the eternal Word is incarnated in us and we become as much his Mothers in the Spirit as the Blessed Virgin was in the Flesh. And herein was it that the Mother of God was in the best and most advantageous sense Blessed as one in whom the Word was twice Incarnated her Lord and his Gospel much more Blessed in sucking the sincere Milk of the Word from her Sons Paps those golden ones Revel 1. 13. than in affording him her own 'T was her glory and her chiefest happiness that she kept all her Sons sayings and pondered them in her heart an Eulogy given her no less than twice in one Chapter of St. Luke ch 2. v. 19 51. This sacred Ark had the two Tables of the Law and the better Manna laid up in it which she continually treasur'd up in her heart feeding upon it in her private thoughts and digesting it in her practice being as well a Daughter as a Mother of God and her Soul more fruitfull than her Womb. So that this Mary too chose the better part It was I say her Choice this whereas to be the Mother of God but her Privilege In this latter capacity she only furnisht her Son with a humane Nature but in the former she procur'd her self a participation of his divine one There Christ was made her Son and here her Saviour and 't is upon the account of her Faith Elizabeth blesseth her Luke 1. 45. and so does St. Augustine pronounce her more happy Percipiendo fidem Christi quà m concipiendo carnem Christi nay he plainly tells us that this latter Conception had done her no good at all without the former Nihil Mariae profuisset says he nisi feliciùs Christum corde quam corpore gestâsset To bear Christ in her Womb was little to the having the Holy Ghost in her Soul and to conceive of him little to the bringing forth the fruits of the Spirit Faith Humility Patience Love and the like Graces whereof she was a sacred Repository like the Ark overlaid and in-laid with Gold adorn'd with outward Privileges and inward Graces nay like that King's daughter Psal. 45. 14. more glorious within than without This Spouse of God shining out radiis Mariti cloath'd with that Woman Revel 12. 1. with the Son of Righteousness who deckt her with his light as with a garment And how could it be otherwise How was it possible that He on whom the Spirit rested and abode should not impart of it to her in whom he so long dwelt and in greater measures than to any mortal He who himself received not the Spirit by measure If in him were hid all the Treasures of Wisedom and Knowledge surely the Blessed Virgin must needs have been highly enricht by them and while he sanctify'd the Baptist in his Mother's womb did he not think we much more sanctifie that Womb wherein with himself the fulness of the Godhead dwelt bodily where the whole Blessed Trinity met the Father being with her the Son in her and the Holy Ghost over-shaddowing her Surely being so near the Fountain of Grace and Glory nay having it in her Soul those single Perfections which singly meet in others all concenter'd in this great Saint Among which give me leave to propose some of the more eminent ones to your imitation as 1. Her Faith in crediting the Message of the Angel 2. Her entire Resignation of her self to the Will of God Ecce Ancilla Domini 3. Her Modesty in being troubled at the presence of a Man and those Praises he bestow'd on her being it seems unacquainted with such guests or addresses a thing which now-a-days would perhaps be constru'd ill breeding 4. Her Prudence in examining a Message which at first blush seem'd to look like a Temptation casting in her mind what manner of Salutation that should be so jealous was she of her honour that she durst not trust the divine Messenger with so choice a Jewel till she saw it should be safe till he could find out a way to reconcile her being a Mother with her Purity otherwise to her even an Angel of light had been but an Angel of darkness This was not Unbelief in her as 't was in Zachary but Caution He indeed requir'd a Sign for that which was within the ordinary course of nature She none at all though in a business far above nature not in the least questioning the thing its self but desirous only to be inform'd of the manner of it since she knew not a man 5. Add we to this her Devotion in constantly visiting God's Temple where after our Lord's Ascension we find her assembled with the Apostles and other Saints of God Acts 1. 14. as in the frequent exercise of the Acts thereof Meditation and Prayer It being a general Tradition that when the Angel delivered her his message he found her on her knees and if we may credit St. Bernard but how warrantably I know not at that very instant begging earnestly for the Salvation of the World and the Revelation of the Messiah 6. Lastly To crown all her profound Humility that heavenly Ladder whereby God descended to her and she mounted up to him and that even in the midst of far higher Ecstasies and Revelations than the great Apostle was afraid of And yet no pretence of Merit no assuming to her self any portion of that glory which belonged unto God and she wholly ascribes to him in these words He that is Mighty hath magnified me and Holy is his Name Which clearly shews how inconsistent with nay how diametrically opposite to her Modesty and Humility those praises are which Popish flatterers so frequently bestow upon the Blessed Virgin and how impossible 't is to excuse their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is as they are pleas'd to explain it not so high a kind of worship as belongs unto God and yet higher than what is due to any other Creature besides her self A strange middle sort of Adoration that has no ground or foot-step in Scripture and no better than flat Idolatry Prayer and Invocation are the Almighty's Prerogative This Incense must not smoak but on his Altar and the calves of the lips are a sacrifice which must be offered to none but to a God that heareth prayer Psal. 65. 2. and can alone grant our requests This he challenges as his peculiar right Psal. 50. 15. Call upon me in the time of trouble so will I hear thee and thou shalt praise me And to him the Saints of God have always address'd their Petitions David for one who Psal. 5. 2 3. professes that unto him he would direct his Prayer And therefore 't is observable that the Angel here salutes the Holy Virgin but does not pray to her and her self says that all generations shall call her Blessed not invocate her for Blessings as the Papists doe and not only so but in other respects too equal her to God as by freeing her from
