of thy Strange and astonishing Miseries thy low Condition and sad Wants thy perpetual Dangers and Persecutions What is the meaning of thine Agony and bloudy Sweat thy Crown of Thorns platted and crusht into thy Head thy being Mockt and Spit on What is the meaning of thy Submitting not only to the Dishonours of a Humane Birth but to those also of a Violent and Ignominious Death Being the Son of God why didst thou suffer any Evil Why didst thou not convert the Stable in which thou wert Born into a Palace and the Cross to which thou were Nail'd into a Throne Why didst thou undergo such Miseries and Indignities as made the World doubt of thy Divine Nature and not exert thy Deity and destroy thy Murderers and burn up their City as thou spak'st in one of thy Parables Thy People expected thee a mighty Prince but thou shew'd'st thy self a Destitute Forlorn Person they lookt for a Deliverer but behold one Obnoxious to Bonds and Death for a Redeemer but Alas none needed Redemption more himself Great undoubtedly and wonderful was the Mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God and that he should not only be born in a Mortal but in a Miserable Condition The Apostle might well give it the precedence to all other Mysteries of Godliness Great is the Mystery of Godliness says he God was manifested in the Flesh justify'd in the Spirit seen of Angels c. But that Christ should suffer the things he did in our Nature was no less Necessary than Wonderful And to omit all other Reasons for it I shall insist only on that One Great One Because Sin could not otherwise have been abolisht the End for which Christ came into the World attain'd which was To destroy the Works of the Devil Christ could have destroy'd the Devil with more Facility if he had come in Majesty and Glory as the Apostle says 2 Thess. 2. He shall consume Anti-Christ with the Spirit or breath only of his Mouth and the Brightness of his Coming But our Lord's Business at this time was not to destroy the Person but the Power of the Devil Sin was both the Stratagem by which he conquer'd and the Chain by which he held Mankind in Captivity and Christ undertaking to rescue them from this Thraldom to bind the Strong Man and to take from him the Armour in which he trusted he was not to do this by an Omnipotent Power as he brought the World out of Nothing Light out of Darkness c. but by an Heroick Vertue such as he shew'd when he trampled upon the Temptations of the Devil in the Wilderness He therefore enter'd the Lists against Satan as a Champion or Combatant according to the fair Law of Armes as they say i. e. with a sutable Strength and Appointment to his Adversaries Man was lost by Sin and could only be restored by Righteousness he had forfeited God's Favour and his Felicity by his Transgressions and could recover them again no other way but by Obedience On this Account Christ laid by his Majesty and Glory and took our Nature that in the Infirmity of our Flesh he might foil our Strong Enemy the Second Adam redeem the Glories lost by the First Adam the Seed of the Woman bruise the Serpents head made himself subject to the Law that he might fulfil the Law obnoxious to Death that he might subdue Death and the Author of it by suffering Death as S t Paul says Heb. 2.14 That through Death he might destroy him that had the Power of Death that is the Devil So that we see here was no place for Thunder and Lightning for an O'er-bearing Irresistible Power but only for Divine Graces or Vertues and the Weapons Christ used in this Conflict were only Courage Holiness Obedience Patience Self-denial Meekness and the like such as were in the Power of Men also to make use of he so conquer'd as they might conquer after him For the Great Business was not Christ's Personal Victory that was secure but the Victory of his Followers he indeed was to break the Power of the Kingdom of Darkness but they were to compleat the Conquest every one in his own Particular to subdue Sin and Satan And thus while Christ destroy'd the Power of the Devil disarm'd him and made those that had been his Slaves Lords over him by consequence and in a Political Sense he destroy'd the Devil himself as a Prince is said to be destroy'd that is stript of his Forts and Castles his Territories and Armies his Ammunition and Harness of War though his Person still survives However then that Zipporah upbraided Moses upon the Circumcising of her Child saying factus es mihi Sponsus sanguinum thou art to me a Bloudy Husband we have no reason to quarrel that Christ was to us Salvator Sanguinum a Bloudy Saviour i. e. a Saviour drencht in his own Bloud for without the Bloud of Christ there had been no Redemption But to be more particular and distinct There are two Ways by which Christ destroy'd the Power of the Devil and delivered Mankind from his Bondage and those are Pretio Exemplo by the Price or Satisfaction he paid for Sin And by the Example of his Holy Life By the first he destroy'd the Guilt of Sin And by the second the Dominion or reigning Power of Sin 1. Therefore we may say There was a Necessity of Christ's Death and Sufferings and that he should be a Wounded Saviour that he might pay a Price make Satisfaction to God the Father for the Sins of the World For whether it be that the Vindicative Justice of God for Sin be so natural and intimate to his Essence that he cannot without renouncing his very Nature and Being pardon Sin without a Competent Satisfaction as some would have it Or whether it be only his Declared Will not to pardon Sin without a Competent Satisfaction as others more sutably to the Divine Goodness and Glory affirm I shall not need here to dispute seeing both Sides agree in one and the same Conclusion That it was necessary for Christ to Dye for the Sins of the World The Wages of Sin is Death says the Apostle and in another place Almost all things by the Law were purged by Bloud and without shedding of Bloud there was no Remission Now though the Bloud there mentioned was but the Bloud of Beasts that were sacrificed yet those Beasts were the Proxies and Representatives of Men and also Types of the Great Sacrifice which Christ was once to offer on the Cross and derived from it all their Vertue and Merit and God revealed this Way of atoning by Sacrifice early to the World and afterwards prescribed it to his People the Jews by written Laws from whom it was deriv'd to all Nations though the Mystery that Sacrifices were founded in the Death of Christ was not clearly understood till the Days of the Gospel As a Remedy for Sin was promised from the Beginning so 't was
