suppose to dye so imperfect that they stand in need of being purged and according to the degree of their imperfection are to be detain'd a shorter or a longer time in Purgatory But now besides that there is no Text in Scripture from whence any such state can probably be concluded as is acknowledged by many learned men of the Church of Rome and even that Text which they have most insisted upon they shall be saved yet so as by fire is given up by them as insufficient to conclue the thing Estius is very glad to get off it by saying there is nothing in it against Purgatory Why no body pretends that but we might reasonably expect that there should be something for it in a Text which hath been so often produced and urged by them for the proof of it I say besides that there is nothing in Scripture for Purgatory there are a great many things against it and utterly inconsistent with it In the parable of the Rich man and Lazarus which was designed to represent to us the different stares of good and bad men in another world there is not the least intimation of Purgatory but that good men pass immediately into a state of happiness and bad men into a place of torment And St. John Rev. 14.13 pronounceth all that dye in the Lord happy because they rest from their labours which they cannot be said to do who are in a state of great anguish and torment as those are supposed to be who are in Purgatory But above all this Reasoning of Saint Paul is utterly inconsistent with any imagination of such a state For he encourageth all Christians in general against the fear of death from the consideration of that happy state they should immediately pass into by being admitted into the presence of God which surely is not Purgatory We are of good courage says he and willing rather to be absent from the body And great reason we should be so if so soon as we leave the body we are present with the Lord. But no man sure would be glad to leave the body to go into a place of exquisite and extreme torment which they tell us is the case of most Christians when they dye And what can be more unreasonable than to make the Apostle to use an argument to comfort all Christians against the sear of death which concerns but very few in comparison So that if the Apostle's reasoning be good that while we are in this life we are detained from our happiness and so soon as we depart this life we pass immediately into it and therefore death is desirable to all good men I say if this reasoning be good it is very clear that Saint Paul knew nothing of the Doctrine now taught in the Church of Rome concerning Purgatory because that is utterly inconsistent with what he expresly asserts in this Chapter and quite takes away the force of his whole Argument 3. To encourage us against the fear of death And this is the Conclusion which the Apostle makes from this consideration Therefore says he we are of good courage knowing that whilst we converse in the body we are absent from the Lord. There is in us a natural love of life and a natural horrour and dread of death so that our spirits are apt to shrink at the thoughts of the approach of it But this fear may very much be mitigated and even over-ruled by Reason and the considerations of Religion For death is not so dreadful in it self as with regard to the consequences of it And those will be as we are comfortable and happy to the good but dismal and miserable to the wicked So that the only true antidote against the fear of death is the hopes of a better life and the only firm ground of these hopes is the mercy of God in Jefus Christ upon our due preparation for another world by repentance and a holy life For the sting of death is sin and when that is taken away the terrour and bitterness of death is past And then death is so far from being dreadful that in reason it is extremely desirable because it lets us into a better state such as only deserves the name of life Hi vivunt qui ex corporum vinculis tanquam è carcere evolaverunt vestra vero quae dicitur vita mors est They truly live could a Heathen say who have made their escape out of this prison of the body but that which men commonly call life is rather death than life To live indeed is to be well and to be happy and that we shall never be till we are got beyond the grave 4. This Consideration should comfort us under the loss and death of Friends which certainly is one of the greatest grievances and troubles of humane life For if they be fit for God and go to him when they dye they are infinitely happier than it was possible for them to have been in this world and the trouble of their absence from us is fully balanced by their being present with the Lord. For why should we lament the end of that life which we are assured is the beginning of immortality One reason of our trouble for the loss of friends is because we loved them But it is no sign of our love to them to grudge and repine at their happiness But we hoped to have enjoyed them longer Be it so yet why should we be troubled that they are happy sooner than we expected but they are parted from us and the thought of this is grievous But yet the consideration of their being parted for a while is not near so sad as the hopes of a happy meeting again never to be parted any more is comfortable and joyful So that the greater our love to them was the less should be our grief for them when we consider that they are happy and that they are safe past all storms all the troubles and temptations of this life and out of the reach of all harm and danger for ever But though the Reason of our duty in this case be very plain yet the practice of it is very difficult and when all is said natural affection will have its course And even after our Judgment is satisfied it will require some time to still and quiet our Passions 5. This Consideration should wean us from the love of life and make us not only contented but willing and glad to leave this world whenever it shall please God to call us out of it This Inference the Apostle makes ver 8. We are confident I say and willing rather to he absent from the body and present with the Lord. Though there were no state of immortality after this life yet methinks we should not desire to live always in this world Habet natura says Tully ut aliarum rerum sic vivendi modum As nature hath set bounds and measures to other things so likewise to life of which men should know when
That outward Teaching likewise and Baptism were intended to be perpetual is no less plain because Christ hath expresly promised to be with the Teachers of his Church in the use of these Ordinances to the end of the World Matth. 28.19 20. Go and disciple all Nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost and lo I am with you always to the end of the World Not only to the end of that particular Age but to the end of the Gospel Age and the consummation of all Ages as the phrase clearly imports And it is as plain from this Text that the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper was intended for a perpetual Institution in the Christian Church till the second coming of Christ viz. his coming to judgment Because St. Paul tells us that by these Sacramental Signs the Death of Christ is to be represented and commemorated till he comes Doe this in remembrance of me For as oft as ye eat this Bread and drink this Cup ye do shew the Lord's Death till he come And if this be the End and Use of this Sacrament to be a solemn remembrance of the Death and Sufferings of our Lord during his absence from us that is till his coming to Judgment then this Sacrament will never be out of date till the second coming of our Lord. The consideration whereof should mightily strengthen and encourage our Faith in the hope of Eternal Life so often as we partake of this Sacrament since our Lord hath left it to us as a memorial of himself till he come to translate his Church into Heaven and as a sure pledge that he will come again at the end of the World and invest us in that Glory which he is now gone before to prepare for us So that as often as we approach the Table of the Lord we should comfort our selves with the thoughts of that blessed time when we shall eat and drink with him in his Kingdom and shall be admitted to the great Feast of the Lamb and to eternal Communion with God the Judge of all and with our blessed and glorified Redeemer and the holy Angels and the Spirits of just men made perfect And the same consideration should likewise make us afraid to receive this Sacrament unworthily without due Preparation for it and without worthy effects of it upon our Hearts and Lives Because of that dreadfull Sentence of condemnation which at the second coming of our Lord shall be past upon those who by the profanation of this solemn Institution trample under foot the son of God and contemn the bloud of the Covenant that Covenant of Grace and Mercy which God hath ratified with Mankind by the Bloud of his Son The Apostle tells us that he that eateth and drinketh unworthily is guilty of the Body and Bloud of the Lord and eateth and drinketh damnation to himself This indeed is spoken of temporal Judgment as I shall shew in the latter part of this Discourse but the Apostle likewise supposeth that if these temporal Judgments had not their effect to bring men to Repentence but they still persisted in the Profanation of this holy Sacrament they should at last be condemned with the World For as he that partaketh worthily of this Sacrament confirms his interest in the promises of the Gospel and his Title to eternal Life so he that receives this Sacrament unworthily that is without due Reverence and without fruits meet for it nay on the contrary continues to live in sin whilst he commemorates the Death of Christ who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity this man aggravates and seals his own Damnation because he is guilty of the Body and Bloud of Christ not only by the contempt of it but by renewing in some sort the cause of his sufferings and as it were crucifying to himself afresh the Lord of life and glory and putting him to an open shame And when the great Judge of the world shall appear and pass final Sentence upon men such obstinate and impenitent wretches as could not be wrought upon by the remembrance of the dearest love of their dying Lord nor be engaged to leave their sins by all the tyes and obligations of this holy Sacrament shall have their portion with Pilate and Judas with the chief Priests and Souldiers who were the betrayers and murtherers of the Lord of life and glory and shall be dealt withall as those who are in some sort guilty of the body and bloud of the Lord. Which severe threatning ought not to discourage men from the Sacrament but to deter all those from their sins who think of engaging themselves to God by so solemn and holy a Covenant It is by no means a sufficient Reason to make men to fly from the Sacrament but certainly one of the most powerfull Arguments in the world to make men forsake their sins as I shall shew more fully under the third head of this Discourse II. The Obligation that lyes upon all Christians to the frequent observance and practice of this Institution For though it be not necessarily implyed in these Words as oft as ye eat this bread and drink this cup yet if we compare these Words of the Apostle with the usage and practice of Christians at that Time which was to communicate in this holy Sacrament so often as they solemnly met together to worship God they plainly suppose and recommend to us the frequent use of this Sacrament or rather imply an obligation upon Christians to embrace all opportunities of receiving it For the sense and meaning of any Law or Institution is best understood by the general practice which follows immediately upon it And to convince men of their obligation hereunto and to engage them to a sutable practice I shall now endeavour with all the plainness and force of persuasion I can And so much the more because the neglect of it among Christians is grown so general and a great many persons from a superstitious awe and reverence of this Sacrament are by degrees fallen into a profane neglect and contempt of it I shall briefly mention a threefold Obligation lying upon all Christians to frequent Communion in this holy Sacrament each of them sufficient of it self but all of them together of the greatest force imaginable to engage us hereunto 1. We are obliged in point of indispensable duty and in obedience to a plain precept and most solemn institution of our blessed Saviour that great Lawgiver who is able to save and to destroy as St. James calls him He hath bid us doe this And S. Paul who declares nothing in this matter but what he tells us he received from the Lord admonisheth us to doe it often Now for any man that professeth himself a Christian to live in the open and continued contempt or neglect of a plain Law and Institution of Christ is utterly inconsistent with such a profession To such our Lord may
