something although 't is rather a Twilight than clear But when 't is brought from the narrow sphere of things sensible to contemplate the immensity of things Spiritual and Supernatural its light declines and is turn'd into darkness 2. The Pride of the Humane Understanding which disdains to stoop to the height of these mysteries 'T is observable that those who most excell'd in Natural Wisdom were the greatest despisers of Evangelical Truths The proud Wits of the World chose rather to be Masters of their own than Scholars to another They made Reason their Supreme Rule and Philosophy their highest Principle and would not believe what they could not comprehend They derided Christians as captives of a blind Belief and their Faith as the effect of Folly and rejected Revelation the only means to conveigh the knowledg of Divine Mysteries to them Therefore the Apostle by way of upbraiding enquires Where is the wise man Where is the Scribe Where is the Disputer of this world God hath made the wisdome of the world foolishness As those who are really poor and would appear rich in the Pomp of their Habits and Attendants are made poorer by that expence so those who were destitute of true Wisdom and would appear wise in making Reason the Judg of Divine Revelation and the last resolution of all things by that false affectation of Wisdom they became more foolish By all their Disputes against the appearing absurdities of the Christian Religion they were brought into a more learned Darkness 3. The prejudices which arose from Sensual Lusts hindered the Belief of the Gospel As the carnal Understanding rebels against the sublimity of its Doctrine so the carnal Appetite against the purity of its Precepts And according to the Dispositions of Men from whence they act such light they desire to direct them in acting The Gospel is a Mystery of Godliness and those who are under the love of Sin cherish an affected Ignorance lest the Light should enflame Conscience by representing to them the deadly guilt that cleaves to Sin and thereby make it uneasie This account our Saviour gives of the Infidelity of the world That men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil And that this was the real cause what ever was pretended is clear in that the Gentiles who opposed Christ adored those impure Deities whose infamous Lusts were acknowledged by them And with what colour then could they reject our Redeemer because crucified As if Vice were not more incompatible with the Deity than Sufferings Now though Reason enslav'd by prejudice and corrupted by Passion despises the Gospel yet when 't is enlightned by Faith it discovers such a wise oeconomy in it that were it not true it would transcend the most noble created Mind to invent it 'T is so much above our most excellent Thoughts that no Humane Understanding would ever attempt to feign it with confidence of persuading the world into a Belief of it How is it possible that it should be contriv'd by natural Reason since no man can believe it sincerely when 't is reveal'd without a supernatural Faith To confirm our Belief of these great and saving Mysteries I will shew how just it is that the Understanding should resign itself to Divine Revelation which hath made them known In order to this we must consider 1. There are some Doctrines in the Gospel the Understanding could not discover but when they are reveal'd it hath a clear apprehension of them upon a rational account and sees the characters of Truth visibly stampt on their Forehead As the Doctrine of Satisfaction to Divine Justice that Pardon might be dispens'd to repenting Sinners For our natural conception of God includes his infinite Purity and Justice And when the design of the Gospel is made known whereby he hath provided abundantly for the honour of those Attributes so that He doth the greatest Good without encouraging the least Evil Reason acquiesces and acknowledges this I sought but could not find Now although the primary Obligation to believe such Doctrines ariseth from Revelation yet being ratified by Reason they are embraced with more Clearness by the Mind 2. There are some Doctrines which as Reason by its light could not discover so when they are made known it cannot comprehend but they are by a clear and necessary connexion joyn'd with the other that Reason approves As the Mystery of the Trinity and the Incarnation of the Son of God which are the Foundations of the whole work of our Redemption The Nature of God is repugnant to Plurality there can be but one Essence and the nature of Satisfaction requires a distinction of Persons for he that suffers as guilty must be distinguish'd from the person of the Judg that exacts Satisfaction and no meer Creature is able by his obedient sufferings to repair the Honour of God so that a Divine Person assuming the Nature of Man was alone capable to make that satisfaction which the Gospel propounds and Reason consents to Besides 't is clear that the Doctrine of the Trinity that is of three glorious Relations in the Godhead and of the Incarnation are most firmly connected with all the parts of the Christian Religion left in the Writings of the Apostles which as they were confirmed by Miracles the Divine Signatures of their certainty so they contain such authentick marks of their Divinity that right Reason cannot reject them 3. Whereas there are three Principles by which we apprehend things Sense Reason and Faith these lights have their different objects that must not be confounded Sense is confin'd to things material Reason considers things abstracted from matter Faith regards the Mysteries revealed from Heaven and these must not transgress their order Sense is an incompetent judg of things about which Reason is only conversant It can only make a report of those objects which by their natural characters are exposed to it And Reason can only discourse of things within its sphere Supernatural things which derive from Revelation and are purely the objects of Faith are not within its territories and jurisdiction Those Superlative Mysteries exceed all our intellectual Abilities 'T is true the Understanding is a rational Faculty and every act of it is really or in appearance grounded on Reason But there is a wide difference between the proving a Doctrine by Reason and the giving a reason why we believe the truth of it For instance we cannot prove the Trinity by natural Reason and the subtilty of the Schoolmen who affect to give some reason of all things is here more prejudicial than advantageous to the Truth For he that pretends to maintain a point by Reason and is unsuccessful doth weaken the credit which the Authority of Revelation gives And 't is considerable that the Scripture in delivering supernatural truths produce God's Authority as their only proof without using any other way of arguing But although we cannot demonstrate these Mysteries by Reason yet we may give
infinitly above the ordinary course of Nature The Maxims of Philosophy are not to be extended to Him We must adore what we cannot fully understand But those things are against Reason and utterly inconceivable that involve a contradiction and have a natural repugnancy to our Understandings which cannot conceive any thing that is formally impossible And there is no such Doctrine in the Christian Religion 2. We must distinguish between Reason corrupted and right Reason Since the Fall the clearness of the Humane Understanding is lost and the light that remains is eclipsed by the interposition of sensual lusts The carnal Mind cannot out of Ignorance and will not from Pride and other malignant habits receive things spiritual And from hence ariseth many suspicions and doubts concerning supernatural Verities the shadows of darkned Reason and of dying Faith If any Divine Mystery seems incredible 't is from the corruption of our Reason not from Reason it self from its darkness not its light And as Reason is obliged to correct the Errors of Sense when 't is deceived either by some vicious quality in the organ or by the distance of the object or by the falsness of the medium that corrupts the image in conveying of it So 't is the office of Faith to reform the judgment of Reason when either from its own weakness or the height of things Spiritual 't is mistaken about them For this end supernatural Revelation was given not to extinguish Reason but to redress it and enrich it with the discovery of Heavenly things Faith is called Wisdom and Knowledg it doth not quench the vigour of the Faculty wherein 't is seated but elevates it and gives it a spiritual preception of those things that are most distant from its commerce It doth not lead us through a mist to the inheritance of the Saints in light Faith is a rational Light For 1. It arises from the consideration of those Arguments which convince the Mind that the Scripture is a Divine Revelation I know saith the Apostle whom I have believed And we are commanded Alwaies to be ready to give an account of the hope that is in us Those that owe their Christianity meerly to the Felicity of their Birth without a sight of that transcendent excellency in our Religion which evidences that it came from Heaven do not believe aright As the Eye that is clouded with a Suffusion so that all things appear yellow to it when it judges things to be yellow that are so its judgment is vitious Because it proceeds not from the quality of the object but from its own indisposition So those that believe the Gospel upon a false Principle because 't is the Religion of their Country though in its self the word of Truth yet they are not right Believers 'T is not Judgment but Chance that enclines them to embrace it The Turks upon the same reason are zealous votaries of Mahomet as they are Disciples of Christ. 