therein by consequence adore him and all received Forms of Prayer do expresly include an Act and Confession of Worship much more doth a fervent and devout Soul which prayeth to God in the most perfect and excellent manner truly adore him at the same time For he who prayeth as he ought to pray doth at the same time submit himself to the Divine Will with the most absolute Complacency and Subjection which his Soul can Form conceives himself to be so far the Creature that he is as nothing in respect of God as such wholly devotes himself to him and depends not only upon his Power for the execution of his Desire but also upon his good Pleasure for the Grant and upon his Wisdom for the convenience of it In imitation of our Lord who in his admirable Transport of Devotions in the Garden committed his request to the Will of God with an intire Subjection And all this put together is the most intense Act of Adoration which Man can pay to God Add to this that humble posture of Body which Men of all Ages and Religions have been wont to use in Prayer and it will appear that Prayer is in all Respects a compleat Act of Worship Men have differed indeed as to the particular Posture some using Prostration others stretching out the Hands and most Kneeling but in this all have agreed that that Posture was to be employed which might best denote the Subjection of the Supplicant to God But the farther Consideration of this belongs to the third Head proposed Upon the whole it is manifest that Prayer is the most natural and most expressive Act of Worship And if so the same necessity which we before shew to lye upon us of adoring God will also require us to offer up Prayers to him And as our Subjection to God and other Reasons for which we owe Adoration to him always continue the same and equally oblige a Man in every part of his Life so Prayer for the same Reasons ought to be continually addressed to him altho' we have many times no particular Wants which we desire to be supplied by him Prayer as an Act of Worship is a Debt at all times due to God and as such is also founded upon eternal Reasons which admit no change Our dependance upon God always continueth the same the same infinite Perfections are invariably possessed by him the same Relation between God and Man persists unalterable Adoration therefore is in almost all Cases to be formed upon the same Conceptions to be raised by the same Considerations to be founded upon the same Reasons to consist in the same Operations of Soul and Body So that altho' it be repeated in the same manner ten thousand times it is no more than what is the Duty of Man to do no more than what is reasonable and a â—ational Man can no more alter the Thoughts upon which Adoration is founded than he can the eternal Causes upon which those Thoughts are raised No wonder then that in all well constituted Churches the publick Forms of Prayer whereby Men worship God always continue the same are over and over again repeated every day oft-times a day and that for many Ages together For it cannot be denied that we owe Worship to God every day every part of the day altho' the Necessities of Life require that not all but some certain fixed times be employed in it This Worship is to proceed upon the same Reasons In adoring God we confess our selves his Creatures we acknowledge his Supreme Authority we implore his Mercy we sollicit his Goodness When we worship him a second time the same Thoughts return if a third time 't is but the renewal of the same Conceptions What then can be more reasonable than that the words of Prayer which we employ in this Act of Adoration should always continue the same It is therefore a most unreasonable Objection against set Forms of Prayer that in them the same words are repeated again and again every day For is not God to be worshipped again and again Are not his infinite Attributes deserving Adoration the same yesterday to day and for ever Can our Conceptions be really changed while the Object remains the same Have these Persons discovered new Perfections in God or new Foundations of Worship since the last Act of it Do they believe that God continually affects new Complements and new Harangues that there is any Vertue in the words themselves or any Magical force in the Variation of them That were to espouse the very grossest Error of the Heathens which our Lord reprehendeth in the VI. of St. Matthew who placed the Efficacy of their Prayers not in the Devotion of the Heart but in the Vertue and multitude of their words Yet cannot this Error be avoided by those who cry up the necessity of extempore Prayer or frequent change in it For since the Internal Conceptions of the Mind in the Act of Adoration being founded upon the eternal Attributes of God always continue the same to what Purpose is any change in the external words unless there be some secret Vertue in the words themselves If they pretend that this change more effectually promotes the Devotion of the Hearer it is so far from true that it rendreth all true Devotion absolutely impossible to the Hearers For in hearing a Prayer before unknown and unheard of even an understanding Man and of quick Apprehension can do no more than singly examine every Sentence of the Prayer he heareth whether he may safely joyn in it least perhaps any Blasphemy or Folly or Indecency should be contained in it As soon as one Sentence is thus examined a second Presents it self and then a third so that an intelligent Auditor attending only to examine by parts the Prayer he heareth hath no leisure to pray to God or in praying to adore him And if the Devotion of a knowing Man be thus defeated an Auditor of lower Capacities will never be able to form in his Mind such a rational Devotion as becometh the Soul of Man and will wholly employ himself in diverting his Fancy with some new and surprizing Sentence and expecting what next shall follow Whereas in set and known Forms of Prayer the devout Hearer is before assured of the Lawfulness and Decency of the Prayer and his Mind being at rest upon that account attends wholly to form all those Acts of Devotion and Worship in the Soul which the words of the Prayer express and therein receiveth extraordinary Assistance in that the Mind being accustomed to that Form of Prayer hath through long use formed noble Conceptions of God upon the hearing of some words and raised intense Affections upon others conceived an hearty Sorrow of sin upon these and been excited to a most profound Reverence of God by the hearing of those words The Soul having affixed all these Thoughts and Acts to those several Words and Sentences of the received Form of Prayer the same affections and
to learn how to worship him and to be excited to it The chief Design of your meeting in this holy Place is that you may worship God herein But how can you be said to worship him who place your selves in no Posture of Worship who express no Concern at the words of publick Prayer joyn not in them nor add an Amen to them Can you really believe standing or sitting to be a posture of Worship Or will you not confess kneeling to be really the most humble Posture And if so surely the Creator of Heaven and Earth the Lord of Life and Death is to be approached in the most humble and most devout manner Be not ashamed to correct an ill Custom study to offer up to God a compleat Service to be present at the beginning of Prayers to attend diligently to them to joyn devoutly in them to worship God both with Body and Soul since both were created by him So shall you truly worship God so shall you Entitle your selves to all those glorious Promises which are annexed to true Piety and Devotion obtain your Desires and save your Souls The Sixteenth SERMON PREACH'D 1690. At LAMBETH CHAPEL 1 Tim. II. 8. I will therefore that Men pray every where lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting IN my last Discourse upon these words I treated largely of the Duty of Prayer enjoyned in the former part of the Verse I will that Men pray and urged the Obligation of this Duty from these two Conâ—iderations especially that Prayer is a principal Act of Adoration and the most essential part of the positive Worship of God which being a Duty incumbent upon all Men and at all times maketh the Duty and the frequency of Prayer to be no less necessary In the Second place I laid open the Advantages to be received from