he was not only to profess his faith in Christ's Death and Resurrection but he was also to look upon himself as obliged in correspondence therewith to mortifie his former carnal affections and to enter upon a new state of Life And the very Form of Baptism did lively represent this Obligation to them For what did their being plung'd under water signifie but their Undertaking in Imitation of Christ's Death and Burial to forsake all their former evil courses As their ascending out of the water did their Engagement to lead a holy spiritual Life This our Apostle doth more than once declare to us Thus Rom. vi 4. We are buried saith he with Christ by Baptism unto death that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the Glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of Life Thus again in the 10th and 11th verses of that Chapter In that Christ died he died unto sin once but in that he liveth he liveth unto God likewise reckon ye your selves to be dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. That is to say After the example of Christ's Death and Resurrection account ye your selves obliged to die to sin and to live to Righteousness Lastly To name no more Texts the same use doth the Apostle make of Christ's Resurrection in Coloss iii. 1 2. If ye then saith he be risen with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God i. e. You by entring into the Christian Covenant are incorporated into Christ He is your Head you are his Members and therefore since he no longer leads a life of this World it will by no means become you to live like Worldlings or Epicures but being risen with him as the Members ought to do with the Head to mind those things that are above where he is to set your affections as he goes on on the things above and not on the things of the Earth For ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God These things plainly shew that the Apostles delivered the Doctrine of Christ's Resurrection as a Practical Doctrine as a point which if Christians believed as they should do it would ingage them to mortifie their lusts to die to the World to place their affections on Spiritual things to have their conversations in Heaven where Christ our Head our Life now sits at the right hand of God II. Great will the insluence and Power of Christ's Resurrection upon our lives appear to be when we consider that it is indeed the principal Evidence that we have for the Truth of our Religion the very design of which is to make us Vertuous and Holy If any thing in the World can make a man good it must be a hearty belief of the Gospel And if any thing in the World can make a man heartily to believe the Gospel it must be the Resurrection of our Saviour from the dead All that Power therefore that the Gospel of Christ hath to make men good all that force and efficacy that its Arguments its Promises its Precepts its Encouragements its Threatnings have upon the Understandings and Wills of men in order to bring them to Vertue and Holiness I say all this may in a great measure uitimately be resolved into the Article of Christ's Resurrection For this Resurrection of his was the thing that did from the beginning and doth now and ever will ascertain mankind of the Truth of Christ's Religion This was and will be for ever the convincing Evidence that what Jesus taught was true Doctrine that what he commanded was of perpetual obligation that what he promised or threatned he was able to make good If Christ had not risen from the dead but had for ever been detained in the Grave notwithstanding all that might be urged from the Goodness of his Doctrine and the Inuncency of his Life and the multitude of his Miracles for the Proof of the Truth of Christianity though yet very strong and concluding Proofs these are I doubt it would hardly have met with that ready Entertainment in the World that we find it did But a great many both then and now would have made the same Objection against Jesus Christ and his Gospel that the Pharisees did of old that is to say That all his great Works and Miracles were done by Sorcery and Magick And that as for the Innocency of his Life and the great Vertue and Strictness that he expressed in his Conversation that was only used as a Trick and an Artifice the more easily to impose upon the World But now when it appears that Jesus who taught this holy Religion who did those Miracles who liv'd that vertuous Life did after he was put to a cruel death rise again to Life and conversed upon earth for forty days together and after that in the presence of many Spectators did ascend into Heaven I say when this appears as God be thanked it is evident beyond all contradiction here is no room left for any suspicion of this nature but all pretences of Imposture do perfectly vanish It is impossible for any considering man to believe Christ's Resurrection and at the same time to doubt of the truth of his Religion For thus let us reason Christ over and over again told his Apostles that he should be put to death but after that he would within three days rise again Matth. xvi 21. xvii 22. John xvi 16. Nay he told this not only to the Apostles but to all the People nay more than that he gave this as a Token as an Evidence to them whereby they should know and be convinced that he was what he gave himself out to be the Son of God and the great Prophet and Saviour that was to come John ii 19. Nay in the last place he not only refers the Jews to his Resurrection as an Evidence of his being the Christ but as the last and greatest Evidence that he had to give And such as if they were not convinced by they must expect no other Matth. xii 39 40. Our Saviour now laying such a mighty stress upon this point of his Resurrection putting his whole cause as I may speak upon this Issue I ask How is it possible to imagine that God Almighty should make these predictions of our Saviour good if he was not really what he pretended to be If Christ had been an Impostor it had been the easiest matter in the World to have stifled all his pretences for ever It had but been to have let him mouldered to dust in his Grave as all other men do and as He without the help of Omnipotency would have done and then all the World would have seen that he was a Deceiver But now when in stead of perishing in the Grave he was after three days restored to life again as he had foretold the People nay to a gloririous immortal Life What are we to conclude from
