbour a better Subject and a truer Friend than he that is not so For was ever any thing more for the good of Mankind than to forgive Injuries to love and caress our mortal adversaries and instead of our Enemy to hate only our Revenge Of such a double yet benign Aspect is Christianity both to God and Man like Incense while it ascends to Heaven it perfumes all about it at the same time both Instrumental to God's Worship and the worshippers Refreshment As it holds up one hand in Supplication so it reaches forth the other in Benefaction But now if it be one great End of Religion thus to contribute to the support and Benefit of Society surely it must needs consist in the Active Piety of our Lives not in Empty Thoughts and Fruitless perswasions For what can one Man be the better for what Another Thinks or Believes When a Poor Man begs an Alms of me can I believe my Bread into his Mouth or my Money into his Hand Believing without Doing is a very Cheap and Easy but withal a very Worthless way of being Religious And thus having given the Reasons why the Active part of Religion is the only sure Bottom for us to build upon I now proceed to the second Thing Proposed namely to shew Those false and Sandy Foundations which many venture to build upon and are aâ—â—ordingly deceived by Which though they are exceedingly Various and according to the multiplicity of Mens tempers businesses and occasions almost Infinite and like the Sand mentioned in my Text not only infirm but Numberless also yet according to the best of my poor Judgment and Observation I shall reduce them to these three heads The First of which is a Naked Unoperative Faith ask but some upon what Grounds they look to be saved and they will answer because they firmly believe that through the Merits of Christ their Sins are forgiven them But since it is hard for a Man in his right wits to be confident of a Thing which he does not at all know such as are more Cautious will tell you further That to desire to Believe is to Believe and to desire to Repent is to Repent But as this is absurd and impossible since no Act can be its own Object without being not it self for as much as the Act and the Object are distinct things and consequently a desire to believe can no more be Belief than a desire to be saved can be Salvation so it is further intolerable upon this Account that it quite dispirits Religion by placing it in Languid Abortive Velleities and so cuts the Nerves of all Endeavour by rating Glory at a bare Desire and Eternity at a Wish But because the Poyson of this Opinion does so easily enter and so strangely intoxicate I shall presume to give an Antidote against it in this one observation namely That all along the Scripture Where Justification is ascribed to Faith alone There the word Faith is still used by a Metonymy of the Antecedent for the Consequent and does not signify abstractedly a meer Perswasion but the Obedience of an Holy Life performed in the strength and vertue of such a Perswasion Not that this Justifies meritoriously by any inherent Worth or Value in it self but instrumentally as a Condition appointed by God upon the performance of which He freely imputes to us Christ's Righteousness which is the sole proper and formal Cause of our Justification So that That Instrumentality which some in the Business of Justification attribute to one single Act of Credence is by this ascribed to the whole aggregate Series of Gospel Obedience as being that which gives us a Title to a perfect Righteousness without us by which alone we stand justified before God And this seems with full accord both to Scripture and Reason to state the Business of Justification by an equal poize both against the Arrogant Assertions of Self-Iusticiaries on the one hand and the wild Opinions of the Antinomians on the other But whether the Obedience of a Pious Life performed out of a Belief or Perswasion of the Truth of the Gospel ought to pass for that Faith which Justifies or only for the Effect or Consequent of it yet certainly it is such an Effect as issues by a kind of con-natural constant Efficiency and Result from it So that how much soever they are distinguishable by their Respective Actions from one another they are absolutely Inseparable by a mutual and a necessary Connexion it belonging no less to the Faith which Justifies to be Operative than to Justify Indeed upon an Essential Account more For as much as it is Operative by its Nature but Justifies only by Institution Secondly The second false Ground which some build upon is a fond Reliance upon the goodness of their Heart and the Honesty of their Intention A profitable and therefore a very prevailing fallacy And such an one as the Devil seldom uses but with success It being one of his old and long experimented Fetches by the Pretences of a Good Heart to supplant the Necessity of a Good Life But to alledge the Honesty of the Mind against the Charge of an Evil Course is a Protestation against the Fact which does not Excuse but
