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
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
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
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
Thirty first Year of his Age on the 5th of March that sad day whereon that never sufficiently to be lamented Princess our most incomparable QUEEN was interr'd about Three of the Clock in the Morning he with an humble Patience submitted to the stroke of Death cheerfully resigning his departing Soul into the most Holy hands of his gracious Redeemer The loss of so extraordinary a Person in the Flower of his Age and one from whom the learned World had justly conceiv'd such great Expectations of most admirable Performances from his indefatigable Labours for the advantage of it was very much lamented by Learned Men both at home and abroad The Clergy in particular as a Testimony of that value which they had for him did in great Numbers attend at his Funeral Here ought by no means to be past by in silence that singular Honour which was paid to him by the Right Reverend the Bishops Many of which and among the rest the most Reverend Archbishop himself and the Right Reverend Bishop of Litchfield who had both of them visited him in his last Sickness being present at it while another of that venerable Order the Right Reverend the Bishop of Rochester performed the Funeral Office All sorts of Persons were willing to shew their Respect for him in the best manner they were able The Reverend the Dean and Prebendaries of Westminster not only caused the Kings Schollars to attend him to his Grave an uncommon respect and the highest they can shew on such an occasion but did also each for himself remit their Customary Dues for Interment in their Church as the last and most proper Testimony they could then give of the high Esteem in which they held Mr. Wharton and his learned Labours The Quire likewise committing his Body to Rest with Solemn and Devout Anthems compos'd by that most ingenious Artist Mr. Henry Purcel He lyes Buried in the South side of the Cathedral Church of Westminster towards the West end Near whereunto in the Wall is erected a small but decent Monument of White Marble whereon is the following Inscription H. S. E. HENRICUS WHARTON A. M. ECCLESIAE ANGLICANAE PRESBYTER RECTOR ECCLESIAE DE CHARTHAM NECNON VICARIUS ECCLESIAE De MINSTER IN INSULA THANATO IN DIAECESI CANTUARIENSI REVERENDISSIMO AC SANCTISSIMO PRAESULI WILHELMO ARCHIEPISCOPO CANTUARIENSI A SACRIS DOMESTICIS QUI MULTA AD AUGENDAM ET ILLUSTRANDAM REM LITERARIAM MULTA PRO ECCLESIA GHRISTI CONSCRIPSIT PLURA MOLIEBATUR Obiit 30. Non. Mart. A. D. MDCXCIV Aetatis suae XXXI THE CONTENTS SERMON I. On Whit-Sunday JOhn XIV 25 26. These things have I spoken unto you being yet present with you But the Comforter which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my Name he shall teach you all things and bring all things to your Remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you Pag. 1 SERMON II. Philip. II. 5. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus p. 51 SERMON III. and IV. 1 Pet. III. 15. Be ready always to give an answer â—…to every Man that asketh you a reason of the hope that 's in you with Meekness and Fear p. 108 144 SERMOM V. Rom. II. 4. Not knowing that the Goodness of God leadeth thee to Repentance p. 172 SERMON VI. 1 Corinth I. 23. We preach Christ crucified unto the Jews a Stumbling-block and unto the Greeks Foolishness p. 227 SERMON VII Hebr. IX 27. It is appointed unto Men once to die but after this the Judgment p. 261 SERMON VIII 1 Tim. I. 17. Now unto the King Eternal Immortal Invisible the only wise God be Honour and Glory for ever and ever Amen p. 287 SERMON IX Psal. XCV 7 8. To day if ye will hear his Voyce harden not your hearts p. 313 SERMON X. and XI Luk. XIII 5. Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish p. 337 365 SERMON XII Acts X. 34 35. Then Peter opened his mouth and said of a Truth I perceive that God is no respecter of Persons But in every Nation he that feareth him and worketh Righteousness is accepted with him p. 394 SERMON XIII 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 p. 417 SERMON XIV John XIV 1. Let not your bearts be troubled ye believe in God believe also in me p. 439 The First SERMON ON WHITSUNDAY Prâ—…ach'd at Lambeth Chapel John XIV 25 26. These things havé I spoken unto you being yet present with you But the Comforter which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my Name he shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you THese words being part of the Gospel for this Day â—…o not only contain the Promise of that infinite and wonderful benefit the completion of which we this Day commeâ—…orate But also declare the nature and intention of it and thereby most fitly not only excite us to a grateful remembrance of the Divine beneficence but also teach us to form true apprehensions and a just veneration of so great a Mystery A Mystery which was promis'd by Christ to his Apostles as the greatest of all Benefits Which might alone supply the otherwise irreparable loss of his Presence and intirely dispel their grief arising from the melancholy apprehensions of his approaching departure A Mystery which was reserved for the ultimate consummation of the Christian Religion and Divine dispensation of the Gospel Which being designed by the Father and Founded by the Son was at last