raised to life again by it we shall rise to Immortality of Life and blessednesse receive all that we do believe more than we can comprehend receive the end of our Faith the salvation of our Souls Which God of his Mercy state us all in for the sake of Jesus Christ the Authour and the Finisher of our Faith and the Captain of our Salvation To whom with the Father c. SERMON IX VVHITE-HALL Sixth Wednesday in LENT 1664 5. GAL. 11. 20. I am Crucified with Christ. THE Ancient Observation of this Time would justifie my choyce make the Text Seasonable in the most severe sense it can put on when in their Exomologeses they ate onely the Bread of Sorrow and tears were their Drink day and night so as that in the Agonies of their Repentance they did Crucifie without a Metaphor and mâ—rtifie the Body of Flesh as well as Sin But it seems to have happened in our Sins as in our great Diseases men are grown more skilfull and have found out much more grateful wayes of Cure there is no need of going through a discipline of Torments a whole course of Medicinal Cruelty but they can heal at least palliate with more ease and speed Besides that Christianity is now of a more delicate and tender make and cannot bear austerities neither come I here to call for them or to provoke their Constitutions if they have found a softer and more pleasant way to Heaven on Gods Name let them walk in it onely in our walk we are now coming within ken of the Crosse of Christ and we can bear commemorations of his Passion they make the closing Ceremony of this Season which was set aside on purpose by the preparations of Humiliation to fit us for the performances and expiations of that Day by Repentance to to put off our Old Man the whole Bâ—dy of Sin that we may hang it on his Crosse as we go by That is the onely use of this time and the onely application of that Day Which I crave leave to shew you how to make at once And without this that Ceremony howsoever solemn will be meâ—rly pageantry not Worship the observation but dramatick and we shall have no part in the Atonement onely in the Scene of that dayes Tragedy rather than Sacrifice He onely Celebrates that Passion onely he partakes that Offering who can say with S. Paul I am Crucified with Christ. In which words we shall first endeavour to discover what this person is I. Secondly what the Nature is of that Condition and estate which S. Paul does affirm here of that person and that First in it self Crucified I am Crucified Secondly in its adjunct with Christ Which because it cannot signifie conjunction in time he is not now upon the Crosse that I might say now I am Crucified with him nor when He was was I that I might say then I am Crucifiâ—d with Christ but we shall find it hath other importances First it implies a likeness to Christ's Passion I am Crucified as he was so it means through the whole Rom. 6. and the being crucified with Christ is what S. Paul elsewhere expresses by the being made conformable to his death Secondly it imports more even Communication and partaking with him in his Passion being planted together in the likenesse of his death Rom. 6. 5. and I am Crucified with Christ does mean I have a fellowship of his Sufferings as he words it Phil. 3. 10. Thirdly it means also a conjunction of causal relation that there is a Vertue and Efficacy in the Crosse of Christ to work the Sinner into Crucifying of his sin so the particle must needs import Ephes. 2. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he hath set us together with him in heavenly places in Christ Jesus Where we are neither in conformity nor fellowship but onely in our head and in our cause so I am Crucified with Christ does mean his Passion hath an influence to Crucifie and cause in me the death of Sin Of these in order and First what this person is I say not who we know it was S. Paul but what And the reason of the Enquiry is because we find indeed elsewhere crucifying the Flesh with the Affections and Lusts required and we are also bid to mortifie our members that are on the Earth such as Fornication and Uncleannesse Covetousnesse and the like But these are not I how am I mortified in these Is it because it may be they are grown so dear to me that I am Crucified in their destruction and long practice and acquaintance hath riveted them into my very heart Now the Wen we know though an excrescent tumour but an accessory bag of noxious humours yet if it lay hold on any noble part take in some Nerve or Artery then he must cut the thread of Life that cuts it off So he must rent my heart indeed that tears my pleasures from me Life it self does seem to have so little satisfaction without them that it is a death to me to part with them Or else hath the Old Man no Soul is he all Flesh and hath Iniquity debas'd the whole of him so that his very Spirit is become Body of Sin so as that Wickednesse should be our very Being be all one with us and I and my corruptions prove denominations of one importance signifie the very same so it is indeed Besides the carnal part that is sold under sin and consequently does deserve the Cross that punishment of Slaves the part also that is in the quite opposite extream that lusts against the flesh that must be made away Be ye transform'd by the renewing of your mind Rom. 12. 2. And if there be any sublimer and more defaecated part in that it must submit to the same Fate Be ye renewed in the spirit of your mind Ephes. 4. 23. Corruption hath invaded that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the diviner ruling part is grown a slave to the Beast part of him it hath debaucht its notions whereby it should discriminate good from evil so that now it can discern no natural difference between them but does measure both meerly by his present inclinations and concerns and the eternal Lawes of Honesty are blotted out and principles of interest and irreligion rais'd there in the place and buttress'd by false reasonings and discourses Now all these Fortresses of Vice that maintain and secure a man in sin must be demolisht all such imaginations cast down and every high thing that exalteth it self against the knowledge of God and every thought brought into Captivity to the obedience of Christ That Spirit of the mind must be destroyed and we transformed into persons of new notions and reasonings But above all the remaining part of man his own Will must be mortified which besides its natural 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by perverse inclinings to sollicitations of flesh is most corrupted and most dangerous in that which way soever it
inclines it draws the whole Man after it If any thing in us be crucified in a Conformity to Christ it must be this for in that death wherein Christ offered up himself upon the Crosse where although the Divine Nature gave the value 't was onely the Humane Nature made the Offering there it was the crucifying his own Will that above all other the ingredients made his Death a Sacrifice and the price of our Redemption God that had given him his Blood and Life might call for it again when and how he saw good and being due it was not properly a price that could be given him for sin but his free voluntary choice his being willing to endure the Agonies and Contempts of the Crosse his stabbing his own natural desires with a resolute determination Not my will but thine be done This his own Will was his own offering and such is ours if we be Crucified with Christ made conformable to his death if we present our selves a Sacrifice acceptable to the Lord for our will is not given up to him till it do perfectly comport with his but that it cannot do till we renounce our own desires till we have brought our selves to an indifference in outward things to such a resignation as she is storied to have had who being in her Sicknesse bid to choose whether she rather would have Health or Death made answer Vehementissimè desidero ut non facias voluntatem meam Domine this above all I desire that thou wilt not do my will I would have thee not do what I desire and would have So that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the whole of us the Spirit Soul and Flesh go to make up this person and the body of Sin is the Old man entire I whole I am nothing but a mass of guilts my Senses are the bands of wickednesse that procure for my evil inclinations my members are the weapons of unrighteousness my Body is a body of Sin and Death and the affections of my Soul are Lusts its faculties are the powers of Sin yea and the Spirit of my mind that Breath of God is putrefied that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Angel-part of me is fall'n and turn'd Apostate and however I be partly Son of Man and partly Son of God yet I am wholly Child of Wrath and so fit to be Crucified Which calls me to the next Enquiry to the nature of the duty here intended I am Crucified What is design'd by it S. Paul does perfectly declare Rom. 6. 6. Our old man is crucified with Christ that the body of Sin might be destroyed that we should no longer serve sin So that it means a through Repentance and abandoning of former evil Courses A Duty which there are few men but in some instants of their life think absolutely necessary and perswade themselves they do perform it At some time or other they are forc't to recollect and grow displeas'd and angry at their sins and have some sad reflections on them beg for mercy and forgiveness and do think of leaving them and when they have return'd to them again they shake the head and chafe and curse at their own weaknesse and renew their purposes it may be and do this as oft as such a Season as this is or other like occasions suggest it to or move them And with this they satisfie themselves and hope if God do please to take them hence in some such muddy gloomy fit of their Repentance all 's well Now shall we call this being Crucified are there Racks and Tortures in this discipline hath a Spear prickt them to the heart and no blood nor no water no tears gush out thence hath it made no issue for some hearty Sorrow to purle out Indeed I must confesse the Scripture does sometimes word the performance of this duty in expressions that are not so sower but of an easier importance as first put off the Old Man as if all were but Garment put it off I say not as they stript our Saviour in order to his Scourgings and his Crosse but intimating to us what an easie thing it is to cast off Sin for them who do begin with it betimes before it get too close to the heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. saith Theophyl even as easie as putting off thy Cloaths and thy Repentance is but as thy Shift thy change of life like changing thy Apparel But alas for all the easienesse which this expression hints where the sins also lye in the Attire as besides emulation pride vainglory great uncharitablenesse and inhumanity cruel injustice and oppression often do when many are undone through want of those dues which do furnish other men with the excesses of this kind when the sins therefore lye in the attire and they may put them off without a Metaphor yet it is so hard that it cannot be done sometimes the worth of a whole Province hangs upon a slender thread about a neck a Patrimony thrust upon one joynt of one least finger and these warts of a Rock or a Shell-fish with the appendages eat out Estates and starve poor Creditors for whom indeed they should command these stones to be made bread but that 's Miracle too stubborn for their Vertue And then how will they proceed to the next expression of this duty Circumcise your selves to the Lord and take away the foreskin of your hearts Jer. 4. 