by adding higher rules of holiness for as he established the New Covenant upon better promises than those the Old was built upon so he gave sublimer and higher precepts than those that were given in the Old If the Law and the Prophets forbad murder murder committed by the hand our Saviour stifled it in the heart for he hath forbiden causeless anger I say unto you whosoever is angry with his Brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment Matt. 5.22 If Moses condemned adultery in the body our Lord condemns the very impurity of the mind and styles it the adultery of the heart ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old thou shalt not commit adultery but I say unto you that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart v. 27 28. If the Law of Moses allowed divorce upon small disgusts and animosities our blessed Lord doth not allow it save only in the case of Adultery which is the peculiar and proper breach of matrimonial obligation v. 32. of the same Chapter If the Law allowed a retaliation of evil for evil an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth our Lord hath forbidden us to resist evil v. 39. that is to say to revenge it for not to resist the evil done us is to give place to the wrath of our Enemy and this is the same as not to avenge it and so we learn from St Paul's words Rom. 12.19 Dearly beloved avenge not your selves but rather give place unto wrath for it is written vengeance is mine I will repay saith the Lord. If the Law and the Prophets forbad perjury our Lord hath forbidden all swearing in our common and ordinary conversation let your communication be yea yea nay nay for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil v. 37. If the Law allowed to hate an Enemy that is to say any person of the seven Nations whom God had devoted to destruction our blessed Lord hath commanded us to love our Enemies I say unto you love your Enemies bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you and pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you v. 44. of the same Chapter Thus hath he fulfilled the moral Law by filling up several vacuities that Moses was forced to leave in it in condescension unto the Jews and to the hardness of their hearts and by adding higher rules of holiness than the Law or the Prophets had delivered 2. Now to proceed in the second place to the ceremonial part of the Law this did our Lord fulfil likewise and that also two several ways 1. By personal obedience to it and all the rights therein enjoyned whereunto he freely became subject He was circumcised the eighth day according as that Law enjoyned he was redeemed by a certain price being a Son and a First-born he observed the feasts prescribed in the Law yea and that of the dedication also although but of humane institution as appears in the history of the Gospel he did and permitted to be done in and upon his own Person whatsoever it was that Law required whence he is said to have been made of a woman made under the Law that is to say subject to all its Rites and Ceremonies Gal. 4.4 2. But secondly there is another way wherein our Lord fulfilled the ritual part of the Law which was by accomplishing all those things and introduceing all those graces which were typically figured and shadowed in it That had a shadow of good things to come and not the very Image of the things that is to say not the things themselves Heb. 10.1 and so is the word effigies taken by no worse an Author than Tully himself nos solidam et expressan effigiem virtutis nullam tenemus but Christ introduced the very things which were foreshadowed in that Law His Priesthood was antitype to that of Aaron his Sacrifice to the Sacrifices of the Law his entrance into heaven it self to appear in the presence of God for us to the High Priests entrance into the Holy of Holies on the solemn day of expiation the expiation made by his Sacrifice to that which was made by those of the Law the spiritual purity of the Gospel to the legal washings and purification and abstinences from things then impure the eternal rest that he hath prepared for the people of God to the Jewish Sabbaths and new moons all which things were only shadows of things to come and so the Apostle himself assures us Col. 2.16 17. Let no man therefore judge you in meat or drink or in respect of an holy day or of the new moon or of the Sabbath days which are a shadow of things to come but the body is of Christ that is to say Christ introduced the things themselves which were but shadowed in the Law by typical figures and similitudes which is likewise the meaning of these words John 1.17 The Law was given by Moses but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ he brought in the very life and substance of what was but pictured in the Law and thus he fulfilled the ritual part of Moses his Law as well as personal obedience to it 3. Now for the judicial part of the Law whereby the Jewish State was governed I need not say how our Lord fulfilled it by submitting himself both to the Roman and Jewish Magistrate He was contented to pay tribute he suffered himself to be apprehended by the Officers sent to this purpose he suffered himself to be tried and sentenced and yielded himself to the Execution of the sentence unjustly passed upon him and though he could not owne the guilt yet did he quietly receive the punishment for he was led as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb so opened he not his mouth Isa 53.7 But the way whereby he did more especially fulfil the judicial Law of Moses was by introducing the royal Law of universal love and kindness which if observed would more effectually attain the end of humane Laws than all the wisdom force or power which can accompany and attend them The end of all political Laws is only the safety and the prosperity of the Common-wealth that men may live in mutual peace that every man may possess and enjoy his life and estate and reputation and whatsoever belongs unto him without the trouble of fraud or violence from other persons all which ends would more sucessfully be attained by the Law of universal love peculiarly setled by our Lord than by the wisest of humane Laws and the strictest execution of them those can but bind the outward man they cannot change the hearts of men those can but tie the hands of violence and muzzle the mouth of the wild beast they cannot alter and mend his nature nor make him further abstain from injury than the fear of punishment and revenge may put a restraint
truth thereof those that believe and entertain it are highly improved and bettered by it but those that resolve not to reform upon any motives any incitements whatsoever are forced for their own ease and quiet to abandon the very belief of it and having rejected this belief become exposed to the greatest evils without the restraint and contradiction of any remorses and regrets They have lost that very fear and dread which wheresoever it is retained cannot but put a restraint and awe upon all those sinful inclinations that lead to future death and misery And now if the very fear of God where it is serious and considerate that is to say where it is the thing it pretends to be carry so great a power in it to command and press obedience to him how much greater must that power grow when love being added unto fear turns it into a filial reverence and puts another nature into it Love freely offers what fear constrains Love makes that easie and delightful which was a burden unto fear nay Love itself constrains likewise but without reluctancy and opposition for it removes these very things and this is the meaning of St Paul 2 Cor. 5.14 The love of Christ saith he constrains us we cannot resist its Sovereign Power we cannot oppose its mighty influence but freely surrender all within us all our powers and inclinations into obedience to our Lord who dyed for us and rose again And to refufe him this obedience would be an eclipse of our own joys would be to resist our own desires would be a violence to our selves such an other violence and contradiction as it would be to our Lord himself And this is the reason why our Lord hath represented our love to him as a certain principle of obedience John 14.23 If a man love me he will keep my words He can no more love and offend love and displease me both together than he can chuse to vex himself and willingly practise and embrace a contradiction to his will and although my precepts may engage him to take up his cross for ray sake and his own Salvation yet will not 〈◊〉 grievous to him seeing the 〈◊〉 had for him moved me to do the some thing yea infinitely greater for his sake Now then to conclude this second general seeing that reverence to God Almighty carries both fear and love in it seeing love and fear cannot fail to produce obedience to him hence I conclude that this obedience is such an effect of that reverence as cannot be rent and divided from it 3. Proceed we now to the third general where I am to shew the contradictions to that reverence and those are not only those very acts which are usually styled contempt and scorn and are in themselves expresly so but all such actions and omissions as evidently flow from gross neglect and want of reverence towards God that is to say all deliberate and wilful sins And this appears from the very words of God himself A son faith he honoureth his Father and a servant his Master If then I he a Father where is mine honour And if I be a Master where is my fear saith the Lord of Host unto you O Priests that despise my name and ye say wherein have we despised thy name They wondered it seems and were much surprised that they should be charged with so high a crime as that of despising the name of God that is indeed God himself they were so secure they were so confident that they were not guilty of this crime that they are willing to come to trial they plead not guilty to the indictment they debate and expostulate with God himself and demand the proof of the charge against them wherein have we despised thy name But what 's the answer which God returns how doth he justifie the charge against them ye offer polluted bread upon mine Altar and yet ye say wherein have we polluted thee Is there not a Law which forbids you to offer any unclean or polluted thing upon mine Altar do ye not know that there is such a Law and do you not then despise my name while you wilfully violate that Law which you your selves know to be mine Thus doth God make good his charge against these persons who wifully sinned against his Laws and seeing the very same charge lies against every wilful sinner therefore is every wilful sin a flat contradiction to that reverence which every man owes unto his Maker But now although it be true indeed that every deliberate and wilful sin be a contradiction to that reverence which every man ows to the Lord of all yet are there some particular kinds of wilful sin that are more expresly so than others Some there are that carry the very contempt of God clearly written upon the brow some there are that carry the marks of irreverence to him in more express and legible characters although not all in the same degree 1. The first and greatest of these sins is the derision of all Religion not only neglect but explicite scorn even of the very worship of God in Prayers and Praises and thanksgivings as well as of all other parts and instances of the duties he hath required from us A thing St Peter himself foretold 2 Ep. 3.3 4. Knowing this first that there shall come in the last days scoffers walking after their own lusts and saying where is the promise of his coming Where he describes such persons as deny the coming of Christ to judgment and then in consequence of this errour scoff and despise all Religion now what is Religion but the homage we owe to our Sovereign Lord the great Creator of Heaven and Earth and what is it then to despise Religion but to despise that homage and what is that but a despight to God himself the thing is evident beyond denial and so is another besides that which is that it is not matter of wit to deride and to despise Religion for if it be frenzy it is not wit and if it be not a real frenzy to despise the homage a man owes to God and so to destroy and ruine himself there is no frenzy in all the World 2. But to proceed another sin that carries a signal mark upon it of great irreverence towards God is drolling upon the holy Scriptures irreverent use of the words and expressions therein used the application of those expressions to trivial purposes and occasions prophane allusions made unto them and to be short the using of any thing therein said for mirth and sport and entertainment This is to play with Gods oracles this is to jest upon Gods word and so a reproach to God himself and visibly betrays a very great irreverence to him No man trifles no man jests upon the words of a mortal man turning them into sport and laughter but in derision and flight of him no man doubts but that he that scoffs 〈◊〉 â—â—rides his words brings a contempt upon his person
