infinite Understanding That the Divine Father should seem to love us more than his only begotten Son in giving him up to death for us that the Son of God should love us more than his own Life in dying to reconcile us to his Father were incredible but for the Testimony of God himself Who can resist the sweet Violence the powerful Attractives of this Love How can any person that has the use of Reason to consider this great Love not be inflam'd with affection towards his Saviour How is it possible that these wide extremes should be found united The infinite Goodness of God and the equal unthankfulness of Men that they hate and offend whom they are obliged by the dearest titles to love and serve Methinks such unnatural Ingratitude should only be found in Hell where despair of Redemption has blotted out in those lost Souls the memory of the Love and Merits of the Redeemer But that on Earth where his most precious Blood was shed and is applicable for the Salvation of all that will receive him by Faith and Love that here injuries are returned for his inestimable Benefits is the most enormous Impiety What shall we render unto him for our Evils which he hath suffered for his Benefits which he gives to us All that we can endure for his sake is not comparable to one Thorn of his bleeding Crown Let us return Love that is so infinitely due to him Wo to us if we do not love him Consider further that the same most free Love that gave the Redeemer for us has reveal'd him to us For who could have imagined that the Son of God should descend from his Throne in Heaven and from the Bosom of his Father into the Womb of a Virgin-Mother and become Man to save us by his Sufferings Who could have any hopes that the human nature our low and heavy earth should ascend above the Heavens The World by natural light knew no more of his coming to recover it from misery than it perceived when the same Word in the Creation rais'd it from the Abyss of Nothing This should make us most sensible of his favour But every one will pretend to love his Saviour Now that we may not deceive our selves with a flashy Affection the Rule of Tryal is plain Our love to him must correspond in its kind and quality with his love to us And that was declar'd in doing and suffering what was requisit for our Salvation The precious Tree does not heal the Sore by its fragrancy but must be wounded to give it Soveraign Balm Our Saviour did not only express in words his compassionate sense of our misery that alone had been sufficient but loved us and washt us from our Sins in his Blood After his Resurrection he shewed his pierced Hands and Side to the Disciples not only the real proofs that he was Jesus that suffered but of his Love They might see his Heart open and Hands rent for them And such a love is due to him That which is only productive of Leaves and Blosoms of affectionate words of our Saviour but unfruitful in the works of Holiness may deceive Men by a fair appearance but not his eye who judges of the truth and strength of our love to him by our keeping his Commandments In short as an active Heat proceeds by an emanation from the Fire so a chearful Readiness and Zeal to do the Will of Christ naturally flows from Love consecrated to him But to enforce this the more let us further consider 3. We are obliged by all the titles of Gratitude and Justice of natural Divine Reason to walk as becomes the Gospel of Christ. First The dignity of the Author requires this of us The Son of God came down from Heaven and if the Allusion may be allowed circum caput omne micantes Deposuit radios propiusque accedere jussit laid down his Glory that he might familiarly teach us our Duty in order to our happiness And if the Word spoken by Angels was stedfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward How shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation which as the first began to be spoken by the Lord Secondly The perfection and plainness of this Rule 'T is a wise observation That those Laws are best for Government that are so clear and particular that nothing is left to the will of the inferiour Judg who is not usually so capable and pure from by-respects as the Lawgiver The Gospel is a Light wherein all Vertues shine in their bright eminence and all Vices blush in their odious deformity It excludes all obscurity that the meanest understandings may see the way to happiness There can be no palliations and excuses for those who will rather argue than obey For the revelation of God's Will is so full and open in it that 't is direct Rebellion not to yeeld entire subjection to it And they who know their Masters Will and do it not shall be beaten with many stripes Thirdly To commend it to our practice we have an Example of perfect obedience set before us If Jesus Christ had represented in the World no other person but of the Word and Wisdom of his Father as a Master to regulate and guide us by his Commands had revealed to us the Secrets of another World and then ascended to Heaven the highest Reverence and Observance had been due to his Laws But to â—â—â—â—urage and edge our industry he was pleased to exhibit in his Life a Patern of universal Obedience He gave us Rules of such perfect Holiness that there seemed no necessity of his practice for our instruction And the living image of his Laws was so visible in his Actions