which is more accommodated to Cities and publick Societies than to Cloysters and Deserts And lastly Mat. 5.16 this is to walk in a conformity to his command who hath bid us make our light so to shine before men that they may see our good works and glorifie our Father which is in Heaven But Fourthly and lastly If it be a thing so necessary that every man should do Good in his life as hath been represented then how much to be reproved are they that do no Good till their death That live scrapingly and uncharitably and uselesly to the world all their lives long and then when they come to die think to Atone for their sins and neglects of this kind by shewing some extraordinary Bounty to the poor or devoting some part of their Estates to publick or pious uses I must confess this kind of proceeding doth to me seem just like the business of putting off a man's repentance to his death-bed It is absolutely necessary that a Man should repent though it be never so late and so it is that he should do good if he have done little Good in his life he is bound as he loves his soul to shew some extraordinary uncommon instances of Charity and a Publick Spirit when he comes to die But then it is here as it is with the long delaying of Repentance the deferring it so long has robbed the man of the greatest part of the praise and the comfort he might have expected from it His Rewards in Heaven will be much less though his good deeds should be accepted but he is infinitely uncertain whether they will or no. It must be a very great act of Generosity and Charity that can obtain a pardon for a whole life of uncharitableness Let us all therefore labour and study to do Good in our lives let us be daily giving evidences to the World of our kind and charitable disposition and let not that be the first which is discovered in our last Will and Testament If God hath blessed us with worldly goods let us distribute them as we see occasion in our life time when every one may see we do it voluntarily and not stay till we must be forced to part with them whether we will or no for that will blast the credit of our good deeds both with God and man I have said enough concerning the first point recommended in the Text viz. doing Good I now come briefly to Treat of the other that is Rejoycing which is equally a part of the business of this day There is no Good saith Solomon in any earthly thing or there is nothing better for any Man than to rejoyce and to do Good The Rejoycing her recommended is capable of two senses the first more general and more concerning us as Christians the other more particular and which more immediately concerns us as we are here met upon this occasion In the first place by Rejoycing we may take to be meant a constant habit of joy and chearfulness so that we are always contented and well pleased always free from those anxieties and disquiets and uncomfortable reflexions that make the lives of mankind miserable This now is the Perfection of Rejoycing and it is the utmost degree of Happiness that we are here capable of It must be granted indeed that not many do arrive to this state but yet I doubt not but that it is a state that may be attained at least in a great measure in this world Otherwise the Holy Men in Scripture and particularly the Apostles of our Lord would never have recommended it to us so often as they have done Rejoyce evermore 1 Thess 9 16. Phil. 4.4 saith S. Paul to the Thessalonians And to the Philipians Rejoyce in the Lord always and again I say rejoyce The way to attain to this happy condition doth consist chiefly in these three things First a great innocence and vertue a behaving our selves so in the world that our Consciences shall not reproach us This St. Paul lays as the Foundation of Rejoycing This saith he is our rejoycing 2 Cor. 1.12 the Testimony of our Conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity I have had my conversation in this world It is in vain to think of any true solid Joy or Peace or Contentment without a hearty Practice of all the duties of our Religion so that we can satisfie our selves of our own sincerity before God And then secondly To make us capable of this constant Rejoycing besides the innocence of our lives there must go a firm and hearty persuasion of God's particular Providence a belief that he not only dispenseth all events that come to pass in the World even the most inconsiderable but that the measure of the Dispensations of his Providence is infinite Wisdom and Goodness and nothing else so that nothing doth or ever can happen to us in particular or to the world in general but what is for the best Now when we firmly believe this and frequently attend to it how can we be either solicitous for the future or discontented at the present events of things let them fall out never so cross to our desires and expectations This is the best Antidote in the world and an effectual one it is against all trouble