2. Faith makes use of Reason to consider what Doctrines are revealed in the Scripture and to deduce those Consequences which have a clear connexion with supernatural Principles Thus Reason is an excellent instrument to distinguish those things which are of a Divine Original from what is spurious and counterfeit For sometimes that is pretended to be a Mystery of Religion which is only the fruit of Fancy and that is defended by the sacred respect of Faith that Reason ought not to violate which is but a groundless imagination so that we remain in an Error by the sole apprehensions of falling into one as those that die for fear of Death The Bereans are commended for their searching the Scriptures whether the Doctrines they heard were consentaneous to them But 't is a necessary Duty that Reason how stiff soever should fully comply with God where it appears reasonable that He hath spoken Briefly The richest Ornament of the Creature is Humility and the most excellent effect of it is the sense of the weakness of our Understanding This is the temper of Soul that prepares it for Faith partly as it puts us on a serious consideration of those things which are reveal'd to us in the Word Infidelity proceeds from the want of consideration and nothing hinders that so much as Pride Partly as it stops all curious enquiries into those things which are unsearchable and principally as it entitles to the Promise God will instruct and give Grace to the humble The knowledg of Heaven as well as the Kingdom of Heaven is the inheritance of the poor in spirit A greater progress is made in the knowledg and belief of these Mysteries by humble Prayer than by the most anxious study As at Court an hour of Favour is worth a years attendance Man cannot acquire so much as God can give And as Humility so Holiness prepares the Soul for the receiving of Supernatural Truths The Understanding is clarified by the purification of the Heart 'T is not the difficulty and obscurity of things reveal'd that is the real cause of Infidelity since men believe other things upon far less Evidence but 't is the prejudice of the lower Faculties that hinders them When all Affections to sin are mortified the Soul is in the best disposition to receive Divine Revelation He that doth the will of God shall know whether the Doctrine of the Gospel came from Heaven The Spirit of God is the alone Instructer of the Spirit of Man in these Mysteries so as to produce a Saving Belief of them That Knowledg is more clear and satisfying that we have by his Teaching than by our own Learning The Rational Mind may discern the Literal Sense of the Propositions in the Gospel and may yield a naked assent to the truth of them but without supernatural irradiation by the Spirit of Life there can be no transforming and saving Knowledg and Belief of them And as the vast expansion of Air that is about us doth not preserve Life but that part which we breath in so 't is not the compass of our Knowledg and Belief though it were equal to the whole revealed Will of God that is vital to the Soul but that which is practised by us The Apostle saith Though he had the understanding of all Mysteries and all Knowledg and all Faith yet if it were not joyned with Love the Principle of Obedience it were unprofitable There is the same difference between the Speculative Knowledg of these Mysteries and that which is Affectionate and Operative as between the wearing of Pearls for Ornament and the taking of them as a Cordial to revive the fainting spirits In short Such a Belief is required as prevails upon the Will and draws the Affections and 〈◊〉 the whole Man obsequious to the Gospel For 〈◊〉 a Faith is alone answerable to the quality of the Revelation The Gospel is not a meer Narrative but a Promise Christ is not represented only as an innocent Person dying but as the Son
person For Felicity is the pleasure which arises 〈◊〉 the harmonious agreement between the Object and the Appetite Now Man by his original and contracted corruption is altogether carnal he inherits the Serpents curse to creep on the earth he cleaves to defiling and debasing objects and is only qualified for sensual satisfactions The Soul is incarnated and it shapes a Happiness to it self in the enjoyment of those things which are delicious to the Senses The shadow of felicity is pursued with equal ardour as that which is real and substantial The supreme part of Man the Understanding is employ'd to serve the lower Faculties Reason is used to make him more ingenious and luxurious in Sensuality So much more brutish than the Brutes is he become when besides that part which is so by its natural conditions the most noble part is made so by unnatural choice and corruption From hence the Apostle gives an universal Character of Men in their corrupt state That they are foolish and disobedient deceived serving divers lusts and pleasures This pursuit of Sensual pleasure is the service of a Slave which hath no other Law of his Life but the Will of his Master The Servitude is divers but all are Slaves the chains are not the same some are more glittering but not less weighty and every one is deprived of true Liberty But the Bondage is so pleasing that corrupted Man prefers it before spiritual and real Freedom Sensual Lusts blind the Understanding and bind the Will so that he is unable because unwilling to rescue himself He is deluded with the false appearance of Liberty and imagines that to live according to Rule is a slavish Confinement As if the Horse were free because his Rider allowes him a full career in a pleasant Road when the bridle is in his mouth and he is under its imperious check at pleasure Or a Galley-slave were free because the Vessel wherein he rows with so much toil roams over the vast Ocean And whereas there are two Considerations which are proper to convince Man that the full and unconfin'd enjoyment of Worldly things cannot make him happy because they are wounding to the Conscience and unsatisfying to the Affections yet these are ineffectual to take him off from an eager pursuit of them I will particularly consider this to shew how unable Man in his lapsed condition is to disintangle himself from miserable vanities and consequently to recover his lost Holiness 1. Sensual Pleasures are wounding to the Conscience There is a secret acknowledgment in every Mans breast of a Superiour Power to whom he must give an account and though Conscience is much impair'd in its Integrity yet somtimes it recoils upon the Sinner by the foulness of his actions and its testimony brings such terrour as makes Sin very unpleasant The Poet tells us that of all the Torments of Hell the most cruel and that which exceeds the rest is Nocte dieque suum gestare in pectore testem And how can the Sinner delight freely in that which vexes and frets the most vital and tender part He cannot enjoy his charming Lusts without guilt nor embrace them without the reluctancy of a contradicting Principle within him As the fear of Poison will imbitter the sweetest Cup so the purest Pleasures are allayed with afflicting apprehensions of the future and the presage of Judgment to come Now Man in his Sensual state tries all waies to disarm Conscience that he may please the lower appetites without regret I will instance in the principal 1. He uses many pleas and pretexts to justifie or extenuate the evil and if possible to satisfie carnality and Conscience too Self-love which is the eloquent advocate of Sence puts a varnish upon Sin to take off from its horrid appearance and endeavors not only to colour the object but to corrupt the Eye by a disguising tincture that the sight of things may not be according to truth but the desire Thus the Heathens allowed Intemperance Uncleanness and other infamous Vices as innocent gratifications of Nature Now if the Principles in Man are poisoned so that evil is esteemed good he then lives in the quiet practice of Sin without reflection or remorse There is no sting remains to awaken him out of Security But if he cannot so far bribe Conscience as to make it silent or favourable to that which delights the Sence if he cannot escape its internal condemnation the next method is by a strong diversion to lessen the trouble 2. When the carnal Mind sees nothing within but what torments and finds an intollerable pain in conversing with it self it runs abroad and uses all the arts of oblivion to lose the remembrance of its true state As Cain to drown the voice of Conscience fell a building Cities and Saul to dispel his Melancholy call'd for Musick The business and pleasures of this life are dangerous amusements to divert the Soul by the representation of what is profitable or pleasant from considering the moral qualities of good and evil Thus Conscience like an intermitting Pulse ceases for a while Miserable consolation which doth not remove but conceal the evil till it be past remedy But if Conscience notwithstanding all these evasions still pursues a Sinner and at times something disturbs his reason and his rest yet he will not part with carnal Pleasures For being only acquainted with those things that affect the Senses having no relish of that Happiness which is sublime and supernatural if he parts with them he is deprived of all delight which is to him a state more intollerable than that wherein there is a mixture of delight and torment From hence it appears that the interposition of Conscience though with a flaming sword between Man carnal and his beloved objects is not effectual to restrain him 2. All worldly things are unsatisfying to the Affections There are three Considerations which depreciate and lessen the value of any good 1. The shortness of its duration 2. If it brings only a slight pleasure 3. If that pleasure be attended with torments All which are contrary to the essential properties of the supreme Good which is perpetual and sincere without the least mixture of evil and produces the highest delight to the Soul Now all these concur to vilifie worldly things 1. They are short in their duration Not only the voice of Heaven but of the Earth declares this That all flesh is grass and the glory of it as the flower of the grass Life the foundation of all Temporal enjoyments is but a Span The longest Liver can measure in a thought the space of time between his Infant-state and the present hour how long soever it seems as short to him as the twinkling of an eye And all the glory of the flesh as Titles Treasures Delights are as the flower of the grass which is the most tender amongst Vegetables and of so weak a subsistance that a little breath of Wind the hand of an Infant the
