best Sacrifice to his Father and preferred the service of God before the love and kindness of his dearest Friends Heb. 10.7 chusing rather to die than to sin against God For when his Enemies were most furiously inraged against him and consulted to put him to death he makes no evasion nor unjust excuses he denies not the truth nor distrusts his Father but committing his Case to the providence of God Mat. c. 26. c. 29. he meekly endures their affronts and injuries and when their malice was so great as to put him to death he patiently bears their indignation their fury and their wrath like a good man and a glorious Martyr praying for his Enemies till he gave up the Ghost Behold here a Mirrour of Piety the Wonder of the world for his Devotion and Charity Was there any action of his life or the least circumstance attending his actions that might justly bear the charge of sin None certainly for from his birth to his death he was a most virulent Enemy to that wicked One and a perfect hater of his works The Devils themselves confess he was the holy One of God His most malicious Enemies could not but say he did all things well Mark 5.7 Pilate that sate in Judgment upon him could find no evil in him and therefore according to his Wife's admonition Mat. 27.19 23 24. proclaims him before a full Assembly of Scribes and Elders to be a just person So that his whole Life was but one continued Series of actions perfectly designed against that wicked One. His Baptism was his solemn inauguration into this Office His Conversation the most plain and easie Mat. 11.28 29. the most full and comprehensive the most encouraging and authentick Pattern for his Followers to imitate in their Christian course of life in defiance to that grand Impostor that while they behold him as the Captain of their Salvation despising the World confronting the Devil bearing Afflictions with patience Persecutions with cheerfulness resisting and overcoming Temptations forgiving and loving his Enemies willing to live so long as God pleased yet ready to die the most ignominious accursed death since it was the determinate counsel of God Whilst his Disciples thus consider his regular Piety his undaunted Courage they may learn to do likewise and in opposition to the Prince of Darkness be encouraged to do to suffer and to be whatever God shall be pleased to call them to 'T was Plato's opinion as Tully reports that if Vertue could but admit herself to view she would appear so amiable in the eyes of all men that Vice in the most costly dress and gorgeous array would appear most contemptible and bare if compared with her If incorporated Vertue in the Philosophers judgment would be so attractive of mens affections certainly the unspotted innocency of an incarnate Deity should be much more powerful to invite and perswade his Followers to the love and practice of Piety and Goodness than the former conceit would be to engage men to the love and practice of Vertue So that if men would consider that grand Exemplar of Piety the life of the holy Jesus his Example must needs inspirit their minds with the most active diligence undaunted courage to fight manfully under his Banner â—eb 12.1 2 3. as the Captain of their Salvation against the World the Flesh and the Devil to run with patience the race that is set before them and to continue in that spiritual Combat his faithful Servants and Souldiers unto their lifes end 2. From some remarkable actions of his Life and especially the bitter passions of his Death whereby he hath given a fatal blow to the power and designes of the Devil The Son of God is not to be considered onely as a meer man though just and innocent but in reference also to that grand undertaking The Redemption of the World from its slavery to Sin and subjection to Satan the Saviour of the World the Redeemer of Mankind His very Birth struck a terrour to those evil Spirits his Life shone with so glorious a light that it confounded the Kingdom of Darkness But the most signal Conquest he obtained over Death Eph 2.13 c. and the Devil that had the power of it was by his meritorious Death and powerful Resurrection For when the Jews had crucified the Lord of Life and laid him full low even in the dust that they began to triumph and applaud themselves in their supposed Victory the Devils also rejoyced as if they had vanquished the power of God How miraculously did the Counsels of Heaven defeat the carnal policy of men and the malicious designes of the Devil too That death which they executed upon the Lord 's Anointed was converted to their own destruction and contrary to the Devils expectation most happily proved the greatest Engine to rout his Forces and destroy his Kingdom For can God die or his holy One see corruption No the price of man's Redemption being paid by the Sufferings of the Son of God Rom. 6.9 10 he broke through the powers of the Grave and in despight of the Devil Hell and Death arose a mighty Conquerour over them all and as a Trophey of Victory led captivity captive and treated them as he pleased And when he had given sufficient demonstration of his Resurrection Acts 1.9 he ascended gloriously into Heaven from whence immediately he sent down the Holy Ghost upon his Disciples and prevalently interceding with his Father received power and authority to demolish the Kingdom of Satan Eph. 2.19 20 21 22. and by delivering men from his insulting Tyranny to constitute a Kingdom of his own and to preserve and keep it from the furious assaults of the Devil by the power of his Providence and the conduct of his Spirit And now he is set down at the right hand of God he continueth for ever and having an unchangeable Priesthood is able to save his Church and People to the utmost seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them Heb. 7.24 25. By which and other such remarkable passages preceding accompanying and following his death he hath obtained a considerable interest in the very Forts and Dwellings of the Prince of this World by turning many souls from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God 3. From the grand intent and designe of his Doctrine which is most aptly contrived to destroy the works of the Devil to deliver men from the power and dominion of sin and to direct and encourage them to Righteousness and true Holiness For First The Christian Religion delivers the strictest Precepts for the rule of good living with the greatest Majesty and Authority conceivable In general it commands men to love the Lord their God with all their heart Mat. 22.37 38 39. and with all their soul and with all their mind and their neighbours as themselves Mat. 7.12 to do as they would be done unto to
