as it did with the Souldier in the Roman History who blinded his eye so long in the time of the Civil Wars that when he would have used it again he could not And when custom hath by degrees taken away the sense of sin from their Consciences they grow as hard as Herodotus tells us the heads of the old Egyptians were by the heat of the Sun that nothing would ever enter them If men will with Nebuchadnezzar herd with the beasts of the field no wonder if their reasâ—n departs from them and by degrees they grow as savage as the company they keep So powerful a thing is Custom to debauch mankind and so easily do the greatest vices by degrees obtain admission into the souls of men under pretence of being retainers to the common infirmities of humane nature Which is a phrase through the power of self-flattery and mens ignorance in the nature of moral actions made to be of so large and comprehensive a sense that the most wilful violations of the Laws of Heaven and such which the Scripture tells us do exclude from the Kingdom of it do find rather than make friends enough to shelter themselves under the protection of them But such a protection it is which is neither allowed in the Court of Heaven nor will ever secure the souls of men without a hearty and sincere repentance from the arrest of divine justice which when it comes to call the world to an account of their actions will make no defalcations at all for the power of custom or common practice of the world 3. The Impossibility of the Command or rather of obedience to it When neither of the former pleas will efâ—ect their design but notwithstanding the pretended necessity of humane actions and the more than pretended common practice of the World their Consciences still fly in their faces and rebuke them sharply for their sins then in a mighty rage and fury they charge God himself with Tyranny in laying impossible Laws upon the sons of men But if we either consider the nature of the command or the promises which accompany it or the large experience of the world to the contrary we shall easily discover that this pretence is altogether as unreasonable as either of the foregoing For what is it that God requires of men as the condition of their future happiness which in its own nature is judged impossible Is it for men to live soberly righteously and godly in this world for that was the end of Christian Religion to perswade men to do so but who thinks it impossible to avoid the occasions of intemperance not to defraud or injure his neighbours or to pay that reverence and sincere devotion to God which we owe unto him Is it to do as we would be done by yet that hath been judged by strangers to the Christian Religion a most exact measure of humane conversation Is it to maintain an universal kindness and good will to men that indeed is the great excellency of our Religion that it so strictly requires it but if this be impossible farewel all good nature in the world and I suppose few will own this charge lest theirs be suspected Is it to be patient under sufferings moderate in our desires circumspect in our actions contented in all conditions yet these are things which those have pretended to who never owned Christianity and therefore surely they never thought them impossible Is it to be charitable to the poor compassionate to those in misery is it to be frequent in Prayer to love God above all things to forgive our enemies as we hope God will forgive us to believe the Gospel and be ready to suffer for the sake of Christ theâ—e are very few among us but will say they do all these things already and therefore surely they do not think them impossible The like answer I might give to all the other precepts of the Gospel till we come to the denying ungodliness and worldly lusts and as to these too if we charge men with them they either deny their committing them and then say they have kept the command or if they confess it they promise amendment for the future but in neither respect can they be said to think the command impossible Thus we see their own mouths will condemn them when they charge God with laying impossible Laws on mankind But if we enquire further than into the judgments of those who it may be never concerned themselves so much about the precepts of Christian Religion as to try whether they had any power to observe them or not nay if we yield them more than it may be they are willing to enquire after though they ought to do it viz. that without the assistance of divine grace they can never do it yet such is the unlimited nature of divine goodness and the exceeding riches of Gods Grace that knowing the weakness and degeneracy of humane Nature whâ—n he gave these commands to men he makes a large and free offer of assistance to all those who are so sensible of their own infirmity as to beg it of him And can men then say the command is impossible when he hath promiâ—ed an assistance suitable to the nature of the duty and the inâ—irmities of men If it be ackowledged that some of the duties of Christianity are very difficult to us now let us consider by what means he hath sweetned the performance of them Will not the proposal of so excellent a reward make us swallow some more than ordinary hardships that we might enjoy it hath he not made use of the most obliging motives to perswade â—s to the practice of what he requires by the infinite discovery of his own love the death of his Son and the promise of his Spirit And what then is wanting but only setting our selves to the serious obedience of them to make his commands not only not impossible but easie to us But our grand fault is we make impossibilities our selves where we find none and then we complain of them we are first resolved not to practise the commands and then nothing more easie than to find fault with them we first pass sentence and then examine evidences first condemn and then enquire into the merits of the Cause Yet surely none of these things can be accounted impossible which have been done by all those who have been sincere and hearty Christians and God forbid we should think all guilty of hypocrisie who have professed the Christian Religion from the beginning of it to this day Nay more than so they have not only done them but professed to have that joy and satisfaction of mind in the doing of them which they would not exchange for all the pleasures and delights of the world These were the men who not only were patient but rejoyced in sufferings who accounted it their honour and glory to endure any thing for the sake of so excellent a Religion who were so assured
present life such great things in God's account that it was not possible for his Son to appear without them Nay how unsuitable had it been for one who came to preach humility patience self-denyal and contempt of the world to have made ostentation of the State and Grandeur of it So that either he must have changed his Doctrine or rendred himself lyable to the suspicion of seeking to get this world by the preaching of another And if his Doctrine had been of another kind he might have been esteemed a great person among the Iews but not the Son of God or the promised Messias in whom all Nations of the Earth should be blessed Which surely they would never have thought themselves to have been in one who must have subdued the neighbour Nations to advance the honour of his own But since the Son of God thought fit to appear in another manner than they expected him they thought themselves too great to be saved by so mean a Saviour If he had made all the Kingdoms of the Earth to have bowed under him and the Nations about them to have been all tributaries to them if Ierusalem had been made the Seat of an Empire as great as the World it self they would then have gloried in his Name and entertained whatever he had said whether true or false with a wonderful Veneration But Truth in an humble dress meets with few admirers they could not imagine so much Power and Majesty could ever shroud it self under so plain a disguise Thus Christ came to his own and his own received him not Yea those that should have known him the best of all others those who frequently conversed with him and heard him speak as never man spake and saw him do what never man did were yet so blinded by the meanness of his Parentage and Education that they baffle their own Reason and persist in their Infidelity because they knew the place and manner of his breeding the names of his Mother and his Brethren and Sisters Are they not all with us whence then hath this man all these things As though Is not this the Carpenters Son had been sufficient answer to all he could say or do 2. The disparagement of his Miracles Since the bare proposal of his Doctrine though never so reasonable could not prevail with them to believe him to be the Son of God he offers them a further proof of it by the mighty works which were wrought by him And though the more ingenuous among them were ready to acknowledge that no man could do the things which he did unless God were with him yet they who were resolved to hear and see and not understand when they found it not for their credit to deny matters of fact so universally known attested they seek all the means to blast the reputation of them that may be Sometimes raising popular insinuations against him that he was a man of no austere life a friend of Publicans and Sinners one that could choose no other day to do his works on but that very day wherein God himself did rest from his and therefore no great regard was to be had to what such a one did When these arts would not take but the people found the benefit of his Miracles in healing the sick curing the blind and the lame feeding the hungry then they undervalue all these in comparison with the wonders that were wrought by Moses in the Wilderness If he would have made the Earth to open her mouth and swallow up the City and the power of Rome if he would have fed a mighty Army with bread from Heaven in stead of feeding some few thousands with very small Provisions if in stead of raising one Lazarus from the Grave he would have raised up their Sampson's and their David's their men of spirit and conduct whose very presence would have put a new life into the hearts of the people if in stead of casting out Devils he would have cast out the Romans whom they hated the worse of the two if he would have set himself to the cure of a distempered State instead of healing the maladies of some few inconsiderable persons if instead of being at the expense of a Miracle to pay tribute he would have hinder'd them from paying any at all then a Second Moses would have been too mean a title for him he could have been no less than the promised Messias the Son of God But while he imploy'd his power another way the demonstration of it made them hate him the more since they thought with themselves what strange things they would have done with it for the benefit of their Country and therefore express the greatest malice against him because he would not imploy it as they would have him From thence they condemn his Miracles as only some effects of a Magical skill and say he dispossessed the lesser Devils by the power of him that was the Prince among them So unworthy a requital did they make for all the mighty works which had been done among them Which as our Saviour saith if they had been done in Tyre and Sidon they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes 3. But altho' all this argued a strange spirit of contradiction in them to all the designs for their own good yet the malice from whence that rose would not sâ—op here for as they had long contrived his ruin so they watched only an opportunity to effect it Which his frequent presence at Ierusalem seemed to put into their hands but his reputation with the people made them fearful of embracing it Therefore they imploy their Agents to deal privately with one of hâ—s Disciples who might be fittest for their design and to work upon his covetous humour by the promise of a reward to bring him to betray his Masâ—er with the greatest privacy into their hands This Iudas undertakes knowing the place and season of his Masters retirements not far from the City where they might with the greatest secrecy and safety seize upon his person Which contrivance of theirs our Saviour was not at all ignorant of but prepares himself and his Disciples for this great encounter He institutes his solemn Supper to be perpetually observed in remembrance of his death and sufferings after which he discourses admirably with his Disciples to arm them against their future sufferings and prays that most divine Prayer St. Iohn 17. which he had no sooner finished but he goes with his Disciples to the usual place of his retirement in a Garden at the foot of the Mount of Olives And now begins the blackest Scene of sufferings that ever was acted upon humane Nature Which was so great that the Son of God himself expresseth a more than usual apprehension of it which he discovered by the Agony he was in in which he sweat drops of blood by the earnestness of his Prayer falling upon his knees and praying thrice saying O my Father