that his sole Example affords us a Model of entire Sanctity There is no kind of Vertue from the lowest to the most Heroick of which he might not say as he did to his Disciples in his last Supper I have given you an Example that ye should do as I have done to you And what should be more powerful in the breasts of Christians than a sacred Ambition to be like the Son of God than a dear Affection to be conform'd to their Saviour Fourthly To excite us to our Duty the Gospel offers such a Reward to encourage Obedience and threateneth such prepar'd Plagues against Disobedience that unless a Man be miraculously transform'd into a stupid Beast he cannot but be moved by them Now what darkness of mind or rather what perversness of heart is it if the great Interest of the one and the other Eternity the Blessed and the Miserable be not sufficient to work upon us But alas how many who pretend to be the Disciples of Christ do not obey him as their Master love him as their Redeemer nor fear him as their Judge They live as if Christ had commanded them to please not to crucify the flesh and the lusts thereof as if he had bid them
the mournful remembrance of his lost felicity and harden'd in dispair 1. The Christian Religion gives a full account of the depravation and misery of humane Nature in its first Causes The Heathens felt an insuperable permanent discord in Man between the upper Faculties and the lower Appetites but were utterly ignorant of the Cause of it Now the Scripture reveals that Man in the original frame of his Nature was regular and holy a piece of workmanship worthy the Perfections of his Creator but he abus'd his liberty to break the first Command which was given for the tryal of his Obedience He yeelded to the inticements of a fallen Spirit who was a Liar that he might be a Murderer and by his revolt from God lost his Holiness and made a forfeiture of all the priviledges of his happy State Thus the Fountain was tainted and who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean By the offence of one Judgment came upon all to condemnation Every Man is now born a slave of Sin a tributary of Death From hence it follows that the most deformed Monsters in villany the most fierce enemies of Religion serve to confirm its Truth as well as the most eminent Saints These shew the vertue of Redemption by the sanctity of their Lives the other the corruption of Nature by their obstinate wickedness 2. The Christian Religion instructs us that God sent his own Son into the World in the humane nature that he might offer up himself an expiatory Sacrifice for the Sins of Men to restore them to his Favour This is a Mystery above the flight of any created understanding yet 't is so temper'd and fram'd there is such an uniformity of Wisdom in all its parts it presents such a full and glorious Image of the Deity in all his perfections that it causes the highest admiration and commands belief in those who duly consider it The whole oeconomy becoms the Majesty the Goodness the Holiness and Justice of God His supreme Majesty appears in his pardoning the guilty for the sufferings of another For this is an infallible proof that he is above Law And his inconceiveable Mercy is the only principle and fountain of our Pardon For Man was absolutely uncapable to merit the Favour or to repair the Honour of God so injur'd by his inexcusable disobedience Repentance cannot produce such great effects What merit can there be in the sorrowful sense and confession of that which deserves Eternal Death Besides an extream hatred of Sin an ardent love of Holiness serious Resolutions to follow it what ever it costs which is the best part of Repentance was due to God before the commission of Sin therefore cannot be satisfaction So that pure Mercy is the cause of our forgiveness Moreover God to glorifie his Holiness in declaring his vehement and irreconcileable hatred to Sin and to preserve the Rights of Justice was pleas'd to appoint an all-sufficient Mediator capable to offer himself an expiatory Sacrifice for Sin and to give an infinite value to it This was done by the Incarnation of the Son of God The Flesh and Bloud he took of our humanity was made Divine by union with him and offer'd on the Cross was full payment for our offences Thus Justice and Mercy triumph with equal Glory being equally Victorious For what is more honourable to Justice than satisfaction equal to the offence And what can more commend Mercy than the most free and undeserved bestowing the high price requisit for it Thus the Gospel affords to us a just and compleat Idea of the Divine excellencies in the Redemption of Man The design manner and the effect are most worthy of God Where might such a contrivance of Wisdom be fram'd but in the Divine mind where could such an excess of compassion be found but in the heart of God Thus it became God who is Love to magnifie his Love to advance his dearest Glory and overcome our guilty disaffection to himself For while terrible apprehensions of the Deity possess the heart 't is frozen with a stony rigor which the hope of Mercy only can dissolve Thus it appears that the Doctrine of the Gospel is worthy of all acceptation 2. The Christian Religion sets before us a rule of life pur and perspicuous in nothing superfluous or defective but comprehending the intire duty of Man This was necessary