of reasonable Creatures that if a disinteressed and unprejudiced Person were to speak his Mind he would say That neither the Wit of Men nor Angels could find out a more agreeable and effectual means for the recovery of the World than what is already made use of in the contrivance of the Gospel For here GOD hath consulted the Weaknesses Infirmities Prejudices and Imperfections of Mankind which they had contracted by a long Degeneracy and Corruption and Corruption and which were become so inveterate and deeply radicated as not to be removed but by such a Dispensation as might so far gratifie Humane Affections and natural Propensions as might be consistent with the Honour and Sanctity of the Divine Nature And this is that which St. Paul calls the Foolishness of Preaching 1 Cor. 1.21 For after that in the Wisdom of God the World by Wisdom knew not God it pleased God by the Foolishness of Preaching to save them that believe Which is not so to be understood as if the Pagan World had no knowledge of the one only true GOD the Creator and Governour of all things forthen the Apostle would have contradicted what he had said in another place Rom. 1.19 where he says the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which is knowable or may be known of GOD was manifest within them but that the generality of the World before Christianity by their natural Light and Contemplation of the Works of GOD did not attain to such a Practical Knowledge of GOD as might both free them from Idolatry and effectually bring them to a Holy Life to both which ends Christian Religion was designed of GOD that it should attain Therefore it pleased God by the foolishness of Preaching to save them that believe i. e. by a way of condescending Wisdom gratifying all our innocent Propensions and accommodating it self so far to the radicated and inveterate Prepositions of Humane Minds To give some Instances of this condescending Wisdom besides the general Impurity and Corruption of the Lives of Men a Learned Jewish Author gives this Account of the Pagan Polytheism and Idolatry The Idolaters says he first argued thus in respect of GOD That since he was of such transcendent Perfection above Men it was not possible for Men to be united to or have Communion with him otherwise than by means of certain middle Beings or Mediators as it is the manner of Earthly Kings to have Petitions conveyed to them by the hands of Mediators and Intercessors Secondly They thus argued also in respect of themselves That being Corporeal so that they could not apprehend GOD abstractly they must needs have something sensible to excite and stir up their Devotion and to fix their imaginations upon Here being then so early a Prepossession and general debauching of Men's Minds Divine Goodness and Wisdom hath so condescended to Humane Frailties and Inclinations as instead of that multitude of Middle Beings or Mediators which Apuleius calls Inter terricolas Caelicolasque Vectores hinc precum inde donorum qui ultrò citróque pertant hinc Petitiones inde Suppetias A kind of Carriers between the Inhabitants of Heaven and Earth who travelling to and fro carry our Prayers and Petitions thither and bring from thence Gifts and Supplies for us to constitute and appoint One Mediator between God and Man the Man Christ Jesus who offers up our Petitions and intercedes with GOD and procures Blessings and Favours for us By his Intervention we receive seasonable Supplies for all our Exigences and Necessities here and he takes care to conduct us at last to that Immortal Glory that he himself is now possessed of And that we may not err in transferring our Worship upon the Creature upon the Account that we can have no abstracted Conception of GOD and in this our Earthly State need something to invigorate our Devotion and fix our Imagination upon GOD hath cloathed himself with our Flesh and Blood and taken into a near Union with himself the Soul and Body of our Lord Jesus so that though rude and ignorant Mortals might fancy GOD as a pure and immense Spirit too raised an Object for them in this their degenerate Condition to have any Conception of yet what is sensible and visible and congenerous with themselves they must needs have an apprehension of and such is the Body of our Lord Jesus which is the Temple wherein now the Divinity is enshrined and wherein the Schechinah or glorious Majesty and Presence of God resides and manifests it self Which is a clear Instance of the condescending Wisdom of GOD which in compliance with the Prepossessions and Mistakes of Mankind wherein they were fatally and inextricably involved hath provided a visible Object of their Worship and Adoration by uniting himself with Humane Flesh I might instance in divers other Congruities wherein Christianity is so exquisitely fitted to redeem the World from the Tyranny of Satan and yet to gratifie even in a sensible manner all the more innocent Propensions and Inclinations of Mankind But I shall have occasion to take notice of some in the Progress of my Discourse It will now be requisite to take a more near and intimate view of the frame and contexture of Christianity wherein we shall with admiration behold a mighty congruity with our natural Faculties and a wonderful compliance all along with our Infirmities and Necessities For what can be thought more becoming and reasonable than 1. That some extraordinary Person should be sent from Heaven who should in the most convincing manner assure Men of the Will of God Now this is already done For by the Gospel we are assured that Jesus Christ the only begotten Son of GOD hath appeared upon Earth to declare his Father's Will unto Men. And by this way of proceeding GOD not only conciliates Reverence and Esteem to the Doctrine that was delivered but gives an evident and mighty demonstration of his infinite Love and Goodness and that he is really desirous of Mens eternal Happiness and Welfare In that the Will of GOD was discovered and made known by a Person so near and dear to him as his own Son is a sufficient ground of Reverence and Esteem Since all People in the World have ever reccived a Message from Heaven with the highest Veneration and so much the more as the Person that delivered it was of higher and greater worth And this was so general a Persuasion that the most famous Law-givers amongst the Pagans that they might make their Laws pass the better and find a more ready Acceptation with the People they feigned some Heavenly Power or other to be Author of them And what was but pretended by them was really and truly performed by our blessed Saviour who being the eternal Son of GOD clothed himself with Flesh and Blood and asserted his Commission to be from GOD and was owned by a Voice from Heaven to be what he declared himself And lest this should not be enough to convince the World