what are the motives what the arguments to that diligence 1. That which is mentioned in the Text where we find that this is the very thing that recommends us to Gods acceptance He that doth righteousness is righteous that is he is so in Gods account as well as really so in himself for the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous and his ears are open unto their cry Psal 34.15 They are as the apple of his eye he hath a tender kindness for them he bears a singular regard unto them and takes an especial care of them Righteousness is the Image of God true goodness wheresoever it is is a beam derived from the fountain of light which God doth always love and cherish always bless with especial favour whatever regard or disregard whatever favour or disfavour it finds with men it never wants the favour of God it is a participation of his Image and he loves it wheresoever it is as he loved it in his only Son so the Apostle himself adds He that doth righteousness is righteous even as he is righteous And is not this a singular motive to live in the constant practice of it what is that that supports the minds what is that that cheers the hearts and spirits of wise and good and holy men under all the troubles all the calamities of the World but the hope and sense of Gods favour where can we find a sure refuge an assured shelter and security under thousands of fears and disappointments that attend us in the present World but under the shadow of Gods wings the grace and favour of God Almighty which Grace is Almighty like himself and will preserve to life eternal if we labour faithfully to retain it by true and diligent obedience to him let this therefore move us to obedience 2. And lastly because we have taken upon us the name and profession of Jesus Christ and because that Christ hath strictly commanded that every one that names his name depart from iniquity left he bring a scandal on that profession Let the honour of so dear a Master the credit and service of his Church which he hath purchased with his blood perswade the obedience of the Gospel If these with other considerations tending unto the same purpose have not this effect upon us we shall bring a scandal upon the Gospel we shall open the mouth of scorn and clamour against the Religion we profess we shall give occasion for men to think that we are under the great delusion which the Apostle here corrects of thinking our selves righteous persons although we do not do righteousness But in the diligent and careful practice of the holy Laws that Christ hath given us we shall honour our Lord adorn his Religion edifie others edifie our selves grow to an excellent habit of mind What shall I say more In so doing we shall obtain all the blessings of the Gospel and at last arrive at eternal happiness The Nineteenth Sermon Luk. 16.8 For the Children of this world are in their generation wiser than the Children of light THESE words are a short reflection made upon the behaviour of a certain Steward as it is represented in a Parable who having imbezeld his Masters goods is called to account for his miscariage and thereupon to be displaced How is it saith his Lord to him that I hear this of thee give an account of thy Stewardship for thou mayst be no longer Steward v. 2. of this Chapter The Steward surprized with the suddain notice of his removal from his place presently begins to bethink himself how he shall now provide for himself He said with himself v. 3. what shall I do for my Lord taketh away from me the Stewardship I cannot dig to beg I am ashamed But long it was not before he comes to a resolution which was to gratifie his Masters debtors in the abatement of their debts that so when his Master had removed him they might receive and entertain him so it follows v. 4. I am resolved what to do that when I am put out of the Stewardship they may receive me into their houses accordingly calling them to reckon with him he makes some abatement to every debtor of what was owing to his Lord To him that owed him an hundred measures of Oyl he makes abatement of one half saying unto him take thy bill and sit down quickly and write fifty v. 6. To him that owed an hundred measures of wheat he abated a fifth part of the debt Take thy bill and write fourscore v. 7. So he obliged his Masters debtors to entertain him in their houses when he had lost his Stewards place so he provided for himself His Lord in the mean time knowing this as well as his other misbehaviours though he could not approve the fraud and injustice of his Steward yet commends the care he had of himself commends the wisdom of his Servant in making provision for the future so it follows v. 8. And the Lord commended the unjust Steward because he had done wisely whereupon our Saviour adds this following observation For the Children of this world are in their generation wiser than the Children of light 1. The Children of this world are those that mind and study the present World that is the concerns and profits of it as the great and only valuable things and have no other end at all but to attain to wealth and power and what may be useful in this life for wheresoever the World is put for one particular sort of men it always signifies the worser sort so in those words John 17.9 I pray for them I pray not for the world and afterwards at the 16. v. they are not of the world even as I am not of the world From whence as from divers other places it hath been truly and well observed that although the World do often signifie all mankind the good and evil both together yet where it is put for one part only it always designs the worser part 2. Now to go on the Children of light are those that profess the faith and hope of future Glory and to make the attainment of that glory their chief endeavour in the World so is the same expression taken John 6.36 While ye have the light believe in the light that ye may be the Children of the light and so the Apostle 1 Thess 5.5 ye are all the Children of the light and the Children of the day that is to say ye all profess the faith of the Gospel which hath brought us out of darkness into light ye all profess the stedfast hope of that Glory which is promised in the Gospel to us and to make the pursuit of that Glory the chief design and end of life These are the persons whom the Scriptures style the Children of light and this is the reason why they are so styled 3. And then further whereas it is said that the Children of this World are in their Generation wiser then the
Lord as the treasures of his own House and what was still more dishonourable to cut off the Gold from the Doors of the Temple and the Pillars which he himself had made v. 15 16. Yet such it should seem was Sennacheribs treachery and false dealing that having as was before related spoiled Hezekiah of his treasure he presently contrary to his promise sends up an Army towards Jerusalem the dread whereof filled that City with great amazement and confusions In these confusions had the Prophet Isaiah an intimation that God would exalt his mighty power in the deliverance of Hezekiah and of the City of Jerusalem from these so great and imminent dangers and also confirm the same deliverance and give secure and setled times The former whereof the Prophet declares v. 5. The Lord is exalted for he dwelleth on high he hath filled Sion with judgment and righteousness the latter in the following words And wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times Stability signifies strength and settlement stability of times safe secure and certain times times not so lyable unto change as that the fear of domestick Troubles or foreign violence should either disquiet the minds of men or interrupt them in their duties to God or their neighbours or themselves And then that wisedom or that knowledge by which the times should be thus established is the knowledge of God and of his will and hearty obedience thereunto in the whole compass of his Laws as well of those which prescribe our duties to one another as of those that direct us in Gods worship I need not say that this is the sense wherein wisdom is frequently taken in the Scriptures for that 's a thing that all acknowledge who pretend to any skill in them nor need I labour much to prove that this is the sense of wisdom and knowledge in the words which I now insist upon for plain it is that what the Prophet stiles judgment and righteousness in the words immediately antecedent is here stiled wisdom and knowledge He hath filled Sion with judgment and righteousness So he speaks in the fifth verse and then immediately adds the effect those things should have under the name of 〈…〉 and knowledge for so it follows and wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times that is to say judgment and righteousness shall be so He varies the words but not the sense for then his discourse would not be coherent Add hereunto that what he had styled wisdom and knowledge in the beginning of the verse is immediately called the fear of the Lord wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times and strength of salvation the fear of the Lord is his treasure Where he suggests that although Sennacherib had spoiled Hezekiah of his treasures which are the usual nerves of War and the common instruments of defence yet that he had such a treasure still namely the fear of the true God as should give stability to his times For as much as this is the truest wisdom and such wisdom the firmest foundation of peace and settlement This reaches all the ends of wisdom and therefore justly bears its name So that the sense of the words in hand is the same with that of those before chap. 32. v. 17. The work of righteousness shall be peace and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever Now the words taken in this sense offer two things to our consideration 1. The former whereof is a blessing promised which is stability of the times setled quiet and easie days 2. The latter the proper means or terms whereby this blessing is procur'd which is obedience to Gods will in the whole extent of his holy Laws styled by the Prophet wisdom and knowledge For so he speaks to Hezekiah and in his person to the nation wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times I shall begin with the blessing promised which is stability in the times a singular blessing to a Nation being such as most effectually tends or is at the least wholly necessary to the producing of all others whether we consider it with relation 1. To the advantages of this World 2. Or those that concern a better life Of the former of these I should not speak being not so suitable to this place were it not proper for the occasion were it not seasonable in point of time and now if ever to be considered when the great Council of the Land is studying how to settle the Nation to confirm our Peace to establish true and firm foundations of future settlement and tranquillity and may expect to have an account of the usefulness of their undertakings opened and laid before the People But being these are our present circumstances I judge I may justly take occasion to insist a while upon those advantages which every Nation may expect from quiet certain and stable times 1. And first of all such times as these give ease of heart vigour of mind a free and chearful and active spirit take off the weights of fear and sorrow that troublesome times generally hang upon men's minds and so prepare and dispose to diligence and give incouragement thereunto by promising good success in it For in such times may every person duly hope to reap the fruits of his own Labours to gain advantage by his diligence to find an account in his undertakings he now believes that he serves himself or his posterity which he values equally with himself And this as it gives a great incouragement to his diligence So it sweetens the labours that attend it and makes him easie to himself as well as useful to publick ends It is not so in troublesome and distracted times In such times every man suspects that one may sow and another reap one may build and another inhabit one may plant and another probably gather the fruit as we have seen in our own age and many felt by sad experience And this is a very great discouragement to every man's diligence in his calling Where is the man that will toyle and labour weary his body or his mind where he cannot hope that he or his heirs shall find advantage by all his pains who will imploy and busie himself at all adventures build or plant or lay up treasure when he hath reason to suspect that he is labouring for a stranger or preparing rich and pleasant spoils for an enemy to feed his lusts upon And what 's the effect of these discouragements but a disconsolate useless sloath or else a diversion from those labours whereby he might profit himself and others to live by spoyl on other persons which when it once becomes common ends in general want and poverty and brings destruction upon a Nation So useful nay so wholly necessary are stable times to give encouragement to care and diligence in those labours whereby every man serves himself as the publick good is served by all 2. Stable and settled times give