in order to his recovery For in his fallen state the Law of Nature is active in some things but dormant in others The best Morals of the Heathens are dasht with impure permissions But the Grace of God that bringeth Salvation teaches us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present World It forbids all Sin in all its degrees not only the consummation of it in the act but the first conception of it in the thoughts and desires Which argues that the Lawgiver was more than a Man having an inspection into the heart which is only visible to God and only accountable to him It teaches us to worship God the supream and purest Spirit with the highest esteem and with purity of affections It enjoyns all relative duties to Men in a most perfect manner What things we would have others to do unto us supposing our selves in their circumstances we are obliged to do to them This one Law of Christ eminently contains all others that respect society This is the primitive rule of commerce and directs our carriage towards all persons with justice and equity kindness and decence The Gospel also with respect to our selves gives a perfect rule to make us holy and blessed It teaches us the contempt of the World the valuation of Heaven the restraint of corrupted sense and the Angelical exercise of our affections In short it commands the practice of all Vertues and that we should aspire to the most eminent degrees in them But especially it enjoyns humility and love to God the foundation and perfection of all vertues of which the precepts of Philosophy take little notice Humility that is a lively deep sense that nothing is properly ours but sin and misery arises from the consideration of our absolute dependance upon God for our being and all the benefits we enjoy in Nature or Grace From hence gratitude springs 'T is most reasonable that our lives should be a continual expression of Obedience from a noble and free principle of love to God and be design'd for his Honour and that for all our advantages temporal or spiritual we should only glory in him In this Philosophers were very defective They consider'd Man with respect to himself or to other Creatures without him and accordingly the product of their Precepts was a certain moral honesty to do nothing unbecoming the reasonable Nature nor to break the civil Peace But they did not consider duly his relation to the Creator in whom he lives moves and has his being from whom proceeds every good and perfect gift And by
Nations and all sorts of persons that were converted to the Faith of Christ. Now who caused such a marvellous and holy Revolution in the World but God What less than a Divine Power could raise Men above Sense and make them victorious over the Lusts of corrupt Nature fortified by Custom a second Nature Is it conceivable supposing the Doctrine of Christ were not from Heaven that it should produce such admirable Effects And is it conceivable that God would adorn with all his Graces the Image of his own Excellency his most precious Benefits those who did not honour him according to his Will Can there be found such astonishing Contrarieties joyn'd together as the most impious Errour and Depravation of the Mind with the greatest Purity and Rectitude of the Will and Affections For if Jesus Christ were not the Son of God those who worship'd him were in a mortal Delusion The third Testimony the Apostle produces is the Blood that is Peace with God and Conscience the blessed Fruit of Justification by Faith in Christ. The Heathen World was in a dark State of fears or slept securely in the shadow of Death Some were in a Hectic Trembling continually haunted with the Apparition of their Sins as so many Infernal Furies Others though guilty of most fearful crimes were secure from stupid Atheisme Others were quiet from a presumption cherish'd by Opinions unworthy of God as if he would neglect his own Glory to shew Mercy to them Now the Gospel to conquer the fears of sensible afflicted Sinners and to establish a lively hope in God's Mercy propounds a Means of Universal Sovereign Efficacy to reconcile him to us The most precious Blood of the Son of God offer'd up as a Sacrifice to expiate Sin This sprinkles all Nations and in all Ages to the end of the World will be of undecaying Vertue This appeas'd all the unquiet Agitations of the Spirits of Believers and produc'd the Peace that passes understanding a Joy unspeakable and glorious This delivered them from the fear of Death under which the World was so long in bondage And it is worthy the observing that no Principles of Nature ever produc'd such a generous Contempt of Death as the Christian Religion did in the Professors of it The Alexanders Scipio's and Caesars had trembled at the sight of these Savage Beasts that were let loose upon the Martyrs at the preparations of Cruelty to torment them Whereas they regarded them with tranquillity nay with Joy as the matter of their Triumph This was true Valour indeed for the Confession of the most important Truth and superiour to the Courage of those who were called Fulmina Belli the most Renowned Souldiers For in a Battel by Martial Sounds by Violent Motions the Spirits are fired and Men scarce feel their Wounds and are inconsiderate of their danger But the Martyrs had nothing to heighten their Courage but in cool blood deliberately and without