was the Reason the Gauls gave for their Sacrificing of Men Pro vitâ hominum nisi vita hominis reddatur non posse Deorum Immortalium Numen placari arbitrabantur i. e. They thought the Anger of God could not otherwise be averted unless the Life of some Man were offered as a Piacular Sacrifice for the safety of the rest Now our Lord by his Death extricated Men from this insulting Pride and Cruelty of the Devil in his barbarous Usage and infinite Contempt of humane Race and the sheding of his Blood became a real Propitiatory Sacrifice to appease the Anger of GOD and to obtain Terms of Reconciliation and Peace with him for all his lapsed Brethren 4. It is highly reasonable that this Preacher of Righteousness the Person who should undertake to bring back the strayed Souls of Men to their Obedience to God should have all Power committed into his hands both in Heaven and Earth For since he humbled himself so far as to take upon him the form of a Servant and vilifi'd his own Life in comparison of that great benefit that would accrue to the World by his laying it down and submitted to the ignominious and accursed Death of the Cross Divine Justice was concerned to Reward these Exinanitions with a proportionable Glory And that he might be instated in a capacity to Reward his faithful Friends and Adherents and Punish his refractary and stubborn Enemies it became necessary that he should have the Government of Heaven and Earth put into his hands For this is a great Security to us That our Lord is able to make good whatever he has promised to his Servants and a powerful Encouragement to us to persevere and go on to the end in Vertue though we pass through many Troubles and Afflictions And being thus made God's Vicegerent we cannot doubt but he will order all Affairs of the World for the good of his Church and at last remarkably Triumph over all the Powers of Darkness You see now the reasonableness and becommingness of the Frame of Religion and how suitable and agreeable it is to our Capacities and Necessities All which when St. Paul had considered he breaks out into a kind of Admiration Rom. 11.33 O the depth of the Riches both of the Wisdom and Knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his Judgments and his ways past finding out GOD being an infinite Wisdom has various ways and methods of Governing and Ordering his Creatures far above our shallow Comprehensions But the way of recovering Men is that which he has made choice of and discovered to us by Jesus Christ in which there are such easie compliances with those inveterate Prejudices the World laboured under and such apt Condescentions to Humane Nature as when the whole Frame and Contexture is laid open to an entire view we cannot wonder that the Angels desire to look into it Which plainly shews that Religion is no confused Jumble or Nonsence but a Contrivance wherein appears the greatest Art and highest Wisdom in the World And if all sober Persons admire the infinite Wisdom of God in the Works of Nature as the creation of the Sun Moon and Stars they have much more reason to stand amazed at this great Work of the New Creation or recovery of Mens Souls to their first and Original Happiness And if we can give a satisfactory Account of the Order and Management of the several Phaenomena of Providence in the natural World so in like manner there is a very reasonable Defence to be made for the Contrivance and Conduct of Affairs in the Moral A DEFENCE OF Revealed Religion SERMON III. ROM I. 16. For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ THat there is no unreasonableness in the Frame and Composition of Christianity but that it is infinitely agreeable and suitable to our Case and Necessities we have clearly demonstrated It remains now that we show with the same Plainness that there is nothing disagreeing with sound Reason in the Doctrines contained in it that so we may see that upon neither of these two Accounts we have any cause to be ashamed of the Gospel of Christ The Doctrines of Christianity consist either 1. Of such things as are to be believed as Articles of Faith Or 2. Of such things as are commanded as Duties and Matters of our Practice Or 3. Of Promises of great Rewards to them that shall be Obedient and severe Punishments and Threatnings to the Stubborn and Rebellious who refuse to walk according to those Rules laid down in the Gospel As to the Articles of Faith we shall briefly run over some of the chief of them that it may appear how consonant they are to the light of our own Reasons and Understandings That our blessed Saviour should be born in an unusual and extraordinary manner of a pure and immaculate Virgin that there should be an Apparition of Angels at his Birth that the Wise Men of the East should have notice and come to see him are all things so highly becoming that we should wonder if the same or something like them had not been done For our Lord being to be the greatest Person that ever appeared in the World and being designed to be the fairest Copy of a Holy and Pure Life and to correct all the carnal Exorbitances and Corporeal Impurities in which Mankind wallowed as if their only Felicity had consisted in the highest and rankest Exercise of their Animal Powers it was very agreeable that his Birth should be different from the common manner And that he should have no other Father but God was a way very suitable to gain a greater Authority to those Holy Precepts that he should deliver to the World this being the universal Sence of Mankind that there is the greatest Reverence due to what any Person nearly related to God communicates And that the Angels should usher in his wonderful Nativity with a solemn Anthem is no more than what served to enhance and set forth the Eminency Value and Dignity of his Person who was to be the great Prince of Angels as well as Men and in that Christ was designed to be the Hope of all the ends of the Earth and the Person in whom the Gentiles should trust though the Magi or Wise-Men intended no such thing yet it may well seem a Prefiguration of that chearful Submission the Gentile World should yield to him as their Prince and Redeemer so soon as he should come to be manifested to them And that Christ should appear in the World like one of us Cloathed with Flesh and Blood is more suitable to our State and Condition than if God should speak by an Angel or a Voice from Heaven For since many Troubles Afflictions and Tribulations attend us in our way to Immortality it cannot but be a greater encouragement to us to bear them with Patience when we see our most Holy and Innocent Lord suffer a World of Reproaches and Indignities and much hard usage
