brought forth with Garlands on their heads in manner of Sacrifices and offered up to Neptune being termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Suidas tells us that for the removal of the Pestilence they sacrificed certain Men to their Gods whom they styled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Filth loading them with revilings and curses Such were all Christians accounted among Heathens who lookt upon them as the vilest sort of men upon Earth fit to be offered in Sacrifice to their Gods For 1. They thought them guilty of the highest immoralities and debaucheries adultery incestuous copulations murthering and eating their own Children in their nocturnal private Assemblies and then no marvel if they thought their utmost severity towards them to be an act of Justice and of Religion too as being in their apprehension the Causes of all those publick Calamities that befell the World 2. They look'd upon them as profane atheistical men and so worthy to die because they did not worship the heathen Deities nor had any Altars or Temples For so the Charge runs against them in Tertullian Deos non colitis and in Minutius Felix Nullas aras habent Christiani nulla templa Nay They look'd upon Christians as Affronters of the Gods and of Religion That laugh'd at their Sacrifices despised their Temples and threw down their Altars and Images And hence they passed for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Atheists as Socrates did who was thought to believe that there was no God because he had a very mean opion of those the World then worshipped The very same crime objected to Christians of being of no Religion because they would not embrace the heathenish Superstition So the Pagans in Arnobius Christus ex orbe religiones expulit Their Master Christ had driven all Religions out of the World He had indeed destroyed all those false worships the besotted World ran after together with their ridiculous abominable Deities having silenced their Oracles and forc'd those Gods they worshipped to confess themselves to be no other than Devils As his Disciples and primitive Christians could and did frequently drive them out of those bodies they possessed which was such an affront to their Gods as Heathens were not able to endure and thought themselves concern'd to vindicate by the utmost severity that either wit or malice helpt on by the Devil himself could find out And then 3ly What Cruelties think we were left unexercised upon Men who besides the ruine of their Religion had in their apprehension designs against the State too and where-ever they were were thought still to endeavour the undermining of their Empire Which though it was a pure groundless calumny yet the Apostles finding this apprehension so deeply rooted in their minds thought it necessary earnestly to press subjection to heathenish Princes and Governours to take off this foul aspersion And the rather because the malicious Jews did still labour strongly to possess all in Authority with such an opinion of them as if they were Enemies as well to their State as to their Religion Thus Christ himself was accused of perverting the Nation of forbidding to give Tribute to Cesar and of saying that He Himself was a King Luk. 23. 2. St. Paul of being a pestilent fellow and a mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout the world Act. 24. 5. And the Charge was general against all the Apostles That they had turned the world upside down Chap. 17. v. 6. Calumnies invented and fostered by the Jews It being expresly said Chap. 14. vers 2. That the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and made their minds evil affected against the brethren envenoming them with hatred and prejudice against them as People hating their Government as well as their Worship though in effect none did it more than the very Jews themselves There is no doubt but that Interest as well as Religion set Heathens so much against Christians and the latter not the least For besides that they had been in a long and uninterrupted Possession of their idolatrous way of worship and so thought themselves to have the advantage of time over Christians who were in their account but Upstarts They could not digest such an absurd Religion as did teach that a crucified Man could be a God And so morose and strict a one as not to allow them their old luxury hatred pride envy and all those abominations whereof their very Religion was made up nor suffer them to be as wicked as they desired and the Devil would have them to be And therefore by the insinuations of his chief Instruments the Priests who were undone if this new way should prevail did he labour to root them out from off the face of the Earth as a most pestilent sort of people A work in their opinion very meritorious as no doubt it was to their Gods And therefore Suetonius in the Life of Nero amongst other good things done by him reckons Persecutiones contra Christianos factas And that bloudy Tyrant and Persecutor Dioclesian in an Inscription engraven on a Monument he had set up makes his brags that he had purged the Earth of the Christian Nation abolished the Christian Name in all parts of his Empire and propagated the worship of the Gods Superstitione Christianorum ubique deletâ cultu Deorum