these and stand not in need to have their Understanding instructed or their Reason convinc'd in this Particular But yet I know not how though Demonstration and Experience assure this Truth on the one side there is something in Life it self on the other something in Prosperity Youth Greatness the Businesses of this World and the like which strangely contradict it and though we believe nothing more certainly than that All Men must Dye we believe nothing more hardly than that we our Selves must Dye Those that burn in a Feaver feel no Cold that are encompass'd with much Light discern no Darkness no more can those that are incircled with the Splendour of a high Fortune see through it the gloomy Shades of the Grave nor those that are within the warm embraces of Youth and Health apprehend the Cold remote Hand of Death Paracelsus was perswaded that there was a Certain Spirit of Salt that gave Vegetation to all things in the World which if he could have found out he would have preserved himself and others Immortal All men have generally a Tincture of this foolish Chymical or rather Chimerical Salt in their Fancy which though it preserves them not from Dying yet it gives them a Perswasion of long Living and though it cannot defer the Fatal Hour one Moment it can make them forget it and put the Consideration of it far from them Our Reflections upon our own Dying are much like those of Raving Lovers upon the Loss of those they Immoderately affected who at the very Instant that they embrace their Dead Bodies in their Arms cry out They cannot they must not they shall not Dye What they are not able to support they are not willing to acknowledge the Sorrow which is too Great for their Hearts to bear is too Great also for their Tongues to pronounce And after the like manner though we see and feel Death daily marching towards us we being not able to brook its Approach we endeavour to disbelieve it and hope to avoid the Evil by disowning it to delude or delay our Destiny by entertaining Fictions of a Long Life and I may say There is nothing that we at once so much Believe and so much Disbelieve as the Necessity of our Dying 'T is not therefore Superfluous to teach Men the so Known Lesson of Dying to put them in mind of that which is daily presented before their Eyes And the Wisest in all Ages as well Heathens as Christians have used studied Arts to preserve a Memory of their Frail Condition some have brought Urns and Skulls and Coffins into their Bed-Chambers and Closets that where the Scene of their Business or Pleasure lay there they might be admonish'd that they must one day bid a Farewel to those things Others have served up Skeletons at their Feasts the whole Frame of a Dead man's Bones made with Art to turn to all the Guests and with a horrid Aspect to survey the Table and to insinuate that Death was always near though forgotten in the Noise of Mirth and Wine sate President of many Feasts though invisibly through the Reek of Jollity and Meat Others upon the Days of their Coronation and Triumph have placed those among the Multitude that might mingle Admonitions of their Mortality together with the general Applauses and Acclamations that they might not forget while they conquered or commanded many People themselves were Subject to Death and that their Heads which were now crown'd with Gold or Laurel must after a short time be laid in the Dust. All these confessing that it was not enough that Men should believe they must Dye when they Considered and Reasoned of it but that they ought frequently to Consider and Reason of it And now after all is done though these Courses may seem of great Power and Efficacy to take off the Strangeness and Terrour of Death yet they have been found to fall short of the End they aimed at For though men by these Artifices have become acquainted with the Name and Images of Death they have still been miserably Strangers to Death it self neither is it possible to strip the King of Terrours of his amazing Circumstances merely by remembring him and making Pictures and Representations of him but men must fit and prepare themselves to entertain him they must lye under no Guilt of Sin nor be too much in love with this Life before they can Master this Apprehension for 't is no less than a Contradiction that those that are fond of this Life should welcome Death that are inferior to every Lust and Temptation should be Superior to the Greatest of Evils We must make Death Harmless before we can make him not to be Dreadful take away his Sting and Curse by Repentance and a holy Life before we can take away his Terrour make him Beneficial and Advantageous before we can reconcile him to our thoughts and render him Familiar to us For to retain Sin and yet to hope to free our Selves from the Punishment of Sin would not be to set our selves to conquer the Unreasonable Fears of our Nature but to conquer God to wrest the Vengeance of Iniquity out of his hands which the Pain and Fear of Death are And if it be objected that the antient Heathen out of a Principle only of Magnanimity and an Emulous Bravery despised Death I answer That they cannot so truly be said to have Despised Death as to have been Ignorant of it they promised themselves after their departure hence a Being of Fame and Renown they knew nothing but Fables of the Punishments of another World for 't is not Courage but Madness to despise Torments that are Intolerable and Eternal If it be urged again That many Professors of Christianity who have heard the Doctrine of Damnation and another Life frequently preached have yet after many heinous and unrepented Sins rush'd as boldly upon Death as the Heathen I reply Though they often heard the Doctrine of Damnation preach'd they never believ'd it but Infidelity wrought the same Effect in them which Ignorance did in the other No we must disarm Death as I said of the Evil that accompanies him by a Righteous Life before we can disarm him of his Terrour if we will not be dismay'd when this Grim Landlord comes to turn us out of our Mortal Tenements we must provide our Selves before-hand Everlasting Habitations Which brings me to my Second General Part the Policy which is taught us to procure Everlasting Habitations when we fail in these and that is by making to our selves Friends Of the Mammon of Vnrighteousness We may observe in the Policy here prescribed us three things 1. The Instrument of it The Vnrighteous Mammon 2. The Use of this Instrument We are to make Friends with it 3. The End of this Use That we may be received into Everlasting Habitations I begin with the Instrument the Vnrighteous Mammon in which there are two things to be explained The Name and Substance of it Mammon And the