great distance and the Sinner has leave to execute his Wickedness so that the Terrours of Religion work only upon the Good and Faithful while the Worst and most of men despise them But even the boldest and most daring in their Impiety who count Heaven and Hell only the Parables of Scripture and the Fictions of Preachers will boggle in the Cariere of their Sins at the remembrance of a severe Judge and an unrelenting Humane Law and consider whether they can escape if they commit them and will not run on madly to transgress when they see nothing is to be had but Vengeance the Attempt and their Miscarriage their Sin and their certain Death Thus we see Severity is not contrary to the Rules of Charity the Sword in the hand of Justice less instrumental to mens Good than the Scales that the fear of Punishment is a kind of Grace and Principle of Obedience in the Hearts of Wicked men which restrains them from Vice even when it wins them not to the Part of Vertue But then though Severity and Punishment are Noble and necessary Branches of Charity they are not the Natural and Genuine they relate to it but as the Prophet Isaiah says they do to God They are his Works his strange Works his Acts his strange Acts. The Works which Charity delights most in are those that are mild and gentle which not only produce Good but which in themselves are Good which shew Mercy by the Ways of Mercy and are no less beneficial in their Progress than their End And these are the Operations of Charity which our Apostle chiefly recommends here to us and that we may not erre in so Divine a Grace or come short in so important a Duty our best way will be to set before us the Perfectest Exemplar of it that ever was our Lord and Saviour and himself commands us John 15.12 to do this As I have lov'd you says he so love one another thus making his Love to us the Rule or Pattern of our Affection to those of our own Kind And the first Instance of Christ's Love which I shall propose for Imitation is this That as he lov'd us Before we lov'd him lov'd us without any Merit or Invitation on our part lov'd us when we could not love him when we were wholly benumm'd and dead to all heavenly Affections So likewise that we love one another expect not Obligations and Invitations from our Brethren to quicken our Charity towards them but rather delight to begin and be before-hand in our Expressions of Kindness and to have it seen that they come from our selves A natural Spring flows of its own Impulse unbid unprovoked and makes its Way through all Oppositions if it meets a hollow in its Course it fills it up if a light Obstacle it bears it away with its Stream if a great one it swells and passes over it at least pours out still its free Source till it finds or makes a Passage And thus our Charity must take its Rise and flow from its self shew it depends on nought beside that it cannot be obstructed by the want of any Qualifications or yet by any Disobligations of our Brethren Atticus the charitable Bishop of Constantinople when he sent Money to relieve the Poor in the City of Nice commanded that no enquiry should be made in the Distribution of it of what Sect in Religion the Poor were but what their Wants were He that confers his Benefits upon Consideration only of mens agreeing with him in Opinion of their Merit Neighbourhood former Obligations or the like may be just prudent or Grateful but he cannot be said to be Charitable for this is a free unbiass'd disinterested Vertue and if it regards ought in the Good it does beside the Opportunity and Power it has to do it it changes its Nature becomes another thing and assumes a New Name Let no man therefore think he has absolved the Duty of Charity if he be Kind only where his Honour is courted and comply'd with ready to entertain Friendship when he is sought to to be reconcil'd when full Amends is made him But if he will shew this Grace he must first break the Ice and lead the way to Concord Kindness and Beneficence And none think this so hard a Saying as those who would hugely stomach and disdain in case their Neighbour should precede or take place of them upon any Meeting or Encounter as if it were Disparagement to them to sit lower than another at the Table and not to be below him in Vertue to go after him at a Door and not to come behind him in all Goodness If we cannot part with our Passions and Evil Affections for the sake of our Brethren as well as our Money for go our Pride and Animosities as well as our Goods we are Charitable but in part Merciful but in a Case and possibly the Vertue may not be only Imperfect and lame in us but we may be wholly destitute of it for S t Paul says We may bestow all our Goods to feed the Poor give our Bodies to be burnt and yet not have the Grace of Charity Because these things may be done out of Ostentation and not only so but without any Profit or Benefit For put the Case our Brother be not low in Fortune but weak of Undestanding not indigent of outward things but of Instruction and Advice stands in need to be born with not to be reliev'd what Good will our Money do him in these his Infirmities It were as seasonable to apply it to a broken Arm or fester'd Wound to give it to one starving in a Desart where no Food is to be bought If we will be Charitable we must compassionate our Brothers Necessities of what Nature soever they be supply his Wants not gratifie our own Temper The second Instance of Christ's Love which I recommend to our Imitation is this That as he lov'd us not only first and before we lov'd him but lov'd us when we were Enemies to him when we were not only Strangers but Rebels to Heaven when we exercised all the acts of hatred and hostility against it So that we love one another and not think the Obliging and Good Natur'd only worthy of our Kindness but the Discourteous and Injurious Some men are contentious with their Neighbours outrageous to their Children tyrannical to their Inferiors insupportable to their Equals irreconcileable to their Enemies implacable upon every Colour of a Wrong But the Charitable on the other side can Excuse and pardon the most design'd and study'd Injuries see something to commiserate and pity even in mens Injustice can look upon their Malice as their Mistake or Misfortune pray for their Enemies as our Lord did in the very Article of the Death which they have brought upon them Father forgive them for they know not what they do And if we consider rightly Sinners are Ignorant and Mistaken in what they do Fools as the Scripture
being generally of a Churlish Disposition it comes to pass that the Duties both to God and Men which are to be inferr'd from the General Precept of Love are obscure or at least pretended to be so and that they may have no Colour from the Abridging their Whole Duty into one Word Love to say There is no Obligation upon us to do the things required shew us where they are commanded produce the Letter of the Law and the like all the Silva Legum as Justinian calls them the Forest of God's and Mens Laws consisting of such Heaps of Precepts were added whereas otherwise all the Duties would have been seen to hang on this brief Syllable Love This Phrase do hang upon it is a Figurative Expression borrowed from the hanging things upon a Hook or Pin in a Wall which bears the Stress of their Weight We find the same Figure used Isaiah 22.23 God determining to make Eliakim Treasurer over his House to shew the Support he should be by the Influence of his Wisdom and Justice to the Inhabitants of Jerusalem he says I will fasten him as a Nail in a sure place and they shall hang upon him all the Glory of his Father's House all the Vessels from the Vessels of Cups to the Vessels of Flaggons and then it follows In that day says the Lord of hosts shall the Nail that is fastned in a sure place be removed and cut down and the Burden that was upon it shall be cut off But I shall shew more particularly three Ways how all the Commandments hang or depend on the Commandment of Love 1. As the Parts do upon the Whole the Whole contains the Parts and is but the Parts collected into One. And