Pharisees ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven OF all other Sects among the Jews the Scribes and Pharisees were the Chief and by their Learning and the outward shew that they made of Religion had gained an extraordinary Respect and Veneration from the common People who looked upon them as infallible Doctors of the Chair and received all their Tenets and Traditions as Oracles And as they were highly esteemed of by the People so they had also a very good opinion of themselves they loved the uppermost Rooms at feasts and the chief Seats in the Synagogues and greetings in the Markets and to be called of Men Rabbi they despised all other Persons in comparison of themselves and as they sat in Moses his Seat so no doubt but they expected as honourable a place in the Bosom of Abraham But tho' this fair outside of theirs appeared very lovely and took much with the People yet our Saviour saw through it and discerned that there was nothing but Rottenness and Hypocrisie in their Hearts that though they made clean the outside of the Cup and of the Platter yet within they were full of Extortion and Excess that though they fasted often and made long Prayers yet it was only for a pretence to devour Widows houses that though they paid Tithe of Mint and Anise and Cummin yet they omitted the weightier Matters of the Law Judgment Mercy and Faith and that the Gate of Heaven would prove too streight to give any Entrance to their broad Phylacteries and large Borders of their Garments and therefore he often charges his Disciples to beware of treading in their steps not to acquiesce in such a vain and Hypocritical Ostentation of Religion which however it may gain the Applause of Men who can see no further than the outside will be nothing worth when it comes to be examined before his Tribunal but to labour for Sincerity and Pureness of Heart without which no Man shall see God For I say c. In the handling of which words I shall endeavour 1. to shew you what the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees was which will not be thought worthy to be admitted into the Kingdom of Heaven 2. What manner of Righteousness ours must be that will procure us an entrance thither 1. For the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees if we examine it by the Character which the Holy Evangelists give us of it we shall find it extreamly faulty and indeed it is impossible to suppose it to be otherwise when we consider how many sharp Reproofs and dreadfull Woes are denounced against it by our Saviour The chief Particulars which render it faulty and deficient are these 1. Their Righteousness could not be acceptable in the sight of God for as much as in general they had a very false Notion of the Obligation of the Law of God which they interpreted only in the literal Sence of the words and thought that it extended only to outward actions but reached not to the inward Thoughts and Intentions of the mind So long as they washed their Hands they regarded not the foulness of their Heart and so long as they kept themselves free from any open and external Breach of the Commandments they thought themselves innocent though their mind was never so much set upon wickedness So long as they abstained from open Adultery they thought they might lust after a Woman and still be chast So long as they kept their Hands from shedding any Blood they thought it no sin or at least a small and venial one such as God would take no notice of to hate their Brother in their Heart So long as they did not bear false witness against their Neighbour before a Judge in open Court they thought it no Crime to backbite and slander him and that they might securely blast his Reputation and wound his good Name without any prejudice to their own Souls So long as they abstained from plain Theft and kept their Hands from picking and stealing they thought that like the Priest and the Levite in the Parable they might innocently pass by their Neighbour whom they saw wounded by Thieves and that no Obligation lay upon them to relieve him in his Distress Thus they grosly erred in their Interpretation of the Law which reaches not only our Actions but our words and our thoughts and confines our Tongues and our Hearts as well as our Hands Such Commandments as these they taught to be the least Commandments that the Breach of them was a very light and trivial sin and that for an idle Word or for a lustful or malitious thought or Intention provided that it broke not out into Action there was no fear of Damnation But our Saviour passes a very severe sentence upon them for teaching this Doctrine in the verse immediately before my Text Whosoever saith he shall break one of these least Commandments and shall teach Men so he shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven that is he shall not be accounted worthy to enter into that Kingdom And then he confutes this false Doctrine of theirs in the several branches of it in the following part of the Chapter Ye have heard saith he that it was said by them of old time Thou shalt not kill and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the Judgment but I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his Brother without a cause shall be in danger of the Judgment Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time Thou shalt not commit Adultery but I say unto you that whosoever looketh on a Woman to lust after her hath committed Adultery with her already in his Heart Ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time Thou shalt not forswear they self but shalt perform unto the Lord thine Oaths but I say unto you Swear not at all but let your Commuunicatian be Yea yea Nay nay for whosoever is more than these cometh of Evil. Ye have heard that it hath been said Thou shalt love thy Neighbour and hate thine Enemy but I say unto you Love your Enemies bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you This then was the first thing wherein the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees was deficient They misunderstood the sense and meaning of the Law which our Saviour in this Sermon of his Restores to it self and interprets in its full and proper Latitude And secondly as it must needs be that Uno absurdo dato mille sequuntur upon this first false principle they built a second and having confined the Sense of the Law to so narrow a Compass they thereupon concluded that they were able to keep and perform it to a Title without any Supernatural Grace and Assistance from Heaven And indeed if this Construction of the Law had been true it is possible that this Conclusion which
