perfections which are the bounds also which the Divine power can never violate is so plain that it rather seems to follow and be fairly inferred from them for what more agreeable to Gods goodness than as that he gave us our Souls at first and put those Souls into curious and well framed bodies which are the other part of Humane Nature which makes us to be Men and Beings of such a rank and order in the Creation so that he should continue the same entire nature to us as long as he is pleased to continue us in being It wou'd be a charge methinks upon the Wisdom of God that he should give Man so curious a body above any other Creatures and yet suffer that to continue and last a much shorter time than the bodies of many other not only Animals but Plants and Trees do if he did not design that this noble fabrick should be rebuilt and repaired again after death and that the Soul should have a longer term of aboad in it afterwards and in reversion than it enjoys in this present life It would seem strange if these two Friends should be so closely and intimately united here but for a few days if they were not to meet again and dwell together for ever and that God should make us of such a compound nature in this life and of a quite other nature in the next this would not be to keep that wise order and regular course of thing that he does in the whole System of the Creation As to the Divine Justice that seems to be more exactly answered by raising the same bodies without which we are hardly the same persons that every one may receive in his body according to that he has done whether it be good or bad as the Apostle speaks 2 Cor. 5.10 that not only the same Souls but the same Bodies which have either glorified God by Suffering or any other Vertue or have been the Instrument of any sin should be glorified or tormented in another World and that the whole of Humane Nature and not only a part of it which the Soul is should be made capable of the everlasting rewards and punishments that are proper to it The Resurrection then is every way consistent with the perfections of the Divine Nature and is no way contrary to any natural principle of truth nor implys any contradiction in it and therefore is a proper object of God's Almighty Power and by the help of that may be easily effected and accounted for 4. And without this power of God nothing else can be effected in nature we must take in this not only to give an account of the Resurrection but of every thing else we see done before us and of every effect and appearance in the visible World how we were made at first and how our bodies were formed is as perfectly unaccountable without taking in the Divine Power and Wisdom as how we shall rise again and so is every other Mystery of nature if we well consider it and follow and trace it thro' all second causes it will necessarily bring us to the first and we must resolve all at last into the Power and Wisdom of that How we move our bodies by the thought of our minds we know no more than how God shall raise them what directs the spirits into such Tracts and Muscles and by what pullies they draw up the heavy parts is so admirable a Mechanism that it requires the same Divine Wisdom as to raise the dead how we live how we think and how we speak is to a Philosopher as curious and as secret as how we shall rise every thing indeed is so in the Volume of Nature which has the plainest Characters of Divine Power and Wisdom every where writ upon it as being to teach every one that there is a God To look upward we see the Sun shines but can we tell what light is or how it streams from the Sun to our Eye how such a mass of sire should so long hold together without being quenched or lessened do we know how the Stars are sixt to their Orbs how those glistering gemms are set and fastned to the fluid firmament can we imagine what Pillars there are upon which the Earth is founded and what it is supports the heavy Globe and keeps it from sinking what it is that poizes and makes it swim in the liquid Aether and keeps it at so just and exact a distance from the heavenly Bodies so as to be neither frozen nor burnt up and can we be able to know what it is makes their motions so regular and harmonious so usefull and serviceable to the World what guides their mighty bodies in such even Tracts what draws the crooked Zodiac for the Sun or Earth to move in and keeps the violent and rapid matter from going on in an infinite streight line or some other way sallying and running out of order Can any man who justly considers these things give any account of them without a wise God and Almighty Intelligence not only a Sparrow cannot fall to the ground without our Heavenly Father as our Saviour speaks Matth. 