before he entred into his Glory Nor is it any more unbecoming or unworthy the Majesty of God to unite himself with a Humane Body which his own hands have fashioned and which is fearfully and wonderfully made than it was for the Divine Presence to take up its Residence in the Jewish Temple and dwell in a House of Stone Lastly That Jesus Christ should be made the visible Judge of Men and Angels is no less congruous and rational 1. In respect of himself this Honour and Triumph of the Divine Life being a just Reward of his voluntary Sufferings and Humiliation which is the Account our Saviour Christ gives himself John 5.27 And hath given him Authority to execute Judgment also because he is the Son of Man That is because he humbled himself to so high a degree as not only to take upon him our Flesh and Blood with all its harmless Infirmities and Imperfections but endured with wonderful Patience the Contradictions of Sinners the opprobrious Tauntings and Revilings of a Rude Generation and submitted himself at last to a Death full of Pain Ignominy and Disgrace 2. In regard of wicked Men and Devils For this visible Appearance of Jesus Christ in so solemn a manner attended with innumerable Legions of mighty Angels descending into these lower Regions near the Earth the Glory of whose Presence will be conspicuous to all the World must needs be a very sensible Conviction to all Wicked Persons of the Folly of their Doings when they shall see the same Jesus that delivered the Will of God to them now come to call them to an account for not obeying it And since there may be and doubtless are many Scoffing Atheistical Spirits in the Aerial Regions as well as here on Earth who ascribe all great Mutations in the World to Chance and Fortune or the necessary Combinations of Matter this appearance of our Lord and Saviour in such a visible manner according to the sure Predictions of the Holy Scriptures will effectually confute their vain Philosophy and force them even against their Wills to acknowledge the Interposition of a Divine Power and Providence Neither will it be a less afflicting Abasement of the insulting Pride of that Old Serpent and his Rebellious Associates who so long Tyrannized over Mankind with such Contempt and Scorn to feel themselves cast down into everlasting Destruction by that Nature which they had so much vilified and abused 3. In respect of those who have been faithful Adherents of Christ Jesus and firmly persisted in Goodness notwithstanding the many discouragements they met withal his Appearance in such a sensible manner will be exceeding comfortable and joyful for they beholding him coming down from Heaven with such transcendent Power and Glory must needs overflow with transports of Joy to find that now their Redemption will be fully compleated For what may not they hope for at his hands who is both their merciful Redeemer and their Judge And this very sight of their long-expected Saviour will invigorate their Souls with such a high degree of Life as shall through the inward Operation of the Divine Spirit transform their vile Bodies into the similitude of the glorious Body of the Son of God and in these fiery Chariots like Elijah they shall ascend from these mortal Regions to augment the Train of this great and Almighty Judge So every way agreeable are the Articles of our Christian Faith 2. We come now to the second Part of the Doctrines of Christianity which consists of such things as are commanded as Duties and matters of our Practice Which are only a reviving the natural Inscriptions and Laws of Righteousness Engraven upon our Souls at their first Creation For it cannot be thought but that that long Degeneracy we lay under and the powerful and vigorous growth of our Animal Faculties must exceedingly impair if not wholly obliterate the fair Impresses of the Divine Nature upon us so that we have need to have all those eternal Rules of Righteousness and Holiness to be laid down to us afresh And the manifestation of the Duties and Obligations that Christianity lays upon us is the exsuscitating and raising up that decaying and almost dying spark of Divine Life yet left in us and which may gain such strength by the powerful energy of the Spirit of Christ as to consume or convert into its Nature all that Rubbish which hindred and obstructed it And according to these Measures the Commands and Laws of Christianity are framed so that they are a part of the ancient Intellectual Furniture of our own Souls For furely there can be nothing more natural and consistent with our rational Frame than to Love and Honour God from whose infinite Fulness we and all things received their Being with all our Hearts and with all our Strength To depend upon him for all our Supplies and to acknowledge our own Nothingness that all that we have proceeds and flows from his inexhausted Bounty To sit quiet and contented under the various Dispensations of his Providence and to bring our Minds into a Subordination and perfect Conformity to his Holy Will in all things And as Christianity enjoyns us to pay all Duty and Service and Obedience to God so it strictly Commands all manner of Justice and Righteousness to others forbidding all harm and wrong to any thing living and instead of that requiring every Man in his several Station and Capacity to do all that Good that at any time lies in his Power To be kind and compassionate forgetting and forgiving all manner of Injuries done unto us and returning Good for the Evil that we have received Furthermore Christianity commands us to avoid all Lying and Hypocrisie as things beneath the excellency and dignity of our Nature and to speak the Truth