all sin both original and actual whereas her self by calling Christ her Saviour professes her need of him so especially by making her a vast and inexhaustible Ocean of all perfection the property of him alone in whom all fulness dwells and of whose fulness we all the Virgin Mary not excepted have received and all this upon a plain mistake of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which implies not any infus'd qualities or inherent gifts but God's meer gratious acceptation of her And yet as great an affront as this is to the divine Majesty there is yet one thing more intollerable that these Men not content to allow the Virgin equal to her Son will needs give her a kind of Command and Authority over him as if now in Heaven he were to be subject to her as once on Earth and she were a Queen Regent to govern and comptroll him as it were in his Minority Witness those expressions Monstra te esse Matrem and Jussu Matris impera salvatori words which I dare not English and which their Rosaries and Litanies are stufft with Nor does their Practice bely their Expressions their Addresses being more to the Mother than to the Son and her Temples having almost swallow'd up his which are now become Shops of lying Miracles one of them especially that of Loretto all Wainscoted within with them and its self the greatest of all as having been carried if we will believe them from Bethlehem by Angels and by them plac'd where now it stands I shall not trouble you with a description of all their fopperies their superstitious bowings cringings and lighting of Candles to our Ladies Images their ridiculous dressing and undressing them their vows offerings and presents to these dumb Idols so like the Cakes offered up to the Queen of Heaven Jer. 7. and the like which if they do not out-doe at least they bid fair for Heathenish Idolatry if this be not to worship the Creature more than the Creator 't is at least to doe service to her who by Nature is no God and who can no more endure it than St. Paul could a sacrifice Act. 14. or the Angel in the Revelations chap. 19. 10. divine Worship or to come a little more home than St. Peter to be styl'd Universal Bishop of God's Church a Title they will needs force upon him though himself expresly disclaims it 1 Pet. 5. 3. No let us honour the Blessed Virgin as becomes the Mother of God not as a Goddess she is but a Creature how glorious soever and we are not to make her an Idol neither to invoke her Name nor adore her Person we allow her God's Mother but not his Rival place her we may as near his Throne as Religion will suffer us not in it in the Throne God will be greater than any style her Queen of Saints while Christ remains the Sovereign King of them and 't is honour enough for this Queen to be solo Deo minor to be blessed even above the Angel that proclaim'd her so yea if they will have it above all Saints and Angels too but still below her Son who is over all God blessed for ever Rom. 9. 5. In a word Our endeavour should be to copy out those Perfections which were so eminent in this Blessed Mother of our Lord Her Faith by our ready assent to God's Word Her Devotion by frequently meditating on it a book which like Ezekiel's rowl must be eaten and well digested Her Purity by keeping our selves unspotted from the World and hating even the garment spotted by the flesh always remembring that they who follow the Lamb are Virgins Her Prudence by trying the Spirits by proving all things but holding fast that which is good suspecting even an Angel from Heaven could he propose any thing to us that should seem to cross a Precept of Christ and dreading not only every little stain but the very suspition of it Her Obedience by an entire submission to God's revealed Will and which is the crown and perfection of all grace her Humility These are the Copies we are to transcribe the best Gifts to be coveted such as will adorn and perfect us make us holy and glorious other may have more pomp and lustre in themselves these most use and benefit to us and therefore let our aim be to be pure as the Mother of God we who are commanded to strive to be perfect even as our Father which is in Heaven is perfect And if we hear the Word of God and keep it as she did the Lord will as certainly be with us as He was with her and we at last be with him where she now is eternally Blessed in the fruition of the most Blessed Trinity the Father Son and Holy Ghost To whom let us ascribe as is most due everlasting glory c. Amen A SERMON Preached on Christmas-day TITUS II. 14. Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works THE greatest blessing God could bestow upon us or we receive took its rise from Man's sin The sin of the first Adam was the cause or at least the occasion of the Incarnation of the second Had the former still continued in Paradise the latter had not come down from Heaven Innocence was to be lost before it could be recovered nor was the Physician but for the sick nor the Redeemer but for the captive But as the first Man did not therefore sin or was ordained to sin that the Son of God might be incarnated so his Goodness who can fetch light out of darkness took advantage by that sin to manifest its self in its expiation and his Wisedom contriv'd a way to make that very sin instrumental to a greater good than Man had forfeited which gave occasion to a Father to style Adam's first Transgression Foelicem culpam a happy crime that procur'd him such a Redeemer as could doe him more good than 't was in his own or Satan's power to doe him hurt and so well repair his Ruine as to make it more advantageous to him than his Innocence He is now a gainer by his loss his falling so low has but rais'd him up the higher being made more happy by his very unhappiness so that where Man's sin did abound God's grace has much more abounded And never sure did it more abound than at this time when the Son of God took our humane nature upon him that he might unite it to his divine one Visited us from on high to this end that he might redeem us was born only to dye for us cloathed with our flesh to be in a capacity to suffer in it and by his own suffering to advance us to glory in Heaven And next to that his transcendent Mercy of giving us Heaven is this That He prepares us for it That He is pleased to refine as well as to exalt us We may now
remembrance again Joh. 14. 26. He admonisheth and directeth us his Clients how to order and solicit our own business what Evidences to produce how to manage and plead them making up our failings by his Wisdom and not only so but as the word Paraclete here imports he intercedeth also with God for us not in such a manner as Christ is said to doe whom St. John also calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our Advocate with the Father 1 Joh. 2. 1. For as much as that Bloud which He shed for us on the Cross speaks for us better things than that of Abel and continually pleads our Pardon before the Tribunal of God but the Holy Ghost is said to make intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered because he stirreth us up to Prayer prompting and teaching us also how to pray as we ought to doe in all our Necessities So that as Christ is the first Advocate by working our Reconciliation with God so is the Spirit our other or second one by testifying and applying the same unto our Souls 2dly He is our Advocate not only in respect of God but of Men too by maintaining our Cause against the World against Tyrants and Persecutors 1. Against the World as oft as it accuseth us by false and slanderous Calumniators laying to our charge things we never did The Spirit in this case maketh us not only plead our Innocency but rejoyce in the Reproaches of Christ count our selves happy in this that it is not such low marks as we are which the malice of the World aimeth at but the Spirit of glory and of God which resteth upon us who is on their part evil spoken of 1 Pet. 4. 14. 2dly Against Tyrants and Persecutors Whence it is that our Saviour Mat. 10. 