Assistance of God who as he giveth no Commission to the Devil to tempt Men so neither doth he give him any Assistance in the tempting of them That only natural Means therefore remain unto him and that this natural Means can be no other than by working upon the Imaginations of Men that this he effects by imprinting Ideas and Conceptions of several Objects therein either by producing such Motions in the Brain which create such Conceptions in the Soul or by immediately Communicating such Conceptions to it or perhaps by some other unknown way but whatsoever the manner of his Operation may be that the effect is and can be no other than the Production of bare Ideas or first Cogitations in the mind of Man For as for his tempting one Man by the Sollicitation or Persecution of another that must be reduced to the same Original since he could induce one Man to tempt another no otherwise than by tempting that first Man in a proper and strict Sense From this short view of the manner of the Devils effecting his Temptations and the Power which attends them we may easily conceive our own Abilities to resist them For the same Power which we have either to approve or reject the first Thoughts of any Object arising in our Minds the same Power we have to repel the Insinuations of evil Spirits since these extend no farther without our own Concurrence The first Thoughts of the Mind are the bare Conception of any Objects before any Judgment be formed of them or the Will be yet inclined on either side in relation to them As if the Mind should conceive the material Act of any sin and even with all the Circumstances of it and run over all the apparent Advantages which may arise from the Reception of it and yet hath not determined whether it shall admit or reject it Such a bare Conception precedes every Operation of the Will The Imagination or Understanding first represents the Object to the Will and then the Will formeth a Judgment of it either consenting to or disapproving the thing proposed The latter the use of the Will is always in our Power and cannot beforced by any Power whether of Men or Devils nay with Reverence be it spoken cannot be over-ruled by God himself For the measure of his Power is his Will and this cannot be supposed to alter the Nature of things which himself hath fixed and if he should by an extraordinary Act of Power constrain the Will of Man the Operation would be neither good nor bad because not free and so capable neither of Reward nor Punishment So that Man is secure on this side his Will always remains untouched the only Approaches which can be made to him are by his Imagination or Faculty of Conception And this is not always in his Power Evil Spirits may impress Ideas in it without his own Concurrence the Presence of Objects will naturally produce them and the secret workings of Memory will recal them In all this the Will is not concerned such Thoughts will enter into the Soul not only without the Consent but even against the Desire of Man He cannot avoid the Conception of those Objects which are presented to him either by evil Spirits or external Objects or the Suggestion of his own Memory But then as Man cannot avoid them so neither is he to answer for them no more than when he hears the Relation of a Sin committed by another or seeth it with his own Eyes in which Case he cannot avoid the Conception of it and yet is not rendred Guilty thereby Which sufficiently confutes the Opinion of some Men who maintain these first Cogitations to be in our own Power and that as such we are answerable for them For whether the Conception be imprinted in the Mindby the Suggestion of evil Spirits or by the Fruitfulness of our own Invention it is of the same Nature and hath no more necessary Effect than that which is produced by the Report of the Senses whether seeing or hearing In which last Cases it cannot be denied that a Conception of the matter related or seen cannot be prevented The Soul is so quick a Being that no sooner doth the Object strike the Organ of sense but it frameth an idea of it If then in such obvious Cases the first Thoughts of the Soul may be absolutely involuntary if the Mind cannot prevent the gross Operations of Sense much less will it be able to exclude the more subtle Impressions of spiritual Beings such as are the Temptations of Devils or the inward Suggestions of Imagination But then as I said before Man is not accountable for these because not within his Power A Man indeed may turn away his Eyes from beholding Sin he may stop his Ears when he heareth pleasing Relations of Sin he may for the most part stifle these Suggestions whether of evil Spirits or a depraved Imagination he may expel them from his Mind and permit them not to Lodge themselves within his Breast This was the Practice of our blessed Saviour whose Example should be our constant Pattern He had framed such a clear Conviction of his Duty and firm Resolution of performing it that in him to master any Temptation was no more than to discover that it was