God And yet how imperfect was the Knowledge how improveable the Understandings even of these Intelligences Notwithstanding this clear Vision of the Divine Essence the Mystery of Man's Redemption was so far hid from their Eyes that before the Manifestation of the Son of God in the Flesh they had only some general dark and obscure Notices of it And tho' now as * Ephes 3.10 St. Paul tells us the manifold Wisdom of God is in a greater measure made known unto them by his Dispensations in the Church yet even now are they so far from being able to comprehend it that †1 Epist 1.12 St. Peter assures us they still desire to look farther into it These things says he the Angels desire to look into In short our Lord has put this case beyond all doubt for speaking of the Day of Judgment Of that Day and Hour ‖ Matth. 24.36 Mat. 13.32 says he knoweth no Man no not the Angels of Heaven nor the Son but my Father only For if the Son of God himself as Man tho' he is to be the Umpire of that Great Day and the Holy Angels who always behold the Face of their Father and who with unspeakable Alacrity and Joy will attend and wait upon him in this his glorious Expedition was once and are still ignorant in this matter then certainly it can be nothing but Folly and Madness to imagine that the Spirits of Just Men and Women which tho' never so perfect as such are as they stand in Relation to their Bodies to whom they have a natural Inclination even in Heaven it self but in a State of Imperfection should so far excel as to have an entire and perfect Knowledge of all things that are done both in Heaven and Earth Now then from what has been thus discours'd I presume 't is Evident that there is no Foundation in Reason to think that the Saints tho in Heaven have a particular entire and perfect Knowledge of all things that are done in Heaven and Earth and consequently of all the Circumstances Concerns Occurrences and Affairs of every Man's Life and so are become the Objects of our Devotion as our Adversaries pretend but that on the contrary we have all the Reason in the World to conclude that they have no constant Knowledge of any thing here below and consequently that according to the Romish Doctors themselves 't is otiosum Supervacaneum an idle vain and superfluous and according to Truth it self an impious wicked and idolatrous piece of Devotion that is put up to them For tho' we allow that God does sometimes of his especial Grace vouchsafe by an Extraordinary Revelation to acquaint his Saints with something of our Affairs here below like the good Shepherd in the Gospel who when he had found the Sheep he had lost soon inform'd his Neighbours of it and call'd them together to rejoyce with him for it nay farther tho' I cannot think it too much to grant that the Saints in Heaven do not only intercede with God for the Church in general that he would be favourable and gracious unto Sion and vouchsafe to repair the Breaches in the Walls of Jerusalem but also that some of them at some Times on some Occasions which either an immediate Revelation from God himself or perhaps the Relation of a Guardian Angel or possibly a short Errand of their own discovers to them do as * Ep. ad Trall pag. 80. Vsser Edit Ignatius †De Orat. sect 34 Origen ‖ De Mortalit pag. 166. Ed. Oxon. Cyprian and ** Vid. Aug. Confess l. 9. c. 3. Basil Hom. 20. Ambros de obitu Theod. Hieron Ep. 25. others think they do Pray for some of us in particular yet since there is no certainty in this matter no Revelation to inform us when this is done or indeed whether it be so much as done at all we cannot from such pious Conjectures only infer with the Council of Trent that we ought to Pray to them or make them the Mediators between God and our selves especially since besides the Arguments already alledg'd God himself has expressly pronounc'd him Curs'd who thus trusteth in Man and maketh Flesh his Arm and whose Heart departeth from the Lord. All we are to do is to Praise and Magnifie the Name of God for them that he has been pleas'd of his gracious Goodness to deliver their Souls from the Burthen of the Flesh from the Waves and Storms of this tempestuous World and to land them safely on the peaceful Harbour of Eternity That he adorn'd and inrich'd them with his manifold Gifts and Graces whereby they are rendered as burning and shining Light to his Church in succeeding Generations This I say together with a Reverential Respect and study of Imitation is all we have to do upon their Account and This we are sure whatever the Trent Doctors determine was the only Inference the Primitive Church made from these Premises 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Honour says * Vid. tom 5. p. 625. Vid. Eus Hist Eccl. l. 4. c. 15. pag. 134 135. Aug. de Civit. Dei l. 8. c. 27. l. 22. c. 10. S. Chrysostom that we are to pay to the Martyrs is to strike the same Lines as those invincible Heroes have done to copy out their Fortitude and Magnanimity and with the like Chearfulness to lay down our Lives for the Lord's sake And so I come to my 3. Particular which is to shew That as this Assertion has no Foundation in Scripture nor Reason so neither has it the least Support from Antiquity Spiritus Defunctorum †De curâ pro mortuis says St. Austin non vident quaecunque eveniunt aut aguntur in istâ vitâ hominum i. e. The Spirits of the Saints departed do not know all things that are Acted upon the Stage of the World And * Ep. 3. de Epitaph Nepot St. Hierom speaking of his deceased Friend Nepotianus is more particular Quicquid dixero says he quia ille non audit mutum videtur quocum loqui non possumus de eo loqui non desinamus Whatsoever I shall say seems dumb and to no purpose because Nepotian does not hear me yet since we can no more speak with him let us be the longer in speaking of him I know the Fathers about the latter End of the Fourth Century in their Funeral and Anniversary Panegyricks of the Saints and Martyrs frequently use very elegant and affectionate Apostrophe's to them as tho' they suppos'd them present But the Popish Abusers of this innocent Custom would do well to consider that they most cautiously usher them in with If 's and And 's as in that †Orat. 1. cont Julian of Nazianzen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hear O thou Soul of the Renown'd Constantine if thou hast any sence or knowledge of these matters For every School-boy will tell them that this is only a Rhetorical Flourish a pleasing Strain of
