the very name of Religion when such baseness was practised under the profession of it When they saw men offer to compound with Heaven for all their injustice and oppression with not a twentieth part of what God challenged as his due they either thought Religion to be a meer device of men or that these mens hypocrisie ought to be discovered to the World And therefore our Blessed Saviour who came with a design to retrieve a true spirit of Religion among men findes it first of all necessary to unmask those notorious hypocrites that their deformities being discovered their wayes as well as their persons might be the better understood and avoided And when he saw by the mighty opinion they had of themselves and their uncharitableness towards all others how little good was to be done upon them he seldom vouchsafes them his presence but rather converses with those who being more openly wicked were more easily convinced of their wickedness and perswaded to reform For which end alone it was that he so freely conversed with them to let them see there were none so bad but his kindness was so great to them that he was willing to do them all the good he could And therefore this could be no more just a reproach to Christ that he kept company sometimes with these than it is to a Chyrurgeon to visit Hospitals or to a Physician to converse with the sick 2. But when they saw that his Greatness did appear in another way by the authority of his Doctrine and the power of his Miracles then these wise and subtle men apprehend a further reach and design in all his actions Viz. That his low condition was a piece of Popularity and a meer disguise to ensnare the people the better to make them in love with his Doctrine and so by degrees to season them with Principles of Rebellion and disobedience Hence came all the clamors of his being an Enemy to Caesar and calling himself the King of the Jewes and of his design to erect a Kingdom of his own all which they interpret in the most malicious though most unreasonable sense For nothing is so politick as malice and ill will is for that findes designs in every thing and the more contrary they are to all the Protestations of the persons concerned the deeper that suggests presently they are laid and that there is the more cause to be afraid of them Thus it was in our Blessed Saviours case it was not the greatest care used by him to shew his obedience to the Authority he lived under it was not his most solemn disavowing having any thing to do with their civil Interests not the severe checks he gave his own Disciples for any ambitious thoughts among them not the recommending the doctrine of Obedience to them nor the rebuke he gave one of his most forward Disciples for offering to draw his sword in the rescue of himself could abate the fury and rage of his enemies but at last they condemn the greatest Teacher of the duty of Obedience as a Traytor and the most unparallel'd example of innocency as a Malefactor But though there could be nothing objected against the life and actions of our Blessed Saviour as tending to sedition and disturbance of the Civil Peace yet that these men who were inspired by malice and prophesied according to their own interest would say was because he was taken away in time before his designs could be ripe for action but if his doctrine tended that way it was enough to justifie their proceedings against him So then it was not what he did but what he might have done not Treason but Convenience which made them take away the life of the most innocent person but if there had been any taint in his doctrine that way there had been reason enough in such an Age of faction and sedition to have used the utmost care to prevent the spreading it But so far is this from the least ground of probability that it is not possible to imagine a Religion which aims less at the present particular interests of the embracers of it and more at the publick interests of Princes than Christianity doth as it was both preached and practised by our Saviour and his Apostles And here we have cause to lament the unhappy fate of Religion when it falls under the censure of such who think themselves the Masters of all the little arts whereby this world is governed If it teaches the duty of Subjects and the authority of Princes if it requires obedience to Laws and makes mens happiness or misery in another life in any measure to depend upon it then Religion is suspected to be a meer trick of State and an invention to keep the world in awe whereby men might the better be moulded into Societies and preserved in them But if it appear to inforce any thing indispensably on the Consciences of men though humane Laws require the contrary if they must not forswear their Religion and deny him whom they hope to be saved by when the Magistrate calls them to it then such half-witted men think that Religion is nothing but a pretence to Rebellion and Conscience only an obstinate plea for Disobedience But this is to take it for granted that there is no such thing as Religion in the World for if there be there must be some inviolable Rights of Divine Soveraignty acknowledged which must not vary according to the diversity of the Edicts and Laws of men But supposing the profession and practice of the Christian Religion to be allowed inviolable there was never any Religion nay never any inventions of the greatest Politicians which might compare with that for the preservation of civil Societies For this in plain and express words tells all the owners of it that they must live in subjection and obedience not only for wrath but for Conscience sake that they who do resist receive unto themselves damnation and that because whosoever resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God Than which it is impossible to conceive arguments of greater force to keep men in obedience to Authority for he that only obeys because it is his interest to do so will have the same reason to disobey when there is an apprehension that may make more for his advantage But when the reason of obedience is derived from the concernments of another life no hopes of interest in this world can be thought to ballance the loss which may come by such a breach of duty in that to come So that no persons do so dangerously undermine the foundations of civil Government as those who magnifie that to the contempt of Religion none so effectually secure them as those who give to God the things that are Gods and by doing so are obliged to give to Caesar the things that are Caesars This was the Doctrine of Christianity as it was delivered by the first author of it and the practice was agreeable as long as Christianity
so many hundred years profession of Christianity how apt the greatness of the world is to make men ashamed of the practice of it and that men aim at a reputation for wit by being able to abuse the Religion they own what entertainment might we then think our Religion met with among the great men of the Age it was first preached in when it not only encounter'd those weaker weapons of scoffs and raillery but the strong holds of interest and education If our Religion now can hardly escape the bitter scoffs and profane jefts of men who pawn their souls to be accounted witty what may we think it suffer'd then when it was accounted a part of their own Religion to despise and reproach ours If in the Age we live in a man may be reproached for his piety and virtue that is for being really a Christian when all profess themselves to be so what contempt did they undergo in the first Ages of the Christian World when the very name of Christian was thought a sufficient brand of infamy And yet such was the courage and magnanimity of the Primitive Christians that what was accounted most mean and contemptible in their Religion viz. their believing in a crucified Saviour was by them accounted the matter of their greatest honour and glory For though S. Paul only saith here that he was not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ yet elsewhere he explains that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is contained in these words when he saith God forbid that I should glory in any thing save in the Cross of Christ by whom the World is crucifyed to me and I unto the World Gal. 6. 14. i. e. Although he could not but be sensible how much the world despised him and his Religion together yet that was the great satisfaction of his minde that his Religion had enabled him to despise the World as much For neither the pomp and grandeur of the World nor the smiles and flatteries of it no nor its frowns and severities could abate any thing of that mighty esteem and value which he had for the Christian Religion For in his own expression he accounted all things else but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus his Lord Phil. 3. 8. Which words are not spoken by one who was in despair of being taken notice of for any thing else and therefore magnifies the Profession he was engaged in but by a person as considerable as most of the time and Nation he lived in both for his birth and education So that his contempt of the World was no sullen and affected severity but the issue of a sober and impartial judgement and the high esteem he professed of Christianity was no fanatick whimsey but the effect of a diligent enquiry and the most serious consideration And that will appear 2. By the grounds and reasons which S. Paul here gives why he was not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ 1. From the excellent end it was designed for and that is no less than salvation 2. From the effectualness of it in order to that end it is the Power of God to salvation 3. From the necessity of believing the Gospel by all who would attain that end to every one that believes the Jew first and also to the Greek 1. From the excellent End it was designed for the recovery and happiness of the souls of men both which are implyed in the term salvation For considering the present condition of humane Nature as it is so far sunk beneath it self and kept under the power of unruly passions whatever tends to make it happy must do it by delivering it from all those things which are the occasions of its misery So that whatever Religion should promise to make men happy without first making them vertuous and good might on that very account be justly suspected of imposture For the same reasons which make the acts of any Religion necessary viz. that we may please that God who commands and governs the World must make it necessary for men to do it in those things which are far more acceptable to him than all our sacrifices of what kind soever which are the actions of true vertue and goodness If then that accusation had been true which Celsus and Julian charged Christianity with viz. That it indulged men in the practice of vice with the promise of a future happiness notwithstanding I know nothing could have render'd it more suspicious to be a design to deceive Mankinde But so far is it from having the least foundation of truth in it that as there never was any Religion which gave men such certain hopes of a future felicity and consequently more encouragement to be good so there was none ever required it on those strict and severe terms which Christianity doth For there being two grand duties of men in this world either towards God in the holiness of their hearts and lives or towards their Brethren in a peaceable carriage among men which cannot be without justice and sobriety both these are enforced upon all Christians upon no meaner terms than the unavoidable loss of all the happiness our Religion promises Follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. Heb. 12. 14. This is then the grand design of Christianity to make men happy in another world by making them good and vertuous in this It came to reform this world that it might people another so to purifie the souls of men as to make them meet to enjoy the happiness designed for them This is that great Salvation which the Gospel brings to the world Heb. 2. 3. and thence it is cal'd the Word of salvation Acts 13. 26. the way of salvation Acts 16. 17. the Gospel of salvation Ephes. 1. 13. So that though Christianity be of unspeakable advantage to this world there being no Religion that tends so much to the peace of mens minds and the preservation of civil Societies as this doth yet all this it doth by way of subordination to the great end of it which is the promoting mens eternal happiness And the more we consider the vast consequence and importance of this end to mankinde the greater reason we shall finde that S. Paul had why he should not be ashamed of the Gospel of Christ. For can we imagine any end more noble that any doctrine can aim at than this Supposing the common principles of all Religion to be true viz. the Being of God and Immortality of our Souls there can be nothing more becoming that God to discover or those Souls to be imploy'd about than the way to a blessed immortality And if we admire those discourses of the Heathen Philosophers wherein they speak more darkly and obscurely concerning those things what admiration doth the Gospel deserve which hath brought life and immortality to light If we commend the vertuous Heathens who according to those short and obscure notices which they had of God and
his mercy prevent it not we shall all surely think we have reason enough this day to lay to heart the evil of our doings which have brought all these things upon us and abhor our selves repenting in dust and ashes That would seem indeed to bear some analogy with the present ruines of the City and the calamities we lie under at this time but God will more easily dispense with the pompous shews and solemn garbs of our humiliation if our hearts bleed within for our former impieties and our repentance discovers its sincerity by bringing us to that temper that though we have done iniquity we will do so no more That is the true and proper end which Almighty God aims at in all his Judgements he takes no delight in hurling the World into confusions and turning Cities into ruinous heaps and making whole Countreys a desolation but when he sees it necessary to vindicate the honour of his Justice to the World he doth it with that severity that may make us apprehend his displeasure and yet with that mercy which may incourage us to repent and return unto the Lord. Thus we finde in the instances recorded in the Text when some Cities were consumed by him so that as far as concerned them they were made like to Sodom and Gomorrah yet he doth it with that kindness to the Inhabitants that they are pluckt as firebrands out of the burning and therefore he looks upon it as a frustrating the design both of his Justice and of his Mercy when he is fain to conclude with that sad reflection on their incorrigibleness Yet have ye not returned unto me saith the Lord. Thus ye sec what the design and scope of the words is which I have read unto you wherein we may consider 1. The severity of the Judgement which God was pleased to execute upon them I have overthrown some of you as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah 2. The mixture of his mercy in the midst of his severity and ye were as a firebrand pluckt out of the burning 3. The incorrigibleness of the people notwithstanding both Yet have ye not c. In the first we have Gods Rod lifted up to strike in the second we have Gods Hand stretched out to save yet neither of these would make them sensible of their disobedience though their Cities were overthrown for their sakes though they themselves escaped not for their own sakes but for his mercies sake only whom they had so highly provoked yet have ye not returned unto me saith the Lord. I am sure I may say of the two former parts of the Text as our Saviour doth in another case This day hath this Scripture been fulfilled among you we have seen a sad instance of Gods severity a City almost wholly consumed as Sodom and Gomorrah and a great expression of his kindness the Inhabitants saved as firebrands pluckt out of the burning O let it never be said that the last part of the words is fulfilled too Yet have ye not returned unto me c. which that it may not be I shall first consider the severity of God in his judgement this day and then discover the mixture of his kindness with it and the result of both will be the unreasonableness of obstinate disobedience after them 1. The severity of the Judgement here expressed which though we take it not in reference