some will have this the only Dependance that is here meant of the other Commandments on that of Love according to S t Paul's interpretation Rom. 13.9 He that loveth another hath fulfilled the whole Law For this Thou shalt not Kill Thou shalt not commit Adultery Thou shalt not Steal c. are briefly comprehended in this saying namely Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy Self And the like may be said of the Duties of the First Table Thou shalt have no other God but the God of Israel Thou shalt worship him no other way than he has prescribed Thou shalt not take his Name in vain Thou shalt not break his Sabbath they are briefly contained in this Thou shalt love the Lord thy God And if Love were deeply rooted in the Hearts of men upon their going about any Act dishonourable to God or unjust to their Neighbour it would pull them back from it for this would be the immediate Question they would ask themselves By what Rule do I do this Will it hold according to the Precept of Love to God and to my Neighbour This particular Fact which I put forth by way of retail does it not vary from the General Rule in which it ought to be comprehended as in its Body 2. The Law and the Prophets may be said to hang or depend upon the Law of Love because it is the Scope or Drift to which all the Commandments in particular tend according to that Saying of S t Paul 1 Tim. 1.5 The End of the Commandment is Charity or Love out of a pure Heart and good Conscience and Faith unfeigned i. e. upon the Ground of the Belief of Remission of our Sins through Christ to love God and our Brethren for so great a Benefit and to express our Love in the Works of a good Conscience 'T is not preaching the Law though never so zealously as those did S t Paul here speaks of or the performing the Outward Acts of the Law as many of the Jews were very scrupulous in the Observation of that makes a Righteous Man according to the Law but he that does according to the Design and Intention of the Law which is Love Ratio Legis est interpres Legis the Purpose of the Law is the best Interpreter of the Law and they that mind not this as S t Paul says Take their Aim amiss and swerve from the End and Intention of the Law discern not the Grace of Love that runs through it as the Warp and the Woof do through a Web of Cloth and wholly sustains the Contexture of it Without Love all that is Excellent all that is Divine in the Law would fall to the Ground as all the Riches and Gallantry of the Veil of the Temple all the Purple and Scarlet would have lain grovelling on the Earth without the Tacks or Hooks on which they hung 3. The Law i. e. all the Vertue Goodness and Righteousness it commands all the Worth and Value of its Duties depend upon Love as the Value of Coin depends upon the Price the Stamp sets upon it or as a thing that is Accessory depends on its Principle take away the Principle and the Accessory is nothing so take away Love and all the Commandments are insignificant and nothing And this Saint Paul shews 1 Cor. 13. That even the most Specious and seemingly Heroick Performances of Christianity it self as a man's giving his Goods to feed the Poor and his Body to be burned c. if they be not accompanied with Charity or Love are all nothing the Dignity of these Works depending so absolutely upon this Grace that in God's Esteem to suffer Injury only out of Love to our Fellow-Christian is more than to suffer Martyrdom not to envy not to be puft up not to despise our Brother is more in his Eyes than to speak with Tongues than to prophesie than to understand all Mysteries And indeed there is more true Religion in this one Benign Good Natur'd Vertue than in the Ostentation and outward Grandeur of all the other But the Excellence of Love and that 't is worthy of the Honour ascribed to it to sustain all the Law and the Prophets is the next thing I am to shew The Excellence of Love c. This I shall make appear by four Reasons 1. For the Natural Universal pleasing Effect Love has upon All and even upon God himself as well as men and other Creatures insomuch as God for his part requires almost nothing else from us Now O Israel what doth the Lord thy God require of thee but to fear the Lord thy God and to love him with all thy heart and with all thy soul Deut. 10.12 To be belov'd is so grateful a thing that men receive delight even in the Affection of Brute Creatures and we see that such as are not qualify'd to deserve any true Love are taken with the Similitude only of it the gross Flatteries of them that counterfeit it Sinners as our Lord tells us love those that love them and S t Paul 1 Thess. 2.15 brands the Jews for their want of Love as with a Crime of so high Nature as deserved to be reckoned with their murdering the Prophets and of Christ himself says he Who have kill'd the Lord
among the Jews to repulse those that moved any thing to them unseasonably or unworthy of them to do in their Opinion and also to express their Resentment if they thought themselves hardly dealt with The Widow of Zerephath used it this last way to the Prophet Elijah when she conceiv'd the Cohabitation of so holy a Person with her and his near Inspection into her Life was the Cause of her Childs death What have I to do with thee says she O thou Man of God! art thou come unto me to call my Sins to remembrance and to slay my Son And David used it the first way 2 Sam. 19. to Abishai urging him to put Shimei to death upon the Day of his Restoration to the Kingdom because he had Curs'd him in his Flight from Jerusalem Says he What have I to do with you ye Sons of Zerviah And notwithstanding the great Dislike and Offence this Phrase exprest our Lord forbore not to use it to his Mother intermedling in his Divine Employment Woman says he What have I to do with thee I confess it was durum Dictum a harsh Speech considering the Person to whom 't was spoken but 't was also if rightly weighed frugiferum Dictum a Speech full of good Instruction and Profit For it shews Christ's equal and impartial Deportment as he is a Lord and Saviour to all Persons whatsoever without Consideration of Country Acquaintance or Kindred The very Womb that bare him in an Unadvis'd Action shall not go away without a Rebuke if his Mother does that which is Dishonourable to his Office she shall hear that which is less honourable to her Relation if she forgets her Duty he will forget her Name and Title A good Lesson for those Favourites of Christ in these our Days who call themselves his Elect and his Darling Children however they live in Disobedience to his Laws and fansie he can see nothing in them that displeases him whatever wickedness they commit Though Propinquity in Grace be more in Christ's account than Propinquity in Bloud yet if even those that are ally'd to him by Grace sin presumptuously against him they will find him but a rough Kinsman Though Coniah were as the Signet upon my Right hand says God yet would I pluck him thence And if Peter the most Zealous of the Apostles shall take upon him to tempt Christ he shall bear the Name of Adversary Get thee behind me Satan If the Provocations of the Servants of God be Great however near and close their former Relation to him was they will find him as far Estranged from them and in Case their Provocations be of a less and meaner Allay they will receive a Check as the