teeth of a Worm can destroy it The pleasures of Sin under which Secular Greatness and Wealth are comprehended are but for a season They are so short liv'd that they expire in the birth and die whilst they are tasted Again they bring only a slight pleasure being disproportionable to the desires of the Soul They are confin'd to the Senses wherein the Beasts are more accurate than Man but can't reach to the upper and more comprehensive Faculties Nay they cannot satisfie the greedy Senses much less quiet the spiritual and immortal Appetite What the Poet speaks with astonishment of Alexander's insatiable Ambition Aestuat infelix angusto limite mundi That the whole World seem'd to him as a narrow Prison wherein he was miserable and as it were suffocated is true of every one If the World was seated in the Heart of Man it can no more satisfie it than the Picture of a Feast can fill the Stomach Besides vexation is added to the vanity of worldly things And that either because the vehement delights of Sense corrupt the temperament of the Body in which the vital complexion consists and expose it to those sharp Diseases that it may be said without an Hyperbole That a thousand Pleasures are not equal to one Hours pain that attends them or because of the inward torture of the Mind arising from the sence of Guilt and Folly which is the anticipation of Hell it self the beginning of eternal Sorrows Now these things are not obscure Articles of Faith nor abstracted Doctrines to be consider'd only by refined Reason but are manifest and clear as the Light and verified by continual Experience 'T is therefore strange to amazement that Man should search after Happiness in these things where he knows 't is not to be found and court real Infelicity under a deceitful appearance when the Fallacy is transparent Who from a principle of Reason would choose for his Happiness a real Good which after a little time he should be depriv'd of for ever or a slight good for ever as the sight of a Picture or the hearing of Musick Yet thus unreasonable is Man in his lapsed state whose Soul is truely immortal and capable of infinite Blessedness yet he chooses those delights which are neither satisfying nor lasting And because the Humane Understanding from time to time is convinc'd of the vanity of all sublunary things therefore to lessen the vexation which arises from Disappointment and that the Appetite may not be taken off from them corrupted Man tries 1. By variety of objects to preserve uniformity in Delight The most pleasing if confin'd to them grow nauseous and insipid after the expiring of a few moments there remains nothing but satiety and sickly resentments and then changes are the remedies to take off the weariness of one pleasure by another The Humane Soul is under a perpetual instability of restless desires it despises what it enjoyes and values what is new as if Novelty and Goodness were the same in all temporal things And as the Birds remain in the Air by constant motion without which they would quickly fall to the Earth as other heavy bodies there being nothing solid to support them so the Spirit of Man by many unquiet agitations and continual changes subsists for a time till at last it falls into Discontent and Despair the center of corrupt Nature 2. When present things are unsatisfactory he entertains himself with Hope for that being terminated on a future Object which is of a doubtful nature the Mind attends to those Arguments which produce a pleasant belief to find that in several objects which it cannot in any single one and to make up in number what is wanting in measure whereas the present is manifest and takes away all liberty of thinking Upon this ground Sensual Pleasure is more in expectation than fruition For Hope by a marvellous enchantment not only makes that which is future present but representing in one view that which cannot be enjoyed but in the intervals of time it unites all the successive parts in one point so that what is divided and lessen'd in the fruition which is alwaies gradual is offer'd at once and entire Thus Man carnal deceived by the imperfect light of Fancy and the false glass of Hope chooses a fictitious felicity Man walks in a vain shew His original Errour hath produced this in its own image And although the complacency he takes in sensual objects is like the joy of a distracted Person the issue of folly and illusion and Experience discovers the deceit that is in them as smelling to an artificial Rose undeceives the Eye yet he will embrace his Error Man is in a voluntary Dream which represents to him the World as his Happiness and when he is awakened he dreams again choosing to be deceiv'd with delight rather than to discover the truth without it This is set forth by the Prophet Thou art wearied in the greatness of thy way yet saidst thou not there is no hope that is Thou art tired in the chase of satisfaction from one thing to another yet thou wouldst not give over but still pursuest those shadows which can never be brought nearer to thee And the true reason of it is that in the humane Nature there is an intense and continual desire of Pleasure without which Life itself hath no satisfaction For Life consisting in the operations of the Soul either the external of the Senses or the internal of the Mind 't is sweetned by those delights which are suitable to them So that if all pleasant operations cease without possibility of returning Death is more desireable than Life And in the corrupt state there is so strict an alliance between the Flesh and Spirit that there is but one appetite between them and that is of the flesh All the Designs and Endeavors of the carnal Man are by fit means to obtain satisfaction to his Senses as if the Contentment of the Flesh and the Happiness of the Soul were the same thing or as if the Soul were to die with the Body and with both all Hopes and Fears all Joys and Sorrows were at an end The Flesh is now grown absolute and hath acquir'd a perfect Empire and taken a full possession of all the Faculties For this reason the Apostle tells us They that are in the Flesh cannot please God And the carnal will is enmity against God 't is not subject neither can it be 'T is insnar'd in the cords of Concupiscence and cannot recover it self from its foolish bondage But that doth not lessen the guilt which will appear by considering there is a twofold Impotence 1. There is a natural Impotence which protects from the severity of Justice No Man is bound to stop the Sun in its course or to remove Mountains For the humane Nature was never endued with Faculties to do those things They are inculpably without our power Now the Law enjoins nothing but what Man
the Eternal Son who was in the form of God who was equal to Him in Majesty and Authority without Sacriledg or Usurpation he emptied himself by assuming the Humane Nature in its servile state The Word was made Flesh the meanest part is specified to signifie the greatness of his abasement There is such an infinite distance between God and flesh that the condescension is as admirable as the contrivance So great was the malignity of our Pride for the cure of which such a profound Humility was requisite By this he destroyed the first work of the Devil 6. The Wisdom of God appears in ordaining such contemptible and in appearance opposite means to accomplish such glorious effects The Way is as wonderful as the Work That Christ by dying on the Cross a reputed Malefactor should be made our eternal Righteousness that descending to the grave He should bring up the lost World to Life and Immortality is so incredible to our narrow Understandings that He saves us and astonishes us at once And in nothing 'tis more visible That the Thoughts of God are as far above our thoughts and his ways above our ways as Heaven is above the Earth 'T is a secret in Physick to compound the most noble Remedies of things destructive to Nature and thereby make one Death victorious over another But that Eternal Life should spring from Death Glory from Ignominy Blessedness from a Curse is so repugnant to Humane Sense that to render the belief of it easie 't was foretold by many Prophesies that when it came to pass it might be lookt on as the effect of God's eternal Counsel The Apostle tels us that Christ crucified was to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Gentiles foolishness The grand Sophies of the world esteemed it absurd and unreasonable to believe that He who was exposed to Sufferings could save others but those who are Called discover that the Doctrine of Salvation by the Cross of Christ which the world counted folly is the great Wisdome of God and most convenient for his end A double reason is given of this method 1. Because the Heathen world did not find and own God in the way of Nature For after That in the Wisdome of God the World by Wisdome knew not God it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe The frame of the World is called the Wisdom of God the name of the Cause is given to the Effect in regard the Divine Wisdom is so clearly discovered there as if it had taken a visible form and had presented it self to the view of Men. But those who professed themselves wise did not acknowledg the Creator For some conceited the World to be eternal others that it was the product of chance and became guilty of the most absolute contradiction to Reason For who can believe that one who is blind from his birth and by consequence perfectly ignorant of all Colours and of the Art of Painting should take a bundle of Pencils into his Hand and dipping them in Colours mixt and corrupted paint a great Battel with that perfection in the design propriety in the colours distinction in the habits and countenances as if it were not represented but present to the Spectators Who ever saw a Temple or Pallace or any regular