before his Incarnation he appeared in the Heavens invested with all the Glory and Majesty proper and peculiar to God as Creating the World Upholding and Governing it receiving Worship and Adoration from Angels and the like I might confirm this by several other Texts but I shall only mention two The First is Heb. i. 3. Where it is said that he is the brightness of God's glory the express image of his person and upholdeth all things by the word of his power The other is Iohn 17. 5. Where Jesus Christ maketh mention of a Glory which he had with the Father before the Foundation of the World Now that we may know that he held all this of right and by vertue of his Nature and not otherwise the Apostle adds that he thought it not robbery to be equal with God that is he did not reckon it Usurpation Arrogancy or Presumption to hold an Equality with God and consequently he is truly God For if Jesus Christ was not by Nature God if he was a mere Creature though never so excellent it would be great Robbery and the highest Presumption and Usurpation for him to entertain the least thought of an Equality with God And it would be no less than Blasphemy for St. Paul or any other to talk so of him But seeing not only here but every where throughout the Scripture we find such high Speeches of Christ which exalt him above all Creatures even to an Equality with God therefore it is an evident Demonstration that he is God in the strictest Propriety of Speech For it is contrary to the Scope and Tenour of the Scripture to magnifie Men or Angels or any other Creature above what they are in their own Nature whatever Excellency God hath bestowed upon them The Scriptures teach to set all Creatures even the highest at an infinite Distance from God It representeth as Idolatry the exalting Creatures to a Partnership of the Divinity the conferring on them the Names Titles Attributes and Worship which belong to God It sheweth That God will not give his Glory unto another and is Jealous of others doing it that he cannot endure the Appearance of it Therefore the Doctrine and Purpose of the Scripture is thwarted and contradicted by those Expressions we find concerning Jesus Christ if they be not founded upon his Nature that is if he be not God Consider I pray you that all the Revelations which God hath made were design'd to reclaim the World from Idolatry one great Instance of which was the Deifying of Men. If therefore Jesus be not God if he be only Man as the Socinians hold then there is ground to impeach this last and greatest Revelation as destroying the Design of the former at least of not being so wisely managed as to serve the common end of all For in the other Dispensations the Men whom God used as his Instruments were carefully represented to the People to be Men of like Passions and Infirmities with themselves nay their Sins and Failings are put upon Record that none might be ensnared to conceit them Gods But as to Jesus there are such Representations of him such Speeches concerning him as may perswade and incline both learned and unlearned to think him God and every Scruple removed which may obstruct such a Belief Either therefore the Design of the Gospel is That we should receive him as God and consequently he is such or it doth not sufficiently prevent the falling into this Error if it be one but on the contrary layeth a Snare for it and tempteth to the Belief of it and so doth not suit with its own Design it is not adapted to its own end for it ensnareth to the committing of Idolatry in the Person of Jesus which is very absurd To conclude this Point I would fain know of any who call this Truth in Question what would satisfie them Supposing Jesus is God what Evidence would they have of it What Proofs or Demonstrations Could Reason ask more than plain and simple Assertions the ascribing to him the Name Titles Attributes and Works peculiar to the true God and finally the enjoining all the Worship of the outward and inward Man which is only due to him and therefore let us conclude That Jesus is God blessed for ever Having thus fully evinced the Deity of Jesus I proceed to speak of his Humanity or Incarnation which is declared in the 7th and 8th Verses He whom we have declared to have been in the Form of God and to be equal with God was pleased to become Man not by ceasing to be God but by taking to himself the Nature of Man a Body and a Soul as other Men with the common natural Qualities and Properties of both He did not exchange the Nature of God for that of Man but he assumed to the God-head the humane Nature and became strictly united with it so that in the Person of Jesus Christ there was an Union of two Natures the divine and humane In him dwelt the fullness of the God-head bodily Col. ii 9. The word saith St. Iohn was made flesh and dwelt among us In former times this same Son of God assumed to himself a visible Shape by means of which he appeared to Abraham and the Prophets which he also laid aside again when he left off talking with them But now he has taken the humane Nature to him in Reality and Truth and is become so personally united to it that he is never more to lay it aside but is to abide so for ever and ever This is a stupendous and incomprehensible Mystery but the Truth of it is as evident as Scripture can make it For as St. Paul in this place doth evidently assert the Deity and God-head of Jesus so he sets forth the Reality of his humane Nature He took saith he the form of a servant that is the Nature of Man and all that is essential to it And lest any should imagine a Difference betwixt him and others he adds he was made in the likeness of man and found