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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A32857	The religion of Protestants a safe way to salvation, or, An answer to a book entituled, Mercy and truth, or, Charity maintain'd by Catholiques, which pretends to prove the contrary to which is added in this third impression The apostolical institution of episcopacy : as also IX sermons ... / by William Chillingworth ...	Chillingworth, William, 1602-1644.; Chillingworth, William, 1602-1644. Apostolical institution of episcopacy.; Chillingworth, William, 1602-1644. Sermons. Selections.	1664 (1664)	Wing C3890; Wing C3884A_PARTIAL; ESTC R20665	761,347	567

For whereas before he was allowed no Authority no not in Israel At his Resurrection he obtains the Heathen for his Inheritance and the uttermost parts of the Earth for his Possession Now it would be a hard undertaking taking to describe the limits and borders of Christ's Kingdom as also to define the Polity whereby it is administred Therefore leaving the most glorious part of it which is in Heaven undiscovered we find in Holy Scripture that according to the several dispositions and qualifications of men here on earth He hath both a Scepter of righteousness to govern and protect his faithful subjects and servants and a rod of Iron to break the wicked in pieces like a potter's vessel And though the greatest part of the world will acknowledge no subjection to Christ's Kingdom notwithstanding this does not take away his authority over them no more than the murmuting and rebellion of the Israelites did depose Moses their Governour But there will come a time when that Prophetical Parable of his shall be resolved and interpreted to their confusion when he shall indeed say Where are those my enemies which would not have me to reign over them Bring them hither and slay them before me 40. But the most eminent and notorious exercise of Christs Dominion is seen in the rule over his Church which he purchased with his own Bloud Now the first business he took in hand presently upon his Resurrection when all power and dominion was given him was to give commission and authority to his Embassadours the Apostles and Disciples to make known to the world that so great salvation which he had wrought at his Passion Now though the Apostles were sufficiently authorised by vertue of that Commission which Christ gave them in those words As my Father sent me so send I you Notwithstanding they were not to put this authority presently in practise but to wait for the sending of the Holy Ghost which Christ before had promised them That by his virtue and influence they might be furnished with abilities to go through with that great employment of reconciling the world unto God by subduing mens understandings to the truth and obedience of the Gospel 41. We read in the Gospel of S. John that during the life which Christ lived in the flesh the Holy Ghost was not sent and the reason is added Because the Son of man was not yet glorified The strength and vigour of which reason doth excellently illustrate the point in hand For the sending of the Holy Ghost was one of the most glorious acts of Christs Kingly Office and the most powerful means of advancing his Kingdom Therefore in the daies of his humiliation whilest he lived in the form of a servant before he had purchased to himself a Church by his own Bloud his Humane Nature obtain'd no right of dominion and power over Mankind For till we were redeemed from the power and subjection of the Devil and sin by the merit of Christs Death we were none of Christs subjects but servants and slaves sold under sin and Satan 42. So that it being necessary that the Son of man should not only pay a price and ransome for our Redemption by his Death but also that the same Son of man and none else should actually and powerfully vindicate his elect from the bondage they were in and effectually apply his merits and satisfaction to their souls and consciences Till he was in S. Paul's words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 11.9 For the suffering of death crown'd with glory and honour He according to his Humane Nature and that was the only instrument whereby our Salvation was to be wrought had no power of sending the Holy Ghost 43. And indeed till Reconciliation was made by his Death to what purpose should the Holy Ghost be sent What business or employment could we find for him on earth You will say to work grace and new obedience in us I confess that is a work worthy the Majesty and goodness of Gods holy Spirit But yet suppose all this had been wrought in us put case our hearts were sprinkled from an evil conscience and that we were renewed in the spirits of our minds Perhaps all this might procure us a more tolerable cool place and climate in Hell But without Christ it would be far from advantaging us toward our salvation for alas though we should turn never so holy never so vertuous and reformed what satisfaction or recompence could we make for our former sins and iniquities God knows it must cost more to redeem a soul therefore we must let that alone for ever we must take heed of ever medling in that office we must let it alone to him even Jesus Christ who alone is able to be at that cost 44. But I might have spared all these suppositions For as excluding Christ there is no satisfaction no hope of redemption for us so excluding Christs satisfaction he hath no power or authority as Man of sending the Holy Ghost thereby to work in us an ability of performing the conditions of the second Covenant and by consequence of making us capable of the fruit and benefit of his satisfaction Therefore