to the persons of men but to the Cities wherein they dwelt as it seems to be understood not only by the Original wherein the words relating to persons are left out but by the following clause expressing their preservation yet we shall finde the Judgement to be severe enough in regard 1. Of the nature and kind of it 2. The series and order of it 3. The causes moving to it 4. The Author of it I have overthrown some of you as God overthrew c. 1. The nature and kind of it We can imagine nothing more severe when we consider what it is set forth by the most unparalleld Judgement we read of viz. the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah by a fire from Heaven Although in all circumstances the instance might not come up to the parallel yet in several respects there might be so sad a desolation that any other example but that might fall beneath the greatness and severity of it And we may better understand of how sad and dreadfull a nature such a Judgement must be if we consider it with relation to the suddenness and unexpectedness of it to the force and violence of it and to all that sad train of circumstances which attend and follow it 1. The suddenness and unexpectedness of it as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah i. e. when they least of all looked for such a desolation For thus it was in the dayes of Lot as our Saviour tells us they did eat they drank they bought they sold they planted they builded but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from Heaven and destroyed them all They were all immersed either in their pleasures or in their business they little thought of destruction being so near them as it proved to be Thus it was with the Jews in their first and latter destruction both of their City and Countrey they were as high and as confident of the contrary as might be to the very last nothing could perswade them that their Temple or their City should be burnt with Fire till they saw them flaming before their eyes Thus Josephus observes of his Countreymen that in the midst of all their miseries they had no kind of sense at all of their sins but were as proud presumptuous and arrogant as if all things went well with them and were like to do so They thought God could not possibly punish such a people as they were in such a manner they could easily have believed it of any other people but themselves but that God should punish his own people in Covenant with him that Judgement should begin at the house of God that they who had loved to be called by his Name should be made examples to all other Nations this seemed so harsh and incredible that by no means could they entertain it But God and Wise men too thought otherwise of them than they did of themselves they could not but see an outward shew of Religion joyned with a deep and subtil hypocrisie there being among them an heap of pride and luxury of fraud and injustice of sedition and faction gilded over with a fair shew of greater zeal for God and his Glory which that impartial Historian as one who knew them well hath described at large and although they could not believe that such heavy Judgements should befall them yet others did not only believe but tremble at the apprehensions of them Who among all the Citizens of London could have been perswaded but the day before the Fire brake out nay when they saw the Flames for near a day
appeal be made to the Courts of Judicature what arts are then used either for concealing or hiring witnesses so that if their Purses be not equal the adverse party may overswear him by so much as his Purse is weightier than the others I heartily wish it may never be said of us what the Orator once said of the Greeks Quibus jusjurandum jocus testimonium ludus they made it a matter of jest and drollery to forswear themselves and give false testimonies But supposing men keep within the bounds of justice and common honesty yet how unsatiable are the desires of men they are for adding house to house and land to land never contented with what either their Ancestors have left them or the bountiful hand of Heaven hath bestowed upon them Till at last it may be in the Prophets expression for their covetousness the stone cry out of the wall and the beam out of the timber answer it i. e. provoke God to give a severe check to the exorbitant and boundless desires of men as he hath done by this dayes calamity Thus while the City thought with Babylon to sit as a Lady for ever while she dwelt carelesly and said I am and there is none else besides me evil is come upon her and she knows not from whence it comes and mischief is fallen upon her and she hath not been able to put it off and desolation is come upon her suddenly which she did not foresee 3. Contempt of God and his Laws That we read of v. 4. where the Prophet speaks by an Irony to them Come to Bethel and transgress c. he knew well enough they were resolved to do it let God or the Prophet say what they pleased For these Kine of Bashan were all for the Calves of Dan and Bethel and some think that is the reason of the title that is given them These great men of Samaria thought it beneath them to own Religion any further than it was subservient to their civil interests They were all of Jeroboams Religion who looked on it as a meer politick thing and fit to advance his own designs by I am afraid there are too many at this day who are secretly of his minde and think it a piece of wisdom to be so Blessed God that men should be so wise to deceive themselves and go down with so much discretion to Hell These are the Grave and retired Atheists who though they secretly love not Religion yet their caution hinders them from talking much against it But there is a sort of men much more common than the other the faculties of whose minds are so thin and aiery that they will not bear the consideration of any thing much less of Religion these throw out their bitter scoffs and prophane jests against it A thing never permitted that I know of in any civilized Nation in the world whatsoever their Religion was the reputation of Religion was always preserved sacred God himself saith Josephus would not suffer the Jews to speak evil of other Gods though they were to destroy all those who tempted them to the worship of them And shall we suffer the most excellent and reasonable Religion in the world viz. the Christian to be profaned by the unhallowed mouths of any who will venture to be damned to be accounted witty If their enquiries were deeper their reason stronger or their arguments more perswasive than of those who have made it their utmost care and business to search into these things they ought to be allowed a fair hearing but for men who pretend to none of these things yet still to make Religion the object of their scoffs and raillery doth not become the gravity of a Nation professing wisdom to permit it much less the sobriety of a people professing Christianity In the mean time such persons may know that wise men may be argued out of a Religion they own but none but Fools and mad men will be droll'd out of it Let them first try whether they can laugh men out of their Estates before they attempt to do it out of their hopes of an Eternal happiness And I am sure it will be no comfort to them in another world that they were accounted Wits for deriding those miseries which they then feel and smart under the severity of it will be no mitigation of their flames that they go laughing into them nor will they endure them the better because they would not believe them But while this is so prevailing a humour among the vain men of this Age and Nation what can we expect but that God should by remarkable and severe judgements seek to make men more serious in Religion or else make their hearts to ake and their joynts to tremble as he did Belshazzars when he could find nothing else to carouse in but the Vessels of the Temple And when men said in the Prophet Zephany chap. 1. 12. that God neither did good nor evil presently it follows therefore their goods shall become a booty and their houses a desolation the day of the Lord is near a day of wrath a day of trouble and distress a day of wasteness and desolation as it is with us at this time Thus we see how sad the parallel hath been not only in the judgements of Israel but in the sins likewise which have made those judgements so severe 4. The severity of the Judgement appears not only from the Causes but from the Author of it I have overthrown some of you as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah God challenges the execution of his Justice to himself not only in the great day but in his judgement here in the world Shall there be evil in a City and the Lord hath not done it When God is pleased to punish men for their sins the execution of his justice is as agreeable to his nature now as it will be at the end of the world We all know that he may do it if he please and he hath told us that he doth and will do it and we know withall that without such remarkable severities the world will hardly be kept in any awe of him We do not finde that Love doth so much in the World as Fear doth there being so very few persons of tractable and ingenuous spirits It is true of too many what Lactantius observes of the Romans Nunquam Dei meminerunt nisi dum in malis sunt they seldom think of God but when they are afraid of him And there is not only this reason as to particular persons why God should punish them but there is a greater as to Communities and Bodies of men for although God suffers wicked men to escape punishment here as he often doth yet he is sure not to do it in the life to come but Communities of men can never be punished but in this World and therefore the Justice of God doth often discover it self in these common calamities to keep the
that we might have time to amend them but no sooner did our fears abate but our devotion did so too we had soon forgotten the promises we made in the day of our distress and I am afraid it is at this day too true of us which is said in the Revelations of those who had escaped the several plagues which so many had been destroyed by And the rest of the men which were not killed by these Plagues yet repented not of the work of their hands For if we had not greedily suckt in again the poyson we had only laid down while we were begging for our lives if we had not returned with as great fury and violence as ever to our former lusts the removing of one judgement had not been as it were only to make way for the coming on of another For the grave seemed to close up her mouth and death by degrees to withdraw himself that the Fire might come upon the Stage to act its part too in the Tragoedy our sins have made among us and I pray God this may be the last Act of it Let us not then provoke God to finde out new methods of vengeance and make experiments upon us of what other unheard of severities may do for our cure But let us rather meet God now by our repentance and returning to him by our serious humiliation for our former sins and our stedfast resolutions to return no more to the practice of them That that much more dangerous infection of our souls may be cured as well as that of our bodies that the impure flames which burn within may be extinguished that all our luxuries may be retrenched our debaucheries punished our vanities taken away our careless indifferency in Religion turned into a greater seriousness both in the profession and the practice of it So will God make us a happy and prosperous when he finds us a more righteous and holy Nation So will God succeed all your endeavours for the honour and interest of that people whom you represent So may he add that other Title to the rest of those you have deserved for your Countreys good to make you Repairers of the breaches of the City as well as of the Nation and Restorers of paths to dwell in So may that City which now sits solitary like a Widow have her tears wiped off and her beauty and comeliness restored unto her Yea so may her present ruines in which she now lyes buried be only the fore-runners of a more joyfull resurrection In which though the body may remain the same the qualities may be so altered that its present desolation may be only the putting off its former inconveniencies weakness and deformities that it may rise with greater glory strength and proportion and to all her other qualities may that of incorruption be added too at least till the general Conflagration And I know your great Wisdom and Justice will take care that those who have suffered by the ruines may not likewise suffer by the rising of it that the glory of the City may not be laid upon the tears of the Orphans and Widows but that its foundations may be setled upon Justice and Piety That there be no complaining in the Streets for want of Righteousness nor in the City for want of Churches nor in the Churches for want of a settled maintenance That those who attend upon the service of God in them may never be tempted to betray their Consciences to gain a livelihood nor to comply with the factious humours of men that they may be able to live among them And thus when the City through the blessing of Heaven shall be built again may it be a Habitation of Holiness towards God of Loyalty towards our Gracious King and his Successors of Justice and Righteousness towards Men of Sobriety and Peace and Unity among all the Inhabitants till not Cities and Countries only but the World and Time it self shall be no more Which God of his infinite mercy grant through the merits and mediation of his Son to whom with the Father and Eternal Spirit be all Honour and Glory for evermore FINIS A SERMON Preached before the KING MARCH 13. 1666 7. By Edward Stillingfleet B. D. Chaplain in Ordinary to his Majesty Printed by His Majesties special Command The Fourth Edition LONDON Printed by R. White for Henry Mortlock and are to be sold at his Shop at the Sign of the White Hart in Westminster Hall 1669. Proverbs 14. 9. Fools make a mock at Sin WHEN God by his infinite Wisdom had contrived and by a power and goodness as infinite as his Wisdom had perfected the creation of the visible world there seemed to be nothing wanting to the glory of it but a creature endued with reason and understanding which might comprehend the design of his wisdom enjoy the benefits of his goodness and employ it self in the celebration of his power The Beings purely intellectuall were too highly raised by their own order and creation to be the Lords of this inferiour world and those whose natures could reach no higher than the objects of sense were not capable of discovering the glorious perfections of the great Creator and therefore could not be the fit Instruments of his praise and service But a conjunction of both these together was thought necessary to make up such a sort of beings which might at once command this lower world and be the servants of him who made it Not as though this great fabrick of the world were meerly raised for man to please his fancy in the contemplation of it or to exercise his dominion over the creatures designed for his use and service but that by frequent reflections on the author of his being and the effects of his power and goodness he might be brought to the greatest love and admiration of him So that the most natural part of Religion lyes in the grateful acknowledgments we owe to that excellent and supream Being who hath shewed so particular a kindness to man in the creation and Government of the world Which was so great and unexpressible that some have thought it was not so much pride and affectation of a greater height as envy at the felicity and power of mankind which was the occasion of the fall of the Apostate Spirits But whether or no the state of man were occasion enough for the envy of the Spirits above we are sure the kindness of Heaven was so great in it as could not but lay an indispensable obligation on all mankind to perpetual gratitude and obedience For it is as easie to suppose that affronts and injuries are the most suitable returns for the most obliging favours that the first duty of a Child should be to destroy his Parents that to be thankful for kindnesses received were to commit the unpardonable sin as that man should receive his being and all the blessings which attend it from God and not be bound to the most universal obedience to