Building spring from the stony bowels of a Mountain Yet some famous Philosophers became thus vain in their imaginations fancying that the World proceeded from the casual concourse of Atomes And the rest of them neglected to know God so far as they might and to honour him so far as they knew They debased the Deity by unworthy conceptions of his Nature and by performing such acts of Worship as were not fit for a rational Spirit to offer nor for the pure Majesty of Heaven to receive Besides they ascribed his Name Attributes and Honour to Creatures not only the Lights of Heaven and the secret Powers which they supposed did govern them not only Kings and Great Men who were by their Authority raised above others but the most despicable things in nature Beasts and Birds were the objects of their Adoration They changed the Glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to a corruptible man and to birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things A Sin so foul that it betrayed them to brutish Blindness and to the most infamous Lusts natural and unnatural Now since the most clear and open discovery of Gods Wisdom was ineffectual to reclaim the World He was pleased to change his method They neglected Him appearing in his Majesty and he now comes cloathed with Infirmities And since by natural light they would not see God the Creator He is imperceptible to the light of Nature as Redeemer The discovery of Him depends on revelation The Wisdom of God in making the World is evident to every Eye but in the Gospel 't is Wisdome in a Mystery The Deity was conspicuous in the Creation but conceal'd under a vail of Flesh when he wrought our Redemption He was more easily discoverd when invisible than when visible He created the World by Power but restor'd it by Sufferings 2. That the Honour of all might solely redound to him God hath chosen the foolish things of the World to confound the wise and the weak things of the World to confound the things that are mighty and base things of the World and things which are despised God hath chosen yea and things that are not to bring to nought things that are that no flesh should glory in his presence Thus Moses the Redeemer of Israel was an Infant exposed to the mercy of the Waters drawn forth from an Ark of Bul-rushes and not employed whilst he lived in the splendour of the Court but when Banisht as a Criminal and depriv'd of all power And our Redeemer took not on him the Nature of Angels equal to Satan in power but took part of flesh and blood the more signally to triumph over that proud Spirit in the Humane Nature which was inferiour to his and had been vanquisht by him in Paradise Therefore he did not immediately exercise Omnipotent power to destroy him but manag'd our weakness and infirmity to foil the roaring Lyon He did not enter into the Combat in the glory of his Deity but disguis'd under the Humane Nature which was subject to Mortality And thus the Devil is overcome in the same manner as he first got the Victory for as the whole race of Man was Captivated by him in Adam their Representative so Believers are victorious over him as the Tempter and Tormentor by the Conquest that Christ their Representative obtain'd in the Wilderness and on the Cross. And as our ruine was effected by the subtilty of Satan so our recovery is wrought by the wisdom of God who takes the wise in their own craftiness The Devil excited Judas by avarice the Jews by malice and
the natural understanding to discover the mystery of Redemption when those that had the highest reputation for wisdom were ignorant of the Creation The Philosophers were divided in nothing more then in their account of the Worlds Original Some imagin'd it to proceed from Water others from Fire some from Order others from Confusion some to be from Eternity others in Time If the Souls eye be so weakned as not to see that Eternal Power which is so apparent in its effects much less could it pierce into the Will and free determinations of God of which there is not the least intimation or shadow in the things that are made This Wisdom comes from above and was hidden from Ages and Generations 'T is called the Mystery of Christ he is the Object and Revealer of it The Mystery of Faith the discovery of which was by pure Revelation The Mystery of his Will an inviolable Secret till he was pleased to make it known Were the humane understanding as clear as 't is corrupt yet it cannot by the strength of discourse arrive to the knowledge of it Supernatural Revelation was necessary to discover it to the Angels The thoughts of Men are a secret into which the Creator alone hath right to enter it being his prerogative to search the heart The Angels conjecture only from the dispositions of Men from outward circumstances from the Images in the Fancy and from material impressions on the Blood and Spirits what are the thoughts of the Heart and much less can they discover the Counsel of God himself The Apostle tells us to Principalities and Powers in heavenly places by the Church the manifold Wisdom of God is made known By the first coming of Christ and the conversion of the World the depths of the Divine Wisdom were opened and there remains much undiscover'd which his second coming shall gloriously make known Before the first they understood not the foundation til the second not the perfection of our recovery Briefly the Spirit that searches the mysterious Counsels of God is the alone Intelligencer of Heaven that reveals them to the world And the more to incite us with sincere and humble Thankfulness to acknowledg this invaluable Mercy it will be useful to reflect on the state of the Heathen world who are intirely ignorant of this Mystery The Apostle describes the case of the Gentiles in such terms as argue it to be extreamly dangerous if not desperate Their understandings were darkened being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them They were without Christ aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel strangers from the Covenant of the Promise without hope They had no sense of their misery no expectation nor desire of Mercy Not only the barbarous and savage but the polisht and civiliz'd Nations are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being without the knowledg of the true God and of a Saviour Philosophy never made one Believer And as the want of a Sovereign Remedy exposes a man that hath a mortal Disease to certain ruin so the single Ignorance of the Gospel leaves men in a state of Perdition 'T is true where the Faculties are not capable or the Object is not revealed God doth not impute the want of Knowledg as a crime But Salvation is obtain'd only by the Covenant of Grace which is founded in the Satisfaction of the Redeemer And 't is by the knowledg of him that he justifies many God would have all men saved by coming to the knowledg of the Truth that is the Doctrine of the Gospel so called in respect of its excellency being the most profitable that ever was reveal'd The Infants of Believers are sav'd by special Priviledg for the merits of Christ without any apprehension of him But others who are come to the use of Reason and made partakers of Blessedness by the Knowledg of God in Christ. This is Life eternal to know thee to be the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent The Sun quickens some creatures by its vital Influences which are buried in the caves of the Earth and never see the Light But the Sun of Righteousness illuminates all whom he saves What degree of Knowledg is necessary of the Dignity of his Person and the Efficacy of his Mediation I cannot determine But that the Heathens who are absolutely strangers to the only means of our recovery and do not believe on God reconciled in the Son of his Love should partake of Saving Mercy I do not see any thing in the Gospel which is the revelation of God's Will concerning our Salvation upon which to build a rational Hope Indeed if any Heathen were seriously penitent God is so merciful that He would rather dispatch an Angel from Heaven saying Deliver him from going down into the pit I have found a ransome or by some other extraordinary way instruct him in the necessary knowledg of our Saviour than suffer him to perish to the prejudice of his Mercy But Repentance as well as Forgiveness is purchased dispenced alone by our Saviour And that any received this benefit who are intirely ignorant of the Benefactor we cannot tell Now this should raise our esteem of the discriminating favour of God to us What a flood of Errors and Miseries cover'd the Earth when the Grace of God that brings Salvation first appeared The Deluge was universal and so was the Destruction Those that were most renowned for Wisdom the Philosophers of Greece and the Orators of Rome were swallowed up only the Church of Christ is triumphant over the merciless waters When Noah from the top of the Mountain saw the sad remains of that dreadful Inundation what a lively sense of Joy possest his breast As Misery is heightened so Happiness is set off by comparison Not that there is any regular content to see the destruction of others but the sense of our own preservation from a common ruine raises our joy to its highest elevation The first work of Noah after his deliverance was to build an Altar on which to offer the Sacrifices of Thanksgiving to his Preserver We should imitate his Example How many Nations unknown to our world remain in the Darkness and Shadow of Death now the Day-spring from on High hath visited us This special Favour calls for special Thankfulness Were there any qualities in us to encline God to prefer us before others it would lessen our esteem of the Benefit But this distinguishing Mercy is one of those free Acts of God for which there is no reason in the objects on which they are exercised St. Austin calls it Profundum Crucis As the lowest part of the Cross is under ground unseen but the upper part is exposed to sight So the effects of Divine Predestination the fruits of the Cross are visible but the Reasons are not within our view When God divided the world and chose Israel for his