4. These are harder and more bloody words they differ in the pain and anguish that they put us to as much as to uncloath and flea would do It appears indeed this punishment of fleaing often went before the Crosse. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Ctesiâ—s of one having his Skin pull'd off he was Crucified And the scourges in some measure did inflict this on our Saviour when they put off his Cloaths they stript his Skin also left him no covering but some rags of that which whipping had torn from his flesh Yet this expression sounds harsher when it bids us circumcise the foreskin of our hearts and tear it from thence flea that When long conversation with the pleasures of a sin hath not onely given them Regallias but hath made them necessary to us so as that we cannot be without them when Custome craves with greater feaver than our thirst when if we want it we have qualms faintings of Soul as if the life were in that blood of the grape when men can part as easily with their own bowells as the Luxuries that feed them if you take away their dishes then you take their souls which dwell in them when the sins of the Bed are as needful and refreshing as the sleeps of it when to bid a man not look not satisfie his lustful eye is every jot as cruel as that other If thine eye offend thee pluck it out For if he must no more find pleasure in his sight he hath no use of it yea if this be indeed a kindnesse not to leave him Eyes
Decrees dispence with Holy Laws so confirm'd meerly to gratifie those that are obstinate for ruine and against his whole Gospel quench Hell fires because men are resolv'd to run into them This Will does as it were even the Scales betwixt the Sin and the Damnation equal the pleasure to the punishment and fill the distance from a moment to Eternity But though this Will do clear Gods Justice yet it does not satisfie his Reason he seems astonisht at the choyce God himself cannot find a Ground for such a Resolution and therefore does enquire Why will ye dye Which is God's question and my second part Is it the present pleasure sin does tempt your sensuality withall whose agitations are so quick and strong that they surprize or break the forces of your Reason and your Principles put the Mind in disorder and then seize it with such violence as to lead it captive to the Law of Sin and Death 'T is true indeed thus both of them had their original so they prevail'd in Paradise for when the Woman saw the Tree was good for food and pleasant to the eye and a Tree to be desired to make one wise she took thereof and she did eat although she knew that God had said In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely dye Gen. 3. But there was generous pleasure here such as tempted the Soul assaulted it with the appearances of Wisdome and divine Knowledge Te shall be as Gods Gen. 3. 5. And sure 't is no great wonder if the proper pleasures of the mind ingage it therefore when God would give a Precept liable to a Temptation of being broke he laid it in the sphere of those things that delight the Soul of Knowledge but far be it that those of sensuality should ever have prevail'd Man may yield to the pleasure of being like God but for pleasure to make himself a Beast is contradiction to Nature For pleasure is but satisfaction of our appetites and the more natural the inclination is the higher and more powerful that nature and the desire eagerer so much the more delightful is the satisfaction Now it is certain that the reasonable faculty the Soul or Spirit is the highest and most proper nature of a man In all the rest he 's not a step remov'd from Beasts unlesse it be in shape but in the accurateness of his senses is below them far and therefore must be so in sensual satisfactions but in his Soul he borders upon Angels and does come towards God Now then that Soul being mans peculiar nature the highest part of him It follows its delights Spiritual reasonable Joyes must needs be the most natural and most proper for it most conform'd to it and therefore the most taking with it This may be cleared most irrefragably A Beast hath several ingredients of Nature in his making he is an heavy body and a Vegetable and he hath also sense which is his highest nature Now though the only inclination of heavy bodies be to fall down to the Earth and this be also natural to a Beast we do not find that 't is his greatest pleasure sure he had rather feed than tumble in the Pasture his chief delight lyes in the satisfaction of his chiefest faculties wherein he does excell his Senses and as Beasts differ and transcend in these so do their pleasures also differ and exceed A man also as Aristotle sayes does live a threefold Life At first he is but a Plant-man a growing span of living Creature and he 's born only into Animality a Life of Sense and at last Educated into reasonable Now the delights of his first Stages whilst onely Vegetation and Sense live although proportioned to those states yet have no savour to the mind he grows through Nuts and Rattles to the use of Reason and the pleasures of it also these must keep even with the growing faculties and become higher rational and manly Which if they do not but the man still dwell upon the satisfactions of sense he does confound the Stages contradict the progresses of Nature he hath the age and strength of Reason but to play the Child with to exert it in those things that are but a Man's Rattles hath the sagacity of an Intelligence meerly to find out how to be a brute with greater luxury and rellish Come therefore shew me now the sins which the delights of Reason do betray you to and I 'le admit the plea But if you live your own reverse that you may dye renounce all your own pleasures first that so you may renounce the joyes of God and Heaven and fall from Nature that you may fall into Hell this case hath no pretence those pleasures cannot toll man on to death which till the man be dead and the brute onely live within him cannot be his pleasures and it is plain they are not pleasures to a Sober man that lives the life of Reason not to say of Grace Nor are they such to any man till he have train'd and exercis'd himself into an habit of enduring them and by a discipline of Torment made himself experienc't for Vice and for Damnation Nor is there ever any pleasure in some vices what is there in the dismal Wishes of mans imprecating passion there cannot be musick in those harsh horrours and yet these sinners will destruction so as that they call to God to pour it on them and tear it down from Heaven so that Pain and Disease seem to sauce those delights and Death to be the tempter to the pleasure 't is evident mens reasons and their Practises must be first debauch't that they may count them Pleasures and therefore pleasure cannot be the first mover in the sinners race to Death But I will grant that the Spirit and Flesh of Man by their so strait alliance and perpetual converse may grow to have the same likes and dislikes have but one appetite and this alas be that of flesh to whose only satisfactions the man useth himself by long Custome of which the Soul doth so imbibe the Inclinations of the Body that nothing of another kind can possibly be relisht In this case sensuality hath pleasures yet such as cannot answer Gods inquiry for do but consult mans other Choyces and you find a present satisfaction cannot work his Resolutions to forgo great after-hopes or run upon a foreseen ruine Who will exchange his right to the Reversion of a Crown which from his Father he shall certainly inherit and succeed to if he do out live him for a present Scene of Royalty and choose a painted Coronet the pomps and adorations of a Stage and the applauses of a Groud before the reall Glories of his Kingdom the love and the obedience of his Subjects And yet my Soul the disproportion of the sinners terms is infinitely greater and there is no hazzard which to make his choyce of present things more flattering the others hopes are liable to For that Heir of the Crown
fire kindles his sacrifice with the flames of Hell for so S. James does call those heats He that gives God any of his performances and hath a naughty Heart like Nadab and Abihu he presents his offering in an unhallowed Censer and all his holy worship will get nothing else from Heaven for him but a consuming fire as theirs did He that will offer any thing to God must take a care it be not tainted with such mixtures which spoil all the Religion making it not sincere and also spoil the Heart by making it not clean and undefiled The last remaining sense A Clean and undefiled Heart Of those things which our Saviour sayes defile the man some are meerly sins of the Heart such as may be consummated within the Soul and for the perpetration of which a spirit is sufficient to it self such are Pride especially spiritual pride the sin of those that think none holy as themselves and cast the black doom of Reprobation upon all that do not comply with their opinions and interests such also are uncontentednesse with our estates inward repinings at the dispositions of Providence concerning us black malice bitter envyings Now in these as the mind does need no outward members to consummate them requires no accessary organs to work them out so neither does it require any outward accessary guilt to make them liable to condemnation we know 't was one sin of the spirit onely that made Angels Devils If a foul body be abominable to the Lord shall a foul spirit be less odious he that defiles his Soul offends God in a much neerer concern of his because that speaks neerer relation to him then the body this was only his workmanship made out of Earth the Spirit was created out of himself a foul body is but filthy Clay but he that does pollute his Soul does putrefie the Breath of God and stains a beam of the Divinity The other sort of things that are said to come from the Heart and to Defile are those which S. Paul calls works of the Flesh such as if they be committed must be committed outwardly Murders Drunkennesse Revellings Revenge Wrath and Contentions Seditions Factions Schismes all Uncleannesses c. In these indeed the Heart can be but partiall Actor the utmost it can do is to desire and to intend them and to contrive and manage the designs of compassing them which yet Providence or the Innocence of others may put out of the reach of mans power or his own temporal fears may make him not dare to set upon them though he do cherish the desires Now if they beobstructed from committing most men use to conclude gently of their guilts while they do keep within the Heart the Execution of them is the onely thing that does look mortal and till the sin be perfected there is no death in it And truly I confesse that as it happens many times on a sudden surprize of soul when a bright gilded temptation strikes the heart and dazles the mind we see that the Will rushes on it instantly consents and wishes heartily yet within a while the Spirit does recover out of the surprize puts by the thrusts of fancy and the stabs of the temptation and that Will languishes and dies like a velleity as if it had been nothing but a woulding and now the man would not by any means consent to the commission In this case though there be a guilt to be repented of and cleansed with many tears yet this is Innocence in the comparison but if the Will purpose contrive and do its utmost it is the same to the man as if he had committed T were easie to demonstrate this that whatsoever evill thing a man intends and does fixedly resolve he is guilty of though he do nothing or though the thing he chance to do be never so much lawful Those sayings of S. Paul I know and am perswaded by the Lord Jesus that there is no meat unclean of it self but to him that esteemeth any thing unclean to him it is unclean Rom. 14. 