in fashion as a man that is he was in all things just as other Men except Sin which is an adventitious Quality and not essential to our Natures And because he would be as other Men and demonstrate the Reality of his humane Nature as others therefore he came not to the World by immediate Creation as Adam but derived his Being from others He was conceived in the Womb of a Woman and shut up in that dark and narrow Cell all the time which Nature has prescribed to others He was brought forth after the ordinary manner and treated like the Children of Men swadled in Cloaths laid in a Cradle and put to suckle at the Breast He did not grow up hastily and ripen after an extraordinary manner but arrived at the Stature of a Man after the usual Years of Infancy Childhood and Youth He was not nourished by Miracles nor was his Body exempt from the Frailties and Sufferings
of other Mens For he was no less than others subject to Hunger and Thirst Cold and Heat Fainting and Weariedness and all the other things which Nature or Providence has made us liable to As he espoused our Nature so he espoused it with all its Weakness and Infirmities and with all the Trouble which ordinarily attends it Nay which is more he not only submitted to all the unavoidable Infirmities of our Nature but also to all the Misery which attends the meanest Condition of Men which the Apostle points at by the Form of a Servant The form of a servant implies somewhat more than the Nature of Man simply for every Man is not a Servant Jesus Christ has carried his humane Nature to Heaven but he is not there in the Form of a Servant for he is exalted above all When therefore St. Paul saith he took upon him the Form of a Servant he remembers us of the low and contemptible Condition in which he appeared For he came not to the World in Pomp and Splendour in the Form of a King or some great Person Nor did he aspire after a State of Grandeur Power and Command over others but chose to be born of mean and poor Parents who were totally divested of the Glory which by their descent they might have pretended to He was lodged with a Carpenter brought up in his House learned his Trade and wrought with his own hands for his Bread And though it be lawful for Men to endeavour to better their Condition if they take honest means yet he never made a Fortune to himself the foxes had holes and the fowls of the air nests but the Son of Man had no place or possession of his own where to lay his head When he entered upon the Exercise of his Ministery his Retinue was a dozen of poor Fishermen instead of splendid Walls and Schools he taught in Desarts on the Tops of Mountains and from the sides of small Ships and Boats He was born under the Law and subject to it he wore the heavy Yoke of Moses and religiously observed all his Laws He was also subject to the Romans and obliged to pay them Tribute though he owed them none In a word while he was in the World his outward Condition was base ignoble and contemptible and in that Condition he was treated like a Slave forced to endure more Hardship and Misery than ever any Slave was put to He was mocked beaten and cruelly and unmercifully used he was loaded with Contempt Injuries Reproach and all the Evils which Men or Devils could invent And yet like a good and faithful Servant he never declined his Duty nor shifted the Commands which were laid upon him but humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the cross This is the last Point of the Text. But I cannot enter upon it now I must pass it till another time The two Points I have handled are sufficient for the present to add more would perhaps be too great a burthen to our weak Minds I have laid before you a Mystery which was hid from the Foundation of the World but is now revealed by the Gospel a Mystery which the longest and most profound Meditation can never exhaust A Mystery which may give to all Eternity matter of Admiration both to Angels and Men A Mystery which as our Apostle saith to all that are Perfect sheweth both the Wisdom and Power of God These Divine Attributes were never so admirably manifested The Power of God is clearly seen and evidently set forth in the Creation of the World the erecting such a vast Fabrick out of Nothing the conconjoining its Parts so that they neither interfere nor breed Confusion and the adorning those various Parts with an infinite Variety of Creatures to Inhabit them is a great instance of Divine and Almighty Power So is the Production of Man the Contrivance of his Body the Faculties of his Soul and the Union of two so different Species as Matter and Spirit into one Composition But yet it is more astonishing and more incomprehensible to see the Creature Deified the God-head Embodied and the Humane and Divine Nature united together in one Person And as the Power of God is hereby seen so his Wisdom in contriving this Way to confound Satan to destroy Sin to save Mankind to declare his own Justice and to keep up the Authority of his righteous Laws Lord what Admiration may this breed How ought the Contemplation of this to transport us But Admiration ought not to be the only Effect of this Contemplation it should also engender Love and indeed if our Hearts be not hard as an Adamant and as insensible as a Stone it will enflame them with ardent love to God who hath so highly regarded us as to dignifie us beyond the Angels and any Creature in Heaven or Earth He is infinitely above us and standeth not in need of us and yet he hath had a particular Concernment for us and hath honoured us beyond Expression And that too when we were Rebels and Apostates and guilty of a Thousand Indignities