in no case obtain an entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven let us in the next place consider what manner of Righteousness ours must be which will bring us to those Mansions of Glory And 1. it must not have any of these Faults with which the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees was tainted and rendred odious and abominable in the sight of God Their Righteousness as ye have heard was such as consisted only in the performance of external Actions according to the literal Sense of the Law but ours must proceed further even to the cleansing and purifying our Hearts from all manner of evil thoughts Blessed are the pure in Heart saith our Saviour for they shall see God They and they only shall enjoy that beatifical Vision whose Heart is undefiled for it is that which God chiefly respects and so long as that is right and sincere as to the Main though we do sometimes through the Frailty of our Nature and the strength of some Temptation that hath overcome us fall into any sin yet we shall certainly obtain Pardon at the Hand of God upon our true Repentance They thought themselves well enough if they did no evil nay more than so if evil was done them by another Person they thought they might with a safe Conscience revenge themselves but our Master hath commanded us not to resist Evil but if any man smite us upon the Right cheek to turn to him the other also and not only not to hurt our Neighbour but to love our Enemies to bless them that curse us to do good to them that hate us and to pray for them which despitefully use us and persecute us It is not sufficient for us that our outward Actions are not Evil but we must take heed to our Words and our Thoughts we must make a Covenant with our Eyes keep our Mouth with a bridle that we offend not in our Tongue and bring into Captivity every Thought to the Obedience of Christ for for every idle Word and every misguided Thought we shall give an account at the Day of Judgment 2. Our Righteousness must not be such as makes us presume that we can of our selves and by our own strength keep all the Commandments and fulfill the whole Law Alass we are not able of our selves to keep any one Commandment and S. James tells us that if we offend in one point we are guilty of all The Scripture hath most plainly and fully discovered to us our weakness in this case that we are so far from being able to perform any good Work that we cannot of our selves so much as think a good Thought without the Holy Spirit of God inspires it into our Hearts who work in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure that there is not a just man upon Earth that doth good and sins not but that in many things we offend all and that if we say that we have no Sin we deceive our selves and the Truth is not in us These and the like expressions in Scripture if we consider them are sufficient to satisfie us that we are so far from being able to keep the whole Law that we cannot perform any one Title of it as we ought and therefore we must not as the Scribes and Pharisees did place our Righteousness in this that we are able and do perform an intire Obedience to the Law And if so much less must we in the third place as they did and the Church of Rome who follows their Example doth at this day boast of and Glory in our own works as if they were meritorious in the sight of God The Scripture every where condemns this as the most dangerous and damnable Pride with which our Hearts can possibly be infected and nothing will more certainly bar the Gate of Heaven against us than our supposing that we can deserve that it should flie open unto us How can a Man be just with God saith Job and In thy sight saith the Psalmist no man living shall be justified And if no Man living can pretend to be just in the sight of God so as to escape his Condemnation surely much less can any Man pretend to have done him so great service as to merit a Reward from him No all boasting and glorying on our part is utterly excluded except it be glorying in our infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon us We are taught a quite contrary Lesson a Lesson of Meekness and Humility when we have done our best to say that we are unprofitable Servants and to desire that the iniquity even of our most Holy things and the shamefull Nakedness of our Righteousness may be covered and hid from the pure Eyes of God by the white and spotless Robe of the Righteousness of Christ Fourthly we must not as the Pharisees did and as too many that tread in their steps do at this day place our Righteousness in our forwardness to censure the Lives and Conversations of other Persons and in our backwardness to enquire into our own Censoriousness in some men's Opinion passes for a Gospel-virtue and he that is most forward to speak evil of others and especially of his betters of his Superiours and Governours is for so doing lookt upon to be the greatest Saint But surely these are Saints of a new stamp and I know no reason why they arrogate that Title to themselves except it be by an Antiphrasis because they walk directly contrary to the Doctrine of the Gospel which hath expresly commanded us not to judge lest we be judged our selves and to speak evil of no Man especially not to despise Dominion and speak evil of Dignities except we have an ambition to be of the number of those mockers which S Jude prophesied should come in the last time who should walk after their own ungodly Lusts Separating themselves sensual having not the Spirit all incomparable qualifications for Saint-ship Fifthly we must not as the Pharisees did put on a shew of Religion purposely to gain the Applause of Men and to carry on our worldly Designs I am sure this unhappy Nation hath swarmed with Pharisees enough of this sort Men that with a specious shew of Piety led captive silly Women beguiled unstable Souls and gained Admiration of the credulous and easy Vulgar that with sanctified Pretentions Holy Looks frequent Fastings long Prayers and canting and treasonable Sermons carried on the most villainous and accursed Designs that ever publickly disgraced Christianity And God grant that there be not too many such Pharisees among us still but I pass them by their Names are odious and their Religion scandalous Lastly we must not as the Pharisees did and we know who doth Still preferr unwritten Traditions before the holy Scriptures God hath caused that sacred Book to be written on purpose for our Instruction and hath therein fully revealed so much of his Will to us as is sufficient for us to know in order to our obtaining everlasting
