them and when neglecting their Duty punished them in an extraordinary manner as he tells them in the Prophet Amos Chap. III. Ver. 2. You only have I known of all the Families of the Earth therefore you beyond others will I punish for all your Iniquities And if God requireth a greater return of Obedience in proportion to a clearer manifestation of himself and more signal Obligations we must conclude our selves far more nearly concerned than were the Jews as in the Divine Favours so in the obligation of Obedience according to the Apostles Argument Hebr. X. He that despised Moses Law died without mercy Of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden under foot the Son of God and hath counted the blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing and hath done despite unto the spirit of grace Such is our Relation to God considered as a King But then the Apostlc implyeth yet somewhat further by calling him a King eternal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where I will not insist on their interpretation who suppose by the Term 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be meant all other immaterial Beings of what Dignity soever that so the opinion of some HeathenPhilosophers and many Ancient Hereticks may be excluded who introduced many immaterial Beings co-ordinate to God and not subject to him This Interpretation even although it should be true is too nice for a Discourse of this nature The more natural and useful Importance of this word is that as God hath been our King ever since the first Creation of the World so he will continue his Government for ever and exercise it not only till the dissolution of this present Fabrick of the World but as long as any immaterial Beings shall exist that is through all Ages A consideration which cannot but powerfully incline us to adore the Majesty of God and strike us with a Reverent awe of him while we remember that even Death cannot rescue us from the influence of his Government and execution of his Wrath if we shall have deserved it Earthly Princes can maintain their Power no longer than their Lives and reach not the Soul of Man whereas God is our King not only in this Life but to all Eternity not only while the Soul is joyned to the Body here but after Death whiles it continueth in a separate State and after the Resurrection also when it shall be again re-joyned to the Body How then ought we to revere how to Adore that God to whose Government we shall be subject to all eternity from whose Dominion not even Death can rescue us and in whose Hands are both Soul and Body Further while we reflect on the continuation of the Divine Government over us to all Ages we cannot but remember and prepare for a Judgment to come If he be then also our King he will certainly exert his Power in a severe trial of our Lives and Actions and in dispensing Rewards and Punishments when the Nature of things the Constitution of the World and his own most wise Decrees shall permit an impartial Judgment to be exercised that is after Death It was the comfort antiently of brave spirits among the Heathens by whom self-Murder was generally though erroneously believed in many cases to be Lawful that they could easily free themselves from the threats and oppression of a Tyrant by a voluntary Death and is the comfort of us Christians that we can baffle and overthrow all the designs of the most outragious Violence at least by a generous Death but who can rescue a Sinner from the anger of God or how shall we escape his Judgment if he be our Governour after Death also to all Ages the King Eternal The next Attribute ascribed to God in my Text is Immortality which however it may seem coincident with the former Attribute is very different from it That denotes the Eternity of his Government this either the Eternity or the Immutability of his Nature For the word used in the Original implyeth both and both mightily conduce to raise in us an extraordinary dread and veneration of God Eternity confidered in the Divine Nature is the most Transcendent and Essential of all the perfections belonging to it and indeed the Fountain of them For whatsoever is Eternal that is independent of any other Cause includeth a necessity of Existence in its own Nature and therefore may in some sense be said to give a Being to it self But whatsoever can give a Being to it self can add all other perfections so that no Being can be Eternal which is not infinitely and supremely perfect From hence all other Beings derived their perfections which being variously and obscurely divided among the several parts of the Creation are all united and concentre in the Creator It is impossible for our finite Souls to comprehend the fulness of this infinite Perfection we can only entertain a faint resemblance of it and comparing it to the several excellencies of Created Beings imagin it yet somewhat greater than them all We admire the brightness of the Sun and cannot without astonishment view the Beauty of the World We revere the Power of Princes and have sometimes been amazed at the Wisdom and Knowledge of Men. The Nature of Angels is far more Glorious and their perfections more refined These are the most excellent Patterns of the Divine Attributes but alas imperfect Patterns which hold no correspondence with the Original Yet if we cannot but admire these how Glorious and far exceeding all imagination must the Fountain of them be of which these are no other than minute Streams or obscure Rays To so glorious so infinitely perfect a Being what Adoration is not due what Sacrifice less than of our selves and all the faculties of Soul and Body can be proportionate On the other side if we reflect that this so infinite and perfect a Being hath admitted us to a near participation of himself in this Life and promised to us a much nearer in the next that he hath entailed unconceivable Rewards on the faithfulObservers of his Commands and threatned the most rigorous punishments to the Violaters of them and then that all this will be most certainly performed that his Nature and Decrecs are immutable that in him there is no variableness neither shadow of change we have all imaginable reason to apply our selves diligently to perform the conditions annexed to these Rewards as being assured of the success if we faint not because he who is faithful hath promised The next Attribute of God is Invisibility which is a necessary consequence of the precedent Perfections it being impossible that any thing visible or material should be infinitely Perfect or Eternal For the things which are seen are Temporal but the things which are not seen are Eternal 2 Cor. IV. 18. This formerly distinguished the true Worshipers of God from Heathens and Idolaters who framed to themselves visible Gods and is not without use even
