dead in trespasses and sins the making of a carcass walk the natural old man to spring again and move spiritually is as great a miracle as that Now the soul in that it produces life and motion the exercise of life in the body is called a principle that is a spring or fountain of life because all comes from it in like manner that which moves this soul and enables it to do that which naturally it could not that which gives it a new life which before it lived not furnisheth it with spiritual powers to quell and subdue all carnal affections which were before too hard for it this I say is called properly an inward principle and an inward because it is inwardly and secretly infused doth not only outwardly assist us as an auxiliary at a dead lift but is sown and planted in our hearts as a soul to the soul to elevate and enable it above it self hath its seat and palace in the regenerate heart and there exercises dominion executes judgment and that is commonly either by prison or banishment it either fetters or else expels all insolent rebellious lusts Now the new principle by which not the man but the new man the Christian lives is in a word the spirit of God which unites it self to the regenerate heart so that now he is said to be a godly man a spiritual man from the God from the spirit as before a living reasonable man from the soul from the reason that inform'd and ruled in him which is noted by that distinction in Scripture betwixt the regenerate and unregenerate exprest by a natural or animal and a spiritual man Those creatures that have no soul in them are called naturals having nothing but nature within to move them others which have a soul animals or living creatures by both which the unregenerate is signified indifferently because the soul which he hath stands him in little stead his flesh rules all and then he is also called a carnal man for all his soul he is but a lump of flesh and therefore whether you say he hath a soul and so call him an animal or hath not a soul and so call him a meer natural there is no great difference in it But now the regenerate man which hath more then a soul Gods spirit to enliven him he is of another rank 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a spiritual man nay only he properly a Christian because he lives by Christ He lives yet not he but Christ liveth in him Gal. ii 20. This being premised that now you know what this new creature is he that lives and moves by a new principle all that is behind will be clearliest presented to you by resolving these four questions 1. whence it comes 2. where it lodges 3. when it enters 4. what works it performs there To the first whence it comes the answer is clear and punctual John iii. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from above from whence comes every good and especially every perfect gift James i. 17. but this most peculiarly by a several and more excellent way then any thing else Since Christs ascension the Holy Ghost of all the persons in the Trinity is most frequently employed in the work of descending from Heaven and that by way of mission from the Father and the Son according to the promise of Christ John xv 26. The comforter whom I will send from the Father Now this spirit being present every where in its essence is said to come to us by communication of his gifts and so to be peculiarly resident in us as God is in the Church from which Analogy our bodies are called the Temples of the Holy Ghost which is in us 1 Cor. vi 19. God sends then his Spirit into our hearts and this I said by a peculiar manner not by way of emission as an arrow sent out of a bow which loses its union which it had with the bow and is now fastned in the But or white nor properly by way of infusion as the soul is in the body infus'd from God yet so also that it is in a manner put into our hands and is so in the man's possession that hath it that it is neither in any mans else nor yet by any extraordinary tye annext to God from whom it came but by way of irradiation as a beam sent from the Sun that is in the air indeed and that substantially yet so as it is not separated from the Sun nay consists only in this that it is united to the Sun so that if it were possible for it to be cut off from the Sun it would desist to be it would illuminate no longer So that you must conceive these beams of Gods Spirit at the same time in the Christians heart and in the spirit and so uniting that Spirit to the heart as you may conceive by this proportion I have a javelin or spear in my hand if I would mischief any thing or drive it from me I dart it out of my hand at it from which Gods judgments are compared to shooting and lightning He hath bent his bow he hath sent forth his arrows he cast forth lightnings Psal xviii 14. But if I like any thing that I meet with if I would have it to me I reach out my spear and fasten in it but still hold the spear in my hand and having pierct it draw it to me Thus doth God reach forth his graces to us and as I may so say by keeping one end in his hand and fastning the other in us plucks and unites us to himself from which regeneration is ordinarily called an union with Christ and this union by a strong able band 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Euseb his phrase which no man can cut asunder 'T is impossible to divide or cut a spirit and this bond is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a spiritual one and that made St. Paul so confident That no creature should ever separate him Rom. viii 39. And this God does by way of emanation as a loadstone sending out its effluvia or magnetick atomes draws the iron to it self which never stays till it be united Thus do you see from whence this principle comes to me and in what manner from Gods Spirit by this means uniting me to himself To the second question where it lodges my answer is in the heart of man in the whole soul not in the understanding not in the will a distinction of faculties invented by Philosophers to puzzle and perplex Divines and put them to needless shifts but I say in the whole soul ruling and guiding it in all its actions enabling it to understand and will spiritually conceived I say and born in the soul but nursed and fed and encreased into a perfect stature by the outward Organs and actions of the body for by them it begins to express and shew it self in the world by them the habit is exerted and made perfect the seed shot
