watching thereunto upon extraordinary occasions by a religious care of his Family or constant attendants praying with them and instructing them and all this practised in the most intense degree and reverent manner He spake with all manner of regard and deference to Moses and the Prophets Search the Scriptures for in them ye have eternal life Joh. 5.39 and think not that I am come to destroy the Law or the Prophets for whosoever shall break one of the least of these Commandments and shall teach men so shall be call'd least i. e. shall have no part in the Kingdom of God Matth. 5. he constantly worship'd in the Synagogues on Sabbath days Luk. 4.16 and was daily that is frequently in the Temple Mark 14.49 and a religious observer of the Passover and other Festivals Joh. 10.22 he discoursed much of God gave him thanks at his Meals retired frequently for private Prayer and Heavenly Solitude he taught his Disciples to pray and he prayed with them the Garden in which he was apprehended was a sort of Family-Chappel or Oratory whither Jesus was wont to resort with his Disciples for the Exercise of their Family-Devotion Joh. 18.1 2. In the Life of Jesus we have a pattern of zeal for God and his Glory tender and earnest and constant though pure from affectation and from bitterness not transporting him beyond just and peaceable and charitable bounds Careful he was that God might have the glory of all that he said and did Joh. 14.13 he never shewed himself so concern'd as when the honour of God was at stake nor angry but when that was violated This made him who was meekness it self so sharply reprove those Monsters of Men the Scribes and Pharisees who made bold to serve themselves of God and made void his Commands by their Traditions Matth. 23. therefore he seems transported at the prophanation of the Temple the House of Prayer being turned into a Den of Thieves Luke 19.46 Joh. 2.15 he rejected the Devils proffer of the Kingdoms of the World the price of Idolatry with holy indignation Get the behind me Satan Matth. 4.10 and he rejects Peter as if he had been another Devil when he opposed the will and the glory of God Matth. 16.23 Get thee behind me Satan for thou art an offence unto me for thou savourest not the things that be of God but those that be of Men. So fervent and zealous was the piety of Jesus it was unaffected yet great and constantly professed not boasted but unshaken that was not imprudently importune and troublesome to others but steady and even and absolutely conquering all opposition it met withal To love God with all the heart and Soul and strength includes somewhat more than a right knowledge or honourable opinions of him it implies fervour and delight and constant resolution Religious and holy Men must put on a presence and greatness of Mind and not be afraid or ashamed to appear what they are such as love God and desire and seek and delight in him above all things Thus Jesus teacheth us by his Example in which also we see a Life of Godliness and Devotion not led in a Cloyster but which is more perfect in the World in a busy station where Godliness and Charity went hand in hand and took their turns and he that was so zealous for God was also useful and profitable to Men. For secondly In the Life of Christ Sect. 2 we have an unparallel'd pattern of the greatest good will and noblest Charity towards men evidenced in his whole Conversation conspicuous in all his Discourses the Life and Soul of every thing he did For his Life was a constant Scene of Charity and his Death the consummation of it for he laid down his Life for the behalf and in the stead of Men to procure them the greatest good they are capable of reconciliation to God and Eternal Life To collect therefore the instances of his Charity would be to recount all his Miracles which St. John saith the World could scarce contain the voluminous account of 't would be to recite the story of his whole Life which was one intire demonstration of good will a most useful and benign conversation But to hint some particulars He exemplified his Charity by a free and obliging Conversation accessible and affable to all sorts of men complyant with their Customs and easy in his demean toward them so far as might consist with Innocence and Prudence For this frankness of his Conversation he underwent the reproach of a Wine-bibber and a friend of sinners Matth. 11.19 And the supercilious Pharisees were offended at this that he accepted the Persons and the Invitations and made himself a Guest to Publicans and Sinners Matth. 9.10 If he were a Prophet say they he would have known who touched him for she is a Sinner But our Saviour answered them that the Physician is proper Company for the sick that he conversed with all sorts of men because he sought the good of all for he came to seek and to save and to call to repentance Matth. 9.12 13. Nor indeed is it the property of Charity to be shy and estranged morose and rigid but to be complaisant and accessible and to please all Men in all things that are innocent and inoffensive A good Man can't indeed chose his intimate Friends among the dissolute and profane rout for what agreement hath Light with Darkness but he is affable and courteous to all and separates not himself from their Conversation unless in great Charity by order of Church-Censure for the bringing a Sinner by shame to Repentance and Amendment Again Jesus full of good will and Charity studied quietness and to preserve peace and order amongst Men. He espoused no Party nor provoked any by busy pragmaticalness he would not be a judge or divider Luke 12.14 Tender of giving offence he was gentle and mild in his reproofs where the case would admit of it Why are ye fearful O ye of little Faith Matth. 