by his Enemies into extreme danger of Death which he commonly expresseth by the same or the like words as Psal. XVIII 4. The sorrows of death compassed me and Verse 5. The sorrows of hell compassed me about and Psal. CXVI 3. The sorrows of death compassed me the pains of Hell gat hold upon me Yet trusting in the Promises of God amidst all these Calamities he rested assured of Deliverance and expresseth his Confidence of it in the words cited by the Apostle in the following Verses My flesh shall rest in hope because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see Corruption It was a Matter at that time received and on all hands granted by the Jews that David was a Type of the Messias that his Actions Sufferings and Deliverance prefigured the Office the Death and Resurrection of Christ who should descend from him and particularly the Apostle sheweth how this Passage was much more evidently and literally fulfilled in Christ than in David He indeed was delivered from his Enemies and died in Peace yet die he did and after Death his soul was left in hell that is among the Dead or in the place of departed Souls and his Body did see Corruption having been buried many hundred years But as for Christ he died indeed yet his soul was not left in hell neither did his Body see Corruption His Soul was presently reunited to the Body and even during the Separation not left by the Divine Nature which still continued to be joyned to it neither was his Body corrupted but raised up and united to the Soul in less than forty hours in which time the Bodies of deceased Men are wont to be corrupted According to the second Interpretation Christ was raised from a painful Death to an opposite State to a condition of Glory Happiness Power and Immortality The Sufferings of our Lord so lively described to us in the Holy Offices of the last week we cannot forget and over all these he eminently triumphed in his Resurrection upon this day He was then made subject to Death but is now become the Lord of life and set above the reach of Death For Christ being raised from the Dead dieth no more Death hath no more Dominion over him Rom. VI. 9. He then bore the wrath of God for the sake of Man He now dispenseth the Favours of God granted to Men. He was then subjected to the Contradiction of Sinners to the Will of his own Creatures appeared as the vilest of Men suffered as a Malefactor he is now entred upon his Kingdom raised above the Earth seated at the right hand of God Angels and Authorities and Powers being made subject unto him 1 Pet. III. 22. The words explained in their third Sense infer the overthrow of the Power and Dominion of Death effected by the Resurrection of Christ. The whole Design of our Lords Incarnation of his Death Burial and Resurrection was as it is expressed Hebr. II. 14. That he might destroy him that had the power of Death that is the Devil To do this all the parts of his Life contributed He converted Sinners from the Error of their way He confuted the Mistakes of the seduced World He founded a Church wherein open Enmity should be professed to the Devil He took upon himself the guilt of Death due to the sins of Men and all this Dispensation he gloriously finished in his Resurrection Therein he literally broke the bonds of Death he led Captivity Captive baffled the opposition and triumphed over all the Assaults of the Devil who had vainly imagined that by procuring the ever Blessed Jesus to be given up into the hands of wicked Men he had put an end to the Salvation of Mankind But to our eternal Happiness and to the Glory of our Redeemer his Designs and Attempts promoted that very end which he so much dreaded he knew not that it was the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God as it is in the precedent Verse that Christ should both die and rise again to perfect our Salvation that he was for a while to be subject to Death but that it was impossible he should be holden of it III. This was the third thing proposed to Discourse of that it was not possible that Christ should continue in the state of Death The Apostle foundeth the impossibility of it in this place upon the Determination of God to the contrary so that here it was not possible is no more than it was not Consonant to the decree of God it was not fit just or convenient as it is said Matth. IX It is not possible for the Children of the Bride-Chamber to mourn as long as the Bridegroom is with them that is it is not fit or convenient In this Sense then I shall consider it and 1. It was not possible or convenient that Christ should be holden of death because he was both God and Man the Divine was united to his Humane Nature It would have appeared surprizing to our Reason and been an Argument of little affection of God to Mankind if he should have suffered that very Body which had the Honour to be joyned to his own Nature wherein the fullness of the Godhead dwelled bodily to continue in Hell in the common state of Mortality or to see Corruption It was not possible that the Divinity should suffer that Nature to be corrupted or lye neglected among the Dead to which it self continued to be united even in the Grave This we of the Catholick Church do believe and if any should oppose this wonderful Union of the Divine and Humane Nature in the person of Christ his very Resurrection will convince their Error For to raise a dead Body to Life again must be allowed to be no less than the work of Omnipotence that it can be effected by God alone Yet it appeareth from the express words of Scripture that Christ had Power to raise up his own Body He saith of himself to the Jews John II. 19. Destroy this Temple and in three days I will raise it up Speaking of the Temple of his Body as the Evangelist subjoyns And again John X. 18. No Man taketh my Life from me but I lay it down of my self I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again Our Lord who came into the World to do the Will of his Father and to glorifie him would never have claimed this Power had it not been inherent in himself He therefore by his own Power reunited his Soul to his Body I mean not in Exclusion to the other persons of the Blessed Trinity who all concurred therein For Power being an essential Attribute of the Divine Nature continueth undivided in the Persons of it And therefore it is no Objection against the Truth of this that the Father is said in many places of the New Testament to have raised up his Son since he is the chief Person in that Blessed Trinity
therein than he did before Scarce any Man however having plentifully enjoyed all the satisfactions of this Life if his Life could be renewed to him upon Condition of living again in the same and in no other manner than he did before would esteem it any great Benefit He might perhaps accept it through fear of Death because he knows not what it is to die but for the intrinsick Merit of it he would hardly judge it to be desirable Such is the Condition of humane Life considered in a natural State and what great Excellency can be discovered in all this which may nourish our Pride or enlarge our Pretences So inconsiderable a part of the Universe is Mankind And then shall so mean a Being vie with God require the general Laws of Providence to be over-ruled for his sake become swoln with Pride think himself more worthy than all the rest of the Creation and continually aspire to greater Priviledges than were at first assigned to him Alas poor Mortal however thou mayst advance thy Pretences and flatter thy self with a fond Opinion of thy own Greatness that Body which thou carriest about with thee and canst not shake off that very Body upon which and the dependances of it thou so much valuest thy self proclaim thy Imperfection If I should call thee Dust and Ashes thy end will manifest thee to be no more but this will only express thy Infirmity I want a word to express the Vanity of thy mind If I should call thee nothing thy self hast often confessed thy self to be worse than nothing when amidst the Crosses of fortune or torments of Diseases thou hast often wished to become nothing for to avoid them and wilt once again wish it after Death if thou dost not correct thy foolish Arrogance So little Reason hath Man in general to value himself upon the Excellency of his Nature and as to the divers Pretentions before-mentioned hath yet much less If Atheists pretend an independent Existence from God let them demonstrate it by continuing their Existence for ever If they could at first bestow Existence upon themselves they may by the same Power always continue it if this exceeds their Ability much more will the other If Deists assert the Actions of Man to be uncontrouled by God and the Government of the World to be wholly neglected by him let them reconcile to such stupid Negligence the eternal Attributes of Justice Wisdom and Goodness which they allow to be in God let them stifle if they can the Checks of their Conscience for Sins committed in secret and solve the undeniable Characters of extraordinary Providence interposing in the World These impious Opinions indeed cannot be received by the followers of any revealed Religion but the others may As first That all other parts of the Creation were made for the sake and the service of Man alone An Opinion which however generally taken up by Men and in some measure Useful to excite their Gratitude to their Creator yet seems to have proceeded from too great an esteem of humane Nature and tendeth directly to â—oment its Pride It is certain indeed that almost all parts of the visible World are subservient to the use of Man that God hath not denied to us the use of any one of them in which sense it may indeed be said that all things were created for the use of Man as it is said in Scripture Man was created for the Woman and the Woman for the Man that is not for that end alone but for that among other Reasons And thus even the Angels are subservient to Man being sent forth as Ministring Spirits to such as are heirs of Salvation But to imagine that all things were Created only for the use and the sake of Man hath no