a word our Duty is no longer clogg'd with a company of useless and troublesome Ceremonies but like the Services of the ancient Patriarchs is more easie and acceptable more plain and simple more humane and natural more becoming the Grandure and Majesty of the Divine Being and more agreeable to the Nature of a spiritual and immortal Soul 'T is only to be happy the most proper and compendious way to love our blessed Maker for himself and our Neighbours for his sake to visit the Fatherless and Widows in their Afflictions and to keep our selves unspotted from the World All which especially if we consider the extraordinary Indulgence of Divine Assistance which we now enjoy render our Salvation Great Wonderful and Glorious And so I come to my Fourth Particular which is to shew the Greatness of our Salvation from the Consideration of those greater Aids of Divine Grace those particular Mercies we now enjoy under the Dispensation of the Gospel whereby we may be freed both from the Guilt and Punishment and also from the Power and Dominion of Sin 4. Now the Law only discovers Sin but affords no degrees of supernatural Power to subdue it but with the Preaching of the Gospel the Holy Ghost was sent down from Heaven who by illuminating preventing and exciting Grace assists Men to perform the Conditions of Salvation and is promis'd in rich and liberal Supplies to all that humbly and ardently pray for him God now pours Water upon him that is thirsty and Floods upon the dry Ground he pours out his Spirit upon our Seed and his Blessing upon our Off-spring whereby they may spring up as among the Grass as Willows by the Water-courses The Law directs to no means for the Expiation of Guilt but peremptorily and dogmatically denounceth Death to all Offenders The Soul that sins shall die But the Gospel delivers us from this terrible Sentence of the Law and allows a Renovation of the Sinner by Repentance to which the plenary Pardon of Sin is assured Wash ye Is 1.16 17 18. make ye clean says God by his Evangelical Prophet put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes cease to do evil learn to do well and though your Sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow though they be red like Crimson they shall be as wool God indeed will not pardon those who flatter themselves in their Sins but they who confess and forsake them shall find Mercy The Law exacts absolute perfect uninterrupted Obedience and for the least Omission or accusing Act past an irrevocable Doom upon the Offender Cursed is the man that continues not in a things written in the Law to do them But the Gospel mitigates and allays this Strictness and Severity calls only for sincere and persevering though imperfect Obedience and propounds such merciful Conditions to the guilty that upon the performance of them they may plead their Pardon seal'd with the Blood of their Redeemer to be sav'd and crown'd in the Day of Judgment And thus whereas the Law worketh nothing but Wrath being as terrible in its Injunctions as 't was at first in its Promulgation the Kingdom of Heaven the Gospel of Peace addresseth it self to us after another manner It speaks to us in a still small Voice the whole Tenour of it you see running in this gentle strain Sin no more Repent and be converted Come to Christ and be refresh'd and find Rest unto your Souls The Grace of God I say which bringeth Salvation doth thus appear teaching us that if the time past of our Lives shall suffice us to have wrought the Will of the Gentiles and we will now in good earnest renounce all our ungodly and worldly Lusts and take care for the time to come faithfully to discharge our Duty to God our Neighbour and Ourselves to live soberly righteously and godly in this present World Sin shall not have Dominion over us God having oblig'd himself by express Promise that he will not suffer us to be tempted above what we are able but that in all our Temptations he will make a way for us to escape that we may be able to bear them So that though Sin is not entirely destroy'd that being the Privilege of Angels and Souls freed from the Fetters of Mortality yet as St. Paul speaks of its Effect Death it has lost its Sting and is only instrumental to the Advancement of the Glory of God who upon our sincere and hearty Repentance and Reformation of our Lives will pardon all our past Offences though never so many and great in themselves and for those daily Failures those Sins of Infirmity those Lapses of Humane Nature which the Best of Men must more or less be subject to as long as they lie under the Disadvantages of Mortality will put them all upon the Score of the Cross 5. The Greatness of the Salvation wrought for us by Christ appears in that he has deliver'd us from that Ignorance and Darkness which the whole World lay in at his Coming Both Jews and Gentiles I confess had some Notices or Conception◠of a Future State but then they were so miserably intricate and obscure so confus'd and uncertain that they were very little better than none at all Those most Thinking and Learned Pagans the Pythagoreans and Platonists after the most diligent Search and Enquiry into these Matters could never advance beyond a Probability all their fine Harangues and rapturous Discourses upon the Immortality of the Soul being Indications rather of their good Wishes than Demonstrations of its Reality Aristotle not only