Lustre upon the Solemnization of this present Day A Day which if any may most properly be said to be made by the Lord since it bears the liveliest Characters and Impresses of his Power and knowledge of his Wisdom and Goodness and of all those other glorious Attributes whereby we are assur'd that he governs the World For trace the Histories of ancient Times turn over all Authors both Sacred and Prophane and the Day of our Spiritual Redemption excepted produce me a Day like This so memorable in its Circumstances so glorious in its Issue and so unparallel'd in its Consummation Of all those Deliverances God in past Ages vouchsaf'd his Church methinks none ever amounted to the Wonder of this Day when I consider 1. The black and dismal nature of the Design which was this Day fram'd against us And 2. The Strangeness and Unexpectedness of our Deliverance from it 1. I say It will appear that of all those Deliverances God in past Ages vouchsaf'd his Church none ever amounted to the Wonder of this Day and consequently that this Day of all others may most properly be said to be made by the Lord if we consider the black and dismal nature of the Design which was this Day fram'd against us As the Heavens rejoyc'd and the Earth was glad to see the glory of the Lord in the uncorrupted Light of the Gospel after a long Night of Ignorance and Superstition arise in Brightness upon us so those restless Spirits who always bore Evil-will to our Zion as though they had received a second Downfall in their undiscerned Habitations vented themselves in nothing but Lamentations and Mournings and Woe They saw the unparallell'd Beauty of her Countenance which tho' long mask'd and clouded with the Veil of Widowhood did now at length break forth in such Splendour and Brightness that the Gentiles were coming to her Light and Kings to rejoyce in the Brightness of her Rising That therefore in this holy Mountain there was no Den for such Beasts of Prey but that they must either forego their beloved Dainties and peaceably lie down in the Pastures with the Lamb or for their own Security betake themselves to harder seeding in the barren Recesses of the Wilderness Wherefore impatient both of Restraint and Exile they incontinently breathed out our Destruction and to support and underprop their sinking Interest at sundry Times and in divers Manners endeavour'd to overturn the Foundations of our Felicity sometimes with the factious Son of Sheba they blow'd the Trumpet of Rebellion disclaim'd their Right in David and endeavoured by good Words and fair Speeches to perswade others also that they likewise had no Inheritance in the King Sometimes on the contrary by the terrible Assaults of Anathema's Curses and Excommunications they laboured to scare and fright us into a Compliance But when they found that notwithstanding all their Craft and Subtlety their Designs were still defeated and unravell'd and all their most cunningly contriv'd Enterprises dwindled into continual Disappointments that their ravenous woolfish Nature tho' never so close cover'd with Sheeps-cloathing was always discovered and that none therefore dar'd to come in to their Standard nor tho' led on by the Infallible Hero himself to enter the Field against the Lords Anointed so that neither their Armado's from Spain nor false Witnesses from St. Omers nor all those dreadful Thunderings and Lightnings from Rome could prevail any thing at all but that the Virgin the Daughter of Zion despis'd them and laugh'd them to scorn the Daughter of Jerusalem still shook her head at them as Men even encouraged by Disappointments and emboldned by Repulses they start anew and rather than be for ever frustrated are contented to devest themselves utterly of their Humanity and to embark into so barbarous so savage a Design as will make the ears of all Posterity to tingle Many Waters cannot quench their burning Rage neither can the Floods how deep soever drown their Fury but they resolve to tear in pieces the more excellent Prey and one way or other to take their Pastime in Rivers of Royal Blood Flectere fi nequeunt Superos Since Heaven and Earth Angels and Men are against them they descend into the Regions of Darkness and Obscurity as if they design'd to ask Counsel of the Powers of Darkness And indeed whoever accurately contemplates the nature of this cursed Design must needs acknowledge it to bear all the marks of a hellish diabolical Off-spring For where but in the dismal Regions of everlasting Malice and Cruelty could be hatch'd so barbarous so villainous a Conspiracy A Conspiracy so black and detestable so hideous in its Circumstances so fatal in its Consequences that 't is hardly possible to imagine that it could have been invented by Man unless what the Jews of old thought of their Daemoniacks they had really been converted into the Nature and Substance of fierce implacable destructive Daemons A Conspiracy which if it had taken effect would have utterly extinguish'd the Light of our Israel and overspread the Nation again with thick Darkness of Ignorance and Superstition which would have murdered the Lord 's Anointed and accomplish'd the savage Tyrants most execrable Wish at one Blow cutting off the Head even of three Kingdoms nay in a moment in the twinkling of an eye have entirely destroy'd both Root and Branch King and Parliment Prince and People Peers and Prelates Lords and Commons A Conspiracy that would have