curiosity or emulation or sin does long for they will prostitute before me But what are all those satisfactions in comparison with the joys of God Is there delight in the full affluence of those enjoyments Hath God indulg'd pleasure to those things which he hath allow'd to wicked Egypt and shall I think he hath not provided greater pleasures for his own self and for those he intends to make happy with him Now let me have Gods delights Heaven I do assure my self hath the more advantages and therefore there I chuse And so he chose rather the afflictions of this world for he had an eye to the recompence of the reward and by this we are sure if we had hopes we should make other choices than we do If a sin come to temt me drest with all its pleasures and cloath'd with all the bewitching arts it can put on or fancy paint it out with if at the same time I can but look up to my Hopes bethink my self of the rewards of Religion and recollect that there are no such pleasures in the sin as there are prepar'd for me if I abstain from it shall I not then reject and scorn the temtation think it impertinent and foolish and wonder it should be so unreasonable to desire or think me so vain as to grant upon score of pleasure in the commission when I am sure of greater if I do not commit it Shall I not have reason to believe the sin very unkind to me when it allures me with some little delight and I must part with all blessedness for it No surely nothing can withdraw him whom a Christians Hopes do entertain But because temtations are apt to prevail where there is no appearance of danger to come a little nearer to you that you may with terror see that none can have this Hope but they that purify which was the last thing I shall onely ask thee whosoever thou art that hopest to have thy sins forgiven thee and to have Eternal Life upon what grounds thou hopest it We have no reason to hope for any thing but what God hath promis'd Now hath God any where promis'd that thou particularly â—â—alt be sav'd Certainly no. What then why dost thou hope if thou canst answer me Because he hath promis'd to the Pure in heart that they shall see God he hath given assurance to them that repent that they shall be forgiven and I how sinful soever I have bin yet I am penitent I endeavor to purge out that old leaven to cleanse my self I am resolv'd not to allow my self any of my vicious inclinations or my customes I 'le strive against my petty sins and my soul is humbled in me and therefore have I Hope If thou canst answer thus thou hast indeed good grounds thou hast prov'd that thou maiest hope but withal thou hast prov'd also that thou dost purify and upon that score dost hope For if thou didst not repent and amend and purge thy self from thy filthy wickednesses thou must then know that the same God that seal'd all his promises with the bloud of his Son did also represent and seal these threatnings in his suffering Without holiness no man shall see God Except ye repent ye shall all perish The axe is laid to the root of the tree every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit shall be hewn down and cast into the fire s And Be not deceiv'd neither fornicator nor adulterer nor covetous person nor rietous and the like hath any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ or God For without are dogs and whoremongers and murderers and idolaters and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie and They that live after the flesh shall die and Christ himself pronounc'd Go ye cursed into everlasting fire Now if thou goest on in a course of any of these sins dost any of these deeds of the Flesh I shall onely ask thee are not these threats as true and as much to be believ'd as his promises And if thou dost believe them how is it possible that thou that liv'st in any of those courses which these threats belong to canst have any hope When God hath so solemnly declar'd thou shalt have nothing but everlasting ruin how darest thou how canst thou hope for Heaven This is the same thing as to think to anchor on the billows or to lay foundations in a wave and on a storm to hope in threats at least in opposition to all Scripture and to all promise to wage war with the Gospel and resolve to have them both against and in despite of God and that certainly will very little avail thee No he that does not amend cannot hope for he that hopes must needs purify himself And now should we apply this to the careless Sinner if we consider first not onely what sad character St Paul does give of men in that condition how it is the description he gives of the Heathen and he joins it with other most comfortless expressions Eph. 2. 