doing and always condemning himself for what He does And for this cause a Man shuts his Eyes and stops his Ears against all that His Reason would tell Him of the sinfulness of that Practice which long Custom and frequency has endeared to Him So that He becomes studiously and affectedly Ignorant of the Illness of the Course he takes that He may the moâ—â— sensibly Tast the Pleasure of it And thus when an Inveterate Imperious Custom has so over-ruled all a Mans faculties as neither to suffer His Eyes to see nor his Ears to hear nor his mind to think of the Evil of what He does that is when all the Instruments of Knowledge are forbid to do their office Ignorance and Obscurity must needs be upon the whole Soul For when the Windows are stopped up no Wonder if the whole Room be Dark The Truth is such an Habitual frequency of Sinning does as it were Bar and Bolt up the Conscience against the sharpest Reproofs and the most Convincing Instructions so that when God by the Thunder of his Judgments and the Voice of His Ministers has been ringing Hell and Vengeance into the Ears of such a Sinner perhaps like Felix He may Tremble a little for the Present and seem to yield and fall down before the over-powering Evidence of the Conviction but after a while Custom overcoming Conscience the Man goes his way and though He is Convinced and satisfyed what He ought to do yet He actually does what he uses to do And all this because through the darkness of his Intellect he Judges the present Pleasure of such a sinful Course an over-balance to the Evil of it For this is certain That Nature has placed all Humane Choice in such an Essential Dependance upon the Iudgment that no Man does any Thing though never so Vile Wicked and Inexcusable but all circumstances considered he Judges it Pro hìc nunc absolutely better for Him to do it than not to do it And what a Darkness and Delusion must Conscience needs be under while it makes a Man judge that really best for him which directly tends to and generally ends in his utter Ruin and Damnation Custom is said to be a second Nature and if by the first we are already so bad by the second to be sure we shall be much worse Thirdly Every Corrupt Passion or Affection of the Mind will certainly pervert the judging and obscure and darken the discerning Power of Conscience The Affections which the Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Latines Affectus Animi are of much the same use to the Soul which the Members are of to the Body serving as the proper Instruments of most of its Actions and are always attended with a certain Preternatural Motion of the Blood and Spirits peculiar to each Passion or Affection And as for the Seat or Fountain of them Philosophers both place them in and derive them from the Heart But not to insist upon meer Speculations The Passions or Affections are as I may so call them the mighty Flights and Sallyings out of the Soul upon such objects as come before it and are generally accompanied with such Vehemence that the Stoicks reckoned them in their very Nature and Essence as so many Irregularities and Deviations from Right Reason and by no means incident to a wise or good Man But though better Philosophy has long since exploded this Opinion and Christianity which is the greatest and the best has taught us that we may be Angry and yet not Sin Eph. 4.26 And that Godly Sorrow is neither a Paradox nor a Contradiction 2 Cor. 7.10 and consequently that in every Passion or Affection there is something purely Natural which may both be distinguished and divided too from what is sinful and irregular yet notwithstanding all this it must be confessed That the Nature of the Passions is such that they are extreamly prone and apt to pass into Excess and that when they do so nothing in the World is a greater hindrance to the Mind or Reason of Man from making a True Clear and Exact Judgment of Things than the Passions thus wrought up to any Thing of Ferment or Agitation It being as Impossible to keep the Iudging Faculty steady in such a Case as it would be to view a Thing distinctly and perfectly through a Perspective Glass held by a shaking Paralytick hand When the Affections are once engaged the Iudgment is always Partial and Concerned There is a strong Bent or Byass upon it it is possessed and gained over and as it were fee'd and retained in their Cause and thereby made utterly unable to carry such an equal regard to the object as to consider Truth Nakedly and stripped of all Foreign Respects and as such to make it the Rigid Inflexible Rule which it is to Iudge by especially where Duty is the Thing to be Iudged of For a Man will hardly be brought to Judge Right and True when by such a Judgment he is sure to Condemn Himself But this being a Point of such high and Practical Importance I will be yet more particular about it and show severally in several Corrupt and Vitious Affections how Impossible it is for a Man to keep his Conscience rightly Informed and fit to guide and direct Him in all the Arduous Perplexing Cases of Sin and Duty while He is actually under the Power of any of them This I know Men generally are not apt to believe or to think that the flaws or failures of their Morals can at all affect their Intellectuals But I doubt not but to make it not only Credible but Undeniable Now the Vitious Affections which I shall single and cull out of those Vast Numbers which the Heart of Man that great Store-house of the Devil abounds with as some of the Principal which thus Darken and Debauch the Conscience shall be these Three First Sensuality Secondly Covetousness