contrary to the Commands of God and his own Duty No sooner did the Devil suggest to him the miraculous Conversion of Stones into bread for the satisfying of his Hunger but he rejected the Proposal because contrary to a due Reliance upon the Divine Promises of Protection When he would have perswaded him to work an unnecessary Miracle in throwing himself off the Pinacle of the Temple he immediately remembred that God had forbidden Men to tempt his Providence and the remembrance of that Prohibition was a sufficient Safeguard against the Suggestion of the Devil When he tempted our Lord to fall down and worship himself by promising him in Reward the Kingdoms of the earth and all the glory of them he opposed to this the Divine Command of worshipping God alone and did not so much as enter into debate whether he should admit the Proposal but with a generous Disdain immediately rejected all Thoughts of it with a Get thee behind me Satan His Resolutions of Obedience to God alone were as quick as his conceptions of what was proposed to him by the subtle Tempter and that because he had firmly rooted this Principle in his Mind that whatsoever was his Duty he would perform whatsoever was unlawful he would reject If we by assiduous Meditation would take care to fix the same Principle in our Minds if we would diligently recall it to mind as often as any Object of choice were presented to us if the same pious Indignation would seize us as often as any thing were proposed to us Derogatory to the Honour of God and our own real Interest it would be no less easie for us to overcome the Temptations of the Devil than it was for
advantage by it They could not but conclude indeed that the Justice of God did require a Discrimination of the good and bad But then it did not appear that because the bad were to be punished the good must be Rewarded with any supernatural Favours It was a sufficient Reward to Man for his Obedience to the Divine Laws that he had received his Being and all the Benefits of his Life from God and enjoyed them upon no other Condition Or if an extraordinary Reward might be reasonably hoped for from the Consideration of the Divine Justice yet could no Man in that State conceive an Assurance of his Title to it since no such Reward could be claimed but upon account of an absolute and most perfect Obedience and every one was Conscious to himself that he could not put in any such Claim Lastly to remove all this Anxiety it was not sufficient to renounce all hopes of future or supernatural Happiness and live regardless of it For the natural Reason of Man would still suggest to him that this was his Duty and that was unlawful to him If he slighted the Suggestions his Conscience would afflict and torment him would upbraid him with it and cause him to condemn himself If he endeavoured to stifle these Suggestions he would find it to be impossible and if he could effect it he must conceive himself to be reduced to the State and Condition of a Beast Upon the whole the Mind of Man could not but labour with great Anxieties grow restless and impatient under the Burden of Natural Religion and be thereby necessitated to betake it self to the direction of Christ who promiseth Rest and Satisfaction to it But our Lord in this place more particularly referreth to the severity of the Jewish Dispensation a Religion encumbred with so many Rites and Ceremonies so many positive Precepts and Observations that St. Peter justly complaineth of it in Acts XV. 10. as of a Yoke which neither their Fathers nor themselves were able to bear Nor indeed was it at first intended to perfect the Nature of Mankind or immediately to procure Happiness but rather to guard that stiff-necked People from the sin of Idolatry to which they were so strongly inclined that while they were busied about these Legal Observations they might be drawn off from superstitious Rites and even conceive an hatred of them Otherwise they contributed little to raise the Soul of Man to improve his Faculties or give him Assurance of what he most desired an Happiness equal to the Capacity of his Nature They are not undeservedly called the weak and beggarly Elements of the world by the Apostle and are by God himself in Ezek. XX. said to be statutes that were not good and Judgments whereby the observers of them should not live to have been given in his Anger in Punishment of their many Rebellions and Apostacies And indeed if we consider the great number of their positive Precepts Ceremonies and Observations how little they contributed to the cleansing of the Will or enlightning of the Understanding how obscure the Reasons of them were and how inconsiderable the Reward annexed to them we must conclude it to have been an Institution infinitely more severe than what was afterward introduced by Christ. There was â—ndeed a Reward adjoyned to it but â—hat so far beneath the Capacity of humane Nature that it could by no means terminate the Desires of the Soul And even this Reward they found by Experience to be common