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A49318 The reasonableness of the Christian religion a sermon preached at the visitation held at Stoakesly in Cleveland, in Yorkshire : being the first visitation of the Reverend Mr. Long, B.D. and Arch-Deacon of Cleveland / by Ja. Lowde ... Lowde, James. 1684 (1684) Wing L3302; ESTC R14296 20,988 54

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2. Christ thus showed himself to be the power of God because he hath done that which nothing but the Power of God could do As. 1. He hath destroyed the Kingdome of Satan without us 2. He has subdued our wicked Lusts and Corruptions within us 1. He has destroyed the Kingdome of Satan without us this the Pharisyes themselves acknowledge that he cast out Devils but then they say it was by Belzebub the Prince of the Devils But Christ did very solidly and rationally confute the Weakness and Silliness of this surmize A Kingdome says he divided against it self is brought to Desolation and an house or City divided against it self cannot stand and if Satan be divided against himself how shall his Kingdome stand For he that can believe that the Devil should assist him whose great end and design was no other but only to destroy Sin and Wickedness and to encourage and promote Vertue and Piety in the World such an one may by the same Reason believe and assert any thing Christ came into the World to dissolve the Works of the Devil and to restore things to the State wherein they were before for God might have seem'd frustrated in his End and Design in creating Man if that Method of his Providence first instituted for Mans Salvation if it had been so utterly broken beyond the possibility of all recovery but now Christ hath given the Devil and all the Powers of Darkness to understand that he is able to produce Light out of Darkness and Order out of Confusion thus hath God restored man again to a possibility of Salvation notwithstanding all the former attempts and present endeavours of the Devil to the contrary 2. Christ by the Gospel has subdued our wicked Lusts and Affections within us and this was more then either the Jewish Sacrifices of themselves or the imperfect Rules of the Gentile Philosophy was ever able to perform He has not only himself overcome the Devil but also enables every true Christian to do the same this he doth by the assistance of his Holy Spirit whereby we become more then Conquerors over all Temptations Thus Christ doth at once instruct and strengthen us he teaches us what to do and enables us to do what he teaches precepts tho' never so excellent yet if they be unpracticable are altogether void and to no purpose but this is thepeculiar Priviledge of the Gospel that it enables us to perform that Obedience which it requires of us Thus is it the Power of God unto Salvation that is a Method every way sufficient in its own Nature for that purpose but then this is not so to be understood as if there was nothing left to be done by us for Christ has not so effected Mans Salvation that nothing now remains for us to do but idely to expect it the Grace of God indeed has brought Salvation but then it is by teaching us to deny all Ungodliness and Worldly Lusts which supposes our willingness and our endeavours too to learn Thus the manner of Christs appearance in the World could give no just Occasion of Offence to the Jews it being the most proper means to effect those great and worthy ends of his coming and to prove himself to be the power of God And as for Christs Death if it was no dishonour for him to be born neither was it any to die for the one seems naturally to follow from the other And supposing the Person suffering to be Innocent as Christ certainly was the manner of his Death cannot reflect any thing of real dishonour upon him so that all that can be gathered from Christs Crucifixion is only this his greater love to us and the Jews their greater malice and cruelty to him And further the Circumstances that attended his Death spoke him to be more then a common and ordinary Person then was the Sun darkened the Graves open'd the Vail of the Temple Rent and such general Convulsions of Nature every where appear'd that it caused a Philosopher thus to argue either that Nature it felf was dissolv'd or that the God of Nature suffer'd 2. The Death of Christ could give no just Occasion of Offence to the Jews if we consider the honorary consequences of it for by this was afforded the greatest matter of Triumph to the Christian cause imaginable for if Christ had not dyed he could not have risen again and it was a greater Argument of his Power to raise himself from Death then it would have been to have kept himself from dying Thus the Resurrection of Christ was the greatest Evidence of the Divinity of his Person and the Truth of his Doctrine And thus much as to the first general part of my Text in Answer to those Offences which the Jews took at Christ and his Religion 2. The second Scandal here cast upon the Gospel by the Greeks was the Imputation of folly And to the Greeks Foolishness HereI shall likewise vindicate theGospel from this Aspersion by speaking to these two particulars 1. I shall show what little Reason the Greeks had to impute Foolishness to the Christian Doctrine seeing this doth infinitely transcend the Religion of the Gentiles in the truth and certainly of its Principles 2. I shall show the Wisdome and Prudence of the Christian Practise The first of these shows the Improperness of the Objection as made by them the other the falseness of it in it self The first shows how unfit it was to be objected by the Greeks the other how impossible it is to be defended by any and both together I hope will sufficiently vindicate the Gospel from the least Imputation of folly 1. I shall show the reasonableness of the Christian Doctrine in Comparison of that of the Gentiles 1. As it is a practical Institution or a Doctrine of Morality so the very Heathens could not but testifie their profound Veneration for it all that their wit and malice could object against it in this particular being only that which was indeed a tacit acknowledgment of its Excellence viz. that it requir'd greater degrees of Holiness then was consistent with Humane nature and that it put its Professors upon endeavours after unattainable Measures of Purity and Piety And as to the Mystical part of our Religion what is there in it that doth not become the solemn and venerable Nature of a divinely reveal'd Religion Indeed if we must reject every thing as false and foolish because inexplicable and incomprehensible as to the modes then must we bid adieu to our Natural as well as our Christian Religion But the great matter of offence to the Greeks was Christ Crucified God and Man joyned in one Person and suffering for the Expiation ofSin God manifested in the Flesh is certainly a great Mystery so also is the Union of the Soul and Body a thing altogether Inexplicable As for his dying as a Sacrifice for Sin 't is certain that Humane Sacrifices were frequently practis'd among the Heathens and look'd upon