and suffers its proud Waves to be bounded and checkt by the Sand. There go the ships and there is that Leviathan whom he hath made to play therein The Earth faithfully performs the Task that was imposed upon it at its first Creation and ceases not to bring forth its fruit in its Season and the most inconsiderable Creature that it nourishes even the smallest Fly publishes the wisdom and power of its Creator as much as the greatest Elephant And who again that considers these things can chuse but proceed with the Psalmist and say Praise the Lord from the earth ye dragons and all deeps fire and hail snow and vapour stormy wind fulfilling his word Mountains and all hills fruitful trees and all cedars beasts and all cattel creeping things and all fowl And shall all these inferiour Creatures daily laud and magnifie their Maker as most plainly they do while in their several Stations they perform his Commands shall the little Birds warble out Hymns of Praise and every Hedge produce a Quire to sing an Hallelujah and shall Man alone be silent Man whom God himself hath crowned with glory and honour whom he hath made to have dominion over the works of his hands and hath put all things under his feet all sheep and oxen yea and the beasts of the field the fowl of the air and the fish of the sea and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas Man whom when he had lost all this Honour when Sin had laid both it and himself together in the dust out of which they were both raised at the first God was pleased by a Miracle of mercy to restore to Honour once more nay to greater Honour than he had before even to the Honour if he forfeits it not again by his own monstrous Ingratitude of being made like unto the Angels in Heaven of being numbred among the children of God and having his lot among the saints I say shall Man whom of all the rest of his Creatures God hath delighted most to Honour be of all the rest of the Creatures the most ungrateful and most backward to give Praise and Glory to God Oh wheresoever this Ingratitude be to be found let it not be found amongst us but let us still joyn with the Psalmist and say Kings of the earth and all people princes and all judges of the earth both young men and maidens old men and children Let them praise the name of the Lord for his name only is excellent his glory is above the earth and heaven Thirdly that this Duty of glorifying God is both reasonable and necessary is evident in as much as all Mankind both good and bad shall most certainly one way or other give glory to God For the Lord will be King for ever be the people never so tumultuous and unquiet and though he be offended and provoked and blasphemed every day yet he is strong as well as patient and will one day vindicate his abused patience and longsuffering and will exalt himself above the heavens and his glory above all the earth Then shall all those foolish Wretches that refused to give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name and to celebrate the Praise of his mercy that endureth for ever be forced by their everlasting Punishment to glorifie his Justice For the glory of the Lord shall endure for ever the Lord shall rejoyce in his works For he hath made all things for himself saith Solomon Yea even the wicked for the day of evil Prov. 16.4 Thus did God get himself Honour as well by punishing the stubbornness of Pharaoh whom he overthrew in the Sea as by rewarding the obedience of Moses to whom he gave Power to command it And thus at the end of all things will he cause his Justice eternally to shine as bright and glorious below even in the midst of the infernal darkness as his mercy shall above in the Regions of light and happiness And Oh how sad how dreadful will our Condemnation be if we neglect this great Salvation that is offered us if notwithstanding this wonderful Redemption that God hath wrought for us we will again sell our selves Slaves to Sin and Satan And if but the tasting of a forbidden fruit brought Death into the world and made all Mankind obnoxious to the eternal wrath of God what Vengeance is reserved for them that tread under foot the Blood of his only begotten Son that despise the very height of his Love and the utmost riches of his Mercy Since then we must unavoidably glorifie either the Mercy of God or his Justice let us chuse rather to adore the former than to be broken in pieces by the latter for they that will not submit to his gentle Government while he holds forth his golden Sceptre shall be sure to feel the Severity of his rod of Iron Lastly for I must not be tedious though the Subject be so copious that I might heap up Arguments without number Since there is not the least part of the Creation excepting wicked Men and wicked Angels but what sets us an Example and invites us to glorifie our Creator this Duty of glorifying God is most highly reasonable for us to perform while we are upon Earth because it will be our eternal Task if