amongst us to witness his compassion to satisfie for us by his own death and attach himself for our liberty to undergo such hard conditions rather than be forced to a cheap severity and that he might appear to love his Enemies to hate his Son In brief to fulfil the Work without any aid required from us and make Salvation ready to our hands as Manna is called in the sixth of Wisdom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bread baked and sent down ready from Heaven Wisd xvi 20. to drop it in our mouths and exact nothing of us but to accept of it this is an act of love and singleness that all the malice we carry about us knows not how to suspect so far from possibility of a treacherous intent or double dealing that if I were an Heathen nay a Devil I would bestow no other appellation on the Christians God than what the Author of the Book of Wisdom doth so often 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the friend or the lover of Souls But this is a vulgar though precious subject and therefore I shall no longer insist on it Only before I leave it would I could see the effect of it exprest in our Souls as well as acknowledged in our looks your hearts ravished as thorowly as your brains convinc'd your breasts as open to value and receive this superlative mercy as your tongues to confess it then could I triumph over Hell and death and scoff them out of countenance then should the Devil be reduced to his old pittance confined to an empty corner of the World and suffer as much by the solitariness as darkness of his abode all his engines and arts of torment should be busied upon himself and his whole exercise to curse Christ for ever that hath thus deprived him of Associates But alas we are too sollicitous in the Devil's behalf careful to furnish him with Companions to keep him warm in the midst of fire 't is to be feared we shall at last thrust him out of his Inheritance 'T is a probable argument that God desires our Salvation because that Hell wheresoever it is whether at the Center of the Earth or Concave of the Moon must needs be far less than Heaven and that makes us so besiege the gate as if we feared weshould find no room there We begin our journey betimes left we should be forestall'd and had rather venture a throng or crowd in Hell than to expect that glorious liberty of the Sons of God 'T is to be feared that at the day of Judgment when each Body comes to accompany its Soul in torment Hell must be let out and enlarge its territories to receive its Guests Beloved there is not a Creature here that hath reason to doubt but Christ was sent to die for him and by that death hath purchased his right to life Only do but come in do but suffer your selves to live and Christ to have died do not uncrucifie Christ by crucifying him again by your unbelief do not disclaim the Salvation that even claims right and title to you and then the Angels shall be as full of joy to see you in Heaven as God is willing nay desirous to bring you thither and Christ as ready to bestow that Inheritance upon you at his second coming as at his first to purchase it Nothing but Infidelity restrains Christs sufferings and confines them to a few Were but this one Devil cast out of the World I should be straight of Origens Religion and preach unto you Universal Catholick Salvation A second Argument of God's good meaning towards us of his willingness that we should live is the calling of the Gentiles the dispatching of Posts Heralds over the whole ignorant Heathen World and giving them notice of this treasure of Christs blood Do but observe what a degree of prophaneness unnatural abominations the Gentile World was then arrived to as you may read in all their stories and in the first to the Romans how well grown and ripe for the Devil Christ found them all of them damnably Superstitious and Idolatrous in their Worship damnably unclean in their lives nay engaged for ever in this rode of damnation by a Law they had made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 never to entertain any new Laws or Religion not to innovate though it were to get Salvation as besides their own Histories may be gathered out of Act. xvii 18. And lastly consider how they were hook'd in by the Devil to joyn in crucifying of Christ that they might be guilty of that blood which might otherwise have saved them and then you will find no argument to perswade you 't was possible that God should have any design of mercy on them Peter was so resolv'd of the point that the whole succession of the Gentiles should be damned that God could scarce perswade him to go and Preach to one of them Act. x. He was fain to be cast into a Trance and see a Vision about it and for all that he is much troubled about the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their prophaneness and uncleanness that they were not fit for an Apostle to defile himself about their Conversion And this was the general opinion of all the Jews they of the Circumcision were astonished at the news Act. x. 45. Nay this is it that the Angels wondred at so when they saw it wrought at the Church by Pauls Ministery never dreaming it possible till it was effected as may appear Eph. iii. 10. This was the Mystery which from the beginning of the World had been hid in God V. 9. One of God's Cabinet Counsels a Mercy decreed in secret that no Creature ever wist of till it was performed And in this behalf are we all being lineally descended from the Gentiles bound over to an infinite measure both of humiliation and gratitude for our deliverance from the guilt and reign of that second original sin that Heathenism of our Ancestors and Catholick damnation that Sixteen hundred years ago we were allinvolv'd in Beloved we were long ago set right again and the obligation lies heavy upon us to shew this change to have been wrought in us to some purpose to prove our selves Christians in grain so fixed and established that all the Devils in Hell shall not be able to reduce us again to that abhorred condition If we that are thus called out shall fall back after so much Gospel to Heathen practices and set up Shrines and Altars in our hearts to every poor delight that our sottishness can call a God if we are not called out of their sins as well as out of their ignorance then have we advanced but the further toward Hell we are still but Heathen Gospellers our Christian Infidelity and practical Atheism will but help to charge their guilt upon us and damn us the deeper for being Christians Do but examine your selves on this one Interrogatory whether this calling the Gentiles hath found any effect in your