14. and he that doubteth is damned if he eat v. 23. These could have no truth in them unlesse the heart by choosing and pursuing to the utmost any thing that it does judge unlawful incurr'd the guilt of that unlawfulness even to Damnation and all that meerly by it self without the Action which in that case had nothing sinful in it A weight that is upheld by a mans hand and otherwise would rush down to the earth does surely gravitate as much it is as heavy though it do not fall quite down as if it did and were it let alone it would A settled tendency a resolv'd inclination to sin that presseth with its utmost agitation is that weight which though it may perchance be stopt in its career yet it tends to the Abysse its center and will not rest but in that Pit that hath nor rest nor bottome the Heart in this case is as liable as it can be because here it hath done its worst and such a will shall be imputed to it self And now I need not tell those who are still designing sin or mischief in the heart although it never dares come out of those recesses how far they are removed from the goodnesse of God to Israel A Father finds a way to prove such souls have larger doses of Gods Vengeance who when he had asserted that the soul does not dye with the body and then was askt what it did in that long interval for sure it is not reasonable that it should be affected with any anticipations of the future Judgment because the business of the day of Judgment should be reserved to its own day without all prelibation of the sentence and the restitution of the Flesh is to be waited for that so both soul and body may go hand in hand in their Recompences as they did in their demerits joynt partners in the Wages as they were in the Works To this he answers The Soul does not divide all its operations with the Body some things it acts alone and if there were no other cause it were most just the Soul should there receive without the Body the dues of that which here it did commit without the Body That 's for the former sort of sins those meerly of the Heart And for the latter sort the Soul is first engaged in the commission that does conceive the sin layes the design of compassing and does contrive and carry on the machination and then why should not that be first in Punishment which is the first in the Offence Go now and reckon that thy outward grosse transgressions are the only dangerous and guilty ones and slight thy sins of Heart but know that while thy flesh is sleeping in the quiet Grave at rest and ease thy Spirit then 's in Torments for thy Fleshes sins and feels a far severer Worm than that which gnaws thy Body Poor Soul Eternity of Hell from Resurrection to For-ever
by early engagements tyed themselves to the observation of its duties if principles of probity in Nature fomented by others instil'd with Education have made impressions of duty on the mind and wrought a reverence and awe of God and of Religion which is a fence about them and does keep off Vice by making it seem strange uncouth and difficult while these fears and aversations are rooted in them why then the first thing that they do as soon as Youth and the Temptations do stir within them is to poyson these their own Principles by evil Conversation and from that and Example take infusions which shall impregnate them with humours of being in the fashion of the World Thus they labour to strangle the then troublesome modesties of Nature and of Virtuous breeding thus they look out ill Company to infect themselves And surely they that seek the Plague and run into infection we have cause to fear they have a Resolution to dye But Secondly If notwithstanding this in the first practises of Vice their former Principles stir and ferment within and fret the Conscience set that on working why then if the sin sting gently do but prick the heart and make an out-let for a little gush of Sorrow then in spight of Scripture they do teach themselves to think that grief Repentance and by the help of that conceit this sorrow cools and doth allay the swelling of the mind washes away the guilt and thought of the commission they have been sad and they believe repented as if those stings opened the fountain for transgression and those little wounds did flow with Balsom for themselves And by this means that sting of the old Serpent fin while it pretends to cure by hurting thus proves indeed the Tempter to go on For if this be all why should a man renounce all the Contents and satisfactions of his Inclinations and mortifie and break his nature to avoid a thing which is so easily repented for No if it be no worse they can receive this Serpent in their bosome dare meet his sting and run upon these wounds and they do so till the frequent pungencies and cicatrices have made the Conscience callous and insensible the heart hardned But if their first essays of sin were made unfortunate by Notoreitie or some unhappy circumstance and so the wound were deep and the Conscience troublesome and restlesse because this is very uneasie these inward groans make discord in their cheerful aires make their life harsh they therefore find it necessary to confront the shame with Courage of iniquity go boldly on that so they may outlook it sear their own Conscience that its wounds may not bleed And as those Fiends of Men who Sacrific'd their Children in the fire to Moloch that they might not hear their Infants shreek nor their own Bowels croke had noyses made with Timbrels to out-voice them So these to drown the cryes and howlings of their wounded mind put themselves in perpetual hurry of divertisement and vice make Tophet about themselves and with the noyse of Ryots overcome all other because they will not hearken to those groans that call for the Physician of Souls and then sure these resolve to dye Nay if this will not keep them quiet you may see them sometimes ruffle with their own Consciences defie present Convictions in the very instant of Commission men so set on Death that they Condemn themselves in that which they allow And though a man would think there should be little satisfaction in those pleasures which Condemnation thrusts it self into and which have an alloy of so sad apprehensions yet such are it seems the satisfactions of sin For while it stabs and gashes He brave Hero of Iniquity can charge the wounds and take the Vice Yea Thirdly though the Lord himself appear and take part in the Quarrel joyn with our Principles and Conscience against the fin and with importunate calls alarm us give us no rest ordain a Function of men by whom he does beseech us dresses their Messages with Promises of that which God is blessed in and arms them too with Terrors such as Devils tremble at and joyns his Holy Spirit too that Power of the Highest sends him in Tongues of Fire that he also may Preach this to our very Hearts and fright us with more flame And yet the sinner breaks these strengths and vanquishes the Arts and strivings of Divine Compassion If these Embassadors speak Charms it is but what God tells our Prophet in this Chapter v. 32. And lo thou art unto them as a very lovely Song of one that hath a pleasant voyce and can play well on an Instrument And it does dye like that as it there follows They hear thy words but they do them not And if they flash in Hell against their vices in torrents of threatning Scripture they concern themselves no more than they would in the story of a new Eruption of Mount AEtna or Vesuvius Yea they do quench the Spirit and his fires do not like the deaf Adder stop their ears against his whisperings and the charms of Heaven that were a weaker and less valiant guilt but are Religious in hearing them curious that they may be spoke with all advantages to make it harder not to yield and live that so they may expresse more resolution to perish and with more courage and solemnity may sin and dye Nay more when God hath found an Art to draw themselves into a League and Combination against their vices bound them in Sacraments to Virtue made them enter a Covenant of Piety and seal it in the Blood of God and by that foederall Rite with hands lift up and seizing on Christ's Body and with holy Vows oblige themselves to the performances or to the Threats of Gospel which they see executed in that Sacrament before their eyes see there death is the wages of iniquity they shew themselves its damned consequences while they behold it tear Christ's Body spill his Blood and Crucifie the Son of God yet neither will this frightful spectacle nor their own ties hold them from sin and ruine they break these bonds asunder to get at them The Wiseman sayes that wicked men seek death and make a Covenant with it and so it seems But sure they are strange wilful men that seek it at Gods Table in the Bread of Life that will wade through an Ocean of mercy to get at Perdition and find it in the Blood of Christ will drink Damnation in the Cup of Blessing men that poyson Salvation to themselves They that contract thus for Destruction and tye it to them at the Altar with such sacred Rites and Articles are sure resolv'd and love to dye Fourthly God had provided other Guards to secure men from sin and Death the Censures of the Church of which this Time was the great Season and the discipline of abstinence we now use is a piteous relique all that the world will bear it seems But as the