they drew from it might have been so too for if the Law had required no more of us than the bare abstaining from those outward Acts of Adultery and Murder and Theft and Perjury and the like which in express Terms it forbids perhaps then we might have fulfilled it by our own strength But when a wanton Glance is Adultery when a revengefull Thought is Murder when Usury or Extortion at least is Theft when not giving to the Poor is stealing from the Lord when a tatling Tongue bears false witness and every idle word is to be accounted for at the Day of Judgment who then can pretend to innocence who then can say that he hath made his Heart clean and that he is pure from his Sin No the best of Men must then be forced to acknowledge himself to be a debtor to the Law that he falls more than seven times in a day and that there is not a just Man upon Earth that doth good and sins not And yet that the Pharisees had this fond opinion of themselves is plain from the Parable of that proud Pharisee that justified himself in his Prayer to God Almighty Luke 18.11 God I thank thee saith he that I am not as other Men are Extortioners unjust Adulterers or even as this Publican I fast twice in the week I give Tythes of all that I possess and from the confident Answer of the young Man Matth. 19.20 who when our Saviour shewed him that the way to enter into Life was to keep the Commandments and what those Commandments were presently replies All these things have I kept from my youth but all this while though he thought that he had exactly kept the Commandments of the second Table he understood not the meaning of those of the first he knew not that Covetousness was Idolatry for when our Saviour to compleat his Righteousness and make him perfect exhorts him to sell all that he hath and give to the poor and to come and follow him though he promised him the Recompence of Treasure in Heaven yet he went away sorrowful for he had great Possessions upon Earth and was loath to part with them But thirdly they stay'd not here but they proceeded a step further and having entertained that false Opinion That they were able to perform a perfect Obedience to the Law they thereupon perswaded themselves that that Obedience of theirs was meritorious in the Sight of God and they boldly justified themselves upon the account of their own Works and arrogantly boasted of them even to God himself as ye may see by the instance I but now mentioned of the Pharisee that trusted in his own Righteousness and despised the Publican Fourthly this good Opinion they had of themselves puft them up with so much pride and vain Glory that they scorned and despised all Men that were not of their own Sect. They were so well satisfied and pleased with their own virtues that they took no care to examine their own hearts but they made it their business to invade the Prerogative of God to search the hearts of other Men and one of the most remarkable Instances of their Piety was their forwardness to censure and condemn the Lives and Conversations of their Neighbours Let a Man behave himself never so innocently and blamelesly both towards God and towards Man yet if he was not one of them he must pass for a Sinner The Temperance of John the Baptist if it be tried at their bar would be judged to proceed from his being possessed with a Devil and the free and chearful Conversation of our Saviour to be Gluttony and Wine-bibbing Friendship and Fellowship with Publicans and Sinners Fifthly they did all their good Works for an ill End and Purpose out of a vain-glorious Desire to gain the Applause of Men for this end they made long Prayers in the Synagogues and in the Corners of the Streets in the most publick places they could find that they might be seen of Men and perhaps none at all in their Closet For this end they made broad their Phylacteries and enlarged the Borders of their Garments disfigured their faces when they fasted and sounded a Trumpet before they did their Alms they put on demure and sanctified Looks that the People might have their piety in admiration when all the while it was nothing but gross hypocrisie and they made Religion only a stalking horse to their worldly interest Sixthly and lastly they preferred their own Traditions before the written Word of God upon which account they are sharply reproved by our Saviour Matt. 15. Why saith he do you transgress the commandment of God by your tradition For God commanded saying Honour thy Father and Mother and he that curseth Father or Mother let him die the death But ye say Whosoever shall say to his Father or his Mother it is a gift by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me and honour not his Father or his Mother he shall be free Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition Among these traditions of theirs were those of washing of Cups and of Pots and of Brazen Vessels and of tables but above all that which they observed with the greatest preciseness and strictness imaginable was their washing of their Hands before they eat which as the learned Dr. Hammond tells us upon that occasion they held to be so necessary and indispensable a duty that one of their Rabbies saith That he that takes meat with unwashed Hands is worthy of Death and that the same person being in Prison and having some water given him for his use to wash and to drink having accidentally spilt one half of it he washed his Hands in the Remainder thinking it more necessary to do so than to drink and to die than to violate the tradition of his Ancestours This is in brief the Summ and Substance of the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees as we find it described to us in the holy Scriptures and if we mark it narrowly and consider on the one hand the great veneration they had for unwritten Traditions their false and corrupt interpretation of the holy Scriptures and their great confidence and trust in the merits of their own works and on the other hand their rash and intolerable censoriousness and the ungoverned liberty which they gave to their tongues their vain-glorious Ostentation of Religion their excessive Pride and their ambitious desire of being accounted Saints the Children of Abraham and the precious People of the Lord it seems to be a compleat mixture of Popery and Phanaticism and however they pretend now to be ashamed one of the other and are at so much odds and variance that a large Kingdom is too little to contain them both yet there was a time when they shook hands together were both peaceably united in one mans breast Having thus taken a view of the false and Hypocritical Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees which shall