12. without Christ strangers from the Covenant of promise having no hope and without God in the world but also look upon the experience how to be in a lost desperate condition in relation to so eternal a consequence as the world to come imports is such a thing as none was ever able to stand under the consideration of it one hours despair sinks them for ever we could not bear the weight of it Judas did chuse all the sad issues of it hereafter rather than the passion here thought it easier to go meet Gods fury than despair of mercy and when he saw he had no hopes of pardon he ran to damnation No we are resolv'd we must hope to be sav'd 2. Consider that it is impossible for the wicked man while he continues such to hope he cannot chuse but know that the promises concern him not they are conditional they are made onely to them that repent and believe and God knows that he hath not don yet so that nothing but the threats belong to him And then how shall we reconcile these considerations if we put them both together in the Sinners mind How shall they be at peace and not tear one another and the soul It is impossible to endure not to hope and yet 't is impossible that man should hope and if this contest happen when he goes to die then his own thoughts will drag him down to the Abyss with more violence than the fiends Sure 't is a very sad consideration to think that men that know the wretchedness of being hopeless that dare not not hope will not yet industriously and piously set upon the performance of that condition on which they may hope will not purify that they may have reason to expect the promises And it is more sad to see that men who never purge themselves from filthiness of Flesh or Spirit but go on in their sinful courses and consequently know that while they are such they
crop your harvest and when God shall send forth his Reapers the Angels if they can find no returns of all God's cultivating you but all his husbandry his seedness and his pains too have bin lost upon you no increase but onely barreness your end is to be burnt or onely tares they are to be cast into a furnace of fire where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth Matt. 13. 42. And in like manner by the Parable of fruit trees John Baptist Bring forth fruits meet for repentance for the ax is laid to the root of the trees therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewen down and cast into the fire And David describing his blessed man Psalm 1. does it first by shewing he does not bring forth ill fruit But neither will that serve turn to hear and meditate and talk of the word of God and not to do it It is the very same thing as a wilderness upon the water side a dead barren tree upon the River's bank No his man is like a tree planted by the rivers of waters that brings forth his fruit in due season We are God's Vineyard Isaiah 5. and he tells us there what pains he hath bestow'd upon us v. 2. He fenced it and gathered out the stones thereof and planted it with the choicest Vines c. v. 4. What could have bin don more to my Vineyard that I have not don unto it Now if we do not bring forth grapes Go to saith God v. 5 6. I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard I will take away the hedg thereof and it shall be eaten up break down the wall thereof and it shall be trodden down And I will lay it wast it shall not be pruned nor digged but there shall come up briars and thorns I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it Yea God did not onely lay wast his Vineyard in that Isaiah 5. because it brought forth sower and wild fruit but our Savior in the Gospel curst a Fig-tree because it brought forth no fruit And indeed that barren Fig-tree was the onely thing upon the earth that ever Christ did curse all his Miracles were mercies but that An unfruitful Christian is such a thing a Savior hath no mercy for a mere negative virtue hath so little claim to Heaven that it cannot escape the curse of a Jesus And shall we apply this first to the conviction of their opinions who think if they lie under no gross customs if they be not tainted with any foul commissions they are then in a safe condition What if they forgive no wrong why they will do none and so who shall lay any thing to their charge Pardon they will not any minute offence because they avoid the wanting it from others and they will not hate nor malice tho they cannot have the bowels of of love no fellowship of Christian kindness they have no foul unclean heats nor no devout ones no ardencies of lust nor yet of zeal so they do not blaspheme God by daily oaths make no matter of worshipping him by daily Praiers and if his holy name be not in their execrations 't is well enough tho he be not in their Petitions No tho they go a little further and besides their doing no gross ills have great Professions of Religion they have all the leaves and foliage of a Christian they make a fair shell of Piety take abundance of pains to do all those things that are to stile them great Professors plenty of hearing and abundance of talking but no doing if you search the leaves you find no fruit no constant tenor of good works in every kind of Christian duty these are but too obvious stratagems of Satan and our deceitful hearts to make us satisfy our selves either with our condition tho our Piety look no further than to do no ill and the positive part of Religion be altogether unregarded by us or tho we have no more of it but the Profession O my Brethren as to these last remember that the curst Fig-tree had leaves had fair shew enough