the relicks onely of Christ's Church but also all the memory of the other cruelties when in one small Province in a month he put to death one hundred and fourty four thousand Christians banish'd seven hundred thousand more and proportionably so in other places thro the Roman world with such success that he took confidence to write on his triumphal Arches Deleto nomine Christiano as he had blotted out the very name of Christians then at the last gasp of his Church it pleas'd the Lord to raise up Constantine and strait the whole face of the world was Christian and Dioclesian himself liv'd to see it I might have instanced in our own so fresh deliverance but that it would not look like an incouragement it may be to rely and cast our selves again upon him if so soon we call upon our selves the same needs by the same wretchless methods and there are some they say that apprehend so And God knows the ruin of the Reformation and our Church hath from its first beginning bin still working by her restless indefatigable Enimies and hath often bin preserv'd onely on the account I am now speaking that when things are past all humane help then is God's set time for relief I know the Churches Adversaries brag of multitudes and they come up on every side close to her yea and which is worse we seem to labor to make God himself our Enimy or at least provoke him to desert that Chutch and Reformation we pollute so put out the Worship we unhallow and profane so by ill lives make those that will have nothing of Religion but some forms it may be loose them too and let them die for want of substance and the shew go out not leave so much as the hypocrisy of piety Indeed a flood of Atheism and contemt of all Religion and virtue looks like a just dereliction of them who would not let God be in their thoughts nor Religion or Morality in their actions Nay may it not look like a kindness to remove the Gospel which proves onely the savor of death unto death put out that light which men are but resolv'd to sin against Or can there be a greater mercy than to refuse all the means of mercy to such men as onely make them work out condemnation to them O Lord to us indeed belongs confusion of face but notwithstanding to the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses tho we have rebelled against him and as he knows how to reserve the ungodly to the day of Judgment to be punish'd he knows too how many thousand knees do bow to him in secret reckons all those tears that are pour'd out in Religion's and the Churches cause and how wicked soever the Professors of Religion the Church Members may be if the constitution of Religion and the Church themselves yet be not vitiated or defective there is hope still And truly whereas many blame the Reformation that it did not keep more hold upon the Consciences of the Community did not retain some power which altho not of Divine Institution but things warily and by degrees brought in as seeming to work towards piety and most certainly in humane ways of judging serving to procure more veneration and outward security of the Church and Religion to work out which the other consequential worldly interests we see the very scheme of some Professions not their discipline onely but their faith too is contriv'd I think on the other side if our Reformation instead of doing thus as it consulted not at first with carnal Politicks but Christ's institutions as the Scripture and other primitive Records conveied them and design'd no more to themselves than those bare naked Spiritual doctrines rights and powers which Christ gave them left to Cesar whatsoever was Cesar's knowing God had promis'd Kings should be their Nursing-fathers and to be so is part of their Office trusting therefore God and Governments with their protection and defence of Church and Religion So also if thro all succeeding times whether of flourish or depression and calamity Religion it self whatever its Professors are have retain'd always the same simplicity of principles be it self untainted not new model'd to serve ends or interests then whenever men shall begin to clip it I do not say in maintenance seizing what their Father's sacriledge had left them but I mean because ours did not so as other Churches grasp some usurpt power to secure their own shall therefore cut her Spiritual powers short so that they cannot serve the ends of piety because they know her Children will not cannot by their principles resist i. e. if they endeavor to destroy them for this reason that they make men the best Subjects and of the most Christian Principles that is persecute their Christianity it self and martyr that I must profess that it will look like God's set appointed time to arise and to have mercy upon Sion when it is expos'd a naked Orphan left to his protection onely then he cannot pass it by but when he sees it in its bloud thus he will say unto it live and tho he plague her wicked and ungracious Sons and possibly take away many of the good ones from the evil to come yet the Religion will not die Let them believe it hopeless who desire a pretence to leave it who do what they can to stab their Mother and make it a reason to forsake her then because she is so desperately wounded and let them declare it who design to betray men out of it But whether is wiser to believe these or the God from whom we have these promises and these experiences and the other grounds of trust Sure we know better whom we have believed especially since the very trust to him is an engagement to him not to fail us that 's my last ground 'T is it self a means prescrib'd us by himself Isaiah 50. 10. Who is he among you that feareth the Lord that walketh in darkness hath no light Let him trust in the name of the Lord stay upon his God There is nothing in the world that more engages any man that is not profligately false than trusting to him and for God there is no other piece of piety or virtue gives such honor to him his Attributes as sincere dependance on him do's It does acknowledge his Omniscience that he knows our needs be they never so perplext intricate knows how to help them his Omnipresence that he is at hand on all occasions his Omnipotence how he is able above all our possibility of want his Mercy Goodness Benignity in that he condescended to be willing to relieve us his Faithfulness Truth and Justice in observing his good promises and never failing them and his Immutability in all these and his other Attributes of loving kindness Now truly as our miseries requir'd all these so our trust to him gives him the glory of all these and therefore 't is no wonder if
evitavit Qua alii ambiunt Cui rectius visum Ecclesiam defendere instruere ornare Quam regere Laboribus studiisque perpetuis exhaustus Morte si quis alius praematura Obiit Vir desideratissimus Januarii XXVII An. M.DC.LXXX Aetatis LX. Nobile sibi monumentum Areae adjacentis latus occidentale Quod à fundamentis propriis impensis struxit Vivus sibi statuit Brevem hanc Tabellam Haeredes defuncto posuere TABLE of the First VOLUME 1 Pet. 4. 1. He that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin Pag. 1. Psalm 7â— 1. Truly God is loving to Israel even to such as are of a clean heart 15. Levit. 16. 31. Ye shall afflict your soul by a statute for ever 29. John 15. 14. Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you 43. Ezek. 33. 2. Why will ye die 57. Psalm 73. 25. Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee 69. Mark 1. 3. Prepare ye the way of the Lord. 81. 1 John 5. 4. This is the victory which overcometh the world even our faith 95. Gal. 2. 20. I am crucified with Christ. 109. Luke 9. 55. Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of 123. Luke 16. 30 31. Nay father Abraham but if one went unto them from the dead they will repent And he said unto him if they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be perswaded tho one rose from the dead 137. Luke 2. 34. Behold this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel and for a sign which shall be spoken against Pag. 151. James 4. 7. Resist the Devil and he will flee from you 165. Phil. 3. 18. For many walk of whom I have told you often and now tell you even weeping that they are the enimies of the cross of Christ. 181. Mark 10. 15. Verily I say unto you whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child he shall not enter therein 195. Acts 13. 2. The Holy Ghost said separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them 209. Hos. 3. 9. Afterwards shall the children of Israel return and seek the Lord their God and David their king and shall fear the Lord and his goodness 227. Matt. 5. 44. But I say unto you love your enimies bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you pray for them that despightfully use you and persecute you 243. TABLE of the Second VOLUME 2 Tim. 3. 15. And that from a child thou hast known the holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation thro faith which is in Christ Jesus Pag. 1. Rom. 6. 3. Know ye not that so many of us as were baptiz'd into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death 21. Matt. 9. 13. Go ye and learn what that meaneth I will have mercy and not sacrifice Pag. 36. Psalm 102. 13 14. Thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Sion for the time to favor her yea the set time is come For thy servants take pleasure in her stones and favor the dust thereof 50. Acts 24. 16. And herein I exercise my self to have alwaies a conscience void of offence towards God and towards man 65. Matt. 5. 4. Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted 79. 1 John 3. 3. Every man that has this hope in him purifies himself as he is pure 93. Isaiah 26. 