appearance of Truth To affirm that of the blessed Angels who are so far superiour to us in Dignity would be an intolerable Arrogance and to assert it even of other created Beings would be a vain Presumption Perhaps not the thousandth part of the Universe is visible to us And then what are we concerned in so many vast Orbs as are beyond our Heavens I know many have imagined them to have been created for the Seat of God and the Reception of our glorified Bodies after the Resurrection but that is too gross a Conceit to need any Refutation Even in the visible World no small part of the Creation lays undiscovered and not a little of what we know is wholly unuseful to us It becomes us rather with Reverence to reflect upon our Subjection to God our common Creatour than endeavour to set our selves before the rest of the Creation and flatter our selves into an ambitious Opinion of an Universal Monarchy In the next place to ascribe so much Excellency to our Nature as to imagine that the general Laws of Providence ought to be violated for the Convenience of it is a Pride exceeding all Comparison as if the petty Interests of Man in this Life were of greater moment than the Preservation of the publick Order and therein the Harmony of the World Is it not sufficient to have received from God the benefit of Existence to enjoy all the Blessings of Earth and Heaven which the ordinary course of Nature directed by the Author of it bestoweth on us but the Fabrick of the World must be overturned and the general Laws of its Government be reversed for us Yet this unreasonable Expectation generally seizeth Men in Afflictions when all the hard Words which they heap upon adverse Fortune are directed against the Divine Government of the World the impartial Execution of which without respect to the little Interests of private Men produceth that diversity of Accidents which is generally called Fortune Farther to murmur at the Divine Administration of the World because no more excellent or more certain Happiness is assigned to Men in this Life is an effect of the same unreasonable Ambition of being more noble Creatures than we really are For while we are a compound of Soul and Body endued with gross Organs of Sense and subject to the publick Order of the World it is impossible that our Pleasures should be other than gross and adapted to the Organ of their Reception that is our Sense We may tire our selves in hunting after new Methods of Happiness and afflict our selves in the Disappointment of them but while our Natures continue to be what they are and the same Order is preferved in the World it is impossible that the Pleasures of Life should be any other than what they are that is mean in their own Nature and uncertain in their Duration To propose the acquisition of a compleat Knowledge of all things in this Life of an absolute imperturbation of Mind and constant Infallibility is no less Vain and to boast of such Perfections as some have done little less than Madness Our present Nature admitteth no such Improvements which while we are content to own we must also own those
his Enemies as well as Friends at that time The Soldiers sent to break his Legs while hanging on the Cross that so they might hasten his Death whom they supposed not yet to have expired found him already dead Joseph of Arimathea and the devout Women which followed him taking him down from the Cross laid him in his Grave being well assured that he was then Dead His Disciples who if any shew of Reason might be offered would not easily believe him dead from whom they then expected a temporal Kingdom yet were so far perswaded of it that at his first appearing to them they were affrighted and supposed they had seen a Spirit To these Proofs nothing more could be added to Evince the reality of his Death an Evidence which is wanting to all the Relations of Men raised from the Dead opposed by the Heathens to the Resurrection of our Lord. They alledged from Plato the Story of Eris lying for many days among the dead Bodies and after that recovering Life again and pretended that Apollonius Tyaneus whom they set up in opposition to Christ had raised a certain Person to Life But the first was not related by any for more than a thousand years after the Fact was pretended to be done and in the second Case the Heathen Historian confesseth that he dare not affirm that the Person was truly Dead Nor after his Resurrection was it less evident that Christ was truly alive invested with Soul and Body All the Actions of Life and Arguments of a real Body met in his He was seen by a great number of his Disciples who judged it to be such He eat and drank with them which proved his Body not to have been a meer Phantasm or Aerial Apparition He talked and reasoned with them out of the Scriptures which demonstrated that Body to be indued with a rational Soul He appealed to their Sense of feeling commanded them to handle him said to unbelieving Thomas reach hither thy finger and behold my hands and reach hither thy hand and thrust it into my side which manifests that the Body which he then offered to that Tryal was that very Body which had suffered on the Cross and still retained the Print of the Nails and the Impression of the Spear That this same Body and Soul reunited was also joyned to the Divinity as before his Passion appeared from his many Miracles wrought after his Resurrection Thus we have a true proper and real Resurrection And that all these things were so we have the Testimony first of his own Disciples the Faith of whom although so nearly related to him cannot be called in question since they laid down their Lives in Confirmation of it Nor can it be imagined that any Men should die for the Testimony of what they knew to be false Of these the pious Women were first Blessed with the sight of him whether it were in Reward of their maintaining their Love and Fidelity to him when his Apostles had forsaken him or that they came into the Garden where the Sepulchre was immediately after the Resurrection and before he was yet departed out of it They saw him knew him and saluted him held him by the feet and worshipt him The Apostles being advertised of it by them hasted to see their Master and received not only a transient view of him but conversed with him for forty days together and by many infallible proofs were assured of the truth of it Afterwards he appeared to more than five hundred at once and at last ascended up to Heaven in the presence of them all To the witness of Friends we will add the Testimony of his Enemies which in all Cases is allowed to be of great weight The Soldiers who were employed by the Jews to watch his Sepulchre plainly saw the Effects of Divine Power which accompanied his Resurrection although being astonished and confounded at such unusual Prodigies they did not well perceive it or perhaps were not suffered by their Fears to stay till Christ should proceed out of the Sepulchre They felt the Earthquake which removed the stone rolled to the mouth of the Sepulchre they saw the countenance of an Angel like lightning and his raiment white as snow upon which they did shake and became as dead Men and coming into the City shewed to the chief Priests all the things that were done as we read Matth. XXVIII II. The Angels and heavenly Hosts had before joyned with Men in celebrating the Nativity of Christ and they here concurred in witnessing his Resurrection The Women coming to the Sepulchre betimes in the Morning presently after the Resurrection and looking for the Body of their beloved Lord in the Sepulchre found there two Angels in white sitting one at the head the other at the feet where the Body of Jesus had lain who said to them why seek ye the dead among the living he is not here he is risen come see the place where the Lord lay Lastly If we should imagine both his Friends and Enemies the report of Sense oft-times repeated to have been deceived in the Opinion of his Resurrection God hath been pleased to confirm the Truth of it and to set his Seal to it This he hath done not only by his Holy Spirit comforting enabling and encouraging the Apostles in Preaching the Mystery of Christ's Refurrection but also in confirming their Testimony with concurrent Miracles As it is Acts IV. 33. With great power gave the Apostles witness of the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus They openly affirmed it upon their own Knowledge and then in Proof of the truth of their Affirmation wrought Signs and Miracles which to the Spectators did as fully evince the Truth of the Relation as if they had seen it done with their own Eyes since it was impossible that God should exert his omnipotent Power in working Miracles for the Attestation of a Lye Thus much for the reality I proceed in the second place to the II. Manner of the Resurrection expressed in those words having loosed the pains of death which are variously interpreted some maintaining that they imply only a Deliverance from Death and rescue from the Grave others that they point out the dolorous Sufferings by which our Lord was brought to the Grave and raising him up to a state opposite to that Humiliation a third sort understanding by them a Destruction of the Power and Dominion of Death All these Opinions are supported with great Reasons nor will it here be proper to enter into a strict Examination which of them rather is to be embraced They are all rational Consonant to the Design of the Apostle and Significative of the manner of Christ's Resurrection I will therefore apply them all The first Opinion includeth only a Deliverance from Death that is a reunion of Soul and Body separated by Death In which Sense it chiefly referreth to the words of David and the Promises made to him here alledged by the Apostle David had been often brought