Practises but yet with great pity and tenderness towards those miserably seduced Souls who have been deluded by them and ensnared in them And I can truly say as the Roman Orator did of himself upon another occasion Me natura misericordem patria severum crudelem nec patria nec natura esse voluit My nature inclines me to be tender and compassionate a hearty zeal for our Religion and concernment for the publick welfare of my Country may perhaps have made me a little severe but neither my natural disposition nor the temper of the English Nation nor the Genius of the Protestant that is the true Christian Religion will allow me to be cruel For the future Let us encourage our selves in the Lord our God and commit our Cause and the keeping of our Souls to Him in well doing And under God let us leave it to the wisdom and care of His Majesty and His two Houses of Parliament to make a lasting Provision for the security of our Peace and Religion against all the secret contrivances and open attempts of these sons of violence And let us remember those words of David Psal 37.12 13 14 15. The wicked plotteth against the just and gnasheth upon him with his teeth The Lord shall laugh at him for he seeth that his day is coming The wicked have drawn out the sword and bent their how to cast down the poor and needy and to slay such as be of upright conversation Their sword shall enter into their own hearty and their bows shall be broken And I hope considering what God hath heretofore done and hath now begun to do for us we may take encouragement to our selves against all the Enemies of our Religion which are confederated against us in the words of the Prophet Isa 8. 9 10. Associate your selves O ye People and ye shall be broken in pieces and give ear all ye of far Countries Gird your selves and ye shall be broken in pieces Gird your selves and ye shall be broken in pieces Take counsel together and it shall come to nought Speak the word and it shall not stand FOR GOD IS WITH VS And now what remains but to make our most devout and thankful acknowledgments to Almighty God for the invaluable blessing of our Reformed Religion and for the miraculous Deliverance of this Day and for the wonderful Discovery of the late horrid and barbarous Conspiracy against our Prince our Peace and our Religion To Him therefore our most gracious and merciful God our Shield and our Rock and our mighty Deliverer Who hath brought us out of the land of Egypt and out of the House of bondage and hath set us free from Popish Tyranny and Superstition a yoke which neither we nor our Fathers were able to bear Who hath from time to time delivered us from the bloody and merciless designs of wicked and unreasonable men and hath render'd all the plots and contrivances the mischievous counsels and devices of these worse-than-Heathens of none effect Who did as upon this Day rescue our King and our Princes our Nobles and the Heads of our Tribes the Governours of our Church and the Judges of the Land from that fearful Destruction which was ready to have swallowed them up Who still brings to light the hidden things of darkness and hath hitherto preserved our Religion and Civil interests to us in despight of all the malicious and restless attempts of our Adversaries Vnto that great God who hath done so great things for us and hath saved us by a mighty Salvation Who hath delivered us and doth deliver us and we trust will still deliver us be glory and honour thanksgiving and praise from generation to generation And let all the people say Amen A SERMON PREACHED At the First General Meeting of the Gentlemen and others born within the County of YORK To my Honoured FRIENDS and COUNTRYMEN Mr. Hugh Frankland Mr. Leonard Robinson Mr. Abrah Fothergill Mr. William Fairfax Mr. Thomas Johnson Mr. John Hardesty Mr. Gervas Wilcockes Mr. George Pickering Mr. Edward Duffeild Mr. John Topham Mr. James Longbotham Mr. Nathan Holroyd Stewards of the Yorkshire Feast GENTLEMEN THIS Sermon which was first Preached and is now Published at your desires I dedicate to your Names to whose prudence and care the direction and management of this First general Meeting of our Country-men was committed Heartily wishing that it may be some way serviceable to the healing of our unhappy Differences and the restoring of Vnity and Charity among Christians especially those of the Protestant Reform'd Religion I am Gentlemen Your affectionate Country-man and humble Servant Jo. Tillotson A SERMON PREACHED At the first general Meeting of the Gentlemen and others in and near London who were born within the County of York JOHN XIII 34 35. A new Commandment I give unto you that ye love one another as I have loved you that ye also love one another By this shall all men know that ye are my Disciples if ye love one another AS the Christian Religion in general is the best Philosophy and most perfect Institution of Life containing in it the most entire and compleat System of moral Rules and Precepts that was ever yet extant in the World so it peculiarly excells in the Doctrine of Love and Charity earnestly recommending strictly enjoyning and vehemently and almost perpetually pressing and inculcating the excellency and necessity of this best of Graces and Vertues and propounding to us for our imitation and encouragement the most lively and heroical Example of kindness and charity that ever was in the Life and Death of the great Founder of our Religion the author and finisher of our Faith Jesus the Son of God So that the Gospel as it hath in all other parts of our Duty cleared the dimness and obscurity of natural light and supplied the imperfections of former Revelations so doth it most eminently reign and triumph in this great and blessed virtue of Charity in which all the Philosophy and Religions that had been before in the World whether Jewish or Pagan were so remarkably defective With great reason then doth our blessed Saviour call this a new Commandment and assert it to himself as a thing peculiar to his Doctrine and Religion considering how imperfectly it had been taught and how little it had been practised in the World before A new Commandment I give unto you that ye love one another as I have loved you that ye also love one another By this shall all men know that ye are my Disciples if ye love one another I shall reduce my Discourse upon these Words under these six Heads First To inquire in what sense our Saviour calls this Commandment of loving one another a new Commandment Secondly To declare to you the nature of this Commandment by instancing in the chief Acts and Properties of Love Thirdly To consider the degrees and measures of our Charity with regard to the several Objects about which it is exercised Fourthly Our
And vers 17. These things I command you that ye love one another As if this were the end of all his Precepts and of his whole Doctrine to bring us to the practice of this Duty And so St. John the loving and beloved Disciple speaks of it as the great Message which the Son of God was to deliver to mankind 1 Joh. 3.11 This is the Message which ye have heard from the beginning that ye should love one another And ver 23. This is his Commandment that we should believe on the Name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another as he gave us Commandment And chap. 4. v. 21. This Commandment have we from him that he who loveth God love his Brother also But besides the Authority of our Saviour we have precedent obligation to it from our own Nature and from the Reasonableness and Excellency of the thing it self The frame of our Nature disposeth us to it and our inclination to Society in which there can be no pleasure no advantage without mutual love and kindness And Equity also calls for it for that we our selves wish and expect kindness from others is conviction enough to us that we owe it to others The fulfilling of this Law is the great perfection of our Natures the advancement and enlargement of our Souls the chief ornament and beauty of a great mind It makes us like to God the best and most perfect and happiest Being in that which is the prime excellency and happiness and glory of the Divine Nature And the advantages of this temper are unspeakable and innumerable It freeth our souls from those unruly and Troublesom and disquieting Passions which are the great torment of our Spirits from Anger and Envy from Malice and Revenge from Jealousie and Discontent It makes our minds calm and cheerful and puts our souls into an easie posture and into good humour and maintains us in the possession and enjoyment of our selves It preserves men from many mischiefs and inconveniences to which enmity and ill-will do perpetually expose them It is apt to make Friends and to gain Enemies and to render every condition either pleasant or easie or tolerable to us So that to love others is the truest love to our selves and doth redound to our own unspeakable benefit and advantage in all respects It is a very considerable part of our Duty and almost equall'd by our Saviour with the first and great Commandment of the Law It is highly acceptable to God most beneficial to others and very comfortable to our selves It is the easiest of all Duties and it makes all others easie the pleasure of it makes the pains to signifie nothing and the delightful reflection upon it afterwards is a most ample reward of it It is a Duty in every man's power to perform how strait and indigent soeever his fortune and condition be The poorest man may be as charitable as a Prince he may have as much kindness in his heart though his hand cannot be so bountiful and munificent Our Saviour instanceth in the giving of a cup of cold water as a Charity that will be highly accepted and rewarded by God And one of the most celebrated Charities that ever was how small was it for the matter of it and yet how great in regard of the mind that gave it I mean the Widow 's two mites which she cast into the Treasury One could hardly give less and yet none can give more for she gave all that she had All these excellencies and advantages of Love and Charity which I have briefly recounted are so many Arguments so many obligations to the practice of this Duty V. We will consider the great Instance and Example which is here propounded to our imitation As I have loved you that ye also love one another The Son of God's becoming man his whole Life his bitter Death and Passion all that he did and all that he suffered was one great and continued proof and evidence of his mighty love to mankind The greatest Instance of love among men and that too but very rare is for a Man to lay down his life for another for his Friend but the Son of God died for all mankind and we were all his enemies And should we not cheerfully imitate the Example of that great Love and Charity the effects whereof are so comfortable so beneficial so happy to every one of us Had he not loved us and died for us we had certainly perish'd we had been miserable and undone to all eternity And to perpetuate this great Example of Charity and that it might be always fresh in our memories the great Sacrament of our Religion was on purpose instituted for the Commemoration of this great love of the Son of God in laying down his life and shedding his precious blood for the wicked and rebellious Race of mankind But I have not time to enlarge upon this noble Argument as it deserves VI. The last thing to be considered is the place and rank which this Precept and Duty holds in the Christian Religion Our blessed Saviour here makes it the proper badg and cognisance of our Profession By this shall all men know that ye are my Disciples if ye love one another The different Sects among the Jews had some peculiar Character to distinguish them from one another The Scholars of the several great Rabbi's among them had some peculiar Sayings and Opinions some Customs and Traditions whereby they were severally known And so likewise the Disciples of John the Baptist were particularly remarkable for their great Austerities In allusion to these distinctions of Sects and Schools among the Jews our Saviour fixeth upon this mark and character whereby his Disciples should be known from the Disciples of any other Institution A mighty love and affection to one another Other Sects were distinguish'd by little Opinions or by some external Rites and Observances in Religion but our Saviour pitcheth upon that which is the most real and substantial the most large and extensive the most useful and beneficial the most humane and the most divine quality of which we are capable This was his great Commandment to his Disciples before he left the World This was the Legacy he left them and the effect of his last Prayers for them And for this end among others he instituted the Sacrament of his blessed Body and Blood to be a lively remembrance of his great Charity to mankind and a perpetual bond of Love and Union amongst his Followers And the Apostles of our Lord and Saviour do upon all occasions recommend this to us as a principal Duty and Part of our Religion telling us That in Christ Jesus that is in the Christian Religion nothing will avail no not Faith it self unless it be enlivened and inspired by Charity That Love is the end of the Commandment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the end of the Evangelical declaration the first Fruit of the Spirit the spring and root of all those