and vexation and uneasiness that can happen to us upon any occasion whatsoever to wit the consideration that all things are managed by an infinitely wise and good God and will at last prove for the best how unaccountable soever they appear to us at present And this is that which the wise man insinuates in the verse before the Text when he saith that God hath made every thing beautiful in his season Thirdly Another requisite both for the procuring and preserving this continual chearfulness and rejoycing is a frequent and fixed attention to the great rewards of the other world which God hath promised to all that truly love him and endeavour to please him This consideration will extreamly add to our comfort and contribute to our Rejoycing under all the miseries and afflictions that we can possibly fall into namely that whatsoever condition we are in here we shall certainly in a little time be in a most happy and glorious one and the worse our circumstances are in this life the greater if we be good shall be our happiness in the next 2. Cor. 4.17 for these light afflictions as S. Pual tells us which indure but for a moment do work for us a far more exceeding weight of glory This then is the joy that we are to endeavour after in the first place to be constantly well pleas'd and contented with our present condition whatever it be and these are the ways to attain to it But Secondly There is another more particular Notion of Rejoycing and which I conceive Solomon doth chiefly intend in the words of the Text and that is the free and comfortable enjoyment of the good things of this life that God hath
You cannot as I said but see in the first place how very much such Doctrines do disparage the Love of our Saviour and lessen his Undertaking For whilst he is here supposed to have Redeemed us only from his Fathers Wrath and the Punishment consequent thereupon leaving us in the mean time to the wickedness and impurity of our own Nature which alone without the accession of any other external Evil is a misery great enough He is hereby rendred but half a Saviour One that freed us indeed froman External Evil but left us irremediably exposed to an Internal one as grievous as the other One that delivered us from the apprehensions of a Gibbet or an Executioner but could not or would not cure us of the inward Sicknesses and Maladies under which we languished But this is not all In the second place it ought to be taken notice of what an absurd inconsistent Notion this kind of Doctrine gives us of the Happiness of Mankind For whilst they suppose that a Man under the Power and Dominion of Sin is capable of that Happiness which Christ purchased for us in the other World which Happiness as both Scripture and Reason testifie doth chiefly consist in the enjoyment of God and of his Excellencies and Perfections They must at the same time suppose that a Man may berendred happy by the enjoyment of that of which he has no Sense no Perception or rather to speak properly that he is the happiest Creature alive in the enjoyment of an Object to which he has the greatest aversion and antipathy in the World Which if it be not an absurdity I know not what is When Light can have Communion with Darkness when God can have Fellowship with Belial Then and not till then can a wicked Man a Man that lives in Sin and loves it be capable of that Happiness which Jesus Christ hath purchased for us IV. The Fourth thing I should speak to from this Text is the Means by which our Saviour brought to pass the great End of his Appearance viz. The putting away of sin Which means are said to be the Sacrifice of himself Now once in the end of the World hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself Two things should be done in order to a just Discourse upon this point First To give an account how the Death of Christ was a Means for the putting away of sin in the first Sense I gave that is the procuring the Pardon of it Secondly How it was a Means of putting it away in the other Sense that is the destroying or mortifying it in us But these things being Foreign to our present Business and more proper for the Argument of a Good-Friday Sermon I shall say no more of them but proceed to my last point V. The Fifth and last thing observable from the Text is the difference of Christ's sacrifice whereby he put away sin from the Mosaical ones Which difference so far as it is here taken notice of consists in this That the Legal Sacrifices for the Expiation of Sin were daily offered But Christ offered the Sacrifice of himself but once Once in the end of the World c. The Apostle in this Chapter is discoursing of the Difference between the Law and the Gospel And as to that Point he insists much on the Difference of their Sacrifices The Christians that owned the Gospel had but one Sacrifice the Sacrifice of Christ once offered whereas those that were under the Law were forced to have many Nay even the most solemn Sacrifice that God had appointed for the Expiation of their Sins was repeated once a Year as the Apostle tells us in the Verse before my Text. But now the Sacrifice of Christ which he puts by way of opposition to theirs That was but once offered and was never to be repeated This is the point with which he concludes this Chapter two Verses after my Text Christ saith he was once offered to bear the sins of many and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time unto salvation This is the Apostle's Doctrine and I insist on it now because all those that design on this day to receive the Holy Sacrament are concerned in it Let us from hence take notice that in this Service of the Holy Communion we are not to pretend to offer Christ as a