can be required of a Christian they look no farther then the outward work observe not what heart is under this outside but resolve their estate is safe they have as much interest in Heaven as any one Such men as these the Apostle begins to character and censure in the 12. verse of the Chapter As many as desire to make a fair shew in the flesh c. They that stand only on a fair specious out-side and think all the sap and life of Religion lies in the bark they do this and this these will have you circumcised and constrain you to a many burthensome ceremonies measuring out Religion to you by the weight thus much is required of you to do as Popish Confessors set their deluded votaries their task of Ave Maries and Pater nosters by tale and thus you may be sure to be saved In brief the Apostle here shews the unprofitableness of all these and sets up the inward sanctity and renewedness of heart against them all as the only thing that will stand us in stead and appear to be of any weight in the balance of the sanctuary If you observe all the commands and submit your selves to all the burden of both Law and Gospel and bear it upon your shoulders never so valiantly if you be content to be circumcised as Christ was or because he hath now abrogated that make use of Christian liberty and remain uncircumcised notwithstanding all inducements to the contrary In brief be you outwardly never so severe a Jew or Christian all that is nothing worth there is but one thing most peremptorily required of you and that you have omitted For neither circumcision availeth any thing neither uncircumcision but a new creature The particle but in the front of my Text is exclusive and restrictive it excludes every thing in the world from pretending to avail any thing from being believed to do us any good For by circumcision the Church of the Jews and by uncircumcision the whole profession of Christian Religion being understood when he saith neither of these availeth any thing he forcibly implies that all other means all professions all observances that men think or hope to get Heaven by are to no purpose and that by consequence it exactly restrains to the new creature there it is to be had and no where else thus doth he slight and undervalue and even reprobate all other wayes to Heaven that he may set the richer price and raise a greater estimation in us of this The substance of all the Apostles discourse and the ground-work of mine shall be this one Aphorism Nothing is efficaciously available to salvation but a renewed regenerated heart For the opening of which we will examine by way of doctrine wherein this new creature consists and then by way of use the necessity of that and unprofitableness of all other plausible pretending means and first of the first wherein this new creature consists 'T is observable that our state of nature and sin is in Scripture exprest ordinarily by old age the natural sinful man that is all our natural affections that are born and grow up with us are called the old man as if since Adams fall we were decrepit and feeble and aged as soon as born as a child begotten by a man in a consumption never comes to the strength of a man is alwayes weak and crazy and puling hath all the imperfections and corporal infirmities of age before he is out of his Infancy And according to this ground the whole Analogy of Scripture runs all that is opposite to the old decrepit state to the dotage of nature is phrased new The new Covenant Mark i. 27. The language of believers new tongues Mark xvi 17. A new commandment John xiii 34. A new man Ephes ii 15. In sum the state of grace is exprest by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all is become new 2 Cor. v. 17. So that old and new as it divides the Bible the whole state of things the world so it doth that to which all these serve man every natural man which hath nothing but nature in him is an old man be he never so young is full of years even before he is able to tell them Adam was a perfect man when he was but a minute old and all his children are old even in the cradle nay even dead with old age Eph. ii 5. And then consequently every spiritual man which hath somewhat elsé in him then he received from Adam he that is born from above John iii. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for it may be so rendred from the original as well as born again as our English read it he that is by Gods spirit quickned from the old death Ephes ii 5. he is contrary to the former a new man a new creature the old Eagle hath cast his beak and is grown young the man when old has entred the second time into his mothers womb and is born again all the gray hairs and wrinkles fall off from him as the scales from blind Tobits eyes and he comes forth a refin'd glorious beauteous new creature you would wonder to see the change So that you find in general that the Scripture presumes it that there is a renovation a casting away of the old coat a youth and spring again in many men from the old age and weak bed-rid estate of nature Now that you may conceive wherein it consists how this new man is brought forth in us by whom it is conceived and in what womb 't is carried I will require no more of you then to observe and understand with me what is meant by the ordinary phrase in our Divines a new principle or inward principle of life and that you shall do briefly thus A mans body is naturally a sluggish unactive motionless heavy thing not able to stir or move the least animal motion without a soul to enliven it without that 't is but a carcass as you see at death when the soul is separated from it it returns to be but a stock or lump of flesh the soul bestows all life and motion on it and enables it to perform any work of nature Again the body and soul together considered in relation to somewhat above their power and activity are as impotent and motionless as before the body without the soul Set a man to remove a mountain and he will heave perhaps to obey your command but in event will do no more towards the displacing of it then a stone in the street could do but now let an omnipotent power be annext to this man let a supernatural spirit be joyned to this soul and then will it be able to overcome the proudest stoutest difficulty in nature You have heard in the primitive Church of a grain of faith removing mountains and believe me all miracles are not yet out-dated The work of regeneration the bestowing of a spiritual life on one