those Times drew on and the Son of righteousness was nearer his rising the shadows of the night began to be chased away and mens apprehensions of a future state to clear up so that in the time of the Maccabees good men spake with more confidence and assurance of these things It is likewise to be consider'd that the temporal calamities and sufferings with which the Jews were almost continually harass'd from the time of their Captivity had very much wean'd good men from the consideration of temporal promises and awaken'd their minds to the more serious thoughts of another world It being natural to men when they are destitute of present comfort to support themselves with the expectation of better things for the future and as the Apostle to the Hebrews expresseth it ch 6. v. 18. To fly for refuge to lay hold upon the hope that is before them and to employ their reason to fortifie themselves as well as they can in that persuasion And this I doubt not was the true occasion of those clearer and riper apprehensions of good men concerning a future state in those times of distress and persecution it being very agreeable to the wisdom and goodness of the Divine Providence not to leave his People destitute of sufficient support under great trials and sufferings And nothing but the hopes of a better life could have born up the spirits of men under such cruel tortures And of this we have a most remarkable Instance in the History of the seven Brethren in the Maccabees who being cruelly tortured and put to death by Antiochus do most expresly declare their confident expectation of a resurrection to a better life To which History the Apostle certainly refers Heb. 11.35 when he says others were tortured not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection where the word which we render were tortur'd is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the very word used in the Maccabees to express the particular kind of torture us'd upon them besides that being offer'd deliverance they most resolutely refus'd to accept of it with this express declaration that they hop'd for a resurrection to a better life But to return to my purpose not withstanding there might be more clear and express Texts to this purpose in the ancient Prophets yet our Saviour knowing how great a regard not only the Sadduces but all the Jews had to the Authority of Moses he thought fit to bring his proof of the resurrection out of his Writings as that which was the most likely to convince them Thirdly If we consider further the peculiar Notion which the Jews had concerning the use of this phrase or expression of God's being any one 's God And that was this That God is no where in Scripture said to be any ones God while he was alive And therefore they tell us that while Isaac lived God is not called the God of Isaac but the sear of Isaac As Gen. 31.42 Except the God of Abraham and the fear of Isaac had been with me and ver 53. when Laban made a Covenant with Jacob 't is said that Laban did swear by the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor and the God of their Fathers but Jacob swore by the fear of his Father Isaac I will not warrant this Observation to be good because I certainly know it is not true For God doth expresly call himself the God of Isaac while Isaac was yet alive Gen. 28.13 I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father and the God of Isaac It is sufficient to my purpose that this was a Notion anciently currant among the Jews And therefore our Saviour's Argument from this Expression must be so much the stronger against them For if the Souls of men be extinguished by death as the Sadduces believed what did it signifie to Abraham Isaac and Jacob to have God called their God after they were dead But surely for God to be any ones God doth signifie some great benefit and advantage which yet according to the notion which the Jews had of this Phrase could not respect this life because according to them God is not said to be any ones God till after he is dead But it is thus said of Abraham Isaac and Jacob after their death and therefore our Saviour infers very strongly against them that Abraham Isaac and Jacob were not extinguished by death but do still live somewhere for God is not the God of the dead but of the living And then he adds by way of further explication for all live to him That is though those good men who are departed this life do not still live to us here in this world yet they live to God and are with him Fourthly If we consider the great respect which the Jews had for those three Fathers of their Nation Abraham Isaac and Jacob. They had an extraordinary opinion of them and esteemed nothing too great to be thought or said of them And therefore we find that they looked upon it as a great arrogance for any man to assume any thing to himself that might seem to set him above Abraham Isaac or Jacob. With what indignation did they fly upon our Saviour on this account Joh. 4.12 Art thou greater than our father Jacob and chap. 8. ver 53. Art thou greater than our father Abraham whom makest thou thy self Now they who had so superstitious a veneration for them would easily believe any thing of privilege to belong to them so that our Saviour doth with great advantage instance in them in favour of whom they would be inclined to extend the meaning of any promise to the utmost and allow it to signifie as much as the words could possibly bear So that it is no wonder that the Text tells us that this Argument put the Sadduces to silence They durst not attempt a thing so odious as to go about to take away any thing of privilege from Abraham Isaac and Jacob. And thus I have as briefly as the matter would bear endeavoured to shew the fitness and force of this Argument to convince those with whom our Saviour disputed I come now in the II. Second place to enquire Whether this be any more than an Argument ad hominem And if it be wherein the real and absolute force of it doth consist I do not think it necessary to believe that every Argument used by our Saviour or his Apostles is absolutely and in it self conclusive of the matter in debate For an Argument which doth not really prove the thing in Question may yet be a very good Argument ad hominem and in some cases more convincing to him with whom we dispute than that which is a better Argument in it self Now it is possible that our Saviour's intention might not be to bring a conclusive proof of the Resurrection but only to confute those who would needs be disputing with him And to that purpose an Argument ad hominem which proceeded upon grounds which they
what that was he expresseth more particularly c. 26. v. 6 7 And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our Fathers unto which promise our twelve Tribes instantly serving God day and night hope to come By the promise made of God unto the Fathers he means some promise made by God to Abraham Isaac and Jacob for so S. Luke more than once in his History of the Acts explains this phrase of the God of their Fathers Acts 3.13 The God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob the God of our Fathers and c. 7. v. 32. I am the God thy Fathers the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Now what was the great and famous Promise which God made to Abraham Isaac and Jacob was it not this of being their God So that it was this very Promise upon which S. Paul tells us the Jews grounded their hope of a future state because they understood it necessarily to signifie some blessing and happiness beyond this life And now having I hope sufficiently clear'd this matter I shall make some improvement of this Doctrine of a future state and that to these three purposes 1. To raise our minds above this world and the enjoyments of this present life Were but men thorougly convinced of this plain and certain Truth that there is a vast difference between Time and Eternity between a few years and everlasting Ages would we but represent to our selves what thoughts and apprehensions dying persons have of this world how vain and empty a thing it appears to them how like a pageant and a shadow it looks as it passeth away from them methinks none of those things could be a sufficient temptation to any man to forget God and his Soul but notwithstanding all the delights and pleasures of sense we should be strangely intent upon the concernments of another world and almost wholly taken up with the thoughts of that vast Eternity which we are ready to launch into For what is there in this world this waste and howling wilderness this rude and barbarous Country which we are but to pass through which should detain our affections here and take off our thoughts from our everlasting habitation from that better and that heavenly Country where we hope to live and be happy for ever If we settle our affections upon the enjoyments of this present Life so as to be extremely pleas'd and transported with them and to say in our hearts It is good for us to be here if we be excessively griev'd or discontented for the want or loss of them and if we look upon our present state in this world any otherwise than as a preparation and passage to a better life it is a sign that our faith and hope of the happiness of another life is but very weak and faint and that we do not heartily and in good earnest believe what we pretend to do concerning these things For did we stedfastly believe and were thoroughly perswaded of what our Religion so plainly declares to us concerning the unspeakable and endless happiness of good men in another world our affections would sit more loose to this world and our hopes would raise our hearts as much above these present and sensible things as the heavens are high above the earth we should value nothing here below but as it serves for our present support and passage or may be made a means to secure and increase our future felicity 2. The consideration of another Life should quicken our preparation for that blessed state which remains for us in the other world This Life is a state of probation and trial This world is God's school where immortal spirits clothed with flesh are trained and bred up for eternity And then certainly it is not an indifferent thing and a matter of slight concernment to us how we live and demean our selves in this world whether we indulge our selves in ungodliness and worldly lusts or live soberly and righteously and godly in this present world No it is a matter of infinite moment as much as our souls and all eternity are worth