as were most unlikely to bring them to pass Must rude and illiterate Mechanicks grapple with the Rabbies and Philosophers of East and West By what Armies by what deep Contrivances must this Design be set on foot How ridiculous is the very thought of it to a man that stands no higher than on the level of Humane Maxims Yet this Divine Fire in their Tongues burnt up and consum'd the Worship of the Devil and silenc'd his most famous Oracles and brought the whole World in a manner under new Laws and as a rapid and violent flame devours combustible matter without mercy without resistance so the Christian Religion pulled down the Rites Customs and Solemnities of Superstition even then when the Learning Zeal and Power of all Mankind were engag'd to support it S. Paul tells us that the foolishness of God is wiser than men i. e. the most unlikely means seconded by his assistance produce the most wonderful and astonishing effects the methods that seem comtemptible to humane eyes overcome the wisest and the most subtile contrivances the meanest and weakest arrow in his quiver the clownish Fishers of Gallilee will baffle and confound all the Sons of Wit and Speculation the most accurate amongst them who had been train'd from their infancy in the Arts of Sophistry and Eloquence stood mute and stupid before those new Philosophers who came to discover unto us life and immortality The Topicks and the Methods of the Athenian Schools were swept down like thin Cobwebs when this true Light appear'd their curious Schemes were all rejected and a higher Doctrine than any that was formerly taught was establish'd upon no lower Principles than the evidence and demonstration of the Spirit the little knacks of the Philosophers that consisted most in the shufflings and turnings of Words and Phrases vanish'd like aery Phantoms when Truth it self in its Meridian Splendor inspir'd those frail men can we attribute this their Victory to any thing short of God himself His word is like a fire and as a hammer that breaketh the rocks in pieces So the Apostles forc'd their way through Rocks and pierc'd to the Center of mens Souls and gain'd to the obedience of Christ those hearts that one would think were altogether inaccessible they pulled down strong holds and lofty imaginations and by their swift and universal success at such a Time and against such Mountains of Opposition they gave the World to understand that their Mission was from above And here are the Trophies and Triumphs of Christianity the wonderful Propagation of our Religion made it evident that this Fire that came down upon the Apostles in Cloven Tongues was not a flitting and vagrant Meteor unfixt and moveable but a solid and durable Light which was to continue in the Church until the consummation of all things 3. HERE we may consider the accomplishment of the Promise contain'd in the fourth Verse They were all filled with the holy Ghost That the Apostles were inspir'd by God is beyond all contradiction and they who impute their Progress in the Conversion of Nations their Languages and Miracles their divine Reasonings and Revelations to any ordinary Cause subvert the Principles upon which our Religion stands All Civiliz'd Nations ancient and modern do acknowledge the possibility of a Divine Revelation nay that it is reasonable for Mankind to expect it in some extraordinary Cases and most people plead it in favours of some one Custom or other received amongst themselves and if all men agree in this that it is reasonable to look for it and that by the strength of Reason we may distinguish a true Revelation from what is counterfeit What should harden men against the Christian Religion for the miraculous Inspiration which the Church commemorates this Day hath stampt upon it all the Characters of Divinity that our Souls can think of even when they examine things most calmly and accurately LET us therefore thank Almighty God that he gave us the highest assurances of our Religion that he made our hope so sixt that it cannot be battered for when we read that the Holy Ghost came down upon the Apostles in this manner we may conclude infallibly that our Lord is not only risen from the dead but invested also with the highest Power at the right hand of God the Father The Gifts and magnificent Donatives that he scattered amongst his Subjects when he enter'd into the Heavens sufficiently convince us that all power in heaven and in earth is given unto him To his Ascension may be applied that of the Psalmist Thou hast ascended up on high thou hast led captivity captive thou hast received gifts for men yea for the rebellious also that the Lord God might dwell among them Let us say then as the Psalmist invites I will bless the Lord at all times his praise shall continually be in my mouth O magnifie the Lord with me and let us exalt his Name together This Effusion of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles is so full a proof of his Victory that now we lean on his Promise with the greatest tranquillity and assurance He hath ridden prosperously because of truth and meekness and righteousness his right hand hath taught him terrible things the enemies of his Kingdom fall before him he hath broken them as with a rod of iron he hath dasht them in pieces like a potters vessel he is established for ever King in Zion The meditation of this fills our hearts with joy and gladness that our Redeemer who is bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh hath trodden all our enemies under his feet We have this hope as an anchor of the Soul both sure and steadfast and which entreth unto that within the Veil whither the forerunner is for us entered even Jesus made an High Priest for ever after the order of Melchizedeck NOR are we to think that because now he is encircled with Glory and Majesty that he can be unmindful of us no more than he was when he was compass'd with our Infirmities and as he made good his Promise to the Apostles and sent upon them the Holy Ghost to plead his cause against Infidelity so we may rely on his Word that he will raise us again unto life and immortality tho our dust stould mingle with all the scattered Atoms of the Creation he will change our vile bodies that they may be fashion'd like unto his glorious body according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself And the same Apostle assures us that if the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in us he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken our mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in us Thus from the fulfilling of what is past we may reason our selves into the belief and certainty of what is to come AND let us thank our heavenly Father that so early strengthen'd the
Christian all of them acknowledge that this is pure and undefiled Religion because it is agreeable to the Nature as well as the Authority of God for he hath no pleasure at all in the death of a sinner And therefore we are plainly told by the Prophets and the Apostles that nothing short of true integrity can please God and that this is his delight Have I any pleasure at all that the Wicked should dye saith the Lord God and not that he should return from his ways and live Consider that remarkable advertisement of the Prophet Micah He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God Therefore we are commanded by the Baptist to bring forth fruits meet for repentance It is not every one that saith Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doth the Will of my Father which is in Heaven The conclusion of all this is no other than that every one that nameth the name of Jesus must depart from all iniquity Our Religion is very pure and it is the last revelation of his Will that God vouchsafes to Mankind And therefore it bears the nearest resemblance of the Divine Nature and is perfective of ours and the Disciples of this Religion must not think to recommend themselves to God or Mankind by artificial knacks of hypocrisie disfigured faces and Pharisaical Prayers but rather by ardent zeal unaffected simplicity the most generous charity sincere mortification and a Will resign'd to his Infinite Wisdom 2. LET us suppose that the Scriptures did not so peremptorily inculcate the necessity of this change yet the Notions that we have of God confirm this truth that nothing short of true Piety can recommend us unto Him that in order to our Salvation we must be partakers of the Divine Nature Is he such an easie Majesty that he may be put off with multitude of Sacrifices costly Oblations and outward Solemnities of Religion Can he be diverted from the execution of his Justice by complemental Addresses Pray what do we take him to be Is he fond of Trifles and Ceremonies To imagine that sighs and tears and melancholy reflections will propitiate the Deity charges him with severity and cruelty as if he took pleasure in the calamities and sufferings of his Creatures Whereas nothing is intended but our true reformation and freedom from sin We are to remember that Innocence Purity Ingenuity and Simplicity Heavenly mindedness and Charity are the Sacrifices most agreeable to the Deity 3. SUCH is the distance of our Nature from Heaven and the employment of that State that we must do violence to our corrupt inclinations before we can act our part among the Spirits of just men made perfect we must become meet partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light Sin though pardoned yet if it is not extirpated must sink us unto Hell It is in its nature most opposite unto God i. e. to his Wisdom Goodness and Power because it carries along with it all the lineaments of baseness weakness and malice This should make us hate all those Principles in Religion that make the way broad that our Saviour hath pronounced strait All those Doctrines and Opinions that seem to promote licentiousness folly and wickedness if the light that is in thee be darkness how great is that darkness but when corrupt Nature and corrupt Principles are combin'd together there is no hope of our recovery and we are carried headlong into all folly and misery 2. LET us enquire wherein the Characters of the Divine Nature appear God is the first and original beauty and true Religion is but a Transcript of his Nature And 1. IT carries the Lineaments of his Power and Victory True Religion is a Confederacy with the Almighty We can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth us The Lord is my strength saith David my rock and my fortress my deliverer my God in whom I will trust My buckler the horn of my salvation and my high tower His Power is visible in our conquests over sin we must prove our selves to be the Sons of God by our triumphs and victories over the World because he that is in us is greater than he that is in the World THE ravishing beauty of the Divine Nature shines in the conversations of the righteous For all round about them see their good works and glorifie their father which is in heaven They are blameless and harmless without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse Nation THE Purity of the Divine Nature is copied in the life of a Christian pure and undefil'd Religion flies from all filthiness and hypocrisie by a divine instinct and sensation The Scripture seems to search for all Metaphors to represent unto us the filthiness of sin The Rottenness of the Grave the Vomit of Dogs the Poyson of Vipers the Filthiness of Swine are some of the expressions that point unto us the odious Nature of sin But God is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity And the Wisdom that is from above is first pure then peaceable gentle and easie to be intreated full of mercy and good fruits without partiality and without hypocrisie THE Wisdom of God is no less seen in the lives of good men True Religion is the knowledge of the most excellent Truths the contemplation of the most glorious objects and the practice of such duties as are most serviceable to our happiness The fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom The Children of this World are said to be wiser in their own generation than the Children of Light i. e. they are more skilful to manage worldly affairs But in the true estimate of things they are fools in the strictest sense The truly Religious is the only Wise Man he alone improves his Reason to the best advantage for he looks to things future as well as to the things present he prefers great things to small things and chuses the fittest Means to attain his ends this is to be wise unto salvation WE are taught by the Christian Religion to imitate the Divine Goodness his unenvious Bounty his unconstrain'd Liberality Love your enemies bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you that you may be the Children of your Father which is in Heaven for he maketh his Sun to rise on the evil and on the good and sendeth rain on the just and unjust GREATNESS of Spirit is a branch of the Divine Nature and the Christian is great in his Victories Expectations and Behaviour nothing mean and sordid in the behaviour of the true Sons of God they are heirs of God and coheirs with Christ and therefore must needs have the world under their feet FROM what I have said we may easily
Enthusiasm THEY that acknowledge no Mysteries in the Gospel despise its Original and Divinity and by consequence they trample on the Priesthood also and therefore the followers of Socinus on this account are odious that they have forsaken the Belief of all Ages and what was received in the Christian Churches since the first Plantations of Christianity they have stript our Religion naked of its Mysteries and made the Holy Scriptures to bend and bow to that Scheme and Model that they have formed in their own fancies AND then again if this Well be so deep we can neither furnish our selves nor others with these Waters of Life without earnest Prayer profound Meditation and great Humility a serious and close application of Spirit So S. Paul advises Timothy Be in those things and it is an Apostolick Precept Give thy self to Reading CAN we think to beat down the Counter-batteries of Hell by carelesness and negligence ignorance or inadvertence Men will not resign their Reason without the best Arguments duly applyed and the Mines of the Holy Scriptures are not only rich but very deep we should dig in them night and day It was the great Commendation of Apollos that he was mighty in the Holy Scriptures BUT I go forward to the third Thing that I think implied in this Metaphor and that is the freedom unconstrain'd activity force and strength of their ebullitions 'T is a Well of Living Waters which cannot be contained in one place but must burst forth to water the Hills and Valleys high and low rich and poor When we remember what a World we live in how refractory and stubborn to the Yoke of Jesus we must not be niggardly of our Instructions we must reprove rebuke exhort in season and out of season with all long-suffering and doctrine here a little and there a little agitur de summa rei and there are no measures to be set to our endeavours but the measures of Charity It was said of the antient Christians upon that Monument rais'd to the Memory of Dioclesian that Superstitionem suam generi humano inculcabant they did embrace all occasions to make men acquainted with the truth and excellency of our Religion INDEED we should set our selves to do this with the greater readiness when we consider the opposition that we are like to encounter either First From the Malice of Satan or Secondly From our own Weaknesses and Infirmities or Thirdly From the Perverseness Hard-heartedness and Incredulity of them to whom the Gospel is preached First I SAY from the Malice of Satan When the Gospel began first to be proclaimed to the Nations the Powers of Hell did swell with fury and indignation they began with all spite and rage to crush the very beginnings of it he gathered together all the Forces and Legions of Darkness to consult how the growing Religion of Jesus might be stopped But the Apostles fortified themselves in the words of the Prophetic Psalm Why did the heathen rage and the people imagine vain things It is the Devils very Nature to retard the Gospel 't is he that inspires Hereticks casts stumbling blocks in our way and finds out a thousand methods to stop our progress 1 Thess 2.18 We would have come unto you once and again but Satan hindered us and his endeavours in a peculiar manner are levelled against the Clergy who are most terrible to his Kingdom and beat down his strong holds and retirements in the Consciences of Men. Secondly WE are hindered by our own Weaknesses and Infirmities When we see so little success of our labours we are like to grow faint and give over and say with the Prophet Lord who hath believed our report 'T is true We have this treasure in earthen vessels and these Vessels are brittle and soon shattered and when we would vigorously and zealously serve our God we are dragged down again to the Earth by this dull and lumpish Body that we carry about us we cannot shake off human Passions Affections and Infirmities we are not priviledg'd to run his Errands so nimbly as the Angels do we are apt to despond and to suffer the flesh and its lazy whispers overcome our quickest motions and most zealous resolutions Oh! then to be within the Holy of Holies where the brightness of his face and the light of his Countenance can never suffer us to grow weary sullen and melancholy in his Service We shall minister before his Altar in the Sacrifices of Praise and Hallelujahs without fainting interruption or slumber BUT Thirdly We are opposed by the perverseness incredulity and ingratitude of the World When we contemplate the Arguments and Nature of our Religion we would think that they are so strong that no Soul could resist them but when we come abroad into the World and endeavour to reason men out of their folly and wickedness how hard is this undertaking How many Sermons are lost upon the inconsiderate multitude We must after many years endeavours sit down with sorrow and complain of their incurable madness THEY have hardned themselves against all reproof we must make our approaches to their hearts and cut out our way through Rocks and Iron Bars and inveterate Prejudices they have fenc'd themselves against our serious entreaties and stopped their ears like the deaf Adder when we have charmed never so wisely and affectionately HAD we nothing else to do but to let men see the reasonableness and excellency of the Christian Religion the folly and danger of Sin and Vice then our work had been easie as indeed it is honourable but we find to our sad experience that when we have chased them from one Cavil to another when we have shamed them out of all their denyals and exceptions they still keep their hold in defiance of all our Remonstrances The God of this World hath blinded the minds of men lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ who is the Image of God should shine unto them How hard is it to recover the World from Sensuality and Error How difficult to make them love the Precepts of our Saviour and the Doctrine of the Cross To deny themselves and crucifie the flesh to forgive injuries to bless them that curse us to despise the World and all its trifling interest This is the aim of our Religion and this is it which men are loth to practise this ought to provoke our Zeal to the highest flame and make us set our faces against tho stream and current of wicked practices against all immoralities and errors THE Church like some Aromatick Spices the more you press them the more fragrant they smell their effluvia fly on all hands and their Smell perfumes the Air. The more we are besieged the more the Gospel takes Air like those precious Spices mentioned in the Verse before my Text so skilfully plac'd and so orderly disposed that by their Order suaviorem reddant odorem So the Prince of Poets in his Pastorals Sic
