uncontrouled Tyranny in the World He had withdrawn the far greatest part of Mankind from the worship of the true God and caused the worship of himself to become the publick Religion of all Nations except the Jews Even the Jews he had often seduced to Idolatry and Disobedience to the Divine Commands and had newly instigated them to imbrue their hands in the Blood of their Messias All these enormous Crimes this continued Rebellion against God and particularly the last and greatest the Death of Christ did require from the Judge of all the World a severe Punishment which is therefore called Judgment in the Text because a Sentence proceeding from the Rules of Justice This Sentence was to be executed under the Gospel of Christ as we are told above in the XII 31. Now is the judgment of this world now shall the prince of this world be cast out The Execution of it was to be performed by the Preaching of the Gospel which should destroy the Powers of Hell free Men from the Captivity of Sin and withdraw the World from the Worship of Devils This to those proud Spirits was the sharpest Punishment which could possibly be inflicted and this was begun by the Mission of the Holy Ghost and carried on and compleated by the Gifts and Graces derived down and continued to the Church from his blessed Influence From the Blessings of this day it was that the Apostles received Abilities and Courage to preach the Gospel to the uttermost parts of the Earth to beat down the strong holds of Sin to ruin the power of Satan to turn Men to the Knowledge and Obedience of God From the Continuation of these Blessings the Church hath been always defended from the secret and open Assaults of these infernal Spirits the Governors and Ministers of the Church have been enabled to preach the Truth and discharge their Office successfully and all the Members of the Church have been established in the Faith and supported against all the Temptations of wicked Spirits So eminently did God upon this day exercise Judgment upon the Prince of this World that thenceforward his Kingdom continually decreased his Oracles were silenced his Altars abandoned his Worship relinquished his Disciples diminished until a glorious Church was founded in all parts of the Earth which by a solemn Engagement her Vow in Baptism professeth Enmity unto him Upon all these accounts did the Holy Ghost as a most faithful Advocate at his first Mission plead the Cause of Christ against his Adversaries whether the Devil or the Jews his Persecutors and upon the same accounts doth that blessed Spirit who was promised to remain with the Church till the end of the World and execute the Office of Advocate till the Consummation of all things still continue to plead the Cause of Christ against all his Enemies and that he should do so is highly requisite The Devil still assaults the Church by open Force or secret Temptations and to these the Holy Spirit opposeth his Gifts and Graces Infidels and Hereticks still profess Unbelief to the Doctrines of it and to these he opposeth the same Arguments of Conviction which were before manifested to have proceeded from his Mission All these remain yet in their full force Lastly even in the bosom of the Church among the Professors of Christianity are many to be found against whom it is necessary that the Holy Spirit should still plead the Cause of Christ which they discredit by their Sins and blaspheme by their Lives crucifying afresh the Lord of life and putting him to an open shame In that no less guilty than all those Enemies of Christ which the Holy Ghost at his first Mission was to convince For did the Jews disbelieve the Doctrine of Christ before the undeniable Confirmation added to it in the Mysteries of this day These Men by their Actions proclaim their Unbelief even after the Reception of this Confirmation Did the Spirit of God take so much pains to manifest the unerring Justice of God in the distribution of Rewards and Punishments After all these Men live insensible of either slighting his Rewards and defying his Punishments Did Christ come into the World and die a painful Death Did God exert his Power in so many Miracles Did the Holy Spirit descend as upon this day to put an end to the Empire of the Devil These Men by Perseverance in Sin endeavour to re-establish it in the World and do effectually restore it in their own Souls Justly therefore may this Eternal Advocate implead these Men before the last Tribunal I have conveyed the Knowledge of the true God even to these Sinners I have convinced them of the Truth of the Christian Faith at least they will pretend themselves to have been convinced I have nourished this Knowledge by causing the Holy Scriptures to be writ for their Edification I have endeavoured the Improvement of it by the constant Exhortation of those my Officers which I have settled in the Church I have assisted it by the grant of all necessary Graces as often as desired yet notwithstanding all this they have lived as if they knew not of it much less as if they were convinced of it All my Graces and Sollicitations of them have produced no other effect than to render their Sin the more hainous in that they have wilfully disobeyed my Commands slighted my Directions contemned my Exhortations and stifled my Motions All false Perswasions which might betray them to Sin and Disobedience I have long since corrected If they imagine the Disbelief or which is all one the Neglect of my Doctrines to be no hainous Crime I have long since convinced the World of Sin If they fancy God not to be an unerring and infallible Judge in the Dispensation of Rewards and Punishments I have long ago reproved the World of Righteousness If they pretend the Temptations of the World the Flesh and the Devil to be irresistable I have long since judged the prince of this world taken away his Kingdom and limited his Power These then are the most criminal Enemies of the Name of Christ who being by me convinced of their Duty to obey his Laws refused to perform them who serving under his banner and kindly intreated by him deserted his Service and delivered up themselves to his and their own Enemy from whose Tyranny I had before freed them What then shall we plead in behalf of our selves at that dreadful day Shall we alledge want of Conviction That we pretend not to or if we should the Holy Ghost hath by the Wonders and Benefits of this day effectually confuted that pretence Shall we say that we believed not God to have been in earnest when he allured us with Rewards or threatened us with Punishments That Plea is removed by the Assertion of the Righteousness of God made upon this day Or shall we excuse our selves with want of extraordinary Assistances and Graces of the Holy Spirit enabling us to perform our Duty and overcome
Man which depend not upon the good or bad use of them and are never withdrawn from us nor denied to us The latter are the supernatural Gift of God which Man cannot claim in right of his Nature are conferred only to the worthy receiver and are withdrawn upon the abuse or neglect of them It is no hard matter to conceive how God herein influenceth the Soul of Man after it hath been shewed that even finite Spirits can effect it If they could by long Experince find out what Cogitations of the mind were annexed to such Motions in the Brain He surely who did at first unite them cannot be ignorant of them If evil Spirits by the Priviledge of immaterial Beings can communicate Thoughts to the Soul of Man by immediate influence He certainly who is the supreme Lord of all can do much more He may proceed in other Methods nothing being impossible to him nor himself subject to the Laws of Nature However this we must assuredly believe that God changeth not the Order of Nature herein in violently with-holding our Wills from Consenting to the Sollicitations of the Devil He deals with us as with rational Beings pointeth out the right way to us perswadeth us to enter into it fixeth Rewards at the end of it moveth us gently by his Holy Spirit to embrace it but after all will not forcibly carry us into it And thus he deals with us when tempted by the Devil he giveth us sufficient strength to withstand him enlightens our Souls with a full Prospect of those Arguments which may withdraw the Will from his Sollicitations but after all leaves it at Liberty and awaits the issue Not that this extraordinary Assistance is given to all who are tempted of the Devil but that it is denied to none who rightly seek it He withdraws his Grace if it be not earnestly desired if it be not thankfully received if it be not soberly used if it be not rightly improved as he formerly delivered up the Rebellious Israelites to their own hearts lusts and to follow their own Imaginations and as still by the solemn Censures of the Church when rightly applied wicked Christians are delivered up to Satan to be led captive by him at his Will Another method whereby God assisteth Mankind extraordinarily against the Temptations of the Devil is by restraining his force and limiting his Malice The Devil cannot perform any Act of Temptation without the ordinary permission of God and oft-times he is extraordinarily restrained by his Almighty Power from tempting faithful Men beyond the proportion of their Ability to endure God putteth a Hook in the Nose of this Leviathan and fixeth his bounds unto him how far he shall pass and no farther as in the Case of Job where he determined how far his Power of Temptation should extend and forbad him to proceed any farther than to such a Degree And this is one of the general and most conspicuous Benefits of Christianity that by the Reception and publick Profession of it the Devil that old Dragon in the Revelations is chained up his Power abridged his Malice weakned Before the Promulgation of the Christian Religion he had procured to himself an universal Worship in the World except in the small spot of Judea erected Oracles and daily effected lying wonders Men were from their Infancy trained up in his Service and to be subject to him was the Unhappiness of their Education If any opposed his Worship he was presently decried as an Atheist as an introducer of new Religions obnoxious to severe Punishments by the Laws of the Empire if Men entertained a Suspicion of that irrational Worship which he had formed he could amuse the Minds of his followers by seeming Miracles Fright them into his Obedience by Prodigies keep up the Reputation of Divinity by Sorceries and Predictions All this was then permitted to him till the glorious Light of the Gospel appeared his Power then sensibly decreased untill the open Exercise of it was wholly determined by the publick Profession of Christianity in the World He was then remanded to the bottomless Pit ceased to be the Prince of the Air deprived of the Power of working apparent Miracles at least in Christian Countries confined to secret and dark Operations only and even those in great measure enervated and defeated by that ordinary Grace which is bestowed on all Christians in the publick Sacraments and Offices of the Church It remains that I add somewhat of the Assistance given to us by good Spirits against the Temptations of evil Spirits of which the Solemnity of this day doth particularly require a grateful Acknowledgment which was piously instituted by the Church in Commemoration of those many and eminent Benefits which we receive from the Holy Angels Among these none of the least is what we now treat of their assisting us in resisting the Temptations of evil Spirits For being ministring Spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be Heirs for Salvation as it is Heb. I. 14. they apply themselves with unwearied Diligence to this Charitable Office attending the Motions of our Minds insinuating good Counsels countermining the Stratagems of the Devil enlightning the Mind moving the Affections promoting the good of the Soul How all this is performed by them we may easily conceive after a clear Comprehension of the method whereby evil Spirits operate in our Souls For whatsoever natural Power these Possess equally belong to the Holy Angels who partake of the same Nature and differ only in the quality of good and bad If they have the Power of moving Matter and so of affecting our Imagination much more these who are the Messengers of God If they can imprint Ideas in our Mind by immediate influence much more these whose pious Designs are blessed and prospered by their Almighty patron If they by long Observation have found out the turnings and windings of the Heart of Man these possess by Nature an equal knowledge and have obtained a much greater by Divine Communication If they have discovered the less defensible places of the Soul of Man where the Attempt may most successfully be made these have discerned the Arguments of Obedience which are most perswasive to every single Man and fail not to apply them fitly If they prosecute their hatred and wicked Designs against Mankind with unwearied Malice these continue their good Offices with no less constant Diligence and Charity If they be rendered vigorous and powerful in all their Actions by their Subtilty Agility long Experience and comprehensive Knowledge these obtain the same Faculties in equal Perfection and with far greater Probability of success in the use of them in as much as therein these act in Obedience to God they in opposition to him these with a constant Complacency and Prospect of reward to be obtained by it those with a perpetual Vexation as knowing the increase of their Punishment doth attend it these assisted and directed by God those restrained and with-holden by him In