done to the Deity If he had cast some Pity upon us or shewed some Commiseration after we had crouched and humbled our selves and bewailed our Sins with weeping and sorrowful Hearts it had not a little shewed his Goodness even in this Case his Mercy would have been abundantly declared But what superabundant Mercy was it to seek us first nay to court and wooe us when we hated him and were running away from him and that too by no meaner Person than his own Son God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past to the Fathers hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son whom he hath appointed heir of all things by whom also he made the worlds Lord how little did Man deserve this And what Obligations doth this lay on Man to love fear and serve God! Again how should our Hearts cleave to Jesus Christ What a strong and passionate Affection should we have for him Who for us and for our sakes made himself of no Reputation Who to serve us and procure our good laid aside the Glory which he had before the Foundation of the World and being in the Form of God and in a State in which he thought it not Robbery to be equal to God did yet take upon him the Form of a Servant All this was his own proper deed and the meer effect of his free Love You see all is ascribed to himself and indeed there was no Force to constrain him wherefore so great and so free Love in him requires the greatest Measure of Love from us Do you think what he has done nothing Seems it little to you to exchange the Form of God for the Form of a Servant The Glory of Heaven for the Miseries of Earth Is it nothing think you for Omnipotency to be confined to the Weakness of a Child For
and Body of the same Nature Qualities Properties and Passions with others liable to the same things and standing in need of the same Support And in a word like to others in all things except Sin so that he may be justly and in strict propriety of Speech stiled the man Christ Iesus and well deserves that Epithet which is often given him in Scripture viz. the Son of man As also his Actions and Sufferings are to be considered as the Actions and Sufferings of a Man We must not with the Ancient Hereticks deny the Humanity of Jesus or Fancy that all his Actions and Sufferings were only in appearance and no wise real for he did partake of the Humane Nature as much as any of us and was of the like innocent Passions and Infirmities with our selves But then again least we think meanly of this man Christ Jesus least we reckon no more of him than of other ordinary Men we must remember all his Character and consider that he who was at this time found in the fashion as a Man was formerly in the form of God and thought it not Robbery to be equal with God This Son of Man was also the Son of God the God-head dwelt in him and both the Divine and Humane Nature were personally united in him and that too after such an intimate manner as we see Soul and Body for composing the Person of a Man Therefore as in respect of his God-head he is called the eternal Son of God the only begotten of God the Father over all God blessed for ever And as in respect of his Man-hood or Humane Nature he is called the Son of Man the Son of David the seed of Abraham and the seed of the Woman So because of the intimate Union and Conjunction of these two Natures into the one Person of Jesus Christ he is said to be God manifested in the flesh the word made flesh When the fulness of time was come saith our Apostle God sent forth his Son made of a woman made under the Law Hence also it is that the Attributes and Works peculiar to the one true God are ascribed to Jesus thus he is said to have created the World to uphold all things by the Word of his Power to know the secret Thoughts c. And what was done by him is attributed to God tho' it was only proper to the Humane Nature Thus Act. XX. 28. St. Paul saith God purchased the Church with his own blood Upon this account all the Prophecies which went before pointed at both his Divinity and Humanity As for instance the very first calling him the seed of the woman shews his Humane Nature and his Divinity is declared by the other Clause which saith that he should bruise the serpents head Behold saith Isaiah a virgin shall conceive and bear a son that is a Man but it being added and shall call his name Immanuel which signifies God with us this imports that he was also to be God So his Humane Nature is set forth in these words Unto us a child is born unto us a Son is given But his God-head no less by what follows viz. His name shall be called Wonderful Counsellor the mighty God the Everlasting Father the Prince of Peace For this cause also the Divine Oeconomy towards him after his appearance in the World was so ordered as to attest both his Humanity and Divinity He was conceived in the Womb of the Virgin but by the Power of the Holy Ghost that this Holy One which was Born might be called the Son of God After his Birth he was swadled and laid in a Manger to hold forth the quality of a Man but at the same time Angels were sent from Heaven to declare his Birth who sung Divine Hymns for it that thereby might be represented his quality as God In his Baptism like a Man he is dipt into Water by Iohn the Baptist but to bear Witness of his Divinity the Heavens open and a voice crieth This is my beloved Son When he is in the Desart as a Man he suffers Hunger and Thirst but as a God the Angels minister unto him And as his Death shewed him to be Man so the darkening of the Sun the rending of the Veil the trembling of the Earth the opening of the Graves the rising of the Dead and his bestowing Paradise upon