Let us not deceive our selves for as we sow so shall we reap If we sow to the flesh we shall of the flesh reap corruption but if we sow to the spirit we shall of the spirit reap everlasting life Light is sown for the righteous and gladness for the upright in heart The righteous hath hopes in his death Mark the perfect man and behold the upright for the end of that man is peace But the ungodly are not so whoever hath lived a wicked and vicious life feels strange throws and pangs in his conscience when he comes to be cast upon a sick bed The wicked is like the troubled sea saith the Prophet when it cannot rest full of trouble and confusion especially in a dying hour It is death to such a man to look back upon his life and a hell to him to think of eternity When his guilty and trembling Soul is ready to leave his Body and just stepping into the other world what horrour and amazement do then seise upon him what a rage does such a man feel in his breast when he seriously considers that he hath been so great a fool as for the false and imperfect pleasure of a few days to make himself miserable for ever 3. Let the consideration of that unspeakable Reward which God hath promised to good men at the Resurrection encourage us to obedience and a holy life We serve a great Prince who is able to promote us to honour a most gracious Master who will not let the least service we do for him pass unrewarded This is the Inference which the Apostle makes from this large discourse of the Doctrine of the Resurrrection 1 Cor. 15.58 Wherefore my beloved brethren be ye stedfast and unmovable always abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as ye know that your labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. Nothing will make death more welcome to us than a constant course of service and obedience to God Sleep saith Solomon is sweet to the labouring man so after a great diligence and industry in working out our own salvation and as it is said of David serving our generation according to the will of God how pleasant will it be to fall asleep And as an useful and well-spent life will make our death to be sweet so our resurrection to be glorious Whatever acts of Piety we do to God or of charity to men whatever we lay out upon the poor and afflicted and necessitous will all be considered by God in the day of recompences and most plentifully rewarded to us And surely no consideration ought to be more prevalent to perswade us to alms-deeds and charity to the poor than that of a resurrection to another life Besides the promises of this life which are made to works of charity and there is not any
excellent designs One to have poor children brought up to reade and write and to be carefully instructed in the principles of Religion The other to furnish persons of grown age the poor especially with the necessary helps and means of knowledge as the Bible and other Books of piety and devotion in their own Language to which end he procur'd the Church-Catechism the Practice of Piety and that best of Books the Whole Duty of Man besides several other pious and useful Treatises some of them to be translated into the Welch Tongue and great numbers of all them to be printed and sent down to the chief Towns in Wales to be sold at easie rates to those that were able to buy them and to be freely given to those that were not And in both these designs through the blessing of God upon his unwearied endeavours he found very great success For by the large and bountiful contributions which chiefly by his industry and prudent application were obtain'd from charitable Persons of all Ranks and conditions from the Nobility and Gentry of Wales and the neighbouring Counties and several of that Quality in and about London from divers of the Right Reverend Bishops and of the Clergy and from that perpetual fountain of charity the City of London led on and encourag'd by the most bountifull example of the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor and the Court of Aldermen to all which he constantly added two Thirds of his own estate which as I have been credibly inform'd was two hundred pounds a year I say by all these together there were every year eight hundred sometimes a thousand poor children educated as I said before and by this example several of the most considerable Towns of Wales were excited to bring up at their own charge the like number of poor children in the like manner and under his inspection and care He likewise gave very great numbers of the Books above mention'd both in the Welch and English Tongues to the poorer sort so many as were unable to buy them and willing to reade them But which was the greatest work of all and amounted indeed to a mighty charge he procured a new and very fair impression of the Bible and Liturgy of the Church of England in the Welch Tongue the former Impression being spent and hardly twenty of them to be had in all London to the number of eight thousand one thousand whereof were freely given to the poor and the rest sent to the principal Cities and Towns in Wales to be sold to the rich at very reasonable and low rates viz. at four shillings a piece well bound and clasped which was much cheaper than any English Bible was ever sold that was of so fair a print and paper A work of that charge that it was not likely to have been done any other way And for which this Age and perhaps the next will have great cause to thank God oh his behalf In these Good works he employed all his time and care and pains and his whole heart was in them so that he was very little affected with any thing else and seldom either minded or knew any thing of the strange occurrences of this troublesome and busie Age such as I think are hardly to be parallel'd in any other Or if he did mind them he scarce ever spoke any thing about them For this was the business he laid to heart and knowing it to be so much and so certainly the Will of his heavenly Father it was his meat and drink to be doing of it and the good success he had in it was a continual feast to him and gave him a perpetual serenity both of mind and countenance His great love and zeal for this work made all the pains and difficulties of it seem nothing to him He would rise early and sit up late and continued the same diligence and industry to the last though he was in the threescore and seventeenth year of his Age. And that he might manage the distribution of this great charity with his own hands and see the good effect of it with his own eyes he always once but usually twice a year at his own charge travelled over a great part of Wales none of the best Countries to travel in But for the love of God and men he endured all that together with the extremity of heat and cold which in their several seasons are both very great there not onely with patience but with pleasure So that all things considered there have not since the primitive times of Christianity been many among the sons of men to whom that glorious character of the Son of God might be better applied that he went about doing good And Wales may as worthily boast of this truly Apostolical man as of their famous St. David who was also very probably a good man as those times of ignorance and superstition went But his goodness is so disguised by their fabulous Legends and stories which give us the account of him that it is not easie to discover it Indeed ridiculous miracles in abundance are reported of him as that upon occasion of a great number of people reforming from all parts to hear him preach for the greater advantage of his being heard a mountain all on a sudden rose up miraculously under his feet and his voice was extended to that degree that he might be distinctly heard for two or three miles round about Such phantastical miracles as these make up a great part of his History And admitting all these to be true which a wise man would be loth to do our departed Friend had that which is much greater and more excellent than all these a fervent charity to God and men which is more than to speak as they would make us believe S. David did with the Tongue of men and Angels more than to raise or remove mountains And now methinks it is pity so good a design so happily prosecuted should fall and die with this good man And it is now under deliberation if possible still to continue and carry it on and a very worthy and charitable person pitched upon for that purpose who is willing to undertake that part which he that is gone performed so well But this will depend upon the continuance of the former Charities and the concurrence of those worthy and well-disposed persons in Wales to contribute their part as formerly which I perswade my self they will cheerfully do I will add but one thing more concerning our deceased Brother that though he meddled not at all in our present heats and differences as a Party having much better things to mind yet as a looker on he did very sadly lament them and for several of the last years of his life he continued in the Communion of our Church and as he himself told me thought himself obliged in conscience so to do He died in the 77th year of his age Octob. 29th 1681. It so pleased God that his death
was very sudden and so sudden that in all probability he himself hardly perceived it when it happened for he died in his sleep so that we may say of him as it is said of David after be had served his generation according to the will of God he fell asleep I confess that a sudden death is generally undesirable and therefore with reason we pray against it because so very few are sufficiently prepared for it But to him the constant employment of whose life was the best preparation for death that was possible no death could be sudden nay it was rather a favour and blessing to him because by how much the more sudden so much the more easie As if God had designed to begin the reward of the great pains of his life in an easie death And indeed it was rather a translation than a death and saving that his body was left behind what was said of Enoch may not unfitly be applied to this pious and good man with respect to the suddenness of his change he walked with God and was not for God took him And God grant that we who survive may all of us sincerely endeavour to tread in the steps of his exemplary piety and charity of his labour of love his unwearied diligence and patient continuance in doing good that we may meet with that encouraging commendation which he hath already received from the mouth of our Lord. Well done good and faithfull servant enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ that great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant make you perfect in every good work to do his will working in you always that which is pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ To whom be glory for ever Amen A SERMON Preached at the FUNERAL Of the Reverend BENJAMIN WHICHCOT D. D. May 24th 1683. 