such as proceeding from a true love of him may express the great sense we have of his love to us To this very end doth the Author of this Epistle add this consideration to others that he had laid down taken from the admirable Love and Condescension of the Son of God that we should be most solicitously careful even with warmth and all earnestness to hear his Voite To day Heb. 3.7 13. to exhort one another daily while it is called To day lest any of us should be hardned through the deceitfulness of sin to hold fast our profession Heb. 4.14 to hold the beginning of our considence stedfast unto the end Heb. 3.14 that so we may be made partakers of Christ And seeing that we have not an High-Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities Heb. 4.15 16. therefore to come boldly unto the Throne of Grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need And that for this among other reasons because the Compassion and Love of the Son of God hath so far stooped to the relief of sinful and miserable Man as to be made a little lower than the Angels Heb. 2.9 Seeing that as God he could not die for us he would become our Brother and assume our Nature into the Unity of his Person that so in our Nature thus assumed he might die for us and deliver us not only from Death but from all Fear of it Forasmuch as the Children are partakers of flesh and blood he also himself likewise took part of the same That through death he might destroy him that had the power of death that is the Devil And deliver them who through fear of death were all their life-time subject to bondage In my discoursing of which words I will do these two things 1. I will Explain the most material words and expressions in the Text that we may fix upon the proper Notion of the nature of this our Bondage and our Deliverance from it 2. I will offer some of the most pertinent Considerations I can to quicken our thoughts and Apprehensions of the whole matter and to dispose us for receiving the kindly Influences of all in such a way as may be most agreeable to the Solemn occasion of our meeting together this Day 1. For Explication of the words and the true Notion of the thing The Innocency and Holiness of our blessed Saviours Life is judged to be one reason among others of what St. Peter told the Jews Act. 2.24 That it was not possble that he should be holden of death But this is of it self a Sufficient reason that none should be so vain as to think that when we speak of the Death of Christ we can be supposed to understand any thing else by it but only that Temporal Death which he suffered upon the Cross Whereas our own case is so wholly different that though we have the Honour to be of that Nature of which Christ did partake yet all we being polluted and guilty before God Rom. 3.19 we shall not come up to the full sense of the Scripture when we are told that Death is the wages of sin Rom. 6.23 1 Cor. 15.56 and that the Sting of it is sin nor shall we be sufficiently sensible of death as proceeding from and expressive of and always accompanied with the dreadful Wrath of God unless when we speak of that Death of which the Devil had the power and the fear of which made men subject to Bondage all their life-time we do as in reason we ought under stand by it not only the separation of the Soul and the Body but more especially Eternal Death and in the general the dreadful Curse in its full latitude to which Man was obnoxious by reason of Sin so that the measure of the hurtfulness of the Death we speak of is to be taken from hence because it is the effect of Gods Wrath and that because of Sin Now consequently hereupon if we would judge a right of that Bondage to which men are subject through the fear of this we must seriously think with our selves how it could be otherwise to them that are supposed to lie under the Guilt of sin and under the Sense of the Punishment that belongs to it but that the Malediction of God and the approaching of a certain Judgment Hell it self and everlasting burnings and all that can strike horror into the minds of men should ever be ready to offer themselves to their thoughts and This so unavoidably all their life-time that nothing can shew them any rational sufficient Ground to escape what they are afraid of when they seriously think of all this without respect to Christ And can it be otherwise conceived but that this must be a most wretched condition fitly called a Bondage not permitting men to do any thing with Freedom who cannot be otherwise but all their life time subject to this slavery of Sin of the Devil and of Death For all these in the issue do come to the same and therefore the fear of Temporal death as that leads to Eternal death but especially the fear of the last Prov. 14.18 Ephes 2.3 Mat. 23.15 Act. 13.10 as being that Inheritance of Mans Folly which as to a Child of Wrath Hell and the Devil a