Malice or swell with Pride and Vanity as the Pharisees who blew their Trumpets to convene the Spectators rather than the Poor You find this humour sharply reprov'd by the Prophet Isaiah Stand by thy self come not near to me for I am holier than thou these are a smoak in my nose a fire that burneth all the day 4. THE Fat and the Kidneys of all Burnt-offerings were consum'd upon the Altar to the honour of God And this Ceremony was the direct Type of the Sacrifice in the Text that the strength and vigour the superiour faculties of the Soul should be sacrific'd unto God So we are told by our Saviour in the Gospel that upon this Commandment Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart hang all the Law and the Prophets MOREOVER when the Sacrifice was cut down the Skin was taken off off entirely We must offer our Sacrifices under the New Testament without disguise hypocrisie or covering Whether shall I stee from thy presence If I ascend up unto heaven thou art there If I make my bed in Hell behold thou art there If I take the Wings of the Morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the Sea If I say surely the darkness shall cover me even the night shall be light about me yea the darkness hideth not from thee but the night shineth as the day the darkness and the light are both alike to thee We must not think to palliate our deformities by arts and subterfuges for all things are naked and open to his eyes Nothing must be offered unto him but what is pure and unmixt Therefore the Sacrifice was carefully inspected and narrowly examin'd And the Pagans borrowed this Ceremony from the Patriarchs When we appear before God we should come with purity and simplicity of Spirit that we may be bold to appeal to God himself in the language of the Psalmist Search me O God and know my heart try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting With what innocence and decency ought we to approach the Most High God! The High-Priest Licinius among the Romans thought that the Vestal Virgin that kept the Holy Fire carelesly ought to be publickly scourg'd Sulpitius was deprived of his Priesthood because the Crest of his Mitre through his carelessness fell to the ground in the time of sacrificing Cornelius Cethegus and Claudius were deprived of their Dignity because they brought the Entrails of the Sacrifices somewhat negligently to the Altars The Story of Alexander's Boy that suffered his hand to be burnt rather than disturb the Sacrifice is very well known I MIGHT also put you in mind that the Guts and the Feet were to be wash'd We are certainly to be divided from what is more feculent gross and putrid and Philo finds this Mysterie in it that we must not converse too much with the Earth nay that in a manner we must be wholly above it when we approach his Altars And this agrees harmonimoniously with the Christian Sacrifice If ye are risen with Christ seek the things that are above where Christ fitteth on the right hand of God Set your affection on things above and not on things on the Earth This heavenly temper fortifies against temptations and makes us resolute against Death cheerful under afflictions watchful against sin and ready when our Master calleth And since here we are but Pilgrims and Strangers Let our conversation be in heaven from whence we look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ YOU know that the Morning and the Evening Sacrifices were offered in their season without delays or intermission To this Custom the Psalmist alludes My Soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the Morning I say more than they that watch for the Morning The Priests in the Temple by turns did watch for the first appearance of the Day that they might offer the Morning Sacrifice We are to remember our Creator in the days of our youth and not delay our Repentance Our evil habits grow strong our time is uncertain the exercise of our Reason depends upon a thousand Contingencies and all our opportunities are slippery God is provoked by our delays his Spirit is resisted and our Convictions are stifled How dangerous is it then to delay the Sacrifice one moment longer lest God should judicially harden us and confine us to perpetual slavery To day then if you will hear his voice harden not your hearts but speedily break off thy sins by Repentance for the next moment may put thee under the final state of Impenitence BY what I have said you may easily see that the Caution and care that the Jews were tied to in their Sacrifices did not so much concern the Levitical Oblations as typifie the great Sacrifice of the New Testament God is to be worshipped agreeably to his Nature Our most solemn attendance on his Worship is but an abomination if at any time it is divided from a chearful and ingenuous surrender of our Souls to his Will This is the Sacrifice that S. Paul exhorts to with so much Rapture and Concern Fourthly and lastly LET us consider the Epithets bestowed upon this Sacrifice in the Text and these are three 1. It must be Living 2. Holy 3. Acceptable 1. I SAY it must be a Living Sacrifice And this in allusion to that Command under the Levitical Law that forbad any thing to be offer'd in Sacrifice which died of it self they were not so much as to eat of it far less could