positae quoniam suaves miscetis odores And this is prophesied of the Messias that his Garments should smell of Myrrhe Aloes and Cassia And from him the Church hath all those excellent Smells mentioned Verse 14. Saffron Calamus and Cinnamon to teach us that though the Gifts of the Spirit are and have all their several excellencies yet they are all useful to the Church whose garments are made of needle work and different colours and therefore it is an unpardonable vanity in the People to make saucy comparisons between the Gifts of Ecclesiasticks for stabit unus quisque sorte sua and the Philosophy of S. Paul to the Corinthians should teach them more modesty If the foot shall say because I am not the Eye I am not of the Body is it therefore not of the Body If we look up to our Superiours for assistance conduct and direction they must look down to us for obedience deference and submission THE third Thing that I promised was the rise of those Waters they come from Mount Libanus by an impetuous force and vigour Nothing can more lively represent the first rise and beginning of those heavenly Oracles The Gospel is the day star from on high and the Doctrine that our Saviour hath revealed is from Heaven We are told by Historians that at the foot of Mount Libanus there arises a pleasant Fountain aquas habens limpidissimas that run down from it through subterraneous passages most impetuously and there burst forth in great plenty and by several Conduits waters all the Gardens of the Plain And this leads us naturally to the Divinity of our Religion but here I stop being afraid that I have transgress'd already the time that was allowed me To God the Father Son and Holy Ghost be Glory for ever Amen A SERMON ON ROM xii 1. I beseech you therefore Brethren by the mercies of God that you present your Bodies a living sacrifice holy acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service THE Apostle in the former part of this Epistle asserted the Doctrine of Evangelical Justification against the unbelieving Jews who stuck so tenaciously to the System of Moses's Laws And now he sums up in one pathetic Exhortation the strength and design of the Gospel and of all Religion Christianity was not a Collection of dry and airy Notions calculated to amuse the World but a Discipline the highest and the purest that ever was received amongst men the immediate Revelation of Infinite Wisdom which brought along with it true and everlasting righteousness And therefore they ought not to let their thoughts dwell so much and so long on the glory of their Temple and the variety of their Sacrifices under the Levitical Oeconomy They were now invited to offer unto God more valuable Oblations than any of their former They were to bring themselves to the Altar of God and resign their Will to his Will And this was more agreeable to the nature of true Religion the design of the Gospel and the highest exercise of Reason When we bring unto God only things that are without us we mistake his Nature and despise his Goodness Reason taught us that the best things are to be offered unto God and therefore the Heart and Soul and Mind of Man are the only Sacrifices that are truly valuable And this is the reason why the Apostle addresses to the Christians at Rome with so much zeal and affection I will shortly consider 1. His Preface 2. His Exhortation And 3. The Motive to enforce it And 1. For the Preface By the mercies of God We easily infer from the fervour and solemnity of the Apostles Introduction the weight and importance of his Exhortation i. e. I do beseech you with all the earnest passion and true tenderness that I am capable of I exhort you by the Mercies of God i. e. by what is uppermost in his Nature his boundless Compassions that are in the front of all his glorious Perfections and in the Language of the Psalmist from everlasting to everlasting by all that is great sacred and venerable that which takes up the wonder of Angels the praises of men and the adorations of the Saints in glory that you no longer resist the Light of the Gospel but since you are redeem'd from the pompous drudgery of an external Religion that you would think no Sacrifices worthy of God but such as are attended with your life strength zeal and devotion for this is the true Worship of the New Testament when our Will is united to the Will of God 'T IS easie to observe the holy Violence and Fire of S. Paul's Spirit when he endeavours to plant-true and solid Religion Here he speaks as if his Soul was ready to crack the strings that ty'd it to his Body He is all flame all love all endeavour all charity He wishes himself an Anathema i. e. a publick Sacrifice for the unbelieving Jews if this could recover them from their Infidelity to the acknowledgement of the Truth as it is in Jesus HE made use of this weighty Argument in this place because there is none of greater force If the Angels were to preach to us and gain us to the belief of the Gospel they could not fly higher in their Perswasives than the Mercies of God It is by them that he chuses to proclaim all his Titles of Honour to the World The Lord the Lord God slow to anger and of great goodness So when the Apostle exhorts by the Mercies of God he exhorts by God himself and all those ineffable appearances of his Goodness that are felt by the intelligent World and every moment proclaim'd with wonder and acknowledgement HOW merciful must he be who suffers without present revenge the many horrid Crimes that are daily committed the provocations that fly in the face of Heaven their multitude their variety and their circumstances as if men would pull down the Almighty from his Throne and reverse the foundations of good and evil And yet such is the love of God to mankind that after many unkind denyals and rude affronts he besieges the Consciences of men by the force of his Convictions he makes the Light of his Word to pierce to the bottom of the Soul and powerfully overcome the stubborness of our Will How wisely does he conduct us through the labyrinth of tentations How sweetly does he engage us by the motions of his Spirit How kindly does he receive the Prodigal when as yet he had but some small beginnings of wisdom sobriety and calmness He saw him afar off he ran to him fell upon his neck and kissed him WHEN we remember that the Mercies of God are our surest Refuge and Sanctuary in all our fears straits and difficulties we need say no more to amplifie them This is the strong Hold that we flee to when we are assaulted by fear despair or the terrour of the Law WHEN Nathan the Prophet by a
SERMONS Preached upon Several Occasions Most of them Before the MAGISTRATES and JUDGES in the North-East-Auditory of S. Gile's Church EDINBURGH BY AL. MONRO D.D. Then PRINCIPAL of the COLLEGE of EDINBURGH LONDON Printed for Joseph Hindmarsh at the Golden Ball over against the Royal Exchange in Cornhil M DC XCIII Imprimatur May 3. 1693. Guil. Lancaster To my Friends and Acquaintances in the North-East Parish of S. Giles in Edinburgh Much Honoured and Well Beloved IF I had any other design to serve by this Address than what was in my view when I preached the following Sermons I would perhaps recommend them to the favour of some particular Patron but I rather lay hold of this opportunity that I may acknowedge in as publick a manner as is possible for me the many kindnesses that I received amongst you when I was allowed to preach the Gospel in my Native Country I was unanimously and cheerfully nam'd to the Government of the College of Edinburgh without my knowledge or interposal by the Lord Provost and Town Council I retain a grateful sense of it And this is the principal reason why these Discourses do now appear I am not so extravagantly foolish as to think that the present Age needs any of my Composures if they are innocent and well meant though attended with many other imperfections they may promote good thoughts in some who heard them with Piety and Attention They are only calculated for their Meridian Most men have different Tasts for Books as well as for other things and what is sincerely intended may sometimes be read with greater success than more accurate Treatises The World is very vain and changes its Faces and Figures every moment yet true Religion is invariable as the Author of it and therefore we are to steer our course towards Heaven by those great Truths that are uniformly received amongst all Christians and to take heed that we do not separate from the Catholick Church of Christ her antient Rules and Constitutions by which she was preserved in the Primitive Ages For it is certain that God did not suffer the Universal Church to deviate from the Apostolical Discipline when as yet she was furnished with no other Weapons to pull down Idolatry and Superstition than her Unity Prayers and Universal Charity There is nothing more opposite to Piety and Devotion than Pride and Vanity and to despise the Wisdom of all our Predecessors is not only arrogant but impious The multitude and variety of later Sectaries especially in the Isle of Britain have advanced Atheism to a prodigious Impudence and it is impossible to recover the World now sunk in Folly and Irreligion but by the extraordinary Zeal of good Men. The decays of Piety in our days appear openly amongst all Ranks and Orders and this must be imputed in a great part to that Itch after Novelties which hath so fatally overrun these Nations Ambition and Faction hath almost remov'd the distinction between things Sacred and Prophane yet it is certain that the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God and those pretended Reformations that are managed with Noise and Tumult have ordinarily no other effects than Sacrilege and Confusion We are very apt to have other thoughts of God and of our selves when we approach the Gates of Death from those which we have entertained in the days of health and prosperity and if then we have the least sense of the World to come we cannot but distinguish true Zeal to advance the Power of Godliness from the insidious arts of grasping Earthly Dominion the first is pure calm and humble merciful and compassionate the other being from the Earth is agreeable to that Spirit that prevails in the World OUR Saviour founded the Church a distinct Society from the World and therefore armed it with Spiritual Laws and Censures that she might be preserved by those Divine Helps though all Earthly Powers should endeavour to crush her and experience witnesses that she hath been more Victorious over Lewdness and Infidelity by her Patience and Sufferings than by all her Secular Intrigues and Political Methods When she stands upon the immoveable Pillars of her first foundation her outward Splendor may be eclipsed but her inward strength is made more firm and lasting by the Counterbatteries that are raised against her Peace and Prosperity Truth is not ashamed and therefore it is Weakness and Pusillanimity to deny it in the face of Danger and Persecution especially when the most Sacred Foundations are daringly invaded and trampled upon and though Ecclesiastical Politie be thought now a-days as mutable as are the inclinations of the people yet they who consider things more maturely must see that the antient Faith cannot be preserved amongst men but in its Original Vehicles of Primitive Order and Constitution and when the Apostolical Government of the Church is overthrown a multitude of Errors and Delusions creep into the World that destroy the inward Power of Godliness as well as the outward Beauty of Publick Worship I AM heartily sorry that our Country should be the Theatre of so many Complaints and Disorders and that the immediate Servants of the Sanctuary both Bishops and Presbyters should be run down with Clamour and Violence for no other reason that I know but because they are separated from the World to the peculiar Services of the Living God notwithstanding of all this we ought to possess our Souls in Patience and to believe that not a hair of our head falls to the ground without our heavenly Father And this one Truth may compose our Spirits against all Storms and Disasters and teach us to resign our selves without struggling to the disposal of Heaven When we are sincerely humbled for our Sins both National and Personal he will visit us again in the multitude of his tender Mercies and therefore it is more our duty to look unto him that smites us than complain of our Oppressors It may be that they themselves who have been most active in our Calamities are somewhat sensible of their Cruelty and if not we heartily pray that God would bring into the way of Truth all such as have erred and are deceived The present Desolations of our Church may be palliated with many little Excuses but all the Rhetorical Colours imaginable can never hide the Consequences of so monstrous a Change WHEN we are surrounded with Difficulties on the right and left hand we must make our requests known unto God by Prayer for he is a present help in time of trouble We may meet with Crosses from the smallest things and occurrences and perhaps our Afflictions are frequently multiplied that we may be taught to run unto God who can either mitigate or remove them or by them exercise our Patience and Magnanimity God knows all things but he seems to take notice more particularly of such things as we feel and recommend to his Infinite Goodness and Compassion so willing He is to have us depend on Him
for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created And again chap. 5. v. 13. And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea and all that are in them heard I saying blessing honour glory and power be unto him that sitteth on the throne and unto the Lamb for ever 4. 'T is the Voice of universal Nature Vide Psal 148. 5. THIS is it that keeps us sobet and humble and makes us refer our prosperous Successes to their true Original and by this frame of Spirit we engage the divine Aid we are apt to idolize our own Strength Wisdom and Contrivance when any thing answers our Expectations we are ready to erect Statues and Memorials to our own Conduct as if we our selves had brought the affair to its desirable period Thus the ungrateful Person is said by the Prophet Habbakuk c. 1.16 to sacrifice to his net and burn incense to his dray how elegantly does the Royal Psalmist trace his Mercies to their true Original how pathetically does he summon our Thoughts towards Heaven Psal 44. v. 3. For they got not the land in possession by their own sword neither did their own arm save them but thy right hand and thine arm and the light of thy countenance v. 7. I will not trust in my bow neither shall my sword save me in God we boast all the day long and praise thy name for ever and ever This Conclusion is laid down by Solomon long ago Eccles 9.11 The race is not to the swift nor the battel to the strong nor bread to the wise nor riches to men of understanding nor favour to men of skill 'T IS neither the Strength of thy Body nor the Wisdom of thy Mind nor tne Favour of thy Friends can accomplish thy business without the Aids of divine Providence how chearfully then should we adore and acknowledge this Providence that twists it self with and secretly moves the most intricate affairs Psal 115. Not unto us O Lord not unto us but unto thy name give glory So we find Job elegantly vindicate himself that he did not put his confidence in any thing but in God only Job 31.26 27. Psal 108.3 4. I will praise thee O Lord amidst the people I will sing unto thee among the Nations for thy mercy is great unto the heavens and thy faithfulness unto the clouds and Psal 139.17 How precious also are thy thoughts unto me O God! how great is the sum of them if I should count them they are moe in number than the sand when I awake I am still with thee But 6. THIS is the only Theme which cannot be exhausted Psal 139. If I ascend up into heaven thou art there c. Heaven Earth Sea and Air proclaim his infinite Goodness and the thought of every thing perishes but in its relation to God for if you view it under any other relation it is but vanity and vexation of Spirit and hath not solidity enough to abide the porings and contemplations of an intellectual Being WHAT employment more proper for us than that of the glorious Hosts of heaven the invincible Legions who have Crowns on their heads and Palms in their hands and the glorious company of the Apostles the goodly fellowship of the Prophets the noble Army of Martyrs the Seraphims and the Cherubims who are thus employed what exercise more proper for us who breath for heaven than to say with the Psalmist Psal 45. I will extol thee my God O King and I will bless thy name for ever and ever v. 2. every day will I bless thee and I will praise thy name for ever and ever v. 3. Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised and his greatness is unsearchable v. 4. One Generation shall praise thy works to another To God the Father Son and Holy Ghost be all Praise and Dominion for ever Amen A SERMON ON 1 PET. 2. V. 11. Dearly Beloved I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the Soul FROM the ninth Verse the Apostle sets off the Dignity of the Christian State the Honour and Prerogative of that high relation Ye are a chosen generation a Royal Priesthood an holy Nation a peculiar people They were thus advanc'd that they might shew forth the praises of him that had called them out of darkness into his marvellous light They could not but with the highest contentment and joy call to mind the difference between their present and their former condition IT is upon this foundation that S. Peter makes his address with so much love and zeal that he may provoke them to a life pure and heavenly and becoming that relation into which they were lately adopted IN the Verse that I have read he alludes unto the Phrase that he made use of in the first Verse of the first Chapter of this Epistle which is address'd to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus Galatia Cappadocia Asia and Bythinia remov'd far from the Country and Habitation of their Ancestors It was easie for them from the consideration of their Earthly Pilgrimage to remember that they were not only strangers with regard to that Country but in a higher sense strangers upon Earth a people distinguished from the World And not only so but quite contrary unto it and far above it in their aims studies and desires THAT which takes up the thoughts the talk and the admiration of Mankind was so little valued by our Saviour that when he cloth'd himself with our flesh he drew up a System of Religion that ruin'd the esteem that such things had got in our affections the lusts of the eys the lusts of the flesh and the pride of life did in a manner command the Adorations of Jew and Gentile He stript those Idols of that meretricious varnish and paint that had for a long time inveigled Mankind and he made himself of no reputation that he might trample upon human glories and raise our affections to that honor which is solid and durable He exemplify'd his Precepts in his own practice and by a new Philosophy raised mens Spirits to a clear sight of God to a just value of themselves and consequently to the highest contempt of the World in all its pomps and fantastick appearances THE Exhortation that I have read is so essential to the Christian Religion that it is enforc'd by its strongest arguments every one may see it to be the natural result and consequence of such heavenly Premisses that we should abstain from fleshly lusts because they war or set themselves in battel array against the Soul BY Fleshly Lusts I understand those passions lusts and desires that unregenerate men do pursue with all the strength and vigor of their Soul whether they pröceed from covetousness ambition or sensuality And though I understand the words in this extent and latitude yet I design to level the most part of