of thy Strange and astonishing Miseries thy low Condition and sad Wants thy perpetual Dangers and Persecutions What is the meaning of thine Agony and bloudy Sweat thy Crown of Thorns platted and crusht into thy Head thy being Mockt and Spit on What is the meaning of thy Submitting not only to the Dishonours of a Humane Birth but to those also of a Violent and Ignominious Death Being the Son of God why didst thou suffer any Evil Why didst thou not convert the Stable in which thou wert Born into a Palace and the Cross to which thou were Nail'd into a Throne Why didst thou undergo such Miseries and Indignities as made the World doubt of thy Divine Nature and not exert thy Deity and destroy thy Murderers and burn up their City as thou spak'st in one of thy Parables Thy People expected thee a mighty Prince but thou shew'd'st thy self a Destitute Forlorn Person they lookt for a Deliverer but behold one Obnoxious to Bonds and Death for a Redeemer but Alas none needed Redemption more himself Great undoubtedly and wonderful was the Mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God and that he should not only be born in a Mortal but in a Miserable Condition The Apostle might well give it the precedence to all other Mysteries of Godliness Great is the Mystery of Godliness says he God was manifested in the Flesh justify'd in the Spirit seen of Angels c. But that Christ should suffer the things he did in our Nature was no less Necessary than Wonderful And to omit all other Reasons for it I shall insist only on that One Great One Because Sin could not otherwise have been abolisht the End for which Christ came into the World attain'd which was To destroy the Works of the Devil Christ could have destroy'd the Devil with more Facility if he had come in Majesty and Glory as the Apostle says 2 Thess. 2. He shall consume Anti-Christ with the Spirit or breath only of his Mouth and the Brightness of his Coming But our Lord's Business at this time was not to destroy the Person but the Power of the Devil Sin was both the Stratagem by which he conquer'd and the Chain by which he held Mankind in Captivity and Christ undertaking to rescue them from this Thraldom to bind the Strong Man and to take from him the Armour in which he trusted he was not to do this by an Omnipotent Power as he brought the World out of Nothing Light out of Darkness c. but by an Heroick Vertue such as he shew'd when he trampled upon the Temptations of the Devil in the Wilderness He therefore enter'd the Lists against Satan as a Champion or Combatant according to the fair Law of Armes as they say i. e. with a sutable Strength and Appointment to his Adversaries Man was lost by Sin and could only be restored by Righteousness he had forfeited God's Favour and his Felicity by his Transgressions and could recover them again no other way but by Obedience On this Account Christ laid by his Majesty and Glory and took our Nature that in the Infirmity of our Flesh he might foil our Strong Enemy the Second Adam redeem the Glories lost by the First Adam the Seed of the Woman bruise the Serpents head made himself subject to the Law that he might fulfil the Law obnoxious to Death that he might subdue Death and the Author of it by suffering Death as S t Paul says Heb. 2.14 That through Death he might destroy him that had the Power of Death that is the Devil So that we see here was no place for Thunder and Lightning for an O'er-bearing Irresistible Power but only for Divine Graces or Vertues and the Weapons Christ used in this Conflict were only Courage Holiness Obedience Patience Self-denial Meekness and the like such as were in the Power of Men also to make use of he so conquer'd as they might conquer after him For the Great Business was not Christ's Personal Victory that was secure but the Victory of his Followers he indeed was to break the Power of the Kingdom of Darkness but they were to compleat the Conquest every one in his own Particular to subdue Sin and Satan And thus while Christ destroy'd the Power of the Devil disarm'd him and made those that had been his Slaves Lords over him by consequence and in a Political Sense he destroy'd the Devil himself as a Prince is said to be destroy'd that is stript of his Forts and Castles his Territories and Armies his Ammunition and Harness of War though his Person still survives However then that Zipporah upbraided Moses upon the Circumcising of her Child saying factus es mihi Sponsus sanguinum thou art to me a Bloudy Husband we have no reason to quarrel that Christ was to us Salvator Sanguinum a Bloudy Saviour i. e. a Saviour drencht in his own Bloud for without the Bloud of Christ there had been no Redemption But to be more particular and distinct There are two Ways by which Christ destroy'd the Power of the Devil and delivered Mankind from his Bondage and those are Pretio Exemplo by the Price or Satisfaction he paid for Sin And by the Example of his Holy Life By the first he destroy'd the Guilt of Sin And by the second the Dominion or reigning Power of Sin 1. Therefore we may say There was a Necessity of Christ's Death and Sufferings and that he should be a Wounded Saviour that he might pay a Price make Satisfaction to God the Father for the Sins of the World For whether it be that the Vindicative Justice of God for Sin be so natural and intimate to his Essence that he cannot without renouncing his very Nature and Being pardon Sin without a Competent Satisfaction as some would have it Or whether it be only his Declared Will not to pardon Sin without a Competent Satisfaction as others more sutably to the Divine Goodness and Glory affirm I shall not need here to dispute seeing both Sides agree in one and the same Conclusion That it was necessary for Christ to Dye for the Sins of the World The Wages of Sin is Death says the Apostle and in another place Almost all things by the Law were purged by Bloud and without shedding of Bloud there was no Remission Now though the Bloud there mentioned was but the Bloud of Beasts that were sacrificed yet those Beasts were the Proxies and Representatives of Men and also Types of the Great Sacrifice which Christ was once to offer on the Cross and derived from it all their Vertue and Merit and God revealed this Way of atoning by Sacrifice early to the World and afterwards prescribed it to his People the Jews by written Laws from whom it was deriv'd to all Nations though the Mystery that Sacrifices were founded in the Death of Christ was not clearly understood till the Days of the Gospel As a Remedy for Sin was promised from the Beginning so 't was