in sincerity and singleness of Heart To banish out of our Minds all Malignity Rancour Malice and Envy as being the most contrary to the Nature of God who delights in the Prosperity and Happiness of his Creatures and therefore the Soul of a Christian above all others is enlarged and widened with an universal Love and Charity readily undertaking the help and relief of the Necessitous and Indigent looking upon all Mankind as Brethren and thereby joying and delighting in the Felicity of the whole World Now as to our selves we are engaged by the Precepts of our Holy Religion to exercise great Temperance and Moderation Sobriety and Chastity in reference to all Corporeal Satisfactions and Delights Not to defile and pollute our selves with debauched and sensual Pleasures but to remember that our Souls once came from the pure and incorruptible Mansions of Heaven and therefore that it is very unbecoming to suffer them to wallow and tumble in the Dirt and Mire of the Earth And since we are of a Divine Extraction Religion puts us in Mind to behave our selves as Citizens of that Heavenly Country and to release and withdraw our Affections from this World and to think of our return thither
faster upon the Consciences of Men the Apostle makes use of the Example of Christ in the next words For even Christ pleased not himself i. e. Christ had no respects for himself no ends of his own to consult but as if he had wholly forgotten himself he devoted himself perfectly to the promoting of his Father's Glory The whole number of Christians that believe in Jesus are one Body Now as the Members of the Body have the same care one of another so ought every Man to be very tender of the Good of his Fellow-Christian If a Man be a true and unfeigned Christian he will not walk solitary and alone in his way to Heaven but will strive to draw as many to accompany him as he can in so pleasant and gainful a Journey He will always be instructing those that are ignorant comforting the weak-hearted and strengthning those that are wavering and unsettled And where these things are wanting and every one lives as a Stranger to another it cannot be expected that the Gospel should draw off Men from Sin so successfully and with so much Triumph as it would if Men would lay aside their little Self-ends and be of more universal and publick Spirits and employ their Wit and Diligence in doing good to one another The summ and conclusion of the whole matter is this Since Christian Religion was intended not merely for Wise-Men and such as were of great Reach and Understanding but for the poorest and weakest Person it is in all things necessary to Salvation made plain and easie And that GOD might gratifie our innocent search after Knowledge he has hid many precious Treasures of Wisdom in the Scriptures as a Reward of our Piety and Diligence And therefore where any thing is delivered so obscurely that with our best diligence we cannot attain to the true sence and meaning of it it is a sure sign that whatever sence GOD intended yet he did not make that absolutely necessary to the Salvation of all Men. For if he had he would have laid it down in plain and not in intricate and ambiguous Terms In the mean time we must all consider that it is our Duty to pray unto GOD as the Apostle St. Paul for his Disciples the Colossians Chap. 1.9 10. and to desire that we may be filled with the knowledge of his Will in all Wisdom and spiritual Understanding That we may walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing being fruitful in every good Work and increasing in the knowledge of God And let us remember that as GOD has distributed the measures of his Gifts and Graces to every one accordingly shall their account be at the last day He that cannot read the Bible and has fewer opportunities of knowledge his account shall not be so great as his that can Read and has leisure and time to inform himself And he that has skill and knowledge to understand the Scriptures shall yet be more severely treated if he do not make use of this both for his own and his Neighbour's Good A DEFENCE OF Revealed Religion SERMON V. ROM I. 16. For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ HAving dispatched the three first Causes of Shame we come now to remove and take away the fourth and last and to shew the great Usefulness of Christian Religion to the World The usefulness therefore of any thing consists in the serviceableness of it for that end to which it was designed Now this very Apostle assures us 1 Tim. 4.8 that Godliness is profitable to all things having the Promise of the Life that now is and that which is to come that is to say Christianity is serviceable useful and conducing to promote the Happiness of Mankind both in respect of this present Life and that which is to come First then we shall consider the Usefulness of Christ's Religion in order to the Felicity of the next World and shew how excellently well suited it is to the attaining of that Which the Apostle seems to intimate in the Words of the Text when he calls it the Power of God unto Salvation to every one that believes Had Christian Religion designed the instructing of Men in the knowledge of Nature giving them a true System of the Heavens and declaring the Natures and Properties of all Things in this our Earthly Globe it would indeed have filled the Mind of Man with abundance of Pleasure and Delight but had mightily fallen short of that universal Usefulness that now it hath The great End therefore which GOD intended by the Gospel was the Advancement of true Godliness the pulling down and destroying the Kingdom of Sin and Satan and the erecting and setting up the Kingdom of Light and Grace in the Hearts and Minds of Men. And that this was the purpose of GOD cannot be unknown to any who considers the great Excellency and Perfection of the Commands of Christianity and what a high measure of Purity and Sanctity they aim at namely the entire Purification of the Soul from all manner of Terrestrial Defilements and Pollutions and the raising up in it a Divine and Heavenly Nature which being that State wherein we were at first created and into which we are recovered by the gentle Influences and Illapses of the Divine Spirit upon us there is begotten in our Souls a daily Tendency upwards and a restless endeavour to free themselves from that Preternatural Load that hangs about them