to the Observers and Violators of the Law and if it had been appropriated to the good alone yet was subject to as many Variations as was the Body which it principally concerned Again it could not but be a sensible Vexation to a considering Mind that they were treated by God at such distance debarred the Knowledge of the Reasons of those Ceremonies which were required of them were left wholly in the dark as to the Intention of God in prescribing of them could discover no Reasonableness or Excellency in them no Agreeableness between them and their own Nature It was not allowed them to enter into the Holy of Holies to understand the Reasons why such carnal Observations were imposed on them Or if they had understood them yet when they viewed the number the extent and the Difficulty of them they even despaired to perform them They had indeed all the Reasons common to Natural Religion and some peculiar to themselves to expect from the Divine Justice a better and more noble Reward But then the Nature of Legal Righteousness consisting in an universal and unsinning Obedience extinguished their hopes and subjected them to the fear of all the Punishments denounced against the Transgressors of the Law which had provided Remedies expiatory Sacrifices for Sins of Omission inadvertency and a lesser Guilt but gave no hopes of Pardon to Sins of a more hainous Nature had assigned no Sacrifices for their Expiation nor allowed any means of Pardon for them Amidst all these Difficulties the Mind was afflicted being Conscious of her own Offences but not discovering the Remedies of the guilt despising the unsatisfactoriness of temporal Felicity yet promised no better obliged to the Observation of a multitude of Precepts but taking no Complacency therein fearing the wrath of God and yet scarce able to avoid it Thus was the Jewish Religion in it self an heavy Burden even without the addition of Pharisaical Interpretations who by their Scruples Niceties and Supererrogations had at that time almost doubled the weight of it In relief of all these disadvantages our Lord invites the wearied Soul to take refuge in his Religion assureth her of Rest and Satisfaction therein ease of Scruples and removal of Anxiety in the 28th Verse bids his Disciples not be disquieted with the Conscience of their past Sins nor despair of Pardon not fear to approach to him as the Jews did to Mount Sina when the Law was delivered by God from thence for that himself was meek and lowly in heart in the 29th Verse ready to forgive their Sins upon sincere Repentance condescending to their Infirmities willing to lay open all the Mysteries of his Religion to their Understandings to adapt it to the meanest to treat all with a constant Sweetness and Gentleness to fill all the Faculties of their Souls with the Promise and assurance of a Reward which should be nothing Inferior to their most extended Desires The farther Consideration of these things will fall under the Second Head proposed Namely II. The Easiness of the Yoke and Lightness of the Burden imposed upon Mankind by the Commands of Christ separated from the Comparison of other Systems of Religion and as it more nearly respects our Practice and Observation of the Duties of it This Yoke is no other than the performance of all Christian Duties or of the Commands of Christ which word St. John makes use of to express the same Sense 1 Joh. V. 3. For this is the love of God that we keep his
another hath injured us and are not we in every Sin injurious to God Thy Fellow-Servant hath perhaps injured thee once or twice but thou hast injured God the Lord of both very often perhaps every day of thy Life and then what equality is there between injuring a Fellow-Servant and a Master He perhaps was provoked nay first injured by thee before he committed any Acts of Hatred or Malice against thee But thou hast offended thy Lord from whom thou never receivedst any Injuries by whom thou hast been obliged with the greatest Benefits by whose Favour thou livest and from whom thou expectest all that can make thee Happy Consider that if God should examine strictly and immediately revenge all thy Offences against him thou hast not one day to live For if thou Lord shouldst be extreme to mark what is done amiss O Lord who may abide it So said a better Man than thou art and much more must thou confess if thou either dissemblest not with others or deceivest not thy self For to pass by all those secret Sins which are known only to every Man's Conscience and have no witness but God alone if we should be required to give an account of those open and manifest ones which we daily commit what Pardon could we expect If God should take a severe Account of our Negligence and want of attention in Prayer of all the idle Speeches proceeding from our Mouth and the rash Judgments which we make and such other Sins and Inadvertencies committed but in any one day we should have just Reason to despair of Pardon But if he ransacks our Souls and brings forth into Judgment all the