they sacrifice it The Sacrifices of the living God must be offered with Life he is the original Fountain of Life and it is Life that converses with Life This Meditation may justly startle the inconsiderate World who serve God with so much coldness and indifferency as if he were not the living God Let us prove My Brethren that we are living Christians by Actions and Motions suitable to that Life which we have from above Giving all diligence add to your faith vertue and to vertue knowledge and to knowledge Temperance and to Temperance Patience and to Patience Godliness and to Godliness brotherly kindness and to brotherly-kindness Charity We must prove by a steady and uniform practice of Christian Vertue that we are not the Votaries of some dead Idol but the Disciples of the living Jesus that as he was raised from the dead by the Glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of life 2. THE next Epithet is the Sacrifice must be holy I do not design to discourse here of Holiness in the general nor of that Holiness that must run through all our Actions as we are Christians but of that special Holiness that is related to Sacrifices And therefore we must observe that all Sacrifices were holy in a twofold regard 1. They were separate from common use And 2. They were an
that they were wrought by the power of Magick we need no other answer than that of our Saviour himself who told them that the Devil was not such a fool as to employ his power against himself since it was undeniably manifest that no discipline did so visibly and irreconcileably oppose all Magical Arts and Charms as did the Religion of Jesus So a great number of them that had followed those curious Arts brought their costly Books to the Apostles and burnt them And when they endeavour'd to alledge that equal Miracles have been done by others amongst the Pagans 'T is so idle a story that they are far form believing it who first invented it The story of Vespasian's restoring a blind man to his sight did proceed from the artifice of Egyptian flattery and is reported by his own Historians with so much diffidence and reserve that it is scarce worth the naming As for the prodigious seats of Apollonius Tianeus we can look upon them as no other than fictitious and Romantick Fooleries vouched by no competent Authority Whereas the Miracles done by our Saviour and his Apostles were not only of a different Nature from those little Tricks of Magick but were wrought amongst great crowds of People to the view of the World and acknowledg'd by the most bitter and implacable of his Enemies And this Power he had not only in himself but bestowed it on his Apostles Besides the full discovery of those Objections depends on so much History that they cannot be contracted within such narrow bounds as I am confind'd to THE Result of all is this Such as despise the Gospel do it upon the most unreasonable grounds For whereas they alledge that our Ministry was not attended with Wisdom and Proofs borrowed from Philosophy they betray their Ignorance For the Doctrine that we propagate and assert being of its own Nature wholly Divine and beyond the reach of all human enquiries it must needs have its Proofs and Demonstrations from Heaven Without this it could not prevail and when it is attended with this it is impossible that it can miss of its effect So we come not with the enticing words of mans wisdom but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power Now we find that those Miracles were necessary at the first establishment of Christianity to point out the Person of the Messias to baffle the Devil and to satisfie the expectations of all Men and that thus rationally we can give an account of the speedy and universal propagation of the Christian Religion Thirdly WE consider the design and scope of this Oeconomy That their Faith might be built on the surest Foundations i. e. on the Power of God And here I might reckon up the motives of Credibility that obliged us to assent to the Christian Religion if they can be numbered But I chuse to improve what is said in one Word of Application Blessed be God who hath so fully provided for our Illumination and Confirmation that we might rest in his Word and Testimony with full assurance of mind For the Apostles did not follow cunningly devised fables when they made known unto us the Power and Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ Let us give up our selves to it without wavering and hesitation of Spirit resolutely maintaining it even unto Death And above all endeavouring to adorn it by a Holy Conversation adding to our faith vertue to vertue knowledge and to knowledge temperance c. Let us esteem and love it for its genuine Grandure and Majesty even when it is not attended with the Ornaments of human Art For how shall we escape if we neglect so great a Salvation that was first confirm'd by Miracles and Wonders LET us not desire that supernatural Truths be recommended to us chiefly and only by human Art So weak are we that we relish not Heavenly things unless they smell of the Earth When we hear the Word of God the corruption of our Nature leads us to notice more the air accent and gesture of the Preacher than the great Truths that he recommends and all these be they never so plain innocent