Prayer and the Promises annexed to it that so if the Sense of Duty could not engage yet at least that of Interest might perswade I then proceeded to apply all this to publick Prayer having first proved to you that the Apostle in this place treateth of that especially and therein manifested how much greater the Obligation is to publick Prayer how more expressive of our Subjection to God what greater Advantages it bringeth to devout Supplicants and what more noble Promises are annexed to it It remaineth now to pass through the other parts of the Text which are these three I. The place of Prayer Every where II. The posture of Prayer Lifting up holy hands III. The Conditions of Prayer required to make it acceptable and effectual Lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting I. The place of Prayer the Apostle teacheth to be every where that is not in all places alike but in all parts of the World wherever any Members of the Christian Church are to be found Herein he distinguisheth the publick Worship of Christians from that of the Jews among whom the more solemn parts of Divine Worship nay all the parts of the positive Worship of God instituted by himself were affixed to one certain place where the Priests daily offered Sacrifices and performed the other Offices of Legal Worship and adult Males among the Jews thrice every year gave their Attendance This was both easie to the Jews by reason of the small Dimensions of their Country and also necessary to preserve them from relapsing into Idolatry and Superstition which would not have been avoided in that stiff-necked People had the publick Worship of God been permitted to them in many separate places where the High Priest had not the immediate over-sight of them as they did actually fall into Idolatry and corrupted their Religion whensoever quitting the Temple at Jerusalem they began to worship God upon every high Hill and under every green Tree To this Temple therefore after the full Settlement of the Jews in the promised Land the publick Worship of God was wholly affixed out of which it was not lawful to offer Sacrafice nor was any Expiation of sin provided To it many glorious Promises were appropriated as that God would hear the Prayers offered up in it and be gracious to his People for the sake of it But in the Christian Religion which was not to be contained in one Family or Nation but to be propagated to all the Members of Mankind the Observation of this Institution became both impossible and unnecessary and was therefore abolished by God The publick Worship of him was thenceforward commanded to be alike celebrated in all places that is in all parts of the Church His Presence was not confined nor his Promises annexed to one place he is equally present in all Congregations of devout Believers and receiveth their Petitions with equal Favour Upon this account the Apostle distinguishing the Christian from the Jewish Worship directeth publick Prayers to be offered up every where as he had before distinguished it upon another respect in the first Verse of this Chapter there commanding that Supplications Prayers and Intercessions be made for all Men whereas the Jews never prayed for any but those of their own Nation and Communion This Enlargement of the place of Worship could not indeed but be extremely surprizing to the Jews who had been brought up in a profound Veneration of the Sanctity of the Temple of Jerusalem to which the publick Worship of the true God had been now appropriated for near twelve hundred Years And therefore the Divine Wisdom which from all Ages determined to enlarge his limits of the Church and gather into it as many of the Jews as by a right use of their Reason should be brought to believe in Christ had both by precedent and subsequent Facts provided abundant Reasons to convince the Jews that the publick Worship of himself should not always be confined to the Temple of Jerusalem but after the coming of the Messias should be extended into the whole Earth Thus Zeph. II. 11. it is foretold That when God should found the glorious Kingdom of the Messias then Men shall worship him every one from his place even all the Isles of the Heathen And in Mal. I. 11. For from the rising of the Sun even unto the going down of the same my name shall be great among the Gentiles and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name and a pure offering for my name shall be great among the Heathen saith the Lord of hosts Which Prophesies did clearly instruct the Jews that when the Gentiles should be gathered into the Church that is at the coming of the Messias he should be worshipped alike in all places of the Earth and even those Acts of publick Worship which were more peculiar to the Temple of Jerusalem that is Incense and Sacrifice should be then offered up from the rising up of the Sun to the going down of the same although in a more spiritual manner This Doctrine and Institution therefore ought not to have appeared strange unto the Jews whose Minds God had prepared for
were poured out upon the Apostles in so illustrious a manner as the Jews could not but take notice of the exact Completion of his Promise of sending the Comforter not many days after his Ascension in such a manner as drew the eyes of all the Inhabitants of Jerusalem both Jews and Strangers upon them and tended no less to demonstrate the Power than the Truth of Christ. The second Prediction indeed that of his Resurrection was fulfilled fifty days before but became not an Argument of Conviction to the Jews till now as being not till now publickly attested by the Apostles who were the Witnesses of it The Report of his Resurrection had been indeed rumoured in Jerusalem which put the Sanhedrim upon that shameful Device of corrupting the Soldiers who guarded his Sepulchre but the certain and publick Knowledge of it was not delivered till the Apostles were enabled and enboldened to proclaim and testifie it to the whole World by those Gifts which they received upon this day After the exact Completion of these Prophesies and the authentick attestation of them no excuse remained to the Jews whereby to extenuate their unbelief according to the Rules laid down by Moses they were now obliged to acknowledge Christ to have been a true Prophet and the true Messias and were convinced of their hainous Sin before commited by them in the Rejection of his Doctrine and Crucifixion of his Person the horror of which Sin might induce them the more readily to believe in Christ and lay hold of his Merits that so they might obtain Remission of it Otherwise they were to expect the most severe Execution of Divine Vengeance for their wilful obstinacy and disbelief as Moses had assured them in the same place Deut. XVIII 19. And it shall come to pass that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name I will require it of him This Sentence and therein the Prophesie of Christ was in a most eminent manner executed and fulfilled in the Destruction and intire Desolation of the whole Nation of the Jews about forty years after the Ascension of our Lord whereby the Apostles and Disciples of our Lord then alive acted by the Holy Ghost were farther enabled invincibly to plead his Cause against the opposition of the unbelieving World both Jews and Gentiles For however the Mission of the Holy Ghost and the Consequences of it did more especially convince of Sin the Jews who were then alive and had been guilty either of rejecting the Preaching or contriving the Death of our Lord yet it contributed no less effectually to manifest the Unreasonableness of all both Jews and Gentiles who either in that or in all Ages to come should reject the Faith of Christ when proposed to them For the Belief of him was to be proposed to all Creatures under Heaven and confirmed by Arguments drawn from hence which were so rational and convictive so clear and demonstrative that they could not be rejected without the most extream Perverseness and if rejected the Holy Ghost should hereby plead the cause of Christ against them and convince the whole World and their own Consciences also if rightly judging that in rejecting the Gospel they had sinned against their own Souls and that nothing remained to them but a certain fearful Expectation of the fiery Judgment to be most justly inflicted on them The second point of which the Comforter was to reprove or convince the