the Thief who died with him were Signs that he was God Moreover the Truth of his Divine and Human Nature is declared and set forth by most of his Actions especially his Miracles as the Blessing the five Loaves and two Fishes and by that making them to multiply to the feeding of Five Thousand The bidding the Sick take up his Bed and walk the weeping over Lazarus's Grave and yet raising him after he had been Four Days in it the sleeping in a Tempest and Storm and the making it Calm when he was awakened By these and many other instances it is evident that the Person our Text speaks of Jesus Christ is both God and Man that in him both the God-head and Humane Nature were personally united Which as St. Paul saith is without Controversy a great Mystery 1 Tim. iii. that is a wonderful and an ineffable thing which passeth the understanding of Man either to explain or fully to comprehend We shall never be able to comprehend this fully till we come to the other World where all Mysteries will end in clear Visions and where we shall not see as it were through a Glass darkly as at present But yet if at present we take a view of this Mystery with a reference to the end to which it was adapted we shall discover convincing Instances of the admirable and unsearchable Wisdom of God The Design was to save lost Mankind by the means of a Mediator who was to make an Atonement for their Sins and so to make up the breach betwixt God and Man as that Man might be saved and yet neither the Honour Justice or Authority of God or his Laws impaired so that it might be thought there was any force or necessity upon God to be reconciled to Man as the Kings of the Earth are obliged to make Peace with their Rebellious Subjects It were a little too bold to say that God had no other way to compass the Salvation of Men But sure this way is admirably contrived both for the Glory of God and the good of Mankind Man could not desire or devise a better a more equal a more easie Method and it is every way honourable for God it is made Effectual for Man and not only the Mercy and Goodness of God do hereby abundantly appear but also his Wisdom Power and Justice and all those Attributes which may excite Fear and Reverence or procure Love or oblige to Obedience Who so proper to ransom Mankind as one of the Race who did participate of the Humane Nature and who was descended from the same Parents Who but Man could
God I am saith Christ the way the truth and the life no man cometh into God but through me Ye believe in God believe also in me Him hath God the Father sealed And therefore he who doth not receive him nor believe in him giveth God the Lye If saith St. Iohn we receive the witness of men the witness of God is greater For this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son He that believeth on the Son hath the witness of himself he that believeth not God hath made him a liar because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son And again Who is a liar but he that denieth that Iesus is the Christ Whosoever denieth the Son the same hath not the Father To deny Jesus Christ will inferr a denial of God himself the same Prejudices against the one will obstruct a sound and sincere belief of the other They who have not had the Gospel offered unto them are not in the like Circumstances But they who do not believe after it has been duely and fairly represented to them are shrewdly to be suspected of Atheism as well as Infidelity Meer Deists are not far from Atheists The Truth of the Gospel and its Doctrine concerning Jesus Christ is almost if not altogether as demonstrable as the invisible things of God from things visible And to say That this vast frame of the World its various Parts and the variety of Creatures inhabiting those Parts was all the Effect of blind Chance and the Product of a confused jumbling of senseless Atomes to say this is no more absurd than to say that the admirable Harmony betwixt the Old and New Testament Books which were written by different Men at very distant times that the wonderful correspondence which the Life and Actions of Jesus Christ had to what went before that the Prophecies and their Accomplishment that all these I say were only the Dreams and Contrivances of Men the one choaks Reason as well as the other For we have not followed cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Iesus Christ but were eye-witnesses of his majesty For he received from God the Father honour and glory when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased And this voice which came from heaven we heard when we were with him in the holy mount We have also a more sure word of prophecy whereunto ye do well that ye take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place until the day dawn and the day-star arise in your hearts Knowing this first that no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the holy Ghost 2 Pet. i. 16 17 18 19 20 21. Having thus spoken to the First thing required in order to the obtaining rest viz. The coming to Christ and shewed both what it is and why it is exacted I proceed to The Second Condition or Means of Spiritual Rest which is said to be the taking Christ's Yoke upon us By Yoke in a Metaphorical sence is understood that Service which Superiours and Conquerours impose upon those who are subjected unto them Thus 1 King xii 4. The Service which Solomon imposed upon the People is called their Yoke So the Yoke of Christ is his Laws Precepts and Injunctions which he gives to his Disciples These are scattered up and down every where through the Gospels but most copiously set forth in the Sermon on the Mount to which