not opposed to Evangelical but to Thetical or Positive But to give some further light to this business we may consider these two things 1. That the sincere Practice of Morality is a part of the Condition required of us under the Gospel in order to our Justification For unless the Practice of Moral Virtue be no part of the Divine Will revealed to Us in the Gospel it must necessarily follow that so far as it is made a Condition of the Covenant of the Gospel so far it is required in order to the Justification and Acceptation of our Persons before God For though we are said in Scripture to be justified by Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ yet we are not to understand by this an empty bare and naked Faith but such a Faith as is perfected and consummated by Love which the Apostle Saint James expresses by Works that is such a Faith as is not meerly Notional and inactive but productive in the Soul of a New and sincere Obedience And what more frequent Instances does the Scripture bring of our Faithful Conformity to the Will of God than in our Constant Exercise and Practice of Moral Virtue Insomuch that Saint Paul sayes that those who neglect the sincere observance of Morality and Virtue will easily be induced to turn Hereticks and deny the Faith Holding faith and a good conscience which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwrack So indispensably necessary is a Virtuous Conversation to our Participation of the Blessed Life and Nature of GOD that no Man can be understood to be a Partaker of the Divine Nature who does not live soberly righteously and godly in the World For what sign does he give of a Spirit renewed and changed into the Compassionate Nature of the Lord Jesus who can willingly pain and grieve and afflict his Brother What Specimen does he produce of a sincere Conformity to the Eternal Laws of Justice and Righteousness who can knowingly and wittingly over-reach and defraud his Neighbour Or what Evidence does he offer of a Mind desirous to be renewed into a state of Angelical Purity and Holiness who makes it his business and seeks for all Occasions to gratifie his Carnal Appetite in the full enjoyment of all Sensual Pleasures that may be had without manifest Diseases Or is it possible to conceive the Life and Nature of GOD that Life of Universal Holiness and Purity Justice and Goodness without the Exercise of these and such like Virtues 2. That the Maturity and Ripeness of Religion consists in having a sensible Discernment of Good and Evil in a Moral sense The full knowledge of the Mysteries of Christianity as the Author to the Hebrews tells Us belongs to them that are of full age that is such as are arrived to the Perfection and Maturity of Religion and these Persons he describes in the next words to be such as have a Vital relish and sensible Discernment of good and evil Who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil That there are Natural Differences between good and evil is as evident and apparent as the Difference between health and sickness For as health is nothing but the right and Natural Constitution of all the Parts of the Body and Sickness the Oppression Distortion and Deviation from it So is it in the Soul of Man It s true and proper Nature is that healthful Temper and Constitution wherein God at first Created it But now Sin and Evil is a forcing it into a Preternatural State the driving it into a Disease and Distemper and the putting its Powers and Faculties into Jarring and Discord And that these Differences are nothing but the Vital relishes and sensations of the Soul of Man in that double Capacity and Resolution of Rational and Animal or in the Sacred Dialect of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the inward and outward Man or the Flesh and Spirit I think is as evident to any Considering and Judicious Person Now this Maturity and Ripeness of Religion discovers it self 1. In a particular knowledge of the Difference between Good and Evil so as to be able to distinguish what is from the Flesh and Animal and what from the Spirit and Rational Life 2. In a ready Application of this to all the Passages of our Lives For that Blindness of mind the Apostle speaks of to which the Gentiles as a just Punishment of their former carelesness were given up does fully express the Necessity of this Discriminative Sense and Discerning between Good and Evil. For when once the Criterion or Perceptive Faculty has lost its Tenderness and Sensibility and the Mind becomes Reprobate then Darkness and Light Good and Evil Bitter and Sweet are all one Then it is as in the above mentioned place Men are dedolent and past feeling and having no other Law but that of the Corporeal Life become insatiable in Impiety and work Wickedness with greediness which surely as it is the most deplorable condition the Soul of Man can fall into so ought most carefully to be avoided by endeavouring after a particular Distinction and clear knowledge of the Notices Emanations and Suggestions of the Flesh and Spirit And as this