despised and forsaken Father and therefore now a just and righteous Judge will appoint him as his everlasting Portion in a place where there shall be nothing but weeping and gnashing of teeth cannot but seise men who being out of Christ are obnoxious to it with all anxiety horror and anguish of mind Thus poor miserable Man finds an endless torture in himself which so wholly possesseth him as to seem not to admit of any further Degrees if my Text did not mind us that the great Enemy of Man-kind the Devil is ever active and restless in adding all the weight and sharpness he can to this Bondage who besides his Tyranny and Usurpation upon men which could not exceed the extent that Gods Permission had given it for the Punishment of former sins and besides whatever claim he might make to men upon their Voluntary submission to him as consequent upon his having seduced them from their obedience to their Creator which yet seeing that they had no right to dispose of themselves and that their continued slavery was an addition to their Crime as well as to their Misery could not give him any just right or Dominion over them I say besides all this the Devil doth come upon Man with a more dreadful assault as having his fury armed with a Commission from God as the Executioner of his Wrath upon Malefactors already adjudged to death and consequently is said as to the never-failing success of what his malice could prompt him to to have had the power of death So that Man as considered without an Interest in what Christ hath done for him was in a double Bondage
of Sin and of Punishment The Devil was the Author of and the Solicitor to Sin by the entrance of which into the World Death also entred Rom. 5.12 and passed upon all Men for that all have sinned And through Sin it was that he had the power of death that is of inflicting death both of body and soul By this it was that the Devil reigned over Men to their eternal destruction For in that sense this Kingdom of his may be conceived to be fitly called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Empire Dominion of death from the effect of it in that it was deadly and destructive to Man But to the great joy of us all and that we may ever adore and magnifie the blessed and only Potentate 1 Tim. 6.15 the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and submit our selves to God James 4.7.12 the one Law-giver who is able to save and to destroy having now this assurance that if we resist the Devil he will flee from us this dreadful Empire is now brought to its fatal period and the Tyrant as such being wholly deprived of his Tyranny is destroyed too as if he were not at all as to any hurt that he can do us our strong Helper and mighty Deliverer the holy and ever blessed Jesus God and Man having rescued us out of the jaws of death and destruction by destroying him that had the power of it The promised Seed of the Woman hath punished that piercing and crooked Serpent Isa 27.1 hath broken the head of that fierce and terrible Leviathan Psal 74.14 in such a way as that he hath truly shewed himself to be the Seed of the Woman The Conquest was obtained by him in Humane nature and that not without receiving such Wounds as he in that nature was capable of not without the honourable marks of a Bloody Victory For as Christ the Seed of the Woman did bruise the Serpents Head Gen. 3.15 so also the Serpent was permitted to bruises his Heel Through Death he destroyed him that had the Power of death And now having thus far given some account of the several words and expressions in my Text the full import of the Doctrin of it will be more clearly stated by comparing the proper Notion of the Bondage and Deliverance there mentioned with some few particulars which are to be considered as they are Dependant and Consequent upon that which is primarily to be understood or as they belong to that Application which it is but reasonable we should make of the whole to our selves 1. That there is a Yet-remaining Bondage to which the Fear of Death doth make Particular men Subject must be acknowledged which may admit of several Degrees as they are more or less the Servants of Sin Rom. 6.16 17 c. Rom. 8.9 13. Because not having the Spirit of Christ not through the Spirit mortifying the deeds of the Body But serving divers Lusts and Pleasures living in Malice and Envy Hateful and Hating one another Tit. 3.3 They must in their own Thoughts be concluded to be so far from having any Benefit by that Deliverance which Christ hath obtained as in truth to be the Enemies of the Cross of Christ Phil. 3.18 Though the Gospel of Christ be preached unto them as well as unto others Heb. 4.2 yet the Word preached doth not profit them not being mixed with Faith in them not begetting that Hope in them 1 John 3.3 by which they are enabled to purifie themselves to have always a Conscience void of offence toward