the Miscarriage of either if it concerns matters of Obedience to himself or of ordinary Duty In which case it is no less Fatal or Criminal to pervert the Understanding than to corrupt the Will and then to plead Ignorance or a mistaken Conscience will be no more allowed than to plead Drunkenness for Crimes committed in that absence of right Reason There is not in all History a more enormous Sin to be found than the Infidelity of the Jews and the Crucifixion of their Messias by them none so severely branded in Scripture or punished with so remarkable a Judgment in this Life Yet our Saviour hanging on the Cross declared that those his Persecutors knew not what they did And altho' he then out of the abundance of his Charity interceded for their Pardon yet the Justice of God would not grant it much less continue to them the former Favours of Heaven And such would have been the visible and publick Preaching of Christ after his Resurrection Farther the Honour of God was engaged herein nor was it agreeable to the Divine Majesty that the Person of Christ after his Resurrection should be exposed to the publick view of the Nation of the Jews Reason did require and all the Prophets had foretold that the Messias should pass through a double State that is of Humiliation and Glory In his State of Humiliation before his Death he had undergone all the Miseries Ignominies and Calamities to which humane Nature is subject He was pressed with the want of the Necessaries of Life was afflicted with the Insults Provocations and Injuries of the Jews was delivered up into the Hands of wicked Men to be treated at their Pleasure To these meritorious Sufferings was to ensue a State of Glory wherein Christ should be placed far above the Rank and the Power of mortal Men should be exempted from the infirmities of Nature and enter upon an everlasting Kingdom This State of Exaltation was begun in his Resurrection perfected by his Ascension and continued without interruption to all Ages It was not then agreeable to the Divine Honour that the Sacred Body of the ever Blessed Jesus now exalted to a State of Glory should be again subjected to the Attempts and Persecution of the Jews That it should be exposed to the rage of Men and reduced to his former mean Condition Yet all this could not have been avoided if Christ had appeared publickly among the People after his Resurrection The same Hatred and Persecution would have returned unless he had pleased by a Miracle to rescue his Body from their Attempts A Miracle indeed was no less easie to his Almighty Power than any other ordinary Operation Yet the Honour of God is concerned not to work Miracles but for great Reasons and the Impiety of that People deserved not to have a Miracle conferred on them Or had Christ appeared openly among them even altho he could have been secured from their Persecution it must either have been in his former meek and humble Habit and as such they would have despised him or what they greedily expected as a glorious Prince armed with Power and temporal Greatness and that was contrary to his Design who declared his Kingdom not to be of this World Nor in this respect only was the publick appearing of Christ after his Resurrection contrary to his Design for which he came into the World To have then publickly manifested himself for this purpose to have removed the incredulity of the Jews and convinced them of the Truth of his Mission would have been to have continued his Prophetical Office after his Crucifixion For therein did his Prophetical or Ministerial Office consist in declaring the Will of God in preaching of Repentance in converting of Sinners This Office was to expire with his Life and after his Resurrection his State of Glory and therewith his Regal Office was to commence Upon which account himself when ready to expire upon the Cross said It is finished All the parts of his Ministerial Office were now fully compleated not to be personally renewed again He had performed all that the Divine Wisdom had determined to be effected by him in Person towards the Conversion and Salvation of the World the rest he was to commit to his Apostles and their Successours Himself was no longer to remain in the form of a Servant which he had taken on him but entring upon his Kingdom to govern that Church which he by his former Preaching and Death had founded I proceed to the second Proposition namely II. That even if Christ after his Resurection had appeared and conversed Publickly it would yet have failed to produce an universal Conviction and remove all Doubts This is undeniably manifest in respect of our selves for whom we are most concerned and of all Ages subsequent to that time For allowing that the whole Nation of the Jews had been ocular Witnesses of the Resurrection of Christ yet all other Persons both of that and all succeeding Ages would have had no other Proof than what we now have that is the Testimony of those who saw him after his Resurrection All others even in that case would have equally wanted the Demonstration of Sense and must have depended upon the Relation of others So that all the certainty which any can have of Matters seen and related by others we have unless we imagine that five hundred cannot as certainly judge of a plain Matter of Fact as so many millions And even if so many millions had seen it we should not have expected that every one should severally commit it to writing and so testifie it to us we must still have relied upon the Testimony of some few Historians and that in this case we have So that notwithstanding the number of ocular Witnesses was then confined to five hundred we who were not Blessed with that Sight have the same Evidence of it as if all the Members of Mankind then living had seen it Whatever force therefore the Objection might have in that Age it hath none in ours We have sufficient Arguments offered to us to prove the Truth of it equal and even Superiour to those upon which we believe the Truth of any Matter of Fact which our selves did not see And if we reject these Arguments it is not probable that even Demonstration would move us if it could be had For whatever Men may pretend in excuse of their Infidelity it is most certain that he who will not believe what is proposed to him upon reasonable altho ' but probable Motives will not even yield to Demonstration if the Truth proposed opposeth his Lusts and Passions And this indeed is the true cause of all those Doubts which unreasonable Men produce in defence of their unbelief It would be too gross and shameless to assign the true Cause and alledge that they will not submit to the Yoke of Religion because it checks their Vices restrains their Lusts forbids the Gratification of many beloved Passions They
without controul dared to reject his Doctrine vilifie his Person and put him to an ignominious Death but now they were to be convinced by uncontestable Proofs from Heaven that his Person was more than Humane his Doctrine Divine and themselves guilty of the most Enormous wickedness in crucifying the Lord of Life The Justice of God the Father had suffered Aspersions in not revenging the Sufferings and rewarding the Labours of his Son But now this was to be cleared and the Jews convinced that neither their Wickedness should pass unpunished nor his Merits unrewarded The Devil had triumphed in his supposed Conquest over Christ and his imagination of having baffled the Design of the Redemption of Mankind by procuring the Author of it to be put to Death but his arrogant Pretensions were henceforth to be checked his Hopes to be defeated his Empire to be dissolved All these Advantages were to flow from the Mission of the Holy Ghost and all these our Lord sums up and Promises in the words of my Text And when he is come he will reprove the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment In which words we may enquire I. In what Sense all these Effects and Advantages are to be ascribed to the Mission of the Holy Ghost II. How far these promised Effects and Advantages of his Mission were performed As to the First the word reproving 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is used in the Text in the Original is taken from judicial Proceedings and signifieth a Confutation of the adverse Party by such Proofs and Testimonies as by an impartial Judge should be allowed to be valid The Office therefore of the Holy Ghost was to be the Paraclet the Advocate of our Saviour upon Earth to plead his Cause to produce these Proofs to urge and propose them to the World There were indeed abundant Proofs before in the Nature of the thing but Proofs are not convictive till laid open declared and proposed This was the Office of the Holy Ghost in this he was to be the Advocate of our Saviour and this he performed by pouring extraordinary Gifts upon the Apostles as on this day which might enable them with Power and Eloquence with Courage and Success to propose those Proofs and convince the world of sin of righteousness and of judgment They were to be the Instruments of this Reproof this Conviction not only by their Gifts received and Labours performed as upon this day but by all their Miracles Sermons and Preaching performed in the whole Course of their Ministry All these Actions were equally directed to the same end the conviction of the World yet all in vertue of those Abilities which they received upon this day All their Gifts and Labours were solely owing to his power and derived from his Grant their Knowledge to his Inspiration their Courage and Constancy to his Support their Speaking to his Impulse their Miracles to his Power their Success to his Blessing So that all which they performed ought truly and properly to be ascribed to him All the Miracles Actions and Prophesies of their Lord before the Mission of the Holy Ghost all the Miracles and Labours of themselves after it were to contribute to the Conviction of the World but all the Efficacy the Application of this Conviction was to proceed solely from the Abilities conferred on them at the time of his Mission And thus the Holy Ghost continueth his Office of Advocate not only during the Apostles times but in all Ages of the Church since those Gifts which he then began to dispense to the Apostles he still continueth to diffuse to the Faithful and by the Efficacy of these Gifts it is that the Church is maintained the Faithful enlivened the Conviction