involv'd us all in Blood exposed our Wives and Children to the merciless Fury of our Enemies and enslav'd our Lives and Fortunes Souls and Bodies to the imperious and domineering Lords of monopolizing Rome Lastly A Conspiracy it was whose teeming Womb was ready to bring forth the ghastly Issue of Blood and Fire and pillars of smoak which would either have rendered our beautiful Cities a Wilderness or which is worse an Habitation of Dragons and made Jerusalem a Desolation Alas These unrighteous and cruel Men did not design only to shake off the Leaves or to lop off the Branches of this fruitful Vine but entirely to pluck her up by the Roots * Ps 137.7 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lay her wast and down with her even to the ground was all the Cry So that not only our Land would have mourn'd for the Loss of her Gracious Soveraign our Cities of their wise and prudent Governours our Countries of their vigilant and powerful Guardians which alone would have rendred us the Wonder and Astonishment of Men and Angels but which is yet worse if any thing can be worse our pure and undefil'd Religion had also been lost in the general Devastation Those insatiable flames which had devour'd her noble Patrons would likewise unmercifully have prey'd upon her drooping Vitals till they had rarisy'd her Substance into a mere empty Shadow and chang'd the Spirituality of her Worship into external cumbersome impertinent Ceremonies In short Whatever the very Quintessence and Elixir of all villainy and
carv'd to themselves in Memory of their Ancestors and to which upon all Occasions they address'd themselves with the most solemn Veneration And from thence how imperious and domineering how haughty arrogant and cruel how tyrannical and intolerable he shew'd himself to his Worshippers till Christianity appear'd in the World all Histories both Sacred and Profane do abundantly testifie Having exalted himself above all that is called God and the Jews excepted rendred the whole Creation subject to Vanity he sat himself Lordly in the House of God acting there like himself the grand Chief of the Damn'd He sent Miseries and Calamities upon the Theatre of the World for his Sport and Pastime and set on one part of the Creation to bait another for his Diversion Like the immane Roman Emperours he took Pleasure to exercise Men with Dangers and to see them play bloody Prizes before him Neither thousands of Rams nor ten thousands of Rivers of Oyl could satisfie the raging Thirst or Boulimy of this ravenous Wolf He must needs tear in pieces the more excellent Prey and take his Pastime in Rivers of Human Blood Thus in Crete and Africk under the Name of Saturn he glutted his Ears with the last Groans and dismal Accents and his devouring Jaws with the tender Carcasses of slaughter'd Infants Thus in Cyprus Tenedos and Lacedaemonia in Carthage France and Germany in Arabia Scythia Egypt and Rome it self he made himself drunk with the Blood of Men which is attested not only by those Christian Writers * Apol. c. 9. Tertullian and †Divin Institut l. 1. c. 21. Lactantius but likewise by that acute Philosopher and Enemy to Christianity ‖ De Abst l. 2. p. 226. Porphyry who after he had reckon'd up in how many places of the World Human Sacrifices were in use confesses 't was done at Rome in the Feast of Jupiter Latialis even in his time Nay as tho' the Air had been corrupted and Men by natural Breathing drew in the Infection this Contagion spread it self as far as the House of God and the Holy Land it self was defil'd with Blood Not only Aliens and Strangers to the Common-wealth of Israel but even God's own peculiar People was so bewitch'd and besotted as both to adore the Sun when it shin'd and the Moon when she walk'd in her brightness which it self was an Iniquity to be punish'd by the Judge and also to inflame themselves with Idols under every green Tree and to offer their Sons and their Daughters unto Devils Thus tho' his ambitious Designs were balk'd in the Beginning and he fell with all his Legions like Lightning from Heaven tho' he could not be like the Most High in Glory nor erect his Throne next to the Almighty yet he vaunted himself here amongst the deluded Sons of Men and by his Villainies Sophistries and Arts of Terror affrighted them into the Worship and Adoration of his Person Yet even then so great is the Pride and Unbounded the Malice of this cursed Arch-Daemon as though Crowns and Septers and all the Tributary Princes and Potentates of the Earth had been too little as though the Glory of so much Power and the infinite multitude of Slaves and Vassals avail'd him nothing at all whilst good Mordecai bowed not nor did him Reverence he was restless and dissatisfied and with haughty Haman impatiently sought his Ruin He repin'd at those peaceable Halcyonian Days which under the kind influence of Heaven pious Souls did enjoy and whom Providence hedg'd in he chiefly long'd to devour This is fully illustrated in the Instance of Job where as soon as God had permitted to put forth his hand and touch all that he had how did he muster up all the Mischiefs Hellish Malice could invent and with greater Eagerness than that of an Eagle or Vulture seize upon the Prey He plunder'd him in his Estate says the Reverend and Learned Dr. * Patriarchal Dispensation Cave by the Sabaean and Chaldaean Free-booters who left him not an Ox or Ass of all his Herd not a Sheep or a Lamb either for Food or Sacrifice He endeavour'd all he could to blot out his Name from under Heaven having slain his seven Sons and three Daughters at once by the Fall of an House He blasted him in his Credit and Reputation and that by his nearest Friends who had traduc'd and challeng'd him for a Dissembler and an Hypocrite He ruin'd him in his Health having smitten him with sore Ulcers from the Crown of the Head to the Sole of the Foot till his Body became a very Hospital of Diseases Nay that not the