blessed be God the Father for the great glory which he gave unto Christ And blessed be our Lord Jesus Christ for meriting and purchasing that Glory at so dear a rate And blessed be the Holy Spirit who when Christ who is flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone did send him would be content to come down and dwell among us 45. We find in Holy Scripture that our Salvation is ascribed to all the Three Persons of the blessed Trinity though in several respects To the Father who accepts of Christs Satisfaction and offereth pardon of all our sins To the Son who merited and procured Reconciliation for his elect faithful servants And to the Holy Ghost the Comforter who being sent by the Son worketh in us power to perform the conditions of the New Covenant thereby qualifying us for receiving actual remission of our sins and a right to that glorious Inheritance purchased for us 46. And from hence may appear How full of danger the former Doctrine which teacheth that actual remission of sins is procured to Gods Elect immediately by Christs death and how dishonourable it is to the Spirit of Grace excluding him from having any concurrence or efficacy in our Salvation For if this should be true the powerful working of the Holy Spirit can in no sense concern either our Justification or everlasting happiness For how can it be said that the Holy Spirit doth co-operate to our Salvation since all our good and happiness was procured by Christs death not only before but without all manner of respect had to our Regeneration and Sanctification by the power of the blessed Spirit Therefore by this Doctrine if we be any thing at all beholding to the Holy Spirit it is only for this that he is pleased now and then by fits

say that all things considered it was absolutely impossible for you to avoid it is flatly to deny it Others there are that think they have done enough if to confession of sin they add some sorrow for it if when the present fit of sin is past and they are returned to themselves the sting remaining breed some remorse of conscience some complaints against their wickedness and folly for having done so and some intentions to forsake it though vanishing and ineffectual These heat-drops this morning dew of sorrow though it presently vanish and they return to their sin again upon the next temptation as a dogg to his vomit when the pang is over yet in the pauses between while they are in their good mood they conceive themselves to have very true and very good repentance so that if they should have the good fortune to be taken away in one of these Intervalla one of these sober moods they should certainly be saved which is just as if a man in a Quartane Ague or the Stone or Gout should think himself rid of his disease as oft as he is out of his fit But if repentance were no more but so how could St. Paul have truly said That godly sorrow worketh repentance 1 Cor. 7.10 Every man knows that nothing can work it self The Architect is not the house which he builds the Father is not the Son which he begets the Tradesman is not the work which he makes and therefore if sorrow godly sorrow worketh repentance certainly sorrow is not repentance the same St. Paul tels us in the same place That the sorrow of the world worketh death and you will give me leave to conclude from hence therefore it is not death and what shall hinder me from concluding thus also Godly sorrow worketh repentance therefore it is not repentance To this purpose it is worth the observing that when the Scripture speaks of that kind of repentance which is only sorrow for something done and wishing it undone it constantly useth the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to which forgiveness of sins is no where promised So it is written of Judas the son of perdition Matth. 27.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he repented and went and hanged himself and so constantly in other places But that repentance to which remission of sins and salvation is promised is perpetually expressed by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth a through change of the heart and soul of the life and actions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mat. 3.2 which is rendred in our last translation Repent for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand But much better because freer from ambiguity in the entrance to our Common Prayer Book Amend your lives for the kingdom of heaven is at hand From whence by the way we may observe That in the judgment of those holy and learned Martyrs Repentance and amendment of life are all one And I would to God the same men out of the same care of avoyding mistakes and to take away occasion of cavilling our Liturgy from them that seek it and out of fear of encouraging carnal men to security in sinning had been so provident as to set down in terms the first sentence taken out of the 18 th of Ezekiel and not have put in the place of it an ambiguous and though not in it self yet accidentally by reason of the mistake to which it is subject I fear very often a pernitious paraphrase for whereas thus they make it At what time soever a sinner doth repent him of his sins from the bottom of his heart I will put all his wickedness out of my remembrance saith the Lord The plain truth if you will hear it is the Lord doth not say so these are not the very words of God but the paraphrase of men the words of God are as followeth If the wicked turn from all the sins which he hath committed and keep all my Statutes and do that which is lawful and right he shall surely live he shall not die where I hope you easily observe that there is no such word as