ever we come to Heaven Those glorious Mansions above resound incessantly with Hymns of Praise unto the King of Saints To whom all Angels cry aloud continually the Heavous and all the powers therein Holy holy holy Lord God of Sabbaoth Heaven and earth are full of the Majesty of thy glory If therefore we desire to perform this Duty in the next Life it is not only reasonable but necessary that we begin is in this For certainly if we do not now tune our Voice to an Hallelujah and practise the Musick of Heaven while we are upon Earth Candidates for a Place in the celestial Choire we shall never be qualified to bear a part in that new Song which is to be sung before the throne of God and none shall be able to learn it but the Saints that are redeemed from the Earth Let us therefore now and evermore joyn with those blessed Spirits in glorifying our Almighty Creator saying as our Church teaches us and with which words we will at present break off our Discourse Therefore with Angels and Archangels and with all the Company of Heaven we laud and magnifie thy glorious Name evermore praising thee and saying Holy holy holy Lord God of Hosts Heaven and Earth are full of thy Glory Glory be to thee O Lord most high SERMON V. 1 COR. VI. 20. For ye are bought with a price c. THE reasonableness of this Duty of glorifying God to which in these words the Apostle exhorts us we have already seen and indeed he must be blind that sees it not when the whole Creation joins unanimously in the constant performance of it and every Corner of it declares the Power and Wisdom and Goodness of the
and Goodness was greater towards the Angels than towards Man But when some of these once glorious Creatures rebelled against their Creator and fell from their happy Station God was pleased to admit of no Mediator to intercede for their Pardon but left them to reap the fruit of their Folly and condemned them for ever to that remediless Misery into which their sin had most deservedly plunged them But with Man he dealt otherwise for when he also by transgressing that easie Command which was given him in Paradise had incurred the same Condemnation with those apostate Spirits God was pleased here to mingle Mercy with Justice and to order the matter so that tho' he did both pronounce and execute the Sentence of Death upon him which he had threatned in case of his disobedience yet he made even Death it self a Happiness to him as well as a Punishment a gate of Life and Immortality and an inlet into a far more glorious Paradise than that which before he had forfeited This was a Mercy beyond all Expectation above the thoughts of Men or Angels to comprehend that whereas he left no place of Repentance to the fallen Angels but hat reserved them in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day yet he had pity on Man though a Creature of an inferior Nature so that even before he pronounced against him the Sentence of Death he published a short Gospel of Peace and Reconciliation and assured him that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpents head Thus did God utterly confound the Malice of Satan and cause his mischief to return upon his own pate his aim was to bring Man into the same Perdition with himself without any hopes of recovery that so he might insult over him as his Captive and Vassal for ever but so far was God from suffering him to enjoy the Pleasure of such a Triumph that he presently declares that that supposed Victory that he had gained over Man should end in his own eternal overthrow that though he had dispossessed the first Adam of his earthly Paradise yet he would at his appointed time send another Adam that should conduct all the race of Mankind that would believe in him and obey him to take Possession of those glorious Mansions from whence he and his rebellious Companions were fallen a Man whom all the Angels of God should worship a Man that should trample Satan under his feet a Man that should be one with God at whose name every knee should bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth a Man that should have the keys of hell and of death who having lead captivity captive and spoiled principalities and powers should ascend into the highest Heavens and sit on the right hand of God Angels and Authorities and Powers being made subject unto him But though God was resolved that though Man was thus miserably lost and sold into the hands of Satan to the utter confusion and astonishment of him that had wrought his ruin he should be redeemed and restored again yet this was no easie Task even to Omnipotence it self but God was forced to be at the Expence both of pains and charge to effect it The Creation of Man and of the whole World cost him no trouble at all For he spake and it was done he commanded and it stood fast but Man's Redemption cost the highest price that Heaven had to give not corruptible things as silver and gold but the precious blood of the Son of God as of a lamb