Devil and Apostate spirits are perpetually active and busie in promoting the Concernments of the Kingdome of Darkness And therefore doubtless He whom God hath made the Shepherd and Bishop of our Souls can never be so regardless of his Office nor so careless of his Flock and tender Lambs committed to his charge as to suffer those cruel Wolves to prey upon them at pleasure and to have no pity at all for them nor to extend his watchful Providence over them whom once he vouchsafed to redeem with his own precious bloud No certainly he that waded through so many difficulties and agonies for us in the daies of his Flesh he that bore our griefs and carried our sorrows he that was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities that sweat drops of bloud in the Garden and was nailed to the Cross for us in Golgotha He cannot so easily forget those whom he hath so dearly bought nor suffer all that power which God hath invested him with for the good of his Church to lie by him idle and unimployed But to the end that there might not be the least ground of Suspicion or Distrust left in the minds of men concerning this particular Christ after his Ascension into Heaven thought good to give us a sensible demonstration both of his Kingly Power and of his watchful Care and Providence over his Church that he would not leave them orphans and destitute of all assistence by sending down his Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost in a visible and miraculous manner upon his Disciples Acts 2. 32. This Jesus hath God raised up of which we are all Witnesses Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted and having received of the Father the Promise of the Holy Ghost he hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear And verily if there had been no news heard of our Lord and Saviour Christ after he ascended above the Clouds out of his Disciples sight no real and visible Demonstration of his Existence Power and Providence over his Church the distrustful hearts of men would have been too prone to suspect that the pretence of an invisible Kingdome at God's right hand above had been no better then a mere Dream an aiery and phantastick Notion and they would have been too ready to have called in question the truth of all his other Miracles his Resurrection and Ascension witnessed onely by his own Disciples and to have surmised those several Apparitions of his that we reade of after his Death had been nothing else but Spectres or Phantasms like the vulgarly-believed Apparitions of the Ghosts of men in Aiery bodies But the sensible and miraculous Pouring out of the Holy Ghost upon his Disciples after his Ascension into Heaven was a palpable Confirmation of all Christ's other Miracles of the Validity of his Meritorious Death and Passion of the Truth of his Resurrection and Ascension and gives most comfortable assurance to all Believers to the World's end that though his Bodily presence be withdrawn from them yet he hath not left his Church utterly forlorn and destitute of all assistence but that his Spirit the Holy Comforter continueth to be present amongst them as his Vicegerent and to assist them for all the holy purposes of the Gospel to the World's end Now the principal Effects of Christ's holy Spirit which are to be hoped for and expected by every true Believer and private Christian are comprised by the Apostle under Three Heads here in the Text as consisting in a Threefold Victory over a Threefold Enemy The sting of Death is Sin and the strength of Sin is the Law But thanks be to God which giveth us the Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 1. A Victory over Sin as that which is the Cause of Death 2. A Victory over the Law as that which aggravates the Guilt and exasperates the Power of Sin 3. Lastly A Victory over Death the Fruit and Consequent of Sin FIRST therefore There is a Victory over Sin to be obtained in and through Christ. Some there are that will acknowledge no other Victory over Sin but an External one that whereby it was conquered for us by Christ upon the Cross sixteen hundred years since where he spoiled Principalities and Powers and made a shew of them openly triumphing over them in it Col. 2. 15. and where he redeemed us from the Curse of the Law being made a Curse for us Gal. 3. 13. And doubtless this was one great end of Christ's coming into the world to make a Propitiatory Sacrifice for the Sins of mankind Not onely that he might thereby put a period to those continually-repeated and ineffectual Sacrifices of brute Beasts and the Offering of the bloud of Bulls and Goats that could not take away Sin nor propitiate the Divine Majesty but also that he might at once give a sensible Demonstration both of God's high Displeasure against Sin and of his Placableness and Reconcilableness to Sinners returning to Obedience and therefore to that end that the Despair of Pardon might not hinder any from Repentance and Amendment of Life promulgate free Pardon and Remission of Sins through his Bloud to all that should repent and believe the Gospel But it