2. It is likewise to be considered that God did not design to create man in the full possession of happiness at first but to train him up to it by the tryal of his obedience But there could be no tryal of our obedience without some difficulty in our duty Either by reason of powerfull temptations from without or of cross and perverse inclinations from within Our first Parents in their state of innocency had only the tryal of temptation without to which they yielded and were overcome having only a natural power to have resisted the temptation without any aid of supernatural grace And that weakness to good and proneness to evil which they by wilfull transgression contracted is naturally derived to us and we necessarily partake of the bitterness and impurity of the Fountain from whence we spring So that we now labour under a double difficulty being assaulted by temptations from without and incited by evil inclinations from within But then to balance these we have a double advantage that a greater reward is proposed to us than for ought we know would have been conferred on our first parents had they continued innocent and that we are endued with a supernatural power to conflict with these difficulties So that according to the mercifull dispensation of God all this conflict between our inclination and our duty does only serve to give a fairer opportunity for the fitting tryal of our obedience and for the more glorious reward of it 3. God hath provided an universal remedy for this degeneracy and weakness of humane Nature So that what we lost by the first Adam is abundantly repaired to us by the second This St. Paul tells us at large Rom. 5. that as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin so the Grace of God hath abounded to all men by Jesus Christ And that to such a degree as effectually to countervall the ill effects of original sin and really to enable men if they be not wanting to themselves to master and subdue all the bad inclinations of nature even in those who seem to be naturally most corrupt and depraved And if this be true we may without any reflexion upon God acknowledge that though he did not at first create man sick and weak yet he having made himself so his posterity are born so But then God hath not left us helpless in this weak and miserable State into which by wilfull transgression mankind is fallen But as he commands us to be sound so he affords us sufficient aids of his grace by Jesus Christ for our recovery And though there is a Law in our Members warring against the Law of our Minds and captivating us to the Law of Sin and Death i. e. though our sensitive appetite and passions are apt to rebell against the reason of our minds and the dictates of our natural Concience yet every Christian may say with St. Paul thanks be to God who hath given its the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ i. e. hath not left us destitute of a sufficient aid and strength to enable us to conquer the rebellious motions of sin by the powerfull assistance of that grace which is so plentifully offered to us in the Gospel And this is the case of all those who live under the Gospel As for others as their case is best known to God so we have no reason to doubt but that his infinite goodness and mercy takes that care of them which becomes a mercifull Creatour Though both the measures and the methods of his mercy towards them are Secret and unknown to us 4. The hardest contest between man's inclination and duty is in those who have wilfully contracted vicious habits and by that means rendred their duty much more difficult to themselves having greatly improved the evil inclinations of nature by wicked practice and custom For the Scripture plainly supposeth that men may debauch even corrupt nature and make themselves ten fold more the Children of wrath and of the Devil than they were by Nature This is a case sadly to be deplored but yet not utterly to be despaired of And therefore those who by a long progress in an evil course are plunged into this sad condition ought to consider that they are not to be rescued out of it by an ordinary resolution and a common grace of God Their case plainly requires an extraordinary remedy For he that is deeply engaged in vice is like a man laid fast in a bogg who by a faint and lazy struggling to get out does but spend his strength to no purpose and sinks himself the deeper into it The only way is by a resolute and vigorous effort to spring out if possible at once And therefore in this case to a vigorous resolution there must be joyned an earnest application to God for his powerfull grace and assistance to help us out of this miserable State And if we be truly sensible of the desperate danger of our condition the pressing necessity of our case will be apt to inspire us with a mighty resolution For power and necessity are neighbours and never dwell far asunder When men are sorely urged and pressed they find a power in themselves which they thought they had not Like a coward driven up to a wall who in the extremity of distress and despair will fight terribly and perform wonders or like a man lame of the Gout who being assaulted by a present and terrible danger forgets his Disease and will find his legs rather than lose his life And in this I do not speak above the rate of humane Nature and what men throughly roused and awakened to a sense of their danger by a mighty resolution may morally do