salvation they live in a neglect of that holy obedience which the Gospel requires and so believe themselves into eternal misery But as long as men make their obedience necessary though but as the fruit and effect of Faith it shall not want its reward for those whose hearts are purified by Faith shall never be condemned for mistaking the notion of it and they who live as those that are to be judged according to their works shall not miss their reward though they do not think they shall receive it for them But such who make no other condition of the Gospel but Believing and will scarce allow that to be called a Condition ought to have a great care to keep their hearts sounder than their heads for their only security will lie in this that they are good though they see no necessity of being so And such of all others I grant have reason to acknowledge the irresistable power of Divine Grace which enables them to obey the will of God against the dictates of their own judgments But thanks be to God who hath so abundantly provided for all the infirmities of humane Nature by the large offers of his Grace and assistance of his Spirit that though we meet with so much opposition without and so much weakness within and so many discouragements on every side of us yet if we sincerely apply our selves to do the will of God we have as great assurance as may be that we shall be kept by the power of God through Faith unto Salvation SERMON V. Preached at WHITE-HALL Hebrews II. 3. How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation WHen the wise and eternal Counsels of Heaven concerning the salvation of Mankind by the death of the Son of God were first declared to the World by his own appearance and preaching in it nothing could be more reasonably expected than that the dignity of his Person the authority of his Doctrine and the excellency of his Life should have perswaded those whom he appeared among to such an admiration of his Person and belief of his Doctrine as might have led them to an imitation of him in the holiness of his life and conversation For if either the worth of the Person or the Importance of the Message might prevail any thing towards a kind and honourable reception among men there was never any person appeared in any degree comparable to him never any Message declared which might challenge so welcome an entertainment â—rom men as that was which he came upon If to give Mankind the highest assurance of a state of life and immortality if to offer the pardon of sin and reconciliation with God upon the most easie and reasonable terms if to purge the degenerate World from all its impurities by a Doctrine as holy as the Author of it were things as becoming the Son of God to reveal as the Sons of men to receive nothing can be more unaccountable than that his Person should be despised his Authority slighted and his Doctrine contemned And that by those whose interest was more concerned in the consequence of these things than himself could be in all the affronts and injuries he underwent from men For the more the indignities the greater the shame the sharper the suâ—ferings which he did undergo the higher was the honour and glory which he was advanced to but the more obliging the instances of his kindness were the greater the salvation that was tendred by him the more prevailing the motives were for the entertainment of his Doctrine the more exemplary and severe will the punishment be of all those who reject it For it is very agreeable to those eternal Laws of Justice by which God governs the world that the punishment should arise proportionably to the greatness of the mercies despised and therefore although the Scripture be very sparing in telling us what the state of those persons shall be in another life who never heard of the Gospel yet for those who do and despise it it tells us plainly that an eternal misery is the just desert of those to whom an eternal happiness was offered and yet neglected by them And we are the rather told of it that men may not think it a surprize in the life to come or that if they had known the danger they would have escaped it and therefore our Blessed Saviour who never mention'd punishment but with a design to keep men from it declares it frequently that the punishment of those persons and places would be most intolerable who have received but not improved the light of the Gospel and that it would be more tolerable for the persons who had offered violence to Nature and had Hell-fire burning in their hearts by their horrid impurities than for those who heard the Doctrine and saw the Miracles of Christ and were much the worse rather than any thing the better for it But lest we should think that all this black scene of misery was only designed for those who were the Actors in that dolefull Tragedy of our Saviour's sufferings we are told by those who were best able to assure us of it that the same dismal consequences will attend all the affronts of his Doctrine as if they had been offered to his own person For it is nothing but the common flattery and self-deceit of humane nature which makes any imagine that though they do not now either believe or obey the Gospel they should have done both if they had heard our Saviour speak as never man spake and seen him do what never man did For the same disposition of mind which makes them now slight that Doctrine which is delivered to them by them that heard him would have made them slight the Person as well as the Doctrine if they had heard it from himself And therefore it is but reasonable that the same punishment should belong to both especially since God hath provided so abundantly for the assurance of our Faith by the miraculous and powerfull demonstration of that divine spirit which did accompany those who were the first publishers of this Doctrine to the world And therefore the Author of this Epistle after he hath in the words of the Text declared that it is impossible to escape if we neglect the great salvation offered us by the Gospel in the following words he gives us that account of it that at first it began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed to us by them that heard him God also bearing them witness both with signs and wonders and divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost according to his own will So that the miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost falling upon the Apostles and the many signs and wonders which were wrought by them were the great testimony of God to the world that these were the persons imployed by himself to declaâ—e that Doctrine whereon the eternal salvation of Mankind did depend And since we have so lately acknowledged the truth of
madness or that which is the next to it a great heat of brain would make men the most learned If this were true there would be a much easier way of attaining to speak in the languages of all nations than that which many take to gain a very few of them for the heightening of Phancy either by Wine or a degree of madness would inspire men with skill in tongues to a miracle 2. But supposing such a thing possible which is far from being so yet it is very remote from our present case for the Apostles made it manifest to all persons that they were far enough from being inspired with the vapours of wine or touched with any Enthusiastick madness They spake with strange tongues but in such a manner as convinced great numbers of their hearers of the excellency of that doctrine which was delivered by them As St. Paul answered Festus I am not mad most noble Festus but speak forth the words of truth and soberness so they did not speak incoherent and insignificant words which madness makes men do nor any mean and trivial things meerly for ostentation of their gifts but they spake though with divers tongues the great or wonderful things of God So their Auditors confessed with admiration These are not the eâ—â—ects of Wine or Madness as St. Peter at large proves against the unreasonable cavils of some who mocked and said they were full of new wine Which he doth with so great success that the same day 3000 persons disowned their former course of life and embraced Christianity Surely madness was never more infectious never made men more wise and sober than this did if the Apostlâ—s were acted only by that When was there ever better and more weighty sense spoken by any than by the Apostles after the day of Pentecost With what reason do they argue with what strength do they discourse with what a sedate and manly courage do they withstand the opposition of the Sanhedrin against them they never fly out into any extravagant passion never betray any weakness or fear but speak the truth with boldness and rejoyce when they suffer for it It could be no sudden heat which acted them on the day of Pentecost for the same Spirit and power continued with them afterwards they lived and acted by vertue of it so that their life was as great a miracle as any that was wrought by them Their zeal was great but regular their devotion fervent and constant their conversation honest and prudent their discourses inflaming and convincing and the whole course of their lives breathed nothing but glory to God and good-will towards Men. If they are called to suffer for their Religion with what constancy do they own the truth with what submission do they yield to their persecutors with what meekness and patience do they bear their sufferings If differences arise among Christians with what care do they advise with what caution do they direct with what gentleness do they instruct with what tenderness do they bear with dissenters with what earnestness do they endeavour to preserve the peace of the Christian Church When they are to plant Churches how ready to go about it how diligent in attending it how watchful to prevent all miscarriages among them When they write Epistles to those already planted with