2 COR. V. 6. Wherefore we are always confident knowing that whilst we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. THese Words contain one of the chief grounds of encouragement which the Christian Religion gives us against the fear of death For our clearer understanding of them it will be requisite to consider the Context looking back as far as the beginning of the Chapter where the Apostle pursues the argument of the foregoing Chapter which was to comfort and encourage Christians under their afflictions and sufferings from this consideration that these did but prepare the way for a greater and more glorious reward Our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory And suppose the worst that these sufferings should extend to death there is comfort for us likewise in this case ver 1. of this Chapter For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God c. If our earthly house of this tabernacle he calls our body an earthly earthly house and that we may not look upon it as a certain abode and fixed habitation he doth by way of correction of himself add that it is but a tabernacle or tent which must shortly be taken down And when it is we shall have a building of God a house not made with hands eternal in the heavens This is a description of our heavenly habitation in opposition to our earthly house or tabern 〈◊〉 It is a building of God not like those houses or tabernacles which men build and which are liable to decay and dissolution to be taken down or to fall down of themselves for such are those houses of clay which we dwell in whose foundations are in the dust but an habitation prepared by God himself a house not made with hands that which is the immediate work of God being in Scripture opposed to that which is made with hands and effected by humane concurrence and by natural means And being the immediate work of God as it is excellent so it is lasting and durable which no earthly thing is eternal in the heavens that is eternal and heavenly For in this we groan earnestly that is while we are in this body we groan by reason of the pressures and afflictions of it Desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked Desiring to be clothed upon that is we could wish not to put off these bodies not to be stripp'd of them by death but to be of the number of those who at the coming of our Lord without the putting off these bodies shall be changed and clothed upon with their house which is from heaven and without dying be invested with those spiritual and glorious and heavenly bodies which men shall have at the Resurrection This I doubt not is the Apostle's meaning in these Words in which he speaks according to a common opinion among the Disciples grounded as St. John tells us upon a mistake of our Saviour's words concerning him If I will that he tarry till I come upon which St. John tells us that there went a Saying among the brethren that that disciple should not die that is that he should live till Christ's coming to Judgment and then be changed and consequently that Christ would come to Judgment before the end of that Age. Suitable to this common opinion among Christians the Apostle here says in this we groan earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven if so be that being clothed we shall no be found naked It hath puzzled Interpreters what to make of this passage and well it might for whatever be meant by being clothed how can they that are clothed be found naked But I think it is very clear that our Translatours have not attained the true sense of this passage 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is most naturally rendred thus if so be we shall be found clothed and not naked That is if the coming of Christ shall find us in the body and not devested of it if at Christ's coming to Judgement we shall be found alive and not dead And then the sense of the whole is very clear and current we are desirous to be clothed upon with our house from heaven that is with our spiritual and immortal bodies if so be it shall so happen that at the coming of Christ we shall be found alive in these bodies and not stripp'd of them before by death And then it follows For we burthened that is with the afflictions and pressures of this life not that we would be unclothed that is not that we desire by death to be devested of these bodies but clothed upon that is if God see it good we had rather be found alive and changed and without putting off these bodies have immortality as it were superinduced that so mortality might be swallowed up of life The plain sense is that he
rather desires if it may be to be of the number of those who shall be found alive at the coming of Christ and have this mortal and corruptible body while they are clothed with it changed into a spiritual and incorruptible body without the pain and terrour of dying of which immediate translation into heaven without the painfull divorce of soul and body by death Enoch and Elias were examples in the old Testament It follows ver 5. Now he that hath wrought for us the self same thing is God That is it is he who hath fitted and prepared us for this Glorious change who also hath given us the earnest of the Spirit The Spirit is frequently in Scripture called the witness and seal and earnest of our future happiness and blessed resurrection or change of these vile and earthly bodies into spiritual and heavenly bodies For as the resurrection of Christ from the dead by the power of the holy Ghost is the great proof and evidence of immortality so the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwelling in us is the pledge and earnest of our Resurrection to an immortal life From all which the Apostle concludes in the words of the Text Therefore we are always confident that is we are always of good courage against the fear of death knowing that whilst we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which may better be rendred whilst we converse or sojourn in the body than whilst we are at home Because the design of the Apostle is to shew that the body is not our house but our tabernacle and that whilst we are in the body we are not at home but pilgrims and strangers And this notion the Heathens had of our present life and condition in this world Ex vita discedo faith Tully tanquam ex hospitio non tanquam ex domo commorandi enim natura diversorium nobis non habitandi locum dedit We go out of this life as it were from an Inn and not from our home nature having designed it to us as a place to sojourn but not to dwell in We are absent from the Lord that is we are detained from the blessed sight and enjoyment of God and kept out of the possession of that happiness which makes Heaven So that the Apostle makes an immediate opposition between our continuance in the body and our blissfull enjoyment of God and lays it down for a certain truth that whilst we remain in the body we are detained from our happiness and that so soon as ever we leave the body we shall be admitted into it knowing that whilst we converse in the body we are absent from the Lord. And ver 8. we are willing rather to be absent from the body and present with the Lord intimating that so soon as we quit these bodies we shall be admitted to the blessed sight and enjoyment of God My design from this Text is to draw some useful Corollaries or Conclusions from this Assertion of the Apostle That whilst we are in these bodies we are detained from our happiness and that so soon as ever we depart out of them we shall be admitted to the possession and enjoyment of it And they are these 1. This Assertion shews us the vanity and falshood of that Opinion or rather dream concerning the sleep of the Soul from the time of death till the general Resurrection This is chiefly grounded upon that frequent Metaphor in Scripture by which death is resembled to sleep and those that are dead are said to be fallen asleep But this Metaphor is no where in Scripture that I know of applied to the soul but to the body resting in the grave in order to its being awakened and raised up at the Resurrection And thus it is frequently used with express reference to the body Dan. 12.2 Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake Matth. 27.52 And the graves were opened and many bodies of saints which slept arose Acts 13.36 David after he had served his own generation by the will of God fell on sleep and was laid to his fathers and saw corruption which surely can no otherwise be understood than of his body 1 Cor. 15.21 Now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first-fruits of them that slept that is the resurrection of his body is the earnest and assurance that ours also shall be raised And ver 51. We shall not all sleep but shall all be changed where the Apostle certainly speaks both of the death and change of these corruptible bodies 1 Thessal 4.14 If we believe that Jesus died and rose again even so them also that sleep in Jesus shall God bring with him That is the bodies of those that died in the Lord shall be raised and accompany him at his coming So that it is the body which is said in Scripture to sleep and not the soul For that is utterly inconsistent with the Apostles Assertion here in the Text that while we are in the body we are absent from the Lord and that so soon as we depart out of the body we shall be present with the Lord. For surely to be with the Lord must signifie a state of happiness which sleep is not but only of inactivity Besides that the Apostle's Argument would be very flat and it would be but a cold encouragement against the fear of death that so soon as we are dead we shall fall asleep and become insensible But the Apostle useth it as an Argument why we should be willing to dye as soon as God pleaseth and the sooner the better because so soon as we quit these bodies we shall be present with the Lord that is admitted to the blissful sight and enjoyment of him and while we abide in the body we are detained from our happiness But if our souls shall sleep as well as our bodies till the general Resurrection it is all one whether we continue in the body or not as to any happiness we shall enjoy in the mean time which is directly contrary to the main scope of the Apostle's Argument 2. This Assertion of the Apostle's doth perfectly conclude against the feigned Purgatory of the Church of Rome which supposeth the far greater number of true and faithful Christians of those who dye in the Lord and have obtained eternal redemption by him from hell not to pass immediately into a state of happiness but to be detained in the suburbs of Hell in extremity of torment equal to that of hell for degree though not for duration till their fouls be purged and the guilt of temporal punifhments which they are liable to be some way or other paid off and discharged They suppose indeed some very few holy persons especially those who suffer Martyrdom to be so perfect at their departure out of the body as to pass immediately into Heaven because they need no purgation But most Christians they
Imposition and preserved them in their Places by that means And to the Fellows that were ejected by the Visitours he likewise freely consented that their full Dividend for that year should be paid them even after they were ejected Among these was the Reverend and ingenious Dr. Charles Mason upon whom after he was ejected the College did confer a good Living which then fell in their gift with the consent of the Prevost who knowing him to be a worthy man was contented to run the hazard of the displeasure of those Times So that I hope none will be hard upon him that he was contented upon such terms to be in a capacity to do good in bad Times For besides his care of the College he had a very great and good influence upon the University in general Every Lord's day in the Afternoon for almost twenty years together he preached in Trinity Church where he had a great number not only of the young Scholars but of those of greater standing and best repute for Learning in the University his constant and attentive Auditors And in those wild and unsetled Times contributed more to the forming of the Students of that University to a sober sense of Religion than any man in that Age. After he left Cambridge he came to London and was chosen Minister of Black-Friars where he continued till the dreadful Fire And then retired himself to a Donative he had at Milton near Cambridge where he Preached constantly and relieved the poor and had their children taught to read at his own charge and made up differences among the neighbours Here he stayed till by the promotion of the Reverend Dr. Wilkins his Predecessour in this Place to the Bishoprick of Chester he was by his interest and recommendation presented to this Church But during the building of it upon the invitation of the Court of Aldermen in the Mayoralty of Sir William Turner he preached before that Honourable Auditory at Guild-Hall Chapel every Sunday in the afternoon with great acceptance and approbation for about the space of seven years When his Church was built he bestowed his pains here twice a week where he had the general love and respect of his Parish and a very considerable and judicious Auditory though not very numerous by reason of the weakness of his voice in his declining age It pleased God to bless him as with a plentifull Estate so with a charitable Mind which yet was not so well known to many because in the disposal of his charity he very much affected secrecy He frequently bestowed his alms as I am informed by those who best knew on poor house-keepers disabled by age or sickness to support themselves thinking those to be the most proper objects of it He was rather