but that he should truly be perswaded 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 whensoere 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 nayled and settel'd on the Crosse 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 afterwârds would faâ—â— 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 custome of the works of sin and all grosse 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 of-spring of its lusts and were that crucified and we by likenesse to Christ's death planted into the Crosse we could no more produce them than that dead Tree the Crosse could bear fruit or then a Carcasse could have heat to generate or the grave become a womb 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 grosse 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 onely 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 throws of grief to leave it yet we put it from us we admit it to no more embraces but if 't were the loathsome Carcasse of a Villain Traytor that was Executed we turn from the sight as from a siend 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 then he would go seek for his old conversations in the Chambers of Death he would shun the sight of any the most bosom custome 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 SERMON X. 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 choose to offer Sacrifice and on that very place where God himself enjoyn'd the Law and all the Blessings of it to be publisht to the People on Mount Gerizim which therefore seems to have pretences to vye with Mount Zion for there also the Lord commanded the Blessing An Altar too saith Benjamin in his Itinerary made of the same stones that God commanded to be taken out of Jordan and set up for a memorial of his Peoples passage through it And besides all this having the Law of Moses too when they had all these pretensions to the God of Israel they clave to him alone and wholly threw off their Idolatry So Epiphanius does affirm expresly And their countrey being as Josephus sayes the receptacle of all discontented fugitive Jews a great part of it too planted with them by Alexander they espoused the Worship of the Jews and came to differ very little either in the Doctrine or the practise of Religion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 having all things as it were the very same the only distance seems to be betwixt their Temples 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 just as the Woman states it to our Saviour 4. Joh. Our Fathers Worshipped in this Mountain but ye say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to Worship So that if we audit the account of the Samaritane guilt they separated from the place of Worship which God had appointed and set up another in a word they were Schismaticks Whether this be such a guilt as should make those terms equivalent He is a Samaritane and hath a Devil I shall not say but it is such as makes our Saviour say somewhat exclusively Salvation is of the Jews All the Blessings and Salvations of the Law did indeed hover on Mount Gerizim were given thence that was the place of them but they were cut away when Schisme came The Church is not a place of blessing when 't is built against the Church The Altar hath no Hornes to lay hold on for refuge but to push and gore onely when it is set up against the Altar and Gerizim is Ebal when it stands in competition with Mount Zion Well this onely thing does breed the greatest distances imaginable in the Nations nothing more divides than Separation and Schisme and then these Samaritanes as all Separatists do grew such
restor'd the prospect of the Garden of the Lord. Rather whereas there these Creatures onely met here they lye down and dwell together And the Aspe and Serpent that could poyson Paradise it self have now no venomous tooth to bite no not the heel nor spightful tongue to hiss But to speak out of figure the Gospel in it self requires not the Life of any for transgression against its self it calls all into it and waits their coming those that sin against it it useth methods to reform hath its Spiritual Penalties indeed whereby it would inflict amendment and Salvation on offendors But because final impenitence and unbelief are the onely breaches of the Covenant of this Religion therefore it does wait till life and possibilities of Repentance are run out and then its Punishments indeed come home with interest but not till then The Law 't is true was of another temper it required the life of an Apostate to Idolatry whether tweâ—e a single person or a City 13. Deut. To the Jew that was a Child as S. Paul sayes and so not to be kept in awe by threats of future abdication things beyond the prospect of his care but must have present punishments the Rod still in his eye and was a refractory Child that seem'd to have the Amorite and Hivite derived into him a tincture of Idolatry in his Constitution that was as ready to run back into the superstitions as the Land of AEgypt as eager for their Deities as their Onyons and had the same appetite to the Calf and to the fleshpots to make the one a God the other a Meale to such a People Death that was the onely probable restraint was put into the Law by God who was himself Supreme Magistrate in that Theocraty against whom 't was exact Rebellion and Treason to take another God and therefore was by him punisht with Death But the Spirit whom Christ sends breaths no such threats for he can come on no Designs but such as Christ can joyn in but saith Christ I came not to destroy mens lives Secondly The temper of the Gospel is discovered in its Precepts I shall name but one Mat. 5. 43 44. Ye have heard that it hath been said Thou shalt love thy Neighbour and hate thine Enemy But I say unto you love your Enemies c. Where if Enemy did not mean the man whom private quarrell had made such and Him it could not mean it being said to them that they must love that Enemy Exod. 23. 4 5. But as the Jews neighbour was every one of his Religion and he liv'd neer him that lived in the same Covenant with him so enemy being oppos'd to that must signifie one not of his Religion an Alien an Idolater with any of which they were indeed to have no exercise of love or friendship no commerce and to some Enemies the Canaanites no mercy but they were to hate them to destruction Deut. 7. If so then our Saviours addition here But I say unto you love your Enemies does say that we must love even these the Christian hath no Canaanites but the most profligated adversaries of his Religion he must love and pray for them although they persecute him Which makes appear it does at least include Enemies of Religion for Persecutions seldome were on any other ground and Religion which should have nothing else but Heaven in it as if it had the malice and the Flames of Hell breaths nothing else but Fire and Faggot to all those that differ in it But whether it be an addition and mean thus or no since it is sure that both they and we are bound to love the Neighbour and Christ hath prov'd Luc. 10. that the Samaritane he whom our two Disciples would consume that Schismatick and rejecter of Christ is yet a Neighbour therefore him also we must love and pray for Now 't is a strange way of affection to destroy them to love them thus to the death to get admission to their hearts with a Swords poynt to pray for them by calling for Fire down from Heaven to consume them S. Greg. Nazian calls the founder of that Faction that began this practise in the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and if so we know well of what Spirit he is that does call for fire to devour those that differ from him in Religion 't is sure one of this Legion or it rather is the leader of them that did dwell in Tombs and does in flames things which he loves so to inflict one that was the first Rebell too which leads me to my second observation That Secondly To attempt upon or against the Prince on the account of Christ or of Religion is most inconsistent with the Spirit of the Gospel For it was the Spirit of Elias who destroyed those whom the Magistrate did send that Christ opposes here the Spirit of the Gospel to in this severe rebuke ye know not what manner of Spirit ye are of The other warm Apostle meets a greater check in the like case S. Peter's zeal that they say made him chief of the Apostles as it made him promptest to confesse the Lord so it did heat him to be readiest to defend him as fiery to use his Sword as his Tongue for his Master But his Master will not let a Sword be drawn in his own cause put up again thy Sword into his place The God of our Religion will not be defended from Treason and from Murder by the wounding of another nor will his Religion suffer a Sword out of the sheath against the Power of the Magistrate no not in behalf of Christ himself but goes beyond its proper bounds to threaten things that are not Gospel punishments even excision in this life to them that do attempt it They that take the Sword shall perish with the Sword Here the Gospel becomes Law and turns zealot for the Magistrate though persecuting Christ himself Our Saviour does not think it sharp enough to tell S. Peter that he did not know what Spirit he was of for when this Disciple would have kept these sufferings from his Master onely by his counsel he replyes to him get thee behind me Satan He was then of that manner of Spirit therefore now that he does so much worse when he attempts to keep them from him with a Sword and drawn against the Power as if Christ did not know how to word what Spirit such attempts did favour of he does not check and rebuke now but threaten and denounce And 't is obvious to observe that this same Peter who would needs be fighting for his Master in few hours with most cursed imprecations forswears him And so irregular illegal violences for Religion usually flame out into direct opposition to that they are so zealous for fly in the face of that Religion they pretend to strive for to let us see they do not rise from Divine Zeal and from true Piety but from Hypocrisie Ambition