what Authority do they teach with what Majesty do they command with what severity do they rebuke with what pity do they chastise with what vehemency do they exhort and with what weighty arguments do they perswade all Christians to adorn the doctrine of God their Saviour in all things So that such persons who after all these things can believe that the Apostles were acted only by some extravagant heats may as easily perswade themselves that men may be drunk with sobriety and mad with reason and debauched with goodness But such are fit only to be treated in a dark room if any can be found darker than their understandings are 2. But yet there may be imagined a higher sort of madness than these men are guilty of viz. That when men are convinced that these things could not be done by meer Mechanical causes then they attribute them to the assistance of Spirits but not to the holy and divine but such as are evil and impure A madness so great and extravagant that we could hardly imagine that it were incident to humane nature unless the Scripture had told us that some had thus blasphemed the son of man and either had or were in danger of blaspheming the Holy Ghost too And this is properly blaspheming the Holy Ghost which was not given as our text tells us till after Christ's ascension when men attribute all those miraculous gifts which were poured out upon the Apostles in confirmation of the Christian doctrine to the power of an unclean Spirit For so the Evangelist St. Luke when he mentions the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost which shall not be forgiven immediately subjoyns their bringing in the Apostles to the Synagogues and Magistrates and Powers and adds that the Holy Ghost even that which they so blasphemed in them should teach them in that same hour what they ought to say I deny not but the attributing the miraculous works of Christ who had the Holy Spirit without measure to an evil Spirit was the same kind of sin but it received a greater aggravation aâ—ter the resurrection of Christ from the dead and the miraculous effusion of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles For now the great confirmation was given to the truth of all that Christ had said before he had sometimes concealed his miracles and forbid the publishing of them and to such he appeared but as the son of man of whom it is said that had they known him they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory and St. Peter more expresly and now Brethren I wrote that through ignorance you did it as did also your Rulers But now since his resurrection and ascension when God by the effusion of the Holy Ghost hath given the largest and fullest Testimony to the doctrine of the Gospel if men after all this shall go on to blaspheme the Holy Ghost by attributing all these miracles to a Diabolical power then there is no forgiveness to be expected either in this world or the world to come because this argues the greatest obstinacy of mind the highest contempt of God and the greatest affront that can be put upon the Testimony of the Holy Spirit for it is charging the Spirit of truth to be an evil and a lying Spirit By which we see what great weight and moment the Scripture lays upon this pouring out of the Holy Ghost on the Apostles and what care men ought to have how they undervalue and despise it and much more how they do reproach and blaspheme it They might as well imagine that light and darkness may meet and embrace each other as that the infernal Spirits should
of the Spirit was reserved for which was after the glorious ascension of Christ to Heaven This was reserved as the great Donative after his Triumph over Principalities and Powers when he was ascended up on high he sends down the greatest gift that ever was bestowed upon mankind viz. this gift of his Holy Spirit Hereby Christ discovered the greatness of his Purchase the height of his Glory the exercise of his Power the assurance of his Resurrection and Ascension and the care he took of his Church and People by letting them see that he made good his last promise to them of sending them another Comforter who should be with them to assist them in all their undertakings to direct them in their doubts to plead their cause for them against all the vain oppoâ—itions of men And he should not continue with them for a little time as Christ had done but he should abide with them for ever i. e. so as not to be taken from them as himself was but should remain with them as a pledge of his love as a testimony of his truth as an earnest of God's favour to them now and their future inheritance in heaven for he should comfort them by his presence guide them by his counsel and at last bring them to glory Nothing now remains but that as the occasion of our rejoycing on this day doth so much exceed that of the Jews at their ceremony of pouring out the â—ater so our joy should as much exceed in the nature and kind of it the mirth and jollity which was then used by them With what joy did the Israelites when they were almost burnt up with thirst in the Wilderness tast of the pleasant streams which issued out of the rock that rock saith the Apostle was Christ and the gifts of the Spirit are that stream of living water which flows from him and shall not we express our thankfulness for so great and unvaluable a mercy Ouâ— joy cannot be too great for such a gift as this so it be of the nature of it i. e. a spiritual joy The Holy Ghost ought to be the Fountain of that joy which we express for God's giving him to his Church Let us not then affront that good Spirit while we pretend to bless God for him let us not grieve him by our presumptuous sins nor resist his motions in our hearts by our wilful continuance in them The best way we can express our thankfulness is by yielding up our selves to be guided by him in a holy life and then we may be sure our joy shall never end with our lives but shall be continued with a greater fulness for ever more SERMON X. Preached at WHITE-HALL MARCH 2. 1669. ISAIAH LVII 21. There is no peace saith my God to the Wicked IF we were bound to judge of things only by appearance and to esteem all persons happy who are made the object of the envy of some and the flattery of others this text would seem to be a strange Paradox and inconsistent with what daily happens in the world For what complaint hath been more frequent among men almost in all Ages than that peace and prosperity hath been the portion of the wicked that their troubles have not been like other mens that none seem to enjoy greater pleasures in this world than they who live as if there were no other The consideration of which hath been a matter of great offence to the weak and of surprise to the wisest till they have searched more deeply into the nature of these things which the more men have done the better esteem they have always had of divine providence and from thence have understood that the true felicity of a man's life lies in the contentment of his own mind which can never arise from any thing without himself nor be enjoyed till all be well within For when we compare the state of humane nature with that of the beings inferiour to it we shall easily find that as man was designed for a greater happiness than they are capable of so that cannot lie in any thing which he enjoys in common with them such as the pleasures of our senses are but must consist in some peculiar excellencies of his being And as the capacity of misery is always proportionable to that of happiness so the measure and the kind of that must be taken in the same manner that we do the other Where there is no sense of pleasure there can be none of pain where all pleasure is confined to sense the pain must be so too but where the greatest pleasures are intellectual the greatest torments must be those of the mind From whence it follows that nothing doth so much conduce to the proper happiness of man as that which doth the most promote the peace and serenity of his mind nothing can make him more miserable than that which causeth the greatest disturbance in it If we can then make it appear that the highest honours the greatest riches and the softest pleasures can never satisfie the desires conquer the fears nor allay the passions of an ungoverned mind we must search beyond these things for the foundations of its peace And if notwithstanding them there may be such a sting in the conscience of a wicked man that may inflame his mind to so great a height of rage and fury which the diversions of the World cannot prevent nor all its pleasures cure we are especially concerned to fix such motion of man's happiness which either supposes a sound mind or else makes it so without which all the other things â—o much admired can no more contribute towards any true contentment than a magnificent Palace or a curiously wrought bed to the cure of the Gout or Stone All which I speak not as though I imagined any state of perfect tranquility or compleat happiness were attainable by any man in this present life for as long as the causes are imperfect the effect must be so too and those Philosophers who discoursed so much of a happy state of life did but frame Ideas in Morals as they did in Politicks not as though it were possible for any to reach to the exactness of them but those were to be accounted best which came the nearest to them but I therefore speak concerning a happy state of life for these two reasons 1. That though none can be perfectly happy yet that some may be much more so than others are i. e. they may enjoy far greater contentment of mind in any condition than others can do they can bear crosses and suffer injuries with a more equal temper and when they meet with vicissitudes in the world they wonder no more at it than to see that the Wind changes its quarter or thaâ— the Sea proves rough and tempestuous which but a little before was very eveâ— and calm They who understand humane nature have few things left tâ— wonder at and they who do the least wonder are the