saith God Isa 5.4 that is as much as if he had said I have spared for no care nor pains nor cost and could not possibly do any more in it than I did So here in my Text where shall the Vngodly and the Sinner appear intimates to us that they shall not be able to appear at all but shall be cast for ever out of God's Presence when in the great and terrible Day of the Lord they shall look upon him whom they have pierced they shall be confounded with Horrour and shall wonder and perish The words offer to our Consideration these four things two different sorts of Persons the Righteous and the Wicked and the two different Ends of these Persons and their unalterable Estates in the next World Salvation of the one and Damnation of the other So that we may resolve the Text into these two Propositions 1. The Righteous shall be scarcely saved 2. The Wicked shall most certainly be damned First The Righteous shall scarcely be saved In speaking to which Proposition I shall first shew you who are here meant by the Righteous And secondly I shall shew you why they are here said to be scarcely saved First I shall shew you who are here meant by the Righteous and 't is a far easier matter to describe than either to find out their Persons or to imitate their Example For though Christian Charity obliges to judge no Man rashly but to hope the best of all Men yet in such a Deluge of Profaneness and Impiety as hath now overflowed the whole World we may look for Judgment but behold Oppression for Righteousness but behold a Cry Isa 5.7 We may easily mistake the Shadow for the Substance and a Pharisaical Ostentation of Righteousness may impose upon the Charity of some Men so far as to make them reverence a Hypocrite and be ready to canonize a Person whose Name God hath blotted out of the Book of Life For if the All-seeing Eye of God could discover but one just Person in so great a City as Sodom nay but one righteous Man Noah upon the Face of the whole Earth surely we can expect to find but few righteous now when we have great Reason to apprehend that the End of all things is at hand and Sin abounds to such a Degree that it seems to have made the World as ripe now for the last Deluge of Fire as it was of old for that of Water And yet in the Midst of this perverse and crooked Generation amongst whom the Divine Providence hath appointed us to sojourn it is hard to meet with any Man that doth not desire to be accounted righteous except some notorious and profligate Wretches that bid open Defiance to God and Goodness and pride themselves in being the Enemies of Heaven For Virtue is so lovely and beautiful that she commands Respect and Reverence even from her professed Enemies and extorts Applause out of the Mouth of Vice her self All Men commend her but few embrace her Many there are that render to her the calves of their lips but few their heart The Drunkard will preach Temperance over his full Cups The Extortioner will magnifie Justice and Honesty and yet still grind the Faces of the Poor The ambitious Man will extol Humility but he loves it in others not in himself and is never better pleased than when he sees his Brethren at his Footstool that he himself may be exalted The covetous Man will pretend as much as any one to Charity but when any of Christ's afflicted Members naked or hungry or thirsty or sick or imprisoned implores his help he may perhaps as St. James speaks bid them depart in peace be ye warmed and filled and that is all the Charity that he will afford them The common Swearer will exclaim sometimes against Profaneness and be ready to ask God pardon almost after every Oath and swear again with the next Breath The wanton if he light into severe and grave Company will sometimes pretend to abhor his darling Sin and preach a Lecture of Chastity when perhaps he hath made an assignation the very next Hour to meet his Minion Thus is Holiness and Piety so excellent in its own Nature so desirable a Perfection that almost all Men praise it but few practise it Every Man though he loves the Wages of Unrighteousness is ready to wish with Balaam that he may die the Death of the Righteous but how few are there that are careful to live his life Certainly such Persons as these are not the Righteous that are here meant in my Text who shall be accounted worthy through much Tribulation to enter into the Kingdom of God but they are notorious Hypocrites whose hope shall perish But to proceed further there are another sort of Men in the World whose Righteousness though it exceeds that of the Scribes and Pharisees yet if it be weighed in the balance of the Sanctuary it will be found too light And though it may commend their Memory to Posterity and raise a lasting Name for them here upon Earth yet it will never be able to write one for them in the Book of Life I mean Men who in general are of honest and upright Conversation who endeavour to frame and order their lives so according to God's word that no Man can find any just reason to question their Title to Salvation but nevertheless they have some beloved sin or other known perhaps to none but God and themselves which will hinder their flight towards Heaven and though the Pleasure they take in it makes them willing to think it but a little one it will at the last prove so big as to hinder their entrance at the strait Gate But come what will on 't they can by no means be perswaded to part with it but they hope God will bear with them in this one thing as Naaman said to the Prophet Elisha 2 Kings 5.18 When I bow down my self in the House of Rimmon the Lord pardon thy Servant in this thing They can willingly conform to God's Pleasure in other things and contentedly endeavour to keep all his Commandments but this one tho' as S. James assures us by ossending but in one point they are guilty of all by indulging themselves in the wilful breach of any one of God's Commandments they transgress the whole Law and utterly exclude themselves from all hopes of Salvation Such an one was the rich young Man Matth. 19. that came to enquire of our Saviour what good thing he must do to have eternal Life No doubt he was to all outward appearance of an unblameable Conversation and of good Repute in the place where he lived and Jesus himself began to love him when he heard him give so good an account of himself and found him desirous to be still further instructed in his duty But little did the young Man expect so severe a Command as to sell all his Possessions and to take up the Cross and follow Christ This