20. Come my people enter thou into thy chambers and shut thy doors about thee hide thy self as it were for a little moment until the indignation be overpast 107. Matt. 11. 28. Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest 118. 1 Cor. 15. 57. Thanks be to God who giveth us the victory thro our Lord Jesus Christ. 133. Psalm 17. 15. As for me I will behold thy face in righteousness I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness 143. John 20. 28. My Lord and my God 157. Mark 9. 24. Lord I believe help thou my unbelief 170. Matt. 5. 16. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father which is in heaven 191. 2 Cor. 6. 2. Behold now is the accepted time behold now is the day of salvation 201. 2 Tim. 1. 12. I know whom I have believed 215. Luke 16. 8. The children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light 230. Matt. 6. 22 23. The light of the body is the eie if therefore thy eie be single thy whole body shall be full of light But if thy eie be evil thy whole body shall be full of darkness if therefore the light that is in thee be darkness how great is that darkness 247. Serm. 2. 261. Serm. 3. 272. Serm. 4. 284. Serm. 5. 296. THE Divine Autority AND USEFULNESS OF THE Holy Scripture ASSERTED IN A SERMON On the 2 Tim. 3. 15. And that from a child thou hast known the holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Iâ—sus THE words are part of St. Pauls reasoning by which he presseth Timothy to hold fast the truth he had receiv'd and not let evil men seducers work him out of what he had bin taught urging to this end both the autority of the Teacher himself who had secur'd the truth of his doctrine by infallible evidence and beyond that as if that were a more effectual enforcement pressing him with his own education in the Scriptures how he had bin nurst up in that faith suckt the Religion with his milk that it was grown the very habit of his mind that which would strengthen him into a perfect man in Christ and make him wise unto salvation if he did continue in the faith and practice of it which he proves in the remaining verses of the Chapter In the words read there are three things observable 1. Here is a state suppos'd Salvation and put too as of such concernment that attaining it is lookt upon as wisdom wise unto salvation Now since true wisdom must express it self both in the end that it proposeth and the means it chooseth for that end to be pursued with and attain'd by and take care both these have all conditions that can justifie the undertaking and secure the prudence of it and this wisedom to salvation therefore must suppose both theâ—e in order to them both we have here 2. That which with all divine advantage does propose this end and also does prescribe most perfect means for the attaining it and that is Holy Scripture through faith which is in Christ Jesus Thou hast known the holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus Holy Scripture probably of the Old Testament for there was hardly any other Timothy could know from a child scarce any other being written then The faith of
of it but should burst choakt with his greif because he had betray'd innocent blood This if he knew it had all bin imposture must be most stupendous But yet we will give them this too that vainglorious hopes of drawing in the world to follow them might make all of them obstinate in secresy against all attemts of cruelty or if some weak brethren did perchance discover we may not have heard of it But For them 3dly to begin their preaching at Jerusalem is yet more strange To hope to draw men into a perswasion and to bottom that perswasion upon Miracles and a Resurrection don amongst them there where if discovery were made it must be made and where it could not but be made if there were fraud For to relate and write those works with every circumstance of persons place and time where they not only could examin every circumstance but where they rather then their lives would find them false if nothing else would this must needs discover it They preach them to the face of the whole multitude and of the Pharisees and tell them they were don before their eyes somtimes 500 and somtimes 5000 being by and the cheif Preists and Pharisees and Doctors so that 't was most impossible they should not know if they were true or false as sure as there was never a Jew in all the Land but knew whether there were a darkness over all the land when Christ was crucified Now if these were forg'd to hope to draw Jews out of their Religion with apparent forgeries which they knew such speaks these Apostles men so far from art to manage a design of changing the Religion of the world that they were mad beyond recovery and president But let us give them that too Yet 't is certain 4thly that the Jews if any such were wrought on by them must be much more stupid to believe them upon the account of such things don in all the country in their Cities and the Temple before all the Nation when they could not choose but know they were not don if they were not don but were fain'd all For what ever might be motive to Christs Followers and his Apostles with the certain danger of their lives to forge the cheat what possible temtation could there be so great to incline Jews the most stiffnecked people the most stubborn in Religion in the world to embrace a faith which nothing but the Cross and shame and misery attended and which they must know false too Had they so great lust to dye as for that to bid farewel to their Moses their Religion and their Law It is impossible had they not known the truth of those things that in waters of affliction in Jerusalem ipsis persecutionum fontibus in that Fountain that spring-head of persecutions as the Fathers call it they would ever have bin baptiz'd into Christ. Yet suddenly in one day at one sermon of St Peter we read near 3000 were baptiz'd Acts 2. at another strait 5000 Acts 4. and such beginnings such sums are requir'd to make good what the Governor of Palestine Tiberianus tells the Emperor that he was not sufficient to put to death all those that confest themselves Christians All which must needs have either bin convinc't those things were true or else as well against their conscience as against the powers thus embrac't that faith and death together Neither was this a first surprize of Christianity as it had seiz'd mens minds at unawares for it went on conquering till the world came into it receiving the Religion with the loss of all that was dear to them in this world For in one age from Christs death what with the Apostles sermons miracles and writings also to confirm and keep men in the truth and to conveigh it better to posterity and their Disciples after them who went forth delivering those writings preaching on and doing wonders also very many Nations are recorded by Historians as converted almost wholly And the truth of it is evident since nothing but almost whole Nations nor yet they but as buoy'd up by the wonders and the graces of Gods spirit ever could be able to endure or be sufficient to employ the Swords the Flames the Lions and the other numberless tortures which the Jews and Nero and Domitian and above all Trajan in that first age rag'd with till they made their Cities villages and provinces so desolate that the Proconsul Pliny being frighted with the multitude of murder'd Christians did advise with him about relaxing his edicts as he himself assures us It was the same the next age when the power of Miracles yet liv'd and those which Christ himself wrought were scarce all dead some liv'd till near that time who rose up with him at his resurrection when these books writ by the will of God to be the pillar and foundation of mens faith in after ages as saith Irenaeus in that age were also read in the assemblies weekly when not only those that did assemble were by Hadrian martyr'd but they put men to their oaths to find out whether they were Christians that they might massacre them And in the third it was the like when Miracles they say were not yet ceast yet sure the greatest was the constancy of Christians in adhering to this book and patience in suffering for it For they report the sands on the sea shore almost as easy to be numbred as the Martyrs of that age what by Valerian Decius Maximinus and Severus but especially by Dioclesian who put so many men to death for not delivering up their Bibles to be burnt and refusing to Sacrifice to his Gods as if he meant to have depopulated the whole earth And this is as notorious as that men do now profess that they are Christians and that these are holy Scriptures Therefore I shall need to go no further Now among so many myriads who on the account of all these Miracles whate're they were suffer'd themselves to be converted to the faith of Christ and then as if they car'd for nothing but Religion and their Bibles for them bore the loss of goods and life it self and engag'd their posterity to do so also that not one of these should know whether indeed any such miracles were wrought if any were restor'd to life or no for if they knew then they were true and that among so numberless a crowd of teachers who by assuming to speak languages raise the dead work signs drew in those Myriads to Religion and the stake and went before them gave them an example both in faith and death that not one of all those should believe either the Miracles or himself that did them for if any one that did them did believe them since he knew who did them they must needs be certain but not one of them to know it sure is such a thing as neither could be don nor be imagin'd He therefore