Revenge or Interest and that warm shine that kindles there pretended Angels of Light is but a flash of Hell a glory about a fiend Therefore afterwards none was more forward than S. Peter was to presse submission to the Magistrate though most unjustly persecuting for Religion talks of no Fire but the fiery trial then in Epist. 1. Cap. 4. and If ye suffer for the Name of Christ the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you he knows what manner of Spirit such are of When they are in the place of Dragons then the Holy Ghost and God is with them when the darknesse of the shadow of death is on their Souls even then the Spirit of glory resteth on them Accordingly the after-Fathers urge the same not onely towards Heathen Emperours but relapst Hereticks and Apostates As Julian and Constantius Valens Valentinian and upon the same account S. Ambrose sayes Spiritus Sanctus id locutus est in vobis Rogamus Auguste non Pugnamus The Holy Spirit spake these words in you we beg O Valentinian we oppose not And S. Greg. Nazianzen sayes to do so was the Christian Law most excellently ordained by the Spirit of God who knew best to temper his Law with the mixture of what is profitable to us and honest in it self They knew what manner of Spirit that of Christianity was It does assume no power to inflict it self 'T is not commission'd to plant it self with violence or destroy those that refuse or oppose it It wages War indeed with vices not with men And in the Camp of our Religion as once in Israel there is no Sword found but with Saul and Jonathan his Son only the Princes Sword Our Spirit is the Dove no Bird of prey that nor indeed of gall or passion If Christian Religion be to be writ in Blood 't is in that of its own confessors only if mens false Opinions make no parties nor mischiess in the State we are not to make them Martyrs to their false opinions and if they be not so happy as to be Orthodox send them down to Hell directly tear out one anothers Souls to tear out that which we think an error Sure they must not root out smutted Corn that must not root out Poppy we may let that which is a little blasted grow if we must let the Tares and Darnel grow The Souldiers would not crucifie Christ's Coat nor make a rent there where they could find no seame But now men strive so for the Coat that they do rent his Flesh to catch it and to gain an inclosure of the name of Christians tear all other members from the Body of Christ care not to sacrifice a Nation to a supposed Error will attempt to purge away what they call drosse in a Furnace of consuming flame The Christian Spirit 's fiery tongues must kindle no such heats but his effusions call'd Rivers came to quench such fires Effusions that were mistaken for new wine indeed but never lookt like Blood Nor are they that retain to this Spirit those that have him call'd down on them in their Consecration impowered for such uses When Christ sent his Disciples to convert the World Behold saith he I send you forth as Lambs among Wolves And sure that does not sound like giving a Commission to tear and worry those that would not come into the Flock The Sheep were not by that impowered to devour the Wolves Our Lords directions to his Apostles when a City would not receive their Doctrine was shake off the dust of your feet let nothing of theirs cleave to you have no more to do with them cast off the very dust that setled on your Sandals as you past their Streets And surely then we must be far from animating to give ruine to and seize the Sword the Scepter and the Thrones of Kings if they refuse to receive Christ or his Kingdom or his Reformation or his Vicar If I must not have the dust of any such upon my feet I must not have their Land in my possession their Crowns on my head their Wealth in my Coffers their Blood upon my hands nor their Souls upon my Sword It will be ill appearing so when we come to give an account how we have executed our Commission and shall be askt did I send you to inflict the Crosse or preach it to save mens Souls or to destroy their lives yea and Souls too And when in those Myriads of Souls that have perisht in the desolations which such occasions have wrought their Blood shall cry from under the Altar as being sacrific'd to that duty and Religion which was the utmost that they understood it so be that there were no Treason to discolour it and they that did inflict all this appear but Christian Dioclesians and stand at that sad day in the train of the Persecutions on the same hand O then those Fires which these Boutefeus called for and kindled shall blaze out into everlasting burnings And now it may seem strange that they who most of all pretend the Spirit of Christ are yet of the most distant temper in the world from that of Gospel alwayes endeavouring to do that which our Saviour here checks his Disciples for proposing and did threaten Peter for attempting There are among ourselves that seem to live by Inspiration that look and speak as in the frame of the Gospel as if every motion were impulse from Heaven and yet as if Christ had fulfilled his promise to them without metaphor baptized them with the Holy Ghost and fire only that they might kindle fire and the unction of the Spirit did but add oyl to those flames as if the cloven Tongues of fire in which the Spirit did descend were made to be the Emblems of Division and to call for fire these mens life their garb their very piety is faction they pray rebell and murder and all by the Spirit 'T is true indeed they plead now what we seem to say that they should not be persecuted for not being satisfied in their Conscience so they mince their breaking of the Laws for which they suffer But do these know themselves what manner of Spirit they are of or are we bound not to remember when they had the Power how they persecuted all that would not do at once against their King their Conscience and the Law And we do thus far know what Spirit they are of that if they have not yet repented of all that then it is plain if they can get an opportunity they will do it all again nay they must by their Spirit think themselves obliged to do it But these are not all those that above all the World pretend to the Infallible assistance of the Spirit our Church is bold in her offices of this day to say do turn Religion into Rebellion she said it more severely heretofore and the attempts of this day warrant the saying when not
like our Disciples that would call for fire from Heaven on the Village that rejected Christ these will raise up fire from Hell to consume their own Prince and his Progeny the whole line of Royalty the Church and Nation also in their representative and all this onely for refusing him that calls himself Christ's Vicar There are I must confesse among them that renounce the practice and say 't was the devise only of some few desperate male contents wicked Catholiques and design'd by the Devil And they will allow their Father Garnett to have had no other guilt but that he did not discover it having received it in Confession And this gives me occasion to propose a story to your patience and conjectures Not long before the time of this attempt a Priest of the Society of Jesus in a Book he publisht does propose this case of Conscience Whether a Priest may make use of what he hath learnt in Confession to aveâ—t great impendent mischiefs to the Government as for Example One confesses that himself or some other had laid Gun powder and other things under such an House and if they be not taken thence the House will be burnt the Prince must perish all that passe throughout the City will be either certainly destroy'd or in great peril and resolves it thus 'T is the most probable and safe opinion and the more suitable to Religion and to that reverence which is due to the Sacrament of Confession that it is not lawful to make use of this his knowledge to that end That his Holiness Clement the 8. had just before by a Bull sent to the Superiours of the Regulars commanded most studiously to beware they make not use of any thing which they come to know by Confession to the benefit of the secular Government He adds that in cases of Confession the Priest must not reveal though death be threatned to him but may say he knows it not nor ever heard it quia rever à non scit nec andivit ut homo seu pars reipub Tea he may swear all this if he but mentally reserve so as to tell you 'T is Del Rio in 6th Book of his Mag. dis 1. Cap. Sec. 2. It seems 't is safer to break all the obligations to Allegiance and to truth his duty and his oaths the Princes and Gods bonds than the Seal of Confession But I did not mention this to let you see the kindness these men have to Princes and their Government I shall avoid producing any the opinions of particular persons howsoever horrid in my arguments this day but I onely ask whether it be not very probable this instance was the thing to be attempted on this day Whether the resolution was not publisht the Pope's Bull if not made yet produc't at least to caution any Priest that should receive it in Confession and should be so honest as to abhor the Fact yet from betraying it and hindring the Execution of it If it were the case this was not then any rash attempt of some few desperate malecontents but a long contrivance and of many heads and its taking its effect was the great care of their Church Well they are even with us yet and lay as horrid Projects to the charge of Protestants Among our other Controversies this is one whether are the worse Subjects bloody sayings are produc't from Authours on both sides yea there is the Image of both Churches Babel and Jerusalem drawn by a Catholique Pen and then you may be sure all Babell's divisions and confusions make the draught of ours and are said to be the issue of the Protestant Doctrines Whereas such things though countenanc't by some particular Authours of their Church were never own'd by any publique Act or Doctrine of a general Councel to which they provoke us I must needs confesse our Calendar can shew a thirtieth of January as well as a fifth of November There are indeed that say the Romanists hatcht that dayes guilt and challenge any man to call them to account for saying so But whether so or not which Churches Doctrines such things are more suited to I will now put to tryal that we may know what Spirit each is of And I will try it by the publique Acts and most establisht Doctrines of the Churches and here undertake to shew the Church of England most expresly does declare against all practises against the Prince for the cause of Religion But the Romish in those acts wherein she hath most reason to expect infallibility of Spirit also in the publique Acts of the Church representative in General Counsels does abett the doing them not onely for Religion but for the cause of Holy Church First If the Church of Rome have reason to expect infallible assistance of the Spirit in any case it is as much in Canonizing of a Saint as in any other it being as unhappy to determine a false Object for Religious Worship to their Church as a false Article of Faith there is as much need that there should be an infallible proposal of the one as other for when she does Decree by the Authority of the Omnipotent God such a one is a Saint receiv'd in Glory and so renders him the object of their Worship if he should chance to be a Reprobate to cause the People to fall prostrate to the Shrine of one that 's damn'd and call his flames to warm Gods Altar and the Votaries breast to make the whole Church worship one that is in Hell is lyable to greater aggravations of impiety than an erroneous opinion in very many of their points of Faith can be But it is known their Church hath Canoniz'd one of this Nation Becket who though he was indeed illegally and barbarously Murthered yet 't is not the Suffering but the Cause that makes the Martyr now he did not fall a Sacrifice for his Religion but was slain because he did disturb the State by suspending all the Bishops that upheld the Kings just cause against him so that neither King nor State could live in peace for him for opposing also those Lawes which himself had sworn to Lawes that were not onely truly Soveraign Rights but are maintain'd even unto this day as Priviledges by the Gallican Church and they not branded for so doing In a word he was slain for those actions which his own Bishops condemned him for as a perjur'd man and a Traitour And for persisting in them to the death he was Sainted Now whatever the estate of this man be in the next World I meddle not with that Yet for disobedience and Rebellion to place one in Heaven whence for those things Lucifer did fall does seem to shew what Spirit they are of that Canonize such Saints For the Church to pray to Christ that by the wounds of this Saint he would remit their sins does expresse what rate their Church does set upon the merits of