our eyes from it to vanity Here the complaint is more just Ad sapientiam quis accedit quis dignam judicat nisi quam in transitu noverit we content our selves with slight and transient glances but do not seriously and fixedly consider this blessed design of God upon which the beginning of our happiness in this and the perfection of it in the next life is built Let us provoke our selves by the example of the Angels who are not concern'd in this Redemption as man is for they continued in their fidelity to their Creator and were alwayes happy in his favour and where there is no alienation between parties reconcilement is unnecessary yet they are Students with us in the same Book and unite all their powers in the contemplation of this mystery they are represented stooping to pry into these secrets to signifie their delight in what they know and their desire to advance in the knowledge of them With what intention then should we study the Gospel who are the Subject and end of it CHAP. VII The simple Speculation of the Gospel not sufficient without a real Belief and Cordial Acceptance The Reasons why the Jews and Gentiles conspir'd in the contempt of it How just it is to resign up the Understanding to Revelation God knows his own Nature and Will and cannot deceive us We must believe the things that are clearly revealed though we do not understand the manner of their existence Although they are attended with seeming contradictions No Article of Faith is really repugnant to Reason We must distinguish between things incomprehensible and inconceivable Between corrupt and right Reason How Reason is subservient to Faith Humility and Holiness qualifie for the belief of the Gospel-mysteries A naked belief of Supernatural Truths is unprofitable for Salvation An effectual Assent that prevails upon the Will and renders the whole Man obsequious is due to the quality of the Gospel-Revelation THe simple Speculation of this glorious Mystery will be of no profit without a real belief of it and a cordial acceptance of Salvation upon the terms which the Divine Wisdom prescribes The Gospel requires the Obedience of the Understanding and of the Will unless it obtains a full possession of the Soul there is no saving efficacy derived from it And such is the sublimity and purity of the Object that till Reason is sanctified and subdued it cannot sincerely entertain it I will therefore distinctly consider the opposition which carnal Reason hath made against it and shew how just it is that the Humane Understanding should with reverence yield up it self to the Word of God that reveals this great Mystery to us The Apostle tells us that Jews and Gentiles conspired in the contempt of the Gospel Reason cannot hear without great astonishment for the appearing contradiction between the terms that God should be made Man and the Eternal die The Jews esteem'd it an intolerable Blasphemy and without any Process of Law were ready to stone the Lord Jesus That being a man he should make himself equal with God And they upbraided him in his Sufferings that he could not save himself If he be the King of Israel let him come down from the Cross and we will believe on him The Gentiles despised the Gospel as an absurd ill-contrived Fable For what in appearance is more unbecoming God and injurious to his Perfections than to take the frail garment of Flesh to be torn and trampled on Their natural Knowledg of the Deity enclin'd them to think the Incarnation impossible There is no resemblance of it in the whole compass of Nature For natural Union supposes the parts incompleat and capable of Perfection by their joyning together But that a Being infinitly perfect should assume by personal Union a nature inferiour to it self the Heathens lookt on it as a Fable forg'd according to the model of the fictions concerning Danae and Antiope And the Doctrine of our Saviours Death on the Cross they rejected as an impiety contumelious to God They judged it inconsistent with the Majesty and Happiness of the Deity to ascribe to Him that which is the punishment of the most guilty and miserable In the account of carnal Reason they thought more worthily of God by denying that of Him which is only due to the worst of men Celsus who with as much Subtilty as Malice urges all that with any appearance could be objected against our Saviour principally insists on his Poverty and Sufferings the Meanness and Misery of his condition in the world 'T was fit saith he that the Son of God should appear as the Sun which renders it self conspicuous by its own light But the Gospel having declared the Word to be the Son of God relates that he was a man of Sorrows that had no power to defend himself and was deserted by his Father and Followers scourged with Rods and shamefully executed He could not reconcile so many things that seem'd utterly incompatible as Sovereignty and Servitude Innocence and Punishment the lowest of humane Miseries Death with the highest of divine Honours Adoration Briefly Nothing was more contrary to Flesh and Blood than to believe that person to be the Redeemer of the World who did not rescue himself from his Enemies and to expect Immortality from him that was overcome by Death Now the Causes of this Infidelity are 1. The Darkness of the Mind which is so corrupted by Original Pravity that it cannot behold Heavenly Mysteries in their proper light so as to acquiesce in the truth of them The natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness to him and he cannot know them because they are spiritually discerned There is no proportion between the Natural Understanding and Supernatural Truths For although the rational Soul is a Spirit as 't is distinguisht from corporeal Beings yet till 't is purged from Errour and vitious Affections it can never discover the Divinity of things Spiritual so as to embrace them with certainty and delight As there must be a Spirit of Revelation to unvail the object so of Wisdom to enlighten the eye that it may be prepar'd for the reception of it As Heaven is only seen by its own Light So Christ is by his own Spirit Divine Objects and Faith that discerns them are of the same original and of the same quality The natural Understanding as the effects declare is like the Funeral Lamps which by the Antients were put into Sepulchers to guard the ashes of their dead Friends which shine so long as they are kept close a thick moist vapour feeding them and repairing what was consum'd but in opening the Sepulchres and exposing them to the free air they presently faint and expire Thus natural Reason whilst conversant in things below and watching with the dead that is in the Phrase of the Antients studying the Books of Men who have left the world it discovers
the primitive and main reason of the necessity of things but only a sign of the certainty of the event In strictness things do not arrive because of their prediction but are foretold because they shall arrive It is apparent there was a Divine Decree before the Prophesies and that in the Light of God's Infinite Knowledg things are before they were foretold So 't is not said a Man must be of a ruddy complexion because his Picture is so but on the contrary because he is ruddy his Picture must be so That Christ by dying on the Cross should Redeem Man was the reason that the Serpent of brass was erected on a pole to heal the Israelites and not on the contrary Briefly the Apostle supposes this necessity of Satisfaction as an evident principle when he proves wilful Apostates to be incapable of Salvation Because there remains no more Sacrifice for sin For the consequence were of no force if sin might be pardoned without Sacrifice that is without Satisfaction 3. This account of Christs Death takes off the scandal of the Cross and changes the offence into admiration 'T was foretold of Christ that he should be a Stone of stumbling and a Rock of offence not a just cause but an occasion of offence to the corrupt hearts of Men and principally for his Sufferings The Jews were pleased with the titles of honour given to the Messiah that he should be a King Powerful and Glorious But that poverty disgrace and the suffering Death should be his character they could not endure therefore they endeavoured to prevert the sense of the Prophets His Disciples who attended him in his mean state expected those sad apappearances would terminate in visible Glory and Greatness but when they saw him arrested by his Enemies Condemned and Crucified this was so opposite to their expectation that they fainted under the disappointment And when Christ Crucified was Preacht to the Gentile World they rejected him with scorn His Death seemed so contrary to the Dignity of his Person and the design of his Office that they could not relish the Doctrine of the Gospel They judged it absurd to expect Life from one that was subjected to Death and Blessedness from him who was made a Curse To those who look on the Death of Christ with the eyes of carnal wisdom and according to the Laws of corrupt reason it appears folly and weakness and most unworthy of God but if we consider it in its principles and ends all the prejudices vanish and we clearly discover it to be the most noble and eminent effect of the Wisdom Power Goodness and Justice of God To the eye of sense 't was a spectacle of horrour that a perfect Innocent should be cruelly tormented but to the eye of Faith under that sad and ignominious appearance there was a Divine Mystery able to raise our wonder and ravish our affections For he that was naked and nailed to the Cross was really the Son of God and the Saviour of Men And his Death with all the penal circumstances of dishonour and pain is the only Expiation of sin and Satisfaction to Justice He by offering up his Blood appea'sd the wrath of God quencht the flaming Sword that made Paradise inaccessible to us he took away sin the true dishonour of our natures and purchased for us the Graces of the Spirit the richest ornaments of the reasonable Creature The Doctrine of the Cross is the only