wavers and fluctuates in his Opinion but also Problematically disputes against it though it must be confess'd that in his Book De Animâ he stiles her without any scruple Eternal and Immortal But the Stoicks are as Dogmatical in this Point as in any other Sometimes indeed they talk like Abstracted Beings or pure Intelligences with the noblest Flights of Rhetorick and Fancy decyphering the Exalted Happiness of the Soul when she is entirely loosned from the Clogs of Matter and freely roves up and down in the pure unmixed Regions of Light and Glory But then as though they had lain all this while in a Trance and had only been entertained with the fantastick illusive Representations of a sportive Imagination they for the most part peremptorily determine That Death is not only the Separation of the Soul from the Body but the utter Dissolution likewise or Dissipation of both there being no more after the Death of a Man than was before his Birth viz. Emptiness Insensibility and Darkness Nay when in their abstracted Humours they vouchsafe to allow her a Subsistence without the Body 't is only till the next Universal Conflagration when she and all Created Beings must End and Die together Nor indeed was the Confession of that great Master of Morality Socrates himself much better for concluding his gallant and most excellent Apology before the Areopagites with some glorious
a Prison before the Tribunal of Christ and hear the just Sentence of Eternal Death more solemnly pronounc'd against them before the General Assembly of the Saints and Angels This I say is the deplorable and undone Condition of the Apostate Angels Their Fall is irrecoverable their Sin irremissible and the Decree that is gone out against them irreversible But Man tho' a Being of a much lower Class and an Apostate too finds Favour and Mercy at the hands of his God He vouchsafes him the liberty of Second Thoughts and if we will but be obedient and hearken promiseth an entire Renovation of his Corrupted Nature by the abundant and powerful Communications of his most Holy Spirit Nay so desirous is he of this happy Change that he long prostitutes his Patience as I shall instantly shew more at large to Mens wanton Humours in Expectation of it is contented to lay aside his amazing Glories and seems to divest and strip himself of all his Attributes save that of Mercy His All-seeing Eye graciously overlooks our manifold Sins and Wickednesses and as tho' he saw them not continues to shine upon us with its reviving Brightness His Justice gives way to his Forbearance and Long-suffering and when it takes place 't is so temper'd and qualify'd that in the midst of Judgment he always remembers Mercy Mercy is his Favourite his darling Excellence that lovely and amiable Attribute which is over all his Works and in which we are sure his Soul takes most Delight and Complacency 'T was by this Name he in the Presence and Assembly of his invincible Holy Ones upon Mount Sinai most solemnly proclaim'd himself to his Servant Moses The Lord Exod. 34.6 says he the Lord God merciful and gracious Nay tho' he is the God of all Truth and therefore can no more deceive than be deceived yet as though it had been a small thing thus to have proclaim'd himself before Men and Angels he has likewise in a gracious and wonderful Condescension to the Infirmities of his Creatures and that the broken and contrite Spirit might have the surest Word of Promise that could possibly be given it vouchsaf'd even to interpose his Oath and as solemnly to swear the same thing As I live saith the Lord God Ezek. 33.11 I have no pleasure in the death of the Wicked but that the Wicked turn from his way and live Turn ye turn ye from your evil ways for why will ye die O house of Israel What tender what compassionate Strains are these 'T is as if he had said Since there is no Being so great as my self by my self I have sworn that as sure as I am God that eternal and faithful Being with whom is no Variableness or Shadow of Turning I desire not the Death of any Sinner but had rather ten thousand times over that you would all from the least to the greatest hear my Voice in this Accepted Time this day of Salvation and repent and be sav'd For now do I freely offer you my Grace which I most passionately beseech and intreat you to accept and to return and live Turn ye then turn ye unto me for why will ye die Why will ye weary me out with your continued Provocations Why will ye constrain me by your unworthy and most wretched Abuses of my Grace your insufferable Grievings of my Spirit at length to depart from you and to leave you to die in your Sins Is Eternal Death so desirable a thing Is Heaven and my Glory so despicable and vile Why then let me ask you again since you have my free Grace to enable you to Return nay since 't is far easier for you to be saved than to be damned why why will ye die O house of Israel Thus does our Heavenly Father by the most solemn Protestations demonstrate his Everlasting Love and Kindness to Mankind And how exactly do all his Dispensations correspond with these his gracious Declarations With what Patience I say and Forbearance does he deal even with the greatest of Sinners How affectionately intreat them to fly into the Harbour and to secure themselves by a timely Reformation from the Wrath which is to come Such various Ways and Methods does he contrive to bring them to