Sacrifice to his Father His Sacrifice was but once to be offered and that was done 1600 Years ago and in the Virtue of that Sacrifice once offered all faithful Christians and sincere Penitents shall receive Remission of Sins and all other Benefits of his Passion But for us to think of offering Christ again as a Sacrifice is in effect to put our selves into the same rank and condition with the unbelieving Jews that is to need the repetition of the same Sacrifices every Year nay every Day which is the very reason for which the Apostle denys the Efficacie of them We do not indeed deny but that every time we approach to the Lord's Table for the receiving of the Holy Communion we offer Sacrifices to God For we offer our Alms which we beg of God to accept as our Oblations and these in the Language of Scripture are Sacrifices with which God is well pleased We likewise offer our Sacrifice of Praise and Thanksgiving to God for the Death of our Saviour And all our Prayers and Supplications we put up in his Name and in the Virtue and for the Merits of that Sacrifice he offered to God in our behalf And in so doing we commemorate that Sacrifice both to God and before Men. And this is all we are confident that the Ancient Church meant by the great Christian Sacrifice or the Sacrifice of the Altar But if we go further if we will in the Communion pretend to offer up the Body and Blood of Christ in Sacrifice to God that was once sacrificed upon the Cross It is intolerable It is a thing that was never dreamed of in the first Ages of the Church It is directly contradictory to the Foundation of all the Apostle's Argument and Discourse here in the Text and the very supposal of it brings along with it many grievous Absurdities in the Theory and something that looks like impious in the Practice And yet this is the constant and avowed Doctrine and Practice of the Church of Rome in every Sacrament they have and that is in every Mass that is said among them The main business of that Mystery they make to consist in the Priest's offering up to God the very Body and Blood of Christ the same Body and Blood that was once offered up at Jerusalem this they pretend to offer up as a Sacrifice every day And they attribute to this their Offering the same Virtue and Efficacy that the Apostles and all Christians have always attributed to the one Sacrisice of Christ upon the Cross that is that it is a true propitiatory Sacrifice for the
that the Souls Immortality is demonstrable by the light of Nature yet there are generally these two Inconveniences in the Arguments they make use of for the Proof of this matter which render them in a great measure ineffectual for the reforming mens lives First They are generally of so great Subtilty so Nice so Metaphysical so much above the reach of ordinary Capacities that they are useless to the greatest part of Mankind who have not understandings fitted for them And Secondly They have this inconvenience likewise that a Man doth not see the Evidence of them without actual attention to a long Train of Propositions which attention it may be when a Man most stands in need of their Support he shall neither have the leisure nor the humour to give But now the Christian Method of proving another Life is quite of another strain and wholly free from these inconveniences That Demonstration which Christ hath given us of a glorious Immortality by his Resurrection from the dead as it is infinitely certain and conclusive so it is plain and easy short and compendious powerful and operative No Man that believes the matter of Fact can deny the Cogency of it Men of the meanest Capacities may apprehend it Persons in a crowd of business and in the midst of temptations may attend to it And it hath this Vertue besides that it leaves a lasting impression upon the Spirits of those that do believe and consider it Thanks therefore to our Lord Jesus Christ for this excellent Instrument of Piety that he hath given us by his Resurrection Everlasting Praises to his name that he hath thus brought Life and Immortality to light by his Gospel This very thing alone was there nothing else to be said for the Christian Revelation would sufficiently justify both the Gospel it self and our Lord Jesus the Author of it to all Mankind nay and effectually recommend his Religion above all others that ever were taught to all Persons in all Nations of the World IV. Fourthly and Lastly There is still a further Blessing coming to us by our Saviour's Resurrection from the dead and in which indeed is chiefly seen and expressed the great Power of it for the making us Holy and Vertuous That is to say Unto it we do principally owe all that supernatural Grace and Assistance by which we are enabled to vanquish our Corruptions and to live up to the Precepts of our Religion As Christ by his Resurrection did oblige us to lead new lives As Christ by his Resurrection did demonstrate the truth of the Christian Religion which is wholly in order to our leading new lives As by his Resurrection he cleared up to us the certainty of our future State and thereby gave us the greatest Motive and Encouragement to lead new lives So in the last place by the same Resurrection he acquired a Power of conferring Grace and Strength and Influence upon us by the Virtue of which we are in fact inabled to lead new lives Tho' Christ by his death reconciled us to God and procured a Pardon of Sin for us yet the actual benefit of this Reconciliation the actual application of this Pardon did depend upon our performance of certain Conditions Which conditions were that we should mortify all our evil affections and frame our Lives suitable to the Laws of the Gospel But now the