and unexceptionable they have their fate and censure not from our unbyassed reason but from that part of us that is carnal I am not of the opinion that the Mysteries of the Gospel are to be handled confusedly and negligently in a slovenly dress such garments become not the Majesty of that Religion whose Ministers we are The Oracles of God deserve that we should Meditate in them night and day But we are so to study them that we preach not our selves but Christ Jesus the Lord and our selves your Servants for Christs sake that we may not think that the success of our Labours depends on the skill and contrivance of our Composures but on God that giveth the Increase To God the Father Son and Holy Ghost be Glory and Dominion for ever Amen A SERMON Preached at the ABBEY of Holy-Rood-House MAY 1686. ON MATT. V. V. 20. For I say unto you that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven MY design from these words of our Saviour is to hint shortly at the Scope and Drift of Christian Religion and then to state the comparison between it and the Pharisaical Religion And in the next place to direct you in the Practice of true and sincere Godliness WHEN our Saviour appeared the Church was sadly over-run with the grossest Immoralities and the most absurd Superstitions and Delusions The Law of God which was in it self pure and just and holy was perverted by their Commentaries and made to truckle under such designs as were hateful to God and subversive of all true Morality Their plausible glosses and corrupt maxims destroy'd the natural force of Religion and withal they deceiv'd the poor People into an Opinion that they themselves were the peculiar favourites of God even then when our Saviour told them that the publicans and the sinners should enter into the kingdom of heaven before them WHEN we read the Sermon on the Mount we find that it was our Saviour's great design to plant and establish amongst his Disciples a manly rational and heroick temper of mind a higher kind of Philosophy than the Pharisees understood or the Pagans pretended to The rule of Life that he gave us was so accurate and so suitable to our Nature in its first and original constitution that nothing can equal it for purity and holiness The wisest sayings and the best thoughts of Jews and Pagans scattered here and there in all their books are very far outdone in one Page of the New Testament He removes our errors prejudices and mistakes concerning God our selves and the rewards of another Life He opens our eyes to see thorow the little tricks hypocritical designs and superstitious follies of the Pharisees And by the most cogent proofs he forces us to acknowledge that there is no
were irrecoverably chain'd up under the power of his sins and evil habits God pleads with him and his own Conscience expostulates and the experience of all sober men baffle his pretences for no man is so fatally ty'd to misery and corruption but that he may break his bonds and escape the corruption that is in the World through lust To day then let me exhort you if you will hear his voice harden not your hearts break up the Prison doors the Grace of the Gospel is mighty and powerful you cannot be captive against your wills this corruption that prevails in the World may be escaped and overcome Do not fright your selves out of your duty by vain apparitions scare-crows and counterfeit apologies such as the slothful man in the Proverbs is said to use There is a Lyon without I shall be slain in the streets All such excuses are vain and impertinent whether they are taken 1. From the difficulty of removing old habits or 2. From the variety of our worldly incumbrances or 3. From the multitude and strength of temptations or 4. From the severities of Christian Religion 1. THE excuses taken from the difficulty of old habits The incorrigible sinner will plead that the Ethiopian cannot change his skin nor the Leopard his spots nor they that are accustomed to do evil ever learn to do well THUS Celsus against Origen seems to deny the possibility of any such reformation as the Christian Religion requires because customary sins become a second Nature that no punishments can reform or change yet saith Origen herein Celsus not only contradicts the Christians but all others who own any genenerous principles of Philosophy And there Origen gives instances in their own Heroes and such as were admir'd for Vertue among the Heathens that our recovery from Vice was very practicable and though it be difficult in the beginning to eradicate old habits yet when the first assaults are over if we vigorously prosecute so excellent a design it becomes pleasant and delightful Herein appeared the power of the Gospel that it made men exemplary in these very Graces that were most opposite to their former biass Thus the first Apologists plead in behalf of Christian Religion Let us see saith Lactantius the most proud and he will become humble the most covetous liberal the most fierce and cruel tame and meek like a Lamb. And is it possible that such a change can be wrought but by a supernatural Cause by light and motives far beyond our former principles If we act by worldly Maxims we must be confin'd in our thoughts to the lower Regions but when the day-spring from on high visits us