is a very unsound and unwholsome Interpretation of this Salutary Undertaking of Christ's in the Gospel as if the ultimate End and Design of it were to procure Remission of Sin and Exemption from Punishment onely to some particular persons still continuing under the Power of Sin and to save them at last in their Sins also that is with a mere outward and carnal Salvation it being a thing utterly impossible that those Undefiled Rewards of the Heavenly Kingdome should be received and enjoyed by men in their Unregenerate and unrenewed Nature For what is this else but to make Christ the grand Patron of the Kingdome of Darkness and to suppose God to be such a Being as may be bribed and corrupted by Sacrifice and Intercession to a partial Connivence and fond Indulgence of men in their Sins to all Eternity Or else to insinuate that there is no other Evil at all in Sin but onely in respect of that outward Punishment consequent upon it which is to destroy the Nature and Reality of Sin and to make it nothing but a mere Name or Phancy as if Good and Evil Just and Unjust as some Philosophers dreamed were not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 onely had no Reality in Nature but depended onely upon Arbitrary Laws enforced by Outward Punishments or mere Opinion and so were onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Democritus expressed it mere Factitious things or else 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fictitious and Imaginary Either of which opinions if they were true then indeed Remission of Sin and Exemption from Punishment would quite take away all the Evil of Sin But if Sin be not a mere Name or Phancy but that which hath a Real and
Imprimatur Ex aedibus Lambeth Octob. 3. 1664. Tho. Cooke R ssimi in Christo Patris ac D ni D. Gilb. Cant. Archiep. Sacel Dom. A SERMON Preached to the HONOURABLE SOCIETY OF LINCOLNES-INNE BY R. CuDWORTH D. D. Master of CHRIST'S College in CAMBRIDGE S. Gregory Nyssen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 LONDON Printed by J. Flesher for R. Royston Bookseller to His most Sacred MAJESTY M DC LXIV 1 Corinth 15. 57. But thanks be to God which giveth us the Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. CHRIST's Resurrection which the Apostle treateth of in the former part of this Chapter is one of the main and principal Articles of our Christian Faith for though Christ by his Death upon the Cross made a Propitiatory Sacrifice for the World yet it was his Resurrection onely which did manifest his Death to be effectual and available for that end and did evidence its acceptation with God For if the Grave had detain'd Christ and held him Prisoner this would have been an argument that the Debt for which he was committed to that dark Dungeon was not yet pay'd nor Satisfaction made for if Christ be not raised saith the Apostle your Faith is vain you are yet in your sins But now Death and the Grave having delivered up Christ out of their custody his Resurrection is an undoubted argument that they had no more to lay to his charge as he was a Surety and Undertaker for mankinde but that the Debt which was owing to the Law and Divine Justice was in the Court of Heaven fully acquitted and discharged For Christ was delivered for our Sins and rose again for our Justification And though Christ's other Miracles ought to have conciliated Belief to his Doctrine from the Jews yet his Resurrection from the dead foretold by himself and really accomplished added to all the rest was a most undoubted and unquestionable Confirmation of his Prophetical Ministery For if it were supposed as the Jews of old and the Talmudists of latter times maliciously calumniated our Saviour Christ that a mere Wizzard or Magician should have appeared and not onely have done many Miracles by Beelzebub and the Powers of Darkness but also have foretold that after he had been put to death he should rise again and have given this as a farther sign to confirm his Prophecy as our Saviour did Matth. 12. 39. it could never be conceiv'd that Divine Providence should suffer such an Impostour miraculously to rise again in so remarkable a manner and so often to appear before the eyes of so many Spectators and at last visibly to ascend up to Heaven Because this would have been Tentatio invincibilis to mankind it being not imaginable what greater assurance Heaven itself could give to confirm and seal a Prophet and to persuade the World that what he did was by the Finger of God and not by Magical imposture then this is And therefore it is observable that though a good while after our Saviour's time when the Jews had now forfeited that peculiar Providence that watched over them a certain counterfeit Messias one David El-Roy was permitted to doe several strange and miraculous things by Magick and Witchcraft if the Jewish Relations be true yet when he gave this for a Sign to the Persian King to prove himself the Messias that after he was beheaded by him he should rise again he plainly discovered his Imposture to the great disappointment of the deluded Jews who as