or Death are ascertained to us that he should delineate to our very eyes in plain and legible Characters the excellency of his Doctrine by the Piety and Innocency of his Life and so recommend his Precepts to our practice by his own Example set before us that he should convince and assure us of the Divinity of his Person and Doctrine by many and undeniable Miracles that he should seal the truth of what he delivered by his own bloud offer up his Life a Sacrifice to death to procure life to the sinful World that by his divine power he should rise out of the Grave gloriously ascend to Heaven intercede with his Father on our behalf and from thence send us another Comforter even the spirit of Truth which should inform our minds with the knowledge of all necessary truths and bring us to the love and practice of all Christian Vertues and Graces Certainly this method is abundantly able to destroy the works of the Devil and the prevail with sinners to lead godly and pious lives Which will most evidently appear if we proceed to consider the second Argument to illustrate the truth of the Apostles Assertion II. The Son of God hath in many remarkable instances already supplanted the Power of the Devil in delivering many Souls from the tyranny and dominion of that insulting Enemy notwithstanding the great disadvantages and discouragements that the Christian Religion hath met with in the World both from Jews and Gentiles from the first plantation of the Gospel until now For though the Jews were circumcised the eighth day and in their Childhood kept in cruel bondage under their Parents and Masters who constrained them to learn the Law of Moses and when they came to riper years were taught by the Scribes and Pharisees who sate in Moses Chair that their Religion was eternal and the Oeconomy thereof never to be altered and therefore were bound to reject any person that should broach any other Doctrine to discard him from their Synagogues to stop his mouth that he might not speak and their ears that they might not hear And 't is notorious that the Gentiles were no less fortified in their Heathen Rites and superstitious Customs every Nation having their respective Deities whom they constantly adored and offered Sacrifice to and some of them so careful to secure the honour of their Gods and all under their Authority in their Idolatrous observances that as Melanchton notes in his Epistle to his Comment upon the Romans every Athenian made a Vow at his admission to the Liberties and Franchises of the City se pugnare pro diis solum cum aliis not onely to fight valiantly in the front of an Army to defend and vindicate their Gods but like the Roman Scaeva to withstand whole Legions Adde to all this the Opposition that was to be expected without the Scoffs and Jears that Christians must expect from their Neighbours the Censures of their Laws and the displeasure of their Governours the meanness of Christ and the unworthiness of his Apostles the poverty and weakness of them both that they were utterly unable to supply the wants of their Disciples or defend them from the malice and cruelty of their Enemies But above all consider the corruption of their hearts and the contrariety of the Gospel to their former course of life forbidding the least Impurity and threatening vengeance against the smallest sin which they poor wretches were wholy immersed in and in honour of their Gods were not onely taught to practise but commanded to observe And yet notwithstanding such great contradictions the Gospel of Christ which is the power of God to salvation constrained both Jews and Gentiles with a holy violence to break asunder their unlawful Oaths to disclaim their former Religions to flie from the snares and delusions of the Devil and to become Proselytes to the Religion of Jesus For when that glorious Light the Sun of Righteousness appeared in the World the beams of his Majesty were immediately dispersed over the face of the Earth and his Glory in a short time dispelled that hideous darkness which had overspread the World and brought Life and Immortality to light For so the Evangelist tells us that by the miraculous instinct and conduct of a Star the news of his birth was revealed to the furthermost parts of the Earth as soon as ever he was born and the Princes thereof came to pay their Adoration to him and when they saw him fell down and worshipped him Mat. 2. And when he entered upon his Prophetick Office though he did not cry nor lift up nor cause his voice to be heard in the streets yet the Children of men slockt in abundance to hear him deservedly counting it their greatest honour to become the Disciples of so glorious a Master So great Worth they saw in his Person and such Excellency in his Doctrine such glorious Rewards he propounded to them such intolerable miseries he warn'd them to flie from that they made hast to deliver themselves from the bonds of sin by which they were detained Captives to the will of the Devil and without delay became the Followers of Christ glorying in nothing more than in being Christians And as our Lord himself did so miraculously rescue the Souls of men from their subjection to Sin and Satan so that life and vigour which continually attends the dispensation of the Gospel hath been illustriously manifest in opposition to all the Powers of Darkness and the Malice of Hell it self For as his Apostles went up and down preaching the Gospel the Lord added to the Church dayly such as should be saved Three thousand Souls became Converts to the Christian Faith at one Sermon of St. Peter's Acts 2.41 In the Roman Empire and the Province of Judea multitudes multitudes thronged into the Kingdom of Christ and not onely the weak and impotent people but the great ones and wise men of the Earth cheerfully embraced this divine Religion accounting their Strength weakness and their Wisdom folly until then Cornelius a Centurion became a Proselyte to it Nero's Family had some Saints Sergius Paulus a Proconsul and Dionysius the famous Areopagite at Athens became Converts to the Christian Faith And the Histories of the Church present us with many and many excellent Persons of great esteem for their admirable Learning and vast Endowments who in a short space of time voluntarily forsook the Pomps and Vanities of this wicked World and sincerely devoting themselves to the service of Christ were deservedly famous in their Generations for Piety and Devotions Which very Argument Arnobius insists upon when he reasoned with the Heathen to perswade them to receive the Faith of Christ that men of the greatest Wits and Parts Tam magnis Ingeniis paediti Oratores Grammatici Rhetores Consulti Juris ac Medici Philosophie etiam secreta rimantes Magisteria hec expetunt spretis quibus paulò antè fidebant c. Arnob. cont Gent. l. 2. p. 44.
