it does require is very obvious Lord is a word of power and autority it requires service and obedience Nothing more frequent in the Prophets than when they have from God severely worded their commands to add this sanction I am the Lord and as applied to Christ St Paul does say I serve the Lord Christ. A servant is the necessary relative to a Lord and truly doing what he doth command was the use he assigned of all that power he had given him teaching them to observe whatever I have commanded And truly if those Scriptures be remembred which secure his Autority thus let us know that Power was the reward of his sufferings and he endured them partly for the Title 's sake therefore says as much and Heb. 12. 2. For the joy that was set before him he endured the cross despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of God did all this that he might gain that place or if that be not plain enough then this is most express Rom. 14. 9. For to this end Christ both died and rose and revived that he might be Lord both of the dead and the living Verse 8. That whether we live we live unto the Lord and whether we die we die unto the Lord that is that both our life might be consecrated to him our lives spent on his service and our deaths be at his command and this was part of the end of his death And then I appeal to your own hearts for what end think you he did so desire and obtain this power Do you think when he was set at the right hand of God he was exalted onely to a name that by all those sufferings he did acquire but a bare title to be call'd Lord of Lords as he is call'd Rev. 19. 16. but neither to look after our obedience nor indeed to set us any law to obey as some would have it Was this power so dear to him as that he would suffer all those torments to compass it and yet when he hath it that it should be so little regarded by him as to suffer us to neglect contemn it to go on in a continued course of disobedience to all his precepts to rebel against his Power never submit our appetites to it but let every lording passion fly in his face every lust defy his Autority let us be proud against that Lord be higher than our duties and all the temper of virtues and let every ebullition of our proud wrath trample on a statute back'd with hell-fire yea and so believe that his death should procure us an impunity in doing this What a wretched mistake is this to think his bloud which purchased him a power to command us should purchase us a leave to disobey him This is to make Christ's bloud divided against it self and to make it spill and dash it self That we should go on in a course of iniquity or allow our selves some peevish vices and stop our own consciences and a Preacher's mouth with saying Christ died for us when as 't is clear he died that he might be Lord that is that we might live and dy to him do both at his command and canst thou think that that death will excuse thee for not obeying which was undertaken for that very end that thou mightest obey him Christ died to be thy Lord and thou wilt have that death a plea for thee when thou obeyest sin and the Devil his greatest Enimies His Cross was his very Ensign and Standard against these Enimies his Passion was his grappling with them and his death his Victory And yet thou dost again submit to their authority becomest a subject to their power and settest them Lord over thee and fetchest the justification of this thy defection from that death and victory and that is the same thing as to make them of no autority nor power yea the captivity and ruin of those Enimies to be the reason of thy obeying them to excuse thy disservice to Christ by saying he is thy Lord and for thy rebellion and waging war with him pretend thou dost it under his own standard No certainly his Title claims Obedience and does assure thee thou must serve This is the first thing what thou must do The second what thou maist expect from it is easily discover'd that is wages For he will recompence every man according to his deeds Rom. 2. 6. To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honor and immortality eternal life v. 7. And glory honor and peace to every man that doth good v. 10. For he is the Lord of glory the Prince of peace and Lord of life the Scripture saith in a word to sum up both what his Title doth require and what we may expect from it it saith Service and it saith Wages and both are set down in that to the Heb. 5. 9. He is the Author of eternal salvation to all them that obey him and both here are applied to him who does in earnest owne the relation to this Title and can say in truth My Lord the next part and first of the applying what it does require Service as it is the assuring of performance My Lord. And truly had we not entred any voluntary obligation and had we not contracted formally to take him for our Lord and not onely owned all that the relation does import to be due from us but engaged also to render it yet he is to us both 1. By an Original right he made us and there is not a workman in the world hath so much right to require the uses of his own handy-work to dispose of that same utensil which himself shap'd or fram'd as the Lord hath to require our service Did I perchance furnish the Lord with some materials for my self or did I find any piece towards my making contribute any least thing to my being then let me claim somthing for my share in my self and by the rule of fellowship with God have some use of my self to my self and as to that let him not be my Lord. But there is no such thing he called me into being out of the infinite resistance of vacuity and nothing He gave me body soul and every power and faculty and he upholds every motion and inclination of those faculties and gives me opportunities and objects for them There is no considerability of any thing within me is from my self but entirely owes its being from his store and comes from the Almighty and then what least imaginable pretence or plea can I have why every motion and inclination both of soul and body should not be bound to look towards his service and every action and thought acknowledge him My Lord. And 2. By purchased Title He did redeem us from the service of those cruel Lords Sin and the Devil whose service is unreasonable and unmanly slavery and whose wages is eternal ruin and he bought the right and title to our service