World was of Righteousness the reason of which is assigned in the 10th Verse Because I go to my Father and ye see me no more The Justice of God had to the eyes of Men been clouded when he permitted his only begotten Son to be delivered up and crucified by wicked Men when he abandoned him to the Rage of his Enemies and rescued him not from the Insults of the Jews by an extraordinary Interposition from Heaven The Majesty of the Deity seemed then to be eclipsed and suffer diminution when subjected to the Contradiction and Affronts of unreasonable Men. Men naturally expect that God should even in this World declare in behalf of oppressed Innocence either by rescuing it from the Malice of its Enemies or taking a severe Revenge upon the Oppressors of it And even Christians who have a better and more certain Knowledge of the Methods of Providence cannot but expect and are allowed so to do that if no Discrimination be made between the Good and the Bad in this life yet at least that it shall be in the next when Innocence shall be crowned with Rewards which shall be enhanced by Patience in Sufferings and Violence chastised with Punishments which shall be so much the sharper if reserved intire to another World if no part of them be inflicted in this This a faithful Christian expects from the Justice of God and this the Scripture assureth them Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you and to you who are troubled rest 2 Thess. I. 6. And God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour Heb. VI. 10. If then this Justice may be securely hoped for from God by all the Members of Mankind how much more by the Son of God whose Person was of infinite Dignity his Sufferings fraught with the highest Aggravations of Misery and his Persecutors guilty of the most enormous Wickedness That the Justice of God might be therefore vindicated herein that Sin might no longer triumph and Innocence pass unregarded God exalted his Son to his own right hand seated him in the Heavens gave him Dominion over all things crowned him with glory and worship The knowledge of this was published to the World by the Mission of the Holy Ghost by whose Direction and Assistance the Apostles openly testified the Ascension of their Lord and by which all might be convinced what Place and Power Christ now obtained in Heaven who could showre down such glorious Gifts and Priviledges upon his Followers on Earth These were so many undeniable Testimonies that the Malice of his Enemies was defeated that our Lord was yet alive set above their reach and Insults and not only so but invested with supreme Majesty and Dominion able to protect his Church and punish his Enemies that his former Sufferings had not been then more calamitous than his present State was now glorious that if God had for a time withdrawn in appearance his Favour and Protection from his Humane Nature he had now in recompence exalted it to an eternal Throne in Heaven The last thing of which the Comforter was to reprove or convince the World was of Judgment and that for this reason Ver. 11. Because the prince of this world is judged It is a Principle even of Natural Religion that God is the supreme Judge of the World and that of invisible as well as visible Beings The Devil who is frequently in Scripture called the prince of this world had now for many Ages exercised an
best tend to the perpetual Continuation and Propagation of this Light once delivered When therefore by these means in a few Centuries almost all the known World was delivered from the Power of darkness freed from its ancient Errors and received the Truth when a considerable part of the World still continues to enjoy the same Benefits Freedom from the darkness of Ignorance in Divine Matters and an exact Knowledge both of the Nature of God as far as relates to us our Duty to him and way to Happiness may we not justly conclude all the Glorious Prophesies concerning the happy times of the Messias and the Light to be conferred on the World by him to have been exactly completed in our Lord and that in removing the Ignorance of Mankind and restoring and increasing the Knowledge of truth among Men he was in an eminent manner the Light of the World And so pure and unspotted as well as clear and bright is this light communicated by Christ unto the World so exactly conformable to all the first Principles of Truth and Reason imprinted in the Souls of Men or to be deduced thence that a more clear Argument of the Truth of the Christian Religion cannot be conceived or desired A Reflection which may be worth our Consideration a while as being no small Confirmation of the Excellency of that Light of which we now treat It is impossible to conceive that a Person devoid of all acquired Learning as our Lord confessedly was should in an Age over-run with universal Errors teach and deliver an entire System of Doctrine and Rule of Life without the least Error if he had not been directed by a Divine Power and really acted by that Divine Commission which he pretended It might perhaps have been accounted possible if he had been brought up at the feet of Gamaliel instructed in all the Learning of the Age altho' even in that Case it would have been very hardly possible when the learned Men among the Jews are all known at that time to have been involved in so many Errors and how grosly the learned Men among the Gentiles erred in the Rules of natural Religion we before instanced and that any one Man should after the Reception of his Education from these very Erroneous Doctors happily discover all the Errors both of Jews and Gentiles and find out the exact Truth in all Questions of Morality and Religion without the least mixture of Error or Mistake seems a Matter wholly incredible But that a Person devoid of all Learning and external Helps should effect it is wholly impossible Now it is most certain that in the whole System of Christian Religion and among all the Rules of Life as delivered by Christ and contained in his Gospel not the least Flaw or Error could ever be found by all the Adversaries of it Or if we trust not them let every Mans Reason be his Judge Let him view all the Commands of Christ and see if he can find any thing contrary to Reason any thing unworthy either of God or Man An invincible Argument that the Author of it proceeded by a Divine Commission and derived his Knowledge from a supernatural Revelation It may not be amiss in a few words to carry this Argument a little higher and apply it to the Religion of the Jews before the coming of our Lord. Where if we think rationally we shall find it absolutely impossible that a People so barbarous as they were in the beginning so devoid of all Assistances of Arts and Sciences in the whole Succession of their Government should form such just and noble Notions of a Deity contrive a Religion without any mixture of Sin or Idolatry unless they had been directed by God himself View all the Nations round about and you shall find them drowned in gross Ignorance and Idolatry And then enquire if any other Cause of this so great difference can be assigned Compare their Hymns formed in Honour of God and Books treating concerning the Nature of him now comprised in the Old Testament with the Compositions formed by the Grecians or any other Learned Heathen Nation in Honour of their Gods and with their Theological Writings you will find the first to contain just and noble Thoughts of God true Judgments concerning the Relation between God and Man nothing which is not agreeable to the Honour and Majesty of God nothing which is not exactly true Whereas in the other you shall discover every where either childish or impious Notions of God nothing answerable to his Majesty and little agreeable to Truth A difference which can never be accounted for but by acknowledging the former to have proceeded from a Divine Direction and Inspiration So clear and undeniable is the force of Light that it discovers it self where-ever it Acts it cannot be hid dissembled or stifled and according to our Saviour's own Comparison like a City placed upon a Hill appeareth at a distance giving direction to all far and near And thus our Saviour was also the Light of the World upon the account of the Exemplariness of his Life In which Respect he tells his Disciples that they are the Light of the World Matth. V. 14. giving Direction to Mankind in the practice of