will wash out another sin if he commit it and so on And it is evident that by this very train he does draw most men on through the whole course of sin and life For never do they till they see themselves at the last stage begin repenting When they are to grapple with Death's forces then they are to set upon resisting of the Devil And when they are grown so weak that their whole Soul must be imployed to muster all its spirits all their strength but to beat off one little spot of phlegm that does befiege the avenues of breath the ports of life and sally at it and assault it once again and a third many times and yet with all the fury of its might cannot break through nor beat off that little clot of spittle when it is thus yet then are they to wrestle with and Conquer Principalities and Powers all the Rulers of the utter darknesse pull down the strong holds of sin within cast down imaginations and every high thing that did exalt it self against the knowledge of God and bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ and with those seeble hands that they are scarcely able to lift up in a short wish or prayer they must doe all this resist the Devil and take Heaven by force Now sure to put it off to such a fatal season is a purpose of a desperate concern In God's Name let us set upon the doing it while there is something left of Principle and vigor in us ere we have so griev'd God's Spirit that he do resolve to leave us utterly and before the Devil have so broke us to his yoke that we become content and pleas'd to do his drudgery We deceive ourselves if we think to do it with more ease when Constitution is grown weaker as if then Temptations would not be so strong For the Habits will be then confirm'd Vice grown Heroical and we wholly in the power of Satan dead and senslesse under it not so much as stirring to get out But if we strive before he have us in his clutches we have an Enemy that can vanquish none but those who consent to and comply and confederate with him those that will be overcome So that if we resist he must be Conquer'd and Temptation must be conquer'd too for he will flie and then by consequence must cease to trouble and molest us This is the sure way to be rid of Temptations to put to flight the great Artificer and Prince of them subdue and overcome him and our selves And to him that overcometh thus Christ will grant to sit with him on his Throne as He also overcame and sate down with his Father on his Throne To which c. SERMON XIV WHITE-HALL Last Wednesday in LENT 1667 8. PHILIPP III. 18. For many walk of whom I have told you often and now tell you even weeping that they are the Enemies of the Cross of Christ. THough many by the Crosse of Christ here understand any sort of Suffering for the sake of Christ or Religion it being usual with the Scripture to entitle Christ to every evil that befalls a man for doing of his duty yet others looking on it properly as that on which Christ himself suffered by the Enemies of the Crosse understand those that set themselves against the whole design and influence of Christ's Death upon it Now to name that in few words the Crosse of Christ not onely is one of the greatest Props on which our Faith of the whole Gospel leans which it establisheth the truth of as Christs Blood shed upon it was the sanction of the Covenant on Gods part who by that federal Rite of shedding Blood engag'd himself and we may certainly assure our selves he cannot fail to make good whatsoever he hath promised in that Covenant who would give the blood of his own only Son who was so holy and who was himself to Seal that Covenant and his Blood is therefore called the Blood of the Everlasting Covenant But besides this extrinsick influence of it all the blessed Mercies also of the Gospel are the Purchase of this Cross and all the main essential duties of the Gospel are not only Doctrines of the Crosse such as it directs and does inforce but the Crosse also hath an immediate efficacy in the working of them in us For S. Paul saith by the Crosse of Christ the World is Crucified to me and I unto the World On it the Flesh is also crucified with the Affections and Lusts And to say all that comprehensive Duty of the Gospel Self denyal is but another word for taking up the Crosse And then as for the Mercies of the Gospel on the Crosse the satisfaction for our sins was made the Price of our Redemption paid and that effected There was wrought our Reconciliation with our God Lastly that was the consideration upon which Grace was bestowed whereby we are enabled to perform our duty With good reason therefore S. Paul calls the Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word or Doctrine of the Crosse so that the Enemies of the Crosse of Christ are in a word the Enemies of Christianity and so the blessed Polycarpe in his Epistle to these same Philippians seems to understand it And they that walk as Enemies to it are such as do not onely hate the Duties of the Gospel those especially which the Crosse directly does inforce but their course of life is order'd so as to break the very Frame and Power of Christianity they set themselves against all that Christ came to do upon and by the Cross resist and wage War with the Doctrines and by consequence oppose the mercies of it The words being thus explain'd I have no more to do but onely answer two Enquiries which they give occasion for The first is What sort of men those are that walk as Enemies to the Crosse and wherein their hostility does expresse it self The second is What the danger and the sadnesse is of that condition that they should make S. Paul think it necessary frequently to warn them of it and to do it now with so much passion For many walk saith he of whom I have told you often and now tell you even weeping c. First for the first And here I shall not strive to give you in a perfect list of all that walk as Enemies to the Crosse but shall take that which S. Paul hath made ready to my hands in the next words And first the Enemies which he brings up in the front are the Sensualists the Men whose God is their Belly Secondly they whose glory is in their shame Thirdly who mind Earthly things to which as being their consederates and neer allyes I shall add Fourthly those that he reckons up in the 1 Cor. 1. the wise men of this world First the Sensualists That Men who diligently mind the serving of their appetite in meats and drinks that study and
contrive its pleasures and with industry have learnt and practise arts of Luxury and in those have set up their delights that these should be accounted Enemies of the Crosse of Christ there is but too much reason For their course of life is perfect opposition to that Crosse and to the whole design of Christianity and to the very being of all vertue For since Vertue is but moderation and restraint of Appetites and Passions and since sensuality indulges and does raise and heat them since the whole design of Christianity is to mortifie the deeds of the Body those our members upon earth that Body of Sin and Death and since Voluptuousnesse quickens pampers and does make them vigorous lastly since the Doctrines and the Influences of the Crosse of Christ do aim at Crucifying the flesh with its Affections and Lusts and Luxuries do gorge and make them ramping sure the enmity is too apparent to be prov'd It is the businesse of Religion to instruct and frame men into reasonable Creatures God himself chose to dye upon the Crosse that we might live like Men here and then afterwards dye into Sons of God and become equal to the Angels He suffered on the Tree that we might be renewed into that constitution which the Tree of Knowledge did disorder and debauch Before Man ate of that his lower Soul was in perfect subordination to his mind and every motion of his appetite did attend the dictates of his reason and obey them with that resignation and ready willingness which our outward faculties do execute the Wills commands with then any thing however grateful to the senses was no otherwise desired than as it serv'd the regular and proper ends and uses of his making there was a rational harmony in all the tendencies of all his parts and that directed modulated by the rules and hand of God that made them In fine then Grace was Nature Vertue Constitution Now to reduce us to this state as near as possible is the businesse of Religion as it had been in some kind the attempt also of Philosophy But this it can in no degree effect but as it does again establish the subordination of the sensual to the reasonable part within us That is till by denying satisfactions to the Appetite which is now irregular and disorderly in its desires we have taught it how to want them and to be content without them and by that means have subdu'd its inclinations or by taking down the Body have abated of its powers and its provocations and where it is stubborn heady and rebellious there by cutting off provisions from the flesh and by sharp methods vanquisht and reduc't it into a condition of obedience and whenever that is also necessary weakens so that insolent untam'd part of our selves that we make it lye fainting groveling at our feet these are the Doctrines of the Cross and this the method of its Discipline And withal by those rational and divine heavenly encouragements which above all Doctrines in the world our Christianity suggests and furnisheth with infinite advantage have so fortified the mind that it resumes its principality governs and carries on the lower Soul in its obedience to Duty easily without resistance as they say the higher Heaven moves the inferiour Orbs along with it although their proper tendencies are contrary At leastwise if impressions from without or inbred inclinations stir raise passions and mutinies yet the mind keeps so much power that they shall not beat it off and force it from its prosecutions of good nor shall unlesse by a surprize engage its consent in the pursuit of evil This is that which Religion aims at thus to make us men teach us to live according to our nature to put Reason in the Throne and vindicate the spirit from the tyranny of its own vassal flesh But sensuality is most perfect opposition to this whole design for it renverses that subordination without which there is no possibility of vertue as I shew'd you and it puts that whether Lust or Passion in the Throne which either constitution conversation or whatever accident did give possession of our inclinations to And makes the strangest prodigy of Centaure where the Beast is uppermost and rides the man where the beast is God indeed for the