frugal in expence upon himself that so he might have wherewithall to relieve the necessities of others And he was not onely charitable in his life but in a very bountiful manner at his death bequeathing in pious and charitable Legacies to the value of a thousand pounds To the Library of the University of Cambridge fifty pounds and of King's College one hundred pounds and of Emanuel College twenty pounds To which College he had been a considerable benefactour before having founded there several Scholarships to the value of a thousand pounds out of a Charity with the disposal whereof he was entrusted and which not without great difficulty and pains he at last recovered To the Poor of the several Places where his Estate lay and where he had been Minister he gave above one hundred pounds Among those who had been his Servants or were so at his death he disposed in Annuities and Legacies in money to the value of above three hundred pounds To other charitable uses and among the poorer of his Relations above three hundred pounds To every one of his Tenants he left a Legacy according to the proportion of the Estate they held by way of remembrance of him And to one of them that was gone much behind he remitted in his Will seventy pounds And as became his great goodness he was ever a remarkably kind Landlord forgiving his Tenants and always making abatements to them for hard years or any other accidental losses that happened to them I must not omit the wise provision he made in his Will to prevent Law-suits among the Legatees by appointing two or three persons of greatest prudence and Authority among his Relations final Arbitrators of all differences that should arise Having given this account of his last Will I come cow to the sad part of all sad I mean to us but happiest to him A little before Easter last he went down to Cambridge where upon taking a great Cold he fell into a distemper which in a few days put a period to his life He died in the house of his ancient and most learned Friend Dr Cudworth Master of Christ's College During his sickness he had a constant calmness and serenity of mind and under all his bodily weakness possest his soul in great patience After the Prayers for the Visitation of the Sick which he said were excellent Prayers had been used he was put in mind of receiving the Sacrament to which he answered that he most readily embraced the proposal And after he had received it said to Dr. Cudworth I heartily thank you for this most Christian office I thank you for putting me in mind of receiving this Sacrament adding this pious ejaculation The Lord fulfill all his declarations and promises and pardon all my weaknesses and imperfections He disclaimed all merit in himself and declared that whatever he was he was through the grace and goodness of God in Jesus Christ. He expressed likewise great dislike of the Principles of Separation and said he was the more desirous to receive the Sacrament that he might declare his full Communion with the Church of Christ all the world over He disclaimed Popery and as things of near affinity with it or rather parts of it all superstition and usurpation upon the consiciences of men He thanked God that he had no pain in his body nor disquiet in his mind Towards his last he seemed rather unwilling to be detained any longer in this state not for any pains he felt in himself but for the trouble he gave his friends saying to one of them who had with great care attended him all along in his sickness My dear friend thou hast taken a great deal of pains to uphold a crazy body but it will not do I pray thee give me no more Cordials for why shouldst thou keep me any longer out of that happy state to which I am going I thank God I hope in his mercy that it shall be well with me And herein God was pleased particularly to answer those devout and well-weighed petitions of his which he frequently used in his Prayer before Sermon which I shall set down in his own words I doubt not those that were his constant hearers
do well remember them And superadd this O Lord to all the grace and favour which thou hast shewn us all along in life not to remove us hence but with all advantage for Eternity when we shall be in a due preparation of mind in a holy constitution of soul in a perfect renunciation of the guise of this mad and sinful world when we shall be intirely resigned up to thee when we shall have clear acts of faith in God by Jesus Christ high and reverential thoughts of thee in our minds inlarged and inflamed affections towards thee c. And whensoever we shall come to leave this world which will be when thou shalt appoint for the issues of life and death are in thy hands afford us such a mighty power and presence of thy good Spirit that we may have solid consolation in believing and avoid all consternation of mind all doubtfulness and uncertainty concerning our everlasting condition and at length depart in the faith of God's Elect c. Mark the perfect man and behold the upright for the end of that man is peace Thus you have the short History of the life and death of this eminent Person whose just Character cannot be given in few words and time will not allow me to use many To be able to describe him aright it were necessary one should be like him for which reason I must content my self with a very imperfect draught of him I shall not insist upon his exemplary piety and devotion towards God of which his whole life was one continued Testimony Nor will I praise his profound Learning for which he was justy had in so great reputation The moral improvements of his mind a Godlike temper and disposition as he was wont to call it he chiefly valued and aspired after that universal charity and goodness which he did continually preach and practise His Conversation was exceeding kind and assable grave and winning prudent and profitable He was slow to declare his judgment and modest in delivering it Never passionate never peremptory so far from imposing upon others that he was rather apt to yeild And though he had a most profound and well-poized judgment yet was he of all men I ever knew the most patient to hear others differ from him and the most easie to be convinced when good Reason was offered and which is seldom seen more apt to be favourable to another man's Reason than his own Studious and inquisitive men commonly at such an age at forty or fifty at the utmost have fixed and setled their Judgments in most Points and as it were made their last understanding supposing they have thought or read or heard what can be said on all sides of things and after that they grow positive and impatient of contradiction thinking it a disparagement to them to alter their judgment But our deceased Friend was so wise as to be willing to learn to the last knowing that no man can grow wiser without some change of his mind without gaining some knowledge which he had not or correcting some errour which he had before He had attained so perfect a mastery of his Passions that for the latter and greatest part of his life he was hardly ever seen to be transported with Anger and as he was extremely carefull not to provoke any man so not to be provoked by any using to say if I provoke a man he is the worse for my company and if I suffer my self to be provoked by him I shall be the worse for his He very seldom reproved any person in company otherwise than by silence or some sign of uneasiness or some very soft and gentle word which yet from the respect men generally bore to him did often prove effectual For he understood humane nature very well and how to apply himself to it in the most easie and effectual ways He was a great encourager and kind directour of young Divines and one of the most candid hearers of Sermons I think that ever was So that though all men did mightily reverence his Judgment yet no man had reason to fear his Censure He never spake well of himself nor ill of others making good that saying of Pansa in Tully neminem alterius qui suae consideret virtuti invidere that no man is apt to envy the worth and vertues of another that hath any of his own to trust to In a word he had all those vertues and in a high degree which an excellent temper great consideration long care and watchfulness over himself together with the assistance of God's grace which he continually implored and mightily relied upon are apt to produce Particularly he excelled in the vertues of Conversation humanity and gentleness and humility a prudent and peaceable and reconciling temper And God knows we could very ill at this time have spared such a Man and have lost from among us as it were so much balm for the healing of the Nation which is now so miserably rent and torn by those wounds which we madly give our selves But since God hath thought good to deprive us of him let his vertues live in our memory and his example in our lives Let us endeavour to be what he was and we shall one day be what he now is of blessed memory on Earth and happy for ever in Heaven And now methinks the consideration of the Argument I have been upon and of that great Example that is before us should raise our minds above this world and six them upon the glory and happiness of the other Let us then begin heaven here in the frame and temper of our minds in our heavenly affections and conversation in a due preparation for and in carnest desires and breathings after that blessed state which we firmly believe and assuredly hope to be one day possessed of when we shall be removed out of this sink of sin and sorrows into the Regions of bliss and immortality where we shall meet all those worthy and excellent persons who are gone before us and whose conversation was so delightfull to us in this world and will be much more so to us in the other when the spirits of just men shall be made perfect and shall be quit of all those infirmities which did attend and lessen them in this mortal state when we shall meet again with our dear Brother and all those good men whom we knew in this world and with the Saints and excellent persons of all Ages to enjoy their blessed friendship and society for ever in the presence of the blessed God where is fullness of joy and at whose right hand are pleasures for evermore In a firm persuasion of this happy state let us every one of us say with David and with the same ardency of affection that he did As the Hart panteth after the water brooks so panteth my soul after thee O God My soul thirsteth for God for the living God O when shall I come and appear before God That so