we must add the Epistles of the Apostles which are infallible Commentaries upon the Divine Laws of their Master Jesus Christ. In a word The New Testament is the Codex or Corpus Iuris Christi the Body of the Christian Law which must be carefully studied by all who would know the Will of their Lord concerning them and the Duty which he requires of them And by this it clearly appears that Jesus has reinforced the Natural and Moral Law cleared it from the misprisions of Men discovered its full Latitude and brought it to all the Perfection which it is capable of So that to some it appears as if he had superadded to it and commanded Duties which Men were not obliged to formerly Whether it be so or not I will not debate it now But by the Laws of Jesus Christ all Sin whatsoever is forbidden the Sins of the Heart and Thoughts as well as the outward Man because both the one and the other fall under the Cognizance of Almighty God and are known to him And Sin is so peremptorily and severely Prohibited by the Christian Law that to shun it we are bid cut off our right hand and our right foot and pluck out our right eye that is to chuse to deprive our selves of the Nearest or Dearest or greatest Satisfaction rather than to run our selves into the danger of Sin by adhering to the same As all Sin is thus strictly forbidden so all Vertue and Holiness are expresly required The Laws of Jesus call for the greatest and most ardent love to God for an entire Submission to his Will a chearful Resignation to his Providence an active Zeal and Concernedness for his Glory and an anxious Care to please him They require a contempt of all Earthly things and the minding Heavenly things Contentment with every Condition and a Patient bearing of every Affliction Nay they exact the taking up the Cross that is that we suffer rather than Sin and freely undergo any trouble rather than either decline our Duty or offend God By the Precepts of Christ we are obliged to love our Neighbour that is all Men as our selves and to do to others as we would be done to We must abstain from all Injuries either to Soul or Body to Name or Estate and must lay our selves out to do all the good we can we must wrong no Man and Pardon those who have wronged us Whatever may seem to be the Voice of Nature or the Sentiments and Practices of Men Christ saith to us Love your Enemies bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you and pray for them who despitefully use you and persecute you And certainly Revenge is every way as inconsistent with Christianity as Theft Murder or Adultery and Whoremongers and Adulterers shall as soon enter into the Kingdom of Heaven as the Revengeful And unless the Gospel be a mere Sham or to be read backward neither the one nor the other shall be saved unless they have reconciled themselves to God by serious Repentance In a word the Doctrine of Jesus Christ teacheth us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world And finally whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoevor things are just whatsoever
which shall be to all People Unto you is born this day in the City of David a Saviour who is Christ the Lord Luke ii But to be more particular This was done to declare and demonstrate the infinite Love and Mercy of God who rather than that Mankind should perish would suffer his own Son and his only Son to be thus abased and humbled God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son unto it that the world through him might not perish but that those who believe might have eternal life John iii. 16. and Rom. v. 8. It is said That God commendeth his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us Mankind is but one part of the Creation And though he make a considerable Figure in this lower World yet if we knew all the other parts of the Creation and their Inhabitants perhaps we should find him contemptible and inconsiderable he is certainly inferiour to the Angels what a Demonstration therefore is it of the Mercy of God to his Creatures that he would not suffer such inconsiderable ones to perish But to prevent their eternal Ruin was pleased to give his Son to do and suffer so many things for us And how doth it heighten his Love to us the Sons of Men that he has shewed more Kindness to us than to the Angels who by Nature are so much better than we He passed by the Angels and has had pity on us he has left them to perish in their Apostacy and Disobedience but has sent his Son to save us Secondly Hereby God hath declared his Justice his uncontroulable Authority the Vigour of his Laws and the Certainty of his Threatnings By this it appears that God is just and will not clear the guilty that he will not suffer his Authority to be contemned nor his Laws to be broken and that what he peremptorily threatens to the breakers of them shall come to pass Heaven and Earth may pass away but one Jot or Title of the Law shall not fall and rather than the Transgression of it escape unpunished he will make his own Son an Example Like that King who having threatned the Loss of both Eyes to such as should be guilty of Adultery And his Son having committed that Crime he to keep his Royal Word to maintain the Vigour of his Laws and to strike Terrour into his Subjects but withal to shew some Mercy to his Son pulled out one of his Son's Eyes and gave another of his own God would not remit the Punishment of Sin but to save Sinners he laid the Weight of the Punishment on his own Son Thirdly Hereby is declared the heinous Nature of Sin how odious it is in the Sight of God how impossible it is to be reconciled to him or to expect his Favour unless it be expiated Let