among the Jews to repulse those that moved any thing to them unseasonably or unworthy of them to do in their Opinion and also to express their Resentment if they thought themselves hardly dealt with The Widow of Zerephath used it this last way to the Prophet Elijah when she conceiv'd the Cohabitation of so holy a Person with her and his near Inspection into her Life was the Cause of her Childs death What have I to do with thee says she O thou Man of God! art thou come unto me to call my Sins to remembrance and to slay my Son And David used it the first way 2 Sam. 19. to Abishai urging him to put Shimei to death upon the Day of his Restoration to the Kingdom because he had Curs'd him in his Flight from Jerusalem Says he What have I to do with you ye Sons of Zerviah And notwithstanding the great Dislike and Offence this Phrase exprest our Lord forbore not to use it to his Mother intermedling in his Divine Employment Woman says he What have I to do with thee I confess it was durum Dictum a harsh Speech considering the Person to whom 't was spoken but 't was also if rightly weighed frugiferum Dictum a Speech full of good Instruction and Profit For it shews Christ's equal and impartial Deportment as he is a Lord and Saviour to all Persons whatsoever without Consideration of Country Acquaintance or Kindred The very Womb that bare him in an Unadvis'd Action shall not go away without a Rebuke if his Mother does that which is Dishonourable to his Office she shall hear that which is less honourable to her Relation if she forgets her Duty he will forget her Name and Title A good Lesson for those Favourites of Christ in these our Days who call themselves his Elect and his Darling Children however they live in Disobedience to his Laws and fansie he can see nothing in them that displeases him whatever wickedness they commit Though Propinquity in Grace be more in Christ's account than Propinquity in Bloud yet if even those that are ally'd to him by Grace sin presumptuously against him they will find him but a rough Kinsman Though Coniah were as the Signet upon my Right hand says God yet would I pluck him thence And if Peter the most Zealous of the Apostles shall take upon him to tempt Christ he shall bear the Name of Adversary Get thee behind me Satan If the Provocations of the Servants of God be Great however near and close their former Relation to him was they will find him as far Estranged from them and in Case their Provocations be of a less and meaner Allay they will receive a Check as the Blessed Virgin here did And so I proceed to the Reason why Christ reprov'd her Because she unseasonably interpos'd in what she ought not to have meddled prompted him to work a Miracle before his Time was come My Time says he is not yet come These and the foregoing Words Woman what have I to do with thee utterly o'erthrow all the vain and false Glories which the Church of Rome Superstitiously Idolatrously and injuriously rather than Devoutly heap upon our Lady ascribing to her impeccability and being born without Sin the Title of Queen of Heaven and a perpetual Regency over her Son c. But as Stout and resolute Souldiers where the Works are weakest shew the greatest Valour So those of that Church shrink not for all the Assault they receive from my Text but the ruder the Shock is the more obstinately they maintain their Post. They affirm that the Action of the Blessed Virgin here was not only without Blame but full of Faith Charity Humility Prudence c. and that Christ was so far from being angry with her or having any Cause given him to be so that he took up a feigned and dissembled Dislike to have an Occasion only to teach the World and not her neither That the Power by which a Prophet works Miracles is not derived from his Parents nor to be governed by them but wholly by the Spirit of God says Cornelius à Lapide In ipsa nulla fuit culpa ergo non vera fuit Christi reprehensio reprehendere tamen illam videtur ut non ipsam sed nos doceret in operibus theandricis parentes nihil habent juris and so forth Thus the Jesuite is not asham'd to make our Lord Jesuitize i. e. falsifie and dissemble but the time would be ill spent to confute such gross Follies and Blasphemies which chuse rather to find a Miscarriage in Christ than in his Mother to make him angry without a Cause or to feign an Unjust Anger than to allow it possible for her to give him a Just Cause to be angry But the Explanation of these Words my hour is not yet come will more plainly shew wherein our Lady deserv'd a Reprehension The Hour of Christ is sometimes understood of the Hour of his Death as 't is said They could not lay hold of him because his Hour was not yet come But here it is to be understood of his Season or Opportunity to do a thing as when he answered his Brethren that ask'd him to go up to Jerusalem to the Feast Your Time says he is always but my Time is not yet come But here by the way we must not conceive any thing of the Hours assign'd to Christ of that nature which the Arrians and Priscillians did who said He was subject to Fate and Necessity and bound up to the Observation of Times and could not therefore be the Eternal Son of God Christ's Death was not impos'd on him by any Fatal Necessity as himself declares Chap. 10. and 18. of our Evangelist No man taketh my Life from me says he but I lay it down of my self I have Power to lay it down and I have Power to take it up But when 't is said The Hour of his Death was not yet come it means no more than this That he had not yet finish'd the Work for which he came into the World he had not fully preach'd the Gospel accomplish'd the Prophecies that were of him confirm'd his Disciples c. i. e. the Hour by his own Eternal Wisdom chosen was not yet come the Hour as S t Augustine speaks non Necessitatis sed Voluntatis the Hour not of his Necessity but his Will not of his Constraint but of his Counsel And the like may be said of the Hour of his working Miracles he attended no Critical Minute or favourable Conjuncture of the Stars to assist him as to his Power he could have wrought them when he would every Hour was the Hour of his Power but every Hour was not the Hour of his Opportunity he could have turned the Water into Wine at the time his Mother spoke to him as well as at any other but the End for which he did it would not have fallen out so Easily and Naturally at one time as at another and though