their Duty by that eminent Vertue which shone forth in them and could not but be observed by all Men. And of himself John IX 5. As long as I am in the World I am the Light of the World Not that he was wholly to cease to be the Light of the World even after he should be removed from it For both his Doctrine and the Report of his Example were to enlighten the World to all Ages but in the latter Respect that of his Example the Efficacy of it would decrease upon his removal from the Earth inasmuch as the Sight moveth more than the Fame of an illustrious Example An Example indeed so eminent that whether seen or heard it was a Light to all Mankind so resplendent and remarkable that as the Light it struck the Eyes of all Men and could not but be taken Notice of so just and adequate that it included the whole Duty of Man in its utmost Perfection and as the Light directed Men in the right way His Doctrine was the most exact System of all Moral and Divine Vertues that ever was proposed to the World And in all this System there is no one Vertue which himself possessed and exercised not in the most perfect manner All that Piety Temperance Meekness and Charity which he prescribed to his Followers himself practised in the whole Course of his Life And that in a Degree which other Men cannot hope to attain to without any interruption of Vice or Imperfection Such an Example might well be termed the Light of the World in which alone if all Rules of Piety if all Notions of good were lost among Men they might be entirely recovered And not only illustrious in it self but also industriously made so to all
their secret Malice assigning the Cause of all to be their Love of Justice of their Religion or of their Countrey And such is the Credulity of Mankind that these Pretences seldom want Success covering the Malice and Rancor of a canker'd Soul and giving the most easie and secure Opportunities of Revenge All are apt to censure and condemn Revenge when proceeding from the Principle of false Honour which was before mentioned because the Motive of it is not and cannot be dissembled yet in Truth this sort of Revenge is infinitely less Criminal than the former arising from Hatred and Malice however dissembled and assuming to it self more specious Names This is formed by a violent Commotion of Mind which lasteth not many hours but that by an hardned Malice which worketh secretly for many years together This is commonly effected in the heat of Blood when the Soul hath scarce time to recollect it self or command the unruly Passions of the Body but that is raised and carried on by deliberate thought and resolution which is the utmost Aggravation that any sin can receive This may sometime fall even upon a good Man who through the heat of Passion and from a violent Indignation of receiving unworthy Injuries may suddenly be betrayed to the Desire or the Execution of Revenge but of the other a good Man can never be guilty since it is impossible that Hatred and Malice which are habitual sins should consist with the least degree of Goodness In all habitual sins the Mind cannot but many times reflect upon its own Diseases and be as often convinced of the unlawfulness of those Vices which it nourisheth The Divine Prohibition of those sins often recurs to the Memory and the Soul cannot but be conscious of her own Diseases yet in spight of all these Considerations the Man resolveth to retain his Hatred and Malice towards others And in this Resolution is encouraged from the Consideration that these sins being close and secret will consist with the pretence of Sanctity and may be serviceable to him in his base Designs against his Neighbours And of this sort are all the sins of Hypocrites fixed and determinate Resolutions of persevering in opposition to the Laws of God and still making use of his glorious Name to carry on private Designs No wonder then that in Scripture the most severe Punishments are still denounced against Hypocrites since theirs are all deliberate sins such as Oppression Covetousness Injustice Lying Slandering Perfidiousness Hatred and Malice all sins of the most enormous Guilt and heightened by this farther Consideration that the specious pretences of Piety Religion and Zeal are made use of to execute the several Designs of them Particularly in the Case of malicious Revenge nothing is more ordinary than to pretend a zealous Concern for the Punishment of Evil doers as if they would supply the defect of the Divine Justice or of the Laws of their Countrey and punish the Guilt of sins for which God hath ordinarily provided no Punishment in this Life reserving it to another Yet oftentimes the sins of others which these Men would pretend to punish are indeed nothing else but opposition to their Humours Fancies and Designs it being in the account of some Men an unpardonable Crime to be of a contrary or another Party to have crossed or opposed a Design of the others altho' never so unreasonable or perhaps to have once performed their Duty without Partiality and corrupt Favour to others when the Laws of their Countrey did require it Certainly if the Guilt of sins is to be measured from the Evil Consequences of them such malicious Revenge will be found the greatest of all sins Being the Cause and occasion of publick Calamites over-turning the Peace and Prosperity of whole Nations and bringing them to Destruction Great and numerous Societies of Men such as this Nation is cannot easily be dissolved without intestine Divisions and such are always the effect of malicious Revenge In this manner we shall find almost all the great Societies of the World to have been broken when they have divided into two or more Parties and those continually practising upon each other under Pretence of preserving the religious or civil Rights of the Countrey against the Invasion of the other and as each prevail employing their Interest and Power not to the upholding of the Religion or Laws but to the ruin or vexation of the others I will not apply this to our own Nation or bring any Instance from our Times least I should be thought to engage in any Party But if we call to mind the History of the Jews we shall find many Examples of such malicious Revenge covered under such specious pretences Thus when the Jewish Magistrates resolved to take away our Saviour's Life they put on a mighty shew of Zeal for the publick Service and accused him to the Roman Governour as an Enemy unto Cesar Although themselves indeed cared so little for Cesar that they had at that very time formed the design of a general Rebellion against him as appeared shortly after And when this Rebellion broke out and the People unanimously attempted to cast off the Roman Yoke and recover their ancient Liberty the most bloody and wicked part of them took upon them the name of Zealots and under pretence of extraordinary Concern for the publick Interest and punishing the secret Favourers and Friends of the Romans murdered or robbed every Man his private Enemy and by this Division made way to the Arms of the Romans who without this advantage could not easily have overcome that populous and resolute Nation These Considerations ought to divert Men from a resolved Prosecution of Revenge and much more those Arguments which might be drawn from the Scope or Design of the Christian Religion might produce this Effect if we could perswade our selves that Men did in earnest believe the Truth of it and submit to it But when almost every Man pleads an Exemption from the Obligation of it in all Commands which oppose his peculiar Passions when little beside the Pretence of it is left among us and even that pretence continued not out of any Reverence to Religion but because it is serviceable to Secular and mean Designs we cannot but despair of prevailing with the greater part of Men therein However we must declare that nothing is more contrary to the Spirit and Design of Christianity than to study Revenge to continue Hatred and Animosity without end and never to forget and forgive an Injury Such a Conduct is directly opposite to the Doctrine and Example of our Lord and however covered with specious Colours of wonderful Zeal or Purity or Affection to any Party will be no less damnable in a Christian than Idolatry in a Heathen Lastly If neither the Reason of the thing nor the Divine Prohibition nor the regard of publick Security concerned therein nor the direct opposition of Christianity to it can draw Men from the Love of Revenge yet at