are above so fit our selves for the Reception of his Representative Body in the Holy Sacrament that we be not unworthy after Death to be received unto the Society of his Natural and now glorious Body in Heaven Where he sitteth on the right hand of God To him with the Father and the Holy Spirit be ascribed all Honour Power and Glory henceforth and for evermore The Fourteenth SERMON PREACH'D May 4th 1689. At LAMBETH CHAPEL Joh. XIV 1. Let not your heart be troubled ye believe in God believe also in me OUR Lord and Saviour being now ready to leave the World and return to his Father endeavoured by many Preparatory Discourses to confirm the Minds and dispel the Anxiety of his Disciples who began to despond at the News of his approaching Departure This to them not yet fully understanding the design of Christ's Coming seemed a total Dereliction of them and abandoning them to the World They had forsaken all the present Conveniences of Life when they entred into the number of his Disciples and had all along shared in the Miseries and Hardships that their Master was content to endure on Earth in hopes of partaking at last in the Glories of that temporal Kingdom which they fondly imagined he would found on Earth With these Hopes they supported themselves under all their Calamities and busied themselves in proposing imaginary Methods of enjoying what they so long and so earnestly expected We find them disputing who should be the greatest Officer or the principal Favourite in this Kingdom who should sit on his right hand and on his left And now that after their Lord had entred into Jerusalem in a triumphal manner their Hopes were enhanced and Expectations grew higher as believing the Completion of them to be at hand and that this glorious Kingdom of the Messias would immediately commence When on a sudden all their Hopes were dashed and their imaginary Happiness overthrown by a free and open Declaration of their Lord concerning his Sufferings and ignominous Death which now drew near and were immediately to be accomplished In what Confusion and Anxiety must we then conceive them to have been when not only their Hopes and therein in their own Opinion the Fruits and Reward of so many Labours so much Hardship undertaken and endured in prospect of their Preferment in a temporal Kingdom to be founded by their Master were in an instant overthrown and cancelled When not only themselves were to be dispersed as sheep having no Shepheard exposed to the Derision Insults and Persecution of the Jews who as our Lord foretold should even force them to deny their Master and thereby renounce all Title to any share in the Glories of his Kingdom When they were to be left alone without any Head to direct comfort and protect them When not only all these Calamities were to come upon themselves but also their dearest Lord and Master was to be delivered up to the Rage of wicked Men to be treated with the utmost Indignities and at last Crucified as a Malefactor What Distraction must they then have suffered when so many contrary Passions Love of their Master and fear of their own Misery Deprivation of past hopes and Despair of future Happiness wrought together in their Minds They retained still indeed some faint Hopes of the Resurrection of their Lord after three days Imprisonment in the Grave who should then enter upon his Kingdom and satisfie all their Expectations but alas even these remaining Hopes are dissipated by our Saviour's acquainting them in this Chapter that immediately after his Resurrection he was to leave the World and go unto the Father In this disconsolate Condition of the Church our Lord seeks to chear up the Spirits and remove the Despair of his Followers by representing to them the necessity of his Suffering That thus it was written and that thus it behoved Christ to suffer by giving them the Promise of the Holy Ghost who should both Comfort Instruct and Guide them by assuring them this Comforter could not be sent untill himself first returned to the Father and by his Intercession should obtain the Mission of him that although his Bodily Presence should be taken from them yet that it was for their good and that he would ever continue to be present with them by the influences of his Government and Blessed Spirit by interceding for them continually with the Father by promoting their Requests in the Court of Heaven by pouring down his Gifts and Graces on them and watching over them with a constant Eye of Providence but above all in preparing Mansions for them in Heaven to receive them after Death and the Final Completion of their Labours upon Earth Upon all these Accounts he bids them not be troubled in their Hearts for his Departure and the temporal Calamities which they fancied would ensue upon it and for an Argument of Consolation says to them Ye believe in God believe also in me As if he should say You cannoâ—… deny that it is both your Duty and Safety also to trust in God considered only as the Creator and Governour of the World to resign up your Wills to his difposal and upon firm assurance that he both knoweth and willeth what is best for you rest contented in all the various Conditions of Life If you consider him as the Author of your Religion in which ye have been brought up ye have yet much greater reason to rely upon his Care and Providence in all doubtful Cases and Distresses as having often experienced his peculiar Kindness to your Church and Nation in many and wonderful Instances which were therefore at first recorded that ye might from thence conceive assured hope of the Divine Goodness and Providence interposing in your behalf in all Calamities as it is in the LXXVIII Psalm He gave Israel a law which he commanded our forefathers to teach their children To the intent that when they came up they might shew their children the same That they might put their trust in God and not to forget the works of God If for these Reasons you are content to trust in God and depend on him for relief in your Afflictions for much greater Reasons ye ought to confide and relye upon my Promises of Assistance to you and constant Care of you even after I shall be removed from you inasmuch as ye have received from me more manifest Assurances of the peculiar Favour of God to you than ever were indulged to any part of Mankind to the Patriarchs or the Jews My Ability to do all this you cannot doubt As knowing who I am and what place I bear in Heaven or if ye should not believe this merely for the Consideration of the Divinity of my Person yet believe me for the very works sake Ver. 11. being convinced by so many Miracles as I have wrought for your Satisfaction that I am able to perform whatsoever I Promise to you And then for my willingness to do it you have
thereby clear his Memory from the unjust Aspersions of some who have been pleas'd to represent him as one who had not a sincere Affection for it In one place he has these words If to defend the Fatherless Orphans and Widows be so acceptable to God how noblc an Act must it be accounted to vindicate a whole Nation from Injuâ—…tice and Oppression to defend and maintain the Cause of the Church of God In aâ—…ther place these It is undeniable that the Profession of the true Religion is maintain'd in this Nation under the happy Government of Their Majesties as well as it was of old among the Jews in the Reign of Hezekiah In another place he speaks thus which are most remarkable But that other part of the Promise for my Servant David 's sake never had any People greater reason to apply to themselves than we of this Nation at this time have God hath Blessed us with Princes of eminent Vertue and Piety who not content to employ their Authority in the support and defence of Religion endeavour to retrieve the Power of it in the Lives of their Subjects by the Lustre of their own Example who have delivered this National Church from the Oppression of her professed Enemies and the apparent Dauger of sudden Ruin and have thereby become to us what Constantine was to the whole Catholick Church in the early Ages of Christianity and what Queen Elizabeth of Blessed Memory was to this particular Church in the last Age. God hath Blessed us with a King who to complete the Deliverance which he wrought for us and to settle us in Peace and Tranquility hath spared no Pains and continually hazarded his own Royal Person and is at