At what time soever a sinner doth repent c. and that there is a wide difference between this as the word repent usually sounds in the ears of the people and turning from all sins and keeping all Gods Statutes that indeed having no more in it but sorrow and good purposes may be done easily and certainly at the last gasp and it is very strange that any Christian who dies in his right senses and knows the difference between heaven and hell should fail of the performing it but this work of turning keeping and doing is though not impossible by extraordinary mercy to be performed at last yet ordinarily a work of time a long and laborious work but yet heaven is very well worth it and if you mean to go through with it you had need go about it presently Yet seeing the Composers of our Liturgy thought fit to abreviate Turning from all sin and keeping all God's Statutes and doing that which is lawful and right into this one word Repenting it is easie and obvious to collect from hence as I did before from the other place that by Repentance they understood not only sorrow for sin but conversion from it The same word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mat. 12.42 is used in speaking of the Repentance of the Ninivites And how real hearty and effectual a Conversion that was you may see Jonas 3. from the 5 to the last verse The People of Niniveh believed God and put on sackcloth from the greatest of them to the least of them for word came to the King of Niniveh and he arose from his Throne and he cast his Robe from him and covered him with sackcloth and sate in ashes and he caused it to be proclaimed and published throughout Niniveh by the decree of the King and of his Nobles saying Let neither man nor beast heard nor flock taste any thing let them not feed nor drink water but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth and cry mightily unto God yea let every one turn from his evill way and from the violence which is in their hands who can tell if God will turn and repent and turn away his fierce anger that we perish not Which words contain an excellent and lively pattern for all true penitents to follow and whereunto to conform themselves in their humiliation and repentance And truly though there be no Jonas sent expresly from God to cry unto us Yet forty dayes and Niniveh shall be destroyed yet seeing the mouth of Eternal Truth hath taught us that a Kingdom divided is in such danger of ruin and destruction that morally speaking if it continue divided it cannot stand and seeing the strange and miserable condition of our Nation at this time may give any considerable man just cause to fear that as in Rehoboam's case so likewise in ours The thing is of the Lord intending to bring

impossible that we should be rewarded without the intercession of the Virgin Mary He held seven Sacraments Purgatory and other Points And against both Catholiques and Protestants he maintained sundry damnable Doctrins as divers Protestant Writers relate As first If a Bishop or Priest be in deadly sin he doth not indeed either give Orders Consecrate or Baptize Secondly That Ecclesiastical Ministers ought not to have any temporal possessions nor propriety in any thing but should beg and yet he himself brake into heresie because he had been deprived by the Archbishop of Canterbury of a certain Benefice as all Schisms and Heresies begin upon passion which they seek to cover with the cloak of Reformation Thirdly he condemned lawful Oaths like the Anabaptists Fourthly he taught that all things came to pass by absolute necessity Fifthly he defended humane merits as the wicked Pelagians did namely as proceeding from ●atural forces without the necessary help of Gods grace Sixthly that no man is a Civil Magistrate while he is in mortal sin and that the people may at their pleasure correct Princes when they offend by which Doctrin he proves himself both an Heretique and a Traytour 53. As for Huss his chiefest Doctrins were That Lay people must receive in both kinds and That Civil Lords Prelates and Bishops lose all right and authority while they are in mortal sin For other things he wholly agreed with Catholiques against Protestants and the Bohemians his followers being demanded in what points they disagreed from the Church of Rome propounded only these The necessity of Communion under both kinds That all Civil Dominion was forbidden to the Clergie That Preaching of the Word was free for all men and in all places That open crimes were in no wise to be permitted for avoiding of greater evil By these particulars if is apparent that Husse agreed with Protestants against us in one only Point of both kinds which according to Luther is a thing indifferent because he teacheth that Christ in this matter (q) In epist ad Bohem●s commanded nothing as necessary And he saith further If thou come to a place (r) De utraque specie Sacram. where one only kind is administred use one kind only as others do Melancthon likewise holds it a a thing (ſ) In Cent. epist Theol. pag. 225. indifferent and the same is the opinion of some other Protestants All which considered it is clear that Procestants cannot challenge the Waldenses Wickliffe and Husse for members of their Church and although they could yet that would advantage them little towards the finding them out a perpetual visible Church of theirs for the reasons above (t) Numb 49. specified 54. If D. Potter would go so far off as to fetch the Muscovites Armenians Georgians Aethiopians or Abissines into his Church they would prove over dear bought For they ei●her hold the damnable Heresie of Eutyches or use Circumcision or agree with the Greek or Roman