19. bids his Disciples not be concern'd what they should speak when they should be delivered up to Men because it should be given them in that same hour what they should speak And he adds vers 20. It is not ye that speak but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you And we know how that God in all Ages did by the mouths of Infants maintain his Truths to the shame and confusion of Tyrants who endeavour'd to suppress them But here it may be objected Was not the Holy Ghost given to the Jewish Church before the coming of Christ Did He not comfort and support them under a long and tedious expectation of his appearance Was He not then a Teacher of the Faithfull and when that Cloud of Witnesses suffered for the Cause of the God of Jacob when they were sawn in pieces and stoned was not the Holy Ghost their Advocate as well as the Martyrs under the Gospel Did He not speak by the Mouth of Daniel when cast to the Lions and of the three Children who chanted out the Praises of God in the midst of the flames of the firey furnace How then does our Lord say here If I go not away the Comforter will not come to you since so many Ages before He was come and as a Comforter too For Resolution hereof we are to observe That although the Three Persons of the Blessed Trinity be equally the Principles of all those Acts they produce without according to the received Maxim of the Schools yet with a considerable difference in relation to those three distinct Oeconomies or Dispensations towards the Church That of the Father lasted till the Coming of Christ in the Flesh yet so as that in that space of time 't is generally believed that the Son of God did sometimes appear as to Abraham Jacob and Joshua being a kind of Essay or Prelude to his Incarnation and the Holy Ghost did then also impart some degree of Efficacy to the Faithfull However This is properly to be reckoned the Oeconomy of the Father The second was That of the Son from his Incarnation to his Ascension yet so as that the Father made his voice to be heard at Jordan and Mount Tabor This is my beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased hear ye Him As at another time in the Audience of the People Joh. 12. 28. I have both glorified it and will glorifie it again Then also did the Holy Ghost appear in the form of a Dove yet still this is to be accounted the Oeconomy of the Son That of the Holy Spirit commenced from his Descent upon the Apostles and shall last unto the end of all things Differing herein from the other two That in the two first Dispensations Men's senses were usually affected with some extraordinary miraculous and sensible Objects God the Father shewing himself in a Cloud and Pillar of Fire giving out his Oracles from between the Cherubins consuming the burnt-offerings with Fire from Heaven and filling the Sanctuary with his Glory And the Son of God conversing so familiarly with Men that it made St. John say That which was from the beginning which we have heard which we have seen with our eyes which we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the word of life declare we unto you Whereas I say All was as it were visible and palpable here 'T was far otherwise in the Dispensation of the Spirit The Heavens were not seen to part nor was God's terrible Voice heard in the Air no Shechinah no Glory or sensible Mark of the Presence of the living God in his Temple For which reason the third Person in the Trinity has the Special Name of Spirit given Him For as He is styled Holy in respect of that Sanctification he worketh in us though that same Title belongs also to the other two Persons as having the same Spiritual Essence yet the Holy Ghost bears the name of Spirit in regard of his altogether Spiritual Dispensation and those Graces he imparts to each faithfull Soul which are Heavenly and Spiritual such as are the Knowledge of the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven and his inward Vertues and Consolations As for Knowledge it was so weak and imperfect under the Ancient Oeconomy that in respect of that our Lord preferrs the least in the Kingdom of Heaven i. e. the meanest Christian to all the Prophets not excepting the Baptist himself Nor can it be deny'd but that the very first Principles and Rudiments of Christianity do far surpass the highest Attainments of the Law The Jews were under a Cloud and the Doctrine of the Prophets was but as a light shining in a dark place All was then Shadow or rather Night and Moses his Veil was over the Eyes of the whole Nation God made himself known to the Jews as the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob not as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ of whom They had a very wrong Notion looking upon him as the Conqueror of the World such was the very Apostle's fancy of him and that even after his Resurrection Act. 1. The ineffable Mystery of the Trinity that of Godliness which without controversie is great God manifested
two things when I shall have briefly spoken to I shall then in the close endeavour 1. To shew you how the Holy Virgin was in this latter respect Blessed above all her Sex anointed like her Son with the Oyl of Gladness above her fellows in being as much the Mother of God and as properly in a Spiritual as ever she was in a Carnal sense 2. And secondly to stir you up to an imitation of those her Vertues and Perfections which as they entitled her to this more divine and blessed Relation will us too proportionably as they shall be found in every one of us The first thing that offers its self here is the Woman's Testimony allow'd by Christ That she that bare him was Blessed and for that very reason too In the time of the Law 't was accounted a great Blessing to be a Mother in Israel Barrenness being then as infamous as Fruitfulness was honourable To have still preserv'd their Virginity was in most people's conceit as bad as to have betray'd it insomuch that some have more bitterly lamented that than their untimely death or which is more their sins The reason which the Jewish Doctors give us of this strange passion was Because the Messiah being to come every one that was not barren might hope to be that person that should have the honour to bring him into the World And as all the Daughters of Israel were most ambitious of it so about the time Christ came in the flesh the expectation of the Messiah's Revelation was very high and pregnant Whether this Woman in the Text took our Lord for the true Messiah that great Prophet that should come into the World which yet 't is not improbable she might guess him to be by the visible power of his Miracles and which was as admirable the force of his persuasions is altogether uncertain But this is certain that she lookt upon him as an extraordinary person sent from God and as such one that might justly ennoble his Parents and Relations This as it was a great Truth so 't was not all and our Saviour did not only here allow this Woman's Testimony for good but farther improve it by expresly revealing Himself to be the Messiah which is called Christ Joh. 4. 