never be put in practice more seasonably and with greater advantage than when we are meditating of this Sacrament therefore besides our habitual preparation by repentance and the constant endeavours of a holy life it is a very pious and commendable custome in Christians before their coming to the Sacrament to set apart some particular time for this work of examination But how much time every person should allot to this purpose is matter of prudence and as it need not so neither indeed can it be precisely determined Some have greater reason to spend more time upon this work than others I mean those whose accounts are heavier because they have long run upon the score and neglected themselves And some also have more leisure and freedom for it by reason of their casie condition and circumstances in the world and therefore are obliged to allow a greater portion of Time for the exercises of piety and devotion In general no man ought to doe a work of so great moment and concernment slightly and perfunctorily And in this as in all other actions the end is principally to be regarded Now the end of examining our selves is to understand our slate and condition and to reform whatever we find amiss in our selves And provided this end be obtained the circumstances of the means are less considerable whether more or less time be allowed to this work it matters not so much as to make sure that the work be throughly done And I do on purpose speak thus cautiously in this matter because some pious persons do perhaps err on the stricter hand and are a little superstitious on that side insomuch that unless they can gain so much time to set apart for a solemn preparation they will refrain from the Sacrament at that time though otherwise they be habitually prepared This I doubt not proceeds from a pious mind but as the Apostle says in another case about the Sacrament shall I praise them in this I praise them not For provided there be no wilfull neglect of due preparation it is much better to come so prepared as we can nay I think it is our duty so to doe rather than to abstain upon this punctilio For when all is done the best preparation for the Sacrament is the general care and endeavour of a good life And he that is thus prepared may receive at any time when opportunity is offered though he had no particular foresight of that opportunity And I think in that case such a one shall do much better to receive than to refrain because he is habitually prepared for the Sacrament though he had no time to make such actual preparation as he desired And if this were not allowable how could Ministers communicate with sick persons at all times or persuade others to doe it many times upon very short and sudden warning And indeed we cannot imagine that the primitive Christians who received the Sacrament so frequently that for ought appears to the contrary they judged it as essential and necessary a part of their publick worship as any other part of it whatsoever even as their Hymns and Prayers and reading and interpreting the Word of God I say we cannot well conceive how they who celebrated it so constantly could allot any more time for a solemn preparation for it than they did for any other part of divine worship And consequently that the Apostle when he bids the Corinthians examine themselves could mean no more than that confidering the nature and ends of this Institution they should come to it with great reverence and reflecting upon their former miscarriages in this matter should be carefull upon this admonition to avoid them for the future and to amend what had been amiss which to doe requires rather resolution and care than any long time of preparation I speak this that devout persons may not be entangled in an apprehension of a greater necessity than really there is of a long and solemn preparation every time they receive the Sacrament The great necessity that lies upon men is to live as becomes Christians and then they can never be absolutely unprepared Nay I think this to be a very good preparation and I see not why men should not be very well satisfied with it unless they intend to make the same use of the Sacrament that many of the Papists do of Confession and Absolution which is to quit with God once or twice a year that so they may begin to sin again upon a new score But because the Examination of our selves is a thing so very usefull and the time which men are wont to set apart for their preparation for the Sacrament is so advantageous an opportunity for the practice of it therefore I cannot but very much commend those who take this occasion to search and try their ways and to call themselves to a more solemn account of their actions Because this ought to be done sometime and I know no fitter time for it than this And perhaps some would never find time to recollect themselves and to take the condition of their souls into serious consideration were it not upon this solemn occasion The summ of what I have said is this that supposing a person to be habitually prepared by a religious disposition of mind and the general course of a good life this more solemn actual preparation is not always necessary And it is better when there is an opportunity to receive without it than not to receive at all But the greater our actual preparation is the better For no man can examine himself too often and understand the state of his soul too well and exercise repentance and renew the resolutions of a good life too frequently And there is perhaps no fitter opportunity for the doing of all this than when we approach the Lord's table there to commemorate his death and to renew our Covenant with him to live as becomes the Gospel All the Reflexion I shall now make upon this Discourse shall be from the consideration of what hath been said earnestly to excite all that profess and call themselves Christians to a due preparation of themselves for this holy Sacrament and a frequent participation of it according to the intention of our Lord and Saviour in the institution of it and the undoubted practice of Christians in the primitive and best times when men had more devotion and fewer scruples about their duty If we do in good earnest believe that this Sacrament was instituted by our Lord in remembrance of his dying love we cannot but have a very high value and esteem for it upon that account Methinks so often as we reade in the institution of it those words of our dear Lord doe this in remembrance of me and consider what he who said them did for us this dying charge of our best friend should stick with us and make a strong impression upon our minds Especially if we add to these those other words of his not
by a vigorous resolution and an unwearied diligence and a patient continuance in well doing might win and wear a more glorious Crown and be fit to receive a more ample reward from his bounty and goodness yea in some sense I may say from his justice For God is not unrighteous to forget our work and labour and love He will fully consider all the pains that any of us take in his service and all the difficulties that we struggle with out of love to God and clashing of our duty with our inclination is I hope fully answered Since God hath provided so powerfull and effectual a remedy against our natural impotency and infirmity by the Grace of the Gospel And though to those who have wilfully contracted vicious habits a religious and vertuous course of life be very difficult yet the main difficulty lyes in our first entrance upon it And when that is over the ways of goodness are as easy as it is sit any thing should be that is so excellent and that hath the encouragement of so glorious a reward Custome will reconcile men almost to any thing but there are those charms in the ways of wisedom and vertue that a little acquaintance and conversation with them will soon make them more delightfull than any other course And who would grudge any pains and trouble to bring himself into so safe and happy a condition After we have tryed both courses of Religion and Profaneness of Vertue and Vice we shall certainly find that nothing is so wise so easie and so comfortable as to be vertuous we are inwardly convinced we ought to do Nor would I desire more of any man in this matter than to follow the soberest convictions of his own mind and to do that which upon the most serious consideration at all times in prosperity and affliction in sickness and health in the time of life and at the hour of death he judgeth wisest and safest for him to do I proceed to the Branch of the Objection that the Laws of Religion and particularly of the Christian Religion are a heavy yoke laying too great a restraint upon humane nature and entrenching too much upon the pleasures and liberty of it There was I confess some pretence for this Objection against the Jewish Religion which by the multitude of its positive Institutions and external observances must needs have been very burthensome And the same Objection lyes against the Church of Rome who as they have handled Christianity by the unreasonable number of their needless and senseless Ceremonies have made the yoke of Christ heavier than that of Moses and the Gospel a more carnal Commandment than the Law So that Christianity is lost among them in the trappings and accoutrements of it with which instead of adorning Religion they have strangely disguised it and quite stifled it in the crowd of external Rites and Ceremonies But the pure Christian Religion as it was delivered by our Saviour hath hardly any thing in it that is positive except the two Sacraments which are not very troublesome neither but very much for our comfort and advantage because they convey and confirm to us the great blessings and privileges of our Religion In other things Christianity hath hardly imposed any other Laws upon us but what are enacted in our Natures or are agreeable to the prime and fundamental Laws of it nothing but what every man's reason either dictates to him to be necessary or approves as highly fit and reasonable But we do most grosly mistake the nature of pleasure and liberty if we promise them to our selves in any evil and wicked course For upon due search and tryal it will be found that true pleasure and perfect freedom are no where to be found but in the practice of vertue and in the service of God The Laws of Religion do not abridge us of any pleasure that a wise man can desire and safely enjoy I mean without a greater evil and trouble consequent upon it The pleasure of commanding our appetites and governing our passions by the rules of Reason which are the Laws of God is infinitely to be preferred before any sensual pleasure whatsoever Because it is the pleasure of wifedom and discretion and gives us the satisfaction of having done that which is best and fittest for reasonable Creatures to do Who would not rather chuse to govern himself as Scipio did amidst all the temptations and opportunities of sensual pleasure which his power and victories presented to him than to wallow in all the delights of sense Nothing is more certain in reason and experience than that every inordinate appetite and affection is a punishment to it self and is perpetually crossing its own pleasure and defeating its own satisfaction by over-shooting the mark it aims at For instance Intemperance in eating and drinking instead of delighting and satisfying nature doth but load and cloy it and instead of quenching a natural thirst which it is extremely pleasant to do creates an unnatural one which is troublesome and endless The pleasure of Revenge as soon as it is executed turns into grief and pity guilt and remorse and a thousand melancholy wishes that we had retrained our selves from so unreasonable an Act. And the same is as evident in other sensual excesses not so fit to be dedescribed We may trust Epicurus for this that there can be no true pleasure without temperance in the use of pleasure And God and Reason have set us no other bounds concerning the use of sensual pleasures but that we take care not to be injurious to our selves or others in the kind or degree of them And it is very visible that all sensual excess is naturally attended with a double inconvenience As it goes beyond the limits of nature it begets bodily pains and diseases As it transgresseth the rules of Reason and Religion it breeds guilt and remorse in the mind And these are beyond comparison the two greatest evils in this world a diseased body and a discontented mind And in this I am sure I speak to the inward feeling and experience of men and say nothing but what every vicious man finds and hath a more lively sense of than is to be expressed by words When all is done there is no pleasure comparable to that of Innocency and freedom from the stings of a guilty conscience This is a pure and spiritual pleasure much above any sensual delight And yet among all the delights of sense that of health which is the natural consequent of a sober and chaâ—te and regular life is a sensual pleasure far beyond that of any Vice For it is the life of life and that which gives a gratefull relish to all our other enjoyments It is not indeed so violent and transporting a pleasure but it is pure and even and lasting and hath no guilt and regret no sorrow and trouble in it or after it which is a worm that infallibly breeds in all vicious and unlawfull pleasures and