foundation of the Gospel that unites all its parts and supports the whole building 'T is the cause of our Righteousness and Peace of our Redemption and Reconciliation How blessed an exchange have the Merits of his Sufferings made with those of our Sins Life instead of Death Glory for Shame and Happiness for Misery For this reason the Apostle with vehemence declares that to be the sole ground of his boasting and triumph which others esteemed a cause of blushing God forbid that I should Glory save in the Cross of Christ. He rejects with extreme detestation the mention of any other thing as the cause of his Happiness and matter of his Glory The Cross was a tree of Death to Christ and of Life to us The supreme Wisdom is justified of its Children 4. The Satisfaction of Divine Justice by the Sufferings of Christ affords the strongest assurance to Man who is a guilty and suspicious creature that God is most ready to pardon sin There is in the natural Conscience when opened by a piercing conviction of sin such a quick sense of Guilt and Gods Justice that it can never have an intire confidence in his Mercy till Justice be atoned From hence the convinced Sinner is restlesly inquisitive how to find out the way of reconciliation with a Righteous God Thus he is represented inquiring by the Prophet Wherewith shall I come before the Lord and bow my self before the most High God shall I come before him with Burnt-Offerings with Calves of a year old will the Lord be pleased with thousands of Rams or with ten thousand rivers of oil shall I give my first-born for my transgression the fruit of my Body for the sin of my Soul The Scripture tells us that some consum'd their Children to render their Idols favourable to them But all these means were ineffectual their most costly Sacrifices were only food for the fire Nay instead of expiating their old they committed new sins and were so far from appeasing that they inflamed the Wrath of God by their cruel oblations But in the Gospel there is the most rational and easy way propounded for the Satisfaction of God and the Justification of Man The Righteousness of Faith speaketh on this wise Say not in thy heart Who shall ascend into Heaven that is to bring down Christ from above Or who shall descend into the deep that is to bring up Christ again from the dead But if thou wilt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved The Apostle sets forth the anxiety of an awakened Sinner he is at a loss to find out a way to escape Judgment for things that are on the surface of the Earth or floating on the Waters are within our view and may be obtain'd but those that are above our Understanding to discover or Power to obtain are proverbially said to to be in the Heavens above or in the Deeps And 't is applied here to the different wayes of Justification by the Law and the Gospel The Law propounds Life upon an impossible condition but the Gospel clearly reveals to us that Christ hath performed what is necessary for our Justification and that by a lively and practical Faith we shall have an Interest in it The Lord Jesus being ascended hath given us a convincing proof that the Propitiation for our Sins is perfect For otherwise He had not been received into Gods Sanctuary Therefore to be under
their Vertue and Happiness Philosophy doth not propound the Glory of God for the Supream End of all Humane Actions Philosophy is defective as to the Duties respecting our selves and others It allowes the first sinful motions of the lower Appetites The Stoicks renounce the Passions Philosophy insufficient to form the Soul to Patience and Content under Afflictions and to support in the hour of Death A Reflection upon some Immoral Maxims of the several Sects of Philosophers THe Perfection of the Laws of Christ will further appear by comparing them with the Precepts of Moses and with the Rules which the highest Masters of Morality in the School of Nature have prescribed for the directing our lives The Gospel exceeds the Mosaical Institution 1. In ordaining a Service that is Pure Spiritual and Divine consisting in the Contemplation Love and Praises of God such as the holy Angels perform above The Temple-Service was managed with Pomp and external Magnificence suitable to the disposition of that People and the dispensation of the Law The Church was then in its Infant-state as St. Paul expresses it and that Age is more wrought on by Sense than Reason For such is the subordination of our Faculties that the vegetative first acts then the sensitive then the rational as the organs appointed for its use acquire perfection The knowledg of the Jews was obscure and imperfect and the external part of their Religion was ordered in such a manner that the senses were much affected Their Lights Perfumes Musick and Sacrifices were the proper entertainment of their external Faculties Besides being encompast with Nations whose Service to their Idols was full of Ceremonies to render the temptation ineffectual and take off from the efficacy of those allurements which might seduce them to the imitation of Idolatry God ordain'd his Service to be performed with great splendour Add further The Dispensation of the Law was typical and mysterious representing by visible material objects and their power to ravish the Senses Spiritual things and their efficacy to work upon the Soul But our Redeemer hath rent the Vail and brought forth Heavenly things into a full Day and the clearest Evidence Whereas Moses was very exact in describing the numerous Ceremonies of the Jewish Religion the quality of their Sacrifices the Place the Persons by whom they must be prepared and presented to the Lord We are now commanded to draw near to God with cleansed hands and purified hearts and that Men Pray every where lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting Every place is a Temple and every Christian a Priest to offer up Spiritual Incense to God The most of the Levitical Ceremonies and Ornaments are excluded from the Christian Service not only as unnecessary but inconsistent with its Spiritualness As Paint they corrupt the native beauty of Religion The Apostle tells us that humane Eloquence was not used in the first preaching of the Gospel lest it should render the truth of it uncertain and rob the Cross of Christ of its Glory in converting the World for 〈◊〉 would be apt to imagine that 't was not the supernatural vertue of the Doctrine and the efficacy of its Reasons but the artifice of Orators that overcame the spirits of Men So if the Service of the Gospel were made so pompous the Worshippers would be enclin'd to believe that the external part was the most principal and to content themselves in that without the aims and affections of the Soul which are the life of all our Services Besides upon another account outward Pomp in Religion is apter to quench than enâ—â—ame Devotion For we are so compounded of Flesh and Spirit that when the corporeal Faculties are vehemently affected with their objects 't is very hard for the Spiritual to act with equal vigour there being such commerce between the fancy and the outward Senses that they are never exercised in the reception of their objects but the Imagination is drawn that way and cannot present to the mind distinctly and with the calmness that is requisit those things on which our thoughts should be fixt But when those diverting objects are removed the Soul directly ascends to God and looks on him as the Searcher and Judge of the Heart and worships him proportionally to his perfections That this was the design of Christ appears particularly in the Institution of the Sacraments which he ordained in a merciful condescension to our present state for there is a natural desirâ— in us to have pledges of things promis'd therefore he was pleased to add to the Declaration of his Will in the Gospel the Sacraments as confirming seals of his Love by which the application of his Benefits is more special and the representation more lively than that which is meerlâ— by the Word But they are few in number on Baptism and the Lords Supper simple in their nature and easy in their signification most fit to relieve our infirmity and to raise our Souls to Heavenly things Briefly the Service of the Gospel is answerable to the excellent light of knowledge shed abroad in the hearts of Christians 2. Our Redeemer hath abolisht all obligation to the other Rituals of Moses to introduce that real Righteousness which was signified by them The carnal Commandments given to the Jews are called Statutes that were not good either in respect of their matter not being perfective of the humane nature or their effect for they brought Death to the disobedient not Life to the Obedient the most strict observation of them did not make the performers either better or more happy But Christians are dead to these Elements that is perfectly freed from subjection to them The Kingdom of God consists not in Meat and Drink but Righteousness and Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost for he that in these things serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved of Men. We are commanded to purge out the old leaven of Malice and Wickedness that sowers and swells the mind and to keep the feast with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth We are obliged to be free from the moral imperfections the vices and passions which were represented by the natural qualities of those Creatures which were forbidden to the Jews and to purify the Heart instead of the frequent washings under the Law But the Gospel frees us from the intolerable yoke of the legal abstinencies observations and disciplines the amusements of low and servile Spirits wherewith they would compensate their defects in real Holiness and exchange the substance of Religion for the shadow and colours of it For this reason the Apostle is severe against those who would joyn the fringes of Moses to the robe of Christ. 3. The indulgence of Polygamy and Divorce that was granted to the Jews is taken away by Christ and Marriage restored to the purity of its first Institution The permission of these was by a political Law and the effect was temporal Impunity For God is to be considered