sensual man acknowledges no other God but his own belly so S. Paul does character him here And truly if we look on the attendances and careful services he gives it and how studiously and wholly he does consecrate himself to please it one would think it most impossible he should have any other God but if we number the drink offerings and meat-offerings the whole Hecatombs he gives it and whereas other Deities had onely some peculiar appropriate Creatures for their Sacrifices how this votary rifles the Universe goes through the whole latitude of beings for oblations one would think he did out-number all the Heathen Legions in his Gods and yet all this is onely for his Belly Now he that deifies his Appetite and that is so attent and so sollicitous in its service he that sets up such an Antigod as this to Christ appears a scornful insolent Enemy to Him his Crosse and his Religion neer the state of those men whom the Wise-man couples with the sensual persons of an impudent mind the very disposition of those Enemies of the Crosse of Christ whom S. Paul brings up in the second place Those that glory in their shame Amongst the uses of the Crosse of Christ one chiefly meant was by the ignominy of that most accursed infamous punishment to represent the vilenesse of Iniquity to which shame and confusion were so due that there were to be Contumelies as well as Agonies in the Death that was to expiate it And it seems not sufficient that the Blood of God be shed for it but that Blood must be stain'd too with the imputation of a Malefactor Christ was to suffer the insulting scorns and vilifyings of his Crucifiers his Honour must be sacrific'd as well as his Life Barabbas must be preferr'd even before that Person of the Trinity to whom sin was to be imputed and who was to bear the just shame of it such infinite debasement and contempt being a most essential ingredient in the wages of Iniquity of which this Crosse of Christ was the expresse And then how is it possible for men to wage a more profest hostility against the Crosse of Christ than by endeavouring to put Reputation on the thing on which that Cross was set to throw Disgrace by raising Trophies to themselves for that which raised a Gibbet to their Saviour giving themselves a value for the thing which hath such infinite diminution in it that it made the Son of God esteemed worse than Barabbas These men are two successful Enemies of the Crosse that thus triumph over it and when it was erected as an Ensigne to display the vilenesse of iniquity and to shame sin out of the lives of mankind vindicate and
with which the World assaults us in our course of Duty Thus the Crosse of Christ first shews us the necessity we have to renounce and Crucifie the World But to encourage and enable us to do so it does also shew us Secondly the certainty of a good issue in the doing it assures us that those who deny themselves forbidden satisfactions here that will be vertuous maugre all the baits and threats of Earth will embrace duty when it is laden with a Cross although so heavy as to crush out life and kill the body assures us that those lose not but exchange their lives shall save their Souls and that there is another World wherein their losses shall be made up to them and repaired with all advantage To the truth of this the Crosse of Christ is a most pregnant and infallible testimony For as by multitudes of Miracles Christ sought to satisfie the world that he was sent from God to promise all this and justified his Power to perform it by experiment raising some up from the dead so when they said he did his Miracles by Beelzebub he justified it further with his Life affirming that he was the Son of God now 't is impossible but he must know whether he were or no and consequently sent and able to do all he promised and resolv'd to do it also for our more assurance in himself that he would raise himself up from the dead within three dayes and saying this when he was sure he should be Crucified for saying so and sure that if he did not do according to his words he must within three dayes appear a meer Impostor to the world and his Religion never be receiv'd Now 't is impossible for him that must needs know whether all this were true or no to give a greater testimony to it than his Life For this that Blood and Water that flowed from his wounded side upon the Crosse which did assure his Death is justly said to bear witnesse to his being the Son of God and consequently to the truth of all this equal to the testimony of the Spirit whether that which the Spirit gave when he came from Heaven down upon him in his Baptisme or the testimony which he gave by Miracle for there are three that bear witnesse upon Earth the Spirit the Water and the Blood Thus by his Death Christ did bring Life and Immortality to light his choosing to lay down his own life for asserting of the truth of all this was as great an argument to prove it as his raising others from the dead and Lazarusâ—â— empty Monument and walking grave-cloathes were not better evidence than this Crosse of Christ. 3. Once more this Crosse not onely proves the certainty of a future state but does demonstrate the advantage of it and assures us that it is infinitely much more eligible to have our portion in the life to come than in this life That to part with every thing that is desirable in this World rather than to fail of those joyes that are laid up in the other that to be poor here or to be a spoyl to renounce or to disperse my wealth that so I may lay up treasures for my self in Heaven and may be rich to God never to taste any one of these puddle transient delights rather than to be put from that right hand where there are pleasures for ever more to be thrown down from every height on Earth if so I may ascend those everlasting Hills and mount Sion that is above that this is beyond all proportion the wisest course it does demonstrate since it shews us him who is the Son of God who did create all these advantages of Earth and prepare those in Heaven and does therefore know them both Who also is the Wisdom of the Father and does therefore know to value them yet for the joyes that were set before him choosing to endure the Crosse and despising the shame On that Beam he weigh'd them and by that his choice declar'd the Pomps of this World far too light that exceeding and eternal weight of Glory that the whole Earth was but as the dust upon the Ballance and despis'd it and to make us do so is both the Design and direct influence of the Cross of Christ. But as at first the Wise men of this World did count the Preaching of the Crosse meer folly to give up themselves to the belief and the obedience of a man that was most infamously Crucifyed and for the sake of such an one to renounce all the satisfactions suffer all the dire things of this Life and in lieu of all this onely expect some after Blessednesses and Salvations from a man that they thought could not save himself seemed to them most ridiculous So truly it does still appear so to the carnal reasonings of that sort of men who have the same objections to the Crosse of Christ as it would crucify the World to them and them to it as it would strip them of all present rich contents and give them certain evils with some promises of after good things which they have no tast for nor assurance of Now this being in their account folly then the contrary to this they must think wisdom as it is indeed the Wisdom of this World which Wisdom since it does design no further than this World and hath no higher ends than Earth and its Felicities it must needs put men upon minding the acquist and the enjoyment of these Earthly things for that is onely to pursue and to atchieve their ends to catch at and lay hold on their felicity and accordingly we see it does immerse them wholly in those cares So that it is no wonder if their God and Religion can get no attendance from them it being most impossible they should when Mammon hath engaged them in the superstitious services of Idolatry and when they sacrifice their whole selves to pleasure and make their bodies the burnt offerings of their Lusts and when Ambition even while it makes them stretch and climb and mount causes them also to fall low prostrate make their temper nature stoop lye down to every humour and to every vice they think themselves concern'd to court and please And though a man would think these so great boundlesse cares are very vain and foolish upon several accounts for common sense as well as Scripture does assure 〈◊〉 that this life and the Contents of it do not consist in the abundance of the things that we possess that it is all one whether my draught come out of a small Bottle or an Hogshead 〈◊〉 the one of these indeed may serve excesse and sicknesse better but the other serves my appetite as well the one may drown my Vertue but the other quenches thirst alike And every dayes experience also does convince us that the least crosse accident pain or affliction on our persons or some other that is seated neer our hearts or the least
severe a shape and gives the lineaments of so fierce displeasures against sin as do exceed all comprehension There was a passion in Christs Prayer to prevent his passion when he deprecated it with strong cryes and tears yea when his whole body wept tears as of blood to deprecate it and yet he cryed more dreadfully when he did suffer it The nayles that bor'd his hands the spear that pierc't his heart and made out-letts for his blood and Spirits did not wound him as that sting of death and torments sin did which made out-lets for God to forsake him and which drove away the Lord that was himself out of him Neither did his God forsake him onely but his most Almighty attributes were engag'd against him Gods Holinesse and Justice were resolv'd to make Christ an example of the sad demerit of Iniquity and his hatred of it Demerit so great as was valuable with the everlasting punishment of the World fal'n Angels and fal'n Men for to that did it make them lyable Now that God might appear to hate it at the rate of its deservings it was very necessary that it should be punisht if not by the execution of that sentence on Mankind as on the Devils yet by something that might be proportionable to it so to let us see the measures God abhors it by to what degrees the Lord is just and holy by those torments torments answerable to those attributes Now truly when we do reflect on this we cannot wonder if the Sinner be an enemy to the Crosse and hate the prospect of it which does give him such a perfect copy of his expectations when our Saviours draught which he so trembled at shall be the everlasting portion of his Cup For if God did so plague the imputation of Iniquity how will he torment the willful and impenitent commission of it But then when we consider those torments were the satisfaction for the sins of man methinks the sinner should be otherwise affected to them Christ by bearing the Cross gave God such satisfaction as did move him in consideration thereof to dispence with that strict