propagato Wherein he reckoned without his host having to his great grief and sorrow liv'd to see the ruine of Heathenism and the establishment of Christianity by Constantine which did so enrage Julian the Apostate that finding all his Arts to destroy the Faith ineffectual he vowed that if he sped in his Expedition against the Persians he would at his return offer up the bloud of all Christians to his Gods And thus you see our Saviour's prediction verified in respect of Jews and Heathens and what were the grounds and motives of their hatred and rage against Christians blind zeal blended with worldly Interest which made them think that by persecuting them to death they did God service 3. But we are not to confine our Lord's prediction wholly to the Jews and Gentiles but to extend it even to Christians themselves who have verified it in its most rigorous and worst sense And truly 't is a sad thing to consider how no sooner Jews and Heathens had laid down the quarrel but that Christians took it up carrying it on against themselves with as much heat and fury as ever the former had done The mutual Contests between them even in the earlier times of the Gospel were so bitter and intemperate so fierce and bloudy too that they have been objected to them by Pagans and derided in their open Theatres Clemens Alexandrinus bringeth in Heathens upbraiding them with their quarrels And Ammianus Marcellinus a heathen Author hath observ'd long since That no Beasts were so cruel to one another as Christians in his time were And there was but too much ground for his observation when he could see them not only reviling and libelling as
Church when they cannot make them of their Religion I doe not think that those Christianos nuevos those new Christians as they call them in Spain That is such as the Inquisition has made Christians of Mahumetans doe much love the Religion they turn to and much less those who turn them to it by employing Fire and Faggor These indeed are undeniable Evidences of cruelty in them that use them but slender Motives of credibility to beget belief in them that suffer by them And this way will not fail to multiply enemies instead of procuring friends to any Cause though never so good For as Persecution to the true Church is but as the Pruning to the Vine which gains in its bulk and fruit what it loseth in a few luxuriant branches lopt off so even Heresies themselves thrive by being prun'd too the cropping of these Weeds does but serve to thicken them the bloud of the Devil's Martyrs proves as much the Seed of his Synagogue as that of Gods Saints does of his Church and the destroying of the Persons of Hereticks supposing them such does but add life to their Cause And indeed what encouragement have Men to receive a Religion from their Oppressors or how can they think that they who torture and kill their Bodies are really concern'd to save their Souls And while the felicities of another World are recommended to them only by such as doe deprive them of all in this we cannot wonder at their little appetite to embrace them or to find the oppress'd Indians protest against that Heaven where the Spaniards are to be their Cohabitants Add we to all this That such Motives as these can never demonstrate Truth For how successfull soever their force proves yet it cannot prove the Doctrines true For by that argument it proves the Religion it goes about to settle true It proves that that which it destroys was true before while it prevailed and had the power And then such a testimony is given to the truth of Christianity which Heathenism had before and Turcism hath since And thus you see how all violent ways to propagate the Faith cannot be acceptable to God the Father as being directly contrary to his Nature and Will nor yet to his Son since they cross the very end and design of his coming into the World his Doctrine and Practice Fly in the very face of Religion it self and can never serve their turn who make use of it From all which it follows That they who pursue such ways neither know God the Father nor his Son Jesus Christ. I know what is commonly said by some who practice this way of compulsion in excuse and defence of it That many who serve God at first by compulsion may come after to serve him freely That these sorts of Conversions doe not augment the number of Saints but they diminish that of Hereticks That although some among them may prove bad Converts themselves yet they have Families to be saved that their Children may make good Christians and though the stock be naught yet the branches may be sanctified But the answer hereunto is easie That neither good Intents nor casual Events can justifie unreasonable Violence which instead of rendering Men orthodox Christians makes them rather Atheists Hypocrites and Formalists For being constrained to practice against Conscience they soon come at last to lose all Conscience Nor are Men to owe the Salvation of Souls to any unwarrantable proceedings because they must not doe any present evil in prospect of any future good This was another gross error of these persons in the Text as I am now to show you in the next place 2. The Jews here thought their Zeal to the Temple and their Ritual Observances so invincibly meritorious that no crime could defeat