his Enemies as well as Friends at that time The Soldiers sent to break his Legs while hanging on the Cross that so they might hasten his Death whom they supposed not yet to have expired found him already dead Joseph of Arimathea and the devout Women which followed him taking him down from the Cross laid him in his Grave being well assured that he was then Dead His Disciples who if any shew of Reason might be offered would not easily believe him dead from whom they then expected a temporal Kingdom yet were so far perswaded of it that at his first appearing to them they were affrighted and supposed they had seen a Spirit To these Proofs nothing more could be added to Evince the reality of his Death an Evidence which is wanting to all the Relations of Men raised from the Dead opposed by the Heathens to the Resurrection of our Lord. They alledged from Plato the Story of Eris lying for many days among the dead Bodies and after that recovering Life again and pretended that Apollonius Tyaneus whom they set up in opposition to Christ had raised a certain Person to Life But the first was not related by any for more than a thousand years after the Fact was pretended to be done and in the second Case the Heathen Historian confesseth that he dare not affirm that the Person was truly Dead Nor after his Resurrection was it less evident that Christ was truly alive invested with Soul and Body All the Actions of Life and Arguments of a real Body met in his He was seen by a great number of his Disciples who judged it to be such He eat and drank with them which proved his Body not to have been a meer Phantasm or Aerial Apparition He talked and reasoned with them out of the Scriptures which demonstrated that Body to be indued with a rational Soul He appealed to their Sense of feeling commanded them to handle him said to unbelieving Thomas reach hither thy finger and behold my hands and reach hither thy hand and thrust it into my side which manifests that the Body which he then offered to that Tryal was that very Body which had suffered on the Cross and still retained the Print of the Nails and the Impression of the Spear That this same Body and Soul reunited was also joyned to the Divinity as before his Passion appeared from his many Miracles wrought after his Resurrection Thus we have a true proper and real Resurrection And that all these things were so we have the Testimony first of his own Disciples the Faith of whom although so nearly related to him cannot be called in question since they laid down their Lives in Confirmation of it Nor can it be imagined that any Men should die for the Testimony of what they knew to be false Of these the pious Women were first Blessed with the sight of him whether it were in Reward of their maintaining their Love and Fidelity to him when his Apostles had forsaken him or that they came into the Garden where the Sepulchre was immediately after the Resurrection and before he was yet departed out of it They saw him knew him and saluted him held him by the feet and worshipt him The Apostles being advertised of it by them hasted to see their Master and received not only a transient view of him but conversed with him for forty days together and by many infallible proofs were assured of the truth of it Afterwards he appeared to more than five hundred at once and at last ascended up to Heaven in the presence of them all To the witness of Friends we will add the Testimony of his Enemies which in all Cases is allowed to be of great weight The Soldiers who were employed by the Jews to watch his Sepulchre plainly saw the Effects of Divine Power which accompanied his Resurrection although being astonished and confounded at such unusual Prodigies they did not well perceive it or perhaps were not suffered by their Fears to stay till Christ should proceed out of the Sepulchre They felt the Earthquake which removed the stone rolled to the mouth of the Sepulchre they saw the countenance of an Angel like lightning and his raiment white as snow upon which they did shake and became as dead Men and coming into the City shewed to the chief Priests all the things that were done as we read Matth. XXVIII II. The Angels and heavenly Hosts had before joyned with Men in celebrating the Nativity of Christ and they here concurred in witnessing his Resurrection The Women coming to the Sepulchre betimes in the Morning presently after the Resurrection and looking for the Body of their beloved Lord in the Sepulchre found there two Angels in white sitting one at the head the other at the feet where the Body of Jesus had lain who said to them why seek ye the dead among the living he is not here he is risen come see the place where the Lord lay Lastly If we should imagine both his Friends and Enemies the report of Sense oft-times repeated to have been deceived in the Opinion of his Resurrection God hath been pleased to confirm the Truth of it and to set his Seal to it This he hath done not only by his Holy Spirit comforting enabling and encouraging the Apostles in Preaching the Mystery of Christ's Refurrection but also in confirming their Testimony with concurrent Miracles As it is Acts IV. 33. With great power gave the Apostles witness of the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus They openly affirmed it upon their own Knowledge and then in Proof of the truth of their Affirmation wrought Signs and Miracles which to the Spectators did as fully evince the Truth of the Relation as if they had seen it done with their own Eyes since it was impossible that God should exert his omnipotent Power in working Miracles for the Attestation of a Lye Thus much for the reality I proceed in the second place to the II. Manner of the Resurrection expressed in those words having loosed the pains of death which are variously interpreted some maintaining that they imply only a Deliverance from Death and rescue from the Grave others that they point out the dolorous Sufferings by which our Lord was brought to the Grave and raising him up to a state opposite to that Humiliation a third sort understanding by them a Destruction of the Power and Dominion of Death All these Opinions are supported with great Reasons nor will it here be proper to enter into a strict Examination which of them rather is to be embraced They are all rational Consonant to the Design of the Apostle and Significative of the manner of Christ's Resurrection I will therefore apply them all The first Opinion includeth only a Deliverance from Death that is a reunion of Soul and Body separated by Death In which Sense it chiefly referreth to the words of David and the Promises made to him here alledged by the Apostle David had been often brought
by his Enemies into extreme danger of Death which he commonly expresseth by the same or the like words as Psal. XVIII 4. The sorrows of death compassed me and Verse 5. The sorrows of hell compassed me about and Psal. CXVI 3. The sorrows of death compassed me the pains of Hell gat hold upon me Yet trusting in the Promises of God amidst all these Calamities he rested assured of Deliverance and expresseth his Confidence of it in the words cited by the Apostle in the following Verses My flesh shall rest in hope because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see Corruption It was a Matter at that time received and on all hands granted by the Jews that David was a Type of the Messias that his Actions Sufferings and Deliverance prefigured the Office the Death and Resurrection of Christ who should descend from him and particularly the Apostle sheweth how this Passage was much more evidently and literally fulfilled in Christ than in David He indeed was delivered from his Enemies and died in Peace yet die he did and after Death his soul was left in hell that is among the Dead or in the place of departed Souls and his Body did see Corruption having been buried many hundred years But as for Christ he died indeed yet his soul was not left in hell neither did his Body see Corruption His Soul was presently reunited to the Body and even during the Separation not left by the Divine Nature which still continued to be joyned to it neither was his Body corrupted but raised up and united to the Soul in less than forty hours in which time the Bodies of deceased Men are wont to be