to bait our Savior's hunger and promise him refreshment and temt him out of the way to it and to the other hath God autority onely to forbid can he command nothing from us Are we content onely to abstain from something for his sake but will not do any thing for his nor Heaven's sake Is not his Worship as dear to him as our lusts are hurtful to him and hath he not as much reason to require that we should be devout and holy as that we should not be profance and filthy Can all his mercies all his rewards neither procure nor deserve more of us than onely not to serve the Devil Surely my Beloved both these sorts of Christians shall find that in the catalogue of sins to be accounted for omissions shall be reckon'd when our Savior comes to pass his sentence at the dreadful day of Judgment See the tenor of it Go ye cursed for when I was hungry ye gave me no meat 'T is not ye shall be damn'd because ye stript me and because ye starved me but because ye did not relieve me And 't is so in the other not bringing forth fruit not doing fills up the sentence of final malediction But the sadder conviction of this is for the practice of those that are nothing but commissions whose vice is positive men that cleanse themselves from holiness and go on daily perfecting filthiness If the man Matt. 25. that received the one Talent and laid it up safe in a Napkin and did no ill with yet because he did no good was therefore cast into utter darkness whither think you had he bin cast if he had made that Talent the instrument of his sin if like the Prodigal he had spent it upon harlots or upon excesses And whither shall they be doom'd who do so If it be not enough to abstain from sin what will become of them that do little else but act it If not to do pass sentence how will to commit condemn and if the half righteous shall not be saved where shall the ungodly and sinner appear If the tree with leaves that was green in foliage be curst shall not the dry and rotten one be burnt Alas for these men what a long stage of duty have they to go thro if they do intend in this life ever to be better who have not yet set forth have entred upon any part who have not cast off the works of darkness which yet when they have don they have but half they must put on the armor of light such too as will shine they must be fruitful and exemplary And this second quality is indeed the great design of this Text which hath more force in it than that of a single command for the verse is a conclusion following upon the three former He tells them that they are Salt
see him as he is add this Every man that hath this hope purifieth himself as he is pure doth righteousness in the words following and so is righteous even as he is righteous But that we may know what King David means by beholding Gods face in Righteousness we must know that first by Righteousness is meant uprightness and sincerity of a religious holy virtuous life and as for the beholding of Gods face we may take notice that altho God saith he spoke to Moses face to face yet he tells the same Moses that he cannot see his face and live Exod. 33. 11 10. so that Davids beholding of his face is not seeing him as he did hope to do when he did awake up after Gods likeness but 1. As for God to lift up the light of his countenance Psalm 4. 6. and to make his face to shine upon a man Psalm 31. 16. is to be favorable to him and to hide Psalm 30. 7. or turn away his face 2 Chron. 30. 9. is to withdraw his favor and to be displeased so also to seek his face 1 Chron. 16. 11. is to endeavor to obtain his kindness and accordingly to see or behold his face is to be in his favor to be in a state of enjoying it But besides this also 2. As those that are said to behold the face of Kings are those that minister about them do them service of the nearest admission and that stand in their presence and are ready still to execute whatever they command So 2 King 25. 19. and he took five men of those that saw the King's face of those that serv'd him in ordinary and so very often Ester 1. 14. c. And as secondly the Angels that are ministring Spirits sent forth by God to minister perpetually are said to see the face of God always Matt. 18. 10. so when David says of God thou settest me before thy face Psalm 41. 12. the Jews expound set me that he might serve minister unto him for that is to stand before the face of one 1 Kings 1. 2 4. and c. 10. 8. and c. 17. 1. c. as he had said dost appoint me for thy service and by consequence to see his face or to behold his presence is to wait upon him in all duty and obedience to his commands whom they attend accordingly to walk before him or walk with him in his presence is to serve him constantly with all uprightness Gen. 17. 1. and to please him Heb. 11. 5. cum Gen. 5. 24. But particularly in the acts of Worship and Religion his House the place that 's dedicated to his Worship being call'd his Court his presence Psalm 95. 2. and 100. 2 4. because he sate upon and spoke from the Mercy-seat Exod. 25. 22. Numb 7. 89. and the Ark is therefore his presence and his face those that serve there are said to minister before him in his presence those that come there to appear before him Psalm 42. 