Blessed Virgin here did And so I proceed to the Reason why Christ reprov'd her Because she unseasonably interpos'd in what she ought not to have meddled prompted him to work a Miracle before his Time was come My Time says he is not yet come These and the foregoing Words Woman what have I to do with thee utterly o'erthrow all the vain and false Glories which the Church of Rome Superstitiously Idolatrously and injuriously rather than Devoutly heap upon our Lady ascribing to her impeccability and being born without Sin the Title of Queen of Heaven and a perpetual Regency over her Son c. But as Stout and resolute Souldiers where the Works are weakest shew the greatest Valour So those of that Church shrink not for all the Assault they receive from my Text but the ruder the Shock is the more obstinately they maintain their Post. They affirm that the Action of the Blessed Virgin here was not only without Blame but full of Faith Charity Humility Prudence c. and that Christ was so far from being angry with her or having any Cause given him to be so that he took up a feigned and dissembled Dislike to have an Occasion only to teach the World and not her neither That the Power by which a Prophet works Miracles is not derived from his Parents nor to be governed by them but wholly by the Spirit of God says Cornelius à Lapide In ipsa nulla fuit culpa ergo non vera fuit Christi reprehensio reprehendere tamen illam videtur ut non ipsam sed nos doceret in operibus theandricis parentes nihil habent juris and so forth Thus the Jesuite is not asham'd to make our Lord Jesuitize i. e. falsifie and dissemble but the time would be ill spent to confute such gross Follies and Blasphemies which chuse rather to find a Miscarriage in Christ than in his Mother to make him angry without a Cause or to feign an Unjust Anger than to allow it possible for her to give him a Just Cause to be angry But the Explanation of these Words my hour is not yet come will more plainly shew wherein our Lady deserv'd a Reprehension The Hour of Christ is sometimes understood of the Hour of his Death as 't is said They could not lay hold of him because his Hour was not yet come But here it is to be understood of his Season or Opportunity to do a thing as when he answered his Brethren that ask'd him to go up to Jerusalem to the Feast Your Time says he is always but my Time is not yet come But here by the way we must not conceive any thing of the Hours assign'd to Christ of that nature which the Arrians and Priscillians did who said He was subject to Fate and Necessity and bound up to the Observation of Times and could not therefore be the Eternal Son of God Christ's Death was not impos'd on him by any Fatal Necessity as himself declares Chap. 10. and 18. of our Evangelist No man taketh my Life from me says he but I lay it down of my self I have Power to lay it down and I have Power to take it up But when 't is said The Hour of his Death was not yet come it means no more than this That he had not yet finish'd the Work for which he came into the World he had not fully preach'd the Gospel accomplish'd the Prophecies that were of him confirm'd his Disciples c. i. e. the Hour by his own Eternal Wisdom chosen was not yet come the Hour as S t Augustine speaks non Necessitatis sed Voluntatis the Hour not of his Necessity but his Will not of his Constraint but of his Counsel And the like may be said of the Hour of his working Miracles he attended no Critical Minute or favourable Conjuncture of the Stars to assist him as to his Power he could have wrought them when he would every Hour was the Hour of his Power but every Hour was not the Hour of his Opportunity he could have turned the Water into Wine at the time his Mother spoke to him as well as at any other but the End for which he did it would not have fallen out so Easily and Naturally at one time as at another and though
Moloch and the Queen of Heaven So these ascribe to Chance or Fortune to Good and Bad Seasons to Humane Prudence or Folly all their Prosperity and Adversity and not to Divine Providence When I say the Goodness of God is thus injured his Benefits over-seen or denied his Judgments contemned his Righteousness hated and his Deity set at naught what wonder is it if his Love be also turned into Detestation and Hatred When Men hate they wish the Person hated may perish they wish it I say because their Power does not always answer their Anger but God to whom it is as easie to destroy as to be angry when he hates he sends certain Ruine and Destruction on the Offenders he punishes with the same Facility as he says in my Text I will punish you for all your iniquities And now to hang our Ancestors Picture in our Gallery if I may so allude to set the Actions of Israel by ours that we may draw some Instructions from them I could almost wish that this Proposition Whatever People God has blessed above others if they sin against him he will also punish above others were not so great a Truth so Ominously it sounds For if there be a Nation upon the Earth that God has Known i. e. distinguish'd by his Singular and Signal Favours from all others it is this of ours S t Paul reckons it among the highest Priviledges of Israel that they had the Oracles of God though we may say of them they were Oracles indeed if their Darkness be compared with the Clear Light of the Gospel revealed to us Christ was preached to them and not preached but if to any of us he be hid 't is through wilful and affected blindness and as the Apostle says He is hid only to those that perish And when through the Inundation of Barbarians and Ignorance and the worse Inundation of Corrupt Manners Errours and Superstition over-spread the Face of the whole Christian World upon the first Dawning again of the Light of the Gospel and the shaking off of this Darkness while the Abominations of Rome were yet seen and detested by all Discerning and Conscientious Believers and the Fermentation of the Truth in mens hearts was not settled again upon the Lees of Secular Policy and Interest we were rescued by God's Goodness from the Yoke of Anti-Christ But not to look back to the Benefits of remote Ages but only to those we our selves have been immediate Partakers of and are accountable for What Mercy was ever more Glorious than the Restauration of our King and Church in these our Days not to name our later though Signal and Illustrious Deliverances But as God has known us in all our Distresses and Adversities and wrought such Miracles of Mercy for us how have we received them What Miracles of Thanksgivings and Duty have we returned to him We have wrought Miracles indeed but Miracles in an Untoward Sense Miracles of Impiety and Ingratitude As God restored our King and Kingdom to their former Splendour and Glory and all of us to our forfeited Peace and Prosperity multitudes have endeavoured by their Atheistical Opinions to depose God from his Kingdom in Heaven and Government over the World As God brought us out of the Saddest and Darkest Night of Adversity into the bright Sun-shine of Felicity by a Power and Goodness like that by which he brought Light out of Darkness at the Creation there are those that have turned Light into Darkness i. e. denied and obscured all the Light of Divine Truth and Revelation again that have turned Darkness into Light made the Sins of Darkness