the Soul feels within her self new powers and faculties which earthly motives could not put in motion Therefore though evil habits could not be throughly reform'd by the faint and pusillanimous attempts of the Pagan Philosophers yet the most inveterate customs and wicked practices could not resist the light of the Gospel When we plead that we cannot do otherwise than we do it is not our Reason that speaks but our laziness our idleness and sensuality for all wise men and the starkest fools in their lucid intervals thought otherwise else there is no distinction between choice and blind fate between Men and Beasts between Reason and Mechanism between Intellect and Matter If you then persist in this obstinate foolery that you cannot be reform'd from your vicious conversation your reasonings design to prove no more than that you have no excellency above the Beasts that perish and by such arguings you take the nearest methods to resemble them in the strictest sense 2. SOME plead the incumbrances of the World And it is certain that most men endeavour to excuse themselves by such Arguments The vanity and emptiness of this excuse is represented by our Saviour One went to his Farm another to his Merchandise and alledg'd they could not come But this is the highest contempt of the Wisdom of God as if there could be any business of so great importance as the saving of our Souls And besides to prove the impertinence of this excuse I can instance Men of Royal Quality and vast incumbrances who amidst all their divertisements and avocations found leisure for their devotion and the Worship of God Moses was a great Captain a great Prince and a great Politician yet his hands were lifted up to Heaven in Prayer when others must needs support him Job was very illustrious among the Arabians and yet under a deluge of Calamities and the continual repinings of his Wife he preach'd resignation David was a Warlike Prince yet the melodious Strains of his Harp were as Devout as Poetical Solomon a King the greatest and wisest that ever sat upon the Throne of Judah when he enter'd upon the Government in the first place fell down before God and begged Wisdom to order and conduct so numerous a People Daniel is entrusted with the affairs of so many Provinces yet he prayed thrice a day towards Jerusalem The Eunuch whom Philip baptiz'd read the Prophecies of Isaiah in his Chariot when he was upon his Journey LET us not then plead the incumbrances of the World for they that most converse with God are taught even to dispatch their worldly affairs with greater discretion than their neighbours because no part of their time is spent impertinently 3. SOME plead the strength and impetuous violence of temptations It must be confess'd that the objects of Sense do strongly allure and flatter the mind to unworthy compliances and that they entice us constantly to bodily pleasures yet if it be uneasie to overcome such insinuations let the very difficulty provoke our courage for the most glorious enterprises are atcheiv'd by patience and fortitude And if the prize of honour were not encompass'd with Thorns and Briars it might fall to the share of every despicable Wretch whereas indeed honour crowns the Heroes and such as resolutely face the enemy Was it sleep softness ease and luxury that first distinguish'd the Nobles from their inferiours No. It was magnanimity valour courage fidelity and patience that rais'd them above their neighbours And if such a transient thing as the favour of a King and the Hosanna's of the Croud cannot be justly obtain'd but by toil and labour how is it possible that we can think to gain immortal honours without wrestling and struggling God hath placed us on this Theatre to act our part to try our patience and our fidelity and with a design to trample upon the World by his Grace in us that we may be more than Conquerours through Christ that loved us The tentations from the World are indeed very terrible the Lusts of the Flesh the Lusts of the Eye and the Pride of Life But may not all these be conquered by Faith and the Spirit of Christianity their strength if we approach them closely is not so formidable 'T is true they appear invincible to the soft and delicate but they
have no relish to the Soul illuminated with the knowledge of Christ The eye of Faith discovers their emptiness they are but shadows and appearances of things attended in their most flattering dress with vanity and vexation of Spirit Let us awake then and see what is it that thus inchants us into folly and sin What are those pleasures that we doat so much upon if once compar'd to the pure rivers of pleasure that are at his right hand 4. SOME plead the severity of Christianity to excuse them from the practice of it The Precepts of humility meekness and self-denyal are intolerable to such but I must tell them that such Precepts appear only terrible to strangers and such as have no mind to come under any yoke or discipline at all The experience of the best men puts it beyond all debate that there is no rest or tranquillity of Spirit but in the practice of such Commandments Nay the pleasures that attend a pious life are pure and unmixt they are sweeter than the honey or the honey-comb With what transports and exstatic elevations did the Psalmist