brightness shall the Moon give Light unto thee but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting Light and thy God the Glory And as the Effect of all this IX 2. The people which sate in darkness saw great Light and to them which sate in the region and shadow of death Light is sprung up Which Prophecy St. Matthew observeth to have been exactly fulfilled by our Saviour in the IV. 16. of his Gospel After so many Magnificent Prophesies concerning the extraordinary Light to be brought into the World by the Messias we cannot but raise our Apprehensions and expect somewhat more than humane Knowledge to be communicated by him to the World somewhat more than humane Light to be dispensed by him Nor shall we be deceived in our Expectations the Light communicated by our Lord to the World is so universal in the extent so resplendent in the Nature so constant in the Duration of it that it in no ways falls short of those Glorious Predictions which went before concerning it and justly gives to our Lord the Author and Conveyer of it the Title of the Light of the World This will appear evidently if we consider either I. The Doctrine Or II. The Example of Christ Upon both which Accounts he was the Light of the World I. Then the Doctrine of Christ gave Light unto the World by removing the Errors of it and teaching it the Rules of Truth which might point out the way to Happiness To conceive the better the happy Effects of the Doctrines of Christ let us take a view of the state of the World at that time and we shall find as in the beginning Darkness to have over-spread the face of the Earth A very small part of Mankind enjoyed the benefit of Revelation and even they had corrupted and almost effaced the Divine Truths revealed to them by false Glosses and gross Interpretations they had forsaken the weightier Matters of the Law and even those who were most Conscientious among them busied themselves wholly in observing such trivial Ceremonies as themselves had for the most part formed by mistaken Interpretations But the infinitely greater part of Mankind lived as without God in the Word They had intirely lost those revealed Notions which were delivered to their Fore-fathers immediately after the Deluge and the natural Notions of Religion they had so far corrupted that their Worship was downright Impiety and all their religious Actions so many gross Superstitions In the far greater part of the World all Notions of Morality and a Natural Law were intirely lost and it was a brutish Fear only which kept up any sort of Religion among them Which after all was such a Religion as was their greatest Crime being no other than a most stupid Idolatry In the more polite part of the World which retained Civility and pretended to Letters the natural Law indeed was kept up among the more Learned of them but even by them so mistaken and corrupted that they allowed as lawful the Practice of some enormous Vices which to convince of unlawfulness needed no more than to consult the common Reason of Mankind as Fornication Sodomy practising the idolatrous Worship of the Country although at the same time convinced of the Folly of it Self-murder and many other Vices which the most refined of their Philosophers defended to be lawful As for the common People their Notions of God were such as the publick Religion of the Country infused into them the most vile and unworthy of a Deity which can be imagined such as patronized all the Crimes they could commit provided they violated not the Laws of their Country For by these Corruptions no Notion of Morality was left among them nor any other distinction of Good and Evil than what the Laws of their Country imprinted in them They could not but imagine that such Actions were good in their own Nature which their chief Gods had practised altho' their inconvenience to the publick had caused them to be forbidden In a word conceive a People ignorant both of God and their own Nature desirous of Happiness but knowing not where to find it and pursuing methods directly contrary to it groping in Darkness without the least ray of Light and such was the state of the World at that time To rescue the World from this miserable Darkness to restore Light to the minds of Men was a noble undertaking and worthy the Son of God an undertaking which as it could be performed by none but the Son of God so was it most happily effected by him He saith of himself that he came a Light into the World that whosoever believeth on him should not abide in darkness John XII 46. His Design was to deliver us from the power of darkness as the Apostle assures us Coloss. I. 13. A Design first begun by himself in Person and afterwards carried on by the Apostles and their Successors to this day by his Command and through his Power whom he sent as St. Paul describes his Commission Acts XXVI 18. To open the eyes of the Gentiles or the ignorant and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God Himself while conversant on Earth busied himself in nothing more than in detecting the false Explications of the Moral part of the Jewish Law which was of equal Obligation to all Mankind in discovering the Corruptions of it and restoring it to its Primitive Integrity And not content only to discover the Errors of the World as it was commonly objected to the Heathen Philosophers that they could easily overthrow the Opinions of one another but could establish no Truth in the room of them he plainly revealed their whole Duty to them taught them even the Principles of the Moral Law that so Men might no more be subject to mistake in it To this he added the Revelation of the whole Will of God which concerns either the Rewards or Punishments annexed to this Law which might reinforce the Practice of it or the future Felicity of Man to be obtained by the Observation of it or the means of Pardon in Case of the Violation of it Nor was this Light to be confined to a Corner to be appropriated to a few it was to be made truly the Light of the World to be communicated to all to be continued to the end of the World The easiness and simplicity of it adapted to the Capacity and Practice of all Men fitted it for such an universal Communicaon And that it should be actually communicated he abundantly provided by proclaiming it himself to all while on Earth by establishing a numerous Order of Disciples who should propagate it successively to the end of the World by inspiring Holy Writers to commit it plainly and intirely to writing by founding a Church the Members of which should by certain solemn Rites or Sacraments oblige themselves to the Practice of it by contriving the Discipline and Government of this Church in such a manner as might
best tend to the perpetual Continuation and Propagation of this Light once delivered When therefore by these means in a few Centuries almost all the known World was delivered from the Power of darkness freed from its ancient Errors and received the Truth when a considerable part of the World still continues to enjoy the same Benefits Freedom from the darkness of Ignorance in Divine Matters and an exact Knowledge both of the Nature of God as far as relates to us our Duty to him and way to Happiness may we not justly conclude all the Glorious Prophesies concerning the happy times of the Messias and the Light to be conferred on the World by him to have been exactly completed in our Lord and that in removing the Ignorance of Mankind and restoring and increasing the Knowledge of truth among Men he was in an eminent manner the Light of the World And so pure and unspotted as well as clear and bright is this light communicated by Christ unto the World so exactly conformable to all the first Principles of Truth and Reason imprinted in the Souls of Men or to be deduced thence that a more clear Argument of the Truth of the Christian Religion cannot be conceived or desired A Reflection which may be worth our Consideration a while as being no small Confirmation of the Excellency of that Light of which we now treat It is impossible to conceive that a Person devoid of all acquired Learning as our Lord confessedly was should in an Age over-run with universal Errors teach and deliver an entire System of Doctrine and Rule of Life without the least Error if he had not been directed by a Divine Power and really acted by that Divine Commission which he pretended It might perhaps have been accounted possible if he had been brought up at the feet of Gamaliel instructed in all the Learning of the Age altho' even in that Case it would have been very hardly possible when the learned Men among the Jews are all known at that time to have been involved in so many Errors and how grosly the learned Men among the Gentiles erred in the Rules of natural Religion we before instanced and that any one Man should after the Reception of his Education from these very Erroneous Doctors happily discover all the Errors both of Jews and Gentiles and find out the exact Truth in all Questions of Morality and Religion without the least mixture of Error or Mistake seems a Matter wholly incredible But that a Person devoid of all Learning and external Helps should effect it is wholly impossible Now it is most certain that in the whole System of Christian Religion and among all the Rules of Life as delivered by Christ and contained in his Gospel not the least Flaw or Error could ever be found by all the Adversaries of it Or if we trust not them let every Mans Reason be his Judge Let him view all the Commands of Christ and see if he can find any thing contrary to Reason any thing unworthy either of God or Man An invincible Argument that the Author of it proceeded by a Divine Commission and derived his Knowledge from a supernatural Revelation It may not be amiss in a few words to carry this Argument a little higher and apply it to the Religion of the Jews before the coming of our Lord. Where if we think rationally we shall find it absolutely impossible that a People so barbarous as they were in the beginning so devoid of all Assistances of Arts and Sciences in the whole Succession of their Government should form such just and noble Notions of a Deity contrive a Religion without any mixture of Sin or Idolatry unless they had been directed by God himself View all the Nations round about and you shall find them drowned in gross Ignorance and Idolatry And then enquire if any other Cause of this so great difference can be assigned Compare their Hymns formed in Honour of God and Books treating concerning the Nature of him now comprised in the Old Testament with the Compositions formed by the Grecians or any other Learned Heathen Nation in Honour of their Gods and with their Theological Writings you will find the first to contain just and noble Thoughts of God true Judgments concerning the Relation between God and Man nothing which is not agreeable to the Honour and Majesty of God nothing which is not exactly true Whereas in the other you shall discover every where either childish or impious Notions of God nothing answerable to his Majesty and little agreeable to Truth A difference which can never be accounted for but by acknowledging the former to have proceeded from a Divine Direction and Inspiration So clear and undeniable is the force of Light that it discovers it self where-ever it Acts it cannot be hid dissembled or stifled and according to our Saviour's own Comparison like a City placed upon a Hill appeareth at a distance giving direction to all far and near And thus our Saviour was also the Light of the World upon the account of the Exemplariness of his Life In which Respect he tells his Disciples that they are the Light of the World Matth. V. 14. giving Direction to Mankind in the practice of their Duty by that eminent Vertue which shone forth in them and could not but be observed by all Men. And of himself John IX 5. As long as I am in the World I am the Light of the World Not that he was wholly to cease to be the Light of the World even after he should be removed from it For both his Doctrine and the Report of his Example were to enlighten the World to all Ages but in the latter Respect that of his Example the Efficacy of it would decrease upon his removal from the Earth inasmuch as the Sight moveth more than the Fame of an illustrious Example An Example indeed so eminent that whether seen or heard it was a Light to all Mankind so resplendent and remarkable that as the Light it struck the Eyes of all Men and could not but be taken Notice of so just and adequate that it included the whole Duty of Man in its utmost Perfection and as the Light directed Men in the right way His Doctrine was the most exact System of all Moral and Divine Vertues that ever was proposed to the World And in all this System there is no one Vertue which himself possessed and exercised not in the most perfect manner All that Piety Temperance Meekness and Charity which he prescribed to his Followers himself practised in the whole Course of his Life And that in a Degree which other Men cannot hope to attain to without any interruption of Vice or Imperfection Such an Example might well be termed the Light of the World in which alone if all Rules of Piety if all Notions of good were lost among Men they might be entirely recovered And not only illustrious in it self but also industriously made so to all
Worship that is in the Church All which put it beyond all doubt that St. Paul doth in this place treat of the publick worship of God and of publick Prayer to be used in Churches In the first place then if all Prayer be an Act of Worship publick Prayer is more eminently so The intention of private Prayer is in the first place to obtain Supplies to the wants of the Petitioner and then to worship God Whereas in publick Prayer on the contrary the worship of God is the chief design and the supply of Necessities but a Secondary intention So that to intermit the use of publick Prayer and pray only in private is for Man to worship God only in Subordination to his own designs It cannot be denied that publick Worship and Prayer do far more effectually tend to the Honour and Glory of God when Men do openly and in the hearing of all others confess their Subjection to God magnifie his Benefits deprecate his Anger and acknowledge their own unworthiness This is truly and properly to give Glory to God Whereas he who confineth his Devotion to a Closet may perhaps be allowed to have a just Esteem of the Divine Benefits but seems ashamed to confess so much to other Men that he is the Creature of God as well as others that he equally depends upon him that he hath also violated his Commands and wants his Mercy The Psalmist therefore upon the receiving of great and eminent Benefits is wont to affirm that he will praise God in the Congregation as well knowing that such a publick acknowledgement of them did far more contribute to the Honour of God and was also more pleasing to him It is not enough to say that God receiveth no increase of Honour from our Praises For neither doth he receive any such advantage from private Worship yet it would be impious to say that the worship of God is not the Duty of Man But by publick worship Men do more evidently manifest their gratitude to God and the Sense which they have of his Benefits and their own Obligation than by private Prayer and Adoration And upon this account the former is more acceptable to God who delights in the good of his Creatures which good can be no otherwise procured or maintained but by an exact discharge of their Duty one part of which is a just return of Gratitude and Worship to himself God receiveth not increase of Honour from the Praises of Angels any more than from those of Men. Yet all the Descriptions which we find of Heaven represent them as incessantly singing Praises to their great Creator Who not content to retain a reverent Conception of the Divine Majesty in their own thoughts communicate them to each other and publish them to the whole World And indeed to what purpose can we imagine that God should both under the Old and the New Testament found Churches that is separate Societies of Men united by certain Laws and under one common Form of worship if it be not the Duty of all the Members of those Churches to meet together at certain times and places and adore him by one common Form If God had intended to rest satisfied with private Worship in vain did he contrive and found Churches by wonders of Providence as he hath that both of the Jews and Christians in vain hath he given to them particular Laws and annexed many Priviledges and Promises to the whole Society and to the Members of it as such Under the Old Law he required every Male to appear before him in the publick Place of worship three times in the year and commanded publick Worship to be continually paid to himself in daily Sacrifices Yet as he declared altho' he cared not for ten thousand Bullocks nor for Rivers of Oyl he would not remit the Duty and adjoyned Rewards to it because it publickly declared the Subjection of the devout Sacrificers to himself In these publick Forms of worship in the Jewish Temple our Lord while one Earth constantly gave his Attendance at appointed times After his Ascension and the Gift of the Holy Ghost the Apostles as we find in the III. of the Acts frequented the Temple at the usual hours of Prayer and joyned in the common Forms of Prayer there made use of altho' by the Operation of the Holy Ghost then received by them they could have poured out Extempore far more excellent and devout Prayers than those received in the Temple which were of humane Composition If then God so strictly exacted the Practice of publick Worship in all times if Christ and his Apostles so exactly performed it if for this very Purpose God hath gathered and united a Church under common Laws and the hopes of a common Reward what account can they make who either lay aside all publick Worship as superfluous or decry the daily Sacrifice of prayer and praise to God offered up in the Church or when themselves meet once a week to worship God place the Religion of the day in hearing a Sermon which is properly no part of Worship but only an Exhortation to and direction how to worship God In the next place as the Obligation of publick Prayer is greater than that of private so the Promises made to the one are far greater than to the other Our Lord hath promised That wheresoever two or three shall be gathered together in his name wheresoever there shall be an Assembly of Christians joyned together to offer up Prayer and to worship God he will be in the midst of them He will watch over them with his Providence he will own them as Members of his Body he will excite and render effectual their Devotion by the Operation of his Holy Spirit he will intercede with God for the Grant of their Petitions And how effectual must those Prayers be wherein our Lord himself concurrs Or what doubt can remain of the acceptance of our Worship and the grant of our Desires when he is present with us All the glorious Promises of Assistance Pardon Favour and Protection which were anciently made to the Jews worshipping God at the Temple in Jerusalem are now translated to the Christian Churches The only difference is that whereas among them the publick worship of God was confined to one place in the Christian Religion which was given not to one Family or Nation but to the whole World the same Priviledge is made common to all places of publick Worship in all parts of the World wherever Christianity doth prevail To Worship offered up from publick places alone the Promises of the greater and more illustrious Blessings of God are annexed And no wonder since by this alone the publick Religion of any Nation doth appear by this alone the publick Honour of God is maintained in the World While the Tabernacle made by Moses and afterwards the Temple at Jerusalem stood while daily Sacrifices and Worship were performed therein it was an undeniable Evidence that the Jews worshipped the