continued He then convinced the World by the Preaching of the Apostles and he now convinceth it by the Preaching of their Successors acted with the same Spirit and by the reading of the Holy Scriptures written by them through his assistance and direction His Gifts indeed conferred on them were far more eminent because more necessary his Administration of the Church in their time more remarkable because manifesting the Completion of many particular Prophesies of our Saviour Upon which account the Promises of this Text were then more eminently fulfilled And that they were so I come next in Order to consider First then the Holy Ghost by his coming reproved or convinced the World of Sin because they believed not on Christ as it follows in the 9. Verse By the World we are here primarily to understand the Jews who notwithstanding all the mighty Signs and Miracles performed by Christ denied Assent to his Doctrine This disbelief of theirs before the Mission of the Holy Ghost our Saviour in many places seems to excuse and pardon and St. Pet. in the III. of the Acts V. 17. extenuates their crucifying the Lord of Life by their Ignorance Which Plea would have been but trifling had not their Ignorance in some measure been excusable but after the Mission of the Holy Spirit to stand out against those manifold Convictions that were then offer'd could be no other than an inexcusable Perverseness and Incredulity Of this we may assign two several Reasons First that although our Lord had in his own Person performed many and those stupendious Miracles yet these affected no other than the Spectators of them For while alive he never blazoned abroad his Miracles nor employed his Disciples in spreading the Report and testifying the Truth of them So that however many particular Persons who were Eye-witnesses of his Miracles could not but be abundantly convinced of his Divinity yet the universal Conviction of the whole Nation of the Jews was to be reserved to the Mission of the Holy Ghost When the Apostles were to be endued with Courage and Power from on high to proclaim his Actions and Doctrines to all Men and if need were to assert the Truth of them by other no less extraordinary Miracles Secondly the chief Note affixed by God whereby to judge of the Truth of any Prophet and particularly of the Messias was the Completion of his Prophesies Thus in Deut. XVIII when Moses assureth the Children of Israel That God should raise them up in the latter days a Prophet like unto himself whom they should be obliged to hear in all things he gives them this Token whereby to judge between the true and any false Messias If the Predictions of him who took upon him the Name and Character of the Messias did really come to pass then they should acknowledge him to be the true Messias The most eminent and almost only Predictions of our Lord which could serve as Signs of this nature to the Jews of that Age were the Mission of the Holy Ghost the Resurrection of himself after three days Imprisonment in the Grave and the Final destruction of Jerusalem before that Generation should pass away The first was happily accomplished upon this day when the Gifts of the Holy Ghost
Opinion of his extraordinary Happiness Himself in order recounted his Dignities and they admired them He reported the Favours of his Prince and they extolled them He boasted of his Grandeur and Riches and they proclaim'd him Happy Yet himself who best knew what Happiness he received from thence declared himself unhappy and all this to avail him nothing Lastly this was spoken by Haman whilst yet in full Favour with his Prince and expecting to receive greater Demonstrations of it He suffered no Apprehensions of losing his present Enjoyment Such thoughts indeed distract a worldly Man imbitter all his Pleasures and suffer him not to rest contented It would be impossible to him to relish any delight while afflicted with Fears and Doubts while despairing to retain his present Happiness He would grow Pale at the Prospect of an approaching Storm and instead of receiving any Complacency from his present Prosperity distract his thoughts with the fear of future Misery In such Circumstances an Epicure might well Confess that all the outward Advantages of his Life profited him nothing while he suffered inward Distraction from the Apprehension of his Fall which would render him so much more miserable by how much it deprived him of a greater Prosperity Haman at this time had no such Fears he had yet received no repulse at Court his Favour daily increased he had that very day received eminent Marks of his Princes affection and was the day after to receive yet more All this he was sensible of and all this he acknowledged in the close of his Speech Ver. 12. For he said moreover Yea Esther the Queen did let no man come in with the King unto the banquet that she had prepared but my self and to morrow am I invited unto her also with the King Far from fearing the loss of his present Greatness he probably hoped the increase of it and yet concluded that all this availed him nothing If then Haman under all these Circumstances missed of his desired end of being made Happy by worldly Enjoyments we may reasonably suspect some defect to be in the Nature of them upon the account of which neither Haman could nor any other can receive any real Happiness from thence And this I proceed in the Second place to treat of in some few Considerations First then nothing on this side Heaven is able to satiate the Soul of Man and however temporal Benefits may at a distance ravish the Imagination and create extraordinary Conceptions of their own Excellency yet when obtained they are found to be empty and trifling unable to satisfie the Desires of the Soul and fill its Capacity They are like the Fruit of Sodom which by their external Beauty attract the Eye but when touched crumble into Ashes While they are yet only Objects of Desire Men frame to themselves as it were Systems of Happiness to be enjoyed in them No sooner do they become Objects of Fruition but the meanness of them is discovered and after a full Enjoyment of them Man is forced to Confess this is not that he desired that which he proposed to himself He is never enabled by the Possession of them to say I am now completely Happy I here terminate my Desires He is forced to carry his Desires yet farther and seek true Felicity somewhere else which while constant to his Principle he can place no where else than in a greater Degree of the same Happiness This therefore he earnestly pursues yet never attains that Degree If he fixeth the measure of the Degree he may indeed arrive at that but when arrived finds himself as far as ever removed from true Happiness He turmoils and distracts himself experienceth the Vanity of former Projects invents new Methods of Happiness until Death puts an end to his Life and Designs together The greatest of these worldly Enjoyments are generally supposed to be Riches and sensual Pleasures The latter are common even to Beasts who are endued with Senses no less strong and lively than Men. And then surely none will so far debase his Nature as to level himself with Beasts by proposing to himself a Felicity of which they are no less capable It cannot be denied indeed that as we consist of Soul and Body God intended Happiness to each part that he put us into this World to make our selves Happy even in this Life but then as Soul and Body together constitute but one Person the Pleasures of either must be such as consist with the Nature of both As the Soul ought not to tyrannize over the Body by imposing on it unnecessary Rigours and Mortifications so the Excellency of the Soul ought not to be debased for the satisfaction of the Body A limitted use of Pleasures is not to be denied to the Body but then that very Limitation supposeth a better and more noble end of Man for the sake of which they are limited And after all the real Happiness of such limited Pleasures consists not so much in the report of the Senses enjoying them as in the reflex thoughts of the Soul forming to its self an Act of Complacency for having limited them according to the Laws of God The unlimited use of these Pleasures instead of conferring a real Benefit involves Men in Troubles and Anxieties in Cares and Dangers and when enjoyed endures but for a Moment no longer than the impression of Sense continueth when expired leaves only a Weariness and Nauseousness behind them So then sensual Pleasures conduce little to the Supreme end of Man unless we should be so foolish as to imagine that to be the utmost Happiness of Man which renders him happy but for a few moments And then as to Riches the natural use of them is subordinated to sensual Pleasures and the Conveniencies of Life and therefore can bestow nothing beyond them If any imagine as it cannot be denied that too many do that the very satisfaction of possessing Riches without any respect to the use of them bears any part in the Happiness of Man this is so gross and unmanly a Conception as nothing can exceed the wickedness of it nothing can equal the Folly of it This is a greater Depravation of Nature than all the Villanies of Sense or Sins of violence and if no Punishment attended it hereafter would rather deserve our Scorn than Envy The Acquisition of Riches is generally indeed at least indirectly referred to the Enjoyment of sensual Pleasures to be procured by them and as such can carry the Happiness of them no farther than the Nature of them will permit which we before considered Not to say that it is an invincible Argument of the unsatisfactoriness of Riches that those who seek after them seldom or never set bounds to their Desires and although in the acquiring of them they generally please themselves with the thoughts of commanding all sensual Pleasures when they shall have obtain'd them yet they seldom begin in earnest a Fruition of them ever proposing an end to themselves
