evitavit Qua alii ambiunt Cui rectius visum Ecclesiam defendere instruere ornare Quam regere Laboribus studiisque perpetuis exhaustus Morte si quis alius praematura Obiit Vir desideratissimus Januarii XXVII An. M.DC.LXXX Aetatis LX. Nobile sibi monumentum Areae adjacentis latus occidentale Quod à fundamentis propriis impensis struxit Vivus sibi statuit Brevem hanc Tabellam Haeredes defuncto posuere TABLE of the First VOLUME 1 Pet. 4. 1. He that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin Pag. 1. Psalm 7â— 1. Truly God is loving to Israel even to such as are of a clean heart 15. Levit. 16. 31. Ye shall afflict your soul by a statute for ever 29. John 15. 14. Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you 43. Ezek. 33. 2. Why will ye die 57. Psalm 73. 25. Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee 69. Mark 1. 3. Prepare ye the way of the Lord. 81. 1 John 5. 4. This is the victory which overcometh the world even our faith 95. Gal. 2. 20. I am crucified with Christ. 109. Luke 9. 55. Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of 123. Luke 16. 30 31. Nay father Abraham but if one went unto them from the dead they will repent And he said unto him if they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be perswaded tho one rose from the dead 137. Luke 2. 34. Behold this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel and for a sign which shall be spoken against Pag. 151. James 4. 7. Resist the Devil and he will flee from you 165. Phil. 3. 18. For many walk of whom I have told you often and now tell you even weeping that they are the enimies of the cross of Christ. 181. Mark 10. 15. Verily I say unto you whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child he shall not enter therein 195. Acts 13. 2. The Holy Ghost said separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them 209. Hos. 3. 9. Afterwards shall the children of Israel return and seek the Lord their God and David their king and shall fear the Lord and his goodness 227. Matt. 5. 44. But I say unto you love your enimies bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you pray for them that despightfully use you and persecute you 243. TABLE of the Second VOLUME 2 Tim. 3. 15. And that from a child thou hast known the holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation thro faith which is in Christ Jesus Pag. 1. Rom. 6. 3. Know ye not that so many of us as were baptiz'd into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death 21. Matt. 9. 13. Go ye and learn what that meaneth I will have mercy and not sacrifice Pag. 36. Psalm 102. 13 14. Thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Sion for the time to favor her yea the set time is come For thy servants take pleasure in her stones and favor the dust thereof 50. Acts 24. 16. And herein I exercise my self to have alwaies a conscience void of offence towards God and towards man 65. Matt. 5. 4. Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted 79. 1 John 3. 3. Every man that has this hope in him purifies himself as he is pure 93. Isaiah 26. 20. Come my people enter thou into thy chambers and shut thy doors about thee hide thy self as it were for a little moment until the indignation be overpast 107. Matt. 11. 28. Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest 118. 1 Cor. 15. 57. Thanks be to God who giveth us the victory thro our Lord Jesus Christ. 133. Psalm 17. 15. As for me I will behold thy face in righteousness I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness 143. John 20. 28. My Lord and my God 157. Mark 9. 24. Lord I believe help thou my unbelief 170. Matt. 5. 16. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father which is in heaven 191. 2 Cor. 6. 2. Behold now is the accepted time behold now is the day of salvation 201. 2 Tim. 1. 12. I know whom I have believed 215. Luke 16. 8. The children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light 230. Matt. 6. 22 23. The light of the body is the eie if therefore thy eie be single thy whole body shall be full of light But if thy eie be evil thy whole body shall be full of darkness if therefore the light that is in thee be darkness how great is that darkness 247. Serm. 2. 261. Serm. 3. 272. Serm. 4. 284. Serm. 5. 296. THE Divine Autority AND USEFULNESS OF THE Holy Scripture ASSERTED IN A SERMON On the 2 Tim. 3. 15. And that from a child thou hast known the holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Iâ—sus THE words are part of St. Pauls reasoning by which he presseth Timothy to hold fast the truth he had receiv'd and not let evil men seducers work him out of what he had bin taught urging to this end both the autority of the Teacher himself who had secur'd the truth of his doctrine by infallible evidence and beyond that as if that were a more effectual enforcement pressing him with his own education in the Scriptures how he had bin nurst up in that faith suckt the Religion with his milk that it was grown the very habit of his mind that which would strengthen him into a perfect man in Christ and make him wise unto salvation if he did continue in the faith and practice of it which he proves in the remaining verses of the Chapter In the words read there are three things observable 1. Here is a state suppos'd Salvation and put too as of such concernment that attaining it is lookt upon as wisdom wise unto salvation Now since true wisdom must express it self both in the end that it proposeth and the means it chooseth for that end to be pursued with and attain'd by and take care both these have all conditions that can justifie the undertaking and secure the prudence of it and this wisedom to salvation therefore must suppose both theâ—e in order to them both we have here 2. That which with all divine advantage does propose this end and also does prescribe most perfect means for the attaining it and that is Holy Scripture through faith which is in Christ Jesus Thou hast known the holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus Holy Scripture probably of the Old Testament for there was hardly any other Timothy could know from a child scarce any other being written then The faith of