yea sum of our belief we deny and bandy against all our lives long If the story of Christ coming to judgment set down in the xxv of Matthew after the 30. verse had ever entred through the doors of our ears to the inward closets of our hearts 't is impossible but we should observe and practise that one single duty there required of us Christ there as a Judge exacts and calls us to account for nothing in the world but only works of mercy and according to the satisfaction which we are able to give him in that one point he either entertains or repels us and therefore our care and negligence in this one business will prove us either Christians or Infidels But alas 't is too plain that in our actions we never dream either of the judgment or the arraignment our stupid neglect of this one duty argues us not only unchristian but unnatural Besides our Alms-deeds which concern only the outside of our neighbour and are but a kind of worldly mercy there are many more important but cheaper works of mercy as good counsel spiritual instructions holy education of them that are come out of our loyns or are committed to our care seasonable reproof according to that excellent place Lev xix 17. Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart but in any wise reprove him a care of carrying our selves that we may not scandal or injure or offer violence to the soul and tender conscience of him that is flexible to follow us into any riot These and many other works of mercy in the highest degree as concerning the welfare of other mens souls and the chief thing required of us at the day of judgment are yet so out-dated in our thoughts so utterly defaced and blotted out in the whole course of our lives that it seems we never expect that Christ in his Majesty as a Judge whom we apprehend and embrace and hug in his humility as a Saviour Beloved till by some severe hand held over our lives and particularly by the daily study and exercise of some work of mercy or other we demonstrate the sincerity of our belief the Saints on Earth and Angels in Heaven will shrewdly suspect that we do only say over that part of our Creed that we believe only that which is for our turn the sufferings and satisfactions of Christ which cost us nothing but do not proceed to his office of a Judge do not either fear his judgments or desire to make our selves capable of his mercies Briefly whosoever neglects or takes no notice of this duty of exercising works of mercy whatsoever he brags of in his theory or speculation in his heart either denies or contemns Christ as Judge and so destroys the sum of his Faith and this is another kind of secret Atheism Fourthly Our Creed leads us on to a belief and acknowledgement of the Holy Ghost and 't is well we have all conn'd his name there for otherwise I should much fear that it would be said of many nominal Christians what is reported of the Ephesian Disciples Acts xix 2. They have not so much as heard whether there be an Holy Ghost or no. But not to suspect so much ignorance in any Christian we will suppose indeed men to know whatsoever they profess and enquire only whether our lives second our professions or whether indeed they are meer Infidels and Atheistical in this business concerning the Holy Ghost How many of the ignorant sort which have learnt this name in their Catechism or Creed have not yet any further use to put it to but only to make up the number of the Trinity have no special office to appoint for him no special mercy or gift or ability to beg of him in the business of their salvation but mention him only for fashion sake not that they ever think of preparing their bodies or souls to be Temples worthy to entertain him not that they ever look after the earnest of the Spirit in their hearts 2 Cor. i. 22. Further yet how many better learned amongst us do not yet in our lives acknowledge him in that Epithet annext to his title the Holy Ghost i. e. not only eminently in himself holy but causally producing the same quality in us from thence called the sanctifying and renewing Spirit How do we for the most part fly from and abandon and resist and so violently deny him when he once appears to us in this Attribute When he comes to sanctifie us we are not patient of so much sowreness so much humility so much non-conformity with the world as he begins to exact of us we shake off many blessed motions of the Spirit and keep our selves within garrison as far as we can out of his reach lest at any turn he should meet with and we should be converted Lastly the most ordinary morally qualified tame Christians amongst us who are not so violent as to profess open arms against this Spirit how do they yet reject him out of all their thoughts How seldom do many peaceable orderly men amongst us ever observe their wants or importune the assistance of this Spirit In sum 't was a shrewd speech of the Fathers which will cast many fair out-sides at the bar for Atheists That the life of an unregenerate man is but the life of an Heathen and that 't is our regeneration only that raises us up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from being still meer Gentiles He that believes in his Creed the person nay understands in the Schools the Attributes and gifts of the Holy Ghost and yet sees them only in the fountain neither finds nor seeks for any effects of them in his own soul he that is still unregenerate and continues still gaping and yawning stupid and senseless in this his condition is still for all his Creed and learning in effect an Atheist And the Lord of Heaven give him to see and endeavours to work and an heart to pray and his Spirit to draw and force him out of this condition Fifthly Not to cramp in every Article of our Creed into this Discourse we will only insist on two more We say therefore that we believe the forgiveness of sins and 't is a blessed confidence that all the treasures in the world cannot equal But do our selves keep equipage and hand in hand accompany this profession Let me catechize you a while You believe the forgiveness of sins but I hope not absolutely that the sufferings of Christ shall effectually clear every mans score at the day of judgment well then it must be meant only of those that by repentance and faith are grafted into Christ and shall appear at that great marriage in a wedding garment which shall be acknowledged the livery and colours of the Lamb. But do our lives ever stand to this explication and restriction of the Article Do they ever expect this beloved remission by performing the condition of repentance Do we ever