Mistakes of Job and his Friends which I proposed and come now to consider in the second place To Solve this Difficulty every one of them formed a different Opinion yet all came short of Truth Eliphaz who spake first asserted that God inflicted temporal Misfortunes on no Man but by way of Punishment for some enormous Sins and therefore urged Job to confess his secret Sins and give Glory to God as it is XXII 5. Is not thy wickedness great and thine iniquities infinite And so on Where he affirmeth Job to be the greatest of Sinners only because God had heaped extraordinary Calamities upon him Bildad maintaind that God might as the supreme and absolute Governour of the World afflict Man without any respect to antecedent Sins but then that he was bound in Justice to recompense it to him by subsequent Prosperity For thus he expresseth himself VIII 6 7. If thou wert pure and upright surely now he would awake for thee and make the Habitation of thy Righteousness prosperous Though thy beginning was small yet thy latter end should greatly increase Zophar delivereth his Opinion throughout the whole XI Chap. that God might in right of his supreme Power lay the heaviest Afflictions upon Men without any respect either to Antecedent Sin or subsequent Recompence Elihu thought that God might afflict good and bad Men indifferently but that if good Men received the Affliction humbly and with submission and addressed themselves to God by Prayer for the removal of it and if bad Men were moved to repent through it God would remove the Affliction and restore prosperity to them especially if an Angel interceded for them as he expresseth himself at large in the XXXIII Chap. Lastly Job whatever his Opinion might be while his Calamity was yet fresh and any hopes remained of the speedy removal of it or however he might alter his Judgment after the Revelation of God in the end of the Book yet in the midst of his Troubles when the Disease grew inveterate and no hope of Delivery yet appeared he seems to have thought that God inter-medled not in the proceedings of the World and reserved neither Rewards for the good nor Punishments for the bad Which Opinion he proposeth chiefly in the XXI Chap. All these Opinions were alike erroneous and yet all founded upon the Attributes of God those of Eliphaz Bildad and Elihu upon his Justice those of Zophar and Job upon his Power The Errors of the Three first plainly arose from hence that they pretending to determine Matters above their knowledge confined the Exercise of the Divine Judgment and consequently the Dispensation of Rewards and Punishments to this Life only Had this which they all supposed been indeed true one at least of their Opinions must necessarily have been received otherwise the Justice of God could not be cleared But what ground had they to conclude that God exercised his Judgments in this Life only Might not the Nature of Man the quality of the Rewards and Punishments to be inflicted on an immaterial and immortal Soul teach them that another World was a far more convenient Tribunal for this Judicature Or if they knew not the Nature of the Rewards for want of Revelation yet at least the example of the Patriarchs with which they were not unacquainted and wherewith our Saviour afterwards convinced the Jews might not I say the experience of their Afflictions and Troubles have taught them that God did not ultimately bestow his Rewards and consequently not his Punishments in this Life They had received glorious Promises of some extraordinary Benefits to be received from God Promises which might justly make them expect some eminent Advantages beyond the rest of Mankind yet none of all these just Expectations were satisfied in this World wherein they were Strangers and Pilgrims exposed to Injuries and troubled with frequent Afflictions and that till Death an invincible Argument that God reserved the Consummation of their Hopes and his Promises to another Life As to the Opinion of Zophar that God might bring Afflictions on Men for no other end than to demonstrate his absolute and arbitrary Power over Mankind that overthroweth both the Wisdom and Justice of God It would render his Government Tyrannical and even like to that of Hell which Sports in the Misery of Mankind God is a most wise Being and cannot do such a vain Act he is a most just Being and cannot execute such an unjust Sentence He never afflicts or prospers Men by extraordinary Power in this Life but either for their Reward their Punishment or their Correction As for the Prosperity or Affliction which may befall Men in the ordinary Course of the Government of the World they may respect indeed none of all those Ends nor do they concern our present Case Lastly The Opinion of Job that God interpofeth not extraordinarily in the Affairs of Mankind might be confuted from the same Attributes and Considerations For we must not suppose that God allowed and ratified whatsoever he had said when he gave such an illustrious Testimony of Integrity to him in the close of the Book That was only to vindicate him from the Aspersions of his Friends more particularly Eliphas and Elihu maintaining that his Afflictions had befallen him for the Enormity of his antecedent Sins God confirmed not his Speeches made in answer to them by this Suffrage and therefore Job himself deploreth the rashness of his Opinion in XLII 6. Wherefore I abhor my self and repent in dust and ashes And indeed nothing could be more false or derogatory to the Majesty of God and the Preservation of his Honour among Men. Only Job asserted not pertinaciously as his Friends did their Opinions he concluded not peremptorily but only confessed that he could not discover any extraordinary interposition of God by visible Effects in this Life An Opinion indeed which too many have taken up and some do yet maintain but which cannot be allowed without the utter ruin of Religion and Reason also For do we not believe that God is infinitely good and just that he is the supreme Governour of the World both in this Life and after Death But can we conceive him to be infinitely good who after having created Man and settled him in the World takes no farther care of him abandons him to Chance and there stops the Emanations of his Goodness Can he be perfectly just who makes no provision for the universal Calamities or Opressions of Mankind which cannot but often happen notwithstanding the ordinary Laws of his Government which consist only in maintaining the Course of Nature Do we not destroy his Government when we confine it only to another Life or perhaps allow it no place in either Since God hath created the World the Government of it hath become necessary to him and then not to derive at any time any extraordinary influences upon it will be no more commendable than for a temporal Prince to sit still and be unconcerned for the Affairs of
Holiness and Submission to the Divine Will and thereby to serve the great Ends of our Creation yet the Promise of an eternal Crown and the Consideration of so vast an Interest might enforce us to Obedience This obviates all the Objections even of worldly Men who must needs Confess that in vain do they Labour for the Attainment of Felicity in this Life if it can never truly be found on this side Heaven A thorough perswasion of the Truth of this would banish all sinful Temptations and extravagant Desires of carnal Pleasures For Men would be the most deplorable and irrational of all Creatures if they preferred a present trifle before a future Treasure and voluntarily quitted the Life of Angels to retain those Pleasures which are common to Beasts And not only doth this Truth hold in quitting the momentany Enjoyments of this Life and suffering our selves to be deprived of them for an exchange of future Glory but even in undergoing the greatest Afflictions of this Life and embracing Death it self upon the same Account This our Saviour chiefly aims at in this place For when in the foregoing Verses he had foretold that bearing the Cross should be inseparable from the Profession of the Christian Religion and that he who endeavoured to decline this Cross and save his Life by a denial of his Faith should thereby incurr a much greater Punishment than is the loss of this temporal Life he subjoyns in the words of my Text For what shall it profit a Man if he shall gain the whole World and lose his own Soul As if he should say That System of Religion which I have instituted and recommended to you is not intended to enlarge or satisfie the Pleasures of the Body but to increase the Dignity of the Soul improve its Faculties and procure to it a Happiness commensurate to the Vastness of its Desire and the Liberality of its Creator Whosoever therefore seriously intends to become my Disciple and partake of the Benefits of my Gospel must prepare himself with a firm Resolution to quit all the Interests and Advantages of the World embrace Afflictions and not decline Death whensoever the Malice of wicked Men and the Obligation of my Commands shall require that Tryal and Testimony of his Obedience And in so doing he shall not only perform his Duty but secure and promote his Interest For those who shall basely renounce their Allegiance to me or violate my Commands to save their own Lives and avoid the Malice of their Enemies shall after this Life undergo a much greater Loss and Punishment than that which they so Cowardly fear'd and ungenerously declin'd On the other side they who shall willingly lay down their Lives and slight all the Terrors of Men and Devils to preserve their Obedience to me intire and retain the Profession of my Gospel shall be certainly Crowned with so great a Reward that the loss of this temporal Life will be inconsiderable in respect of that eternal Life which is attained by it This is your Interest as well as my Command your Profit as well as Duty For it is not only reasonable that every Man should quit that particular share and Portion which he hath in the Pleasures and Possessions of this World to secure thereby his Hopes of a future Happiness but even if all the Riches and Possessions of the World were â—â—aped upon one single Man or could be all obtained by denial of my Religion or Violation of my Laws yet would it not be a sufficient Motive for