that account thy rod comforts us our correction is joyous we take pleasure in the stones of Sion and we favor love her dust the other Symtom They prize her reliques wht is standing of her and since 't is on their account namely thro their demerit that she is so low and weak they are more tender love and pity her more in that condition which they brought her into will do what they can to raise her pulverem ejus evehere cupiunt in the Tigurine Translation 'T is true indeed the stones of Sion in the dust are apt to become stones of stumbling and rocks of offence as St Peter saith of the chief corner stone of Sion Christ hmself 1 Pet. 2. 8. whereat many stumble and fall We had fatal experience how when once the building was disorder'd the subordination broken the Church offices and powers thrown down on the one side Sion strait became like Babel every one almost spoke a strange language and so built by himself built up divided Faiths and Churches and Religions on the other side that broken tottering State made many run away as from a falling Church take shelter in another and what the Cross of Christ was to the Jews that the Cross of his Spouse too was to many pretended Christians a ground to renounce her They no sooner saw their Mother wounded naked in the dust but they concluded her fit to be buried and ran from her as from the house of death as if in the noblest way of sufferings to follow Christ could look like the mark of being Anti-Christian and the yet unsettled state of it is made great use of for the same intents her stones are laid on purpose to be stones of stumbling and to give occasion of falling And truly 't is to be confest that since the bonds of Government which kept men under discipline were unloos'd and since the Churches Ministeries and her Powers are cut so short that they are not so effectual to the ends of their institution to work out a strict Christian life as were to be wisht and since men are divided so by claims of several Churches and by fearful expectations also both the Coversations and the Faiths of men too are grown loose and dissolute and 't was not the least Stratagem of our Adversaries to contrive men should be such as could while they continue such find Sanctuary no where but in their Church at their Altars whether they have but to come to be absolv'd of all But truly 't is extreme barbarity in us when 't is on our account by our demerits for our punishment that she is distressed that fears and dangers press upon her then to sleight her if when we see our Mother gasping then to throw dirt at her make her mouth her mouth be stopt with the reports of her ungodly offspring the reproches of a pointing Scorner that shall cry see how her Sons behave themselves how little love or pity they have for her He favors her stones that beautifies and guilds them with inscriptions of Religious actions this if any thing will raise them and repair her And truly'tis to be expected from the men that do pretend to have the pity and the sorrow that is due to their Mother whom the powers of Hell seem arm'd against to ruin her so far as she 's disabled should themselves supply to themselves what is wanting if her discipline be loosen'd and she have no strong ties on mens actions we should do her work upon us put obligations fetters on our selves 'T is probable this very state of Sion in the text was that which Nehemiah labour'd to repair and see how he effected it c. 9. after a most solemn fasting and confession and bemoaning rather of their guilts then sufferings in the 10th himself the Princes and the Priests and Levites and he rest of all the People with their Wives their Sons and Daughters that were come to understanding entred into a curse and into an oath to walk in Gods Law and to observe and do all the Commandments of the Lord our God his Judgments and his Statutes v. 29. Here was a cement would compact the Stones of Sion the whole building against all assaults whatever seat her in her perfect height and beauty It is not he loves her who curses them that laid her in the dust but he who enters such a curse of serving God 't is not he favors her dust who wishes talks or swears on the Churches side but he that humbles himself daily in the dust in her confessions and Prayers he who binds himself with such an obligation to worship and serve God faithfully as she prescribes this will help to raise her make her visible in the lives of her Children and when the dust of Sion shall have a more perfect Resurrection in this world and this of Christ shall as his other body rise out of the earth it will be comfortable to each one that put his hands to the repairs that did but fit one stone to it that would not let God rest till he had establisht our Jerusalem again a praise in the Earth Then God almighty would be importun'd prevail'd upon to put it in the hearts of those men whose part 't is to secure our Sion and repair her breaches to build by a true line and level make such an establishment as may be fitted not to the satisfying parties factions interests or any human appetites but the just obligations or Religion not build weakly fearing as it were the Churches strength should aw men in their practices that the weapons of her warfare should gall their vices besides that their own strong holds may be still able to hold out and not be beat down by her forces for this were to model the structure of Sion to mens own and to their sins convenience But to build her up so as that the profession and the practice of true Religion may be preserv'd safe and Gods Worship kept intire that upon our one onely foundation the rock Christ Jesus we may be built up with a lively faith into an holy life all cemented by Charity and all divisions be made up and we may with one heart and one voice meet and join in giving Glory Honor c SERMON V. OF THE EXERCISE OF CONSCIENCE In the avoiding of Offence towards God and Men. Acts 24. 16. And herein do I exercise my self to have alwaies a conscience void of offence towards God and towards man MY text is the sum of a Christians practical duty for as St Paul had in the verse before set down his faith and hope here he sets down his workings In the words we have 1. The state of that duty exprest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a onscience void of offence 2. That is brancht out into its several respects 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 towards God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and towards man and those either 1. As the objects of that which a good conscience endeavors
their lusts advance but their lusts are their plague and torment them and they extremely hate and curse those things which they do passionately desire Now that habitual Sinner his sins they are his emploiment his delight too he longs as those other but he satisfies also and finds pleasure in them and then if those others be fit company for the Devils onely canst thou believe thy self fit company for Christ that he should bid thee come to him No begin to act thy Hell a little sooner account them here thy torments hate them in time perceive them to be burdens while they may be laid down and then come unto Christ and he will give thee rest And evermore O Lord give us of thy rest a rest from sin here and a rest from misery eternally Yea O Lord give us to labor and to find trouble under that intolerable burden of our guilt that we may with eager hast fly to the refreshment that we perverse obdurate Sinners whom thy mercies cannot invite our own miseries may force to be happy and tho our wickednesses are multiplied into an infinite mass and weight yet despise us not when we fall under them for thou didst invite us to come and bring all that load to thee despise us not tho heavy laden for thou thy self didst bear this weight and didst die under it And O thou who didst thy self thus suffer by reason of this load pity us that labor with it ease us of the burden of our former guilt free us from the slavery of our iniquity from bearing any longer Sathan's loads then shall we at last sit down with thee in the Land of everlasting rest deliver'd from all weights but that eternal weight of glory and resting from all labors save that of praising thee and ascribing all Honor Power Praise Might Majesty and Dominion to Father Son and holy Ghost for evermore SERMON X. OF THE CHRISTIANS VICTORY Over Death Sin and the Law 1 Cor. 15. 57. Thanks be to God which giveth us the victory thro our Lord Jesus Christ. THE words are the close of an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Song of joy and triumph for a victory Now a victory supposeth Enimies and the verse before names them and the Text shews us the means that they art conquer'd by and who they are that are partakers of the Victory I shall declare and treat of both 1. The Enimies here mention'd and we may account them three if that which gives both aid and strength to fortifies our Enimy be so as sure it is 1. Here is Death which sin arms with a sting and do's envenome it 2. Sin it self empower'd and strengthned by the Law 3. That Law also In the second place here are the means by which the Victory is gotten and for whom us the victory thro Jesus In handling all which I shall shew First that the Law gives Sin all its strength and how it do's so 2ly That Sin is the sting of Death and how it is so 3ly That by Christ both the Law which is the strength of Sin is taken away and Sin which is the sting of Death pull'd out and so both Sin and Death so weaken'd that they cannot hurt now and they shall be swallowed up in perfect victory and who they are all this is don for Of these all in this order which I crave leave to speak to directly without any least diverting from the Text or Subject First I am to speak of the first preparations that are made against us in behalf of our Enimies and that is to shew you that the Law gives all the strength to Sin which it hath and how it do's so Sin hath its very being from Law it being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the transgression of the Law 1 John 3. 