through that Divine grace and assistance which is ever ready to be afforded to well resolved minds and such as are sincerely bent to return to God and their Duty More than this I cannot say for the encouragement of those who have proceeded far in an evil course And they who have made their case so very desperate ought to be very thankfull to God that there is any remedy left for them 5. From all that hath been said it evidently appears how malicious a suggestion it is that God seeks the destruction of men and hath made his Laws on purpose so difficult and cross to our inclinations that he might have an advantage to ruine us for our disobedience to them Alas we are so absolutely under the Power of God and so unable to withstand it that he may destroy us when he pleaseth without seeking pretences for it For who hath resisted his will If goodness were not his nature he hath power enough to bear out whatever he hath a mind to do to us But our destruction is plainly of our selves and God is free from the bloud of all men And he hath not made the way to Eternal Life so difficult to any of us with a design to make us miserable but that we
what that was he expresseth more particularly c. 26. v. 6 7 And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our Fathers unto which promise our twelve Tribes instantly serving God day and night hope to come By the promise made of God unto the Fathers he means some promise made by God to Abraham Isaac and Jacob for so S. Luke more than once in his History of the Acts explains this phrase of the God of their Fathers Acts 3.13 The God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob the God of our Fathers and c. 7. v. 32. I am the God thy Fathers the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Now what was the great and famous Promise which God made to Abraham Isaac and Jacob was it not this of being their God So that it was this very Promise upon which S. Paul tells us the Jews grounded their hope of a future state because they understood it necessarily to signifie some blessing and happiness beyond this life And now having I hope sufficiently clear'd this matter I shall make some improvement of this Doctrine of a future state and that to these three purposes 1. To raise our minds above this world and the enjoyments of this present life Were but men thorougly convinced of this plain and certain Truth that there is a vast difference between Time and Eternity between a few years and everlasting Ages would we but represent to our selves what thoughts and apprehensions dying persons have of this world how vain and empty a thing it appears to them how like a pageant and a shadow it looks as it passeth away from them methinks none of those things could be a sufficient temptation to any man to forget God and his Soul but notwithstanding all the delights and pleasures of sense we should be strangely intent upon the concernments of another world and almost wholly taken up with the thoughts of that vast Eternity which we are ready to launch into For what is there in this world this waste and howling wilderness this rude and barbarous Country which we are but to pass through which should detain our affections here and take off our thoughts from our everlasting habitation from that better and that heavenly Country where we hope to live and be happy for ever If we settle our affections upon the enjoyments of this present Life so as to be extremely pleas'd and transported with them and to say in our hearts It is good for us to be here if we be excessively griev'd or discontented for the want or loss of them and if we look upon our present state in this world any otherwise than as a preparation and passage to a better life it is a sign that our faith and hope of the happiness of another life is but very weak and faint and that we do not heartily and in good earnest believe what we pretend to do concerning these things For did we stedfastly believe and were thoroughly perswaded of what our Religion so plainly declares to us concerning the unspeakable and endless happiness of good men in another world our affections would sit more loose to this world and our hopes would raise our hearts as much above these present and sensible things as the heavens are high above the earth we should value nothing here below but as it serves for our present support and passage or may be made a means to secure and increase our future felicity 2. The consideration of another Life should quicken our preparation for that blessed state which remains for us in the other world This Life is a state of probation and trial This world is God's school where immortal spirits clothed with flesh are trained and bred up for eternity And then certainly it is not an indifferent thing and a matter of slight concernment to us how we live and demean our selves in this world whether we indulge our selves in ungodliness and worldly lusts or live soberly and righteously and godly in this present world No it is a matter of infinite moment as much as our souls and all eternity are worth Let us not deceive our selves for as we sow so shall we reap If we sow to the flesh we shall of the flesh reap corruption but if we sow to the spirit we shall of the spirit reap everlasting life Light is sown for the righteous and gladness for the upright in heart The righteous hath hopes in his death Mark the perfect man and behold the upright for the end of that man