25 the Holy One of Israel and the glory of its People a Monarch but a spiritual one to whose Sceptre all Nations and Souls should bow such a King as had Heaven for his Throne and the Earth for his Footstool That the Desire of Nations was now come so long before promised by God foretold by the Prophets expected by the Patriarchs infinitely wisht by all just Men with a desire equal to their necessities And to be the Mother of such a Prince as this to inclose Him in her bowels whom the Heaven of Heavens could not encircle to be the Mother of God Deipara A Title bestow'd on the Blessed Virgin by a General Council and which we may safely allow her This was more than to have descended from the Loins of the Kings of Judah or the most glorious Monarchs of the Earth An honour which the greatest Queens thereof would willingly have purchas'd even with the loss of their temporal Diadems A thing which never happened but once and can never any more unless a Saviour could again be born so that there can never any more be such a Mother because never again such a Son We reade Gen. 5. 2. that the Sons of God joined themselves to the Daughters of Men but that God himself should vouchsafe a poor Virgin that honour he is pleas'd to bestow upon his Church to call her his Spouse the great Creator He by whom all things were made and do consist not disdain to be made the Son of his own Creature and own himself as it were beholding to that Creature for something which he that has all things had not a garment of flesh such a garment as he can no more put off now than He can his Godhead for quod semel assampsit nunquam dimisit This I say was a strange Condescension in the Almighty and a peculiar honour done to the Holy Virgin who was cull'd out for this purpose from the rest of Women and may therefore very well be styl'd Blessed among yea and above them the top and glory of her Sex as in whom the whole Trinity now met to consult not as at the Creation to make Man but Deum-Hominem to unite God and Man in one Person of the Word so that as the Father bespeaks the Son Psal. 2. 7. Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee The Blessed Virgin might to her immortal honour say too This day have I conceived thee Nor was this all To be such a Mother was indeed a high Privilege but to be a Mother and yet still a Virgin wonderfull as that Son she brings forth This had the Prophet Esay long before foretold ch 7. 14. Behold a Virgin shall conceive But the Prophet Jeremy not content with that gives it out for a strange and unheard-of thing and so indeed it was more strange than Christ's coming into the house the doors being shut Joh. 20. 26. The Lord says he ch 31. 22. hath created a new thing in the Earth a Woman shall compass a Man i. e. A Virgin still continuing such otherwise sure it were no new thing shall in her Womb inclose a Man child and such a Man as the same Prophet styles Immanuel God with us chap. 8. 8. and chap. 9. 6. The mighty God the everlasting Father the Prince of Peace enough to silence the incredulous blaspheming Jew so that these two Glories like the two Luminaries of Heaven met in the Mother of our Lord which never happened to any before nor shall ever hereafter that of a Mother and of a Virgin the Fruitfulness of the one and the Purity of the other But these things as they were the Holy Virgin 's Privileges and in some sort her Happiness too so there was something that render'd her yet more blessed by being a Blessing to us in conveying to us the greatest good that ever could happen to Men. For as her Son is the Fountain of those living streams which refresh the Sons of Men so was this Mother the golden Pipe to derive them to them 'T is of his fulness we all receive but by her The promise of our Redemption as it was as old as our Fall Gen. 3. 15. The seed of the Woman shall bruise the Serpent's head so was it literally fulfilled in this Woman of whom St. Paul says Christ was made Gal. 4. 4. i. e. from whom He took the matter of that Body wherein He wrought out our Redemption the full import of St. Paul's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and St. John's too Joh. 1. 14. For however the Anabaptist dream of a Body fram'd in Heaven which pass'd through the Holy Virgin as water through a Conduit-pipe yet cannot this fancy possibly consist with
the Way to this as the End 2 Pet. 1. 3. 2. But besides this divine Operation we need divine Acceptation also whereby we may be accounted worthy of the Kingdom of God our Inheritance 2 Thess. 1. 5. For all our works and graces here being imperfect can never capacitate us for it without God's gratious Acceptance And therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith St. Chrysost. here 'T is God's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his dignifying of us not our own dignity that renders us worthy And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He makes us accepted in the Beloved Eph. 1. 6. And when the Saints of God are said to be worthy to walk with Christ in white Rev. 3. 4. 't is because He casts his garment of Righteousness about them and if their good Works which yet are but God's own gifts weigh down 't is because He puts his grains of Allowance into the Scale But what need all this either Divine Operation or Acceptation to make us meet partakers of the Inheritance in light may the Enemies of God's Grace here say What need we go farther than our selves and our own Nature for it For Pelagius will tell us That we are in as good a condition now as Adam himself was before his Fall Our Faculties the same as strong and as able as ever Our Understandings as clear to discern and our Wills as free to chuse good and evil That all the harm our first Parent did us was but to give us a bad Example which 't is our fault if we will follow and since our Happiness depends on our selves that we are to blame our selves if we miss of it And although some have thought this too gross to make Man the sole Author of his own Fate yet they have very little mended the matter by so parting stakes between God and him that they still allow the latter the better share in the work of his Salvation For they deny all preventing Grace the proper mark of a Semi-Pelagian although they are pleased to grant a concurrent and subsequent one on God's part to enable him to doe his work with more ease and sureness which otherwise would cost him more pains and hazard However they so far agree with Pelagius as to place this meetness for the Inheritance in Man himself putting it into his own power to dispose himself to his Conversion by an Act of his own Free-will antecedent to God's Grace A piece of Heathen Divinity borrowed from Seneca and Tully For Seneca in a Stoical brag could say That we live is from God but that we live well is from our selves And This is the Judgment of all Mankind says Tully That Prosperity is to be sought of God but Wisdom to be taken up from our selves On which Saying of his St. Augustine passes this Judgment That by making Men free he made them sacrilegious For what greater Sacriledge than to rob God of his Power to convert us or at least to let him go but as a sharer with as therein When as to the first Act of our Conversion we are as purely passive as to that of our Creation or Resurrection We cannot create our selves and being dead in trespasses and sins no more raise up our selves to a spiritual than to a natural life No God must convert us that we may be converted Turn thou us unto thee O Lord and we shall be turned says the Prophet Jeremy Lament 5. 