Grace and Power by which we are inabled to do this was not the effect of Christ's Death but of his Resurrection It was when he ascended up on high and led Captivity Captive that is when he had vanquished Death which had vanquished all the World before It was then as the Scripture assures us and not till then that he was in a capacity of giving gifts unto men It was not till he was glorified as St. John observes that the holy spirit was given Hence it is that we every where find the Apostles attributing the business of Man's Justification and Salvation as much or more to Christ's Resurrection than to his Passion If Christ be not risen saith St. Paul 1 Cor. xv your Faith is in vain ye are yet in your Sins Indeed if Christ had perished in the Grave we had still had all the load of our sins upon us because we had no assurance that God had accepted the Atonement and Propitiation which he had made for them And much less could we have promised to our selves that we should have been assisted by any Divine Power for the subduing of them Again the same St. Paul tells us Rom. iv that Christ was delivered for our sins and raised again for our justification Christ's Death was the Sacrifice the Satisfaction for our Sins But it was by the means of his Resurrection that that Sacrifice and Satisfaction is applied to us and we for the merits of it become justified before God Lastly To name no more Texts Who saith the same Apostle Rom. viii shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect It is God that justifyeth Who is he that condemneth It is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again who is even at the right hand of God who also maketh intercession for us Here then is the great Power of our Saviour's Resurrection to make us good Christ being risen from the dead hath all Power given him both in Heaven and in Earth God as St. Paul expresseth it hath put all things under his feet and hath given him to be head over all things to the Church Eph. 1.22 Now in the fullness of that Power that he is invested with as he doth on one hand with never-failing efficacy make continual Intercession for his Church and every Member of it So he doth on the other hand out of the fulness of that Power derive and communicate so much Strength and Grace and Assistance of the Divine Spirit to all Christians that if they make a good use of it they shall not fail to perform all those Conditions of Faith and Repentance and a Holy Life that are required of them in order to their being made actual partakers of all those unspeakable Benefits which he purchased for Mankind by his Death and Sufferings Christ by his Resurrection is become both our High-Priest and our King both our Advocate and our Lord. By that Power which he then obtained as our Priest and Advocate he doth with Authority recommend us and all our concernments to his Father As our King and Lord he rules and governs us he takes care of us he provides for us he represses the insults of his and our Enemies and defeats all their attempts against us And lastly he supplies us from time to time with such a measure of Grace and Strength and influence of his Divine Spirit as he sees is needful or proper for our Condition If all this now that I have said be the effect of our Saviour's Resurrection as it certainly is Must we not needs own that there is a mighty Power in it for the making us good
to consume the Adversaries III. The Third General Point I am to insist on from the Text is the End of our Saviour's Appearance and that is here said to be the putting away of Sin Once in the end of the World hath he appeared to put away Sin This is that which the Scripture every where assigns as the Business and Design of Christ's coming To run over all the particular Texts would be tedious in so plain a Case I shall therefore only name one or two This is the Account that St. John gives of his Appearance 1 Ep. Ch. 3. Ye know saith he that he was manifested to take away our Sins And again this is the account that the Angel gives to Joseph a little before his Birth Mat. 1.20 Fear not saith he to take unto thee Mary thy Wife for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost And she shall bring forth a Son and thou shalt call his Name Jesus for he shall save his People from their sins He was called Jesus because he was designed by God to be our Saviour for so much that word imports And he is therefore our Saviour because he saves his People from their Sins which is in the words of the Text to put them away But what is it to be saved from our Sins or to have our Sins put away Since the Salvation we have by Christ doth consist in this it is fit we should a little more particularly insist on it In Answer therefore to this Question we say that two things are implyed in Christ 's putting away Sin First His saving or delivering us from the Guilt of our Sins and the Punishment due to them Secondly His saving or delivering us from the Power and Dominion of them In these two things consists the Salvation obtained for us by Jesus Christ and if either of them was wanting or was not effected he would not be a compleat Saviour First Christ appeared to put away Sin by delivering us from the Guilt and Punishment of it that is to say by procuring for us the Pardon and Remission of it This is the Salvation which Zachary in his Hymn foretels John Baptist should publish to the World Luke 1. To give knowledge of salvation to his people for the Remission of their sins And this is that Redemption of Christ which St. Paul speaks of 1 Coloss 14. In whom we have redemption through his blood even the forgiveness of sins And lastly St. Paul's Sermon to the Gentiles is Be it known unto