2. those that pray to seek his face 2 Chron. 7. 14. and to intreat the face of the Lord 1 Kings 13. 6. and our King David did desire one thing of the Lord which says he I will require even that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord Psalm 27. 4. So that to behold God's face in righteousness here does signify all this I will serve thee truly faithfully attend thy commands and wait upon thee in a constant diligent performance of my duty live as always in thy presence holily and righteously especially in attendance on thy Worship when I come to seek thy face to put my self before thee in thy presence and so doing I make no doubt but that thou wilt lift up the light of thy countenance upon me and I shall behold thy face to shine upon thy servant And indeed that this is the means and that there is no other way to arrive at this state is not difficult to prove for the righteous Lord loveth righteousness saith the same David Psalm 11. 7. his countenance will behold the thing that is just whereas without this no man shall see the Lord and thereupon the Prophet Micah after strict inquiry in the peoples name what they were to do that they might find God's face look pleasingly upon them and see his favorable countenance wherewithall shall I come before the Lord and how myself before the most High God Shall I come before him with burnt-offerings with calves of a year old Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams If his favor be to be bought tho at the greatest price 't will be abvisable to give it and the dearest purchase would be a reasonable one Or shall I give ten thousand rivers of oyl thereby to make his face to shine and look upon me with a chearfull countenance This sure were to be don Or farther yet shall I give my first-born for my transgression or the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul Time was indeed when men would do that offer up their tender infants in the fire to Moloch to preserve themselves from those sins of the other Tophet as if the burnt child were to expiate the foul heats that begat it I know not whether men believe now such transgressions can deserve so severe atonements that a sin of theirs is valuable at the life of their own first-born tho they take upon them to profess the faith that they were valued at the life of the first-born of God however there our Prophet shapes this answer to that question wherewithall shall I come before the Lord He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God And truly if we come before the Lord to behold his presence in the duties of Religion we must see his face in Righteousness otherwise he will either turn away his Face or else our praiers will but call his frowns upon us and indanger us to perish at the rebuke of his countenance The Prophet Isaiah speaking as from God to that vainglorious nation of the Jews saith c. 1. v. 12 c. When ye come to appear before me who hath required this at your hand to tread my courts Bring no more vain oblations incense is an abomination to me it is iniquity even your solemn meetings Sabboths and your appointed feasts my soul hateth they are a trouble unto me I am weary to bear them And when ye spread forth your hands I will hide mine eyes from you yea when ye make many praiers I will not hear Wash ye make ye clean put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes cease to do evil learn to do well seek judgment right the oppressed c. And surely if men do not put away the evil of their doings from them when they come before his face how lowd
encourage it sure Witches have no spirit but the Devil for familiar But the Church of England on the other side in her publique Doctrine set down in the Book of Homilies establish'd in the 39. Articles of her Religion says in express words that it is not lawful for Inferiours and Subjects in any case to resist and stand against the Superiour Powers that we must indeed believe undoubtedly that we may not obey Kings Magistrates or any other if they would command us to do any thing contrary to Gods Commands In such a case we ought to say with the Apostle we must rather obey God than Man But nevertheless in that case we may not in any wise withstand violently or Rebel against Rulers or make any Insurrection Sedition or Tumults either by force of Arms or otherwise against the Anointed of the Lord or any of his Officers 1 Book of Hom. 2 part of the Serm. of Obed. Not for Reformation of Religion for what a Religion 't is that such men by such means would restore may easily be judged even as good a Religion surely as Rebels be good men and obedient Subjects 2 Book of Hom. 4 part of the Serm. against wilful Rebellion The very same thing is defined in the first of the Constitutions and Canons Ecclesiastical of the year 1640. for Subjects to bear Arms against their King offensive or defensive upon any pretence whatever is at least to resist the Powers which are ordain'd of God and though they do not invade but onely resist S. Paul tells them plainly he that resists receives