all Temptations That Excuse is overthrown by the constant Continuation of the kind Influences of the Holy Ghost We receive not now indeed those miraculous Gifts with which the Apostles were once endued Nor is it necessary that we should receive them Those contribute not directly to the securing of our Salvation which may be equally obtained without them and lost with them All that is necessary all that is convenient for us is yet continued to us The Holy Ghost still diffuseth his inestimable Benefits to the Souls of Men excites them by inward Motions confirms them by his Assistance perfects them by his Graces which least we should doubt that he still plentifully bestoweth on us for want of some external Assurance he hath instituted the Holy Sacraments more particularly the Eucharist as visible Pledges of his Distribution of Grace to all faithful Believers herein bestowing no less a Benefit to the Members of the Church than he did when he formerly descended as upon this day attended with mighty Signs and Miracles with the Gift of Tongues and Cure of Diseases We are assured that altho' any one speak with the tongues of Men and Angels altho' he be able to remove Mountains yet it is possible for him to miscarry and become a cast-away But to him that receiveth this Holy Sacrament worthily to him that bewails his former Sins and seriously endeavours to reform them to him that enters a new into Covenant with God and lays hold of the Merits of his Crucified Saviour in the Participation of these sacred Mysteries to him that herein reconciles himself to Christ his head by a lively Faith and Repentance and to all the Members of the Church by unfeigned Charity it is not possible to miss his desired end the Salvation of his Soul because God who cannot lie hath promised it by his Word and Spirit the Son hath sealed it by his Blood and the Holy Ghost confirmed it as at first by his Descent upon this day so now also by the sensible effects of his Grace which he diffuseth to all worthy Communicants To these three Persons but one God Father Son and Holy Ghost be ascribed all Honour Power and Glory henceforth and for evermore The Second SERMON ON TRINITY-SUNDAY 1689. At LAMBETH CHAPPEL 1 Cor. II. 11. The things of God knoweth no Man but the Spirit of God THE Doctrine of the Holy and Ever-blessed Trinity in Honour of which this Day hath for some Ages been Instituted and Celebrated in the Church is that alone among all the Principles of Christianity which carrieth an undeniable difficulty along with it and hath been always made use of by the Enemies of the Cross to oppose the Revelation of Christ. Other Doctrines such as the Resurrection of the Body Incarnation of the Son of God and such like may appear Incredible but at the same time it cannot be denied that they are possible And when the Motives of Faith are added to them must by all men rightly Judging be allowed to be credible But it is pretended that the Existence of a Trinity of Persons in the same Divine Nature is even contradictory and therefore impossible that it overthroweth the Primary Notions of our Understanding and allowed Principles of Reason Even many Professors of Christianity who acknowledge all the Revelations of Christ to be true and believe him to have acted by a Divine Mission yet Stumble at this Stone of Offence and therefore to avoid it have taken up unwarrantable Opinions plainly repugnant to the whole Tenour of the Gospel as the Arrians of old and Socinians in later Days That we therefore may not be scandalized with the same Difficulties that we may be able to resist the Delusions and even overcome the Prejudices of these Men it will not be amiss to consider as far as we may with Safety and Modesty that Doctrine which is the peculiar business of this Day For altho ' it becomes us not too narrowly to pry into the Secrets of Heaven and rashly determine Matters the cognizance of which belongeth not to us yet since it hath pleased God to reveal this Mystery to Mankind and make it an Article of Faith it now ceaseth to be a Secret of Heaven and it is both our Duty and Concern to enquire into the Credibility of it For the Christian Religion debars us not from a scrupulous search into the Truth of her Doctrines and placeth no Merit in a blind belief of her Propositions It is accepted indeed by God as an act of Obedience and Merit I mean Merit in a large sence to believe his Promises of a Resurrection and eternal Life after Death as it was imputed unto Abraham for Righteousness that trusting in the Promises of God of giving him a better Inheritance in another Land he forsook his own Country and his Father's House although neither we nor he have received the Assurance of those Promises by the Evidence of Sence He had not yet seen the Land of Canaan and we do not yet enjoy the Possession of those Glorious Promises Notwithstanding all this God neither requires nor accepts an irrational Belief in Man but as He at first endued him with reasonable Faculties so He expects he should make use of them to his Glory which is by no other thing so much diminish'd as by affixing to him Revelations repugnant to Reason and including Contradictions and that the Doctrine of the Trinity is not such I will endeavour to manifest as plainly as the obscurity of the Subject will permit The Foundations of my intended Discourse are laid down by the Apostle in the Text and in the Context of it which therefore it will be necessary to explain and therein I desire you to accompany me by looking upon the place The Apostle had in the first eight Verses of this Chapter declared the nature and simplicity of his Preaching and Doctrine that it was not recommended by pompous and affected Ornaments of Rhetorick that it depended not upon Sillogisms and nice Speculations as did that of the Gentile Philosophers who were esteemed the only knowing Men of the Age that the Matters declared by him were not such as might be found out by the natural Light of Reason or when found out were such as would be applauded by the World as extraordinary flights of Speculation They were not the Wisdom of Men nor the Wisdom of this World Ver. 5 and 6. But the Wisdom of God Matters not to be found out by the sole Guidance of Reason but deliver'd by the infallible Revelation of God who had attested the Truth of them by the wonderful effects of his Power and Spirit manifested in the Miracles and successful Preaching of Christ and his Apostles And least it should seem incredible to any that the Matters of Divine Revelation should be inconceivable to Human Reason acting by its own Power he sheweth us in the ninth Verse That this was no more than was foretold by the ancient Prophets whose Veracity was allowed by