alteration encounter'd that terrible Enemy Besides Souldiers in the sharpest Conflicts have some hopes of Victory or else of a sudden and honourable Death Aut cita Mors aut Victoria laeta And he that rusheth into perils with a seeming bravery when there is hopes of escaping has not resolution to look Death in the face when 't is inevitable There is an eminent instance of this in a famous Captain of late memory the Duke Biron none was more bold in fight but when he was to receive the Sentence of Death for his Crimes none more disorder'd by fear sometimes he was in a rage against his Judges and after his passion was evaporated fell into the other extremity unmanly crys complaints and low submissions to obtain favour But the more than Heroick Constancy of the Martyrs contemned Death in its nearest approaches and most fearful pomp Christian Religion has often transform'd the most tender Women and Children into Men or rather into Angels making them suffer with joy that which our Nature cannot see without horrour It changed as it were Flesh and Blood into a Celestial substance insensible of Fire and Sword and the most cruel Violences Now this unshaken Resolution in Christians encountring the last Enemy was from the lively sense of God's favour reconciled by the most pure and precious Blood of his Son and the hopes of everlasting happiness in his presence To conclude this Argument 't is to be observed there is no proof more proper that Jesus Christ is the Redeemer of the World than the joynt testimony of the Spirit Water and Blood For whereas Sin was the only cause of our Ruine the Office of our Saviour is to repair that Ruine and consequently he that effectually does it is to be acknowledged believed and imbraced as our Saviour Now the worst effects of Sin are the ignorance of the Mind the depravation of the Affections and the terrors of Conscience from the apprehensions of Vengeance Therefore since the Gospel of Christ has brought Celestial Light Purity and Peace into the World it is an infallible proof that He is the Redeemer of it The Sun that visits the World with its refreshing beams has no clearer marks of the Divine Wisdom in making it and ordering its motions than the Spiritual Light of the Gospel that irradiates the minds of Men before in deep darkness The riches of the Earth in variety of Fruits is not a more convincing Argument of the Divine Goodness than to see the Souls of Men that before were as dead earth under the curse of Heaven to abound in all the fruits of Righteousness The separating the Sea from the Land and setting bounds to its impetuous Waves is not a greater effect of God's Power than the calming the tempests of an unquiet Conscience and establishing Tranquillity in it And these Blessings we entirely owe to Jesus Christ in whose Name they are obtain'd by whose Spirit they are conferr'd and for whose Glory they are design'd Now what more is requisite to afford us satisfaction that JESUS CHRIST came from God and revealed his Will in order to our happiness Can it be reasonably expected that new Miracles should be wrought to satisfy every Sceptick that is still unsatisfied Indeed the fountain of them is not dried up the Power of God is not weaken'd nor his Mercy lessened but in extraordinary Cases when the Gospel is first preach'd to a Nation it may be expected that to convert them from Gentilism to the Christian Faith he will make himself known not only by Word but Power in Supernatural Operations But the vein of Miracles is not still current in the Church there being sufficient motives of Belief for the conviction of all that are not obstinate without the performing new Must the Son of God present himself to all Men in a visible Glory Or must his Divine Father give another Majestick Testimony from Heaven concerning him If we have not such sensible Evidence we have as sure The accomplishment of Scripture-Prophecies is a permanent Miracle a more certain
be true or false as they are favourable or disagreeing to them Carnal persons fortify every Objection that may render the Mysteries of Godliness unlikely and incredible and will be partial for Sensuality Of this we have a great instance in the first rejection of the Gospel The Jews expected the Messiah would come with pompous Wonders and external Magnificence that he would deliver them from the Roman Yoke and found an Universal Monarchy for them and according to those carnal fancies they would understand the Promises concerning him Now though JESUS CHRIST approved himself to be the Son of God the true Messiah by the Sanctity of his Life the Rectitude of his Doctrine and the Divinity of his Miracles yet for the poverty and meanness of his Condition being without any sensible shew of Greatness and Glory they despised him as most unworthy that Divine Relation and Office Tho in him all the Characters of the Messiah were conspicuous and the Scriptures declare expresly that the Messiah the Prince should be cut off but not for himself but to make reconciliation for Iniquity and to bring in everlasting Righteousness yet they were so prepossest with the Ideas of a Terrene Felicity that they would interpret all the Scriptures by that measure as if the Messiah should come into the World to repair no other ruines but of their Temporal State and Liberty Therefore they spake of him with scornful titles