this day acting with unwearied Vigour and Courage against the Common Enemy of our Nation and the Oppressor of the Christian World for the Vindication of Justice the relief of afflicted Innocence the Security of this Church and Nation But among his Manuscripts there is one especially which ought by no means to be past by in silence as giving such an instance of his wonderful diligence as cannot easily be parallell'd which is his Account of the Manuscripts in Lambeth Library Wherein besides giving a most exact Catalogue of them he has under every Book transcrib'd all those Treatises contain'd in them which are not yet published And what are he has compar'd with that exactness as to take notice of the words that are otherwise spell'd in the Original than in the Print That Catalogue purchased by the present Archbishop together with many other of his Manuscripts may when occasion shall serve see the Light Among the Printed Books towards a new and more Correct Edition of which whenever it shall be thought convenient he hath considerably contributed are these following Histoâ—…ia Matth. Parker Archiepiscopi Cantuar. De Antiquitate Britannicae Ecclesiae c. enlarg'd with Notes Collections and Additions partly made by the most Reverend Author himself and partly by others and several by Mr. Wharton himself together with the Life of the said Archbishop as also that of St. Austin of Cant. written by George Acworth Franciscus Godwinus de Praesulibus Angliae with some Notes Florentius Wigorniensis and Matthaeus Westmonasteriensis both enlarged with many Notes Corrections and Additions He had likewise made Notes on several of his own Books already published by him which 't is like were design'd for Additions to those Books when ever they should receive a New Impression For these his Performances for the Cause of Religion and Learning as he was admirably fitted by the Excellency of his Natural Endowments a quick Apprehension solid Judgment and most Faithful Memory so were these rais'd to a great Perfection by his Industry An Industry never sufficiently to be commended though in this alas to be lamented that it too much hastened his Death and our Loss Nor were his Moral Accomplishments inferior to his Natural and acquired Perfections He was Modest Sober and Pious in all things sbewing himself to be acted by a truly Christian and Religious Spirit Of which those two Instances to name no more may not unfitly be given The one That he never undertook any Matter of moment without first imploring the Divine Assistance and Blessing thereupon The other That in all those Journeys which his Learned Designs engag'd him in he was ever wont so to order his Affairs as not once to omit being present at the Monthly Sacrament where ever he came And then of his Zeal for Religion and the Honour of God those excellent Discourses which he has published in defence of the best and purest part of the Christian Church now extant upon the face of the Earth in Opposition to the Corruptions of Popery those Scandals to Christian Religion so highly dishonourable to God and so injurious to the Blessed Author of it and an offence to all that truly love and fear him will always be a constant and standing Evidence It has not been thought convenient to add any instances of his Charity though many might be given because agreeable to his own Desire which always was to be as private therein as possibly he could This one only may its presum'd not improperly be mention'd viz. That by his Will whereof he appointed his Father the Reverend Mr. Edmund Wharton the Reverend and Learned Dr. Thorp one of the worthy Prebendaries of Canterbury and his dear Friend Mr. Charles Battely the Executors he has order'd the greatest part of that Small Estate which he left to be dispos'd of to a religious use in the Parish of Worstead in Norfolk where he was born As to his Person He was of a middle Stature of a brown Complexion and of a grave and comely Countenance His Constitution was vigorous and healthful In Confidence of the Strengh of which he was too little regardful of himself and too intent upon his Studies Insomuch that he did often deny himself the Refreshments of Nature because of them And sometimes in the coldest weather would sit so long at them and without a Fire as to have his hands and feet so Chill'd as not to be able to feel the use of them in a considerable time His too eager Prosecution of thâ—…se together with a weakness contracted in his Stomach by the too violent Operation of an unhappy Medicine which he had taken so farr broke the Excellency of his Constitution that no Art nor Skill of the most experienced Physicians could repair it The Summer before he died he went to the Bath in hopes to have retriev'd his decaying Nature by the help of those excellent Medicinal Waters Some benefit he found by them but at his return from thence to Canterbury falling again to his Studies immoderately and beyond what his Strength could bear he quite undid all that they had done So that after a long and lingring decay of Nature he was brought at length to the utmost extremity of weakness under which languishing for some time at last in the
Happiness to enjoy that advantage in a most eminent manner to have the Scriptures translated most exactly into our own Language to read them securely and hear them weekly explained to us Let us manifest that we are not insensible of so great a Benefit by a right use of it least we fall into the Condemnation of those who abuse the Divine Mercy and that Candlestick of which we are not worthy be removed from us It remains that we briefly apply what hath been said And first If our Religion be so excellent and rational attended with such Evidence and Conviction it is our Duty to maintain a firm and constant Profession of it at all times or in the words of my Text To be ready always to give an account of it not to dissemble it for fear or interest much less betray it by a denial of it The great ends of Religion are to secure the Honour of God and advance the Happiness of Mankind By such shameful Cowardize both these ends are defeated the Honour of God is wounded and the hopes of Happiness intirely destroyed Hereby Men renounce all dependence upon God disown him to be their Lord and Master and bid defiance to him Nor may we flatter our selves that this execrable Crime of Apostacy consists only in denying all Christianity and wholly renouncing our Saviour to yield up the least truth which we are convinced to be Divine to assent to the least Errour which we believe to be false to forsake a Communion which we know to be pure and lawful to embrace one which we are perswaded is corrupt and erroneous is no less truly the sin of Apostacy and will undoubtedly meet with the same Punishment The Nature of the sin is the same in both Cases that we willfully recede from the Truth and affront the Divine Majesty by preferring a Lye to his revealed Will. The maintenance of Truth and directing our Conduct by the Dictates of it is the Dignity of Man and perfection of his Soul To betray the most inconsiderable Truth to any temporal Considerations is a plain Confession that we have inverted the order of Nature and subjected our more noble part the Soul to the Lusts and Passions of the Body an Indignity unworthy a rational Being which prostitutes the Honour of his Nature Ranks him among brute Beasts and from being the head of all visible Creatures degrades him into the condition of a Slave to dust and ashes But when Eternity and an Interest infinitely greater than any which can be promoted on Earth by such Apostacy