14.14 He both taught and practised Obedience and subjection to Government that Piety should not be a pretence to the discharge of Loyalty but that Caesar have his rights as well as God Mat. 22.21 He paid the tribute of the Sanctuary at the expence of a Miracle rather than he would give offence notwithstanding he might have held himself excused in strict right from that payment Matth. 17.27 He rebuked Peter when he drew the Sword against the Officers of the High Priest though it was to defend his innocent Master and denounced upon that occasion destruction to all that shall usurp the Sword without legal Commission They that so take the Sword shall perish by it Matth. 26.52 Thus he taught us by Example as well as Precept to follow Peace to study the quiet and welfare of Societies to do what in us lies to render Government easy and prosperous as a noble instance of Charity and good will to Mankind Farther Jesus exemplified his Charity
and by his Example hath taught us that in such an intire surrender of our selves to God we can only find our Interest and our Peace For Fourthly From the Life of Jesus we are assured of the wisdom of being holy that when we chose and act as he did we cannot be mistaken He who was the wisdom of the Father could not be deceived nor deceive us the Life that he led must therefore be wisest and fittest most agreeable to the nature of Man and most conducing to his Happiness He perfectly understood the nature of things and the needs of Men the real and appearing worth of all the enjoyments of Life and of what consideration all the afflictions of it are both in themselves and compared with that glory that shall be revealed He could have made the best of a prosperous state yet he neglected the pleasures of Life he chose the Cross and the Afflictions of Righteousness he preferred the pleasures of Innocence and a good Conscience and the enjoyment of God. The reason was because his understanding was exalted above all the deceptions of Sin and Satan he saw through all the false Colours and disguises of the World and the Flesh and knew the real difference of things He knew that Holiness is Truth and Wisdom and Perfection but Sin the Errour Delusion Ignorance and Folly. Fifthly The Example of Jesus is recommended to our imitation from the consideration of his love for he that loved us to the death could have no other design in giving us an Example of Life but to oblige us to pursue our own good and to secure our greatest interests The love of Christ constrains us to confess the goodness of those paths he leads us in let the World say what they will these will have the safest Issue best secure our present and our Eternal Interests If Humility were not better than Pride Charity than Hatred Mercifulness than Revenge if indifferency to the World did not more consult our Peace and Happiness than the grandeur and the affluence of it he that loved us so intirely as to lay down his Life for us would not have led us in such a way and by his authority and love have obliged us to follow him in it Sixthly When we consider that Jesus was both God and Man we must consider the Life he led not only as wisest and best but as God-like and as near to Divinity as was possible So that it is both our Wisdom and our Interest and our highest Dignity the greatest Exaltation and perfection that we are capable of to put on Christ and to walk as he walked We are therein Followers of God we do what he did in our nature or would do if he could enter into the present circumstances of our state We do that which hath a tendency to exalt our Minds into the nearest resemblance approach and union with the Divinity it self Such is the Influence and Energy of the Example of Jesus that while we set it before us as we have an excellent pattern of the most noble and difficult Virtues so it represents the whole Circle of our duty as possible and natural an easy even and steady path and course of action as Amiable and Lovely as reasonable in all its difficulties which Jesus had conquer'd for us as the wisest and best measure of Life which the Wisdom of God and his tender love hath chalked out for us and as the highest dignity and advancement of our nature whereby we become like God resemble as much as may be the Heavenly Pattern and are partakers of the Divine Nature and Life CLOSE NOW the inference from all the Premises is this That we run with patience the race that is set before us looking unto Jesus Hebr. 12.2 That we suffer the Divine Light of his Doctrine and Life to shine into our Souls that we be affected with the true Spirit of his Religion and in love with his amiable Conversation That we study the holy Gospels for this end that we may thence receive the Light of Life that being fill'd with admiration and love of the fervent Godliness and insuperable unwearied Charity of Jesus his condescending Humility Peaceableness and Gentleness his unshaken Resolution unvanquish'd Fortitude and Patience and frequently comparing our selves with this admirable