as he himself required with which his Justice is fully satisfied and his Wrath appeased And this was that Oblation of himself of his own most precious Body and Blood when he poured out his soul unto death to be an offering for sin upon the Altar of the Cross Christ being come an High-Priest of good things to come by a greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands that is to say not of this building neither by the blood of goats and calves but by his own blood entred in once into the holy place having obtained eternal redemption for us Hebr. 9.11 12. And without looking any further that one Epistle to the Hebrews may satisfie us in this Point the main Design of it being to convince the Jews that Jesus Christ was such an High-Priest as we are speaking of Who was once offered to bear the sins of many and who shall appear unto them that look for him the second time without sin unto salvation Secondly as our blessed Saviour hath offered this holy spotless and most acceptable Sacrifice of himself unto God for us so doth he likewise continually intercede for us at his right hand pleading the merits of his most precious Death and Passion in our behalf that we thereby may be delivered from the Curse of the Law and receive the adoption of Sons Christ is not entred into the holy places made with hands which are the figures of the true but into heaven it self now to appear in the presence of God for us Hebr. 9.24 and Hebr. 7.25 He tells us That he is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them So Rom. 8.34 Who is he that condemneth It is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again who is even at the right hand of God who also maketh intercession for us And if any man sin saith S. John we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous 1 Joh. 2.1 Thus then it is evident that our blessed Saviour is by the holy Evangelists and Apostles that have given us a true and faithful account of him represented to be as great an High-Priest as it was possible that the Messias could be for who can be higher than he that is set down at the right hand of God And this naturally brings me to the Consideration of his last and highest Office which is that of a King For surely he that is exalted unto the right hand of God can be no less than a King in the highest Degree a King of Saints and Angels a King of Kings and Lord of Lords Let the Jews perswade themselves what they please concerning the greatness of the Kingdom of their imaginary Messias whom they fondly dream is yet to come into the world though they cannot deny that the time prefixed for his coming by the Prophets is long since past yet a greater King they cannot imagine him to be than we know and are fully assured by the unanimous Testimony of most faithful and unexceptionable Witnesses that our blessed Saviour already is who is and ever shall be a King upon Gods holy hill of Sion whom he hath exalted and set at his own right hand in the heavenly places far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named not only in this world but also in that which is to come and put all things under his feet and given him to be the head over all things to the Church Eph. 1.20 21 22. That our blessed Saviour was to be such a King as this the Angel Gabriel expresly foretold to the Virgin Mary at his Conception Luk. 1.31 Behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bring forth a son and shalt call his name Jesus He shall be great and shall be called the son of the highest and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever and of his Kingdom there shall be no end Which words plainly imply that he was not to be a temporal King a King of this World whose Kings and Kingdoms shall all perish and come to an end but a spiritual King of a Kingdom which is everlasting Such a King as this our Lord owned himself to be I appoint unto you a Kingdom saith he to his Disciples as my father hath appointed unto me that ye may eat and drink at my table in my Kingdom and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel Luk. 22.29 30. A King even Pilate himself seemed positively to declare him by the Superscription upon his Cross Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews which he would by no means alter at the request of the chief Priests Such a King he most powerfully demonstrated himself to be by his triumphant Resurrection from the Dead Such a King he yet more fully proved himself to be by his most glorious Ascension into Heaven Having first told his Disciples that all power is given unto him in heaven and in earth he shews them the truth of it by ocular Demonstration visibly in their sight ascending up into Heaven to take Possession of his eternal Kingdom sending moreover two Angels to comfort them and assure them that he the same Jesus which was taken up from them into heaven shall so come in like manner as they had seen him go into heaven Act. 1.11 And after all this according to his Promise as a King that was ascended on high that had led captivity captive and received gifts for men he bestows upon them a gift fit for the King of Heaven to bestow upon his choicest Favourites even that of the Holy Ghost upon the Day of Pentecost thereby to the astonishment of all that beheld them impowering them to work Miracles and to speak with Tongues in order to the accomplishing that great work about which he employed them which was to proclaim him over all the World to be such a King such a Saviour and to gather him a Church out of all the Nations of the Earth declaring that unto all those that will believe and obey him and receive him for their Soveraign Lord and King he will most assuredly be the authour of eternal salvation having redeemed them from the Curse of the Law and purchased for them the adoption of sons and that when at the last day he shall come again in the Glory of his Father to judge the world in righteousness he shall then as an omnipotent King whose Power nothing can resist execute Vengeance upon all his Enemies and reward all his faithful and obedient Subjects with everlasting Felicity receiving them into his heavenly Kingdom there to Reign together with him in Glory as Kings and Priests unto God for ever thus I have proved to you I hope beyond all Contradiction except such as proceeds from wilful and obstinate Malice or notorious Ignorance or Prejudice which must