become Sins of Light and Noon-day those Sins which were reproachful and crept into Corners in all Ages to be of Credit and Reputation in this These together with the rendering things Venerable and Sacred ridiculous and contemptible are the Miracles of these times Saint Peter says In the last days shall come Scoffers walking after their own Lusts. These two Sins Walking after their own Lusts and Scoffing at things Holy go together and 't is no wonder that this dissolute and profligate Age should mock at Religion and at all things Serious mock at their Reason and degrade it below their Sense mock at the Immortality of their Souls and level themselves with the Beasts mock the Kingdom of Heaven into a Dream and the Torments of Hell into a Fable the Creation of the World into a piece of Non-sence and Impossibility and why Because 't is more rational to believe the Doctrine of Atoms that the orderly and beautiful Frame of Heaven and Earth and all that is in them were produced by the casual shuffling together of I know not what little Particles than by the Contrivance of an Infinitely Wise and Powerful God Or again that the World was from all Eternity and that Men and all other Creatures grew at first like Plants out of the Earth and the like rather than that they were created No certainly these things are not so easie to be conceived and digested by Reason as the Doctrines that are rejected but the most Monstrous Opinions are easier to be embrac'd by Wicked men than such Truths as cannot be held together with their Vicious Lives as the Apostle says They live without God in the World and they cannot endure to hear that he made it and will judge it that their Bodies should dye and their Souls survive their Pleasures come to an End and their Guilt remain that there should be a Resurrection to Punishment and not for the Execution of their Lusts. Julian the Apostate to justifie his revolt from the Faith said of the Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have perused it I have understood it I have despised it Alas if he had approved it he must have condemned himself if he had acknowledged the Gospel to be Divine and the Way to Bliss he must have confess'd himself a Monster and the most Accursed of Mankind But that which is so great a Prodigy is that the least Night or Darkness of Atheism should be seen in this Kingdom where the Gospel shines in its Meridian that Apostasie should be found where so many glorious Manifestations of God's Power and Goodness are found We have heard that the Ungratefully Wicked the Wicked after much Good done for them are in greater Danger of God's Wrath and Displeasure than the Simply Disobedient What then can we expect our Portion should be when after so many Unparallell'd Benefits we have shew'd our selves not only Unthankful but Atheistical not only Transgressors of God's Laws but Renouncers of them Says our Prophet Verse the 5 th Will a Lion roar in the Forest when he has no Prey i. e. will he roar to no purpose when nothing provoketh him when he designs nothing by it So when God threatens Sinners does he mean nothing are the Dreadful Denunciations of his Judgments mere Empty Noise Again in the Verse before my Text says the Prophet Can two walk together
the Swords of those whose Relations he had murthered So let no Man after a Wicked Life hope to find a Place so remote obscure or fortify'd as to protect him from God's Vengeance 'T is said That Kings have long arms and can reach Delinquents at a great Distance but the King of Kings has much longer and if the Offenders against him could take Refuge even in the Centre of the Earth obtain of the Rocks to shelter them or the Mountains to fall upon them the Angels would fetch them from thence to Judgment There are none that shall escape none that shall be dispens'd with from appearing before the Tribunal of God and receiving their Doom at the Last Day Only it is now in our power while we are yet in this Life to make it a happy or unhappy Doom a Doom that adjudges us to Crowns and Scepters or to Chains and Everlasting Torments Repentance and a Holy Life will turn that Day of Terrour into a Day of Rejoicing make the Ominous Portents the dreadful Thunders and other amazing Concomitants of it but as the loud Musick cheerful Acclamations and Solemnities which attend a Triumph or Coronation I say which attend our own Triumph and Coronation as S t Paul assures us 2 Tim. 4 8. I have finisht my Course says he I have kept the Faith henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day and not to me only but unto all them that love his appearance However the Predictions of the Last Day cause Consternation and Distraction of Mind in Wicked Doers to the Righteous they are altogether Gospel or Good Tidings they that keep God's Laws cannot chuse but love and delight in his Appearance Let the Heavens rejoice and the Earth be glad says the Psalmist Let the Field be joyful and all that is therein before the Lord And why all this Joy For he cometh for he cometh to judge the World and the People with Equity And Luke 21.28 says our Lord When these things come to pass then look up and lift up your heads for your Redemption draweth nigh To God the Father Son and Holy Ghost be ascribed all Honour Glory c. The Eighteenth Sermon 1 PETER iv 8 And above all things have fervent Charity among your selves for Charity covereth the multitude of Sins THE Commandment of Charity if we look to the Birth and Cradle of it is as ancient as Adam for this Natural Law Deal so with others as you would have them deal with you which is the radical and original Precept out of which this Gospel one did immediately issue Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self sprung-up with Nature and is as old as it mutual Love beginning with mutual Society and affection to one another being exercised as soon as there was a Pair in the World to keep it up But the Practice of the Jews in our Saviour's time much thwarted this Precept Sect was against Sect the Pharisee against the Sadducee and the Sadducee against the Pharisee and both against Christ Professions and Offices were made Crimes Publicans the Receivers of Tribute were counted Sinners again Revenge was held as lawful as Punishment Extrajudicial Righting of a man's self as Judicial Censures Do Good to those that do Good to you and Evil to those that do Evil was good Ethicks among them and the Moral Man esteem'd to appear as eminent in practising the last part of this Maxime as the first So that the Precept of Charity was in a manner wholly extinguish'd among them so overwhelmed with the Rubbish of ill Customs and worse Traditions that to clear it and make it shine out again was a Work as hard as to introduce something that never before was Which caus'd our Lord to call this Commandment a New one I give you a New Commandment says he That ye love one another New not as if it then first entred the World but because it was then renew'd to them as things redeem'd from the injury of Age and Oblivion appear fresh and new when they are brought into Use and Fashion again But we may admire that the World has so much agreed in all Times to abrogate this Law brought in at first by General Interest and of so Universal Benefit that we may say with Tully Non aquâ non igne non aëre pluribus locis utimur quà m amicitiâ we stand not more