in vicious customes yet for the gross foul acts which men sometimes commit those unkind stabs and wounds to our own souls those cruel self-murders these all are to be daily mourn'd for Now I shall onely name a few reasons why we should mourn and so stir us up to it 1. Because onely in this and in relation to this is greif of any use at all God and Nature they say made nothing in vain now if it were not for our sins greif would be almost in vain a certain sign that this passion must be emploi'd upon our sins ut propter hujus tantum sublationem sit concessa saith St Chrysostom For does any man loose a child why if he greive to death will his mourning raise him Is thy Estate taken from thee why thou art sad upon it but will thy tears recover it But hast thou sin'd and dost thou truly mourn and greive for it why thy tears do wash away thy sin and blot out thine offence So that mourning being every where else preposterous and unprofitable was clearly intended to be spent upon our sins 2. What ingratitude is it to thy Savior not to find in thine heart to mourn for those sins for which he did die the Son of God did sweat and pray and cry and shed a torrent of bloud and water and suffer death for those very sins of thine and mine which we think so slightly of that we will not shed a tear for them O my Brethren if there is in us any love of that our Jesus or indeed of our selves we would now transplant the Agonies and make them ours and sweat out a few drops of sorrow to cure us of those feavors of our sins 3. Yea it is a very trouble to our God that we do not greive he mourns to see that we will not mourn Hosea 13. 14. when God had complain'd before of Ephraim what a foolish child it was that it did not repent he tells them there that if they had don so I would have ransom'd them from the power of the grave not I will for the very next verse contradicts that I would have redeem'd them from death O death I had bin thy grave O grave I had bin thy destruction but comfort is hid from mine eies repentance we read but the word bears and the sense requires comfort as if the eies of the Lord were therefore full of tears because Ephraim's were not and he could not receive comfort if Ephraim did not mourn and if we do not mourn God will comfort himself some other way concerning us to our greif Isaiah 1. 24. Therefore thus saith the Lord the Lord of Hosts the Mighty one of Israel ah I will ease me of mine adversaries 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very word before I will be comforted by reason of mine adversaries how why I will avenge me of mine enimies Ah my Brethren when God is to be comforted by his vengeance upon us when he can find no ease but in our ruin and destruction and that he calls his comfort in relation to the non-mourning impenitent where shall we find ease and comfort then And then methinks this should scare us into the use of this fright us out of that stupid lethargy in sinning which does so dull us in it makes us so senseless of it and the danger we are in by reason of it that we cannot bestow one day in weeping mourning and fasting no nor indeed an hour of serious sadness upon an age of sin a whole life of iniquity the very next step of this into which we shall be sure to fall is the greatest sin and judgment in the world it is that spoken of as a character of the foulest Heathens Ephes. 4. 18. 19. Having their understandings darkned being alienated from the life of God thro the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness that is in their heart who being past feeling have given themselves over to lasciviousness to work all uncleaness with greediness rather because of the brawny hardness of their hearts which are become callous insensible of any admonitions stings and greif but dead to all sense of sin and having put off all fear of it and who these are he tells you in the next words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as when they do the foulest acts are not toucht with any greif for having don them but like dead members of the body that are forsaken by the vital spirits if you lash or prick or lance them they feel no pain even so these whose consciences are retir'd a sleep they do not mourn for any of their foulest actions which is the very height of impiety for such do strait give themselves over to all filthiness to work all uncleaness with greediness This is the effect of not mourning and then how do they deserve and provoke this judgment who if at any time their conscience begin to twinge them for any of their sins they presently divert their thoughts lest the mourning in the text should creep upon them and they should grow sad These men dread their virtue they are afraid of becoming pious and to avoid the way to heaven is their design and contrivance they come not so near duty as the wicked in hell have not so much repentance as the damned have for there is sorrow for their sins weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth I should 2dly encourage those that do thus mourn but the text does