Church And it is most certain that they have nothing to do with the Doctrin of the Protestants 55. It being therefore granted that Christ had a visible Church in all Ages and that there can be none assigned but the Church of Rome it follows that she is the true Catholique Church and that those pretended Corruptions for which they forsook her are indeed divine truths delivered by the visible Catholique Church of Christ And that Luther and his followers departed from her and consequently are guilty of Schism by dividing themselves from the Communion of the Roman Church Which is clearly convinced out of D. Potter himself although the Roman Church were but a particular Church For he saith Whosoever professes (u) Pag. 67. himself to forsake the Communion of any one member of the body of Christ must confess himself consequently to forsake the whole Since therefore in the same place he expresly acknowledges the Church of Rome to be a member of the body of Christ and that it is clear they have forsaken her it evidently follows that they have forsaken the whole and therefore are most properly Schismatiques 56. And lastly since the crime of Schism is so grievous that according to the Doctrin of holy Fathers rehearsed above no multitude of good works no moral honesty of life no cruel death endured even for the profession of some Article of Faith can excuse any one who is guilty of that sin from damnation I leave it to be considered whether it be not true Charity to speak as we believe and to believe as all Antiquity hath taught us That whosoever either begins or continues a division from the Roman Church which we have proved to be Christ's true Militant Church on earth cannot without effect●al repentance hope to be a member of his Triumphant Church in heaven And so I conclude with these words of blessed S. Augustiae It is common (w) Cont. Parm lib. 2. c. 3. to all Heretiques to be unable to see that thing which in the world is the most manifest and placed in the light of all Nations out of whose unity whatsoever they work though they seem to do it with great care and diligence can no more avail them against the wrath of God than the Spider's web against the extremity of cold But now it is high time that we treat of the other sort of Division from the Church which is by Heresie The ANSWER to the FIFTH CHAPTER The separation of Protestants from the Roman Church being upon just and necessary causes is not any way guilty of Schism 1. AD § 1 2 3 4 5 6 7. In the seven first Sections of this Chapter there be many things said and many things supposed by you which are untrue and deserve a censure As 2. First That Schism could not be a Division from the Church or that a Division from the Church could not happen unless there always had been and should be a visible Church Which Assertion is a manifest falshood For although there never had been any Church Visible or Invisible before this Age nor should be ever after yet this could not hinder but that a Schism might now be and be a Division from the present visible Church As though in France there never had been until now a lawful Monarch nor after him ever should be yet this hinders not but that now there might be a Rebellion and that Rebellion might be an Insurrection against Soveraign Authority 3. That it is a point to be granted by all Christians that in all Ages there hath been a visible Congregation of faithful people Which Proposition howsoever you understand it is not absolutely certain But if you mean by Faithful as it is plain you do free from all error in faith then you know all Protestants with one consent affirm it to be false and therefore without proof to take it for granted is to beg the Question 4. That supposing Luther and they which did first separate from the Roman Church were guilty

and earn'd it by a former voluntary submission and humiliation of himself 32. The conditions on Christ's part we find most exactly performed by him wholly resigning and prostrating his own will to the will disposition of his Father At his private Passion which immediately went before his Attachment when he was sacrificed and even crucified alone in the Garden without the assistance and malice of a trayterous Disciple of the chief Priests or Romans Though he retain'd that innocent fear of death and shame which is natural to Man which forced him to cry out Father if it be possible let this Cup pass from me Notwithstanding though he could not hate his own life yet to shew he preferr'd the fulfilling of his Fathers will before it he adds Nevertheless not my will but thy will be done Luk. 22.42 By which words he resigns the whole power and faculty of his will into his Fathers hands In the words of another Evangelist he saith Not what I will Mark 14.36 but what thou wilt Where he resigns and submits the Act and Exercise of his Will And lastly to make all compleat in the expression of a Third Evangelist he saith Not as I will but as thou wilt Matth. 