Fools now make a mock of Sin if they dare Let Men consider what the Son of God hath done and suffered to take away the Sins of the World let them call to mind what Obedience what Agony what Shame and Pain the Holy and Innocent Jesus hath been put to what it hath cost him to take away the Guilt of it and to free Men from the Punishment of it And when they have seriously considered all this let them say if they can whether Sin be to be sported with whether it may be safely cherished and indulged Fourthly This setteth forth the Dignity of the Humane Nature How highly is that to be esteemed which God has thought worthy of so strict an Alliance with himself and to save which the Eternal Son of God the Second Person of the blessed Trinity he who thought it not Robbery to be equal with God even he was pleased to make himself of no Reputation to take upon him the Form of a Servant to humble himself and to become obedient unto Death This is Immortal Honour unto Mankind which the Devils envy and which the highest Angels admire and therefore it is said that even they desire to look into it This is the Glory of Man and that which sets him farthest above all his Fellow Creatures in this World The Bodies of other Animals are not much inferiour to ours for they are all of almost the same Nature Composition and curious Contrivance and whatever be the inward Principle of their Life and Actions whatever it be that guides them their Actions are more regular than ours and certainly the Effects of greater Reason Knowledge and Wisdom than what we can by Speculation Study or Experience arrive at But neither Cherubim nor Seraphim nor any of the Celestial Order of Intelligent Beings can boast a Privilege above or even equal to what Man hath by the Incarnation of the Son of God and what followed upon it He took not on him the nature of Angels but the seed of Abraham God has espoused our Nature and thereby made us more honourable than other Creatures and as we have by this the highest Honour so all the Happiness that can be desired For what greater Happiness What can we desire more than what the Love and Friendship and Favour of God can bestow Fifthly As this shews the Dignity of the humane Nature so wherein the Perfection of it consists even in a perfect Obedience unto God such as we shewed that Jesus Christ did pay unto him Adam ruined the humane Nature by his Disobedience Jesus Christ has repaired it by being entirely obedient even unto Death and no Man can arrive at Perfection but by the Imitation of Jesus in a perfect Subjection to the Will of God To make Provision for the Flesh to fulfil the Lusts thereof is never to aim higher than Beasts and inferiour Animals to walk by Sense will stifle our Reason to follow the Imaginations and Devices of our own Hearts or only what our own Reason suggests we shall never surmount a natural imperfect State nor have any other Perfection than what cometh from our selves But if we give our selves up to the Conduct of God if we will follow his Will and Providence and never dispute or cavil at his Pleasure we shall far out-grow our natural State our minds shall receive the Light of Divine Illumination our Spirits shall be fortified by the Almighty Spirit of God and we shall at last become Partakers of the Divine Nature which is as high as any can aspire Sixthly I will only give one Instance more which is that the Incarnation of Jesus Christ his Obedience and Sufferings were appointed to the end that he might merit the Glory Honour and sovereign Power which God had design'd for him before the Foundation of the World Wherefore as it follows our Text God hath highly exalted him and given him a Name which is above every Name that at the Name of Iesus every knee should bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth and that every tongue should confess that Iesus
because I do not look upon them as matters of such moment in themselves or of such concernment to me But believing the Truth of the Gospel and knowing the importance of what is revealed therein I find it my duty to esteem it as my necessary Food and that it is as proper and necessary to refresh my Soul with serious and daily Meditations thereof as to give my Body those repasts which Nature daily calls for This made our Apostle desire to know nothing save Iesus Christ and him crucified and to say doubtless I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Iesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but dung that I may win Christ. And as such a Faith is required in all the Mysteries of the Gospel so more particularly in the Mystery of the Cross the Death and Sufferings of Jesus Christ and that Satisfaction he has made thereby for Sin These we should have an Eye to all in our Addresses to God and more especially such solemn Addresses as those we are now to make For he who believes this relies thereon and by vertue thereof draws near to God does confess himself a great Sinner that it had been just for God to have damned him eternally that it is only for the sake of Christ he is saved and that the Wisdom and Mercy of God is highly to be magnified in finding out such excellent Means and Methods for the Salvation of Man and by such Acknowledgments the greatest Sinner endears himself to God and conciliates his Favour and Kindness But he who denies this or has no respect thereto when he draws near to God must either not own himself a Sinner or not think it necessary to satisfie God's Justice or to repair his Honour which is provoked and affronted by Sin or he must not believe that Jesus Christ hath done this for us and that he is the only Mediator betwixt God and