Repentance so earnestly beg and sollicite them to accept in time the Terms of Salvation that one would think 't was his own not their Interest that Men should be sav'd He always like a generous Enemy declares Sinners his just Anger and Displeasure and excites them before it be too late to prepare to Meet him and with Weapons which will most certainly prevail viz. Prayers and Tears to disarm his Justice Thus when within the small compass of about two thousand years his gracious and marvellous Works of Creation and Providence were so far from being prais'd and had in Honour that all Flesh had degenerated from this great End of its Creation and most shamefully corrupted its way upon the Earth tho' he was griev'd to speak after the manner of Men at the very Heart and it repented him that he had made Man yet he could not immediately withdraw his Hand and let him fall into Ruine but mercifully prolong'd the day of Vengeance and gave his sinful Creatures time and space for Repentance He resolv'd indeed that the Spirits which he had made should not Eternally remain in their Bodies as Slaves and Vassals to those Instruments of Unrighteousness but that if Men repented not he would open the Windows of Heaven and break up the Fountains of the great Deep and bring in a Flood upon them that should sweep them all away But before he can do this Noah a Preacher of Righteousness must daily assure them of their Danger and he waits their Repentance a hundred and twenty Years Thus too tho' the Sins of Sodom and Gomorrah were very grievous and cryed loud and the Cry of them ascended up into the Ears of the Lord of Sabbaoth yet could not they prevail with him to let loose his Thunder to overwhelm them with a swift and deserv'd Destruction but on the contrary to prevent if possible their Ruine he by his good Providence so order'd and dispos'd things that Lot a holy and pious Person living amongst them should first lay before them their prodigious Impieties and warn them to prevent the heavy Judgments due to them by a speedy Repentance And when notwithstanding all this they sinned yet more and forc'd his Holy Spirit to forsake them utterly by their intolerable Fornications yet would not his Goodness then give him leave to execute upon them the Fierceness of his Indignation but still stay'd his hand and engag'd him to be gracious As though 't was possible for him to be deceiv'd it induc'd him to make a further Enquiry to go down and see whether they had indeed done altogether according to the Cry of it which was come unto him Nay tho' their Sins and Provocations were so many and so great yet so much
increas'd in Wisdom and Knowledge Though as God he is from Everlasting and World without end yet that as Man he had a Beginning in the Circumscriptions of time Lastly Though as God 't was impossible for him to suffer yet that as Man he was the Subject of Torment and Misery 2. That some Virtues and Excellencies were then in the Soul of Jesus which are not consistent with a glorify'd State such as Hope Holy Desires and the like All which having their Seat in the Soul do suppose her yet in a state of Pilgrimage a Condition that is imperfect and in order to something beyond what is present it being impossible as St. Paul observes for a Man to hope for that which he already sees and enjoys 3. That this Opinion annuls and destroys the whole Merit of his Sufferings For the least glympse of Glory the minutest Ray of Beatifick Vision out-weighs the greatest Calamities and infinitely exceeds all that Spirit of Pain that can be extracted from the Infelicities of this World But the Holy Scriptures everywhere assure us that his Passion upon the Cross was a state of Merit and Work and that as a Reward of it he was crown'd with Glory and Immortality We see Jesus says the * Heb. 2.9 Apostle who was made a little lower than the Angels for the suffering of Death crowned with glory and honour And ‖ Phil. 2.8 9. again Christ humbled himself and became obedient to Death even the Death of the Cross Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a Name which is above every Name For his Sufferings you see his Name was exalted his Kingdom glorify'd and his Humanity advanc'd above all the Orders of Angels For these he was made the Lord of all the Creatures the First-fruits of the Resurrection the Exemplar of Glory the Prince and Head of the Catholick Church And therefore since all this was his Recompence the Reward of his Sufferings it could not be a necessary Consequence and natural Efflux of the Personal Union of the Godhead with the Humanity On the other hand there are who affirm that the Soul of Jesus upon the Cross suffered the Pains of Hell and all the Torments of the Damn'd and that without such Sufferings it is not imaginable he should pay the Price which God's Wrath did demand of us But the same that reproves the former does likewise reprehend these latter For the Hope which was the support of his Soul in the midst of its Agonies as it confesseth an Imperfection that is not consistent with the state of Glory so does it exclude that Despair which is the Sting and Torment of accursed Souls Our dearest Lord suffer'd indeed the whole Condition of Humanity Sin only excepted and by those sad Pains he endur'd upon the Cross merited Heaven for himself as the Head and for all his faithful Servants as the Members of his Mystical Body But