Heavens the highest and most glorious Heaven which is the Imperial Throne of the Majesty of God far above all those Celestial Orbs which are visible to our Sight wherein the Sun and Moon and Stars perform their constant and regular Motions according to those Laws which God gave them at their first Creation Through all these Heavens our Saviour passed in his Ascension as is plain from my Text if we consult the Original for what our Translation Renders is passed into the Heavens is in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is passed through the Heavens i. e. through all these visible Heavens into that invisible one wherein he dwelt with his Father in inaccessible Light and Glory and Majesty from all Eternity And that this is the meaning of that Heaven into which our Saviour is ascended is plain from that Expression of our Apostle which I cited before Hebr. 7.26 where he tells us That such an High-priest became us as was made higher than the Heavens And likewise from that Eph. 4.10 He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all Heavens Thus ye see what is meant by that Heaven into which our Saviour is ascended For the second Thing how and in what manner he is said to have ascended thither I answer he ascended not by any local Motion or Translation of his Divine Nature from Earth to Heaven for that being Infinite and Omnipresent filling all places at once cannot be supposed to be capable of being removed any whither where before it was not but he ascended by translating his humane Nature his whole Man both Body and Soul from Earth where he had assumed that Nature and hypostatically united it to his Divinity unto the Right Hand of God in the highest Heavens And that Christ is thus ascended into Heaven the Scripture most amply and plainly assures us First this Ascension of his was typified and prefigured under the Mosaical Law by the High-priests entering once a Year into the Holy of Holies to make an Atonement for himself and the People as our Apostle shews us chap. 9. of this Epistle The Holy Ghost this signifying saith he That the way into the holiest of all was not made manifest while as the first Tabernacle was yet standing which was a Figure for the time then present But Christ being come an High-priest of good Things to come by a greater and more perfect Tabernacle not made with Hands that is to say not of this Building neither by the Blood of Goats and Calves but by his own Blood entered in once into the Holy Place having obtained Eternal Redemption for us Again this Ascension of our Saviour into Heaven was Typified by those extraordinary Translations of Enoch and Elias Secondly it was foretold by the Prophets as appears by that of Ps 68.18 Thou hast ascended on high thou hast led Captivity Captive Thou hast received Gifts for Men which place St. Paul expresly applies to our Saviour's Ascension Eph. 4.8 and Ps 24. is almost all of it a prophetical Description of this Ascension and is therefore very fitly appointed by our Church to be Read upon that Day which we set apart for the Commemoration of it To the same effect is that Prophecy of Isai chap. 63.1 where the Prophet describes the Holy Host of Heaven rejoicing and wondering at the Glorious Ascension of our Lord into those everlasting Mansions Who is this say they that cometh from Edom with died Garments from Bozrah This that is Glorious in his Apparel travelling in the greatness of his Strength I that speak in Righteousness mighty to Save And as our Saviour's Ascension was typified and foretold in the Old Testament so we find that all those Types and Prophecies were made good and fulfilled in the New There we have a most faithful and punctual Account as of his Nativity his Passion his Resurrection from the Dead so likewise of his Ascension into Heaven This we find that our Saviour himself plainly foretold some Days before it came to pass Go to my Brethren saith he to Mary Magdalen and say unto them I ascend unto my Father and your Father and to my God and your God Joh. 20.17 And when this was to be fulfilled that there might not want sufficient Witnesses to attest the truth of his Ascension the Evangelist St. Luke tells us That when he was about to ascend up to his Father he led his Disciples out as far as to Bethany and that there he lift up his Hands and Blessed them and that while he Blessed them he was parted from them and carried up into Heaven But still further lest any should doubt notwithstanding our Saviour's being visibly parted from his Disciples and received up into the Air whether he did really ascend into Heaven or not to remove all manner of occasion of such doubting God immediately sends two Angels from Heaven to certifie them that he was really ascended thither for the story tells us Acts 1.10 That while they looked stedfastly toward Heaven as he went up behold two men stood by them in white Apparel which also said Ye men of Galilee why stand ye gazing up into Heaven This same Jesus which is taken up from you into Heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into Heaven Now there remains no ground at all of doubting whether our Saviour be really ascended into Heaven or no since what the Apostle's eyes were not able visible to behold the Testimony of two Angels hath undeniably confirmed Thus much briefly of my first particular that Christ our Redeemer is truly and really ascended into Heaven i.e. that his humane Nature both Body and Soul are actually by the Omnipotent Power of his God-head translated into the highest Heavens The next thing to be considered is that he is ascended into Heaven as our High-priest It is true that Christ ascended into Heaven for his own sake as well as for ours For surely he that for the expiation of God's Wrath had humbled himself so low he that had wrought so glorious a Work as the Redemption of Mankind and that by undergoing most bitter and unconceivable Sufferings did highly deserve to be exalted to the Right-hand of his Heavenly Father And therefore he himself saith that these sufferings of his were the way to his glory Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory Luke 24.26 But although Christ ascended into Heaven for himself that he might take possession of that Kingdom which he had justly deserved yet he ascended thither for us also As at his Resurection he arose from the dead not for himself only but for us also and became the First-fruits of them that slept so likewise at his Ascension he passed into the Heavens as our High-priest by virtue of whose Ascension all his Elect shall ascend up after him unto the same place of Glory and Immortality This is evident from these words of my Text Seeing then