men as well as of Princes yet they charge all Christians in the strictest manner as they lov'd their Religion and the honour of it as they valued their â—ouls and the salvation of them that they should be subject to them So far were they then from giving the least encouragement to the usurpations of the rights of Princes under the pretence of any power given to a Head of the Church that there is no way for any to think they meant it unless we suppose the Apostles such mighty Politicians that it is because they say nothing at all of it but on the contrary bid every soul be subject to the higher powers though an Apostle Evangelist Prophet whatever he be as the Fathers interpret it Yea so constant and uniform was the doctrine and practice of Obedience in all the first and purest ages of the Christian Church that no one instance can be produced of any usurpation of the rights of Princes under the pretence of any title from Christ or any disobedience to their authority under the pretence of promoting Christianity through all those times wherein Christianity the most flourished or the Christians were the most persecuted And happy had it been for us in these last ages of the World if we had been Christians on the same terms which they were in the Primitive times then there had been no such scandals raised by the degeneracy of men upon the most excellent and peaceable Religion in the World as though that were unquiet and troublesom because so many have been so who have made shew of it But let their pretences be never so great to Infallibility on one side and to the Spirit on the othâ—r so far as men â—ncourage faction and disobedience so far they have not the Spirit of Christ and Christianity and therefore are none of his For he shewed his great wisdom in contriving such a method of saving mens souls in another World as tended most to the preservation of the peace and quietness of this and though this wisdom may be evil spoken of by men of restless and unpeaceable minds yet it will be still justified by all who have heartily embraced the Wisdom which is from above who are pure and peaceable as that Wisdom is and such and only sâ—ch are the Children of it 3. I come to shew That the design of Christ's appearance was very agreeable to the infinite Wisdom of God and that the means were very suitable and effectual for carrying on of that design for the reformation of Mankind 1. That the design it self was very agreeable to the infinite Wisdom of God What could we imagine more becoming the Wisdom of God than to contrive a way for the recovery of lapsed and degenerate Mankind who more fit to employ upon such a message as this than the Son of God for his coming gives the greatest assurance to the minds of men that God was serious in the management of this design than which nothing could be of greater importance in order to the success of it And how was it possible he should give a greater testimony of himself and withal of the purpose he came about than he did when he was in the world The accomplishment of Prophesies and power of Miracles shewed who he was the nature of his Doctrine the manner of his Conversation the greatness of his Sufferings shewed what his design was in appearing among men for they were all managed with a peculiar respect to the convincing mankind that God was upon terms of mercy with them and had therefore sent his Son into the world that he might not only obtain the pardon of sin for those who repent but eternal life for all them that obey him And what is there now we can imagine so great and desirable as this for God to manifest his wisdom in It is true we see a great discovery of it in the works of Nature and might do in the methods of Divine Providence if partiality and interest did not blind our eyes but both these though great in themselves yet fall short of the contrivance of bringing to an eternal happiness man who had fallen from his Maker and was perishing in his own folly Yet this is that which men in the pride and vanity of their own imaginations either think not worth considering or consider as little as if they thought so and in the mean time think themselves very wise too The Iews had the wisdom of their Traditions which they gloried in and despised the Son of God himself when he came to alter them The Greeks had the wisdom of their Philosophy which they so passionately admir'd that whatever did not agree with that though infinitely more certain and useful was on that account rejected by them The Romans after the conquest of so great a part of the World were grown all such Politicians and Statesmen that few of them could have leisure to think of another world who were so busie in the management of this And some of all these sorts do yet remain in the World which makes so many so little think of or admire this infinite discovery of divine Wisdom nay there are some who can mix all these together joyning a Iewish obstinacy with the pride and self-opinion of the Greeks to a Roman unconcernedness about the matters of another life And yet upon a true and just enquiry never any Religion could be found which could more fully satisfie the expectation of the Iews the reason of the Greeks or the wisdom of the Romans than that which was made known by Christ who was the Wisdom of God and the Power of God Here the Iew might find his Messias come and the Promises fulfilled which related to him here the Greek might find his long and vainly look'd for certainty of a life to come and the way which leads to it here the Roman might see a Religion serviceable to another world and this together Here are Precepts more holy Promises more certain Rewards more desirable than ever the Wit or Invention of Men could have attained to Here are Institutions far more pious uâ—eful and serviceable to mankind than the most admired Laws of the famous Legislators of Greece or Rome Here are no popular designs carried on no vices indulged for the publick interest which Solon Lycurgus and Plato are charged with Here is no making Religion a meer trick of State and a thing only useful for governing the people which Numa and the great men at Rome are lyable to the suspicion of Here is no wrapping up Religion in strange figures and mysterious non-sense which the Egyptians were so much given to Here is no inhumanity and cruelty in the Sacrifices offer'd no looseness and profaneness allowed in the most solemn mysteries no worshipping of such for Gods who had not been fit to live if they had been Men which were all things so commonly practised in the Idolatries of the Heathens but the nature of the Worship is such as
divine Assistance which is promised to those who embrace it 1. In confirmation of the Truth of it For the World was grown so uncertain as to the grand foundations of Religion that the same power was requisite now to settle the World which was at first for the framing of it For though the Precepts of Christian Religion be pure and easie holy and suitable to the sense of Mankind though the Promises be great and excellent proportionable to our wants and the weight of our business though the reward be such that it is easier to desire than comprehend it yet all these would but seem to baffle the more the expectations of men unless they were built on some extraordinary evidence of divine power And such we assert there was in the confirmation of these things to us not only in the miraculous birth of our Saviour and that continual series of unparallel'd miracles in his life not only in the most obliging circumstances of his death not only in the large effusion of divine gifts upon his Apostles and the strange propagation of Christian Religion by them against all humane power but that which I shall particularly instance in as the great effect of divine power and confirmation of our Religion was his Resurrection from the dead For as our Apostle saith Rom. 1.4 Christ was declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of Holiness by the Resurrection from the dead No way of evidence could be more suitable to the capacities of all than this it being a plain matter of fact none ever better attested than this was not only by the unanimous consent of all the witnesses but by their constant adhering to the truth of it though it cost almost all of them their lives and no greater evidence could be given to the World of a divine power since both Iews and Gentiles agreed in this that such a thing could not be effected but by an immediate hand of God So far were they then from thinking a resurrection possible by the juice of herbs or an infusion of warm blood into the veins or by the breath of living Creatures as the great Martyr for Atheism would seem from Pliny to perswade us when yet certainly nothing can be oâ— higher concernment to those who believe not another life than to have tried this experiment long ere now and since nothing of that nature hath ever happened since our Saviour's resurrection it only lets us know what credulous men in other things the greatest infidels as to Religion are But so far were they at that time from so fond an imagination that they readily yielded that none but God could do it tho' they seem'd to question whether God himself could do it or no. As appears by the Apostle's Interrogation Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you that God should raise the dead Act. 26.8 This was therefore judged on both sides to be a matter of so great importance that all the disputes concerning Christian Religion were resolved into this Whether Christ were risen from the dead And this the Apoâ—tles urge and insist on upon all occasions as the great evidence of the truth of his Doctrine and this was the main part of their Commission for they were sent abroad to be witnesses of his Resurrection Which was not designed by God as a thing strange and incredible to puzzle Mankind with but to give the highest assurance imaginable to the World of the truth and importance of Christianity Since God was pleased to imploy his power in so high a manner to confirm the certainty of it 2. God's power was seen in the admirable effects of Christian Religion upon the minds of men which was most discernable by the strange alteration it soon made in the state of the world In Iudoea soon after the death of Christ some of his Crucifiers become Christians 3000 Converts made at one Sermon of St. Peter's and great accessions made afterwards both in Hierusalem and other places Yea in all parts of the Roman Empire where the Christians came they so increased and multiplied that thereby it appeared that God had given a Benediction to his new Creation suitable to what he gave to the first So that within the compass of not a hundred years after our Saviour's death the World might admire to see it self so strangely changed from what it was The Temple at Hierusalem destroy'd and the Iews under a sadder dispersion than ever and rendred uncapable of continuing their former Worship of God there the Heathen Temples unfrequented the Gods derided the Oracles ceased the Philosophers puzzled the Magistrates disheartned by their fruitless cruelties and all this done by a few Christians who came and preached to the World Righteousness Temperance and a Iudgment to come whereof God had given assurance to the World by raising one Iesus from the dead And all this effected not by the power of Wit and Eloquence not by the force and violence of rebellious subjects not by men of hot and giddy brains but by men sober just humble and meek in all their carriages but withal such as might never have been heard of in the world had not this Doctrine made them famous What could this then be imputed to less than a Divine Power which by effectual and secret ways carries on its own design against all the force and wit of men So that the wise Gamaliel at whose feet St. Paul was bred seem'd to have the truest apprehensions of these things at that time when he told the Sanhedrin If this counsel or this work be of men it will come to nought but if it be of God ye cannot overthrow it lest haply ye be found to fight against God Act. 5.38 39. 3. In the Divine Assistance which is promised to those who embrace it in which respect it is properly the power of God to salvation and therein far beyond what the Philosophers could promise to any who embraced their opinions For the Gospel doth not only discover the necessity of a Principle superiour to Nature which we call Grace in order to the fitting our souls for their future happiness but likewise shews on what terms God is pleased to bestow it on men viz. on the consideration of the death and passion of our Lord and Saviour Not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost which he shed on us abundantly through Christ our Saviour Titus 3.5 There being nothing in humane nature which could oblige God to give to Mankind that assistance of his grace whereby they are enabled to work out this salvation the Gospel is designed for with fear and trembling The whole tenor of the Gospel importing a divine power which doth accompany the preaching of it which is designed on purpose to heal the wounds and help the weakness of our depraved and degenerate nature Through which we
