fondly dream which the Prophets of old might nay every good and vertuous Man may still doe and in this sense become our Saviour as well as He And therefore St. Peter plainly distinguishes these things between Christ's suffering for us and his leaving us an example 1 Pet. 2. 21. And the Scripture every-where is express to this purpose That Christ came to give himself a ransome for all so says St. Paul 1 Tim. 2. 6. Nay so says Christ Himself Mat. 20. 28. He came to satisfie for us the clear import of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the like words so frequently occurring in Scripture and of those expressions of St. Paul of Christ's being made sin and a curse for us his blotting out the hand-writing of Ordinances that was against us and the like These were the several ways whereby Christ freed us and this was the main design and end of his coming in the flesh this day and we can never truly value the Blessing of it but by reflecting on the Misery of our former slavery whereby we became Servants to Corruption and so beneath and viler than Corruption its self as the Servant is below his Master the Condition of every one that committeth sin and is at the mercy and under the power thereof its eternal drudge forc'd to go and come as it bids him and consequently lay under the guilt of Sin and so obnoxious to God's Judgment and under the sentence and condemnation of Death all our life-time subject to this bondage too and at the mercy of our most cruel and implacable enemy the Devil who could have no power over us but what our Sin gave him And now that we are restored to this glorious Liberty of the Sons of God let us stand fast in this our Liberty The Son of God has done his part He has made us free indeed if we will be so for nothing can re-enslave us but our own wills and 't is strange we should desire to be slaves when we may be free nay a strange choice this rather to be Sin and Satan's slaves than God's free-men To be not so much conquered by Hell as willingly subject to it not so much Press'd men as Volunteers in its Service To be led by Satan at his will and with our own too in love with his chains of darkness and desirous to have our Ears bored through with his Awl in token of our Eternal vassalage Doubtless Christ by coming down from Heaven never design'd Redemption for such willing Slaves never intended to buy them who sell him and that for naught as every Sinner doth nay who sell themselves with Ahab to doe wickedly He did not put such a price into fools hands that will not sue out their freedom with it nor give men this liberty only to be licentious and so no otherwise free than as St. Paul expresseth it from righteousness Did He therefore break off Sin and Satan's yoke from our necks that we should cast off his or make us the Sons of God that we should make our selves the Sons of Belial impatient of any yoke though it be of his own most easie and light one Did He therefore cancel our old debts that we should study to make new ones as if the end of his coming in the flesh had not been to redeem us from our old Conversation but to it No sure He came to buy us Ye are bought with a price says our Apostle and therefore ought we to glorifie God in our bodies and in our spirits which are Gods God's as well by right of Redemption as of Creation If we be delivered by Him from the hand of our Ghostly Enemies 't is that we should serve Him without fear indeed but not cast off his fear And surely the obligation is very strong and binding and the Consequence unavoidable He hath saved us and therefore we must serve Him promote the honour of our Deliverer and advance the interest of this our great Lord and Master Servants says the Philosopher are but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 living Tools or Instruments to be used or employed at the discretion of their Masters They are not sui juris not their own Men and all that they acquire is for him they serve Nay by the Civil Law ingratitude to their deliverer did make Men forfeit the benefit of their freedom And surely if we abuse Ours and Him that bestows it Our Lord may justly return us to our former slavery make us Satan's slaves once more who refuse to be God's freemen and his slaves we are while bound unto him by any one of his Chains and since the least of them will be strong enough to tie us fast to him let us break all his bonds asunder and cast away all his cords from us An Obligation which lyes upon us as at all times so now especially when we are to partake of the benefit of that Redemption Christ has wrought out for us His Bloud was the price of it In whom we have Redemption through his bloud the Remission of sins Ephes. 1. 7. and the Cross the Altar where that price was paid or else there could have been no perfect reconciliation for us So the same Apostle Col. 1. 20. Having made peace through the bloud of his Cross by him to reconcile all things So that remission of sins peace with God and with our selves freedom from the slavery of Sin Death and Satan all this is the purchase of Christ's bloud shed upon his Cross and apply'd to us in his blessed Sacrament to which we are now invited Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will refresh you says Christ Mat. 11. 