Man but must fancy he can come to God by himself or through some other besides Christ and which soever of these perswasions he has he is so far from finding acceptance that he at once both exasperates God and provoketh him who had undertaken to make his Peace and who only could do it I am the way the truth and the life no man cometh to the Father but by me therefore it 's said 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 Secondly I told you the Faith here required must also have a respect to our acceptance with God that is we must not only be firmly perswaded of God's Mercy and his good Will to save Sinners But that we our selves in particular shall find Grace in his Sight if we approach as we ought and bring no Impediment along with us and 't would seem the Translators of our Bible have chiefly respected this act of Faith in the Translation of this Text. Christ required of all those who came to him to be cured of their bodily Distempers Faith both in his Power and good Will And St. Matthew tells us He did no mighty works in his own countrey because of their unbelief St. Mark saith further that he could not do it Which we are not so to understand as if our Lord's Power could be restrained by any or that he depended upon Men for the exercise thereof but only that the want of this Faith rendred those Men unworthy of his Benefits and indisposed them for receiving them And as these temporal and bodily Benefits were not commonly conferred without this precious Faith so neither will spiritual and temporal Blessings as Mercy and Salvation be granted except to those who are disposed for them by earnest Desires and a sincere belief of God's being ready and willing to bestow them or at least if they be given to any other 't is not according to those ordinary Rules and Methods of the Dispensation of Grace which we ought to walk by For this Faith is always required as a necessary condition All things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer believing ye shall receive saith Christ. And St. Iames saith Let not that man who wanteth Faith think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. This Faith is requisite both to animate our Endeavours after the means of Grace and Salvation and also to excite God's love and to encline him to be merciful to us 'T is natural to love those who put confidence in us and he has no spark of generosity who will not do his utmost for those who altogether rely on him if a Sinner can confide in God notwithstanding that he hath offended him if he throw himself at his Feet and can but believe that God has so much Mercy as to forgive him all his Sins and upon his Repentance to receive him into Favour for the sake of Christ He by this act so honoureth God and so obligeth him to Mercy by his trust in him that he will not he cannot abandon him This is set forth to us in the Parable of the Prodigal for when the Penitent Son was yet a great way off his Father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him And as this Faith enclines God to Mercy so it animates our Endeavours it excites and quickens us to a cheerful Performance of all the Means and Conditions of Salvation The Husbandman soweth when he has Hope and the Merchant Tradeth when he has Hope of Gain and every Man plyeth heartily what he believes will succeed but Men are discouraged and made to give over their Endeavours when they take up a Perswasion that they shall but labour in vain A double minded man saith St. Iames that is one who hangs in suspence who is tossed with Doubts and Fears he is unstable in all his ways Such an one is inconstant he pursues not his Enterprizes but desists he is not steadfast and unmoveable and always abounding in the work of the Lord as every one ought to be and as he will be who knows and believes that his Labour is not in vain When therefore we draw near to God let us do it in this full Assurance of Faith that we may do it heartily so as to please God let us not entertain Doubts and Fears which but disquiet our own Minds and cast dishonour upon God Would not a Servant reflect either upon the Ability or Honesty of his Master if he questioned his Reward for the sincere Performance of his Service If ye who are evil and sinful think your selves oblig'd to love and be faithful to those who seek to please you will not God think you be more faithful and just to forgive us and to receive us into his Favour if we approve our selves unto him Is there any thing surer than his Word Are not
most unseemly to pamper the Body is to ruin the Soul for thereby those Lusts are cherished and strengthned which war against the Soul and destroy it We need no greater Enemies of our Salvation than what are lodged within our selves If all the Enemies without were removed out of the way our own Flesh and Blood are enough to precipitate us into Perdition Have we not then great reason with St. Paul and Timothy to subdue the Flesh and to keep our Bodies under if these two eminent Saints did this lest they should have been Cast-aways certainly we should be afraid to neglect Abstinence and Exercises of Mortification whereby the Flesh is kept from rebelling against the Spirit or at least disabled from gaining a Victory over it If our Body be not kept in subjection if restraints be not put upon our Appetites they will turn unruly and at last involve us into utter Ruin As Bridles should be put into the Horses mouths so saith St. Augustine our Bodies should be bridled and kept in with Fastings Watchings and Prayer Nam quemadmodum aurigae si fraena laxaverint per praecipitia ducuntur ita anima nostra cum ipso corpore si ei fraenum non imposuerimus