unto himself damnation This was the Doctrine of the Church in those her Constitutions and although there was no Parliament then sitting to enact these Canons into Laws yet since that time the Law of England is declar'd to say the same and we obliged by it to acknowledg that it is not Lawful upon any pretence whatsoever to take up Arms against the King by this Parliament whose memory shall be for ever blessed And now it is not hard to know what manner of Spirit our Church is of even that Spirit that anoints the Lords Anointed that is which Commissions them Gods Spirit as we find it phras'd in Scripture And 't is obvious to each eye that there is much more resemblance betwixt present Rome and the Image of Babylon as S. John hath drawn it in the Revelations than there is of Babel and the Church of England as to those Confusions which seditious Doctrines make as the Romanists pourtrai'd her But far be it from me to conclude hence that all of their Communion do allow their Doctrines Though they stand on the same bottom that their Faith of half-Communion and Transubstantiation do even Acts of the same Councils yet I doubt not multitudes of loyal Souls of this our Nation do abhor the Tenents by what Rule of theirs I know not I confess Nor shall I enquire what Security a Prince can have of the Allegiance of those who by the most infallible Rules of their Religion can be loyal onely on Condition by the leave of those who are his Enemies on whose will and power all their Oaths and duty are depending If the most essential interest of Princes will not move them to consider this sure I am I shall not undertake it But I shall take the confidence out of the premises to infer that no Religion in the World does more provide for the security of Kings than the Christian as it is profess'd in our Church does And when we see the Interest of the Crown and Church were twisted by God in the preservations of this day nor could be separated in the late dismal Confusions but died and reviv'd together in the Resurrection they that hate the execrable mischiefs of those times or love the Crown or do not come to mock God when they come to give him thanks for his great glories of this day cannot choose but have good will for our Sion cannot have an unconcernedness for this Religion a cold indifference to it or any other which where-ere it is alas I fear betrays too openly indifference and unconcernedness for Religion it self For if I should appeal to our most Sceptick Statists and not beg one Principle of a Religion but take their own Religion was contriv'd they say by pretending to engage a God to uphold his Vicegerent and by putting after everlasting punishments before mens fears for they saw present ones restrained not Treason was contriv'd I say to uphold States Then that must be the best with them that best upholds and then I have evinc'd the Christian is secure as 't is prosess'd by our Church But then shame to those who to gratifie their lusts meerly labour to perswade themselves and others there is no such thing in earnest as a Resurrection to punishments who by publique raillery in sacred things and turning all to merriment endeavour to take off the sense of all Religion and have done it in great measure and so thrown down the best-Basis on which Government subsists which they themselves confess was necessary to be fram'd on purpose for it For if there be no after fears he that is stronger than to need to fear the present may rebel kill Kings These Atheists are Fanaticks I am sure in Politicks more traiterous than our mad Enthusiasts or than the Canons of the Popish Councils To these Sadduces in Christianity we may say ye know not what spirit ye are of who know not whether there be any Spirit But it is indeed because they are all flesh themselves But then if the works of the flesh be manifest Adultery Fornication Seditions Heresies Murders Drunkenness c. we know what manner of Spirit they are of even the spirit that did enter into the Swine the Legion indeed of Spirits one Spirit is not Devil enough to animate the flesh into so many of those works But the fruits of the Spirit that Gospel Spirit which we Christians are of are love peace long-suffering gentleness goodness faith meekness temperance joy in the Holy Ghost and they that do bring forth such fruits are baptised indeed with the Holy Ghost and if with fire fire that came down from Heaven too 't was onely to consume their dross that they may be pure mettal fit as for the King's Inscription meek Christians good Subjects so for Gods Image to be stamp'd upon that is renewed in Righteousness and true Holiness Fire this that will sublime our very flesh into spiritual body that we may begin here that incorruptible which our corruptible must put on when our vile Bodies shall be made like to the glorious Body of our Saviour To which state that Spirit which rais'd up Jesus from the dead bring us by quickning our mortal Bodies To whom c. The Eleventh SERMON Preached at CHRIST-CHURCH IN OXFORD Novemb. 8. 1665. Being the Monthly Fast-day for the Plague LUKE XVI 30 31. Nay Father Abraham but if one went unto