brought to perfection by the Mission and Descent of the Holy Ghost No wonder therefore if the promise of so great a benefit was so mightily insisted on by Christ as a sufficient remedy to his Disciples for all afflictions and the last and greatest Legacy which he could bequeath unto them If the performance of it was so earnestly expected by the Apostles and the remembrance of it with an uninterrupted solemnity Celebrated by the Church in all Ages more especially by the Antient Church in which all Christians used to stand continually in time of Divine Service from Easter to Whitsunday thereby testifying the impatient expectation wherewith they attended the Descent of the Holy Ghost as upon this Day The declaration of this promise made in the words of my Text was occasioned by the great anxiety which the Apostles expressed at the news of our Saviours departure and their wonderful ignorance of the true nature and design of the Christian Religion after so long and so excellent instruction from their Divine Master The former is related in the end of the preceding Chapter which therefore Christ endeavours to remove by a vehement exhortation to a steady Faith in the beginning of this Let not your heart be troubled ye believe in God believe also in me Assuring them that his departure was for no other end than to prepare a place for their reception
worthily be executed upon Sinners in this World much lefs can the righteous receiâ—… the recompence of their just Deeds therein What Happiness can be bestowed upon Man in this mortal Life worthy either the Supernatural Gift of God or constant endeavours of Men Is it Riches or Prosperity sensual Delights and temporal Conveniences Alas that God should conferr no more noble Reward on his Servants and Followers That for such trifles only we should employ all the Faculties of our Soul and Body in a careful discharge of our Duty and universal Obedience to the Divine Laws That after our Labour and Study to procure the perfection of our Nature by Vertue Holiness and Obedience we should attain no other Reward than what even brute Beasts are capable of the Satisfaction of our Senses and ease of our Bodies Or if any voluptuous Person should be found so degenerous as to place his utmost Felicity in these carnal Enjoyments he would fall infinitely short of his designed Satisfaction although heaped with all the temporal Blessings of Heaven and Earth The constant thoughts of his approaching End which may be deferred but cannot be removed will imbitter all his Pleasures create a continual disquiet and torment him with perpetual Fears And then what an inconsiderable Happiness is that which an Ague or a Fever a Mistake or a Casualty may destroy So foolish is it for a pious Man to expect or desire the Completion of his Reward in this Life And yet much more if we consider that it would be as well impossible as unreasonable to exercise the most Noble and pleasing Acts of Vertue and Religion in such a state If Riches and Prosperity were entailed on just Men only there would be no room left for the exercise of Patience and Constancy under Affliction no occasion for Charity and Contentment in a word all the Beatitudes of the Gospel would be destroyed What greater Demonstration of Religion can there be than to conquer all the Temptations of the Flesh and despise the Pleasures of the World Yet this would then become not only indifferent but even unlawful being in that Case a Renunciation of the Supream Happiness and relinquishing the assigned Reward by God What more certain Manifestation of an ardent Love of God than to lay down our Lives for his sake or at least to forego all worldly Possessions when called to it Yet this would be then no less foolish than impracticable when God should suffer no Persecutions to arise and dispense no Rewards after Death It would then in Wisdom concern every Man to continue his Life and Possessions by all possible means and over-look all Interests standing in Competition with them Charity to miserable Persons would be unlawful for to the good who should be free from all Calamity it would be unuseful and to shew it to the bad in whom Misery were a Punishment would be to reverse and overthrow the Sentence of God Nay to proceed yet farther no Vertue or Vice Obedience or Disobedience to God would then take place For no Vertue is acceptable no Obedience deserveth any Reward from God any otherwise than as it is a free Act of our Soul strugling with the Temptations of the World the Flesh and the Devil or its own corrupt Inclinations as it includes somewhat of difficulty in it somewhat which evidenceth a mature Choice of right Reason prevailing over the opposition of Lusts and Passions Whereas if Rewards and Punishments be executed in this Life nothing will be left wherein free-will may interpose all will indifferently strive to be good and it will be no less difficult then to be Wicked than it is now to be Pious when the Commands of God and the Temptations of the World and the Flesh shall draw the same way and the means to gratify our Carnal desires will be to yield our selves up to the Obedience of God What wonder will it be if Men then serve God when it is even their Temporal Interest and believe him to be a Righteous Judge when their own Senses permit them not to disbelieve it So that while the Nature of things remain while the Notions of Good and Evil continue while a real difference between