so great a Crime And he that should prevaricate upon such mean Considerations would find in the end when he casts up his Account that he hath gained nothing To evince illustrate and recommend to you this great Truth is the Design of my present Discourse Which therefore I shall divide into these two Heads I. That the Interests of the Soul are infinitely greater and more considerable than those of the Body II. That this Interest is destroyed and the Soul rendred miserable by disobedience to the Laws of God I. That the Interests of the Soul are infinitely greater and more considerable than those of the Body And this appears if we consider either the Reason and Nature of things or the Revelation and Commands of God Under the first Head may be comprised the Nature and Dignity of the Soul and the Excellency of those peculiar Perfections and Rewards which the Soul is capable of First then the Dignity and Precedence of the Soul was ever acknowledged in all Ages by wife and learned Men of all Sects and Perswasions nay even the more rude and illiterate parts of Mankind did ever firmly believe this as an Opinion planted in them by the first Dictates of Nature and arising from the first Principles of Reason That we have an immortal Soul is a thing which ought to be supposed by all who profess the least shew of Religion and cannot be denied without the total Destruction of it All false Religions were invented by Men and the true Religion proposed by God merely for the Improvement and direction of this noble Being It is this only which distinguisheth us from the Rank and Condition of Beasts which likens us to God and makes us little inferiour to the Angels It is this whereby we contemplate the admirable and wonderful Perfections of God understand the Wisdom of his Government and the Greatness of his Works It is this alone whereby we form Habits of Vertue and do any thing grateful to our Creator whereby we receive the Instructions of God and know his Will And therefore Prov. XX. 27. the Spirit of Man is called the candle of the Lord because by that only we receive the Divine Illuminations and are instructed in the way to Happiness This Dignity and Preference of the Soul beyond the Body might be at large demonstrated from many other Considerations but I will insist only upon three which are plain and obvious to the understanding of all Men. As first by the Soul alone we receive the influence and benefits of God Some Divine Benefits indeed belong also to the Body as Creation and Preservation but those are common to all other Creatures and belong equally to the vilest of all created Beings whereas the Favours granted to the Soul are peculiar to it and to infinitely greater value For to pass by the natural Priviledges of Knowledge Desire and a Capacity of improvement all the superadded Happiness of our Nature is intirely bestowed on it alone All Revelation was given for the Instruction of this noble Being that so it might not be inferiour to the Angels in Happiness to whom it is little inferiour in Dignity To rescue this from the Slavery of Sin and Dominion of the Devil the Son of God descended from Heaven lived an afflicted Life and died a shameful Death Into this as into a capacious Treasure are all the Divine Graces conveyed Graces of which the Body is no more capable than a Stock or
Stone Lastly by the Merits or Guilt of the Soul the Body will be hereafter either saved or condemned If then all the Blessings of Heaven be primarily bestowed upon the Soul if this be the only receptacle of moral Vertues and Divine Graces if the Son of God vouchsafed to do and suffer so much for the Salvation of it if all the future Happiness of the Body depends upon the well-doing of the Soul certainly this Soul deserveth our greatest Regard and Consideration as by which alone we obtain the Favour of God and are made like unto him by imitating his Perfections as far as our finite Nature will permit us in the Practice of Vertue and Holiness of Life In the next place 't is the Excellency of our Souls alone which distinguisheth one Man from another and maketh any Person more excellent than his Neighbour It is a childish mistake of Men to imagine that Riches or Honour or temporal Greatness gives a real Excellency to Mankind or confers a true Dignity upon the Possessors of them since all these outward Advantages are common to the worst and most profligate of Men who as they are most miserable in themselves so they deserve no other than the Slight and Contempt of all who know them Not to say that all these things are frail and momentany of which a Man may be bereaved in an hour either by the inconstancy of Fortune or the Malice of others But we cannot imagine that our Wise Creatour should assign that to be our chief Perfection of which we might either be deprived or defrauded and that our Happiness should be in the Power and at the Mercy of another Man In that Case we should have been more miserable than all the rest of the Creation if it were not in every Man's Power to become Happy So true is it that all the Excellency of Man consists in the great and eminent Endowments of his Soul which the poorest of Men may obtain and when obtained can by no Art or Fraud be taken from him Thus the Scripture giving an account of the eminent Perfections of Daniel the Honour and Reverence paid to him and Dignities conferr'd upon him gives this as the Reason of it Because an excellent Spirit was in him Dan. VI. 3. It was that alone which caused him to surpass the ordinary Rank of Men and made him the Favourite of Heaven Not that a more excellent and perfect Soul was infused at first into him than into the rest of Men for all Souls are created equal and are capable of the same Improvements but that he had adorned it with all the Perfections of Reason and Religion and thereby rendred it worthy the Favour of God and Esteem of Men. And herein clearly appears both the Goodness of God and the Happiness of Men that all these Improvements and Cultivations of the Soul are equally possible to the Poorest as well as the richest Men. Poverty and temporal Calamity cannot exclude us from the utmost Perfection and in that from the greatest Happiness It is in the Power of the meanest Person to be truly more Excellent than his rich Neighbours and to ensure to himself the Favours of Heaven although not the Riches of the Earth Thus God hath in Truth made an equal Distribution to all Men by assigning to all Souls an equal Capacity For as for the Goods of Fortune when put in the Scale with Piety and the interests of Religion they deserve not the least Consideration There are some Endowments of the mind indeed which are not common and cannot be obtained by all Men as Learning and an exquisite Knowledge These may put in a fair Plea for an intrinsick Worth and Excellency as being inseparable from the Soul when once acquired of infinite use in this Life and perhaps greater in the next But then there are disadvantages attending such acquired Knowledge which may justly take off the immoderate Desire of it and make it become no reasonable Object of Envy to a pious unlearned Christian. As that it renders the way to Heaven infinitely more difficult to the Possessors of it exposeth them to many and great Temptations not common to all other Persons but chiefly because more and greater Duties are required of them greater and more severe Punishments attend the neglect of them In the more unlearned sort God requireth no more than a hearty Sincerity Belief and sure Trust in the Merits of a Crucified Saviour and living up to the great Truths of Religion and Principles of common Honesty In them he willingly over-seeth small and trivial Faults and imputes not Errors to them unless they influence and corrupt their Practice But of the more learned sort of Christians he requireth right Notions of Religion and worthy Conceptions of the Divine Majesty employing their knowledge to the good of others the Edification of the Church and after all an exact Observation of the most minute Punctilios of the Divine Laws In them mistakes are dangerous and Pardon not so easie to be obtained If indeed at last they be thought worthy of the Joys of Heaven they will shine there in a more eminent Station and brighter Glory But then even the lowest Degree in Heaven is a greater Happiness than we can either imagine or conceive Thus all the truly desirable Perfections of the Soul are possible to all and debarr'd from none Those are no other than an ardent Love of God an active Zeal to his Service a strict Sobriety in our selves and a fervent Charity to all our Neighbours How far these will advance the Dignity of our Souls appears hence that these only make us capable of the Joys of Heaven that 't is the perfect and uninterrupted Possession of these which maketh Angels and the want of these which maketh Devils Lastly Our Body when considered alone hath nothing excellent beyond other material Creatures nor is capable of any Improvements It is taken out of the same Mass of Matter with other Bodies and after the Separation of the Soul by Death is resolved into the same Corruption becomes Filth and Rottenness and in Truth the most odious of all things Nay even in this Life it would be subject to the same miserable Condition with the Beasts of the Field if it were not actuated by a noble and generous Soul which rescues it from the common Calamity of dull and vile Matter and giveth it the Honour to be joyned to and be the Companion of a most excellent and immortal Spirit And so far is this Body from receiving new Perfections in this Life that it continually decays till it be laid in Ashes and become as the Dung of the Earth None yet with the greatest Care and Diligence could give Beauty to their Bodies or as our Saviour expresseth it add one cubit to their stature None with the greatest Art and Industry can make their Senses more quick and accurate But certainly not any can procure immortality to their Bodies a Priviledge which naturally belongs