without blemish and without spot That Man might live God himself was fain to become Man and to die for the satisfaction of the Divine Justice A Mystery so great so incomprehensible that though nothing be more plainly and fully revealed in the holy Scripture yet many who notwithstanding call themselves Christians will not be perswaded to believe it most impudently and ungratefully denying the Lord that bought them and bringing upon themselves swift destruction Thus you see the ransome that was paid for us we were bought with a price a Price inestimable a Price infinite a Price greater than which the mercy of God could not give and less than which his Justice would not accept The greatness of this Price sufficiently intimates the great reason that there was that such a Price as this should be paid For certainly God who doth nothing in vain would never have been at such a vast Expence as this had not there been great occasion for it and so there was upon all accounts The Wisdom the Mercy the Justice all the Attributes of God at once required this Price and all at once were glorified by the Payment of it far more than by the Creation of the World The malice and cruelty of Satan required that this Price should be paid for his Confusion and above all the Misery of Man required it for his Redemption Though some of the Angels fell yet others and doubtless the greatest part of them kept their Station and so God was pleased to punish the one for their Rebellion and to reward the other for their Fidelity But with us the Case was otherwise all the whole race of Man was lost in Adam insomuch that not one of his Posterity could plead Exemption either from Death or Hell And had God suffered them to have been all thus lost without any hopes of recovery Satan would have had too great cause to triumph and blasphemously to boast that he had baffled the Wisdom and Goodness of God having utterly ruined and destroyed Man the chief work of all the visible Creation a Creature highly beloved of God and precious in his sight whom he plainly declared that he designed for great and noble Ends first by taking as it were special Counsel and Advice about his Creation and then imprinting upon him his own glorious Image and making him Lord of all the Creatures upon Earth Let us make man saith he in our own image after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air and over the cattel and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth Gen. 1.26 It was therefore a Stratagem worthy of the wisdom and goodness of God to rescue so considerable a part of the Creation out of the paw of that roaring Lyon who thought to have devoured it and to make the wicked malice of Satan contrary to his Expectation tend to the increasing not only of his own Misery but of Man's Felicity Lastly the deplorable Condition of fallen Man required that this Price should be paid for his Redemption and certainly it was none of the least Motives that induced God to lay it down Our Saviour himself seems to intimate that it was the chief For saith he God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life
Gospel absolutely deny that there was ever any such purchase made disowning both the Divinity of Christ and the satisfaction of his Sufferings As if the God of Truth had studied to impose upon the credulity of Mankind and when he tells us most plainly in his word that he hath purchased his Church with his own blood that we are bought with a price and that our blessed Saviour gave himself a ransome for all and that not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 neither but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a full sufficient and satisfactory Ransome yet all this while he means quite otherwise than what the words seem to import and none but these few sagacious Sophisters are ever able to discover the Divine Fallacy How many thousands are there yet even amongst us Christians who instead of glorifying God in their body and in their spirit openly dishonour him in both glory in their shame and by their wicked and profligate Lives crucifie afresh the Son of God and blaspheme that worthy Name by which they are called Lastly how many Myriads how many Millions are there besides all these that yet sit in darkness and in the shadow of Death Who never heard of the glad tidings of the Gospel nor have had their understandings enlightened and their hearts revived and awakened out of the deadly Lethargy of Pagan Ignorance and Superstition and Idolatry by the benign and salutiferous influence of the Son of righteousness Who instead of glorifying God give away his Glory to his greatest Enemy and do Sacrifice unto the Devil These are sad Considerations that infinite Mercy and Love should be received with such prodigious Scorn and Ingratitude that so invaluable a price as God hath given for us should be paid in vain for the greatest part of Mankind that but a small and inconsiderable number in comparison