Professions of Faith and Obedience to himself appears from that frequent Expression employed by him in the Old Testament For my Temples sake at Jerusalem What Reason can be assigned why God should be moved to do any thing for his Temples sake which being purely material was not capable of any Merit but that it being erected to his Honour and dedicated to his Service by the Nation of the Jews was an illustrious Sign to the whole World that that Nation believed and trusted in him While that Fabrick stood consecrated to his Name and Prayers were offered up in it to him it could not be dissembled that he was the God of that Nation and they his People And indeed it is too sad and yet undeniable that wherever the solemn and publick Worship of God in certain and fixed Places dedicated to that use is discontinued Religion the Honour and Reverence of God immediately decays and becomes forgotten As in all Parts of the Christian Church it may be observed that wherever the publick Worship of God in Churches hath been taken from Christians as in Persia and Africa the Faith of Christ hath been wholly lost in one or two Generations whereas the Church of Greece by the Advantage of the use of Churches permitted to them hath continued to flourish and retain her Faith unshaken under the Government of the Turks although continually oppressed discountenanced injured and persecuted by them It was therefore the Effect of the most benign Providence of God in the Primitive Church that he suffer'd not any of their Persecutions to be of long Continuance but restoring Peace to the Church gave them Liberty therewith to exercise the true Worship of himself in publick solemn and sacred Places Could the Religion of Christ have been maintained by private and clancular Meetings the Zeal and Piety of those Times would have effected it Yet then it was thought impossible to perform it Nor would God have interposed by so many Miracles of Providence to restore his Church to the Freedom of worshipping him in publick Churches had not such Worship been more acceptable to him than that directed from Corners of private Houses And therefore no sooner was the Storm of any Persecution blown over but the Christians immediately set themselves to erect magnificent Churches to the Honour of the true God and in them to celebrate all Acts of Worship Not that God heard not their Prayers directed to him from secret and private places their Piety Patience and Constancy deserved no less but himself received far less Honour from private than publick Worship and therefore for his own Names-sake as he frequently told the Jews he restored them to the enjoyment of peace and quiet Thus the Jews also contented themselves to worship in a movable Tabernacle while they travelled in the Wilderness or were not fully settled in the Land of Canaan But no sooner were all the Jebusites driven out of the Land but David prepared to build a stately Temple in Honor of the God of Israel Thus the Erection and Dedication of Churches is not only an open profession of the Worship of that God to whose Service they are consecrated but also an eminent Monument of Gratitude to God for giving peace and quiet unto the Church procuring to her Members the Liberty of offering up Prayers to him and professing to believe on him in publick The Magnificence of these Fabricks is a further Argument of Thankfulness for the wealth and plenty of that People by whom they were founded in Honour of God and remain an eternal Mark of Acknowledgment that both peace and plenty proceeded from his Gift to whose Name they are sacred They are the most obvious and sensible Demonstration of the long and uninterrupted Continuance of the Faith of Christ in any Nation and the Devotion and Zeal of his Followers and thereby exceedingly promote the Honour of God in the World which is the chief end of all publick Exercise of Religion To confine the Worship of God to private Houses or movable Congregations is what the ancient Christians thought the greatest Misfortune attending their Persecution And they who in times of Peace pay no more solemn Worship to God than what is really necessary to pay in time of persecution if they should indeed be persecuted it is more than probable will pay no manner of Worship At least to decry the Erection and Consecration of sacred places seems to be no other than to oppose the Increase of Divine Honour and to include a fear least posterity should know from those durable Fabricks that their Fore-fathers worshipped the true God Lastly if the publick Worship of God is to be celebrated in places solemnly set apart for that use and the peculiar presence of God is promised in such Places if his Honour be promoted by erection of such sacred Buildings and kept up by the Continuance of them it follows that no small Reverence is to be paid to them To treat them as unholy or common places in any matter is to withdraw them from that use to which they were designed to rob God of his peculiar possession and to deny his presence in them On the contrary all external Acts of Reverence manifest our Acknowledgment of the Relation which they bear to him of our Belief in him to whose Honour they are dedicated of our Gratitude to him by whom we enjoy the open Profession of our Religion of our Zeal for his Glory which is chiefly advanced and maintained by them of our perswasion of his constant and immediate presence in them that Veneration therefore which the devout Members of this Church pay to sacred Places is neither the Effect of Superstition nor the Remains of Popery but ariseth from a pious and rational perswasion of the Honour due to God and all things relating to him A Practice as ancient as Christianity it self and which St. Paul makes use of as received and confessed among all Christians when reproving the Indecencies committed by the Corinthians in their Churches 1 Cor. XI 22. he aggravates the Guilt of them by this Consideration What have ye not Houses to eat and to drink in or despise you the Church of God Where opposing the Church of God to private Houses it is plain that he speaks of material Churches and no less plain that he taketh it for granted and allowed by them that so great Reverence is due to these Churches that even for the sole Consideration of their Holiness no indecent Action ought to be committed in them Before him our blessed Lord had by his own Practice given us an eminent Example of the same Regard due to sacred places when he scourged the Money-Changers out of the Temple at Jerusalem although they had placed themselves only in the outward Porches and Avenues of the Temple where no Act of religious and publick Worship was wont to be performed And the Reason he assigned was this It is written my House shall be called the House of
HENRY WHARTON A.M. ONE and TWENTY SERMONS Preach'd in LAMBETH CHAPEL BEFORE The most Reverend Father in God Dr. WILLIAM SANCROFT late Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury In the Years MDCLXXXIX MDCXC By the Learned HENRY WHARTON M. A. Chaplain to His Grace Being the Second and Last VOLUME LONDON Printed for â—i Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Pauls Church Yard MDCXCVIII THE CONTENTS SERMON I. JOhn XVI 8. And when he the Comforter is come he will reprove the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment Pag. 1 SERMON II. 1 Cor. II. 11. The things of God knoweth no Man but the Spirit of God p. 25 SERMON III. Esther V. 13. Yet all this availeth me nothing p. 51 SERMON IV. Job XXXVII 23 24. Touching the Almighty we cannot find him out He is excellent in power and in judgment and in plenty of justice he will not afflict Men do therefore fear him p. 76 SERMON V. Rom. XII 3. For I say unto you through the grace given unto me to every man that is among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think p. 99 SERMON VI and VII 1 Pet. V. 8 9. Your Adversary the Devil as a roaring Lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour Whom resist stedfast in the Faith p. 124 150 SERMON VIII S. Mark VIII 36. For what shall it profit Man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own Soul p. 181 SERMON IX S. Luk. XVI 31. If they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be perswaded though one rose from the dead p. 220 SERMON X. S. John VIII 12. I am the Light of the world He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness but shall have the Light of Life p. 243 SERMON XI 1 Pet. IV. 18. And if the Righteous sourcely be saved where shall the ungodly and the Sinner appear p. 266 SERMON XII Matth. XI 30. For my Yoke is easie and my Burthen is light p. 291 SERMON XIII Rom. XII 19. Dearly beloved avenge not your selves but rather give place unto wrath For it is written Vengeance is mine I will repay saith the Lord. p. 318 SERMON XIV Acts X. 24. Whom God hath raised up having loosed the pains of death because it was not possible that he should be holden of it p. 352 SERMON XV XVI XVII 1 Tim. II. 8. I will therefore that Men pray every where lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting p. 380 411 431 SERMON XVIII Acts X. 40 41. Him God raised up the third day and shewed him openly Not to all the People but to Witnesses chosen before of God p. 466 SERMON XIX Mark XVI 19. So then after the Lord had spoken unto them he was received up into Heaven and sat on the right of God p. 494 SERMON XX. Matth. V. 16. Let your light so shine before Men that they may see your good Works and glorify your Father which is Heaven p. 521 SERMON XXI Luk. II. 14. Glory to God in the highest and on Earth Peace Good-will towards Men. p. 567 The First SERMON ON WHIT SUNDAY 1689. At LAMBETH CHAPEL John XVI 8. And when he the Comforter is come he will reprove the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment THE Mission of the Holy Ghost which we this day commemorate was the Final Confirmation and Completion of the Christian Religion which perfected the Mystery of the Redemption of Mankind and at the same time set the last Seal to the truth of it Our Saviour had indeed long before gathered a Select number of faithful Apostles and Disciples but can scarce be said to have founded a Church till he poured out the Holy Ghost upon them Till then their Notions of the intention of Christ's coming into the World were dark and obscure their apprehensions of the Nature and Constitution of the Kingdom to be founded by him false and frivolous and as they certainly knew not what form of Faith to profess so they dared not profess it openly Their religious Meetings were yet in secret and no Attempts yet made to form a Church by Conversion of Jews and Gentiles Their thoughts were not so much fixed upon the remembrance of what their Master had done and suffered as upon the Expectation of somewhat more to be done by him that is upon the hopes of the Comforter which he promised to them They wanted yet those Perfections of mind which might qualifie them for the Execution of their designed Office that Zeal and Charity which might animate and direct all the Members of the Church that Knowledge and Understanding which might fit them for Pastors and Teachers in the absence of their Master All these Advantages were abundantly conferr'd these Necessities supplied by the sending of the Holy Ghost as upon this day Then they received internal light a full understanding of the Mysteries of the Messias a clear Knowledge of all that had been delivered to them then they obtained Abilities to execute the Office of Preaching to which they were designed and Courage to undertake it Then they began as to possess an assured and rational Belief of Christ so to profess and declare their Belief in him So that the Reception of the Holy Ghost was to them what Baptism is to us an entrance into the Church of Christ according to what our Saviour had foretold to them after his Resurrection Ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence These were the Advantages conferred upon the Faithful by the coming of the Holy Ghost but these were not all The chief design of his coming was to lay the Foundations of propagating the Belief of Christ through the whole World and to offer the benefits of his Death and Passion to all the Members of Mankind to assert the Divinity of Christ to manifest the truth of his Doctrine to vindicate the Honour of God to convince the World of their Obligation to believe in him and to confound the opposition of his Adversaries To this grand Design the aforementioned Gifts bestowed upon the Apostles were subservient being such as enabled them to Preach the Word and confirm the Truth of it to all Nations under Heaven The Publication of the Gospel had hitherto been reserved shut up in dark Speeches and Parabolical Expressions confined to an Hundred and twenty Disciples which we read to have been the number of them in the First of the Acts. But from this day it was to be set in a clear Light communicated to all without obscurity or reserve and propagated to all parts of the habitable World The Person of our Saviour Christ had hitherto appeared mean and contemptible no Signs or Tokens of his glorious Kingdom were yet to be found but now he was to be rescued from that Imputation by visible and undeniable Effects of Divine Power his Kingdom was to commence in the hearts of Men and become Glorious both from the Number and Piety of his Followers The Jews had