4. and Sin is not imputed where there is no Law Rom. 5. 13. yea where there is no Law there is no transgression c. 4. 15. But this is not all for in the Law besides the Precepts there is also Sanction and it lays a twofold obligation first to duty secondly upon transgression to punishment 1. To duty and that perfect and unsinning strict obedience for the terms are these Cursed is he that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the Law to do them And to this the whole man is oblig'd the soul as well as body caro spiritus Dei res est saith Tertull. God made the soul as well as body one 's his creature as much as the other and the one hath as much reason then to pay him honor and obedience as the other if indeed the spirit hath not much more to obey him in its own motions and actings than in those of the body which are onely under it and guided by it So that thoughts are criminal against this Law as well as doings by them the Soul fulfils its part of the transgression more it may be than its own share while it robs the Flesh seizes its satisfactions and makes them her own against her nature And indeed whatever part the Law is broken and transgrest by 't is transgression and sin still whether by the mind for lust when it hath conceived onely sin is then begotten James 1. 15. or by the tongue for of every idle word we must give an account at the day of Judgment Matth. 12. 36. and by thy words thou shalt be condemn'd Or lastly by the works So that according to the Tenor of this strict and severe Law whatever we can do or indeed whatever we do not is Sin besides commissions that are sinful there is still defect and so transgression in our thoughts our words and deeds even in the best and in not doing also there 's omission and so failing But besides this severe obligation of the Law to duty upon this our faileur there is a severer obligation 2. To punishment for every sin is cursed as we saw Upon this account the Law saith St Paul worketh wrath Rom. 4. 15. we are children of wrath Eph. 2. 3. whose inheritance is destruction and who are of right to possess onely the sad issues of God's indignation for to this the Law condemns us all by reason of our Sins and upon that account the Law is said to be the strength of Sin Because by force and vertue of this threatning of the Law we that have sinned are therefore liable and obnoxious to the condemnation of it And this I take to be the meaning of that place Rom. 7. 7 8 9 10. I had not known sin but by the law for I had not known concupiscence except the law had said thou shalt not covet But sin taking occasion by the commandment wrought in me all manner of concupiscence for without the law sin was dead but when the commandment came sin revived and I died and the commandment which was ordain'd to life I found to be unto death The Apostle's drift here is not to evince how the
at a price he became our Lord Ye are bought with a price 1 Cor. 7. 23. They that do not acknowledge this are in the number of those men of whom St Peter speaks Epist. 2. c. 2. v. 1. denying the Lord that bought them and bring upon themselves swift destruction and you may judge what kind of Lord he ought to be by the price he paid for the Title what service he expected by the rates at which he purchased them even at the bloud of God Acts 20. 28. He died I told you that he might be Lord. And now Lord what is thy servant that thou shouldst thus value him or what are his performances that thou shouldst buy them at these rates And shall I give to Sin or Sathan those services which he thus values and thus buys No if thou art content to purchase that so dear which was thy own just due before surely now by all rights thou art My Lord. But 3. He is so also by my own most solemn contract and engagement And to pass by all the rest and to stick to that of this day onely we did contract so in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper and in receiving that we did most solemnly assume to do him faithful service and took him for our Lord. And this would easily appear from hence if Christ's bloud be the price with which he bought the right to be thy Lord and this day thou didst come and here didst take that bloud to all those ends and uses it was given for then in so doing thou didst ratify the contract and take possession of the relation but to do it more solemnly and here I will not stand upon that proof which I have formerly made to you from the account that Pliny gave to Trajan the persecuting Emperor tho truly it be strange that a Heathen should discern this was the meaning of their Sacrament and Christians will not believe it He when he was emploied to persecute the Christians tells him what he had found of them by racking some and by confessions of others at their death Soliti stato die convenire seque Sacramento obstringere ne furta ne latrocinia ne adulteria committerent c. to take an oath they knew no other sense of the word Sacrament to do what their Lord had commanded them What have you don this day Why Christ was sworn your Lord this day and you have taken an oath of service entred into a bond of duty and obedience and if you wilfully shall fail of doing this your Worships will be brought against you your Communions will come in as so many evidences that you have forfeited so many oaths that you have broken No sure I will henceforwards tie my self to better performance for I have hamper'd my self with obligations entangled my self with one other engagement I have again sworn at the Altar Thou art my Lord. But I have a more solemn proof of this that he who comes to the renewing of a Covenant with God now Christ we know saith that that cup is the new Covenant in his bloud he does enter into an oath of God Deut. 29. from verse 10. to 15. Ye stand this day all of you before the Lord your God your captains of your tribes your elders and your officers with all the men of Israel your little ones your wives and thy stranger that is in thy camp from the hewer of thy wood unto the drawer of thy water that thou shouldest enter into covenant with the Lord thy God and into his oath which the Lord thy God maketh with thee this day that he may establish thee to day for a people unto himself and that he may be unto thee a God as he hath said unto thee and as he hath sworn unto thy fathers to Abraham to Isaac and to Jacob neither with you onely do I make this covenant and this oath but with him that standeth here with us this day before the Lord our God and also with him that is not here with us this day Now out of this they who are not convinc'd that our first entring Covenant with God by Baptism is a vow altho the Church require that we should look upon it under that Solemnity and tho St Peter call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a stipulation or if they think it something like it yet 't is a vow but in the childrens name and so it does not strike those apprehensions of so sacred an engagement into them themselves may see here at an entring Covenant little ones entring into an oath and this was not the first giving of the Covenant that so any thing might be thought peculiar to that but onely a repeting of the Covenant in their presence verse 1. and least that we should think their standing there in solemn manner might imply something more than ordinary verse 14. 15. take us that stand here this day before the Lord our God but also with him that shall be born hereafter Many expositors and the Jerusalem Exposition says with all the generations of you that are to come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if they stood with us this day And the Targum of Jon. Vziel says they do stand that is as to this intent and purpose that as soon as they are admitted into Covenant by Circumcision they are within this oath Littles ones therefore that can be admitted into a Covenant by receiving of the sign of it they then enter an oath of keeping it And then my Brethren we have entred an oath to continue Christ's faithful Soldiers and Servants unto our lives end and that is thou and I and every one have sworn he is my Lord. O my Savior I was baptized and at that time did swear service and then if I should fail thee now I renounce my Allegiance I go from my fealty and I throw of my Covenant Every evil action I deliberately commit brands me with the dishonorable base stile of one that slights his oaths there is no hold of his vows not his most sacred ones those that he makes to God Every vain or passionate oath how true soever speaks me perjured the draughts of intemperance would wash off the water of my Christendom every unclean lust every impurity of Flesh or Spirit does as it were bemire and wipe out my contract with my Lord. For I covenanted to be pure and clean for I was wash'd into the very name of his retainer I could not have that title of that relation without being cleansed There I did swear defiance against all his Enimies the Devil World and Flesh and all worldly and carnal lusts that I would neither follow not be led by them and if I should serve them now I should be a Rebel and a Traitor to my Lord against my bond and covenant and oath No my Lord I will not serve these where death must be my wages the Fiends my Comrades and my Conquest Hell I 'le not do homage to destruction