21. Jer. 31. 18. Nay The very preparations of the heart in Man are from the Lord says Solomon Prov. 16. 1. And It is God who worketh in us both to will and to doe says St. Paul Phil. 2. 13. We cannot come to Christ except the Father draw us Joh. 6. 44. Nor when we are drawn to Him doe any thing without Him Himself plainly telling us so Joh. 15. 5. Without me ye can doe nothing He does not say a little but nothing God must prevent and follow us with his Grace plant good inclinations in us and nurse them up too He hath chosen us in Christ before the Foundation of the World that we should be Holy Ephes. 1. 4. not that we were so before he chose us He chose us first too Ye have not chosen me but I have chosen you Joh. 16. 15. 1 Joh. 4. 10. He chose us also out of his own love and then loved us for his choice and made us Holy by his very chusing us No Prevision of our Faith or Good Works but his own free Goodness and Mercy determined his choice He found us not meet to partake of the Inheritance but made us so says the Text Could we make our selves meet we might thank our selves and not the Father as the Apostle here exhorts the Corinthians and us to do in the last place Giving thanks to the Father or as some Translations have it To God the Father God is content we should have the Benefit upon this easie and pleasant condition that we give Him the glory of his Blessings And surely he that grudgeth Him so little for so much deserves not the continuance much less the increase of any of them Still to partake of the streams of the divine Bounty and never to bless not so much as to mind the Fountain still to be receiving and never returning argues an ingratitude as void of all Ingenuity as of Piety Rivers pay their Tribute to that Ocean from whence they flow unto the place from whence they come thither they return Eccles. 1. 7. Nature teaching us to make our Returns thither from whence we derive our Benefits Praise and Thanksgivings are the Reflection of God's glory upon Himself the constant employment of Saints in Heaven and most becoming those on Earth who hope to share with them in their Inheritance so that of all others it becometh most the Just to be thankfull Psal. 33. 1. And indeed it is not only a becoming thing a piece of Decency this but of Justice For Thanks are a Debt we must always be paying to God A Rent our great Landlord requires and indents for the omission whereof will forfeit our Tenure Offer unto God thanksgiving and call upon me in the time of trouble so will I hear thee and thou shalt praise me Psal. 50. 14 15. But then let us be sure to be thankfull to Him and to none besides Him since He is the only Author of all our Good For to misplace our Thanks here would be as bad as to deny them Nay to pay this our Rent to a wrong Landlord worse than not to pay it at all to the right one God will by no means give this his Glory to another nor suffer any to share with Him in our Thanks since from Him alone we receive All those Thanks are due for We must then give them to God alone and to God the Father as some Translations have it not excluding the other Persons in the Trinity but chiefly directing our Thanks to Him
off that stain which his ignominious Sufferings had cast upon his Honour And hence Christ scarce mentions his Death but he still closeth with his rising again the third day Which was the reason of the Jews exquisite care to secure his Sepulchre that the last error as they call'd it might not be worse than the first That is lest the reputation of a glorious Resurrection should bely and confute all their former Calumnies and Reproaches as indeed it did For by this his Resurrection his Godhead was clearly manifested which else must needs have been obscur'd and call'd in question there being nothing so unsuitable to a God as to suffer especially to dye A little loss of Bloud we reade made Alexander the Great quit all his Pretensions to Godhead And St. Augustine tells us out of Varro That the Egyptians made it Capital to affirm that their God Apis was dead forbidding any mention of his Sepulchre Nay St. Peter v. 29. concludes David inferiour to Christ from his Death and Burial and Sepulchre still remaining For although Christ's Sepulchre did remain still to St. Peter's as it does yet to our times yet his Body did not abide in it as David's did and still does in his if we will take an Angel's word for it Come see the place where the Lord lay and again He is risen he is not here For had he remained there as David did in his Grave he had then seen corruption and so had been no God 2. This Truth was to be clear'd and confirm'd in regard of our advantage For had not Christ risen we should still have remain'd in our sins and been of all men most miserable by depriving our selves of the Goods of this life and having no expectation of those of a better Nay in a worse condition than the Beasts that perish who innocently following their natural appetites have nothing to check or restrain them All our Theological Vertues would be to no purpose too Our Faith our Hope our Charity vain the substance of St. Paul's whole discourse 1 Cor. 15. All our Moral Vertues also would be not only useless but troublesome Justice Temperance Fortitude and the like but so many insignificant Cyphers adding nothing to the summ of our Happiness but much to the abatement of it Si post mortem nihil ipsáque mors nihil For who would stick to devour others who should himself so quickly be made a prey to Death and be swallowed up of the Grave Who would deny himself the use of those Pleasures which should never return There would be no Hope for us if no Resurrection and no Resurrection for us to be sure if Christ had not risen Which consideration made the Apostles one main part of whose Office as I told you 't was to be Witnesses of his Resurrection to lay that still in all Churches as the first corner-stone in that spiritual Fabrick as 1 Cor. 15. 4. St. Paul does That Christ rose again according to the Scriptures calling this his Gospel 2 Tim. 2. 8. and placing it among his grand fundamentals Heb. 6. 2 3. as it is a principal Article of our Creed which St. Peter offers here to his Auditors as most necessary for them to know in order to their Conversion who would never have been persuaded to embrace a crucified Saviour a stumbling-block to Jews 1 Cor. 1. 23. and a rock of offence which was to be taken out of their way that they might come to Christ who being now represented to them in a more pompous and glorious shape of a triumphant Conqueror might in some sort be more suitable to those Idea's they had of a Messiah and so be more willing to become his Subjects Thus did these few words hath raised up take away that veil that had hitherto been over their eyes and made them see him they had pierced and readily own him for their Saviour who had so visibly been rescued from the Jaws of Death that the bare mentioning of the matter of fact whereof many of them had been eye-witnesses without any other argument was sufficient to change those late implacable Persecutors into Converts II. And here to stop the mouth of Carnal reason which might be apt to fancy a Resurrection impossible it was necessary for St. Peter in order to a full persuasion and assurance of Christ's being truly raised from the dead to let them know that this was done by a divine Power That God to whom nothing was impossible was the only Agent here He who could kill and make alive That 't was his Hand alone which brought this mighty thing to pass his own right hand that had purchased himself this victory over Death An Act beyond the activity of any created Being Whence it is that the Resurrection is in Scripture called the power of God Matth. 