that sufficiently they are blessed and they shall be comforted First they are blest for this mourning it is the great effect and sign of this Spiritual life that man's sickness hath not yet kill'd him who is sensible of it who greives by reason of the anguish of it and he is not dead who feels the weight of it and mourns for it Secondly if it be true it draws such a train of virtues after it as it made St Paul rejoyce that he had made the Corinthians sad 2 Cor. 9 10 11. and then this very same verse will assure them of the comfort hereafter for all the Gospel-promises are assur'd upon the terms of repentance which this Godly sorrow is the first link of and does draw after it then if there be any comfort in the company of myriads of Saints and Angels if we dare take Christ's judgment if he had any tast who suffer'd so many mourning fits that liv'd a life of tears here that often wept but never laught yea a life of horrid suffering and yet thought those comforts a full glorious recompence to him for all those sufferings and therefore may well be to us for a few tears if there be any joy in the beatifical vision and in heaven they shall be comforted that mourn when as I told you out of Revelations all tears shall be wip'd from their eyes there shall be no more trouble nor sorrow nor crying nor pain And yet this is but the Negative part of their eternity of
kind when the sins therefore lie in the Attire and they may put them off without a Metaphor yet it is so hard that it cannot be done sometimes the worth of a whole Province hangs upon a slender thread about a Neck a Patrimony thrust upon one joint of one least Finger and these warts of a Rock or a Shell-fish with the appendages eat out Estates and starve poor Creditors for whom indeed they should command these stones to be made bread but that 's a Miracle too stubborn for their Vertue And then how will they proceed to the next expression of this Duty Circumcise your selves to the Lord and take away the foreskin of your hearts Jer. iv 4. These are harder and more bloody words they differ in the pain and anguish that they put us to as much as to uncloath and flea would do It appears indeed this punishment of fleaing often went before the Cross. To 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Ctesias of one having his Skin pull'd off he was Crucified And the scourges in some measure did inflict this on our Saviour when they put off his Cloaths they strip'd his Skin also left him no covering but some rags of that which whipping had torn from his flesh Yet this expression sounds harsher when it bids us circumcise the foreskin of our hearts and tear it from thence flea that When long Conversation with the pleasures of a sin hath not onely given them Regallias but hath made them necessary to us so as that we cannot be without them when Custom craves with greater feaver than our thirst when if we want it we have qualms saintings of Soul as if the life were in that blood of the grape when men can part as easily with their own bowels as the Luxuries that feed them if you take away their Dishes then you take their Souls which dwell in them when the sins of the Bed are as neâ—dful and refreshing as the sleeps of it when to bid a man not look not satisfie his lustful eye is every jot as cruel as that other Iâ— thine eye offend thee pluck it out For if he must no more find pleasure in his sight he hath no use of it yea if this be indeed a kindness not to leave him Eyes to be to him the same as Appetite to Tantalus that which he must not satisfie and is his hell 'T is easie if the Lust be got no further than the Eye to pull them out together but if through that it shoot into the Blood and Spirits mix heats with those if it enwrap the heart twist with its strings and warm the Soul with its desires so that it Spirit all the motions all the thoughts and wishes of the heart when it is thus to make the heart to stifle its own motions stab its thoughts and strangle all its wishes to untwist and disentangle and to tear it thence if this be to be Circumcised with the Circumcision of Christ and he that hath not the sign of this the Seal of the New Covenant as he that in the Old had not the other was must be cut off our long habituated hardned Sinners must not think that there is any thing of true Repentance in their easie perfunctory sleight performances there is something like Death in the Duty which yet is required of us farther under variety of more severe expressions for we are bid thirdly to slay the Body of Sin Rom. vi 6. to mortifie our members Col. iii. 5. and to Crucifie Gal. vi 14. which how it may be done the next consideration of S. Paul's condition in the Text and my next part declare I am Crucified with Christ that is first as he was by being made conformable to his Death And truly should we trace him through all the stages of his Passion we should hardly find one passage but is made to be transcribed by us in dealing with our sins First he began it with Agony when his Soul was exceeding heavy for it labour'd with such weight of indignation as did make the Son of God to sink under the meer apprehension And he was sorrowful unto Death so as that his whole Body did weep Blood The Sinners passion his Repentance is exactly like it it begins always with grief and sense of weight whoever is regenerate was conceiv'd in sorrow and brought forth with pangs and the Child of God too is born weeping And for loads the Church when she does call us to shew forth this Death of Christ as if she did prescribe that very Agony requires that we should find that Garden at the Altar makes us say