26 39. Where he subjects not only the faculty and the exercise of his will to the performance of what God shall command him but is willing and desirous to do it after what manner and fashion soever God shall be pleased It is not possible for the understanding of man to adde or conceive a degree beyond this 33. In the next place we shall see How God the Father is as good as his word to his Son But first give me leave to complain to you of that Tyranny which custom partiality or something worse has laid upon our Understandings And that is this That wheresoever any former Protestant Writer have suspected a Doctrin as not beneficial but rather dangerous to some conclusion which he is resolved to maintain against the Papists we their Scholars are oblig'd to make good their jealousies and may be groundless suspitions 34. To omit many examples I will produce only these few It lies upon us to maintain that St. John's Baptism was one and the same Sacrament with that of Christs contrary to express words of Scripture and something else That Christ is a Mediatour Secundum Divinam Naturam which borders I fear upon an old dangerous Heresie As likewise which especially concerns this place That Christ merited nothing to Himself by his Passion neither was the Exaltation of his Humane Nature to the Dominion and Rule over all Creatures a reward of his Humility but a preferment due to his Person though by special dispensation the exercise thereof was deferr'd for a time but should have been conferr'd upon him as fully as he now enjoys it though he had never suffered 35. But Scripture reacheth us That Christ was to be made perfect by sufferings That Because he had drunk of the Brook by the way Therefore he should lift up his head That For the joy which was set before him that is Having an eye to the glorious reward and fruit of his suffering he endured the Cross and despised the shame and therefore is set up at the right hand of Glory Because being found in fashion as a Man Phil. 2.8 9. he humbled himself and became obedient to the death even the death of the Cross 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Therefore for this reason God hath highly exalted him and given him a Name which is above every Name c. Nay St. Paul makes the obtaining a Rule and Dominion over man-kind a main end of his death for in Rom. 14.9 he saith Rom. 14.9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For this end Christ both dyed and rose again that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living By his death meriting this Dominion by his Resurrection receiving it But I will forbear controversie because I desire to seek out no Adversary especially in my preaching but only the Devil and Sin 36. This therefore I think we shall agree upon That it was the purpose and immutable decree of God that after the fall and misery of man whatsoever good should befal us toward our restitution and repairing to our lost happiness should be convey'd unto us by our own nature That the Seed of the Woman should break the Serpent's head That is not only in St. John's phrase destroy the works of the Devil but also in St. Paul's destroy his kingdom and power which is Death So that As by Man came Sin and Error so by Man also should come Grace and Truth As by Man came Death so by Man also should come the Resurrection from the dead By Man also life and immortality should be brought to light 37. Now that these great projects and entendments might be brought about and that the Humane Nature might be furnish'd with ability to discharge this Province and to go through with this great Undertaking God the Father for the merit of Christ's great humility by his Resurrection hath highly exalted him farr above all Principality and Power Eph. 1.20 and might and dominion and every name that is named not only in this world but also in that which is to come Phil. 2.9 10 11. And hath given him a Name above all Names that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth and that every tongue should confess that Jesus is the Lord to the glory of God the Father 38. And thus much Christ himself confesseth and acknowledgeth presently upon his Resurrection for then he saith All power is given unto me in Heaven and Earth It was then only he received the Dominion whereof his Father David's Kingdom was but a Type and shadow And as his Father David was anointed and deputed by God to the Kingdom but received not actual possession of it till after many persecutions and afflictions at the hands of his Master Saul In like manner though our Saviour even in the days of his humility teacheth us that the Father judgeth no man but resigneth all judgment to the Son Notwithstanding these words are to be understood only by way of Anticipation or Prophecy of what should befal him after he should have perform'd the work of our Redemption For while he lived here among men he professed he was so farr from being a King that he had no sufficient authority given him to be a petty Judg in a case of Inheritance And that wicked Pilas himself had power given him from Heaven to become his Judg So that though in the days of his flesh he was Heir of all things yet he was only a conditional heir and therefore till the conditions were perform'd and himself seiz'd of the Inheritance even the Heir himself differed nothing from a Servant 39. But within three days after his Passion the case was much altered

directions than he has thought fit 42. I beseech you therefore my beloved Brethren by all means make use of any advantages which may serve to render you more earnest more eager and resolute in your obedience to those holy and perfect Commandements which he hath enjoyn'd you If you cannot find your selves arriv'd as yet to that height of perfection as that Love and Charity cannot wrest from you sufficient carefulness to obey him Let fear have its operation with you fear and horrour of that terrible issue which shall attend the wilful and habitual transgressours of his Laws And you need not suspect this course as unwarrantable for you shall have St. Paul for your example even that Paul for whose miraculous conversion Christ was pleas'd himself in Person to descend from his Throne of Majesty that Paul who laboured in the Gospe more than all the rest of the Apostles that Paul whose joy and hearts comfort it was to be afflicted for the Name