is peace But the ungodly are not so whoever hath lived a wicked and vicious life feels strange throws and pangs in his conscience when he comes to be cast upon a sick bed The wicked is like the troubled sea saith the Prophet when it cannot rest full of trouble and confusion especially in a dying hour It is death to such a man to look back upon his life and a hell to him to think of eternity When his guilty and trembling Soul is ready to leave his Body and just stepping into the other world what horrour and amazement do then seise upon him what a rage does such a man feel in his breast when he seriously considers that he hath been so great a fool as for the false and imperfect pleasure of a few days to make himself miserable for ever 3. Let the consideration of that unspeakable Reward which God hath promised to good men at the Resurrection encourage us to obedience and a holy life We serve a great Prince who is able to promote us to honour a most gracious Master who will not let the least service we do for him pass unrewarded This is the Inference which the Apostle makes from this large discourse of the Doctrine of the Resurrrection 1 Cor. 15.58 Wherefore my beloved brethren be ye stedfast and unmovable always abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as ye know that your labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. Nothing will make death more welcome to us than a constant course of service and obedience to God Sleep saith Solomon is sweet to the labouring man so after a great diligence and industry in working out our own salvation and as it is said of David serving our generation according to the will of God how pleasant will it be to fall asleep And as an useful and well-spent life will make our death to be sweet so our resurrection to be glorious Whatever acts of Piety we do to God or of charity to men whatever we lay out upon the poor and afflicted and necessitous will all be considered by God in the day of recompences and most plentifully rewarded to us And surely no consideration ought to be more prevalent to perswade us to alms-deeds and charity to the poor than that of a resurrection to another life Besides the promises of this life which are made to works of charity and there is not any
rather desires if it may be to be of the number of those who shall be found alive at the coming of Christ and have this mortal and corruptible body while they are clothed with it changed into a spiritual and incorruptible body without the pain and terrour of dying of which immediate translation into heaven without the painfull divorce of soul and body by death Enoch and Elias were examples in the old Testament It follows ver 5. Now he that hath wrought for us the self same thing is God That is it is he who hath fitted and prepared us for this Glorious change who also hath given us the earnest of the Spirit The Spirit is frequently in Scripture called the witness and seal and earnest of our future happiness and blessed resurrection or change of these vile and earthly bodies into spiritual and heavenly bodies For as the resurrection of Christ from the dead by the power of the holy Ghost is the great proof and evidence of immortality so the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwelling in us is the pledge and earnest of our Resurrection to an immortal life From all which the Apostle concludes in the words of the Text Therefore we are always confident that is we are always of good courage against the fear of death knowing that whilst we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which may better be rendred whilst we converse or sojourn in the body than whilst we are at home Because the design of the Apostle is to shew that the body is not our house but our tabernacle and that whilst we are in the body we are not at home but pilgrims and strangers And this notion the Heathens had of our present life and condition in this world Ex vita discedo faith Tully tanquam ex hospitio non tanquam ex domo commorandi enim natura diversorium nobis non habitandi locum dedit We go out of this life as it were from an Inn and not from our home nature having designed it to us as a place to sojourn but not to dwell in We are absent from the Lord that is we are detained from the blessed sight and enjoyment of God and kept out of the possession of that happiness which makes Heaven So that the Apostle makes an immediate opposition between our continuance in the body and our blissfull enjoyment of God and lays it down for a certain truth that whilst we remain in the body we are detained from our happiness and that so soon as ever we leave the body we shall be admitted into it knowing that whilst we converse in the body we are absent from the Lord. And ver 8. we are willing rather to be absent from the body and present with the Lord intimating that so soon as we quit these bodies we shall be admitted to the blessed sight and enjoyment of God My design from this Text is to draw some useful Corollaries or Conclusions from this Assertion of the Apostle That whilst we are in these bodies we are detained from our happiness and that so soon as ever we depart out of them we shall be admitted to the possession and enjoyment of it And they are these 1. This Assertion shews us the vanity and falshood of that Opinion or rather dream concerning the sleep of the Soul from the time of death till the general Resurrection This is chiefly grounded upon that frequent Metaphor in Scripture by which death is resembled to sleep and those that are dead are said to be fallen asleep But this Metaphor is no where in Scripture that I know of applied to the soul but to the body resting in the grave in order to its being awakened and raised up at the Resurrection And thus it is frequently used with express reference to the body Dan. 12.2 Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake Matth. 