inward Sense is not to be stifled so neither to remain useless and idle but to extend it self and have an Influence upon all our Actions It must be fanned and kept alive by sincere Devotion and a constant and Habitual Practice of Virtue by which at length it will become a Powerful and Vital Principle begetting in us a true relish of Righteousness and Holiness that we may not only talk and maintain an Artificial and Mechanical Religion consisting of Words or the running the same Circle of outward Performances and Duties but may be really regenerated and formed into a new Nature and act out of choice and from the innate Loveliness and Beautifulness of Virtue For by bringing our Actions to this Test and Rule and applying them to the Natural Difference and Distinction of Good and Evil it will keep us from all deliberate Violations of the Laws and Prescriptions of Holiness By this Wickedness and Sin will appear in its Natural Dress and Genuine Colours and its Ugliness and Deformity be rendred so manifest that our Wills and Affections will not easily be drawn into a Compliance with it and the various Passages of our Lives freed and discharged from the least Appearance of Evil. FINIS BOOKS Printed for and sold by Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's Head in S. Paul's Churchyard DR More 's Reply to a late Answer to his Antidote against Idolatry with the Appendix 8 o. H. Mori Opera Theologica Fol. Spenceri dissertatio de Vrim Thummim 8 o. Frederici Lossii Observationes Medicae Octavo Speed's Epigrammata Juvenilia in 4 Partes divisa Encomia Seria Satyras Jocosa Octavo Doctor William Smith's Unjust Man's Doom Octavo Two Sermons at the Assizes in Suffolk Oct. Two Sermons at Norwich May 3. and May 29. 1676. Quarto Mr. Hallywell's Discourse of the Excellency of Christianity Oct. Account of Familism as it is revived and propagated by the Quakers Oct. Some Opinions of Mr. Hobbes considered in a second Dialogue between Philautus and Timothy Oct. Breerwood's Enquiries into the Diversities of Languages Oct. Mr. Allen's Mystery of Iniquity unfolded or the false Apostles and Authors of Popery compared c. Oct. Animadversions on Mr. Ferguson about Justification Oct. Friendly Address to the Nonconformists beginning with the Anabaptists 8 o. Mr. Lamb's stop to the course of Separation Oct. Sherlock's Discourse of the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Octavo Defence and Continuation of the Discourse c. Octavo Answer to a scandalous Pamphlet entituled a Dialogue between Satan and Sherlock Quarto Dr. Worthington's Great Duty of Self-resignation to the Divine Will Oct. Mr. Hotchkis Discourse of the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness to Us and our Sins to Him Oct. Gage's Survey of the West Indies 8 o. Dr. Goodall's Vindication of the Colledge of Physicians Oct. Smith's Pourtract of old Age. Oct. Webster's History of Metals Quar. Dr. More 's Remarques upon two late Ingenious Discourses the one an Essay of the Gravitation and Non-gravitation of fluid Bodies the other Observations touching the Torricellian experiment 8 o. Sydenham's Observationes Medicae 8 o. An Account of Mr. Ferguson's Common-Place-Book in two Letters between Mr. Sherlock and Mr. Glanvil Quar. Dr. Grew's Comparative Anatomy of Trunks together with an Account of their Vegetation grounded thereupon Octavo THE END Rev. 3.14 Jam. 3.14 15. 1 Tim. 3.16 Col. 1.26 1 Cor. 2.7 1 Joh. 4.8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Tim. 3.2 4. Joh. 11.52 Joh. 3.16 1 Joh. 4.10 Gen. 22.12 1 Cor. 1.24 1 Cor. 2.7 1 Cor. 2.6 1 Cor. 2.14 1 Pet. 1.12 Isai 63.15 * Sine hoc holocausto poterat Deus tantum condonasse peccatum sed facilitas veniae laxaret habenas peccatis effrenibus quae etiam Christi vix cohibent passiones quae vix sceleratos animos à voluptatum faece avellunt Cyprian sive Author libri de Cardinal Christi Oper. Serm. 14. Sic Zanch. lib. 2 de Incarnat c. 3. q. 1. Etsi verò Deus servare nos poterat solo suo Imperio peccata simpliciter ex suâ misericordiâ condonando noluit tamen Phil. 2.6 7 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Act. 2.23 Mar. 14.33 Mat. 26.38 Luk. 9.51 Joh. 18.5 Mat. 11.28 1 Joh. 5.3 Princ. of Nat. Rel. lib. 1. c. 3. Ezek. 33.11 Mr. Mede 2 Cor. 5.19 Luk. 1.74 1 Tim. 4.10 1 Tim. 2.4 Heb. 2.9 Joh. 3.17 lib. 6. contr Cels p. 315 lib. 4. c. 76. Luk. 24.47 Act. 3.19 1 Joh. 2.1 1 Cor. 1.21 Exod. 20.19 1 Joh. 3.16 Gen. 3.15 Heb. 4.15 Heb 2.16 17 18. Gen. 21.17 Vid. Deut. 4.33.36 Dr. Lightfoot 2 Pet. 1.16 17. Joh. 3.2 Mat. 11.21 Acts 17. Joh. 4.18 v. 42. Joh 15.22 24. Joh. 20.29 Rom. 1.4 Ch. 2.3 4. Joh. 16.8 9 10. Luk. 24.25 Act. 10.43 See Dr. More 's Enchiridion Ethicum Eph. 1.11 Hos 11.4 Luk. 7.30 Joh. 12.37 Joh. 6.66 Mat. 23 37 Ezek. 24.13 vid. Isai 65.12 Mar. 6.5 6. Act. 7.51 Phil. 2.12 13. 2 Cor. 6.1 1 Cor. 3.9 Rom. 1.4 Eph. 1.20 Lib. 4. Epist 43. Joh. 5.29 Dr. Hammond 1 Tim. 1.19 Heb. 5.14 Eph. 4.18 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 1.28 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eph. 4.19