very nature of things themselves that peace and war strength and weakness health and sickness are as consistent each with other as quiet times with restless lusts peace with wickedness and irreligion The wicked are like a troubled Sea when it cannot rest whose waters cast up mire and dirt there is no peace saith my God to the wicked Isaiah 57.20 21. Sin is uneasie to it self a constant disease a daily vexation to the sinner and it is so to a Nation likewise when it is national and universal And sure it is one of the greatest vanities to hope that God should preserve by miracle where people wilfully serve those lusts which naturally work their own destruction Whensover providence works a miracle to preserve a person or a Nation it is to preserve those that cannot not those that will not preserve themselves but wilfully rush upon their ruine But is there any man in the world that wilfully studies his own destruction do we not all wish and long for such stability in the times as may give us easie and quiet minds secure our Affairs succeed our labours confirm our strength and deliver us from all those fears and dreads that have given us so much pain and sorrow I make no doubt but that we do desire such days with all our hearts I make no question but there are many of such a Spirit that they would willingly undertake the greatest labours to procure them I do not question but that the generality of the Nation if they were assaulted by an Enemy would hazard their fortunes expose their lives adventure what was dearest to them to maintain their ancient rights and liberties And would it not be as easie for us and more efficacious to these ends to reform our lives to forsake our sins and turn from the evil of our ways Why should a man be willing to spill his very blood and unwilling to reform his sins for the security of his Country Why are we willing to use those means that are more grievous and less effectual for our welfare namely to hazard life and fortune for securing these very things themselves and neglect the easie and efficacious the reformation of our lives Would it be a burden to love God with all our hearts to place our hope and trust in him to serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness all our days Would it be troublesome and uneasie to love our neighbours with sincerity and to be so beloved by them to be freed from mutual fears and jealosies from all animosities each to other O how blind are the minds of men not to see the things that concern their peace not to observe that Christs commands are a light an easie a gentle yoke but rather to study their own security by those very things that overthrow it by fraud or violence or worldly craft than by the practice of those vertues which would ease their minds secure their fortunes succeed their labours and make them happy as well in the life that now is as in that to come How blessed and happy might we be if we would follow Gods directions how easily might we spend our days even in this frail and mortal life how firmly might we settle the times which are now so wavering and uncertain if we would spend but half that time in the subduing of our lusts that we do in the gratification of them if we would but take half that pains to possess our hearts with love to God and mutual Charity each to other and in fervent Prayers in humble thanksgivings in Holiness Righteousness and Sobriety that we do in the service of our lusts This would undoubtedly amend the days settle our Interests and bless us with quiet and stable times This would be a fair return to God Almighty for the favour which we now commemorate for restoring our Prince our Laws and Religion after we were deprived of them by former Ruines and Confusion Thus God of his mercy open our eyes that we may timely understand and practise the things that concern our peace then should there be no breaking in nor going out no. complaining in our streets and happy is that people that is in such a case yea happy is that people whose God is the Lord. Psal 144.14 15. God of his mercy grant c. The Second Sermon PSALM 68.28 Strengthen O God that which thou hast wrought for us The whole verse is thus Thy God hath commanded thy strength Strengthen O God that which thou hast wrought for us THIS Psalm as judicious men conceive was written by David when he removed the Ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to Sion Which may be the reason why it begins with these words which Moses used on the like occasions namely when he removed the same Ark which are recorded Numb 10.35 Rise up Lord and let thine Enemies be scattered and let them that hate thee flee before thee So David here in the first verse Let God arise and let his Enemies be scattered and let them that hate him flee before him And having lived to see the day wherein the holy Ark of God the Symbol of his especial presence was to be fixed in its own place which God himself had chosen for it he thought it meet to recollect the many other favours and mercies which God had granted the Jewish Nation and to render him hearty thanks for them namely for his singular Providence in conducting the People thorough the Wilderness after their deliverance out of Egypt 6 7 8. verses for his planting them in the promised land a land flowing with Milk and Hony and fruitful even to a miracle so at the ninth and tenth verses for the powerful Aids of his gracious Providence in dispossessing the former Inhabitants in scattering the Armies of their Kings that his people might possess their Countries 12 13 14. And having then in the following verses largely returned his thanks to God for all the great and admirable things which he had wrought for the Jewish Nation in order to their strength and settlement he prays for the continuance of his favour and of their present peace and welfare Strengthen O God what thou hast wrought for us In which words you may observe these two generals 1. An acknowledgement made to God that it was he and he alone who had planted and settled them in the land and wrought those great and mighty works whereby they were planted and settled in it Whath hath been done saith he hast wrought for us 2. An ardent Prayer to God to strengthen that is to continue what he had pleased to work for them Strengthen O God that which thou hast wrought for us 1. I begin with the first which is the acknowledgement made to God that it was he who had planted and settled them in the land and wrought those great and mighty works whereby they were planted and settled in it where I must not omit to take some notice that divine
which we partake in that Sacrament 1 Con. 10.17 We are all partakers of that one bread and that the Cup of which we drink and thus believing we do not give Divine worship unto the Elements in the Sacrament But they in absolute contradiction both unto Scripture and unto Reason and unto four of their five Senses believe that after Consecration there is no bread but the natural flesh of Christ's body no wine but his very natural blood Upon which account they pay a Divine worship to them worship that which is not God that which is really bread and wine To all these things I might now add the Superstition of their Devotions their Prayers for delivering departed Souls out of that place they call Purgatory a place that is of their own making for gaining Wealth unto their Church Their Pilgrimages to the Tombs of Saints an infinite Mass of Rites and Ceremonies for which things they have no precept in the Scripture no example either there or in the primitive Ages of Christianity Rites which obscure and burden Religion with a numberless heap of Superstitions contrary to the very nature to the simplicity of Christianity From matter of Worship pass we on to matter of common life and action 1. As it relates to moral Duty 2. And also unto Civil Society 1. And for the former our Church declares that true repentance is absolutely necessary to gain the remission and pardon of sin We also affirm that reformation is the best and most essential part of true repentance We do not pretend to any power to give Absolution to any person who doth not practise such repentance that is to say who doth not truly reform himself in life and action in case life be continued to him or in real purpose and resolution in an effectual change of heart We make no pretence to an Authority of giving Indulgences and Remissions or of admitting any Penances and Commutations for the Expiation of the sin where the sin is still continued in Whereas they of the Church of Rome give Absolution to Attrition that is to the meer fear of Hell and these two things namely Attrition and Absolution they judge sufficient to Salvation They admit of Penances and Commutations for the Expiation of mens sins and by these means teach their Followers to hope for remission of the punishment although they retain the sin it self And lest the Penance should seem burthensom and too severe they can give Indulgence for that too to them that will be at the cost to buy it By all which means they make the Precepts of the Gospel the Laws of Christ of no effect make it needless to obey them unless a man have a mind unto it and to do more than what is needful 2. For Civil Society 't is well known how many there are in the Church of Rome who do affirm that it is not needful to discharge a promise to a Heretick and all are Hereticks in their account who make profession of Christianity and do not communicate with their Church We know there was safe conduct promised to John Hus and Jerom of Prague to the Council of Conslance and how that promise was performed The promise was broken and the men burnt and so indeed they justified their Doctrine by their practice They exempt the Clergy from the Authority of secular Power till they be surrendred thereunto by their Superiors in the Church and they surrender them when they please and when they please they do not Upon which account many Villanies many Murders have been committed in the State to the infinite scandal of Religion It was complained in the sixth year of King Henry the Second that there have been above an hundred man slaughters committed by the then Clergy since the beginning of his Reign But that which is of the vilest consequence in this point is that they affirm that the Popes of Rome have power to depose Kings and Princes and that pursuant to this Doctrine they have excommunicated and deposed lawful Princes in several places and given their Kingdoms and Dominions to other persons that there are infinite numbers of Authors who defend and justifie this Doctrine that these are countenanced by a Council that is to say the fourth Lateran which they themselves call a General Council For it is there expresly said that in case a Prince does not purge his Country from heretical pravity in the space of a year after admonition so to do by the Metropolitan and his Comprovincials then this be signified to the Pope that he may deprive him of all Authority terram ejus exponat Catholicis occupandam expose his Country to be possessed and seized by Catholicks In direct pursuance of which Doctrine private persons have stab'd Princes and have been commended and applauded by the Pope himself for so doing For so it was in the case of Henry the Third of France These are the Doctrines of the Church of Rome relating unto Civil Society what ours are I need not say We owne our selves obliged to do good to all men and that although we have not obliged our selves thereto by any particular promise to them much more discharg'd our faith to all We owne the King to be supreme in his own dominions and that there is no power in any to depose him And to conclude we owne the truth of S. Peter's words and that in the very fullest sense Honour or as the margent reads it esteem all men love the Brotherhood fear God honour the King 1 Pet. 2.17 We owne all to be oblig'd to submit to every ordinance of man for the Lords sake whether it be to the King as supreme or to Governours as sent by him for the punishment of evil doers I have here given you an account of some of the most material differences between us and the Church of Rome in point of faith and worship and manners and should now perswade you to stand fast in all these things as they are taught in this Church not suffering your selves to be abased by vain Sophistry of deceivers If they ask you where our Church was before Luther ask you again where theirs was before the fourth Laterane Council nay before that of Trent it self For sure it is there was never any Church before those Councils that did in all things teach and practise as the Church of Rome at this present time Tell them our Church that is a Church wherein the same faith and worship the same obedience to Gods commands were taught and required which are now taught and required in ours were many ages before theirs Such a Church there was assoon as there was a Christian Church such a Church planted by Christ himself such a Church propagated by his Apostles such a Church for several hundred years for several ages after that Afterwards there arose a time of darkness upon the face of the Christian world in that darkness many errours crept into the Church many corruptions in worship