him And as the reflection on the author of his being leads him to the acknowledgement of his duty towards God so the consideration of the design of it will more easily acquaint him with the nature of that duty which is expected from him Had man been designed only to act a short part here in the world all that had been required of him had been only to express his thankfulness to God for his being and the comforts of it the using all means for the due preservation of himself the doing nothing beneath the dignity of humane nature nothing injurious to those who were of the same nature with himself but since he is designed for greater and nobler ends and his present state is but a state of tryal in order to future happiness and misery the reason of good and evil is not to be taken meerly from his present but from the respect which things have to that eternal state he is designed for From whence it follows that the differences of good and evil are rooted in the nature of our beings and are the necessary consequents of our relation to God and each other and our expectations of a future life And therefore according to these measures the estimation of men in the world hath been while they did preserve any veneration for God or themselves Wisdom and folly was not measured so much by the subtilty and curiosity of mens speculations by the fineness of their thoughts or the depth of their designes as by their endeavours to uphold the dignity of mankind by their piety and devotion towards God by their sobriety and due Government of their actions by the equality and justice the charity and kindness of their dealings to one another Wisdom was but another name for goodness and folly for sin then it was a mans glory to be religious and to be prophane and vitious was to be base and mean then there were no Gods worshipped because they were bad nor any men disgraced because they were good Then there were no Temples erected to the meanest passions of humane nature nor men became Idolaters to their own infirmities Then to be betrayed into sin was accounted weakness to contrive it dishonour and baseness to justifie and defend it infamy and reproach to make a mock at it a mark of the highest folly and incorrigibleness So the Wise man in the words of the Text assures us that they are Fools and those of the highest rank and degree of folly who make a mock at sin It is well for us in the Age we live in that we have the judgement of former ages to appeal to and of those persons in them whose reputation for wisdom is yet unquestionable For otherwise we might be born down by that spightful enemy to all vertue and goodness the impudence of such who it is hard to say whether they shew it more in committing sin or in defending it Men whose manners are so bad that scarce any thing can be imagined worse unless it be the wit they use to excuse them with Such who take the measure of mans perfections downwards and the nearer they approach to beasts the more they think themselves to act like men No wonder then if among such as these the differences of good and evil be laughed at and no sin be thought so unpardonable as the thinking that there is any at all Nay the utmost they will allow in the description of Sin is that it is a thing that some live by declaiming against and others cannot live without the practice of But is the Chair of Scorners at last proved the only chair of Infallibility Must those be the standard of mankind who seem to have little left of humane nature but laughter and the shape of men Do they think that we are all become such fools to take scoffs for arguments and raillery for demonstrations He knows nothing at all of goodness that knows not that it is much more easie to laugh at it than to practise it and it were worth the while to make a mock at sin if the doing so would make nothing of it But the nature of things does not vary with the humours of men sin becomes not at all the less dangerous because men have so little Wit to think it so nor Religion the less excellent and advantageous to the world because the greatest enemies of that are so much to themselves too that they have learnt to despise it But although that scorns to be defended by such weapons whereby her enemies assault her nothing more unbecoming the Majesty of Religion than to make it self cheap by making others laugh yet if they can but obtain so much of themselves to attend with patience to what is serious there may be yet a possibility of perswading them that no fools are so great as those who laugh themselves into misery and none so certainly do so as those who make a mock at sin But if our authority be too mean and contemptible to be relyed on in a matter wherein they think us so much concern'd and so I hope we are to prevent the ruine of mens souls we dare with confidence appeal to the general sense of mankind in the matter of our present debate Let them name but any one person in all the monuments of former ages to whom but the bare suspicion of Vice was not a diminution to an esteem that might otherwise have been great in the world And if the bare suspicion would do so much among even the more rude and barbarous Nations what would open and professed wickedness do among the more knowing and civil Humane nature retains an abhorrency of sin so far that it is impossible for men to have the same esteem of those who are given over to all manner of wickedness though otherwise of great sharpness of wit and of such whose natural abilities may not exceed the other but yet do govern their actions according to the strict rules of Religion and Vertue And the general sense oâ—… mankind cannot be by any thing better known than by an universal consent of men as to the wayes whereby they express their value and esteem of others What they all agree on as the best character of a person worthy to be loved and honoured we may well think is the most agreeable to humane nature and what is universally thought a disparagement to the highest accomplishments ought to be looked on as the disgrace and imperfection of it Did ever any yet though never so wicked and profane themselves seriously commend another person for his rudeness and debaucheries Was any mans lust or intemperance ever reckoned among the Titles of his honour Who ever yet raised Trophies to his vices or thought to perpetuate his memory by the glory of them Where was it ever known that sobriety and temperance justice and charity were thought the marks of reproach and infamy Who ever suffered in their reputation by being thought to be really good Nay
at which more enemies may come in still so that when we finde our selves under their power we are contented for our own ease to call them Friends Which is the unhappy consequence of too easie yielding at first till at last the greatest slavery to sin be accounted but good humour and a gentile compliance with the fashions of the world So that when men are peâ— swaded either through fear or too greâ—… easiness to disuse that strict eye which theâ— had before to their actions it oft-time falls out with them as it did with the Soul dier in the Roman History who blinded hiâ— eye so long in the time of the Civil Wanâ—… that when he would have used it agaiâ—… he could not And when custom hath bâ— degrees taken away the sense of sin froâ— their Consciences they grow as hard as Hâ—… rodotus tells us the heads of the old Egyptâ— ans were by the heat of the Sun that nothing would ever enter them If men wilâ—… with Nebuchadnezzar herd with the beastâ— of the field no wonder if their reason departs from them and by degrees they grow as savage as the company they keep So powerfull a thing is Custom to debaucâ— Mankinde and so easily do the greatest vices by degrees obtain admission into the souls of men under pretence of being retainers to the common infirmities of humane nature Which is a phrase through the power of self-flattery and mens ignorance in the nature of moral actions made to be of so large and comprehensive a sense that the most wilful violations of the Laws of Heaven and such which the Scripture tells us do exclude from the Kingdom of it do finde rather than make friends enough to shelter themselves under the protection of them But such a protection it is which is neither allowed in the Court of Heaven nor will ever secure the souls of men without a hearty and sincere repentance from the arrest of divine justice which when it comes to call the world to an account of their actions will make no defalcations at all for the power of custom or common practice of the world 3. The Impossibility of the Command or rather of obedience to it When neither of the former pleas will effect their design but notwithstanding the pretended necessity of humane actions and the more than pretended common practice of the World their Consciences still fly in their faces and rebuke them sharply for their sins then in a a mighty rage and fury they charge God himself with Tyranny in laying impossible Laws upon the sons of men But if we either consider the nature of the command or the promises which accompany it or the large experience of the world to the contrary we shall easily discover that this pretence is altogether as unreasonable as either of the foregoing For what is it that God requires of men as the condition of their future happiness which in its own nature is judged impossible Is it for men to live soberly righteously and godly in this world for that was the end of Christian Religion to perswade men to do so but who thinks it impossible to avoid the occasions of intemperance not to defraud or injure his neighbours or to pay that reverence and sincere devotion to God which we owe unto him Is it to do as we would be done by yet that hath been judged by strangers to the Christian Religion a most exact measure of humane conversation Is it to maintain an universal kindness and good will to men that indeed is the great excellency of our Religion that it so strictly requires it but if this be impossible farewell all good nature in the world and I suppose few will own this charge lest theirs be suspected Is it to be patient under sufferings moderate in our desires circumspect in our actions contented in all conditions yet these are things which those have pretended to who never owned Christianity and therefore surely they never thought them impossible Is it to be charitable to the poor compassionate to those in misery is it to be frequent in Prayer to love God above all things to forgive our enemies as we hope God will forgive us to believe the Gospel and be ready to suffer for the sake of Christ There are very few among us but will say they do all these things already and therefore surely they do not think them impossible The like answer I might give to all the other precepts of the Gospel till we come to the denying ungodliness and worldly lusts and as to these too if we charge men with them they either deny their committing them and then say they have kept the command or if they confess it they promise amendment for the future but in neither respect can they be said to think the command impossible Thus we see their own mouths will condemn them when they charge God with laying impossible Laws on mankind But if we enquire further then into the judgements of those who it may be never concerned themselves so much about the precepts of Christian Religion as to try whether they had any power to observe them or not nay if we yield them more than it may be they are willing to enquire after though they ought to do it viz. that without the assistance of divine grace they can never do it yet such is the unlimited nature of divine goodness and the exceeding riches of Gods Grace that knowing the weakness and degeneracy of humane Nature when he gave these commands to men he makes a large and free offer of assistance to all those who are so sensible of their own infirmity as to beg it of him And can men then say the command is impossible when he hath promised an assistance suitable to the nature of the duty and the infirmities of men If it be acknowledged that some of the duties of Christianity are very difficult to us now let us consider by what means he hath sweetned the performance of them Will not the proposal of so excellent a reward make us swallow some more than ordinary hardships that we might enjoy it Hath he not made use of the most obliging motives to perswade us to the practice of what he requires by the infinite discovery of his own love the death of his Son and the promise of his Spirit And what then is wanting but only setting our selves to the serious obedience of them to make his commands not only not impossible but easie to us But our grand fault is we make impossibilities our selves where we finde none and then we complain of them we are first resolved not to practise the commands and then nothing more easie than to finde fault with them we first pass sentence and then examine evidences first condemn and then enquire into the merits of the Cause Yet surely none of these things can be accounted impossible which have been done by all those who have been sincere and hearty Christians
and God forbid we should think all guilty of hypocrisie who have professed the Christian Religion from the beginning of it to this day Nay more than so they have not only done them but professed to have that joy and satisfaction of minde in the doing of them which they would not exchange for all the pleasures and delights of the world These were the men who not only were patient but rejoyced in sufferings who accounted it their honour and glory to endure any thing for the sake of so excellent a Religion who were so assured of a future happiness by it that they valued Martyrdoms above Crowns and Scepters But God be thanked we may hope to come to Heaven on easier terms than these or else many others might never come thither besides those who think to make this a pretence for their sin that now when with encouragement and honour we may practise our Religion the commands of it are thought impossible by them Thus we have made good the general Charge here implyed against wicked men in that they are called Fools by examining the most plausible pretences they bring for themselves I now come to the particular impeachment of their folly because they make a mock at sin And that I shall prove especially by two things 1. Because this argues the highest degree of wickedness 2. Because it betrayes the greatest weakness of judgement and want of consideration 1. Because it argues the highest degree of wickedness If to sin be tolly to make a mock at it is little short of madness It is such a height of impiety that few but those who are of very profligate conscienences can attain to without a long custom in sinning For Conscience is at first modest and starts and boggles at the appearance of a great wickedness till it be used to it and grown familiar with it It is no such easie matter for a man to get the mastery of his conscience a great deal of force and violence must be used to ones self before he does it The natural impressions of good and evil the fears of a Deity and the apprehensions of a future state are such curbs and checks in a sinners way that he must first sin himself beyond all feeling of these before he can attain to the seat of the scorners And we may justly wonder how any should ever come thither when they must break through all that is ingenuous and modest all that is vertuous and good all that is tender and apprehensive in humane nature before they can arrive at it They must first deny a God and despise an immortal soul they must conquer their own reason and cancell the Law written in their hearts they must hate all that is serious and yet soberly believe themselves to be no better than the beasts that perish before men can come to make a scoff at religion and a mock at sin And who now could ever imagine that in a Nation professing Christianity among a people whose genius enclines them to civility and religion yea among those who have the greatest advantages of behaviour and education and who are to give the Laws of civility to the rest of the Nation there should any be found who should deride religion make sport with their own profaneness and make so light of nothing as being damned I come not here to accuse any and least of all those who shew so much regard of religion as to be present in the places devoted to sacred purposes but if there be any such here whose consciences accuse themselves for any degrees of so great impiety I beseech them by all that is dear and precious to them by all that is sacred and serious by the vows of their Baptism and