consider that in the contrivance conduct and management of the Gospel there is a clear and manifest demonstration of the Infinite Goodness Wisdome and Power of God I. A manifestation of Infinite Goodness The Heavens and the Earth and all the capacities of Immense space declare an Infinite Goodness but the clearest and most sensible demonstration of it is in this Mystery of the Gospel wherein that boundless love which has dispersed it self through all the orders and degrees of life shines forth with a full and perfect lustre and glory Here it is that we behold that Love which liberally fills and sustains all things more powerfully exerting its Blessed Nature in cementing the Ruines and rearing up the Foundations of a new World for as in the first Creation an Eternal and Energetical love diffused it self in the Production of whatever was made so the same Goodness moves as it were a second time in the stupendious renovation of lapsed Souls in the Evangelical Mystery and Oeconomy Which Truth may yet receive a further Evidence by these Gradations 1. The more perfect any life is the more it desires to diffuse and communicate it self God is love says St. John and he is the highest and most perfect life now love is the most diffusive and communicative Principle in all the World and the firmer any being is radicated in love the nearer approaches it makes to that most excellent life and nature of God whose beneficence and kindness the whole Creation tastes of Self-love or the love of the Carkass the Bodily life restrains and contracts the free Exertions of the Mind and therefore the Apostle sets it as a note of degeneracy narrowness and anxiety when Men shall be lovers of themselves and corporeal pleasures in opposition to that Universal and Intellectual love which is the great Law of Rational Beings and by which our Minds are made wide as the World and carried forth in Benignity and Kindness to all the Creatures as they more or less partake of the Divine Life and Nature God is infinite Goodness and all the Creatures are but the issues and emanations of his exuberant Fecundity and Life and do more intimately depend upon him than Faculties and Actions upon the Principles from whence they flow It was not necessity or need nor any greedy and thirsty desire of receiving praise and glory from them that was the cause of the production of Men and Angels but only the Fulness of God's own Goodness which alone moved him to that chearful Approbation of the Works of his Hands when he saw his own life diffused in such variety of Beings And if we will do honour to God and speak according to our own faculties we may add life to this Demonstration from the inward sense and experience of every good Man who never finds a more inward joy and satisfaction of spirit than when he is carried out in desires and aspirations of Benignity and Kindness towards the whole Creation Nor does he look upon this as any Argument of Righteousness that he is at any time in a more happy state and condition than others for he could be willing that all the World were as happy as himself did he not see strong and evident Reasons in the wise Administration of Providence why it should not be so Something of this excellent Temper we find in those Passionate Eruptions of Spirit recorded in the Scriptures of Holy men who seem to be altogether transformed into love Blot me out of thy Book says Moses and I could be content to be accursed from Christ says St. Paul for my Brethrens sake Nay I am verily perswaded that he who is once throughly baptized into this spirit of Universal love would be contented to be eternally separated from the Presence of God so that he might be without sin if by that means the whole Intellectual Creation might be made happy Now if we can reason any thing of God from those Perfections we find in our selves we must needs conclude the highest and most perfect life to be most diffusive and communicative of it self 2. Goodness is so much the more excellent as the Objects are more noble about which it is conversant All things feel the effects of Divine Goodness according to their different Measures and Proportions and by how much the Rational life hath more objective reality than the sensitive by so much are the Emanations of Goodness of more worth and excellency communicated to the one than those diffused upon the other As a Man is a more noble Creature than a Brute so is the Goodness concerned with him higher and of greater value than that exercised upon a Beast God is the Father of Spirits and for that very Reason will not be implacable and irreconcileable to his own dear off-spring but though he chastise and scourge them for their bold and audacious revolt from his blessed Nature yet will not cast off for ever but in his sorest corrections remembers mercy Hence is that Prophetical Speech of the end of Christ's Death that it should be for the gathering together the scattered Sons of God though the Souls of Men had voluntarily forsaken God and travelled into a strange Land though their Iniquities had