the Lord that are fit to move or to perswade any The utmost secular fear is so much more impendent over Satan's than God's Clients the killing of the body the far more frequent effect of that which had first the honor to bring death into the world The Devil owning the title of destroyer Abaddon and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and inflicting diseases generally on those whom he possest and Christ that other of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Physitian and the Saviour that hath promises of long life annexed to some specials of his service that if it were reasonable to fear those that can kill the body and afterwards have no more that they can do i. e. Are able by the utmost of their malice and Gods permission but to land thee safe at thy fair Haven to give thee Heaven and bliss before thy time instead of the many lingring deaths that this life of ours is subject to yet there were little reason to fear or suspect the fate in Gods service far less than in those steep precipitous paths which the Devil leads us thorow And therefore to be thus low-bell'd with panick frights to be thus tremblingly dismayed where there is no place of fear and to ride on intrepid on the truest dangers as the Barbarians in America do on Guns is a mighty disproportion of mens faculties a strange superiority of phansie over judgment That may well be described by a defect in the power of numbring that discerns no difference between Ciphers and Millions but only that the noughts are a little the blacker and the more formidable And so much for the third branch of this character There is yet a fourth notion of simplicity as it is contrary to common ordinary prudence that by which the politician and thriving man of this world expects to be valued the great dexterity and managery of affairs the business of this world wherein let me not be thought to speak Paradoxes if I tell you with some confidence that the wicked man is this only impolitick fool and the Christian generally the most dextrous prudent politick person in the world and the safest Motto that of the Virtutem violenter retine the keeping vertue with the same violence that Heaven is to be taken with Not that the Spirit of Christ infuses into him the subtleties and crafts of the wicked gives him any principles or any excuse for that greater portion of the Serpentine wisdom but because honesty is the most gainful policy the mok thriving thorow prudence that will carry a man farther than any thing else That old principle in the Mathematicks That the right line comes speediliest to the journeys end being in spight of Machiavel a Maxim in Politicks also and so will prove till Christ shall resign and give up to Satan the oeconomy of the World Some examples it is possible there may be of the Prosperum Scelus the thriving of villany for a time and so of the present advantages that may come in to us by our secular contrivances but sure this is not the lasting course but only an anomaly or irregularity that cannot be thought fit to be reckoned of in comparison of the more constant promises the long life in a Canaan of Milk and Honey that the Old and New Testament both have ensured upon the meek disciple And I think a man might venture the experiment to the testimony and tryal of these times that have been deemed most unkind and unfavorable to such innocent Christian qualities that those that have been most constant to the strict stable honest principles have thrived far better by the equable figure than those that have been most dexterous in changing shapes and so are not the most unwise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if there were never another state of retributions but this Whereas it is most scandalously frequent and observable that the great Politicians of this world are baffled and outwitted by the Providence of Heaven sell their most precious souls for nought and have not the luck to get any money for them the most unthrifty improvident Merchandise that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 folly Psal xlix 13. which the lxxii render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 scandal the most pitious offensive folly the wretchedst simplicity in the World You would easily believe it should not stand in need of a farther aggravation and yet now you are to be presented with one in my Text by way of heightning of the Character and that was my second particular that at first I promised you made up of two farther considerations First The loving of that which is so unlovely secondly The continuing in the Passion so long How long you simple ones will you love c. First The degree and improvement of the Atheists folly consists in the loving of it that he can take a delight and complacency in his way to be patient of such a course gainless service such scandalous mean submissions had been reproach enough to any that had not divested himself of ingenuity and innocence together and become one of Aristotles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Natural slaves which if it signifie any thing denotes the fools simple ones in this Text whom nature hath marked in the head for no very honorable employments But from this passivity in the Mines and Gallies to attain to a joy voluptuousness in the employment to dread nothing but Sabbatick years and Jubiles and with the crest-fallen slave to disclaim nothing but liberty manumission i. e. in effect Innocence and Paradise and Bliss to court and woo Satan for the Mansions in Hell and the several types and praeludiums of them the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the initial pangs in this life which he hath in his disposing to be such a Platonick lover of stripes and chains without intuition of any kind of reward any present or future wages for all his patience and as it follows to hate knowledge and piety hate it as the most treacherous enemy that means to undermine their Hell to force them out of their beloved Satan's embraces This is certainly a very competent aggravation of the simplicity And yet to see how perfect a character this is of the most of us that have nothing to commend or even excuse in the most of those ways on which we make no scruple to exhaust our souls but only our kindness irrational passionate kindness and love toward them then that love shall cover a multitude of sins supersede all the exceptions and quarrels that otherwise we should not chuse but have to them Could a man see any thing valuable or attractive in Oaths Curses in Drunkenness and Bestiality the sin that when a Turk resolves to be guilty of he makes a fearful noise unto his Soul to retire all into his feet or as far off as it is possible that it may not be within ken of that bestial prospect as Busbequius tell us Could any man endure