without controul dared to reject his Doctrine vilifie his Person and put him to an ignominious Death but now they were to be convinced by uncontestable Proofs from Heaven that his Person was more than Humane his Doctrine Divine and themselves guilty of the most Enormous wickedness in crucifying the Lord of Life The Justice of God the Father had suffered Aspersions in not revenging the Sufferings and rewarding the Labours of his Son But now this was to be cleared and the Jews convinced that neither their Wickedness should pass unpunished nor his Merits unrewarded The Devil had triumphed in his supposed Conquest over Christ and his imagination of having baffled the Design of the Redemption of Mankind by procuring the Author of it to be put to Death but his arrogant Pretensions were henceforth to be checked his Hopes to be defeated his Empire to be dissolved All these Advantages were to flow from the Mission of the Holy Ghost and all these our Lord sums up and Promises in the words of my Text And when he is come he will reprove the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment In which words we may enquire I. In what Sense all these Effects and Advantages are to be ascribed to the Mission of the Holy Ghost II. How far these promised Effects and Advantages of his Mission were performed As to the First the word reproving 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is used in the Text in the Original is taken from judicial Proceedings and signifieth a Confutation of the adverse Party by such Proofs and Testimonies as by an impartial Judge should be allowed to be valid The Office therefore of the Holy Ghost was to be the Paraclet the Advocate of our Saviour upon Earth to plead his Cause to produce these Proofs to urge and propose them to the World There were indeed abundant Proofs before in the Nature of the thing but Proofs are not convictive till laid open declared and proposed This was the Office of the Holy Ghost in this he was to be the Advocate of our Saviour and this he performed by pouring extraordinary Gifts upon the Apostles as on this day which might enable them with Power and Eloquence with Courage and Success to propose those Proofs and convince the world of sin of righteousness and of judgment They were to be the Instruments of this Reproof this Conviction not only by their Gifts received and Labours performed as upon this day but by all their Miracles Sermons and Preaching performed in the whole Course of their Ministry All these Actions were equally directed to the same end the conviction of the World yet all in vertue of those Abilities which they received upon this day All their Gifts and Labours were solely owing to his power and derived from his Grant their Knowledge to his Inspiration their Courage and Constancy to his Support their Speaking to his Impulse their Miracles to his Power their Success to his Blessing So that all which they performed ought truly and properly to be ascribed to him All the Miracles Actions and Prophesies of their Lord before the Mission of the Holy Ghost all the Miracles and Labours of themselves after it were to contribute to the Conviction of the World but all the Efficacy the Application of this Conviction was to proceed solely from the Abilities conferred on them at the time of his Mission And thus the Holy Ghost continueth his Office of Advocate not only during the Apostles times but in all Ages of the Church since those Gifts which he then began to dispense to the Apostles he still continueth to diffuse to the Faithful and by the Efficacy of these Gifts it is that the Church is maintained the Faithful enlivened the Conviction continued He then convinced the World by the Preaching of the Apostles and he now convinceth it by the Preaching of their Successors acted with the same Spirit and by the reading of the Holy Scriptures written by them through his assistance and direction His Gifts indeed conferred on them were far more eminent because more necessary his Administration of the Church in their time more remarkable because manifesting the Completion of many particular Prophesies of our Saviour Upon which account the Promises of this Text were then more eminently fulfilled And that they were so I come next in Order to consider First then the Holy Ghost by his coming reproved or convinced the World of Sin because they believed not on Christ as it follows in the 9. Verse By the World we are here primarily to understand the Jews who notwithstanding all the mighty Signs and Miracles performed by Christ denied Assent to his Doctrine This disbelief of theirs before the Mission of the Holy Ghost our Saviour in many places seems to excuse and pardon and St. Pet. in the III. of the Acts V. 17. extenuates their crucifying the Lord of Life by their Ignorance Which Plea would have been but trifling had not their Ignorance in some measure been excusable but after the Mission of the Holy Spirit to stand out against those manifold Convictions that were then offer'd could be no other than an