the cold embraces of the Grave 'T is inconsistent with the Goodness and Wisdom of God to make so noble a Creature and assign him no higher end than what may be attain'd with greater advantages by the Beasts that perish But those carnal lusts do not only weaken and blunt the edge and vigor of our Spirits in their natural perfections BUT 2. They do sully darken and defile them in their moral endowments See with what solemnity and magnificence the History of our Creation is introduc'd Gen. 1. Let us make man in our Image 'T was a design truly becoming the Majesty of God to repair the breaches made in this Image We are fallen from our Original Life and Purity that beauty and light that adorn'd our Nature is become almost deformity and darkness and so incurable is this bruise and wound that all the Rules of human Philosophy cannot remove the distemper God was manifested in our flesh that he might heal our Nature and restore his own Image upon our Souls he awakens us to fix our eye on this as our highest honour to be renewed again to the Image of him that created us And when he disparages the things that chiefly take up the thoughts of Mankind and endeavours to remove our mistakes concerning them he does it by this ponderous motive that ye may be like your Father which is in heaven To be like God is the highest beauty and the most glorious ornament of rational Souls The Image of God consists in light power love universal benevolence unconfin'd Goodness Charity Patience Greatness of Spirit Now where those Graces are there heaven is begun and the Soul is made strong and impregnated with divine force is more than Conqueror through Jesus Christ that loved us WE have heard the Catalogue of the Works of the Flesh out of the Epistle to the Galatians Let us view next the Fruits of the Spirit that are reckoned v. 22. Love joy peace long-suffering gentleness goodness faith meekness temperance against such there is no Law When we confront the one with the other the Fruits of the Spirit with the Lusts of the Flesh there is no doubt to be made but that by the last our Souls are much sullied and defiled in their moral endowments 3. THOSE Fleshly Lusts rob us of our supernatural rewards not only by their merit but by their natural causality they indispose us for that place and employment where nothing enters that is impure Let us then awake and ask our selves if no consideration no argument be strong enough or great enough to startle us out of our sleep and lethargy Must those Souls of ours that have been made to serve God and to converse with him in the noblest manner be suffered to grovel in the dust to look no higher than the entertainments of Goats and Swine and Worms O! what an indignity is this to our Nature what a reproach to our Manhood what a dishonour to the Author of our Being how disgraceful is it to be accus'd of such follies as tne most part of Mankind are engaged in before the Throne of God! THERE is a second Argument to alienate our affections from fleshly lusts and that is taken from the consideration of our state and condition We are Pilgrims and Strangers Men cut off by their Religion from the Earth whose aims and designs are for another Kingdom and a life more pure and immovable more fixt and serene We are told by the Author to the Hebrews that here we have no continuing City THAT I may make this a little more clear let us enquire in what sense Christians are said to be Strangers upon Earth and Secondly What improvement we are to make of it 1. THEY are strangers in their language It is the most infallible character of a stranger so the Maid that accus'd S. Peter she thought she was very sure he was a Gallilean The Christian breaths in a heavenly air his heart and consequently his tongue is perfum'd with the odors of heaven S. James exhorts us Chap. 2. v. 12. So speak ye and so do as they that shall be judged by the Law of Liberty And the same S. James in Chap. 1. v. 26. assures us That if any man seem to be religious and bridleth not his tongue he deceiveth his own heart his Religion is vain And again He that offendeth not in word is a perfect Man THE faults of the tongue are innumerable that glibe slippery and nimble Member that is certainly the glory of our Nature is frequently abus'd to the dishonour of God S. James Chap. 3. excellently paints its unruliness and extravagance v. 6. And the tongue is a fire a world of iniquity so is the tongue amongst our members that it setteth the course of nature on fire and it is set on fire of hell We are exhorted by the Apostle to have our speech seasoned with salt that we may know how to answer every man with Christian discretion modesty and charity free of all filthiness error levity slander detraction or evil surmisings Let us by our tongues discover the language of our Country of that heavenly Jerusalem that is above where the tongues of the Inhabitants are wholly taken up in the praises and acknowledgments of the Divine Goodness 2. THEY are strangers with regard to their Laws Matth. 5. v. ult Love your enemies do good to them that hate you pray for them that despitefully use you bless them that curse you Can there be any thing devis'd or thought of that runs more directly opposite to the Spirit and Genius that prevails in the World the treachery rapine revenge fraud and ambition that fill all places with noise and tumult They that fight under the Worlds standard look upon those pure Laws of Christian innocence humility and patience as the Romantic follies of imagination Their lust revenge and passion give them Laws they disdain to stoop to those Laws that are so different from the Statutes of the Kingdom of darkness and therefore the serious Christian is judg'd a fool by the World when this undefil'd Religion becomes the rule of his actions Our Saviour in the forming of his Laws had an eye to lessen and disparage all those things that the World most admires present and sharp revenge satisfies the carnal man to the highest degree and nothing so precious and gallant in his eyes But the Christian Religion restrains the very first motions towards anger it stifles those flames before they break out into malice passion and revenge In a word it was the design of our Saviour to strip the World bare of that painted glory which it had from our deluded imaginations He came to rectifie our judgments and inform us that to make us meet partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light we must be rul'd by other Laws than the Laws and Threatnings of this World When such as were left of the Race of David relations of our Saviour were brought before Domitian
full view of those intricate Methods of the Divine Providence that now perplex our enquiries We shall have our feet upon Mount Zion and from thence look down with joy that we have so happily escaped the tossings of this tempestuous Sea To God the Father Son and Holy Ghost be all Praise Power and Dominion for ever Amen A SERMON ON 1 JOHN Ch. v. V. 4. And this is the victory that overcometh the World even our Faith TO prepare my way to the Text I need not acquaint you with the general scope and design of this Epistle that all along breaths the Air of Peace and Love a strain of mildness and sweetness that appear'd in all the Apostles particularly in S. John who was allowed a more familiar converse with our Saviour than the rest of the Disciples FROM the beginning of this Chapter we find him describing the force and activity of the Divine Nature by which we are enliven'd to higher actions than what our Nature produces for the Divine Nature being the life communicated from and by God raises the Soul beyond its natural self and strengthens us to do all things through Christ that loved us WE are taught by the Divine Nature immediately to place our highest affections on God and this love naturally teacheth us obedience to his commands 'T is in vain to call him Lord and not to do the things he commands such is the force of this Divine Love it overcomes the World This life to which we are begotten by the Ministry and Incarnations of our Saviour is so opposite to the corrupt practices maxims and designs by which this World is govern'd that it proclaims open war against it and though he that is in us in the language of S. John be stronger than he that is in the World yet the World stands upon such advantages against us our incumbrances and weaknesses hang so close to us we are surrounded on all hands with so many troubles and difficulties in our way to heaven that before we overcome we must grapple with our enemies and bear up with Christian Courage and Magnanimity THIS state of Warfare is the Scene of our tryal and preparation we are Candidates for a Crown of Glory and it is unreasonable that we should expect it until first we have given proof of the Greatness and Vivacity of our Souls OUR Saviour cloath'd himself with Flesh and Blood that he might teach us who are lodged in Tabernacles of Flesh to manage our weapons against our enemies and this spiritual skill and conduct is visibly seen in our conquest and triumph over the World and all its flatteries and engines This leads me directly to a more particular view of the words that I have read And by the World I understand nothing else than that Spirit of Folly and Wickedness that prevails amongst Mankind Which our Saviour opposes by his Gospel And here I take three particulars to consideration First The great opposition maintain'd by the World against Christ and his Disciples Secondly The possibility of our victory and triumph Thirdly The mean by which this is accomplished even our Faith As to the First That the World doth most despitefully and violently oppose the design and tendencies of Christianity Our Saviour did acquaint his Disciples with it when he was to leave the World John 15.19 If ye were of the World the World would love his own but because ye are not of the World but I have chosen you out of the World therefore the World hateth you BUT that I may give you a clear prospect of the opposition between the Spirit of the World and the Spirit of Christianity let us First Consider the Laws and Maxims by which the World is govern'd contrary to the rules of our Saviour Secondly The things that the World most admires loves and preservs Thirdly The rewards it offers to its friends and votaries Fourthly The manner by which it acts its malice against Christ and his Disciples and when we have shortly viewed these particulars we shall clearly see the fierce opposition against Christ against the Christian Religion against the whole Oeconomy of his Kingdom and Laws As to the first of these Are not the Maxims by which the World and its affairs are governed most opposite to and different from the Laws of our Saviour We are told by him that the Children of this world are wiser in their own generation than the children of light They are acted by principles of design subtilty and artifice the other is acted by a principle of truth integrity and simplicity The one is acted by fraud cunning and avarice the other by purity innocence self-denial patience and charity THE World applauds and raises on the wings of fame the man of business might and dexterity in managing and canvassing the labyrinths and intrigues of affairs BUT by the Laws of our Religion we are taught to despise the World and all its trifling interests and pleasures and to consider the Wisdom of the World as the greatest impertinence and folly By this I do not mean its Political Constitutions by which its madness is restrained but I mean its ordinary practices WE are invited to other treasures far above the gilded nothings that this World admires O! how empty is its pageantry when the varnish drops off when it appears naked to the eye of Reason and Faith So much the World and the genius of it teacheth men to value themselvs to despise others to be revengeful to climb as high as is possible they endeavour to attract the eyes and admiration of all men to satisfie their passion to the full to gather together all the treasures of Nature and dwell securely in its embraces But the Christian Religion teacheth us to see the vanity of all those contrivances the folly of their passions the emptiness of their satisfaction WE are taught by it to go to Heaven through the tempests and storms of this World with a low Sail to prefer others to our selves to be patient under reproofs to be humble in the highest of our prosperity to be denyed to the flatteries of Sense to be unconcerned and unsolicitous for future events casting our selves with the whole weight of our faith and hope upon the care wisdom and love of God We are taught by it to cut off our right hands and pull out our right eyes to bless them that curse us and to do good to them that despitefully use us In a word it ranverses and overturns the whole fabrick of the Worlds Politicks it runs cross to all its corrupt designs and to the end we may become wise unto salvation we must be esteemed fools in the account of the World and therefore our Saviour frequently told his Disciples that His Kingdom was not of this world that it was govern'd by and established upon other Laws and Constitutions Now when we but shortly reflect upon the different Laws and Constitutions we see clearly the opposition betwixt Christ and the World the
one earthly the other heavenly Secondly THIS opposition appears if we will consider the things that the World most admires loves and preserves We are exhorted by S. John 1 Ep. ch 2. v. 15. Love not the world nor the things that are in the world for all that is in the world the Lust of the Eyes the Lust of the Flesh and the Pride of Life THE Lust of the Eyes tempts out Covetousness the Lusts of the Flesh set on fire those appetites that deserve that name in the strictest notion of the phrase The Pride of Life are honors preferments and glories that men pursue with so much concern and eagerness But How poor and despicable are these things to the enlightned eye of a Christian that sees by the eye of Faith How thin are they how unworthy of our choice how disproportionate to the Soul of Man how feculent and paultry are the pleasures of Sense attended with so much toil in the purchase vanity in their enjoyment uncertainty in their continuance And if the World had nothing else to make it vain beyond all expression but this one thing that those who have admired it most and sought those satisfactions from it have been forced at length to acknowledge that there was nothing in it but vexation of Spirit This I say might convince us that the things the World most admires are very unsuitable to the Soul of Man BUT instead of such things the Christian Religion offers to our view and choice the pure and masculine pleasures of Devotion the savour of God the peace and tranquillity of our Consciences the victory and dominion over our lusts and passions and those riches that are at Gods right hand in the Heavens The chast and solid satisfaction of having overcome our vices brings more true honour than the atchievments that are proclaimed by the loudest fame 'T is more glorious to overcome evil habits and inveterate diseases of the mind than to surprize or take by open force a City IN a word let us but remember what are the conquests glories and triumphs that are exposed to our view by the Christian Religion and we shall find that they move in a far higher Sphere than the little things that take up the time talk business and thoughts of worldly men THE voluptuous Man sacrifices his Soul to the appetites of the flesh as if it had been given him to make provision for the lust thereof The rich Miser pierces himself through with so many cares and fears lest his Angels should take wings to themselves and fly The Ambitious is filled with a Phantom of honour which he hath painted in his own fancy that he forgets his sleep and all things else to place himself where he would be BUT the Christian Religion teacheth us not only to neglect but despise such fantastic apparitions such dreams such nothings that the blind World adores with so much pageantry and folly We are taught by it to recollect our selves from this hurry and madness to strip those things naked of their borrowed lustre to pierce into their very essence and feel that we are not made for such mean things as human fancy and opinion hath magnified beyond their true size when we come up close to them and consider them then their paint falls off and we must acknowledge that we were fools to the greatest degree So intangled are the Labyrinths of the World which made Augustus Cesar wish so frequently for his retreat and ended many of his Discourses to the Senate with the pleasant hope of his retirement that now bore up his Spirit under the load of so many affairs He had so many Armies at his command the Roman Empire to maintain them he enjoyed the applause of the Wisest Senate yet how did he sigh after the advantages of enjoying himself WE are in the truest sense the off-spring of God why then should our affections be mean Why should we so much admire what is despicable for the world passeth away and the fashion thereof but our Spirits and thoughts run parallel with eternity nothing less can satisfie the immortal Spirit of Man THEREFORE are we exhorted so frequently in the New Testament to place our affections on things alove and not on the things of the Earth to remember that here we have no continuing City that here we are Pilgrims and Strangers that when this tabernacle is broken down we have a house with God not made with hands eternal in the heavens These and such treasures are the things that we are taught to admire by our Religion these are the things we are commanded to pursue since we are Heirs and Co-heirs with Christ HE holds forth to us a Crown of immortal happiness that the sight of it might provoke us to the most heroick efforts of virtue piety self-denyal mortification patience and humility Now it is most evident that the World and the Spirit of Christianity pursue and admire things of a different nature But this opposition will more fully appear if we consider Thirdly THE rewards by which the World allures to its friendship and those proposed by our Saviour what do men expect from the World when they have sold themselves to serve it when they have sacrificed their time and strength to court its honours and follow its genius Such as have prostituted their very Souls to comply with its folly and wickedness how miserable is their gain or rather how infinite is their loss how emphatick is the Interrogation of our Saviour What hath a man gained when he hath lost his own Soul We find the World cannot relieve a Man when he hath most need of help and consolation LET him but put the friendship of the World to the Test when he groans under the terror of Conscience or when his Soul is ready to leave his body and then let him sincerely declare what weak and brittle reeds these things are that he most admired to support him against his own fears WERE we so wise as in our fancy to go down into the Grave before we are carried thither to converse with the dead that are gone before us to live a while under ground to wrap our selves in our Winding sheets and then from that place of silence and darkness to view the things that keep the Men of the World so much in agitation WOULD not we be astonished to see Men made after the Image of God so much enslaved to those Idols of fancy to those shadows that vanish so quickly to such trifles that are the object of childish appetites Did we but call to mind the present regrets and tortures of the damned Were we allowed to see Dives turned down from his sumptuous Table his stately Palace his numerous attendants and fine linnen into the scorching flames of Hell And on the other side could we see the Martyrs that have gone through the flames of persecutions and disasters now seated above malice and misery in the Regions of peace