27.52 And the graves were opened and many bodies of saints which slept arose Acts 13.36 David after he had served his own generation by the will of God fell on sleep and was laid to his fathers and saw corruption which surely can no otherwise be understood than of his body 1 Cor. 15.21 Now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first-fruits of them that slept that is the resurrection of his body is the earnest and assurance that ours also shall be raised And ver 51. We shall not all sleep but shall all be changed where the Apostle certainly speaks both of the death and change of these corruptible bodies 1 Thessal 4.14 If we believe that Jesus died and rose again even so them also that sleep in Jesus shall God bring with him That is the bodies of those that died in the Lord shall be raised and accompany him at his coming So that it is the body which is said in Scripture to sleep and not the soul For that is utterly inconsistent with the Apostles Assertion here in the Text that while we are in the body we are absent from the Lord and that so soon as we depart out of the body we shall be present with the Lord. For surely to be with the Lord must signifie a state of happiness which sleep is not but only of inactivity Besides that the Apostle's Argument would be very flat and it would be but a cold encouragement against the fear of death that so soon as we are dead we shall fall asleep and become insensible But the Apostle useth it as an Argument why we should be willing to dye as soon as God pleaseth and the sooner the better because so soon as we quit these bodies we shall be present with the Lord that is admitted to the blissful sight and enjoyment of him and while we abide in the body we are detained from our happiness But if our souls shall sleep as well as our bodies till the general Resurrection it is all one whether we continue in the body or not as to any happiness we shall enjoy in the mean time which is directly contrary to the main scope of the Apostle's Argument 2. This Assertion of the Apostle's doth perfectly conclude against the feigned Purgatory of the Church of Rome which supposeth the far greater number of true and faithful Christians of those who dye in the Lord and have obtained eternal redemption by him from hell not to pass immediately into a state of happiness but to be detained in the suburbs of Hell in extremity of torment equal to that of hell for degree though not for duration till their fouls be purged and the guilt of temporal punifhments which they are liable to be some way or other paid off and discharged They suppose indeed some very few holy persons especially those who suffer Martyrdom to be so perfect at their departure out of the body as to pass immediately into Heaven because they need no purgation But most Christians they
long before his death Greater love than this hath no man that a man lay down his life for his friend ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you It is a wonderfull love which he hath expressed to us and worthy to be had in perpetual remembrance And all that he expects from us by way of thankfull acknowledgment is to celebrate the remembrance of it by the frequent participation of this blessed Sacrament And shall this charge laid upon us by him who laid down his life for us lay no obligation upon us to the solemn remembrance of that unparallel'd kindness which is the fountain of so many blessings and benefits to us It is a sign we have no great sense of the benefit when we are so unmindfull of our benefactour as to forget him days without number The Obligation he hath laid upon us is so vastly great not only beyond all requital but beyond all expression that if he had commanded us some very grievous thing we ought with all the readiness and chearfulness in the world to have done it how much more when he hath imposed upon us so easie a commandment a thing of no burthen but of immence benefit when he hath onely said to us Eat O friends and drink O beloved when he onely invites us to his table to the best and most delicious Feast that we can partake of on this side heaven If we seriously believe the great blessings which are there exhibited to us and ready to be conferred upon us we should be so far from neglecting them that we should heartily thank God for every opportunity he offers to us of being made partakers of such benefits When such a price is put into our hands shall we want hearts to make use of it Methinks we should long with David who saw but the shadow of these blessings to be satisfied with the good things of God's house and to draw near his altar and should cry out with him O when shall I come and appear before thee My soul longeth yea even fainteth for the courts of the Lord and my flesh cryeth out for the living God And if we had a just esteem of things we should account it the greatest infelicity and judgment in the world to be debarred of this privilege which yet we do deliberately and frequently