secret Sins of it the evil Desires and unclean Thoughts the unlawful Motions and vain Imaginations we should then have no hope left And if the Sins of one day bring inevitable Destruction upon us without the Mercy and the Pardon of God what an Abyss of Mercy will the Sins of a whole Life require Yet all these Sins he condescends to pardon all this Mercy he extends to Man with this single Condition that he pardon the Offences of his Fellow-Christian For this is an Argument against Revenge peculiar to the Christian Religion To the Jews the Promises of Divine Pardon were neither so full nor so clear and therefore God in giving Laws to them thought it convenient to wink at their exercise of Revenge in some Cases I will not reckon as such that Law of giving an eye for an eye a tooth for a tooth For however it was afterwards most grosly mis-interpreted by the Jews it included not any thing of Revenge in the first Institution and Design of it But certainly that Law cannot be excused from Revenge which alloweth to the Kindred of any Man slain unadvisedly to retaliate his Death upon the Author of it if they overtook him before he entred into any City of refuge It is our Happiness that as we have a better Religion and greater Promises so we have stronger Arguments to perswade us to our Duty And in this Case he who gave us both hath forbidden the Execution of Revenge to us and appropriated it to himself So that not only upon account of the Nature of the thing but also of the Divine Command Revenge is made injurious to God and unlawful to us Further not only do we want that Authority which Revenge pre-supposeth not only are we precluded by the express Prohibition of God but we also want other qualifications absolutely necessary to us before it be convenient that we be intrusted with the Execution of Revenge I will instance but in two First Knowledge of the true Guilt of the Crime which we would revenge It must be acknowledged that the Merits of a Cause ought to be known before any Judgment be passed on it In Humane Judicatures the Peace of the World and Interest of publick Societies require that probable Evidence be accepted that Judgment be given according to the appearance of things But if Men pretend to judge the Consciences of others to define the Hainousness of the Guilt of their Offences and to execute the Punishment upon it which is the Proper work of Revenge they ought exactly to know the most private thoughts of the Soul by what steps and arguments the Will was induced to commit that Injury what Judgment the Understanding formed of it when it was committed Otherwise Men may grosly mistake they may Judge that to be an Injury which was intended by the other for a Kindness in which Case there is rather Merit than Guilt in the Offender And if his intended Benefit doth really turn to the Detriment of the other it will be a misfortune to them both yet the Merit of the Benefit ought not to be esteemed less Thus a passionate Revenge may be employed against its own Benefactors and inverting the Course of Justice punish the Well-doers In other Cases Men may interpret Acts of inadvertency to proceed from a formed Malice and punish what is indeed but a venial Injury as a Mortal offence They may prosecute the Execution of revenge even after the other hath repented of the Injury in his mind and resolved if possible to make Reparation for it and thereby hath expiated the guilt of the Offence In all these and many other Cases Men may err most grosly in passing their Judgment upon the enormity of Injuries offered to them which must be supposed to precede all Revenge And how dangerous such Errors are our Lord acquaints us when he assureth us Matth. VII 2. With what Judgment ye judge ye shall be judged and with what measure ye mete it shall be measured to you again This Reason makes it impossible for Man to execute Revenge aright if it should be permitted to him and dangerous to be desired and for this Reason it ought to be taken out of the hands of Man and be committed to him alone who is the Searcher of all Spirits Again if it were possible for Man to form a right Judgment of the guilt of every Offence and the quantity of the Punishment to be inflicted he would still commit fatal Miscarriages in the Execution of it His Passions are so violent that he would far exceed the Limits of the prescribed Punishment add weight and sharpness to it in Complyance with his own Hatred and imagine that his Anger ought to be indulged therein Nay I fear that in all Cases of Revenge it will be found that the Punishment is inflicted not out of abhorrence to the sin committed but out of Malice and Hatred to the Person of the other not to reform the irregularity of the other but to gratifie his own Passion not to oppose sin but to harm a supposed Enemy And thus not only the Danger of incurring the guilt of Injustice Hatred and Malice would ensue but also the Peace of the World would be wholly over-turned Mankind would be involved in continual War while he who were first injured carried his Revenge beyond the