entreat the Sun to shine on thee especially if this cloud fall down in a showr if thou canst melt so thick a viscous meteor as those corrupt affections are into a soft rain or dew of penitent tears thou mayest then be confident of a fair bright Sun-shine For I dare promise that never humble tender weeping foul had ever this light quite darkned within it but could at all times read and see the will of God and the law of its creation not drawn only but almost engraven and woven into its heart For these tears in our eyes will spiritually mend our sight as whatever you see through water though it be represented somewhat dimly yet seems bigger and larger then if there were no water in the way according to that Rule in the Opticks Whatever is seen through a thicker medium seems bigger then it is And then by way of Use shall we suffer so incomparable a mercy to be cast away upon us Shall we only see and admire and not make use of it Shall we fence as it were and fortifie our outward man with walls and bulwarks that the inner man may not shine forth upon it Or shall we like silly improvident flies make no other use of this candle but only to singe and burn and consume our selves by its flame receive only so much light from it as will add to our hell and darkness 'T is a thing that the flintiest heart should melt at to see such precious mercies undervalued such incomparable blessings either contemned or only improved into curses Arrian calls those in whom this light of the soul is as I shewed you clouded and obscured 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dead trunks and carkasses of flesh and to keep such men in order were humane laws provided which he therefore calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 miserable hard laws to keep dead men in compass and again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Earth and Hell the places to which dead bodies are committed And certainly if so then by way of contrary all the life that we possess is but by obedience to this law within us and 't is no longer to be called life but either sleep or death or lethargy every minute that we move out of the circle of its directions There is not a step or moment in our lives but we have a special use and need of this law to manage us every enterprize of our thoughts or actions will yield some difficulty which we must hold up and read and judge of by this candle nay sometimes we have need of a glass or instrument to contract the beams and light of it or else 't would scarce be able to get through to our actions passion and folly and the Atheism of our lives hath so thickned the medium Wherefore in brief remember that counsel Mal. ii 15. Take heed to your spirit and let none deal treacherously with the wife of his youth the wife of his youth i. e. saith Jeroms gloss legem naturalem scriptam in corde the law of nature written in his heart which was given him in the womb as a wife and help to succour him Let us set a value on this polar Star within us which hath or should have an influence at least directions on all our actions let us encrease and nourish and make much of the sparks still warm within us And if Scholars and Antiquaries prize nothing so high as a fair Manuscript or ancient Inscription let us not contemn that which Gods own finger hath written within us lest the sin of the contempt make us more miserable and the mercy profit us only to make us unexcusable And so I come to my second part the sin of contemning or rejecting this law For this cause he gave them up 1. because the contempt of his law thus provoked him The guilt arising from this contempt shall sufficiently be cleared to you by observing and tracing of it not through every particular but in general through all sorts of men since the fall briefly reducible to these three heads 1. the Heathens 2. the Jews 3. present Christians and then let every man that desires a more distinct light descend and commune with his own heart and so he shall make up the observation The Heathens sin will be much aggravated if we consider how they reckon'd of this law as the square and rule and canon of their actions and therefore they will be inexcusable who scarce be ever at leisure to call to it to direct them when they had use of it The Stoick calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the promise that every man makes the obligation that he is bound in to nature at his shaping in the womb and upon which condition his reasonable soul is at his conception demised to him so that whosoever puts off this obedience doth as he goes on renounce and even proclaim his forfeiture of the very soul he lives by and by every unnatural that is sinful action 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 destroyes the natural man within him and by a prodigious regeneration is in a manner transubstantiate into a beast of the field Which conceit many of them were so possest with that they thought in earnest that 't was ordinary for souls to walk from men into Cocks and Asses and the like and return again at natures appointment as if this one contempt of the law of nature were enough to unman them and make them without a figure comparable nay coessential to the beasts that perish 'T were too long to shew you what a sense the wisest of them had of the helps that light could afford them so that one of them cryes out confidently 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. If all other laws were taken out of the world we Philosophers would still live as we do those directions within us would keep us in as much awe as the most imperious or severest Law-giver And again how they took notice of the perversness of men in refusing to make use of it for who saith one ever came into the knowledge of men without this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this knowledge and discretion of good and evil as old in him as his soul And yet who makes any use of it in his actions nothing so ordinary as to betray and declare that we have it by finding fault and accusing vices in other men by calling this justice this tyranny this vertue this vice in another whilst yet we never are patient to observe or discern ought of it in our selves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Who ever spares to call injustice which he sees in another by its own name for his own reason tells him 't is so and he must needs give it its title But when the case concerns his own person when his passions counsel him against the law within him then is he content not to see though it shine never so bright about him and this was