scattered them into far distant places from their own Home yet an everlasting Goodness followed them still and carefully sought the Reduction of those disobedient Sons of God who had divided and separated themselves from him 3. By how much the more fatal desperate and universal the evil is by so much the more glorious is the Goodness imployed in the recovery of the Creature from it Sin and wickedness is the misery not of a part only but of the whole Race of Mankind and this their Degeneracy became so fatal that it brought Darkness and Death it self upon all their better Faculties and placed them in an utter Incapacity for ever of recovering themselves by their own solitary power and effort into that state of immortality and life which sin had deprived them of Death passed upon all men says St. Paul for that or forasmuch as all have sinned So that all Mankind by their fall from God were under the Reign Dominion and Power of sin and death and out of this thraldome and captivity no Man could extricate and deliver himself whereby their condition became very deplorable and desperate But Divine Goodness that it might shew it self more conspicuously and gloriously to the World has brought on a more chearful scene of things under the Gospel rescuing Men from the Power of sin and death and delivering them from the Tyranny of the Devil through the meritorious Death and Passion of Jesus Christ who by his Glorious Resurrection hath fully declared himself a Powerful Conqueror of all his Enemies assuring Mankind of their re-enjoyment of Immortality and redeeming them from their Captivity under the Empire of Sin and Death and translating them into the peaceful Kingdome of Life and Righteousness Now as the
desperateness of the Disease magnifies the skill of the Physician so the fatal and universal Degeneracy of the Sons of Men commends the transcendent love of God in their Recovery and Redemption Greater love than this can no Man show than to lay down his Life for his Friend but herein has God commended his love to us in that while we were Enemies to God and righteousness and strangers to his life Christ dyed for us Such is that Testimony and Witness which our Saviour bears to Divine Love and Goodness every word of which is strangely emphatical So in such a wonderful and transcendent manner God the great Lord of all Beings who stands not in need of any of his Creatures but is Infinite Fulness and Happiness to Himself loved first and without any Motive or Occasion of this love given from us herein is love not that we loved God but that he loved us the World not only the particular Nation of the Jews with whom formerly he entred into Covenant but the whole Race of Mankind Christ becoming a Propitiation for our sins says the Apostle the best Interpreter of himself 1 Joh. 2.2 and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole World that he gave delivered unto Death freely and that upon no other Motive or Invitation but that of his own Eternal Goodness and Love his only begotten Son not a Servant or an Angel not an adopted but his own Natural Son that Son who is one with himself and in whom he is well pleased as the obedience of Abraham was more grateful to God when he with-held not his Son his only Son from him The whole Gospel is a Design and Contrivance of Infinite Love and Goodness a palpable Pledge and Assurance of which was the sending of Jesus Christ from Heaven He that spared not his own Son says the Apostle as if he had said The delivering up of our Lord Jesus Christ to be an Expiatory Sacrifice for the sins of Men is so high a Demonstration of Infinite Love that it begets in us a confident Assurance and full Perswasion that the same goodness will not fail of bestowing upon us whatever may possibly contribute to our everlasting Happiness as far as our Natures are capable of The summe of all is this that to Infinite Goodness we owe not only the Production but the continual Preservation of our Beings not only the freeing us from a certain Misery and a just and deserved Punishment but the receiving us into grace and favour and investing us with a Happiness much bigger than our hopes and expectations even the Eternal enjoyment of Himself in Heaven And that this should be wrought and effected by Jesus Christ the only begotten Son of God who left the Sacred Mansions of Heaven and veiled his Glory under a clould of Flesh and Blood and while he lived upon Earth endured the contradictions of sinners the bitter reproaches of vile and ungodly Men and at last suffered an Ignominious and accursed Death upon the Cross What is it but an everlasting Monument of Divine Goodness such a high Demonstration of Infinite Love as may well make us cry out with wonder and amazement Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us 2. Secondly in the Frame and Mystery of the Gospel there is a clear Demonstration of Infinite Wisdome To them who are called says the Apostle Christ the Power and the Wisdom of God i. e. Though the preaching of the Gospel were a stumbling block to the