Worship that is in the Church All which put it beyond all doubt that St. Paul doth in this place treat of the publick worship of God and of publick Prayer to be used in Churches In the first place then if all Prayer be an Act of Worship publick Prayer is more eminently so The intention of private Prayer is in the first place to obtain Supplies to the wants of the Petitioner and then to worship God Whereas in publick Prayer on the contrary the worship of God is the chief design and the supply of Necessities but a Secondary intention So that to intermit the use of publick Prayer and pray only in private is for Man to worship God only in Subordination to his own designs It cannot be denied that publick Worship and Prayer do far more effectually tend to the Honour and Glory of God when Men do openly and in the hearing of all others confess their Subjection to God magnifie his Benefits deprecate his Anger and acknowledge their own unworthiness This is truly and properly to give Glory to God Whereas he who confineth his Devotion to a Closet may perhaps be allowed to have a just Esteem of the Divine Benefits but seems ashamed to confess so much to other Men that he is the Creature of God as well as others that he equally depends upon him that he hath also violated his Commands and wants his Mercy The Psalmist therefore upon the receiving of great and eminent Benefits is wont to affirm that he will praise God in the Congregation as well knowing that such a publick acknowledgement of them did far more contribute to the Honour of God and was also more pleasing to him It is not enough to say that God receiveth no increase of Honour from our Praises For neither doth he receive any such advantage from private Worship yet it would be impious to say that the worship of God is not the Duty of Man But by publick worship Men do more evidently manifest their gratitude to God and the Sense which they have of his Benefits and their own Obligation than by private Prayer and Adoration And upon this account the former is more acceptable to God who delights in the good of his Creatures which good can be no otherwise procured or maintained but by an exact discharge of their Duty one part of which is a just return of Gratitude and Worship to himself God receiveth not increase of Honour from the Praises of Angels any more than from those of Men. Yet all the Descriptions which we find of Heaven represent them as incessantly singing Praises to their great Creator Who not content to retain a reverent Conception of the Divine Majesty in their own thoughts communicate them to each other and publish them to the whole World And indeed to what purpose can we imagine that God should both under the Old and the New Testament found Churches that is separate Societies of Men united by certain Laws and under one common Form of worship if it be not the Duty of all the Members of those Churches to meet together at certain times and places and adore him by one common Form If God had intended to rest satisfied with private Worship in vain did he contrive and found Churches by wonders of Providence as he hath that both of the Jews and Christians in vain hath he given to them particular Laws and annexed many Priviledges and Promises to the whole Society and to the Members of it as such Under the Old Law he required every Male to appear before him in the publick Place of worship three times in the year and commanded publick Worship to be continually paid to himself in daily Sacrifices Yet as he declared altho' he cared not for ten thousand Bullocks nor for Rivers of Oyl he would not remit the Duty and adjoyned Rewards to it because it publickly declared the Subjection of the devout Sacrificers to himself In these publick Forms of worship in the Jewish Temple our Lord while one Earth constantly gave his Attendance at appointed times After his Ascension and the Gift of the Holy Ghost the Apostles as we find in the III. of the Acts frequented the Temple at the usual hours of Prayer and joyned in the common Forms of Prayer there made use of altho' by the Operation of the Holy Ghost then received by them they could have poured out Extempore far more excellent and devout Prayers than those received in the Temple which were of humane Composition If then God so strictly exacted the Practice of publick Worship in all times if Christ and his Apostles so exactly performed it if for this very Purpose God hath gathered and united a Church under common Laws and the hopes of a common Reward what account can they make who either lay aside all publick Worship as superfluous or decry the daily Sacrifice of prayer and praise to God offered up in the Church or when themselves meet once a week to worship God place the Religion of the day in hearing a Sermon which is properly no part of Worship but only an Exhortation to and direction how to worship God In the next place as the Obligation of publick Prayer is greater than that of private so the Promises made to the