evitavit Qua alii ambiunt Cui rectius visum Ecclesiam defendere instruere ornare Quam regere Laboribus studiisque perpetuis exhaustus Morte si quis alius praematura Obiit Vir desideratissimus Januarii XXVII An. M.DC.LXXX Aetatis LX. Nobile sibi monumentum Areae adjacentis latus occidentale Quod à fundamentis propriis impensis struxit Vivus sibi statuit Brevem hanc Tabellam Haeredes defuncto posuere TABLE of the First VOLUME 1 Pet. 4. 1. He that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin Pag. 1. Psalm 7â— 1. Truly God is loving to Israel even to such as are of a clean heart 15. Levit. 16. 31. Ye shall afflict your soul by a statute for ever 29. John 15. 14. Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you 43. Ezek. 33. 2. Why will ye die 57. Psalm 73. 25. Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee 69. Mark 1. 3. Prepare ye the way of the Lord. 81. 1 John 5. 4. This is the victory which overcometh the world even our faith 95. Gal. 2. 20. I am crucified with Christ. 109. Luke 9. 55. Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of 123. Luke 16. 30 31. Nay father Abraham but if one went unto them from the dead they will repent And he said unto him if they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be perswaded tho one rose from the dead 137. Luke 2. 34. Behold this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel and for a sign which shall be spoken against Pag. 151. James 4. 7. Resist the Devil and he will flee from you 165. Phil. 3. 18. For many walk of whom I have told you often and now tell you even weeping that they are the enimies of the cross of Christ. 181. Mark 10. 15. Verily I say unto you whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child he shall not enter therein 195. Acts 13. 2. The Holy Ghost said separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them 209. Hos. 3. 9. Afterwards shall the children of Israel return and seek the Lord their God and David their king and shall fear the Lord and his goodness 227. Matt. 5. 44. But I say unto you love your enimies bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you pray for them that despightfully use you and persecute you 243. TABLE of the Second VOLUME 2 Tim. 3. 15. And that from a child thou hast known the holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation thro faith which is in Christ Jesus Pag. 1. Rom. 6. 3. Know ye not that so many of us as were baptiz'd into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death 21. Matt. 9. 13. Go ye and learn what that meaneth I will have mercy and not sacrifice Pag. 36. Psalm 102. 13 14. Thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Sion for the time to favor her yea the set time is come For thy servants take pleasure in her stones and favor the dust thereof 50. Acts 24. 16. And herein I exercise my self to have alwaies a conscience void of offence towards God and towards man 65. Matt. 5. 4. Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted 79. 1 John 3. 3. Every man that has this hope in him purifies himself as he is pure 93. Isaiah 26. 20. Come my people enter thou into thy chambers and shut thy doors about thee hide thy self as it were for a little moment until the indignation be overpast 107. Matt. 11. 28. Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest 118. 1 Cor. 15. 57. Thanks be to God who giveth us the victory thro our Lord Jesus Christ. 133. Psalm 17. 15. As for me I will behold thy face in righteousness I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness 143. John 20. 28. My Lord and my God 157. Mark 9. 24. Lord I believe help thou my unbelief 170. Matt. 5. 16. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father which is in heaven 191. 2 Cor. 6. 2. Behold now is the accepted time behold now is the day of salvation 201. 2 Tim. 1. 12. I know whom I have believed 215. Luke 16. 8. The children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light 230. Matt. 6. 22 23. The light of the body is the eie if therefore thy eie be single thy whole body shall be full of light But if thy eie be evil thy whole body shall be full of darkness if therefore the light that is in thee be darkness how great is that darkness 247. Serm. 2. 261. Serm. 3. 272. Serm. 4. 284. Serm. 5. 296. THE Divine Autority AND USEFULNESS OF THE Holy Scripture ASSERTED IN A SERMON On the 2 Tim. 3. 15. And that from a child thou hast known the holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Iâ—sus THE words are part of St. Pauls reasoning by which he presseth Timothy to hold fast the truth he had receiv'd and not let evil men seducers work him out of what he had bin taught urging to this end both the autority of the Teacher himself who had secur'd the truth of his doctrine by infallible evidence and beyond that as if that were a more effectual enforcement pressing him with his own education in the Scriptures how he had bin nurst up in that faith suckt the Religion with his milk that it was grown the very habit of his mind that which would strengthen him into a perfect man in Christ and make him wise unto salvation if he did continue in the faith and practice of it which he proves in the remaining verses of the Chapter In the words read there are three things observable 1. Here is a state suppos'd Salvation and put too as of such concernment that attaining it is lookt upon as wisdom wise unto salvation Now since true wisdom must express it self both in the end that it proposeth and the means it chooseth for that end to be pursued with and attain'd by and take care both these have all conditions that can justifie the undertaking and secure the prudence of it and this wisedom to salvation therefore must suppose both theâ—e in order to them both we have here 2. That which with all divine advantage does propose this end and also does prescribe most perfect means for the attaining it and that is Holy Scripture through faith which is in Christ Jesus Thou hast known the holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus Holy Scripture probably of the Old Testament for there was hardly any other Timothy could know from a child scarce any other being written then The faith of