God and toward Men. Act. 24.16 And therefore unless they be grossy deluded being sensible that the Death of Christ is of no Advantage to them while they Continue in an impenitent State It is impossible but that they must Fear Death and cannot be supposed even to think themselves Delivered from this Fear by the Death of Christ But the Bondage in my Text and our Deliverance from it are in this present Discourse to be looked upon not with respect to the Particular Subject but to the Common Nature of Man Christ himself only excepted The Bondage as incident to Humane Nature as Faln and Depraved And the Deliverance from it as that which All men stand in Need of and of which all are Capable as to the Foundation of it that is laid in the Death of Christ and with the Refusal of which all are Chargeable to whom the tender of it is made by the Preaching of the Gospel We are All either Actually under it or as to any thing that is in our selves Subject to the greatest extremity of it or we are in some Measure actually Delivered from the Effects of it and have a comfortable prospect of a Compleat Deliverance All have Sinned and come short of the glory of God Being justified freely by his Grace Rom. 3.23 24. through the Redemption that is in Jesus Christ Only of this to prevent all Presumption we must ever be mindful that those Only are the persons to whom now there is no Condemnation Rom. 8.1 2. who are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit Such in whom the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus hath made them Free from the Law of Sin and Death 2. There is also a Farther Bondage which is Consequent on the Fear of Temporal Death when Men for Fear of Persecution or Death do commit Sin or neglect any part of their Duty by that means endeavouring to avoid what they fear our Deliverance from which is Consequent upon our cordial Belief of that Deliverance which Christ hath obtained for us by his Death For if we truly believe That and acquiesce in it as our Happiness Why should we be afraid of them which Kill the Body but are not able to Kill the Soul Mat. 10.28 Nay doth not our Faith if it be lively and sincere teach us above all things to fear him which is able to Destroy both Soul and Body in Hell Heb. 4.1 c. Ever fearing lest a Promise being left us of entring into Gods rest any of us should fail of it through Unbelief Of which there can be no greater instance than by Slighting that Deliverance our Saviour hath obtained for us to declare that we place no Confidence in it 3. There is also a Fear of Death to which Weak though Sincere Christians may be in some measure Subject which may at Sometimes so much Disturb them as to Approach very near to the Bondage here in my Text and which is at all times both their Unhappiness and their Sin This proceeds from great Defects in their Faith and in other Graces and generally from great Neglect of what their holy Profession doth call them to Now though the serious Consideration of the Deliverance here in my Text and mens hearty Endeavors to work out their Interest in it with fear and trembling of another nature Phil.
Ward Mayor Jovis xxjmo die April 1681. Annoque Regni Regis Caroli secundi Angl. c. xxxiij tio THIS Court doth desire Mr. Sill to Print his Sermon Preached at the Guild-Hall-Chappel on Good-Friday last Wagstaffe Freedom from Fear of Death through the Death of Christ A SERMON Preached at GVILD-HALL-Chappel ON Good-Friday A.D. MDCLXXXI By WILLIAM SILL Rector of St. Austins and St. Faiths united and Chaplain to the Lord Bishop of London LONDON Printed for Walter Kettilby at the Sign of the Bisheps-Head in St Pauls Church-Yard 1681. To the Right Honourable Sir PATIENCE WARD Lord Mayor Of the City of LONDON AND TO The Court of ALDERMEN Right Honourable THAT this Sermon is made publick is from the humble Regard that I am obliged to pay to the ORDER I have received I am the less concerned for what Censure may pass upon the honest Plainness of it because I judge that I should much less have answered the great Importance of the Subject if I had affected to treat of it upon any other Grounds than what the Scripture doth give us For the most consummate Political or Moral Discipline can afford us no Weapons more equal to encounter with the Power of Death than any of those Arguments it can suggest to us are to obtain a Respite of the peremptory Sentence from this inexorable King of Terrors If upon this account this Discourse may obtain a favourable Acceptance I shall have all that is aimed at by this humble Address from Right Honourable Your most obedient and humble Servant Will. Sill. A SERMON Preached on Good-Friday at GVILD-HALL CHAPPEL ON HEB. II. 14.15 HEB. II. 14. That through death he might destroy him that had the power of death that is the Devil HEB. II. 15. And deliver them who through fear of death were all their life-time