one are far greater than to the other Our Lord hath promised That wheresoever two or three shall be gathered together in his name wheresoever there shall be an Assembly of Christians joyned together to offer up Prayer and to worship God he will be in the midst of them He will watch over them with his Providence he will own them as Members of his Body he will excite and render effectual their Devotion by the Operation of his Holy Spirit he will intercede with God for the Grant of their Petitions And how effectual must those Prayers be wherein our Lord himself concurrs Or what doubt can remain of the acceptance of our Worship and the grant of our Desires when he is present with us All the glorious Promises of Assistance Pardon Favour and Protection which were anciently made to the Jews worshipping God at the Temple in Jerusalem are now translated to the Christian Churches The only difference is that whereas among them the publick worship of God was confined to one place in the Christian Religion which was given not to one Family or Nation but to the whole World the same Priviledge is made common to all places of publick Worship in all parts of the World wherever Christianity doth prevail To Worship offered up from publick places alone the Promises of the greater and more illustrious Blessings of God are annexed And no wonder since by this alone the publick Religion of any Nation doth appear by this alone the publick Honour of God is maintained in the World While the Tabernacle made by Moses and afterwards the Temple at Jerusalem stood while daily Sacrifices and Worship were performed therein it was an undeniable Evidence that the Jews worshipped the
Trespasses as we forgive them that Trespass against us that so as truly sincerely and unfeignedly as we desire Pardon so truly and really we may Pardon others and not only profess Pardon to others in using this form of words but also renounce all hopes or claim of Pardon from God if what we then profess we do not indeed intend All the Benefits of God which we implore by Prayer proceed from his own Beneficence and are undeserved by Men. If he vouchsafes to grant them he may well be allowed to affix what Conditions himself pleaseth to them He might have commanded some very difficult Preparation some extraordinary return of Thanks but when he hath resolved all into a Condition so easie so agreeable to our Nature so much conducing to the Happiness of Mankind as the mutual remission of Injuries he hath left Men without excuse and manifested that all the Duties exacted by him are designed rather for their Benefit than the increase of his own Glory If it seems a hard Condition to forgive those many Provocations and Injuries which one Man may receive from another without any Compensation or Satisfaction we ought to consider how much greater Provocations and more numerous Injuries the best of Men have offered to God and how much more they stand in need of his Pardon We are injured by others who are our Equals who possibly have no Dependence on us have received no Obligations from us and may have been provoked by us but we by our Sins offer violence to our Creator by whom we subsist on whom we depend who hath conferred on us already eminent Benefits and intends yet greater We may have been injured once or twice but whoever calls to mind the wandring Thoughts the impure Desires the vain Imaginations and perhaps the more flagrant Sins of any one day will find that he hath more grievously offended God in that little time than by all the Injuries of other Men he can have been provoked in his whole Life If then it be necessary to deprecate the Anger of God for the Sins of any one day and much more for the sins of a whole Life and Pardon be offered by God upon no other Condition than Freedom from wrath and hatred it will be no less our Interest than our Duty to lift up holy hands in Prayer without wrath III. To this Condition the Apostle adds in the last place that Prayer ought to be offered without doubting The word in the Original signifieth a Disputation and reasoning in the Mind concerning an Opinion and in this place concerning that Opinion which all true Believers ought to entertain of the Efficacy of Prayer This doubting may relate either to the whole System of Religion or to the peculiar Promises concerning Prayer or to the particular worthiness of the Supplicant In the first Case it is evident that doubting overthrows the Success of Prayer He that cometh to God must first believe that God is and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him that is he must be fully perswaded of it If he doubts he dishonoureth God and cannot perform the Essential parts of Prayer For shall he be said to commit himself entirely to God who questions his Existence Or can he rely upon God who is not satisfied that he is Infinite or Almighty The least mixture of doubt herein taketh off so much from that Submission Reliance Subjection and Devotion which ought to intervene in every Act of Worship and more