deprive our selves of We exclaim against the Church of Rome with great impatience and with a very just indignation for robbing the People of half of this blessed Sacrament and taking from them the cup of blessing the cup of salvation and yet we can patiently endure for some months nay years to exclude our selves wholly from it If no such great benefits and blessings belong to it why do we complain of them for hindring us of any part of it But if there do why do we by our own neglect deprive our selves of the whole In vain do we bemoan the decay of our graces and our slow progress and improvement in Christianity whilst we wilfully despise the best means of our growth in goodness Well do we deserve that God should send leanness into our souls and make them to consume and pine away in perpetual doubting and trouble if when God himself doth spread so bountifull a Table for us and set before us the bread of life we will not come and feed upon it with joy and thankfulness A DISCOURSE AGAINST TRANSVBSTANTIATION Concerning the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper one of the two great positive Institutions of the Christian Religion there are two main Points of difference between Vs and the Church of Rome One about the Doctrine of Transubstantiation in which they think but are not certain that they have the Scripture and the words of our Saviour on their side The other about the administration of this Sacrament to the People in both kinds in which we are sure that we have the Scripture and our Saviour's Institution on our side and that so plainly that our Adversaries themselves do not deny it Of the first of these I shall now treat and endeavour to shew against the Church of Rome That in this Sacrament there is no substantial change made of the Elements of Bread and Wine into the natural Body and Bloud of Christ that Body which was born of the Virgin Mary and suffered upon the Cross for so they explain that hard word Transubstantiation Before I engage in this Argument I cannot but observe what an unreasonable task we are put upon by the bold confidence of our Adversaries to dispute a matter of Sense which is one of those things about which Aristotle hath long since pronounc'd there ought to be no dispute It might well seem strange if any man should write a Book to prove that an Egg is not an Elephant and that a Musket-bullet is not a Pike It is every whit as hard a case to put to maintain by a long Discourse that what we see and handle and taste to be Bread is Bread and not the Body of a man and what we see and taste to be Wine is Wine and not Bloud And if this evidence may not pass for sufficient without any farther proof I do not see why any man that hath confidence enough to do so may not deny any thing to be what all the World sees it is or affirm any thing to be what all the World sees it is not and this without all possibility of being farther confuted So that the business of Transubstantiation is not a controversie of Scripture against Scripture or of Reason against Reason but of downright Impudence against the plain meaning of Scripture and all the Sense and Reason of Mankind It is a most Self-evident Falshood and there is no Doctrine or Proposition in the World that is of it self more evidently true than Transubstantiation is evidently false And yet if it were possible to be true it would be the most ill-natur'd and pernicious truth in the World because it would suffer nothing else to be true it is like the Roman-Catholick Church which will needs be the whole Christian Church and will allow no other Society of Christians to be any part of it So Transubstantiation if it be true at all it is all truth and nothing else is true for it cannot be true unless our Senses and the Senses of all mankind be deceived about their proper objects and if this he true and certain then nothing else can be so for if we be not certain of what we see we can be certain of nothing And yet notwithstanding all this there are a Company of men in the World so abandon'd and given up by God to the efficacy of delusion as in good earnest to believe this gross and palpable Errour and to impose the belief of it upon the Christian World under no less penalties than of temporal death and eternal damnation And therefore to undeceive if possible these deluded Souls it will be necessary to examine the pretended grounds of
to have been engaged in an evil course preserve their innocency with great tenderness and care as the greatest Jewel in the World No Man knows what he do's and what a foundation of trouble he lays to himself when he forfeits his innocency and breaks the peace of his own mind when he yields to a Temptation and makes the first step into a bad course He little thinks whither his lusts may hurry him and what a monster they may make of him before they have done with him 2. Those who have been seduced but are not yet deeply engaged in an evil course let them make a speedy retreat lest they put it for ever out of their power to return Perhaps their feet onely are yet ensnared but their hands are at liberty and they have some power left whereby with an ordinary grace of God they may loose and rescue themselves But after a while their hands may be manacled and all their power may be gone and when they are thus bound hand and foot they are just prepared and in danger every moment to be cast into utter darkness 3. As for those who are gone very