Maimonides writes in vain expected his Resurrection a good while after Moreover If Christ had not risen again after death the world would not have had sufficient ground to trust and believe in him as a Saviour S. Austin reckon'd it as great a Miracle as any that Christ ever did upon earth that the World should be brought off to believe in a crucified Saviour For to worship 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Jews by way of Disgrace call our Saviour or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Lucian's language one that was hanged for a God and to believe in him could not but seem a monstrous and prodigious thing both to Jews and Gentiles and certainly it would never have been brought to pass had there not been unquestionable assurance given of Christ's Resurrection from the dead For who would be so sottish as to believe in a dead Saviour and to expect help and assistance from him that had not been able to help himself and therefore had given no proof that he was able to help others nay from him that to all humane appearance had now no being at all Upon which account the Psalmist upbraids the sottish Heathen That they ate the Sacrifices of the dead Wherefore it is observable in the Gospel that when Christ was now dead buried in his Sepulchre the Hope and Expectation of his Disciples who had formerly believed in him lay as it were intombed in the same Sepulchre with him And then the two Disciples that went to Emmaus could onely say We trusted this had been he which should have redeemed Israel But afterwards when they were able upon good grounds to affirm that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lord was risen indeed then their Faith revived a-new and mounted up higher then ever and grew triumphant in them Again there was another excellent Design in Christ's Resurrection from the dead which the Apostle pursues largely also in this Chapter viz. To give the world assurance of a Life after death and a blessed Immortality to be enjoyed by all true Believers and Followers of Christ. Christ by his Resurrection hath abolished death and brought life and immortality to light as the Apostle speaks 2 Tim. 1. 10. or as the Church sings in that divine Anthem After he had overcome the sharpness of Death he opened the kingdome of Heaven to all Believers The reasons of Philosophy that prove the Soul's Immortality though firm and Demonstrative in themselves yet they are so thin and subtile to vulgar apprehensions that they glide away through them and leave no such palpable impressions on them as can be able sufficiently to bear up against that heavy weight of gross infidelity that continually sinks down the minds of men to a distrust of such high things as be above the reach of Sense Neither are these considerations any longer of force then men can actually attend to the strength and coherence of the Demonstration and when that actual attention which is operose and difficult is taken off then the Truth itself like a Spectre or Apparition suddenly vanishes away and men question with themselves afterwards whether there were any such thing or no. Such thin and evanid things are Philosophical Speculations about the high Mysteries of Faith and Religion But Christ his raising of the self-same Body which was laid in the Sepulchre and afterwards appearing in it often to his Disciples gave such evident assurance of the Soul's Immortality and Life after death as must needs strike more strongly upon
Vulgar minds and make more palpable impressions on them and be alwaies of more present and ready use then any Philosophical Reasons and Demonstrations And the Scripture is herein very harmonious and agreeable to itself both in the Old and New Testament for as in the one it makes the original of Death's entrance into the world to be the Sin and Disobedience of the First Adam who was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the earth earthy so in the other it attributes the recovery of Life and Immortality to the meritorious Obedience of the Second Adam that was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lord from heaven heavenly who by his Death vanquished destroyed Death For as Sampson who was a Type of our Saviour when he was besieged by the Philistines in the City Gaza Judges 16. rose up at midnight and pulled up the Gates of the City and the Posts and laying them upon his shoulders carried them up to the top of the Hill in like manner Christ our Lord when he was environ'd and encompass'd by Death after he had been awhile detain'd under the custody thereof he ascended victoriously out of the Power of the Grave and carried the Gates of Hell and Death upon his Shoulders along with him triumphantly into Heaven he slighted and dismantled that mighty Garrison whose Walls were stronger then Brass and Gates harder then Adamant that it should no longer be a Prison with doors and barrs to shut up those that believe in him but an open and free passage and a broad High-way to Life and Immortality He is the Resurrection and the Life John 11. 