if it be possible let this cup pass from me nevertheless not as I will but as thou wilt Surely this Cup must needs have a great deal of bitterness in it which the Son of God was so earnest to be freed from If there had been nothing in it but what is commonly incident to humane Nature as to the apprehensions of death or pain it seems strange that he who had the greatest innocency the most perfect charity the freest resignation of himself the fullest assurance of the reward to come should express a greater sense of the horror of his sufferings than thousands did who suffer'd for his sake But now was the hour come wherein the Son of God was to be made a Sacrifice for the sins of men wherein he was to bear our griefs and carry our sorrows when he was to be wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities now his soul was exceeding sorrowful even unto death for now the hour of his enemies was come and the power of darkness And accordingly they improve it they came out against him as a Malefactor with swords and staves and having seized his Person being betray'd into their hands by one of his Disciples they carry him to the High Priests house where his professed enemies presently condemn him of Blasphemy and not content with this they express the greatest contempt of him for they spit in his face they buffet him and smite him with the Palms of their hands they mock him and bid him prophesie who it was that smote him so insolent was their malice grown and so spightful was their indignation against him And so fearful were they lest he should escape their hands that the very next morning early they send him bound to the Roman Governour to have the sentence pronounced against him to whom they accuse him of Seditition and Treason but Pilate upon examination of him declares he found no fault in him which made them heap more unreasonable calumnies upon him being resolved by what means soever to take away his life Nay the price of the Blood of the Son of God was fallen so low with them that they preferred the life of a known seditious person and a Murtherer before him And when Pilate being unsatisfied asked stiâ—l what evil hath he done they continue their importunity without any other answer but Crucifie him and making up what wanted in Justice and Reason in the loudness of their clamours And at last seeing the fury and madness of the people with the protestation of his own innocency as to his blood he delivers him up to the people and now he is stripped and scourged and mock'd with a Crown of Thorns a Scarlet Robe and a Reed in his hand all the indignities they could think of they put upon him But though it pleased them to have him exposed to all the ignominies imaginable yet nothing would satisfie them but his blood and therefore he is led forth to be crucified and though so lately scourged and weakened by his sorrows yet he is made to carry his own Cross at least through the City for no other death could satisfie them but the most ignominious and painful And when he was brought to the place of Crucifixion they nail hâ—s hands and feet to the Cross and while he was hanging there they deride and mock him still they divide his garments before his face give him Gall and Vinegar to drink and the last act of violence committed upon him was the piercing of his side so that out of his Pericardium issued both water and blood Thus did the Son of God suffer at the hands of unreasonable men thus was the blood of that immaculate Lamb spilt by the hands of violence and he who left the bosom of his Father to bring us to glory was here treated as if he had been unworthy to live upon the Earth 2. But that which yet heightens these sufferings of Christ is to consider from whom he suffer'd these things it was from sinners which is as much as to say from men if the word were taken in the largest sense of it for all have sinned but being taken by us in opposition to other men so it implies a greater height of wickedness in these thâ—n in other persons But this is not hâ—re to be consider'd absolutely as denoting what kind of persons he suâ—fer'd from but with a particular respect to the nature of their proceedings with him and the obligations that lay uâ—on them to the contrary So that the first shews the injustice and unreasonableness of them the second their great ingratitude considering the kindness and good will which he expressed towards them 1. The injustice and unreasonableness of their proceedings against him It is true indeed what Socrates said to his wife when she complained that he sufferâ—d unjustly What saith he and would you have me suffer justly it is much greater comfort to the person who does suffer when he does it unjustly but it is a far greater reflection on those who were the causes of it And that our Blessed Saviour did suffer with the greatest injustice from these men is apparent from the falseness and weakness of all the accusations which were brought against him To accuse the Son of God for Blasphemy in saying he was so is as unjust as to condemn a King for treason because he saith he is a King they ought to have examined the grounds on which he call'd himself so and if he had not given pregnant evidences of it then to have passed sentence upon him as an Impostor and Blasphemer If the thing were true that he was what he said the Son of God what horrible guilt was it in them to imbrue their hands in his blood and they found he always attested it and now was willing to lay down his life to confirm the truth of what he said This surely ought at least to have made them more inquisitive into what he had affirmed but they allow him not the liberty of a fair tryal they hasten and precipitate the sentence that they might do so the execution If he were condemned as a false Prophet for that seems to be the occasion of the Sanhedrim meeting to do it to whom the cognisance of that did particularly belong why do they not mention what it was he had foretold which had not come to pass or what reason do they give why he had usurped such an Office to himself If no liberty were allowed under pain of death for any to say that they were sent from God how was it possible for the Messias ever to appear and not be condemned for the expectation of him was that he should be a great person immediately sent from God for the delivery of his people And should he be sent from God and not say that he was so for how then could men know that he was So that their way of proceeding with him discovers it self to
when they have onâ—e taken possession of the hearts of men for we can find nothing else at the bottom of all that wretched conspiracy against our Saviour but that his doctrine and design was too pure and holy for them and therefore they study to take him away who was the author of them 3. We consider in what way and manner our Saviour underwent all these sufferings and this as much as any thing is here propounded to our consideration For it is not only who or what but in what manner he endured the contradiction of sinners that we ought to consider to prevent sainting and dejection of mind So another Apostle tells us That Christ suffered for us leaving us an example that we should follow his steps who did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth who when he was reviled reviled not again when he suffered he threatned not but committed himself to him that judged righteously He uses none of those ranting expressions which none of the patientest persons in the world were accustomed to of bidding them laugh in Phalaris his Bull and when they were racked with pains to cry out Nil agis dolor he tells them not that it is their duty to have no sense of torments and to be jocund and pleasant when their flesh is torn from them or nailed to a Cross if this be any kind of fortitude it is rather that of a Gladiator than of a wise man or a Christian. The worst of men either through a natural temper of body or having hardned themselves by custom have born the greatest torments with the least expression of grief under them And Panoetius one of the wisest of the Stoicks is so far from making insensibleness of pain the property of a wise man that he makes it not the property of a man The inferiour Creatures are call'd Brutes from their dulness and insensibleness and not meerly from want of reason any further than that one follows from the other Bruta existimantur animalium quibus cor durum riget saith Pliny those animals are call'd Brutes which have the hardest hearts and the nearer any of them approach to the nature of man the more apprehensive they are of danger and the more sensible of pain thence Scaliger saith of the Elephant that it is maxima bellua sed non maximè bruta though it be the greatest beast it is the least a Brute Stupidity then under sufferings can be no part of the excellency of a man which in its greatest height is in the Beings the most beneath him But when danger is understood and pain felt and Nature groans under it then with patience and submission to undergo it and to conquer all the strugglings of Nature against it that is the duty and excellency of a Christian If to express the least sense of grief and pain be the highest excellency of suffering the Macedonian Boy that suffer'd his flesh to be burnt by a Coal till it grew oâ—fensive to all about him without alâ—ering the posture of his arm lest he should disturb Alexanders sacrifice out-did the greatest Philosophers of them all Possidonius his pitiful rant over a fit of the Gout so highly commended by Pompey and Tully O pain it is to no purpose though thou beest troublesome I will never confess thou art evil falls extremely short of the resolution of the Macedonian Boy or any of the Spartan Youths who would not in the midst of torments so much as confess them troublesome And what a mighty revenge was that that he would not confess it to be evil when his complaint that it was troublesome was a plain argument that he thought it so It is not then the example of Zeno or Cleanthes or the rules of Stoicism which Dionysius Heracleotes in a fit of the Stone complained of the folly of that are to be the measures of patience and courage in bearing sufferings but the example and Precepts of our Lord and Saviour who expressed a great sense of his sufferings but withal the greatest submission under them When Lipsius lay a dying and one of the by-standers knowing how conversant he had been in the Stoicks writings began to suggest some of their Precepts to him Vana sunt ista said he I find all those but vain things and beholding the Picture of our Saviour near his bed he pointed to that and cryed haec vera est patientia there is the true pattern of Patience For notwithstanding that Agony he was in immediately before his being betray'd when he sees the Officers coming towards him he asks them whom they seek for and tells them I am he which words so astonished them that they went back and fell upon the ground thereby letting them understand how easie a matter it was for him to have escaped their hands and that it was his own free consent that he went to suffer for he knew certainly before hand the utmost that he was to undergo and therefore it was no unreasonable impetus but a setled resolution of his mind to endure all the contradictions of sinners When he was spit upon mocked reproached and scourged none of all these could draw one impatient expression from him The malice and rage of his enemies did not at all provoke him unless it were to pity and pray for them And that he did with great earnestness in the midst of all his pains and though he would not plead for himself to them yet he pleads for them to God Father forgive them for they know not what they do How much more divine was this than the admired Theramenes among the Greeks who being condemned to die by the thirty Tyrants when he was drinking off his cup of Poyson said he drank that to Critias one of his most bitter enemies and hoped he would pledge it shortly Socrates seemed not to express seriousness enough at least when he bid one of his friends when he was dying offer up a Cock to Aesculapius for his deliverance Aristides and Phocion among the Greeks came the nearest to our Saviour's tempeâ— when one pray'd That his Country might have no cause to remember him when he was gone and the other charged his Son to forget the injuries they had done him but yet by how much the greater the Person and Office was of our Blessed Saviour than of either of them by how much the cruelty and ignominy as well as pain was greater which they exposed him to by how much greater concernment there is to have such an offence pardon'd by one that can punish it with eternal misery than not revenged by those who though they may have will have not always power to execute so much greater was the kindness of our Saviour to his enemies in his Prayer upon the Cross than of either of the other in their concernment for that ungrateful City that had so ill requited their services to it Thus when the Son of God was oppressed and afflicted He