Prospera in plebem ac vilia ingenia deveniunt a constant even Prosperity is the Lot of mean Persons and Spirits the Noble and Magnanimous are oppos'd to the Storms and Outrages of Fortune nor are they otherwise to be distinguisht from the Vulgar than by these Encounters That Great Person says Seneca that never prov'd Adversity is like a Champion that enters the Lists without an Antagonist Coronam habet Victoriam non habet He may gain a Crown but he never got a Victory In a still Calm of Affairs God himself gets less Glory he has no Field to shew his Power his Wisdom and his Goodness in the Opportunity is not afforded him to frustrate the Counsels of the wicked and to bring the Preparations of the Mighty to nought 'T is true He governs all things at all times but every Act of his Providence is not a Victory over his Enemies and though he disposes Crowns and Scepters as he pleases 't is when the wicked resists that he says Yet have I set my King And so I pass to my Third Part God's Glorying in his Establishment of David The Holy Ghost in this Second Psalm sets down the Method which the Enemies of David used to prevent his succeeding in the Throne which is also the Scheme ordinarily of all Sedition and Rebellion First The Heathen did rage i. e. The Neighbour Princes were jealous and angry out of apprehension of their own Estates and this is commonly the ground of Defection and Rebellion For a King 's own Subjects though they be malecontent and bear him ill-will in their hearts yet they often want Courage or Opportunity to execute it till they are backt by a Foreign Power But then Secondly The People i. e. the Prince's own People begin to imagine vain things which may either mean false things which shall not take Effect or Wicked which shall for in both sences Vain is taken in the Hebrew In the Third place The Kings of the Earth and the Rulers take counsel together i. e. The Neighbour Kings and the Magistrates and Great Ones of the Realm fall into Combinations and Associations And then Fourthly Nothing remains but open defection the breach of all Covenants and Contracts and Sedition is heard in every mans mouth as Verse 3. Let us break their Bonds asunder and cast away their Cords from us Their Bonds and their Cords i. e. both of the Lord and of his Anointed all Obligations both Humane and Divine are Cancell'd By Bonds may be understood the softer and gentler Tyes of Natural Love and Loyalty which every Subject owes unto his Sovereign by Cords the stronger Obligations of Oaths those Sacramental Chains that bind men like Iron Shackles and Fetters But both these are broken and for fear they should be again united cast quite from them And why was all this as the Question is deservedly ask'd at Verse 1. with wonder and indignation Why did the Heathen rage Why did the prople imagine a vain thing Why did they take Counsel together David was just to his Allies abroad and gracious to his Subjects at home God prosper'd him and made him Victorious in all his Enterprizes Why Lord To answer in the Words of another in a like Case Odiorum causae acriores quia iniquiores their hatred was the sharper and more implacable because it was the â—â—juster Innocence is abhorr'd by the Wicked more than Injury and Violence The Religion and Piety of David was more insupportable to his Enemies than the Yoke of Tyranny and Oppression and they chose rather to bear the Iron Scepter of the Nations or of a base Usurper than his holy and righteous Scepter And this it was which made the Establishment of David so difficult because there was no Why no Just Cause for the Aversion of his Enemies had there been a Reason it might have been remov'd had there been a Wrong there might have been a Reparation but Perverseness and Impiety only govern'd and God utters himself as if he had broke through some great Obstruction in setting David on the Throne Like one that for a long time roll'd a Stone against a Hill which often return'd upon him or Row'd against a strong Tide which forc'd his Boat back and when at last by many a weary stretch and Strain of his Arms has got the better sits down and reflects on what has past congratulates his labour and tells himself what himself has done Yet I have planted my Stone upon the Top of the Hill or yet I have stemm'd this Churlish Stream and got my Boat a-head of it So God is pleas'd to speak in the Restoring of David as if he had been hard put to it and groan'd under the performance and Glory'd in having at last carry'd it through Yet have I set my King But perhaps some will say Is there any thing difficult to the Almighty Could not he have crusht the Cockatrice in the Shell Dasht the yet Infant-Plot against the Stones Scatter'd his Enemies in their first Imaginations Why did he suffer them to Combine before he confounded them Confederate and grow to strength before he cast them down and had them in derision as 't is said ver 4. Even for this very reason That he might not spoil such his Scene of Laughter prevent the Glory of his Triumph obscure the wise Dispensations of his Providence that David might see the whole Wonder of his Deliverance and his wicked Adversaries the whole Folly of their Enterprize A wise General will not presently give on the Charge upon an Enemy passing a Ford till a considerable Party have gain'd the Bank that he may not only shew his Courage but his Conduct and cut off the adverse Power as well as repulse it Thus though God had it in his hands to dissipate and discourage the first Attempts of his own and David's Opposers he chose rather to let them proceed and prosper to a degree that he might not only obstruct their wickedness but defeat it disturb the Conspiracy but confound the Conspirators And our Blessed Lord practis'd this piece of Policy when he suffer'd the Devil by his wicked Instruments the Jews to take away his Innocent Life and lay him in the Grave For after Satan flatter'd himself that he had surpriz'd his strong Foe he let him see he was surpriz'd by him that instead of receiving a Captive he had receiv'd a Conquerour within his Gates one that sack'd and despoil'd his Kingdom dismantled his Forts and raz'd his Strong-holds And this was a performance worthy of that Triumphant Speech O Death where is thy Sting O Grave where is thy Victory A down-right Defeat is not so renowned to the Conquerour or so grievous to the Conquered as to turn his Stratagems upon himself and to overthrow him by his own Subtilty and Treachery Again to Mock and Vex an Enemy is a further degree of Revenge than to destroy him When the Pyrates of Cilicia began to treat some Passengers of Italy with the