corrupted According to the second Interpretation Christ was raised from a painful Death to an opposite State to a condition of Glory Happiness Power and Immortality The Sufferings of our Lord so lively described to us in the Holy Offices of the last week we cannot forget and over all these he eminently triumphed in his Resurrection upon this day He was then made subject to Death but is now become the Lord of life and set above the reach of Death For Christ being raised from the Dead dieth no more Death hath no more Dominion over him Rom. VI. 9. He then bore the wrath of God for the sake of Man He now dispenseth the Favours of God granted to Men. He was then subjected to the Contradiction of Sinners to the Will of his own Creatures appeared as the vilest of Men suffered as a Malefactor he is now entred upon his Kingdom raised above the Earth seated at the right hand of God Angels and Authorities and Powers being made subject unto him 1 Pet. III. 22. The words explained in their third Sense infer the overthrow of the Power and Dominion of Death effected by the Resurrection of Christ. The whole Design of our Lords Incarnation of his Death Burial and Resurrection was as it is expressed Hebr. II. 14. That he might destroy him that had the power of Death that is the Devil To do this all the parts of his Life contributed He converted Sinners from the Error of their way He confuted the Mistakes of the seduced World He founded a Church wherein open Enmity should be professed to the Devil He took upon himself the guilt of Death due to the sins of Men and all this Dispensation he gloriously finished in his Resurrection Therein he literally broke the bonds of Death he led Captivity Captive baffled the opposition and triumphed over all the Assaults of the Devil who had vainly imagined that by procuring the ever Blessed Jesus to be given up into the hands of wicked Men he had put an end to the Salvation of Mankind But to our eternal Happiness and to the Glory of our Redeemer his Designs and Attempts promoted that very end which he so much dreaded he knew not that it was the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God as it is in the precedent Verse that Christ should both die and rise again to perfect our Salvation that he was for a while to be subject to Death but that it was impossible he should be holden of it III. This was the third thing proposed to Discourse of that it was not possible that Christ should continue in the state of Death The Apostle foundeth the impossibility of it in this place upon the Determination of God to the contrary so that here it was not possible is no more than it was not Consonant to the decree of God it was not fit just or convenient as it is said Matth. IX It is not possible for the Children of the Bride-Chamber to mourn as long as the Bridegroom is with them that is it is not fit or convenient In this Sense then I shall consider it and 1. It was not possible or convenient that Christ should be holden of death because he was both God and Man the Divine was united to his Humane Nature It would have appeared surprizing to our Reason and been an Argument of little affection of God to Mankind if he should have suffered that very Body which had the Honour to be joyned to his own Nature wherein the fullness of the Godhead dwelled bodily to continue in Hell in the common state of Mortality or to see Corruption It was not possible that the Divinity should suffer that Nature to be corrupted or lye neglected among the Dead to which it self continued to be united even in the Grave This we of the Catholick Church do believe and if any should oppose this wonderful Union of the Divine and Humane Nature in the person of Christ his very Resurrection will convince their Error For to raise a dead Body to Life again must be allowed to be no less than the work of Omnipotence that it can be effected by God alone Yet it appeareth from the express words of Scripture that Christ had Power to raise up his own Body He saith of himself to the Jews John II. 19. Destroy this Temple and in three days I will raise it up Speaking of the Temple of his Body as the Evangelist subjoyns And again John X. 18. No Man taketh my Life from me but I lay it down of my self I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again Our Lord who came into the World to do the Will of his Father and to glorifie him would never have claimed this Power had it not been inherent in himself He therefore by his own Power reunited his Soul to his Body I mean not in Exclusion to the other persons of the Blessed Trinity who all concurred therein For Power being an essential Attribute of the Divine Nature continueth undivided in the Persons of it And therefore it is no Objection against the Truth of this that the Father is said in many places of the New Testament to have raised up his Son since he is the chief Person in that Blessed Trinity
of Gratitude from the Jews for Deliverance from a temporal corporeal Bondage and leave us without any Obligation of rendring publick and solemn Honour to him for freeing us from a spiritual and eternal Slavery The Redemption wrought by Christ is to us what the Deliverance out of Egypt was to the Jews The Feast of Easter instituted in the remembrance of the Completion of that Redemption is to us what the Feast of the Passover was to them appointed in Memory of their Deliverance Christ is our Passover as we heard this Morning from 1 Cor. V. Let us therefore keep the Feast The Determination of our Christian Festivals is to be taken from the most illustrious Actions of Christ our Redeemer and when they are determined they are to be celebrated with no less Religion than were the Festivals of the Jews nay rather with greater Expressions of Joy Gratitude and Devotion because they Commemorate far greater Benefits That this Festival therefore was particularly instituted by the Apostles those words of St. Paul do not obscurely intimate but the Practice of the universal Church immediately after their times do most evidently manifest it Scarce was St. John the last Liver of the Apostles Dead when the Eastern and Western Churches began to divide about the time of Solemnizing Easter not whether it should be solemnized but whether it should be a fixed or a moveable Feast both contending for their own Custom as for an essential Point of Religon in that indeed straining a Circumstance too far but clearly proving thereby that the solemn Observation of Easter was then by all Christians accounted an essential Institution of Religion in that they esteemed it unlawful to vary the least Circumstance formerly received in the Observation of it And as this Festival hath succeeded instead of the Jewish Passover which did prefigure the whole Mystery of our Redemption so the due manner of our Celebration of it was typified by the Ceremonies prescribed by God to them in eating the Paschal Lamb. As they were commanded to remove all Leaven out of their Houses so we are to put away the Leaven of Malice and Wickedness in the words of St. Paul As they then sung Hymns of Thanksgiving to God for their Deliverance out of Egypt so we ought to give Praise and Glory to God for consummating our Redemption by the Resurrection of our Lord upon this day As they eat the Paschal Lamb with bitter Herbs in a Habit and Posture expressing their readiness to go out of Egypt with great Testimonies of rejoycing and mutual Kindness So we should receive the Elements of Bread and Wine representing the Sacrifice of Christ the Lamb of God once offered upon the Cross for the sins of the whole World which is the chief and most solemn Act of our Worship to be paid upon this day with a bitter Repentance and Sorrow for past sins with a stedfast reliance upon the Promises of God with a perfect Submission to his Will and readiness to go wherever he shall lead us with a sincere Charity towards one another and to all the Members of Mankind for whom Christ died that is for all Men without Exception and with the most intense Thanksgiving that our Souls can form for all the Benefits of our Redemption but more particularly for raising to Life as upon this day him who died for our sins and rose again for our Justification So by worthily Celebrating here on Earth the Memory of the glorious Resurrection of our Lord we shall obtain to be hereafter admitted to follow the Example of his Resurrection and