as for this Fellow we know not from whence he is And is not this the Carpenter Shall the glorious Prophecies of the Messiah be accomplish'd in him Shall he have Dominion from Sea to Sea and from the River to the ends of the Earth Shall all Kings bow down before him and all Nations serve him There was nothing to satisfie their sight in his outward appearance and Retinue and his Miraculous Condescention so much below their expectations was more powerful to harden them in unbelief than all his supernatural Operations to induce them to believe in him And as the Jews from their affection to Secular things were enemies to the Gospel so the Heathen Philosophers from Spiritual Pride for they vainly affected the praise of Knowledge and Vertue as the fruit of their own mind and the product of their own will They did not consider God as the Fountain of Truth and whether the Ray of his Knowledg comes directly and immediately into us or by reflection from others the glory of it is entirely due to him Besides the great Mysteries of Godliness not being suitable to their first Opinions were rejected with disdain as foolish Impossibilities And in every Age since even in the pale of the Church there are some secret Infidels that esteem the Gospel a Fable and some who peremtorily deny the fundamental Articles of Christianity Those who are slaves to their eyes and appetites will raise Clouds to obscure that Truth that forbids their dear Lusts upon pain of Damnation The pretended difficulty of Belief is but a thin transparent pretence the difficulty of Practice is the true cause of their rejecting the Gospel They would not have the Precepts of it to be their duty and therfore are unwilling to acknowledg the Doctrines of it to be true And those who set up a Tribunal in their own Understandings to which Divine Revelation must submit will not believe what is above their presumptuous Reason But that the Soul exempt from passions and prejudice has no just temptation to disbeleive the Christian Doctrine is evident in that so many Persons in whom the concurrence of Wisdom and Vertue was equally flourishing and excellent after the most exact discussion imbrac'd it as the Heavenly Truth If there were falseness in its Principles or weakness in its Proof how could it scape their discovery And that they were sincere in their belief is above all doubt for they willingly sacrificed all that is valuable and dear in this life for the profession of it Now was it ever known that any person would knowingly choose an Errour so destructive The Will seduc'd by Sense imbraces sometimes that that is condemn'd by Reason but it never adheres to those things that are contrary both to Reason and Sense By this it appears that Infidelity has no just plea from the insufficiency of the proofs of the Christian Religion which have fully satisfied the wisest the most considerate and sincere part of Mankind A corrupt Heart is the spring and principle of the illusions of the mind in things that concern Salvation 2. The Gospel propounds to us the most proper and powerful motives of love to God In the visible World there is a Representation so conspicuous and full of his Divine Majesty Power Wisdom that form'd and regulates all things that 't is not possible but the attentive regarding of it will make impressions of reverence and fear will raise our esteem and admiration But those are dead sentiments without Love And that in the guilty Creature fearful of God's Wrath must be first excited by the hopes of his Pardoning Mercy Now the Love and Kindness of God our Saviour appear'd to Man in his Redemption in the most eminent manner Though in that blessed Work the Divine Perfections are relucent in various effects Wisdom design'd it Power accomplish'd it Holiness and Righteousness was gloriously declar'd in it yet as 't is applied to the benefit of Man 't is the sole effect of Wise Almighty Holy Tender Love Mercy soften'd God's Bowels open'd Heaven sent down his Son to be one with us in nature that he might exchange his Merits and Blessedness for our guilt and misery Miraculous Love to make his only begotten Son our Brother to humble him to the condition of a Servant that we most unworthy to be his Servants should be advanc'd to be his Children Nay to expose him to the death of a Malefactor equally ignominious and painful that we Malefactors might obtain Life and Glory If ever Love deserv'd the title of Excess 't is this for though not without Reason yet 't is without all bounds and measure 'T is so far above our thought that 't is hard to have a firm belief of it What the Psalmist speaks of the temporal Deliverance of the Church is more justly applicable to its Spiritual Eternal Deliverance When the Lord turned again the Captivity of Sion we were like to them that dream As if a poor man fancying in a dream that he is a King adorn'd with the Ensigns of Royalty and between hopes and fears should enquire of himself Am I awake and in my right mind Is this Scepter this Robe this Crown real Or is it all the pleasant deceit of Imagination And how can we reflect upon the amazing Grace of God that brings Salvation but such thoughts will arise Is it true that God did not spare his most innocent and dear Son to absolve us guilty Rebels Did he dye for his Father's Enemies and his own Unparallel'd Love only to be fully conceiv'd by an