yet I say we cannot conceive that he was ever under the Amazement of Hell or that upon the Cross he felt the formal Misery and Spirit of Pain which is the Portion of Damned Spirits because 't was impossible he should despair and without Despair 't is impossible there should be a Hell But though I can by no means subscribe to this Assertion yet I think 't is highly probable that in the Intention of Degrees and present Anguish the Soul of our Lord upon the Cross might feel a greater Load of Wrath than is incumbent in every instant upon perishing Souls S. Paul tells us that every Sinner as such carries no less a Load about with him than a whole Body of Death How many Death 's then and unconceivable Agonies must the Lamb of God have felt when as the Prophet speaks the Lord laid on him the Iniquities of us all Certainly the lively Sense of united concentred Vengeance due to the Sins of the whole World and the vast and singular Capacity of his Soul who was the Word incarnate rendred his Sufferings most amazing and insupportable His Agony was so great that it compell'd him for a time almost to despair and sink under its weight Sure we are it extorted from him this most bitter Cry My God my God why hast thou forsaken me And how insupportable must those Sufferings have been which could appear even to stagger such a Faith and to eclipse his Assurance of the Presence and Love of his Heavenly Father But now again How great is the Bitterness of that Death the rescuing us from which brought so much Shame and Pain and Amazement upon the Son of God How unparalell'd and unconceivably great that Salvation in the purchasing of which the Lord of Hosts himself did even bleed and die The Waters of Bitterness you see entred his Soul and the Storms of Death and of his Father's Anger broke him all in pieces But if this was done in the Green Tree what without this would have been done in the Dry If I say the Sufferings of our Lord who was the Son of God and innocent who was all fair and had no spot in him were so sad and lamentable then how amazing and insupportable had our Portion been without this Atonement whom Sin had rendred his profess'd Enemies and as it were fitted and mark'd out as Fewel for everlasting Burnings But 3. The Greatness of our Salvation appears in that it frees us from the Bondage and Slavery of the Law This was a grievous and servile Dispensation consisting of innumerable little Rites and Ceremonies which had no intrinsick Value in themselves and are therefore said by God himself to be Statutes that were not good but were only adapted for a time to the weak Capacities and babe-like Humours of the Jews Of Rites and Ceremonies I say so heavy and burdensome that the Apostles themselves complained that 't was a Yoke upon their Necks which neither they nor their Forefathers were ever able to bear But now has Christ taken this Yoke from off our Necks and made out a way for us into the Liberty of the Sons of God He deals no longer with us as with Children in our Minority but has deliver'd us from the Tutorage and Paedagogy of the Law from the Severity of its Commands from the exact Punctilio's and Numerousness of its Imposition The new Moons and Sabbatical Years the many Washings and Purifications stand us in no stead neither are we oblig'd to long and tedious Journeys to Jerusalem to present our Oblations and Sacrifices at the Temple Christ our Passover having been sacrificed for us and the Messiah cut off all those typical Oblations and Sacrifices must for ever cease the Shadow give place to the Substance those Ritual Observances to Natural and Moral Duties those Carnal Ceremonies to the Spiritual Worship and that Temporary Dispensation to the Everlasting Covenant of the Gospel Circumcision now avails no more than Uncircumcision and 't is neither Meat nor Drink but a new Creature only that commends a Man to God In
is so merciful that he will not suffer his Displeasure to arise but that he calls us daily importunes us incessantly and intreats us earnestly to return That he begs us not to ruin and destroy our selves opens his Arms to receive us tho' we have been never so ungrateful and promiseth Pardon for all that is past if we will but take care to be obedient for the future Lastly we know that if we will return and do Works meet for Repentance he will in due time take us from this Vale of Misery these Regions of Exile this State of our Pilgrimage into his Father's House there solemnly pronounce our Discharge before all his Saints and crown us with Joy unspeakable and full of Glory Now then to trespass against this great Friend and Benefactor whose wonderful Love even condescended to assume our Nature into his Divinity and so to exalt it above Cherubims and all the brightest Orders of Intelligences who in our Nature thus assum'd graciously embrac'd for our â—akes both the Miseries and Calamities of a distressed Life and also the Infamy and Tortures of an accursed Death who still notwithstanding all our disingenuous and most ungrateful Returns continues his Tenderness and Compassion for us even â—ayly offering his Grace and Pardon to the greatest of Sinners and by all the gentle Insinuations of an unwearied â—over endeavouring to allure and entice them into Happiness To trespass I say against this great Friend and Benefactor is certainly a Provocation of the most amazing Proportions a Sin of