28. In like manner does he bespeak us here too Come unto me all ye that are in bondage to Sin and Satan and I will release you Subdue the power of them by my grace and restore you at last to the glorious Liberty of the Sons of God Let the door-posts of your Hearts be sprinkled with my bloud and the destroying Angel shall pass and not hurt you O let us then hearken to His most gratious invitation and having such encouragement draw near to his Holy Table with a true heart in full assurance of faith and for the time to come wholly give up our selves to Him who gave Himself for us this day of his Birth by taking our Flesh and now offers up Himself again for us at his Passion whereof this Sacrament is so lively a representation and seal of our Redemption In a word as Christ has redeemed us so let us for the time to come walk as the redeemed of the Lord and his peculiar people that so we may obtain those Blessings which belong to such both here and hereafter Which God of his infinite Mercy grant c. Amen A SERMON PREACHED The Sunday after Christmas TITUS II. 14. Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity
even now Heirs of a kingdom Jam. 2. 5. The wise that shall inherit Glory Prov. 3. 35. Heads destinated to a Diadem in Tertullian's expression which their Heavenly Father hath prepared for and will at last put upon them who alone too makes them fit to wear it meet to be Partakers of the Inheritance of the Saints in light III. How differently soever the Children of God may share in the same Inheritance This is certain that every one's share therein shall be the Gift of his Heavenly Father The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here imports it The Apostle alluding to the Division of the Land of Canaan a Type of Heaven which God had appointed to be done by lot wherein Himself we know had the main hand according to that of Solomon Prov. 16. 33. The lot is cast into the lap but the whole disposition thereof is of the Lord. Thus it was in the Choice of Matthias to the Apostleship Act. 1. And thus it is as to our share in the Inheritance of Glory It falls to us by lot by the disposition of God the Father we have no part here but what he gives us And if so then no merit of Condignity nor so much as of Congruity can be pleaded by us And truly one would think it were sufficient to partake of the Inheritance without making out our own Title to it That we might be content to be Heirs without coming in as Purchasers or if we will needs be so to be Purchasers on Christ's score and not our own But this is too low and mean for some men who come with Counters in their hand ready to reckon with God to shew Him how much he is in their debt and who stick not to tell Him to his face that He is an unjust Master if he pay them not their due wages But 1. Our Lord Himself hath told us That God is beforehand with us That whatsoever we can doe is due from us to Him That when we shall have done all those things which are commanded us we must say that we are unprofitable servants and have done but that which was our duty to doe Luk. 17. 10. And then what merit can there be in paying just debts And 2. St. Paul hath told us That we can doe no good thing without Him too who worketh in us both to will and to doe of his good pleasure Phil. 2. 13. So that He crowns His own gifts in us and rewards not our deservings Besides 3. Our goodness extendeth not to God says David Psal. 16. 2. And being unusefull how can it be meritorious Nay our best works are so imperfect and so sinfull too that the utmost they can expect is but a Pardon and not a Reward And were they never so good and perfect yet what proportion can they bear to such a Reward as an Inheritance in light Our light affliction which is but for a moment to a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory 2 Cor. 4. 17. where we must not let pass an elegant Antithesis For Affliction there is Glory For Light affliction a Weight of glory And for Momentary affliction an Eternal weight of glory to shew the vast disproportion between these things so vast that even Martyrdom it self the highest utmost proof of our love to God is in St. Paul's account nothing in comparison of that Glory we expect For I reckon says he that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us Rom. 8. 18. IV. And lastly The very word Inheritance excludes all Purchase on our part For this were to renounce Succession to cast off all Filial Duty and Affection not to own our selves Sons but mercenary Purchasers yea and Purchasers of an Inheritance already purchased for us by Christ and for his sake freely bestowed upon us by our Heavenly Father out of His own pure Goodness and Bounty to which alone we must ascribe it For we all the best of us have sinned and come short of the glory of God Rom. 3. 23. And we are told ch 6. 