Bones Psal. Cix 17 18 19. And truly amongst those things which we did Curse there are that will fulfill all that most literally the Riots of thy gaudy bravery that make thee gripe extort spend thy own Wealth and other mens undo thy self and Creditors be sordid and in Debt meerly to furnish trappings to dress thy self for others eyes and may be sins these bring a Curse to cover thee as does thy Garment yea and they gird it to thee The draughts of thy Intemperance carry the malediction down into the Bowels like Water yea like the Wine into the very Spirits There is another of them too that will conveigh the Curse like Oil into the Bones till it eat out the marrow and leave nothing but it self to dwell within them yea till it putrefie the Bones till it prevent the Grave and Judgment too while the living Sinner invades the rottenness of the one and torments of the other and then the Lents and abstinencies that the sin prescribes shall be observed exactly onely to qualifie them for more sin and condemnation may be at the best but to recover them from what it hath inflicted when â—et alas they are too soft and tender the Lord knows to endure any â—rities to work out their Repentance and Atonement and yet sure â—se the Sinner does go through have nothing to commend them which these others do not much more abound with If those are not grievous to thee because they are so wholesom and though it be a miserable thing to go through all their painful squalid methods yet how disgustful soever by the benefit of their Cure they excuse their offensiveness and ingratiate the present injury they do the Flesh by the succeeding health they help thee to and by the Death they do secure thee from Why sure to omit that the other have all these advantages none have so calm and so establish'd health as the abstemious and continent and their mind is still serene their temper never clouded but besides this the Christians bitter Potions do purge away that sickness that would end in Death eternal his fastings starve that worm that otherwise would gnaw the Soul immortally his weepings quench the everlasting burnings yea there is chearful Pleasure in the midst of these severities when God breaks in in Comforts into them The Glory of the Lord appears in that Cloud too that is upon the penitent sad heart when he is drench'd in tears the Holy Ghost the Comforter does move upon those waters and breaths Life and Salvation into them and he who is the Vnction pours Oil into those wounds of the Spirit and we are never nearer Heaven than when we are thus prostrate in the lowest dust and when our Belly cleaveth unto the ground in humble penitence then we are at the very Throne of Grace And this our light afflicting of the Soul which is but for a moment does work for us a far more exceeding weight of Glory To which c. The Fourth SERMON Preached at WHITE-HALL October 12. 1662. JOHN XV. 14. Ye are my Friends if ye do whatsoever I Command you THE words are a conditional Assertion of Christ's concerning his Apostles and in them all Christians And they do easily divide themselves into two parts The First is a positive part wherein there is a state of great and Blessed advantage which they are declared to be in present possession of In these words Ye are my Friends In which there are two things that make up that advantage 1. A Relation 2. The Person related to Friends and My Friends The Second is a Conditional part wherein there are the terms upon which that Possession is made over and which preserve the Right and Title to them in these words If ye do whatsoever I command you in which there are two things required as Conditions I. Obedience If ye do what I command you II. That Obedience Universal If ye do whatsoever I command you The first thing that offers it self to our consideration is the Relation Friends It is a known common-place Truth that a Friend is the most useful thing that is in whatsoever state we are It is the Soul of life and of content If I be in prosperity We know abundance not enjoy'd is but like Jewels in the Cabinet useless while they are there It is indeed nothing but the opinion of Prosperity But 't is not possible to enjoy abundance otherwise than by communicating it a man possesseth plenty onely in his Friends and hath fruition of it meerly by bestowing it If I be in adversity to have a person whom I may intrust a trouble to whose bosom is as open and as faithful to me as 't is to his own thoughts to which I may commit a swelling secret this is in a good measure to unlade and to pour out my sorrow from me thus I divide my grievances which would be insupportable if I did not disburthen my self of some part of them Now there is no bosom so safe as that where friendship lodges take Gods Opinion in the case Deut. xiii 6. If thy Brother the Son of thy Mother or thy Son or thy Daughter or the Wife of thy bosom or thy Friend that is as thine own Soul This is the highest step in the Gradation And there is all the reason in the World for though Parent and Child are as near one to other as any thing can be to part of it self Husband and Wife are but two different names of the same one yet these may become bitter and unkind A Parent may grow cross or a Child refractory a Mother may be like the Ostrich in the Wilderness throw off her bowels with her burthen and an ungracious Son is constant pangs and travail to his Mother his whole life gives her after-throws which are most deadly Dislikes also may rest within the Marriage-Bed and lay their heads upon two wedded Pillows but none of these unkindnesses can untie the Relation that ends not where the bitterness begins he is a Parent still though froward and a Child though stubborn but a true Friend can be nothing but kind it does include a dearness in its essence which is so inseparable from it that they begin and end together A man may be an Husband without loving but cannot be a lover that is a Friend without loving And sure to have no one Friend in this Life no one that is concerned in any of my interests or me my self none that hath any cares or so much as good wishes for me is a state of a most uncomfortable prospect The Plague that keeps Friends at a distance from me while I live out of the sphere of my infection and after gives me Death hath yet less of Malignity than this that leaves me the Compassions the Prayers all the solitary Comforts all indeed but the outward entertainments of my Friends that though it shut the Door against all company yet puts a Lord have Mercy on the Door But this
of this World can entertain and slatter Thus they did and thus they did prevail For the first Ages of the Church were but so many Centuries of Men that entertained Christianity with the Contempt of the World and Life it self They knew that to put themselves into Christ's Service and Religion was the same thing as to set themselves aside for spoil and Rapine dedicate themselves to Poverty and Scorn to Racks and Tortutes and to Butchery it self Yet they enter'd into it did not onely renounce the Pomps and Vanities of the World in their Baptism when they were new born to God quench their affections to them in those waters but renounc'd them even to the death drown'd their affections to them in their own heart bloud ran from the World into flames and fled faster from the satisfactions and delights of Earth than those flames mounted to their own Element and Sphere In fine they became Christians so as if they had been Candidates of death and onely made themselves Apprentises of Martyrdom Now if it were not possible it should be otherwise than thus as the World stood then it was necessary that the Captain of Salvation should lead on go before this noble Army of Martyrs if it were necessary that they must leave all who followed him then it was not possible that he should be here in a state of Plenty Splendor and Magnificence but of Poverty and Meanness giving an Example to his followers whose condition could not but be such To give which Example was it seems of more necessity than by being born in Royal Purple to prevent the fall of many in Israel who for his condition despis'd him I am not so vain as to hope to persuade any from this great Example here to be in love with Poverty and with a low condition by telling them this Birth hath consecrated meanness that we must not scorn those things in which our God did chuse to be install'd that Humility is it seems the proper dress for Divinity to shew it self in But when we consider if this Child had been born in a condition of Wealth and Greatness the whole Nation of the Jews would have received him whereas that he chose prov'd an occasion of falling to them Yet that God should think it much more necessary to give us an Example of Humility and Poverty below expression then it was necessary that that whole Nation should believe on him When of all the Virgins of that People which God had to chuse one out to overshadow and impregnate with the Son of God he chose one of the meanest for he hath regarded the low estate of his Handmaiden said she and one of the poorest too for she had not a Lamb to offer but was purified in formâ pauperis When he would reveal this Birth also that was to be the joy of the whole Earth he did it to none of that Nation but a few poor Shepherds who were labouring with midnight-watches over their Flocks none of all the great Ones that were then at ease and lay in softs was thought worthy to have notice of it Lastly when the Angels make that poverty a sign to know the Saviour by This shall be a sign unto you You shall â—ind the Babe wrap'd in swadling cloaths and laid in a Manger As if the Manger were sufficient testimony to the Christ and this great meanness were an evidence 't was the Messiah From all these together we may easily discover what the temper is of Christianity You see here the Institution of your Order the First born of the Sons of God born but to such an Estate And what is so original to the Religion what was born and bred with it cannot easily be divided from it Generatio Christi