subject to bondage THE Excellency and great Usefulness of this Epistle to the Hebrews hath been well judged to have been the cause of the main Attempts that have been made to deprive us of its Divine Authority the consideration of which should move us to attend more earnestly to it For whatever other Difficulties may for some time have been started by such wary Persons as meant no harm to Religion to hinder the Reception of this Epistle with the same readiness that other parts of the holy Scriptures were admitted yet he that well weighs the advantage we have from it of taking a more full and clear account of the Use and Abrogation of the Jewish Ceremonies and of Christs being the End of the Law and of the Nature and Dignity of his Office as Mediator between God and Men will conclude That he that from the beginning hath ever envyed Man-kind whatever might promote their happiness hath been active in giving weight to those Scruples which if they had been pertinaciously adhered to would so far have brought upon the Church an irreparable Loss But the peculiar Meditations which the Solemnity of this Day doth call us to may yet farther offer something to us of more immediate concern in that this Epistle doth fully set forth and magnifie the Priesthood of Christ and the Vertue Benefits and Dignity of the one Sacrifice of his Death Through which seeing that we have the greatest Advantages that our faln and miserable condition did stand in need of and such as the Great God could not bestow upon us any more agreeable This may more especially be presumed to have an Ascendant upon our minds which nothing but a sottish Stupidity or base Ingratitude can defeat to make us acknowledge and admire the watchful Providence of God for our good in that this Sacred Book hath now for many Ages without the least hesitancy been received as inspired from Gods Holy Spirit by the Universal Church of God and consequently to secure our heedful regard to the main Scope of it Which more especially as to the former Chapters of this Epistle is to recommend to us the Doctrine of Christ and to require our hearty Reception of it and Submission of our selves to the power and efficacy of it Heb. 2.1 That we give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard lest at any time we should let them slip considering with our selves what possibility there can be for us to escape if we neglect so great Salvation which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord Ver. 3 4 and was confirmed by them that heard him God also bearing them witness both with signs and wonders and with divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost according to his own Will Now the Reasonableness and Necessity of all this is farther laid before us by the holy Pen-man of this Epistle from the Dignity and Preeminence of the Person of Christ not only above Moses but far above all the great and glorious Angels of God And this partly from the Eternity of his Essence this Eternal Son of God being the brightness of his Glory and the express Image of his Person by whom he made the Worlds Heb. 1 2 3. and who upholds all things by the word of his power And partly from what this Eternal Son after he was Incarnate and had assumed our nature did acquire or was conferr'd upon him God having appointed him Heir of all things and therefore directing us to expect all that Good which by the fall of Adam from that Right and Capacity he was created to we had lost only in and through Christ Ver. 3. who when he had by himself purged our sins sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high and was for the suffering of Death Crowned with Glory and Honour having all things put in subjection under him Heb. 2.8 9. God thereby signifying That that state of Humiliation to which the Son of God was pleased to submit himself whatever mean thoughts vain and proud men might entertain of it was a thing highly pleasing to him and in his infinite Wisdom directed to excellent Ends in which his Goodness and Propensity to favour Man kind should be most eminently apparent to the astonishment indeed both of Men and Angels but to the peculiar benefit of the first Heb. 2.16 For he took not on him the Nature of Angels but he took on him the Seed of Abraham and that in order to this infinitely good and wise End advantageous to miserable and lost Man even to a miracle Heb. 2.9 That he by the grace of God should tast Death for every Man And shall this which was so highly pleasing to God on the behalf of Man not be sufficiently esteemed and valued by Man who hath the sole benefit of it Should not this unexpressible Condescension of the Eternal Son of God be a powerful Motive to us to make us most freely exert the utmost Powers we have in giving a ready and affectionate entertainment to the Gospel of Christ and in yielding a most cordial and sincere submission to it even