of Christ Lastly that Paul who for a time was ravish'd from the Earth to the third Heaven after a most inexpressable manner and there heard things that cannot be uttered This Paul I say shall be your example who after all these things found it yet a convenient motive and received great encouragement and eagerness to proceed in his most blessed conversation even from this fear Lest whilest he preached to others himself should become a cast-away 43. And when Fear has done its part let Hope come in Hope of that happy Communion which you shall once again have with those friends which may be purchased in this life at so easie a rate Hope of that eternal weight and burden of joy and glory which is reserved in Heaven for you if you hold fast the rejoycing of the Hope stedfast unto the end Heb. 3.6 Let a comfortable meditation of these things encourage and hearten you to proceed from one degree of holiness to another till we all come in the unity of the Faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect Man to the measure of the fulness of the stature of Christ And for an example in this take that whole cloud of witnesses mustered together in Heb. 11. Or if they will not serve the turn take an Example above all examples an Example beyond all imaginable exceptions even our blessed Saviour Jesus Christ himself concerning whom the Author of the same Epistle it was St. Paul sure saith Chap. 12. That for the joy which was set before him despised the shame and endured the Cross c. 44. God knows we have need of all manner of encouragements and all little enough for us so sluggish and immoveable so perverse and obstinate are we Therefore for Gods sake upon any terms continue in the service of Christ make use of all manner of advantages and though ye find hope or fear predominate in you these servile affections as they are commonly call'd yet for all that faint not dispair not but rather give thanks to Almighty God and God who sees such good effect of his Promises and Threatnings in you of which all the Scripture is full from one end to the other will in his good time fill your hearts full of his Love even that perfect love which casteth out fear and of that perfect Love which shall have no need of Hope He will perfect that his good work in you unto the end 45. To conclude all Whether ye shall perform this Commandement of Christ or whether ye shall not perform it It cannot be avoided Everlasting habitations shall be your reward Only the difference is Whether ye will have them of your Enemies providing whether ye will be beholding to the Devil and his Angels your ancient mortal Enemies to prepare everlasting dwellings for you And who can dwell in everlasting fire saith the Prophet Who can dwell in continual burnings Or whether ye will expect them from the assistance of those just persons whom you have by your good works eternally oblig'd to you even those blessed and glorious Habitations which God the Father Almighty hath from the beginning of the world provided and furnish'd for you which God the Son by his meritorious Death and Passion hath purchased for you and for the admission whereunto God the Holy Ghost hath sanctified and adorn'd you that in thankfulness and gratitude you your selves may become everlasting Habitations pure and undefiled Temples for him to dwell in for ever and ever Now unto these glorious and everlasting habitations God of his infinite mercy bring us even for Jesus Christ his sake To whom with the Father c. The Seventh Sermon LUKE XIX 8. And if I have defrauded any man by forged cavillation I restore unto him four fold THe Son of man saith our Saviour of Himself in the end of this story is come to seek and to save that which was lost Vers 10. And how careful and solicitous he was in the discharge of this employment and business about which his Father sent him this story of Zacchaeus out of which my Text is taken will evidently and lively discover For here we have a Man that among ten thousand one would think were the most unlikely to become a Disciple of Christs so indispos'd he was for such a change so unqualified in all respects For first he was Rich as the third verse tells us and if that were all his fault yet in our Saviour's judgement which was never uncharitable being so clogg'd and burdened with these impedimenta as even the Heathens could call Riches it would be as hard for him to press through and enter in at the streight gate without uneasing and freeing himself from them as for a Camel to go through the eye of a Needle 2. But secondly these his Riches as it would seem were scarce well and honestly gotten For his trade and course of life was a dangerous trade obnoxious to great almost irresistible temptations A great measure of grace would be requisite to preserve a man incorrupt and undefiled in that course and so ill a name he had gotten himself that all that afterwards saw Christs familiarity with him were much offended and scandaliz'd at it for we read in the 7. verse Vers 7. that when they all saw it they murmured saying that he was gone in to lodge with a sinful man with one famous and notorious for a great oppressour 3. Yet notwithstanding all this such was the unspeakable mercy and goodness of Christ that even of this Stone so scorned and rejected of all the people he raised a son unto Abraham as we find in the 9. verse Vers 9. And to bring this to pass he took occasion even from a vain curiosity of this Zacchaeus an humour of his it may be such a one as afterward possessed Herod though God knows he had not the same success namely to see some strange work performed by Christ of whom he had heard so much talk This opportunity