of the whole Race of Adam should wash their robes and make them white in the blood of that Lamb that was slain for the sins of the whole World and was a Sacrifice every way sufficient to make an atonement for them all Who can reflect upon these things without sorrow Since then the Case is thus with us that most of us are liable to lose the benefit of this Price by neglecting to perform this Duty of glorifying God to which it hath indispensably obliged us let us briefly consider the reasonableness and necessity of this Duty that we may be the more encouraged unto it upon these following Accounts First this Duty of glorifying God is exceeding reasonable forasmuch as God himself is the only Object in the world that is in and for himself glorious and adorable It is a Maxim in Heraldry that the King is the Fountain of Honour how much more then is that Prerogative peculiar unto God By whom Kings reign and Princes decree Justice From whom all Honour both in Heaven and Earth is derived and unto whom it returns again and centers it self as the Rivers in the Ocean When we look upon the Moon shining in its full strength and beauty we cannot but confess that its Light is very pleasant and comfortable to behold but it diminishes much from its Excellency when we consider that all its Lustre is borrowed and that should the Sun withhold its influence the other would be nothing else but a dark invisible Globe So likewise when we consider the Angels and Archangels and all the mighty Powers of Heaven that excel in Strength and Goodness and Holiness we must needs acknowledge that these are Creatures beyond all our thoughts happy and glorious but when we consider further that as great and good and happy as they are yet still they are but Creatures and that all these rich Endowments that they have received they owe to the father of spirits from whom alone comes every good and perfect gift all the Praise and Glory redounds solely to the Almighty Creator Who makes his Angels spirits and his Ministers a flaming fire and to whose Soveraign Will and uncontrolable Power the highest Archangel is as subject and subservient as the most despicable Insect that we trample under our Feet Since therefore it is most plain and undeniable that God is the only Object in the world that is in and for himself glorious and is the Spring and Fountain of Glory and Honour to all his Creatures that do in any measure participate of it reason dictates to us and we need enquire no further that it is our Duty to glorifie him and that should we do otherwise even the very stones under our feet might justly rise up in Judgment against us and condemn us Secondly as God is the only Object that is in and for himself glorious and that in an infinite and incomprehensible manner so he created all things at the first for the manifestation of his own Glory and requires this Homage to be paid him by every one of his Creatures in their respective Capacities For any of the Creatures even for the greatest of them to love himself above all things or to make his own Glory and Honour the end of his Actions is Folly is Injustice is Sin is such foolish and unreasonable Pride as cast the fallen Angels out of Heaven and Man out of Paradise But for God to do thus is both wise and just seeing that Wisdom and Equity requires that nothing less than infinite Perfection should be the adequate Object of infinite Love and Glory and therefore it would be a manifest piece of Injustice of which God can never be capable for him to give that Love or Glory to another which is due to none else but himself alone And accordingly he himself hath told us that he never will do it I am the Lord saith he that is my name and my glory will I not give to another Isa 42.8 No he hath reserved it wholly to himself and for the manifestation of it he hath created all things So the four and twenty Elders confess Rev. 4.11 Thou art worthy O Lord to receive glory and honour and power for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created The ultimate end of the whole Creation was the Glory of the Creator The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth his handy-work saith the Psalmist Ps 19.1 whoth at considers the certain and regular Motions of the celestial Bodies can chuse but extol and magnifie the Power and Wisdom of that God that made them saying with the Psalmist Praise ye him sun and moon praise him all ye stars of light Let them praise the name of the Lord for he commanded and they were created He hath also established them for ever and ever he hath made a decree which shall not pass Neither were the Heavens only created for the Glory of God but the Earth also declares the same and his wonders are seen in the Deep Even the merciless and unruly Sea obeys the Decree of him who hath shut it up with doors