it And we see how apt many Christians are to ascribe so much to the force of a good meaning as if it were able to bear the stress and load of any sins that can be laid upon it A good purpose shall hallow all they doe and make them boldly rush into the most unchristian practices in prosecution of what some call The good old Cause others The Catholick Faith For how doe Men swallow down the deadliest Poyson Perjury Sacriledge Murther Regicide and the like in confidence of this their preservative and say grace over the foulest sins How many have made themselves Saints upon that account that would never have been such upon any other And how much Religion groans under the Reproach of all those Evils which zeal and good meanings have consecrated is notorious to all the World Men call the over-flowing of their gall Religion and value their Opinions so high and their eagerness in abetting them that they think the propagating of them so important a service to God as will justifie all they doe in order to this end Now not to speak of their Error in the choice of their Opinions That of many opposite one only can be the Right my present business shall be to shew you 1. The Impiety and 2. The Danger of this strong delusion in respect of that Malignant influence it has on Practice For the clearing of which two things we are to observe That to the making an Action good and warrantable these three things are requisite 1. A good Intention in the Doer 2. That the Matter of the Action be in it self good and 3. That it be rightly circumstantiated For a failure in either of these three things quite vitiates the whole Action 1. The first thing necessary to a good Action is a good Intention in the Doer This we learn from Matth. 6. 22. If thine Eye that is thy Intention for so Interpreters generally understand it be single thy whole Body shall be full of light Be the matter of an Action never so good yet if a Man's aim and intention in the doing of it be not so all is stark naught For Actus moralis specificatur ex fine And Finis dat speciem in moralibus And as the End is the first thing that sets an Agent a working so is it the last that perfects its work Nay so valuable in the sight of God is a good Intention where-ever it be found That as He sometimes prevents an evil Act in him in whom He discovers a good Intention as in Abimilech so does He sometimes reward a good Purpose tho' it proceeds not to act as in David T is true that a good End alone does not justifie any action but it is as true that there can be nothing good or tolerable without it And although a good meaning doth not wholly excuse yet an evil one wholly condemns it But then 2dly Besides a good Intention two things more are requisite to the making an Action good 1. That the Matter of it be such 2. That it be rightly circumstantiated 1. That the Matter thereof be good For our Intention as our zeal must be always in a good thing And a thing is then
design and management thereof did at his Examination confess That his principal motive to this villanous attempt was an Excommunication thundred out at first by Pius Quintus against Queen Elizabeth and kept still on foot by Sixtus Quintus which sticking on King James oblig'd him in conscience to attempt the murthering of his Sovereign in obedience to that Bull. And how did he excuse that Fact Was it not by his pious intention to promote God's glory and the good of the Catholick Church A fit cover for such a foul fact but commonly made use of by such as himself was in justification of the like wicked practices St. Paul we see hath expresly doom'd all those that doe so to no less than eternal Damnation But those men and he are not agreed in this point For should his doctrine be good what would then become of all their Piae Fraudes Feigned Legends and Miracles Indices Expurgatorii Equivocations and mental Reservations Allowance of common Stews for the preventing unnatural Lusts that is of one Sin to hinder another For which and the like the Catholick defence is the Catholick cause and men's pious Intentions which in case they should prove never so faulty yet a little rectifying of them will rectifie all that is amiss in them A piece of spiritual Chymistry this of late Invention which can extract the finest gold out of the basest metal to guild over all the Villanies which the heart of man can devise or his hand execute I know not whether any can really think that by such vile artifices they can doe God any service But I am apt to believe that they rather think to doe themselves one and that 't is the same humane policy not to give it a worse name and not Religion that acts such men which did these persons in the Text. But if any men do in good earnest think they doe God any service thereby It is such a one as our Lord Himself here flatly tells them neither his Father nor He will ever thank them for But since it will be in vain for me to tell them so who will not take Christ's own word for it I shall turn my discourse to you who now hear me and for the preventing any such dangerous errour in you leave some few Rules of caution and direction with you and so conclude 1. And the first shall be concerning your Zeal That you be as carefull and industrious to employ it in a good as some do theirs in a bad cause but with this proviso That your Zeal be a right and well-temper'd one A right one it will be if it be alway in a good thing And well-temper'd if it be according to knowledge Rom. 10. 