Pattern we may blush for our Nonconformity and endeavour to write more exactly after so fair a Copy Let this consideration have a place in all our self-reflections whether we have duly imitated and well represented our dearest Saviour or have not rather cast a scandal and reproach upon him In all our deliberations propound we him for our Example and let us form our designs and prosecute our business as we verily believe he would have done Let us always remember that to be a Christian is to be made like Christ that to know God as he hath declared him and to serve him as he did this is the summ of our profession and substance of our Religion This is the saving knowledge of Christ to have the true Idea of his Spirit and Life continually directing and influencing ours to acquaint our selves with God and with the true measures of Holiness and Righteousness to have our hearts affected with the Beauty and excellency thereof and to study to approve our selves unto God after the Pattern that he sent us from Heaven according to the Instruction and Example of his well-beloved Son. But what cause of reproof of self-judging and humiliation is this to the most that call themselves Christians and yet follow any Example sooner than that of Christ or else make heavy blots and blurs whilst writing after so fair and admirable a Copy What a scandal is it to see how Christians mistake and misrepresent their Master and his holy Religion and what a fatal delusion is it to think to reconcile contradictions that can never consist That he who calls himself a Disciple a Follower of Jesus should industriously conform himself to the guise and custom of this World should be led by the Examples of Impudent Vice afraid to abet forsaken truth and vertue that the Disciples of the Innocent and Spotless Jesus should wallow in carnal delights lead sensual vain and voluptuous Lives that the Friend and those that say they have interest in the Merciful Self-denying and devout Jesus should be heaping up Riches by rapin and oppression or by fraud and unjust gain utter strangers to bounty and works of mercy or else ungodly and profane or trifling cold and formal Devotionists These things can never consist if our tempers and our lives be not the transcript of the Mind and Life of Jesus we may call our selves what we please but Christ will not know us he will call us Children of the Devil if we bear his Image and do his Lusts and Pleasure and our judgment will be more severe for taking upon us the name of Christ to dishonour and profane it If we say that we have fellowship with
the glory of the Gentâ—â—… and whom the Seas and Wind and ll things obey'd he having all Power in Heaven and Earth What can we possess of comparable value to all this or what can we contrive or bring to pass comparable to the undertaking of Christ and the great design of his Doctrine and Miracles of his Life and Death But we have much more reason to be humble for whereas the great indowments of Jesus were not blemish'd with any fault of his we have nothing but folly and shame to call our own Repentance is our best Wisdom and that is a conviction of Sin and Folly and yet we are unsteady in our Repentance and frequently depart from our better purposes and have reason to blush and be humbled for so doing Besides it was the Wisdom and Perfection of Jesus that kept him from being cheated or imposing on himself Pride is all errour and delusion but humility is truth 'T was humility that made all his other excellencies illustrious and render'd him at once highly beloved of God and Men. And from his Example we learn that he that humbleth himself shall be exalted for we see Jesus for his humility exalted to the right hand of God and Crown'd with glory and honour Lastly As for particular relative Sect. 6 Virtues Christ indeed did not enter into all Relations but his Example was sufficiently compleat without it He intended us a pattern in special of the most eminent Virtues and most difficult to our frail and corrupt natures of substantial and zealous Piety universal and fervent Charity generous contempt of the World invincible Fortitude and gentle and self-denying Meekness and Humility and he that follows him thus far will need no farther instruction but may easily become his own guide He in whom Christ is thus formed will certainly adorn every relation and excel in it 'T will be natural and easy for him to conceive what the holy and charitable the meek and lowly Jesus would have done in such circumstances if he had entred into them and then he hath his pattern to go and do likewise Nor yet are we without the Example of Jesus for our direction in several instances of this sort His subjection to his Parents is upon record and his tender care of his Mother even in his last extremities making provision for her on the Cross by recommending her to the care of his beloved Disciple Joh. 19.27 His quiet subjection to Governours when unjustly prosecuted by them His pious care for the instruction of his Family and training them up in Religion and Piety But as I said before he that hath received the Spirit of Christ will not fail to express it in every condition and he that acts by the measures of Piety and Charity Purity and Humility shall discharge himself of the duty of every relation and be a true Follower of Jesus in it This therefore may suffice for an extract of the Life of