a Dream is slight and vanishing so the uncertain expectation of felicity did but lightly touch their Spirits Briefly they had no true Knowledge nor firm Belief of Eternal Blessedness in the Vision of God nor of the endless Torments in Hell and wanting those great Principles from whence the Rules and Power to live in a holy manner are derived they fell short of that Purity which is a necessary qualification to prepare Men for Heaven They were in a confused labyrinth without true Light or Guide intangled with miserable Errours and stumbled every step whilst they sought after Happiness But the Lord Christ hath instructed the World concerning those invisible future Recompences He hath expresly threaten'd what-ever is to be feared by Man as a rational or sensible Creature the Worm that never dies and the Fire that shall never be quencht in case of Disobedience and he hath promised what-ever is to be hoped for in case of Obedience The Wrath of God is revealed from Heaven in the Gospel against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of Men. And our Saviour hath brought Light and Immortality to light He hath declared the nature and quality of Eternal Life that it consists in the most perfect acts of our raised and most receptive Faculties upon the most excellent objects That it contains perfect Holiness and pure Felicity being for ever distant from the infirmities and defilements of our mortal state He hath revealed as the quality so the extent of it relating to the Body as well as the Soul Whereas the Philosophers of all sorts the Academicks Stoicks Peripateticks Epicureans labouring with all the force of their understanding formed a Felicity according to their Fancies which was either wholly Sensual or else but for half of man For of the Resurrection and consequently the Immortality of the Body not the least notice for many Ages ever arrived to them Our Saviour who alone had the words of eternal life hath promised a Happiness that respects entire man The Soul and the Body which are his essential parts shall be united and endued with all the glorious qualities becoming the Sons of God And of all this he hath given to the world the highest assurance For he verified his Doctrine by his own Example rising from the Grave and appearing to his Apostles crown'd with Immortality and visibly ascending before them to Heaven Since there is no greater Paradox to Reason than the Resurrection which seem'd utterly incredible to men and not to be the object of a rational desire God by raising him from the Grave hath given the most convincing Argument that our Redeemer was sent from him to acquaint the World with the future state Thus the Apostle speaks to the Athenians The times of ignorance God winked at but now commandeth all men eve ry where to repent because he hath appointed a day wherein he will judg the World in righteousness by that Man whom he hath ordained whereof he hath given assurance unto all Men in that he hath raised him from the dead Jesus Christ who was attested from Heaven to be the Son of God by that great and powerful Act declared the Recompences that shall attend Men after Death Therefore a full and perfect assent is due to his Testimony Hell with all its Dread and Terror is not a Picture drawn by fancy to affright the World but is reveal'd by him whose Words shall remain when Heaven and Earth shall pass away The Heavenly Glories are not the Visions of a contemplative person that have no existence but are great Realities promised by him who as he died to purchase so he rose to witness the Truth of them And to bring these Great Things that are separate and distant from this present state nearer to us He sometimes causes Hell to rise up from beneath and flash in the face of secure sinners that they may break off their Sins by Repentance and sometimes he opens Heaven from above the Paradise of true delights and sends down of the precious fruits of the Sun of the precious things of the lasting Hills that by the sight of their Beauty and the taste of their sweetness we may for ever abhor the pleasures of Sin By the frequent and sensible experience of the truth of the Gospel in its Threatnings and Promises innumerable persons have been converted from Sin to Holiness from Earth to Heaven from Vanity to Eternity 3. Love is a prevalent affection stronger than Death and Kindness is the greatest endearment of Love Now the Lord Jesus exprest such admirable Love to us that being duly considered it cannot but inspire us with Love to him again and with a grateful desire to please him in all things He descended from Heaven to Earth and delivered himself to a shameful Death that He might redeem us from all Iniquity and purifie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works And what Argument is more powerful to cause in us a serious hatred of Sin than the Consideration of what Christ hath suffer'd to free us from the punishment and power of it If a Man for his Crimes were condemned to the Gallyes and a Friend of his who had been extremely injur'd by him should ransom him by a great sum when the guilty person is restor'd to liberty will he not blush for shame at the memory of what he hath done But how much more if his Friend would suffer for him the pains and infamy of his slavery if any spark of Humanity remain in him can he ever delight himself in those Actions which made such a benefit necessary to him And is it possible for a Christian to live in those Sins for which Christ died Will not Love cause an humble Fear lest he should frustrate the great Design and make void the most blessed effect of his terrible Sufferings why did he Redeem us with so excellent a price from our cruel Bondage but to restore us to his free service why did he vindicate us from the power of the Usurper to whom we were captives but to make us Subjects to our Natural Prince Why did he purifie us with his most precious Blood from our deadly Defilements but that we might be intirely consecrated to his Glory and be fervent in good works What can work upon an ingenious Person more than sense of Kindness What can oblige more strongly to duty than Gratieude What more powerful attractive to Obedinnce than Love This pure Love confirms the Glorified Saints for ever in Holiness For they are not Holy to obtain Heaven because they are possest of it nor to preserve their Blessedness because they are past all hazard of losing it but from the most lively and permanent sense of their Obligations because they have obtained that incomparable Felicity by a Gift never to be reverst and by a Mercy transcendently great And the same Love to God that is in the Saints above in the highest degree of perfection and makes them for
as to violate the Fidelity of Marriage without the wounding of Chastity or to poison a Parent without failing in the duty that is owing to them And to express his indignation he tells them Sic ergo ipsi salva venia in Gehennam detruduntur dum salvo metu peccant Let them expect that God will cast them into Hell without prejudice to their Pardon as they pretend to Sin without prejudice to the respect they bear him To sum up all Jesus Christ as by his Doctrine and Life he clearly discover'd our Duty so he offers to us the Aid of his Spirit for our assistance by which the Commands of the Gospel are not only possible but easy And to enforce our obligations he hath threatned such Vengeance to the rebellious and promised such a Reward to those that obey the Gospel that it is impossible we should not be deeply affected with them if we seriously believe them and He hath given such evidence of their truth that 't is impossible we should not believe them unless the God of this world hath blinded our minds 'T is matter therefore of just astonishment that Christians should not express the efficacy of the Gospel in their actions How can a reasonable Creature believe that eternal Damnation shall be the Punishment of Sin and yet live in the wilful practice of it The Historian speaking of Mushroms that somtimes prov'd deadly to whole Families asks with wonder What pleasure could allure them to eat such doubtful Meat Yet they may be so corrected as to become innocent But when 't is certain that the Pleasures of Sin are mortal Can any one be tempted by those attractives to venture on that which will undoubtedly bring Death to the Soul Let Sense itself be Judg and make the comparison between whatsoever the present Life can afford for delight in Sin and what the future Death will bring to torment it Let the Flesh see into what torments all its delights shall be changed and with what other fire than of impure Lust it shall burn for ever Besides We are encouraged to our Duty with the assurance of a Happiness so excellent that not only the enjoyment of it in the next World but the just expectation of it here makes us truly blessed If the Reward were small or the Promise uncertain there might be some pretence for our not performing the Conditions to obtain it but when the one is infinitely great and the other as true as the God of truth what more powerful motive can be conceiv'd to make us holy 'T is the Apostles chosen Argument that We should walk worthy of him who hath call'd us to his Kingdom and Glory The Heathens were in a great measure strangers to the Secrets of another World they had but a shadow of probability we have the Light of Truth brought down from Heaven by the Son of God that reveals to us a Blessedness that deserves our most ardent active Affections But if Men are not wrought on by natural Reason nor divine Faith if neither the Terrours of the Lord nor the blessed Hope can perswade them from Sin to Holiness their condition is irrecoverable In this the Rules of Natural and Spiritual Healing agree Where neither Corrosives nor Lenitives are successful we must use the Knife if cutting off be unprofitable we must fear the part if the Fire is ineffectual the Ulcer is incurable If the threatning