of their faith and communion in Gods public worship among Christians as there is unity and communion between the several parts of one same person that their union in it should be so strict that all their assemblies for it should make but one body with one spirit so another end is to assure that as in one same body there are several parts for several uses without which it could not be an organiz'd complete animal body so in the one body of Christ the Church too there are several ministeries offices and powers some more noble others more inferior and the whole body may as well be all eie as each member in the Church a Seer every part be tongue as every man a Teacher St Paul from that Analogy deducing a necessity of several parts and their subordination also in that 1 Cor. 12. v. 28. and accordingly saith he God hath set several orders first Apostles after Prophets Teachers helps or ministerial offices and governments without which governments and which diversity 't is as impossible it can subsist as for a body to see without an eie or speak without a tongue consult direct and call it self without a brain or understanding Yet this same is exprest all in the other body of a building which my text relates to for Eph. 4. 11. Christ gave also some Apostles and some Prophets some Evangelists some Pastors and some Teachers for the perfecting the Saints compacting holding Christians together in assemblies for Gods public worship for the work of the ministry for the edifying or building up of the body of Christ. Now this embleme to the body of a building as the other is a type of Unity but yet of several and subordinate stations in the Churches unity For stones however excellently squar'd fitted are yet no parts of the structure till they be cemented to the rest that lean on the foundation the number possibly may make a heap but not a frame until they be dispos'd and order'd in their several stations for there are such in this body also every hewn stone cannot be a pinnacle nor corner stone so in the Church all are not capable of the same ministeries offices or powers And yet we may remember when it was so all assum'd all seiz'd the offices usurpt the powers executed all the ministeries all subordination was demolisht order broken Governments under foot the stones of the Sanctuary pour'd out in the top of every street as Jeremy laments the Vrim and the Thummim stones that gave the heavenly Oracles lost in ruins Now then God to make good the promis'd method of his Providential mercies when it was thus when these stones of Sion were in the dust the Ephod and the Priests thrown into it and the Priesthood and the Fathers of it the the whole life with all its offices and powers dying almost all that could continue it being laid in the dust and Sions Enimies expecting the expiring of the Order then the appointed time was come and God not onely did himself arise but made a resurrection of the Church too and from the dust these stones were again most miraculously built into a Spiritual House I cannot but acknowledg that the breaches which this desolation made were not wholly made up nor were well cemented and as uncemented breaches use to do decai'd more and more daily what arts were us'd to keep them open yea to widen them by whom for what ends too is so evident I shall not touch it But 't is sure we had not much face had no great appearance of the bodies that the Scripture represents the Church by for in those that were before broke off from her there was no subordination nor no order nor no unity every broken divided piece of ruin took upon it self to be the entire building the whole body every Faction was Christs Church each Assembly was his flock his Congregation when indeed it was onely a Spiritual riot And when things were dispos'd thus then at once to break down all the poor remainders he that takes his place to whom Christ said Thou art Peter and on this rock I will build my Church who yet as not content to thrust Christ out from being the alone foundation then which none can lay another true one 1 Cor. 3. 11. would be the chief head stone in the corner also on which whosoever should fall shall be broken but on whosoever it shall fall it will grind him to powder Matth. 21. 44. He I say in confifidence of that success attemts this on the Reformation and particularly on this as they thought tottering Church to lay her stones all in the dust And truly such the instruments emploi'd are that humanely speaking it must seem impossible to be avoided For in Gods name under the Autority of Religion with the greatest Sacredness that can be they contrive the bloudiest most irreligious most inhumane murders treasons assassinations imaginable make the holy Eucharist the bond of their confederacy in those so tremendous villanies Christ's bloud becomes the very obligation both to commit not confess them for which end they say and swear even at the point of death and upon their Salvation prov'd and confest falshoods Now what security or guard can mankind have against such whom no ties of Religion or humanity have any force on Whether these be the doctrines of their Church tho that be true in most part yet it matters not to them who are to be massacred if they be the constant practices and if they have such guides of conscience as can satisfy and thereupon engage the instruments that must effect them to those practices How they do that I must confess seems strange for they yet look upon those actions as for which they would have absolution therefore sins For tho there have bin dispensations sent from Rome permitting them to promise swear subscribe and do what else should be requir'd of them so as in mind they did continue firm and us'd their diligence to advance the Roman faith in secret yet such dispensations might be intercepted as those were in 1580. and brought to King James in Scotland and so might discover plots if they were us'd to give them in all such occasions besides that they would stare the head of that Church in the face betray his being privy to and abetting those designs of bloud which now if they miscarry they can cast at first upon some private Desperado's and then after lye laugh them out of mens belief Such dispensations therefore being not to be expected still they took other ways For seven years after Sextus V. offering by the Bishop of Dunblain to that King a marriage with the Infanta of Spaine if he would become a Catholic as he call'd it and join with them against the English and this being mightily resisted by the then Lord Chancellor which made that ineffectual and who was their constant adversary Father William Chrichton who had