23. that The wages of sin our proper wages is death but the gift of God is eternal life The Apostle might have said and indeed the Antithesis or Opposition there seem'd to require it But the wages of Righteousness is eternal life But he altered the Phrase on set-purpose and chose rather to say The gift of God is eternal life That we might from this change of the Phrase learn That although we procure Death unto our selves yet 't is God that bestows eternal life on us That as He hath called us to his kingdom and glory 1 Thess. 2. 12. so he gives that glory and that kingdom for no other reason but because He is pleased so to doe It is your Father's good pleasure for into God the Father's good pleasure Christ resolves it to give you a kingdome Luk. 12. 32. No merit nor so much as any good disposition in us for it He propares it for us Matt. 20. 23. And he prepares us for it too here in the Text by making us meet to be partakers thereof For what meetness could he find in us for such an Inheritance Title to it we have none being by nature the Children of wrath and disobedience Eph. 2. 2 3. Mere Intruders here and Usurpers The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence and we the violent take it by force Mat. 11. 12. Qualifications proper for it we have none too That An Inheritance in light we darkness That An Inheritance incorruptible undefiled and that fadeth not away 1 Pet. 1. 4. we corruptible polluted and still decaying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cries out our Apostle We are not sufficient not fit for the word signifies either as of our selves but our sufficiency or fitness call it which you will is of God 2 Cor. 3. 5. 2 Pet. 1. 4. who as He makes us Partakers of his divine Nature so meet Partakers of the divine Inheritance not by pouring out the divine Essence but by communicating to us those divine Qualities which will fit and prepare us for the Sight thereof by putting light into our Understandings and holiness into our Wills without which no man shall see the Lord Heb. 12. 14. By cleansing our hearts and washing our hands that so we may ascend into the hill of the Lord dwell and rest in his Tabernacle Psal. 15. 24. He gives us Faith and with that a Prospect of our Inheritance and He gives us Hope and with that an Interest therein And to summ up all in one He gives us his Holy Spirit the earnest of that Inheritance Eph. 1. 14. who worketh all our works in us writes his laws in our hearts and by softning makes them capable of his divine Impressions In short That divine Spirit which by Regenerating makes us new Creatures and so fit Inhabitants for the new Jerusalem calling us first to Vertue and then to Glory to that as
who as He is the Fountain of the Deity and of all operations in the Divine Nature so of all our gifts and graces too Every good and every perfect gift whether of Nature Grace or Glory coming down to us from the Father of lights Jam. 1. 17. especially the Inheritance in light which is so peculiarly his gift that our Saviour appropriates it to Him telling his Apostles Mat. 20. 23. That it is not his to give but the Father's Hence that Blessing of St. Paul Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ Ephes. 1. 3. directing his Thanks to Him as the Original of all our Blessings whether Temporal or Spiritual Now of these two sorts the latter being far the greatest our Thanks for them ought to be so too We are to thank God then 1. That He hath made us partakers and 2. meet partakers of the Inheritance in light First I say That He hath made us partakers of so glorious an Inheritance as that in light it being nothing less than his very self who is Essential light and who dwelleth in that light which no Man can approach unto 1 Tim. 6. 16. A rich and a glorious Inheritance indeed fit for the Majesty and Mercy of an Almighty God to bestow the unvaluable Bloud of his Son to purchase and the dearly beloved of his Soul to enjoy How thankfull ought we then to be for being made partakers of such an Inheritance as is as far above those here below as Heaven is above the Earth or God above All things But this is not All. We are in the second place to thank God the Father for making us meet partakers thereof which is a greater Blessing than we are aware of We would fain have the Inheritance at any rate but we consider not whether we be fit for it or no and if we be not Heaven it self will be no place of Happiness to us nor shall we take pleasure therein For Pleasure being nothing else but the suitableness of the Object to the Faculty because things agreeable alone can agree together then what satisfaction should we find in Heaven while our selves were altogether Earthly Light is a pleasant thing to an Eye prepared for and that can bear it not to that of a Bat or of an Owl nor to that of a Man that should suddenly be brought into it out of a dark Dungeon it would rather blind his Eyes than delight them And what would the Inheritance in light be to a Child of Darkness but as the pleasure of a rational Man is to a Beast or of an Intelligence to a bruitish Man He who is wholly taken up with Sensual Objects and so unacquainted with Intellectual rests there and seeks no farther Tell a Mahumetan of such a Heaven as the Gospel