of Hell-fire through Unbelief and Carelesness is not fear'd and hath no efficacy to correct and change Sinners what remains but to make a presage of eternal Death that will unavoidably and speedily seize on them And if so clear a discovery of the Heavenly Glory doth not produce in men a living Faith that works by Love and a lively Hope that purifies the Heart and Conversation what can be concluded but that they are wholly sensual and senseless and shall be for ever deprived of that Blessedness they now despise and neglect CHAP. XX. The Divine Power is admirably glorified in the Creation of the World in respect of the greatness of the effect and the manner of its production T is as evident in our Redemption The Principal Effects of it are considered The Incarnation of the Son of God is a work fully responsible to Omnipotence Our Redeemers Supernatural Conception by the Holy Ghost The Divine Power was eminently declared in the Miracles Jesus Christ wrought in the course of his Ministry His Miracles were the evidence of His Celestial Calling they were necessary for the conviction of the World their Nature considered The Divine Power was Glorified in making the Death of Christ Victorious over all our Spiritual Enemies The Resurrection of Christ the effect of Glorious Power The Reasons of it from the quality of his Person and the nature of his Office that he might dispense the Blessings he had purchased for Believers His Resurrection is the foundation of Faith It hath a threefold reference to his Person as the Son of God to his Death as an Alsufficient Sacrifice to his Promise of raising Believers at the last day THE Divine Power is admirably glorified in the Creation of the World not only in regard of the greatness of the Effect that comprehends the Heavens and Earth and all things in them but in regard of the marvelous way of its Production for He made the great Universe without the concurrence of any material cause from nothing For this reason the raising this glorious Fabrick is producâ—d as the distinctive character of the Deity from the troop of false gods The Psalmist declares The Lord is to be fearâ—d above all gods for all the gods of the Nations are Idols but the Lord made the Heavens And as He began the Creation by proceeding from nothing to real existence so in forming the other parts He drew them from infirm and indisposed matter as from a second nothing that all his Creatures might bear the real testimonies of Infinite Power Thus He commanded Light to arise out of Darkness and sensible Creatures from an insensible Element He created Man the accomplishment of all his Works from the lowest and grossest Element the Earth Now although at the first view we might conceive that the visible World is the greatest Miracle that ever God performed yet upon serious reflection we shall discover that the works of Grace are as wonderful as the works of Nature and that the Power of God is as evidently exprest in our Redemption as in the Creation For the fuller understanding of this I will consider some of the principal Effects of the Divine Power in order to our blessed Recovery 1. The Incarnation of the Son of God in accomplishing whereof such Power was exercis'd as no limited Understanding is able to comprehend The Word was made Flesh. This signifies the real Union between the Humane Nature and the Divine in our Redeemer Before his Incarnation he appeared in an humane form to the Patriarchs and
despis'd whatever is amiable or terrible in the world How is it possible He should deny the Knowledg of Himself to those to whom He gave such a pure Love to Himself But the humane Nature in its corrupted state is contrary both to the Doctrine of the Gospel that propounds Supernatural Verities hard to believe and to the commands of it that enjoin things hard to do For this reason 't was necessary that God by some external Operations the undeniable effects of His Power should discover to the World his approbation of it Now that Christ is the Son of God and Redeemer of the World was miraculously declared from Heaven by the whole Divinity There are Three that bear Record in Heaven the Father and the Word and the Holy Ghost and these three are One. The Father testified by a Voice as loud as Thunder at his Baptism and Transfiguration Thou art my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased The Son by his glorious appariton to Paul when He struck him to the earth with these words Why persecutest thou me The Light was so radiant the Voice so strong the impression it made so deep and sensible that he knew it came from God And He manifested Himself to St. John with that brightness That he fell at his feet as dead till in compassion He reviv'd him and said I am He that liveth and was dead and behold I am alive for evermore And the Holy Spirit by his miraculous descent in the shape of a Dove upon Him and in fiery Tongues upon the Apostles gave a visible testimony that Jesus Christ was sent from God to save the World I will particularly consider one Effect of the Divine Power the Resurrection of Christ this being the most important Article of the Gospel and the demonstration of all the rest For 't is not conceivable that God would by his Almighty Power have rais'd Him from the Grave to a glorious Life and it is impossible He should be otherwise if He had taken the Name of the Son of God in vain and arrogated to himself Divine Honour and only pretended that he was sent from Him By the Resurrection He was declar'd to be the Son of God with Power For that being the proof of his Mission justifies the truth of his Doctrine and particularly of the quality of God's Son which He alwaies attributed to Himself Now if Infidelity object that we who live in the present Age have no sensible testimony that Christ is risen and what assurance is there that the Apostles who reported it were not Deceivers or deceived In Answer to this I will briefly 〈◊〉 how valuable the Testimony of the Apostles is and worthy of all acceptation and that 't was equally impossible they should be deceived or intend to deceive His Death is attested by his Enemies 〈◊〉 a Pagan relates that He Suffered under Pontius Pilate And the Jews to this day 〈◊〉 so unhappy as to boast of their being the causes of his Crucifixion and call him by a name that is the mark of his Punishment But his Resurrection they peremptorily deny Now the Apostles being sent to convert the World were to â—ay this down as the foundation of their Preaching that Jesus Christ was rais'd from the dead that all might yield Faith and Obedience to Him This was then special charge as St. Peter declares Wherefore of thâ—se men which have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us beginning from the Baptism of John unto the same day that He was taken up from us must be one ordained to be a witness of his Resurrection They were to testifie concerning His Doctrine and Life His Miracles and Sufferings but principally His Resurrection For this reason St. Paul who was extraordinarily admitted into their Order had a miraculous Sight of Christ from Heaven Last of all He was seen of me to testifie it to the World Now for our full conviction 't is necessary to consider the quality of the Witnesses and the nature of their Testimony 1. The Witnesses were such of whom there cannot be the least reasonable Suspicion In Civil Causes of the greatest moment the Testimony of the Honourable and the Rich are accounted valuable because they are not easily corrupted one of a low degree may from baseness of Spirit through Cowardize and Fear be tempted to deny the Truth one in a poor condition may be so dazled with the lustre of Gold when he considers the price of Perjury as to be induced to assert a falshood But who is more incorruptible the Noble that from a sense of Honour abhor a Lie or those who by their Divine Birth and Qualities did so detest it that they would not tell a Lie for the Glory of God Who is more worthy of Credit the Rich whose Riches sometimes excites their desires after more or those who by a generous disdain despised all things Besides Persons of known Integrity whom the different images of hopes and fears cannot probably encline to evil are admitted to decide the weightiest Causes Now the Apostles were so innocent sober honest and unblameable in the whole tenour of their Conversations that their most malignant Adversaries could never fasten an accusation upon them Indeed if their carnal Interests had been concern'd there might have been some colourable Objections against their Testimony But if we duely consider things it will appear utterly incredible that any deceit could be in it For as all the actions of reasonable Men proceed from Reason solid or apparent so particularly Imposture and Fiction are never without some Motive and Design For being contrary to Nature there must â—ntervene a forreign Consideration for their contrivance Now the universal Motives to invent Fables are Honour Riches or Pleasure But none of these could possibly move the Apostles to feign the Resurrection of Christ. Not to insist on the Meanness of their Extraction and Education who had only seen Boats and Nets and convers'd with Lakes and Fishes whereas Ambition usually springs up in Persons of high birth and breeding 't is evident that no respect to humane Praise excited them since they attributed the Doctrine of the Gospel that should give them reputation in the World to the Holy Spirit and ascribed the Glory of their miraculous Actions entirely to the Divine Power When the People of Lystra would have given Divine Honour to St. Paul he disclaim'd it with abhorrency And presently after those who would have ador'd him as a God stoned him as a Malefactor he chose rather to be their Sacrifice than their Idol Besides how could they expect to be great or rich by declaring that One who came to such a Tragical End in the face of the world was rais'd to Life when the hands of the Jews were still bloody with the Wounds of their Master and their hearts so enraged against all that honoured his Name as to excommunicate