Christ as a perfect unparallel'd pattern of all Holiness Virtue and Goodness that which follows is That we apply the Light of this Illustrious Example for our instruction in the absolute necessity genuine nature due extent and admirable excellency of true Holiness and the Christian Life CHAP. IV. The particular instruction we reap from the Life of Christ THE Life of Jesus consider'd as Sect. 1 our Example doth fully inform and perswade us First Of the absolute necessity of holiness in order to the Vision of God and that the undertaking of Christ for us will no farther avail us than as we are made partakers of his Spirit and do copy out the Excellencies of his Life 'T was a design worthy of the Son of God to plant and restore Holiness in the World by his Doctrine and Example by his Life and Death by all that he said and did to minister instruction and help thereunto and to bind it upon us with such sacred Obligations and fast ties as are not easily to be broken It is true that Holiness in general that Piety Justice Charity Sobriety in particular do attract us with their native Beauty and proper lustre we can't but discern the necessity of these Virtues to the perfection of our nature to the attainment of Peace and Happiness to the good and welfare of Society and to the rendring us capable of injoying God. But because the voice of reason is too faint and low and its representations too languid and feeble to be much regarded in the croud and noise of impetuous Lusts and Passions and authority example and custom false notions and prejudices and levity of mind oppose themselves strongly to the dictates of Conscience and endeavour to hide the shame and abate the folly and absurdity of Vice Behold therefore God hath spoken from Heaven to awaken our drowsy Faculties and sent his Son to shew us the only way thither We may now be infinitely certain that there is no entring into the glory of God by any other path than that which Jesus walk'd in that we can become the Children of his love no other way than by being conformed to the Image of his dear Son that we are not capable in this life of any greater good than to have Christ formed in us for this was God's ultimate design in giving his Son to us that we through him might be made partakers of the divine nature 2 Pet. 1.3 What a veneration for Religion and love of Holiness should this consideration beget in us that it is the best thing we are capable of the sum of all God's merciful and kind intentions towards us that best of Gifts which the charitable Jesus by his Incarnation Life Death Resurrection Ascension by all that he hath done or shall do for us to the end of time doth aim to bestow upon us to indow us withal What a foolish and wretched judgment do we then make if in opposition to the Wisdom and goodness of God we prefer Lust and Folly and sensual delights What divine Light and Grace do we resist and despise if we still abide in darkness continue in sin And how foolish false and insignificant are all our pretences to be Christians whilst we are led by another spirit than that of Christ and follow any Example sooner than his For this is to reflect upon the Wisdom of God and to despise his Grace to reject his counsel for our Salvation and to judge our selves unworthy of Eternal Life Secondly From the Life of Christ Sect. 2 consider'd as our Copy and pattern we are infallibly informed wherein pure and undefiled Religion doth consist or what are the things undoubtedly pleasing unto God. The Life of Christ was designed to be a perfect and unerring Example such as the World needed but never had before nor should receive again There can therefore be no heights nor degrees of perfect goodness which his Life was a stranger to But from his practice we learn what are the things most agreeable to the mind of God
to be built upon it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 de Isid Osir 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Simpl. in Epictet c. 34. whether there were two first Principles the one of good the other of evil which was the most ancient and universal opinion as Plutarch tells us or whence else those lapses and errours of the humane Soul should proceed whence it was that the brutish part had enslaved the rational and the sensitive appetite broke loose from the governing power They knew not the head of this over-flowing Nile but found themselves involved in the Inundation whilst their understandings reasoned tolerably well of Vertue their inclinations engaged them powerfully in Vice So that either despairing of liberty they tamely yielded to the torrent of inclination and custom or else with great perplexity but little success strove against the mighty stream and in so great a streight as was natural look'd up to God Plutar. de superstit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who is the hope of Vertue but not the Patron of Sloth and Cowardize Although they sometimes magnified humane nature yet experience of their own infirmity at other times extorted this confession from them that a divine impulse was necessary to make a Man truly great and good Nunquam vir magnus sine divino afflatu Cicero 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pythag Aur. Carm. and that there is something divine in holy men that informs and guides them Which differs but little from that of St. John 1 Ep. c. 2.20 Ye have