Vertue and Vice is maintained and room left for the laudable exercise of free-will We cannot judge it possible or expedient that the Final Sentence of God upon all Men should be Executed in this Life I will add but one consideration more which is that Punishments cannot be inflicted on Wicked Men in this Life without making Good Men at the same time miâ—…erable It would be highly unreasonable to expect from God the benefit of a constant Miracle in favour of Good Men which may rescue them from the common calamities of Pestilence Sword or Famine Or if so great a discrimination could be allowed Good Men would necessarily be involved in the same sufferings by their compassion by the loss and torments of their dearest Friends and nearest Relations who being tormented for their Sins in this Life would interrupt all the pleasures of Pious and Compassionate Men by their Shrieks and Clamours It is impossible to conceive what a Scence of horror theEarth would then be if God should choose to execute his Vengeance upon Sinners in this World What a Face of Cruelty and Desolation would then appear It would then bear so true a resemblance of Hell that Good Men would rather choose to be annihilated than to be present in it So that even for the sake of Good Men the Punishment of the bad is deferred to another Life And thus I hope I have at last abundantly satisfied you both of the Justice and Wisdom of God in Forming both the Decrees mentioned in my Text of appointing all Men once to Die and in exercising a Final Judgment not till after Death We may perhaps imagine that we are long since convinced of the Truth of this But if we descend into our own Souls and examin them throughly I fear we shall find too much reason to question the reality of our conviction We are inured to sensual things and sensual proofs and apt to disbelieve all that we are told of another Life because the experience of sense doth not confirm it We are too prone to call in question the Justice and Providence of God if he interposeth not in our behalf in this World we are ready to believe that the wicked escape his knowledge when they Die in peace and a seeming neglect of the Righteous in this Life betrays us into a false opinion that they are equally forgotten in the next Or if we cannot find in our Souls any traces of such incredulity and suspicions I am sure our Actions will discover them We believe that it is appointed for all Men once to die and yet put the thoughts of it far from us We are assured that we cannot escape that Fatal Sentence and yet live as if we were not concerned in it We despair of prolonging our Life
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
are increased How shall I pardon thee for this We have hitherto considered God only as the Author of that revealed Religion which we profess It may not be amiss to consider him also as the common Governour of the world and the Judge of all Mankind To the Execution of these Offices nothing is more necessary than an impartial Execution of Justice which cannot consist if Rewards and Punishments be distributed without any respect to the Merits or Demerits of Men if the Rewards proposed to the diligent observers of the Divine Commands be given in common to the Neglecters of them In vain then would good Men employ so much Industry Zeal and Caution in vain should they forego the Pleasures of Life deny the Desires of the sensual Appetite and Labour in the more arduous Duties of Christianity if by all this they gained no more than what negligent Sinners might secure to themselves and yet retain the use of all those Pleasures which a depraved Will could desire Nor could we account for the Justice of God if he should require such difficult Duties of his most faithful Servants and yet allow the same Rewards to his Enemies to impenitent Sinners which he hath proposed to them Our Lord told the Pharisees indeed those great Pretenders to Holiness That the Sinners and Publicans go into heaven before them and in another place saith That the Kingdom of heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force But then those Sinners did repent which the Pharisees refused to do and the violence offered to Heaven is there no other than Prayers and Tears Without those the supream Judge would continue inexorable to them who hath promised indeed to lay open Heaven to penitent Sinners but upon no other Condition will admit them into it Otherwise what Abraham said to God Gen. XVIII 25. when he imagined that God would involve the just Inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah in the univeâ—…sal Destruction which he was about to bring upon those Cities That be far from thee to do after this manner to slay the righteous with the wicked and that the righteous should be as the wicked That be far from thee Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right The same we might justly apply if God communicated the Rewards of just Men such as Pardon of sins and hope of future Happiness to impenitent Sinners But sar be it from us to imagine any such uneven Conduct in God who from the in variable distribution of Pardon to Penitent of Punishment to unrepenting Sinners raiseth the Proof of his own Justice Ezek. XVIII 25 26 27. Hear now O house of Israel Is not my way equal are not your ways unequal When a righteous man turneth away from his righteousness and committeth iniquity and dieth in it for his iniquity that he hath