upon his constant Guard least he should at any time be surprized And surely a Surprize is hard to be avoided where so many passages must be guarded when the Enemy may enter in by the Senses or Imagination by the Operation of external Objects or the suggestion of internal Thoughts and all these as numerous and various as are the Objects from whence they proceed or about which they are imployed Scarce in the best of Men may we not discover some Passion predominant to the rest and which might he be allowed to indulge he would confidently undertake for the good Behaviour of all the rest But this Liberty Christianity denieth to him injoyneth him an universal Conquest of all his Passions a general performance of the whole Will of God forbids the Omission of any one Duty upon Pain of incurring the Guilt of all And this is truly so great a Difficulty that we need not seek any farther Reasons why the best Christians of all Ages are but hardly saved I proceed to the Difficulties peculiar to the latter Ages of Christianity and which more nearly concern us I will mention but two 1. The want of an universal Example and 2. The want of Miracles By these the ancient Christians converted the Heathen World and through want of these we are almost returned to Heathenism It could not but be a powerful Argument of Vertue to all ingenuous Men when they could not so much as retain the Character they had undertaken without a diligent Exercise of Piety when to be a vicious Christian was to be a Monster in the account of the World when Vice was a Singularity and Dissent from all others of the same Denomination Whereas in latter Ages the whole hath been inverted the Character universally retained without any regard to the Conditions of it A pious Christian must dissent in the Course of his Life from the greater part of the Christian World and Vertue is become a Singularity inasmuch as what cannot be sufficienty lamented many ingenuous Minds have been betrayed to sin to which otherwise they were not inclined least they should appear uncivil and morose And when unlawful Customs can acquire the Esteem of Civilities among Christians we cannot but confess an extreme Degeneracy of the true Spirit of Christianity It may truly be said of Examples in general that they have more influence upon the greater part of Mankind than Reasons or Arguments Men of ordinary Capacities such as make up the Body of Christendom take their measures of Christianity from the Practice of the Professors of it as Men do of the Laws of any Countrey from the Practice of the Courts of Justice and will hardly be perswaded that Christianity is so severe and serious a Matter when they perceive the far greater part of Christians trifle with it It is natural for Men to hope for impunity in a multitude to fall into impiety when no shame restrains them when a prevailing Example leads them As for Men of more raised Understandings it is impossible they should thus deceive themselves about the Obligation of their Religion yet even those escape not this universal Contagion they fear to be accounted singular are forced to dissemble and perhaps at last to stifle their Knowledge as not being able to withstand the force of such a mighty Torrent This Difficulty receives yet farther Aggravation if we reflect that it proceeds from our own Guilt that our selves are the Authors of it The Difficulties of the Apostolick Age were purely extraneous for which those Christians were not accountable They brought not their Persecutions upon themselves and their Sins committed before Conversion could not afterwards be justly imputed to them as Christians Whereas this disadvantage we now complain of is the Effect of our Sins committed in the Profession of Christianity to which every one of us have contributed somewhat and besides the internal Guilt of the Crime committed have upon that account increased our sin The Sense of which ought to be a Motive to us to endeavour by the Exemplariness of our future Conduct I will not say to remove this Difficulty and retrieve the glorious Example of former times for that can scarce be hoped but to compensate the Injury which we have done to the Christian Religion by our sinful Deportment The other disadvantage of the present Age which I mentioned the want of Miracles cannot indeed be ascribed to any Fault of ours nor yet be retrieved by us Yet a sensible disadvantage it must be acknowledged when we compare our selves with former times whose Faith and Zeal were constantly awakened kept up and enlivened by the frequent sight of Miracles which confirmed to them the Truth of what they had received the certainty of what they expected and the Power and the Favour of that God they worshipped But I wave the farther Consideration of this Difficulty because the removal of it is not in our Power Yet this use we may make of it to take occasion from it to reflect upon the infinite Goodness and most Wise Providence of God which hath so contrived the advantages and disadvantages of former and latter Ages that both of them have very near equal Assistances and Difficulties in the Prosecution of their Duty that so he might without derogation to his Justice perform what our Lord Promiseth in the Parable of the Housholder in the XX. of St. Matthew reward those whom he had called in the eleventh hour equally with those whom he had hired in the Morning who had born the heat and burden of the day which the Fathers generally expound of this very Case For now those whom he called first who underwent such grievous Afflictions and fierce Persecutions for the defence of the Faith cannot justly complain that we are equally rewarded with them who endured none of those Calamities The Church indeed in latter Ages hath enjoyed Peace and Quiet hath not maintained the Faith of Christ with the expence of her Blood so neither doth she enjoy those Miracles with the sight of which they were Blessed The remembrance of the eminent Example the Miracles and the Sufferings of our Lord were yet fresh in the minds of Men the extraordinary Gifts of the Holy Ghost were every where Conspicuous the Apostles yet alive who spoke and writ by the immediate impulse of God and even after their death the same Gifts and Miracles were continued till Peace was given to the Church All these advantages we want which they enjoyed Peace and Security we have which was denied to them If we proceed in the Comparison we want also that glorious Example of universal Piety which shone forth in their Days But then on the other side we enter not upon the Profession of Christianity with the same Prejudices and Habits of Vice with which they did They felt not the mischief of an ill Example prevailing among Christians So neither did they enjoy the benefit of a Christian Education Thus God hath most wisely in all Ages made
by whose Power the Soul of Christ was rejoyned to the Body 2. Christ was the Author of our Salvation the Founder of a revealed Religion and therefore it was not possible not convenient he should be holden of death The Resurrection of Christ was to be the ultimate and chief Proof of the Divinity of his Mission and Authority of his Revelations so clear a Testimony that the Reason of Man should not be able to withstand the Evidence thereof To this therefore he at all times refers as to the last and greatest Proof of his Mission This was the only Sign which he would give to the Jews demanding a Miracle in Confirmation of his Authority that as Jonas was three days and three nights in the Belly of the Whale so the Son of Man should be three days and three nights in the heart of the Earth Upon this he had fixed the Expectation of his Disciples and of all his Hearers and by this he was to set the Truth of his Doctrine and the Divinity of his Person beyond all Contradiction Had he left his Body in the Grave after all these Assurances the Jews might have insulted over his Disciples with as much Reason as Christians do over the Followers of Mahomet who promised to rise again after a Thousand years little imagining that his Name or Religion should continue so long in the World although now after more than a Thousand years expired the Impostor still lieth in Hell Had Christ not risen again the Apostle confesseth 1 Cor. XV. 14. Their preaching had been vain and your faith also vain But when so illustrious a Testimony of Divine Authority hath intervened when Heaven it self hath declared it so eminently to deny Assent would be to fight against God The Jews in the most violent Execution of their Hatred and Malice engaged to believe on him if he would come down from the Cross and save himself It had been no less easie for our Blessed Lord to have descended from the Cross than to have ascended from the Grave But first the Design of his Sufferings did not permit it since he was to lay down his Life as an Expiatory Sacrifice for the Sins of the World and then he would not suffer the Exercise of Divine Power manifested in restoring himself to Life to Labour under any doubts Had he descended from the Cross before he died he could not have attoned for the Guilt of our sin Had he descended immediately after his Death it would have been pretended that he had not died yet even this they would have Confessed to be miraculous but perhaps referred the Cause of it as they did his former Miracles not to a Divine Power but to Magical Operation Whereas this Pretence did wholly vanish in the Miracle of his Resurrection Since no Magick or Diabolick Power remaineth after Death In short so great was the Evidence of the Divinity of Christ arising from his Resurrection so undeniable the Fact and so important that the Apostles in all their Sermons imployed this as the chief Argument of Conviction And when they chose Matthias to the Apostleship described his Office to be no other than to witness the Resurrection of Christ. God had more than once before his Crucifixion declared him by Voices from Heaven by constant Miracles to be his Son yet so far is the Evidence of this inferiour to that Proceeding from his Resurrection that he is in many places said to have then adopted Christ for his Son because he then eminently declared to him be so As Acts XIII 33. The Promise made unto the Fathers God hath fulfilled in that he hath raised up Jesus again as it is in the Psalm II. Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee And Rom. I. 4. Jesus Christ our Lord declared to be the Son of God with Power by the Resurrection from the dead He was from all Eternity his Son as to his Divine Nature he was from the Incarnation his Son as to his Humane Nature but the Truth of this appeared to the World chiefly in his Resurrection 3. By the Resurrection of Christ we are assured chiefly that we also shall rise again and therefore it was not convenient that he should be holden of Death Christ had promised to his Disciples That where he was there they should be also When he therefore rose from the Dead and ascended into an incorruptible State of Glory they then raised their Hopes and conceived full assurance of Immortality Till then Mankind had found by long Experience that there was no Redemption from the Grave and by this alone could be convinced that either their Nature was capable of Immortality or that God would vouchsafe to confer it on them They might perceive in the Person of Christ the Dissolution of Death the Capacity of their Nature and the Favour of God and then considering their own Relation to Christ might hope to partake of the same Happiness Christ is the Head of his Church and what more natural than for the Members to follow their Head He was by his Resurrection declared to be the Son of God and himself hath often promised that his faithful Followers should be Co-heirs with him He is called the first born from the Dead the first fruits of the Resurrection which being accepted by God Entitled the whole Mass the whole race of Mankind to the same Favour Only it is required and that justly if that we desire to follow him in his Resurrection we must also imitate him in his Death For so the Promise runs in the whole VI. Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his Death we shall be also in the likeness of his Resurrection If we crucifie our Sin as it is there expressed if we as fully forsake all vicious Habits as he who dieth is bereaved of vital Actions if farther we imitate the Death of Christ in the Perfection of it that as he died but once but liveth for ever so we henceforward be dead unto sin but alive unto righteousness then we may reasonably assure our selves that we shall follow the Example of him the forerunner in our Resurrection which we have so nearly expressed in our Death we are then truly Members of himself the Head being made conformable to his Sufferings we are sanctified by the gracious Acceptation and raising up of him the first fruits of them that slept while we inviolably continue our Relation to him Others indeed were before him raised from Dead to Life as those raised by Elijah Elishah and by Christ before and at his Crucifixion But these were all to die again and so thereby gave no assurance of immortality to Mankind It was Christ alone who being raised from the dead dieth no more who in behalf of Mankind hath taken Possession of immortality which he hath acquired for us and will communicate to us unless we chuse rather to imitate the imperfect Resurrection of those mortal Men
would gladly be esteemed to act Reasonably in shaking off this encumbrance from them and therefore pretend they cannot believe the Divinity of that Religion which lays it on them Whereas in truth they seldom consider the Arguments recommending the Truth of any Religion least the Obligation of it also should return into their Minds Or if they cannot avoid the Thoughts of it yet their Wills struggle against their Understanding They would esteem it the greatest Unhappiness which can befal them to be thoroughly convinced of that Truth which if obeyed would deprive them of all their darling Pleasures For the Truth of what I here advance I appeal to your own Experience View all these Scepticks in Religion and see if you can find any in all your Knowledge who make any Conscience of observing moral Vertues of being Chast Temperate and Just. It is the Imposition and enforcing of these Vertues which hath made the Christian Religion grievous and distasteful to such Men not the want of Evidence of the Truth of it These Pretenders are seldom of such raised Capacities as to discern between true and false reasoning with greater accuracy than other Men or to discover the weakness of an Argument which before their Sagacious Enquiry was universally allowed They wilfully betray their Judgment or rather the Pretence of it to the depraved inclination of their Wills which that they may enjoy they are content to undergo the Ignominy of groping at Noon-day and not discovering a Truth set in so great a Light But this Consideration being more general I dismis it only reminding you how unjustly an Objection is raised by these Men from Christ's not publickly appearing after his Resurrection since if he had so done the Evidence of his Resurrection at this distance of time could have been no more than now it is Farther not only would the publick appearance of our Lord after his Resurrection have been of no advantage to us but would even have failed of convincing at least converting the Jews who should have been Spectators of it The Jews had continued their Infidelity notwithstanding so many hundred Miracles that it could not be hoped the Addition of one Miracle more should create a Belief among them They had rejected all those many undeniable Proofs which our Lord was pleased to offer to them in Testimony of his Divine Mission and after the long Experience of such a strange Perverseness it is scarce credible that the Resurrection alone should effect what all other Arguments and Proofs joyned together could not perform In the first Place the Prophesies contained in the Old Testament to the Divine Authority of which the Jews did own Submission all the Predictions and Descriptions concerning the Messias delivered in it were to them the most cogent Argument which could be offered By the Concurrence and Completion of all these Prophesies in the Person of Jesus it did so evidently appear that he was the Christ that they could not deny it without proclaiming at the same time their disbelief of those sacred Oracles And then as our Lord truly said in a not unlike Case If they would not believe Moses and the Prophets neither would they have been perswaded though one rose from the dead although himself had rose from the Grave in the sight of the whole Nation If the greatest Argument had no effect upon their Minds lesser Proofs would certainly lose their Force However because it may with some shew of Reason be alledged that however the Concurrence of the ancient Prophesies in his Person were in the Nature of things the better Argument yet that Miracles as being more surprizing and more affecting the Mind of Man were the more effectual Demonstration let us compare the Miracles of Christ wrought before his Crucifixion with the Evidence which would have been produced by his Resurrection if he had been pleased visibly to manifest it to the whole Nation of the Jews The number of Miracles which we find recorded in the Evangelists is very great and yet St. John assureth us That what is written contains but a small part of the Actions of Christ. Every one of these Miracles gave as full a Proof of that Divine Power by which they were wrought as the Resurrection could have done The Resurrection indeed is infinitely more considerable to us Christians than any other Miracle because it is the assurance of our own Resurrection the entrance of our Lord upon his state of Glory But to Unbelievers it is of no more Efficacy than the many other Miracles wrought by him What could be more admirable than that he commanded the Elements the winds and the seas and they obeyed him That he removed Infirmities and cured all manner of Diseases immediately and by a single Command What greater Proof could be offered of his own Divinity than that he did this by his own Authority without invoking the name of God or intreating his Presence If stupendious Acts were required what more wonderful than his feeding whole multitudes with a few Loaves If nothing less than the sensible Experience of his raising the Dead to Life could convince them what more notorious than the raising of Lazarus known to the whole City of Jerusalem than the raising of the Widows Son of Naim performed in Presence of the whole City attending him to his Grave than the Bodies of Saints departed arising at his Crucifixion entring into Jerusalem and appearing unto many If in all his Miracles precedent to his Death the Jews not able to deny the Fact pretended they were done by a Diabolick Power a Pretence more than once alledged in their own Talmud extant at this day and published by themselves the same Pretence would with equal Reason have been retained after his Resurrection For if the absolute disposal of Life and Death were to them the only confessed Proof of a truly Divine Power it was offered to them in raising those to Life whom I before mentioned Although by other Arguments he had given abundant Demonstration that he acted not by any Commission from infernal Spirits The whole Design of his Doctrine tended to overthrow the Power and Dominion of the Devil to root out Idolatry and Sin whereby Mankind was held Captive to the Devil to establish Truth and Piety than which nothing could be more contrary to the interest of Hell His Miracles consisted chiefly in casting out Devils from the Bodies of unhappy Persons whom they had possessed than which nothing could be more ungrateful to them in relieving the Wants and curing the Infirmities of Mankind than which nothing could be more opposite to their Practice and Inclinations who always endeavoured the Destruction but never the benefit of Mankind This same Power of working Miracles he communicated to his Disciples long before his Crucifixion which refuteth the idle Pretence of the Jews in the Talmud that his miraculous Power was a personal Quality obtained by unfolding a Spell placed of old by Solomon in the Temple All these Proofs of