an unction from the holy one and know all things But the knowledge of their remedy was not equal to the sense and pressure of their Disease they could cry out with St. Paul Oh wretched Man that I am who shall deliver me but could not answer with him I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. It is the Redeemer of the World who by a divine strength hath relieved the weakness of Man and by the law of the spirit of life Rom. 8.2 made them free from the law of sin and death The Sun of Righteousness just before his rising upon the benighted World had emitted some twilight Rayes into the darkness of it by raising up some eminent Philosophers Preachers of Righteousness to check the superstition and madness of the Priests and to scatter some rayes of knowledge among the people thereby to prepare the way to the Eternal Word who was to bring with him the treasures of divine Knowledge and Wisdom But when this glorious Sun was risen he not only shed a divine light but quickening heat and influence upon the benummed and frozen World. He revived the dead restored the languishing redeem'd the Captive and enabled Slaves to break off their Fetters Joh. 8.36 and those whom the Eternal Truth set at liberty were free indeed He plentifully poured out that Spirit that rested on himself even the Spirit of wisdom and understanding Isa 11.2 of counsel and might of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. By the miraculous effusion of the Holy Ghost he awaken'd the stupid World and called them into his Church an unconquerable never-failing Principle of Eternal Righteousness By the abounding of this grace he hath provided Rom. 5.21 that as sin hath reigned unto death so righteousness may now reign unto Eternal Life The Gospel preached in the demonstration of the Spirit made a speedy and wonderful reformation in the understandings tempers and lives of Men and yielded a most powerful conviction that God was both able and willing to restore his lost Image in them And all the treasures of this divine Spirit are promised to those that humbly ask and are willing to receive them The Conscience therefore awakened by the light of Truth is no longer amazed or distracted but confiding in the divine aids and strengthened with his Heavenly Grace pursues its conflict with the Flesh to a compleat Victory Every good motion is from the same Spirit of Truth and Grace which hath made such admirable Conquests over Ignorance and Lust and he that hath the same Principle in himself can't but have a good hope of the same blessed Fruits The Soul that feels a divine strength cannot but expect from the same Fountain a constant supply and thus united to God in the same design of restoring his Image and animated with the holy Spirit can't fail to master all opposition for greater is he that is in us than he that is in the World. This therefore is the Foundation on which Christs Kingdom of Righteousness and Grace is built viz. Faith establishing the heart by a full and certain perswasion of these Fundamental Points viz. That God is Reconciled and Pardon and gracious acceptance sure to returning Sinners That a future Judgment and Eternal Life and consequently the difference of moral good and evil are indisputably certain and unquestionable realities That there is but one God the Creator of all things and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ the only object of worship and Fountain of Blessing whom we must glorify in and worship through as he blesseth us by the Eternal Word and Spirit That the true service of God consists in the imitation of him of which the Life of Jesus is our Pattern that such Holiness is indispensibly necessary certainly practicable and can never fail of the divine acceptance That the corruption of nature and the power of inclination and custom are infallibly conquerable by the grace of God and God most ready to prevent and follow us with his grace and that he will never fail to assist and prosper our endeavours till they are crowned with Everlasting Success This is the Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon these fundamentals of religious Belief must the Superstructure of Holiness and Happiness be raised and built Now Christians even of the meanest Capacities believing Jesus to be the Son of God and receiving that account the Evangelists give of him have thereby most evident demonstration lively perswasion and certain knowledge of these fundamental truths such as the most learned Philosophers could not attain unto and the generality of the World were extreamly far from This Foundation being laid sure God having made Faith of these truths to all men in a most easy and certain way and most powerfully and solemnly attested them by the miraculous effusion and demonstration of the Spirit that which remains for restoring Religion and Man for perfecting the Kingdom of Christ is to build upon this holy Faith the true Image of God and Spirit of Holiness to pluck up those prejudices that debauched Mens minds the Sources and Tap-roots of false Religion and to inculcate those truths which contain the true Spirit and Genius of pure and undefil'd Religion With this design the Doctrine and Life of Jesus travail viz. to introduce amongst his Followers that excellency of Spirit that was in himself which is the true Image of God the glory and the perfection of Man. And as this spirit