far and are grown old in vice who can forbear to lament over them for they are a sad spectacle indeed and the truest object of pity in the World And yet their recovery is not utterly to be despaired of for with God it is possible The spirit of God which hath withdrawn himself or rather hath been driven away by them may yet be persuaded to return and to undertake them once more if they would but seriously rosolve upon a change and heartily beg God's assistance to that purpose If we would take up a mighty resolution we might hope that God would afford a miraculous grace to second it and make it effectual to our recovery Even in this perverse and degenerate Age in which we live God hath not been wanting to give some miraculous instances of his grace and mercy to sinners and those perhaps equal to any of those we meet with in Scripture of Manasses or Mary Magdalen or the penitent Thief both for the greatness of the offenders and the miracle of their change To the end that none might despair and for want of the encouragement of an example equal to their own case be disheartned from so noble an enterprize I am loth to put you in mind how bad some have been who yet have been snatched as Firebrands out of the fire and that in so strange a manner that it would even amaze a Man to think of the wonder of their recovery those who have sunk themselves into the very depth of infidelity and wickedness have by a mighty hand and out-stretched arm of God been pluckt out of this horrible Pit And will we still stand it out with God when such great Leaders have given up the cause and have surrendred and yielded up themselves willing Captives to the grace of God that omnipotent grace of God which can easily subdue the stoutest heart of Man by letting in so strong a light upon our minds and pouring such terrible convictions into our consciences that we can find no ease but in turning to God I hope there are none here so bad as to need all the encouragement to repentance which such examples might give them encouragement I say to repentance for surely these examples can encourage no Man to venture any farther in a wicked course they are so very rare and like the instances of those who have been brought back to life after the sentence of death seemed to have been fully executed upon them But perhaps some will not believe that there have been such examples or if there have they impute all this either to a disturbed imagination or to the faint and low spirits of Men under great bodily weakness or to their natural cowardize and fear or to I know not what foolish and fantastical design of completing and finishing a wicked life with an hypocritical death Nothing surely is easier than to put some bad construction upon the best things and so slurr even repentance it self and almost dash it out of countenance by some bold and perhaps witty saying about it But oh that Men were wise oh that Men were wise that they understood and would consider their latter end Come let us neither trifle nor dissemble in this matter I dare say every man's Conscience is convinced that they who have led very ill lives have so much reason for repentance that we may easily believe it to be real However of all things in the world let us not make a mock of repentance that which must be our last sanctuary and refuge and which we must all come to before we die or it had been better for us we had never been born Therefore let my counsel be acceptable unto you break off your sins by repentance and your iniquities by righteousness And that instantly and without delay lest any of you be hardned through the deceitfulness of sin If we have been enslaved but a little to a vitious course we shall find it a task difficult enough to assert our own liberty to break these bonds in sunder and to cast these cords from us But if we have been long under this bondage we have done so much to undoe our selves and to make our case desperate that it is God's infinite mercy to us that there is yet hope Therefore give glory to the Lord your God before he cause darkness and your feet stumble upon the dark mountains and while you look for light he turn it into darkness and the shadow of death I will conclude with that encouraging invitation even to the greatest of sinners to repentance from the mouth of God himself Isa 55. Incline your ear and come unto me hear and your Soul shall live seek the Lord while he may be found and call upon him while he is near Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy and to our God for he will abundantly pardon To him let us apply out selves and humbly beseech him who is mighty to save that he would stretch forth the right hand of his power for our deliverance from this miserable and cruel bondage of our lusts and that as the rain cometh down from Heaven and returneth not thither but watereth the earth and maketh it to bring forth and bud so he would grant that his word may not return void but accomplish his pleasure and prosper in the thing to which he sent it For his mercy sake in Jesus Christ To whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all honour and glory now and for ever Amen MATTTHEW XXIII 13. Woe unto you Scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites for ye shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against Men and ye neither go in your selves neither suffer ye them that are entring to go in THE Scribes so often mentioned in the Gospel