share in the Glory which he now enjoys in Heaven Which God of his infinite Mercy grant for the sake of him who died and rose again our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to whom with the Father c. The Fifteenth SERMON Preach'd on April 5th 1690. At LAMBETH CHAPEL 1 Tim. II. 8. I will therefore that Men pray every where lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting PRAYER being one of the greatest Duties of a Christian Life that whereby we chiefly pay our Adoration to God whereby we obtain the Remission of our Sins and the Relief of our Necessities to which so many Promises are annexed and so frequent Exhortation to the Practice of it to be found in Scripture we ought to be well instructed in the Nature the Necessity and the Conditions of it To effect this was the chief Intention of the Apostle in this whole Chapter in which this Verse being more comprehensive than the rest I have chosen it for the Subject of my intended Discourse of Prayer In it the words easily direct me to insist on these Four Heads I. The Duty of Prayer I will that Men pray II. The Place of it Every where III. The posture of Prayer Lifting up their hands IV. The Conditions required to make it acceptable and effectual Lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting I. The Duty of Prayer is expresly commanded in the first words I will c. To inforce the Authority of which Command the Apostle saith in the former Verse that he was ordained a Preacher an Apostle and Teacher of the Gentiles acted herein by Divine Commission And surely it was no light Matter when the Apostle whose Authority was long since received in all the Churches founded by him thought fit to produce his Commission before he imposed the Command a Command not first introduced by him but often repeated by our Lord himself who taught his Disciples a Form of Prayer and injoyned them to watch and pray But since none as I suppose will dispute the Command or deny the Authority of it it will be of more advantage to shew the reasonableness and the use of Prayer Which I proceed to do First then Prayer is the principal Act of Adoration paid by Man to God and upon that account becomes necessary to us Man being the Creature of God at first produced out of nothing by his Almighty Power and afterward all his Life long depending on his Providence and maintained by him oweth to God all that Service which he is capable to pay and that is no other than to adore his Majesty to acknowledge his Power to celebrate his Praises to admire his infinite Perfections in all things to own his dependence on him to profess himself the Creature the Servant the Subject of God and to behave himself as such This is all which Man can pay to God for those infinite Benefits which he hath received from him God hath no Interests of his own to be promoted by us The Infinity of his Nature hath set him beyond all want of external Aids and even beyond all increase of Happiness even that Glory which he receiveth from our Worship is of no advantage to him yet is it not the less required of us since it declares our Conviction of that Gratitude Subjection and Obedience which are due to his Benefits and his Power that Honour Worship and Reverence which belong
the great Propitiatory Sacrifice depended upon its being presented by the High Priest in the Holy of Holies the place where God was pleased to Promise his immediate Presence How much more Efficacious then must be conceived to be the Intercession of our High Priest who not once a year but continually not with the Blood of Bulls or Goats but with his own Blood not in an Earthly Tabernacle but in the highest Heaven maketh Intercession for us If the Mediation of the Jewish High Priest could avert temporal Punishments due to the Sins of the People much more will the Mediation of our High Priest free Mankind from eternal Punishments If their Priest being cloathed with the same Nature could more sensibly commiserate the Unhappiness of his People our's for the same Purpose took our Nature on him But whereas their Priest was subject to the Guilt of the same Sins for which he interceded our's knew no Sin their 's was admitted no farther than to the Symbols of God's Presence to the Cherubims and the Mercy Seat our's to the very Throne of his Majesty where he continually pleadeth his Sufferings on our behalf diffuseth his Graces to us and prepareth Mansions for us Lastly if we consider Christ as the great exemplar of humane Life his Ascension will upon that Account also be of great use to us teaching us with him to exalt our Affections to withdraw them from the Earth and to place them in Heaven This Inference the Apostle draweth from his Resurrection and Ascension Colos. III. 1. If ye be risen with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God Christ died to the World to instruct us that we ought to mortifie our worldly Lusts to restrain and subdue to Reason the use of Carnal Pleasures He left the World and Ascended into Heaven to teach us that there our Affections ought principally to be fixed that there our chief Interest is placed and there only perfect Happiness to be expected Could the Pleasures the Power and the Prosperity of this World have given the most complete Happiness our Lord who deserved it by the most complete Obedience which was ever paid who was more dear to God than all the Sons of Men who was himself heir of all things and Lord of all would have fixed his abode here and not removed it into Heaven But when immediately after his Exaltation as soon as he began to receive the Reward of his Obedience and Sufferings he forsook the Earth and returned unto the Bosom of his Father he hath thereby instructed us that in vain is true Felicity to be sought here below that this World can afford no adequate recompence for Vertue and Piety that we are indeed but Strangers and Pilgrims upon the Earth and that as many as pursue the end of their Creation and study to be truly Happy ought to seek a better Countrey even that into which Christ the forerunner is entred for us that so where he is there we may be also receive the same Reward and be Crowned with the same Happiness that so as we have imitated his Ascension we may share in his Glory Which God of his infinite Mercy Grant The Twentieth SERMON Preach'd on July 13th 1690 At LAMBETH CHAPEL Matth. V. 16. Let your light so shine before Men that they may see your good Works and glorify your Father which is in Heaven THESE words are part of our Lord's Sermon upon the Mount which was directed to a mixed multitude of Auditors and treats altogether of universal Duties incumbent upon all who receive the Doctrine and acknowledge the Authority of him who spoke it Upon which Account we have just reason to reject the Opinion of those who would restrain to the Apostles only and their Successors the Preachers of the Gospel the Duty prescribed in this and the three foregoing Verses which requireth the Professors of Christianity not to confine the exercise of their Duty to their single Breasts or rest satisfied in having discharged the Office of Piety in secret but to perform such eminent Acts of Devotion Temperance and Charity and so to direct them as may promote the Glory of God and Instruction of Men. The whole preceding part of this Sermon was directed to all Christians in General delivering the Promise of those Beatitudes in which all the Disciples of Christ are equally concerned What follows treats concerning the general Laws of Justice Temperance and Charity so that with no good Reason can these intermediate Verses be restrained to the Apostles only If they are here called the Salt of the Earth Verse 13. our Lord addressed himself in the same words to great multitudes as we read Luk. XIV 25. If they are stiled the light of the World in the 14th Verse St Paul applieth the same Expression to the Philipians II. 15. exhorting them to be without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse Generation shining among them as Lights in the World It must be acknowledged indeed that the Apostles were and their Successors in the ministerial Office ought to be more eminently the Salt and Light of the World purging away the Corruptions removing the darkness of Mankind by Example and Instruction To effect this by their Doctrine is peculiar to them not common to other Christians to promote it by their Example is a Duty