go about to make our selves capable of receiving this mercy conditionally offer'd us Nay do we not by our wilful stupidity and pertinacious continuing in sin nullifie in respect of us all that satisfaction of Christ and utterly abandon those means which must bring home this remission to us The truth is our faith runs only on general terms we are willing to lay all our sins on Christs shoulders and perswade our selves somewhat slightly and coldly that he will bear them in the root and in the fruit in the bullion and in the coyn in the gross and in the retail i. e. both our original and our actual transgressions but we never take any course to rest satisfied that we in particular shall participate of this happiness This requires the humiliation of the whole man the spirit of bondage for a while afterwards a second purity and virginity of the soul recovered by repentance and then a soberly grounded faith and confidence and an expressing of it by our own forgiving of others And till this piece of our Creed be thus explained and interpreted in our conversation we remain but confident Atheists not able to perswade any body that hears us that indeed we believe what we profess Sixthly and lastly The resurrection of the body and its consequent everlasting life is the close of our Faith and end and prop and encouragement and consummation of our hope and yet we take most pains of all to prove our selves Infidels in this our whole carriage both in the choice and observance of our Religion shew that we do not depend on it that we put no confidence in the resurrection If we went on this assurance we should contemn any worldly encouragement and make the same thing both the object and end of our service We should scorn to take notice of so poor a thing as profit or convenience is in a matter of so high importance knowing and expecting that our reward shall be great in Heaven This one thought of a resurrection and an infinite reward of any faithful undertaking of ours would make us disdain and almost be afraid of any temporal recompense for our worship of God for fear it should by paying us before-hand deprive us of that everlasting one We should catch and be ambitious of that expression of devotion which were most painful and least profitable as to worldly advantage and yet we in the stupidity of Atheistical hearts are so improvidently covetous so hasty and impatient in our Religion that unless some present gain allure and draw us we have no manner of life or spirit or alacrity to this as we count it unprofitable service of God The least incumbrance in the world will fright us from the greatest forwardness and nimbleness and activity in Religion and the least appearance of promotion or other like encouragement will produce and raise in us these affections and expressions of zeal which the expectation of the resurrection could never work in us Our Religion is somewhat like that of the Samaritans before Christs time either Jews or Heathens according as their King Antiochus would have them after Christs time were perpetually either Jews or Christians according as the Romans their new Lords and Masters either threatned or granted priviledge to the Jews If there were any thing to be gotten by the profession they would be as solemn Christians as any So when the Goths and Vandals over-run Italy and whether upon good affection or compulsion from God I know not spared them that fled to the Basilica in Rome the place where the Christians exercised then I say they which formerly persecuted the Christians now bore them company very friendly to their Churches and to save their lives fled to the Temple for a refuge which before they abomin'd and made use of Christianity for their safe-guard which they would not own for their Religion and hurried to that Sanctuary for their lives which they would not visit for their Souls The condition of our Religion is like that which is upbraided to Ephraim Hos X. 11. Ephraim is like an Heifer that loveth to tread out the Corn. 'T was prohibited by the law to muzzle the Ox or Heifer that treadeth out the Corn 't was allowed them to feed as long as they did the work and that made Ephraim love the toil so well because that at the very time he performed the labour he enjoy'd the fruit of it had as we say his wages in his hand had some present emolument that would ingratiate his work to him was not left to such a tedious expectation to so long a date as to wait for his reward till the resurrection those were too hard terms for him he could not endure to be ty'd so long up to the empty rack or feed upon the bit And thus hasty are we in the exacting of our reward for our service of God we will never set our hands to it unless we may make our conditions we are resolved not to be such fools as to serve God for nought to spend the quickest of our spirits in a sowre crabbed profession and expect our thanks at dooms-day This plainly demonstrates that however our theory be possest our practice places no trust no confidence no assurance in that part of our Creed the resurrection Again 't was an excellent argument to perswade doubtful Christians in the youth and non-age of the Church of the certainty of the resurrection that religious men and those whom undoubtedly God loved were full of sufferings in this world and lived and died many of them without any expression of Gods favour to them which made them certainly to conclude that no doubt God hath some other course to exhibit himself in the riches of his mercy to them and seeing there was no hope but in another world Verily there should be a reward for the righteous doubtless there is a God that judgeth the Earth and by this argument we may try our selves for the sincerity of our faith in this business If we can be patient to endure afflictions here and not complain or grumble for a respite and deliverance but keep all our hopes to be accomplisht defer all our happiness to be performed to us at the resâ—rrection and though God kill us yet trust in him and be able to see through death in a trust That our Redeemer lives and that with these eyes we shall behold him then may we chear up and perswade our selves on good grounds that our hearts and lives do assent to the resurrection which our tongues brag of Take no heaviness to heart but drive it away and remember the end But if this consideration cannot digest the least oppression of this life cannot give us patience for the lightest encumbrance but for all our Creed we still fly out into all outrages of passion and extacies of impatience we plainly betray our selves men of this present world whose happiness or misery is only that which is temporary and