and love Might we from thence clearly see the irreconcilable opposition between Christ and the World in their rewards But Fourthly THIS appears in the manner by which the World acts its malice against Christ and his Disciples 1. It acts this malice by slander and calumny Our Saviour told his Disciples that reproach and infamy must needs be their patrimony if they zealously adhered to the doctrine and discipline of the Cross nay 't is made so essential to Christianity that to be reproached for the name of Jesus makes up one of its great Beatitudes Blessed are you when all men speak all manner of evil against you falsly for my sake He tells them plainly in another place that they ought not to be discouraged with the calumnies and reproaches of the world for if they call the Master of the house Beelzebub the disciples should not think themselves above their Master THERE is nothing in human Nature more tender and delicate than the sense of honour God hath planted it in our Nature to be a spur to virtuous and great atchievments The first Christians did sacrifice even this to the love of Jesus So S. Paul tells us that the Apostles were made the off scouring of all things and our Saviour intimates in S. Matthew that it was impossible for Christ and his doctrine to appear but he must needs meet with slanders libels and reproaches John the Baptist came neither eating nor drinking and yet he is said to have a Devil Our Saviour came eating and drinking went to their feasts and entertainments to teach them that are engaged in such meetings the highest innocence and purity yet he is represented a friend of publicans and sinners THE Spirit of the World is so perverse and humoursom that it finds faults with the Christians at every turn for every thing that affronts their wickedness WE are to persist as S. Peter exhorts in well doing and by it to put to silence the ignorance of foolish men Let us live like the Disciples of Jesus leaving our reputation and what else is dear to us to his disposal for we shall one day be vindicated from the foolish and impertinent censures of Men in the view of Angels and Companies of just Men made perfect The hope of this bore up the Spirit of S. Paul as an invincible Rock against the most violent storms Rom. 8.33 34. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect it is Christ that dyed yea rather that is risen again from the dead Secondly THE World manifests its hatred by violent persecutions of the persons and interests of the Christians Did not the whole World arm it self with rage and indignation against the light of the Gospel when it began first to shine and the Noble Army of Martyrs forced their way to Heaven by patience and invincible magnanimity How undaunted and fearless did they stand out against the powers of darkness even when they appeared above ground in their blackest and most terrible dress They withstood their fury like so many Walls of Brass resisting unto blood and striving against Sin How inveterate is the malice of the Serpent against the seed of the Woman The Spirit of Persecution smoaks from the bottomless pit and our Saviour told his Disciples no less than that they were to be driven from their Synagogues that they were to be brought before Judges that they should be hated of all men for his sake And this is not so peculiar to the first Ages of Christianity but that all good men have their share of it in all Ages For S. Paul tells us that they must suffer persecution But this is not the only way that the World discovers its opposition to Christianity But Thirdly By its Tentations by its soft sly insinuations by which frequently it trips up the heels of the greatest Saints it lays snares for us in every circumstance of our life what it cannot do by open force it ventures to compass by subtilty and artifice The World is one great Trap and how great a Miracle is it that we should escape the flatteries and allurements of it Since its most plausible offers beat constantly upon our Senses and we lye open to all its assaults on all quarters we are so near a kin to the Earth that it makes easily impressions on us unless we are assured of the victory how could we encounter so formidable an enemy such Armies of Tentations on the right and left hand WE had need to listen to the Apostles exhortation Let him that standeth take heed lest he fall Our ground is so slippery our weaknesses so many our strength so small our enemies so active and malicious and the insinuations of Sense so deceitful From what is said we shall clearly see the opposition between the World and the Spirit of Christianity and therefore let us shortly improve this Meditation for our practice First ARE they so opposite one to the other then let us not love the world Rom. 12.2 Be not conformed to this world but be ye transformed in the Spirit of your mind Let us not be moulded into the frame and fashion of this World but let us remember we have a more heavenly calling higher nature a more Seraphick Discipline in a word we are to steer our course against the tyde and current of the wicked practices of this World for even in this sense the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force Secondly ARE they so opposite the one to the other Let us remember that no man can serve two Masters you cannot serve God and Mammon If you are the servants of Christ you must renounce the World for it is a part of our Baptismal Engagement to do so Where the heart is there the treasure is also if it be glued to the World you must bid farewel to that inheritance incorruptible undefiled eternal in the heavens Thirdly IS the World so opposite to the designs of our Religion Let us fly beyond it in our thoughts and meditations Let us frequently steal out of the noise and hurry of its incumbrances and confusions and dwell in those Regions where there is nothing but peace and harmony where the Celestial Choiristers tune their Harps and run divisions in the joyful Praises of their Maker and to be sure nothing hath a greater tendency to make us victorious over the World than the frequent flights from its noise and cares And this leads me to the Second Particular that I design to speak to which is That the Saints shall certainly overcome the World notwithstanding of its bitterness and oppositions against them and this I will make good if we consider 1. The Promise of God for our conduct and direction 2. The Victory and Triumph of Jesus Christ as our Head and Mediator 3. The Strength and Energy of the Divine Nature 1. THE Promise of God for our Conduct and Assistance He hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake
habitation above the Clouds where no Vapour can ascend to disturb the Air. THE Contemplations of God and of that Pure and Angelical Life makes us quite leave the body and fasten our eyes on that Celestial Inheritance where the Stars of Light mutually glance Light to one another and are all of them enlightened and warmed by that Original Light that dwells himself in light inaccessible So S. Paul tells the Corinthians 2 Ep. c. 4. v. 5. While we look not at the things that are seen but at the things which are not seen for the things that are seen are temporary but the things that are not seen are eternal To this purpose the 11th of the Hebrews is spent Abraham saw the Promise afar off the Patriarchs confessed themselves Pilgrims and Strangers on the Earth S. Stephen saw the heavens opened how little did he value the Mutinies and Cruelties of his Country-men MOSES Heb. 11.24 despised the Court of Pharaoh and the pleasures of sin for a season because he had an eye to the recompence of reward There was nothing charming or desirable in all the glory of Aegypt when he saw the invisible Crown of Glory How could one bred in the Court of Pharaoh and in all the Wisdom of the Aegyptians amidst the pleasures and divertisements of the Court refuse the Government and Sovereignty of so vast an Empire The World could not see into the reason of it they could not but conclude him a fool by their Maxims but Faith gave him a view of a Kingdom above the most radiant Diadems and the brightest Thrones on Earth and a Victory more noble than the Conquest of so many Provinces O the greatness and divine force of those mighty Souls whose appetites and desires are enlarged by Faith The World cannot fill their thoughts and therefore they by Faith overcame it and all its terrors and flatteries as the Martyrs mention'd in the Book of the Maccabees waiting for a better resurrection SEE into what an holy Agony S. Paul did put himself when the heavenly Crown was in his view Phil. 3. v. 14. I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus I see the Crowns which are prepared for the victorious for the unwearied and resolute Disciples of the Cross when I bend my Soul to its full force and activity to lay hold on eternal life such a sight cannot but overcome the World and such a sight is only had by Faith BUT for improvement of all these thoughts Let us remember that the World can never be to us a quiet habitation since the opposition between it our Religion is endless and incurable when we have overcome one difficulty we must look for another here we are like the Israelites in the Wilderness tossed from one hardship to another though the World should promise us fair yet its promises are deceitful and its friendship is a violation of our obedience to our Saviour LET us therefore gird our loins and watch against its subtilties and snares as they that wait for the return of their Master if we intermit but for a little while we lose more ground than we are able to recover for many days Let us not therefore be slothful and negligent lest our Master should surprize us and we be found unprepared to make our accounts Let the World feel that we are Christians and consequently not only taught to despise it but enabled to overcome it that when we leave it we may come off the Field with the applause of our Master and so with joy and confidence we may give up our Souls to his hands as unto the hands of our most faithful Creator To God the Father Son and Holy Ghost be all Power Praise and Dominion World without end Amen A SERMON ON PHILIP iii. 14. I press toward the Mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus IT is usual with most Hearers when the Text is plain when there is nothing in it to invite their Curiosity nothing beyond the common and great Truths of Christianity then to unbend their attention As if the substantial Truths of our Religion that in their Nature Scope and Tendency are design'd to beget preserve and maintain the life vigor and devotion of our Souls were only to be preach'd to the Pagans and Infidels But this Disease of the Mind is as dangerous as common therefore my design from those words is to leave upon your Memories a common Truth acknowledg'd by all and considered and digested by very few AND as the Truth contain'd under these words is obvious and plain so are all the Allusions and Metaphors under which it is deliver'd very familiar and easie Those publick Games of Greece mention'd almost by all Authors do naturally represent the fervour activity and zeal of Christian Life frequently compar'd in the Scriptures to a Race And therefore all Interpreters do agree that these Verses are Agonistical and that they carry in them an immediate relation to those Games in which publick applause generosity courage and emulation prompted the Competitors to the most accurate care caution and activity WHEN we remember what an Age we live in how far Atheism Lukewarmness and Stupidity hath eaten out the vigour and zeal of Primitive Devotion should we not cast back our eyes on those glorious Combatants of the first Age whose examples are able even at this distance to put some Life and Spirit unto us THIS being the design and the Text being plain without changing the natural Position of the Words three things offer themselves to our consideration 1. The vigour strength and activity of the Apostles motion 2. The straight and unbyass'd Line in which he moved 3. The end scope and prize he had in his view and that is the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus In one word the Reward of Christianity Of these in order 1. GOD is to be serv'd now under the New Testament with a holy awe fear care and diligence Though this be acknowledg'd by all yet how few are there that digest the Principles upon which it is founded and by which it may be rivetted into their Souls I SHALL endeavour then to provoke you to this extraordinary Care by such Arguments as do equally enforce it and chastise the Lukewarmness and Carelesness Inconsideration and detestable Neutrality of the present Age. And this will appear necessary if we consider 1. Either the Nature of God 2. The Spirituality and extent of his Law 3. The Vivacity and Strength of our own Souls Or 4. The Practice of the best of Men. 5. The Opposition that we meet with in our Christian Course 6. The Miscarriages of the former part of our Life 7. The peculiar Obligations of Christianity viz. that we are bought by the blood of Jesus 8. Consider the miserable Toil and Slavery of a Life of Sin And then we cannot but acknowledge that hitherto we have little considered our
to despair and damnation on the contrary the way of virtue is smooth regular even and pleasant Her wayes are wayes of pleasantness and all her paths are peace Vice is rugged and intricate full of labyrinths and turnings and the wicked weary themselves to commit iniquity I THINK any one of those Considerations may startle us out of our security and awaken us to lay hold upon eternal life to go forward without weariness in the race that is set before us No man having put his hand to the plough and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God Know ye not that they which run in a race run all but one obtaineth the prize BUT I hasten to the second Particular and that is the regular Method of his Zeal and Devotion He press'd toward the mark in the way marked out by the Master of the Game There are very many zealous enough but their zeal is blind turbulent and factious the Christian zeal acts strongly but prudently discreetly and humbly and in subordination to them whom God hath set over us In the fire of Hell there is heat without light and the fury of zealots resembles it much or rather is the beginning of it We are not only to be active in our Christian course but we are to order our Motion by the Rules of our Institution IT is not enough to run strongly and swiftly for carrying the prize but one must also run within his Circle and Sphere else by the Laws of the Game he falls short MY meaning is when we run toward the Mark in the Christian course we must act in all our performances like the Disciples of that Institution and like the Spirit of Christianity and though we come short of perfection yet our habitual byass being the Love of Jesus we move toward the Mark and in our way though clogged with many infirmities NOW this Genius and Spirit of Christianity discovers it self 1. By the simplicity of our intentions Matth. 6.22 The light of the body is the eye if therefore thine eye be single thy whole body shall be full of light By the single eye in the judgment of most is meant the single and habitual design and resolution of advancing the glory of God when this runs through all our actions suppose the matter of them good and allowable though they be depress'd by many imperfect adherences yet we are sure of acceptance for God loves to take up his residence with men of single and sincere intentions 2. THIS is known by our disengagement from the World the Genius of our Religion is stated against it and all its most ordinary practices fraud dissimulation vain glory the satisfaction of any of our appetites against the Rules of Jesus Christ is of the World and contradicts the Spirit of Jesus for by it we are inspired to contemn it and despise all its trifling enjoyments and to square all our actions with an eye to immortality and eternity Love not the World neither the things that are in the World 3. THIS Spirit is known by the Dominion over our Passions and the victory we have over tentations The passions in the Soul have their true use grief fear joy and anger when they come and go at the command of Reason They are not to be extirpated as the Stoicks vainly pretended but they are to be kept in awe and within their bounds as the passions in the blessed Jesus were Now if we move thus in our Christian Race we move streight toward the Mark and in the way that our Lord Jesus marked for us and this will undoubtedly carry us to the prize propos'd by our Saviour which is the third Particular I was to speak to Thirdly THE Prize of the High Calling 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dum in sublimi sederunt Brabeutai as the Learned Grotius hath it those publick Judges of the Game gave the signal from on high to alarm the Competitors to make themselves ready And the Son of God came down from Heaven and reveal'd Immortality as the Prize and he alarms the World by the Gospel to despise the present Scene of things and to carry their thoughts beyond this little Globe to that life that is pure durable and in the presence of God for ever this is so strong that nothing but Inconsideration makes men neglect it O Eternity O Eternity who can comprehend it who can without madness forget it and remembring it who can but despise all things in comparison with it To God the Father Son and Holy Ghost be all Power and Glory for ever Amen A SERMON ON 2 PET. 1. ch 1. v. 4. Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust IT is not my present design to amuse you with any Enquiry about the Author of this Epistle whether he was S. Peter the Apostle or S. Simeon the immediate Successor of S. James Bishop of Jerusalem as is most probable My business is rather to invite your attention to the important Truths that are contain'd in this Verse which need but little explication when we look back into the former For the Glory and Power of God appear'd so conspicuous in the Ministry of our Saviour that Infidelity becomes inexcusable and it is by that Glory and Power that the great and precious Promises of the Gospel are given unto us WHEN the Gospel was to be establish'd and the Kingdom of Darkness to be pull'd down there was a necessity that the arm of God should appear bare in the defence of the first that he might confound the arts and delusions of the other The Author puts the believing Jews in mind of this demonstration in the Verse preceeding the Text for the Gospel appear'd in its beginnings full of glory and power And afterwards he argues that the testimony of the Apostles could not be rejected for they were eye-witnesses of his Majesty They did not follow cunningly devis'd fables they were most unlikely of all men to impose upon the World being destitute of that artifice and subtilty that recommend secular interests and contrivances And therefore the Christians might without any scruple or fear receive the Gospel as the undoubted Truth of God the infallible Method of his Wisdom for the recovery of Mankind THE Text is the abstract of the whole Gospel having couch'd in it the History of our Misery and Recovery and the method whereby this wonderful contrivance was accomplish'd In speaking to it I sum up all I have to say in these four Particulars 1. THAT there is a Corruption in the World 2. THAT this Corruption may be escaped 3. THAT we escape this Corruption by the great and precious Promises of the Gospel 4. THAT the Design and Tendency of the Promises is to make us partakers of the Divine Nature 1. THERE is a Corruption in the World We