Jews and accounted but foolishness by the Greeks the one expecting their Messiah to be an earthly Prince and dreaming of nothing but worldly Felicity and the other counting it not worth the hearing because not agreeing with the Principles of that vain Philosophy they had addicted themselves to yet to those who were docible tractable and obedient there appeared an Infinite Wisdome and an Eternal Understanding they could not look into it but they beheld as the same Apostle speaks the mysterious and recondite wisdome of God which he ordained before the World that is whose sacred plot and contrivance was not then framed or laid when it was first promulgated and manifested to the World but lay hid in the bosome of an Infinite Understanding from all Eternity 'T is true the loveliness and glory of this great Wisdome appears not so evidently to all partly from their own carelesness and negligence in not arriving to that measure and degree of Holiness which may fit and qualifie them for a clear discerning of it Hence the Apostle says that he speaks wisdome among them that are perfect such as were well grown in the practice of the Offices and Duties of Christianity such as had senses exercised to discern good and evil Heb. 5.14 and partly through the great Corruption Depravity and Degeneracy of the minds of others which put them into an utter Incapacity and Impossibility while they remain such of understanding Divine and Heavenly Truths for the natural animal or sensual man receives not the things of the spirit of God But where these Impediments are removed and the spirits of Men aptly disposed for the Reception of so great a Blessing such Persons behold with enravishment and joy the exact strokes and perfect lineaments of an Eternal Wisdome Which Wisdome appears 1. In the Admirableness of the Contrivance of the Gospel Christianity carries with it such evident Proofs of an Incomprehensible Wisdome that those sagacious Creatures the Angels imploy themselves in searching into it And surely it must needs be an admirable piece of Wisdome and a wonderful Contrivance that must draw those Blessed Creatures to look into it Now the Wonderfulness and Admirableness of the Evangelical Plot and Contrivance for the Salvation of Humane Souls shews it self 1. In finding out a way whereby God might demonstrate both his just and implacable hatred of sin and his exuberant Love and Goodness in saving Men. Sin is no part of God's Creation nor any thing of the true Nature of the Soul but an extraneous and adventitious Being brought first into the World by the Devil the great Enemy of Mankind It is the Destruction and Ruine of the Workmanship of God's own hands and being so infinitely contrary to his Sacred Life and Nature it is no wonder if he bear an irreconcileable hatred against it and seek by all means the driving it quite out of the World But although God by reason of the Infinite Purity and Holiness of his Nature could not look with any favourable eye upon sin yet his Almighty Love pitied his Creatures and his bowels yerned over them being as it were grieved and troubled at the heart that they should be miserable for ever Wherefore God through his Eternal Wisdome resolved upon a course which should both effectually extirpate and eradicate sin and evil out of the World and yet reduce those strayed souls which through it had revolted from his blessed
Life and Nature to a participation of it again And this he hath done by sending his own Son into the World to become an Expiatory Sacrifice for the sins of all Mankind For should God have cast Men off for ever and thrown them into Hell though he had still been Just and Righteous in his Actions and declared but a high dislike of that which his Essential Holiness could never patronize or countenance yet his Goodness and Love had not so conspicuously and gloriously appeared On the other hand should God have received the World into grace and favour forgiving their Iniquities without any previous satisfaction for sin though he might have done this without any breach of the Eternal Purity and Justice of his Nature yet he had not so sensibly affected the minds of Men with his just aversation of sin nor so effectually discovered to them his Anger and Displeasure against all evil and wickedness But now in the Death of Jesus Christ God has reconciled Goodness and Holiness Justice and Mercy punishing sin and yet saving the sinner Behold therefore and wonder at the Ineffable Goodness and Transcendent love of God! Could not Man redeem his Brother and give unto God a Ransome for him No surely for that Sacrifice that is presented and offered up to God must be without spot and blemish but when the Lord looked down from Heaven upon the Children of Men he beheld them all gone aside and become filthy so that there was not one that did good no not one But if this might not be yet could not God have declared his will to us by an Angel by a Voice from Heaven or by uniting himself to the Angelical Nature Certainly he might but none of these ways could have been