and this effort of theirs receiving fresh Strength and Supplies from above never ceases till it have wrought them to such a high Pitch as through the Benignity and Power of him who is the beginning of the Creation of God they may be translated into the Peaceful Mansions of everlasting Glory We shall consider then the exquisite suitableness and serviceableness of the Gospel for the extirpation of all Sin and Vice and putting Men in possession of a Holy and Divine Nature which surely is the most advantageous Happiness the Soul of Man is capable of And if Religion be furnished with such Powers and Assistances as will against all Opposition whatever attain this great End then its usefulness to the World will be evidently discovered and no Man will have any reason to be ashamed of it Now that this End may be attained 1. GOD is pleased to promise us the Assistance of his holy and blessed Spirit For we being so sunk into this Earthly State that we are wholly carried away with its Affections and Lusts could never by our own single effort and solitary endeavours bring our selves back to the Participation of that Holy and Divine Life we fell from Therefore GOD out of his infinite Love and Compassion and upon the Intercession of our Lord and Saviour has vouchsafed us the aid of his blessed Spirit to regenerate our Natures and to form in us such a strong and active Principle of Holiness as should steadily carry our Wills to a perfect compliance and obedience to his Holy Will That we
Jesus Christ who took our Flesh and Blood upon him parted with his own Life to Redeem us from an inevitable Danger which would have undone us for ever And in recompence of this great Love he desires us only to make our selves Happy by taking upon us his easie Yoke and light Burthen And can we be so ungrateful as to slight him for it and forget his Commands What Bands or Cords can tye Souls nearer together than that Love which is stronger than Death Or what Words make deeper Impressions upon the Hearts of Men than those that are spoken by their dying Friends It is not possible for the Heart of Man to conceive a more effectual way to expell Sin and Wickedness and more conducing to the furthering of Goodness and Holiness than the consideration of the Death of Christ For that the Son of GOD who had no Sins of his own to satisfie for should descend from Heaven and submit himself to the Weakness Frailty and Drudgery of our Mortal State and endure such deep Agonies of Spirit as forced him to sweat drops of Blood and after suffer an inglorious and painful Death upon the Cross and this merely upon our Account and out of a mighty sense of Compassion for our Misery is so astonishing a Love as must needs thaw our icy Hearts and dissolve them into Tears and a ready Conformity to his Will How can any Man go on and continue in Sin when he considers that his Saviour came for this only end into the World that he might destroy the Works of Sin and Satan and present all Men a glorious Church to GOD without Spot or Wrinkle Whatever Sin therefore it be that assaults thy Soul present unto it thy dying Saviour who with his out-stretched Arms on the Cross sues for admittance into thy strongest Affections Art thou insnared with Pride How canst thou look upon thy self without watry Eyes when thou beholdest the Son of GOD born a helpless Infant of a poor Virgin subject to all the Hardships and sinless Infirmities of our Nature and at last breathing out his innocent Soul on the Cross for his bitter Enemies Art thou Covetous and too desirous of worldly Enjoyments then remember Judas and consider what a heinous and bloody Act his Covetousness betrayed him to even the delivering up his harmless Lord and Master to the malicious and implacable Jews And whoever sets his Heart upon the World he does with Judas sell his Saviour Thus you may see of what great usefulness this one Consideration of the Death of Christ is to the Mortification of all our Sins And this the Gospel every where holds forth to the same purpose that we should express his Death on the Cross in our Souls by our dying unto Sin and Crucifying all our corrupt Lusts and Affections 4. Another powerful means by which Men are drawn off from their Sins and engaged in Holiness is the example of our Holy Lord and Master Whose Life and Actions were therefore carefully written by his Disciples that Men might learn of him and follow his Steps And that we may more clearly discover wherein we are to imitate and follow the example of our Lord and Saviour we must distinguish between those Actions which our Lord did as a publick Person invested with Authority from Heaven As likewise those Actions of his which he did to confirm his Mission we must distinguish these I say from those wherein he is set as an Example for us to imitate 1. Therefore we are not called to imitate Christ in those Actions which he performed as a publick Person For there were many things which he did that related wholly to his Office as he was the Messiah the great Representative of Mankind who took upon him and came down from Heaven to reconcile the World to GOD. Thus he gave new Laws of Life to Men and forgave Sins by his own Power and Authority and laid down his Life as a publick Victim and Sacrifice for the World To these we may add his Fasting forty Days and forty Nights His leading a single Life and refusing all Earthly Honour and Dignity And hitherto likewise we may referr that Action of Zeal wherewith our Lord was possessed for the Honour of GOD and in behalf of the despised Gentiles against a corrupt Generation who only pretended but had really nothing of true Zeal or the Honour of GOD in them when as St. Matthew relates it Chap. 21.12 He went into the Temple of God and cast out all them that Sold and Bought in the Temple and overthrew the Tables of the Money-Changers and the Seats of them that sold Doves 2. Nor are we called to follow and imitate Christ in those Actions which he did to testifie the Truth of his Mission that he came from GOD and acted by his sole Authority Such were all his miraculous Works His giving Sight to the Blind Speech to the Dumb and hearing to the Deaf His commanding the Winds and Waves of the Sea which instantly obeyed him His multiplying Bread according to his own Pleasure so that a few Loaves should be sufficient to satisfie some Thousands of Eaters His curing all bodily Diseases