we are heartily sorry for our misdoings the remembrance of them is grievous unto us the burden of them is intolerable So that the Sinner's Soul must be exceeding heavy too Secondly There he is betrayed by his own domestick sold for the poorest Price imaginable as a Slave for thirty pieces of silver I shall not mind you what unworthy things the love of Money does engage men to to sell a Christ a Saviour and a God! and rather than stand out at such a base rate as we scorn to buy a sin at every single act 's engagement to Damnation costs more than the Ransom of the World is sold for and the Blood of God is purchas'd cheaper than any one opportunity of Vice does stand us in But I onely mind you here that he shall have a better hire that will but be a Judas to his own iniquities do but betray the Regent sins deliver them up and thou shalt have everlasting Heaven Thirdly We find him next carried before the High Priest And the strictest times of Christianity would serve their sins so to receive his doom upon them to be excommunicated into Reformation But I shall not urge how we can discover to a Physician our shames all our most putrid Guilts as well as Ulcers and make him our Confessor in our most secret sins neither will I be inquisitive why the Physicians of our souls are balk'd but will pass this part of the Conformity and follow Christ to Pontius Pilate And for this part we our selves are fitted the whole furniture of a Judicial Court all that makes up both Bench and Bar is born within us God hath given us a Conscience whereby we are a Law to our selves Rom. ii We have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Jews did want such evidence as is sufficient to condemn us the same Conscience that is privy to our doings and stands by our thoughts and sees through our intentions is a thousand witnesses And that there may be a Prosecutor our own thoughts accuse us saith S. Paul and if we will give them way will aggravate each Circumstance of guilt and danger bark and howl and cry as loud against us as the Jews did against Christ for Sin is of so murthering a guilt it will be sure to slay it self and that he may not want his deserved Ruin the Sinner makes his
you not seen him in that state when he supposed that sinning was now done with him and the next thing was Judgment when God's Tribunal seemed to be within his view and Hell to gape for him as wide as the Grave both opening to receive their parts of him at the same time and himself ready to divide himself into those two sad Habitations With what effectual Sermon will he then Preach to himself against his sins and that you may be sure shall work upon him he instantly resolves against his Vices he will not carry them along with him out of this Life but cast them off as too sad dangerous Company nor yet if God shall lend him life will he retain them but it shall be a New Life which he will lead And yet when God hath rais'd him up after a while he returns to his Vomit his Sins recover with his Body he owes his Innocence but to his Weakness nor is it more long-liv'd his holy purposes decay as his strength grows and die as soon as setled health does come And he who never would commit the Sin again when he was Dying mends into it again And then what hopes is there in this mistaken Method when we see men come themselves from the Deadunto themselves yet cannot make themselves Repent But if we are not all concerned in this take a more spreading and more visible experiment If ever one came from the Dead this Church and State came thence And by as great a Miracle of Resurrection But where is the Repentance such a Miracle may have flattered our Expectations with as I am confident the resolutions of it did in that sad dying state are not some men as violent in those wicked practices that merited our former Ruin and others in those cursed Principles that did inflict it as they ever were 't is said by many that have evil will at Sion and it is our concern to take a care they speak not truth that in the Church some that are risen up again have still the silence of the Grave upon them and are as dumb as if their mouth were yet full of their monument Earth And yet as if it were not full of Earth nor had been satisfied with it in the Sepulchre they gape still like the Grave that never can be satisfied And we see others who as if this Resurrection were but a start out of a sleep or lucid interval of former madness have their hands ready not onely to tear off the hair the unessential accessary beauties of the Body of the Church and State but to scratch the Face pull out the Eyes and tear open those Wounds which their last fit of Fury did inflict so to let life out again And as for the Community of the Nation 't is true we are as it were risen from the Grave but have we not brought up with us the Plague sores are not the Spots upon us still the Venom Ulcer and infection about us Yea more contracted Stench and Putrefaction such as Death and the Grave do add and coming from the dead we will not yet part with these but dress our selves in those infected and defiled grave-cloaths and rise into corruption and so confute Gods Method of a Resurrection 'T were happier if we would so far confute the Text that coming our selves from the dead we would renounce communion with all Deaths adherencies begin the incorruptible which shall be consummated when we shall rise again a Church triumphant when Death shall be swallowed up in Victory and neither Sin nor Repentance shall be any more but Holiness and Life and Glory too shall be Immortal and unchangeable To Which c. The Twelfth SERMON Preached at CHRIST-CHURCH IN OXFORD Decemb. 