10.29 but not a stone can sall thither nor a spark fly upwards however necessary and natural that be without such a frame and such laws of matter and motion as nothing but a wise Being can establish or cause to be observed Why matter is thus figured and disposed and why such effects come from it we cannot tell as why grass is green blood red and not the quite contrary as we cannot of our selves make one hair white or black as our Saviour saith so neither can we tell why it is so but every Phaenomenon must at last be resolved into the Will and Wisdom of the first cause and thither all true Philosophy must bring us and the same Divine Power is requir'd in every the most common effect of Nature as in the Resurrection But 5. Our not fully knowing the uses and designs our bodies shall serve for after they are rais'd should not make the Resurrection incredible to us What use some say will there be of the body in another World when the Soul alone is capable of the rewards of it I answer who can tell but the body may be of extraordinary use to us in another World perhaps it is a necessary part of Humane Nature and we are not our whole selves without it perhaps the Soul is never to be quite naked and wholly stript of all matter and bodily indowment and that it is cloathed with a thinner Vehicle when it puts off the thicker and grosser flesh perhaps no Beings in the World but God himself are to be pure spirits which was a very ancient opinion of some wise Men perhaps the Angels themselves have material vestures of a slaming fire and a resplendent brightness as they used always to appear and if the Human Souls are not to be uncloathed but cloathed upon with our house which is
as having no Foundation in the real goodness of what is commanded nor in the Nature of God but only in his Arbitrary Will and Pleasure Whereas this it is that truly commends Religion to the Minds of considering Men that it is the obliging us to such Laws as are Eternally and Unalterably Good from the nature of things which do naturally produce good Effects to our selves and the World and are the necessary causes of our happiness and that therefore God has laid them upon us not as a Yoke he would have us submit to meerly because we ought to be subject to him but as they are good in themselves and the necessary means of our Happiness that his Commands are but the Copies of his own Original and wise Reason the Transcript of his own Eternal Righteousness and Perfections and that the Righteousness he Commands us is taken from God himself and is a lively Pattern and Exemplar of his own Nature and Essential Righteousness This does extremely commend Religion and Righteousness to us that 't is not only founded in the Will but the Nature of God too and is not only interwoven with the very make of our Humane Nature but derived from the Natural Perfections of God as the Fountain of it that 't is not an imperious restraint upon us from humoursom and boundless Will that had no antecedent Reason thus to limit and confine us but that all the Laws of Righteousness besides the Stamp and Impress that Heaven has fixt upon them are of intrinsick Worth and Value and that their own goodness is the firmest sanction and the truest reason of their obligation 4. The having such a Conception of God is very dishonourable to God and uncomfortable to our selves if we consider no other effects of it upon our lives 't is a robbing him of one of the Noblest Perfections of his Nature of the richest Jewels of his Crown and the most resplendent Justice and Righteousness are the greatest Excellencies of a Governor of a great and powerful Being and his power without those will be only a greater mischief There is nothing that all Men do more admire and commend than impartial Justice in those who are above them because 't is a guard and protection of every Man a fence set about him and all his Interests and nothing is more manifest than the influence which Justice has upon the good of the World so that every body when he thinks on a Cato or an Aristides blesses him in his heart and speaks well of him with his Lips And what we think such a Perfection in men and such an object of Esteem there if we deny it to God we stop one of the main streams of Honour that should flow from him and cut off the brightest Ray of the Divine Lustre neither can we give that Honour that belongs to him if we strip him of those Perfections any more than we can see the Sun if we disrobe it of its Light or admire the face that we have mangled and deformed There must be such a congruity in the Object like Charms sitted to attract our Passions and excite our Esteem or else we can no more love and honour than we can taste with our Eyes and see with our Palate and mere Power is no more an object of Love and Honour but as 't is an Instrument to do 〈◊〉 good than an Earthquake or a Clap of Thunder it will amaze and affright us and put us into a Consternation but never bring us heartily to Honour and Esteem it We shall dread such a Being as has us under and can crush us as he pleases just as a little Bird does the Eagle when its Claws are upon it and we shall live in as much terror and confusion and uncertain destractions of mind from such thoughts of God as a Slave does under his Merciless Patron who knows not what hardship he shall suffer next whether he shall be Sold or Starved or Murdered If when we know that his Power is Absolute and Irresistable and have no security from the goodness of his Nature that he shall not use it to rack and torture us and do us mischief unless we do that which Justly deserves it we may then be glad if we could with the Epicureans free our minds from the melancholy thoughts of such a Cruel and Over-ruling Nemesis and must never hope to come to perfect Ease and Tranquility and repose of Mind till we had got rid of the sears of such an Invisible Mormo But God forbid that this should be the case of Mankind no 't is the most equal and impartial Justice that rules the World that Administers all affairs with the greatest Justice and Righteousness whom we have no reason to dread unless we do base and wicked