and Distempers and shewing his Power over Evil Spirits which upon his sole Command and Word were forced to leave those Bodies they had vexed and tormented But above all his raising the Dead to Life shewing that he had a Power not only here but in the Regions of separate Souls likewise Now in neither of these are we called to imitate our Lord and Saviour But though we are not enjoyned to follow him in these yet are they not therefore thrown away or recorded to no purpose We may make a good use of every one of these Actions of our Saviour though we lie under no necessity to imitate him in them nay it were a presumption in us so to do When we read that he fasted Forty days we may learn that the further we withdraw our Minds from bodily Lusts and Affections we are in a greater Forwardness and better Disposition to converse with GOD. When we hear that our Saviour Christ stedfastly declined all Earthly Dignities and Honours It shews us what a light esteem GOD puts upon these things in comparison of the participation of his Nature in true Goodness and Righteousness And so of all our Lord 's Miraculous Actions which were as so many Credentials and Seals from Heaven that attested and verified his Commission and the Authority by which he acted There is something still that we may draw for our encouragement and support in that holy and unblameable Life which he came to propagate in the World When we find him by a Miracle redressing the Infirmities of Mankind and easing them of their Sorrows by curing their bodily Distempers Does not this teach us to be of a Compassionate Temper to sympathize with others in their Miseries and as far as we are able to lend our assisting hand to free them from them When
abundance yet he is better satisfied to die Poor than to become Rich by the Spoils of Widows and Orphans by the Arts and Intrigues of Fraud Deceit and Circumvention of others which are the usual Methods of growing Rich in the World However it remains equally firm that the Good Honest Frugal and Diligent Person is in the surest way to prosper and that he that pursues nothing as his ultimate end but the true Love of GOD and Vertue is invisibly made successful in his outward Circumstances by a favourable and kind Providence By this Deduction of Particulars it is evident how much Religion contributes to our Happiness in this Life And from what has been said we see the great Worth and Excellency of true Christianity whose salutary Influences and effects we experience both in this Life and the other As for Vice it is of such a pitiful and crazy Nature that it cannot stand upon its own Legs but is forced to use the shadow and countenance of Vertue for its support No Man dares to own or make a Profession of Vice for it self but evermore covers it with some Sanctimonious Colour and Disguise Judge then what Worth or Value can there be in that which is not able to uphold it self but is betrayed by its very Weakness Let not then our ungovernable Appetites deprive us of that Happiness which is entailed upon a Vertuous Life This will stand by us and support us in all Estates 'T is the Grace and Glory of our Youth to be found Vertuous and Good and 't will be the comfort of our old Age when we have passed our days and need no Repentance Vertue makes the best Provision for the Happiness of Man in this Life For if we would enjoy a long and prosperous Life here there is no surer way to it than through the Paths of Holiness length of Days are in her Right-hand and in her Left-hand Riches and Honour Would we transact our Lives in Tranquility and Pleasure There is no Peace so lasting no Pleasure so pure as that which springs from an honest Heart The ways of Religion are ways of Pleasantness and all her Paths are Peace Indeed if we are only in Love with sensual Pleasures and make it our whole business to pursue the satisfaction of Brutes we can never attain to any grateful and affecting relish of Holiness Because Vertue is a thing that cannot be seen with Corporeal Eyes nor can the true discriminating sence of it be discerned by the outward Taste But there is an inward sence which is only awakened by the constant and serious Acts of Religion that gives a true representation of Vertue and affects the Mind with the solid Pleasures of Religion Holiness is of a permanent and stable Nature whose comfortable influence is most discernible in the worst state of things and never leaves nor forsakes a Man in the Agonies of Death it self But alas what are all bodily Delights with which the Lives of Men are so much taken up How frail and evanid How fleeting and uncertain and how void of all true Satisfaction and Content What remains then but that we seriously put in practice all the Acts of unfeigned Piety and Religion Which if we have any Care of our best Interest we are strictly obliged to For whether we consider Christianity as to its usefulness to the next Life or its Serviceableness to this in both these Cases the Profit and Advantage of it evidently appears And now having finished what I have to say upon this Text I shall conclude with this That Christianity is so fram'd in all its Parts that no Man has any the least shadow of Reason to be ashamed of it Blessed Lord who hast caused all Holy Scriptures to be written for our Learning Grant that we may in such wise hear them read mark learn and inwardly digest them that by Patience and Comfort of thy Holy Word we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed Hope of everlasting Life which thou hast given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ Amen FINIS See a late Treatise Intituled A Letter to a Deist John 20.29 1 Tim. 4.9 See Dr. Cudworth Intel. Syst l. 1. c. 4. p. 468. De Deo Socratis Caesar Comment Mat. 24.31 Psal 4.8 Prov. 12.21 Prov. 14.34 Eccles 8.1