least Dawnings of Consolation might peep through this black Cloud of Sorrow and Anguish besides those gastly Spectacles and horrid Apparitions whereby he infested his * Cap. 7. ver 14. Dreams he suggested to his †Cap. 6. ver 4. waking Thoughts sad and uncomfortable Reflexions the Arrows of the Almighty being shot within him the Poyson whereof drank up his Spirits the Terrors of God setting themselves in Array against him And thus for at least twelve Months say the Jews probably for a much longer time did this grand Engineer of all Mischief wreek his Hellish Malice upon this Good Man till God in Mercy put a Period to this tedious Tryal and crown'd his Sufferings with an ample Restitution But if we ascend from these Times to the first Plantings of the Gospel we shall find him yet more eagerly prosecuting all Acts of Hostility possessing Mens Bodies tormenting them with sundry kinds of Diseases and endeavouring if possible to break the very Golden Chain of Predestination Now that dreadful Woe which the * Rev. 12.10 12. Angel with a loud Voice denounc'd from Heaven against the Inhabitants of the Earth and of the Sea was fulfill'd for the Devil was come amongst Men having great Wrath because he had but a short time He saw the Prophecies were all fulfill'd that the Scepter was departed from Judah and a Law-giver from between his Feet that therefore Shiloh was suddenly to come unto whom the gathering of all People should be He saw that his Coming was now grown not only the Expectation of the Jews but the common discourse too of all the Heathen Nations That there was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Cyril says of him a great and eminent Harbinger who in the Power and Spirit of Elias introduc'd and usher'd in the Arrival of this Son of Righteousness and spake great and glorious things of this Son of God Wherefore not to mention his persecuting him a poor helpless Infant by jealous Herod nor yet to re-mind you of those many Troubles which he afterwards created him from the hypocritical ambitious blood-thirsty Pharisees that he might leave no stone unturn'd nothing unattempted whereby he might compass his Designs he impudently attacks the Redeemer of the World himself and perceiving him to be a Person of greater Sanctity and Perfection than to be mov'd by sensual and low Desires
consume away and constrain the Wise and thinking Few to pronounce them Vanity But as the Things that are seen these present Entertainments of Sense are Temporal so the Things that are not seen those Glories Crowns and Scepters that expect us in the other World are Eternal Heaven is an Eternal Sabbath the Saints Everlasting Rest Their Inheritance is not only Undefil'd but incorruptible likewise and such as fadeth not away There they Labour no more Sin no more Sorrow no more but secure of the Everlasting Fruition of those Unutterable Glories bask themselves in the pleasant Rivers of overflowing Felicity Their Crowns are set with the invaluable and sparkling Diamonds of Immortality Their Glory is immarcessible and suffers no Eclipse and they follow the Lamb in white Robes and shine like the Stars in the Firmament for Ever and Ever O come then thou bright and Everlasting Day and break in upon these sad benighted Souls of ours Put an End to this toilsome this wearisome State and take us into the possession of thine own Rest and Peace that these superficial fallacious Pleasures may never beguile us more but we securely Sabbatize in the Kingdom of God the Eternal Comprehensions of Celestial Glory 3. 'T is our Interest as well as Duty to set our Affection on things above not on things on the Earth because They only refine and spiritualize our Nature widen and enlarge our Faculties and so fit and prepare us for the spiritual and abstracted Entertainments of an immortal and Divine Life whereas all things here degravate and weigh down the Soul reach out to her that Cup of Oblivion which makes her forget her own Nature and Excellencies and ingloriously to take up with the Enjoyments of Brutes When the deluded Soul is once taken Captive by the superficial false glossing Excellencies of temporary Objects and suffers herself to be lull'd asleep in the Lap of sensual Enjoyments they immediately spoil her of her Strength and Beauty and betray her into the hands of her immortal Enemies They entirely shave off those golden Locks which rendred her at once invincible and comely and by clipping her radiant and sublimating Wings confine her to the lower Regions of Sense and Materiality Nay by the delusive Strains of their Magical Songs they so effectually steal away and inchant her Affections that she grows utterly unmindful of her Relations above and resigns herself wholly to their unequal Embraces Her noble Aspirations which could easily ascend above the utmost Limits of corruptible Nature into the boundless Habitations of immortal Blessedness like heavy terrene Exhalations arise now no higher than the Regions of Sense and all the rational and delicious Entertainments of abstracted Contemplations give way to the vile impure suggestions of an earthly sensual and brutish Imagination In short They so vastly decline her from her true and natural Point and sink her so low into the loathsome Faeculencies of the material World that as tho' 't was the Perfection of her Nature to be subservient to the Body and uninterruptedly to enjoy the beggarly Delights and Gratifications of Sensuality she openly Prosecutes the exalted Entertainments of the Divine Life with all the Expressions of Rudeness and Disdain and shamelesly chooseth that for her Portion and Inheritance which is the particular and discriminating Curse of the Serpent Vpon thy Belly shalt thou go and Dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life But now as the scanty disproportionate Enjoyments of Sense naturally debase and impoverish the Soul so do the Contemplation of spiritual Objects unconceivably improve