things that disorder and do mischief then indeed he will severely Chastise and Punish us but else there is not the severity or injustice or hard usage that we need ever fear from him no more than a Child from the most indulgent Parent or a Subject from the best natured Prince and Governor There was never in all his vast Kingdom and Empire of the World in all his long and lasting Government any the least Unrighteousness that could ever be charged upon it nor has any the meanest Person reason to complain of any the least injustice done it nor ever shall have which is the third and last Particular 3. To Vindicate the Righteousness of God according to this true account of it and clear it from what either in this Chapter or any where else may seem to reflect upon it which will be great ease to our minds and confirm what has been asserted before and this I shall do by laying down briefly two or three Principles that will meet with almost all cases and all objections about this matter for I must not descend now to Particulars 1. That Arbitrary and Unlimited goodness is no instance of Unrighteousness as if a Prince think fit to show extraordinary Favours to some of his Subjects more than others to raise them to higher Places and Preserments or to give them some greater Privileges and Advantages under him he is not to be called unjust or unrighteous if he do no wrong to his other Subjects tho' they do not taste so largely of his Favour and Bounty for a Power and Prerogative to do good is Unlimited only Justice like the Angel to Abraham stops its hand from doing mischief And this was the case in this difficult Chapter of God's bestowing the Privileges of the Gospel and Christianity on the Gentiles rather than the Jews As the Gentiles which followed not after Righteousness have attained to Righteousness even the Righteousness that is of Faith but Israel which followed after the Law of Righteousness hath not attained to the Law of Righteousness v. 30.31 tho that was wholly by their own Fault And this principle the Jews had no reason to disallow who had before reapt so much benefit
in relation to our selves as well as to the World that is the prime and general cause of Mens being deceived into sin and the first part of its deceitfulness is by the immoderate and salse Opinion of those little Goods or present Enjoyments we may obtain by them Thus when our Fancies and vain Imaginations represent Riches and a great Estate as the greatest Good as the greatest Security Credit and Comfort and what will afford and bring in all other good things of this World this makes a Man make Riches his God and put his trust in 'em and Sacrifice every thing to Mammon and use any means to attain 'em because he thinks nothing so evil as to be without them and nothing else so good as having abundance of them So another fancies no happiness like that of being Great and above others of having the knee and the head and the outward marks and acknowledgments of superiority given him or to appear in State and Grandeur with a rich Train and splendid Equipage always attending him and he despises poor and contemptible Vertue in respect of all this and thinks as meanly of the greatest Wisdom without those as that does of him and therefore rather than part with those he will part with his Conscience and change his Religion rather than his place and will stick at nothing either to keep or gain his ambitious Ends and Designs Another who is a Voluptuary and thinks Pleasure the summum bonum the chiefest good he can taste or feel he hunts after it thro' all the Scents and Paths of Sensuality Luxury Lewdness and Debauchery and either Bacchus or Venus is the Deity he worships and the greatest Good and Enjoyment he fancies and imagines and has an Idea of is the Wine sparkling in the Glass or the Charms of Beauty or the other objects of sensual Pleasure and by heating his thoughts and inflaming his fancy his desires of those things grow impatient excessive and ungovernable Now if a man had used himself to consider seriously how little there is in all those things how very little in respect of the greater pleasures of a wise and easie Mind a good Conscience and the hopes of Religion and that all the true Pleasures of Life that are desirable to a Wise Man may be otherwise enjoyed within the bounds of Vertue and that the going beyond those is an unavoidable mischief to himself and to the World and that all those little sensual and temporary goods he is so fond of are at best but short and transitory empty and unsatisfying things but poor trisling satisfactions and mere gilded decaying Vanities that will all quickly perish and pass away so that our proper happiness cannot lie in them This would give us such true Opinions and right Apprehensions of all carnal and Worldly things in which the whole strength and temptations of sin are placed as would disarm and weaken it of all its power strip it of all its fine dress and false attire wash off all its paint spoil all its beauty and shining lustre whereby it imposes upon our vain fancies and weak imaginations and deceives us with a false Opinion of those small Goods Profits or Pleasures it can afford us 2. We do not at the same time compare with those the great evil that is in them and so do not judge rightly and impartially on both sides but determine hastily on one and so are deceived whereas to make a true Judgment and Estimate we should set