particularly in Prayer which thereby ceaseth to be perfect and sincere So also in the Articles of Christian Religion upon which the Efficacy of Christian Prayers are chiefly placed in vain doth he plead in the Name of Christ who is not well assured of the Dignity and the Merits of Christ. Audience of Prayer is promised as a Reward of Faith which cannot consist with doubting It is the confidence and assurance which we have in God and Christ which procureth Acceptance to our Prayers if we firmly believe it because he hath said it if for the sake of his Authority we esteem things future as present to us which is the Condition laid down by our Lord Mark XI 24. Whatosever things ye desire when ye pray believe that ye receive them and ye shall have them This made the Prayers of the ancient Saints and Patriarchs so successful as is at large described Hebr. XI that having seen the Promises afar off they were perswaded of them and embraced them and as a sure Testimony of their perswasion quitted their present Pleasures and Possessions in exchange for future Rewards It is said of our Lord while conversant on Earth that he could not do many mighty works among the Galileans because of their unbelief and himself required it as the previous Condition of his miraculous Cures believe and thou shalt be made whole Not that it was impossible to his Almighty Power to have wrought Miracles without the concurrent Belief of Men but that he wrought not upon them as upon so many Machines but dealt with them as with rational Beings and therefore distributed his Favours in proportion to their Faith And herein an imperfect Faith or a cold perswasion will not suffice St. Peter demonstrated much more when he adventured himself upon the water at the command of Christ yet because he still retained some doubt and fear our Lord permitted him to sink that so he might reprove the imperfection of his Faith O thou of little Faith wherefore didst thou doubt A Second sort of doubting is a Diffidence concerning the peculiar Promises of Success and Advantage consequent to Prayer when the Existence or the power of God is not called in question but his Will disputed and it seems incredible that such an Almighty and most perfect Being having no need and receiving no benefit from the Service or Prayers of Men should condescend so far as to bestow such eminent Favours and so readily at the Petition of mean and unworthy Creatures To overcome this doubt it is sufficient to manifest that God hath indeed promised such favourable Audience to the Prayers of Men and for the truth of this because I speak to those convinced of the Authority of Scripture to remit you to those many Promises contained in the Gospel The places are numerous and evident I will now insist but on one of them namely the Parable of the unjust Judge Luk. XVIII delivered as the Evangelist saith for this end that Men ought always to pray and not to faint not to doubt of Success There the unjust Judge is represented as granting that to the importunity of a poor Widow which neither the Justice of her Cause nor the fear of God nor the regard of Men could obtain from him And this inference drawn from the whole Verse 7. And if so shall not God avenge his own Elect which cry day and night unto him though he bear long with them To allure us to the practice of Prayer Christ proposeth the
the great Propitiatory Sacrifice depended upon its being presented by the High Priest in the Holy of Holies the place where God was pleased to Promise his immediate Presence How much more Efficacious then must be conceived to be the Intercession of our High Priest who not once a year but continually not with the Blood of Bulls or Goats but with his own Blood not in an Earthly Tabernacle but in the highest Heaven maketh Intercession for us If the Mediation of the Jewish High Priest could avert temporal Punishments due to the Sins of the People much more will the Mediation of our High Priest free Mankind from eternal Punishments If their Priest being cloathed with the same Nature could more sensibly commiserate the Unhappiness of his People our's for the same Purpose took our Nature on him But whereas their Priest was subject to the Guilt of the same Sins for which he interceded our's knew no Sin their 's was admitted no farther than to the Symbols of God's Presence to the Cherubims and the Mercy Seat our's to the very Throne of his Majesty where he continually pleadeth his Sufferings on our behalf diffuseth his Graces to us and prepareth Mansions for us Lastly if we consider Christ as the great exemplar of humane Life his Ascension will upon that Account also be of great use to us teaching us with him to exalt our Affections to withdraw them from the Earth and to place them in Heaven This Inference the Apostle draweth from his Resurrection and Ascension Colos. III. 1. If ye be risen with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God Christ died to the World to instruct us that we ought to mortifie our worldly Lusts to restrain and