31. 1665. LUKE II. part of the 34. verse Behold this Child is set for the Fall and Rising again of many in Israel and for a sign which shall be spoken against AND Simeon Blessed them and said c. A Benediction sure of a most strange importance If to bring forth one that is to be a large Destruction if to be delivered of a Child that must be for the Fall of many and the killing of the Mothers self be blessed if Swords and Ruins be Comforts then my Text is full of these But if this be to Bless what is it to forespeak and abode ill Yet however ominous and fatal the words are they give us the event and the design too of the Blessed Incarnation of the Son of God the Child of this Text and of this Season A short view of Gods Counsel in it and the Effects of it The Effects in these Particulars 1. This Child is for the Fall of many 2. For the Rising again of many 3. For a Sign With the quality of that sign he is for a sign that shall be spoken against 2. The Counsel and Design of this is signified in the word here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he is set and preordain'd to be all this First of the first Effect This Child is for the Fall of many And here I shall but onely name that way whereby many men set this Child for their own Fall while they make his holy Time to be but a more solemn opportunity of â—â—â—â—ing We know many celebrate this great Festival with Surfeits and Excesses the usual appendages of Feasting Oathâ— and Curses the ingredients of Gaming Dalliance and Lasciviousness the attendants of Sporting of all which this seems as it were the Anniversary a set time for their return Thus indeed the Israelites did solemnize the Birth of their Idol-Calf They sate down to Eat and Drink and rose up to Play And must we celebrate this Child too like that Calf because he was born among Brutes And must his Votaries also be of the Herd And he live and be worship'd always in a Stable Because God became Man must Men therefore become Beasts Is it fit to honour that Child with Iniquity and Loosness that did come into the World upon designs of Holiness to settle a most strict Religion Nothing can be more incongruous than this and certainly there is nothing of Gods Counsel in it But to you whose time seems nothing else but a constant Festival always hath the Leisure and the Plenties and the Sports of one who as to these things keep a Christmas all your life this Season as it does not seem to challenge those things to it self peculiarly so I shall not now insist on them but proceed to those ways by which Simeon did Prophecy This Child would be for the fall of many in Israel And they are three 1. This Child whom I but now declar'd God had prepar'd to be the Glory of his People Israel yet his Birth was so inglorious and his Life answerable to it shall be so mean and poor and his Death so full of shame and curse that these shall prove a scandal to his People who shall be offended at them and being prepossess'd with prejudices of
with these break with Virtue when their interest cannot consist with it that these false hypocritical pretenders should be offended with the mean condition of this Child and of his followers in this World and with the poor spirited Principles of his Religion In sum they that upon these or any other grounds finally disbelieve or disobey him God design'd this Child to be a means of bringing sorer Punishments even to everlasting ruin upon such A black Decree this one would think He that had so much kindness for Mankind to give away the onely Son both of his Nature his Affections and his Bosom to them could he then design that Gift to be the Ruin of the greatest part of men This Child Simeon said but just before my Text is Gods Salvation which he had prepared before all people and does he now say God hath set him for their fall The Angels preached this was a Birth that brought glad tidings of great joy that should be to all people and is there so much comfort in destruction that most men should rejoyce at that which is ordained to be the great occasion of it to them But we have no reason to complain 'T is not unkind to deny Mercy to them that refuse the offers of it that will not accept Salvation when their God himself does come to bring it to them tenders it upon condition of accepting and amending Which if they despise and prefer Hell before Repentance chuse sin rather than Gods blessed retributions 't is but reason to deny them what they will not have and let them take their chosen Ruine to will their Judgment which they will themselves set and ordain Him to be that to them which themselves do ordain and make him to be to themselves So S. Peter says expresly He is a Stone of stumbling and a Rock of offence to them who being disobedient stumble at the Word whereunto they were appointed Disobedience where it is obdurate alters so the temper of our God that it makes Him who swears he would not have the Sinner die yet set out his Son to make such sinners fall into eternal Death Makes Judgment triumph over Mercy even in the Great contrivances and executions of that Mercy and while God was plotting an Incarnation for the everlasting Safety of Mankind prevails with him to decree Ruins by the means of that Salvation to Decree even in the midst of all those strivings of his Mercies that that Issue of his kindness should be for the fall of such as they Oh! let us consider whether they are likely to escape that which is set and ordain'd for them by God Whether they can hope for a Redemption when the only great Redeemer is appointed for the Instrument of their Destruction