when shall I come and appear before God 2. To make the Sacrifice Acceptable it must needs be offered unto God without retractation with a chearful liberal Soul And this no doubt was the Essential difference between the Sacrifice of Cain and Abel Abel gave his Sacrifice with a bountiful benign Soul Cain gave his with a penurious unwilling Miâ—d And therefore the Author to the Hebrews tells us that Abel offering unto God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a more plentiful Sacrifice he gave it with a Soul as vast aâ— the whole Universe he came to the Altar with a heart fir'd with Love to the divine Honour But Cain drew a black Picture of God in his own Mind aâ—d therefore he came with affections as â—ark as the Vaults of Hell a mean and knavish Soul who measur'd the Almigâ—ty by no other Standard than that of hiâ— own angry and troubled Mind God is the God of Love nay he is Love it self Let all our Sacrifices thereore be enflam'd with true Love this nakes the Incense burn on the Altar with a sweet smelling savour this unites â—s to that blessed Company above whosâ— very Life is made up of chearfulness hâ—rmony and alacrity of Spirit 3. â—f the Sacrifice be Acceptable it must â—e offered of such things as the Law allowed to be sacrific'd Hence that known distinction of things clean and unclean What we sacrifice unto God under the New Testament must be something within the Circle of his Commandment It is a wild fancy and Enthusiastick madness for men to think that for the glory of God we nay turn sanguinary Rebels and barbarous Murderers as if the glory of God could be advanc'd by violating his Laws and renversing the boundaries between Good and Evil. True Religion grows upon the Foundation of Reason and is so congenial to our Nature that the one cannot act regularly without the other Do not we think that the Almighty is infinitely Wise and powerful to act for his Church Why do these unreasonable Men officiously interpose by their unhallowed Sacrifices and strange Fire They pretend to serve God zeaously when they let loose those Passions the suppressing whereof is the most acceptable Sacrifice NOW I have sufficiently demonstrated what was intended by the â—ncient Sacrifices and what the Christia Sacrifices ought to be And that is no other than this which is recommended in the Text. The first Christians were derided because of the simplicity of their Religion and their Apologists unanimously declar'd that God respected no Man for any external Excellencies or Advantages it was the pure and holy Soul that he delighted in He stands not in need of Blood Smoak Perfumes or Incense the best Sacrifice is to offer up a Mind truly devoted to his fear and this is certainly our most reasonable service And this leads me to enquire IN the third and last Place into the Motive whereby he enforces his Exhortation and that is It is your reasonable Service It is the Rational Worship opposite to the foolish Pageantry of the Pagan Ceremonies and the cumbersom Yoke of the Jewish Law It is that rational Adoration of God that is founded upon the Eternal Rules of immutable Reason and not oâ— variable Constitutions This Sacrifice then may be call'd in the strictest sense the Rational Worship I. BECAUSE our Reason was given us for this very end that we might converse with God This is the End that God had in his view in our first Creation Let us make man in our Image There is nothing capable of conversing with God but that which hath some resemblances of himself Society is for Delight and therefore we cannot converse but with such as are like our selves In our first Creation God made us after his own Image that he might converse with us 2. THIS is Reason in its highest Elevation It cannot be rais'd higher than thus to sacrifice it self to God For here we converse with the most perfect Object and in the noblest manner and with the purest Delight True Reason is a Beam of the Divinity a Ray of that first Light that enlivens all things and the nearer it draws to the Center the more it is itself If Truth and Light and clear Perception be the Life of the Soul then no doubt the nearer we draw unto the Original Truth the more we are our selves the more we act according to Reason and the Primitive Excellency of our Souls THIS is the true Life of the Soul the nearer approaches that it makes to matter in all its Appetites the nearer it is to Death it self and therefore our present state when we wrestle with the Tentations that assault us from the lower World is but a state of Misery Anxiety and Darkness if we compare it with that state of pure and unmixt Light where our Souls are made free from these unwieldy Tabernacles Now they are confin'd in their operations to some few and dull Senses but when we are got above this little Globe of Earth we may reasonably presume that our Souls will then display new Powers and Faculties upon new Objects which could not be exerc'd in its state of Union to this corruptible Body and will feel themselves more at liberty and uncon-fin'd and loos'd from that manner of Operation that their Kindred to an earthly Body did oblige them to nay the Philosophy of Plato gave noble Ideas of the state of Separation but our Blessed Saviour alone hath brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel 'T is He that hath revealed by the Father unto us and taught us to approach him with that rational and manly Worship that became the true Sons of God and the Heirs of eternal Life The more therefore that we are purified from Sensuality and the nearer we draw to the Life of the Blessed Jesus and the accurate Rules of his Gospel the more dispos'd and the more ripe we are for the felicities of the World to come and the Life of the Spirits of just men made perfect 3. THIS Religious Reason is the Characteristick difference of our Nature So that Man is better defin'd by Religion than by Reason without Religion The inferiour Creatures have some dark Vestiges of Reason Sagacity and Conduct but no shadow of Religion then may not we venture to say that Reason separately considered without Religion will not make up the Essential difference of our Nature The Philosophick Orator informs us that there is no Nation so savage and unpolished but that they had their Religious Solemnities their Gods and their Sacrifices And tho Cesar tells us of some of the old Germans that they had neither Priests nor Sacrifices yet they worshipped the Moon and the Fire Thus Religion seems to be the hereditary Ingredient of our Nature we must shake off what is most intimate to our Souls unless we employ our Reason in the Worship of God 4. THIS is a Reasonable Service because there
that Omnipotence was ingaged in their defence and confirmed their Doctrine When Jupiter and Aesculapius were not able to relieve any of their votaries no not in those Diseases that might be remov'd by the orderly application of Medicine Thus we see that Miracles were absolutely necessary to prove that He was the Great and Glorious Messias And 2. THEY were necessary to confound and baffle the Devil To disposless Satan and break the force of his Kingdom Now when we consider the prejudices that many entertain'd against Christianity in its first appearance how much the World at that time was sunk into the grossest Folly and Vanity how contrary the Doctrine of Jesus and his followers was unto the biass of Mankind how concern'd the Devil was all the World over to uphold his tottering Throne I say when we remember all this and the strange opposition that the Gospel met with we must acknowledge the great necessity of Miracles that we may give a reasonable account of the progress of Christianity the Power of Miracles was a palpable demonstration that reach'd the Learn'd and the Unlearn'd THE jugling tricks of Daemons when in competition with the useful and conspicuous Miracles of the Apostles vanish'd like dreams The Devil was not baffled so much by any thing as by this when he was forc'd out of all quarters and began to yield and give ground wherever the Christians came he retreated with shame and confusion at the Name of Jesus his Altars fell his Oracles were silenc'd and his Sacrifices deserted It was the usual method of the Apostles first to work a Miracle and then declare to the People in whose Name and by whose Authority they had done it An instance whereof we have in S. Peter's curing the Criple that lay at the beautiful gate of the Temple WHEN we reflect upon the strange effect of their endeavours and that such mean persons as they were should prevail upon so many both learn'd and unlearn'd and that not only in barbarous and obscure places but in Rome Alexandria and Antioch and against the whole combination of the strongest prejudices that we can imagine We must enquire into the rational account of it which cannot be resolv'd into the evidence of the thing it self nor unto the credit of their Testimony but unto the undeniable Power of God discovering it self in their miraculous Actions It had certainly been impossible to have subdued the World to Christ without it and as impossible was it for reasonable men to resist the Evidence of such a heavenly demonstration THIS Argument is prosecuted at length by Origen against Celsus where he proves that the Apostles did not so much convert the World by their Sermons as by their Actions When the Souls of Men were drowned in sensuality nothing less than such a cogent demonstration as reach'd both Soul and Body could prevail upon them to so Heavenly a Religion They did not put their Auditors to the trouble of making tedious enquiries into the Nature and validity of their Testimony but prevented all disquisitions of that kind by this infallible Proof AND what rational man could desire any other proof than the immediate attestation of a Divine Power Who could doubt and dispute when he had seen the most Tyrannical and stubborn Devils dispossessed the sick healed and the dead raised By this prevailing and mighty demonstration they bore away their Understandings banish'd all their Scruples and forced open a passage into all their Affections by this means the Gospel prevailed so easily and so speedily over all the World And this Power was so vulgarly known at that time that S. Paul insists upon it as a proof of his true Apostleship Now it adds great weight unto this Argument that the power of Miracles was not confin'd to the Apostolical Age but was continued down to the next Age. WHAT bold Challenges do we meet with in all the Apologetick Writings of the first Christians Offering themselves to the Tryal to see if the Devil be able to stand his ground when he is commanded to retire in the Name of Jesus Justin Martyr in his first Apologie tells the Emperor and Senate that if they pleased they might inform themselves of our Lords power over their Daemons by what was daily done under their eyes And Tertullian c. 23. of his Apologie defies the Heathens in the tartest Language Set before your Tribunals said he any Person that is possess'd and let any Christian command the Daemon to confess what he is he shall confess himself to be a Devil as he did formerly pretend to be a God And Origen in his Book against Celsus triumphs in nothing so much as this We have says he such ways of demonstration as far outstrips all your Greekish way of proof even the demonstration of the Spirit and of Power To them I add Lactantius de Origine Erroris Lib. 2. c. 15. Where he tells us that the Devils are afraid of them that Worship the Living God THIS way of Demonstration was most successful not only to the Conviction of Mankind but also most terrible to the Devils Kingdom And 3. FULLY adequate to the expectations of both Jews and Gentiles The Jews could not reject this kind of proof for they believed their own Religion because founded by Miracles which made the name of Moses so famous amongst them and now and then it was attested by the Miracles of the following Prophets They could not then reject the Miracles of our Saviour without the grossest absurdity and inconsistency to their own Principles AND as to the rest of Mankind it could not but convince the most barbarous amongst them their being no Principles so much received by the Light of Nature as this that the Author of Nature only could change and renverse at his pleasure and to serve the ends of his Providence the Laws of Nature So we find the Barbarians in the 28. of the Acts when they saw that S. Paul shook off the Viper that had fastened on his hand and felt no harm They acknowledg'd it a Miracle and quickly chang'd their Opinion of him They formerly took him for a Malefactor now they take him for a God So deep is this sense left upon the minds of all Men that a Miracle is a sufficient proof of Divine Authority And now we see plainly that the demonstration of the Spirit at the first propagation of the Gospel was the most suitable and rational Evidence whether for convincing the Jews or confounding the Daemons of the Gentiles or for the satisfaction of all Men there was no proof more proper none could be more successful Therefore was it so pertinently alledg'd by our Apostle against the foolish cavils of them that understood not the nature of such a mighty Demonstration I MIGHT now vindicate what I have said concerning Miracles from the Objections of the Jews and Pagans but they are so foolish and trifling that they need not be nam'd When they object
Therefore they must needs invent a Religion that is calculated to serve their designs and to silence the troublesome alarms of their mind But be not you deceived God is not mocked for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap Our Saviour set himself to undeceive the World in this great affair and to remove the Pharisaical paint and varnish from the Law and to let us understand that our God is not an Idol that he values no Sacrifices but such as resemble his Nature For he is a Spirit and must be worshiped in Spirit and in Truth 2. A SECOND part of our Saviour's design was to give true repose and tranquillity to the Spirits of Men. Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest The inward disorder of our Spirits is the cause of all our trouble when the Light of the Gospel removes our Errors and by its beams warms our affections the day-star from on high ariseth in our breasts our fears and dreadful apprehensions are over and there is a perfect calm and tranquillity One great instruction in our Saviour's Commission was to bind up the broken hearted The Souls of Men are at variance with themselves until they are united unto God He fixes their Spirits in their operations and choice and creates within them that harmony and peace which the World cannot give them Then they are arm'd against all events and disasters they are like a Rock of Adamant immoveable against the most tempestuous waves and storms the winds may blow and the storms may threaten and beat upon the Rock with the loudest roarings but they are quickly beat back into froth and disappointment The righteous are like mount Zion which cannot be mov'd THAT it was a part of our Saviour's design to establish this tranquillity of Spirit appears from this very Sermon on the Mount where he endeavours by so many arguments to fortifie us against all fears discouragments and solicitude The Wisdom of God levell'd the strongest arguments against the most desperate diseases and therefore the Doctrine of the Gospel in all its branches hath an admirable tendency to create this peace When we believe that all things are ordered and dispos'd by an universal infinitely wise unlimited and active Providence With what acquiescence and serenity of Spirit may we give up all things to his conduct and government Not a hair of your head falleth to the ground without his pleasure The nature and frame of all the Graces of the Spirit the whole spiritual furniture of the Gospel naturally lead to peace love joy and meekness We are assured that all things work together for good to them that love God Even our light afflictions that endure but for a moment work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory And the belief of this establishes the mind against all the shakings of adversity And we may add to all the former considerations that we are frequently exhorted to place our affections on the things that are above to leave this World ' its hurry and noise and to get above it in our affections and to view with satisfaction and ease amidst our lowest depressions that Country that is above 3. ANOTHER part of our Saviour's design was to unite us together in the straitest bonds of humane society In order to which he hath made Love the badge and character of his profession So exactly fulfilling the Prophecies concerning the Messias that in his days the Wolf should dwell with the Lamb the Leopard and the Kid should ly down together i. e. that the fierceness of human Nature should be banish'd and all the rugged and uneven excrescencies of passion the boisterous swellings of humour should be filed off John the Baptist told that every valley should be fill'd and every mountain brought low the crooked should be made straight and the rough ways should be made smooth i. e. All injustice fraud and oppression all pride hypocrisie and violence should give place unto everlasting righteousness every one should keep his own post and move in his own Orb with contentment and sobriety Hence Servants are exhorted not to repine at their condition for as the members of the body natural must hold their distance and situation so must the members of the body political 4. ANOTHER part of his design was to liberate us from the Yoke of Moses Law I only name this particular I will not insist on it at present Now if the design of Christian Religion was to restore true morality the image of God humility patience the love of God and contempt of the World and to discover the hypocrisie and wickedness of the Pharisees Let us then enquire In the Second place IN what instances the Pharisaical Religion did cross the Christian and we shall discover the manifest opposition of the one to the other When we consider 1 THE Vices that they were most addicted to 2. THE Prejudices that they were blinded with 3. THE Maxims and shifts that they espous'd into their Doctrine to defend their wickedness and immoralities 1. Do but consider the Vices that they were most addicted to Pride contrary to the humility of the Gospel Avarice in opposition to that contempt of the World that our Saviour taught Hypocrisie that overthrows the ingenuity recommended and enjoyn'd by our Religion Revenge Cruelty and Rebellion contrary to the Loyalty Meekness and Obedience of our most holy Faith We are inform'd by Josephus though he was himself much addicted to the Sect of the Pharisees that they were a crafty and subtile generation of men and so perverse even to Princes themselves that they would not fear many times openly to affront them They had a mighty ascendent over the People and by their long prayers superstitious tricks and disfigur'd faces they got the Rable once of their side and by their interest in the multitude they became terrible to the Governours Alexander Jannaeus when he lay a dying advis'd his Queen not to irritate and displease the Pharisees and told her plainly that this was the very thing that deriv'd the Odium of the Nation upon him that he had comply'd so little with that restless and pragmatick Generation IF the Vices of the Pharisees prevail amongst the Christians what a reproach is it unto us and to our Religion When we remember that we are to obey for Conscience sake We may easily see that there is nothing more opposite to Christianity than Rebellion And this very Sect amongst the Jews strove to advance their Religious Tyranny above the Highest Powers as if they had been bred near the Infallible Chair or a General Assembly Many Popes declar'd it to be of necessity to Salvation to every humane Creature to be subject to the Roman Pontiff and the instances are many as they are undeniable Therefore we are smoothly told by some of them that this is not matter of Faith but Discipline I confess it is