their Participation of the Holy Eucharist by all the kindness of Heaven which they either enjoy or hope for by the death and sufferings of the Son of God that they would now consider how great folly and wickedness they betray in it and what the dreadful consequence of it will be if they do not timely repent of it If it were a doubt as I hope it is not among any here whether the matters of Religion be true or no they are surely things which ought to be seriously thought and spoken of It is certainly no jesting matter to affront a God of infinite Majesty and Power and he judges every wilfull sinner to do so nor can any one in his wits think it a thing not to be regarded whether he be eternally happy or miserable Methinks then among persons of civility and honour above all others Religion might at least be treated with the respect and reverence due to the concernments of it that it be not made the sport of Entertainments nor the common subject of Playes and Comedies For is there nothing to trifle with but God and his service Is wit grown so schismatical and sacrilegious that it can please it self with nothing but holy ground Are prophaneness and wit grown such inseparable companions that none shall be allowed to pretend to the one but such as dare be highly guilty of the other Far be it from those who have but the name of Christians either to do these things themselves or to be pleased with them that do them especially in such times as ours of late have been when God hath used so many wayes to make us serious if any thing would ever do it If men had only slighted God and Religion and made a mock at sin when they had grown wanton through the abundance of peace and plenty and saw no severities of Gods justice used upon such who did it yet the fault had been so great as might have done enough to have interrupted their peace and destroyed that plenty which made them out of the greatness of their pride and wantonness to kick against Heaven but to do it in despight of all Gods judgements to laugh in his face when his rod is upon our backs when neither Pestilence nor Fire can make us more afraid of him exceedingly aggravates the impiety and makes it more unpardonable When like the old Germans we dance among naked swords when men shall desie and reproach Heaven in the midst of a Cities ruines and over the graves of those whom the arrows of the Almighty have heaped together what can be thought of such but that nothing will make them serious but eternaâ— misery And are they so sure there is nâ—… such thing to be feared that they neveâ— think of it but when by their execrablâ— oaths they call upon God to damn them foâ— fear he should not do it time enough for them Thus while men abuse his patience and provoke his justice while they trample upon his kindness and slight his severities while they despise his Laws and mock at the breaches of them what can be added more to their impiety or what can be expected by such who are guilty of it but that God should quickly discover their mighty
or wish for the most impossiblâ— things than believe they shall ever be punished for their impieties If the Apostate Spirits can by reason of their presenâ— restraint and expectation of future punishments be as pleasant in beholding the folliâ—… of men as they are malicious to suggest them it may be one of the greatest diversions of their misery to see how active and witty men are in contriving their own ruine To see with what greediness they catch at every bait that is offered them and when they are swallowing the most deadly poyson what arts they use to perswade themselves that it is a healthful potion No doubt nothing can more gratifie them than to see men sport themselves into their own destruction and go down so pleasantly to Hell when eternal flames become their first awakeners and then men begin to be wise when it is too late to be so when nothing but insupportable torments can convince them that God was in earnest with them that he would not alwayes bear the affronts of evil men and that those who derided the miseries of another life shall have leisure enough to repent their folly when their repentance shall only increase their sorrow without hopes of pardon by it 3. But if there were any present felicity or any considerable advantage to be gained by this mocking at sin and undervaluing Religion there would seem to be some kind of pretence though nothing of true reason for it Yet that which heightens this folly to the highest degree in the last place is that there can be no imaginable consideration thought on which might look like a plausible temptation to it The covetous man when he hath defrauded his neighbour and used all kinds of arts to compass an Estate hath the fulness of his baggs to answer for him and whatever they may do in another world he is sure they will do much in this The voluptuous man hath the strong propensities of his Nature the force of temptation which lies in the charms of beauty to excuse his unlawfull pleasures by The ambitious man hath the greatness of his mind the advantage of authority the examples of those who have been great before him and the envy of those who condemn him to plead for the heights he aims at But what is it which the person who despises Religion and laughs at every thing that is serious proposes to himself as the reason of what he does But alas this were to suppose him to be much more serious than he is if he did propound any thing to himself as the ground of his actions But it may be a great kindness to others though none to himself I cannot imagine any unless it may be to make them thankfull they are not arrived to that height of folly or out of perfect good nature lest they should take him to be wiser than he is The Psalmists fool despises him as much as he does Religion for he only saith it in his heart there is no God but this though he dares not think there is none yet shews him not near so much outward respect and reverence as the other does Even the Atheist himself thinks him a Fool and the greatest of all other who believes a God and yet affronts him and trifles with him And although the Atheists Folly be unaccountable in resisting the clearest evidence of reason yet so far he is to be commended for what he sayes that if there be such a thing as Religion men ought to be serious in it So that of all hands the scoffer at Religion is looked on as one forsaken of that little reason which might serve to uphold a slender reputation of being above the beasts that perish nay therein his condition is worse than theirs that as they understand not Religion they shall never be punished for despising it which such a person can never secure himself from considering the power the justice the severity of that God whom he hath so highly provoked God grant that the apprehension of this danger may make us so serious in the profession and practice of our Religion that we may not by slighting that and mocking at sin provoke him to laugh at our calamities and mock when our fear comes but that by beholding the sincerity of our repentance and the heartiness of our devotion to him he may turn his anger away from us and rejoyce over us to do us good FINIS Luke 7. 35. But Wisdom is justified of all her Children OF all the Circumstances of our Blessed Saviours appearance and preaching in the World there is none which to our first view and apprehension of things seems more strange and unaccountable than that those persons who were then thought of all others to be most conversant in the Law and the Prophets should be the most obstinate opposers of him For since he came to fulfill all the Prophesies which had gone before concerning him and was himself the great Prophet foretold by all the rest none might in humane probability have been judged more likely to have received and honoured him than those to whom the judgement of those things did peculiarly belong and who were as much concern'd in the truth of them as any else could be Thus indeed it might have been reasonably expected and doubtless it had been so if interest and prejudice had not had a far more absolute power and dominion over them than they had over the rest of the people If Miracles and Prophesies if Reason and Religion nay if the interest of another World could have prevailed over the interest of this among them the Jewish Sanhedrin might have been some of the first Converts to Christianity the Scribes and Pharisees had been all Proselytes to Christ and the Temple at Jerusalem had been the first Christian Church But to let us see with what a jealous eye Power and Interest looks on every thing that seems to offer at any disturbance of it how much greater sway partiality and prejudice hath upon the mindes of men than true Reason and Religion and how hard a matter it is to convince those who have no minde to be convinced we finde none more furious in their opposition to the person of Christ none more obstinate in their infidelity as to his Doctrine than those who were at that time in the greatest reputation among them for their authority wisdom and knowledge These are they whom our Saviour as often as he meets with either checks for their ignorance or rebukes for their pride or denounces woes against for their malice and hypocrisie These are they who instead of believing in Christ persecute him instead of following him seek to destroy him and that they might the better compass it they reproach and defame him as if he had been really as bad as themselves And although the people might not presently believe what they said concerning him yet that they might at least be kept in suspence by it they endeavour to fasten the blackest
preserved its primitive honour in the world For so far were men then from making their zeal for Religion a pretence to rebellion that though Christianity were directly contrary to the Religions then in vogue in the world yet they knew of no other way of promoting it but by patience humility meekness prayers for their persecutors and tears when they saw them obstinate So far were they then from fomenting suspicions and jealousies concerning the Princes and Governours they lived under that though they were generally known to be some of the worst of men as well as of Princes yet they charge all Christians in the strictest manner as they loved their Religion and the honour of it as they valued their souls and the salvation of them that they should be subject to them So far were they then from giving the least encouragement to the usurpations of the rights of Princes under the pretence of any power given to a head of the Church that there is no way for any to think they meant it unless we suppose the Apostles such mighty Politicians that it is because they say nothing at all of it but on the contrary bid every soul be subject to the higher powers though an Apostle Evangelist Prophet whatever he be as the Fathers interpret it Yea so constant and uniform was the doctrine and practice of Obedience in all the first and purest ages of the Christian Church that no one instance can be produced of any usurpation of the rights of Princes under the pretence of any title from Christ or any disobedience to their authority under the pretence of promoting Christianity through all those times wherein Christianity the most flourished or the Christians were the most persecuted And happy had it been for us in these last ages of the World if we had been Christians on the same terms which they were in the Primitive times then there had been no such scandals raised by the degeneracy of men upon the most excellent and peaceable Religion in the world as though that were unquiet and troublesome because so many have been so who have made shew of it But let their pretences be never so great to infallibility on one side and to the Spirit on the other so far as men encourage faction and disobedience so far they have not the Spirit of Christ and Christianity and therefore are none of his For he shewed his great wisdom in contriving such a method of saving mens souls in another world as tended most to the preservation of the peace and quietness of this and though this wisdom may be evil spoken of by men of restless and unpeaceable minds yet it will be still justified by all who have heartily embraced the Wisdom which is from above who are pure and peaceable as that Wisdom is and such and only such are the Children of it 3. I come to shew That the design of Christs appearance was very agreeable to the infinite Wisdom of God and that the means were very suitable and effectual for carrying on of that design for the reformation of Mankind 1. That the design it self was very agreeable to the infinite Wisdom of God What could we imagine more becoming the Wisdom of God than to contrive a way for the recovery of lapsed and degenerate Mankind who more fit to employ upon such a message as this than the Son of God for his coming gives the greatest assurance to the minds of men that God was serious in the management of this design than which nothing could be of greater importance in order to the success of it And how was it possible he should give a greater testimony of himself and withall of the purpose he came about than he did when he was in the world The accomplishment of Prophesies and power of Miracles shewed who he was the nature of his Doctrine the manner of his Conversation the greatness of his Sufferings shewed what his design was in appearing among men for they were all managed with a peculiar respect to the convincing mankinde that God was upon terms of mercy with them and had therefore sent his Son into the world that he might not only obtain the pardon of sin for those who repent but eternal life for all them that obey him And what is there now we can imagine so great and desireable as this for God to manifest hiâ— wisdom in It is true we see a great discovery of it in the works of Nature and might do in the methods of Divine Providence if partiality and interest did not blinde our eyes but both these though great in themselves yet fall short of the contrivance of bringing to an eternal happiness man who had fallen from his Maker and was perishing in his own folly Yet this is that which men in the pride and vanity of their own imaginations either think not worth considering or consider as little as if they thought so and in the mean time think themselves very wise too The Jews had the wisdom of their Traditions which they gloried in and despised the Son of God himself when he came to alter them The Greeks had the wisdom of their Philosophy which they so passionately admired that whatever did not agree with that though infinitely more certain and usefull was on that account rejected by them The Romans after the conquest of so great a part of the World were grown all such Politicians and Statesmen that few of them could have leisure to think of another world who were so busie in the management of this And some of all these sorts do yet remain in the World which maâ—â— so many so little think of or admire tâ—…s infinite discovery of divine Wisdom nay there are some who can mix all these together joyning a Jewisâ— obstinacy with the pride and self-opinion of the Greeks to a Roman unconcernedness about the matters of another life And yet upon a true and just enquiry never any Religion could be found which could more fully satisfie the expectation of the Jews the reason of the Greeks or the wisdom of the Romans than that which was made known by Christ who was the Wisdom of God and the Power of God Here the Jew might find his Messias come and the Promises fulfilled which related to him here the Greek might find his long and vainly looked for certainty of a life to come and the way which leads to it here the Roman might see a Religion serviceable to another world and this together Here are Precepts more holy Promises more certain Rewards more desireable than ever the wit or invention of men could have attained to Here are Institutions far more pious usefull and serviceable to mankinde than the most admired Laws of the famous Legislators of Greece or Rome Here are no popular designs carried on no vices indulged for the publick interest which Solon Lyourgus and Plato are charged with Here is no making Religion a meer trick of State and a thing only