you Men and Brethren that through this Man Jesus Christ is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins and by him all that believe are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses Acts. 13. And therefore much less certainly by the Law of Nature The effect of these Texts is That all Mankind are Sinners are concluded under Sin are become Guilty before God as the Apostle speaks The most innocent Person is not excepted All without exception have by their Sins fallen short of the Glory of God Means now for the freeing themselves from the Guilt of these Sins they have none nor is it possible they should have for that wholly depends upon the pleasure of Him to whom they have rendred themselves obnoxious and that is God the Governour of the World Here therefore appears the infinite Mercy of God and the Kindness of our Saviour The Eternal Word interposeth and offers himself to become Man and in that Person to make satisfaction for the Sins of the World And God accepts the Terms And hereupon a Covenant is made between God and Mankind wherein God for his part upon account of this Mediation of Christ promises Forgiveness of all Sins to all true Penitents all the World over O joyful Tidings these What ease is here to wounded Consciences What comfort to despairing Sinners What encouragement to all Men every where to repent If we consider Mankind in their pure Naturals and as without Christ Jesus this plainly was their Case They did believe a Supreme God and their Reason it is likely would tell them that God was Good and Merciful But yet this Reason could discover no more than God's general Goodness to them that all along endeavoured to please and approve themselves to Him But as for his Willingness to pardon and forgive Sinners especially those that had offended him by very grievous Crimes or lived in a long habitual course of Wickedness this they could not conclude from their Reason Nay if they did reason as they justly might they might rather be inclined to believe that he would not pardon such Criminals For as their Reason told them that God was Good So the same Reason told them that he was Just and had an infinite Regard to the Honour and Reputation of his Laws Which Laws their own Consciences told them they had heinously transgressed nor had they any thing wherewith to compensate or make satisfaction for the Transgression of them And therefore what could they expect from so Just a God but to undergo the punishment they had deserved This was a very uncomfortable Reasoning And yet such a one it was as there was no answer to be given to in the State of Nature and therefore in what a melancholy Condition were Mankind all the while What encouragement had they seriously to set upon the Amendment of their wicked Lives Or if they did what Fruit what Comfort could they promise to themselves by such an amendment But Blessed be God that hath removed us out of these uncertainties Blessed be God that hath given us the greatest assurance that is possible of his Love and Kindness to the greatest of Sinners and consequently laid the greatest Obligation upon all Mankind to turn from their evil Ways He hath sent his Son his only Son into the World on purpose to assure us of his good Will to us to give a demonstration of the unfeigned Love and Kindness that He bears to every Soul of the Sons of Adam that he would not have any of them perish but that they should all come to the knowledge of the Truth and be saved This Son of His doth most Solemnly in the Name of his Father proclaim Pardon and Remission of Sins to every one that should believe in Him There is no Sinner excepted even the Oldest the Greatest the most Enormous of Sinners if they will come in and submit to the Yoke of Jesus Christ have his certain Promise that they shall be received And least any one should fear the Divine Justice upon account that there is no satisfaction made to it for his Sins Our Lord hath taken care to remove that Objection For he by the unvaluable Merits of his Person and the free unconstrained Offering up of Himself to an ignominious Death upon the Cross on the behalf of Mankind hath made a full compleat and entire Satisfaction to God's Justice for all the Sins of the World from
the beginning to the end thereof So that now every one hath free Access to God and a Right to his Favour through the Blood of Jesus Christ And though we have been never so bad never so unworthy yet if we have but the Hearts to forsake our Sins and come to Jesus Christ we shall as certainly obtain the Acceptance and the Love of our Heavenly Father as if we had been Innocent and never sinned at all Nay God is not only willing to receive us but he earnestly begs and sollicits us to take his Mercy And so pleased he is at the Return of a Sinner that our Saviour has told us there is joy in Heaven over such a one Nay more joy among the Angels over a sinner that repenteth than over ninety nine just persons that need no Repentance O how welcome ought this News to be to us How transported should we be at the infinite Kindness of God manifested to us by our Saviour O! praised be God for his astonishing Love For ever adored be our Lord Jesus that has made a Propitiation for us by his Blood O let us for ever kiss and hug the pretious unvaluable Scriptures of the New Testament if there was nothing else in them but that faithful Saying that Saying worthy of all Men to be received That Jesus Christ came into the World to save Sinners to save you and me and all Sinners even the greatest of Sinners O! who is there that is in his Wits would chuse to be out of the Christian Dispensation or be left to the Methods of Nature and Philosophy for the