describes and you may then make him fall in love with that place when you can persuade a Hog to leave his Stye for a Palace or that to lye in perfumes were better for him than to wallow in the mire What a Transcendent blessing then is it and how thankfull ought we to be to God for it that He makes us meet for the Inheritance above in order to our better partaking of it that He gives us his Grace here as a preparative to Glory hereafter makes us Holy in this life that we may be capable of being Happy in the next his Goodness being not more conspicuous in the reward He designs us than in the manner of bestowing it in giving us a Crown of Glory than in fitting our Heads for it 'T is a greater honour to be accounted worthy of it than to wear it As Vertue is beyond a Title and a Man more than a Place And now since our lot is fallen unto us in so fair a ground and that we have so goodly a Heritage let us highly value it make it our chief Treasure that our Hearts may still be there where we have such a glorious Inheritance laid up for us and such an indefeisible Estate as shall never be either in another's power to defeat us of or in our own to lose when once possest of How do we value our Earthly Inheritances How dear are they to us How loth are we to part with them The Lord forbid it me that I should give the Inheritance of my Fathers unto thee said Naboth to Ahab when he would have wrested it from him 1 King 21. 3. And yet this being but an Earthly Inheritance whereas ours is an Heavenly He chose rather to part with his Life than with the Inheritance of his Fathers and we are willing to part with the Inheritance of the Saints in light for nothing to sell our spiritual Birthright with profane Esau for a mess of Pottage while every trifling Argument shall make us disbelieve and every trifling Lust make us forfeit it Is the price of Christ's bloud the purchase he has made for us of an Eternal Inheritance become so cheap unto us in comparison of those uncertain perishing ones which the malice of Men can and death in a very short time will be sure to strip us of so subject to alteration and decay so polluted and defiled The Inheritance of the Saints in light is by St. Peter described by three such properties so peculiar to it that they are not to be found in worldly ones He tells us 1 Pet. 1. 4. That 't is an Inheritance incorruptible undefiled and that fadeth not away Now 1. Worldly Inheritances even Kingdoms are Transitory whereas that of Heaven cannot be moved Heb. 12. 28. Estates here shift their Landlords what is one Man 's to day is another's to morrow nay all the evidence Men have of their Estates here shall one day be burnt with the World and be made void at the Day of Judgment And yet how do they call their Lands after their own names when those names and those very lands that are called after them shall perish together when they who are Owners of them shall one day become part of their own lands retain nothing of all their Possessions but Graves and in a short time scarce be distinguished from that Earth wherein they were buried 2. Again Should Inheritances here be continued to their Owners never so long yet are they fading still losing their beauty verdure and lustre there is some moth or canker that continually frets and at last eats them up But in Heaven as we shall have an Incorruptible so an Immarcessible Crown Not like Olympick ones of Bays or Herbs which immediately withered even on the heads of those that wore them but always fresh and green 3. Lastly Worldly Inheritances are so far from being undefiled that their Owners may well blush when they consider how many times they come by them with how much sin Themselves enjoy and Others to whom they must leave shall spend them Yet as pitifull things as they are how thankfull
their sight is that of all the parcels of time regard but the present and of all things but the face and appearance men that only mind earthly things of so low and base a spirit that their Souls are but as salt to them and of so brutish a temper that such a Transmigration as Pythagoras fansied a punishment to bad men would with them pass for a happiness and with the Devils they would make it their desire that they might be suffered hereafter to enter into Hogs Such men dare not openly deny an Immortality and yet they will not believe it or if they do 't is so faintly that their lives wholly confute their judgments 'T is strange to see how many there are that having nothing but frost in their veins and earth in their face do yet so much doat on that life which they have now scarce any part in whose faith reaches no farther than their senses and yet scarce retain they those senses whose frame should lift them up above the Earth and their affections carry them wholly to it They are unwilling to leave the World though they see they cannot keep it in their weak and enfeebled bodies they carry strong desires to it being dead to every thing but to the pleasures thereof which yet they cannot now enjoy because they cannot taste and do then covet most when they are just leaving them Than which as there