is in Heaven He is adorned with an excellent Character in the words immediately following those And I say unto thee that thou art Peter and upon this rock will I build my Church which priviledge although it was not peculiar unto S. Peter but common to the other Apostles with him yet being first declared of him adds to the Dignity of his Character and yet detracts nothing at all from the power of the rest of Christs Apostles upon whom as upon a sure foundation S. Paul assures us the Church was built Ephe. 2.20 It was built on them together with him whom our Saviour mentions in this place it was most firmly built upon them for so it appears from these words and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it For the better understanding of which words we must 1 consider that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 translated Hell is frequently used in the holy Scriptures as well as prophane Authors to signifie the grave to denote the place and state of the dead so it is used in these words Psal 16.10 Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell neither wilt thou suffer thy holy one to see corruption And then further 2 We must consider that the grave or place and State of the dead is sometimes compared unto a house If I wait the grave is mine house Job 17.13 and to a house with gates or dores shut up and locked with bars and locks and hence that saying of Hezekiah Isa 38.10 I said in the cutting off of my days I shall go to the gates of the grave Hence mention is made of the bars of the pit Job 17.16 and of the keys of hell and death Revel 1.18 and of the keys of the bottomless pit Revel 9.1 3 Being then that the grave being that the place and state of the dead is compared to a house with gates and doors shut up and fastned with bars and locks from hence likewise it comes to pass that Death or Destruction is described by entering into the gates of the grave for so you find in the words which I have already cited Isaiah 38.10.11 I said in the cutting off of my days when God told me that I should dye I shall go to the gates of the grave am deprived of the residue of my years I said I shall not see the Lord in the land of the living I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world where entering into the gates of the grave plainly signifies death it self or entring into the place of the dead as all the other expressions shew 4. This being so if the Church be taken for Gods people not considered as a Society being together in Communion but as single Members of Christs Body then these words that are before us that the gates of hell shall not prevail against the Church imply no more than that the Members of Christs body shall overcome death and the grave by a Resurrection to Immortality But then if the Church in this place be taken as it usually is and as I judge it ought to be for the general Society of Believers considered as they are a Church living together in Communion in the use of all Christ's Institutions then are the words we have in hand which tell us that the gates of hell shall not prevail against the Church a promise that there shall be a Church professing the true Faith of the Gospel and living in the use of its Institutions in visible Fellowship and Communion till the second Coming of our Lord. Then when it is said that the gates of hell shall not prevail against the Church the meaning will be that the Church shall never enter into those gates which is as much as if it were said that it should never be destroyed Having thus interpreted the words before us I shall proceed in this Method 1. I shall shew what Church this is which is designed in these words 2. And then secondly how far this promise of our Lord made to that Church in these words secures it from errour and defection 1. It is needful to understand what the Church is which is designed in these words where it is promised that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it And the reason is because the Patrons of the Roman Church have assumed this promise unto themselves with as much confidence and presumption as if it had been expresly said That the Church of Rome should never fail but always continue firm and stable nay absolutely infallible in the Faith in the true Doctrine of Christianity whereas in truth this is as well a great arrogance as a most wide and foul mistake For certain it is that our Saviour here speaks not of any particular Church planted in this or the other place but only of the Universal Church the whole Society of those persons who profess the Doctrine of the Gospel He speaks indefinitely of his Church Vpon the rock will I build my Church and speaking indefinitely of his Church cannot possibly understand any particular part of it the Church of any particular place but the Catholick Universal Church The truth is the Church of any particular place seated in any particular Country may utterly fail and be extinguished How many great and excellent Churches have failed and perished long ago How many others have so decayed that they seem near unto destruction Where are those many famous Churches which once flourished in the Coast of Africks Where are those seven Churches of Asia largely mentioned by St. John in the three first Chapters of the Revelations Where are those many other Churches which formerly flourished in the East How many of them are extinguished utterly ruined and destroyed with the very Cities where they were planted How many others are decayed almost to a total dissolution Be it then concluded that this promise that the gates of hell shall not prevail against the Church belongs to the Church Universal only and not to any Society of Christians seated in any particular place not unto any particular Church Which being so I cannot dismiss this point without an Inference and a Caution 1. The Inference is That seeing this promise of our Lord that the gates of hell shall not prevail against his Church belongs to the Church Universal and not to any particular Church The consequence which the Romanists draw from these words namely that the Church of Rome is indefectible and infallible is most inconsequent and unreasonable This promise belongs to the whole Church of which the present Church of Rome is but a part and a part infected with strange corruptions This promise belongs to the Universal Church of Christ the Church of Rome was never more than only a particular Church that is a member of the universal and is now what it hath long been a most corrupt and unsound member And as that Church hath strangely sunk into heathenish and barbarous Superstitions so may it utterly fail and vanish and disclaim the
instances wherein they exercised their hypocrisie 2. The second was that they confined all their Religion to outward actions but all this while neglected the purifying of their hearts S. Paul reporting what he was while he continued to be a Pharisee expresly tells us that he was blameless as to the righteousness in the law Touching the righteousness which is in the law blameless Phil. 3.6 His meaning is that he avoided the outward actions expresly forbidden in the Law that he observed and performed them which were expresly then commanded according to the interpretation which the Pharisees put upon the Law more than this he could not mean he could not possibly believe himself to have been punctually clear and spotless in the inward affections of his foul but only in point of outward action But being so he declares himself to have been blameless touching the righteousness in the Law while he continued to be a Pharisee which plainly shews they thought the Law required no more than a conformity to its Precepts in outward action and behaviour And thus doth Kimchi expound those words Psal 66.18 If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me that is saith he if I only think or design iniquity but do not accomplish the design if I only think or wish the evil but do not act it in overt action God will not impute it as fin to me a gloss just contrary to the Text not an explication of the words but an express contradiction to them 'T is true indeed the Law did say Thou shalt not covet but did not expresly threaten punishment to them that coveted if they did not act the ill imagined Whereupon these Pharisees judged it a counsel rather than a precept in gratification to their lusts and judged themselves exactly righteous when they performed the overt actions the Law required and avoided them forbidden in it Such is the nature of hypocrisie and such was that of the Scribes and Pharisees 3. As they placed their righteousness wholly and solely in outward actions and the omissions of such actions so they performed those actions with abundance of outward pomp and shew that they might be seen and praised of men They gave alms but sounded a trumpet both in the Synagogues and in the streets at the giving of it Mat. 6.2 They prayed much but they loved to pray standing in the Synagogues and in the corners of the streets and this that they might be seen of men Mat. 6.5 They fasted also twice a-week Luk. 18.12 but they put on a soure countenance disfigured their faces that they might appear unto men to fast Mat. 6.16 And this as our Lord expresly tells us Mat. 23.5 they did all their works to be seen of men Which is the nature of hypocrisie and a certain signification of it 4. They were far more nice far more scrupulous in lesser things than they were in things of greater moment far more punctual in the observance of their own precepts and institutions than those that were of Gods appointment and far more diligent in the observance of Gods appointments in ritual matters and constitutions than in the very Laws of nature and things of indispensable goodness These are the things our Saviour often objects to them and more especially Matt. 23. the 23d and following verses Wo unto you Scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites for ye pay tythe of mint and anise and cummin and have omitted the weightier matters of the law judgment mercy and faith those ought ye to have done and not to leave the other undone Ye blind guides which strain at a Gnat and swallow a camel which make such scruple in lesser things and none at all in things of moment And yet again in the following words Wo unto you Scribes and Pharisees for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter but within they are full of extortion and excess to wash the cup before they drunk to cleanse the platter before they ate was an institution of their own and this they very duly observed to purge the heart from all extortion and impurity was a Law enjoined by God himself but of this they made no account at all 5. As they much abounded in institutions of their own so some of these were so extravagant that they were contrary to the very Laws of God and nature What Law more sacred and indispensable what more natural and more agreeable to humanity than that which requires us to honour our Parents to relieve and assist them in their wants which is both a part and a signification of that honour yet such was the blindness of the Pharisees that they licensed a man to make a vow to deny relief unto his Father and pronounc'd the vow to be obliging so our Lord Mark 7.10 11. Moses said honour thy Father and Mother and who so curseth Father or Mother let him dye the death but ye say if a man shall say to his Father or Mother it is Corban that is to say a gift by whatsoever thou mayest be profited by me he shall be free and ye suffer him no more to do ought for his Father or his Mother making the word of God of none effect through your traditions inventing a vow flatly contrary to Gods Law and making the former oblige and bind to the destruction of the latter Thus did they use a pretence of Piety towards God to absolve and quit them from their very duty to their Parents used Religion against Religion and made the very pretence of it a ground to neglect and contradict it 6. They prescribed to others what they themselves would not practise their precepts were stricter than their lives to others they were extreamly severe but kind and gentle to themselves whence that reflection of our Lord Matt. 23.34 Do not after their works for they say and do not for they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be born and lay them on mens shoulders but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers an evident instance of Hypocrisie of prevarication and deceit for if the duty though hard and difficult was yet necessary unto others why was it not so to them likewise and if it was not so to them as it should seem they judg'd it was not why was it then so to others why did they then impose it on them why reprove the neglect of it why upbraid the mote or atome which they espied in their neighbours eye while they suffered a beam to blind their own But to proceed to the last instance of the hypocrisie of the Pharisees this lay in the flaming zeal they had to make Proselytes to their Party to make Disciples to their Sect while they made them worse and not the better nay greatly worse by so doing And this is the thing objected to them by our Lord Matth. 23.15 Wo unto you Scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites for ye compass Sea and Land to make one Proselyte and when