lays at stake when immortality and everlasting Happiness are destroyed by it nay when the utmost Displeasure of an Almighty God and the direful effects of it eternal Torments are the consequences of it to preferr a few trifling Pleasures of this World disclaim all hopes of Happiness in another Life and incurr the Divine Vengeance is a height of Folly which all the Affairs and Examples of this Life cannot equal an Impiety which neither the Art of Men or Devils can exceed When the Interest of Truth is concerned the Honour of God engaged to lay down our Lives in Testimony of the one and Vindication of the other to forego all the Conveniences of this Life to despise all worldly Considerations and with a generous Contempt overlook all the Sollicitations and Threats of men this the Dignity of our Nature requires of us this our Duty to God obliges us to this the Expectation of a future state leads us to For surely we are no longer deserve the Name or Character of men than while we continue rational We deny all Relation to God when we sacrifice his Commands to our Interests and disclaim all Title to a future state when we yield up the Conditions of it for the sake of a present advantage Yet how many Examples of such Apostacy hath the Church deplored in all Ages And I wish our Age afforded none of those who have betrayed the Profession of their Faith I will not say to the fear of Death for so great a Terrour all Spirits cannot overcome And we of this Nation thanks be to God do not suffer but to the fear of Poverty or perhaps to the hopes of continuing or advancing their Preferment in the world A most amazing wickedness that Men should Sell their God at so low a price and exchange their Religion for such mean Considerations Resign to me the hopes of Heaven and I will give you a possession in the Earth give me up your Soul and I will enrich your Body deny your Creator and I will give you Honour among your Fellow-Creatures A Proposal which even a Heathen Philosopher would entertain with Scorn and every sober Christian with a pious Horrour These are the Flatteries of the world and with these the Prince of the world attempted our Saviour All these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me But our Saviour immediately rejected such base Proposals with a generous Disdain and with a get thee behind me Satan manifested with how great Indignation he had received them thereby giving us an Example how we ought to behave our selves upon such occasions and not to admit even the thoughts of such a Crime For surely in the cause of God even to deliberate with our selves whether we shall betray it or no is a degree of Apostacy in that Case deliberasse est descivisse and the thought of foolishness is sin To put the question to our own Souls is to trifle with the Divine Majesty to dishonour our Religion and degrade our Nature But to decide it in Favour of our Lufts and the petty Temptations of the world is to fill up the measure of our iniquity and in the most reproachful Sense turn the grace of God into wantonness I speak of those who are convinced of the truth of any Religion or Communion at the same time that they forsake it As sor those who may pretend Reasons of Conscience and Conviction of Judgment for their departure from our Church let them seriously consider whether this be not indeed a Pretence and whether they can really answer it to God and their own Consciences Let them examine themselves whether they were not byassed in their Judgments and powerfully prejudiced in Favour of that Communion to which they have revolted by the Temptation of secular interest and advantage in this Case let them know that God will not be mocked and that to force our Understandings is no less Criminal than to force our Consciences God hath proposed sufficient direction to us in the Holy Scripture and will by no means pardon us if we willfully shut our eyes against the Truth We need not go any farther than the words of my Text for this direction The Apostle commands all Christians to be ready to give an answer of the reason of the faith that is in them If then any Society of men discourageth and overthrows the use of reason in private Christians
the natural course of Nature to be observed Thus far the Divine Decree is unquestionable and secure from all objections But then the revealed History of the Creation of Man and the Divine Dispensations in relation to him include some apparent shew of injustice which may induce inconsidering Persons to accuse God of overmuch Rigour and even Tyranny in condemning the whole Race of Mankind to the Sentence of Death for the single fault of the First Man and extending the punishment of that to all his posterity which was yet unborn and therefore wholly innocent of it A proceeding and manner of Judicature which would appear harsh and even cruel among Men especially as it hath been erroneously represented by many Writers and Divines who endeavouring to amplifie the unlimited Power of God and meanness of Man would perswade us that herein God had no respect to the merits or demerits of Men that he created the far greater part of Mankind for no other end than to make them miserable and to shew forth in their punishments the effects of his Almighty Power and that in punishing the fall of Adam he subjected his whole posterity not only to Temporal but Eternal Death This would indeed effectually declare the power of God but such a Power as would be Odious and Intolerable Unjust and Tyrannical far unbecoming the purity of a most perfect Being It becomes us to entertain more noble conceptions of God and not fancy him to be the Author of such arbitrary Punishments as are inconsistent with his Holiness and Justice To vindicate therefore these Divine attributes in taking occasion from the fall of Adam to form an Universal Decree of Death to all his Posterity it will not be unseasonable to reflect a little upon it before I pass any further To clear this matter therefore we may observe that the Nature of Man as compounded of Soul and Body is Mortal and subject to Dissolution as all compounded Bodies are It is our Soul alone which being immaterial and void of all Composition can promise to it self an immortal State and that no longer than while it pleaseth God that the ordinary course of Nature shall be observed Death then was the natural effect and consequence of our Constitution even in the State of Innocence from which Man could not be rescued but by a Miraculous and extraordinary assistance of God constantly preserving the Union of Soul and Body removing Diseases repairing the defects of Nature and renewing the vigour of it This extraordinary assistance therefore and means of preservation was a superadded favour of God which he might conferr upon Man upon whatsoever condition himself pleased Subjection Adoration and Gratitude was owing to God the Author and Preserver of our Being even without the Obligation of this supernatural Benefit The Dictates of Reason and Natural Religion were wholly independent of it and although performed exactly and without any intervenient sin could not justly claim any other reward from God than the continuation of Existence as long as the ordinary course of Nature should permit it The gift of Immortality was extraordinary and as such might be annexed to whatsoever conditions or persons God should please to do it God therefore made a Covenant with Adam and promised to him That if besides the observation of the Law of Nature to which he was obliged from the consideration of his ordinary State and condition he would more particularly