somtime bin the Rector of the Jesuits at Lyons and came thither with Dunblain sollicited one Bruce who also had bin brought up by the Jesuits and who was the Spanish Agent then imploi'd for ships there which that Duke intended should be join'd with and assist in their Armada sollicited him very oft for mony to procure the murder of the Chancellor which he had contriv'd by several ways but being still deni'd at first because his mony was not trusted to him for those purposes he could not justify such disbursment another time because as to the sin it was all one to kill a man with his own hands or to give mony to procure it and that he for his part was a private person and had no Autority over the life of any man and less over that of the Chancellor who was a chief man in the execution of the Justice of the Land and afterwards because the question was about advancement of Christian Religion now this he thought would ruinate the same in as much as men went about to promote it by murder to the great scandal of all But finding himself still importun'd more he demanded of the Father whether in good conscience he might consent to that enterprize or whether he could dispense therewithal to which the Jesuit repli'd that he could not but that the murder being committed and he coming to confess himself unto him he would absolve him of it It seems they thought they had no further power then Now Bruce's answer tho not much concerning my part in this subject yet it was so honest and the consequence so strange that I shall not pass it He repli'd sith your Reverence acknowledgeth that I must confess my self of it you also thereby acknowledg that I should commit a sin and I for my part know not whether when I have don it God would give me grace and inable me to confess it Besides I verily believe that the confession of a sin which a man hath don of set purpose intending to confess himself thereof and to have absolution for it is not greatly available and therefore the surest way for me is not to put my self into such hazard so it ended But he ran into another hazard for the Duke of Parma dying and the Count Fuentes Nephew to the Duke of Alva in his place Chrichton accus'd Bruce before him that he was a Traitor because he would not disburse mony to cause the Lord Chancellor to be slain and the process had its course he not denying the thing and after fourteen months affliction was at last onely releas'd without repair of his good name or damages But passing by this it seems they had no other snare to draw them in could give them no assurance then but in that hopes of after absolution which prov'd insufficient for they found themselves ingag'd in and must wilfully commit crimes at the point of death of which they could not live to be absolv'd I do not instance in the perjuries of Father Garnet tho with horrible execrations He cry'd mercy after saying that he had not thought they could have prov'd the contrary and he might have absolution But Tresham just when dying did deny on his Salvation things concerning Garnet which he had confest before and Garnet did himself confess too after yea and several others of their own persuasion unexceptionable persons also swore The same words are now current in the mouths of those that suffer notwithstanding the express Oaths of their Complices as if they thought the vertue of their Sacrament were such as that when men confess'd themselves of their intended villanies it absolv'd them of them e're they did them and of all the sins they should think needful to commit in the effecting them Yea more if they should discover or confess ought tho dying then that vertue of the Sacrament retir'd the absolution became void unuseful the Sins recoil'd upon them of which otherwise it made them innocent which gives them confidence on their Salvation at the point of death to deny matters of known fact which 't is not imaginable that they could do on any other save on that account And that it is so I have one irrefragable instance of one executed lately for a murder of that kind in Ireland which is assur'd by persons of best credit in that Nation who tho upon flagrant evidence condemn'd deni'd the fact at his death on his Salvation with deep execrations as he at the place of execution went to be turn'd off but it pleas'd God that the rope brake presently and he soon reviv'd but in the greatest horror in the world for having with such desperate execrations deni'd his own deliberate fact and renounc'd his Salvation he openly acknowledg'd the falsity of his former asseverations and own'd his being really guilty of what was charg'd upon him and blessing God for giving him those moments by so strange a way to disburthen himself of such deliberate wilful perjury declar'd that his Confessor when he absolv'd him told him if he did discover it that absolution would not profit him that he should be damn'd but if he did not then he was forgiven Such monstrous practices are made good sanctified as they contribute to the laying our poor Sion in the dust for we have ever bin the mark of all their mischeifs Since Pius the V. Bull it was observ'd there never past four years all Queen Elizabeths reign without a most pernicious plot for the subversion of the State and Church and in the first years of King James not four months without Treason they go now by the same rules in the same methods with the same Oaths the same Sacraments administred to the same purposes And just as they somtimes designing open force somtimes private treasons assassinations somtimes trying by the softer pleas of Liberty of Conscience toleration to do it yea altho it be but partial an Indulgence to our own Sects any thing that may contribute to the breaches of our Sion may keep them open which 't is said whether in earnest or to colour Blacker purposes hide designs more violent is now spoken of and they hope for and hath still bin pleaded for as the birthright of each Christian as instated on them in the very charter of their Christianity But yet to speak to that too I neither find the word in Scripture nor the thing as most men take it for the Liberty of Action and besides this whatever Arguments there are that press it they can be no Arguments for the Romanist who never grants it for either they conclude or they do not if not why do they urge them if they do why do they not allow them if they can see no force in them then they must not use them if they can they must be wrought on by them unless to be the onely men that may do wrong and resist reason be their grant and Charter But not to