in need of water fire or air in every turn of our Lives than of Friendship or the mutual Offices of Love And if this Law were entertained it would render all other Laws useless it would disannul the Commandments by fulfilling them it would remove heaps of Legal Cautions and Provisions the two Tables would be no more necessary to Men than to Angels private Grudges open Wars Rebellions Factions Schisms would all vanish every Person would be not only more holy in himself but would cause others to be more holy many Sins would be amended by a fair Example many would be extenuated by a candid Interpretation many overcome by a kind and amicable Usage Therefore as the Apostle advises in the foregoing Verses mortifie your Lusts be sober and watch unto Prayer neglect not necessary Duty But above all things have fervent Charity among your selves for Charity shall cover the multitude of Sins In the Words we may observe these four things I. The Habit or Grace that is enjoin'd Love Not that Passion which is born with all Sensitive Creatures and is common to Men and Beasts but that Theological Vertue which is infus'd into Man only 't is not simply Love but Christian and Brotherly Love Have Charity II. The Degree of this Habit the Intenseness of this Divine Quality and that is Fervency it is not enough to have a remiss lukewarm Charity it must burn and glow in us Have fervent Charity III. The Object of this Vertue that which bounds and terminates it and is adequately commensurate to it and that is All Men in general the Object is as large as Humane Nature our Charity is not to be ty'd to Families or Tribes to Sects or Nations or whatever Partitions else Policy or Passion have made use of to distinguish and estrange men from one another but it is to be extended to all not to this or that Man but to Mankind as 't is indefinitely express'd in my Text Among your selves IV. The Inforcement of the Practice of this Quality and that is by the Recommendation of it from its Operation or Effect it covers Sins together with the Extent of that Effect not one or two but many and many Sins For Charity shall cover the Multitude of Sins I begin first with the Habit or Vertue it self contain'd in these Words Have Charity The Charity or Love here enjoined us is not I say that melting Passion that is common to Men and Beasts an affection awaken'd in us by the beholding of outward Beauty the comely
Structure of the Body or other Graces of a fair and amiable Person which is the Child only of an abused Fancy begot through Weakness and nurs'd up by fond Conversation Musick Feasts Comedies and other the like Genial Sports and busie Idlenesses of the times and produces no better Effects than Folly dissolute Manners Jealousie discontent Madness c. This Frenzy has obtain'd too much in being the glorified Theme of Poets and Romance-Writers who advance it above all other Concerns of Man's Life whether Secular or Sacred and while they make it the admired Subject of many Fables and the ambitious Pursuit and highest Ornament of their counterfeit Heroes the gilded Poyson is often swallow'd by the more Sober and Vertuous Our Apostle is so far from recommending or in the least degree countenancing of this Dotage that ver 3. he ranks it among the detestable practices of the Heathen and such things as Christians ought to be asham'd of For this Sensual Love in those days was not only an Immorality or Vice but a prime Branch of Idolatry from hence flew all the Cupids from hence came the Temples dedicated to Venus the Divinity of Beauty and the Deities of Women And happy it were if we could say These were not Idols still in the World for if as S t Jerome says every reigning Lust is an Idol set up in our hearts Sensual Love is no inferior Deity Quotcunque habemus Vitia says the Father quotcunque peccata tot recentes habemus Deos iratus sum ira mihi Deus est vidi Mulierem concupivi Libido mihi Deus est as many Vices we have as many Sins so many Gods we have I am angry Anger is a God to me I see a Woman and lust my Lust again's a God to me And the Reason of this is plain Because none of these things can be in us but they must be before God in us for if they can come after God they can agree with and be reconcil'd to God which is impossible and then being before or above him can we say less of them than that they are Gods in us 'T is not the Temple or the Image that constitutes the Idolatry but the Shrine the Idol has in our hearts the Adoration and Sacrifice paid to it by our Affections Neither does God require of us a higher Acknowledgment than to love him with all our Heart and with all our Mind The Love therefore recommended here by the Apostle cannot be any thing that is an Enemy to God to Man or to our Selves Charity or Love carries something Pious and Beneficial in its very Name and if these things be not in the Nature of it 't is a Spurious or Bastard Love To come then to the Love recommended by the Apostle we define it to be A Divine Vertue or Supernatural Grace inspired into us by God's Holy Spirit a Quality which resides in himself and which is subject to no perturbation an Image of it we see in the pious Love of Parents and Children the religious Amity between Brethren Friends and Neighbours and the Perfection of it in our Saviour his Apostles Martyrs and other Christian Heroes that follow'd his Example An Affection it is but a Severe and Sober one a Fire that warms the hearts of men but a pure and sanctify'd one lifted far above the Softnesses and Wantonnesses of the other Carnal heat and not kindled by the Deception of the Outward Senses or flaming from the Fewel of a bright Beauty but a reflected Beam of our Love to God descending downwards and glancing on our Brethren from a Sense of God's Goodness to us and in obedience to that Commandment of his that enjoins us to pay to men as his Proxies and Substitutes on Earth the Tolls and Tributes due unto himself So that 't is not This or That Person that this Love makes court to but to Mankind its Addresses are as Universal as the Image of God in the World no more regard is had by it of the Handsome than the Deformed of the Young than the Aged or if more be had of the one than the other 't is of the Party most to be compassioned the Object of this Love is Want or Misery in any kind and whoever it can help is its Amata or Beloved And as the Object of this Love is no less General than the Distresses of Humane Nature so its Expressions towards them are as many and various as there are Ways of doing Good and being Beneficial in any kind For Charity is not only a Largess of Money or a Dole of Bread a feeding of the hungry and a cloathing the naked c. but a parting with our Passions for the sake of our Brethren a condescending to their Weakness a complying with their Temper and tolerating their Infirmities 'T is again a relieving them with Good Counsel a Donative of Seasonable Admonition and Reproof a shewing of Severity when need requires as well as Mercy an Exacting of Punishment as well as a remitting of it for Charity is not that which is always grateful and always pleasing but which is ever salutary and ever beneficial The Wanton Love we condemned is a constant Floud of Sweetness which flows smoothly into the Ocean of Destruction a smiling Evil that knows nothing harsh or disagreeable till it turns all to