manifest his Obedience and Subjection to him by abstaining from the seemingly pleasant Fruit of a Tree in the Garden called the Tree of knowledge of good and evil he would in recompence entail upon himself and his posterity performing the same condition a perpetual fruition of the same State of Life which he then enjoyed and continue his Existence beyond the ordinary course of Nature even for ever which because it could not be effected without some extraordinary remedies and assistance God Created for that purpose the Tree of Life by the powerful vertue of whose Fruit the decaying Nature of Man might from time to time be restored and preserved without corruption Whereas if he should neglect to perform this small condition and be tempted to violate the Divine prohibition of Tasting the Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil he should forfeit this superadded promise of Immortality not only to himself but to all his posterity descending from him not to be immediately destroyed or put to Death but to be deprived of that extraordinary assistance and so left to the ordinary course of Nature When Adam therefore really broke the condition and violated the Command of God God might justly withdraw as he in effect did the supernatural benefit of Immortality and thenceforward deny it to Mankind The Mystery of the Fall of Adam being thus explained nothing can be more unexceptionable or more agreeable to the strictest Rules of Justice and Reason Hereby no Man is punished for the fault of another For the loss or rather not obtaining a Favour to which we have naturally no right or claim can in nowise be called a punishment Hereby the Justice of God is cleared beyond all contradiction seeing that no wrong or injury is done unto any His Goodness is made evident in entailing so wonderful a Reward as Immortality upon the observation of so easie a condition and enforcing the observation of it by an Argument drawn from the happiness or unhappiness of all Mankind ensuing to it which in all reason might be supposed to make Adam infinitely more careful and concerned in it Lastly the Wisdom of God is most manifest herein whereby this Mystery becomes not only just but rational For by this fatal example Mankind cannot but be made sensible how subject they are to Temptations and how prone to Sin That therefore if what they naturally desire an extraordinary reward of their Obedience be expected the hopes of which must be founded in a revealed Covenant it can be obtained no otherwise than in vertue of a Covenant wherein frequent remission of Sin and Disobedience may be bestowed upon Repentance and Reformation and Mercy allowed to Sinners until they should appear absolutely incorrigible That therefore neither plenary rewards nor punishments could be dispensed in this Life and if either were desired they must necessarily be deferred till after Death A Truth which Mankind would very hardly have been convinced of had not the Example and Fall of Adam taught it to us So naturally are Men led to imagine their Supreme Happiness to consist in the perpetual fruition of those worldly pleasures and enjoyments which they now so much value and to suspect the truth of those promises the performance of which they cannot receive till after Death Whereas now neither the Wisdom of God nor the Reason of things can permit it to be otherwise which I will endeavour to shew in discoursing upon the Second Head proposed namely in manifesting II. The Justice and Wisdom of the Divine Decree of deferring the
this prejudice that Men forming Rules from like Cases of this World fondly imagine that Men have escaped all possibility of punishment when they have put off the Body as the Tyrant said of his Adversary who had killed himself that he had escaped his Hands In that case Men see not the punishment inflicted on them and then those who are wont to consult the report of sense alone will not believe it little considering that it is impossible the Soul of Man should perish that after the dissolution of the Body it is no less capable of Reward or Punishment since by that alone it is that Man even in this Life is sensible of either that after Death it ceaseth not to be the Creature of God subject to his Dominion and responsible for all its Actions done in this Life which was the time of Probation allowed to it All this is illustrated by the Parable following in this Chapter which our Lord purposely delivered in confirmation of what he had spoken in the Text. There God is represented in the Person of the Possessor of a Vineyard wherein was an unfruitful Vine the ordinary apprehensions of Men are represented in the Dresser of that Vineyard who perceiving the unfruitfulness of the Vine presently crieth out that it ought to be cut down that it cumbreth the Ground that it should be rooted up and cast out of the Vineyard The Owner of the Vineyard on the contrary commandeth it should be let alone for some while longer that it may fully appear if perhaps it will ever bear Fruit during which he willeth the Dresser of his Vineyard to dig about it and dung it to promote the fertility of it by all means possible and if after all it continueth unfruitful then giveth sentence that it shall be cut down During the time of this Life God executeth not his final sentence upon Men he doth not immediately deliver them up to the Tormenter upon the first Act of disobedience for then alas who could be saved But with an admirable patience awaits their Repentance till the end of Life when there is no more place of Repentance left and in the mean time promotes it by the solicitations of his Spirit by the admonitions of his Pastors by all imaginable methods which may incline the Will of Man without putting any force upon it If then in this Life we find not the just recompence of our evil Actions it is not because they have escaped the knowledge of God or pass unregarded by him it is not because they deserve not the Divine Vengeance or that we continue in his Favour but because he will not alter the method of his most prudent Government of the World nor violate the ordinary Rules of it by which he hath determined this World to be the Stage of Action for Mankind and the next to be the Seat of Judgment Yet may not this forbearance of God encourage Men to deferr their Repentance till the end of their Life That St. Paul tells us Rom. 2. Is to despise the riches of the goodness forbearance and long-suffering of God and thereby to treasure up wrath against the day of wrath Our Lord throughout all his Gospel warns Men concerning the suddenness and unexpected time of his coming to Judgment in prevention of this fatal errour What his second coming was to the Jews and what his last coming in Judgment will be to all Mankind that Death is to us which if it finds us unprepared all the miseries which Christ denounced should befall them will fall on us Nor if Life were assured to us could we at all times form such a true Repentance as would qualifie us for the Mercy of God which consists not in a transient sorrow for past Sins but in a total change of all the vicious habits and inclinations of the Will Nor lastly is there any pardon promised to presumptuous sins deliberately committed in prospect of the pardon offered to all truly penitent sinners But of the Nature Necessity and Benefits of Repentance I shall speak more largely in the further prosecution of these words in my next Discourse The Eleventh SERMON PREACH'D March 23d 16889 90. At LAMBETH CHAPEL Luk. XIII 5. Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish IN my last Discourse I described to you the Reason and the Excellency of the Institution of this Holy Season To improve which I proposed to treat of Repentance from these words and therein observed the occasion of them which was a pernicious mistake of the Jews that the Divine Justice not punishing the Sins of men in this Life did thereby warrant them and that the Defect of such a visible Execution was an Argument of the little necessity of Repentance In opposition to which I shew you that however the Jewish Revelation might give some Countenance to such an Opinion yet that they had therein mistaken their Law That under Christianity there is yet much less Pretence to entertain such a perswasion which is contrary to the Constitution of humane Nature to the Wisdom of God and to the present Order of the world settled by him the Author of it Lastly That however God doth ordinarily bear with the Sins of men in this Life and deferr the Punishment of them to another world yet that this giveth no reasonable Encouragement to men to put off their Repentance till the end of their Lives After having removed these obstacles of Repentance I proceed to enforce the Duty and direct you in the use of it The Motive to Repentance is taken from the plain words of the Text being the certainty of Destruction without Repentance pronounced by our Lord Except ye repent ye shall perish And the Usefulness of it is insinuated in the same words that by Repentance if true sincere and rightly applied Destruction may be avoided These two then shall be the Heads of my present Discourse And first I will improve the Argument of Repentance drawn from the inevitable consequence of Destruction attending the want of it and endeavour to convince you of the certainty of that Consequence The Evidence of the Argument when once a full Conviction is formed of the truth of it is manifest being taken from that which most affects Mankind their own Interest It were indeed more noble to pay our just Obedience to God rather from a Sense of Duty than that of Interest rather out of Gratitude to God for the many Benefits received from him and a Conviction of the entire Subjection due to that Almighty Being than from the fear of Punishment or the hope of Reward But such is the weakness of humane Nature so corrupted is his Will and so much darkened his Understanding that this Argument hath been ever found insufficient God therefore of his infinite Mercy hath been pleased to employ that more sensible Argument of Profit and Interest by propofing Rewards to his obedient Servants and denouncing Punishments to obstinate Sinners An Argument which cannot fail if Man
to shew you that no objection to the Justice and Impartiality of God can be deduced from his conduct in relation to them Which not only tendeth to vindicate his Honour and to create in us a just esteem of his infinite Perfections not only restrains us from passing uncharitable censures upon our fellow Servants or conceiving amiss of those immutable Rules which God hath fixed to the exercise of his Mercy and Judgment but also teaches us that Salvation depends not so much upon any external Relation or Denomination as upon the eternal Obligations of Righteousness and Holiness This was the Second Head proposed to be Treated of namely the Conditions of the Divine Favour expressed in the latter part of the Text. But in every Nation he that feareth him and worketh Righteousness is accepted with him The favour of God is not now as it seemed to be under the Jewish dispensation annexed to a Family or a Nation to external Badges and ritual Observations but to the more noble and universal obligations of Fear and Righteousness offered and dispensed unto all Men upon the same Conditions Conditions from which none can plead exemption even although no Revelation had enforced them They had then been Duties even without a Reward but are now conditions of a Reward which manifesteth the infinite Mercy and Goodness of God which is also enhanced by the universality of it for that in eve y Nation he that worketh Righteousness is accepted by him For after all the Title to a Reward must be grounded upon the Divine acceptance not on any merit of the Work But the time will not permit me to Discourse farther of these things I will only exhort you to make a just use of what you have already Learned That God is no respecter of Persons This cannot but be a mighty encouragement to you to use your utmost diligence to attain that Reward which God hath rendered equally possible to you with those who are now the greatest Saints in Heaven that whatever your condition or circumstances may be here below God respecteth not that in distribution of his Favour but only what is in your own power On the other side if you neglect these possible these easie conditions offearing God and working Righteousness flatter not your selves with the thoughts of being exempted by any peculiar Favour from undergoing that universal Sentence of Condemnation which is indifferently pronounced against all Sinners Which is also the conclusion drawn by St. Peter from this very consideration 1 Pet. I. 17. And if ye call on the Father who without respect of Persons judgeth according to every Mans work pass the time of your Sojourning here in fear The Thirteenth SERMON PREACH'D Easter-Day 1689. At LAMBETH CHAPEL Coloss. III. 1. If ye then be risen with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God THE Resurrection of our Blessed Saviour from the Dead hath by the Church in all Ages been deservedly celebrated with a greater Solemnity than any other Festival whatsoever as being instituted in remembrance of the most signal Act of our Lord here on Earth and the final Completion of our Redemption by it Other Actions indeed prepared the Minds of his Followers to expect Salvation from him but this alone gave them infallible assurance of the performance of it Till then they retained Doubts and Scruples were meanly instructed in the Nature of his Office and Design of his Coming were confounded at his Ignominious Crucifixion and began to suspect that they had been mistaken in the Person of the Messias All their glorious hopes of a temporal Kingdom to be founded by their Lord and Master were laid aside and in a little time they began to doubt whether it were he that should have redeemed Israel The Church then was not only dispersed but destroyed and none left who would own their Belief in a Crucified Saviour The Apostles were fled The Women prepared Spices for his Body now lying in the Grave as not expecting it should rise again and the Jews triumphed over his afflicted Disciples as having defeated their hopes and overthrown their Pretences At this time in this State of things our Lord rose from the Dead and by his Resurrection demonstrated the Divinity of his Person dispelled the Anxiety of his Disciples and confounded his Enemies By this he retrieved the lost Faith of his Followers and put it beyond all possibility of being subject to any more Fluctuations Hereby he not only gave the last and most infallible Confirmation to the truth of his Doctrine by a Miracle unheard of in former Ages but also established in Mankind the glad assurance of a future Resurrection He had before indeed promised it but now gave an earnest of it in his own Person and manifested it to be possible by the actual effecting of it No wonder then that as the Church did at first receive our Lord from the Dead with unspeakable Joy and Triumph so it always continued to renew the remembrance of that Triumph by extraordinary Solemnities that the Apostles urged the Miracle