unquenchable brimstone and denounc'd that dire thunder of Go ye cursed into everlasting fire which is the sentence of the Law in its own rigour Yea and besides that blackness and darkness too so that notwithstanding all those lightnings and those revelations God was still in the thick cloud and in the dark and Christ might well say in the verse before the Text No man knoweth the Father save the Son and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him and when he comes to do that he does it in another strain with words of another nature all invitation Come unto me all ye that labor The strain of Gospel is not to thunder us into obedience but I beseech you Brethren by the tender mercies of God and tho there be laboring and burden in the words yet those are the effects of Law and there is ease and rest for that labor and those burdens in the words too and to them it is the Gospel that invites us and it is Christ that gives them for it is he that saith Come unto me These words the Church makes use of for her call unto the Sacrament of the Lords body and certainly it is impossible that they should signify with greater Emphasis than upon that occasion when he does bid you come to him that is to the communication of his body and his bloud for the bread which we break is the communion of the body of Christ. You come to him not onely for the emty kindness of a visit there but to partake of his body and his bloud all the redemtions graces mercies which he purchased on the cross If ever Christ do call with passion it is sure when he pours out that bloud for us and saith every one that thirsteth come Come unto me all ye that labor The words are an invitation of Christ in which we may observe 1. The Persons invited All ye that labor and are heavy laden 2. The invitation it self Come unto me 3. The entertainment at this invitation Rest I will give you rest In the handling of these I shall shew first who those persons invited are who they are that are said here to labor and to be heavy laden 2. What is meant by their invitation Come unto me 3. How those persons come to be qualified for this invitation so as to be invited and none other how the laboring heavy laden persons are the onely fit persons to come to Christ. 4. I shall touch the advantages those persons shall gain by coming Of these and 1. Who they are that are said to labor and be heavy laden The words express extremity of burden and labor under it and weariness by reason of that labor they are translated fessi estis bajulantes onera Syr. labore attriti gravati onere by the Arab. And indeed they signify pains such as to make us pant and blow 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yea thro weakness not be able to stand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so as that the joints are loosed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the very soul fails and faints and we become as it were in the shadow of death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies Now this excess of pains may denote two things 1. Either the sinner under that notion as a sinner sins themselves being in Scripture exprest by words that signify labor trouble and weight and therefore the word in the Text translates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which means all those especially iniquity Mich. 2. 1. Wo to them that devise iniquity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that devise labors and the very next words will warrant it and work evil it being a most familiar expression with the Prophet David the Workers of Iniquity not onely because it is some mens emploiment and trade here lies their skill their managery they are not Artists in any thing besides but the secrets of sin the mysteries of filthiness the Magisteries of Iniquity these they are Professors of in these chair-men but also Workers of iniquity because it is their toil they sweat under it it is the vanity and vexation of their lives which are rackt in designing contriving and acting the sins of their complexions and ambitions Will you see our Saviors sense of the vexing painfulness of sin he calls your sins of the least size peccata levia as they are esteem'd motes in the eye Matth. 7. 3. Why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brothers eye that is why dost thou look so severely on the light faults of others Our escapes that we make slight of they are of such a nature in themselves as to cause the anguish and fretting that dust and splinters do in the tenderest part the eye And if our souls were not all corneous our consciences sear'd and dead we should with the same impatience bear them as our eye does dust with restlesness work against it never quiet till it force out tears to wash away the dust Yea worse than that for the word which we translate mote 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies a spill of wood a little shiver or splinter a thing absolutely insuppportable to that part which if suffered does not onely threaten it with intolerable pains but with absolute extinction And truly every one of our slighter sins is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a shiver in the eye and then the grosser iniquities will bear both the words of the text of labor and burden and are in the same verse by our Savior entituled to an expression that hath enough of both even a beam in the eye And considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye that is thine own vaster crimes Every design'd and gross wickedness is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a thing whose agony is as much beyond imagination as endurance For how shall the eye bear that which the shoulders must sink under which onely pillars can support Yet such is that burden and therefore the expression is frequent of bearing iniquities St Peter says it of Christ He himself bears our sins and the Prophet Isaiah said it before him c. 53. 11. For he shall bear their iniquities 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bear them as a great burden as the word expresses and as event did more express a burden indeed which made the Son of God to sweat bloud and roar and sink and die 'T is true there are of those that do delight in life onely because it is the opportunity of sin it hath no more pleasure in it than is spent in vanity or iniquity without that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 life would be a burden they would labor under it all their other time is wearisom and perisheth and notwithstanding in our Saviors character they are the onely drudges yet in their own opinions they are the onely light hearted creatures the onely persons whose life is but various ease and diversified pleasure Yea and the onely great prejudice they have against Religion is