were poured out upon the Apostles in so illustrious a manner as the Jews could not but take notice of the exact Completion of his Promise of sending the Comforter not many days after his Ascension in such a manner as drew the eyes of all the Inhabitants of Jerusalem both Jews and Strangers upon them and tended no less to demonstrate the Power than the Truth of Christ. The second Prediction indeed that of his Resurrection was fulfilled fifty days before but became not an Argument of Conviction to the Jews till now as being not till now publickly attested by the Apostles who were the Witnesses of it The Report of his Resurrection had been indeed rumoured in Jerusalem which put the Sanhedrim upon that shameful Device of corrupting the Soldiers who guarded his Sepulchre but the certain and publick Knowledge of it was not delivered till the Apostles were enabled and enboldened to proclaim and testifie it to the whole World by those Gifts which they received upon this day After the exact Completion of these Prophesies and the authentick attestation of them no excuse remained to the Jews whereby to extenuate their unbelief according to the Rules laid down by Moses they were now obliged to acknowledge Christ to have been a true Prophet and the true Messias and were convinced of their hainous Sin before commited by them in the Rejection of his Doctrine and Crucifixion of his Person the horror of which Sin might induce them the more readily to believe in Christ and lay hold of his Merits that so they might obtain Remission of it Otherwise they were to expect the most severe Execution of Divine Vengeance for their wilful obstinacy and disbelief as Moses had assured them in the same place Deut. XVIII 19. And it shall come to pass that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name I will require it of him This Sentence and therein the Prophesie of Christ was in a most eminent manner executed and fulfilled in the Destruction and intire Desolation of the whole Nation of the Jews about forty years after the Ascension of our Lord whereby the Apostles and Disciples of our Lord then alive acted by the Holy Ghost were farther enabled invincibly to plead his Cause against the opposition of the unbelieving World both Jews and Gentiles For however the Mission of the Holy Ghost and the Consequences of it did more especially convince of Sin the Jews who were then alive and had been guilty either of rejecting the Preaching or contriving the Death of our Lord yet it contributed no less effectually to manifest the Unreasonableness of all both Jews and Gentiles who either in that or in all Ages to come should reject the Faith of Christ when proposed to them For the Belief of him was to be proposed to all Creatures under Heaven and confirmed by Arguments drawn from hence which were so rational and convictive so clear and demonstrative that they could not be rejected without the most extream Perverseness and if rejected the Holy Ghost should hereby plead the cause of Christ against them and convince the whole World and their own Consciences also if rightly judging that in rejecting the Gospel they had sinned against their own Souls and that nothing remained to them but a certain fearful Expectation of the fiery Judgment to be most justly inflicted on them The second point of which the Comforter was to reprove or convince the World was of Righteousness the reason of which is assigned in the 10th Verse Because I go to my Father and ye see me no more The Justice of God had to the eyes of Men been clouded when he permitted his only begotten Son to be delivered up and crucified by wicked Men when he abandoned him to the Rage of his Enemies and rescued him not from the Insults of the Jews by an extraordinary Interposition from Heaven The Majesty of the Deity seemed then to be eclipsed and suffer diminution when subjected to the Contradiction and Affronts of unreasonable Men. Men naturally expect that God should even in this World declare in behalf of oppressed Innocence either by rescuing it from the Malice of its Enemies or taking a severe Revenge upon the Oppressors of it And even Christians who have a better and more certain Knowledge of the Methods of Providence cannot but expect and are allowed so to do that if no Discrimination be made between the Good and the Bad in this life yet at least that it shall be in the next when Innocence shall be crowned with Rewards which shall be enhanced by Patience in Sufferings and Violence chastised with Punishments which shall be so much the sharper if reserved intire to another World if no part of them be inflicted in this This a faithful Christian expects from the Justice of God and this the Scripture assureth them Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you and to you who are troubled rest 2 Thess. I. 6. And God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour Heb. VI. 10. If then this Justice may be securely hoped for from God by all the Members of Mankind how much more by the Son of God whose Person was of infinite Dignity his Sufferings fraught with the highest Aggravations of Misery and his Persecutors guilty of the most enormous Wickedness That the Justice of God might be therefore vindicated herein that Sin might no longer triumph and Innocence pass unregarded God exalted his Son to his own right hand seated him in the Heavens gave him Dominion over all things crowned him with glory and worship The knowledge of this was published to the World by the Mission of the Holy Ghost by whose Direction and Assistance the Apostles openly testified the Ascension of their Lord and by which all might be convinced what Place and Power Christ now obtained in Heaven who could showre down such glorious Gifts and Priviledges upon his Followers on Earth These were so many undeniable Testimonies that the Malice of his Enemies was defeated that our Lord was yet alive set above their reach and Insults and not only so but invested with supreme Majesty and Dominion able to protect his Church and punish his Enemies that his former Sufferings had not been then more calamitous than his present State was now glorious that if God had for a time withdrawn in appearance his Favour and Protection from his Humane Nature he had now in recompence exalted it to an eternal Throne in Heaven The last thing of which the Comforter was to reprove or convince the World was of Judgment and that for this reason Ver. 11. Because the prince of this world is judged It is a Principle even of Natural Religion that God is the supreme Judge of the World and that of invisible as well as visible Beings The Devil who is frequently in Scripture called the prince of this world had now for many Ages exercised an
we seek for true Happiness somewhere else If the former cannot be the Supreme end of Man and if it be natural to us to direct all our Actions to some end it will be necessary for us to find out some other end and when found out to apply our utmost Diligence to obtain it And here perhaps humane Reason having thus far proceeded might continue to grope in the dark and after a tedious disquisition be unable to discover either the end or the means of obtaining it God hath therefore in Compassion to our Infirmities marked out both the Nature and the means of Supreme Happiness The Nature of it is Peace of Conscience here and therein the hopes of the Fruition of God hereafter which Hopes shall then be turned into Possession the means of it obedience to his Laws and Faith in Christ. By these we shall obtain an Happiness which shall fill the utmost Capacities of the Soul which shall be co-extended with the duration of it which shall satisfie us but never weary us which shall affect all the Faculties both of Soul and Body which shall be interrupted by no Crosses and Disasters which will never expire but be renewed every moment which no adversity of Fortune nor infirmity of Body which neither the Malice of Men or Devils shall be able to take from us To a serious Application of your selves to obtain this blessed State I hope what has been said will be no small Motive to you You all desire Happiness and if the Soul be once fully convinced what is the only true Happiness it cannot but move towards it and exert all its Faculties in the Acquisition of it After a firm perswasion that this is indeed the end of Man there needs no Exhortation to pursue it The pursuit of it will then be no less natural than the satisfying of Hunger or any other reasonable Appetite The misfortune is that we suffer our selves to be deluded by the impressions of Sense and unruly Passions representing and amplifying to us the Happiness arising from the Fruition of carnal Pleasures and secular Delights we are not unwilling these Passions should arise we permit these false Judgments to be formed we are pleased at first with the Delusion altho' conscious of it and at last become so far stupified that we do not perceive it until at last a terrible Affliction or the approaches of Death awaken the Soul and revive its better Notions What those dreadful remembrancers may then do Reason may now much more easily and more certainly effect to reflect upon the Nature of worldly Enjoyments to consider their Vanity and discover their Emptiness When this Conviction is throughly formed we shall be even necessitated to look upward and fix our hopes in Heaven and then we are assured that our Labours directed thither shall not miscary that they shall be assisted by God promoted by his Spirit and Crowned with Success Success which will give us satisfaction of Mind here and fulness of Joy hereafter To this Joy may God c. The Fourth SERMON Preach'd on the 23d of June 1689. At LAMBETH CHAPEL Job XXXVII 23 24. Touching the Almighty we cannot find him out He is excellent in power and in judgment and in plenty of justice he will not afflict Men do therefore fear him THE ground of all Religion whether Natural or Revealed consists in the knowledge of the Nature of God and of his Conduct in the Government of the World The first representeth him to Man as a fit object of Adoration the latter perswadeth Man to adore him Without the first there would be no reason to adore him without the latter no Obligation The perfection therefore of any Religion consists in an accurate Delivery of these Matters in giving right Notions of the Nature of God and in teaching with certainty the method of his external Actions The former is always the same and admits no Variation the latter may receive Improvements in relation to Man and lay greater Obligations on him under one Dispensation than under another So much of both may be known by the light of Reason as may direct Men aright to the Worship of God if they imploy their reason in a due manner and convince them at the same time of their Obligation to worship him but both may be mistaken in the natural use of the understanding and when mistaken will equally defeat the Worship of God a mistake of the first Nature leading Men into Idolatry of the second into Negligence and Impiety It is not so easie indeed to mistake concerning the first the Nature of God which may easily be discerned by the weakest understanding I mean so much of it as serves to beget Notions of Religion in Men. All Men whether true Believers or Idolaters agree in this common Notion of God that he is a most perfect Being and then surely it is no hard matter to determine whether Omnipotence Omniscience Omnipresence and such like be necessary Perfections without which a most perfect Being cannot subsist Yet Mankind hath most miserably mistaken in this plain and easie matter hath deified Creatures which have none of all these Perfections hath quitted sometimes even the Notion of God but oft-times corrupted it And these mistakes Revealed Religion doth rectifie and restore to Men what they had willfully lost the knowledge of the Divine Nature But this is not our present Design which concerns the external Actions of God and his Government of the World wherein it is no hard matter for Man to mistake deriving his knowledge from the light of Reason only It is possible for such a one to form such right Conceptions of the external Conduct of God from the Consideration of his Attributes as may incite him to the Worship of God and direct him in it But this perswasion will fall infinitely short of that Conviction and this Direction of that certainty which is to be had in Revealed Religions and even in Revelations admit of greater or lesser Degrees according to the greater or lesser manifestation of the Will of God therein and his intended Benefits to the followers of that Revelation So that however the primary Reasons of worshipping God continue the same in both Cases being drawn from the Attributes of God which are always the same yet in Revealed Religions they are both improved and enhanced and also secured from the danger of Error And how great that Danger is the Scripture fully declareth to us by the Example of Job and his Friends That whole Book being employed in discoursing of the Laws and method of the Divine Government in relation to Man as far as the light of Reason could discover For none of them had yet received the benefit of Revelation which was not made to them till after the Conclusion of their discourse in the end of the Book All of them both knew and worshipped the true God were eminent for Wisdom in their Generations and one of them approved by an extraordinary
therein than he did before Scarce any Man however having plentifully enjoyed all the satisfactions of this Life if his Life could be renewed to him upon Condition of living again in the same and in no other manner than he did before would esteem it any great Benefit He might perhaps accept it through fear of Death because he knows not what it is to die but for the intrinsick Merit of it he would hardly judge it to be desirable Such is the Condition of humane Life considered in a natural State and what great Excellency can be discovered in all this which may nourish our Pride or enlarge our Pretences So inconsiderable a part of the Universe is Mankind And then shall so mean a Being vie with God require the general Laws of Providence to be over-ruled for his sake become swoln with Pride think himself more worthy than all the rest of the Creation and continually aspire to greater Priviledges than were at first assigned to him Alas poor Mortal however thou mayst advance thy Pretences and flatter thy self with a fond Opinion of thy own Greatness that Body which thou carriest about with thee and canst not shake off that very Body upon which and the dependances of it thou so much valuest thy self proclaim thy Imperfection If I should call thee Dust and Ashes thy end will manifest thee to be no more but this will only express thy Infirmity I want a word to express the Vanity of thy mind If I should call thee nothing thy self hast often confessed thy self to be worse than nothing when amidst the Crosses of fortune or torments of Diseases thou hast often wished to become nothing for to avoid them and wilt once again wish it after Death if thou dost not correct thy foolish Arrogance So little Reason hath Man in general to value himself upon the Excellency of his Nature and as to the divers Pretentions before-mentioned hath yet much less If Atheists pretend an independent Existence from God let them demonstrate it by continuing their Existence for ever If they could at first bestow Existence upon themselves they may by the same Power always continue it if this exceeds their Ability much more will the other If Deists assert the Actions of Man to be uncontrouled by God and the Government of the World to be wholly neglected by him let them reconcile to such stupid Negligence the eternal Attributes of Justice Wisdom and Goodness which they allow to be in God let them stifle if they can the Checks of their Conscience for Sins committed in secret and solve the undeniable Characters of extraordinary Providence interposing in the World These impious Opinions indeed cannot be received by the followers of any revealed Religion but the others may As first That all other parts of the Creation were made for the sake and the service of Man alone An Opinion which however generally taken up by Men and in some measure Useful to excite their Gratitude to their Creator yet seems to have proceeded from too great an esteem of humane Nature and tendeth directly to â—oment its Pride It is certain indeed that almost all parts of the visible World are subservient to the use of Man that God hath not denied to us the use of any one of them in which sense it may indeed be said that all things were created for the use of Man as it is said in Scripture Man was created for the Woman and the Woman for the Man that is not for that end alone