25. and he that believeth in him though he were dead yet shall he live For he that liveth and was dead and is alive for evermore even he hath the Keys of Hell and of Death Revelat. 1. 18. But that which I chiefly aim at at this time concerning Jesus his Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven is this That by and after it he was made Lord and Christ King and Saviour and Sovereign of his Church Not but that Christ's Humanity was alwaies hypostatically united to the Divinity but because the Oeconomical Kingdome of Christ as Mediatour according to the Scripture-calculation seems not to commence till after his state of Humiliation was over and so begins its Epocha from Christ's Resurrection or his Exaltation to sit at God's right hand in heaven Acts 2. 36. Let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ. Acts 5. 31. Jesus whom ye slew and hanged on a Tree him hath God exalted on his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour c. Philip. 2. 9. Who humbled himself and became obedient to the death of the Cross Wherefore hath God highly exalted him and given him a Name above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow c. and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father And that Article of our Creed concerning Christ's sitting at God's right hand in Heaven signifies thus much unto us That Christ after his Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven hath all Power given him both in Heaven and in Earth all things being made subject to him excepting him onely that hath put all things under him He being for the Comfort of his Church and Members here upon Earth according to his Humanity made God's Vicegerent and seated in his Father's Throne and having a Mediatorious Kingdome bestowed upon him that shall continue till he hath put down all Authority and Power and hath subdued all his Enemies under his feet and then hath delivered up this Oeconomical Kingdome to God the Father that God may be all in all And this is an unspeakable Consolation that Christian Religion affords to us and a most gracious Condescension of the All-wise God That forasmuch as we that dwell in these houses of Clay are so far removed from the pure and abstracted Deity and so infinitely disproportioned unto it that there should be such a contrivance as this set on foot That we should have one of our own Flesh and Bloud that was in all things tempted like unto us and had experience of all our difficulties and calamities who demonstrated his infinite love to us in laying down his Life for us and therefore we cannot doubt but hath a most tender Sympathy and fellow-feeling with us in all our infirmities I say that we should have such a one exalted to God's right hand and invested with all Authority and Power both in Heaven and in Earth that he might administer all things for the good of his Church and Members and supply them in all their wants and necessities Which consideration must needs be farre more comfortable chearing and reviving to every true Christian then it was to the Sons of Jacob when they went down to Egypt to buy Corn and provision for their necessities to think that Joseph their Brother was made Ruler over all the Land And yet notwithstanding this is wholly eluded and evacuated by those high-flown Spiritualists of these latter times that slight and reject the Letter of the New Testament as a mean and carnal thing and will acknowledge no other Death and Resurrection of Christ no other Ascension and Sitting at God's right hand nay no other Day of Judgement nor Resurrection of the Body but what is Mystical and Allegorical Whereby they do not onely impudently slurre the Gospel according to the History and the Letter in making it no better then a Romantical Legend or a mere Aesopick Fable that contains a good 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Moral under it but also plainly defeat the Counsel of God against themselves and mankinde by antiquating Christianity and bringing in instead thereof old Paganism again disguised under a few canting Phrases of Scripture-language For though Moses had a Veil over his face though there were many obscure Umbrages and Allegories in the Law the Children of Israel being then not able to bear the brightness of that Evangelical Truth that shined under them yet now under the Gospel we do all with open face behold as in a Glass the glory of the Lord nakedly represented to us being changed into the same image from glory to glory But to let pass these and still to improve our former Meditation further Let us in the next place consider that Christ who received all this Power after his Resurrection and Ascension did not receive it in vain and to no purpose either taking no notice of our humane transactions here below as having removed his Pavilion too farre into those Regions of Light and Glory from us or else remaining notwithstanding an idle Spectator and no way concerning or interesting himself in the Issues of our humane affairs Which will be so much the more improbable if we consider what the Scripture and experience tell us that the