generatio populi Christiani natalis Capitis natalis Corporis The Body and the Head have the same kind of Birth and to that which Christ is born to Christianity it self is born Neither can it ever otherwise be entertain'd in the heart of any man but with poverty of spirit with neglect of all the scorns and the Calamities yea and all the gaudy glories of this World with that unconcernedness for it that indifference and simple innocence that is in Children He that receiveth not the Kingdom of Heaven as a little Child cannot enter thereinto saith Christ True indeed when the Son of God must become a little Child that he may open the Kingdom of Heaven to Believers Would you see what Humility and lowliness becomes a Christian see the God of Christians on his Royal Birth-day A Person of the Trinity that he may take upon him our Religion takes upon him the form of a Servant and He that was equal with God must make himself of no Reputation if he mean to settle and be the Example of our Profession And then when will our high spirits those that value an huâ—â— of Reputation more than their own Souls and set it above God himself when will these become Christian Is there any more uncouth or detestable thing in the whole World than to see the great Lord of Heaven become a little one and Man that 's less than nothing magnifie himself to see Divinity empty it self and him that is a Worm swell and be puffed up to see the Son of God descend from Heaven and the Sons of Earth climbing on heaps of Wealth which they pile up as the old Gyants did Hills upon Hills as if they would invade that throne which he came down from and as if they also were set for the fall of many throwing every body down that but stands near them either in their way or prospect Would you see how little value all those interests that recommend this World are of to Christians see the Founder of them chuse the opposite extream Not onely to discover to us that these are no accessions to felicity This Child was the Son of God without them But to let us see that we must make the same choice too when ever any of those interests affront a Duty or solicite a good Conscience whensoever indeed they are not reconcilable with Innocence Sincerity and Ingenuity It was the want of this disposition and temper that did make the Jews reject our Saviour They could not endure to think of a Religion that would not promise them to fill their basket and to set them high above all Nations of the Earth and whose appearance was not great and splendid but look'd thin and maigre and whose Principles and Promises shew'd like the Curses of their Law call'd for sufferings and did promise persecution therefore they rejected him that brought it and so this Child was for the fall of many in Israel 2. This Child is for the fall of many by the holiness of his Religion while the strictness of the Doctrine which he brings by reason of mens great propensions to wickedness and their inability to resolve against their Vices
the practice of those men who minding Earthly things and all their wisdom lying as to them they therefore think themselves concern'd to represent the Doctrines of the Cross which does so contradict their wisdom as meer madness and the Cross it self as the Ensign of folly And accordingly they do treat it en ridicul and make the proper Doctrines of it the strict duties of Religion matter for their jests and bitter scoffs They character Religion as a worship that befits a God whose shape the Primitive persecutors painted Christ in Deus Onochaetes as if Christianity were proper Homage onely to an Asses person as Tertullian words it And the Votaries transform'd by this their service and made like the God they worship were what they were call'd then Asinarii creatures onely fit for burthen to bear what they magnifie a Cross and scorns No persecutions are so mortal as those that Murther the reputation of a thing or person not so much because when that is fallen once then they cannot hope to stand as because those murder after death and poison memory killing to immortality They were much more kind to Religion and more innocent that cloath'd the Christians in the skins of Bears and Tygers that so they might be worried into Martyrdom Than they that cloath their Christianity in fools Coat that so it may be laugh'd to death go out in ignominy and into contempt If to sport with things of sacred and Eternal consequence were to be forgiven yet to do it with the Cross of Christ Thus to set that out as foolishness which is the greatest mystery the Divine wisdom hath contriv'd to make mercy and truth meet together righteousness and peace kiss each other to make sin be punish'd yet the Sinner pardoned Thus to play and sin upon those dire expresses of Gods indignation against sin are things of such a sad and dangerous concern that S. Paul could not give a caution against them but with tears For many walk saith he of whom I have told you often and now tell you even weeping c. Which calls me to my last Consideration Indeed the Cross of Christ does represent Almighty God in so severe a shape and gives the lineaments of so fierce displeasures against sin as do exceed all comprehension There was a passion in Christs Prayer to prevent his Passion when he deprecated it with strong cries and tears yea when his whole body wept tears as of bloud to deprecate it and yet he cryed more dreadfully when he did suffer it The Nails that bor'd his Hands the Spear that pierc'd his Heart and made out-lets for his Bloud and Spirits did not wound him as that sting of death and torments sin did which made out-lets for God to forsake him and which drove away the Lord that was himself out of him Neither did his God forsake him only but his most Almighty attributes were engag'd against him Gods Holiness and Justice were resolv'd to make Christ an example of the sad demerit of Iniquity and his hatred of it Demerit so great as was valuable with the everlasting punishment of the World fal'n Angels and fal'n Men for to that did it make them liable Now that God might appear to hate it at the rate of its deservings it was very necessary that it should be punish'd if not by the execution of that sentence on Mankind as on the Devils yet by something that might be proportionable to it so to let us see the measures God abhors it by to what degrees the Lord is just and holy by those torments torments answerable to those attributes Now truly when we do reflect on this we cannot wonder if the Sinner be an enemy to the Cross and hate the prospect of it which does give him such a perfect copy of his expectations when our Saviours draught which he so trembled at shall be the everlasting portion of his Cup For if God did so plague the imputation of Iniquity how will he torment the wilful and impenitent commission of it But then when we consider those torments were the satisfaction for the sins of man methinks the Sinner should be otherwise affected to them Christ by bearing the Cross gave God such satisfaction as did move him in consideration thereof to dispence with that strict Law which having broken we were forfeit to eternal Death and to publish an act of Grace whereby he does admit all to pardon of sins past and to a right to everlasting Life that will believe on him forsake their sins and live true Christians He there appears the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the World for that he does as being a Lamb slain then he was our Sacrifice and that Cross the Altar And the humbled Sinner that repents for notwithstanding satisfaction God will not accept a Sinner that goes on by all those Agonies his holiness would not be justified if when he had forsaken and tormented his own Son for taking sin upon him he should yet receive into his favour and his Heaven Sinners that will not let go but will retain their sins but the penitent may plead this expiation Lo here I poor Soul prostrate at the footstool of the Cross lay hold upon the Altar here 's my Sacrifice on which my fins are to be charg'd and not on me although so foul I am I cannot pour out tears sufficient to cleanse me yet behold Lord and see if there ever were any Sorrow like the sorrow of thy Son wherewith thou didst afflict him for these sins of mine And here is Bloud also his Bloud to wash me in and that Bloud is within the Vail too now and that my Offering taken from the Cross up to thy Throne thou hast accepted it and canst not refuse it now my Advocate does plead it and claims for me the advantage of the Cross. Now that men should be Enemies to this and when they are forfeit to eternal Ruine hate that which is to redeem the forfeiture that they should trample on the Cross whereon their satisfactions were wrought tread down the Altar which they have but to lay hold on and be safe wage war with beat off and pursue a Lamb that Lamb of God that comes to take away their sins and make a spoil and slaughter of their Sacrifice hostilely spill upon the ground that Bloud that was appointed for their Bloud upon the Altar for their blood of sprinkling and was to appear in Heaven for them If men resolve to be on terms of Duel with their God and scorn that Satisfaction shall be made for them by any other way than by defiance and although their God do make the satisfactions for them to himself yet not endure it but chuse quarrel rather this is so perverse and fatal an hostility as no tears are sufficient to bewail But possibly men sleight these satisfactions because some terms are put upon them which they know not how to comport with the merits of the