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and signifies O Death where is thy plea by which thou didst attaint men before God's Tribunal where is the right thou hadst over all men to seize and take possession of them what 's become of the sentence that was awarded thee by which all of us were adjudg'd to be thy bond-slaves where is that punishment which thou didst inflict upon us all and by it ruin us To all these rights Sin did entitle thee O Death or as it is here in the Text Sin is thy sting whatsoever power thou hast of hurting man as the Scorpion's venom lies in his sting that power Sin hath given thee and in that it lies without Sin Death were no plague and it is this that makes Death insupportable Now to prove this I need not urge more than what I have already said for if Sin be a sting in the very thought of Death much more pungent will it be when Death it self approaches when the Feaver shall lay hold upon the bloud not onely to revenge the former heats of that lustful or that riotous bloud but to be dawnings of those eternal Burnings which do await the Sinners and shall do more than represent unto thee the heats of that unquenchable brimstone which is to be thy lot and which already doth begin to flash in upon thee Which part of thee do's labor with the more intolerable Feaver thy Body or thy Soul Alas the frost of the Grave would seem to thee a Julip a cool refreshment onely if Sin did not make thee look upon the grave as a downlet to that bottomless pitt which is the lake of fire that is not quencht Nothing possibly can keep an unrepentant Sinner that on his death-bed apprehends his guilt from the horror of despair from being his own Devil and suffering his own Hell in his own bosom upon earth I shall demonstrate this invincibly to you that Sin do's and nothing else do's make Death most insupportable when it approaches Now to evince this my Argument is none other than our Blessed Savior himself in whose Passion the onely imputation of guilt seems to have rais'd the greatest contradictions imaginable If you look upon him preparing for his Passion it seems his onely and most pleasing design as he came into the world for that end so his whole life before it was but a Prologue to it onely a walk to mount Calvary it was his extreme desire I have a baptism to be baptiz'd with baptiz'd indeed with fire and his own clotted sweat of bloud yet this Baptism how am I streightened till it be accomplished Luke 12. 50. He had longing throws after it he did as much desire it as a woman to be deliver'd of her burden Nay it was his contrivance he did lay plots that he might not escape it for when a glorious Miracle had broke from him that did extort the confession of his Deity from Men and Devils he charges these to hold their peace and bids the other tell it no man one reason of which was least the knowing him to be the Son of God should hinder him from suffering He gives it himself Luke 9. 21 22. he straitly charg'd and commanded them to tell no man that thing saying the Son of man must suffer many things and be rejected now should they know I were the Son of God they would not crucify the Son of glory You see what care he takes least he should not suffer and just before his passion he come in triumph to Jerusalem with songs and joy about him as if Death were the onely pleasant thing and his passion so desirable that he would go ride to meet it which he never did at any other time And add to all this that the person was the Son of God to whom nothing could be truly insupportable yet when this person comes to meet it see how he entertain it his soul is exceeding sorrowfull he fell on his face to pray against it and while he was in this condition an Angel from Heaven came to strenthen him yet he is still in an agony and prays more earnestly and his sweat was like drops of bloud Now 't was the sense of Sin upon him that made his bloud run out in clotts as it were flying from that sense it was the apprehensions of the guilt imputed to him and the wrath which he knew was due to it did make him apprehend his God who was himself was gon from him made him cry out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Now to say that all this dread were from the mere apprehension of death were horrid blasphemy the meanest Martyr was never guilty of so much weakness No 't was from the sense of the iniquity that was upon it 't was because he was made sin for us he was a man of sorrows saith the Prophet Isaiah because in representation he was a man of sins for he bore our iniquities saith the same Prophet c. 53. The Lord had laid upon him the iniquities of us all and therefore he was oppressed And so I have made appear that Sin is the sting of Death more than if your selves did feel it by an experimental despair for it is more that Sin should make Death terrible to the Son of God than that it should make it insupportable to you And therefore before Death seize you and prostrate you into his dust this consideration may humble you into the dust and ashes of Repentance this I say if Sin were a sting that made Death so insupportable to Christ what will it be to us If the apprehension of it when it came arm'd onely with the imputation of our guilt for he himself knew no sin was so terrible to the Son of God how shall we stand under it when it brings all our own iniquities to seize upon us If he that was a person of the Trinity could not bear the weight how shall we sink under it That which made our Jesus in an agony as if he meant to pour out his soul in his sweat and pray and roar and die will certainly be to us most infinitely beyond sufferance Alas what then will be our hope We have certainly none except we can by Faith and Repentance rid our selves of this Sin which is the sting of Death and makes it to be thus intolerable which how it comes to pass I must now shew 2. Why and how Sin is the sting of Death Sin may seem very properly to be call'd a sting of Death for it was the Serpent that brought Death into the World and Sin was that by which he did inflict it now a sting is a Serpent's proper instrument and a venomous sting it was that could blast Paradise and shed destruction there where the Tree of life bore fruit But that is not all the reason why it should be call'd the sting of Death because it makes us obnoxious to Death but it is that