straight she applies it to her self which was the point we undertook to shew The direct use of this Proposition is for a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or judgment of our estate 'T is observed in the body that the rest of the senses may be distempered and lost without impairing of it but only the touch cannot which therefore they call the sense of life because that part or body which is deprived of feeling is also at deaths door and hath no more life in it then it hath reliques of this sense So is it also in spiritual matters of all other symptomes this of senslesness is most dangerous and as the Greek Physicians are wont to say of a desperate disease 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 very very mortal This feeling tenderness is necessary to the life of grace and is an inseparable both effect and argument of it Wherefore I say for the judgment of your selves observe how every piece of Scripture works upon you If you can pass over a Catalogue of sins and judgments without any regret or reluctancy if you can read Sodom and Gomorrah Babylon and the Harlot Jerusalem and not be affected with their stories if thou canst be the Auditor of other mens faults without any sense or griping of thine own if the name of sin or sinner be unto thee but as a jest or fable not worthy thy serious notice then fear thy affections want of that temper which the softning spirit is wont to bestow where it rests and accordingly as thou findest this tenderness increasing or waining in thee either give thanks or pray either give thanks for the plenty of that spirit which thou enjoyest or in the sense of thy wants importune it that God will give us softned relenting hearts that the recital of other mens sins may move us other mens judgments may strike us other mens repentance melt us with a sense with a confession with a contrition of our own But above all O Holy Spirit from hardness of heart from an undiscerning reprobate spirit from a contempt nay neglect a not observing of thy Word as from the danger of hell Good Lord deliver us And thus much of this point of this effect of a tender heart noted to you out of the cadence of the words I now come to observe somewhat more real out of the main of the words themselves Of whom c. We find not our Apostle here complementing with himself either excusing or attenuating his guilt but as it were glorying in the measure of his sins striving for preeminence above all other sinners challenging it as his right and as eager upon the preferment as his fellow labourer Peter his successor for a Primacy as he professes of all Bishops yea the whole Church so our Apostle here Of all sinners I am the chief The note briefly is this That every one is to aggravate the measure and number of his sins against himself and as near as he can observe how his guilt exceedeth other mens This was St. Pauls practise and our pattern not to be gazed on but followed not to be discust but imitated In the discourse whereof I shall not labour to prove you the necessity of this practise which yet I might do out of Davids example in his penitential Psalms especially 51. out of Nehemiahs confession and the like but taking this as supposed I shall rather mix doctrine and reason and use altogether in prescribeing some forms of aggravating our selves to our selves yet not descending to a particular dissection of sin into all its parts but dealing only on general heads equally appliable to all men briefly reducible to these two 1. Original sin or the sin of our nature of which we are all equally guilty 2. Personal sin grounded in and terminated to each mans person For Original sin it is the Fathers complaint and ought more justly to be ours of these times that there is no reckoning made of it 't is seldom thought worthy to supply a serious place in our humiliation 't is mentioned only for fashions sake and as it were to stop Gods mouth and to give him satisfaction or palliate the guilt of our wilful rebellions not on any real apprehension that its cure and remedy in Baptism is a considerable benefit or the remanant weakness after the killing venom is abated were more then a trivial disadvantage So that we have a kind of need of original clearness of understanding to judge of the foulness of original sin and we cannot sufficiently conceive our los without some recovery of those very faculties we forfeited in it But that we may not be wilfully blind in a matter that so imports us that we may understand somewhat of the nature and dangerous condition of this sin you must conceive Adam who committed this first sin in a doub'e respect either as one particular man or as containing in his loyns the whole nature of man all mankind which should ever come from him Adams particular sin i. e. his personal disobedience is wonderfully aggravated by the Fathers 1. from his original justice which God had bestowed on him 2. from the near familiarity with God which he enjoyed and then lost 3. from the perpetual blest estate which had it not been for this disobedience he might for ever have lived in 4. from the purity and integrity of his Will which was then void of all sinful desire which otherwise might have tempted to this disobedience 5. from the easiness of both remembring and observing the Commandment it being a short prohibition and only to abstain from one tree where there was such plenty besides 6. from the nature and circumstances of the offence by which the Fathers do refer it to all manner of most hainous sins making it to contain a breach of almost each moral law all which were then written in the tables of his heart and therefore concluding it to be an aggregate or mixture of all those sins which we have since so reiterated and so many times sinn'd over So then this personal sin of Adam was of no mean size not to be reckoned of as an every days offence as an ordinary breach or the meer eating of an apple In the next place as Adam was no private person but the whole humane nature so this sin is to be considered either in the root or in the fruit in its self or in its effects In its self so all mankind and every particular man is and in that name must humble himself as concerned in the eating of that fruit which only Adams teeth did fasten on is to deem himself bound to be humbled for that pride that curiosity that disobedience or whatsoever sin else can be contained in that first great transgression and count you this nothing to have a share in such a sin which contains such a multitude of rebellions T' is not a slight perfunctory humiliation that can expiate not a small labour that can destroy this monster which