Harshness and Disagreeableness But Godly Love is often bitter in the first Taste and sweet in the after Relish a rugged Mercy and an Austere Kindness a Good transferr'd with Frowns and Severe Discipline and such are the Corrections of Servants and Children the Correptions of Friends the Excommunications of the Church and the exterminating Sentences of the Law the Rod and the Stocks the Hurdle and the Axe being as instrumental unto Charity as Money Food Raiment and the like Open Rebuke says Solomon is better than secret Love and I may say Open Rebuke has in it much secret Love And to think the Remissness of Laws charitable and the Execution of them cruel is a Shortness of Reasoning which becomes only Women and Children who pity the present Sufferings of the Criminal but see not the future Good purchased by it The timely cutting off of a Notorious Malefactor has rescued a Nation from Destruction Phineas stood up and pray'd and the Plague ceas'd his seasonable Execution of two Eminent Offenders preserved the lives of many thousands of the people and holy Writ calls not his Fact Slaughter but styles it by the milder Name of Prayer because it invoked God's Mercy and propitiated his Wrath. If Pity may bind the hands of Justice and Charity protect Violence and Outrage not only one Wolf will worry a whole Flock but the Flock or Body of People will in time become Wolves and Tygers for Religion only perswades men to be Just and Righteous it does not constrain them to be so indeed it promises Rewards to Well-doers and threatens Judgment to Evil-doers but they are Rewards to come and Judgments at a
I never heard he ceases not to be my Brother nay though he be a Jew Mahometan or Infidel and not only an Enemy to the Faith but also to me he has not lost his Humanity though he lost his Religion and Goodness he has not drunk of Circe's Cup he is not become a Lion or a Wolf docet Christus delicto alterius non tolli Naturam and Christ teaches us that a mans Nature is not destroyed by his Sins the Image of God remains still in him and he is yet a Member of Mankind and whoever shall obliterate this Character though but in his Uncharitable Estimation is impious and sacrilegious and because his Brother has done something unworthy of his Relation to him he does that which is unworthy of his Creation unworthy of the Divine Character he bears The Word Enemy ought to be a mere Notion or empty Term in Christian Religion or to be Relative to nothing but to Sin and Satan to the Devil and the Devil's Works God and Nature made all men Brethren Malice Interest or Chance made them Strangers or Enemies Says Hierocles To a Good man no man is an Enemy i. e. a Good man may be hated but he will not hate again he may be treated hostilely but he will not use another as an Adversary And this unconquered Love of returning good for evil is the truest and noblest Badge of our Christian Profession The Disciples of the Philosophers were distinguisht by the Various Opinions of their Masters those of the Lawyers by particular Sentences and Interpretations of the Law the Scholars of the Pharisees by certain Traditions and Observations But Christ would have his Disciples known by no Vain-glorious Marks or Distinctions But by this says he shall men know that you are my Disciples if ye love one another And those that hate their Brother be it upon what Pretence soever Judaize and though they wear their Baptismal Cross as conspicuously on their Foreheads as the Pharisees did their Phylacteries they are Disciples of the Synagogue I shall add but one thing more and conclude this Point Though we are oblig'd to love one another i. e. All men to love all men we are not obliged to love all men alike Our heavenly Father who is set to be our Example in general Beneficence does not do so though his Love be Universal to all 't is not Equal to all but as Seneca says of Earthly Kings Rex honores dignis dat congiarium indignis a King bestows common Largesses both on the Worthy and Unworthy but Offices and Charges of Honour he confers only on the Worthy So the King of Heaven sends his Rain and makes the Sun to shine on the Good and Bad on the Just and Unjust but does not in the like promiscuous manner and without Distinction scatter the Gifts of his Holy Spirit he shews himself a Common Father to all men but a Gracious Father only to the Righteous And we ought to conduct our private limited Charity by the like Rule shed the common Influences of it on all Mankind even as far as we can extend them but when they will not reach both to Believers and Unbelievers then to give the preference to Believers for the Alliance of Grace is yet straiter than that of Nature And thus S t Paul states this Duty Gal. 6.10 As we have opportunity says he let us do good to all men but especially unto the houshold of Faith And I conceive after this manner we are to understand what is said Ecclus 12.4 Give to a godly man and help not a Sinner i. e. help the Godly man rather when thou canst not relieve both chuse to relieve the first And let thus much suffice to be said of the Object of our Charity I proceed to the Reason that inforces it which is taken from its Operation and Effect It covers Sins together with the Extent of that Effect not one or two but many and many Sins For Charity shall cover the multitude of Sins These Words are Parallel to the last Verse of the fifth Chapter of S t James He that converteth a Sinner from the errour of his ways shall save a Soul from death and shall hide a multitude of Sins But in some Copies both in this place and in my Text the Original has not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Future Tense Charity shall cover a multitude of Sins implying the Sins of the Charitable Man but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the present Does cover a multitude of Sins implying the Sins of other men as 't is Prov. 10.12 Hatred stirreth up Strife but Love or Charity covereth all Sins i. e. hideth and beareth with the transgressions of other men and thus again 't is said 1 Cor. 13.4 Charity suffereth long and is kind In which words the Apostle speaks of a prime Act of Charity not of its Reward of the Goodness it shews not of the Recompence it shall receive But there will be no need to contend for rendring of the Words either way for both these Propositions are true Charity is a benign Vertue that pardons the Sins of those that offend against us And again Charity is so acceptable a Vertue in the Sight of God that for its sake he will pardon many Sins committed against him I shall therefore handle the Words in both Senses And first Charity shall cover the Multitude of Sins i. e. of our own Sins against God Sins are said to be hid or covered in Scripture when they are pardoned so Psal. 32.1 Blessed is he whose unrighteousness is forgiven and whose sin is covered And again Psal. 84.3 Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people thou hast covered all their Sins Covering of Sins imports not the concealing them in relation to God's Sight or Knowledge but in relation to his Justice or Punishment as men are said to forget Injuries not in a Sense of Memory but of Mercy when they remember them not to revenge them as Joseph forgot his Brethrens selling him into Egypt not as Pharaoh's Butler forgot Joseph in Prison But may not then the same Question be ask'd here which the Scribes and Pharisees ask'd in the Gospel Who can forgive sins but God alone In what Sense can Charity be said to cover or pardon Sins for covering or pardoning of Sins and Justification are one and the same thing the peculiar Prerogative of God and his free Gift of Grace through Jesus Christ and to affirm that Charity or any other Vertue whatsoever can work this Work belonging only to God were to make it as S t Hilary speaks ambitiosa errorum patrona an ambitious or aspiring Patroness of Errour to make it affect the Throne of God like Lucifer to attribute to an imperfect humane Vertue the Power of the Deity and to advance that to be a Giver of Pardon which stands in need to receive Pardon it self When 't is said therefore That Charity shall cover our Sins it means only That it