Thirdly Ambition Of each of which I shall speak particularly and First For Sensuality or a vehement delight in and pursuit of Bodily Pleasures We may truly say of the Body with Reference to the Soul what was said by the Poet of an ill Neighbour Nemo tam propè tam proculque None so nearly joined in point of Vicinity and yet so widely distant in point of Interest and Inclinations The Ancient Philosophers generally holding the Soul of Man to be a Spiritual Immaterial substance could give no Account of the several failures and defects in the Operations of it which they were sufficiently sensible of but from its Immersion into and intimate conjunction with matter called by the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And accordingly all their complaints and accusations were still levelled at this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the only cause of all that they found amiss in the whole Frame and Constitution of Mans Nature In a word whatsoever was observed by them either Irregular or Defective in the Workings of the Mind was all Charged upon the Body as
a violent Flame cannot presently melt down a constant though a gentle heat will at length exhale It is our known Duty to fight and resist the Devil and we shall find that scarce any Temptation ever encounters the Soul without its second So then you see here the First Cause of this great Overthrow namely The Assault and Impression made from without by the Tempter which in the next place is rendred Effectual by the Impotence and Non-resistance of the Soul that is so opposed which peculiarly answers his threefold Opposition with three Contrary Qualifications First As First That it is frequently unprepared The Soul God knows is but seldom upon the Watch It s Spiritual Armour is seldom buckled on The Business the Cares and the Pleasures of the World draw it off from its own defence Business imploys Care distracts and Pleasure lulls it asleep And is this a Posture to receive an Enemy in An Enemy Cunning Watchful and Malicious An Enemy who never sleeps nor loyters nor overlooks an advantage Secondly As it is unprepared so it is also weak and feeble The Spirit says our Saviour is willing but the Flesh is weak And such is the Condition of Man in this World that much more of Flesh than Spirit goes to his Constitution Nay is not Grace it self described under the Weakness of smoaking Flax or a bruised Reed Of which how quickly is one Extinguished and how easily is the other broke Thirdly As it is both unprepared and weak so it is also inconstant Peter will die for his Master at one time and not many Hours after deny and forswear Him Steadfastness is the Result of strength and how then can Constancy dwell with weakness The greatest strength of the mind is in its Resolutions and yet how often do they Change Even in the weightiest concerns Men too frequently put them on and off with their Cloaths They deceive when they are most trusted suddainly starting and flying in pieces like a broken bow and like a bow again even when strongest they can hardly be kept always Bent. We see what fair and promising beginings some made Luke 8.13 They heard the Word they received it with joy but having not Root they believed only for a while and so in Time of Temptation fell away Constancy is the Crowning Vertue Matth. 10.22 He who endureth to the End shall be saved But then Constancy and Perseverance are the gift of God and above the Production of meer Nature it being no small Paradox to imagine that where the stock it self is slight and infirm any thing which grows out of it should be strong And thus having shewn the Threefold Impotence of the Soul answerable to the Threefold Opposition made against it by the Devil What can we conclude But that where Vnpreparedness is encountred with unexpected Force Weakness with Violence Inconstancy with Importunity there Destruction must needs be not the Effect of Chance but Nature and by the closest connexion of Causes unavoidable It now remains that in the Last place we shew wherein the Greatness of this fall consists The House fell and great was the Fall thereof In short it may appear upon these two accounts First That it is scandalous and diffuses a Contagion to others and a blot upon Religion A falling House is a bad Neighbour It is the Property of Evil as well as of Good to be Communicative We still suppose the Building here mentioned in the Text to have had all the Advantages of visible Representment all the Pomp and Flourish of external Ornament a Stately superstructure and a Beautyful appearance and therefore such an one must needs Perish as remarkably as it stood That which is seen afar off while it stands is heard of much further when it Falls An Eminent Professor is the concern of a Whole Profession As to Non-plus an Aristotle would look not only like a Slur to a particular Philosopher but like a Baffle to Philosophy it self The Devil will let a Man build and Practice high that he may at length fetch him down with the greater shame and so make even a Christian an Argument against Christianity The subduing of any soul is a Conquest but of such an One a Triumph A signal Professor cannot Perish without a Train and in his very Destruction his Example is Authentick Secondly The Greatness of the Fall here spoken of appears