and enlarge all her Faculties As when Moses convers'd with his most glorious Maker and the attending Myriads of Holy Ones upon Mount Sinai he deriv'd upon his Face such Reflexions of their Beauty such bright and vivid Irradations of their excellent Glory that the Children of Israel could not look stedfastly upon it so when we frequently meditate upon the noble and exalted Beings of the other World they naturally dilate and expand all our Faculties sublimate and brighten our enlarged Spirits till they appear like those of their own Company Beautiful and Majestick as the Sons of the Morning They raise such importunate and insatiable Desires such towring and seraphick Aspirations in the Soul as will acquiesce and terminate only in the blissful Enjoyments of the Supreme Good the everlasting Fruition of his incomprehensible Glory The best Enjoyments the noblest Entertainments this World can afford savour of nothing now but Dung and Filthiness to their Palates which can relish nothing but the Dew of Heaven the spiritual Manna the Food of Angels those pure and divine Joys which refresh the Saints above for evermore And thus whereas the Degenerate Soul which is clogg'd with the Propensions of the Animal Life needs no angry Cherub with a flaming Sword to keep her unhallow'd hands from off the Tree of Life her own corrupted Nature as the excellent Pythagorean and Academick have long since observ'd being utterly uncapable of the Joys of Heaven this enlarg'd and purify'd Soul on the contrary is duly qualify'd for the noblest Entertainments of that exalted State From the Suitableness and Congruity of her Faculties with the Objects she will sweetly centre upon those intellectual Pleasures and most amply spend all her Powers upon the Infinite and Essential Goodness as upon her most proper Object the End of her Being the Author and Finisher of her Happiness and Glory In a word She will go away from her earthly Tabernacle ready tun'd to the Musick of Heaven in the first moment of her Entrance skilfully strike in with the Quires of Angels and harmoniously raise her Voice to the Songs of Sion Thus you have my Reasons which enforce the Exhortation in the Text. I shall now briefly deduce from them two or three practical Inferences and conclude 1. Then You have seen how vain insufficient empty and unsatisfying all the Profits and Pleasures of this World are that the whole Earth tho' chang'd into one Paradise would not be able to yield the Soul Satisfaction and likewise if it could that she is not certain of enjoying it one minute Let this Consideration then teach us to pray with the Excellent * Vide Simplicii Orationem apud Jamblichum ad calcem notarum Edit Ox. eandem videas ad finem Epicteti Philosopher That we may know our selves and not devote our Exalted Nature to the empty Gayeties of these momentary Bubbles but apply our Minds constantly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the glorious Realities of the other World the substantial Entertainments of Life and Immortality Let it remind us I say not to trust in these uncertain Riches these broken Reeds these slender Stays of Vanity these Impertinencies Dreams and Nothings but to lay up our Treasures in Heaven those secure and everlasting Store-houses where no Thief approacheth nor Moth corrupteth nor Death which blasts all our Enjoyments here interposeth but we shall reign Kings and Princes with our God for
a word our Duty is no longer clogg'd with a company of useless and troublesome Ceremonies but like the Services of the ancient Patriarchs is more easie and acceptable more plain and simple more humane and natural more becoming the Grandure and Majesty of the Divine Being and more agreeable to the Nature of a spiritual and immortal Soul 'T is only to be happy the most proper and compendious way to love our blessed Maker for himself and our Neighbours for his sake to visit the Fatherless and Widows in their Afflictions and to keep our selves unspotted from the World All which especially if we consider the extraordinary Indulgence of Divine Assistance which we now enjoy render our Salvation Great Wonderful and Glorious And so I come to my Fourth Particular which is to shew the Greatness of our Salvation from the Consideration of those greater Aids of Divine Grace those particular Mercies we now enjoy under the Dispensation of the Gospel whereby we may be freed both from the Guilt and Punishment and also from the Power and Dominion of Sin 4. Now the Law only discovers Sin but affords no degrees of supernatural Power to subdue it but with the Preaching of the Gospel the Holy Ghost was sent down from Heaven who by illuminating preventing and exciting Grace assists Men to perform the Conditions of Salvation and is promis'd in rich and liberal Supplies to all that humbly and ardently pray for him God now pours Water upon him that is thirsty and Floods upon the dry Ground he pours out his Spirit upon our Seed and his Blessing upon our Off-spring whereby they may spring up as among the Grass as Willows by the Water-courses The Law directs to no means for the Expiation of Guilt but peremptorily and dogmatically denounceth Death to all Offenders The Soul that sins shall die But the Gospel delivers us from this terrible Sentence of the Law and allows a Renovation of the Sinner by Repentance to which the plenary Pardon of Sin is assured Wash ye Is 1.16 17 18. make ye clean says God by his Evangelical Prophet put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes cease to do evil learn to do well and though your Sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow though they be red like Crimson they shall be as wool God indeed will not pardon those who flatter themselves in their Sins but they who confess and forsake them shall find Mercy The Law exacts absolute perfect uninterrupted Obedience and for the least Omission or accusing Act past an irrevocable Doom upon the Offender Cursed is