Cities might be spar'd in fine when once they have wrought out the measure of God's mercies and their iniquity is full it is no wonder if the measure of their Judgment be full too and it self irreversible and utter But yet tho in all these Judgments whether partial or final Innocent and Righteous persons suffer with the wicked All things come alike to all there is one event to the clean and to the unclean to him that sacrificeth and to him that sacrificeth not as is the good so is the sinner and he that sweareth as he that feareth an oath Ecclesiastes 9. 2. So as that it should seem the sincere Christian can no more depend than others or if he do his trust will fail him yet to omit the reasons of this dispensation of God's Providenc which are many very just ones that alone sufficeth good men in the midst of all such Judgments to depend upon which St Paul writes on the very account of such distresses and necessities Rom. 8. 28. We know that all things work together for good to them that love God even those afflictions working for them a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory 2 Cor. 4. 17. They are God's words and so trusting and depending on them we know whom we have believed namely God the person and my last part wherein I am to enquire on what accounts especially he that does depend upon him in these cases hath assurance such as that he can profess I know whom I have believed Now there is scarce that Attribute in God which is not a firm ground for resignation of our selves to and of reliance on him But to pass all those which are every where in God's Book to be met with and are urg'd with all advantage and to name two other onely First 't is certain that we may with the most comfortable hope and greatest confidence rely on him who when we have most need is readiest to relieve As we read in the Scripture of an accepted time of the day of Salvation to let us know that it is not to be catcht in every season as if whensoever we shall have a mind to be delivered and ask for it God must hearken and command deliverances no sure there are proper set times and we must be unwearied in waiting for it so also ordinarily that the time of greatest need is God's opportunity and the day of extremity the day of Salvation is obvious All other times he tries us and does exercise our virtues but when we are past all other help then he relieves us Therefore David is most peremtory with the Lord on that account Psalm 102. 13 14. Thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Sion for it is time that thou have mercy upon her yea the time is come And why thy servants think upon her stones and it pitieth them to see her in the dust and Psalm 9. 9. The Lord also will be a refuge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 LXXII in opportunitatibus in tribulatione in the true opportunity that is when trouble comes And we shall find a reason for this way of working in his Praier Psalm 109. 26 27. O save me according to thy mercy that they may know that this is thy hand and that thou Lord hast don it When we are in such distress as is past man's aid then if deliverance come we cannot chuse but know the hand when we are in darkness and dimness of anguish and if we look unto the earth behold nothing but darkness as of the shadow of death then if any light arise we know it is the day-spring from on high that visits us And if besides this reason and those Texts we but consult the Annals of God's actings we shall find it always thus and not to mention those that refer to particular persons of which Joseph's single story is a manifold instance which also gave birth to those great events which shall make up a demonstration that this is the way of God's procedure In Egypt when the design was laid so that the People of Israel could not have lasted longer than one Age for posterity was forbidden and the Nation was to be murder'd by a prohibition of being born and when they could not to avoid this persecution get out thence except the sea would at once make a passage for them and a wall and rampart to secure that passage and if it also should do so it would but land them in a wilderness and they but fled from water to perish for want of it and escapt being drown'd to die with thirst a place too where unless the desert can bring forth the bread of Heaven unless Flesh and Manna can grow there where nothing grew they have but chang'd their fate and brought themselves into a more unavoidable and speedy ruin when this state of exigence was come then God comes in by weak means a stammering tongue and little rod works all deliverance And again afterwards in the captivity of that Nation a state which Jeremy the Prophet when he had bewailed in sorrowful eloquence in lamentations that live still yet wish'd his head had bin a fountain of tears to weep for it when in seventy years the people was so mixt incorporated with their Conquerors as must needs be very hard to separate and tear them asunder and as for their Temple it was ruin'd and despoil'd of all its holy furniture which was not onely rob'd but desecrated and profan'd so as not to be likely nor scarce fit to be returned the vessels of the Sanctuary being made the utensils of their Idol-feasts and their own riots and those holy bowls made up their drunkeness as well as sacriledge yet when these conquering Robbers were enjoying their spoils and crimes as if wine in those holy bowls did stupity men past all sense they and the great Babylon are taken ere they knew it and the Jews return strait follow'd Again when Cestius Gallus had sate down before Jerusalem at the Feast of Tabernacles when the Nation being oblig'd by their Religion was all in that City and the Christians of the Land were there too after several assaults and when he might have taken it he on a sudden rais'd the siege 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Josephus without any reason no body knows why but onely as God put it in his heart to do so to give way for the Christians to obey that voice which the same Josephus saith was heard in the Temple at the Feast of Pentecost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let us go hence and upon it all the Christians went to Pella not one staid but every one escapt that ruin which Titus sitting down before that City brought upon that People the great Enimies of his Church to a final utter desolation Once more when after the nine Persecutions which like so many torrents of fire had swept away the Christians in flame Dioclesians like a tenth wave came as if it meant to swallow not
demonstrations had not convinc't them it had been no fault not to believe So when he had made appear he was that person whom their prophesies had pointed out the Messiah the Son of the living God and this not only his Disciples had acknowledg'd but the multitudes yea when his miracles had made one of the Pharisees confess Rabbi we know thou art a Teacher come from God for no man can do these miracles except God be with him Then if the Pharisees dispute against his Doctrine of Divorce urge the authority of Moses and Gods Law and the Disciples press the inconveniences that will happen If the case of Man be such with his wife he may answer them He that will not receive my Doctrines without dispute that is to say He that will not receive the Kingdom of God as a little Child shall not enter therein This King that cometh in the name of the Lord may well determin how we shall receive the Kingdom of God If he propose strange precepts to our practise it appears that he is sent from God and Gods commands are not to be disputed but obey'd if his revelations present dark unintelligible Mysteries to our faith his promises offer seeming impossibilities to our hope why yet he hath made proof he comes from God and surely we are not so insolent as to doubt that God can discover thing above our understanding and do things above the comprehension of our reason Therefore since we are as Children to all these it is but just we should receive them even as little Children With a perfect resignation of our understandings and of our whole souls Here 't is most true what S. Austin says Those are not Christians who deny that Christ is to be believ'd unless there be some other certain reason of the thing besides his saying Si Christo etiam credendum negant â—isi indubitata ratio reddita fuerit Christiani non sunt For to them that are convinc't of that 't is such a reason that he is the Christ. There is indeed no other name now under heaven to whom we are oblig'd to give such deference for however the modern Doctrines dare assert that Christ hath given the very same infallibility which himself had to all S. Peters successors as often as they speak ex Cathedrâ and that in matters both of right and of particular fact yet not to countenance this monster by admitting combate with it nor to put my self into the circle which these men commit who talk of the Authority of the Church to which they require us to resign our Faith I shall not stay to rack them on that their own wheel This I dare affirm it is impossible for any person or assembly to produce a delegation of authority in more ample terms then the great Councel of the Jews could shew sign'd both by God and Christ. According to the sentence of the Law which they shall teach thee and according to the Judgment which they shall tell thee thou shalt do thou shalâ— not decline from the sentence which they shall shew thee to the right hand nor to the left faith God Deut. 17. 11. compar'd with 2 Chron. 19. 8 9 10 11. And our Saviour says They sit in Moses Chair all therefore whatsoever they bid you observe that observe and do Mat. 23. 2. Let them of Româ— produce you a better and more large commission Yet did not this suppose that Councel was infallible either in the interpreting the Law or in attesting of tradition or in judging of a Prophet or that the Jews were blindly to give up their assent and their obedience to their sentence God did not mean the people should imagin that when he prescrib'd a Sacrifice for expiation of their errors in their Judgment when they found it out Lev. 4. 