natural causes because they were done at all For that is to suppose it impossible there should be miracles which is to say it is impossible there should be a God which is an attempt somewhat beyond what the most impudent Atheists pretended But in this case nothing can be reasonably urged but common experience to the contrary if these were things which were usually done by other causes there would be no reason to pretend a miraculous power but we say it is impossible that such things should be produced by meer natural causes and in this case there can be no confutation but by contrary experience As we see the opinion of the Ancients concerning the uninhabitableness of the torrid Zone and that there were no Antipodes are disproved by the maniâ—est experience to the contrary of all modern discoverers Let such plain experience be produced and we shall then yield the possibility of the things by some natural causes although not by such an exact temperament of body which is only an instance of the strong power of imagination in those who think so whatever that may have on others Such a temperament of body as these persons imagine considering the great inequality of the mixture of the earthly and aerial parts in us being it may be as great a miracle it self as any they would disprove by it 2. But supposing such a temperament of body to be possible how comes it to be so beneficial to others as to propâ—gate its vertue to the cure of diseaseâ— persons We may as well think that a great beauty may change a Black by often viewing him or a skilful Musician make another so by sitting near him as one man heal another because he is healthful himself Unless we can suppose it in the power of a man to send forth the best spirits of his own body and transfuse them into the body of another but by this means that which must cure another must destroy himself Besides the healthfulness of a person lies much in the freedom of perspiration of all the noxious vapours to the body by which it will appear incredible that a man should preserve his own health by sending out the worst vapors and at the same time cure another by sending out the best 3. Supposing we should grant that a vigorous heat and a strong arm may by a violent friction discuss some tumor of a distempered body yet what would all this signifie to the mighty cures which were wrought so easily and with a word speaking and at such great distance as were by Christ and his Apostles Supposing our Saviour had the most exact natural temper that ever any person in the world had yet what could this do to the cure of a person above twenty miles distance for so our Saviour cured the Son of a Nobleman who lay sick at Capernaum when himself was at Cana in Galilee So at Capernaum he cured the Centurion's servant at his own house without going thither Thus we find the Apostles curing though they did not touch them and that not one or two but multitudes of diseased persons And nothing can be more absurd than to imagine that so many men should at the same time work so many miraculous cures by vertue of a temperament peculiar to themselves for how come they only to happen to have this temperament and none of the Jews who had all equal advantages with them for it Why did none of the enemies of Christ do as strange things as they did How come they never to do it before they were Christians nor in such an extraordinary manner till after the day of Pentecost Did the being Christians alter their natural temper and infuse a â—anative vertue into them which they never had before Or rather was not their Christianity like to have spoyled it if ever they had it before by their frequent watchings fastings hunger and thirst cold and nakedness stripes and imprisonments racks and torments Are these the improvers of an excellent constitution if they be I doubt not but those who magnifie it in them would rather want the vertue of it than be at the pains to obtain it 2. But what a natural temper cannot do they think the power of imagination may and therefore in order to the enervating the power of miracles they mightily advance that of imagination which is the Idol of those who are as little Friends to reason in it as they are to Religion Any thing shall be able to effect that which they will not allow God to do nay the most extravagant thing which belongs to humane nature shall have a greater power than the most holy and divine spirit But do not we see say they strange effects of the power of imagination upon mankind I grant we do and in nothing more than when men set it up against the power of God yet surely we see far greater effects of that in the world than we do of the other The power of imagination can never be supposed to give a being to the things we see in the world but we have the greatest reason to attribute that to a divine and infinite power and is it not far more rational that that which gave a Being to the course of nature should alter it when it pleaseth than that which had nothing to do in the making of it So that in general there can be no competition between the power of God and the strength of imagination as to any extraordinary effects which happen in the world But this is not all for there is a repugnancy in the very nature of the thing that the power of imagination should do all those miracles which were wrought by Christ or his Apostles For either they must be wrought by the imagination of the Agent or of the Patient if of the Agent then there can be no more necessary to do the same things than to have the same strength oâ— imagination which they had What is the reason then that never since or before that time were so many signs and wonders wrought as there were then by the Apostles and Disciples of our Lord If Peter and Iohn cured the lame man by the strength of imagination why have no persons ever since cured those whose welfare they have as heartily desired as ever they could do his Certainly if imagination could kill mens enemies there would never need Duels to destroy them nor Authority to punish such as do it and if it could cure Friends there would need no Physicians to heal and recover them and death would have nothing to do but with persons that were wholly Friendless If they say that persons are not sufficiently perswaded of their own power and therefore they do see little good let any of those who contend the most for it attempt the cure when they please of any the most common infirmity of mankind and if they cannot do that let them then perswade us they can do miracles by that which
Laws and make his own terms with God can he dissolve the chains of darkness with a few death-bed tears and quench the flames of another world with them O foolish sinners who hath bewitched them with these deceitful dreams will heaven-gates fly open with the strength of a few dying groans will the mouth of hell be stopt with the bare lamentation of a sinner Are there such charms in some penitent words extorted from the fear of approaching misery that God himself is not able to resiâ—â— them Certainly there is no deceit more dangerous nor I fear more common in the world than for men to think that God is so easie to pardon sin that though they spend their lives in satisfying their lusts they shall make amends for all by a dying sorrow and a gasping repentance As though the unsaying what we had done or wishing we had done otherwise since we can do it no longer for that is the bottom of all putting off repentance to the last were abundant compensation to the justice of God for the affronts of his Majesty contempt of his Laws abuse of his Patience and all the large indictments of wilful and presumptuous sins which the whole course of our lives is charged with The supposal of which makes the whole design of Religion signify very little in the world Thus we have examined the foundations of a sinner's peace and found them very false and fallacious 2. We are now to shew that those things do accompany a sinner's course of life which certainly overthrow his peace which are these two 1. The reflections of his Mind 2. The violence of his Passions 1. The reflections of his Mind which he can neither hinder nor be pleased with No doubt if it were possible for him to deprive himself of the greatest excellency of his being it would be the first work he would do to break the glass which shews him his deformity For as our Saviour said Every one that doth evil hateth the light lest his deeds should be reproved not only the light without which discovers them but that light of conscience within which not only shines but burns too Hence proceeds that great uneasiness which a sinner feels within as often as he considers what he hath done amiss which we call the remorse of conscience and is the natural consequent of the violence a man offers to his reason in his evil actions It was thought a sufficient vindication of the innocency of two Brothers by the Roman Judges when they were accused for Parricide that although their Father was murthered in the same room where they lay and no other person was found on whom they could fasten the suspicion of it yet in the morning the door was open and they fast asleep For as the Orator saith No man can imagine that those who had broken all the Laws of God and nature by so great an act of wickedness could presently sleep upon it for they who do such things can neither rest without care nor breathe without fear We are not to believe saith he the fables of the Poets as though wicked men were haunted and terrified with the burning torches of the furies but every man's wickedness is the greatest terrour to himself and the evil thoughts which pursue wicked men are their constant and domestick furies It would be endless to repeat what force the more civil Heathens have given to conscience either way as to the peace which follows innocency and the disquiet which