22. 19. and the glory of God Luk. 11. 40. and the glory of the Father Rom. 6. 4. Such power and such glory as he can no more give away to another than his Godhead And therefore the Lord is said to descend from Heaven to raise the dead 1 Thess. 4. 17. It being his own proper work that For although an Angel shall blow the trump at the last day yet the voice of the Son of God must be heard before the dead can live Angels may gather the Elect from the four corners of the Earth but God must enliven them An act so incommunicably his that the Devil cannot doe it He who is God's Ape in other things would fain be in this or at least be thought able to effect it to raise his credit among the Sons of perdition For that Samuel the Witch of Endor call'd up was but a counterfeit he was not the Prophet himself but Satan under his Mantle Nay all those Heathens who seem'd to have bid fair to such Miracles as Christ did as Apollonius Tyanoeus and Vespasian whom therefore Julian the Apostate opposes to our Saviour to lessen and decry him although they are said to have done many strange things yet doe I not find that ever they pretended to be able to raise the dead As Pharaoh's Magicians who could counterfeit most of Moses's Miracles could not with all their skill put life into one single insect Here they confess'd the finger of God and such is the Resurrection not only God s finger but his arme an equal act of Power in him to restore as to create which St. Paul going about to describe uses such an Exaggeration of lofty Expressions as no humane Eloquence can parallel Ephes. 1. 19. That we may know says he there what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe according to the work of the Might of his power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him up from the dead Where we may observe a sixfold Gradation Power and Might the Greatness and Might of his Power the exceeding Greatness of his Power and a working of the Might
of our religious Duties And for this cause ought the Woman to have power on her head because of the Angels says St. Paul 1 Cor. 11. 10. While Zachary and the People were praying he sees an Angel of God who as Gideon's Angel went up in the smoak of the Sacrifice came down in the fragrant smoak of his Incense too Those glorious Spirits are indeed always with us but most in our Devotions They rejoyce to be with us while we are with our God nor will they any longer be with us than while we are with Him while we keep in his ways they will keep us safe if we go out of his Precincts we forfeit their Protection They will certainly leave us when we forsake God and when the Good ones go from us the Evil will come to us as in Saul's case And therefore to prevent the coming of the bad let us be sure to make the good ones our friends which we shall best doe by being like them by imitating them in their Obedience as our Saviour bids us in their Purity and Humility as also in their Charity by ministring to others though never so mean as they doe to us who are so much below them that so we may be the true heirs of Salvation be sure of their Protection here and enjoy their Society hereafter Which God of his infinite Mercy grant for his sake who is the Angel of the Covenant c. Amen Soli Deo gloria in aeternum A SERMON Preached on All-saints-day COLOS. I. 12. Giving thanks unto the Father which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light SAint John reflecting on the Honour and Dignity of God's Children is so affected with that very Thought that in a Divine Rapture he breaks forth Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the Sons of God! 1 Joh. 3. 1. And then describing the future happiness that Relation should entitle us to he does it in such terms as shew it unconceivable ver 2. We are now says he the Sons of God but it doth not yet appear what we shall be In like manner St. Paul speaking of the Joys above describes them Negatively telling us rather what they are not than what they are Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard neither have entred into the Heart of Man the things which God hath prepared far them that love him 1 Cor. 2. 9. That is they exceed the apprehension not only of humane Sense but Understanding Now if any could have given us an exact description of those things then surely these two Apostles For since Heaven did as it were come down to the one in Visions and Revelations and the other went up thither having been caught up into it Who fitter than these Persons to display the Glories of that Place which themselves had seen And yet we see the only account they give or indeed could give us of them is but this That they are unaccountable not to be reacht by Thought nor to be known but by Enjoyment But how obscure soever or inexpressible those Glories appear to such as expect them This is certain that they are reserved and laid up in a sure place for as many as God shall account worthy of them An Estate they have in Reversion though now incapable of its actual Possession during their minority They are Heirs apparent of Salvation even in this their nonage and are as sure of Heaven as if they were already in it For it is their certain Inheritance Yet lest any should wax proud of their Title they are to remember that they owe it not to themselves but to the mere goodness of their Heavenly Father who both gives them the thing it self and their capacity for it Gives them Heaven and makes Heavenly too and therefore may justly challenge their most hearty acknowledgment of so great a Mercy which is that the Apostle requires of these Colossians That they should give thanks to the Father who had made them meet to be partakers of the Inheritance of the Saints in light So that we have in these words 1. A Description of the future Happiness of God's Children consisting of two Particulars 1. That it is their Inheritance 2. An Inheritance in light 2. The Persons who are the true Heirs and Proprietaries thereof The Saints 3. The Manner of its Conveyance to them and that is by Free-gift It descends not to them by any natural succession nor is it the fruit of their own pains or purchase But 't is God the Father that makes them both Partakers and meet Partakers thereof 4. Lastly Here is a Duty on their part to be performed arising from so high an Obligation That since the Father had been so bountifull in bestowing on them so goodly an Inheritance they should not fail to be thankfull to Him for it Giving thanks c. These be the Parts whereof briefly in their order And first of the Inheritance it self with the Nature and Condition thereof An Inhertaince in light An Inheritance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Singular 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is it seems but one common Inheritance as but one common Salvation wherein all God's Saints are Heirs in solidum And let not this trouble any of them For Heaven is big enough and God sufficient for All. There not the Elder Brother is the only Heir and goes away with the Inheritance when many times the younger are Beggars but we shall All be Heirs and Co-heirs with Christ. Earthly Inheritances are indeed impaired and lessened by being parcelled out But this Inheritance in light like light loseth nothing by being communicated to All wherein every one shall have his Part and that Part shall be his All. Each vessel of honour shall be filled up it shall have as much as it can hold and that is as much as it shall desire All shall shine as stars in the Kingdom of their Father though with different lustre As one star differeth from another star in glory 1 Cor. 15. 