the evil against the good and so weigh the matter and set the balance right between them but Alass Men are in too much haste to do this when they are so hotly and eagerly pursuing their Lusts when having the fancied good Pleasure and Enjoyment of their sins only in their Eye they never think or consider or take into their accounts the much greater and more numerous and more certain evils that belong to them and are inseparably annext to the commission of them if they did no Man would swallow the thin bait when he saw the satal hook under it None would eat the forbidden fruit tho' never so fair and pleasant to the Eye if he knew and certainly believed that Death was its bittter sauce and in the day he eat thereof he should die No Man would drink the sweetest draught or take down the most delicious morsel if he thought it would kill him Nature without any great deliberation refuses immediately and abhors what it apprehends to be evil as it is extreamly fond and desirous of what appears good and agreeable to it and the fear of the one is perhaps more strong and affecting than the love of the other as the sense of pain is greater and quicker than that of pleasure and therefore did it spy the Snake in the Grass the Serpent hid under the Bed of Roses and Violets it would not be invited by all their beauty and sweetness to lie down upon them and it would be quickly frighted and run from the tempter tho' he appear'd as an Angel of light if it saw his Cloven Foot Vice therefore always uses art to conceal its worst side hides its deformity and rottenness under a false paint and counterfeit colour and varnishes over its real evil with the fucus of some seeming good so the unwary sinner is drawn into its deadly embraces with its meritricious Looks and false Charms The venomous sting lies covered under the sweet hony and the sinner perceives not the Dagger of the Treacherous Assassin till he is stabb'd with it to the heart But a little Wisdom and Observation and looking about us would plainly discern the innumerable evils that sin carries in its bowels and is big and productive of which grow out of it as fruit from its proper root and are inseparably annexed to it as effects to their causes that can no more be divorced or rescinded from it than light clipt from the Sun and are unalterably setled upon it by the nature and constitution of things and the will and appointment of the first cause and Author of them How do many not only shipwrack their Consciences but their Fortunes too by their Vices in this world where we see abundance of those broken Vessels who have split themselves upon Laziness or Luxury Lewdness or Prodigality or some other wickedness by which they have ruined themselves here as well as hereafter How have others wasted their Bodies by the same courses as they have done their Estates And have sinn'd particularly against those as the Scripture speaks as well as against their Souls and been a kind of Martyrs in the service of the Devil and their own Lusts and endured more pains in their bodies to go to Hell than other Martyrs have done to go to Heaven How do they whose hopes and designs are only in this Life and who fear nothing so much as Death and think nothing so happy as to live long yet shorten their lives by their Vices and by
by it it being the only ground why God was more gracious to them than the rest of the World and that he still allows some Persons and Countries much greater means of Grace than others tho' there are none who want what is sufficient for them 2. That God as absolute Lord Proprietor and Creator of the World has so vast a Right over his Creatures as to put 'em into what condition he pleases that is not worse than the having no Being for that is but giving 'em a lesser good But to put them into such a state as it were desirable rather to be annihilated than to be so miserable to do this without some fault of theirs that shall deserve this as a punishment is against the plainest Axioms and Rules of Right and Justice and is to take more from a Creature than he gives it and so make himself as it were a debtor to it There cannot be any such thing as unlimited Right no not in God over his Creatures for all Right supposes some Rules to bound and limit it the transgressing of which may be supposed and therefore may be wrong and injury and here is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Predestinarians but to dispose of Kingdoms in this World and tranfer 'em from the Canaanites to the Jews to give others an express command to make the Jewels of the Egyptians their own to command the life of a Child at the hand of its Parents as a Sacrifice to him that gave it and the like this is a right belongs to the absolute Lord Proprietor and Creator of the whole World and as such he may give Jacob a more fruitfull Land and greater Kingdom and show his love to him rather than to Esau that way 3. That punishment and severity upon sinners which is necessary for publick good and for the Ends of Government is not to be called Unrighteous be it never so great and I can never believe that God does ever inflict more no not in the Eternal torments of Hell nor has any other end in that or any other punishment and severity than to give a sufficient sanction to his Laws than wisely to Govern and keep the world in order and procure with the best Advantage the Welfare and Happiness of all the Beings that are in it and whatsoever