common to them with all other Christians It is my present Purpose to treat of it as an universal Duty to which my Text directs me by placing the Light of this Exemplariness which is commanded not in verbal Instructions but in good Works which are acknowledged to be the Duty of all Christians Of this then I will Discourse under these four Heads I. The Duty imposed such an exemplary Conduct as may become a Light of the World II. The manner of being thus Exemplary by good Works III. The end to which it ought to be directed the Glory of God IV. The good Effects of it the Instruction of Men and Promotion of the same good Works in others I. Concerning the Duty which is that of an illustrious Example to the practice of which our Lord hath directed us both by his Laws and by his own Example He stiles himself and truly was the Light of the World he was foretold under the Figure of the Sun of righteousness who should enlighten the World with his Doctrines and demonstrate the Possibility of performing them by his own Example His Precepts chiefly concern Moral Duties which he restored first to their Primitive Notions and Purity and then urged the Practice of them upon his Followers in a more strict manner than had ever before been done What before was esteemed an attempt fit only for great and noble Minds he made the Duty of all the Members of Mankind what others thought a sufficient Glory to practise singly to excell in this or that single Vertue he required to be performed conjunctly without the Omission of any thing which is
them intends it or not they cannot be concealed or pass unregarded Upon which account Christ justly resembleth them to a City placed on a Hill and to a Candle set on a Candlestick in the 14th and 15th Verses which naturally appear and give Light to all round about them as if he should say Do but you take care to perform good Works and the very Nature of them will cause them to become Exemplar I do not require you to publish and Blazon them abroad nor is there any need of it For if they be indeed performed they cannot escape the Knowledge and Observation of other Men. Farther not only the Nature of good Works maketh the Ostentation of them to be unnecessary in order to become Exemplar but also they carry with them less Temptation to Pride and Arrogance than any other Acts either of true or supposed Religion If the grounds and more ordinary Reasons of Pride and Self-conceit in Religion be searched it will be found that they are wont to be grounded in the more easie and commonly in mistaken Points of Religion As of old among the Pharisees in the punctual performance of Washings and other Ritual Observations among the more Ignorant of the Church of Rome at this day in Pilgrimages Beads and other Trifles among their Saints in extraordinary Austerities or unusual Acts of Self-denial among Enthusiasts in Raptures and pretended Inspirations All these naturally tend to foment the Pride and Self-conceit of Men they draw the Eyes of others on them and serve to make unwary People believe them extremely Conscientious and have this farther advantage towards the Design of Hypocrites that they are cheaply performed cross no Passion restrain no Lust make a great shew and cost them nothing And when they are performed not affording any inward Satisfaction of Mind as having no internal worth it is but natural for the Actors of them to seek that Satisfaction from the Praises and Applause of other Men which they reaped not from the Reflections of their own Conscience Whereas the performance of good Works raiseth in the Soul of Man so sweet a Complacency when reflected on that external Commendations can add nothing considerable to the internal Satisfaction of the Mind and will be neglected when compared with it To which I may add that the Exercise of many good Works and most signally the greatest of them that of Charity towards the Poor do naturally dispose to Humility accustoming the Mind to consider and compassionate the Wants and Infirmities of inferior Persons and condescend to the relief of their Condition It being most certain that Pride or an over-valuing of their own Dignity is in some Men the Cause of uncharitableness as well as the love of Riches betraying them to imagine it beneath their Quality to take into their Consideration the necessities of distressed Persons and to be aggrieved for them Which sort of Pride cannot consist with real Charity and where this is to be found the former can have no place At least it is most certain that Hypocrisie may consist with all those mistaken Indications of Holiness I before mentioned but with good Works with Mercy Justice Truth and Charity it is impossible it should consist For that whosoever performeth these doth really perform what he pretends to do that is satisfieth the Obligation of the Religion which he professeth However although ordinarily it be not necessary so to direct the performance of good Works that they may not escape the Knowledge of Men and it be always unlawful to direct them in that manner for this end alone to obtain the Praise of Men Yet in some extraordinary Cases it is not only lawful to perform them publickly with this Design that they may be seen of others not to obtain their Praise but to promote the Honour and Glory of God but it is also highly acceptable to God and serviceable to his Church This is warranted by the express words of our Lord in the Text which require his Disciples to cause their Light so to shine before Men that they may see their good Works and glorifie God If this Design doth at last terminate in the Honour of God and be so intended it is not only warrantable but recommendable by God and will be certainly rewarded by him Only great Caution is to be used in the Management of it and a scrupulous Care to be observed least any thing of vain Glory any sinister End should intervene and is to be put in Practise only in Cases of exceeding moment Such are when any Age or large Society of Men are especially deficient in any Duty In which Case it is a laudable and noble Undertaking for any private Persons to give the greatest and most publick Lustre to their performance of that Duty that so if it be possible by their eminen Example therein they may retrieve the publick Practice of it and whensoever any great and common Good altho' of another Nature may be attained or promoted thereby Such was the Case more particularly of the Apostles who were sent to preach Faith and Repentance among Jews and Heathens generally devoid not only of Faith but of all Moral Vertues For this Reason it was necessary that those noble Acts of Charity which they exercised in healing the Sick and restoring the use of their Limbs and Senses to those who before wanted them should be performed publickly that themselves should decline no opportunity of manifesting the Excellency of the Christian Religion and the deep Impression of it upon their own Minds For this Cause also St. Paul was not ashamed to relate at large and to Glory in the many Afflictions Hazards and Persecutions which he had undergone for the Testimony of Christ because the amplifying of his Labour and Patience tended to the spiritual Good of the Corinthians to whom it is directed and consequently promoted the Honour of God This Design also justified the Bravery of those ancient Christians who voluntarily and unsought for delivered up themselves into the hands of their Persecutors when they observed a general Cowardize and frequent Examples of Apostacy among other Christians who were apprehended and brought before the Heathen Tribunals that so by their Courage and Constancy they might excite others to persist resolutely in the Profession of their Faith It must be acknowledged that simply to throw themselves into Danger to expose themselves to the Fury of their Persecutors was unlawful Our Lord in Matth. X. 23. had commanded his Disciples When they should be persecuted in one City to fly into another And the Doctrine and Discipline of the ancient Church had forbidden the ordinary Practice of such rash Undertakings Yet whensoever so great a Good might be attained thereby as to raise the dejected Courage of other Christians and to assert the Honour of Christ against the Heathens boasting in the subversion of many weaker Christians it was not only lawful to engage in voluntary Martyrdom but highly meritorious and rewarded as such by