of his Resurrection as the highest Argument of Conviction to Jews and Gentiles and admonished their Disciples to comfort one another with the Remembrance of it And not only so but also drew continual Arguments of Instruction and Motives of Holiness from it and made all the Mysteries and Sacraments of the Christian Religion to be in some measure subservient to it An Action of so great importance was not barely to strike the Senses and to satisfie the doubtful or convince the incredulous but to affect the Soul and become a Foundation of Practice as well as Belief to all Christians Our Lord raised not his natural Body from the Grave to leave us his Mystical Body groveling on the Ground he resumed not his bodily Life to leave us in a spiritual Death but taught us thereby to raise our Thoughts and Affections from the Earth to free our selves from the Power of Darkness and enter into the Regions of Light For we are risen with Christ if we be true Christians as the Apostle assureth us in my Text and if so the natural consequence will be That we seek those things which are above and act agreeably to the new state of Life into which we are entred If then ye be risen with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God The words therefore will oblige me to treatFirst of our Resurrection with Christ and Secondly of the Conclusion drawn from thence by the Apostle that we ought therefore to seek those things which are above That we shall hereafter rise and bewith Christ is the most firm Belief of all Christians but that we are already risen may not perhaps be so easily conceived especially by those who experience not in themselves any Effects of this Blessed Resurrection We are therefore said to rise with Christ even in this Life either by similitude or by
hope by mortifying and changing our former vicious Course of Life into a new and Heavenly Life or by conceiving firm hopes and assurance of the Divine Promises concerning our own Resurrection by the Example of our Lords Resurrection The former manner indeed is purely Allegorical but an Allegory as well most natural in its self as most familiar to the Apostle who treats of it often and largely and inculcates it in almost all his Epistles As in the Chapter preceding my Text he tells the Colossians Col. II. 12 20. Ye are buried with him in Baptism wherein also ye are risen with him and ye are dead with Christ from the Rudiments of the world Galat. II. 20. I am Crucified with Christ. Philip. III. 10. That I may know him and the power of his Resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his Death 2 Cor. IV. 10. Alwayâ—… bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body But more especially in the III. and IVth Chapters of 1 Pet. and Rom. VI. this Conformity between our Lord and us in dying and rising again is at large explained We were baptized into his death therefore we are buried with him by Baptism into death that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the Glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of life c. These Allegorical Conclusions were not the mere products of Fancy but the designs of the Divine Wisdom which so admirably contrived the Christian Religion that all the Actions of our Saviours Life tend no less to our Instruction than his Precepts and could not but have exceeding influence upon the Minds of Christians whose thoughts were then and ought now to be chiefly employed about our Saviours Resurrection They were excellently fitted to the Genius of the World at that time when both Heathen Philosophers and Jewish Doctors employed themselves almost wholly in Allegorical Explications of Natural or Divine Truths and were more particularly adapted to the Religion of the Jews and the Writings of the Old Testament concerning the Messias consisting in Types shadows and symbolical Representations of things to come And lastly least we should conceive any unreasonable prejudice against these Allegorical inferences besides that they are recommended by the Authority of the Divine Pen-man the present Allegory drawn from our Saviours Resurrection doth most excellently describe to us the Nature and Duties of our spiritual Regeneration as it will appear if we consider it more fully The design of the Christian Religion was to recover Mankind from his lost Condition free him from the Subjection of the Devil reform his Life and fit him for the Reception of those infinite Benefits which God had designed for him in another Life To this end a total Desertion of that corrupted state of Life wherein he was before engaged was absolutely necessary As well in the Nature of the thing it being wholly impossible that a vicious Soul should receive that Reward as by the Appointment of God who had determined not to grant the Reward on any other Condition And therefore our Saviour had assured his Followers That unless a man be born again he cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven It was required that every one should relinquish all those temporal Enjoyments and Satisfactions which were contrary either to right Reason or the express Command of God and because the greatest part of Mankind placed the whole Satisfaction of their Life in these unlawful Enjoyments whoever renounced the use of them might well be said to die unto the world And this was it which all Christians were obliged to Promise at their Baptism solemnly to renounce the World the Flesh and the Devil and give themselves wholly to a new Life instituted by God which was excellently represented in the antient Form of Baptism to which the Apostle in all the places before mentioned referrs wherein the Person baptized was wholly immerged in the water so that the Immersion represented his Resolution of dying to the World and imitation of our Lord who was by Death taken from the World and then his Emersion presently following signified his entrance into a new state of Life and the Resurrection of our Saviour reviving and appearing after Death It is not sufficient therefore to mortifie one single Lust or to give up this or that sinful Affection in exchange for eternal Rewards and retain the rest This is not to die in imitation of our Saviour whose Soul was fully separated from his Body and continued in a separate state till the Resurrection He satisfied not himself to have endured Scourgings Reproaches and Buffettings he descended not from the Cross after he had endured most bitter Torments till he had completed his Sufferings by Death and laid down his Life as a Sacrifice to God which it could not be till it were destroyed It being the necessary Condition of all Sacrifices to be annihilated If then we be really baptized into his Death if we resolve to offer up our selves a Sacrifice to God we must yield up all our Pretences to the Pleasures of this World and enjoy no more of them than God permitteth to us we must absolutely free our selves from the Slavery of Sin and Satan and devote our selves intirely to the Divine Pleasure To die unto the World supposeth a full Conviction that the true Interest of a Christian is not placed on Earth and that his great Concern here is only to improve his short term of Life to the Acquisition of a more excellent and more durable Happiness hereafter From this perswasion it will easily follow that different Interests from this are not to be pursued in this Life which ought to be no other than a Preparation for a better And herein a Christian truly imitates the Death of his Lord and Saviour who best of all manifested that his Kingdom was not of this world by laying down his Life willingly that his Designs were far from founding an Empire and procuring to himself worldly Advantages when he submitted to undergo the Pains of Death Thereby teaching us that we are not truly Crucified with him until we as absolutely forsake all Desires and Inclinaons to our former sinful Life as if we were deprived of Life it self that we retain not the least Claim or Title to our former vicious Satisfactions but by a total relinquishing of them even put it out of our Power to recal and re-establish them In the next place if we view the dreadful Horrour and Anxiety under which our Saviour laboured while he bore the Sins of Mankind upon the Cross if we reflect on the Melancholy state of the Church his ignominious Condition and the Triumphs of the infernal Powers while he was detained in the Grave we may perceive the desperate and deplorable State of Man while yet detained in Sin labouring under the just Displeasure of an angry God