inexcusable Perverseness and Incredulity Of this we may assign two several Reasons First that although our Lord had in his own Person performed many and those stupendious Miracles yet these affected no other than the Spectators of them For while alive he never blazoned abroad his Miracles nor employed his Disciples in spreading the Report and testifying the Truth of them So that however many particular Persons who were Eye-witnesses of his Miracles could not but be abundantly convinced of his Divinity yet the universal Conviction of the whole Nation of the Jews was to be reserved to the Mission of the Holy Ghost When the Apostles were to be endued with Courage and Power from on high to proclaim his Actions and Doctrines to all Men and if need were to assert the Truth of them by other no less extraordinary Miracles Secondly the chief Note affixed by God whereby to judge of the Truth of any Prophet and particularly of the Messias was the Completion of his Prophesies Thus in Deut. XVIII when Moses assureth the Children of Israel That God should raise them up in the latter days a Prophet like unto himself whom they should be obliged to hear in all things he gives them this Token whereby to judge between the true and any false Messias If the Predictions of him who took upon him the Name and Character of the Messias did really come to pass then they should acknowledge him to be the true Messias The most eminent and almost only Predictions of our Lord which could serve as Signs of this nature to the Jews of that Age were the Mission of the Holy Ghost the Resurrection of himself after three days Imprisonment in the Grave and the Final destruction of Jerusalem before that Generation should pass away The first was happily accomplished upon this day when the Gifts of the Holy Ghost
were poured out upon the Apostles in so illustrious a manner as the Jews could not but take notice of the exact Completion of his Promise of sending the Comforter not many days after his Ascension in such a manner as drew the eyes of all the Inhabitants of Jerusalem both Jews and Strangers upon them and tended no less to demonstrate the Power than the Truth of Christ. The second Prediction indeed that of his Resurrection was fulfilled fifty days before but became not an Argument of Conviction to the Jews till now as being not till now publickly attested by the Apostles who were the Witnesses of it The Report of his Resurrection had been indeed rumoured in Jerusalem which put the Sanhedrim upon that shameful Device of corrupting the Soldiers who guarded his Sepulchre but the certain and publick Knowledge of it was not delivered till the Apostles were enabled and enboldened to proclaim and testifie it to the whole World by those Gifts which they received upon this day After the exact Completion of these Prophesies and the authentick attestation of them no excuse remained to the Jews whereby to extenuate their unbelief according to the Rules laid down by Moses they were now obliged to acknowledge Christ to have been a true Prophet and the true Messias and were convinced of their hainous Sin before commited by them in the Rejection of his Doctrine and Crucifixion of his Person the horror of which Sin might induce them the more readily to believe in Christ and lay hold of his Merits that so they might obtain Remission of it Otherwise they were to expect the most severe Execution of Divine Vengeance for their wilful obstinacy and disbelief as Moses had assured them in the same place Deut. XVIII 19. And it shall come to pass that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name I will require it of him This Sentence and therein the Prophesie of Christ was in a most eminent manner executed and fulfilled in the Destruction and intire Desolation of the whole Nation of the Jews about forty years after the Ascension of our Lord whereby the Apostles and Disciples of our Lord then alive acted by the Holy Ghost were farther enabled invincibly to plead his Cause against the opposition of the unbelieving World both Jews and Gentiles For however the Mission of the Holy Ghost and the Consequences of it did more especially convince of Sin the Jews who were then alive and had been guilty either of rejecting the Preaching or contriving the Death of our Lord yet it contributed no less effectually to manifest the Unreasonableness of all both Jews and Gentiles who either in that or in all Ages to come should reject the Faith of Christ when proposed to them For the Belief of him was to be proposed to all Creatures under Heaven and confirmed by Arguments drawn from hence which were so rational and convictive so clear and demonstrative that they could not be rejected without the most extream Perverseness and if rejected the Holy Ghost should hereby plead the cause of Christ against them and convince the whole World and their own Consciences also if rightly judging that in rejecting the Gospel they had sinned against their own Souls and that nothing remained to them but a certain fearful Expectation of the fiery Judgment to be most justly inflicted on them The second point of which the Comforter was to reprove or convince the World was of Righteousness the reason of which is assigned in the 10th Verse Because I go to my Father and ye see me no more The Justice of God had to the eyes of Men been clouded when he permitted his only begotten Son to be delivered up and crucified by wicked Men when he abandoned him to the Rage of his Enemies and rescued him not from the Insults of the Jews by an extraordinary Interposition from Heaven The Majesty of the Deity seemed then to be eclipsed and suffer diminution when subjected to the Contradiction and Affronts of unreasonable Men. Men naturally expect that God should even in this World declare in behalf of oppressed Innocence either by rescuing it from the Malice of its Enemies or taking a