of his Wrath as they have been of Disobedience I should think my Hour well bestowed to remove this one Practical Dangerous Errour to open mens eyes that they may be convinced That Sin is a Serpent that does insidiare calcaneo lye in the Path and mortally bite the Heel of the Sinner and that he runs not on faster in the Ways of Disobedience than he does in those of Destruction but it is not my Business at this time the Proposition which I am to prove concerns not the Punishment of Sin Absolutely considered but Comparatively viz. That Sin in some Persons or People is more heinous and more severely punished than in others that where God has conferr'd more Signal and Illustrious Favours there he punishes Sin with more Signal and Exemplary Vengeance and his foregoing Bounty despised adds Weight to his future Severity And this Truth is written in so Great Characters and so legible through the Whole Series of the Chronicle of Scripture even from the Creation that I shall not need so much to prove the Proposition as to refresh your Memories by setting before you things already known The first Man of our Race was the first miserable Example of this Truth and he that first brought Sin into the World first also left the Confirmation to us of the Fatal Consequence of it when committed against an Extraordinary Grace Adam was created after God's own Likeness in perfect Righteousness and Holiness and not only with the Knowledge of his Laws but with a Power and Ability to keep them he was made to Excel all Sublunary Creatures and had Dominion given him over them he was plac'd in a furnish'd World fruitful without Labour delightful without Satiety and the Continuance of this his Felicity was put into his own hands he was not Subject to Death Infirmities or Misfortunes like his Posterity nay 't was in his power not only to have Prolong'd his Felicity to all Eternity but to have Improv'd it Greater Favours God could not conferr on Flesh and Bloud on a Creature lower than the Angels But whither tended the Collation of all these Benefits when Adam rebelled against God Only to his greater Misery the Punishment of his Transgression was as Eminent as his Priviledges and Graces had been his ensuing Calamity as his foregoing Prosperity The day thou eatest of the forbidden Tree says God thou shalt dye the Death What Death All manner of Deaths Death Temporal Death Spiritual Death Eternal Death to Nature Death to Grace Death to Glory The Sin was but Single but the Punishment inflicted was Three-fold like a Stroke with a Trident which makes a Triple Wound and the Blow fell not only on himself but on all his Posterity Never any Sin since his had the like Recompence of Reward because none since Adam could sin against so much Bounty I shall give you but one Instance more We know by how Strange and Unexpected a Favour Saul was promoted to the Throne of Israel who being sent in quest of his Father's Asses found a Kingdom God advancing him above all his People in Honour more than he Excelled them in Stature But he proving after this Ungrateful and disobedient to the Commandment of God falling no less than thrice into that Common Fatal Errour of Faithless Princes to relye on Humane Policy more than on the Divine Support on the Favour of the People than on the Favour of God and seeking to establish his Kingdom by Bloud and Sacriledge rather than by Innocence and Justice as if the Power that gave him a Throne could not uphold him in it God's Indignation against him was as Great as his Prevarications had been And then what did all his antecedent Favours profit him but to enhance his following Punishment Which was such as when we read it we cannot chuse but pity though it were the Lord 's doing For he rejected Saul as he was rejected by him he withdrew his Holy Spirit from him and sent an Evil Spirit to vex him in the room of it a Spirit of Jealousie and Frenzy which periodically possest him and clouded all his Felicity and Glory disinherited his Posterity dethroned in a manner himself while he was yet alive by causing another to be anointed King in his days And after he had suffered him thus to survive a few Years a dreadful Spectacle of the Divine Wrath he stirr'd-up the Philistines against him and when their Host appeared and he most needed it bereaved him of his Kingly Courage and Magnanimity refused to direct or answer him by his Oracles In which distressed and disconsolate State all Heavenly Comfort being silent and Saul's guilty Conscience only loud and clamorous over-whelmed with Sorrow and Despair under a Disguise and the Covert of the Night with two Attendants only he repaired to a poor Witches Cell to enquire the Fortune of his Life and Kingdom and where God met him as I may say also in Disguise made use of the Witches delusive Arts to give him a Real Prediction of his near-approaching Overthrow and inglorious Death So that partly broken with Sorrow and partly weakned through Hunger he fell into a Swoun and was sustained by the Bread and Counsel of the Silly Woman the next day putting a Period to his Life and Miseries What Invention of Romance or Fiction of Poetry can parallel the Calamity of this once so Glorious and Heroick King And if any ask Why was all this how came the patient Spirit of the God of Mercy to turn into Fury like that of the Person he punish'd Because the Sin of Saul was not only a Sin against God but against a Benefactor and the wonderful Bounty God had shewed in bringing him to the Throne pull'd upon his Ingratitude and Infidelity this wonderful Severity and Displeasure And as this is God's Dealing with Particular Persons so 't is the same with Whole Nations Of which we shall not need a further Example than that before us of Israel In the foregoing Chapter the Prophet denounces God's Judgments against the Neighbouring Kingdoms for their Sins For three Transgressions and for four says he God will punish Damascus and chiefly for their Cruelty For three Transgressions and for four God will punish Gaza and again for their Cruelty For three Transgressions and for four God will punish Tyre because they kept not their Brotherly Love And so on against the rest But when he comes in the last place to Israel and to Judah their Transgressions being not inferior to those of the Gentiles he intimates that heavier Judgments were laid up in Store for them and that they should not escape so easily as the others he casts their Ingratitude for their former Benefits into the burden of their Guilt their forgetfulness of God's bringing them out of Egypt wich a high hand and destroying the Nations before them his raising up their Sons and Daughters to be Prophets and their Young men to be Nazarites Shall the People that have not known God be