is the onely signe of a Child of Grace the onely certain evidence of a good Christian That man who in the general course of his life carries a sincere respect to the Commandments of God and in good earnest studies to conform his actions to his holy Laws that carefully avoids the occasions of evil and seriously resists the Wiles and Temptations of the Devil that despiseth not any Precept of the Gospel because the matter of it may seem small and inconsiderable nor refuseth the severest duty because of the pains and trouble it may put him to Such a man is the honest upright Christian a true Disciple and Sevant to the Son of God notwithstanding his infirmities and frailties which through Inadvertency Surprize or a violent Temptation he may sometimes commit which as 't is impossible for the best man in this imperfect State to secure and fortifie himself against so the Mercies of God in the dispensation of the Gospel doth graciously pardon and through the Merits of Christ readily pass them over But he that committeth sin is of the Devil He that casts off the fear of God from his eyes and lives in a constant course of a wicked life that complies with the Temptations of the Devil but is careless and indifferent in the Profession and Practice of Religion that habituates himself to the practice of any one known sin or the neglect of any necessary Christian duty though he be not arrived to the highth of wickedness but make some shew and appearance of Religion by prosessing the Christian Faith frequenting the publick Offices of Religion and exercising the material parts of some Vertues and Graces yet if his Obedience be not uniform and entire according to the scope and tenour of the Gospel he is certainly in a state of sin and iniquity and whatever his Profession or Confidence be without controversie a Child of the Devil for St. James tells us that true Christian Wisdom must shew itself without partiality without hypocrisie and the same Apostle confidently assures us that whosoever shall keep the whole Law and yet offend in one point is guilty of all Jam. 3.18 â— 2.10 2. This Argument is an excellent Criterion to judge of the truth of Doctrines which are delivered as the Doctrines of Christ whether they be so or no. Our Apostle gives us an admonition and direction to this purpose 1 Jo. 4.1 2 3. Beloved believe not every Spirit but try the Spirits whether they be of God Every Spirit that confesseth that Jesus is come in the flesh that is every Doctrine which is consonant with the Incarnation of the Son of God and the design of his being manifest in the world is of God for God manifested in the flesh is a great Mystery of Godliness 1 Tim. 3.15 and St. Paul calls the Christian Faith the truth which is after Godliness Tit. 1.1 But every Spirit that confesseth not that Jesus is come in the flesh that is every Doctrine which is contrary to the design of his Incarnation that is apt to hinder a good life or invalidate the necessity of it cannot be from God Whatever Doctrine gives licence or connivance to sin must needs proceed from the Devil that enemy of all goodness though the Author pretend to an Infallible Spirit like the Church of Rome or to Divine Inspiration like our Modern Enthusiasts Yet in the Church of Rome such Doctrines as these are solemnly constituted as Essential parts of the Christian Religion and imposed upon the Christian world with the same authority as the most Fundamental Articles of the Christian Faith Thus the Sacrament of Penance joyned with Confession is represented as sufficient to Salvation The Doctrine of Purgatory which supposeth an expiation of sin by the Prayers of the living after death Prayers in an unknown Tongue The prohibition of the Scriptures without licence to the people The dispensing of Indulgences the Popes Supremacy and Infallibility and others of the same nature are imposed with the same Authority and received with the same Veneration and Piety as the belief of Deity the Redemption of the world by the Son of God and the Rewards of another Life It 's needless and would be too tedious to consider them particularly but what man of common sense and understanding is not able to see that these Doctrines are directly and of their own nature great impediments and obstructions of a good life and therefore are not of God To the same ill purpose tend those frequent discourses of the Absolute Decrees of God the irresistibility of Divine Grace together with the weak and imperfect description of Faith with the strange Metaphorical expressions by which those Doctrines are unhappily represented to the world with Doctrines of like affinity confidently vented and spread abroad by the too curious and bold discoverers of hidden and unrevealed Mysteries For that Faith that doth not ingage men to become new Creatures and to keep the Commandments of God can never justifie much less save them and that Grace which shall infallibly work to convert men however disposed may make men careless and oscitant to the duties of Religion but doth neither require nor incourage their care and industry and those decrees which have irrevocably and absolutely