usefull for governing the people which Numa and the great men at Rome are lyable to the suspicion of Here is no wrapping up Religion in strange figures and mysterious non-sense which the AEgyptians were so much given to Here is no inhumanity and cruelty in the sacrifices offer'd no looseness and profaneness allowed in the most solemn mysteries no worshipping of such for Gods who had not been fit to live if they had been men which were all things so commonly practised in the Idolatries of the Heathens But the nature of the Worship is such as the mindes of those who come to it ought to be and as becomes that God whom we profess to serve pure and holy grave and serious solemn and devout without the mixtures of superstition vanity or ostentation The precepts of our Religion are plain and easie to be known very suitable to the nature of Mankinde and highly tending to the advantage of those who practise them both in this and a better life The arguments to perswade men are the most weighty and powerfull and of as great importance as the love of God the death of his Son the hopes of happiness and the fears of eternal misery can be to men And wherein is the contrivance of our Religion defective when the end is so desireable the means so effectual for the obtaining of it 2. Which is the next thing to be considered There are two things which in this degenerate estate of man are necessary in order to the recovery of his happiness and those are Repentance for sins past and sincere Obedience for the future now both these the Gospel gives men the greatest encouragements to and therefore is the most likely to effect the design it was intended for 1. For Repentance for sins past What more powerfull motives can there be to perswade men to repent than for God to let men know that he is willing to pardon their sins upon the sincerity of their Repentance but without that there remains nothing but a fearfull expectation of judgement and fiery indignation that their sins are their follies and therefore to repent is to grow wise that he requires no more from men but what every considerative man knows is fitting to be done whenever he reflects upon his actions that there can be no greater ingratitude or disingenuity towards the Son of God than to stand at defiance with God when he hath shed his blood to reconcile God and Man to each other that every step of his humiliation every part of the Tragedy of his life every wound at his death every groan and sigh which he utter'd upon the Cross were designed by him as the most prevailing Rhetorick to perswade men to forsake their sins and be happy that there cannot be a more unaccountable folly than by impenitency to lose the hopes of a certain and eternal happiness for the sake of those pleasures which every wise man is ashamed to think of that to continue in sin with the hopes to repent is to stab a mans self with the hopes of a cure that the sooner men do it the sooner they will finde their minds at ease and that the pleasures they enjoy in forsaking their sins are far more noble and manly than ever they had in committing them but if none of these arguments will prevail with them perish they must and that unavoidably insupportably and irrecoverably And if such arguments as these will not prevail with men to leave their sins it is impossible that any should 2. For Holiness of Life For Christ did not come into the World and dye for us meerly that we should repent of what is past by denying ungodliness and worldly lusts but that we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world And what he doth expect he hath given the greatest encouragements to perform by the clearness of his precepts the excellency of his own example the promise of his Grace and the proposition of eternal rewards and punishments whereby he takes off all the objections men are apt to make against obedience to the Commands of Christ the pretence of ignorance because his Laws are so clear the pretence of impossibility by his own example the pretence of infirmity by the assistance of his Grace the pretence of the unnecessariness of so great care of our actions by making eternal rewards and punishments to depend upon it Let us then reflect upon the whole design of the Gospel and see how admirably it is suited to the end it was intended for to the condition of those whose good was designed by it and to the honour of the great contriver and manager of it And let not us by our impenitency and the unholiness of our lives dishonour God and our Saviour reproach our Religion and condemn that by our lives which we justifie by our words For when we have said all we can the best and most effectual vindication of Christian Religion is to live according to it But oh then how unhappy are we that live in such an Age wherein it were hard to know that men were Christians unless we are bound to believe their words against the tenour and course of their actions What is become of the purity the innocency the candour the peaceableness the sincerity and devotion of the Primitive Christians What is become of their zeal for the honour of Christ and Christian Religion If it were the design of men to make our Religion a dishonour and reproach to the Jewes Mahumetans and Heathens could they do it by more effectual means than they have done Who is there that looks into the present state of the Christian World could ever think that the Christian Religion was so incomparably beyond all others in the world Is the now Christian Rome so much beyond what it was while it was Heathen Nay was it not then remarkable in its first times for justice sincerity contempt of riches and a kind of generous honesty and who does not though of the same Religion if he hath any ingenuity left lament the want of all those things there now Will not the sobriety of the very Turks upbraid our excesses and debaucheries and the obstinacy of the Jewes in defence and practice of their Religion condemn our coldness and indifferency in ours If we have then any tenderness for the honour of our Religion or any kindness for our own Souls let us not only have the Name but let us lead the Lives of Christians let us make amends for all the reproaches which our Religion hath suffer'd by the faction and disobedience of some by the Oaths and Blasphemies the impieties and profaneness of others by the too great negligence and carelesness of all that if it be possible Christianity may appear in its true glory which will then only be when those who name the Name of Christ depart from iniquity and live in all manner of holy conversation and godliness FINIS Rom. 1. 16. For I am not
ashamed of the Gospel of Christ for it is the Power of God unto salvation to every one that believes to the Jew first and also to the Greek THese words are utter'd by one who was himself a remarkable instance of the truth of the Doctrine contained in them Viz. of that Divine Power which did accompany the Gospel of Christ. For what can we imagine else should make him now not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ who not long before was not ashamed to persecute all those who professed it One whose spirit was fermented with the leaven of the Pharisees and inraged with fury against all who owned the name of Christ is of a sudden turn'd quite into another temper to the confusion of those who employ'd him and the amazement of them whom he designed to persecute Nay so great was the change which was wrought in him that from a Bigot of the Jewish Religion he becomes an Apostle of the Christian and from breathing flames against the Christians none more ready than he to undergo them for Christ. If he had only given over his persecution it might have been thought that he had meerly run himself out of breath and grown weary of his former fury as greater persons than he did afterwards but to retain the same fervour of spirit in preaching Christ which he had before in opposing him to have as great zeal for making Christians as he had for destroying them must needs proceed from some great and unusual cause Whilest the Jews thought he had too much learning and interest to become their enemy and the Christians found he had too much rage and fury to be their friend even then when they least expected it instead of continuing an Instrument of the Sanhedrin for punishing the Christians he declared himself an Apostle and servant of Jesus Christ. And that no ordinary one neither for such was the efficacy of those divine words Saul Saul why persecutest thou me that they not only presently allay his former heat but quicken and animate him to a greater zeal for the honour of him whom he had persecuted before And the faster he had run when he was out of his way the greater diligence he used when he found it there being none of all the followers of Christ who out-stript him in his constant endeavours to advance the Christian Religion in the World And if an unwearied diligence to promote it an uncessant care for preserving it an universal concern for all who owned it and an undaunted spirit in bearing the affronts and injuries he underwent for it be any perswasive arguments of the love a man bears to his Religion there was never any person who made a clearer demonstration than S. Paul did of the truth of his Religion and his sincerity in embracing it For his endeavours were suitable to the greatness of his spirit his care as large as the Horizon of the Sun of righteousness his courage as great as the malice of his enemies For he was neither afraid of the malice of the Jews or of the Wisdom of the Greeks or of the Power of the Romans but he goes up and down preaching the Gospel in a sphere as large as his minde was and with a zeal only parallel with his former fury He encounter'd the Jews in their Synagogues he disputed with the Greeks in their most famous Cities at Athens Corinth Ephesus and elsewhere and every-where raising some Trophies to the honour of the Gospel nothing now remained but that he should do the same at Rome also And for this he wants not spirit and resolution for he even longed to be there vers 11. nay he had often purposed to goe thither but waited for a convenient opportunity v. 13. But while God was pleased otherwise to dispose of him he could not conceal the joy which he had for the ready entertainment of the Christian Religion by those to whom he writes and that their faith was grown as famous as the City wherein they dwelt v. 8. First I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all that your Faith is spoken of throughout the whole World and he further manifests the greatness of his affection to them that without ceasing he made mention of them alwayes in his Prayers v. 9. And among the rest of the blessings he pray'd for for himself and them he was sure not to forget his coming to them v. 10. Not out of an ambitious and vain-glorious humour that he might be taken notice of in that great and Imperial City but that he might be instrumental in doing them service as he had done others v. 11 13. And to this end he tells them what an obligation lay upon him to spread the Doctrine of Christ in all places and to all persons v. 14. I am debtor both to the Greeks and to the Barbarians to the wise and to the unwise So that neither the wisdom of the Greeks nor the ignorance of the Barbarians could hinder S. Paul from discovering to them the contrivances of infinite wisdom and the excellent methods of divine Goodness in order to mens eternal welfare And although Rome now thought it self to be the seat of Wisdom as well as Empire and Power yet our Apostle declares his readiness to preach the Gospel there too v. 15. for which he gives a sufficient reason in the words of the Text for I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ for it is the Power of God to salvation c. Wherein we have considerable these two things 1. The Apostles boldness and freeness in declaring the doctrine of Christ For I am not ashamed c. 2. The ground of it in the following words for it is the Power of God to salvation c. 1. The Apostles boldness and freeness in declaring the doctrine of Christ. It was neither the gallantry of the Roman Court nor the splendor of the City not the greatness of her Power or wisdom of her Statesmen could make S. Paul entertain the meaner opinion of the doctrine he hoped to preach among them Had Christ come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with a great deal of pomp and state into the World subduing Kingdoms and Nations under him had S. Paul been a Generall for the Gospel instead of being an Apostle of it the great men of the World would then allow he had no cause to be ashamed either of his Master or of his employment But to preach a crucified Saviour among the glories and triumphs of Rome and a Doctrine of so much simplicity and contempt of the world among those who were the Masters of it and manag'd it with so much art and cunning to perswade them to be followers of Christ in a holy life who could not be like the gods they worship'd unless they were guilty of the greatest debaucheries seems to be an employment so lyable to the greatest scorn and contempt that none but a great and resolved spirit would ever undertake it For when we consider after
themselves sought to make the world any thing the better for their being in it what infinitely greater esteem do those blessed Apostles deserve who accounted not their lives dear to them that they might make even their enemies happy If those mens memories be dear to us who sacrifice their lives and fortunes for the sake of the Countrey they belong to shall not those be much more so who have done it for the good of the whole world Such who chearfully suffer'd death while they were teaching men the way to an eternal life and who patiently endured the flames if they might but give the greater light to the world by them Such who did as far out-goe any of the admired Heroes of the Heathens as the purging the World from sin is of greater consequence than cleansing an Augaean Stable from the filth of it and rescuing men from eternal flames is a more noble design than clearing a Countrey from pyrats and robbers Nay most of the Heathen Gods who were so solemnly worshipped in Greece and at Rome owed their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to such slender benefits to mankinde that sure the world was very barbarous or hugely gratefull when they could think them no less than Gods who found out such things for men If a Smiths forge and a Womans distaffe if teaching men the noble arts of fighting and cheating one another were such rare inventions that they only became some of the most celebrated Deities which the grave and demure Romans thought fit to worship sure S. Paul had no cause to be ashamed of his Religion among them who had so much reason to be ashamed of their own since his design was to perswade them out of all the vanities and fooleries of their Idolatrous Worship and to bring them to the service of the true and ever living God who had discovered so much goodness to the world in making his Son a propitiation for the sins of it And was not this a discovery infinitely greater and more suitable to the nature of God than any which the subtilty of the Greeks or wisdom of the Romans could ever pretend to concerning any of their Deities Thus we see the excellent end of our Religion was that which made S. Paul so far from being ashamed of it and so it would do all us too if we did understand and value it as S. Paul did But it is the great dishonour of too many among us that they are more ashamed of their Religion than they are of their sins If to talk boldly against Heaven to affront God in calling him to witness their great impieties by frequent oaths to sin bravely and with the highest confidence to mock at such who are yet more modest in their debaucheries were not to be ashamed of the Gospel of Christ we might finde S. Pauls enough in the Age we live in and it would be a piece of gallantry to be Apostles But this is rather the utmost endeavour to put Religion out of countenance and make the Gospel it self blush and be ashamed that ever such bold-faced impieties should be committed by men under the profession of it as though they believed nothing so damnable as Repentance and a Holy life and no sin so unpardonable as Modesty in committing it But to use S. Pauls language when he had been describing such persons hâ—mself Heb. 6. 