but for that among other Reasons And thus even the Angels are subservient to Man being sent forth as Ministring Spirits to such as are heirs of Salvation But to imagine that all things were Created only for the use and the sake of Man hath no appearance of Truth To affirm that of the blessed Angels who are so far superiour to us in Dignity would be an intolerable Arrogance and to assert it even of other created Beings would be a vain Presumption Perhaps not the thousandth part of the Universe is visible to us And then what are we concerned in so many vast Orbs as are beyond our Heavens I know many have imagined them to have been created for the Seat of God and the Reception of our glorified Bodies after the Resurrection but that is too gross a Conceit to need any Refutation Even in the visible World no small part of the Creation lays undiscovered and not a little of what we know is wholly unuseful to us It becomes us rather with Reverence to reflect upon our Subjection to God our common Creatour than endeavour to set our selves before the rest of the Creation and flatter our selves into an ambitious Opinion of an Universal Monarchy In the next place to ascribe so much Excellency to our Nature as to imagine that the general Laws of Providence ought to be violated for the Convenience of it is a Pride exceeding all Comparison as if the petty Interests of Man in this Life were of greater moment than the Preservation of the publick Order and therein the Harmony of the World Is it not sufficient to have received from God the benefit of Existence to enjoy all the Blessings of Earth and Heaven which the ordinary course of Nature directed by the Author of it bestoweth on us but the Fabrick of the World must be overturned and the general Laws of its Government be reversed for us Yet this unreasonable Expectation generally seizeth Men in Afflictions when all the hard Words which they heap upon adverse Fortune are directed against the Divine Government of the World the impartial Execution of which without respect to the little Interests of private Men produceth that diversity of Accidents which is generally called Fortune Farther to murmur at the Divine Administration of the World because no more excellent or more certain Happiness is assigned to Men in this Life is an effect of the same unreasonable Ambition of being more noble Creatures than we really are For while we are a compound of Soul and Body endued with gross Organs of Sense and subject to the publick Order of the World it is impossible that our Pleasures should be other than gross and adapted to the Organ of their Reception that is our Sense We may tire our selves in hunting after new Methods of Happiness and afflict our selves in the Disappointment of them but while our Natures continue to be what they are and the same Order is preferved in the World it is impossible that the Pleasures of Life should be any other than what they are that is mean in their own Nature and uncertain in their Duration To propose the acquisition of a compleat Knowledge of all things in this Life of an absolute imperturbation of Mind and constant Infallibility is no less Vain and to boast of such Perfections as some have done little less than Madness Our present Nature admitteth no such Improvements which while we are content to own we must also own those
short if the Devils bring great Detriment to the spiritual Interests of Mankind the Angels bring no less advantage to it that it may be questioned whether it were more eligible for Man to suffer the Temptation of evil for the Assistance of good Spirits or to want them both together Only the same Caution which we before observed to be necessary in procuring and continuing the Grace of God is also required here that we render our selves worthy of it by a diligent Concurrence and that as we should not by our Perverseness grieve the Holy Spirit of God so neither should we by our Negligence and obstinate Perseverance in Sin grieve the Holy Angels And this is the only Reward which for all their Labour and Care bestowed on us they require of us that together with them we pay a due Obedience to our common Master that we defeat not their Charitable Designs by our own Wilfulness Worship and other Signs of Divine Honour they affect not nay this they will not receive from us The end of their Labour is to procure Happiness to Man and the Reward of it next to the Conscience of having obeyed their great Master is the satisfaction of their Success in it Their only aim is that we would joyn with them here in paying intire Obedience to our common Creator that so we may joyn with them hereafter in singing Praises to him To him therefore be ascribed the Glory and Thanks of all their Charitable Operations in relation to Mankind to him be rendred all Praise and Honour who at first Created such excellent Beings and afterwards sent them forth to Minister to our Salvation who hath placed in us Souls not unlike to these noble Beings and hath Promised that if we be not wanting to our selves he will in due time make us fully like unto them To him with his Son and blessed Spirit be ascribed all Power Might Majesty Dominion and Adoration henceforth and for evermore The Eighth SERMON Preach'd on the 20th of Octob. 1689. At LAMBETH CHAPEL St. Mark VIII 36. For what shall it profit a Man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own Soul IT is the peculiar Character of the Christian Religion that it is adapted as well to the Interest as the reason of Mankind that it is not only Consentaneous to our Natures but advantageous to our Persons that it not only prescribes to us our Duty but directs us in the way of Happiness Herein it infinitely surpasseth even all the more refined Systems of the Gentile Divinity and Philosophy They pretended to no more than to refine our Reason and enlighten our Understanding by the Knowledge and consideration of Truth But then they could produce nothing wherewith to satiate the unbounded Appetite of the Will and create a real Happiness Many of them indeed asserted the immortality of the Soul but neither hoped a Resurrection of the Body nor any reward of the Soul beside the Conscience of a vertuous Life The Jewish Oeconomy indeed had a reward annexed to it but such as fell infinitely short of the Desires of Mankind and the Capacity of rational Beings as being wholly restrained to the Pleasures of this Life and appropriated to the more ignoble part of Man the Body Whereas our Saviour in this last Revelation of God communicated by him to the World whereby the Happiness of Mankind was fully to be compleated and our Natures raised to the highest Perfection hath consulted not only the Reason but the interest of Mankind He hath satisfied the first by giving us a spiritual and rational Religion not tied up to the beggerly Elements of the World nor wholly immersed in Rites and Ceremonies but agreeing to the Dictates of Nature and first Principles of Reason And then in the second Place he hath advanced our Interest by proposing to us an infinite and eternal Reward far surpassing all the Pleasures and Delights of this World Our most Wise and ever Blessed Law-giver knew very well that the greatest part of Men are more moved with Arguments of Profit than with Considerations of Duty The latter only affect our Understandings but the first strike our Senses and ravish our Will He might as well by the right of Creation as Redemption have enjoyned to us all the Precepts of the Christian Religion without annexing any Reward to the performance of them It had even then been our Duty to obey and a sufficient Happiness by obeying to serve the great ends of our Creator And therefore all the Patriarchs before Abraham served God without any express promise of a Reward much less a Reward of that Nature and Value as is proposed to us Christians They might indeed justly hope for the Favour of God but then that Favour might consist only in providing them food and Rayment and other common Benefits of humane Nature and could not with any certainty be extended farther Since our Saviour therefore together with a most excellent Religion hath delivered to us an assurance of eternal Happiness and requireth our Obedience for no other end than that we may thereby obtain this Reward as we ought to admire and magnifie the infinite Goodness of God so must we condemn our own extreme Folly if we neglect or contemn so great Happiness This is an Argument highly accommodated to the Understanding and Capacity of all Men and therefore is very frequently urged by Christ who beginneth his Sermon upon the Mount in the V. Chap. of St. Matthew with affixing this Promise to the greater and more arduous Duties of the Christian Religion that so the Difficulty of these might willingly be overseen by us upon the Prospect of the Greatness of our Reward So Matth. XIII 44. he compareth the Kingdom of Heaven to a Treasure hid in a Field the which when a Man hath found he hideth and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath and buyeth that field and in the following Verses to a Merchant selling all his Estate to buy on Pearl of great price By which Saleâ— and by the Joyfulness attending it he intimates that all worldly Considerations are to be foregone when they stand in Competition with the hopes of another Life A Position which might justly be esteemed a Paradox if that infallible Mouth had not pronounced it and Reason did not in some measure assure us of the Truth of it But such was both the Wisdom and Goodness of our Saviour in prescribing to us a rule of Life that he chose to make use of all the Arguments wherewith either the Will or Understanding of Mankind could be incited to engage us to the Observation of it that so if the Duty we owe to God for the Benefits of Creation Preservation and Life could not enforce us if the wonderful Love of our Redeemer dying for us could not perswade us if Gratitude to both could not oblige us if neither Reason nor Authority could prevail with us to endeavour the Perfection of our Nature by
Holiness and Submission to the Divine Will and thereby to serve the great Ends of our Creation yet the Promise of an eternal Crown and the Consideration of so vast an Interest might enforce us to Obedience This obviates all the Objections even of worldly Men who must needs Confess that in vain do they Labour for the Attainment of Felicity in this Life if it can never truly be found on this side Heaven A thorough perswasion of the Truth of this would banish all sinful Temptations and extravagant Desires of carnal Pleasures For Men would be the most deplorable and irrational of all Creatures if they preferred a present trifle before a future Treasure and voluntarily quitted the Life of Angels to retain those Pleasures which are common to Beasts And not only doth this Truth hold in quitting the momentany Enjoyments of this Life and suffering our selves to be deprived of them for an exchange of future Glory but even in undergoing the greatest Afflictions of this Life and embracing Death it self upon the same Account This our Saviour chiefly aims at in this place For when in the foregoing Verses he had foretold that bearing the Cross should be inseparable from the Profession of the Christian Religion and that he who endeavoured to decline this Cross and save his Life by a denial of his Faith should thereby incurr a much greater Punishment than is the loss of this temporal Life he subjoyns in the words of my Text For what shall it profit a Man if he shall gain the whole World and lose his own Soul As if he should say That System of Religion which I have instituted and recommended to you is not intended to enlarge or satisfie the Pleasures of the Body but to increase the Dignity of the Soul improve its Faculties and procure to it a Happiness commensurate to the Vastness of its Desire and the Liberality of its Creator Whosoever therefore seriously intends to become my Disciple and partake of the Benefits of my Gospel must prepare himself with a firm Resolution to quit all the Interests and Advantages of the World embrace Afflictions and not decline Death whensoever the Malice of wicked Men and the Obligation of my Commands shall require that Tryal and Testimony of his Obedience And in so doing he shall not only perform his Duty but secure and promote his Interest For those who shall basely renounce their Allegiance to me or violate my Commands to save their own Lives and avoid the Malice of their Enemies shall after this Life undergo a much greater Loss and Punishment than that which they so Cowardly fear'd and ungenerously declin'd On the other side they who shall willingly lay down their Lives and slight all the Terrors of Men and Devils to preserve their Obedience to me intire and retain the Profession of my Gospel shall be certainly Crowned with so great a Reward that the loss of this temporal Life will be inconsiderable in respect of that eternal Life which is attained by it This is your Interest as well as my Command your Profit as well as Duty For it is not only reasonable that every Man should quit that particular share and Portion which he hath in the Pleasures and Possessions of this World to secure thereby his Hopes of a future Happiness but even if all the Riches and Possessions of the World were â—â—aped upon one single Man or could be all obtained by denial of my Religion or Violation of my Laws yet would it not be a sufficient Motive for so great a Crime And he that should prevaricate upon such mean Considerations would find in the end when he casts up his Account that he hath gained nothing To evince illustrate and recommend to you this great Truth is the Design of my present Discourse Which therefore I shall divide into these two Heads I. That the Interests of the Soul are infinitely greater and more considerable than those of the Body II. That this Interest is destroyed and the Soul rendred miserable by disobedience to the Laws of God I. That the Interests of the Soul are infinitely greater and more considerable than those of the Body And this appears if we consider either the Reason and Nature of things or the Revelation and Commands of God Under the first Head may be comprised the Nature and Dignity of the Soul and the Excellency of those peculiar Perfections and Rewards which the Soul is capable of First then the Dignity and Precedence of the Soul was ever acknowledged in all Ages by wife and learned Men of all Sects and Perswasions nay even the more rude and illiterate parts of Mankind did ever firmly believe this as an Opinion planted in them by the first Dictates of Nature and arising from the first Principles of Reason That we have an immortal Soul is a thing which ought to be supposed by all who profess the least shew of Religion and cannot be denied without the total Destruction of it All false Religions were invented by Men and the true Religion proposed by God merely for the Improvement and direction of this noble Being It is this only which distinguisheth us from the Rank and Condition of Beasts which likens us to God and makes us little inferiour to the Angels It is this whereby we contemplate the admirable and wonderful Perfections of God understand the Wisdom of his Government and the Greatness of his Works It is this alone whereby we form Habits of Vertue and do any thing grateful to our Creator whereby we receive the Instructions of God and know his Will And therefore Prov. XX. 27. the Spirit of Man is called the candle of the Lord because by that only we receive the Divine Illuminations and are instructed in the way to Happiness This Dignity and Preference of the Soul beyond the Body might be at large demonstrated from many other Considerations but I will insist only upon three which are plain and obvious to the understanding of all Men. As first by the Soul alone we receive the influence and benefits of God Some Divine Benefits indeed belong also to the Body as Creation and Preservation but those are common to all other Creatures and belong equally to the vilest of all created Beings whereas the Favours granted to the Soul are peculiar to it and to infinitely greater value For to pass by the natural Priviledges of Knowledge Desire and a Capacity of improvement all the superadded Happiness of our Nature is intirely bestowed on it alone All Revelation was given for the Instruction of this noble Being that so it might not be inferiour to the Angels in Happiness to whom it is little inferiour in Dignity To rescue this from the Slavery of Sin and Dominion of the Devil the Son of God descended from Heaven lived an afflicted Life and died a shameful Death Into this as into a capacious Treasure are all the Divine Graces conveyed Graces of which the Body is no more capable than a Stock or