severe Revenge upon the Oppressors of it And even Christians who have a better and more certain Knowledge of the Methods of Providence cannot but expect and are allowed so to do that if no Discrimination be made between the Good and the Bad in this life yet at least that it shall be in the next when Innocence shall be crowned with Rewards which shall be enhanced by Patience in Sufferings and Violence chastised with Punishments which shall be so much the sharper if reserved intire to another World if no part of them be inflicted in this This a faithful Christian expects from the Justice of God and this the Scripture assureth them Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you and to you who are troubled rest 2 Thess. I. 6. And God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour Heb. VI. 10. If then this Justice may be securely hoped for from God by all the Members of Mankind how much more by the Son of God whose Person was of infinite Dignity his Sufferings fraught with the highest Aggravations of Misery and his Persecutors guilty of the most enormous Wickedness That the Justice of God might be therefore vindicated herein that Sin might no longer triumph and Innocence pass unregarded God exalted his Son to his own right hand seated him in the Heavens gave him Dominion over all things crowned him with glory and worship The knowledge of this was published to the World by the Mission of the Holy Ghost by whose Direction and Assistance the Apostles openly testified the Ascension of their Lord and by which all might be convinced what Place and Power Christ now obtained in Heaven who could showre down such glorious Gifts and Priviledges upon his Followers on Earth These were so many undeniable Testimonies that the Malice of his Enemies was defeated that our Lord was yet alive set above their reach and Insults and not only so but invested with supreme Majesty and Dominion able to protect his Church and punish his Enemies that his former Sufferings had not been then more calamitous than his present State was now glorious that if God had for a time withdrawn in appearance his Favour and Protection from his Humane Nature he had now in recompence exalted it to an eternal Throne in Heaven The last thing of which the Comforter was to reprove or convince the World was of Judgment and that for this reason Ver. 11. Because the prince of this world is judged It is a Principle even of Natural Religion that God is the supreme Judge of the World and that of invisible as well as visible Beings The Devil who is frequently in Scripture called the prince of this world had now for many Ages exercised an
of God nor the design of Christs Ministerial Office here on Earth would permit him to expose himself after his Resurrection to the publick View of the unbelieving World As God is the Fountain of all Wisdom it is impossible he should act any thing without just Cause and Reason It is not in the ordinary direction alone of created Beings that he exerts not his Power without just occasion upon which account it hath been long since received as an Axiom in Philosophy that Nature works nothing in vain but also in the dispensation of Spiritual Concerns in founding Methods for the Salvation of Mankind he proceeds by just and adequate Rules exactly fitted to produce the effect intended Fitted I mean to produce that effect if the Will of Man which is herein the Subject of the Divine Operation rejects not wilfully what is intended for its benefit In that case God seeks not other Remedies exceeds not the ordinary Rules of Salvation fix'd by him nor employeth new and more powerful Engines to effect his Design Those he before employed were sufficient and that they should fail of their end is to be ascribed not to their want of Force but to the Wickedness of Man hardening his Mind against receiving the effects of them Thus God giveth to every Man a Power of Acting according to the dictates of Reason of overcoming the violent Motions of his sensual Appetite of resisting all Temptations offered to him If notwithstanding this Man useth not his Free-will aright if he yieldeth to his Passions and embraceth sinful Temptations God doth not by his Almighty Power restrain these sinful Actions or violently over-rule the inordinate Motions of the Will of Man When the Serpent tempted our first Parents God if he had pleased might as well have interposed before their consent to the suggestion of the Serpent in eating the forbidden Fruit as he did afterwards denounce their Punishment and had he done so it is scarce possible to be imagined that they would have dared to transgress yet would it be unreasonable to have required that God should have interposed in such a manner He had given them sufficient strength of Will to maintain their Innocence and having done that justly left them to their own choice Thus also after the Fall of Man God hath granted to Man in vertue of particular Promises and Covenants such a Measure of assisting Grace as may repair the weakness of the Will enervated by that Fall and fully enable him to discharge the several Duties required of him But if neither with this the Will of Man directs if self aright God doth not double treble or multiply his Grace or put a force upon the Will That were not to deal with Man as with a rational Being and to over-rule or force the Will would be to take away the very essence of Good and Bad which consists in the free determination of the Will And as God directs his most wise Methods in relation to the Will of Man so also he acts in relation to his Understanding He hath proposed sufficient Motives of Conviction to every point which he requireth to be believed by Man If he gaineth not assent he proceeds no farther heapeth not one demonstration upon another To apply this to the case of the Resurrection Our Lord in his triennial Preaching before his Crucifixion