ends wherein the best and wisest men shall be esteemed the very worst superstitious cold and formal men by those that are zealous in some Faction and know no Religion but that zeal because such times as these may be it is safest to content our selves in gaining those rewards and blessings that are peculiar to Religion the testimony of a good Conscience and life eternal in the World to come 3. And then lastly Because hypocrisie is so deceitful and sly a sin as always serving worldly interest which is apt insensibly to blind the eyes and infatuate the minds of the wisest men and yet hide it self from them themselves it will concern us to be very frequent and impartial in the examination of our selves to weigh our counsels to try our ends to prove our designs in every action relating any way to Religion It will be needful to consider whether we indeed design it really intend to promote and practise it whereever we make a profession of it And then because that God alone knows the heart and because his Grace is most needful to discover our selves unto our selves in the midst of the many sins and passions that may infatuate and beguile us let us earnestly pray for his Holy Spirit to deliver us from all the infatuations and all the seductions of our lusts Let us make the Address which David did Psal 139.22 24. with whose words I shall conclude Search me O God and know my heart try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting The Eleventh Sermon John 14.1 Ye believe in God believe also in me The whole verse is thus Let not your heart be troubled ye believe in God believe also in me THESE words are a preface to a very large and kind discourse made by our Lord unto his followers wherein he delivers the main foundations of Christianity as well in matter of Faith as Practice which is the reason why he begins it with such words as might effectually stir them up to give both attention and belief to all that he should deliver in it Ye believe in God believe also in me In which words we have two parts 1. A concession or supposition Ye believe in God that is ye believe that there is a God and what is consequent hereupon that he is to be trusted and obeyed although some others read the words not as a Declaration Ye believe in God but as a Command Believe in God but there is no reason to depart from our own Translation in this matter 2. Here is a Precept also Believe in me that is to say believe that I am the Son of God sent by him into the world to reveal the Gospel of life eternal and therefore judge your selves obliged to believe whatsoever I reveal and obey whatsoever I command you Now being that belief in Christ in the sence I have now explained unto you is here required as an addition or further accession to the mere belief in God only as he may be known by the light of nature The Subject which the Words before us offer to our consideration is That the belief of Christian Doctrine as it is revealed to us in the Gospel over and above that knowledge of God which the light of Nature affords unto us is necessary to our eternal happiness In the prosecution of which Point 1. I must first consider That the firm belief of the Gospel of Christ is most expresly required by God and the denial of such belief forbidden under no less a penalty than the utter loss of life eternal Salvation is always promised to them who believe in him who hath revealed it and become his Followers and Disciples to other persons it is not promised As Moses lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness so must the Son of man be lifted up that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life Joh. 3.14 15. Nor is it only promised to those and those only that so believe but denied to them that believe not to them that refuse to yield their belief to him whom God hath sent and sanctified to be the Saviour of the World He that believeth on him is not condemned but he that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God And so again omitting several other places of the same sense and signification in the first Epistle of St John chap. 5. ver 10. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself he that believeth not God hath made him a Lyar because he believeth not the Record that God gave of his Son Thrice did God bear this Record and owne our Lord to be sent by him by an express voice from Heaven once at his Baptism in these words Matt. 3.17 This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased A second time at his transfiguration upon the mount with some addition to those words Matt. 15.5 This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased hear ye him And yet again a third time a little before our Saviours passion when praying to God in these words Father glorifie thy name he was answered by a voice from Heaven saying I have both glorified it and will glorifie it again John 12.28 To all which clear and express testimonies given by the Father to his Son I might first add the glorious miracles wrought by Christ during his life then his resurrection from the dead and the effusion of his Spirit upon the Apostles sent by him and all the miracles wrought by them and all his other followers also which being evident demonstrations that he was the very son of God and sent by him to save the World highly aggravate the great sin of infidelity and unbelief and teach us to forbear to wonder that it should be punished with death eternal and that Christ himself should thus pronounce Mark 16.16 He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned 2. But then secondly lest you should think that God will have us believe the Gospel meerly because he will have it so and that he had no further end in the truth therein revealed unto us than that we should believe them only I further add that the belief of those truths is greatly necessary to several ends of infinite moment and importance 1. For the full and perfect knowledge of the duties which he requires from us 2. For the like knowledge of the great motions to those duties 3. For our better support under all our tryals fears and dangers 1. The belief of the great truths revealed unto us in the Gospel is necessary for the perfect knowledge of the duties which God requires from us and that upon several considerations namely 1. because that though the light of nature well improved may in some measure direct us to very many of them yet
God for he that hath the Son hath life and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life 1 John 5.12 The Twelfth Sermon Philip. 1.10 That ye may approve things that are excellent ALthough God in his infinite wisdom never enjoined any thing to men but what considering all circumstances of times and places and persons likewise was useful and convenient for them though indifferent in its own nature such were the numerous Rites and Ceremonies of Moses's Law yet are there other instances of Duty which are immutably good in themselves and therefore proper for all Ages So are these two general Duties to love God with all our hearts and to love our neighbour as our selves So are the particular Branches of them to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in the world And so with very little exception are all the Duties of the Gospel Which impartially tryed and weighed cannot but be approved as good even by them that do not practise them But a general assent of the understanding not applied to particular instances of life and action is far short of the approbation which the Apostle here designs For although the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used in the Greek sometimes signifie something less than a bare assent of the understanding that is to try and examine only as where it is required that we prove all things 1 Thess 5.21 yet here it signifies much more Here as also in other places it imports such a clear and setled judgment of what is good as is accompanied with resolution to practise what we judge to be so This appears from what the Apostle joins in the same period with it sincerity and a blameless life and these retain unto the end For so is the tenour of his words That ye may approve things that are excellent that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ The same appears from the Style wherein the Apostle speaks For the words of my Text are part of a Prayer wherein after his usual custom of saluting the persons to whom he writes ver 1. and praying grace and peace for them from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ ver 2. after his thanks rendred to God for their fellowship in the Gospel in the following verses of the eighteenth Chapter he further prays that their love might abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment and that they might approve things that are excellent Being then the Apostle prays this for them as a thing of singular concernment to them and being a cold assent of mind an ineffectual approbation of what is excellent is a thing of no concern at all this cannot possibly be the thing which he so heartily prays for them but what is far more than this such an approbation of the mind as upon a full and clear survey of all the differences of good and evil in their natures issues and effects both in this and the other world ends in a certain determination never to deviate from what is good So then taking this for granted which the Apostle here supposes that the things prescribed to us in the Gospel are things excellent and good for us worthy thy to be commanded by God and reasonable to be practised by us especially upon the powerful motives whereupon the Gospel recommends them the proper subject which these words offer unto our consideration is the approbation of these things that is a clear and stable judgment in the Duties prescribed to us in the Gospel In the handling of which Subject it is most fit that we consider 1. The singular use and advantage of such a judgment in those Duties 2. How it may be gained 3. And lastly How it must be exercised by them that have attained unto it 1. And for the first let it be considered That the judgment which I have now described is of such singular use to us that it is 1. Both an effectual cure of all the Diseases of our minds considered absolutely in themselves and 2. Also a constant Guide and Monitor in every instance of our lives First A Guide to discover our Duties to us and Secondly A Monitor to press the practice of them and steady perseverance in that practice whatsoeever may tempt us to the contrary 1. If we survey the several maladies of our minds the diseases of humane understanding there are First Ignorance Secondly Doubt and Thirdly Vanity Ignorance of what is true and useful or Scepticism and doubt in what is so or Vanity in applying our minds to things impertinent and useless to us though we may have certain knowledge of them First The first Disease of the understanding is ignorance of that which is truly good For as the knowledge of what is so is the proper perfection of the mind because it was made to know this and every thing is perfect in its end so the ignorance of what it was made to know is its greatest malady and imperfection Ignorance is that Disease in the mind which utter blindness is in the eye that imperfection in the understanding which darkness would be in the Sun and Stars 'T is that which Death is unto Life its proper ruine and destruction It hides the face of truth from us it eclipses all the lustre of goodness it puts us under the power of errour which vitiates and perverts our choice and doth not only lead to danger but also reconcile us to it Now just contrary to these effects are those of clear and stable judgment in things pertaining to life and happiness or as the Apostle's expression is of the approbation of things excellent Truth is to the mind as light to the Sun its proper lustre and perfection Besides it powerfully recommends and sets off every thing that 's good it shews it in its native colours and gives it the advantages due unto it so that to use the Apostles words Philip. 4.8 Whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report if there be any vertue if there be any praise whatsoever there is that deserves our love it is so represented in the mind when the mind is duly informed by truth that it commends itself to choice and gains the possession of our hearts for as we naturally desire and love what our minds recommend unto us as good in itself and for us likewise so the hearty love of what is good is the gaining the very thing we love for there is this remarkable difference between the love of good or evil and that of all other things in the world that we may love these other things and yet fall short of the things themselves but he that loves good or evil is good or evil by so doing The consequence of which discourse is this that the approbation of things excellent a clear and stable