ad inferni praecipitia dilabitur The Wantonness of the Rich their insolence towards God their contempt of others and all their ungodly Dispositions and Actions St. Iames ascribes to their living continually in pleasure and to the nourishing their hearts every day as in a day of slaughter that is they make every day a day of Feasting and Rejoicing and set no days apart for Fasting and Mourning They let loose their Sensual Appetites and are still making Provision for the Flesh and its Lusts which carry their Thoughts quite from God and the things of another Life so that they are both prompted and induced easily to commit those Crimes which render them obnoxious to the Divine Wrath. God doth not grudge us the fat and sweet he doth not envy us Lawful and Innocent Pleasures And there are no Real Pleasures but such He is willing that every Man take his Portion that he enjoy his Labour and rejoice in his Works This says Solomon is the gift of God but also he requires us so to moderate the outward Enjoyments of this Life as that they may not be prejudicial to the Soul and its Eternal Happiness nor yet hinder those inward Spiritual Comforts which he is ready and willing to bestow and which put more gladness into the Heart than Corn Wine and Oil. You may feed the Body but in the mean time take care that you do not starve the Soul whose nourishment is deep and serious Meditations upon God and his Word to which a cramb'd and glutted Body is no wife disposed They whose Hearts are overcharged with Surfeiting and Drunkenness and the Cares of this Life are neither mindful of nor capable to use the means of Salvation Wherefore it is necessary to intermix Days of Fasting and Retirement from Worldly Business that we may have time for Prayer and Meditation for instructing our Minds and examining our Actions We should curb our Sensual Appetites and sometimes deny our selves the Enjoyments of this Life that our Desires after God and Heaven may be the more keen We should mortifie the Body by Abstinence and other suitable Exercises that it may not be a Clog to the Soul nor a hinderance to the right Performance of the several Acts of Religion Upon this account the Church in former times did wisely enjoin Vigils and Fasts and Times of Abstinence as Lent And the practice of Pious Men in all Ages do recommend Private Fasting once a Week or Month. While these things were observed Religion flourished a Spirit of Devotion appeared in People and they were susceptible of Impressions from the Truths revealed in the Gospel And the common Neglect of these things is one great Cause of the present Decay of Piety amongst us which Neglect did proceed from a blind and indiscreet Zeal against Popery which did not distinguish betwixt the due Use and Abuse of things But however useful it may be sometimes and for some persons to exercise Abstinence and other Acts of Mortification From what St. Paul adviseth Timothy here we learn in the next place that the use of these things should be always managed with Prudence and Discretion that they may neither prove prejudicial to our Health nor yet degenerate into Superstition Fasting and other corporal Austerities are not things in themselves absolutely necessary but become fit and good according as they are subservient to other things which are so they are to be accounted Religious Acts only when they serve to the great ends of Religion and as they further the attainment of those Vertues and Graces which Religion strictly enjoins When they are not profitable this way they profit nothing at all If they prove rather hinderances than furtherances of those Moral Duties to which either our general or our particular Calling obligeth then they are wholly to be laid aside An excess in the observance is no ways commendable and sometimes more hurtful than the total neglect of them The Flesh with its Lusts should be crucified but the Body by no means is to be destroyed It 's fit to keep the Body under but it ought not to be so enfeebled as that it cannot discharge the Functions of Life wherefore they bewray a great deal of Ignorance Weakness and Superstition who make a scruple of forbearing the Fastings and Abstinences which they prescribe to themselves when their circumstances seem to require it as when they are under any indisposition of Body or when abroad and cannot perform them without some signs of ostentation some more than ordinary trouble to themselves and inconvenience unto others for when by these or the like reasons things of the like Nature cease to be useful or prove noxious they also cease to be acceptable unto God Fasting Abstinence and Acts of Mortification are not of the Nature of Justice Charity Humility Meekness Self-denial and other like Christian Virtues which are good in themselves indispensably necessary and which ought to be practis'd at all times and in all places Nor yet are they like Prayer which as it is a Duty we are commanded to perform without ceasing so it is agreeable and proper to all Persons States Circumstances Seasons and Places Fasting and external Acts of Mortification are not valuable in themselves they are only commendable and Praise-worthy according to the Prudent Management of them and the Ends proposed by them Sometimes they are in no wise suitable and proper wherefore our Lord would not suffer his Disciples to fast while he was with them When Strife and Envy Vanity and Ostentation are the Motives they are to speak in the Scripture Phrase Abominations and they degenerate into Superstition when they are observed out of an opinion of any particular Merit in them or that they please God otherwise than as they