had offered to the Jews abundant reason to perswade them of the Authority of his Mission by almost daily Miracles by proving that the ancient Prophesies concerning the Messias did clearly belong to his Person by visible declarations from Heaven by his own incomparable Perswasions by the Preaching of John Baptist and his Apostles After so many and evident Arguments produced in vain and rendred ineffectual by the perverseness and unreasonable Prejudices of the Jews Can we think it just to require that God should change his Methods and propose other yet more forcible Arguments Or must we not confess that God had done enough and that to go yet farther were to exceed the bounds of Reason and depress the Majesty of God He had before the Deluge when no such extraordinary Methods of Conviction were employed justly resolved My Spirit shall not always strive with Man And after so many Miracles wrought by Christ so many Revelations conferred on the unbelieving Jews to have still strove with their unbelief by the publick Manifestation of Christ after his Resurrection would have been unnecessary and unreasonable Thus the Wisdom of God was concerned to deny to the unbelieving Jews the personal Conversation of Christ raised from the dead His Justice also may well be thought to have inclined him to the same That People in rejecting the Messias in opposing the evidence of his Doctrine in withstanding the force of his Miracles had committed as great a Sin as the Soul of Man is even capable of had offered as great an affront to the Majesty of God as can possibly be conceived So signal an Impiety deserved a no less eminent Punishment from the Hands of God The visible Execution of which Punishment might be deferred as it was for near forty Years till the total Destruction of their Nation yet other Punishments less visible but no less grievous the Justice of God did immediately inflict and that was In giving them up to their own Hearts Lusts and letting them follow their own Imaginations not offering to them the most undeniable Argument of the Truth of their Messias the Conviction of his Resurrection by their own Senses when they had rejected all those precedent Arguments which would more than have sufficed to convince and inform them if their wicked perverseness had not prevented the Conviction They had by denying belief to the Doctrine of Christ confirmed by so many and such evident Arguments declared themselves to be given up to a reprobate Mind and far from deserving so great a Blessing as the Conversation of the Son of God now raised from the Dead That was a Favour than which a greater could not be granted to the Apostles And then what was given by Christ to his beloved Disciples as a reward of their Faith and Patience could not in Justice be communicated to the worst of Men. Nor doth it extenuate the Guilt of the Jews therein that they proceeded according to their present Judgment and acted upon the Direction of a mistaken Conscience For first it is manifest that many of them opposed him even while inwardly convinced of the Truth of his Mission and the Arguments of it as those did to whom he upbraided the Commission of the Sin against the Holy Ghost And then Conscience simply is not the Rule and Warrant of humane Actions but Conscience directed by right Reason God hath given to Man a faculty of Understanding as well as Will full Power of judging right in all Matters absolutely Necessary as well as of following the report of this Judgment when made He requireth a like right use of both these Faculties and punisheth equally
more having more largely treated of it in my Discourse upon Easter-day which I will not repeat The Nineteenth SERMON Preach'd on June 1st 1690. At LAMBETH CHAPEL Mark XVI 19. So then after the Lord had spoken unto them he was received up into Heaven and sat on the right hand of God WE lately celebrated the Memory of the Ascension of our Lord and the Offices of our Church direct us to employ our thoughts upon it in this intermediate time between that and Whitsunday To do this we are not only induced by that near Relation which it bears to Christ who by it took his last Farewel of his Disciples and entred upon the Possession of his Kingdom but also by those eminent Benefits which the whole Church received from it the Gift of the Holy Ghost the Confirmation of Faith and the increase of Hope In Discoursing of it I will confine my self to these three Considerations I. The necessity and convenience of the Ascension of Christ. II. The Truth of it III. The Advantages and Benefits which we receive by it I. That it was necessary our Lord should leave the Earth and ascend into Heaven himself often declared and in Joh. XVI 7. gives the Primary Reason of it Nevertheless I tell you the truth it is convenient for you that I go away for if I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you but if I depart I will send him unto you The Mission of the Comforter that is the Holy Ghost was absolutely necessary and the necessity of it confessed by the Disciples of Christ yet could not this be effected untill Christ should ascend into Heaven It was convenient for the Apostles that the Comforter should be sent as by whom they received a most invincible Confirmation of their Faith and their Hopes What greater Consolation can be imagined to Disciples afflicted for the Departure of their beloved Lord than to receive such an infallible Assurance of his Being placed in Power and Glory in Heaven as did arise from the eminent Operations of Divine Power brought down by the Holy Ghost at his Intercession What stronger Confirmation of their Faith could they receive than that the Promises of their Master concerning a Comforter were effected which demonstrated the Truth of all he had said the actual Possession of that Glory which was vailed in the Infirmities of his humane Nature while he conversed