that if they would Recant what they had said to Jesus and leave off speaking any more in his Name they might enjoy their Ease and Quiet and perhaps have some Rewards into the Bargain But if they would persist and go on they must look for the sharpest Trials and Persecutions which indeed these Holy Men met withal almost in all Places where they came Now had the Resurrection of Jesus from the Dead been only a feigned Story of the Apostles and the rest that had combined to spread it abroad it is possible that while they met with no hazard nor danger they might carry on the Cheat yet when Life lay at Stake it is very hard to think that any one would die for that which he knew to be an Untruth But here we find in this case that the Apostles freely and joyfully ventured their Lives for the Truth of this and the most of them actually lost their Lives for it Now he must be of a very easie and credulous Nature and fit for nothing but to be imposed upon that can believe so many Men of good Sence and sound Understanding would die for a Story of their own Invention and which their own Consciences would tell them was a notorious Falshood By what hath been said it is apparent that there was as high and full a Testimony given to the Resurrection of Jesus Christ as is possible to be given to any matter of Fact And this being put out of doubt there can be no scruple left for any of the other Parts of the History of the Gospel since the same Persons that attested the one did likewise assure to the World the other That is the same Arguments which convince us of the Truth of Christ's Resurrection do likewise establish us in the Faith of the whole Christian Religion Neither do I know what can with any colour be objected against this unless Men out of an obstinate Humour will rather adhere to that poor Subterfuge of the Jews and for the spreading abroad of which they gave large Money to the Soldiers viz. That his Disciples came by Night and stole him away while the Watch Slept Which because by it they intended to discredit our Saviour and his Doctrine I shall shew how vain it is 1. It is not likely the Disciples who fled from him when he was taken and the stoutest of them denied him should now that he was dead venture to steal his Body from a Guard of Soldiers 2. How improbable is it that all the Watch should be asleep at one time 3. If they were all asleep how could they tell that the Disciples took him away and not that he arose from the dead by the mighty Power of God as the Apostles affirmed 4. How could it be that the Disciples should come just at that very time when they were all asleep 5. How could they go so silently to work as to roll away the Stone and to take out the Body all which would have made some noise and took up some time and yet none of the Watch hear them Besides there is another Circumstance which cannot well agree with the hast and fear these poor Disciples must needs be in in such an Attempt and that is That care which was taken to lay the Linnen Cloaths by themselves in the Sepulchre Luke 24.12 And yet the Napkin that was about his Head did not lie with the rest of the Linnen Cloaths but was wrapped together in a place by it self Joh. 20.7 which is the most unlikely thing in the World that the Disciples should be so curious in sorting the Linnen which they would either have taken away with the Body or at least not have spent time to wrap it so carefully together 6. Lastly Suppose they had taken away the Body Quid ex cadavere emolumenti What benefit could they hope from a dead Carkass Would that be enough to make them forsake their dearest Relations to lay aside the Sentiments and Opinions in which they had for a long time been Educated and Instructed to expose themselves to a thousand vexatious Reproaches and at last to a vile and ignominious Death and all to maintain the Credit of a Person that had so grosly frustrated their Expectations Surely he that can believe such things of the Apostles must offer the greatest Violence in the World not only to his own but to the Understanding of all Mankind And now we cannot but see the unreasonableness of Infidelity that it must be either a very crooked and untoward Education or an obstinate base and perverse Spirit that carries Men with so much contempt and scorn against the belief of the Holy Scriptures For if these Persons were asked upon what account they give credit to Thucydides's History of the Peloponnesian War or Plutarch's Lives or any other ancient Historian they must say that the constant and universal consent of the most Learned and Judicious hath all along determined those Persons to be the Authors of those Books and that they were Persons of Credit and Veracity And is it not meer Frowardness Humour and Fantastickness to reject the Testimony of the Catholick Church handed down successively for Sixteen hundred Years and upwards concerning the Books of the New-Testament Let them but have the same Temper and Disposition of Mind in respect of the History of the Gospels that they retain in behalf of the forementioned Historians and they must of necessity confess that there are at least as many and as weighty Motives of credibility for that as possibly can be excogitated for these Moreover according to the different Natures of things there are different ways of Probation and no Man will expect a Mathematical Demonstration to prove a Moral Proposition It is sufficient to every Ingenuous Nature that there be as full and clear Evidence as the matter can bear Hence our Lord and Saviour though it might seem more satisfactory to have seen him as the Apostles did with a Man 's own Eyes yet pronounces them Blessed that have not seen and yet have believed intimating that it is a more generous Faith to believe unsuspected Witnesses upon the full and clear Evidence of the matter of Fact than if this Faith were constrained and as it were necessitated by ocular Demonstration Hence we may understand the meaning of those words of our Saviour Mat. 12.32 And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of Man it shall be forgiven him But whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven him neither in this World neither in the World to come that is though it were a great Sin not to believe our Saviour to be sent from God after he had given such manifest proof of it by his numerous and stupendious Miracles yet the Sin was not come to its height because there wanted yet further Evidence Our Lord was not yet risen from the Dead But after his Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven and as a Confirmation of this the