2. St. Paul's rules both If your Zeal be not in a good thing it will doe the same mischief that fire does out of its proper place the hearth And if it have not light to see its way by it will prove very dangerous company in the dark and lead you into bogs and precipices There is nothing so pernicious to man as a blind frantick zeal which instead of eating them up who are possess'd with it eates up God's people as if they were bread Nor is there any thing so injurious to God it being common for people in their indiscreet and furious zeal for God to run farthest from Him and either to break the two Tables of his Law with Moses or at least to dash them one against the other And can we think they should ever doe God service who know not what they doe themselves May not he say to such Zealots what King Achish did of David 1 Sam. 21. 15. Have I need of mad men And does not too much ignorant zeal much more than too much learning make men so Surely there is no madness to the religious one which like the Devil in the possessed man in the Gospel casts them sometimes into the fire and sometimes into the water that is into contrary excesses and extravagances scattering mischief where-ever it goes turning the World into a Chaos and the Church into an Acheldama while Melancholy is made the seat of Religion by some and Frenzy by others what can follow thence but confusion And therefore we ought to have a special care that our Zeal be guided by knowledge and discretion lest we over-shoot our selves with these men here and when we put Christ's servants out of our Synagogues and kill them too into the bargain we become so foolish as with them also to think we shall thereby doe God service 2. Our next caution must be that we be well assured of the soundness of the Principles we act by What a dangerous thing it is to be herein mistaken our Saviour tells us Matt. 6. 23. If the light that is in thee be darkness how great is that darkness that is If thy mind and conscience be defiled if thy Judgment be corrupt how great and dangerous will those mistakes prove that mislead thee For the farther thou shalt go on in thy wrong way the more shalt thou be out of the right one And when thou art once out it will be impossible for thee to get into it again so long as those false Guides which are as so many Satans standing at thy right-hand still prompting and tempting thee to evil shall remain in thee He that commits a sin by principles hath nothing to retrieve him from his errour while he retains such principles and as long as he is under the power and guidance of ill ones they will not only dangerously expose but highly encourage him to evil by turning the greatest crimes into merit and making him hope to gain Heaven by such practices as directly lead him to Hell The Physicians maxime That an error in the first concoction is never to be mended holds as true in Religion as in Nature And therefore it highly concerns us that our first choice here be right lest we set out amiss and offend God most even there where we think most to please Him 3. The last Use I shall draw from my Text is an Use of Direction or Tryal how to judge of the Truth and Goodness of a Religion and that is by the Mildness and Harmlesness thereof This is the proper Chraracter of true Christian Religion It has all of the Dove and nothing of the Vulture in it That which breathes nothing but Curses and Slaughters to be sure is not of God the Father nor of His Son I think there is no true Member of our Church that understands his Religion well and the nature of it but would be willing to submit it to this Test But I can scarce believe that they who talk so much of the Cruelty of ours would be content to put the Truth of their Religion upon this issue We need but compare Q. Mary and Queen Elizabeth's Reigns to see which of the two Religions they were of was the mildest No fire and faggot to be
Disobedience to Him also And where is that Man who if he may have but one darling Sin and be suffer'd to enjoy that would not willingly bate you all the rest That would not be exact in some duties if he might commute for others One Man will be as sober as you would have him if he may be allow'd to be proud and another as chast so he may have leave to be revengefull But these middle sort of people are like to get little benefit by Christ's Redemption They have the fate of Neuters to be hated by both Parties like Borderers to be equally spoiled by both Nations And surely if this state be not the worst 't is certainly the most troublesome where the Man's Practices thwart his Principles such a one is not less divided from himself than from his God His single self is at least two parties His Heart 's the seat of a perpetual Civil War He is often led Captive into both quarters and while he renews his strength 't is only for a fresh defeat and he lays in treasure to no other end but to be worth another pillage And there is one thing highly considerable in the case of this middle person That he hath neither the comforts of Vertue nor the pleasure of Sin the satisfaction of doing