Discipline and that of the severest kind for a King to be depos'd and sent to a Monastery as Childerick was And the power by which this was done is said by Bellarmine to be acknowledg'd communi catholicorum sententiâ and I think that he understood their Doctrine as well as any other BUT the Genius of this Sect among the Jews will appear 2. IF we consider the Prejudices wherewith they were blinded and which kept them from believing our Saviour to be the Messias Now lest I should seem to make up an account of their prejudices against our Saviour that is purely imaginary I shall confine my Narration only to the New Testament And 1. THE Pharisees valued themselves on the Authority of Moses Chair And this they magnify'd to that height that they impos'd their dictates on all men for infallible Oracles The People they thought should receive their Opinions without scruple or hesitation They only understood the Law and the true meaning of it and if any had been at any time so daring and presumptuous as to question their Skill and Integrity he was presently Excommunicated This was the severest Tyranny over Mens Consciences not to see with those Eyes that God gave them was very hard And yet those very Men that valued themselves on the Authority of Moses Chair declar'd sitting in Council from that very Chair that our Saviour was an Impostor So we have the Church in her Soveraign representatives erring with a witness BUT our blessed Redeemer reasoned men into the belief of his Doctrine It was with an eye to this pretended Infallibility that our Saviour sorbad his Disciples to be called Rabbi Father or Master upon the Earth We cannot think that ever he design'd to take away the distinctions of Order and civil Dependance for there is no institution that establishes the subordination of inferiour degrees upon such sure and lasting Foundations as Ours doth Yet in the place lately cited he reproves the imperious Vanity of them that requir'd a blind and implicite Obedience to their Command that would oblige the People to receive all that they say without Examination or Tryal and if any of his Disciples would set up for a Rabbi or Master in that sense he tells them plainly that it was inconsistent with the weakness and dependance of humane Nature for one was their Master even Christ A SECOND Prejudice against our Saviour and his Doctrine was the Opinion of their own Tradition which they affirmed to have been deriv'd from Moses together with the written Law and these Traditions they multiply'd unto infinite fancies and scrupulosities So that their Religion now became an intolerable burthen to their memories When any ventur'd to transgress their Traditions they persecuted him with spite and indignation S. Paul tells us of himself that when he was a Pharisee he was zealous of the Traditions of the Fathers and that he thought himself obliged to do many things against the name of Jesus WHEN they saw the Disciples of our Saviour transgressing their little rules and observances they rudely quarrel with him and asked Why do thy Disciples transgress the Tradition of the Elders And our Saviour answered why do you also transgress the Commandment of God by your Tradition And with the same severity he again reproves their Superstition For laying aside the Commandment of God ye hold the Tradition of men As if he had said you pretend by your Traditions to explain the Law but your Commentaries make it not only more dark and intricate but entirely overthrow it and instead of solving one difficulty you create a thousand And such Reproofs as these are frequently mixt with our Saviour's Sermons We are not to understand the universal Traditions of the Jewish Church than which there cannot be a better evidence of a matter of Fact but we are here to understand the particular Doctrines that creep'd into the Church in its last and more degenerate periods by which men promoted their private Ambition and impos'd their peculiar Tenents with no other design than to raise their own Reputation upon the ruins of Gods Law and Authority A THIRD Prejudice was their Doctrine of Dispensations And this was indeed one of their most pernicious maxims by which they weakened the strength of the Law upon Mens Consciences Our Saviour took notice of this gross abuse obliquely in the verse before my Text And more directly reproves it in the Gospel of S. Mark Their Doctrine of the Corban was the most unnatural and hellish contrivance that ever was hatched under the pretence of their Vow and Religion to desert their Parents as if the obligations of Nature were to be shaken off and evacuated by the ties and engagements of Religion as if we could not be Religious in an eminent degree unless first we renounc'd humanity and tenderness When Religion undermines its own foundation then it becomes the saddest and most incurable Disease Christianity rectifies the disorders of our Nature and yet some Christians pretend Religion to authorize the most barbarous villanies and have invented little arts and knavish subterfuges to hide their hypocrisie and design under the vizor of Religion 4. A FOURTH Prejudice against the Simplicity of our Saviour's Doctrine and Appearance was the splendor of their outward Worship and Ceremonies They doated on the Temple of Jerusalem and thought that God had confin'd his favour peculiarly to that place So they look upon the Fabrick of it with Transport and Admiration The Temple of the Lord The Temple of the Lord are these And it seems that our Saviour's Disciples looked on the the Temple with more than ordinary fondness when he told them that there should not a stone of it be lest upon another There were three things in this Religion that dazl'd mens eyes and inchanted their affections 1. The outward Pomp and Splendor of it 2. The Severities of some outward observances And 3. Their corrupt Maxims by which they forc'd their Religion contrary to its original purity to comply with their Lusts and all these things made it a Religion wholly opposite to the Christian I MIGHT name their pride and uncharitableness towards all that differ'd from them their superstitious niceness in little things in tithing Mint Annise and Cummin and their mighty Zeal to make Proselytes All which are over and over again reprov'd in the New Testament NOW when they stood upon such unreasonable prejudices and defended their Doctrines by little distinctions and maxims of their own invention They could not but be proof against the Doctrine and Miracles of our blessed Saviour 1. They taught that if men obeyed the Law externally they needed not trouble themselves with the reformation of the heart And with regard to this pernicious Maxim our Saviour tells us in the Text that except our righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees we shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven We could not exceed the Pharisees in
that kind of Religion to which they were most addicted And therefore our Religion must needs be of another stamp entirely pure gentle easie to be intreated full of good works without partiality and without hypocrisie 2. They thought that they might compensate for moral Miscarriages by long prayers and bodily severities And they would gladly submit to any thing rather than reform what ought to be truly amended 3. They believ'd they might merit eternal Life by the observation of one Precept though they liv'd in the habitual contempt and violation of all the rest Such a Precept they took their Sabbath to be WHEN we view the pure and unaffected complexion of our Religion how great an Enemy it is to all unworthy shifts and disguises how generous and refin'd above that Spirit that prevails in the World how amiable in the Eyes of God and Men then I say we may easily perceive that there is nothing more opposite unto it than that peevish superstition and hypocrisie that prevail'd in the Jewish Church when our Saviour appear'd And to the end that we may feel the force of our Religion to the best advantages Let us observe the following Directions 1. WE must understand our Religion thorowly and fix it in our Souls by the most accurate and serious consideration For though the motives of Christianity be of that moment that they may easily conquer our Souls yet unless they are duly applyed by Thought Reason and Meditation they loose their force and efficacy and they never impart to us the least degree of spiritual courage and activity God assaults our Reason in the first place and when we are overcome by Argument we are then a willing People we are Subjects by our choice and not by constraint Therefore are we frequently to view and consider the motives and arguments of our Religion and weigh them in the balance against the difficulties that oppose us That when we have examin'd and seriously debated whatsoever makes for or against our being Christians we may go forth to meet our Enemy with spiritual furniture and strength Shall the World and its triffling Interests notwithstanding that we are convinc'd of its emptiness and vanity take up so many of our Thoughts And shall we forget our immortal Souls and the Judgment to come Religion enters the Soul by Meditation and no Man can be Religious but by the acts of his Mind It is a reasonable service that we are call'd to and to make us continue in it with delight our Reason must be first engag'd How necessary this consideration is our Saviour represents in the Gospel of S. Luke What King goeth out to war doth not first sit down and consider if with his ten thousand he be able to meet him that comes against him with twenty thousand Or if a man resolve to build a Tower he first computes the expence and then he builds SUCH as are hastily engag'd in the service of Religion are frequently forc'd to retire with shame and dishonour And this is the usual result of rash and unsettled purposes which men make in the heat of their passion and under the power of some transient conviction 2. WE are always to perfer the Morals of Religion to its lesser Appendages and Ceremonies and to remember that the last are only subservient to advance the first True Christian Life is the Transcript of the Divine Nature Be ye holy as I am holy And again Be ye merciful as your Father in heaven is merciful There are such legible impressions of the Divine Nature felt in the Souls of the Regenerate that they attract his presence they are his peculiar habitations where he fixes his residence Nothing so enlarges the Spirit of a Man as to fix his eyes on the Life of Jesus to view with attention and delight how much he was above the World when environ'd with its terrors and flatteries He spoke of the invisible things as one does of his own Country He reason'd men out of their folly by all the force and weight of Heaven and Eternity And if we allow him to speak to our Consciences it is not possible to resist his reasonings He went about doing good He made himself accessible to us by the interposal of his humanity that we might see as well as hear the beauties of Christian Religion He taught us a Doctrine that is exactly calculated to refine our Nature to make us better in all relations And by this rule we are to examine the different pretences of all divided Parties If they advance by the plainest and nearest methods true Piety Innocency and Simplicity and propagate them in the Spirit of Love Unity and Subordination this is the surest mark to know that they belong to the Household of Faith 3. WE are here but Pilgrims and Strangers we are so to demean our selves as Candidates for Eternity Our Christian Life is but a flight from the World and the more we are alienated from the Spirit that prevails in it the more ripe we are for that incorruptible inheritance that is reserv'd for us Let us make the things of another World present to our selves by Faith For the fashion of this World passeth away And we are shortly to appear before Gods Tribunal stript naked of all the thin cobwebs and excuses whereby we endeavour'd to hide our deformities upon Earth 4. And lastly WHEN you have deliberately resolv'd consider the evil of back-sliding and its dreadful consequences There are but few who plainly and openly deny the Faith unto which they are Baptized yet many hundreds deny the Lord that bought them by their wicked Lives and unchristian Practices Now the just shall live by Faith but if any man draw back my Soul shall have no pleasure in him But we are not of them who draw back into perdition but of them that believe to the saving of the Soul To God the Father Son and Holy Ghost be all Glory Praise and Dominion for ever Amen A SERMON Preached on Whitsunday 1688. ON ACTS ii v. 1 2 3 4. And when the day of Pentecost was fully come they were all with one accord in one place And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind and it filled all the house where they were sitting And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire and it sat upon each of them And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance THE Christian Church from the Ascension of our Blessed Saviour into Heaven until the Effusion of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles was full of great expectations and great fears they had not yet quite broke off from the Communion of the Jewish Church yet they continued in their solitude and retirements and in the true exercise of Charity and Patience until our Saviour should scatter his Royal Donatives upon his solemn and magnificent entrance into the
Heavens By which Gifts and Graces the Apostles were enabled to assert the Truth of our Religion boldly and proclaim the glad tidings of Salvation to all Nations and the Literal Judaism was to give place to the Mystical and the Messias was not only to be the Glory of his people Israel but a Light to lighten the Gentiles OUR Saviour after his Resurrection gave all assurance to the Apostles that he would send them another Comforter when He was gone unto the Father an Advocate to plead his Cause successfully one who should inspire them with strength and skill to defie and resist all the Calumnies and Slanders of Infidelity and therefore they ought not to give way either to grief sorrow or despondency For all Power in Heaven and in Earth was given to their Lord and Master He was highest in the Glory of the Father He was not only declared to be the Son of God by his Resurrection from the dead but God did highly exalt him and gave him a Name which is above every Name that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in Heaven and things in Earth and things under the Earth He instructed them formerly in the Spiritual Oeconomy of his Kingdom that they needed not be ashamed of the Doctrine of the Cross that it behov'd Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day to the end that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his Name throughout all Nations beginning at Jerusalem and withal that He was not unmindful of his Promise that He made before He was crucified now that he was risen from the dead but He assured them He would send the Promise of the Father upon them so much to their comfort success and satisfaction that the whole World should take notice of it In the mean time they were to remain quiet and knit together at Jerusalem until this Promise was fulfilled HE had before at their Ordination and formal Admission into the highest Order of the Church breathed on them and bad them receive the Holy Ghost By the which they were invested with a Legal and Authoritative Title to act as the Ambassadors of Jesus Christ to proclaim his Laws to require the Obedience of all Nations to convey this Power unto others to erect a new Society distinct from all Secular Incorporations to bind and loose by the Censures of the Church but still notwithstanding of their Authority they remain'd without strength until the solemn and magnificent Effusion of the Holy Ghost by which their Tongues being fired from Heaven their opposers were not able to resist the Wisdom by which they spake Now was the Prophecy of Joel fulfilled in the highest sense and so S. Peter applies it to this astonishing and heavenly manifestation And it shall come to pass in the last days saith God I will poure out of my Spirit on all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophesie and your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams THERE are who distinguish in the Writings of the New Testament between the Holy Ghost and the Spirit and that the Spirit signifies the Power of Miracles healing the Sick casting out of Devils restoring sight to the Blind raising the Dead by all which our Saviour proved himself to be the true Messias And by the Holy Ghost they think we ought to understand the wonderful Gifts of Utterance of Languages of Interpretation of Mysteries by which the Apostles were enabled in a moment to confound all the arts and oppositions of their enemies to run down with evidence all the calumnies and reproaches invented either by Jew or Gentile against the Person Life Doctrine or Miracles of our blessed Saviour BUT we shall have a better view of this when we fix our Meditations on that part of Scripture that I have read and consider it in all its mutual aspects and relations then I will endeavour to gather the several Branches of it together again in the Application WE find that the Apostles did exactly obey the Command of our Saviour they tarried at Jerusalem waiting for the promise of the Father The Text hath in it the accomplishment of this Promise and because it is so peculiar to this day to commemorate the Effusion of the Holy Ghost with the highest Joy and Gratitude I will invite your attention to these three Particulars in the words that I have read 1. THE disposition that the Apostles were in to receive the Holy Ghost they were all with one accord in one place 2. THE sensible Emblem of it manifested 1. To their Ears in the second Verse and to their Eyes in the third Verse And 3. HERE is the Accomplishment of the Promise the success and the appearance of it they were all filled with the Holy Ghost they began to speak with other Tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance 1. Consider the Disposition that they were in to receive it They were all with one accord in one place The Holy Spirit cannot dwell in those Breasts that are gangreen'd with discords jars and animosities All our wild passions and unfriendly humours must be hush'd into silence at the approach of this heavenly Guest he chuses for his residence habitation those pure and innocent Souls that breath nothing but love candor simplicity and meekness the secret retirements of the Mind where he dwells must be made smooth even and regular the rugged and intricate circuits of Hypocrisie Hatred and Envy are inconsistent with his Presence He loves to fix his residence where there are some beautiful Lineaments of himself The peaceableness the charity the mutual love and zeal of promoting the welfare of one another was so remarkable in the first Christians that we must needs confess they were acted by a Spirit beyond the World this peace and love and unanimity is so essential to the Christian Religion that our Saviour made it the badge and Character of his Disciples hereby shall all men know that you are my disciples if ye love one another It is the fulfilling of the Law without it there is no access for our Prayers We are commanded when we bring our gift to the Altar to leave it there unoffered until we are reconciled to our brother And we are directed by the Apostle St. Paul to lift up holy hands without wrath or doubting In a word the wisdom that is from above is first pure then peaceable easie to be intreated full of mercy and good fruits without partiality and without hypocrisie And a little before he telleth us that bitter envyings and strife are the Companions of that wisdom that is earthly sensual and devilish Nay this Hatred and Enmity makes up the very nature of the Devil and if you could divide him and his Malice he were no more a Devil nor opposite to God for God is Love and they that dwell in God dwell in Love and the frequent repetitions of