to importune them to their interest and with great earnestness to persuade them to that which in all respects is so visibly for their advantage Chuse you therefore this day whom you will serve God or your lusts And take up a speedy resolution in a matter of so great and pressing a concernment chuse you this day Where there is great hazard in the doing of a thing it is good to deliberate long before we undertake it but where the thing is not only safe but beneficial and not only hugely beneficial but highly necessary when our life and our happiness depends upon it and all the danger lies in the delay of it there we cannot be too sudden in our resolution nor too speedy in the execution of it That which is evidently safe needs no deliberation and that which is absolutely necessary will admit of none Therefore resolve upon it out of hand to day whilest it is called to day lest dny of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin In the days of your youth and health for that is the acceptable time that is the day of salvation Before the evil day comes and you be driven to it by the terrible apprehension and approach of death when men fly to God only for fear of his wrath For the greatest Atheists and Infidels when they come to dye if they have any of that reason left which they have used so ill have commonly right opinions about God and Religion For then the considence as well as the comfort of Atheism leaves them as the Devil uses to do Witches when they are in distress Then with Nebuchadnezzar when they are recovered from being beasts they look up to heaven and their understanding returns to them Then they believe a God and cannot help it they believe and tremble at the thoughts of him Thus Lucretius one of their great Authors observes that when men are in distress Acrius advertunt animos ad Religionem The thoughts of Religion are then more quick and pungent upon their minds Nam verae voces tum demum pectore ab imo Eliciuntur eripitur persona manet res Mens words then come from the bottom of their hearts the mask is taken off and things then appear as in truth they are But then perhaps it may be too late to make this choice Nay then it can hardly be choice but necessity Men do not then chuse to serve the Lord but they are urged and forced to it by their fears They have served their lusts all their life long and now they would fain serve themselves of God at the hour of death They have done what they can by their insolent contempt and defiance of the Almighty to make themselves miserable and now that they can stand out no longer against him they are contented at last to be beholding to him to make them happy The mercies of God are vast and boundless but yet methinks it is too great a presumption in all reason for men to design before-hand to make the mercy of God the sanctuary and retreat of a sinfull life To draw then to a Conclusion of this Discourse If safety or pleasure or liberty or wisdom or vertue or even happiness it self have any temptation in them Religion hath all these baits and allurements What Tully says Philosophy is much more true of the Christian Religion the Wisdom and Philosophy which is from above nunquam satis laudari poterit cui qui pareat omne tempus aetatis sine molestia degere possit We can never praise it enough since whoever lives according to the rules of it may pass the whole age of his life I may add his whole duration this life and the other without trouble Philosophy hath given us several plausible rules for the attaining of peace and tranquility of mind but they fall very much short of bringing men to it The very best of them fail us upon the greatest occasions But the Christian Religion hath effectually done all that which Philosophy pretended to and aimed at The Precepts and Promises of the Holy Scriptures are every way sufficient for our comfort and for our instruction in righteousness to correct all the errours and to bear us up under all the evils and adversities of humane life especially that holy and heavenly Doctrine which is contained in the admirable Sermons of our Saviour quem cum legimus quem Philosophum non contemnimus whose excellent discourses when we reade what Philosopher do we not despise None of the Philosophers could upon sure grounds give that encouragement to their Scholars which our Saviour does to his Disciples take my yoke upon you and learn of me and ye shall find rest to your souls For my yoke is easie and my burthen is light This is the advantage of the Christian Religion sincerely believed and practised that it gives perfect rest and tranquillity to the mind of man It frees us from the guilt of an evil conscience and from the power of our lusts and from the slavish fear of death and of the vengeance of another World It builds our comfort upon a rock which will abide all storms and remain unshaken in every condition and will last and hold out for ever He that heareth these sayings of mine and doth them saith our Lord I will liken him to a wise wan who built his house upon a rock In short Religion makes the life of man a wise design regular and constant to its self because it unites all our resolutions and actions in one great end Whereas without Religion the life of man is a wild and fluttering and inconsistent thing without any certain scope and design The vicious man lives at randome and acts by chance For he that walks by no rule can carry on no settled and steady design It would pity a man's heart to see how hard such men are put to it for diversion and what a burden time is to them and how solicitous they are to devise ways not to spend it but to squander it away For their great grievance is consideration and to be obliged to be intent upon any thing that is serious They hurry from one vanity and folly to another and plunge themselves into drink not to quench their thirst but their guilt and are beholding to every vain man and to every trifling occasion that can but help to take time off their hands Wretched and inconsiderate men who have so vast a work before them the happiness of all eternity to take care of and provide for and yet are at a loss how to employ their time So that Irreligion and Vice makes life an extravagant and unnatural thing because it perverts and overthrows the natural course and order of things For instance according to nature men labour to get an Estate to free themselves from temptations to rapine and injury and that they may have wherewithall to supply their own wants and to relieve the needs of others But now the
to have been engaged in an evil course preserve their innocency with great tenderness and care as the greatest Jewel in the World No Man knows what he do's and what a foundation of trouble he lays to himself when he forfeits his innocency and breaks the peace of his own mind when he yields to a Temptation and makes the first step into a bad course He little thinks whither his lusts may hurry him and what a monster they may make of him before they have done with him 2. Those who have been seduced but are not yet deeply engaged in an evil course let them make a speedy retreat lest they put it for ever out of their power to return Perhaps their feet onely are yet ensnared but their hands are at liberty and they have some power left whereby with an ordinary grace of God they may loose and rescue themselves But after a while their hands may be manacled and all their power may be gone and when they are thus bound hand and foot they are just prepared and in danger every moment to be cast into utter darkness 3. As for those who are gone very far and are grown old in vice who can forbear to lament over them for they are a sad spectacle indeed and the truest object of pity in the World And yet their recovery is not utterly to be despaired of for with God it is possible The spirit of God which hath withdrawn himself or rather hath been driven away by them may yet be persuaded to return and to undertake them once more if they would but seriously rosolve upon a change and heartily beg God's assistance to that purpose If we would take up a mighty resolution we might hope that God would afford a miraculous grace to second it and make it effectual to our recovery Even in this perverse and degenerate Age in which we live God hath not been wanting to give some miraculous instances of his grace and mercy to sinners and those perhaps equal to any of those we meet with in Scripture of Manasses or Mary Magdalen or the penitent Thief both for the greatness of the offenders and the miracle of their change To the end that none might despair and for want of the encouragement of an example equal to their own case be disheartned from so noble an enterprize I am loth to put you in mind how bad some have been who yet have been snatched as Firebrands out of the fire and that in so strange a manner that it would even amaze a Man to think of the wonder of their recovery those who have sunk themselves into the very depth of infidelity and wickedness have by a mighty hand and out-stretched arm of God been pluckt out of this horrible Pit And will we still stand it out with God when such great Leaders have given up the cause and have surrendred and yielded up themselves willing Captives to the grace of God that omnipotent grace of God which can easily subdue the stoutest heart of Man by letting in so strong a light upon our minds and pouring such terrible convictions into our consciences that we can find no ease but in turning to God I hope there are none here so bad as to need all the encouragement to repentance which such examples might give them encouragement I say to repentance for surely these examples can encourage no Man to venture any farther in a wicked course they are so very rare and like the instances of those who have been brought back to life after the sentence of death seemed to have been fully executed upon them But perhaps some will not believe that there have been such examples or if there have they impute all this either to a disturbed imagination or to the faint and low spirits of Men under great bodily weakness or to their natural cowardize and fear or to I know not what foolish and fantastical design of completing and finishing a wicked life with an hypocritical death Nothing surely is easier than to put some bad construction upon the best things and so slurr even repentance it self and almost dash it out of countenance by some bold and perhaps witty saying about it But oh that Men were wise oh that Men were wise that they understood and would consider their latter end Come let us neither trifle nor dissemble in this matter I dare say every man's Conscience is convinced that they who have led very ill lives have so much reason for repentance that we may easily believe it to be real However of all things in the world let us not make a mock of repentance that which must be our last sanctuary and refuge and which we must all come to before we die or it had been better for us we had never been born Therefore let my counsel be acceptable unto you break off your sins by repentance and your iniquities by righteousness And that instantly and without delay lest any of you be hardned through the deceitfulness of sin If we have been enslaved but a little to a vitious course we shall find it a task difficult enough to assert our own liberty to break these bonds in sunder and to cast these cords from us But if we have been long under this bondage we have done so much to undoe our selves and to make our case desperate that it is God's infinite mercy to us that there is yet hope Therefore give glory to the Lord your God before he cause darkness and your feet stumble upon the dark mountains and while you look for light he turn it into darkness and the shadow of death I will conclude with that encouraging invitation even to the greatest of sinners to repentance from the mouth of God himself Isa 55. Incline your ear and come unto me hear and your Soul shall live seek the Lord while he may be found and call upon him while he is near Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy and to our God for he will abundantly pardon To him let us apply out selves and humbly beseech him who is mighty to save that he would stretch forth the right hand of his power for our deliverance from this miserable and cruel bondage of our lusts and that as the rain cometh down from Heaven and returneth not thither but watereth the earth and maketh it to bring forth and bud so he would grant that his word may not return void but accomplish his pleasure and prosper in the thing to which he sent it For his mercy sake in Jesus Christ To whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all honour and glory now and for ever Amen MATTTHEW XXIII 13. Woe unto you Scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites for ye shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against Men and ye neither go in your selves neither suffer ye them that are entring to go in THE Scribes so often mentioned in the Gospel