cannot be a greater folly so let us take heed how we imitate it learn to look off from these temporal things which are seen to those eternal which are not seen get such a perspective of faith as may draw Heaven nearer to us shew us those glories which Christ has prepared for us and already taken possession of in his own flesh that so ours may rest in hope and one day inherit His kingdom And now since Christ has given us an assurance of Immortality let us endeavour to lay the foundation of a happy one in this life to work it out even in this world this common shop of change work it out of that in which it is not out of riches by not trusting in and well using them out of the pleasures of this world by loathing and forsaking them out of the flesh by crucifying it with the lusts and affections thereof and out of the world it self by overcoming it Lastly and above all let us labour to secure this blessed Immortality which lies before us by such good works as may follow us through the huge and unconceivable tract of Eternity Else we may be so eternal as to wish we were mortal wish against our interest that in this life only we had hope make our selves who now fear death to dread immortality too hope that there were no eternal joys and tremble at the thoughts even of that everlasting bliss which our ill lives should give us no just ground to hope for But if while we enjoy this life we make lasting provisions for the next by good works then do we truly hope in Christ and then the seeds of Vertue and Piety well cultivated here shall hereafter yield us the happy fruits of a glorious Immortality which he grant us who hath brought life and immortality to light through his Gospel Jesus Christ in us the hope of Glory To whom with the Father c. Amen Soli Deo gloria in aeternum A SERMON ON ROM XII 1 I beseech you therefore Brethren by the mercies of God that ye present your bodies a living Sacrifice holy acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service SAint Paul being from a Jew converted to a Christian hath taken great pains not only to prove the reasonableness of his doing so but that Judaism it self was to be Christned the legal Washings to be at last baptized That whole Oeconomy to be done away that it might be made complete and to be destroyed that it might be perfected And it was well that it was to be so For the Law could not justifie because its performances were but low its Promises but near and its strength weak The Law then could not justifie had it been observed but being broken it could condemn so that our Saviour to upbraid the Jews refers them not only to himself but to Moses in whom they did trust And indeed 't is as visible that the Jews did break their Law as that they did boast of it They were equally zealous in observing and industrious in transgressing it Instead of Religion they had brought themselves to be a Sect humorsome and peevish arrogant and censorious All the world was to be of their way and yet themselves not of it so that they were as I may so say Idolaters of the true God whose Circumcision was uncircumcised As if that fact of Moses when he brought the Law had been the Type of the future observance of it when at the time of bringing the Tables he brake them But not to upbraid the Jews with their failings let us see what use there is to be made of them while they perform the letter let us obey the meaning while their Sabbaths are lazy let ours be holy They wrote the Law on their Garments let us write them on our Hearts They boasted of it let us doe it While they sacrifice their Beasts let us offer up to God the more precious bloud of his own Lamb and with that bloud our selves For we Christians as well as the Jews have an Altar says St. Paul and are Priests too a royal Priesthood says St. Peter Aaron and his Successors offered up Bulls and Rams unreasonable Creatures that were first slain and then offered But we our Bodies and those such living Sacrifices as make up a reasonable Service No Calves here to be presented but those of our lips For a Lamb and a Dove meekness and innocence and for a Goat our Iusts must be sacrificed No death here but of inbred corruptions no slaughter but of the old man whose death enlivens our Sacrifice and so fits it for an Everliving God and makes it Holy and so becoming a Holy God And if we crown our Sacrifices with such flowers they must needs send forth a sweet and acceptable odour to God and pass with Him not only for a Sacrifice but which is more be heightned to a reasonable Service And this our Gratitude calls for and our Interest We owe it to God as to our Creator who made our Bodies and as to our Redeemer who hath purchased them We owe it to our selves too if we will be happy in the enjoyment of God who as He is not a God of the dead but of the living will have a living Body for a Sacrifice and not a Carkass And this in all respects is so reasonable that it may well be matter of wonder why our Apostle should spend so much passionate Rhetorick to persuade us to give up that unto God which 't is our highest advantage He should vouchsafe to accept But then