his duty being sowred by his thoughts of the frequent omissions of it When a Man loves God and hates his Brother is a severe and a proud person such a one is just so excellent as to deserve our pity because he hath undergone the trouble of doing some good and miss'd the reward of it In whom so much Vertue was in vain so many good things to no purpose and who possess'd such rare advantages that it might be the more remarkable how he lost them too These have the sad honour of being instances how near Men may come to Happiness and yet fail of it They shall have the miserable Comfort that in them it shall be noted how much choice treasure may be cast away Thus what the Historian says of a Nation may be affirm'd of Mankind in a Moral sense Nec totam libertatem pati possunt nec totam servitutem That they would be neither absolute slaves to sin nor wholly free from it be neither under the law of Righteousness nor altogether under that of Iniquity that is not wholly Christ's enemies nor yet well his friends But as it was his design to free us wholly from the slavery so likewise to cleanse us from the stain and pollution of every sin As to be our Redemption so our Sanctification He came to rescue and withall to refine us To purifie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works The second great End of his coming in the flesh and the last thing observable To purifie c. Of all the Religions which ever were yet in the World there is not any that hath so provided for the regulating of humane actions as Christianity hath done All others have rather been employ'd in Expiations for sin than Deleteries of it in performing such rights for which God should pardon them rather than in doing such actions for which he should love them the utmost of all their hopes being but for a Remission whereas ours aim at a Reward This bewails our infirmities so as to draw us from them and fit us for that happiness which it designs to procure us And therefore He who was the Author thereof did never intend to justifie us by his Righteousness unless he might also sanctifie us by his Spirit or procure us pardon for past sins without securing us as far as we were capable from future ones That was indeed the proper task of his Priestly This of his Prophetick Office There he did expiate Here he continually teaches us not only to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts but withall to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world and that both by his Precepts and his Example which how effectual they are if duely observed and followed to the cleansing of us from all filthiness of flesh and spirit beyond whatever the World saw till He came into it will easily appear to any that shall confront Christ's Precepts particularly those delivered in his Sermon on the Mount and his Practice with those of Heathens or Jews either From the former of these two what Purity could be expected whose very Religion its self was Impurity whose Divinity taught Men to violate Humanity and whose ceremonious Worship was nothing else but a Solemnity of the foulest Vices Their Practices and Principles their Lives and Judgments having been alike corrupt as St. Paul describes them Rom. 1. Nor was it possible how it should be otherwise where Men's Sins and their Religion were the same thing where their Gods and their Inclinations did equally contribute to Wickedness The most abominable Sins we know among them had their Temples where Theft Drunkenness and Adultery were ador'd and to prostitute their Bodies was most sacred and their very Altar-fires did kindle those foul heats from whence 't is that Uncleanness is so often in Scripture styled Idolatry And this was the condition of the Heathenish World before our Lord's Incarnation 'T is true indeed that the more intelligent part of Mankind was not so debauch'd in its Understanding nor altogether so loose in its Practice Some few possibly there were who did a little resist the common stream and still retain so much of natural reason as serv'd them to discover the follies and impurities of others but very little to reform either others or themselves Something perhaps it did towards that too and in all likelihood make way for the more easie admission of Christianity which gave occasion to that unwary expression of one who styl'd Aristotle Christ's Forerunner in Naturals as St. John Baptist was in Spirituals And upon the like ground 't is that others affirm Christ's Incarnation to be clearly deducible from Plato's Writings How warrantably I know not but this I know That some of the Heathen Philosopher's Vertues are little better than Christian men's Vices and many of those Rules they give us to walk by very crooked nor did the exactest of them strictly observe them or follow their own Prescriptions And to say the best of the Rules themselves they were such as were fitted to the outward Man and did not at all require that inward Purity of the Heart which Christ has severely enjoyn'd his Disciples and is indeed the most effectual and only proper instrument to beget true Holiness in Men. Wherein the Christian Religion has as well exceeded the Jewish as the Heathenish one which entertain'd and amus'd its self rather with external performances affecting the Sense than divine and spiritual which alone could purifie the Soul The reason the Apostle gives why the legal Sacrifices could not make him who did the service perfect as pertaining to the Conscience because they stood in meats and drinks and carnal Ordinances Heb. 9.