likeness of his death by being made conformable to that in crucifying of our sins we are inoculated as it were and both together ingraffed in into the Cross and so there is deriv'd to us the vertue of that Stem that Root of Expiation and Atonement and by this insertion being as the same S. Paul says Phil. iii. 9. found in him we have his Righteousness That poor Soul that does throw himself down in the strict humiliations of Repentance at the footstool of the Cross and there beholds his Saviour dying for him and that is himself by Penitence incorporated into him graffed into his Death and planted in his very Passion as Origen and Thomas interpret He may take confidence to say Behold Lord if the satisfactions of thy Eternal Justice be acceptable to thee if the blood of God that is offer'd up without spot be a well-pleasing Sacrifice look down at once on thy Messiah and on my poor Soul turn not thy face from me for whatever my guilts are I have an equal Sacrifice those are my satisfactions and that blood my Offering the Passion and propitiation of the Cross are 〈◊〉 I am Crucified with Christ. We have gone through all the Parts all the Considerations of this Expression and have no more now to take notice of but this that all of them must go together that they never are fulfill'd asunder but he only whom the efficacy of the Cross of Christ hath wrought on to the Crucifying of sin he onely hath the satisfactions of the Cross imputed to him he is planted with ingraffed into Christ For if any man be i◠Christ he is a new creature old things are done away 2 Cor. v. 17. Whosoever is not such he hath no interest in the Jesus of that day He may perchance in some one of those easie Saviours which these times afford wherein Opinions call'd holy or a sanctify'd Faction give such interests and to be in a party is to be in Christ or else he may depend upon that Christ that may be had with meer Dependance that is ours if we persuade our selves he is so Now sure he that is persuaded he is Christ's is either truly so persuaded or else falsly if but falsly that will not advantage him for God will never save a man for believing a lye but that he should truly be persuaded so without this Duty is impossible for he that is Christ's hath crucified the Flesh with the Affections and Lusts therefore by good Logick he that hath not crucified them is not Christ's and evidently whosoever is not crucified at all he is not crucified with Christ. And sure I need not put you in remembrance that the man in whom sin reigns and whensoever his Lusts and Passions bid him go he goeth or come he cometh or do this he doeth it that the body of sin is not crucified in him that which were nailed and fetter'd on the Cross and slain there could not command and rule him so Or if sins dominion be not so absolute but God hath got some footing so as that his Law hath power in the man's mind so as to make him make resistances against his sin and he dislikes it but alas commits it still yet what he does allows not but returns to do it at the next Temptation afterwards would fain be good yet does not find how to perform something governs in his members leading that Law in his mind into captivity to the law of sin this man although he hath the body of death yet 't is not crucified and slain for it does live and exercise the greatest tyranny upon him forces him to serve and to obey against his mind it overcomes his own heart and all inclinations to good and conquers God within him Till men have left off the custom of the works of sin and all gross deeds of the flesh it were as vain to prove they are not crucified as that he is alive that walks and eats Those works they are the fruits of the flesh the off-spring of its lusts and were that crucified and we by likeness to Christ's death planted into the Cross we could no more produce them than that dead Tree the Cross could bear fruit or than a Carcass could have heat to generate the Grave become a Womb or the dust bring forth Secondly Yea more they perform not the outward actions of life who have but the image of death on them and a man asleep works not yet is alive his fancy and his inwards work and if sin be onely kept from breaking out and men commit not gross deeds of the flesh but yet indulge to these things in imagination and the heart cherish them in phansie and design and wish onely restrain the practice or indulge to spiritual wickednesses you may as well say that a man is dead because he does not walk abroad because he keeps within doors and lives only in his Closet or his Bed Chamber as say that sin is crucified which while it stirs but in the heart it is not dead Thirdly Once more we part from all acquaintance with the dead the Corps of one that had the same Soul with us howsoever we may have some throes of grief to leave it yet we put it from us we admit it to no more embraces but if 't were the loathsom Carcass of a Villain Traytor that was Executed we turn from the sight as from a Fiend it is a detestable and accursed spectacle And so he that hath put his Body of sin to death would have great aversations to it yea how dear soever it had been he would no more endure the least acquaintance with it than he would go seek for his old conversations in the Chambers of Death he would shun the sight of any the most bosom custom as he would the Ghost of his dead Friend he would abandon it as a most ghastly dreadful spectacle he would also bury these his dead out of his sight Thus he must needs be dispos'd that hath crucified his Old man And they that are thus dead with Christ shall also live with him yea those that are thus crucified with him he hath already rais'd up together and hath made them sit together in Heavenly places in Christ Jesus There already in their cause and in their right and pledge and there hereafter in effect and full enjoyment The Tenth SERMON Preached at CHRIST-CHURCH IN OXFORD Novemb. 5. 1665. LUKE IX 55. Ye know not what manner of Spirit ye are of THE state of that great Controversie which the words suppose between the Jews and the Samaritans as it then stood seems briefly thus Those that were planted in the Regions of Samaria by Salmaneser however great Idolaters at first having admitted in a while the God of Israel among their Gods and after having an High Priest of Aaron's Line a Temple too built on that place where Abraham and the Fathers of the Hebrews friends of God did chuse to offer Sacrifice and on that