9. We are perswaded better things of you and things that accompany that salvation the Gospel was designed for though we thus speak For certainly nothing can argue a greater meanness of spirit than while wicked and profane persons are not ashamed of that which unavoidably tends to their ruine any should be shye of the profession and practice of that which conduces to their eternal happiness What is become of all that magnanimity and generous spirit which the Primitive Christians were so remarkable for if while some are impudent in sinning others are ashamed of being or doing good If we have that value for our immortal souls and a future life which we ought to have we shall not trouble our selves much with the Atheistical scoffs and drollery of prosane persons who while they deride and despise Religion do but laugh themselves into eternal misery And thus much for the first ground of S. Pauls confidence viz. The excellent end the Gospel was designed for 2. The effectualness of it in order to that end It is the Power of God to salvation Wherein two things are implyed 1. The inefficacy of any other doctrine for that end 2. The effectualness of the Gospel in order to it 1. The inefficacy of any other Doctrine for this end of promoting the eternal salvation of Mankinde If the world had been acquainted with any doctrine before which had been sufficient for the purposes the Gospel was designed for there would have been no such necessity of propagating it among men nor had there been reason enough to have justified the Apostles in exposing themselves to so great hazards for the preaching of it If the notion of an eternal God and Providence without the knowledge of a Saviour had been sufficient to reform the World and make men happy it had not been consistent with the wisdom or goodness of God to have imploy'd so many persons with the loss of their lives to declare the Doctrine of Christ to the World So that if Christianity be true it must be thought necessary to salvation for the necessity of it was declared by those who were the instruments of confirming the truth of it I meddle not with the case of those particular persons who had no means or opportunity to know Gods revealed will and yet from the Principles of Natural Religion did reform their lives in hopes of a future felicity if any such there were but whether there were not a necessity of such a Doctrine as the Gospel is to be discover'd to the world in order to the reformation of it For some very few persons either through the goodness of their natures the advantage of their education or some cause of a higher nature may have led more vertuous lives than others did but it is necessary that what aims at the general good of Mankinde must be suited to the capacities of all and enforced with arguments which may prevail on any but the most obstinate and wilfull persons But when we consider the state of the World at that time when Christianity was first made known to it we may easily see how insufficient the common Principles of Religion were from working a reformation in it when notwithstanding them mankinde was so generally lapsed into Idolatry and Vice that hardly any can be instanced in in the Heathen World who had escaped both of them And there was so near an affinity between both these that they who were ingaged in the rites of their Idolatry could hardly keep themselves free from the intanglements of vice not only because many of their villanies were practised as part of their Religion
and there was little hopes certainly of their being good who could not be Religious without being bad but because the very Gods they worship'd were represented to be as bad as themselves And could they take any better measure of Vertue than from the actions of those whom they supposed to have so divine an excellency in them as to deserve their adoration So that if there were a design of planting wickedness in the world which need not be for it grows fast enough without it it could not be done more successefully than by worshipping those for Gods who did such things which good men would abhorr to think of And yet this was the state of the world then when the Gospel was preached and not only of the more rude and barbarous Nations but of the most civilized and knowing people as the Romans themselves as our Apostle at large proves in the remainder of this chapter wherein he shews that though they had means enough of knowing the Eternal God and Providence yet they were so fallen into Idolatry and the most vicious practises that there was no means of recovering them but by a fuller discovery both of the justice and goodness of God I know it will be here objected that though the generality of men were bad then as when were they otherwise yet the Heathens had a kind of Apostles among them viz. the Philosophers who sought to amend the manners of men by the moral instructions they gave them so that if men were bad it was not for want of good counsel but for not observing it which is all they say we have to say for our selves when we are charged with the great debaucheries of the Christian world To which I answer That our business is not now to enquire whether there hath not been an incomparably greater advantage to the world by Christianity in the reforming mens lives than ever was by any of the Heathen Morals but whether these taking them in the fairest dress were so sufficient for the bringing men to eternal happiness that there needed not any such Doctrine as Christianity be published for that end And there are two great things we may charge the best of their discourses with an insufficiency in for the accomplishment of this end which are Certainty and Motives or the want of Arguments to believe and Encouragements to practise 1. They were destitute of sufficient Certainty for what a man ventures his eternal state upon he ought to be well assured of the truth of it But how was it possible for the World to be reformed by such wise Apostles if they must be call'd so who were perpetually disputing among themselves about those things which were the most necessary foundations of all Vertue and Religion As though the best Arguments they had to prove their Souls immortal was because their disputes about them were so And those seemed among them to gain the greatest reputation for wit who were best able to dispute against common Principles and they managed their business with greatest advantage who only shewed the weakness of others principles but established none of their own which was an unavoidable consequence of the way they proceeded in for offering at no such way of proof as Christianity doth they rather taught men to dispute than to live eternally Besides their discourses were too subtle and intricate for the common capacities of men how long might a man live before an Entelechia would make him know the nature of his Soul the better or an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 perswade him to believe its immortality Insomuch that it is hard to determine whether the arguments used by them did not rather hinder assent than perswade to it and it seems probable that the honest minded illiterate Heathens believed those things more firmly than the greatest Philosophers For plain truths lose much of their weight when they are ratified into subtilties and their strength is impaired when they are spun into too fine a thread The arguments which must prevail with Mankinde must be plain and evident easie and yet powerfull The natural sense of good and evil in men is oft-times dull'd by disputes and only awaken'd by a powerfull representation of an infinite Being and a future Judgement and that by such a way of proof as all persons are equal Judges of the truth and validity of it such as the Resurrection of Christ is in the Gospel 2. But let us suppose the arguments certain and suitable yet what sufficient motives or encouragements could they give to lead a holy and vertuous life who after all their endeavours to perswade others remained so uncertain themselves as to a future happiness So Tully tells us of Socrates himself when he was just dying That he told his friends that only the Gods knew whether it was fitter for men to live or die but he thought no man did And although some would excuse this as his usual way of disputing yet of all times one would think it was fittest for him then to declare his minde in the most express terms not only for the full vindication of himself but for the comfort and encouragement of his friends We are sure Christianity proceeds on those terms that if a future happiness be supposed uncertain it declares expresly there can be no sufficient reason given for men to part with the conveniencies of this present life nay it supposes the best men to be the most miserable of all others if there be not a future reward 1 Cor. 15. 19. 32. Again what probability was there they should ever perswade the World to vertue and goodness when the severest of the Philosophers made it lye in things so repugnant to humane nature as goodness is agreeable to it As when they made it an equal fault for a man to be angry and to murder his Soveraign and that all passions are to be destroy'd that pain and grief are nothing that vertue in all conditions is a sufficient reward to it self Which are so contrary to the common sense of mankind that the only way to perswade men to believe them is first to perswade them they are not men So that he was certainly the wisest man among the Heathens who concluded that we ought to expect a higher Master to teach us these things and to acquaint us with the happiness of a future life And hereby an answer may be given to Porphyries grand objection against Christian Religion viz. If it were so necessary for the good of Mankinde why was it so long before it was discovered Because God would thereby discover the insufficiency of all the means the wit of man could finde out to reform the world without this That not only the Jews might see the weakness of that dispensation they were under but the Gentile world might groan with an expectation of some more powerfull means to goodness than were yet among them For when Philosophy had been so long in its height and had so little influence upon
Mankinde it was time for the Sun of righteousness to arise and with the softening and healing influence of his beams to bring the World to a more vertuous temper And that leads to the Second thing implyed which is the peculiar efficacy of the Gospel for promoting mens salvation for it is the Power of God to salvation and that will appear by considering how many wayes the power of God is engaged in it These three especially 1. In confirmation of the Truth of it 2. In the admirable Effects of it in the World 3. In the divine Assistance which is promised to those who embrace it 1. In confirmation of the Truth of it For the World was grown so uncertain as to the grand foundations of Religion that the same power was requisite now to settle the World which was at first for the framing of it For though the Precepts of Christian Religion be pure and easie holy and suitable to the sense of mankind though the Promises be great and excellent proportionable to our wants and the weight of our business though the reward be such that it is easier to desire than comprehend it yet all these would but seem to baffle the more the expectations of men unless they were built on some extraordinary evidence of divine power And such we assert there was in the confirmation of these things to us not only in the miraculous birth of our Saviour and that continual series of unparallel'd miracles in his life not only in the most obliging circumstances of his death nor only in the large effusion of divine gifts upon his Apostles and the strange propagation of Christian Religion by them against all humane power but that which I shall particularly instance in as the great effect of divine power and confirmation of our Religion was his Resurrection from the dead For as our Apostle saith Rom. 1. 4. Christ was declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of Holiness by the Resurrection from the dead No way of evidence could be more suitable to the capacities of all than this it being a plain matter of fact none ever better attested than this was not only by the unanimous consent of all the witnesses but by their constant adhering to the truth of it though it cost almost all of them their lives and no greater evidence could be given to the World of a divine power since both Jews and Gentiles agreed in this that such a thing could not be effected but by an immediate hand of God So far were they then from thinking a resurrection possible by the juyce of herbs or an infusion of warm blood into the veins or by the breath of living Creatures as the great martyr for Atheism would seem from Pliny to perswade us when yet certainly nothing can be of higher concernment to those who believe not another life than to have try'd this experiment long ere now and since nothing of that nature hath ever happened since our Saviours resurrection it only lets us know what credulous men in other things the greatest Infidels as to Religion are But so far were they at that time from so fond an imagination that they readily yielded that none but God could do it though they seem'd to question whether God himself could do it or no. As appears by the Apostles Interrogation Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you that God should raise the dead Acts 26. 8. This was therefore judged on both sides to be a matter of so great importance that all the disputes concerning Christian Religion were resolved into this Whether Christ were risen from the dead And this the Apostles urge and insist on upon all occasions as the great evidence of the truth of his Doctrine and this was the main part of their Commission for they were sent abroad to be witnesses of his Resurrection Which was not designed by God as a thing strange and incredible to puzzle mankinde with but to give the highest assurance imaginable to the World of the truth and importance of Christianity Since God was pleased to imploy his power in so high a manner to confirm the certainty of it 2. Gods power was seen in the admirable effects of Christian Religion upon the minds of men which was most discernable by the strange alteration it soon made in the state of the world In Judea soon after the death of Christ some of his Crucifyers become Christians 3000 Converts made at one Sermon of S. Peters and great accessions made afterwards both in Hierusalem and other places Yea in all parts of the Roman Empire where the Christians came they so increased and multiplyed that thereby it appeared that God had given a Benediction to his new Creation suitable to what he gave to the first So that within the compass of not a hundred years after our Saviours death the World might admire to see it self so strangely changed from what it was The Temple at Hierusalem destroy'd and the Jews under a sadder dispersion than ever and rendred uncapable of continuing their former Worship of God there The Heathen Temples unfrequented the Gods derided the Oracles ceased the Philosophers puzzled the Magistrates disheartned by their fruitless cruelties and all this done by a few Christians who came and preached to the World Righteousness Temperance and a Judgement to come whereof God had given assurance to the World by raising one Jesus from the dead And all this effected not by the power of Wit and Eloquence not by the force and violence of rebellious subjects not by men of hot and giddy brains but by men sober just humble and meek in all their carriages but withall such as might never have been heard of in the world had not this Doctrine made them famous What could this then be imputed to less than a Divine Power which by effectual and secret wayes carries on its own design against all the force and wit of men So that the wise Gamaliel at whose feet S. Paul was bred seem'd to have the truest apprehensions of these things at that time when he told the Sanhedrin If this counsel or this work be of men it will come to nought but if it be of God ye cannot overthrow it least haply ye be found to fight against God Acts 5. 38 39. 3. In the Divine Assistance which is promised to those who embrace it in which respect it is properly the power of God to salvation and therein far beyond what the Philosophers could promise to any who embraced their opinions For the Gospel doth not only discover the necessity of a Principle superiour to Nature which we call Grace in order to the fitting our Souls for their future happiness but likewise shews on what terms God is pleased to bestow it on men viz. on the consideration of the death and passion of our Lord and Saviour Not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved
Lord and was confirmed to us by them that heard him God also bearing them witness both with signs and wonders and divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost according to his own will So that the miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost falling upon the Apostles and the many signs and wonders which were wrought by them were the great testimony of God to the world that these were the persons imploy'd by himself to declare that Doctrine whereon the eternal salvation of Mankinde did depend And since we have so lately acknowledg'd the truth of this testimony which God gave to the Apostles by the solemn celebration of that glorious descent of the Holy Ghost upon them on the day of Pentecost that which naturally follows from it is the great care we ought to take lest we be found guilty of neglecting that great salvation which is offered to us in that Doctrine which was attested in so eminent a manner by God himself and that from the consideration of our own danger for how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation wherein are three things considerable 1. The care God hath taken to make us happy by offering so great salvation to us 2. The care we ought to take in order to our own happiness not to neglect the offers which God hath made us 3. The unavoidable punishment which those do incurre who are guilty of this neglect How shall we escape I need not tell this Auditory how forcible the Negative is which is expressed by such an interrogation which appeals to the judgement of all who hear it and so relyes not upon the bare authority of the speaker but upon the plain evidence of the thing which others were judges of as well as himself As though he had said if you slight and disesteem the Gospel of Christ upon whatever grounds ye do it if either through too great an opinion of the wisdom of this world you despise it as vain and useless if through too mean an opinion of the excellency of Christianity you reject it either as uncertain in its Theory or impossible in its practise or if through too great a love of the pleasures of sin or a secure and careless temper of minde you regard not the doing what Christianity requires to make you happy think with your selves what way you can finde to escape the wrath of God for my part I know of none for if God were so severe against the violation of a far meaner institution viz. of the Law of Moses insomuch that every contempt and disobedience did receive a just recompence of reward how shall we escape who neglect so great salvation or as the Apostle elsewhere argues to the same purpose He that despised Moses Law died without mercy under two or three witnesses of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy who hath troden under foot the Son of God and hath counted the blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing and hath done despite unto the Spirit of Grace This is a sad subject but I am afraid too necessary to be spoken to in the Age we live in wherein men seem to be inapprehensive of the danger of inwardly despising the Religion they profess to own and the neglecting of that which they hope to be saved by It is strange that it should be so but much more strange that men should think to do so and not be call'd to an account for it It is not only the gross and open sinner that desies Heaven and by his oaths and blasphemies dares God to shew his Power and Justice upon him but the slye and self-deceiving hypocrite that hates Religion while he thinks he loves it that in his heart contemns it but is afraid to know that he does so that ought to be possess'd with a truer sense of Religion and a greater dread of the issue of the contempt or neglect of it There is some appearance of ingenuity in an open enmity but none so dangerous as that which hides it self under the disguise of friendship In our Saviours time there were several sorts of those who shewed their disesteem of him some that were so enraged against him that they contrive all wayes for his disgrace and punishment others could hear him with patience but the cares of this World the deceitfulness of Riches and the lust of other things choaked and stifled all good apprehensions of him that they became weak and ineffectual And those were guilty of making light of the marriage-feast because of other business which they had to minde Matth. 22. 5. as well as those who offered all the injuries and affronts to his servants that invited them v. 6. And as it was in the dayes of our Saviour so it is now some were eating and drinking minding nothing but the vain and sensual pleasures of the world some were buying and selling so busie in this world that they had no leisure to think of being happy in another some were deriding and blaspheming but all these too wise or too vain or too profane to minde the offers of eternal salvation I wish we could say it were otherwise now that a sensual and voluptuous an easie and a careless life in some that ambition and the restless pursuit after the honour and riches of the world in others that a profane wit and a contempt of all that is serious in those that think themselves too great to be Religious did not enervate the force of Christianity upon their minds and make them all though upon different grounds agree in the neglect of their own salvation But is the case of such men grown so desperate that no remedy can work upon them hath the love of sin and the world so far intoxicated them that no reason or consideration whatever can awaken them have they hardened themselves against all the power of divine Truths with a resolution as strong as death and as cruel as the grave whither they are going Will neither the love of happiness nor the fear of misery their own interest and the wisdom of avoiding so great a danger the dread of the Majesty and Power of God and the horror of the great day prevail at least so far on men to consider whether these things be true or no and if they be what unspeakable solly it is to neglect them And the better to make that appear I shall prove these following things 1. That God by the Gospel hath taken so great care of mens happiness that nothing but a gross neglect can make them miserable 2. That nothing can be more unreasonable than when God hath taken so much care of it men should neglect it themselves 3. That it is very just for God to vindicate himself against so gross a neglect by the severe punishments of the life to come 1. That God by the Gospel hath taken so great care of mens salvation that nothing but a gross neglect can make them
and suspicions of God what distrusts of humane Nature what unspeakable ingratitude and unaccountable folly lies at the bottom of all this uncertainty O fools and slow of heart to believe not only what the Prophets have spoken but what our Lord hath declared God himself hath given testimony to and the Holy Ghost hath confirmed 3. But is not your Interest concerned in these things Is it all one to you whether your souls be immortal or no whether they live in eternal felicity or unchangeable misery Is it no more to you than to know what kind of Bables are in request at the Indies or whether the customs of China or Japan are the wiser i. e. than the most trifling things and the remotest from our knowledge But this is so absurd and unreasonable to suppose that men should not think themselves concern'd in their own eternal happiness and misery that I shall not shew so much distrust of their understandings to speak any longer to it 3. But if notwithstanding all these things our neglect still continues then there remains nothing but a fearfull looking for of judgement and the fiery indignation of God For there is no possibility of escaping if we continue to neglect so great salvation All hopes of escaping are taken away which are onely in that which men neglect and those who neglect their only way to salvation must needs be miserable How can that man ever hope to be saved by him whose blood he despises and tramples under foot What grace and favour can he expect from God who hath done despight unto the Spirit of Grace That hath cast away with reproach and contempt the greatest kindness and offers of Heaven What can save him that resolves to be damned and every one does so who knows he shall be damned if he lives in his sins and yet continues to do so God himself in whose only pity our hopes are hath irreversibly decreed that he will have no pity upon those who despise his goodness slight his threatnings abuse his patience and sin the more because he offers to pardon It is not any delight that God takes in the miseries of his Creatures which makes him punish them but shall not God vindicate his own honour against obstinate and impenitent sinners He declares before-hand that he is far from delighting in their ruine and that is the reason he hath made such large offers and used so many means to make them happy but if men resolve to despise his offers and slight the means of their salvation shall not God be just without being thought to be cruel And we may assure our selves none shall ever suffer beyond the just desert of their sins for punishment as the Apostle tells us in the words before the Text is nothing but a just recompence of reward And if there were such a one proportionable to the violation of the Law delivered by Angels how shall we think to escape who neglect a more excellent means of happiness which was delivered by our Lord himself If God did not hate sin and there were not a punishment belonging to it why did the Son of God die for the expiation of it and if his death were the onely means of expiation how is it possible that those who neglect that should escape the punishment not only of their other sins but of that great contempt of the means of our salvation by him Let us not then think to trifle with God as though it were impossible a Being so mercifull and kind should ever punish his Creatures with the miseries of another life For however we may deceive our selves God will not be mocked for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he reap for he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting I shall only propound some few Considerations to prevent so great a neglect as that of your salvation is 1. Consider what it is you neglect the offer of Eternal Happiness the greatest kindness that ever was expressed to the World the foundation of your present peace the end of your beings the stay of your mindes the great desire of your Souls the utmost felicity that humane Nature is capable of Is it nothing to neglect the favour of a Prince the kindness of Great Men the offers of a large and plentifull Estate but these are nothing to the neglect of the favour of God the love of his Son and that salvation which he hath purchased for you Nay it is not a bare neglect but it implyes in it a mighty contempt not only of the things offer'd but of the kindness of him who offers them If men had any due regard for God or themselves if they had any esteem for his love or their own welfare they would be much more serious in Religion than they are When I see a person wholly immersed in affairs of the World or spending his time in luxury and vanity can I possibly think that man hath any esteem of God or of his own Soul when I finde one very serious in the pursuit of his Designs in the World thoughtfull and busie subtle in contriving them carefull in managing them but very formal remiss and negligent in all affairs of Religion neither inquisitive about them nor serious in minding them what can we otherwise think but that such a one doth really think the things of the World better worth looking after than those which concern his eternal salvation But consider before it be too late and repent of so great folly Value an immortal Soul as you ought to doe think what Reconciliation with God and the Pardon of sin is worth slight not the dear Purchase which was bought at no meaner a rate than the Blood of the Son of God and then you cannot but minde the great salvation which God hath tender'd you 2. Consider on what terms you neglect it or what the things are for whose sake you are so great enemies to your own salvation Have you ever found that contentment in sin or the vanities of the World that for the sake of them you are willing to be for ever miserable What will you think of all your debaucheries and your neglects of God and your selves when you come to dye what would you give then if it were in your power to redeem your lost time that you had spent your time less to the satisfaction of your sensual desires and more in seeking to please God How uncomfortable will the remembrance be of all your excesses oaths injustice and profaneness when death approaches and judgement follows it What peace of mind will there then be to those who have served God with faithfulness and have endeavoured to work out their salvation though it hath been with fear and trembling But what would it then profit a man to have gained the whole World and to lose his own soul Nay what unspeakable losers must they
then be that lose their Souls for that which hath no value at all if compared with the World 3. Consider what follows upon this neglect not only the loss of great salvation but the incurring as great damnation for it The Scripture describes the miseries of the life to come not meerly by negatives but by the most sensible and painfull things If destruction be dreadfull that is everlasting destruction if the anguish of the soul and the pains of the body be so troublesom what will the destruction be both of Body and Soul in Hell If a Serpent gnawing in our bowels be a representation of an insupportable misery here what will that be of the Worm that never dies if a raging and devouring fire which can last but till it hath consumed a fading substance be in its appearance so amazing and in its pain so violent what then will the enduring be of that wrath of God which shall burn like fire and yet be everlasting Consider then of these things while God gives you time to consider of them and think it an inestimable mercy that you have yet time to repent of your sins to beg mercy at the hands of God to redeem your time to depart from iniquity to be frequent in Prayer carefull of your Actions and in all things obedient to the will of God and so God will pardon your former neglects and grant you this great salvation FINIS Hebr. 12. 3. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself lest ye be weary and faint in your minds IT hath never yet been so well with the World and we have no great reason to hope it ever will be so that the best of things or of men should meet with entertainment in it suitable to their own worth and excellency If it were once to be hoped that all Mankinde would be wise and sober that their judgements would be according to the truth of things and their actions suitable to their judgements we might then reasonably expect that nothing would be valued so much as true goodness nothing so much in contempt and disgrace as impiety and profaneness But if we finde it much otherwise in the Age we live in we have so much the less cause to wonder at it because it hath been thus in those times we might have thought would have been far better than our own I mean those times and ages wherein there were not only great things first spoken and delivered to Mankinde but examples as great as the things themselves but these did so little prevail on the stupid and unthankfull world that they among whom the Son of God did first manifest himself seem'd only solicitous to make good one Prophesie concerning him viz. That he should be despised and rejected of men And they who suffer'd their malice to live as long as he did were not contented to let it dye with him but their fury increases as the Gospel does and wherever it had spread it self they pursue it with all the rude clamors and violent persecutions which themselves or their factors could raise against it This we have a large testimony of in those Jewish Christians to whom this Epistle was written who had no sooner embraced the Christian Religion but they were set upon by a whole army of persecutions Heb. 10. 