subdue to Reason the use of Carnal Pleasures He left the World and Ascended into Heaven to teach us that there our Affections ought principally to be fixed that there our chief Interest is placed and there only perfect Happiness to be expected Could the Pleasures the Power and the Prosperity of this World have given the most complete Happiness our Lord who deserved it by the most complete Obedience which was ever paid who was more dear to God than all the Sons of Men who was himself heir of all things and Lord of all would have fixed his abode here and not removed it into Heaven But when immediately after his Exaltation as soon as he began to receive the Reward of his Obedience and Sufferings he forsook the Earth and returned unto the Bosom of his Father he hath thereby instructed us that in vain is true Felicity to be sought here below that this World can afford no adequate recompence for Vertue and Piety that we are indeed but Strangers and Pilgrims upon the Earth and that as many as pursue the end of their Creation and study to be truly Happy ought to seek a better Countrey even that into which Christ the forerunner is entred for us that so where he is there we may be also receive the same Reward and be Crowned with the same Happiness that so as we have imitated his Ascension we may share in his Glory Which God of his infinite Mercy Grant The Twentieth SERMON Preach'd on July 13th 1690 At LAMBETH CHAPEL Matth. V. 16. Let your light so shine before Men that they may see your good Works and glorify your Father which is in Heaven THESE words are part of our Lord's Sermon upon the Mount which was directed to a mixed multitude of Auditors and treats altogether of universal Duties incumbent upon all who receive the Doctrine and acknowledge the Authority of him who spoke it Upon which Account we have just reason to reject the Opinion of those who would restrain to the Apostles only and their Successors the Preachers of the Gospel the Duty prescribed in this and the three foregoing Verses which requireth the Professors of Christianity not to confine the exercise of their Duty to their single Breasts or rest satisfied in having discharged the Office of Piety in secret but to perform such eminent Acts of Devotion Temperance and Charity and so to direct them as may promote the Glory of God and Instruction of Men. The whole preceding part of this Sermon was directed to all Christians in General delivering the Promise of those Beatitudes in which all the Disciples of Christ are equally concerned What follows treats concerning the general Laws of Justice Temperance and Charity so that with no good Reason can these intermediate Verses be restrained to the Apostles only If they are here called the Salt of the Earth Verse 13. our Lord addressed himself in the same words to great multitudes as we read Luk. XIV 25. If they are stiled the light of the World in the 14th Verse St Paul applieth the same Expression to the Philipians II. 15. exhorting them to be without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse Generation shining among them as Lights in the World It must be acknowledged indeed that the Apostles were and their Successors in the ministerial Office ought to be more eminently the Salt and Light of the World purging away the Corruptions removing the darkness of Mankind by Example and Instruction To effect this by their Doctrine is peculiar to them not common to other Christians to promote it by their Example is a Duty common to them with all other Christians It is my present Purpose to treat of it as an universal Duty to which my Text directs me by placing the Light of this Exemplariness which is commanded not in verbal Instructions but in good Works which are acknowledged to be the Duty of all Christians Of this then I will Discourse under these four Heads I. The Duty imposed such an exemplary Conduct as may become a Light of the World II. The manner of being thus Exemplary by good Works III. The end to which it ought to be directed the Glory of God IV. The good Effects of it the Instruction of Men and Promotion of the same good Works in others I. Concerning the Duty which is that of an illustrious Example to the practice of which our Lord hath directed us both by his Laws and by his own Example He stiles himself and truly was the Light of the World he was foretold under the Figure of the Sun of righteousness who should enlighten the World with his Doctrines and demonstrate the Possibility of performing them by his own Example His Precepts chiefly concern Moral Duties which he restored first to their Primitive Notions and Purity and then urged the Practice of them upon his Followers in a more strict manner than had ever before been done What before was esteemed an attempt fit only for great and noble Minds he made the Duty of all the Members of Mankind what others thought a sufficient Glory to practise singly to excell in this or that single Vertue he required to be performed conjunctly without the Omission of any thing which is