this comparison when he clearly discerns and firmly judges of all these things as this comparison represents them when he applies this judgment to every instance of life and action is it not an effectual principle to restrain him from every wilful sin to urge and press him to every duty will he chuse what is no way recommended and refuse what is represented to him under all the motives to choice and practice No man chuses or doth amiss but he that is ignorant or forgetful either in the nature of good and evil or in the effects and issues of them If there be nothing of this in the case let the charms of the world entice to evil he knows they are deceits and vanities and cannot believe what he knows is false nor be cheated by what he doth not believe Let the dreads and calamities of the world encomber and perplex his duties he reckons as the Apostle speaks that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us Rom. 8.18 This gives him courage strength and patience and makes him chuse afflicted innocence rather than guilty and short prosperity Insomuch that all the great examples of the highest and the noblest vertues all these victories over the world and all its troubles and adversities that are recorded in Sacred History all the great things that have been done all the great things that have been suffered for the advancement of Truth and Piety have sprung from a setled resolution grounded upon stable judgment never to vary from Gods will and the way to everlasting happiness So Moses esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Aegypt Heb. 11.16 So Christ himself for that joy that was set before him endured the Cross despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God Heb. 12.2 And so did his first and faithful followers for the securing of their innocence and the rewards thereunto belonging patiently endure all their sufferings as knowing that their light affliction which was but for a moment wrought for them a far more exceeding and an eternal weight of glory 2 Cor. 4.17 Thus is the approbation of things excellent that is a clear and stable judgment in all the duties of the Gospel as there declared and recommended not only a perfect cure and remedy of all the diseases of our minds to wit Ignorance Doubt and Vanity but also a constant guide and monitor in the whole course of our lives in the World Which being so 2. Let us now consider what are the means of attaining to it the second head before propounded 1. And here I shall not need to say that since every good and perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of lights Jam. 1.17 it must be sought of God by prayer Men may be rich and great and powerful meerly by the permission of Providence by practices not allow'd by God by fraud and injury and oppression But no man is wise unto salvation but by the special grace of God nor doth he give this special grace but where it is diligently sought of him which was the reason why St Paul so often puts it into his Prayers that God would bless men with this wisdom So he prays for Timothy that God would give him understanding in all things 2 Tim. 2.7 for the Ephesians That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of glory would give unto them the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him Eph. 1.17 for the Colossians that they might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding Col. 1.9 and lastly for the Philippians here that there love might abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment that they might approve the things that are excellent from all which prayers to God for wisdom for sound judgment in all our duties as represented in the Gospel we learn that it is the gift of God and to be sought by fervent Prayer especially seeing that God hath promised to give his spirit to them that ask him and that in a promise confirmed by an argument drawn from common and known experience for so is that Luke 11.13 If ye then being evil know how to give good gifts to your Children how much more shall your heavenly Father give his Holy Spirit to them that ask him 2. Nor shall I need to put you in mind that to our Prayers for the illumination of Gods grace something of industry must be joyned in the study both our of duties themselves and the motives that recommend them to us And yet in truth both these things are partly so written upon our hearts and since the revelation of the Gospel so expresly declared to us that we need not weary or waste our bodies nor vex and torment our understanding to gain the knowledge of either of them We need not now as St. Paul tells us say in our hearts who shall ascend into Heaven That is to bring down Christ from above to reveal the mind of God to us Or who shall descend into the deep that is to bring up Christ again from the dead that he may confirm that Revelation both these things are already done so that now as the Apostle adds Rom. 10.8 9. The word is high thee even in thy mouth and in thy heart that is the word of faith which we preach that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved Where we see the Apostle takes it for granted that he that firmly believed the Gospel could scarce fail in the very practice much less in the knowledge and approbation of what is necessary to salvation so clearly are all our duties revealed and so effectually recommended in the Gospel 3. So that what is now mainly requisite to gain a clear and stable judgment in the good and perfect will of God is so much antecedent probity so much sincerity towards God as that we are willing to do his will when it shall be made known unto us and wonder not that this should be requisite for the gaining of stable judgment in it for this is no more than the very belief that there is a God may produce in every man so believing If a man have nothing of inclination to do Gods will when he shall know it why should God reveal it to him or supposing what is so indeed that he hath revealed it in the Gospel yet how unapt a man is to believe what he is resolved not to practise and what if believed and not practised will be a perpetual anguish to him How easie is it in this case when the interests of powerful lusts and passions bribe and corrupt the understanding for a man to prevaricate with himself and baffle and cheat his own mind But where there
and exposes him to the scorn of others And so do they so far at least as they are able expose the Majesty of God himself that abuse the words of the Holy Scriptures to entertain themselves or others 3. There is yet another sin behind which I could willingly have omitted if I could have tolerably satisfied my self that it doth not carry a more than ordinary mark upon it of an irreverence towards God though not so great as the two former and that 's habitual and constant swearing and that without all provocation in common and ordinary conversation just contrary to that Law of Christ Matt. 5.34 I say unto you swear not at all that is in ordinary communication for so it follows v. 37. But let your communication be yea yea nay nay for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil Cometh of evil so doth every Overt act of sin every such act flows from some sinful lust within for when lust hath conceiv'd it bringeth forth sin and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death But it should seem this sin of swearing in cool blood and that in ordinary conversation proceeds from some extraordinary evil And what that is will very easily be understood if we consider that this sin hath no foundation in those appetites that God hath planted in mans nature either to preserve himself or to propagate and to continue his kind as all indulgence to the body all kinds of sensuality have for this sin of common swearing hath no foundation in hunger or thirst or bodily pleasure or in the desire of wealth or ease nay I may add of power and greatness It is a sin without a temptation from without nor doth it arise from any of those very inward appetites that God hath planted in our natures from whence it appears that it hath its rise from an unnatural kind of vanity join'd with a very high irreverence towards God who hath given an express Law against it and that it is in its own nature a bold ostentation of that irreverence for it is a calling God to witness in every trivial and slight affair where a man would not dare to call a Prince or a serious person to give his testimony I do confess that some persons may have been habituated to this vice before they well understood themselves or the nature of the vice it self But why do they use no care to leave it why do they not study to reform it when they do or may understand better What will he do in compliance either with Gods command or with his own eternal happiness who will not labour to quit a vice which is so expresly forbid by Christ and to which he hath no greater temptation than he hath to prophane and idle swearing How can he hope to overcome the lusts and vices of Sensuality which are nothing else but the abuse of natural desires and inclinations and are by them suggested to him and often excited by strong temptations from without how can he hope to deny himself in point of wealth and power and honour or to embrace death or bonds rather than forfeit his integrity which is most necessary to be done who will not forsake a groundless sin a sin without any natural appetite to suggest and without a temptation to excite it A small degree of fear and reverence to God Almighty would easily overcome this sin which is an evident demonstration that it flows from great irreverence to him 4. But to proceed to the last general namely the several considerations which may produce a singular reverence towards God both in it self and its effects and restrain us from all contradictions to it 1. Let us first consider the Spirit and quickness of the style wherein God demands our fear and honour wherein he requires our reverence to him If I be a Father where is mine honour and if I be a Master where is my fear which Language carries this sense in it Do not you your selves require a singular love and fear from your relations namely from your children and servants under the name of the same relations whereupon I require the like from you and what is more generally receive what you require For a son saith he honoureth his Father and a servant his Master And had he not reason then to add If then I be a Father where is mine honour and if I be a Master where is my fear 2. Now therefore secondly let us consider how great a guilt we must contract if we should deny that to God to the Father of the whole Creation and the Sovereign master of all the World which every Father every Master demands from his Children and his Servants under the name of the same Relations though the obligations thence arising be infinitely greater as they stand between God and men than between men among themselves And yet notwithstanding all this what Father is there amongst men who will endure neglect and insolence and disobedience in his Son who will not reject and disinherit and utterly cast him of for it if he do not repent and humble himself and return to the practice of his duty Where is the Master that patiently bears not only the neglect of service but wilful injury in his Servant Where is the Master that bears this without the greatest indignation against his servant for so doing and that doth not judge his guilt so great as to deserve the severest punishment And therefore judge what guilt it is which every man draws upon himself by a wilful irreverence and disobedience to the great Father and Lord of all 3. And although it be very true indeed that they who bear the greatest load of guilt upon them may not at present find themselves grieved and oppressed by the sense of it yet ought it seriously to be considered that God can in a single moment such is his Sovereignty over the very spirit of man awake that guilt into fear and dread in the greatest Spirits in the World awake it by an invisible dart a secret arrow of his indignation shot immediately into the heart And some such things he did in David as plainly appears from his own words Psal 38.1 2. and following verses O Lord rebuke me not in thy wrath neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure for thine arrows stick fast in me and thy hand presses me sore There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin I am troubled and bowed down greatly I go mourning all the day long Thus was a Prince and a man of War who never feared the face of an Enemy who had encountred and slain a Giant in a single combate who had killed two of the fiercest kinds of savage beasts a Lyon and a Bear with a naked arm 1 Sam. 17.36 Thus was he dash'd and broken all to pieces by the sense of his guilt and Gods displeasure a wakened by the hand of God 4.