the man that continues not in a things written in the Law to do them But the Gospel mitigates and allays this Strictness and Severity calls only for sincere and persevering though imperfect Obedience and propounds such merciful Conditions to the guilty that upon the performance of them they may plead their Pardon seal'd with the Blood of their Redeemer to be sav'd and crown'd in the Day of Judgment And thus whereas the Law worketh nothing but Wrath being as terrible in its Injunctions as 't was at first in its Promulgation the Kingdom of Heaven the Gospel of Peace addresseth it self to us after another manner It speaks to us in a still small Voice the whole Tenour of it you see running in this gentle strain Sin no more Repent and be converted Come to Christ and be refresh'd and find Rest unto your Souls The Grace of God I say which bringeth Salvation doth thus appear teaching us that if the time past of our Lives shall suffice us to have wrought the Will of the Gentiles and we will now in good earnest renounce all our ungodly and worldly Lusts and take care for the time to come faithfully to discharge our Duty to God our Neighbour and Ourselves to live soberly righteously and godly in this present World Sin shall not have Dominion over us God having oblig'd himself by express Promise that he will not suffer us to be tempted above what we are able but that in all our Temptations he will make a way for us to escape that we may be able to bear them So that though Sin is not entirely destroy'd that being the Privilege of Angels and Souls freed from the Fetters of Mortality yet as St. Paul speaks of its Effect Death it has lost its Sting and is only instrumental to the Advancement of the Glory of God who upon our sincere and hearty Repentance and Reformation of our Lives will pardon all our past Offences though never so many and great in themselves and for those daily Failures those Sins of Infirmity those Lapses of Humane Nature which the Best of Men must more or less be subject to as long as they lie under the Disadvantages of Mortality will put them all upon the Score of the Cross 5. The Greatness of the Salvation wrought for us by Christ appears in that he has deliver'd us from that Ignorance and Darkness which the whole World lay in at his Coming Both Jews and Gentiles I confess had some Notices or Conception◠of a Future State but then they were so miserably intricate and obscure so confus'd and uncertain that they were very little better than none at all Those most Thinking and Learned Pagans the Pythagoreans and Platonists after the most diligent Search and Enquiry into these Matters could never advance beyond a Probability all their fine Harangues and rapturous Discourses upon the Immortality of the Soul being Indications rather of their good Wishes than Demonstrations of its Reality Aristotle not only wavers and fluctuates in his Opinion but also Problematically disputes against it though it must be confess'd that in his Book De Animâ he stiles her without any scruple Eternal and Immortal But the Stoicks are as Dogmatical in this Point as in any other Sometimes indeed they talk like Abstracted Beings or pure Intelligences with the noblest Flights of Rhetorick and Fancy decyphering the Exalted Happiness of the Soul when she is entirely loosned from the Clogs of Matter and freely roves up and down in the pure unmixed Regions of Light and Glory But then as though they had lain all this while in a Trance and had only been entertained with the fantastick illusive Representations of a sportive Imagination they for the most part peremptorily determine That Death is not only the Separation of the Soul from the Body but the utter Dissolution likewise or Dissipation of both there being no more after the Death of a Man than was before his Birth viz. Emptiness Insensibility and Darkness Nay when in their abstracted Humours they vouchsafe to allow her a Subsistence without the Body 't is only till the next Universal Conflagration when she and all Created Beings must End and Die together Nor indeed was the Confession of that great Master of Morality Socrates himself much better for concluding his gallant and most excellent Apology before the Areopagites with some glorious
a Prison before the Tribunal of Christ and hear the just Sentence of Eternal Death more solemnly pronounc'd against them before the General Assembly of the Saints and Angels This I say is the deplorable and undone Condition of the Apostate Angels Their Fall is irrecoverable their Sin irremissible and the Decree that is gone out against them irreversible But Man tho' a Being of a much lower Class and an Apostate too finds Favour and Mercy at the hands of his God He vouchsafes him the liberty of Second Thoughts and if we will but be obedient and hearken promiseth an entire Renovation of his Corrupted Nature by the abundant and powerful Communications of his most Holy Spirit Nay so desirous is he of this happy Change that he long prostitutes his Patience as I shall instantly shew more at large to Mens wanton Humours in Expectation of it is contented to lay aside his amazing Glories and seems to divest and strip himself of all his Attributes save that of Mercy His All-seeing Eye graciously overlooks our manifold Sins and Wickednesses and as tho' he saw them not continues to shine upon us with its reviving Brightness His Justice gives way to his Forbearance and Long-suffering and when it takes place 't is so temper'd and qualify'd that in the midst of Judgment he always remembers Mercy Mercy is his Favourite his darling Excellence that lovely and amiable Attribute which is over all his Works and in which we are sure his Soul takes most Delight and Complacency 'T was by this Name he in the Presence and Assembly of his invincible Holy Ones upon Mount Sinai most solemnly proclaim'd himself to his Servant Moses The Lord Exod. 34.6 says he the Lord God merciful and gracious Nay