Mission of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles who was also one of Christ's Witnesses then the Sin became deadly because the last means were used and the fullest proofs of Credibility given that could be expected for matter of Fact that is there was every thing done which might procure Belief in a disinteressed Person And therefore for any obstinately to contradict this is quite to prescind his own hopes and shut the door against himself by wilfully rejecting all those Arguments which might and ought to have gained belief I pray GOD open the Eyes of those who slight and undervalue Christianity as if it were not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a faithful and true Word and every way Worthy to be Received that they may timely see and repent of their Error and through a sincere acknowlegment of the Truth may be eternally Saved A DEFENCE OF Revealed Religion SERMON II. ROM I. 16. For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ WE have shewn from these Words That the History of the Life and Actions of our blessed Saviour his Death Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven is true and being so we have no reason to be ashamed of our Religion which is built upon these things Truth is a thing that none need to be ashamed of because it is a Perfection a Ray and Beam that descends from God the Fountain of all Truth Now the Truth of the History of the Gospel depending upon the Veracity of those that wrote it we shewed that the Apostles could not be deceived because they were present and Eye-witnesses of the things they set down And we have no reason to suspect they would deceive others because they might have been discovered and besides had no self-ends nor designs in broaching a Falshood but on the contrary were ready to Sacrifice their own Lives for the Truth of what they said and lastly That they gave as high a Testimony of the Resurrection of Jesus on which all his other Miracles depended as possibly can be given by Men to any Thing or Matter in the World 2. The next cause of Shame is if the Doctrine delivered to us be not Rational therefore we come now to shew that Christianity or the Doctrine of the Gospel is rational that is agreeable with those common Notions of Reason and Understanding which God has planted in the Souls of all Mankind And indeed if we believe that it is true and came from GOD it must necessarily follow that there can be nothing contained in it that is unreasonable forasmuch as GOD being the highest Reason cannot be the Author of any thing that is unreasonable for then he would be the Author of something unlike himself and that had no Analogy or Correspondence with any of his Attributes And therefore to affirm that GOD can propound to us what is altogether Irrational and bears no Harmony or Agreement with any of our Faculties is to make him the Author of Nonsence Contradictions and Impossibilities Reason is that Light and Candle of the Lord which he has set up in the Souls of Men to guide them safe from Error Falshood and Delusion And when we say a thing is reasonable we say that it hath a Conformity with those Intellectual Principles the sovereign Author of our Beings has planted in us There is a suitableness and agreeableness of such things with the rational frame and make of our own Souls Therefore the Apostle calls our Conformity to the Divine Will which he terms Rom. 12.1 a presenting our Bodies a living Sacrifice holy and acceptable unto God a reasonable Service that is such a Worship as if we understand our selves is fitted and accommodated to our natural Faculties of Reason and Understanding And hence it is that St. Peter bids us to be ready 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to give an Answer or make an Apology to every Man that asks us a Reason of the hope that is in us i. e. he would have us prepared to give a satisfactory and rational account why we are Christians But now if there were any thing in Christian Religion that were unreasonable what Apology could be made for it Or how should any man defend a thing that were wholly contrary to that Light which God has set up in his Soul to discern between Truth and Falshood So that if there lie an Obligation upon us to give a Reason of our Faith then we may be sure there is no part of it unreasonable But here we must note in the mean time that it is one thing to say that there are some Articles of the Christian Faith above Humane Reason and another thing to say they are unreasonable or contrary to sound Reason The frame of Christianity it self is called by St. Paul 1 Tim. 3.16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a great Mystery and a Mystery we know must have something hidden and recondit in it which is discerned only by capable Minds And there may be and doubtless are some sacred and hidden Doctrines in Christian Religion above Humane Reason in this Sense viz. That our Reason could never have lighted upon them or found them out without a Divine Revelation But notwithstanding these Mysterious Truths are very agreeable with our Reason now they are discovered and there is a rational Defence to be made for them and a satisfactory Account to be given of every one of them We could never by the bare help of Reason have known any thing of the Union of God with Humane Nature nor discovered the Doctrine of the sacred Trinity nor the Mystery of the Resurrection of our Bodies nor the Joys and Felicities of Heaven if God had not revealed these things to us But now that they are made a part of our Faith we can shew that none of them is contradictory to the Principles of sound Reason If therefore there be any unreasonableness in Christianity it must arise either 1. From the Frame and Contexture of it Or 2. From the Doctrines contained in it That there is no unreasonableness or incongruity in the Frame of Christianity will appear thus the great End and Design of it is to release and free the Souls of Men from a State of Sin and Evil into which they had unhappily plunged themselves and to recover them into a holy blameless and heavenly Life and Nature that behaving themselves harmlesly and unblameably as the Children of GOD though encompassed with many Hardships and Afflictions which they meet withal in their Passage through the Wilderness of this World they may at last thro' his infinite Goodness arrive by orderly steps and degrees to the Land of Righteousness their ancient Inheritance in the Kingdom of Heaven This is the free Counsel and Determination of Almighty God which flowed only from his immense and boundless Love Now the Methods and Ways which GOD hath made choice of to bring this great design about are such so fitted and adapted to to our Case and Condition and so agreeable to the Nature