and what more natural than for the Members to follow their Head He is the Captain of their Salvation and what more consistent than for Soldiers to follow their Captain He is their forerunner and what more usual than for Travellers to follow their Leader a Forerunner who is for us entred Hebr. VI. 20. that is to take Possession in our Names and for our behalf agreeably to what himself had promised to his faithful Disciples that he departed from them into Heaven only to prepare Mansions for them and that where he was there they should be also How blessed and desireable then shall the state of the Faithful be after the Resurrection when they shall be made Companions with the Son of God and even share with him in his present Happiness A Happiness which however inconceivable in this Life is excellently deseribed by the Apostle in the latter words of my Text where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God He sitteth to denote the Permanence and Eternity of his Happiness and at the right hand of God to shew the Power Majesty and Glory wherewith he is invested Such were the glorious consequences of our Saviour's Resurrection and such will be the blessed Effects of our's also if we diligently observe the Apostle's Precept which he inferrs from our rising with Christ That we seek those things which are above If ye then be risen with Châ—…ist seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God Our Lord after his Resurrection settled not his abode upon Earth he stayed no longer than to instruct his Disciples in the necessary Duties of their Mission and convince them that he was really risen Even while he remained upon Earth he was farr more reserved than before his Resurrection abstained from a publick and ordinary Conversation and resumed not the common Offices of mortal Life such as eating and drinking but only to convince his Followers of the reality of his Resurrection Not but that he might if he had pleased continued all these Actions untill his Ascension with the same Innocency and Freedom from sin which was inseparable from his whole Life but he chose rather to teach us thereby that after our new Birth and spiritual Resurrection we are not to imploy our Care and Affections in the things of this World but living here as if we lived not carry our thoughts much higher even whither he is gone before us and fix them upon the Interests of Eternity Not but that we may and even ought to take a prudent Care for the Concerns of this world while we are engaged in it but that we ought not to rest here or make this our ultimate end but make it the great business of our Lives to secure those more noble Ends which are proposed to us the Fruition of God and Society of Christ in Heaven This all will acknowledge to be our farr greatest Concern and then surely our utmost Care ought to be employed in the Acquisition of it What we earnestly Love we cannot but diligently seek it being most true That where our treasure is there will our hearts be also Desire is the Spring of all Actions in us and whatsoever we perform even the most trifling Action ariseth from the desire of some end to be obtained by it so that we cannot be said so much as to desire the Joys of Heaven if we diligently seek not to obtain them by all those means which are possible to us and proposed by God If we retain an unlawful Love of the Pleasures of this Life it is manifest we preferr the Satisfaction proceeding from them before the Concerns of the next and however we be said abstractedly to desire these yet certainly in that Case we desire them not in Comparison of the other nay we even quit our desire of them which we may truly be said to reject when we espouse an Interest which we know to be utterly inconsistent with it But farr be this from any Christian to admire and celebrate the Glories of his Lord's Resurrection and yet refuse the offers of sharing with him in it We have all already by our Baptism and by assuming the Name of Christians professed to die with Christ and to rise with him and if we falsifie not these Resolutions we cannot but set our selves wholly to seek those things which are above To die is to suspend or to cease the ordinary Actions of Life and if yet the Lusts of the world and the Flesh be retained if the same Care be employed on the Concerns of it which were before any hopes of a future better Life were given if the same Love the same desire of earthly Satisfactions continue such a Person can no more be said to have died to the World than a Body to be naturally dead which yet continueth to eat and drink and walk and perform all the ordinary Actions of Life After those things do the Gentiles seek who are without God in the world who have hope only in this Life who expect no Satisfaction but what they reap here below From these a Christian separates himself by his Baptism professeth himself a Member of a different Society which proceeds upon contrary Principles and foundeth his Interests in another Life He abandons his Pretensions to the unlimited Pleasures of this Life Crucifies his Affections and dieth to the world that he may rise with Christ rise with him here to a new Life that he may rise with him to Glory hereafter In Confirmation of this blessed Hope he often considers of his Lord's Resurrection he celebrates the Mercy and Faithfulness of God in comforting his afflicted Church as upon this day by restoring to her the Presence of her Beloved Saviour He thence conceiveth assured Hopes that himself shall in like manner be raised up at the last day And now that the bodily Presence of his Lord is after his Ascension taken from him he strengthens his Faith and confirms his Hope by the frequent Participation of the Holy Eucharist instituted in remembrance of him He esteemeth these sacred Symbols received and eaten by him as an infallible Pledge of his own Resurrection agreeably to the Belief of the ancient Christians who accounted the Body and Blood of Christ delivered to the Faithful to be a most certain earnest of their future Resurrection as being perswaded that as God permitted not the natural Body of Christ to see Corruption so neither will he suffer his Symbolical Body to be imprisoned in the Grave for ever By the Reception of these sacred Elements we are incorporated with Christ and become Members of his Mystical Body and thereby obtain the highest assurance that we can desire that as he raised up his own Body on the Third day so he will raise up us who are thereby Members of his Body in his due time Only let us by dying to the World and living to him by renouncing the inordinate Affections of the Flesh seeking those things which