long to appear in the place of God's presence O when shall I come and appear before God! We are not acquainted with the ravishing satisfactions of Religion because we keep at a distance and therefore we are terrified by our first conflicts but if we struggled vigorously until the noisome rubbish of our corruptions were remov'd then our Souls might become a clean habitation for the Spirit of God and where the Spirit of God dwells there is also peace light and tranquillity joy unspeakable and full of glory What an impregnable Garrison against calumny and disaster is a Conscience void of offence towards God and towards man How vain is it to endeavour the painting of it by rhetorical colours Words cannot reach it the bold Metaphors of Poets are faint in comparison of it It receives comforts immediately from the hand of God and such as cannot be taken away from us so strong are the pleasures that do attend the practice of true Religion WHY then are we frighted with Mormo's and apparitions of our own invention Let us believe our Saviour who hath expresly told us that his yoke is easie and his burden is light The more we plead in favour of our bondage the more entangled we are by our corruption and the more miserable is our condition This Corruption may be escaped and reform'd and whatever is usually pleaded in its defence is vain and unreasonable Let me ask then how this Contagion that has so universally over-run Mankind may be cured And the Text makes answer to this that this Corruption is escaped by the great and the precious promises AND this leads me to the third Particular that I am oblig'd to speak to The Gospel in it self is the great and last Engine of God's Goodness and Wisdom for the recovery of the World and the Promises of the Gospel are the Wheels upon which it moves So much Spirit and Life did go alongst with the first preaching of the Gospel that it shook the Pillars of the Kingdom of Darkness threw open the Prisons of Satan and loos'd whole Societies of Men from their bondage The Apostles did open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God The Promises of the Gospel are the counterpoise that God hath laid in the other Scale against sin He principally designs to deliver from sin and from the Love of the World because it leads unto sin and the Promises of the Gospel have a peculiar energy to save us from the one and to deter us from the other If we believ'd the Promises of the Gospel without fear and hypocrisie we would immediately turn our backs upon our sins especially when we remember that these very Promises are environ'd about with the most terrible denunciations of the wrath of God against the disobedient The Lord Jesus Christ shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ Can there be any thing so powerful to alienate our affections from the World as the Promises of the Gospel How far was the glory of the Court of Egypt below the Spirit of Moses when he saw him that is invisible and had respect unto the recompence of reward We are expresly told by S. John that if any man love this world the love of the Father is not in him And again that the friendship of this world is enmity with God And S. Paul tells us that the Christians must not set their affections on the things on Earth for their life is hid with God in Christ THE brightness of our Inheritance obscures the glory of the World This is the promise that he hath promised us eternal life And now are we the sons of God and it doth not yet appear what we shall be but this we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is Did we weigh the Gospel Promises as they deserve and think of them with love and application how powerful are they to disengage us from the entanglements of this present life and to promote the reformation that the Gospel enjoins 1. LET us heartily believe the Promises Eternity seriously and frequently pondered exhausts all our strength and all our thoughts It fortifies our Souls against the flatteries of the World and alienates our affections from the Earth The Patriarchs saw the promises afar off and embraced them and confessed that they were but strangers and pilgrims upon the earth And if the dark view that the Patriarchs had was so mighty to support their Spirits under the old Oeconomy what may not we do who are animated by the clear and glorious Promises of the Gospel 2. LET us lean on these Promises in our most difficult circumstances For which cause we faint not but though our outward man perish yet the inward man is renewed day by day For our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a-far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory While we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal We rejoyce says the same Apostle in our tribulations Patience under sufferings is the peculiar ornament of our Saviour's Disciples for they only have the surest Antidote against despondency The Devil that can transform himself into an Angel of Light cannot counterfeit Christian Meekness and Patience It is no stupidity but a rational submission to the Will of our Father they that are Martyrs for the World or their own Pride may for a while put on a resolute sullenness but true Christian calmness and magnanimity springs from the hope of glory and