also in this That such an One is hardly and very rarely recovered He whose House falls has not usually either Riches or Heart to build Another It is the Business of a Life once to build God indeed can cement the Ruins and heal the Breaches of an Apostate Soul but usually a shipwrack'd Faith and a defloured Conscience admit of no Repair Like the Present time which when once gone never returns What may be within the Compass of Omnipotence the Secret of a Decree or the Unlimited Strains of Extraordinary Grace is not here disputed But as it would be Arrogance for us Men to define the Power of Grace so it is the Height of Spiritual Prudence to observe its Methods And upon such Observation we shall find that the Recovery of such Apostates is not the Custom but the Prerogative of Mercy A Man is ruin'd but once A miscarriage in the New-Birth is dangerous and very Fatal it generally proves to pass the Critical Seasons of a defeated Conversion And thus I have at length dispatched what 〈◊〉 at first proposed Now the Words themselves being as I said before Christ's application of His Own Sermon cannot be improved into a Better and consequently need not into Another except what their own natural Consequence does suggest and that is What our Saviour Himself intimates elsewhere Namely That he who is about to build would first sit down and consider what it is like to cost him For building is Chargeable especially if a Man lays out his Money like a Fool Would a Man build for Eternity that is in other words Would he be Saved Let him consider with himself what charges he is willing to be at that he may be so Nothing under an Universal sincere Obedience to all the Precepts of the Gospel can entitle him to the Benefits of it and thus far and deep he must go if he will lay his Foundation true It is in hard and a Rocky work I confess but the difficulty of laying it will be abundantly recompenced by the Firmness of it when it is laid But it is a sad and mortifying Consideration to think upon what false and sinking Grounds or rather upon what Whirlepools and Quicksands many venture to build Some you shall have amusing their Consciences with a set of Phantastical New-Coin'd Phrases such as Laying hold on Christ getting into Christ and rolling themselves upon Christ and the like by which if they mean any Thing else but obeying the Precepts of Christ and a Rational hope of Salvation thereupon which it is certain that generally they do not mean it is all but
the Concurrence of Both no less a Power was imployed to raise Christ out of the Grave than that which first raised the World it self out of Nothing 2. Let us consider God's immutability in respect of his Word and Promise for these also were engaged in this affair In what a clear Prophecy was this foretold and dictated by that Spirit which could not lye Psalm 16.10 Thou shalt not suffer Thy Holy One to see corruption And Christ also had frequently foretold the same of himself Now when God says a thing he gives his Veracity in pawn to see it fully performed Heaven and Earth may pass away sooner than one Iota of a Divine Promise fall to the ground Few things are recorded of Christ but the rear of the Narrative is still brought up with this That such a thing was done That it might be fullfilled what was spoken by such or such a Prophet Such a firm unshaken adamantine connexion is there between a Prophecy and its accomplishment All things that are written in the Prophets concerning Me says Christ must come to pass And surely then the most Illustrious Passage that concerned him could not remain under an uncertainty and contingency of event So that What is most Emphatically said concerning the persevering obstinacy and Infidelity of the Jews John 12.39 40. That they could not believe because that Esaias had said that God blinded their Eyes and hardened their Hearts that they should not see with their Eyes nor understand with their Hearts and so be converted and He should heal them The same I affirm may with as great an Emphasis and a much greater clearness to our Reason be affirmed of Christ that therefore Death could not hold him because the Kingly Prophet had long before sung the Triumphs of His glorious Resurrection in the forementioned Prediction In a Word whatsoever God purposes or promises passes from Contingent and meerly Possible into Certain and Necessary and whatsoever is Necessary the contrary of it is so far Impossible But when I say that the Divine decree or promise imprints a Necessity upon things it may to prevent misapprehension be needful to Explain what kind of Necessity this is that so the liberty of second Causes be not thereby wholly cashiered and took away For this therefore we are to observe that the Schools distinguish of a Two-fold necessity Physical and Logical or Causal and Consequential which Terms are Commonly thus explained viz. That Physical or Causal Necessity is when a thing by an Efficient Productive Influence certainly and naturally causes such an Effect and in this sence neither the Divine Decree nor Promise makes things necessary for neither the decree nor promise by it self produces or effects the Thing decreed or promised nor exerts any active influence upon Second Causes so as to impell them to do any thing but in point of Action are wholly