Scythians fierce Germans the proud Romans and soft Grecians and Persians renounc'd their peculiar Idols and calmly surrender'd their Necks to His easie Yoke according to the Prophecy of Zachary that the names of the Idols should be cut off and were no more to be remembred WE may safely affirm that no Religion did ever spread its Wings so wide as the Christian which made the South and the North East and West meet together in their acknowledgments of the Blessed Jesus When the Languages of the old World were divided Mankind was scattered but the Gift of Tongues poured upon the Apostles united all Nations into the most harmonious Society THE Meditation of this ought to enlarge our Souls with generous inclinations towards the recovery of all Mankind unto the acknowledgment of the Truth How ought we to pray that God would be pleas'd to make his wayes known unto all sorts and conditions of men and his saving health unto all Nations There are no Charities so noble nor so well plac'd as when we convert a sinner from the error of his way The Gospel is a sovereign remedy to remove the blindness and stupidity of the whole World if we were zealous enough to promote it how shameful is it for such as have large Dominions and great Power upon Earth that they are not more busied in contriving Methods how the sound of the Gospel may reach the utmost ends of the Earth How few of them that are born without the inclosure of the Church come over to our Religion now a days And this is not to be imputed to our Religion it self but to our coldness and indifferency about it and that we do not live up to the height and purity of its Rules the mighty success that it had in the Primitive Ages in defiance of all malice and opposition sufficiently proves that it came from Heaven And this leads me to the consideration of the next word that follows 2. IT came from heaven We are told by the Psalmist that God bringeth the wind out of his treasuries but this wind that came from heaven hath a nearer claim to Gods peculiar Treasury than those Winds that are stor'd up in the dark Caverns of the Earth This was the breath of God it did not blow from the Earth nor from Humane Counsels nor from the highest Regions of the Air but from Heaven it self from the Throne of the Most High A Wind it was that blew with Majesty rather than Fury Strength rather than Boisterousness they felt some heavenly Charm in the noise that filled the room it rais'd their attention and their ears to something high and extraordinary and the surprize of its swiftness could not hinder a secret joy a mighty elevation of Spirit which cannot be named and which strongly convinc'd the Apostles that this wind came from heaven and that it was the mighty voice of God And this may appear if we consider 1. THE things that they utter'd when they were filled with it A heavenly Doctrine full of Light and Majesty a Doctrine that not only assured us of Immortality but taught us also the infallible Methods to arrive at it a Doctrine that filled our ears with new sublime unheard of Mysteries God manifested in the Flesh justified in the Spirit seen of Angels preached unto the Gentiles believed on in the World received up into Glory How far were these great Truths beyond the Speculations of Plato and the little Metaphysical Subtilties of the Peripateticks 2. THIS may appear if we consider the Change and Affections that this Doctrine wrought in its Proselytes this wind did not blow them up into airy and fantastick apprehensions into proud and supercilious thoughts it taught no arts of gathering treasures nor of making themselves great in the World but it lifted their Souls above it to the place whence it came and it taught them to trample upon its glories to despise its fears and overlook all its splendor and to set their affections upon the things that are above where Jesus is inthroned in the highest Power and Majesty Now 't is evident that no such change could be wrought by Natural Causes for men acted by Natural Principles can go no higher than such Maxims can carry them but to love God to crucifie the flesh with the affections and lusts thereof to forgive injuries to despise the World all the things that our appetites formerly did headlong run into must proceed from some Supernatural and Divine force it carries us above our own level and makes us to feel that He that is in us is greater than he that is in the world This Argument is frequently insisted on by first Apologists for our Religion 3. IT appears to have been from Heaven in its Method and Operation and immediate Effects upon the Apostles which exceeded all Art and Nature that men illiterate and without education most of them come to a considerable Age that they should speak the Languages of all Nations who a little before understood but one Language and that the rudest Dialect of their own Nation This wonderful matter must needs be referr'd to some supernatural Cause 3. LET us take notice where this sound was heard and the Text saith that it filled the house where they were The Inspirations of the Holy Ghost are not casual and fortuitous but ordered by Infinite Counsel and Wisdom This is the wind that bloweth where it listeth in the strictest sense it filled that house it blew by discretion and election upon the house where the Apostles resided to let us it may be understand that the Holy Ghost to the end of the World is to be received in the fellowship of the Apostles and their Successors it is the precious Ointment first poured upon their heads and from them to the skirts of the Church in all Ages There are many Spirits gone forth into the World with a boisterous noise and they pretend their descent from Heaven but if they have forsaken the fellowship of the Apostles and broken the ligaments of peace and order by which the Catholick Church as a Spiritual Society is knit together if they run cross to the Spirit of Unity by which we are oblig'd to believe the Communion of Saints in that case we are quickly undeceiv'd they are certainly from below they are not directed by the Wisdom that is from above nor have they their rise from Heaven but from the Earth and are blown up by some subterraneous Vapours that end in nothing but in a little vain glory faction and popular applause THE Holy Ghost in its most plentiful Effusions came down upon the Apostles according to the nature of their high and difficult employment and the circumstances of the Church at that time and it was to fall in lesser drops to the end of the World upon all that are sent by God for the services of the Altar who have their Mission from the Apostles by regular conveyance and succession 2.
his Laws to slight his Invitation When we add to this the consideration of those things that are provided for us in this Feast we may easily see the folly of slighting it the pardon of our Sins is sealed the peace and tranquillity of our Consciences are confirmed our spiritual strength and fortitude are recruited and we are enabled to grapple with all our Enemies more successfully we are strengthened beyond our frailties to run the Race that is set before us ARE not we by our baptismal Vows already listed under his Standard Are not we confederated with him when we are received into the Christian Church How inconsistent is it with our spiritual Allegiance to reject the offers of his Love and trample under foot his most solemn Commands This is treachery and perfidiousness in the highest degree 2. CONSIDER the circumstances of his Love wherewith this Institution was appointed He lived with his Disciples for a considerable time in the full exercise of Patience Meekness and Humility He gave them an Example that they should follow his steps He train'd them up by his Sermons and by his Miracles in the discipline and knowledg of his Kingdom and Scepter He frequently to their own conviction baffled the contradictions of the Jews and endeavour'd to remove their prejudices by all the Methods that the highest Wisdom and Goodness thought proper for their cure He proved himself to be the true Messias by many infallible Signs and now at last when he had run out the course of his publick Ministry and solemnized the last Passeover and was ready to offer himself a publick Propitiatory Sacrifice for the sins of the World he appointed this Sacrament as the highest the last and the most solemn Seal and Pledge of his Love to the Church the Abstract and Memorial of all that he did upon Earth and of all that he taught and of all that he promised in the World to come the conveyance of those great and rich Blessings that are procured by his Death and Passion when we remember I say such a confluence of endearing circumstances how can we refuse our presence and obedience How strong are the Charms of his Love What heighth of Courage what degrees of Constancy were necessary to support him against the shock of so many Affronts and Indignities Who can read the History of his Passion and not see the inconceivable condescensions of God Who can view the progress of that Tragedy and not be astonished when we consider the incomprehensible Love of God that he who was God took upon him the form of a servant with no other design than to accomplish the work of our Redemption and that he drew the Map of his life and sufferings in this ravishing Ordinance that the Church might remember the glorious Adventures of his Love by this Eucharistical Sacrifice how monstrous is the ingratitude if we seem to neglect it IN that Night wherein he was betrayed how Emphatick and how full of Love are these words the fury of his Enemies the rage and malice of the Jews the treachery of one of his Disciples the faintness and weakness of all of them could not so divert his thoughts but that our greatest concerns were next his very heart and lest we should forget such glorious things he abridged the History of all the Gospel in this one plain Rite and Institution His Life and Doctrine and all the proofs of our Religion he sums up in one easie Ceremony so that this Sacrament is the Compend of all Religion the very Holy of Holies and the top of all Christian joy and comfort if we consider such circumstances so engaging in the first Institution of this Sacrament we cannot refuse our attendance if we break not thorough all the bonds of Piety and Humanity and renverse all the Laws of gratitude and good nature 3. WE may easily discern our Obligation to it from the practice of the first Christians and the value put upon it by the whole Church The Apostles and their Successors for the first three hundred years were very frequent in the celebration of this Sacrament it was a part of their daily Worship when the devotion of the Christian Church was vigorous and servent they could not live without the daily commemoration of the Love of Jesus This Sacrament was the most substantial and highest Cordial that he left for the support of the Church until his second coming again therefore the Christians of all Ages looked upon it with so much veneration and regard that as they judged themselves obliged to come unto it so they approached it with the strictest preparations with all the solemnities and care of Fasting Prayer and Humility The universal deluge of Atheism and prophanity that overflows the whole Island in which we live is much to be imputed to the contempt and neglect ot this Sacrament 4. WE are obliged to this Attendance because it is the peculiar Character of Christianity the badge of our Religion and the livery of the Crucified Jesus The Rites of all Religions had something in them to distinguish both the Deity that was worshipped and the Votary from all others The whole System of the Levitical Oeconomy was but a distinction of the Jews from all other Nations and all the Rites of that ancient Law were either opposite to the Zabian Customs or directly tended to preserve them from Idolatry The Pagan Sacrifices every where had some one significant Ceremony or other by which they were distinguish'd from the Worship of other Idols and the Christians by this Mystery are separated from the rest of Mankind who are without the houshold of Faith This Ordinance in the Church is the most solemn of all our Mysteries or rather the concatenation of all of them together it hath no foundation in nor directions from the light of Nature and therefore it derives its dignity and obligation from the pure Institution of our Lord and Saviour Hence it is that when Men are guilty of sins against the Moral Law their Consciences do accuse them and the remembrance of their folly proves uneasie to them but they live in the wilful neglect of this Sacrament for many years and yet they are as quiet and undisturbed in their omissions as if they were the most innocent the reason is because natural Conscience prompts not to it it hath its original immediately from our Saviour's Authority and this consideration alone makes us inexcusable if we neglect it because by it we are distinguished from the rest of mankind it is so peculiar to our Religion that we seem to renounce it unless we shew the highest zeal for it and affection to it Do it said he in remembrance of me There is no Order of Men have any such Institution it is our Characteristick that wherein we triumph that wherewith we are reproach'd by the Pagans that whereby we express our love to our Blessed Saviour and avow our selves to be his Disciples in the face of all danger
and comfort to the truly penitent Indeed when we look narrowly to the nature of it it is one of the surest Pillars of our Faith for this we do in remembrance of his Death and Passion and his blood that speaketh better things than the blood of Abel is still of the same force and value with God Let us not therefore entertain narrow Notions of the Almighty as if he delighted in the death of sinners as if he took pleasure in their miseries for God is Love and it is below his infinite Majesty to crush to ruin and destruction such as appeal to his Mercy If thou hatest thy sins if thou perceivest how vile they make thee and how miserable if thou implore the goodness of God to deliver thee thy freedom is already begun and God will advance it into a full Victory 5. COME unto this Sacrament reconciled to thy Brother Peace and Love are the dispositions that make our Souls fit Mansions for the Holy Ghost the vapours and smoak of Contention drive him from our Habitations This is one of our Saviours great directions in his Sermon on the Mount therefore if thou bring thy gift to the Altar and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee leave there thy gift before the Altar go thy way first be reconciled to thy brother and then come and offer thy gift If the Sacrament of the Altar be not here strictly meant yet by the nearest Analogy and consequence it is intended and the most judicious Interpreters think that our Saviour gave this direction with a special Eye to that Sacrament which he was afterwards to appoint And the same direction for the matter is repeated If you forgive men their trespasses your heavenly Father will also forgive you The unreasonable rigidity of the Bankrupt-servant towards his fellow is loathsom in the Eyes of God and of all good men We are exhorted by St. Peter to lay aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings And we are inform'd by St. Paul that Love is the fulfilling of the Law and that the works of the flesh are manifest among which are reckon'd hatred variance emulations wrath strife seditions heresies but the fruit of the Spirit is love joy peace long-suffering gentleness goodness faith meekness temperance When we consider the nature of our Religion the whole tendency and design of the Gospel we must conclude that there is nothing more opposite unto its harmonious and blessed temper than malice and revenge and therefore we must be ruled by other measures than those that prevail most in the World He is thought mean-spirited low and abject that is ready to forgive an injury yet it is the height of true Courage and Magnanimity if we consider the whole Scheme of our Religion how much it is twisted with meekness gentleness and charity or the supreme Authority of God to whom Vengeance doth belong our own in inward Peace and Tranquility or the order and settlement of publick Societies we cannot refuse to comply with our Saviour's direction and therefore St. Paul commands us that as we desire to approve our selves the Elect of God holy and beloved that we put on bowels of compassion kindness humbleness of mind meekness long suffering forbearing one another if any man have a quarrel against any and that above all we put on Charity which is the bond of perfectness True and universal Charity is the great glory and perfection of our Religion in which Christians ought to outshine all others It is that by which we resemble our Father above and prove our selves to be his off-spring in the highest and truest sense Our blessed Saviour after He had commanded us to love our Enemies concludes with this Be ye therefore perfect as your Father which is in heaven is perfect The Jews themselves who were indulged or rather connived at to be more rugged and untractable than the Christians were yet obliged to shew many acts of benevolence to their Enemies of their own Nation and Profession And many of the Philosophers did look upon the forgiving of injuries as an instance of true Valour and Fortitude NEXT Let us consider that Hatred and Variance and Strife make us unfit for any particular act of Worship and therefore are we commanded in our Prayers to lift up holy hands without wrath and doubting And secondly Contention and Enmity exclude us from all hopes of Pardon as oft as we say the Lords Prayer we appeal to the Omniscience of God that we desire to be pardoned no otherwise than we heartily pardon and forgive the lesser injuries of our Brethren done to us and if we retain in our hearts the seeds of Rancour and Malice against our Brethren we pronounce sentence against our selves we change our Prayers into imprecations and instead of the great blessings of Peace and Pardon we are consign'd over to the saddest doom and horrour Then let us consider that if we are commanded to lay aside our prejudices and evil designs against such as have provoked us how much more ought we to forbear affronting of them who were never injurious to us and therefore we must recompence evil for evil to no Man we must be tender-hearted and charitable to the poor and necessitous Alms and Fasting are said to be the two Wings by which our Prayers fly to the Throne of God the Providence and Promise the Power and Goodness of God are all engaged in defence of the charitable Man this is the universal Voice of the New and Old Testament the language of Nature and Religion Jew and Gentile do acknowledge it from all the ties of Virtue and Humanity Let us therefore remember the hardships of them who are indigent their sad groans and lamentable sighs and according to our ability relieve them not scrupulously weighing our own strength so much as their straits and calamity Let us not lay up treasure upon earth where moth and rust doth corrupt but in heaven where they are not expos'd to any danger or decay still remembring that he that soweth sparingly shall reap sparingly When we are thus far prepar'd we cannot but feel the sharpest hunger after this spiritual Food our Souls are then inflam'd with the strongest desires we breath after God in the affections and language of the Psalmist As the Hart panteth after the Water-brooks so panteth my soul after thee O God my soul thirsteth for God for the living God when shall I come and appear before God When shall I converse with him in the most intimate manner that this state of frailties and weaknesses can allow of The Solemnities of Religion recruit our strength against our Lusts and corruptions we are made more chearful and resolute to grapple with our Enemies when we feel the influences of his Spirit uniting us to God and exposing to our view all our former sins in all their deformities we conclude from such