follows guilt Which they looked on as the great thing which governed the world Quâ sublatâ jacent omnia as the Orator speaks without which all things would be in great disorder for these punishments they are sure not to escape though they may do others and these they thought so great and weighty that upon this ground they vindicated divine providence as to the seeming prosperity of wicked men thinking it the most unreasonable thing in the world to call those persons happy who suffered under the severe lashes of their own consciences If there were such a force in the consciences of those who had nothing but the light of nature to direct them how much greater weight muâ—t there be when the terrours of the Lord are made known by himself and the wrath of God revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness of men I know that wicked men in the height of their debaucheries pretend to be above these things and are ready to laugh at them as the effects of a strong spleen and a weak brain but I appeal to their most sober thoughts when the streams of wine are evaporated and the intoxication of evil company is removed from them when in the deep and silent night they revolve in their minds the actions of the foregoing day what satisfaction they then take in all the sinful pleasures they have pursued so eagerly but especially when either their lusts have consumed their bodies or the vengeance of God hath overtaken them when death begins to seize upon their vitals and themselves not wholly stupified through the power of their sins or their disease let then if it were possible any repâ—esent the fears the horrour and astonishment which the consciences of wicked men labour under in remembrance of their evil actions How mean and poor would they leave themselves if with all their honours and riches they could purchase to themselves a reprieve from death and from the miseries which follow after it what would they then give for the comfort of a good conscience and the fruit of a holy righteous and sober life with what another sense of Religion do men whose minds are awakened speak then in comparison of what they did in the days of their mirth and jollity Neither is this to take them at the greatest disadvantage as some of them have been ready to say for I suppose their minds as clear then as at any time and so much the clearer because freed from the impediments of such freedom of their thoughts at another time for the same thoughts would have possessed them before only the pleasures and the hopes of life diverted their minds from them but now the nearness of the things they feared and the weight and consequence of them make them more diligently examine and impartially consider them But that demonstrates the great misery of a sinner's State that what cures the other greatest troubles of our life doth the most increase his which is the exercise of reason and consideration that allays the power of griefs that easeth the mind of vain fears that prevents many troubles and cures others that governs other passions and keeps them in their due bounds but this is it which of all things doth the most increase the trouble of a wicked man's mind for the more he considers the worse he finds his condition and while he finds his condition so bad he can never enjoy any peace in his mind 2. The violence of his
clear the memory as strong the entertainments of the mind as great as if the Body were in perfect health It is a greater and more manly pleasure which some Men take in searching into the nature of these things in the world than others can take in the most voluptuous enjoyment of them the one can only satisfie a bruitish appetite while it may be something within is very unquiet and troublesom but the other brings a solid pleasure to the mind without any regret or disturbance from the Body By this we see that setting aside the consideration of Religion the mind of man is capable of such pleasures â—eculiar to it self of which no account could be given if there were not a spiritual and therefore immortal Being within us not only distinct from the body but very far above it But the very capacity of Religion in mankind doth yet further evidence the truth of it I would fain understand how men ever came to be abused with the notion of Religion as some men are willing to think they are if there were not some faculties in them above those of sense and imagination For where we find nothing else but these we see an utter incapacity of any such thing as Religion is in some brute creatures we find great subtilty and strange imitations of reason but we can find nothing like Religion among them How should it come to be otherwise among men if imagination were the highest faculty in man since the main principles of Religion are as remote from the power of imagination as may be What can be thought more repugnant to all the conceptions we take in by our senses than the conception of a Deity and the future State of Souls is How then come the impressions of these things to sink so deep into humane nature that all the art and violence in the world can never take them out The strongest impressions upon all other Beings are such as are suitable to their natures how come those in mankind to be such as must be supposed to be not only above but contrary to them if an immortal soul be not granted If men had no principle within them beyond that of sense nothing would have been more easie than to have shaken off the notion of a Deity and all apprehension of a future State But this hath been so far from easie that it is a thing utterly impossible to be done all the wit and arts all the malice and cruelty all the racks and torments that could yet be thought on could not alter mens perswasions of the Christian Religion much less raze out the Foundations of Natural Religion in the world But what imaginable account can be given of the joys and pleasures which the Martyrs of old expressed under the most exquisite torments of their bodies if their minds were not of a far nobler and diviner nature than their bodies were Although a natural stupidity and dulness of temper may abate the sense of pain although an obstinate resolution may keep men from complaining of it yet not only to bear the Cross but to embrace it to be not only patient but pleasant under tortures nay to sing with greater joy in the flames than others do when they are heated with wine doth not only shew that there is something within us capable of pleasure distinct from the Body but that the pleasures of it may be so great as to swallow up the pains of the body But I need not have recourse to such great and extraordinary instances although sufficiently attested by such who saw and heard them for every good man hath that inward pleasure in being and doing good which he would not part with for all the greatest Epicurism in the world And where there is or may be so great pleasure no wonder if there be likewise a sense of pain proportionable to it witness those gripes and tortures of Conscience which wicked men undergo from the reflection upon themselves when their own evil actions fill them with horror and amazement when the cruelties they have used to others return with greater violence upon their own minds when the unlawful pleasures of the body prove the greatest vexation to their souls and the weight of their evil actions sinks them under despair and the dreadful apprehensions of future misery These are things we need not search Histories or cite ancient Authors for every man 's own Conscience will tell him if he hath not lost all sense of good and evil that as there is a real pleasure in doing good there is the greatest inward pain in doing evil Having thus shewed that the soul of man is capable of pleasure and pain in this present state distinct from the body it thence follows that it is capable of rewards and punishments when it shall be separated from it 2. That the souls of men have a power of determining their own actions without which there could be no reasonable account given of the rewards and punishments of another life Were I to prove liberty in man from the â—upposition of Religion I know no argument more plain or more convincing than that which is drawn from the consideration of future rewards and punishments but being now to prove a capacity of rewards and punishments from the consideration of Liberty I must make use of other means to do it by And what can be imagined greater evidence in Beings capable of reflecting upon themselves than the constant sense and experience of all mankind Not that all men are agreed in their opinions about these things for even herein men shew their liberty by resisting the clearest evidence to prove it but that every man finds himself free in the determining his moral actions And therefore he hath the same reason to believe this which he hath of his own Being or Understanding For what other way hath a man to know that he understands himself or any thing else but the sense of his own mind and those who go about to perswade men that they think themselves free when they are not may in the next place perswade them that they think they understand when they do not Nay they might hope in the first place to perswade men out of their Understandings for we are not so competent judges of the more necessary and natural acts for men understand whether they will or no as of the more free and voluntary for in this case every man can when he pleases put a tryal upon himself and like the confuting the arguments against motion by moving can shew the folly of all the pleas for fatal necessity by a freedom of action But if once this natural liberty be taken away wisdom and folly as well as vice and vertue would be names invented to no purpose no men can be said to be better or wiser than others if their actions do not depend on their own choice and consideration but on a hidden train of causes which it is no more in a