ineffective Secondly Logical or Consequential Necessity is when a thing does not efficiently cause an Event but yet by certain infallible Consequence does infer it Thus the fore-knowledge of any Event if it be true and certain does certainly and necessarily infer that there must be such an event for as much as the certainty of knowledge depends upon the certainty of the thing known And in this sence it is that God's decree and promise give a necessary Existence to the thing decreed or promised that is to say they infer it by a necessary infallible consequence So that it was as impossible for Christ not to rise from the Dead as it was for God absolutely to decree and promise a thing and yet for that thing not to come to pass The Third Reason of the Impossibility of Christs detention under a State of Death was from the Iustice of God God in the whole procedure of Christ's sufferings must be considered as a Judge exacting and Christ as a Person paying down a recompence or satisfaction for Sin For though Christ was as pure and undefiled with the least spot of Sin as purity and innocence it self yet he was pleased to make himself the greatest Sinner in the World by Imputation and rendring himself a surety responsible for our debts For as it is said 2 Cor. 5.21 He who knew no Sin was made Sin for us When the Justice of God was lifting up the Sword of Vengeance over our Heads Christ snatch'd us away from the blow and substituted his Own Body in our Room to receive the whole stroke of that dreadful Retribution inflicted by the Hand of an Angry Omnipotence But now as God was pleased so to comport with his Justice as not to put up the injury done it by Sin without an Equivalent compensation so this being once paid down that proceeding was to cease The Punishment due to Sin was Death which being paid by Christ Divine Justice could not any longer detain him in his Grave For what had this been else but to keep him in Prison after the debt was paid Satisfaction disarms Justice and payment cancells the Bond. And that which Christ exhibited was full measure pressed down and runing over even adequate to the nicest proportions and the most exact demands of that severe and unrelenting Attribute of God So that his Release proceeded not upon Terms of Courtesy but of Claim The gates of Death flew open before him out of duty and even that Justice which was Infinite was yet circumscribed within the inviolable limits of what was due Otherwise guilt would even grow out of expiation the reckoning be enflamed by being paid and punishment it self not appease but exasperate Justice Revenge indeed in the hand of a sinful mortal Man is for the most part vast unlimited and unreasonable but Revenge in the Hands of an Infinite Justice is not so Infinite as to be also Indefinite but in all its actings proceeds by Rule and Determination and cannot possibly surpass the bounds put to it by the Merits of the Cause and the Measure of the Offence It is not the effect of meer choice and will but springs out of the unalterable relation of Equality between Things and Actions In a word The same Justice of God which required him to deliver Christ to Death did afterwards as much engage him to deliver him from it 4. The Fourth Ground of the Impossibility of Christ's perpetual continuance under Death was the Necessity of his being Believed in as a Saviour and the impossibility of his being so without rising from the dead As Christ by his Death paid down a Satisfaction for Sin so it was necessary that it should be declared to the World by such Arguments as might found a Rational Belief of it So that Men's Unbelief should be rendred inexcusable But how could the World believe that he fully had satisfyed for Sin so long as they saw Death the known wages of Sin maintain its full force and power over him holding him like an obnoxious Person in Durance and Captivity When a Man is once imprison'd for debt
exhibits himself to the Sons of Men is that he is King of Kings and that the Governours of the Earth are his Subjects Princes and Emperours his Vassals and Thrones his Footstools and Consequently that there is no Absolute Monarch in the World but One. And from the same also it follows that there is nothing which Subjects can justly expect from their Prince but Princes may expect from God And nothing which Princes Demand from their Subjects but God in a higher manner and by a better Claim requires from them Now the Relation between Prince and Subject essentially involves in it these two things First Obedience from the subject to all the Laws and just Commands of his Prince And accordingly as Kings themselves have a Soveraign over them so they have Laws over them too Laws which lay the same obligation upon Crowned heads that they do upon the meanest Peasant For no Prerogative can bar Piety No Man is too Great to be bound to be good He who weilds the Scepter and shines in the Throne has a great Account to make and a great Master to make it to And there is no Man sent into the World to Rule who is not sent also to Obey Secondly The other thing imported in this Relation is Protection Vouchsafed from the Soveraign to the subject Upon which account it is that as God with one hand gives a Law so with the other he Defends the Obedient And this is the highest Prerogative