shew'd them not the Father now in the Person of another but in their Own in his Divine and Omnipotent Power displayed in themselves And this was not only a Plain and Evident but a Gracious Revelation of the Father which as it improv'd their Knowledge of him so it gave them also Demonstrations of his Love and Favour The Father was both gracious to them and present with them before under the Law he was their God and they were his People but after they had embrac'd the Gospel he sent his Son into the World to preach they were admitted into a Nearer Relation and were not only call'd the People and Servants but the Children of God the adopted Brethren of Christ and the Father of Heaven and Earth was appropriated by our Lord no less to them than to himself I go says he to my Father and to your Father to my God and to your God And this being the blessed Condition not only of the first Disciples but of all true Believers since I cannot chuse but take Occasion from hence to say That those Christians are not sensible of their own Priviledge and Dignity that go a Compass to God when they are allowed the Directest and Shortest Way to him who keep a Distance when they are invited and encouraged to make a Near and familiar Address out of an affected Humility move them that they may move her that she may move Christ that Christ may move the Father What a trifling Ambages is this after our Lord has promised an Immediate Access and upon no better ground but because forsooth the like is practised in the Courts of Earthly Princes where Strangers and Unknown Persons are not allow'd to make their Approach to the King without the Introduction of some in Place Alas to the Court of Heaven there comes no Strangers or Unknown Persons all the Suters there are Sons and these use not to implore the help of Servants but being first in Power and Place themselves go directly and boldly to the Throne of the King their Father as S t Paul Heb. 4.16 encourages the Faithful to do Let us come boldly says he to the Throne of Grace and our Lord at the 16 th Verse of this Chapter speaks as if his own Mediation were not always necessary At that day says he ye shall ask in my Name and I say not unto you that I will pray the Father for you for the Father himself loveth you because ye have loved me and have believed that I came out from God Those that believe that Jesus is the Christ as the Apostle says are born of God and begotten of his Spirit and they need no other Advocate to speak for them but the Spirit and such their Propinquity by Faith and to distrust their Interest were to distrust God's Love and Christ's Truth and we may say of such a Diffidence what one says of the like in humane Alliance peccat Qui commendandum se putat esse suis he sins against the Right of Kindred that thinks he needs to be recommended to his own Relations Therefore though we decline not with the ranker Socinians the Intercession of Christ who say He is mere Man and not God and consequently that all Prayers made to him are idolatrous Nor yet comply with the more allay'd and qualify'd Poyson of others of them who allow it lawful to pray to Christ but not necessary yet we may vindicate the Prerogative given to a Disciple in my Text against the Shew of Wisdom in Will-Worship and Humility practis'd in the Church of Rome For we who are rightly instructed in the Close Conjunction of the Father and the Son that teach he is both God and Man know it is indifferent whether we supplicate the Father or the Son whether with our Lord himself we say Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit or whether with S t Stephen Lord Jesu receive my Spirit who praying after this manner is said also to have call'd upon God And in truth when our Lord sends his Disciples in my Text to his Father he neither extinguishes his own Adoration nor Mediation but sends them from his Humane Nature as I may say to meet them again in his Divine And this is the true Importance of his sending them to the Father but they were not capable at this time of receiving the Doctrine of his Divinity for a little before in plain terms without a Figure he had discoursed to them of his Death and Passion and those to whom it was a hard Saying That they should eat his Flesh and drink his Bloud would have thought it a much harder to have heard That he was the Eternal God and could yet be Crucify'd by Wicked men Not willing therefore to force their Reason either by his Argumentation or Authority he let this Mystery alone to be revealed in due time by the Holy Ghost and establisht their Comfort on a Foundation more easie to be conceived by them the Goodness and All-Sufficiency of the Father For however they did believe their Master to be an Extraordinary and Divine Person they could not chuse but believe their God was Greater and if it were a happiness to follow the Son it must be yet a higher Felicity to be Favourites to the Father of whom the whole Family of Heaven and Earth is named Now this being the Condition which a Disciple was left in at his Lord's Departure he had no reason to mourn and languish for his Absence with S t Augustine to desire to see Christum in ore Christ's natural face again while he enjoyed Christum in Patre Christ in the power and presence of the Father When a less Person at his Departure gives us the Favour of a Greater we may say He does not Desert us but bestows his Absence on us But Christ's Care of his Disciples and kindness to them will be seen yet more in the Unlimited Measure in which they were promised God's Favour exprest in these Words Whatsoever ye shall ask he will give it you Which is the next thing I am to explain Whatsoever ye shall ask he will give it you This was a large Promise and yet as largely and stupendiously made good For 1. Such was the Power of a Disciple by Prayer upon Earth that he could cast out Devils chase away all Diseases heal all Infirmities call the Dead out of their Grave and send the Living into it 2. Such was his Power in the Sea that when the Ship was become a Prey to the merciless Element and nothing but Death and Desperation appear'd to all others a S t Paul could say Not one of the Company shall perish And why so Because he had pray'd and God had given him the Lives of them that sail'd with him 3. Such was his Power in Heaven that the Holy Ghost stood press'd and ready as I may say upon the laying-on of the Apostles hands as upon a Sign given to descend in all his various and wonderful