believe in him Thirdly The Interest that we have in his purchase by our adherence to him and dependence on him He that believes on me though he were dead yet shall he live First THAT our Saviour did raise himself from the dead is certain else our Religion is but a fable and a lying vanity It is S. Paul's own Inference to the Corinthians If Christ be not risen then our faith is in vain and we are yet in our sins And so our Saviour tells the Disciples that Christ must needs suffer and rise from the dead the third day The Spirit of Prophecy did enlighten the Jewish Church and foretold the success glories and triumphs of the Messias He shall drink of the brook in the way therefore shall he lift his head And Isa 53.10 That when he made his Soul an offering for sin he should prolong his days and the pleasure of the Lord should prosper in his hand That because he had poured out his Soul unto death God would divide him a portion with the Great and he should divide the Spoils with the strong All those Predictions have the Resurrection of our Saviour in their bosom and without it they are nothing When he was declared to be the Son of God by the Resurrection from the dead the suspicions concerning his Person were remov'd he appear'd then to be the Christ of God the Lord of all things the Judge of the world And his mean equipage bitter pains and shameful disgraces did but heighten and inflame the Zeal and Devotion of Jew and Gentile How mysterious was the stratagem of his Love to hide the Glories of his Divinity to obscure the brightness of his Majesty by the interposal of human Nature to cloath himself with our flesh that he might die that through death he might overcome him that had the power of death and by his omnipotence raise himself from death and the grave For though he was Crucified through weakness yet he liveth by the power of God He was put to death as a notorious Malefactor exposed to the reproach and contempt of all Nations treated as an Enemy to God and to true Religion his adversaries insulted over him as one stricken smitten of God But when it appear'd that he was the mighty Favorite of Heaven by his Resurrection from the Dead how did this confute their Reasoning How did it baffle their Accusations How did it upbraid their Ignorance and scatter their vain Surmises and aggravate their incurable Malice Since he must needs be acknowledged to be the Messias in defiance of all spite and contradiction The stone which the builders refus'd became the head-corner-stone of the building Being found in fashion as a man be humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the Cross Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth and that every Tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father Now the human Nature is rais'd above the Angelical in the Person of our Saviour And the hosts of heaven fall down before him that was dead and is alive and dies no more and every creature which is in heaven and in earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea say with a loud voice Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and blessings The very thought of it delivers us from all our fears as the value and merit from our offences This is the Triumphant Song of the Christian Church the strong Tower we flie to in all our straits and difficulties the immovable Author of our Faith Who is he that condemneth It is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again who is even at the right hand of God who also maketh intercession for us The meditation of it is the strongest inducement to a holy life for he was rais'd to bless us in turning every one of us from our iniquities For as he was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father Even so we also should walk in newness of life And if you be present with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God Do we worship him that is risen from the dead and brake thorow the Iron barrs of death and yet remain captive our selves under the tyranny and bondage of our sins Let it appear by our heavenly Conversation that we are acted by a Spirit superior to the World that we are born of God that he that is in us is stronger than he that is in the world for in this the Children of God are manifest and the Children of the Devil whosoever doth not righteousness is not of God neither he that loveth not his brother Do we believe that our Saviour is victorious over Death and the Grave and yet shall we remain slaves to our Lusts and Passions Let the contrary appear that we are united to him in the closest manner encouraged by his Promises and enliven'd by his Spirit Whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report if there be any vertue and if there be any praise think on these things And this is the most proper method to prove to the World the Resurrection of our Saviour and the divinity of our Religion and this was the Argument that the first Christians made frequently use of to confound their Adversaries For how can we be made partakers of the Divine Nature but by the Divine Power Shall we live a Life more pure and heavenly than the rest of Mankind if we are not inspir'd with a Spirit not only opposite to but above the maxims principles and genius of the World Shall the Scythians Persians and Romans forsake their fierceness lasciviousness and pride and become calm and chast and humble if they have no other rule to direct them than the glimmerings of Nature and weak essays of Philosophy Is it possible that we can overcome the Inclinations of Nature Lust Passion and Revenge but by a Spirit higher than Nature Can evil Habits be so soon removed Or can the Ethiopian change his Skin If we are then changed from what we were to the true use of our Reason and the acknowledgments of the Deity and the practice of all Vertue To what cause can this change be imputed but to the Divine Spirit of Jesus whose powerful intercecession prevails to Redeem us from under the dominion of all Error Darkness and Prejudice Do we then believe in Christ risen from the dead Let us live no more to sin but unto him that died for us and
learn That there is nothing so amiable as true Religion Nothing else resembles the Divine Nature He that is born of God committeth no sin he that committeth sin is of the Devil and the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the Devil The Text that I have hitherto discours'd of is the abridgement of the Gospel Let us remember our miserable condition by Nature and enquire what effectual remedies there may be to knock off our fetters to procure unto us the Liberty of the Sons of God to restore us to his Image and how glorious our Victory must make us when we are made partakers of the Divine Nature when we live in a purer Air and feed our Souls with the prospect of Immortality when we are got above the Enchantments of Sense when by our comfortable experience we taste and see that God is good and in the meditation of such things let us commit our souls unto him as into the hands of a faithful Creator To God the Father Son and Holy Ghost be all Glory Power and Dominion for ever Amen A SERMON Preach'd before the Bishop and Synod April 1687. in S. Giles's Church Edinburgh ON CANTICLES iv V. 15. A Fountain of Gardens a Well of Living Waters and Streams from Lebanon THE Song of Solomon that is the most Elegant and Divine Composure of all his Poems the Song of Songs by an usual Hebraism the most Excellent and Seraphick Poem of all that Solomon ever wrote and deserves to be so called as Grotius hath it ob multas elegantias quae in alium sermonem translatae non idem sapiunt they are like Aromatick Spirits that cannot so easily be conveyed from one vessel to another 'T IS in its kind a Dramatic Poem full of art and delicious harmony that under the Chast and Sacred Metaphor of Marriage sets off the Love of Christ to his Church in the most ravishing strains and flourishes And this is laid down as the first foundation of expounding this Book by the best Interpreters both Antient and Modern and the Jews themselves most unanimously conclude that it hath an immediate reference to the glories and felicities of the Messias and this Metaphor of Marriage to express the Mystical Vnion of Christ to his Church is frequent in the Writings of the Prophets Hosea 2.19 I will betroth thee unto me for ever yea I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness and in judgment And it is no less usual to the Apostles when we look into the New Testament Ephes 5. and 32. This is a great Mysterie but I speak concerning Christ and his Church 2 Cor. 11 and 2. I have espoused you to one husband that I may present you as a chast Virgin to Christ Revel 19.7 and 9. For the marriage of the Lamb is come and his Wife hath made her self ready and to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linnen clean and white for the fine linnen is the righteousness of the Saints NOW when we apply to the Church the Characters of Beauty and the Passions of Sacred Love that are scattered up and down through this Book we but follow and trace the footsteps of the Prophets and the Apostles S. Bernard in his first Sermon on the Canticles gives this Epitome of the Works of Solomon that are extant In the Book of the Proverbs superfluous self love is banished in the Book of Ecclesiastes the vain love of the World is rejected but in Cantico Canticorum praescribitur castus Amor Dei the whole Book being nothing else but the strongest efforts of the Divine Love to be united in the closest Bonds to Christ our Head AND this Chapter out of which I have read this Verse breaths the same air and is wholly taken up in commending the incomparable Beauty of the Spouse Behold thou art fair my Love behold thou art fair i. e. thou art fair beyond thought or expression And again thou art all fair my Love there is no spot in thee The fifteenth Verse is but the repetition of or a further Paraphrase upon the twelfth A Garden inclosed is my Sister a Spring shut up a Fountain sealed and here a Fountain of Gardens a Well of Living Waters and Streams from Lebanon How fitly this gradation of Epithets becomes the Church I shall endeavour to explain as I go forward Fons Hortorum qui multis hortis rigandis sufficiat And by those Waters we are to understand the pure and heavenly Doctrine of the Church that waters the withered and parch'd Inhabitants of the Earth with its streams without which they had been long e're now burnt up with the fire of Gods wrath and indignation 'T is usual with the Prophets to express the heavenly Oracles under the Notion of Dew and Rain and Living Waters Deut. 32. 2. My Doctrine shall drop as the Rain my speech shall distil as the Dew as the small Rain upon the tender Herb and as the Showers upon the Grass and our Saviour himself in his Conference with the Woman of Samaria tells that the Waters that he shall give shall be in him to whom they are given a Well of Waters springing up unto eternal life The highest pitch of temporal prosperity is expressed in Holy Scriptures by Dew God give thee of the Dew of Heaven and Fatness of the Earth And Psal 133. and 3. David compareth the Unity of Brethren dwelling together in love to the Dew of Hermon and that which descended on the Mountains of Sion as a token that there the Lord commanded his blessing and Prov. 10. 12. the Kings favour is likened to Dew on the Grass SINCE then what is most excellent and desireable is expressed by it and that in the Old and New Testament the Sacred Oracles are particularly signified by Streams and Living Waters we offer no violence to the Jewish Idiom and Prophetical Phrase when we expound this Verse and its parallel places of the Church under the Messias especially diffusing the streams of their heavenly Oracles over the habitable World and converting men from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to the living God In speaking to these words I shall confine my self to three particulars following the natural order and position of the Words and Metaphors as they lye before us First WE have the use of those Waters a Fountain of Gardens Secondly THE Purity of them a Well of Living Waters Thirdly THE first Rise and Origine of these Waters they are Streams from Lebanon First I SAY We have the use of those Waters Fons hortorum a Fountain of Gardens so conveniently situated in the middle that by its Conduits and Canals it may water and refresh the neighbouring Gardens The Church looks with tenderness and compassion on the right and on the left hand as our Saviour looked upon Jerusalem before her approaching ruine and says in his very words How often would I have gathered you She wisely and
Religion so worthy of God to reveal so proper for us to be taught in as that system of true Piety and unaffected Morality that he has brought to Light WHEN I say Morality I do not understand Morality in the usual lame and defective signification of it as it regards our outward behaviour towards Man But rather the whole of our profound submission and obedience to the first and second Table of the Law And in this true and comprehensive notion I affirm that it was our Saviour's design to advance it unto practice and reputation amongst Mankind THE Jewish Religion take it all together was rather Gods indulgence and toleration than his law and commandment And tho it had the Seal of his Authority yet it was not in it self the best Religion but the best that they could bear When they returned from Aegypt the impressions of their servitude were not so soon worn off but that their proneness to Idolatry and former slavish dispositions remain'd And ever and anon upon all occasions for a long time after they relapse into their superstitions and Aegyptian Ceremonies IF we view them in the best periods of the Jewish Oeconomy their Religion was defective Many things were plainly permitted or tacitely conniv'd at as Polygamy and Divorce and some degrees of uncharitableness and revenge which natural and uncorrupted reason dislikes and condemns But when Our Saviour appear'd it was then high time to recover the World from their beggarly elements and to give us the true notions of Almighty God the spirituallity of his Worship and the extent of his universal Empire over Jew and Gentile and to form our manners by that accurate rule of his Doctrine and Example By which we were not only assured of Eternal Life but partly in a manner put in the possession of it A scheme of Christian Morals is given us in the Sermon on the Mount so pure and angelical that at first view we are forc'd to acknowledge that it came down from the Father of lights We are exhorted to whatsoever things are true honest just pure lovely and of good report if there be any vertue and if there be any praise to think on these things TO advance and facilitate the practice of this Morality was the design of our Saviour's undertaking when we consider the Gospel in its uniform strength and vigour as also to calm the consciences of men to remove our fears and to teach us to approach the Throne of God with a generous assurance of mind to bind us in the strongest bonds of Society amongst our selves and to liberate us from the yoke of Moses Law This was our Saviour 's business when he took upon him our Nature when we beheld his glory the glory as of the only begotten of the Father full of Grace and Truth 1. I SAY one great part of his design was to form us into true Morals This is the comprehensive character by which good men are distinguished in the Holy Scriptures In this the Children of God are manifest and the Children of the Devil whosoever doth not righteousness is not of God neither he that loveth not his brother Thus runs the description of Job that he was a man perfect and upright one that feared God and eschewed evil AND David's religious man walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness and speaketh the truth in his heart The great character of Moses was that he was very meek above all the men upon the face of the Earth And Cornelius the Centurion is said to be a devout man and one that feared God with all his house which gave much alms to the People and prayed to God alway BUT all along the New Testament the Pharisees are stigmatiz'd that they were cold and indifferent in the great Morals of Religion while they were very zealous and pragmatick to advance the rituals of it They were blind guides who strain'd at a Gnat and swallowed a Camel They tithed Mint Annise and Cummin and neglected the weightier matters of the Law WHEN the whole of Religion is summ'd up in the most compendious manner there is nothing else nam'd but the love of God and our neighbour Or the most ingenuous expressions of both What doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God And our Saviour tells us that on the Love of God and our neighbour hangs all the Law and Prophets And this is the same Doctrine that is preached by S. Paul for Love is the fullfiling of the Law And therefore we find that the Prophets upon all occasions did endeavour to withdraw the thoughts of the Jews from the External drudgery of their Religion to that Immortal Deity that was Worshiped and to convince them that if their Sacrifices were not attended with the Love of God and their Neighbour they could not be acceptable The blood of Bulls and of Goats was no entertainment for him that made Heaven and Earth A Soul disengaged from the corruptions of Life and animated in all its actions with true zeal and sincerity was the only acceptable Sacrifice AND the Rituals of Christianity if they are destitute of their true Spirit and Life are of no greater value Our Faith without works is dead in the language of S. James And S. Peter compares our Baptism if separated from Purity of Manners to the washing of Swine And our Communicating without Devotion is by S. Paul said to be our coming together to condemnation It is the pure heart and clean hands the modest and ingenuous temper of Spirit that perfume our Faith our Prayers and our Assemblies When we look into the New Testament this Doctrine runs through all its parts and breaths almost in every Line the Grace of God that bringeth Salvation hath appeared unto all Men teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world looking for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works And for this very purpose the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the Devil IN all ages men have endeavoured to cross and oppose this part of our Saviour's design and to reconcile by little distinctions plausible and artificial tricks their Religion to their Lusts Some Religion they must have and that which renders them truly acceptable unto God penetrates too deep into the Soul searches the Hearts and Reins and teaches them to live in opposition to the corrupt Spirit of the World and to lead captive secret thoughts and imaginations unto the obedience of Christ The impressions of the Divinity are folded up in the Soul of Man the apprehensions and fears of an after reckoning haunt us whether we will or not