32. But call to remembrance the former dayes in which after ye were illuminated ye endured a great fight of afflictions As though the great enemy of souls and therefore of Christians had watched the first opportunity to make the strongest impression upon them while they were yet young and unexperienced and therefore less able to resist so sharp an encounter He had found how unsuccessfull the offer of the good things of this World had been with their Lord and Master and therefore was resolved to try what a severer course would do with all his followers But the same spirit by which he despised all the Glories of the World which the Tempter would have made him believe he was the disposer of enabled them with a mighty courage and strange transports of joy not only to bear their own share of reproaches and afflictions but a part of theirs who suffer'd with them v. 33 34. But least through continual duty occasion'd by the hatred of their persecutors and the multitude of their afflictions their courage should abate and their spirits saint the Apostle finds it necessary not only to put them in mind of their former magnanimity but to make use of all arguments that might be powerfull with them to keep up the same vigour and constancy of mind in bearing their sufferings which they had at first For he well knew how much it would tend to the dishonour of the Gospel as well as to their own discomfort if after such an early proof of a great and undaunted spirit it should be said of them as was once of a great Roman Captain Ultima Primis cedebant that they should decline in their reputation as they did in their years and at last sink under that weight of duty which they had born with so much honour before Therefore as a General in the Field after a sharp and fierce encounter at first with a mighty resolution by his Souldiers when he finds by the number and fresh recruits of the enemy that his smaller forces are like to be born down before them and through meer weariness of fighting are ready to turn their backs or yield themselves up to the enemies mercy he conjures them by the honour they have gain'd and the courage they had already expressed by their own interest and the example of their Leaders by the hopes of glory and the fears of punishment that they would bear the last shock of their enemies force and rather be the Trophies of their Courage than of their Triumphs so does our Apostle when he finds some among them begin to debate whether they had best to stand it out or no he conjures them 1. By the remembrance of their own former courage whereby they did bear as sharp tryals as these could be with the greatest chearfulness and constancy and what could they gain by yielding at last but great dishonour to themselves that they had suffer'd so long to no purpose unless it were to discover their own weakness and inconstancy 2. By the hopes of a reward which would surely follow their faithfulness v. 35 36. Cast not away therefore your confidence which hath great recompence of reward For ye have need of patience that after ye have done the will of God ye might receive the promise and the time will not be long ere ye come to enjoy it v. 37. but if ye draw back you lose all your former labours for he who alone is able to recompence you hath said that if any man draw back my soul shall have no pleasure in him v. 38. and then from the example of himself and all the genuine followers of Christ but
we are not of them who draw back unto perdition but of them that believe to the saving of the soul v. 39. But least these examples should not be enough to perswade them he conjures them by the name of all those who were as eminent for the greatness of their minds as the strength of their Faith who have despised the frowns as well as the smiles of the world and were not discouraged by the severest tryals from placing their confidence in God and their hopes in a life to come and all this done by persons who had not received the Promise Heb. 11. 39. and could there be a greater disparagement to the clearness of that light we enjoy above them if we only grew fainter by it And therefore in the begining of this Chapter he encourages them by that army of Martyrs which had gone before them by that Cloud of witnesses which did both direct and refresh them that they would lay aside every thing which was apt to oppress or dishearten them but especially their sinfull fears which they were so easily betray'd by and so run with patience the race that was set before them v. 1. But saith he if none of these will prevail with you there is an example yet behinde which ought above all others to heighten your courage and that is of the Captain of your salvation the author and finisher of your faith under whom you serve and from whom you expect your reward and as Caesar once said to his Souldiers when he saw them ready to retreat out of the field Videte quem quo loco Imperatorem deserturi estis Remember what kinde of Generall you forsake and in what place you leave him one whom you have vow'd your lives and your service to one who hath thought nothing too dear which was to be done for your good one that will be ready to reward the least service you can do for him one that is ready to assist you to the utmost in what you undertake one that hath already undergone far more for your sakes than ever you can do for his therefore Consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself lest ye be weary and faint in your minds In which words we have represented to us the unparallel'd example of courage and patience under sufferings in our Lord and Saviour and the great influence that it ought to have on all those who are call'd by his Name that they would not dishonour so excellent a pattern of enduring sufferings by weakness or dejection of mind Christianity is a Religion which above all others does arm men against all the contingencies and miseries of the life of man yea it makes them serviceable to the most advantageous purposes that the greatest blessings can be designed for It raises the minds of men higher than barely to consider the common condition of humane nature the unavoidableness of such things which are out of our own power and the unreasonableness of tormenting our selves about the things which are so and that most mens conditions in the world as to their contentment depends more upon their minds than their outward circumstances though these are things very fit for us as men to consider and make use of yet they do not reach to that height which the consideration of a life to come and the tendency of all our sufferings here to the inhancement of our future glory may raise us to Especially considering not only the weight of the arguments in themselves but the force they receive from the example of him who for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross and despised the shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God By which mighty instance we find that the sufferings of this life are so far from being inconsistent with the joyes of another that he who is the Captain of salvation was made perfect through sufferings and therefore none of his followers have cause to be dejected under them But that we may the better understand the force of this argument we shall consider 1. What those things were which he endured 2. From whom he suffer'd them it was the contradiction of sinners against himself 3. In that Way and manner he underwent them 4. For what ends he did it And when we have considered these we shall see the influence this example of Christs sufferings ought to have upon our constancy and patience which will be the most usefull improvement of it to us 1. What those things were which Christ endured which are here comprehended under those words the contradiction of sinners It is agreed by the best Expositors both Greek and Latin that under this phrase of the contradiction of sinners the whole history of our Saviours sufferings is comprehended All the injuries reproaches false accusations all the cruelties indignities and violence which were offer'd him from the time of his publick appearance to his expiring upon the Cross being undergone by him by the malice of unreasonable men may be call'd the contradiction of sinners For the sense of this word extends as well to actions as words and the summe of all that which our Saviour suffer'd from them may be reduced under these heads 1. The ill entertainment of his Doctrine 2. The disparagement of his Miracles 3. The violence offer'd to his Person 1. The ill entertainment of his Doctrine which must needs seem very strange to these who do not consider what a difficult accâ—…s the clearest reason hath to the minds of such who are governed by interest and prejudice Though all the Prophesies concerning the Messias were fulfilled in him though the expectations of the people were great at that time concerning the appearance of him that was to redeem his people though all the characters of time place and person did fully agree to what was foretold by the Prophets though his Doctrine were as becoming the Son of God to reveal as the sons of men to receive though the unspotted innocency of his life were so great as made him weary of his own that betray'd him yet because he came not with the pomp and splendor which they expected they despise his Person revile his Doctrine persecute his followers and contrive his ruine What could have been imagined more probable than that the Jewish Nation which had waited long in expectation of the Messias coming should have welcom'd his approach with the greatest joy and receiv'd the Message he brought with a kindness only short of that which he shewed in coming among them Was it nothing to be eased of that heavy burden of the Ceremonial Law which neither they nor their Fathers were able to bear and that God was willing to exchange the chargeable and troublesome service of the Temple for the more reasonable and spiritual Worship of himself Was it nothing to have the Promises of a Land which now groaned under the weight of its oppressions turned into those of an eternal state
great rule assigned by the Apostle was That without shedding of blood there was no remission If we yield Crellius what he so often urgeth viz. That these words are to be understood of what was done under the Law They will not be the less serviceable to our purpose for thereby it will appear that the means of Expiation lay in the shedding of blood Which shews that the very mactation of the beast to be sacrificed was designed in order to the expiation of sin To an inquisitive person the reason of the slaying such multitudes of beasts in the Sacrifices appointed by God himself among the Jews would have appeared far less evident than now it doth since the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews hath given us so full an account of them For it had been very unreasonable to have thought that they had been meerly instituted out of compliance with the customs of other Nations since the whole design of their Religion was to separate them from them and on such a supposition the great design of the Epistle to the Hebrews signifies very little which doth far more explain to us the nature and tendency of all the Sacrifices in use among them that had any respect to the expiation of sins than all the customs of the Egyptians or the Commentaries of the latter Jews But I intend not now to discourse at large upon this subject of Sacrifices either as to the nature and institution of them in general or with a particular respect to the Sacrifice of Christ since a learned person of our Church hath already undertaken Crellius upon this Argument and we hope ere long will oblige the world with the benefit of his pains I shall therefore onely insist on those things which are necessary for our purpose in order to the clearing the Substitution of Christ in our stead for the expiation of our sins by his death and this we say was represented in the Expiatory Sacrifices which were instituted among the Jews If we yield Crellius what he after Socinus contends for viz. That the Sacrifice of Christ was onely represented in the â—ublick and solemn Expiatory Sacrifices for the â—eople and especially those on the day of Atoneâ—ent We may have enough from them to indicate all that we assert concerning â—he Expiatory Sacrifice of the blood of Christ. For that those were designed by way of â—…bstitution in the place of the offenders will â—…pear from the circumstances and reason â—…f their Institution But before we come 〈◊〉 that it will be necessary to shew what â—…at Expiation was which the Sacrifices â—…der the Law were designed for the â—…ot understanding of which gives a greater â—…rce to our Adversaries Arguments than â—therwise they would have For while â—…en assert that the expiation was wholly â—…pical and of the same nature with that â—…piation which is really obtained by the â—…eath of Christ they easily prove That all â—…e expiation then was onely declarative and â—…d no more depend on the sacrifices offered â—…an on a condition required by God the negâ—…t of which would be an act of disobedience in â—…em and by this means it could represent â—…y they no more than such an expiation to by Christ viz. Gods declaring that sins â—…e expiated by him on the performance of such condition required in order thereto as laying down his life was But we assert anothâ—… kind of expiation of sin by virtue of tâ—… Sacrifice being slain and offered whâ—… was real and depended upon the Sacrifiâ—… And this was twofold a Civil and a Riâ—… expiation according to the double 〈◊〉 pacity in which the people of the Iâ—… may be considered either as members oâ—… Society subsisting by a body of Lâ—… which according to the strictest Sanction 〈…〉 it makes death the penalty of disobedâ—… ence Deut. 27. 26. but by the will of 〈◊〉 Legislator did admit of a relaxation 〈◊〉 many cases allowed by himself in whiâ—… he declares That the death of the beâ—… designed for a sacrifice should be 〈…〉 cepted instead of the death of the offeâ—… der and so the offence should be fuâ—… expiated as to the execution of the peâ—… Law upon him And thus far I freely 〈◊〉 mit what Grotius asserts upon this subjeâ—… and do yield that no other offence coâ—… be expiated in this manner but such whiâ—… God himself did particularly declare shoâ—… be so And therefore no sin which 〈◊〉 to be punished by cutting off was to 〈◊〉 expiated by Sacrifice as wilful Idolaâ—… Murther c. Which it is impossible fâ—… those to give an account of who makeâ—… expiation wholly typical for why thâ—… should not the greatest sins much rather â—…ave had sacrifices of expiation appointed â—…or them because the Consciences of â—…en would be more solicitous for the â—…ardon of greater than lesser sins and the â—…lood of Christ represented by them was designed for the expiation of all From whence it is evident that it was not a meer typical expiation but it did relate â—o the civil constitution among them But â—esides this we are to consider the people with a respect to that mode of Divine Worship which was among them by reason of which the people were to be purified from the legal impurities which they contracted which hindred them from joyning with others in the publick Worship of God and many Sacrifices were appointed purposely for the expiating this legal guilt as particularly the ashes of the red heifer Numb 19. 9. which is there call'd a purification for sin And the Apostle puts the blood of Bulls and of Goats and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean together and the effect of both of them he saith was to sanctifie to the purifying of the flesh which implyes that there was some proper and immediate effect of these sacrifices upon the people at that time though infinitely short of the effect of the blood of Christ upon the Conscienâ—… of men By which it is plain the Apostâ—… doth not speak of the same kind of expiâ—…tion in those sacrifices which was in the Sâ—crifice of Christ and that the one wâ—… barely typical of the other but of a diâ—ferent kind of expiation as far as purifying the flesh is from purging the Conscienâ—… But we do not deny that the whole dispensation was typical and that the Law 〈◊〉 a shadow of good things to come and not 〈◊〉 very image of the things i. e. a dark aâ—â— obscure representation and not the perfect resemblance of them There are twâ— things which the Apostle asserts conceâ—â—ing the Sacrifices of the Law First thâ—… they had an effect upon the Bodies of mâ—… which he calls purifying the flesh the othâ—… is that they had no power to expiate foâ— the sins of the Soul considered with a respect to the punishment of another lifâ— which he calls purging the Conscience frâ—â— dead works and therefore he saith that 〈◊〉 the gifts and sacrifices under the Law coâ—… not make