and righteousness before him all the days of their life That men therefore may not mistake the principal Design for which Christ came into the World our Apostle plainly declares it at the 8 th Verse For this purpose says he the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the Devil Christ came not only to pardon Sin but to destroy it not only to absolve a wicked World but to make a righteous to take away the condemnation but the commission of Sin And therefore the second way I named of Christ's taking away our Sins From within us ought to be taken into our highest consideration For can it be imagined that he should descend from the Bosome of his Father and visit the Earth for no other end but to make a Gaol-Delivery as I may say to reprieve so many Rake-Hells only and condemn'd Persons and to turn them loose again into the World to commit more villanies The whole Tenor of the Gospel speaks otherwise that Christ was born in the Flesh that we might be regenerate and new-born of the Spirit that he was crucified that we might crucifie our vile Lusts and Affections dyed for the Guilt of Sin that we might dye to the Practice of it suffer'd to excuse us from suffering but not to excuse us in any wickedness he cast out the Hand-writing or Accusation of Satan against us to no other end but that we should cast out Satan himself and his Kingdom out of our hearts and erect in the place God's Kingdom or the Kingdom of righteousness So that the manifestation of Christ in the Flesh to take away our sins imports no less than his rectifying that ugly confusion and disorder which Sin had wrought in the Universe and the deposing Satan from his Usurpation over the World than the restoring God to his Dominion and his Creatures to his Obedience the repairing his Honour and giving satisfaction not to one Attribute only his Justice but to all his other Attributes his Wisdom Truth Goodness Holiness c. And this was a Design worthy of the Incarnation of the Deity of the travel sufferings and all the other Glorious Works of the Messiah of his unhinging and unframing the Course of Nature by his Miracles for it was to no less end than to re-establish it again in the beautiful Frame and Order which God at first created it in before the Devil had disfigured and deformed it And for this Cause the Evangelists in relating the Passages of Christ's life often take us off from looking too intently on the Events which they record and call upon us to consider the Purposes of them rather than the Events themselves bidding us regard the Prophecies that went before of them frequently repeating that it might be fulfilled that it might be fulfilled that was spoken by such or such a Prophet And if we will make the best advantage of Christ's Incarnation we must not look so much on the Fact as on the design of the Fact what it intimates and preaches to us viz. the extinction and extirpation of Sin not only of the Guilt but of the reigning Power of it According to what S t Peter says As he has suffered for us in the Flesh arm your selves likewise with the same mind for he that has suffered in the Flesh hath ceased from Sin This arming-our selves with the same mind and ceasing from Sin in the Flesh was that which God chiefly aimed at in his Manifestation of his Son in the Flesh To the end as the Apostle goes on that we should no longer live the rest of our time in the Flesh to the lusts of men but to the will of God And to shew us yet further that the bringing of men to live righteously was the great aim of God in all Ages of the World says St. Peter For this cause was the Gospel preached also to those that are dead i. e. to those of the old World that they might live according to God in the Spirit Let every Christian therefore that professes the Faith of Christ's coming in the Flesh to take away Sin and yet lives in it hearken and attend to this Admonition Remember thy End In the Place where the Son of Syrach utters these Words he means the End or Consummation of our Days as we are natural men which is good Wisdom But remember thy end i. e. the Design and Purpose of thy Christian Profession and the Mysteries of it for this is yet a higher degree of Wisdom And before I yet leave this Point I shall give caution against two sorts of Men who greatly pervert this Advice And first Against the Papists who play and trifle with the weightiest Passages of our Salvation as Poets and Romance-Writers do with serious Histories turn them into Gauds and Entertainments of the Fancy make Models and Representations in their Churches of Christ's lying in the Manger at this holy Season and of his rising from the Grave at the Feast of Easter with all the circumstances belonging to them as if such Puppet-Shews were adequate and sutable Returns of Devotion for these Divine Dispensations Again they gather and hoard up the Nails and Fragments of our Lord's Cross as if they treasured to their Souls the Benefits of his Passion hug his Crucifix and weep over the Pictures of his Wounds as if this express'd a Seraphical Affection though they hug also at the same time the grossest Sins The second Caution is against those among our selves who yet worse abuse the Purpose of the Manifestation of Christ in the Flesh making it to be more for the encouragement than the taking away of Sin fansying that he died to excuse them from holy living was made subject to the Law that they might be freed from the Obedience of it perform'd all righteousness that they should need to perform none and these men pray as they believe O Lord say they do thou all in us and for us and take thou the glory Thus exempting themselves from all Obligations to the Commandments and making the Faith a jest and scorn to Libertines and Unbelievers while they talk only more of a holy Life than they but practise it as little make the Cross of Christ not a Sanctuary to Penitent Sinners but a refuge for Hypocrites and Cheats in Religion and yet none are so righteous so much in God's favour in their own opinion as these But they will find at last to their great confusion That Christ was manifested in the Flesh not only to take away our Sins From us but also to take them away Out of us or from within us And he does this by three Means or Expedients By his Spirit by his Word and by his Example First By his Spirit After the Manifestation of Christ in the Flesh his Suffering and being laid in the Grave he was quickned or raised to life again by the Spirit of God and exalted to have the Power and Prerogative of sending down the Spirit