the deepest Dye the basest and soulest Ingratitude that can be imagined What then think you will be the Condition of such Sinners when God shall come to Judge the World When they shall see him whose infinite Love they have despised and rejected coming in the Clouds of Heaven and all his Holy Angels with him to reward every Man according to his Works Alas every Circumstance of this glorious Day will frightfully represent to their awak'ned Consciences the monstrous Aggravations of their unparallell'd Ingratitude This God who now comes in the Clouds with Vengeance is that very Saviour who dy'd to redeem them Those Emeralds or sparkling Jewels that shine so gloriously in his Body the deep and gastly Wounds he receiv'd 〈◊〉 their sakes Those glittering Attendantâ— and Myriads of holy Ones the Company he design'd for their Eternal Conversation and those bright Regions of Everlastâ—â—â— Day which appear over their Heads thâ— Place he so dearly purchas'd for their immortal Inheritance These things I say thus united and at once represented to their view will swell their Passions to that Height and Fullness as infinitely exceed the Measures of Mortality to conceive They will occasion such sharp such acute Reflections as like two-edged Swords will every way rend and tear and stab and gash their mollified Spirits with fresh incurable Wounds to all Eternity Their monstrous Ingratitude will then look them broad in the face and like frightful and terrible Gorgons or Furies possess their Souls with Horror and Trembling with ineffable Amazement and everlasting Confusion In a word The thorough and lively Apprehensions which they shall then have of their Sins and Follies will so incense and enrage them that they 'll be all in a flame with Fury and Indignation against themselves weeping and wailing and gnashing their Teeth always as it were uon a Rack without any Intermission of their Pains and Anguish distorted afflicted distracted confounded What then remains but that since these things are so we seriously take our Case into Consideration That since our Burden is lighter than that of Jews or Gentiles we run with greater Chearfulness the ways of God's Commandments That we grieve not the Holy Spirit nor turn the Grace of God into Lasciviousness but that the great extraordinary Assistances which we now enjoy under the Gospel influence our Wills direct our Choice and give Warmth and Vigour to our Affections That the certain Faith and Assurance which we have of a Future State and of its Rewards and Punishments work most powerfully upon our Minds to conquer all the Temptations of this Life to deterr us from doing any thing whereby we may forfeit our Crown and to render us stedfast immoveable always abounding in the Work of the Lord forasmuch as we know that our Labour will not be in vain in the Lord and since the greatest Punishments imaginable attend our Miscarriages that we lift up the hands that hang down and strengthen the feeble knees and run with patience the Race that is set before us Let us then look unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our Faith and follow his Example who for the Joy that was set before him endur'd the Cross despis'd the Shame and is therefore now sat down at the Right-hand of the Majesty on High Let us frequently contemplate his stupendious unfathomable Love in vouchsafing to assume our Nature that he who is Mighty should so debase himself to magnifie us and evermore say with the inflam'd and seraphick Virgin Holy and Blessed is his Name Let us with her Piety and Devotion view the Immaculate Lamb of God crown'd with Thorns upon the Cross Let us behold him there bleeding and dying for our Sins Let his unconceivable Agonies sink deep into our Hearts and make us to weep bitterly for those Sins which caus'd such Torments to our Dearest Lord. Let us beseech him by all that Anguish and Amazement his Soul endur'd for our sakes never to suffer us to crucifie him any more but that he would be pleas'd to come and take up his Lodging with us to drive out all those Usurpers the World with its Vanities to make an utter Destruction of every Amalakite and to take to himself the entire Possession of our Hearts Let us most passionately intreat him not to suffer our immortal Souls the price of his own Blood to perish but that he would be graciously pleas'd to wash away all their Stains to cloath them in his white Robe and so to present them spotless and unblameable to our Heavenly Father Lastly If the Author of Salvation and that Eternal too be worthy to be prais'd let us now begin these Songs upon Earth which will be our happy Employment and Business in Heaven with all those glorious Angels and Holy Ten Thousands that worship about the Throne saying Blessing and Honour and Glory and Power be unto him that fitteth upon the Throne and unto the Lamb for Ever and Ever Amen Amen Allelujah ECCLES ix v. 10. Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do do it with thy might WEre we to take the Measures of our most holy Profession as they are reach'd out to us in the Systems of some Christian Rabbins how prodigiously irrational and absurd an Institution would it appear to be An Institution both repugnant to the glorious Attributes of God and also destructive to the Welfare and Happiness of Mankind They pronounced it a state of absolute Liberty and Emancipation a perfect Discharge from