Law which having broken we were forfeit to eternal death and to publish an act of grace whereby he does admit all to pardon of sins past and to a right to everlasting Life that will believe on him for sake their sins and live true Christians He there appears the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the World for that he does as being a Lamb slain then he was our Sacrifice and that Crosse the Altar And the humbled sinner that repents for notwithstanding satisfaction God will not acept a Sinner that goes on by all those Agonies his holynesse would not be justifyed if when he had forsaken and tormented his own Son for taking sin upon him he should yet receive into his favour and his Heaven sinners that will not let go but will retain their sins but the penitent may plead this expiation Lo here I poor Soul prostrate at the footstool of the Crosse lay hold upon the Altar here 's my Sacrifice on which my sins are to be charg'd and not on me although so foul I am I cannot pour out tears sufficient to cleanse me yet behold Lord and see if there ever were any Sorrow like the sorrow of thy Son wherewith thou didst afflict him for these sins of mine And here is Blood also his Blood to wash me in and that Blood is within the Vaile too now and that my offering taken from the Crosse up to thy Throne thou hast accepted it and canst not refuse it now my Advocate does plead it and claims for me the advantage of the Crosse. Now that men should be Enemies to this and when they are forseit to eternal Ruine hate that which is to redeem the forfeiture that they should trample on the Crosse whereon their satisfactions were wrought tread down the Altar which they have but to lay hold on and be safe wage war with beat off and pursue a Lamb that Lamb of God that comes to take away their sins and make a spoyl and slaughter of their Sacrifice hostilely spill upon the ground that Blood that was appoynted for their Blood upon the Altar for their blood of sprinkling and was to appear in Heaven for them It men resolve to be on terms of Duell with their God and scorn that Satisfaction shall be made for them by any other way than by defiance and although their God do make the satisfactions for them to himself yet not endure it but choose quarrel rather this is so perverse and fatal an hostility as no tears are sufficient to bewail But possibly men sleight these satisfactions because some terms are put upon them which they know not how to comport with the merits of the Crosse must not be accounted to them but upon conditions which they are not able to perform they are required to master all their wicked Customes their untam'd appetites and settled habits to keep under their Concupiscence to calm their inclinations and their passions Now on such severe articles friendship with the Crosse they think is too hard bought But therefore Secondly that Crosse was the consideration upon which Grace is offer'd us whereby we are enabled to perform all this the power to will and strength to do all necessary aids from Heaven are granted to us as Christ merited them for us by his Sufferings and that Blood he shed upon the Crosse it is the Fountain 't is the Ocean of all grace And if temptations storm thee lay hold on that Crosse it is the Anchor of Salvation thou hast hold on tell thy God although thou art not able to resist and stand thou hast the price of strength that which did purchase it was paid down for thee on the Crosse and is at his right hand he hath it give me therefore grace for it let me have the value of that Blood the Blood of God in spiritual succours which may make me able to resist thy Enemies and do thy will Now God will never be unjust to deny any man those aids that were so dearly purchast for him and for which he hath receiv'd the price And then that men should be Enemies of the Crosse which is their Magazine of strength against their Enemies As men that do resist the having grace least it should change their inclinations as men that will not be impowered against Vice but will oppose the Aids of Heaven fight against the succours that are given them and destroy their own forces least with them they should be able to encounter sin and overcome it Thus wilfully to run against and charge their Anchor of Salvation to poyson to themselves the Fountain the whole Ocean of their graces is the state of them onely that do resolve and that had rather perish Once more on that Crosse was wrought a reconciliation betwixt God and Man and that upon such terms of honour to us Men
only asserted boldly but prov'd nothing As if argument and reason never had place in the Jewish or the Christian Religion only those who were the institutors of each Religion did deliver it others had no more to do but to believe it that is to receive it as a little Child Whether these reproaches and the oath of these known enemies may go for proofs that it was so I shall not now enquire But it is certain on the other side S. Paul requires of his new Christian Corinthians that they be not children in understanding that they be in malice Children but in understanding Men. Now a man and a child differ not in this that the one hath an understanding reasonable soul and the other hath not but in that the one cannot use his understanding or his reason and the other where he acts as man does So that our Religion in requiring that we be in understanding men does require of us that we use our reason in it And since assenting to a thing as truth is an act of the highest faculty of the soul of man as it is properly and truly reasonable namely as it understands and judges it is not possible a man should really believe a thing unlesse he fatisfie himself that he hath reason for so doing Yea whether that be true or not which many men so eagerly contend for that the will though free is bound and cannot choose but will that which appears best at that time it wills yet it is sure that he who with his understanding which is not free in her apprehensions and judgments but must necessarily embrace that which hath most evidence of truth He I say who really assents to any proposition does satisfie himself that he hath better and more cogent reasons for that then the contrary And therefore it is impossible that any man can verily believe a thing which he is throughly convinc't is contrary to clear and evident right reason for he cannot have a better reason for the thing that is so And were it possible for any man to believe so there could be neither grounds nor rules for such a ones belief for there is nothing in the world so false and so absur'd although he were assur'd it were so but he might assent to it for whatever demonstrations could be offer'd why he should not yet it seems he might believe against acknowledg'd evident truth and reason but this were onely wish or fancy and imagination not belief And to prevent such childish weak credulity was the great work and care of Christ so far is he from requiring we should be as Children in this kind For when he was ascended up to heaven he gave some Apostles some Evangelists some Pastors and Teachers he shed down the Holy Spirit and his gifts that we might not be as Children tossed to and fro and carried about with every winde of Doctrine Eph. 4. 14. First For want of rationall grounds instable in our Faith as Children are in body and in judgement also taking all appearances for truths If men were only to believe there must needs be as great variety of Religions as of teachers And though God hath appointed that some Church should be as perfectly infallible as that of Rome pretends to be yet since there are so many Churches and the true one therefore could be known no otherwise then by some marks there must be disquisition before Faith and men must reason and examine ere they can believe upon good grounds for were they to receive Religion as a little Child be nurst up with the Doctrine as with milk a Child we know may suck infection from the poyson'd breast of an unwholesome mother or some other person for it knows not to distinguish And so may be nurst to death A soul like theirs that is but rasa tabula white paper is as fitted to receive the mark of the beast as the inscription of the living God just as the first hand shall impresse Therefore we are bid not to believe every Spirit not every Teacher though he come with gifts pretend and seem to be inspir'd but try them and our Saviour forewarn'd the Jews of false Christs that should come with signes and wonders Something therefore must be known first and secur'd before the understanding can be thus oblig'd to give up its assent And Captivate every thought into obedience as S. Paul directs Now what that was here to the hearers in the Text is easily collected namely that he was the Christ that does require it And S. Paul expresses it in the forecited place where he says we must bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ to wit of that Christ who as he does himself professe that if he had not done among them the works which no other had done they had not had sin John 15. 24. If his demonstrations had not convinc't them it had been no fault not to believe So when he had made appear he was that person whom their prophesies had poynted out the Messiah the Son of the living God and this not only his Disciples had acknowledg'd but the multitudes yea when his miracles had made one of the Pharisees confesse Rabbi we know thou art a Teacher come from God for no man can do these miracles except God be with him Then if the Pharisees dispute against his Doctrine of Divorce urge the authority of Moses and Gods Law and the Disciples presse the inconveniences that will happen If the case of a man be such with his wife he may answer them He that will not receive my Doctrines without dispute that is to say He that will not receive the Kingdom of God as a little Child shall not enter therein This King that cometh in the name of the Lord may well determine how we shall receive the Kingdom of God If he propose strange precepts to our practise It appears that he is sent from God and Gods commands are not to be disputed but obey'd if his revelations present dark unintelligible Mysteries to our faith his promises offer seeming impossibilities to our hope why yet he hath made proof he comes from God and surely we are not so insolent as to doubt that God can discover things above our understanding and do things above the comprehension of our reason Therefore since we are as Children to all these it is but just we should receive them even as little Children With a perfect resignation of our understandings and of our whole souls Here 't is most true what S. Austin says Those are not Christians who deny that Christ is to be believ'd unlesse there be some other certain reason of the thing besides his saying Si Christo etiam credendum negant nisi indubitata ratio reddita fuerit Christiani non sunt For to them that are convinc't of that 't is such a reason that he is the Christ. There is indeed no other name now under heaven to whom we are oblig'd to give