upon Earth and the Prevalency of his Intercession with God the Father in their behalf What more could be desired to assure them of the continuance of their Masters Love after his Departure or to enable them successfully to discharge that Office of converting an unbelieving World which was imposed on them than that such Gifts should be conferred on them as were never before vouchsafed unto Mankind the knowledge of all Tongues the Faculty of speaking Eloquently and Boldly and the Power of working Miracles All these Reasons made it convenient and desirable to the Apostles that the Comforter should be sent unto them To the whole Church this was much more necessary which without that Mission could never have had Existence being founded and maintained by those Divine Gifts and Influences which were derived from thence Yet neither could the Apostles nor the Church have been Blessed with this so necessary so often Promised and so much to be desired Mission of the Holy Ghost had not our Lord first ascended into Heaven and there by his Power and Intercession have procured it The Comforter as he was to be the Advocate the Deputy to plead the Cause of Christ on Earth could not naturally take place but in his Absence and the very Mission of him as it was an Act of Regal Power could not be administred by Christ until he had taken Possession of his Kingdom which commenced at his Ascension into Heaven Nor is this the only Reason which made it convenient for the Church that our Lord should remove his visible Presence from us but the Possibility at least the increase of Man's Reward did depend upon it The Design of the coming of the Messias so long expected was known and confessed to be to restore the lost Happiness of Mankind to redeem them from their former Misery and to advance them to a State of Glory In prosecution of this Design if we consider either the Wisdom of God or the Nature of Man it could not but be expected that this Happiness should be affixed to certain Rules consequent to certain Conditions to be performed by Man not indifferently bestowed on all nor yet on any without Respect to their peculiar Merits The Application of it was to be directed and determined according to the right use of Reason and Free-will in every Man The whole of this consists in Obedience to the Laws of God and one great Branch of it in assenting to his Authority and believing all his Revelations And as an Assent to all the Revelations of God made at all times was the Duty of Man so more especially an Assent to those last and most considerable Revelations made by his own Son incarnate was required of Man and was farther intended to qualifie him for the Reception of that super-natural Happiness which was by him to be conveyed unto the World Since no greater Evidence of a right use of Reason and Veneration of the Divine Majesty could be offered than to inquire after to Assent to and obey the Revelations communicated by him It would be tedious and unnecessary to repeat those great Commendations of this eminent Act of right Reason call'd Faith and those many Promises of Reward annexed to it which may be found in the Scripture But from the whole it appeareth that this was to be the principal Condition of the Justification and therein of the Happiness of Man That this Act therefore might be the more Illustrious and might be Crowned with a more noble Reward it was convenient that Christ should withdraw his visible Presence from the World and therein give way to the Operation of Faith which is the Evidence of things not seen Had Christ continued for ever upon Earth in that glorious Majesty which was to take place after his Resurrection had he presented to the Senses of every Man sensible Demonstrations of his Divine Power in that Case to have believed on him would have been no more praise worthy no more meritorious than to assent to the ordinary Reports of Sense Who ever pretended to have acquired Merit by believing an Axiom of Mathematical Demonstrations Or who ever thought it an Argument of a true and just â—anagement of the Will and Understanding to believe that one Colour differeth from another or that the Sun doth shine These things strike our Senses and force a Belief whether we will or no in this Case to offend while the Soul enjoys its Reason and the Body the Organs of Sense is not so much as possible To have believed the Divinity of Christ while the Sense of an illustrious
add that he shall return in like manner as they saw him go that is in Power and great Glory as our Lord describeth his coming to Judgment Matth. XIII 26. It will be of little use to inquire into what part of the Heavens the Body of our Lord was translated yet not unfit to observe that our Lord is said to have ascended into those Heavens by which the most glorious Presence of the Divine Majesty is in Scripture expressed Thus it is said of him Ephes. IV. 10. He that descended is the same also that ascended far above all Heavens and Hebr. VII 10. That he was higher than the Heavens and Heb. IX 12. passing into the holy place even into Heaven it self to appear before the Presence of God that is he was advanced to the same state of Glory with God the Father his Body was translated to the place of his more immediate Presence in Heaven which is fully expressed by his sitting at the right hand of God To determine the place whether in the third in the fourth or above the Heavens is rash and unwarrantable But this we may be assured that whatsoever part of Heaven is the immediate residence of the Divine Majesty whatsoever Region is most Holy whatsoever Place is of greatest Dignity in those Celestial Orbs thither Christ ascended and there now Reigns in Glory III. The Advantages which the Church and all the Members of it received from the Ascension of Christ are many and great The first and most eminent Benefit derived from it was the