argument strong enough to perswade any man to part not only with what he hath or hopes for in this life but with life it self He that is so great a Fool to be an Atheist would yet be much more so to be a Martyr for his opinion What is there could recompence the loss of life to a man that believes that there is nothing after it But supposing there should be a life to come as it is impossible to give any demonstration to the contrary what madness would it be for a man to run himself into the miseries of another world with a design to prove there is none If all that our Saviour had meant were only to represent the folly of a person that would lay down his life for the purchase of an estate for so the soul is often taken for the life that would not have reached the scope and design of his discourse And no instances can be produced of such a kind of folly which would be as great as for a man to lose his head for a wager or to purchase the lease of his life by destroying himself But supposing this to be a Proverbial speech yet the folly of losing a mans life for the gain of the whole world is not brought in by our Saviour meerly for it self but as it doth much more represent the unspeakable folly of such who for the love of this world will venture the loss of all eternal life and enduring all the misery which is consequent upon it If that man would gain nothing by his bargain but the reputation of a Fool that for the possession of the whole world for one momen would be content to be killed in the next how much greater folly are they guilty of that for the sake of this world and the preservation of their lives here expose themselves to all the miseries of another life which God hath threatned or their souls can undergo It is such a loss of the soul which is here spoken of as is consistent with the preservation of this present life for whosoever saith Christ will save his life shall lose it and to those words before those of the text have a particular reference and therefore must be understood not of losing this life but of the loss of the Soul in a future state And this loss cannot be understood of the souls annhilation or ceasing to be as soon as the life is gone for that being supposed he would be the happiest man that had the most of this world at his command and enjoyed the greatest pleasure in it So St. Paul himself determines that if there were no future state the Epicureans argument would take place Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die and he reckons those among the most miserable of all mankind who ventured the loss of all that is accounted desirable in this world and of their lives too if there were not a better life to come For if in this life only we have hope in Christ saith he we are of all men the most miserable So that the strength of our Saviour's discourse depends upon the supposition of the immortality of the soul and its capacity of being happy or miserable in a future state And it is the great commendation of the Christian Religion that the particular duties required in it are established on the same Foundations that natural Religion is which are the belief of a Deity and the immortality of the Soul For he that comes unto God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that seek him which being spoken with a respect to one who for being good was translated out of this world must refer to the rewards of a future life And we desire no more than these common principles of Religion to make the most difficulâ— duties of Christianity appear reasonable to mankind For it is upon the account of this future state of the soul that it is our most just and necessary care to look after the welfare of our souls in the first place to seek the Kingdom of God and the righteousness thereof before the concernments of this present life because a state that endures for ever ought to be preferred before a short and uncertain abode in this world It is this which makes it reasonable to please God though to the displeasing our selves and the crossing our natural inclinations because eternal happiness and misery depends upon his favour or displeasure It is this which obliges men to the greatest care of their actions because their future state in another world will be according to their lives here for every man shall then receive according to his works It is this which ought to keep men from all fleshly lusts not meerly because they are inconvenient for their bodies but because they war against their souls It is this which makes the love of this world so dangerous a thing because it draws away the hearts and affections of men from things which are above and fixes them upon things below It is this which make it necessary for us to subdue our passions to conquer temptations to forgive injuries to be patient under afflictions and to lay down our lives for Religion because there will be a reward for the righteous and the happiness of another state will make abundant recompence for all the difficulties of this So that in the Gospel the doctrine of the souls immortality is not spoken of as the nice speculation of subtile and contemplative men nor meerly suposed as a foundation of all Religion but it is interwoven in the substance of it and adds strength to all its parts For herein we find the immortality of the soul not barely asserted nor proved by uncertain arguments nor depending on the opinion of Philosophers but delivered with the greatest authority revealed with the clearest light and confirmed by the strongest evidence If any one can make known to mankind the state of souls in another world it must be God himself if ever it was made known plainly by him it must be in the Gospel whereby life and immortality are brought to light if ever any arguments were proper to convince mankind of it they are such as are contained therein For it is not barely the resurrection of our Lord which is a manifest evidence of the truth of the souls subsisting aâ—â—er a real death but the whole design of his doctrine and the Christian Religion is built upon it So that if we suppose the immortality of the soul the Christian Religion appears more reasonable by it but if we suppose the doctrine of Christ to be true there can be no doubt left of the immortality of the soul and whatever arguments we have to prove the truth of this doctrine by the same do of necessity prove the certainty of the souls immortality I confess many subtile arguments have been used by those who never knew any thing of divine revelation to prove the
soul to be of such a nature that it was not capable of dying with the body and some of them such as none of their Adversaries were ever able to answer For the most common acts of sense are unaccountable in a meer Mechanical way and after all the attempts of the most witty and industrious men I despair of ever seeing the powers of meer matter raised to a capacity of performing the lowest acts of perception and much more of those nobler faculties of memory understanding and will But although the arguments from hence are sufficient to justifie the belief of the souls immortality to all considering men yet the far greatest part of mankind was never so and a matter of so great consequence as this is ought to be proposed in the most plain most certain and most effectual manner While these disputes were managed among the Philosophers of old though those who asserted the immortality of the soul had the better reason of their side yet their Adversaries spake with greater confidence and that always bears the greatest sway among injudicious people And some men are always fond of a reputation for wit by opposing common opinions though never so true and useful especially when they serve a bad end in it and do thereby plead for their own impieties But it cannot be denied that those who were in the right did likewise give too great advantage to their enemies partly by their own diffidence and distrust of what they had contended for partly from the too great niceness and subtilty of their arguments partly from the ridiculous fopperies which they maintained together with that of the souls immortality as the transmigration of them into the bodies of Brutes and such like But the main disadvantage of all to the world was that the immortality of the soul was rather insisted on as a Principle of Philosophy than of Religion Some of the best of their arguments were such as made the souls of Brutes immortal as well as those of men and those could not be imagined to have any great force on the lives of men which would equally hold for such creatures which were not capable of rewards and punishments in another life But therein lies the great excellency of the doctrine of the souls immortality as it is discovered in the Gospel not only that it comes from him who best understands the nature of souls but is delivered in such a manner as is most effectual for the reformation of mankind For the fullest account herein given of it is by the rewards and punishments of another life and those not Poetically described by Fictions and Romances but delivered with the plainness of truth the gravity of a Law the severity of a Judge the authority of a Law-giver the Majesty of a Prince and the wisdom of a Deity Wherein the happiness described is such as the most excellent minds think it most desirable and the misery so great as all that consider it must think it most intolerable And both these are set forth with so close a respect to the actions of this life that every one must expect in another world according to what he doth in this How is it then possible that the doctrine of the souls being in another state could be recommended with greater advantage to mankind than it is in the Gospel and what is there can be imagined to take off the force of this but the proving an absolute incapacity in the soul of subsisting after death It is true indeed in the state of this intimate union and conjunction between the soul and body they do suffer mutually from each other But if the souls suffering on the account of the body as in diseases of the brain be sufficient to prove there is no soul why may not the bodies suffering on the account of the soul as in violent passions of the mind as well prove that there is no body It is not enough then to prove that the soul doth in some things suffer from the body for so doth the Child in the Mothers womb from the distempers of its Mother yet very capable of living when separated from her but it must be shewed that the soul is not distinct from the body to prove it uncapable of being without it But on the other side I shall now shew that there is nothing unreasonable in what the Scripture delivers concerning the immortal state of the Souls of men as to future rewards and punishments because there are those things now in them considered as distinct from their bodies which make them capable of either of them And those are 1. That they are capable of pleasure and pain distinct from the body 2. That they have power of determining their own actions 1. That the souls of men are capable of pleasure and pain distinct from the pleasure and pain of the body Where-ever pleasure and pain may be there must be a capacity of rewards and punishments for a reward is nothing but the heightning of pleasure and punishment an increase of pain And if there be both these in men of which no account can be given from their bodies there must be a nobler principle within which we call the Soul which is both the cause and the subject of them We may as easily imagine that a Fox should leave his prey to find out a demonâ—tration in Euclid or a Serpent attempt the squaring of the circle in the dust or all the Fables of Aesop to become real Hisâ—ories and the Birds and Beasts turn Wits and Polititians as be able to give an account of those we call pleasures of the mind from the affections of the body The transport of joy which Archimedes was in at the finding out his desired Problem was a more certain evidence of the real pleasures of the mind than the finding it was of the greatness of his wit Could we ever think that men who understood themselves would spend so much time in lines and numbers and figures and examining Problems and Demonstrations which depend upon them if they found not a great delight and satisfaction in the doing of it But whence doth this pleasure arise not from seeing the figures or meer drawing the lines or calculating the numbers but by deducing the just and necessary consequences of one thing from another which would afford no more pleasure to a man without his soul than a Book of Geometry would give to a Herd of Swine It is the Soul alone which takes pleasure in the search and finding out such Truths which can have no kind of respect to the Body it is that which can put the Body out of order with its own pleasures by spending so much time in contemplation as may exhaust the Spirits abate the vigour of the Body and hasten its decay And while that droops and sinks under the burden the Soul may be as vigorous and active in such a consumptive state of the Body as ever it was before the understanding as