and incorruptible Inheritance which our High-priest hath purchased for us in Heaven Thus I say if in this World God hath blessed us with Wealth and Honour the consideration of our Saviour's Ascension will be a powerful means to restrain us from the abuse of those Blessings so that we shall neither Idolize our Wealth with the Covetous nor with the Prodigal waste and consume it upon our Lusts But shall wisely improve it to our best advantage so as to make to our selves friends of the Mammon of Unrighteousness Secondly On the contrary hath God dealt otherwise with us Hath he with-held these Blessings from us Is our Condition in this World very Poor and Mean so that we have not where-withal to help our selves but are fain to be beholding both for Food and Raiment and whatsoever is necessary to the support of our Lives to our richer Neighbours The consideration of our Saviour's Ascension into Heaven will exceedingly comfort us and support our Spirits in the midst of our Want and Penury For how can we be troubled at our low Fortune in this World when we remember that we have an High-priest in Heaven that hath a Crown of Glory in his Hand ready to put on our Heads as soon as our Earthly Tabernacle is dissolved Nay more than this is our Condition here yet worse Are we not only Poor and Despicable but are we moreover Persecuted for Righteousness sake Doth the World frown upon us and rage against us with all its Fury Let us not be discouraged for all this And we cannot be if we consider as it follows in the Verse after my Text that in Heaven we have not an High-priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our Infirmities but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without Sin He himself when he was here on Earth was so Poor that he had not an House wherein to lay his Head He was all his Life long a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with Grief and was at the last most cruelly and despightfully Persecuted even unto Death And as he himself was for the suffering of Death crowned with Glory and Honour so hath he promised the same Reward to all those that suffer for his sake Blessed are they which are Persecuted for Righteousness sake For theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven Matth. 5.10 How then can Persecution seem grievous to us when we consider that we suffer for our High-priest who hath suffered far greater and bitterer Torments for us than we can do for him and who now sits on the Right Hand of God ready to make us a vast amends for our light and momentary Affliction here by bestowing upon us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory Thus powerful is the Meditation of our Saviour's Ascension to guide and direct us to make us wary and cautious in Prosperity and to strengthen and comfort us and to make us patient and couragious in Adversity and to arm and fortifie us both against the smiles and frowns of the World Nay Secondly When Death it self approaches near us when the King of Terrors is ready to seize upon us the same Meditation will make us bid that Hour welcome when we consider that we have an High-priest in Heaven that hath swallowed up Death in Victory so that to all true Believers it is now but asleep the Gate through which we must enter into Eternal Life Again Thirdly Which is worse than Death and which is the very sting and poyson of Death it self are we at any time terrified and affrighted at the sight of any grievous Sin into which by the Temptation of the Devil and through our own Lusts we have fallen Is our Soul smitten into the place of Dragons and brought down as it were even to Hell with the dreadful apprehension of the Wrath of God which thereby we have justly deserved Let not the Devil who in such a Case is ever ready to do it perswade us to Despair that there is no hopes of Mercy for us but that now God hath hid his Face from us for ever and that he will be no more intreated by us But let us say with the Psalmist Why art thou cast down O my Soul and why art thou disquieted within me Hope thou in God For I shall yet praise him who is the health of my Countenance and my God Let us remember that tho' we have sinned yet we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the Righteous and he is the Propitiation for our Sins Let us remember that tho' we have sinned yet we have a great High-priest that is passed into the Heavens Jesus the Son of God who ever lives to make Intercession for us Let us not therefore Despair but Repent Let us trusting in the Merits and Righteousness of our High-priest come boldly tho' humbly and penitently to the Throne of Grace that we may obtain Mercy and find Grace to help in time of need And if we do so come we may assure our selves that we shall find both Grace and Mercy Not one Tear that proceeds from godly Sorrow shall drop to the ground not one penitential Sigh shall be breathed in vain but our High-priest will be sure to present all our Tears our Sighs our Prayers and Supplications before his Father and never cease his Intercession in our behalf until our Pardon be Sealed in Heaven Thus