and God is so bent on their ruine that to purchase it he gives this Child his Son Yea when he did look down upon this Son in Agonies and on the Cross in the midst of that sad prospect yet the Ruine of such sinners which he there beheld in his Sons Bloud was a delight to him that also was a Sacrifice and a sacrifice of a sweet smell to him For S. Paul says We are unto God a sweet savour of Christ in them that perish because we are the savour of Death unto death to them As if their Brimstone did ascend like Incense shed a perfume up to God and their evrlasting burnings were his Altar-fires kindled his holocausts and he may well be pleased with it for he ordain'd it 'T is true indeed This Child riding as in Triumph in the midst of his Hosannas when he saw one City whose fall he was set for on this very account He was so far from being pleas'd with it that he wept over it in pity But alas that onely more declares the most deplored and desperate condition of such sinners Blessed Saviour hadst thou no Blood to shed for them nothing but Tears or didst thou weep to think they very Bloodshed does but make their guilt more crimson who refuse the mercy of that Bloodshed all the time that is offered Sad is their state that can find no pity in the Tears of God and remediless their Condition for whom all that the Son of God could do was to weep over them all that he did do for them was to be for their fall too sad a part indeed for festival Solemnity very improper for a Benedictus and Magnificat To celebrate the greatest act of kindness the Almighty could design onely by the miseries it did occasion to magnifie the vast descent of God from Heaven down to Earth onely by reason of the fall of Man into the lowest Hell of which that was the cause My Text hath better things in view The greatness of that fall does but add height to that Resurrection which He also is the cause of Behold this Child is set for the rising again of many My remaining Part. Rising again does not particularly and onely refer to the foregoing fall here in the Text which this Child did occasion as I shewed you but to the state wherein all Mankind both in its nature and its Customs lay ingulâ—'d the state of Ignorance and sin A state from which recovery is properly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a resurrection and a reviving in this Life and so call'd in Scripture often as Ephes. v. 15. Wherefore he saith Awake thou that sleepest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and arise from the dead And Rom. vi 13. Yield not your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin but yield your selves unto God as those that are alive form the dead Now to raise us from the death of sin into the life of Righteousness by the amendment of our own lives to recover us into a state of Vertue is the thing this Child is said here to be set for This was that which God thought worth an Incarnation Neither was there any greater thing in the prospect of his everlasting Counsel when he did decree his Son into the World than that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He is set for this The Word was made Flesh to teach practise and persuade to Vertue To make men Reform their lives was valued at the price of a Person of the Trinity Piety and his Exinanition yea his Blood and Life were set at the same rates All of him given for our recovery The time would fail me if I should attempt onely to name the various methods he makes use of to effect this How this Child that was the brightness of his Fathers Glory came to lighten us shining in his Doctrine and Example How he sent more light The fiery Tongues Illuminations of the Holy Ghost to guide us in the ways of Piety How he suffered Agonies and Death for sin to appale and fright us from it How he Rose again to confirm Judgment to us to demonstrate the rewards of Immortality to them that will repent and leave their sins and everlasting Torments to those
in conscience to that superior to depart from their own Judgment and to yield and sign their assent to his determinations Witness the matter of Jansenius Yea their great Cardinal is positive that If the Pope could err so far as to call evil good good evil to prohibit vertues or command vices the Church were bound in conscience to believe those vices good and honest and those vertues evil So far he Indeed if that Church be the Mother and Nurse of all Christians 't is from her breasts only they must seek the sincere Milk of the word Now that she is so they must take her word as Children do their Parents words that they are so And indeed this is properly to receive the Doctrine as a little Child not judge nor reason not examin but believe it And such legendary doctrines as well as Histories which they deliver are most fit to be receiv'd by such as Children Yet as if this had been the proper method among Christians always in S. Austin's time we find the Manichees derided Christianity that discipline of Faith because by that men were commanded to believe and were not taught how to distinguish truth from falshood by clear reason and again that it requires us to assent before we have a reason for it And long before that Celsus did advise the Christians to receive no doctrines but on the account of reason credulity being the inlet to deceit saying they that without grounds believe are like those that admire and â—e satisfied with juglers and take appearances and sleight of hand for truth adding many of the Christians neither would receive nor give a reason of their faith but us'd to say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do not you examin