punishments are necessary to that end are upon that account Just and Righteous since that is the only true measure by which a Just proportion can be assigned between the fault and the punishment I know not what they mean who talk of any sort of Vindictive Justice in God different from this as if there were any revengefull Passion in him to be satisfied by the miseries of his Creatures or he took any other pleasure in the punishment of them but meerly the pleasure of doing Justice ' ris this is a further assurance to us of Gods Righteousness that a Being so great and powerfull and self sufficient can have no such passions as spring up in weak and impotent minds nor be tempted to do any injustice because that proceeds always from weakness and imbecillity But I must enlarge no further on these particulars I hope what has been said already will give some satisfaction to our minds that there is no Unrighteousness in the great God But he that is infinitely Great is therefore infinitely Just and Righteous because he can have no Mean and Unrighteous designs either for himself or against others so that Justice and Righteousness is necessarily joined with Almighty Power and it must be a thought full of dread and horror that can conceive it possible to have them parted and separated but in Truth where there is any one infinite Perfection there must be all and therefore we have the same Evidence from reason of Gods being Righteous as of his being Almighty or of his being at all and they who from some mistaken places of Scripture and Revelation endeavour to Represent God under another Notion and Character destroy that true natural Notion and Conception of a God upon which all Revelation is built and which must be previous and antecedent to it and make Religion and the thoughts of a God which is the most cheerfull and comfortable thing in the World to be an hideously black and melancholy Superstition and as this may reasonably be the cause of a great many's becoming Atheists who had rather believe there was no such Being as a God than that he was such an Unrighteous being as some would represent him so it would tempt any Man to wish to be so if he could and if it were in his Power But what shall we say then is there Vnrighteousness with God God forbid The Second Sermon MATTH XI 29. last Part. And ye shall find rest unto your Souls OUR Blessed Saviour in the foregoing verses was exhorting all Persons to embrace his Religion who were under any load and Burthen Trouble and uneasiness of Mind and he promises to give them ease and refreshment Come unto me allye that Labour and are heavy Laden and I will give you rest This is a great Undertaking and Proposal and very desirable and inviting to Mankind The Diseases and Disorders and Uneasinesses of the Mind are a great many more than those of the Body and it is a more Divine thing and more owing to the Gods as Tully speaks to find out proper Physick and Remedies to Cure them than the other Our Saviour proposes his Religion and his Example as the means to do this Take my Yoke upon you and learn of me There were a great many Sects of Philosophers of old in which the wisest Men always aimed at this Tranquility and ease of Mind and proposed their Doctrine as the way to attain it and gave admirable Rules of living up to such heights of Vertue as should make Men casie and happy in all conditions even the worst that could befall them and a great many of them it must be confessed were as great Examples as Teachers of these such as Pythagoras Socrates Plato Zeno and others who were the natural Prophets and Apostles of the Heathen World and taught 'em the best Wisdom and Vertue and the best Directions how to attain the truest and perfectest happiness they knew humane Nature to be capable of Revelation and especially the Religion of Christ has done the same with much greater advantage hath shown us a right Notion of Happiness and all that conduces to it and has both enlarged the view and prospect of it in another World and improved the Method of acquiring and obtaining it and confirmed that good old Notion that it lies only in Vertue that nothing else can make a Man happy and this alone can do it Our Saviour as well as most of the Philosophers were to all appearance none of the happiest men in the World they were poor and mean and despised and contemned and had very little or none of those things in which the World places
speaks to his Disciples who already believ'd in him and St. Paul writes to those who were already Christians or Believers they then tell them not only of Faith which is the first Christian Vertue and the root of all the rest but of Obedience and all good works of living as becometh the Gospel and of adorning their profession with all manner of Vertues which they make as necessary to Salvation as Faith it self Thus if ye keep my Commandments saith Christ ye shall abide in my love John 15.10 and Ye are my Friends if ye do whatsoever I command you v. 14. and Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord or that meerly believeth in me shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that does the will of my Father which is in Heaven Mat. 7.21 So said St. Paul to the Corinthians Circumcision is nothing nor Vncircumcision but the keeping the Commandments of God 1 Cor. 7.19 and to the Galatians in Christ Jesus i. e. in the Christian Religion neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor Vncircumcision but a new Creature chap. 6. v. 15. that is a new temper of mind and habit of Life for by the Gospel the Wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of Men who hold the truth in unrighteousness Romans 1.19 and when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels he will take Vengeance on all them that obey not his Gospel who shall be punished with everlasting Destruction from the presence of the Lord 2. Thess 1.8 9. and those Christians who do any such works of the Flesh as are mentioned Gal. 5.19 21. shall not inherit the Kingdom of God but for the sake of those the Wrath of God cometh on the Children of disobedience Colos 3.6 tho' they do believe in Christ and have made profession of his Religion It is therefore as requisite for such to live according to all the Laws of the Gospel as it was at first to believe in Christ that they may be saved What a Christian therefore who already believes in Christ and owns his Religion to be true and what we who all do this should further do to be saved and to make sure of Heaven I shall in one general Advice direct to and that is this That we never allow our selves to live in any one known sin that we never willfully violate any Law of the Gospel nor suffer our selves in the Custom of any thing that we know is unlawfull he that does that is in a dangerous and desperate condition and is uncapable of being saved by the Terms of the Gospel for tho' that allows pardon for every sin we repent of yet it allows none to any one of those we do not repent of but live in and therefore as we value our Salvation let no darling Sin nor beloved Lust nor any the most profitable or pleasing Wickedness whatsoever be indulged or continued in by us it 's as much as our Souls are worth if we do for every willfull habit of sin does most certainly exclude and shut us out of the Kingdom of Heaven without timely Repentance and Amendment if we have therefore been ever guilty of any such and so have forfeited Heaven and our own Souls and made our selves liable to Eternal Wrath and Damnation let us endeavour with all speed to recover our selves out of that sad state and to snatch our Souls out of the Jaws of Hell and from the very brink of perdition and let us bless God that he affords us both time and means and power to do this and when we have Emerged out of that wretched Condition let us not throw our selves into it again by any new Sins but let us ever after avoid that rock where we were like to have split and let us spend all the remainder of our lives in perfecting our Repentance and in bringing forth fruits worthy of it and in a constant and unbroken and uninterrupted obedience to all the Laws of Christianity so shall we approve our selves to God and our own Consciences so shall we have good grounds of Peace and Comfort while we live and so shall we be certainly saved when we come to die which God of his infinite mercy grant unto us The Seventh Sermon JOB XXVIII 28. And unto Man he said Behold the fear of the Lord that is Wisdom and to depart from evil is Vnderstanding THE Fear of the Lord is a phrase often used in Scripture to express all Religion by and 't is indeed the true Principle and Foundation of it for whoever has an awfull sense and belief of a Being above him and a just dread of his Almighty Power upon his Mind will take care to avoid all those things that he knows are displeasing to him and to perform all those duties which shall procure his favour and be acceptable to him for all our Happiness depends upon his Pleasure and he can make us miserable when we anger and provoke him Every one tho' he may have lost the sense of love either of God or Religion and the desire of Spiritual and Heavenly Happiness and may be sunk into such a state as to have no great relish of those things yet may have the sense of fear strong upon him and may be greatly affected with what he thinks may destroy and ruin and make him miserable and therefore fear is the strongest and most powerfull passion and the most deeply rooted in humane nature for it arises from a Natural love of our selves and a care and desire of our own self-preservation and every Man has this in him tho' he has no higher or nobler principles of Vertue and Religion and therefore 't is the Character of the most deplorably wretched and wicked Creatures that they have no fear of God before their Eyes Ps 36.1 Sometimes the love of God sometimes the fear of God sometimes the knowledge of God the belief of God is made to express the whole of Religion and the sum of our duty because where one of these is there are all the rest in some degree or other and they cannot be separated or divided for he that believes a God and knows him to be as he is a Being of infinite Power and of infinite Goodness must fear him and love him too his power makes him an object of fear and keeps us from offending him and his Goodness makes him an object of love and so both those do the same thing and as different causes yet concur to the same effect and all Vertue and Religion is produced by them and owes its being and original to them for without respect to God there can be no such thing as Vertue and Religion and where there is a true fear of him there they will always be as necessarily conjoin'd as effects are to their causes and therefore by an usual Metonymy the one is put for the other And this Vertue and Religion which is thus founded in the