rich in good works but richer than others and to be ambitious 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 still to excell and surpass all others in Goodness It being their Lord's will that his people should not only be holy but eminent not barely innocent but perfect too as far as they are capable of perfection in this life or at least to endeavour to be so And surely there cannot be a stronger Motive to persuade them to be so than the honour and advantage such a Relation will procure them as to be God's peculiar People chosen by Him out of the rest of the World admitted into his special favour and protection a People whom He shall love and value as his chiefest Treasure and choicest Jewels These alone He thinks worth the purchasing even with his own dearest bloud These alone have indeed the Benefit others but the Tender of it For these was He born and for these did He effectually dye Not for them who build up those works of the Devil which the Son of God came on purpose to destroy who in works deny him and as the Apostle characterizeth them Tit. 1. 16. are to every good work reprobate Nay more than that even zealous of bad ones laying hold on Damnation and are not only Candidates of but Factors for Hell Nor 2. for them who revel it upon the score of Christ's Righteousness and while they turn his Grace into wantonness and so deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ being upon that account no less Antichrist's than they who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh yet take sanctuary in his Name as if that Name were a charm against the Almighty's threats or serv'd only for a gourd to sit securely under the shadow thereof Is this to be God's peculiar People Or did He in so much mercy chuse us out of the Heathen World that we should be more wicked than Heathens for that very reason because we are Christians and therefore ought to be much better And who is there since the appearance of God's grace whom so excellent a Religion as he professes a Religion that came down from Heaven renders more just and sober more chast and temperate or any way more vertuous than some of those very Heathens whose Religion came from Hell And yet stands high upon his profession and thinks that shall bear him out 'T is true indeed the Devil is not worship'd now as then he was with a Religion of Impieties and yet the same if not viler things are made to consist with Christ's Religion as well as with that of the Devil and Men have found a way to yoke Christ with Belial to reconcile his Doctrines of Purity and their own Sins together nay to make this Holy time also nothing else but a more solemn opportunity of sinning and themselves more Beasts because God now became Man for them But I forbear and shall not dwell any longer upon so harsh a subject as unfit for such a time of Jubilee as this is for so it is if we may believe an Angel Behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people Luke 2. 10. Let us then rejoice but still in the Lord as it becomes the Just and Righteous and give thanks unto him for a remembrance of his Goodness to us Let us walk honestly as in the day not in rioting and drunkenness not in chambering and wantonness but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provisions for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof Put him on by an application of his Merits and an imitation of his Vertues by our Faith in and by our Obedience to Him that we may celebrate this time with the Duties of it make it a Festival of our services to Him for the everlasting benefit we still reap by it God hath not called us unto uncleanness but unto holiness He hath called us as to glory so to vertue the path-way to it 2 Pet. 1. 3. 'T is a great mistake to think that because Christ came to redeem us from Sin and Hell therefore the liberty he has purchased for us extends so far as to free us from Holiness too No sure As we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to good works so were we redeemed you see by Christ to perform them and in a more exact and higher way than ever the World before was acquainted with God did no doubt pardon many things not only in Heathens but even in his own peculiar People the Jews which he will not in us our obligation to a stricter Holiness now being so much the stronger by how much our light is clearer The times of this ignorance God winked at says our Apostle speaking indeed of Heathens but applicably to Jews too in comparison of us Christians He pass'd by many things in them who had not such clear Revelations of his Will as after-times had but now he commandeth all Men every-where to repent For since God hath vouchsafed to come down Himself from Heaven to shew us the way to it since Himself has gone before us in that way and left such manifest prints of his divine Foot-steps as we may trace him all along by If after all this we will not follow him but tread on still in those pernicious ways that lead to Hell we are to blame our selves for putting a barr to our