you see that in whatsoever Circumstances we are engaged the Meditation of our Saviour's Ascension is ever extremely beneficial to our Souls And seeing that it is so how should it oblige us to hold fast our Profession How should the thoughts of this as they are ever profitable so be ever welcome and dear unto us Let us not then set up our Staff on this side Jordan let us not lie groveling upon Earth nor suffer our selves to be enamoured of the Things of this World which are not worthy of our Thoughts but let us seek those Things which are above where Christ sitteth on the Right Hand of God Let us remember that here we are but Strangers and Pilgrims and therefore let us behave our selves so as becomes Sojourners using this World so as if we used it not knowing that our own Native Country where we expect our Inheritance is afar off even in Heaven whither our High-priest is passed before us to prepare a place for us Oh then if we desire hereafter to ascend up thither after him that we may for ever be Happy in his Presence let us now hold fast our Profession That we may be able at that great Day to meet the Lord in the Air and to ascend up with him into Heaven let us now Purifie our selves even as he is Pure Let us lay aside every Weight and the Sin which doth so easily beset us and let us run with patience the Race that is set before us looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our Faith who for the Joy that was set before him endured the
part of the World the Man of Sin should be worshipped as a Saint than that by another the Holy One of God should be rejected as an Impostour For the blessed Spirit of Truth who alone can guide us into all Truth hath told us expresly that in the latter times some shall depart from the Faith giving heed to seducing Spirits and Doctrines of Daemons That there shall arise a great one in the Earth that shall oppose and exalt himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped so that he as God shall sit in the Temple of God shewing himself that he is God Whose coming shall be after the working of Satan with all Power and Signs and lying Wonders and with all Deceivableness of Unrighteousness in them that perish because they received not the Love of the Truth that they might be saved And that for this cause God shall send them strong Delusion that they should believe a lye that they all might be damned who believed not the Truth but had pleasure in Vnrighteousness And since this Prophecy must needs be fulfulled it was highly necessary that the Holy Ghost should forewarn us to beware of all those false Doctrines and corrupt and abominable Practices which this grand Impostour should endeavour to obtrude upon the Church of Christ as necessary to Salvation one of which the Apostle cautions us against in the words of my Text. Let no Man beguile you of your Reward c. The Text in the Original is something difficult and hath therefore occasioned some difference in Translations though none so great but that any one of them that I have seen and I have consulted several contains as direct a Prohibition of the Worshipping of Angels as the Greek it self For whether we render the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let no Man judge against you as Beza or Let no Man condemn you as Diodate or Let no Man master or govern you as the French or Let no Man seduce you as the Vulgar Latin and the Rhemish Translation or Let no Man beguile you of your Reward as our Translatours have rendered it it comes all to one and the same thing viz. that no Man upon Earth hath any Power to impose upon us the Worship of Angels but whosoever goeth about to do so puts a dangerous cheat upon us to the hazarding of our Eternal Salvation The main difference that I can observe consists in joining the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it may be indifferently either to the preceeding or following words If we join it to the words that go before it the Sense will be this Let no man beguile you of your Reward or condemn or master or seduce you willingly arbitrarily usurping over you a Power and Authority which was never committed unto him and so they will look with a malignant Aspect upon his Holinesses pretended Supremacy If we join it to the words that follow it the Sense will be as our Translatours have rendered it in a voluntary humility or being a voluntary in humility and so the Worship of Angels will appear to be but Will-worship having no Foundation in Scripture These things being premised I shall confine my self to our English Translation which in my Judgment is of all that I have seen the most faithfully rendered according to the Original and out of the words of my Text I shall observe this that no Man whatsoever hath any Authority to impose upon us the Worship of Angels being a thing absolutely unlawful and repugnant to the Will of God for the proof of which proposition besides some other Arguments which we may produce the