sentenced men to Heaven or Hell from all Eternity may pamper some with presumption drive others to despair but can have no efficacy to perswade men to work out their Salvation with fear and trembling And therefore those persons that have imbibed these opinions ought to have a great care to keep their Hearts sounder than their Heads that they may be good though they apprehend no rational necessity why they should be so But if such men be good upon false and pernicious Principles as I make no question but many such erroneous persons are what eminent Lights might they be in the Church of God for sanctity and holiness of life if they would suffer right Reason and the acknowledged Principles of Religion to supplant their Erroneous Opinions and be perswaded to embrace the truth as it is in Jesus Lastly the consideration of this Doctrine should be a prevalent and most effectual Argument to perswade those that believe the truth and purport of it to leave off their sins and to lead Religious and godly lives We acknowledge our selves Christians and thereby profess to believe the Doctrine of Christ to live in obedience to his commands and in the stricter imitation of his holy life let us then look unto Jesus the Captain of our Salvation that we may prosecute that great and glorious end for which he came into the world became Emmanuel God with and incarnate among us That he was manifest in the flesh to destroy the works of the devil hath been in some measure represented to your consideration both from his holy life and meritorious death the design and tendency of his Doctrine the mission and dispensation of the Holy Ghost the many signal and eminent victories over the
Devil throughout the world in rescuing many Souls from the tyranny of the Devil and the powers of darkness and giving them power to become the Sons of God You therefore that call your selves by that worthy name of Christians consider the high Priest of your profession and the great obligation that lies upon you to walk worthy of your calling and to live as becomes the Gospel by renouncing the Devil and all his works the pomps and vanities of this wicked world and all the sinful lusts of the flesh that as you profess to believe the Articles of the Christian Faith ye may keep Gods holy will and Commandments all the days of your life That having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust ye may be partakers of the Divine Nature and as the Apostle exhorts give all diligence to add to your faith vertue and to vertue knowledge and to knowledge temperance and to temperance patience and to patience godliness and to godliness brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness charity and that these things may be in you and abound 2 Pet. 1.4 c. This our Baptismal Covenant obligeth us to this the Sacrament of the Lords Supper would enable us to effect this the principles of our Christian profession require this the precepts of our most holy Religion commands for this the blessed promise of Gods Grace is tendered to Mankind in the dispensation of the Gospel this the blessed hope of Eternal Glory should incourage us to and the dreadful apprehension of everlasting damnation should make us afraid to neglect And if hitherto we have been so desperately mad to continue in slavery and subjection to the Devil and thereby to stand at open defiance and direct hostility with the Son of God Let us not persist a moment longer in so wretched so miserable a condition but immediately break off our League with Satan and become the servants and worshippers of the only true God and of his Son Jesus Christ whom he hath sent For though our case be very bad whilst inslaved to the Tyranny of the Devil yet since we enjoy the Gospel that word of Everlasting life no man ought to conclude that his condition is desperate For now is the accepted time now is the day of Salvation 2 Cor. 6.2 This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Jesus Christ came into the world to save the chiefest of sinners 1 Tim. 1.15 So that the Son of God is willing to save us from our sins and the malice of the Devil too if we be willing to leave off our sins and to serve him in holiness and righteousness we may yet be turned from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God and so be rescued from the slavery of the Devil and our lusts into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God But at this time especially in which we are to Commemorate the Incarnation of the Son of God who came to visit us in great humility and in infinite mercy to deliver us from the power of the Devil we should seriously resolve to banish sin from our hearts and lives that the Son of God may take possession of our Souls and dwelling in our Spirits by Faith we may bring forth the fruits of Piety and Charity and all other Christian Vertues and Graces to the praise and honour of his blessed Name that in the last day when he shall come again in his glorious Majesty to judge both the quick and the dead we may rise to the life immortal through him who liveth and raigneth with the Father and the Holy Ghost now and for ever Amen Amen FINIS