for their Children for being kind Husbands they have provided for their Wives for being bountiful Masters they have preferr'd their Servants But yet all this is but to do Good or Charity Oeconomically or within our own Doors not Oecumenically or Universally all this is still but the Love of a Man's Self for he is hardly yet gone out of Himself that is not gone beyond his Family and Relations This measure of Love as our Lord observes is found among Infidels They love those that love them but we are to be like our Father which is in Heaven who sends his Rain upon the Vnjust as well as the Just we are to love Aliens and Enemies as well as Friends The Love that is express'd to Relations may be the Pin or Hook on which some Single Precept hangs but not which supports the Stress of the Whole Law and the Prophets that Honour or Dignity belongs only to these two The Love of God Above our selves And the Love of all men As our selves Which brings me to my Second General Part The Dignity of these two Commandments by reason of the Dependence of the whole Law and Prophets on them The Twenty First Sermon MATTH xxii 46 On these two Commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets THESE two Commandments The Love of God And the Love of our Neighbour sustain the Entire Structure or Frame of the Book of God as the two Pillars Boaz and Jachin bore up the stupendous Fabrick of Solomon's Temple Or rather to keep to our Lord's Comparison they are as two mighty Hooks Hinges or Pins on which all the Law and the Prophets hang. For the better Explanation of which I shall do these three things I. Shew how it is to be understood That all the Law and the Prophets hang on these two Commandments The Love of God And the Love of our Neighbour II. I shall shew the Excellence of Love by way of Essay so far as to make it appear worthy of the Honour ascribed to it of sustaining all the Law and the Prophets III. I shall add as a Corollary how we may attain this Excellent and important Grace Love on which all the Law and the Prophets hang. I. How it is to be understood That all the Law and the Prophets hang on these two Commandments The Love of God And of our Neighbour The Law and the Prophets i. e. the Text and the Gloss or Comment whatsoever the Law has concisely commanded or implyed only and the Prophets more largely expounded and dilated on were but to plant this one Duty this One Master Principle in the hearts of men Love In every Law there are two Parts the Matter enjoin'd and the Rewards and Punishments annex'd by way of Sanction for the better Observation of it For a bare Injunction not animated and fortified with the Promise of Good things to the Keepers of it and Threats of Evil to the Infringers will find but cold Observation among men Who as the Psalmist speaks are little better than horse and mule that must be held with bitt and bridle of Penalties lest they fall upon you The Office of the Prophets was to be Custodes Legis the Guardians and Conservators of the Law they were not to add to the Law though they were inspired by God as Moses was but to interpret press and inculcate the Duties of it to revive in mens thoughts the Promises and Threats and thus they were a kind of Mound or Fence to the Law to keep off Transgressions The Jews had a Sort of Criticks who with great preciseness observed the Number of the Letters in each Book of Moses how they were written together with the Various Readings and these were call'd the Masorites because they were as the Word imports a Hedge to the Law But with much better right the Greater and Lesser Prophets may deserve this Name And upon this account it is that these two the Law and the Prophets or Moses and the Prophets are still quoted by our Lord together who says not The Law and the Interpretation of the Scribes or the Law and the Determination of the Priests though in lesser Matters the People were also to harken to them but the Law and the Prophets which were both of equal Divine Production and carried on the Same Design the one by commanding and the other by preaching and inculcating the Will of God and Duty of Men. Now whatsoever the one of these enjoins and the other enforces our Lord says Hang all upon these two Pins The Love of God and the Love of our Neighbour And though the Word Love is not often found in the Law and the Books of the Prophets though they are not as I may say so much Canticles as the Sermons of Christ and the Writings of his Apostles in some of which there is scarce a Verse but it is even verbally repeated and ingeminated yet the Duties which the Prophets urge and press are all Acts of Love to God and Charity to our Neighbour and whatsoever else they seem most to intend and employ their Pens about the propagation of Piety and Charity may be seen latent in the Scheme and Contexture of their Discourse and he that reads the one shall be unawares engaged and intangled in the other But then it may be ask'd here Seeing all the Law and the Prophets hang on this One Law of Love what need was there of so many Specifications of the Several Duties contain'd in both Tables as Thou shalt not kill Thou shalt not commit Adultery Thou shalt not Steal c. For this Single Word Love comprehending them all in effect so many Tautologies might have been spared To this we may say Men are so crafty and subtil to evade the Duties imposed on them or pretend Ignorance for their Disobedience that 't was not sufficient to set down in Generals the Obligations that lay on them but it was necessary by Express Prohibitions and Particular Instances to convince them when they offended against the Divine Precepts And for this reason the Law is fain often to descend to many trivial Specifications to work a lively and sensible Impression of the Justice or Injustice of every Fact in their minds As for Example Thou shalt not reap the Corners of thy Field nor glean thy Vineyard Thou shalt not suffer the Hire of the Labourer to remain with thee till the morning Thou shalt not take his Garment to Pledge his Bed nor his Working-tools nor his upper Milstone and the like Sure'y to an Ingenious Heart disposed to Humanity this particularizing would have been needless I say to a Good and Friendly Nature these things are of easie Deduction from the bare Word Love that all the rest might have been spar'd we say Verbum Sapienti a Word to the Wise is sufficient but 't is much truer Verbum Amanti a single Word to a true Lover is abundantly sufficient to make him recollect the rest of his Beloveds mind But I say Men