of Worldly Empire and the brightest Jewel in the Diadems of Princes that by being Gods immediate Subjects they are His immediate Care and intituled to his more Especial Protection that they have both an Omniscience in a peculiar manner to wake over them and an Omnipotence to support them And that they are not the Legions which they Command but the God whom they Obey who must both guard their Persons and secure their Regalia For it is He and He only who giveth Salvation unto Kings The Words of the Text with a little Variation run naturally into this one Proposition which containing in it the full sence of them shall be the subject of our following Discourse viz. That God in the Government of the World exercises a peculiar and extraordinary Providence over the Persons and Lives of Princes The Prosecution of which Proposition shall lie in these four things First To shew upon what account any Act of God's Providence may be said to be peculiar and extraordinary Secondly To shew how and by what means God does after such an extraordinary manner save and deliver Princes Thirdly To shew the Reasons why He does so And Fourthly And Lastly To draw something by way of Inference and Conclusion from the whole Of all which in their Order And First For the first of these which is to shew upon what account any Act of God's Providence may be said to be Peculiar and Extraordinary Providence in the Government of the World acts for the most part by the mediation of second Causes which though they proceed according to a Principle of Nature and a settled Course and Tenour of Acting supposing still the same Circumstances yet Providence acting by them may in several Instances of it be said to be extraordinary upon a threefold account As First When a thing falls out besides the Common and Usual Operation of its proper Cause As for instance it is usual and natural for a Man meeting his Enemy upon full advantage to prosecute that advantage against him and by no means to let him escape Yet sometimes it falls out quite otherwise Esau had conceived a mortal Grudge and Enmity against his Brother Iacob yet as soon as he meets Him he falls upon him in a very different way from that of Enemies and embraces him Ahab having upon Conquest got Benhadad his Inveterate Enemy into his hands not only spares his Life but treats him kindly and lets him go That a Brother unprovoked should hate and a stranger not obliged should love is against the usual Actings of the Heart of Man Yet thus it was with Ioseph and no doubt with many others in which and the like cases I conceive things so falling out may be said to come to pass by an Extraordinary Act of Providence it being manifest that the Persons concerned in them do not act as Men of the same Principles and Interests under the same Circumstances use to do For Interest we say will not lye nor make a Man false to Himself whatsoever it may make him to Others Secondly Providence may be said to Act Extraordinarily when a thing falls out beside or Contrary to the Design of expert politick and shrewd Persons contriving or Acting in it As when a Man by the utmost of his Wit and Skill projects the Compassing of such or such a thing fits means to his End lays Antecedents and Consequents directly and appositely for the bringing about his Purpose but in the Issue and Result finds all broken and baffled and the Event contrary to his Intention and the order of Causes and Counsels so studiously framed by him to produce an effect opposite to and destructive of the Design driven at by those Means and Arts. In this case also I say we may rationally acknowledge an Extraordinary Act of Providence For as much as the Man himself is made instrumental to the effecting of something perfectly against his own Will and Iudgment and that by those very ways and methods which in themselves were the most proper to prevent and the most unlikely to bring to pass such an Event The World all the while standing amazed at it and the Credit of the Politician sinking for that nothing seems to cast so just a Reproach even upon Reason it self as for Persons Noted for it to act as Notably against it Thirdly and Lastly Providence may be said to act in an Extraordinary way when a thing comes to pass visibly and apparently beyond the Power of the Cause immediately imployed in it As that a Man dumb all his Life before should on the suddain speak as it is said that the Son of Craesus did upon the fight of a Murther ready to have been Committed upon the Person of his Prince and Father That a small Company should rout and scatter an Army or in the Language of Scripture that one should chase an hundred and an hundred put Ten Thousand to flight That Persons of mean parts and little or no Experience should frustrate and over-reach the Counsels of old beaten through-paced Politicians These effects I say are manifestly above the Ability and stated way of working belonging the Causes from whence they flow Nevertheless such things are sometimes seen upon the great Stage of the World to the Wonder and Astonishment of the Beholders who are wholly unable by the Common method and discourses of Reason to give a Satisfactory Account of these strange Phaenomena by resolving them into any thing Visible in their immediate Agents In which case therefore I conceive