41. Joh. 14. 2. All shall be in their Father's house but in several Mansions and with several Portions assigned them Which difference shall be so far from abating that it shall increase their mutual Glory when none shall complain that another hath too much and himself too little when each other's share shall be his own and more his own for being another's so that he shall be glorified in that very glory wherein his fellow Saint shall outshine him and his own Crown for this reason be brighter because his Neighbour's shall be so And as this Inheritance here is but one so is it a durable one That very name speaks a lasting Title What comes thus unto us we look upon as our own and our own for ever And indeed without Propriety and that perpetual all we have or enjoy is nothing We are at best but usu-fructuaries not true Possessors
Glorious things are spoken of the City of God and we may say of them what the Queen of Sheba said of the Glory of Solomon's kingdom that the half thereof is not told us But surely among those many glorious things spoken of it nothing is more glorious than this That it is a City which hath foundations whose builder and maker is God Heb. 11. 10. And that in Heaven we have an house not made with hands but eternal An House that shall last as long as its Builder and whose Inhabitants shall last as long as both and dwell therein for ever For what would all the Glories of Heaven be to us if we had no other advantage but what Solomon says worldly men have of their riches to behold them with our eyes What should we be the better for them if we might never enjoy them and have no right to the place where they are to be found What is a Kingdom to him to whom it belongs not Or a Crown of glory to that man whose head shall never wear it Had we such a sight of all the kingdoms of the world and of the glory of them as the Devil shewed our Saviour but withall as little right to any part of them as that Tempter could give Him That glittering sight might perhaps dazle our eyes but never raise any other passion in us than that of Envy towards them who should enjoy them And thus it would be with us as to the kingdom of Heaven To behold this spiritual Canaan afar off without any hope of ever possessing it to view it as another's Countrey not our own would be but such a sad and melancholy prospect as the rich man had when he saw Lazarus in Abraham's bosom or as our Lord gave the Jews when he told them that they should see Abraham Isaac and Jacob and all the Prophets in the kingdom of God when they themselves should thence be thrust out Luk. 13. 28. There is no true satisfaction to be had in any thing wherein we have no Interest no lasting Propriety Without this Heaven it self would be a Hell to us as it is to the Damned But 't is the peculiar advantage and comfort of God's Saints that they can look upon it even while here below as their Inheritance Christ hath entail'd it upon them Matt. 25. 34. Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the kingdom prepared for you They have his word for it which is as sure to them as Free-hold II. But what kind of Inheritance is prepared for them The Text tells us 'T is an Inheritance in light and that in opposition to another sort of Inheritance if I may so call it styled in the following Verse the power of darkness yea and Darkness it self Act. 26. 18. As that which lies in darkness is maintained and upheld by it and shall bring men without repentance into outer darkness into the blackness of darkness for ever From which dismal state the godly being delivered are said to be called out of darkness into God's marvellous light 1 Pet. 2. 9. Out of the darkness of ignorance the natural state of man into the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ which will at last bring them to that of eternal glory So that the Inheritance here is an Inheritance in light in two respects 1. In respect of the light of Faith and the knowledge of God which englightens us in this life And 2dly In respect of that light of Glory which shall adorn and crown us in the next We have here the outward light of the Word before us and the inward light of the Spirit within us And if we walk in these lights as children of the light we have a promise of shining forth hereafter as the Sun in the kingdom of our Father Matt. 13. 43. Both which lights are in effect but one That of Faith a light in part and that of Glory a full and perfect light For Grace is nothing else but the dawning of Glory They differ not in substance but in degree no otherwise than as light in the Sun when it first peeps out above our Horizon from that of the same Sun when it is in its Vertical point shining out in its full strength Both these lights I say of Faith and Glory make up but one great united Light And therefore 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Text An Inheritance not in lights but in light There being but one Light as there are but one sort of Inheriters thereof The Saints For who fit to partake of this glorious unspotted light but they who are so themselves or who have a proper right to this Inheritance but the Children of the most Highest Psal. 82. 6. So St. Paul argues Rom. 8. 17. If Children then Heirs Heirs of God and joint Heirs with Christ Heirs of God indeed but through Christ Gal. 4. 7. Holding their Inheritance in Capite in the right of Him who is the Heir of all things Heb. 1. 2. He the natural Heir They but adopted ones Rom. 8. 15. But still in Him Ephes. 1. 5. Having predestinated us unto the Adoption of Children by Christ Jesus unto himself Whence they claim the Inheritance by promise also For being Christ's says the same Apostle they become Abraham's seed and Heirs according to the promise Gal. 3. 23. And so Heb. 9. 15. They receive the Promise of an eternal Inheritance Not that they have not the Promise also of temporal Inheritances For Godliness hath the Promise of the life that now is as well as of that which is to come 1 Tim. 4. 8. But because the Heavenly is setled only upon them whereas Temporal Inheritances may and do fall to their share and that in large Proportions who have neither part nor lot in the Heavenly I have blessed Ismael says God Twelve Princes shall he beget but my Covenant will I establish with Isaac Gen. 17. 20 21. Esau had the like Temporal blessing as Jacob had But not with a God give thee the Dew of Heaven Gen. 27. 28. God gives gifts unto men even to the rebellious Psal. 68. 18. Common giftless gifts But the Inheritance and to abide in his house for ever is for the Children Joh. 8. 35. Nor will these be put off or sent away with a few gifts as the sons of Abraham's Concubines were nothing less will content them than the Inheritance it self The Children of this world indeed have their Portion in this life and they are satisfied with it This is our Portion and our Lot is this say they Wisedom 2. 9. But the Children of light and of a better world reckon otherwise The Lord himself is the Portion of mine Inheritance says David Psal. 16. 6. They are fellow Citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem Ephes. 2. 19. Their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their Burgeship is there They live according to the Laws of Heaven and even while on Earth enjoy the Priviledges thereof being