Apostle furnishes us with four in my Text. 1. This Worship of Angels is a false and voluntary Humility a Will-worship invented by Man not enjoined by God 2. It proceeds from a real and carnal Pride He that goes about to impose it upon us intrudes into those things which he hath not seen vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind 3. It is highly injurious to the incommunicable Honour and Prerogative of our Lord Jesus Christ they that are guilty of it hold not the Head 4. It is destructive and deadly to our own Souls and the End of it will be Damnation for he that prevails with us to join in this Worship beguiles us of our Reward First This Worship of Angels is a false and voluntary Humility a Will-worship invented by Man and not enjoyned by God Of all the Temptations with which Satan is wont to assault our Souls there are none so dangerous as those which he offers to us under colour of Religion The common Baits of sensual Pleasures of worldly Profit or Honour and the like sinell so rank of the old Serpent that he that hath but half an Eye may discern that there is an Hook under them and it is merely the Predominance of his Corruptions that prevails with any Man to swallow it But when he assumes the Habit of an Angel of Light when instead of tempting us to Vice he recommends to us some extraordinary Grace and Virtue as being not yet sully understood nor practised by us according to the true intent and meaning of the Gospel it is not every Man that will look for a cloven Foot nor be able to discover it under such a sanctified Disguise and it is no marvel that even some learned Men have been imposed upon by the Stratagem Now of all those Excellent Graces which the Gospel requires of us there is none more lovely and amiable none that doth more adorn and beautifie our Souls and renders them more pleasing and acceptable in the sight of God through the Merits of Christ than Humility and therefore no Temptation could be more likely to prevail with Persons inclinable to Devotion than one that was gilded with the specious Pretence and Shew of so incomparable a Virtue Upon this plausible Foundation the grand Enemy of our Salvation established the Worship of Angels among some Hereticks very early even in the Apostle's Time which was the occasion of S. Paul's giving the Colossians this necessary Caution against it here in my Text. Theodoret upon the place informs us that they that maintained it necessary to observe the Law introduced also the Worship of angels affirming that the Law was given by them And this wickedness was long practised in Phrygia and Pisidia Wherefore the Council of Laodicea which is the Metropolis of Phrygia made a Canon on purpose to prohibit praying to Angels And even to this day saith he there are to be seen amongst them and their neighbours Oratories of S. Michael Now saith he they did this upon pretence of Humility saying That whereas God Almighty was invisible incomprehensible and inaccessible therefore we ought humbly to sue for his favour through the intercession of Angels Now I would fain know the difference betwixt that Worship of Angels which the Church of Rome calls Catholick and hath declared to be good and profitable for us and this
came in a very Mean and despicable Condition so poorly provided for that he had not so much as a House wherein he might lay his Head nor a cradle wherein he might rest but was forced to be content with a Stable for the one and a Manger for the other And all the rest of his Life was answerable to this Mean beginning He was continually affronted and abused and persecuted by the Chief Priests and Scribes and Pharisees and by almost all Men with whom he conversed and after all this he was most perfidiously betrayed by one of his own Disciples denied by another of them and forsaken by all the rest and at the last most barbarously murdered by bloudy and sinful Men. And if God dealt thus hardly with his only begotten Son in whom he was ever well-pleased it would be unreasonable for his Disciples and Followers to expect to fare so much better than their Lord as to be wholly exempted from Afflictions in this Life If the Captain of our Salvation was not made perfect but through sufferings surely then we shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven except we drink more or less of the same Cup. This our blessed Lord hath assured us shall be the Portion of all that will follow him Luke 14.26 27. If any Man come to me and hate not his Father and Mother and Wife and Children and Brethren and Sisters yea and his own Life also he cannot be my Disciple And whosoever doth not bear his Cross and come after me cannot be my Disciple And In the World ye shall have Tribulation John 16.33 And this the holy Apostles afterwards found true by their own Experience They were all hated and maligned and persecuted whithersoever they went and not one of them died a natural Death but S. John the Disciple whom our Saviour