done he shall die Again when the wicked turneth away from his wickedness that he hath committed and doth that which is lawful and right he shall save his soul alive Therefore I will judge every one according to his ways saith the Lord God Repent and turn your selves from all your Transgressions so iniquity shall not be your ruin I have been so long upon this Head that I have little time left to speak of the Second which is the Usefulness of Repentance in that if it be perfect sincere and rightly applied it averts the Punishment due to sins Not through any intrinsick Merit of its own but through the gracious acceptance of God who hath promised Pardon upon true Repentance That we may not be deceived therefore in the Nature of Repentance we may reflect upon the Reasons for which Repentance is so acceptable to God who as he is a most perfect Being doth nothing without most evident reason God therefore whensoever he taketh the Soul of Man to himself and caâ—…th it to Judgment judgeth it according to the present Disposition of it If a Man hath formerly lived up to his Commands but did afterwards Apostatize from them and gave up himself to the direction of his Lusts and died in that corrupt Habit of Mind he shall be judged according to it If he formerly neglected his Duty but before his Death had changed all the Habits and Dispositions of his Soul into firm Resolutions of Obedience to God into a perfect Hatred of Sin and a love of Piety and dieth in them God will reward him according to that prefent Dispofition Such a Repentance then which God will accept must be an entire change of the very frame of the Mind not a slight Sorrow for past sins nor even a bitter Sorrow for them if founded only upon the prospect of the Punishment attending them it proceeds not to change the Habits of the Soul For with such a Sorrow a love of sin may well consist Nor even if this Sorrow should proceed to a careful discharge of Duty for many days together and often break out into ardent Ejaculations of Devotion yet will not this avail unless the Will be firmly setled in Resolutions of continuing the work so well begun and taken off from all Complacency in sin As the Body of Man is not to be accounted sound or healthful although it hath now and then some intervals of Health unless the whole Crasis of it be strong and uncorrupted That every one may judge of himself herein let him propose to himself the greatest Temptation which he knoweth can affect him let him imagine himself secure from being discovered in this World and not being immediately snatcht away to Judgment then let him impartially examine himself whether in those Circumstances he should preferr his Duty before the Pleasure of sin If he be well assured of his Resolution therein he may then hope well of his own Condition But because Men in such Examinations will be partial to themselves let him take a View of his latest Actions in which if he can find any sin committed deliberately after Consideration in cool Blood and the Suggestions of his own Conscience to the contrary then let him assuredly conclude that the state of his Soul is depraved that the whole frame of it must be changed by Repentance before God will extend any Mercy to him and that without such Repentance he is for ever lost For in every such deliberate sin Man really chooseth Damnation to himself In the precedent Deliberation of it his Conscience sets before him Life and Death on the one hand the Command of God the Authority of his Command and the Promises of Obedience on the other hand the Guilt of sin and the Punishments affixed to it If notwithstanding all this his Will be over-ruled by the seeming Pleasures of Vice to embrace it and violate the Laws of God Man doth therein make an absolute Choice of Damnation for himself and doth as truly renounce Obedience to God as if he made an open and formal Abjuration of it A mind therefore so corrupted can by no means be said to be well disposed or
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
of singular instances of Providence in reward of the good and Punishment of the bad And related not only particular Examples of this kind but also from the frequency of them formed and delivered general Rules that Wickedness never escapeth unpunished or Innocence unrewarded In short it is the indispensable Duty of Man to Act cheerfully and submissively in that Station on in those Circumstances wherein the supreme Author of Life hath placed him to receive not only without murmuring but also with Reverence all Dispensations proceeding from him He hath just ground to believe that God will not forsake him if sincerely putting his Trust in him nor suffer his Innocence to pass unregarded which is a sufficient Motive of relying on his Providence and a necessary one of submitting to it But the certain and infallible assurance of these Hopes the exact knowledge of the methods of Providence in this matter and the unerring experience of the Divine Justice and Goodness herein is to be found only in the Christian Religion And that it is abundantly found there I come next to shew by considering in the second place II. What force and weight the Christian Religion hath superadded to the natural or precedent Reasons and ' grounds of Trust and reliance in God and therein of Consolation in Dangers and Afflictions In the Natural or under the Mosaick Law the apparent hopes of Mankind were terminated in this Life and