even now Heirs of a kingdom Jam. 2. 5. The wise that shall inherit Glory Prov. 3. 35. Heads destinated to a Diadem in Tertullian's expression which their Heavenly Father hath prepared for and will at last put upon them who alone too makes them fit to wear it meet to be Partakers of the Inheritance of the Saints in light III. How differently soever the Children of God may share in the same Inheritance This is certain that every one's share therein shall be the Gift of his Heavenly Father The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here imports it The Apostle alluding to the Division of the Land of Canaan a Type of Heaven which God had appointed to be done by lot wherein Himself we know had the main hand according to that of Solomon Prov. 16. 33. The lot is cast into the lap but the whole disposition thereof is of the Lord. Thus it was in the Choice of Matthias to the Apostleship Act. 1. And thus it is as to our share in the Inheritance of Glory It falls to us by lot by the disposition of God the Father we have no part here but what he gives us And if so then no merit of Condignity nor so much as of Congruity can be pleaded by us And truly one would think it were sufficient to partake of the Inheritance without making out our own Title to it That we might be content to be Heirs without coming in as Purchasers or if we will needs be so to be Purchasers on Christ's score and not our own But this is too low and mean for some men who come with Counters in their hand ready to reckon with God to shew Him how much he is in their debt and who stick not to tell Him to his face that He is an unjust Master if he pay them not their due wages But 1. Our Lord Himself hath told us That God is beforehand with us That whatsoever we can doe is due from us to Him That when we shall have done all those things which are commanded us we must say that we are unprofitable servants and have done but that which was our duty to doe Luk. 17. 10. And then what merit can there be in paying just debts And 2. St. Paul hath told us That we can doe no good thing without Him too who worketh in us both to will and to doe of his good pleasure Phil. 2. 13. So that He crowns His own gifts in us and rewards not our deservings Besides 3. Our goodness extendeth not to God says David Psal. 16. 2. And being unusefull how can it be meritorious Nay our best works are so imperfect and so sinfull too that the utmost they can expect is but a Pardon and not a Reward And were they never so good and perfect yet what proportion can they bear to such a Reward as an Inheritance in light Our light affliction which is but for a moment to a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory 2 Cor. 4. 17. where we must not let pass an elegant Antithesis For Affliction there is Glory For Light affliction a Weight of glory And for Momentary affliction an Eternal weight of glory to shew the vast disproportion between these things so vast that even Martyrdom it self the highest utmost proof of our love to God is in St. Paul's account nothing in comparison of that Glory we expect For I reckon says he that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us Rom. 8. 18. IV. And lastly The very word Inheritance excludes all Purchase on our part For this were to renounce Succession to cast off all Filial Duty and Affection not to own our selves Sons but mercenary Purchasers yea and Purchasers of an Inheritance already purchased for us by Christ and for his sake freely bestowed upon us by our Heavenly Father out of His own pure Goodness and Bounty to which alone we must ascribe it For we all the best of us have sinned and come short of the glory of God Rom. 3. 23. And we are told ch 6. 23. that The wages of sin our proper wages is death but the gift of God is eternal life The Apostle might have said and indeed the Antithesis or Opposition there seem'd to require it But the wages of Righteousness is eternal life But he altered the Phrase on set-purpose and chose rather to say The gift of God is eternal life That we might from this change of the Phrase learn That although we procure Death unto our selves yet 't is God that bestows eternal life on us That as He hath called us to his kingdom and glory 1 Thess. 2. 12. so he gives that glory and that kingdom for no other reason but because He is pleased so to doe It is your Father's good pleasure for into God the Father's good pleasure Christ resolves it to give you a kingdome Luk. 12. 32. No merit nor so much as any good disposition in us for it He propares it for us Matt. 20. 23. And he prepares us for it too here in the Text by making us meet to be partakers thereof For what meetness could he find in us for such an Inheritance Title to it we have none being by nature the Children of wrath and disobedience Eph. 2. 2 3. Mere Intruders here and Usurpers The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence and we the violent take it by force Mat. 11. 12. Qualifications proper for it we have none too That An Inheritance in light we darkness That An Inheritance incorruptible undefiled and that fadeth not away 1 Pet. 1. 4. we corruptible polluted and still decaying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cries out our Apostle We are not sufficient not fit for the word signifies either as of our selves but our sufficiency or fitness call it which you will is of God 2 Cor. 3. 5. 2 Pet. 1. 4. who as He makes us Partakers of his divine Nature so meet Partakers of the divine Inheritance not by pouring out the divine Essence but by communicating to us those divine Qualities which will fit and prepare us for the Sight thereof by putting light into our Understandings and holiness into our Wills without which no man shall see the Lord Heb. 12. 14. By cleansing our hearts and washing our hands that so we may ascend into the hill of the Lord dwell and rest in his Tabernacle Psal. 15. 24. He gives us Faith and with that a Prospect of our Inheritance and He gives us Hope and with that an Interest therein And to summ up all in one He gives us his Holy Spirit the earnest of that Inheritance Eph. 1. 14. who worketh all our works in us writes his laws in our hearts and by softning makes them capable of his divine Impressions In short That divine Spirit which by Regenerating makes us new Creatures and so fit Inhabitants for the new Jerusalem calling us first to Vertue and then to Glory to that as