to the Soul We believe indeed That our Bodies shall be hereafter invested with Immortality and made Partakers of the Glories of Heaven but then they shall be changed into a spiritual Nature devested of these gross Senses which now accompany us and are the great Instruments of our Worldly and admired Pleasures For then There will be neither eating nor drinking marrying nor giving in marriage but we shall be like the Angels of heaven in the Fruition of purely spiritual Delights Which is an invincible Argument of the Vanity and Vileness of earthly and carnal Enjoyments that we cannot be made happy without the loss of them If they had been indeed of any real worth God would have continued them to us in another Life But since he hath made way to the Consummation of humane Happiness by the Abolishment of all gross and sensual Pleasures and despoils the Body to enrich the Soul We cannot but conclude these transitory Enjoyments are light and trifling incompatible with real Happiness and unworthy the Spirits of just men made perfect I come next to consider the Excellency of those peculiar Perfections and Rewards which the Soul is capable of beyond the Body Those Pleasures of which alone our Body is capable and which we are apt so much to admire here below consist only in the Gratification of our Senses Delights which are so far beneath true Happiness that they are common to Beasts finite short and contemptible The frequent Repetition of them may be thought to increase their worth but then this very Repetition becomes nauseous and is nothing else but the Reiteration of the same thing The desire of them is commonly produced by an irregular Appetite but always by the infirmity of our Nature and when performed they leave no Satisfaction behind them They cloy the Appetite and by their frequency become troublesome and even odious to us are finished in a few moments and then leave nothing grateful behind them But which is chiefly to be considered end with our Life and even in Life may be obstructed by Diseases and Calamities An eminent Instance of this we have in Solomon in whom all the Greatness and â—leasures of the World were joyned He presided over a mighty and powerful People and that in greater Glory than all the Kings before or after him So that if Ambition worldly Honour and Pomp could make him Happy he possessed them all in great abundance If the Fame of Wisdom and a profound Veneration among neighbour Nations could increase this Happiness it was not wanting to him to whom the Queen of Sheba came from the farthest parts of the East to hear the wisdom of his mouth If Riches can confer any thing to this desired Perfection none can put in a better Claim for it than he in whose time Gold was esteemed no more than Iron and Silver as stones for the abundance of it Lastly if the Pleasures of Sense can compleat our Happiness none had greater Advantages than he at whose Command was the most fruitful part of the World and who was Blessed with a profound and uninterrupted Peace all his Life And least we should imagine that he made no use of all these Advantages and supposed means of Happiness he assureth us Eccles. II. 10. That whatsoever his eyes desired he kept not from them nor with-held his heart from any joy Nay by a strange kind of Curiosity that he might leave nothing unattempted he tells us That he gave his heart to know madness and folly Eccles. I. 17. One who had all these Advantages had run thro' all the Scenes of Pleasure and could by his exquisite Wisdom and Knowledge of the Nature of things heighten and refine these Pleasures must be allowed to be a competent Judge of the worth and value of them Yet after all he gives this Verdict of them Vanity of Vanities all is Vanity If then no real Happiness if no solid Pleasure can be had from the Enjoyments of Sense from Riches and the outward Pomp of the World we must recurr to the Faculties of the Mind where we shall find an Happiness truly solid and which is more eternal None but a vast and infinite Good can satisfie the unbounded Desires of our Mind nothing less than Eternity it self can satiate an immortal Being For however our Souls be finite as all other Creatures are yet our Wills have no limits but continually desire somewhat more unless that Good which they already possess can receive no farther Additions This Good is no other than God who alone can fix our restless Wills and by his infinite Perfections ravish them with Wonder and Pleasure at the same time This is a Happiness truly peculiar to spiritual Beings who alone can contemplate the Majesty and inimitable Goodness of their Creator and by so doing secure to themselves an Happiness infinite in it self not inferior to the vast Desires of the Will which surviveth all the changes of Fortune Malice of Men and even Death it self If we cannot or will not believe the Greatness of these spiritual Pleasures their convenience to the Nature of our Souls and the infinite duration of them 't is because we are unacquainted with them immersed in gross and earthly Delights so far that we are neither willing nor perhaps able to receive these greater and more real Enjoyments by attending so much to the things of this World we have even changed the Nature and Nobleness of our Souls and from Guides and Directors made them mere Instruments to our Bodies devested them of all remembrance of their Divine Original degraded them into a servile Condition and were we not sometimes put in mind of the interest of another World should perhaps forget that we were created in a Condition little lower than the Angels Thus far Reason teacheth us That the interests of the Soul are to be preferred to those of the Body Revelation doth the same no less fully This was the great end of the Christian Religion to wean our Affections from worldly Pleasures and fix them upon things above to withdraw us by degrees from the Earth and seat us at last in Heaven To this the whole Genius and Temper of our Religion plainly tends commanding us to be ready at all times to take up the Cross undergo Persecutions embrace Afflictions and even suffer Death when the interest of our Souls requireth us to do it Thus our Saviour tells us He who loveth Father and Mother Wife or Possessions beyond him is not fit to be his Disciple and among other Precepts commands that his Followers should deny themselves that is be ready to part with all the Pleasures of the World and imaginary Delights of Nature when they stand in Competition with the interests of another Life This Duty is so strict that for the Observation of the most minute Precept all Considerations of wordly Profit and Pleasure must be foregone and the whole Body destroyed rather than the Soul in the least be injured Our
afford no leisure to the Soul to meditate upon the Greatness and Worth of her Creator the necessity of her own Duties and to form these Meditations into Habits of Vertue and thereby procure to our selves that real Happiness even in this Life which is infinitely more valuable than all the Riches and Possessions of the World when joyned in one Again Secondly If the Happiness of the Soul in this Life deserveth our greatest Care much more doth the welfare of it in a future State as being free from all Passions and Infirmities of the Body and which is more eternal This ought to be the Business and Employment of our whole Lives that we fail not of the Consummation of our Hopes and Crown of our Happiness And it would be so if we were throughly perswaded of the Existence and immortality of our Souls of the Greatness and Importance of their Interests and the infinite Preference which is due to these beyond those of our Body For can it be that we are perswaded of the Truths of these things and yet Act as though we had neither Souls nor Reasons that we believe the Existence of another more Glorious and lasting State and yet set up our rest in this that we hope for the appearance of a Judge at the last day and yet never think of making our Accounts ready Let us reflect upon the Nature of our Souls and justly weigh the great Interests of them consider the Vanity of worldly Pleasures and the shortness and inconstancy of this frail Life remember the Glories of Heaven and the inconceivable Happiness of another Life and we must either put off our Reason or employ it in pursuing those Interests which do so greatly and so nearly concern us Let us be so brave and generous as not to think that we die like the beasts that perish that we were made for greater and more noble Ends intended for the Favour of God and Society of Angels that we carry about with us spiritual Beings which cannot die and will receive no Prejudice by the Dissolution of the Body that these Souls were designed by God to receive a Participation of his own Glory and will certainly do so if they be not debarr'd from it by our fatal Stupidity and Neglect and that in providing for this more Excellent part of us we secure likewise a Mansion for the Body which at the general Resurrection shall be received into the same Station and undergoe the same fate with the Soul If we were perfectly perswaded of the Truth of all this we could not consign our selves up to pursue the Vanities of the World and heap up Riches which are of no Service for the Interests of another Life and promote not our real Happiness in this Can you be supposed to believe all this and at the same time imploy your Lives upon the Practice of the contrary Hope for the Perfection designed and make no step towards the Attainment of it rather let us endeavour with our utmost Vigour to maintain that Degree which God hath assigned to us among created Beings and not by our Degeneracy become the vilest and most miserable of all Creatures Let us do nothing unworthy that noble Being which is seated within us nor cloath the Body with the Spoils of it Let us maintain the Dignity and Character of our Natures by a severe and unblemisht Integrity and procure to our selves an assurance of those Perfections which are allotted to us Certainly in worldly Matters we willingly over-see lesser and more trivial Gains for obtaining of a greater and more substantial Profit and should we not slight the impertinent Gayeties and vile Allurements of the World to secure to our selves a treasure which fadeth not eternal in the Heavens Lastly If the benefits of the Soul be ever preferable to the Interests of the Body if all the Glories and Riches of this World be of small account when opposed to the Happiness of the next if the Favour of God and Concerns of Religion be the only true Perfections of Mankind a firm Constancy in the Exercise and Profession of Religion although attended in this Life with the greatest Inconveniences Discouragements and Afflictions will not only be our Duty but our highest Interest This is the natural Consequence of the words of my Text and the Conclusion which our Saviour himself drew from them in the following Verse with which I shall conclude Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed when he cometh in the Glory of his Father with the Holy Angels The Ninth SERMON Preach'd on the 20. of Novemb. 1689. At LAMBETH CHAPEL St. Luke XVI 31. If they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be perswaded though one rose from the dead THESE words are the Conclusion of a remarkable Parable of our Saviour and seem to be the Scope to which his whole Discourse was therein directed to shew the Vanity of that Pretence wherewith unreasonable Men have been wont to defend or excuse their Sins the uncertainty of the Rewards and Punishments of another Life arising from the defect of a visible Experience of them or an undeniable Attestation of the Truth of them by constant Miracles It was not for the peculiar Doctrines of Christ alone that the Jews required a Sign to be given to them to demonstrate the Truth of them but also in their ancient and received Doctrines they entertained Scruples because not confirmed by a constant Continuation of the same Miracles which at first established them An incredulity as it should seem Hereditary to the Jews and renewed as often as the Divine Miracles were interrupted No sooner was Joshua dead and that Generation which had seen all the great works of the Lord which he had done for Israel as we are told in Judges II. but the next Generation even lost the knowledge of God they knew not the Lord as it is there expressed and altho' Miracles were continued down among them by the Ministration of the Prophets and Holy Men yet as these could be visible but to a certain Number they produced no universal influence affected not the rest and even in those who saw them they seemed to have produced no other effect than wonder and Amusement They still continued their disbelief of those Promises and Threats which they saw not yet effected and of that future State which they did not yet perceive And it were to be wished that this incredulity of the Jews had been so hereditary to them as to be peculiar to them but it hath found place even among Christians also many of whom have even renounced and denied their Faith because themselves could not see those Miracles upon the Authority of which Christianity was at first founded Others become irresolute and remiss in the Prosecution of their Duty as being upon the same account unsatisfied in the event of it And all pretend