but believe 't is your faith shall save you and as if from the beginning it were so we cannot but have heard the story of that man that reading Genesis where Moses says In the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth And he said let there be light and there was light c. Swore at him saying this Barbarian only asserted boldly but prov'd nothing As if Argument and Reason never had place in the Jewish or the Christian Religion only those who were the inâ—titutors of each Religion did deliver it others had no more to do but to believe it that is to receive it as a little Child Whether these reproaches and the Oath of these known enemies may go for proofs that it was so I shall not now enquire But it is certain on the other side S. Paul requires of his new Christian Corinthians that they be not Children in understanding that they be in malice Children but in understanding Men. Now a Man and a Child differ not in this that the one hath an understanding reasonable soul and the other hath not but in that the one cannot use his understanding or his reason and the other where he acts as man does So that our Religion in requiring that we be in understanding men does require of us that we use our reason in it And since assenting to a thing as truth is an Act of the highest faculty of the soul of man as it is properly and truly reasonable namely as it understands and judges it is not possible a man should really believe a thing unless he satisfie himself that he hath reason for so doing Yea whether that be true or not which many men so eagerly contend for that the will though free is bound and cannot choose but will that which appears best at that time it wills yet it is sure that he who with his understanding which is not free in her apprehensions and judgments but must necessarily embrace that which hath most evidence of truth He I say who really assents to any proposition does satisfie himself that he hath better and more cogent reasons for that then the contrary And therefore it is impossible that any man can verily believe a thing which he is throughly convinc't is contrary to clear and evident right reason for he cannot have a better reason for the thing that is so and were it possible for any man to believe so there could be neither grounds nor Rules for such a ones belief for there is nothing in the World so false and so absur'd although he were assur'd it were so but he might assent to it for whatever demonstrations could be offer'd why he should not yet it seems he might believe against acknowledg'd evident truth and reason but this were onely wish or fancy and imagination not belief And to prevent such Childish weak credulity was the great work and care of Christ so far is he from requiring we should be as Children in this kind For when he was ascended up to heaven he gave some Apostles some Evangelists some Pastors and Teachers he shed down the Holy Spirit and his gifts that we might not be as Children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of Doctrine Eph. 4. 14. First For want of rational grounds instable in our Faith as Children are in body and in judgment also taking all appearances for truths If men were only to believe there must needs be as great variety of Religions as of teachers And though God hath appointed that some Church should be as perfectly infalliable as that of Rome pretends to be yet since there are so many Churches and the true one therefore could be known no otherwise then by some marks there must be disquisition before Faith and men must reason and examin ere they can believe upon good grounds for were they to receive Religion as a little Child be nurst up with the Doctrine as with milk a Child we know may suck infection from the poyson'd breast of an unwholesom mother or some other person for it knows not to distinguish and so may be nurst to death A soul like theirs that is but rasa tâ—bula white paper is as fitted to receive the mark of the beast as the inscription of the living God just as the first hand shall impress Therefore we are bid not to believe every Spirit not every Teacher though he come with gifts pretend and seem to be inspir'd but try them and our Saviour forewarn'd the Jews of false Christs that should come with signs and wonders Something therefore must be known first and secur'd before the understanding can be thus oblig'd to give up its assent and Captivate every thought into obedience as S. Paul directs Now what that was here to the hearers in the Text is easily collected namely that he was the Christ that does require it And S. Paul expresses it in the forecited place where he says we must bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ to wit of that Christ who as he does himself profess that if he had not done among them the works which no other had done they had not had sin John 15. 24. If his