Mission of the Holy Ghost of which I spoke before A Benefit which was indeed more sensible in the Apostolick times when it communicated to many the gift of Tongues the power of working Miracles or a prophetick Spirit but is at this day no less advantageous since by the Influences and Operations of the Holy Ghost the Church is still maintained the Faithful are enabled to perform their Duty and the unfaithful are converted Thus the Ascension of Christ became a lasting Benefit to all his Followers procuring to them those Graces which otherwise could never have been obtained The Ascension of Elijah made one Elisha left a double Portion of his Spirit with one Disciple to be communicated to no other but the Ascension of Christ was of universal Benefit producing blessed Effects which should extend to all Believers and to all Ages A second Benefit of the Ascension of our Lord is the Confirmation of our Faith which from thence received firm Assurance of the truth of his Doctrine and the Divinity of his Person He had proclaimed to the unbelieving Jews as well as to his own Disciples in the VI. of St. John that he would ascend into Heaven What and if ye shall see the Son of Man ascend up where he was before After his Resurrection he said unto the Women Go to my brethren and say unto them I ascend unto my Father and your Father It was not therefore unexpected to the Apostles they were acquainted with his Resolutions herein and when they faw effected what he had before foretold them they could no longer doubt that he was the true Messias Thus although the prophetical Office of our Lord expired upon the Cross all his subsequent Actions offered convincing Arguments to Mankind of the truth of his Mission and the certainty of those things he taught No greater Proof of either could be imagined than his Resurrection from the Dead and when to this was added his Ascension into Heaven there was no more place left for doubt Thus the Faith of the Apostles was confirmed by the Ascension of Christ but their Hopes were much more exalted By this glorious Triumph they saw him put into Possession of that ample Power which they so long wished to be assumed by him which might enable him to reward his Followers and effect those Promises which he had made to them In John XIV he had told them there were many Mansions in his Fathers house and that he went before to prepare a place for them intending to receive them afterwards to himself that where he was there they might be also The former part of the Promise they saw to be effected in his Ascension and thence conceived assured Hope that the latter would be accomplished There can be no greater Motive to believe the truth of Prophecies or Promises than to consider the performance of those which went before The same foreknowledge of our Lord which foresaw the Exaltation of himself could as easily foresee the like Reward to be given to his Followers and the same Power which advanced him to the right hand of God could exalt whomsoever he pleased into Heaven So that his Power could not be questioned and his Will therein he had often declared assuring them Joh. XII 32. When I am lifted up from the Earth I will draw all Men unto me Herein the Hopes of all Mankind received increase and strength They had all impatiently wished for Immortality it was easie to believe that their Souls should still exist but their Bodies were equally parts of themselves They were equally concerned for the future Happiness of both yet that either should be hereafter Happy they were assured only by the Revelation of Christ. He affirmed it he promised it he confirmed it by wonderful Signs and Miracles yet it could not but seem strange that Flesh and Blood should inherit the Kingdom of God that such a gross corporeal Being should be admitted to the Society of Angels that Man who was excluded from an Earthly Paradise should be taken up to the immediate Presence of God All this did seem incredible till they saw an Example of it in the Body of Christ which consisting of the same Flesh and Blood partaking of the same Nature was visibly received into Heaven and placed in eternal Happiness By this they were convinced that the like Immortality of their own Bodies was not impossible and while they considered the Promises of Christ and their own Relation to him that he was the first Fruits of humane Nature their forerunner which is entred into Heaven for them the Captain of their Salvation and the Head of their Society they were fully satisfied that it should in time be granted to them since what he foretold of his own Ascension they saw effected since it was but natural to follow their Captain their Head and their Forerunner and with him to be received into the place of their desired Happiness Farther as Christ is our King and our Priest the Benefits which we hope to receive from either of those his Offices received increase by his Ascension into Heaven As King he is thereby invested in the actual Dominion of his Church enabled to bestow upon her all those Graces and extraordinary Assistances which are necessary for her Well-being As our Priest his Intercessions with God the Father in our behalf are made much more prevalent by his personal Presence with him Under the Law the Efficacy of