seemed to love above the rest and perhaps was therefore pleased to exempt him from suffering a violent Death as the other did And thus it fared afterwards with their Successours the Bishops and Pastours of the primitive Church yea and not only with them but with the greatest part of their Flock too Every one that was known to profess the Faith of Christ was persecuted as a Traytour and to be a Christian was to be a capital Offender And though at present by the blessing of God the Light of the Gospel shines amongst us gloriously yet even amongst Christians themselves those few rare Examples of Piety those Persons that are extraordinarily strict and careful to live answerable to their Profession in all Holy Conversation and Godliness are generally hated and scorned and looked upon with an evil Eye and suffer more Sorrow and Affliction in the World than other Men. And now I have given you an Account of all those dangerous Enemies and those manifold and great Difficulties and Troubles which the Righteous Man hath to overcome in his way to Heaven And from what I have said it is sufficiently evident that he shall scarcely be saved that is it shall cost him great pains and striving to work out his Salvation and through much Tribulation he shall enter into the Kingdom of God And if the Righteous be thus scarcely saved I need not insist much upon the other Proposition nor spend many words to shew you that the wicked the ungodly and the sinner shall most certainly be damned For this follows from the former Doctrine by an undeniable consequence and therefore the Apostle takes it for granted appeals to your own Judgment and leaves it to your selves to determine the question in the words of my Text If the Righteous scarcely be saved where shall the Ungodly and the Sinner appear If the Righteous that hath undergone so many Troubles hath taken so much pains to subdue and mortifie his Lusts hath with so much Constancy and Resolution turned away his Eyes and his Heart from the bewitching Baits and ensnaring Pomps and Vanities of this sinful World hath with so much Courage and Faith resisted the Temptations of Satan and quenched all the fiery Darts of the Wicked hath with so much Patience and Meekness born his Cross and indured the Afflictions and sufferings of this present Life is after all these painful and glorious Performances even when he hath gained a full and compleat Victory over all his Spiritual Enemies and is a Triumphant Conquerour over Principalities and Powers still but an unprofitable Servant and dares not appear before God's Tribunal trusting in his own Righteousness but in that which is through the Faith of Christ the Righteousness which is of God by Faith how then shall the Ungodly and the Sinner that hath taken no pains at all to fight the good Fight of Faith that hath let loose the Reins to his Lusts that hath yielded himself a Slave to his Passions that hath put God out of all his Thoughts hath set-his Heart and Affections wholly upon the things which are on Earth and glutted himself with sensual Pleasures hath harkned to the wicked suggestions of the Devil hath walked according to the Course of this World according to the Prince of the Power of the Air the Spirit that works in the Children of Disobedience hath enjoyed his good things in this Life and hath not come into trouble like other Men be able to stand before the Righteous Judge of all the Earth when he shall be summoned to give an account of all his Actions done in the flesh The case is plain he shall not be able to stand at all but shall be overwhelmed with everlasting Confusion and Misery and Despair The Vngodly saith the Psalmist shall not stand in the Judgment nor Sinners in the Congregation of the Righteous For the Lord knoweth the way of the Righteous but the way of the Vngodly shall perish Psal 1.5 6. If then we desire to stand in that great Day and to lift up our Heads with joy at the coming of our Saviour let us resolve and labour with all our Might now to stand and fight the Lords Battles Manfully against all the Enemies of our Souls Ye see in what Circumstances we are how great Opposition every faithful Champion of Jesus Christ is like to meet with in this troublesome Wilderness before he can arrive at his heavenly Canaan But though the difficulties which threaten us be great yet they are not insuperable but we may by the Assistance of God's holy Spirit who is ready to help our Infirmities overcome them if we will Let not any thing then discourage nor affright us from our perseverance in well-doing but let us animate our selves by the Example of the blessed Apostles and Martyrs and Confessours to run with patience the race that is set before us looking unto Jesus the Authour and finisher of our Faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross despising the shame and is set down at the Right-hand of the Throne of God Let us consider him that endured such Contradiction of Sinners against