into the hearts of Believers to quicken them and to raise them from the Death of Sin to a Life of Righteousness i. e. to sanctifie and enable them to master Sin in themselves They that saw Christ in the Flesh knew not at first That the principal Intention of his Flesh was his Spirit viz. that his Incarnation was to produce their Sanctification to conform them to his likeness in the Inner-man as he was conformed to their likeness in the Outward-Man and those that are not thus conformed that have not their Sins taken away In them by Vertue of his Nativity shall never have them taken away From them by Vertue and Merit of his Passion Secondly By his Word he takes away our sin from within us Now ye are clean says our Lord John 15.3 through the Word which I have spoken unto you i. e. you have put away your former wickedness upon believing what I have preached To believe and to be clean in a Scripture sense is the same thing For 't is not possible rightly to believe and to continue in the Pollution of Sin The Word of God is quick and powerful sharper than any two edged Sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of Soul and Spirit The efficacy of it was seen in the reprobate hearts of Herod and Felix How did it ruffle and discompose the incestuous security of the first and put an Earthquake into the stupid Conscience of the last But yet 't is then only to use Solomon's expression that wise Words are as Apples of Gold in Pictures of Silver when they meet with docile ears and honest hearts when the disposition of the Hearers concurs with the faithful intention of the Preacher and they comply to destroy Sin in themselves as he endeavours to destroy it in his Sermon Otherwise this most powerful and effectual Engine to batter and beat down Sin the Word preached profits not as 't is in the Chapter now mentioned in the Hebrews But the Word preached did not profit them not being mixt with Faith in them that heard it Thirdly Christ takes away Sin from within us by his Example i. e. by his holy Life as well as by his Word and by his Spirit his Meekness Holiness Self-denial Obedience c. were designed by him to excite his Followers to practise the same Vertues equally or above his Precepts And though we condemn the Errour of those who affirm That the Pattern of Christ's life the perfect Exemplar of Piety and Holiness which he exhibited to the World was the only means besides his Word which he used to take away our Sins We may yet more condemn the sloth and hypocrisie of those who set his Life above our Imitation who put his Vertues into the same Classis with his Miracles and think it as impossible for us to practise his Humility Patience and the like as to open the Eyes of the Blind or to raise the dead affirm that his Obedience and Righteousness were not set for our Example to direct and encourage us to do the like but to upbraid and reproach our weakness and infirmities In the mean time our Lord himself Joh. 17.19 declares That the holiness he practised was not only for the love of holiness but that his Disciples should follow him even in the roughest Paths he trod those of his Suffering to which his Words more particularly relate For their sakes says he I sanctifie my self or offer up my self a Sacrifice that they also might be sanctified through the Truth And S t Peter says expresly Christ suffered for us leaving us an Example that we should follow his steps And this brings me to the second Motive the Apostle alledges to disswade men from Sin the sanctity and sinlesness of Christ's Person and ye know that in him is no sin But because this in a great part has fallen-in with the former Motive and to accumulate Reasons of the same Nature rather nauseates than perswades I shall wave this Point and proceed to my last The Inference which the Argumentation of the Apostle implies from the foregoing Motives viz. That 't is the Duty of all Christ's Followers to endeavour as far as 't is possible to be also without sin and which shall serve me also for an Application The Son of God we have heard was manifested in the Flesh to take away our sins and in him is no sin Now certainly we cannot think that we comply either with the Example of Righteousness which he has set us or yet with the gracious Purpose that brought him into the World if we reflect on his Nativity only after an Historical manner as that he was born in such an Olympiad or when such an one was Emperour that such rare Events attended his coming into the World as are recorded by the Evangelists namely that he was conceived by a Virgin of the Holy Ghost welcom'd by Angels signaliz'd and reveal'd to the Gentiles by a Star c. as if we were Chronologers rather than Christian Believers But that principally we are to consider these things Doctrinally and Morally to regard the Obligations they lay upon us and the final intendment of God in them For Example to say to our selves If God came so far as from the highest Heavens to take our Flesh that he might destroy sin how much more are we concerned to destroy sin in whom it dwells whose Flesh is its Domestick Organ and which will certainly destroy us both Body and Soul unless we destroy it Again if God vouchsafe so highly to dignifie our Flesh as to assume it to his Divine Nature and to carry it up to Heaven with him and that by way of Pledge and assurance to carry up all that live holy lives thither also how ought we to respect and even to revere these our mortal Bodies and not to pollute them with sin which are designed to such sublime Honour as to reign with God in Glory Once more If the Son of God came into the World not only to teach us his Father's Will but to demonstrate to us by his own performance the feasibleness of accomplishing it and did not only discourse of the probability of mortal mens ascending to Heaven but gave an instance of it in our Flesh how are we without excuse if either upon pretence of the difficulty of the Duties enjoined or the arduous ascent to the heavenly Kingdom promised us we supersede our endeavours to attain it When the Israelites were travelling to the Land of Canaan they said to Aaron Make us Gods that may go before us i. e. visible Gods that we may behold they were not satisfied with the conduct of an invisible Deity of a God that afforded not his personal presence Christ manifested in the Flesh is such a visible palpable God as they required who marches as a Captain at the Head of us and guides us not only by his Counsel but leads us by his Bodily Presence But yet notwithstanding this compliance with our infirmities