by his Enemies into extreme danger of Death which he commonly expresseth by the same or the like words as Psal. XVIII 4. The sorrows of death compassed me and Verse 5. The sorrows of hell compassed me about and Psal. CXVI 3. The sorrows of death compassed me the pains of Hell gat hold upon me Yet trusting in the Promises of God amidst all these Calamities he rested assured of Deliverance and expresseth his Confidence of it in the words cited by the Apostle in the following Verses My flesh shall rest in hope because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see Corruption It was a Matter at that time received and on all hands granted by the Jews that David was a Type of the Messias that his Actions Sufferings and Deliverance prefigured the Office the Death and Resurrection of Christ who should descend from him and particularly the Apostle sheweth how this Passage was much more evidently and literally fulfilled in Christ than in David He indeed was delivered from his Enemies and died in Peace yet die he did and after Death his soul was left in hell that is among the Dead or in the place of departed Souls and his Body did see Corruption having been buried many hundred years But as for Christ he died indeed yet his soul was not left in hell neither did his Body see Corruption His Soul was presently reunited to the Body and even during the Separation not left by the Divine Nature which still continued to be joyned to it neither was his Body corrupted but raised up and united to the Soul in less than forty hours in which time the Bodies of deceased Men are wont to be corrupted According to the second Interpretation Christ was raised from a painful Death to an opposite State to a condition of Glory Happiness Power and Immortality The Sufferings of our Lord so lively described to us in the Holy Offices of the last week we cannot forget and over all these he eminently triumphed in his Resurrection upon this day He was then made subject to Death but is now become the Lord of life and set above the reach of Death For Christ being raised from the Dead dieth no more Death hath no more Dominion over him Rom. VI. 9. He then bore the wrath of God for the sake of Man He now dispenseth the Favours of God granted to Men. He was then subjected to the Contradiction of Sinners to the Will of his own Creatures appeared as the vilest of Men suffered as a Malefactor he is now entred upon his Kingdom raised above the Earth seated at the right hand of God Angels and Authorities and Powers being made subject unto him 1 Pet. III. 22. The words explained in their third Sense infer the overthrow of the Power and Dominion of Death effected by the Resurrection of Christ. The whole Design of our Lords Incarnation of his Death Burial and Resurrection was as it is expressed Hebr. II. 14. That he might destroy him that had the power of Death that is the Devil To do this all the parts of his Life contributed He converted Sinners from the Error of their way He confuted the Mistakes of the seduced World He founded a Church wherein open Enmity should be professed to the Devil He took upon himself the guilt of Death due to the sins of Men and all this Dispensation he gloriously finished in his Resurrection Therein he literally broke the bonds of Death he led Captivity Captive baffled the opposition and triumphed over all the Assaults of the Devil who had vainly imagined that by procuring the ever Blessed Jesus to be given up into the hands of wicked Men he had put an end to the Salvation of Mankind But to our eternal Happiness and to the Glory of our Redeemer his Designs and Attempts promoted that very end which he so much dreaded he knew not that it was the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God as it is in the precedent Verse that Christ should both die and rise again to perfect our Salvation that he was for a while to be subject to Death but that it was impossible he should be holden of it III. This was the third thing proposed to Discourse of that it was not possible that Christ should continue in the state of Death The Apostle foundeth the impossibility of it in this place upon the Determination of God to the contrary so that here it was not possible is no more than it was not Consonant to the decree of God it was not fit just or convenient as it is said Matth. IX It is not possible for the Children of the Bride-Chamber to mourn as long as the Bridegroom is with them that is it is not fit or convenient In this Sense then I shall consider it and 1. It was not possible or convenient that Christ should be holden of death because he was both God and Man the Divine was united to his Humane Nature It would have appeared surprizing to our Reason and been an Argument of little affection of God to Mankind if he should have suffered that very Body which had the Honour to be joyned to his own Nature wherein the fullness of the Godhead dwelled bodily to continue in Hell in the common state of Mortality or to see Corruption It was not possible that the Divinity should suffer that Nature to be corrupted or lye neglected among the Dead to which it self continued to be united even in the Grave This we of the Catholick Church do believe and if any should oppose this wonderful Union of the Divine and Humane Nature in the person of Christ his very Resurrection will convince their Error For to raise a dead Body to Life again must be allowed to be no less than the work of Omnipotence that it can be effected by God alone Yet it appeareth from the express words of Scripture that Christ had Power to raise up his own Body He saith of himself to the Jews John II. 19. Destroy this Temple and in three days I will raise it up Speaking of the Temple of his Body as the Evangelist subjoyns And again John X. 18. No Man taketh my Life from me but I lay it down of my self I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again Our Lord who came into the World to do the Will of his Father and to glorifie him would never have claimed this Power had it not been inherent in himself He therefore by his own Power reunited his Soul to his Body I mean not in Exclusion to the other persons of the Blessed Trinity who all concurred therein For Power being an essential Attribute of the Divine Nature continueth undivided in the Persons of it And therefore it is no Objection against the Truth of this that the Father is said in many places of the New Testament to have raised up his Son since he is the chief Person in that Blessed Trinity