the good fight finished his course kept the Faith overcome all his Spiritual Enemies resisted the temptations of Satan subdued and mortified his own Lusts and Corruptions despised the Derision of those Fools that sit in the seat of the scornful trampled upon all the vain pomps and flattering Glories of this present World and after all this perhaps at the last is called to suffer an ignominious and painful Death for the testimony of a good conscience and to endure the cruellest torments that the wit and malice of wicked Men can inflict upon him then he takes up his Cross with joy goes like a Lamb to the Slaughter acknowledging that he hath done nothing that he is but an unprofitable Servant that he is less than the least of all God's Mercies and that his Life is a Sacrifice unworthy of his acceptance and therefore he desires to appear before God's Tribunal not having his own Righteousness which is of the Law but that which is through the Faith of Christ the Righteousness which is of God by Faith This is such a Righteous Man as is here meant in my Text This is that Blessed Man unto whom the Lord imputes not iniquity and in whose Spirit there is no guile And this is that Man who as it is plain from my Text shall Scarcely be saved How that comes to pass I shall hereafter endeavour to shew you For though he shall be Scarcely saved yet saved he shall be infallibly for to him that is faithful unto Death Christ will give a Crown of Life SERMON XI 1 PET. IV. 18. And if the Righteous scarcely be saved where shall the Ungodly and the Sinner appear IN the handling of these words I have already shewed you who the Righteous Man is and how he is distinguished from the rest of the World He is a Man of a Temper and Conversation exceedingly different from the generality of Mankind and lives amongst them like a Stranger and a Sojourner in a foreign Countrey where he hath few or no Acquaintance like a single Stalk of good Corn in a large Field of Tares Few Men mind him few regard him few keep him company few delight in his Conversation and fewer imitate it He is a Proverb and a By-word among the Ungodly who account his Life madness and his End to be without Honour For Christ's sake he bears Reproach They that sit in the Gate speak against him and he is the Song of the Drunkards The World and he are irreconcilable Enemies as contrary one to the other as Light and Darkness as Heaven and Hell as Christ and Belial while the Wicked and Ungodly rejoice he mourns while they laugh he weeps while they triumph in the very Gall of Bitterness and Bonds of Iniquity he is a Prisoner of Jesus Christ while they are in great Power and spread themselves like a green Bay tree lie upon Beds of Ivory and stretch themselves upon their Couches and eat the Lambs out of the Flock and the Calves out of the midst of the Stall live in Idleness and Luxury and Pleasure nourishing their Hearts as in a day of slaughter and pampering up those Lusts which of themselves are too apt to rebel he keeps under his Body and brings it into subjection crucifies the old Man that the Body of Sin may be destroyed subdues and mortifies his Corruptions by Prayer and Fasting and walks mournfully before the Lord of Hosts He meets with scarce any thing in this sinful World which can delight his Soul but almost every Spectacle that he beholds is to him an occasion of sorrow He grieves for his own Sins and he grieves for those of other Men whom he sees with so much Eagerness and Jollity posting towards the Gates of Death He grieves for the Afflictions of Joseph and laments to see the Church of God in Adversity Nothing contents him nothing pleases him in this Valley of Tears but that he is pleased at nothing here below but his Affections are set on those things which are above and the earnest Desire of his Heart is to depart and to be with Christ Which happy End he shall at the last most certainly attain to though it shall not be without great Pains and Difficulty and as my Text expresses it scarcely And so I proceed to make good my second Undertaking which was To shew you why St. Peter here supposes the Righteous to be scarcely saved Which word implies not an Impossibility that they should be saved for certainly then of all Men they would be most miserable nor a Possibility that any one of them should not be saved For every one of them is as sure to obtain Salvation as he is sure to obtain it scarcely Those that thou gavest me saith our Saviour I have kept and none of them is lost but the Son of Perdition who never was one of the Number of the Righteous But this word scarcely denotes only the many and great Difficulties and Troubles and Dangers through which the Righteous are to pass in their way to Heaven They must be tempted afflicted scorned derided persecuted They must labour they must sweat they must die that they may be saved and pass by the very Gates of Hell in their way to Paradise There are large Mansions and a Glorious and Everlasting Kingdom prepared for them but they have many potent and malicious Enemies all which they must overcome before they can take possession of it There is a Crown of Glory laid up for them but they must run for it if they will obtain it They must wage War with Devils and wrestle against Principalities and Powers before they can be accounted worthy to be Companions for Angels And now if David that reposed so great a Confidence in his God and was sufficiently assured that he was ordained to be King over Israel did nevertheless begin to despond and was sore afraid that he should one Day perish by the Hand of Saul much more may the Righteous fear and tremble who have far greater and mightier Enemies than Saul to oppose them able to dismay the stoutest Souldier in the Camp of Christ had he not a Shield of Faith to defend him from their Weapons and an Eye of Faith to discover that those that are for him are more than those that are against him When a mighty Host of the Syrians besieged Elisha God placed Horses and Chariots of Fire round about him for his Defence So though the Righteous Man hath Devils for his Enemies yet he hath Angels for his Guardians and Jesus Christ the Captain of his Salvation He may march on then with Confidence and Assurance of the Victory but he must fight if he will obtain it Heaven is his Inheritance the Kingdom prepared for him from the Foundation of the World but he is a Stranger and a Pilgrim here in a far Countrey and his Journey to it is long and troublesome He hath a narrow and rugged way to walk in tedious and irksome to Flesh