with such endearing circumstances with such sensible Testimonies of dear Compassion and Benignity as enravish ingenuous Minds into sutable Returns and expressions of love Jesus Christ therefore the Delights of his Father the Brightness of his Glory and the express Image and character of his Person took flesh and dwelt among us He that was in the form of God clothed with all the Majesty and Glory of the supramundane life yet emptyed himself of all this unspeakable Felicity and took upon him the form of a Servant i. e. an Earthly or a body of flesh and blood in opposition to that state which he before called the form of God and being found in that servile scheme he humbled himself and became obedient unto Death even the Death of the Cross What higher expressions of love can Humane Understandings possibly conceive than these The endearing love of Friends could never give any greater evidence of it self than that they lay down their lives one for another but such was the transcendent love of Jesus that he dyed for Rebels for Apostates from that sacred life of God to which alone the Soveraign Command and Rule both of Heaven and Earth does of right belong Behold him a Man of sorrows exposed to the envy hatred and malice of the cruel and unbelieving Jews and yet so inwardly affected with tenderness and commiseration towards them that he omits nothing which a Heart enflamed with love and compassion could do to make them happy And though God in his Eternal Wisdome foresaw the accursed Disposition of the Jewish Nation who as they had been heretofore thirsty after the blood of the Prophets and righteous Men so now would never leave till they had satiated their Revenge in the Blood of his only begotten Son yet he delivers him up into their hands for so the Apostle speaks that they had taken and by wicked hands crucified and slain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 him that was given out of the protecting hand and providence of God to the will of his Enemies A love which the Tongues of Men and Angels are never able sufficiently to express And as the Infinite love of God appears in this way of saving Men by Christ Jesus so his severity and hatred against sin is no less manifest and conspicuous for in that God spared not his own Son but delivered him up to Death it is a sufficient proof and Argument of his utter Detestation of all sin and evil No circumstance of his bitter Passion but speaks forth the heavy wrath and indignation of God against sin When he came into the Garden of Gethsemane where began the first Scene of his Tragical Passion the Scripture tells us that he was sore amazed and very heavy and this inward grief and ineffable trouble of his soul he expresses in that Passionate speech to his Disciples My Soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto Death not only extensively such as must last till Death it self do end it but likewise intensively so great as is usually at the very point of Death And whence arose this sorrow It was not out of any cowardly fear of pain and death for knowing all things that should come upon him yet with a firm constancy and sedate Resolution of mind he comes to his implacable Enemies at Jerusalem and when he was betrayed in the Garden he willingly offers himself into their hands I am he Though certain it is our Blessed Saviour bearing about him our Humane Nature was likewise subject to all the harmless Passions and affections of it and was so far from that Stoical stubbornness and insensibility that his Passive and tender Constitution filled him with grief and yielded to the fear of pain and Death Nor did his sorrow proceed from any displeasure of God against his Person for he being perfectly obedient and fully and exactly conformable to his Fathers will it could not be that he should groan under the anger and wrath of God Nor was it altogether Bodily pains that made him so but there was something extraordinary As 1. A withdrawing the sensibleness of Divine Assistance from him As the Sun at our Saviour's Crucifixion though not disjoyned from the World yet for a time deserted the World by withdrawing his light from it And although this withholding the sensibleness of the Divine Presence was done without any Aversation and dislike of the Person of our blessed Lord which not only before but at that very instant was tenderly beloved of God yet the Apprehension of it could not but make him bemoan his case in that sad exclamation My God my God why or how hast thou forsaken me 2. Because then all the Powers of Hell and darkness were let loose upon him The Prince of Darkness with his accursed Legions did then as we may reasonably suppose appear to him in the most affrighting and dreadful forms and by the Permission of Divine Providence exerted and tryed the utmost of their Insulting Rage in these their last and most furious Assaults the Conquest and Victory over whom being to be atchieved not by the Divine Power but by the Piety and Obedience of our Saviour he falls into an Agony and an Angel descends from