tho' he is the God of all Truth and therefore can no more deceive than be deceived yet as though it had been a small thing thus to have proclaim'd himself before Men and Angels he has likewise in a gracious and wonderful Condescension to the Infirmities of his Creatures and that the broken and contrite Spirit might have the surest Word of Promise that could possibly be given it vouchsaf'd even to interpose his Oath and as solemnly to swear the same thing As I live saith the Lord God Ezek. 33.11 I have no pleasure in the death of the Wicked but that the Wicked turn from his way and live Turn ye turn ye from your evil ways for why will ye die O house of Israel What tender what compassionate Strains are these 'T is as if he had said Since there is no Being so great as my self by my self I have sworn that as sure as I am God that eternal and faithful Being with whom is no Variableness or Shadow of Turning I desire not the Death of any Sinner but had rather ten thousand times over that you would all from the least to the greatest hear my Voice in this Accepted Time this day of Salvation and repent and be sav'd For now do I freely offer you my Grace which I most passionately beseech and intreat you to accept and to return and live Turn ye then turn ye unto me for why will ye die Why will ye weary me out with your continued Provocations Why will ye constrain me by your unworthy and most wretched Abuses of my Grace your insufferable Grievings of my Spirit at length to depart from you and to leave you to die in your Sins Is Eternal Death so desirable a thing Is Heaven and my Glory so despicable and vile Why then let me ask you again since you have my free Grace to enable you to Return nay since 't is far easier for you to be saved than to be damned why why will ye die O house of Israel Thus does our Heavenly Father by the most solemn Protestations demonstrate his Everlasting Love and Kindness to Mankind And how exactly do all his Dispensations correspond with these his gracious Declarations With what Patience I say and Forbearance does he deal even with the greatest of Sinners How affectionately intreat them to fly into the Harbour and to secure themselves by a timely Reformation from the Wrath which is to come Such various Ways and Methods does he contrive to bring them to Repentance so earnestly beg and sollicite them to accept in time the Terms of Salvation that one would think 't was his own not their Interest that Men should be sav'd He always like a generous Enemy declares Sinners his just Anger and Displeasure and excites them before it be too late to prepare to Meet him and with Weapons which will most certainly prevail viz. Prayers and Tears to disarm his Justice Thus when within the small compass of about two thousand years his gracious and marvellous Works of Creation and Providence were so far from being prais'd and had in Honour that all Flesh had degenerated from this great End of its Creation and most shamefully corrupted its way upon the Earth tho' he was griev'd to speak after the manner of Men at the very Heart and it repented him that he had made Man yet he could not immediately withdraw his Hand and let him fall into Ruine but mercifully prolong'd the day of Vengeance and gave his sinful Creatures time and space for Repentance He resolv'd indeed that the Spirits which he had made should not Eternally remain in their Bodies as Slaves and Vassals to those Instruments of Unrighteousness but that if Men repented not he would open the Windows of Heaven and break up the Fountains of the great Deep and bring in a Flood upon them that should sweep them all away But before he can do this Noah a Preacher of Righteousness must daily assure them of their Danger and he waits their Repentance a hundred and twenty Years Thus too tho' the Sins of Sodom and Gomorrah were very grievous and cryed loud and the Cry of them ascended up into the Ears of the Lord of Sabbaoth yet could not they prevail with him to let loose his Thunder to overwhelm them with a swift and deserv'd Destruction but on the contrary to prevent if possible their Ruine he by his good Providence so order'd and dispos'd things that Lot a holy and pious Person living amongst them should first lay before them their prodigious Impieties and warn them to prevent the heavy Judgments due to them by a speedy Repentance And when notwithstanding all this they sinned yet more and forc'd his Holy Spirit to forsake them utterly by their intolerable Fornications yet would not his Goodness then give him leave to execute upon them the Fierceness of his Indignation but still stay'd his hand and engag'd him to be gracious As though 't was possible for him to be deceiv'd it induc'd him to make a further Enquiry to go down and see whether they had indeed done altogether according to the Cry of it which was come unto him Nay tho' their Sins and Provocations were so many and so great yet so much
by a Bull fix'd up by some Priests in London pretended to absolve all her Subjects from their Fealty and Allegiance Witness that Unfortunate Prince Henry III. of France who within the Compass of this last Century was stabb'd by one of his own Subjects James Clement a Monk only for favouring the Protestant Religion Which tho' an Execrable Villainous and Diabolical Act was so far from being censur'd or condemn'd by Sixtus Quintus then Pope that his Holiness both approv'd and also highly extoll'd it in a long Consistory Oration calling it an excellent glorious and memorable exploit not atchiev'd without the special Providence and Appointment of the Great and Good God and the Suggestion and Assistance of his most Holy Spirit Witness that grievous Massacre which in our own memory the Huguenots suffered in France which tho' equalling at least the heat of any of the ten famous Persecutions by the Heathen Emperors was yet applauded by Innocent the Eleventh as a thing pleasing unto God a Sacrifice of sweet savour