attaining their Happiness as some loose People among us do sometimes talk Were the natural Talents of Mankind exalted far above what they either are or ever have been yet I would value that one Saying That Jesus Christ came into the World to save Sinners more than all the Notions and Speculations of Reason and Philosophy I would desire to know nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified I would with the Apostle count all things as loss nay as Dung in comparison of the Excellency of the Knowledge of Christ Jesus my Saviour and that I may be found in him not having my own Righteousness which is by Nature but that Righteousness which is by the Faith of Jesus Christ who gave himself for me And thus much of Christ's appearing to put away Sin in the first Notion of that Expression But Secondly Christ appeared to put away Sin in another sense That is to say To destroy the Power and Dominion of it from among Men to abolish it so as that it should not henceforth reign in our mortal Bodies To free us from Sin as the Apostle speaks that is to enable us to lead holy and virtuous Lives So that whereas Mankind heretofore yielded their Members Servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity so they should now yield their Members Servants to righteousness unto holiness Thus to put away Sin was as principal an End of Christ's coming as the other before mentioned nay perhaps more principal For the other in true reasoning may be said to be wholly in order to this Certain it is unless this End be attained the other will signifie nothing to us For we are not capable of any Benefit from that Remission of Sin which was purchased for us by Christ until our Sins be put away by Repentance and and we become holy Persons by the change and renewal of our Natures Never therefore let us deceive our selves Though Christ hath actually put away all the Sins of the World in the former sense by his satisfaction that is to say hath procured the Pardon of them hath taken away the Sting of them so as that they shall not be deadly to any Yet all this is upon supposition that the Strength of them be taken away in us that they have no Dominion over us that we mortifie them in all our Members that we daily die to them and live a Life of Righteousness All that Christ merited or purchased for the World will not do us the least good unless we be made conformable to him in his Death and Resurrection by our dying to Sin and living to Righteousness And in truth if we will mind it the putting away Sin in this sense of it hath as great weight laid upon it in Scripture and is as often assigned for the great End and Business of Christ's appearance as the other St. John tells us plainly that for this purpose was the Son of God manifested that he might destroy the works of the Devil And St. Paul likewise tells us that he therefore gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works And lastly St. Peter gives the same account of his coming Acts 3.26 where he tells us that therefore God raised up his Son Jesus that is sent him into the World for his raising up there spoken of as any one will see that looks into the Context was not his being raised from the dead but his being manifested to Mankind For here the Apostle's business is to apply that Promise or Prophesie of Moses unto our Saviour viz. That God would in due time raise up to his People a Prophet like unto him whom they should all be obliged to hearken to I say therefore God raised up his Son Jesus i. e. sent him into the World that he might bless his People in turning every one of them from their Iniquities This turning every one from their Iniquities was the great End for which our Lord Jesus Christ was manifested unto Mankind And indeed Reason will teach us all this as well as Revelation For in the nature of the thing none can be truly Happy but those that are truly Pious And in the same degree and proportion that any one is wicked or is under the power of his Lusts in the same degree he must needs be miserable So that if Christ came to be our Saviour and in that meant either to make us happy or to keep us from being miserable there was an absolute necessity that his first and principal Design must be to root out of our Nature all Sin and Wickedness and to restore the Image of God in our Minds which consists in unchangeable Purity and Holiness and Goodness Away therefore with all those Hypotheses that give such an account of Christ's coming into the World as to make the ultimate End of it to be the freeing us from Hell and Damnation and purchasing Heaven and Eternal Life for us but without any respect had to the renewing our Natures or the making us sincerely Holy and Virtuous All such accounts of Christ's Undertaking are monstrously unreasonable and absurd For not to insist upon the manifest Affront they put upon God's Justice and Holiness in making Him the great Patron of Sin whilst they assert Him to be the Justifier of wicked Men even whilst they continue wicked