and awe upon him whereas the mutual love and kindness that Christ hath commanded amongst men and also recommended to us by the highest and most effectual motives would not only restrain the outward actions of fraud and injury and oppression but kill the very lust within wither the very root of biterness and render every man easie and helpful to his neighbour instead of being injurious to him and this is suggested by St Paul Rom. 13.8 9.10 He that loveth another hath fulfilled the Law For this thou shalt not commit adultery thou shalt not kill thou shalt not steal thou shalt not bear false witness thou shalt not covet and if there be any other commandment it is briefly comprehended in this saying namely thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self love worketh no ill to his Neighbour therefore love is the fulfilling of the Law Love throughly accomplishes all those ends which were indeed designed by the Law whence it is said That the Law is not made for a righteous man a man animated and inspired by a living Law of love within but for the lawless and disobedient 1 Tim. 1.9 And thus hath our Lord fulfilled the judicial Law of Moses as well as the moral and ceremonial by the most efficacious ways and methods of setling such a Law within us as would most effectually work and propagate the great design of the Law of Moses which was added as the Apostle speaks because of transgressions till the seed should come to whom the promise was made Having thus cleared both the parts of the words before us it now remains that we reflect upon what hath been said and draw some Observations from it First And first of all since our Lord came not to destroy but to fulfil the Law and the Prophets hence we learn That Christianity that the righteousness and holiness of the Gospel was the thing that God had in his eye the thing that he purposed and intended and that lay at the bottom of his counsels in the whole Mosaical Dispensation as well in all the external Rites as the other parts of Moses's Law God never had any delight or pleasure in the flesh or blood of Bulls and Goats or any Sacrifices of the Law he was never pleased with ritual washings or expiations as things excellent in themselves nor did he institute these Rites for any complacence he took in them but partly as the Ancients observe to typifie things that were to come namely the mysteries of the Gospel and partly to retain the Jews accustomed to such like Rites in Egypt in the worship and service of himself the only true and living God lest being denied their former Rites in the worship of the true God they should have used them unto Idols and to have continued in that apostasie whereinto themselves and the world were fallen at the delivery of the Law Had there been no such Reasons as these for the Rites enjoined in Moses's Law they had never been instituted or commanded nor had God any respect for them any regard to the most zealous performance of them when divided from the essential parts the great Fundamentals of Religion judgment and mercy and the love of God Hence those words of the Prophet Jeremy chap. 6.20 To what purpose cometh there to me incense from Sheba and the sweet Cane from a far Country Your burnt offerings are not acceptable nor your Sacrifices sweet unto me And those of Isaiah chap. 1.11 12. To what purpose is the multitude of your Sacrifices unto me saith the Lord I am full of the burnt offerings of Rams and the fat of fed Beasts and I delight not in the blood of Bullocks or of Lambs or of He-goats Adde hereunto those excellent words of the Prophet Micah chap. 6. verf. 6 7 8. Wherewithal shall I come before the Lord and how my self before the high God shall I come before him with burnt-offerings with Calves of a year old will the Lord be pleased with thousands of Rams or with ten thousands of Rivers of Oil shall I give my first-born for my transgression the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul No He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God These were the things which he accepted nay these were the things which he designed in the very Ceremonies of the Law and in all its symbolical Types and Figures And these are the things which Christ our Lord came to propagate and promote in all he did and suffered for us So constant hath God been to himself and to the advancement of real goodness amongst men in all the Ages of the World before and under and after the Law He still designed the same thing he had still the same end in his eye namely that we should love him with all our hearts and love our Neighbour as our selves on these as our Saviour himself tells us hanged all the Law and the Prophets And the end for which our Lord himself came into the World was more effectually to promote what the Law of Moses had designed and so the Apostle himself assures us Rom. 8.3 4. For what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh that the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit Secondly What then remains in the last place but that since our Lord came into the World not to destroy but to fulfil the Law and the Prophets since he â—ath fulfilled them by introducing that Religion which God always had in his eye in all the Shadows of the Law a Religion suitable unto reason a Religion that perfects humane nature a Religion free and disentangled from the load of Mosaical Rites and Ceremonies a Religion aiming at nothing more than hearty love to God and our Neighbour and peace and happiness both in this and the other world what now remains but that we freely embrace and practise a Religion thus recommended to us neither reproaching it by our lusts by foul and sensual inclinations nor yet abusing and obscuring it by vain and useless superstitions It is a reasonable and manly service that God is pleased to require from us it is the cure of all our maladies it is medicine unto all our distempers it is health and soundness to all our powers It is not sacrifice and oblations it is not circumcision nor uncircumcision it is not what is hard and burthensom but what is useful and good for us 't is righteousness peace and joy in the Holy Ghost So that had we no other demonstration of the infinite love of God to us this were sufficient proof of it that he hath made our Religion our happiness Foâ— in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing nor
as they were from the beginning of the creation but as it follows v. 9. Because God is long-suffering to us-ward not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance yea even those very persons themselves that injure his patience and long-suffering In the mean time I cannot deny that there is some shadow of an objection against Gods providence in the World to them that measure him by themselves and judge of him by their own model For that he should readily pardon our frailties and long forbear our wilful sins that he should continue those very mercies which men abuse and turn into weapons of unrighteousness feed the mouth that blasphemes his name support the arm that works iniquity preserve that very life and strength which is spent and wasted to his dishonour and patiently wait for a Sinners return while the Sinner abuses that very patience to an encouragement to impenitence is such an example of long-suffering as is no where found but in God only But I consider that Gods thoughts are not as our thoughts nor his ways as our ways that one day as St Peter affirms is with the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day that he hath appointed and fixed a day wherein he will judge the World in righteousness and therefore firmly still believe that his patience to Sinners in the mean time designs their repentance and reformation and that his mercies in Jesus Christ are so great that he will pardon the hearty Penitent after the greatest provocations And this is that which himself suggests Isai 55.7 8 9. Let the wicked forsake his way and the righteous wan his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy on him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon And lest we should disbelieve this as a thing improbable for God to do because unusual amongst men he presently addes in the following words For my thoughts are not your thoughts neither are your ways my ways saith the Lord for as the Heavens are higher than the Earth so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts From whence I conclude That it is not indifferency to good and evil nor want of concernment for mankind which causes God to delay punishment but merely his patience and long-suffering waiting for the Sinners return to him And may not the consideration of this when deeply fixed upon the mind so powerfully affect the hearts of Sinners as to urge them to speedy reformation May it not produce a great indignation against themselves to remember their many misbehaviours and also their long continuance in them under all the patience of God towards them May not the thoughts of that patience where there is any ingenuity left provoke the hearts of men to gratitude and gratitude unto speedy repentance Could any man think it safe or reasonable still to trespass against that patience which he had already long abused and to provoke that very goodness which he had forfeited long ago did he seriously reflect upon these things I hope there are few so void of sense of their own concernments and of love and gratitude towards God whom serious thoughts of their own evils under the patience of God towards them would not move to speedy reformation Saint Paul I am sure represents the contrary as a despight to the mercies of God and a dangerous cruelty to our selves in that severe expostulation Rom. 2.4 5. Despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long-suffering not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance but after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thy self wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God which is so clear a demonstration that the consideration of Gods patience and of his ends and designs in it should perswade to speedy reformation that it would be needless to add any more to this Argument Secondly Proceed we therefore to the second thing which cannot easily escape our thoughts while we reflect upon our ways and the effects and issues of them which is the uncertainty of our lives in this state of frailty and mortality Which is so clear and evident to us both from what we feel within our selves daily decays of natural strength and from what we see in many others short life and sudden death that there is nothing in all the world no not the denial of a God nor the making of one of the Trunk of a Tree reproached in Scripture as a greater folly than a presumption of long life and of ease and joy and pleasure in it Observe how this is represented in the Parable of a certain rich man who having had so plentiful and so large a Harvest that he had not where to bestow his fruits thus deliberates with himself Luke 12.17 18 19. Verses What shall I do because I have no room where to bestow my fruits And he said This will I do I will pull down my Barns and build greater and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods And I will say to my soul Soul thou hast much goods laid up for many years take thine ease eat drink and he merry But what 's the next thing he hears from God Thou fool this night shall thy soul be required of thee The sharpness and bitterness of which rebuke joined with the sudden confutation of this mans promises made to himself represents the folly sin and danger of the like presumptions in other men Let us therefore while we consider our ways the number and nature of our sins with all their several aggravations the ill effects that will attend them unless prevented by repentance the absolute necessity of this Duty for the prevention of those effects let us I say together with these consider the frailty of our lives and in the consideration hereof never defer a necessary Duty to a time uncertain to a day we may never live to see and that not only because long life is a thing uncertain in it self but because the expectation of it especially being generally used as an encouragement to delay repentance may very justly provoke God to blast it with sudden disappointment God doth not only hate the delay of reformation grounded on presumption of long life as a neglect of duty to him but reproaches the very folly of it styles him a fool who so presumed which puts me in mind of that of Solomon Eccles 9.10 Whatsoever thine hand findeth to do do it with thy might for there is no work nor device nor knowledge nor wisdom in the Grave whither thou goest Thirdly But now because many men may purpose future amendment although they neglect it at the present and will believe that these purposes shall take effect notwithstanding all that can be said to shew the uncertainty of this event give me leave to add a third Particular which the thoughts of our ways