came in a very Mean and despicable Condition so poorly provided for that he had not so much as a House wherein he might lay his Head nor a cradle wherein he might rest but was forced to be content with a Stable for the one and a Manger for the other And all the rest of his Life was answerable to this Mean beginning He was continually affronted and abused and persecuted by the Chief Priests and Scribes and Pharisees and by almost all Men with whom he conversed and after all this he was most perfidiously betrayed by one of his own Disciples denied by another of them and forsaken by all the rest and at the last most barbarously murdered by bloudy and sinful Men. And if God dealt thus hardly with his only begotten Son in whom he was ever well-pleased it would be unreasonable for his Disciples and Followers to expect to fare so much better than their Lord as to be wholly exempted from Afflictions in this Life If the Captain of our Salvation was not made perfect but through sufferings surely then we shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven except we drink more or less of the same Cup. This our blessed Lord hath assured us shall be the Portion of all that will follow him Luke 14.26 27. If any Man come to me and hate not his Father and Mother and Wife and Children and Brethren and Sisters yea and his own Life also he cannot be my Disciple And whosoever doth not bear his Cross and come after me cannot be my Disciple And In the World ye shall have Tribulation John 16.33 And this the holy Apostles afterwards found true by their own Experience They were all hated and maligned and persecuted whithersoever they went and not one of them died a natural Death but S. John the Disciple whom our Saviour seemed to love above the rest and perhaps was therefore pleased to exempt him from suffering a violent Death as the other did And thus it fared afterwards with their Successours the Bishops and Pastours of the primitive Church yea and not only with them but with the greatest part of their Flock too Every one that was known to profess the Faith of Christ was persecuted as a Traytour and to be a Christian was to be a capital Offender And though at present by the blessing of God the Light of the Gospel shines amongst us gloriously yet even amongst Christians themselves those few rare Examples of Piety those Persons that are extraordinarily strict and careful to live answerable to their Profession in all Holy Conversation and Godliness are generally hated and scorned and looked upon with an evil Eye and suffer more Sorrow and Affliction in the World than other Men. And now I have given you an Account of all those dangerous Enemies and those manifold and great Difficulties and Troubles which the Righteous Man hath to overcome in his way to Heaven And from what I have said it is sufficiently evident that he shall scarcely be saved that is it shall cost him great pains and striving to work out his Salvation and through much Tribulation he shall enter into the Kingdom of God And if the Righteous be thus scarcely saved I need not insist much upon the other Proposition nor spend many words to shew you that the wicked the ungodly and the sinner shall most certainly be damned For this follows from the former Doctrine by an undeniable consequence and therefore the Apostle takes it for granted appeals to your own Judgment and leaves it to your selves to determine the question in the words of my Text If the Righteous scarcely be saved where shall the Ungodly and the Sinner appear If the Righteous that hath undergone so many Troubles hath taken so much pains to subdue and mortifie his Lusts hath with so much Constancy and Resolution turned away his Eyes and his Heart from the bewitching Baits and ensnaring Pomps and Vanities of this sinful World hath with so much Courage and Faith resisted the Temptations of Satan and quenched all the fiery Darts of the Wicked hath with so much Patience and Meekness born his Cross and indured the Afflictions and sufferings of this present Life is after all these painful and glorious Performances even when he hath gained a full and compleat Victory over all his Spiritual Enemies and is a Triumphant Conquerour over Principalities and Powers still but an unprofitable Servant and dares not appear before God's Tribunal trusting in his own Righteousness but in that which is through the Faith of Christ the Righteousness which is of God by Faith how then shall the Ungodly and the Sinner that hath taken no pains at all to fight the good Fight of Faith that hath let loose the Reins to his Lusts that hath yielded himself a Slave to his Passions that hath put God out of all his Thoughts hath set-his Heart and Affections wholly upon the things which are on Earth and glutted himself with sensual Pleasures hath harkned to the wicked suggestions of the Devil hath walked according to the Course of this World according to the Prince of the Power of the Air the Spirit that works in the Children of Disobedience hath enjoyed his good things in this Life and hath not come into trouble like other Men be able to stand before the Righteous Judge of all the Earth when he shall be summoned to give an account of all his Actions done in the flesh The case is plain he shall not be able to stand at all but shall be overwhelmed with everlasting Confusion and Misery and Despair The Vngodly saith the Psalmist shall not stand in the Judgment nor Sinners in the Congregation of the Righteous For the Lord knoweth the way of the Righteous but the way of the Vngodly shall perish Psal 1.5 6. If then we desire to stand in that great Day and to lift up our Heads with joy at the coming of our Saviour let us resolve and labour with all our Might now to stand and fight the Lords Battles Manfully against all the Enemies of our Souls Ye see in what Circumstances we are how great Opposition every faithful Champion of Jesus Christ is like to meet with in this troublesome Wilderness before he can arrive at his heavenly Canaan But though the difficulties which threaten us be great yet they are not insuperable but we may by the Assistance of God's holy Spirit who is ready to help our Infirmities overcome them if we will Let not any thing then discourage nor affright us from our perseverance in well-doing but let us animate our selves by the Example of the blessed Apostles and Martyrs and Confessours to run with patience the race that is set before us looking unto Jesus the Authour and finisher of our Faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross despising the shame and is set down at the Right-hand of the Throne of God Let us consider him that endured such Contradiction of Sinners against