it be brought into Action In that case we are no longer to plead our Original Corruption for in that very Instant we become Actual Sinners Actual Transgressors of the Law of God the Obligation of which reaches to our very Hearts and Thoughts as well as our Actions Tho' yet we are not so great Transgressors so long as our Sin is only in Thought or Desire or Purpose as if it had proceeded to outward Action All this is taught us for true Divinity by no less an Author than St. James in the first Chapter of his Epistle v. 13 14 15 Let no man say when he is tempted I am tempted of of God for God tempteth no man But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed Then when lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sin and sin when it is finished bringeth forth Death Which passage of the Apostle doth plainly contain these three Propositions First That no man is drawn to commit Sin by any State or Condition that God hath put him into no nor by any Temptation either outward or inward that is presented to him It is not a Sin to be tempted no nor to seel that we are tempted by some disorderly Inclination that arises in our Minds thereupon But secondly then our Sin begins when we yield to the Temptation when we are drawn away by our own Lusts and enticed when they get the Victory over us and we do consent to them Then Lust hath conceived and bringeth forth Sin But Thirdly Though the very consent of our Wills to a Temptation be a Sin in us yet that Sin is not so great as it will be afterwards if it be brought to Action Sin in the desire or purpose is but an Embryo it is but the first Rudiments of Sin but when it comes to be acted it is then a Sin in its full dimensions and the Consequences of it may be Fatal without Repentance Sin when it is finished bringeth forth Death Having thus given some Account how far our Hearts or Thoughts do fall under Government I now come to my Second Point that is to treat of the Art of Governing them or to lay down the necessary Rules and Directions which are to observed in order thereunto And we shall not need to go far for these Rules for they will all naturally flow from the Principles I have already laid down And I think they may conveniently enough be reduced likewise to these Five following First From what hath been said it appears that the First and great Point to be done by us if we would keep our Hearts in a good Frame and order our Thoughts to good purposes is that we rightly pitch our main Designs that we chuse that for the great business of our Lives that really ought to be so Now what that is can bear no dispute with any Man that will fairly use his Reason For certainly that which is our greatest Concernment in the World ought to be our greatest Business and Design in the World And it is evident to every one that believes he hath a Soul to save that his greatest Concernment of all is to approve himself to that God who made him and disposes of all his affairs and who accordingly as we sincerely endeavour or not endeavour to serve him will make us either very Happy or very Miserable both in this Life and the other So that there can as I said be no Dispute about what ought to be the great Business and Design of our whole Lives and to which all other Businesses must yield Now if we be so wise as really to propose this as our main End and resolve to mind it and follow it as such I say if we be so wise as to do this we have made a very great step towards the obtaining a security to our selves that the greatest part of our Thoughts and Desires and Affections will be such as they should be such as will be acceptable to God and satisfactory to our selves For as I told you before whatever is our main Business be it what it will it will in a great measure draw all our Thoughts to it Our Natures are so contrived that we must always be thinking of something or other But then they are so contrived likewise that we think most of that which is most in our Eye most in our Esteem most in our Pursuit And this is that which our Saviour tells us Where your treasure is there will your heart be also Whatever it be that you place your Happiness in upon that will your Thoughts run upon that will your Desires your Inclinations your Affections be fixed We have a World of instances of the truth of this every day before our Eyes If a Man hath set his heart on Money and proposeth it to himself as the Business of his Life to be Rich Why I dare say such an one will own to you that most of his Thoughts are upon that Project and that he finds it so far from being difficult to keep his Mind close and steady to his Main Interest as he calls it that it is rather difficult to him to think of any other Matters If a Man be given up to Pleasure and thinks nothing worthy his living for but Wine and Women and good Eating and good Company Is it not natural to such an one to bend all his Thoughts that way Or doth he put any force or violence upon himself in thinking and contriving all the day long how to bring to pass the Gratification of his Lusts or his Appetites Why my Brethren if we did all of us in good earnest make the Service of God and the purchasing Heaven and Happiness to our selves as much our Business our End our Design as these Men make Wealth or Pleasure to be theirs we should certainly be thus affected The common Course of our Thoughts would naturally and easily without the least constraint run upon those Objects And we should take as great delight in Thinking of our Treasure and Contriving for the obtaining of it as they do in Thinking and Projecting for theirs I say Thus it would be with us For I cannot for my Life apprehend what Charms there can be in Worldly or Sensual Things to attract a Man's Mind what Fetters there can be in them to bind his Thoughts and tye them to themselves But that there are the same or greater in Vertue and Goodness in the Love and Favour of God in a Pure Conscience here and Eternal Glory hereafter Always provided that they are as much made the Objects of our Choice and Pursuit as the other And therefore I cannot but suspect where we see Men so very cold and backward to Spiritual Things and so apt to spend all their Thoughts upon trifling vain or worldly Matters that it is with a great deal of Pains and Reluctancy that they can bring themselves to think of their Everlasting Concernments I say I cannot but suspect that