and Sedition rather and therefore must needs look upon damnation in them these differences make as great a gulf and chasm as that which does divide Dives from Abraham's bosom It is one God one Faith one Worship makes hearts one Hands lifted up together in the Temple they will joyn and clasp And so Religion does fulfil its name à religando binds Prince and Subjects all together and they who thus do seek the Lord their God will also seek David their King God's next direction and my second part 2. And here three things offer themselves a King their King and David their King I am not here to read a Lecture of State-policy upon a vie of Governments why seek a King not any other sort of Government and why their King one that already was so by the right of Succession not whom addresses or election should make so And though I think 't were easie to demonstrate only Monarchy had ever a divine or natural original and that elective Monarchy is most unsafe and burthensome full of dangerous and uneasie consequences and this so much to sight that choice for the most part bounds it self proves but a ceremony of Succession yet this I need not do for I am dealing with the Jews who had God's judgment in the case and his appointment too and to me that is argument enough And when God hath declar'd for the transgressions of a land many are the Princes thereof many at once as in a common-wealth or many several families successively for so God reckons also one or many 't is still we see David their King while 't is in David's line and so the King does truly never die while his race lives If either of these many be Gods punishment for the sins of a land I will not say that they who love the many Princes love the transgressions which God plagues so but I will say they who do chuse that which God call his plague that quarrel for his vengeance and with great strife and hazard take his indignation by force I can but pity them in their own opinions and enjoyments But O my soul enter not thou into their counsels As for seeking their King I shall content my self with that which Calvin says upon the words Nam aliter verè ex animo Deum quaerere non potuit quin se etiam subjiceret legitimo imperio cui subjectus erat For they could not otherwise truly and with all their heart seek God except they did subject themselves to his Government to whom they did of right belong as Subjects And I shall add that they who do forsake their King will soon forsake their God The Rabbines say it more severely of Israel that they at once rejected three things the Kingdom of the house of David and the Kingdom of Heaven and the Sanctuary And truly if we do consult that State from the beginning we shall find that when they were without their King they always were without their God Moses was the first King in Jeshurun and he was only gone into the Mount for forty days and they set up a Golden Calf they make themselves a God if they want him whom the Lord makes so as he does the Magistrate If they have not a Prince that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 living Image of God then they must have an Idol When Moses his next successor was dead we read that the man Micah had an house of Gods and consecrated one of his Sons to be his Priest And truly he might make his Priest who made his Deities And the account of this is given in those days there was no King in Israel Jud. 17. 5 6. The very same is said ch 18. 1. to preface the Idolatry of the Tribe of Dan There was no heir of restraint as it is worded ver 7. It seems to curb impiety is the Princes Inheritance which 'till it be supprest he hath not what he is heir to But Vice will know no Boundaries if there be no King whose Sword is the only mound and fence against it for if we read on there 19 20 21. ch we shall find those dismal Tragedies of Lust and War the one of which did sin to death the Levites wife the other besides 40000. slain of them who had a righteous cause and whom God did bid fight destroyed also a Tribe in Israel These all sprang from the same occasion for so the story closes it In those days there was no king in Israel ch 21. 25. Just upon this when God in their necessities did raise them Judges that is Kings read all their story you will find to almost every several Judge there did succeed a several Idolatry God still complaining the Children of Israel did evil again after the death of such an one 'till he raised them another Those 450. years being devided all betwixt their Princes and their Idols After them Jeroboam he that made the great secession of that people from their Prince hath got no other Character from God but this the Man that did make Israel to sin at once against God and against their King Yea upon this account they are reckon'd by God to sin after both their Idolatry and State were ended when their calves and their Kingdom were destroyed Ezek. 4. 4 5. the Lord does bid the Prophet lie on his left side 390 days to bear the iniquity of Israel according to the number of the years of their iniquity But this was more then the years of their State which were only 255 390 years indeed there were betwixt the falling off of the Ten Tribes and the destruction of Jerusalem by the King of Babel but those ten Tribes were gone their Kingdom perfectly destroy'd above 130 years before But their iniquity was not it seems that does outlive their State so long as that God's Temple that King's house did stand from which they did divide As if Seditious men and schismaticks sin longer then they are even while those are whom they do sin against in separating from 'T is true there was an Ahaz and Manasseh in the house of David but Hezekiah and Josiah did succeed Mischief did not appear entail'd on Monarchy as 't is upon rebellion and having no King It does appear their Kings were guards also to God and his Religion the great defenders of his faith and worship God and the Prince for the most part stood and fell together Therefore St. Paul did afterwards advise to pray for Kings that we might live in godliness and honesty and still they were the same who sought the Lord their God and David their King But why David their King For could his Kingdom disappear and be to seek of whom the Lord had said I have sworn once by my Holiness I will not fail David Psal. 89. And his Throne therefore was as sure as God is holy But yet the Lord had said to the