which would advance that bloody Tyrant to a very eminent Station in the Regions of Immortality 'T would be endless to run through all the Butcheries they have committed No Design so horrible and bloody no Attempt so mischievous and treacherous no Enterprize so base and cruel but what you may find committed by them under the sacred Name of Religion and Conscience For Witness lastly the black unparallell'd Undertaking of this Day when against all the Laws of God and Man of Justice and Gratitude of Humanity and Reason one of the Best of Kings and most Indulgent of Princes was with the Queen and Prince at one Thunder Clap to have been sent to Heaven One might reasonable expect to hear of some unusual Provocation that rais'd these Mens Spirits to such an incredible height of Immanity But alas the most enraged of them never seriously alledg'd any and if they had the very Stones in the Wall would have found a Voice to have condemn'd them For if Mercy and Goodness if Kindness and Benevolence if Paternal Care and Royal Indulgence have any Charms or Endearments they all concentred in that Excellent Prince they thought to have destroy'd Past Experience had richly demonstrated how impatiently these Blood-hounds thirsted after Royal Blood yet so gloriously did his Mercy triumph over his other Virtues that he not only wink'd at their Misdeeds but gave them likewise free Access to his Person honoured some of them with particular Dignities and as he declares * Pag. 253. himself so animated and encouraged them by his as much unexpected as undeserved Favours that they did directly expect and assuredly promise themselves Liberty of Conscience and Equality with his other Subjects in all things And yet as tho' we must first cease to be Men before we can commence Papists and renounce both our Reason and Conscience to become servants to his Holiness tho' under the benign Influence of his so happy Reign they bask'd themselves in the pleasant Rivers of overflowing Felicity tho' I say they sat under his Shadow with great Delight whilst his Banner over them was Love the poysonous Seeds of that pestilential Heresie had as appears from their own Confessions so infected or rather quite choak'd the good Seed of Nature that notwithstanding all the Obligations that Heaven and Earth could lay upon them Hell got the upper hand and they thirsted after his Blood Good God! That Men who profess themselves the Disciples of a poor despis'd and crucifi'd Saviour whose Life tho' he had all the heavenly Host at his Command was one continued Lecture of Humility Meekness and Self-denial and whose whole Doctrine resolvable into this one Precept Love one another should be so far from following his Example in saving Mens Lives and doing all the Good they can that they go about with his Profess'd Adversary seeking whom they may devour That the Professors of that Religion which is made up of Purity Piety Peace and Holiness should delight in cruel Treacheries bloody Massacres and tragical Murthers nay think by so doing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as our * Joh. 16.2 Saviour speaks even to offer a Sacrifice to God as tho' he would be pleas'd with that sort of Worship which the most barbarous and brutish part of Mankind us'd to give to the Devil Does it not seize you with Amazement to think that the Servants of the Prince of Peace should delight above all others to imbrue their hands in Blood and that the Followers of the meek Lamb of God should degenerate into ravenous Wolves and Tygers That the Vicar of Christ who expresly declares that his Kingdom is not of this World should magisteriously take upon him to dispose of Crowns and Scepters and insolently to trample upon the Necks of Kings and Emperours Certainly if these things are indeed consonant to the Principles of Christanity I know no Reason that great Statist Machiavel had to complain that it rendered Men unfit for cruel Undertakings or why those Heathen Emperours which Persecuted it most should not be canoniz'd for Saints since they undoubtedly did the Office of good Patriots in endeavouring to rid the World of such Men who made it their business to turn it upside down But Quid Christiani laeserant Regna terrena How the Christians had caus'd any Molestation or Damage to the Kingdoms of the Earth was justly demanded by St. Austin For tho' from their frequent Discourses of that Kingdom which they expected hereafter their Enemies erroneously suspected them to be disaffected to the Government 't is abundantly evident both from their Writings and Practice that they were Caesar's best Friends They did not indeed with his other subjects exalt him above the Level of despis'd Mortality and therefore they neither gave him Sacrifice nor swore by his Genius but what really became good and pious Men they fought his Battels honour'd his Person rever'd his Power paid his Tribute offer'd up Prayers for him and obey'd his Laws unless where they evidently contradicted the Laws of Christ and where they did submitted to the most cruel Penalties they laid upon them with the greatest Calmness and Serenity of Soul And when notwithstanding all this they were accus'd as indeed they often were as Enemies to Caesar they thought it highly concern'd them for the Honour of their Religion by all means possible to wipe off these Stains which were falsly laid upon them and accordingly we find them in their Apologies and other Writings with all the Zeal imaginable vindicating themselves from such malicious Aspersions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Cat. 10. says St. Cyril 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We beseech God for the common Peace of the Churches for the Quiet of the World for our Kings their Souldiers and Auxiliaries And †Ap. c. 30. Tertullian Precantes sumus Omnes sempèr pro omnibus imperatoribus and so on i. e. We all do continually pray that God would give our Emperours a long Life a