13. As their own Doctors do expound it Therefore God suppos'd that they might err and we know that their Traditions did evacuate the Law Mat. 23. 15. They judg'd and slew true Prophets v. 37. They declar'd the Messiah an impostor Mat. 27. 63. and blasphemer and for that condemn'd him Mat. 26. 65. and decreed what the Apostles told them they must not obey Act. 5. 25. But though there be no such Authority that 's absolute over the Faith of Men now upon Earth yet if this Jesus did acquire such by his Works if by the Miracles he wrought his raising others from the Dead his own Death and his Resurrection he sufficiently justified the Divinity of his Doctrine And if those Miracles were true they were not doubt sufficient and if those that did pretend they were eye witnesses and ministers of all this his Apostles and the Seventy Disciples and those others that accompanied him who conversed with him continually and could not therefore be deceived if they profess they heard and saw all this and Preacht it in the face of those that would have contradicted if they could and rather than their lives have proved all false yea Preacht it every where the Lord working with them and confirming the Word with signs following If they consign'd that Word in Writing also which they Preacht to be a measure and a Standard of that Doctrine to fnturity which Word so Preacht and Written by agreeing would in aftertimes give mutual illustrious evidence to one another and if any Heter â—â—â—â—ies should at any time creep by degrees into the Articles or the external practice of the Church they might he easily discovered by those Records And if the multitudes that heard and saw and did receive all this and which were grown extreamly numerous almost in every Nation of the then known World while those Apostles and Disciples liv'd if these deliver'd what they must needs know whether 't were true or not deliver'd both that Doctrine and those Books of it as most certain truth by Preaching and by Writing and by Living to it and by Dying for it and engaging their Posterity to do so and they also did that to all Ages if all this I say be true then it is easie to conclude that we are to receive the Doctrine of that Jesiâ— and this Book the Records of it with the resignation of a little Child and absolutely to submit our Faith to them But that it was thus first as sure as any of us here who have not seen the thing can be that Christianity is now profest the Bible now received in all the Regions round about us throughout Europe or indeed that there are â—â—ch Regions and places so sure we may be for we have the testimony of the World that for example in the days of Dioclesian 't was over the World profest both with their mouths and lives owned in despite of Spoyl of Torments and of Death and they did value the Records of this Doctrine so much dearer than their Lives or their Estates that in prosecution of those Edicts wherein the Christians were required to deliver up
their Bibles to be burnt in one Month 17000 were put to death And the Persecution lasted at that rate for ten years time so that in Egypt only it is said there were slain 144000 and 70000 banisht The Laity it seems were allowed Bibles then Or put the case higher in Adrian's or Trajan's time who both lived within an Hundred years of Christ who Martyr'd them 'till weariness slackned the Execution and they gave off onely as it were that so they might cease to persecute themselves and we have the Officers engaged attesting this all which must needs be as notorious as the Light Now Secondly 't is most impossible those so vast multitudes of every Nation should have met together forg'd a Code of Doctrines and agreed so uniformly in professing a Religion and in dying for it for we may as easily believe that there were never any men before this Age we live in but that these began the kind as that those of that Age began the Christian Religion Thirdly 't is as impossible that their immediate Ancestors who lived in the Apostles Age who heard their Preaching received their Writings saw the Miracles they did if they did any and many of them must have seen Christ also after he was risen if it were so yea multitudes of them were themselves parties in the gifts of Tongues and Miracles if there were any and so could not be impos'd on but must necessarily know whether they were truths or forgeries It is as Impossible I say so many should agree together to betray all their Posterity into the profession of a Religion from which they could look for no advantage but the certain total Ruin of themselves and their posterity it was not possible they could have done this if they had not thought all this was true and since they did know whether it were true or not if they thought it was true they did know it was and if they knew it was then it is certain that it was so and these Scriptures and the Doctrines Christians deliver so far as they have not varied since that time from these Authentical Records they have the Seal of God Miracles to attest they come from God I might have urged completion of Prophecies to prove the same First those in the Old Testament of the Messiah which so eminently came to pass in Christ that they sufficiently clear those Books to be Divine Next Christ's predictions in the New particularly those about Jerusalem which saith Eusebius He that will compare with what Josephus an eye-witness and no Christian writes of it or what our selves know of that Nation and that place indeed he must acknowledge the Divinity of his words But enough hath been said to prove they come from God and therefore we must so receive them as the Word of God with perfect resignation of our Souls and submission of our judgments denying every apprehension that would start aside from and not captivate it self to that prime truth which cannot be deceived nor lye and renounce all discourses Reason offers that resist such abnegation of it self and all our other faculties that is receive this word of the Kingdom as a little Child I do not here affirm by saying this that our Religion does disdain or keep distance from the service of any of Mans faculties for it sometimes admits them not as Ministers only but as Judges 'T is plain the senses were the first I do not say conveyance onely but Foundation of Faith which was built on the first believers eyes and ears they heard the Doctrine saw the Miracles were sure they saw and heard them and so supposing the signs sufficient to confirm the Doctrine to have come from God were certain of their truth without any Authority of a Church to influence that faith into divine And S. John therefore does not onely call in and admit and urge their testimony That which we have heard which we have seen with our Eyes which we have lookt upon and our hands have handled of the word of Life that declare we unto you But our Saviour in the highest point of Faith appeals directly to their Judgment Reach hither thy finger and behold my hands and reach hither thy hand and thrust it into my side and be not faithless but believing And S. Austin also gives them the decision of a point of Doctrine which of all others now troubles the Church most for speaking of the Eucharist he says that which you see is Bread and 't is a Cup it is that very thing which your eyes tell you ' t is Tertullian also long before that had appealed to them in that very cause And in an instance where their sentencè passes 't is not strange if Reason also take the Chair and do pretend to Judge And truly when the Scripture that does call those Elements Christs Body and his Blood does also call them after Consecration Bread and Wine and since they must be called one of them by a figure for they cannot be in Substance both and since that Scripture hath not told us where the Figure lies hath not expresly said 't is this but in resemblance that in Substance Here if Reason that hath Principles by which to judge of Bodies which are expos'd to all the notices and trials of our several faculties and to which a Trope is not a stranger it can judge of figurative speeches when it therefore finds if it admit the figure in that form This is my Body 'T is but just the same which was in the Jews Sacrament the Paschal Lamb which they call'd the Body of the Passover though it were but the memorial a figure which was always usual in Sacraments and is indeed essential to Sacraments And which is used in all things that are given by exhibitive signs But if it should resolve it to be Bread and Wine onely in a figure besides a most impossible acknowledged Consequence that a man can be nourisht by them which the Romanists dare not deny nor yet dare grant that men can feed upon a trope be nourish't with a figure besides this if reason shall resolve that it must judge against all Rules it hath of judging by and judge in contradiction to known Principles and trample on all Laws of sense and understanding which especially when the Scripture hath no where defined expresly must be most unreasonable yea most impossible to judge that true that is to say believe that thing which it sees is most irreconcileable with known truths Here therefore Reason is not insolent if it give verdict by its proper evidences men are not bound to swallow contradictions as they do the Wafer or receive as a little Child that discerns the Lords Body no more then it does the repugnancies that are consequent to their Hypothesis concerning it Or to make another instance when the Scripture says God is a Spirit yet does also give him hands and eyes