of this World can entertain and slatter Thus they did and thus they did prevail For the first Ages of the Church were but so many Centuries of Men that entertained Christianity with the Contempt of the World and Life it self They knew that to put themselves into Christ's Service and Religion was the same thing as to set themselves aside for spoil and Rapine dedicate themselves to Poverty and Scorn to Racks and Tortutes and to Butchery it self Yet they enter'd into it did not onely renounce the Pomps and Vanities of the World in their Baptism when they were new born to God quench their affections to them in those waters but renounc'd them even to the death drown'd their affections to them in their own heart bloud ran from the World into flames and fled faster from the satisfactions and delights of Earth than those flames mounted to their own Element and Sphere In fine they became Christians so as if they had been Candidates of death and onely made themselves Apprentises of Martyrdom Now if it were not possible it should be otherwise than thus as the World stood then it was necessary that the Captain of Salvation should lead on go before this noble Army of Martyrs if it were necessary that they must leave all who followed him then it was not possible that he should be here in a state of Plenty Splendor and Magnificence but of Poverty and Meanness giving an Example to his followers whose condition could not but be such To give which Example was it seems of more necessity than by being born in Royal Purple to prevent the fall of many in Israel who for his condition despis'd him I am not so vain as to hope to persuade any from this great Example here to be in love with Poverty and with a low condition by telling them this Birth hath consecrated meanness that we must not scorn those things in which our God did chuse to be install'd that Humility is it seems the proper dress for Divinity to shew it self in But when we consider if this Child had been born in a condition of Wealth and Greatness the whole Nation of the Jews would have received him whereas that he chose prov'd an occasion of falling to them Yet that God should think it much more necessary to give us an Example of Humility and Poverty below expression then it was necessary that that whole Nation should believe on him When of all the Virgins of that People which God had to chuse one out to overshadow and impregnate with the Son of God he chose one of the meanest for he hath regarded the low estate of his Handmaiden said she and one of the poorest too for she had not a Lamb to offer but was purified in formâ pauperis When he would reveal this Birth also that was to be the joy of the whole Earth he did it to none of that Nation but a few poor Shepherds who were labouring with midnight-watches over their Flocks none of all the great Ones that were then at ease and lay in softs was thought worthy to have notice of it Lastly when the Angels make that poverty a sign to know the Saviour by This shall be a sign unto you You shall â—ind the Babe wrap'd in swadling cloaths and laid in a Manger As if the Manger were sufficient testimony to the Christ and this great meanness were an evidence 't was the Messiah From all these together we may easily discover what the temper is of Christianity You see here the Institution of your Order the First born of the Sons of God born but to such an Estate And what is so original to the Religion what was born and bred with it cannot easily be divided from it Generatio Christi generatio populi Christiani natalis Capitis natalis Corporis The Body and the Head have the same kind of Birth and to that which Christ is born to Christianity it self is born Neither can it ever otherwise be entertain'd in the heart of any man but with poverty of spirit with neglect of all the scorns and the Calamities yea and all the gaudy glories of this World with that unconcernedness for it that indifference and simple innocence that is in Children He that receiveth not the Kingdom of Heaven as a little Child cannot enter thereinto saith Christ True indeed when the Son of God must become a little Child that he may open the Kingdom of Heaven to Believers Would you see what Humility and lowliness becomes a Christian see the God of Christians on his Royal Birth-day A Person of the Trinity that he may take upon him our Religion takes upon him the form of a Servant and He that was equal with God must make himself of no Reputation if he mean to settle and be the Example of our Profession And then when will our high spirits those that value an huâ—â— of Reputation more than their own Souls and set it above God himself when will these become Christian Is there any more uncouth or detestable thing in the whole World than to see the great Lord of Heaven become a little one and Man that 's less than nothing magnifie himself to see Divinity empty it self and him that is a Worm swell and be puffed up to see the Son of God descend from Heaven and the Sons of Earth climbing on heaps of Wealth which they pile up as the old Gyants did Hills upon Hills as if they would invade that throne which he came down from and as if they also were set for the fall of many throwing every body down that but stands near them either in their way or prospect Would you see how little value all those interests that recommend this World are of to Christians see the Founder of them chuse the opposite extream Not onely to discover to us that these are no accessions to felicity This Child was the Son of God without them But to let us see that we must make the same choice too when ever any of those interests affront a Duty or solicite a good Conscience whensoever indeed they are not reconcilable with Innocence Sincerity and Ingenuity It was the want of this disposition and temper that did make the Jews reject our Saviour They could not endure to think of a Religion that would not promise them to fill their basket and to set them high above all Nations of the Earth and whose appearance was not great and splendid but look'd thin and maigre and whose Principles and Promises shew'd like the Curses of their Law call'd for sufferings and did promise persecution therefore they rejected him that brought it and so this Child was for the fall of many in Israel 2. This Child is for the fall of many by the holiness of his Religion while the strictness of the Doctrine which he brings by reason of mens great propensions to wickedness and their inability to resolve against their Vices