commandments and his commandments are not grievous A Proposition which might perhaps appear incredible to any one who reflects upon the Nature of the Obedience required and other passages of Scripture That every Action of our Life is limited and regulated by it that it extends not to the outward Act alone but includeth the most secret Motions of the Will that it enjoyneth Man to forsake Father and Mother to quit his dearest Affections to renounce the Pleasures of the World and upon occasion even Life it self That therefore strait is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto Life and few there be which find it and the Life of a Christian is said to be a continual War against the united force of the World the Flesh and the Devil These Reasons might possibly affright Mankind from taking such a severe Profession on them did not the Reason of the thing the Experience of all good Men and the infallible Asseveration of him who is Truth it self assure us That this Yoke far from being insupportable is light and easie I might Evidence this by many Reasons but shall at this time confine my self to Three 1. The Agreeableness of it to the Nature of Man 2. The Greatness and certainty of the Reward 3. The external Assistances afforded in the Practice of it The first Reason is drawn from the Agreeableness of the Precepts of Christianity to the Nature of Man For what doth Christianity enjoyn which Reason doth not confirm to be the Duty of Man What doth it require which doth not adorn perfect and exalt his Nature The Sum of Christianity is to conserve a reverent Conception of God to obey his Authority and prefer it to all other Reasons to exercise a constant temperance in the use of Pleasures an universal Charity in relation to our Fellow-Members to be just and true to oppress none to defraud none to do as we would be done by These are the great Lines of a Christians Duty these are the chief subject of the Law of Christ. To these indeed must be added to compleat a Christian Faith in Christ reliance on his Merits Communion with him in those external Sacraments which he hath instituted to declare the mutual Union between himself and us whereby we visibly joyn our selves to him put our selves under his Command declare confirm and reiterate our Resolutions of obeying his Commands and following his Directions Yet can these latter scarce be accounted any part of the Christian Yoke since simply considered they include no difficulty no restraint of the Will of Man and would not even by the most sensual Person be accounted any Yoke or Burden but as they are so many Marks and Confirmations of the Covenant made with God by every Christian to observe those Primary Duties which we before mentioned These are no other than the necessary result of the Nature and Condition of Man in the World As a created Being he oweth Obedience to God as possessing the use of Free-will and Reason he is obliged to direct his Actions according to those Rules which reason prescribeth to him From the light of this Reason he is easily convinced that it is his Duty to exercise all those Vertues we before mentioned that every Sin is a Violation of his Duty inasmuch as it opposeth the Direction of his Reason which ought to guide him and over turneth that Order and Decorum which he ought to observe in the World The Infirmities of his Body the Imperfections of his Mind force him to confess his Dependence upon some greater Being convince him that he was not put into the World to follow blindly the Inclinations of his own Will but to conform himself to those Rules of Government which the common Author of all Creatures hath established among them If when he undertaketh any Action or formeth any Resolution he consults his Reason it will tell him that this is his Duty that is unlawful to him this is Decent that unfit for him this becomes that dishonoureth his Nature Nay whether he takes Councel from Reason or not it will not fail to suggest to him in every Action what is good just and honourable what impious injust and disgraceful to him Now all these natural Suggestions of Reason are no other than those very Duties which make up the Yoke of Christ. The Actions and Rules of Conduct are the same in both the only difference lieth in the Greatness of the Obligation and the reasons upon which every Action is to proceed For whereas Nature directeth that this should be performed because consentaneous to Reason that omitted because repugnant to it Christianity requireth that the one should be done the other forborn chiefly for the Love of God in Conformity to his Will and in gratitude for the Benefits of Creation and Redemption However the Acts are still the same For doth not the Reason of all Men agree in this that Obedience and Reverence is due to God that whatsoever opposeth his Will is an Act of Rebellion and denial of Dependence on him that the Appetites Passions and Lusts of the Body ought to be subjected to the more noble Faculty of Reason that it is this which constitutes a Man and distinguisheth his Conduct from that of Beasts that to let loose the Reins to these Lusts to gratifie any of them without the Assent of Reason is to pervert the Order of Nature and violate the Dignity of Mankind that to be just true and charitable is what the Order and Peace of the World requireth to which he ought to conform himself while he continueth a Member of it that he hath no Right to defraud or injure any other that if he should do it he is unworthy to continue his Station among Men All this natural Reason suggesteth to the Conscience of every Man These draw not their Original from any revealed Religion but are only inforced by it It hath been pretended indeed by some Patrons of Atheism tho' it can scarce be believed that themselves were perswaded of it that all these Notions are derived from the precedent Impressions of some Revealed or supposedly Revealed Religion On the contrary all Ages and Nations all Orders of Men have agreed in these common Notions which cannot possibly proceed from any thing but an universal instinct of Nature View the most barbarous Nations of the World who never heard of any instituted Religion they have the same general Conceptions of good and bad which we have Look back into the most ancient Ages of the World antecedent to any supposed Revelation the same Ideas of Vertue and Vice will be found in all Consult the Schools of Philosophers They differed from one another in almost all their Speculations In these practical Truths they all agreed Lastly search the Conscience of every single Man and because you cannot discover the Secrets of other Men appeal to your own Experience whether every Action be not attended with an immediate Approbation or Condemnation of Reason
true God that he was their God and they his people When the people generally forsook the publick Worship thought it sufficient to perform the Duties of Religion at home to worship God upon every high Hill and under every green tree there then remained no farther Evidence of the publick Belief or Religion of the Nation While therefore Worship was duly paid by them in the place appointed by God all the Promises Blessings and Rewards mentioned in the Jewish Covenant took place they enjoyed Peace security and abundance their Sins were expiated their Petitions granted no publick Calamity did attend them When this publick Worship was intermitted by them God was no longer ingaged by Promise to protect them Since they did not now any longer appear to be his People the only Evidence of which was publick Worship All this doth fully appear from the whole History of the Old Testament where we find the publick Prosperity or Misery of the Jews to depend upon the regular Observation or general Intermission of publick Worship In like manner and for the same Reasons in the Christian Church the more eminent Promises and Benefits of God are affixed to publick Worship since by this alone the Honour of God is preserved and maintained among us If Men should content themselves to worship God in Private and proceed no farther it could never appear what Religion any Nation professeth what God they worship No publick Honour could be said to be paid by that Nation to him and consequently no National Blessings could be expected But when in any Countrey places are solemnly Dedicated to the true God when in them Divine Worship is constantly paid especially if this Worship be daily renewed if the Body of the Nation joyn in the Profession of the same Religion in paying the same Worship as they have opportunity then such a Religion appears to be National then all those Expressions so frequent in the Old Testament For my names sake For my Temples sake and Least my name should be blasphemed among the Heathen will take place among us For Example what greater Evidence can there be of the Profession of Christianity in this Nation than that in this Sacred place Prayer hath been daily offered up to God through Christ for many Ages together Such Sacred places are the standing Monuments and the undeniable Testimonies of the Piety and Devotion of any Nation by these we know that our Forefathers worshipped the true God and by these our Posterity will know that we continued the same Worship By this the Honour of God is chiefly kept up in any Countrey and since he hath affirmed That those who Honour him he will Honour then only can we rationally presume to receive from God publick and national Blessings while such a publick Worship is duly maintained amongst us Thus I have passed through the first Branch of my Text the Duty of Prayer The present time will not permit me to proceed to the Consideration of the rest but give me leave to apply what hath been already said From hence it appears to be the indispensable and constant Duty of Men to worship God that the best and most significant way of worship is Prayer that publick Prayer best answers the end of Worship and is also most acceptable to God Such is the Duty of Man and such are the Reasons of it Let us now look upon the general Practice of Christians and more particularly those of our own Communion who are better instructed and have greater Advantages in the exact Discharge of their Duty than any other Society of Men. I would not be so uncharitable as to affirm yet I much fear it that great numbers of Christians never worship God in private altho' no Necessities of Life can be so urgent as not to permit every one to address himself daily to God in that short Form of Prayer which our Lord taught us of those who have more leisure and Knowledge much more is required But to pass to the publick Worship of God how few are there of those which frequent it who perform it as they ought to do Education Custom and the Laws of the Countrey oblige Men to cease from Labour upon those days which are dedicated to the worship of God I wish I could add that the same Considerations obliged them to frequent duly the publick Place of worship upon those days but from them who do frequent it as many as have not given themselves up to Irreligion we expect a true constant and humble Devotion But instead of that we cannot but observe and deplore the great Negligence and stupid Carelessness of many who are present at the publick Prayers Many suppose themselves to have discharged the Duty of this day if they have heard a Sermon Hence they are not at all concerned if they enter after the Prayers are begun after the Confession is made and the Absolution pronounced by the Priest in the name of God When they are present at them they seem Irksome to them They joyn not in them far from any Devotion in the Soul they will not be perswaded to pay any Bodily Reverence they refuse to kneel and some even presume to sit still at the time of Prayer We want that cheerful Concurrence in the Congregation in which the ancient Christians so much glorified saying that an Amen pronounced by the whole multitude was like a clap of Thunder which pierced Heaven In our Assemblies how small a part joyn in repeating the common Forms of Confession Praise and Adoration of God and not many vouchsafe to add an Amen to the end of the several Prayers Such is the State of publick Devotion at this time lamentable indeed to be considered but such as cannot be denied To such therefore let me address my self Do not you believe your selves equally obliged to worship God with others Were not you also created by him and still depend upon him Why then do you refuse to do Homage to him to profess publickly your Subjection by such an humble Posture of Body as may declare it If an Heathen should enter into our Churches in the time of Prayer and examine our Devotions give me leave to put the Case for St. Paul before put it to the Corinthians what would he say when he should behold some kneeling the greater part standing and many perhaps sâ—tting He could say no other than that little Decency is observed in the religious Assemblies of Christians that in them many Persons are present but few of those worship God that the greater part express a strange unconcernedness in a Lazy posture of standing and that some seem designedly to affront the Majesty of God by sitting in his immediate Presence and when he is invoked Let not these Reproaches any longer be said of Christians who want no means of Instruction and whose Religion teacheth them the contrary Assure your selves that it is not listning to a Sermon which can suffice this is not to worship God but only
the Reception of the Messias by theâ—e and many other Prophesies After the actual Institution of the Christian Religion he gave a more visible and demonstrative Argument of his Pleasure herein an Argument which not only might have convinced the Jews of those days but unanswerably confutes their Infidelity to this day and grows more strong with time that is the Destruction of the Temple at Jerusalem and thereupon the perpetual Cessation of the Legal Worship of the Jews contrived and effected by his Providence not many years after the Ascension of Christ and as soon as the sound of the Gospel was gone out into all parts of the then known Gentile World Which put it past all doubt that God intended to put an end to the Jewish Dispensation which could no longer take place than while that Temple did exist and continued in the Possession of the Jews in which the more essential parts of it were necessarily to be performed Had God intended still to have obliged the Jews to the practice of their Ceremonious Worship in the Temple of Jerusalem he must also be supposed to have obliged himself to continue the Existence and Possession of that Temple to them The Temple indeed was once before destroyed and the Worship of it discontinued under the Captivity of Babylon But that was only for one Generation till that universal Idolatry which had then corrupted the whole Nation of the Jews should be worn out and to preserve their Faith during that Interruption God foretold by his Prophets that they should return again and serve him in that very place fixed the number of years in which this Restauration should be accomplished in seventy years and at that time accordingly did perform it Whereas this latter Destruction of the Temple being without any Promise of Restitution and the Jews now kept from the Possession of it for more than sixteen hundred years no Prophet in the mean while appearing to Comfort and keep up the external Presence of God among them as was eminently done during all the Captivity of Babylon it cannot but be concluded that they are no longer the peculiar People of God that the Divine Wisdom will not any longer confine the publick Worship of himself to one certain place that by his Providence contriving the Destruction of that Temple he hath offered sufficient Reasons to the Jews that he would not any longer appropriate his Worship to their Temple and to us that he heareth us alike in all parts of the World since he hath appointed no other fixed place of Worship in the room of it And thus much in Proof of what the Apostle advanceth in these words the universality of the Divine Worship as to the place of it A Doctrine necessary to be inculcated and set in a clear Light at that time when the unbelieving Jews made it a matter of great Offence and even the believing Jews were so hardly drawn from that perswasion which they once received and which indeed once was true that Worship and Prayer were no where so acceptable to God as in the Temple at Jerusalem that many of them continued to pay their publick Worship in that place even until the final Destruction of it Nor is this Doctrine of the Apostle without great use to Christians of all Ages encouraging them to offer up Prayers with assurance of being heard giving them more noble and enlarged thoughts of the Worship and the benefits of God and a righter Notion of the Nature of Prayer The Encouragment ariseth from those many Promises made by God to the Temple of Jerusalem that he would be there peculiarly Present that he would hear the Petitions of devout Supplicants presented in it that he would be gracious to the whole Nation for the sake of it Of all these Promises he gave assurance not only by the many Examples of Success attending the Prayers of Men offered up therein which we read in the History of the Old Testament but also by those visible Symbols of his Presence which he placed in it such as were the Vrim and Thummim the glorious appearances of the Mercy-Seat the Fire consuming the Sacrifices and others which induced all who came to pay their Worship at the Temple to address themselves boldly to the throne of Grace and with assurance of Success being convinced by those visible Symbols and by the often repeated Promises and Protestations of God that he was