give a right understanding in all things The Eighteenth Sermon 1 John 3.7 Little children let no man deceive you he that doth righteousness is righteous even as he is righteous FROM these words I have observed these two things 1. That men may imagine themselves to be righteous in the eyes of God to be in Grace and favour with him although they do not do righteousness but live in habitual disobedience to the Laws and Precepts of the Gospel 2. That this imagination is a very great and dangerous errour The former I have already finished and shall now speak unto the latter that is to say to the greatness and danger of the errour Where I consider That for God to judge unrighteous persons otherwise than in truth they are to accept their persons and pardon their sins while they abide and persist in them is contrary 1. To his own nature and 2. To the Gospel likewise 1. This is contrary to Gods nature that is to say both First To his wisdom and Secondly To his holiness First It is contrary to his wisdom So it is to judge of men otherwise than they are in themselves to esteem them righteous just and holy while they are unrighteous and impure It is the nature of true wisdom to judge all things according to truth this is its nature as it is found even in men much more as it is found in God He cannot erre or be deceived even in the deepest obscurest things nothing is hidden from his eye the night and the day light and darkness are alike unto it he tries the reins and searches the very hearts of men discerns whatsoever is in them and judges according to truth Now he that judges according to truth must judge of things just as they are and therefore seeing the judgment of God is always true hence it appears They who are unjust and wicked impure and unholy in themselves are so in the judgment of God likewise so in his esteem and account Secondly If it be said That although it be very true indeed that God cannot judge otherwise of men than according to what they are in themselves not judge the Sinner to be righteous the wicked to be pure and holy yet that he may love and accept the wicked as much as if he were just and holy the Answer is That this is contrary to God's holiness This doth as much thwart the purity contradict the holiness of his nature as the other contradicts his wisdom as is often declared in the holy Scriptures God is of purer eyes saith Habbakkuk than to behold that is to say to approve evil He cannot look upon iniquity Hab. 1.13 So far is he from approving evil or those that indulge themselves in it that their way is an abomination to him Prov. 15.9 From whence it follows That they who judge themselves or others to be in grace and favour with God to be holy just and righteous persons who are not fully and really so ascribe and impute that to God which is quite contrary to his nature If it be said That God is said to justifie the ungodly Rom. 4.5 The meaning is That he justifies those that have been so not those that continue so to be that he justifies and accepts the ungodly when they forsake and leave their sins not while they still continue in them And so we learn from the same Apostle who having given a large Catalogue of sins and Sinners concludes his Discourse with these words 1 Cor. 6.11 Such were some of you but ye are washed but ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God First washed and sanctified by Gods Spirit and then justified and accepted 2. But then secondly as it is contrary to Gods nature to justifie and accept the wicked while they continue in their sins so is it likewise greatly contrary to the Gospel First Expresly to the plainest and and clearest parts of it And Secondly To the whole by evident consequence First It is most expresly contrary to the plainest and clearest parts of it to its most positive Declarations such as those words of St John are which I do now insist upon Little Children let no man deceive you he that doth righteousness is righteous He that is really and truly so he is so and he only in God's account Like unto these are those of St Paul Ephes 5.6 where having mentioned uncleanness covetousness and prophaneness he presently addes this admonition Let no man deceive you with vain words for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the Children of disobedience Whereunto we may add his expostulations 1 Cor. 6.9 10. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Be not deceived neither fornicators nor idolaters nor thieves nor covetous nor drunkards nor revilers nor extortioners shall inherit the Kingdom of God Can there be plainer words than these or can there be any thing more contradictory to the Gospel than what contradicts the plainest words and expressions of it or a greater or more dangerous errour than what so contradicts the Gospel The Gospel declares that the unclean shall not inherit the Kingdom of God the Gospel pronounces the Drunkard likewise declares the covetous and extortioner while they continue in these sins to be uncapable of that Kingdom this it declares in as plain words as can be written or expressed and will these persons still presume of an interest in the favour of God and of a title to his Kingdom If they will it is their folly so to do it is a folly of that nature as doth not only expose them to the greatest danger but shut the door to all possibility of escape while they persist and continue in it Such is the presumption of God's favour of being reconciled unto him while a man continues in his sins Secondly And secondly as this is expresly contrary to the clearest passages in the Gospel so to the whole by evident consequence To its commands and exhortations to all the promises and threatnings of it and what is more to the very design of Christ's death the very thing which men abuse into an indulgence to their sins To promise our selves the favour of God and acceptance with him while we continue in our sins it is a presumption expresly contrary First To the Precepts of the Gospel These require and strictly charge us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world Tit. 2.12 These require that we put off concerning the former conversation the old man which is corrupt according to deceitful lusts that we be renewed in the spirit of our minds that we put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness Ephes 4.22 and following Verses In a word the Laws of Christ require us to love God with all our hearts and to love our neighbour as our selves Now
in any condition or rank of men more than in any other Now being God so plainly threatens death eternal unto the impeitent and disobedient can there be any so great an errour as for these men to presume of pardon and to expect eternal life while they continue so to be The Gospel denounces death upon them they promise life unto themselves and is not then this promise of theirs expresly contrary to the Gospel The Gospel tells them that they must die they say no but we shall live and do they not contradict the Gospel The Gospel saith that they are under Gods displeasure but they presume they are in his favour and where do you think lies the truth in the Gospel or in their presumptions We must believe what the Gospel saith whatsoever it be that they presume and so the Apostle himself believed when he put this truth upon record 2 Cor. 5.10 We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body according to what he hath done whether it be good or bad for what doth he add to these words Knowing therefore the terrour of the Lord we perswade men we labour to instruct the ignorant we labour to convince the obstinate we labour to awake the drowsy we strive to stir up every person to escape from the wrath which is to come by timely repentance and reformation we know the terrour of the Lord we do not guess but we are assured that it will overtake the impenitent when he shall return to judge the World and therefore use our utmost power to perswade repentance and reformation 5. And now because that impenitent persons even those that abide in wilful sin are wont to ground their hopes of pardon and life eternal on the death of Christ and the satisfaction made by him it will he sit in the last place to shew that his death and satisfaction is so far from giving any countenance to this errour that it doth utterly overthrow it nor need we any further argument to convince and perswade us that this is so than that the death of our blessed Lord is always used in the holy Scripture as a mighty motive to obedience For certainly that very same thing can be no motive unto obedience that gives any just and true encouragement for a man to continue in his sins yet so it is the death of Christ is always represented in Scripture as a mighty motive to obedience unto all obedience to the Gospel and so designed by Christ himself He gave himself for us says the Apostle that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Tit. 2.14 He bare our sins in his own body upon the tree that we being dead to sin should live unto righteousness 1 Pet. 2.24 He gave himself for our sins that he might deliver us from this present evil world that is from the lusts and corruptions of it Gal. 1.4 He gave himself for his Church or Body that he might sanctifie and cleanse it by the washing of water by the word that he might present it to himself a glorious Church not having a spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish Eph. 5.25 c. And that you may see that he was really understood to design this in his dying for us and that his death tends effectually to this purpose with them that understand it aright hear what the Apostle himself speaks upon this point 2 Cor. 5.14 15. The love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge that if one died for all then were all dead and that he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him which died for them and rose again From whence observe that the death of Christ was so apprehended and understood by the primitive followers of our Lord that they took their very greatest motives their strongest arguments to obedience from it so far was it from giving them any grounds or reasons to cherish and indulge their sins If any man ask what then hath the death of Christ done for the remission of our sins My answer is that the satisfaction thereby made hath gained the pardon of all those sins we repent of not of those whereof we do not repent It operates to the remission of sin of all degrees and kinds of sin when we abandon and forsake them not while we cherish and indulge them and thus it becomes not an encouragement to live in them but to abandon and cast them off 3. Having thus shewed that for God to accept men in their sins to pardon them while they live in them is flatly contrary to his nature contrary to his own decree declared and published in the Gospel I may now very justly conclude the thing which I propounded at the first that a presumption of his pardon while a man continues in his sins is a very great and dangerous errour for so of necessity must that be which is so manifest a mistake both of the nature and will of God and that in a matter of no less moment than that of eternal life and happiness Add hereunto that this is an errour which makes men stupid and secure in the midst of the very greatest dangers lulls them asleep under Gods displeasures charms them with the hope of peace while it is far removed from them They speak peace unto themselves the Gospel speaks quite contrary they judge themselves in Gods favour the Gospel pronounces that they are not so they promise themselves remission of sins eternal happiness and Salvation the Gospel threatens death and judgment In the mean time having reconciled the hopes of Heaven to the fruition of their lusts they enjoy themselves they enjoy their sins without any fear of danger from them for such is the nature of this errour that it infatuates the mind it self removes the force and power of Conscience le ts the corruptions of nature loose leaves no restraint leaves no check at all upon them and so exposes them to destruction till it be discovered and removed 3. I have said enough of the propositions which are implyed in the words before us namely 1. that men may presume of Gods favour while they continue in their sins 2 That this presumption of theirs is a very great and dangerous errour and shall now conclude with what is expressed He that doth righteousness is righteous that is to say he that is hearty and sincere in the practice of all the several duties prescribed unto us in the Gospel he is acceptable unto God he is in grace and favour with him nor will God charge him with the guilt of such lapses and inadvertencies as flow from the frailty of humane nature And what is the use we should make of this It is to awake and excite our selves to all diligence to all sincerity in our duties And