although the common Notions of the perfection of the Divine Justice and the visible experience of the great Disproportion in the distribution of Rewards and Punishments in this Life induced many to believe that a more equal and impartial Survey of the Actions of Men would be taken after Death and the Soul of Man which is not capable of Dissolution receive then the merits or demerits of its Actions as considering Men could not but esteem this as most rational in it self so not unlikely yet the perswasions of it were in the Gentiles little more than some faint Hopes and Wishes and in the Jews wrapt up in obscure Prophecies or uncertain Interpretations But in the Christian Religion these Conjectures being advanced into certainty these Hopes into assurance the reliance and trust in God consequent to them which in the former could not but be faint and weak became now lively and vigorous To a Christian who professeth himself a stranger and Pilgrim in the earth who disowns the placing of his hopes on this side Heaven it seems not strange that God should suffer him to labour under Difficulties and Calamities since these affect not his grand Concern hinder not his real Happiness and many times tend highly to promote it In taking that Profession on him he renounced the immoderate Love of the World the gratifying his Lusts and the ease of his Body professed himself a Citizen of another Countrey and listed himself under the Banner of a Crucified Saviour and in Vertue of these Resolutions proceeds in a steady course of Vertue and Holiness to attain his end is not amazed at any Terrours or Disasters which may meet him in the way declines them indeed as farr as Prudence will permit but will not forsake the right way to avoid them A natural consequence to a firm Belief in God and Christ and that Opinion which is rooted in all true Christians that the real Happiness and perfection of Man is to be expected in another Life that Crosses and Afflictions in this world hinder not the Acquifition of this supreme Good and oft-times promote it If publick Calamities invade the Church if private Miseries affect himself a sincere Christian is neither scandalized at the one nor Despairs through the other He considers that if he suffers for the name of Christ he is happy if upon any other account without his own fault his Affliction may be of use to him may correct his wandring thoughts and fix his hope upon God alone but that in no Case it tends to deprive him of his chief and ultimate End the Fruition of God in another Life The exceeding Happiness of that Fruition so infinitely surpasseth all the Petty satisfactions of this World and the Duration of it the continuance of this Life that no Affliction no Calamity so grievous can happen to any one which will not seem light under the apprehension of those Blessed Hopes Men may lessen our Enjoyments here below but yet notwithstanding the Rage or Envy of Men it is in our Power to augment and improve them above For so the Fathers do generally expound the Promise of our Saviour following the Text In my Fathers house are many Mansions that is in Heaven are many and different Degrees of Glory prepared for you to be distributed according to your greater or less perfection in Holiness This is the only Ambition worthy of a Christian to aim at an eminent Station in that Blessed place where Preference will be no Injury to another nor diminish another's Happiness contrary to the proceedings of this World where the greatness or estate of one Man can be raised no otherwise than upon the Ruins or Decay of another It can scarce be hoped indeed nor is it expected by God that Man should free himself absolutely from all concern for things here below Such impassibility will be one of our chief Perfections when our Nature shall be raised above this corruptible Condition and become spiritualized but to aim at it in this Life may perhaps be an impossible Design but certainly not our Duty We are here Citizens of the whole World and as such bound to seek the good of Mankind in general Members of a Civil Society and as such obliged to promote the Peace and Welfare of our Countrey Members of a Christian Church and as such commanded to Labour for the external Peace and Prosperity of Jerusalem Lastly in our own private Capacities God designed at least some sort of Happiness even in this Life for Man when he placed him in the World and this we may lawfully pursue and improve as far as the Rules of Justice Sobriety and Religion will permit To be unconcerned in all these is so far from being a Duty or required by God that in most Cases it may become a Crime But the Exhortation of our Saviour in this place and the Precepts of the Christian Religion in general require us not to be anxious and sollicitous about any Contingencies on this side Heaven Not to suffer our selves to be so transported with Passions arising from either the Sense or the prospect of unhappy Accidents in this World as may embroil our minds disturb our thoughts and hinder the performance of more noble and Divine Duties much less to conclude our selves unhappy to despond and murmur to repine at the publick Government of the World and distract the Soul with Melancholy thoughts of private mis-fortunes Such a Perturbation of mind would be most unworthy a rational Man much moâ—…e a knowing Christian who cannot but be convinced that it
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