indeed there eminently present and ready to bestow those Favours in it which in vain had been begged in any other place Under the Gospel God hath appointed publick places of Worship in all parts of the Believing World and to every one of these hath transferred those same Promises of Favour and peculiar Presence which were once appropriated to the Temple The certainty of Success the advantages of Prayer are the same in both Only in the Christian Church the benefit is more universal Which serveth also to raise the thoughts of Man in Relation to the Worship and the benefits of God Worship was equally due to God from all the Members of Mankind but it was not morally possible that all should worship him in that single place Yet at that time was there no other place in the World where any revealed Promises of graciously hearing the Prayers and rewarding the Devotions of Men were given So that it easily appeared that the Jewish Religion was calculated for a very small part of Mankind and that the Divine Beneficence was not yet displayed in its full Lustre in that God confined his Presence and appropriated his Promises to that place alone Whereas in founding a better and more lasting Covenant under the Gospel he hath communicated the Promise and blessed Effects of his peculiar Presence to all true Worshippers of him in all places and at all times It is now undeniably manifest that his Favour is founded in eternal Reasons of Piety Justice and Goodness not in Denominations of Sects or Parties or Nations or Kindreds All which raise a more noble Conception of the Nature of Religion and of the Wisdom Justice and Beneficence of God the Author of it Lastly it giveth to Men right Informations of the Nature of Prayer who while the peculiar Presence of God was annexed to one certain place were prone to believe that not so much the Devotion or internal Qualifications of the Supplicant recommended the Prayer to God as the place from which it was offered up That God respected not so much the Fervour Submission and Attention of the Mind as the Circumstances of place and time or at least that the latter was chiefly regarded by him But since the Promise of a kind Reception of Prayer directed to him is by God under the Gospel alike granted to all places it is evident that no external Circumstance is so much respected as the internal Conditions of it Faith and Submission Obedience and Intention That these he requireth in the first place and the other only in Subordination to
them For however the external Circumstances of place and time are required but in Conjunction with the more essential Conditions of Prayer yet they are still required The necessity of publick Worship whereof Prayer is the principal part was in the former Discourse largely treated of This Worship cannot be reduced into Practice unless it be determined to certain places and times To speak of the times of Worship is not my present Purpose And if the places of it be not fixed no publick Worship can well consist The Apostle therefore in commanding Prayers to be offered up every where hath not therein taught that all places are equally fitted in which Prayers may be made He hath taken away the Singularity of one place and the Appropriation of all publick Worship to that alone but continued the necessity of fixing some certain places in all parts of the Believing World for that Purpose not left it indifferent whether Men pray to God in a place dedicated to religious Uses or in a place made common to all the ordinary Uses of Life The Christian Religion hath taken away whatsoever was merely Ceremonial in the Jewish Religion but retained all which was derived from the Law of Nature or the light of Reason And that the Consecration of certain places to the worship of God and appropriating them to that use alone is such will be useful to manifest since there are not wanting some who decry all difference between sacred and prophane places First then it was not in the Institution of the Jewish Religion that God began to be a God of order and Decency those Attributes were eternal in him and evidently appear in that most beautiful and harmonious Order of the World and all the parts of it which himself hath fixed in the Creation of it Which is contrived with the most exact Symmetry disposed in a most beautiful Order and continued in it The Worship which Man pays to God being founded upon his Attributes and the knowledge of those Attrributes chiefly appearing by the Effects of them it is Consonant to Reason that Man should direct his Worship with respect to them If then in the visible Operations of God such a decent Order be every where Conspicuous in the publick Worship of him the same Order ought also to be maintained otherwise no Acknowledgment is made no Homage paid to that divine Perfection which was the Principle of that Order and Decency which we see and admire in the Creation God hath not only formed what was absolutely necessary for the Life of Man but also added infinite variety of Lights Minerals Plants and Animals for his Delight and for the Ornament of Life Since therefore the Rules of Divine Worship are to be taken from the Divine Perfections manifested by their Operations this conduct of God in creating and governing the World doth not only warrant the Addition of Ceremonies and many Circumstances to the more essential Parts of Worship but also makes it to become a Duty And to accuse such Additions and external Ceremonies of Superstition is no less unreasonable than to question the Wisdom of God who hath added to the Creation many things not necessary yet ornamental to it How incongruous would it be to worship the God of Order and Decency in an irregular and slovenly manner how improper a return for the additional yet unnecessary Conveniences of humane Life to adore the Author of them without any Order or external Decency The Sense of this induced men before the Institution of the Jewish Religion to dedicate certain Places to the Worship of God and set them apart for that use only The Monuments of those times are few being all comprized in the Book of Genesis yet therein we find evident Footsteps of such Dedications more particularly in Gen. xxviii 16. where Jacob enjoying a Vision at Bethel because it was a Mark of the Divine Presence immediately concluded that the Place was dedicated to his Service And he said surely the Lord is in this place and I knew it not How dreadful is this Place this is none other but the House of God and this is the Gate of Heaven Which Reflection of Jacob proveth it to have been the Custom of the Patriarchs to Dedicate certain Places to be the Houses of God and to have been their Belief that in those places God was more peculiarly present And to manifest that his Notion of the House of God was no other than of a Place of Worship he immediately addressed himself to worship God in it as it follows in the 18th Verse I might add that the Dedicating certain Places to this use was not the Practice of the Patriarchs alone but of all Ages and Men professing any Religion whether true or false which general Practice and Perswasion is in all other Cases allowed to be a certain indication of the Voice of Nature But I proceed to observe the Reason of it where it may be considered that as God is the Author of Soul and Body of Heaven and Earth of Life and all the Conveniencies of it so he requireth as a just and necessary Act of Adoration that some part of every one of these should be dedicated to himself as an Acknowledgment of his Dominion over the whole Thus the Operations of the Soul pay Homage to him in the more essential parts of Worship the Body in the Concomitant Parts of it that is in the external Gestures of Adoration we acknowledge to have received our Goods and Wealth from him by offering up some part of it to himself to be employed as he shall direct which in the Jewish Religion consisted chiefly in Sacrifices and Oblations in the Christian Religion in Acts of Charity We confess him the Author of Life by dedicating certain times of it to his Service and we confess him the Lord of the whole Earth by appropriating and submitting some parts of it to his immediate Service By this his Right and Title to the whole Earth is eminently acknowledged and the Vassallage of Man the Inhabitant of it is declared Further the Erection and Dedication of Churches to the Worship and the Honour of God is an illustrious Testimony of the publick Religion of any Nation or Country and upon that Account is both useful and necessary It is our Duty to proclaim our Subjection to God and Belief in him by all significative Expressions to testifie it to the whole World and if it be possible perpetuate the Memory of this our Profession to all Ages and communicate the Knowledge of it to all men This Fabricks dedicated to the Service of God do most naturally signifie which are so many standing and lasting Monuments of our Belief in that God to whose Service they were appropriated For this Reason we often find in the Book of Genesis that the Patriarchs erected Pillars and Heaps of Stones to be so many lasting Monuments of their Belief in God and Subjection to him And how graciously God accepted such visible
justly to be accounted laudable For if we consider the great Lines and main Parts of the Doctrine of Christ they will be found to direct the Practice of those Actions which by all the World must be acknowledged to be good and excellent to be laudable and divine such as are Justice Sobriety Devotion and Charity It is not among Christians alone that such Actions are esteemed Praise-worthy All Parties of sober Men as well Heathens as those professing revealed Religions have agreed in this common Sentiment in the Veneration and Praise of all such Vertues From hence it was that even when the Heathens derided the Faith of the Cross they still acknowledged the Excellency of those Persons who professed it They also were convinced that all those moral Vertues were the Perfection of Mankind only in this they disagreed that whereas they accounted the uniform Practice of them to be an undertaking possible only to more exalted Minds Christ had made it the Duty of all his Followers Although even this difference of Opinion could not but raise their Thoughts to an extreme Veneration of that Divine Person who formed these Laws and even forced from them a Confession of that Praise which was due to such an Institution and the Author of it Thus the very Nature of a Christian Life as it is directed by the Precepts of our Lord fitteth it to be an eminent Example to others He distinguished his Religion from all others by the Excellency of his Laws and Precepts so that whosoever should observe them must distinguish themselves from the rest of the World by a more perfect exercise of Vertue and Holiness And hence it is that he naturally infers in the twentieth Verse Except your Righteousness exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no Case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven The Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees was the exact performance of all the Legal Institutions of the Mosaical Law of Sacrifices Washings and other Ceremonies which abstracting from the positive Command of God had nothing excellent in the Practice of them To see the Jews killing their Sacrificed Beasts washing their Bodies often or Circumcising themselves was no Motive of Holiness or giving Glory to God to those who were not of the same Religion They discerned nothing laudable in all this and were rather prompted to pity the Slavery than to imitate the Devotion of their Service Whereas the Practice of those good Works which Christianity imposeth is amiable and lovely in the sight of all Men ever carrieth along with it the Commendation and Approbation of all Spectators Thus our Lord fitted his Doctrine to be a light to the World and least it should fail of its designed End he hath commanded us to improve it to its right use and therein hath led the way by his own Example He confined not himself to a Desart as did John the Baptist but conversed in their Cities and more frequented Meetings that all Men might see the constant Piety Goodness and Charity which attended all his Actions be instructed by them and drawn to the Imitation of them He indulged his Conversation to Publicans and Sinners that he might gain them first to a love of his Person and then to an imitation of his Vertue He disdained not the Company of any who might receive advantage from his Doctrine or Example And that he might fit his Life for an universal Pattern to all his Followers he engaged not in the constant Practice of extraordinary Austerities as did John the Baptist but amidst the most severe and strict Exercise of all Vertues allowed to himself the innocent Pleasures and Entertainments of the World He refused not to sit down with those who invited him to splendid Entertainments as with Levi and Zacheus nor to be present at the Marriage-Feast At other times he was content to suffer Hunger and Cold Contempt and the vilest Injuries to undergo long watching in Prayer and Fasting For so it behoved him even in this Sense also to perform all Righteousness who was to be the grand Exemplar to all succeeding Ages Not to confine himself to any one method of Life least thereby his Example should become deficient to those who should be engaged in another but to pass through all the more ordinary Actions and Varieties of humane Life that in all Cases we might be able to approve and direct our Actions by conforming them to his Practice and if any doubt should arise concerning them might be able to justifie them by the Authority of his Example Both the Observation therefore of the Precepts and the Imitation of the Practice of Christ which are equally the Duty of every Christian engageth him to be exemplar in his Life and Conduct And thus first the whole Body of Christians will become a light to the rest of the World and then every Member of the Church to each other Our Lord describeth both in this place very lively Ye are the Salt of the Earth Verse 13. The rest of the World will remain in Sin and Corruption but in the numerous Society which I shall found and call by my Name Piety and Vertue and whatsoever is good and excellent shall be maintained Yet not to be confined to that Society alone but to be communicated to all who shall receive Instruction from it Ye are the light of the World Verse 14. The greater part of Mankind remain in Darkness and Ignorance but I have placed my Church as a glorious Light to dispel this Darkness and remove this Ignorance that so all who do but lift up their Eyes have the least inclination to Truth and Goodness may there discover the light and repair to it And this cannot fail to take effect while the brightness of this Light shall remain while the Church shall continue glorious and unspotted while the Members of it shall all or the more part of them perform their Duty For as it followeth a City placed on a Hill or a Light placed in a Room cannot be hid If indeed those Vertues which I command be observed by those who profess my Name if Justice Chastity Beneficence and other Marks of Goodness be indeed so eminently exercised by so numerous a Body of Men it cannot be but the rest of Mankind will take notice of it and as many as desire to be freed from Darkness will approach to this Light Or if thro' sloth and negligence they still continue afar off however they will not be able to deny that they see the Light and must admire both it and the Author of it Thus the meanest Christian may make himself truly Exemplary by performing his Duty conscientiously in the Station in which God hath placed him Although his Understanding and Abilities have not fitted him to be an Example to others singly considered If he well dischargeth his single Station although never so mean in the Church he contributeth to this great Design of Christ of making his Church a