Redemption Christ hath done enough for us and yet something he has left us to doe for our selves to redeem our selves from our vain Conversation be zealous and fervent in the practice of those good works he commands and requires of us that we may reap the benefit of that Redemption he hath purchased for us while we give him the glory of it the glory of his infinite Humility and Condescension in stooping so low as to take our vile Nature upon him the glory of his Goodness in being so willing to succour and relieve us and lastly the glory of his Wisdom and Power who alone was able to contrive a way to doe it and could bring it to pass A Power this beyond that of the Creation if any one Work of the Almighty may be said to be greater than another and more glorious too That being call'd but the work of his fingers Psal. 8. 3. This of his whole Arme Psal. 98. 2. There he only made us Men Here new Men. To conclude Let us beg of Him who by taking our Flesh became our Brother to make us such whom He may not be ashamed to call his Brethren That as He now bare the Image of the Earthly by being made after our Image so may we bear the Image of the Heavenly by being made conformable to his And let us bless Him who sent his Son to bless us in turning every one of us from his Iniquities as well as in satisfying for them And since his Beloved Son has so lately wash'd our Robes and made
with their several Actions and Operations All which clearly demonstrate their Existence For the first Their Creation may be gathered though it be not set down in express terms from the first and second Chapters of Genesis where they are styl'd the Host of Heaven an usual Title afforded to all Creatures in Scripture-language but in a more especial manner appropriated to Angels as 't is by the Psalmist Psal. 148. 2. and most suitable to them in regard of their great Power and exact Order And so all Expositors allow it 'T is true indeed there is no such express mention of the Creation of Angels in Moses's Writings as in those of the other Holy Pen-men which he omits not so much as some would have it to prevent Idolatry in the Israelites who had they known Angels would have been apt to have ador'd them as for these two Reasons 1. Because Moses applies himself to the simple Capacity of that People and describes the Creation of visible and sensible things leaving spiritual as above their lower apprehensions and 2dly lest Men should think God needed the help of Angels either in the production or disposition of other Creatures As if the Fabrick of the World had been too great a Task for Himself alone to undertake as Heathens and some Hereticks also have fancied to the manifest derogation of the Divine Omnipotency But for what reason soever Moses forbore to speak out here the Psalmist is plain enough By the Word of the Lord were the Heavens made and all the Host of them by the breath of his mouth Psal. 33. 6. and clearer yet Psal. 104. 4. He maketh his Angels spirits and his Ministers a flaming fire And whereas our Apostle v. 4. tells us That God made the Worlds Colos. 1. 16. He explains the meaning of that expression by things visible and invisible and these invisible things by Thrones Dominions Principalities and Powers the usual Titles Angels are design'd by So void of all Reason as well as of Religion is that bold or rather impudent Assertion of the Author of the Leviathan concerning the Creation of Angels there is nothing delivered in Scripture 2. A second proof of the Existence of Angels may be taken from their sundry Apparitions both before and under the Law and in the first dawning of the Gospel There is nothing more certain than that under those several Dispensations especially at the beginning of them such Apparitions were very frequent Holy Men in those times had a familiar acquaintance and correspondency with Heaven 'T was no news then to see an Angel of God The Patriarchs scarce convers'd so much with Men as with blessed Spirits They were their Guests and their Companions of their Family and of their Counsel Nothing of importance was done either at home or abroad without their privity and direction And he must be a great stranger to the New Testament that finds them not there too very often among the Servants of God For though God had for a long time withdrawn from the Jews all means of supernatural Revelations yet at the first publication of the Gospel he began to restore them 'T was no marvel that when that wicked people became strangers to God in their Conversation God should grow a stranger to them in his Apparitions But when the Gospel approacht he visited them afresh with his Angels before he visited them with his Son Joseph Mary Zachary the Shepherds Mary Magdalen the gazing Disciples at the Mount of Olives Peter Philip Cornelius St. Paul St. John the Evangelist were all blessed with the sight of them In succeeding times 't is also very credible what Ecclesiastical Writers report That the good Angels were nowhit more sparing of their Presence for the comfort of Holy Martyrs and Confessors who suffered for the Name of Christ. I doubt not but Constant Theodorus saw and felt the refreshing hand of the Angel no less than he reported to Julian the Persecutor Nor do I question but that those retired Saints too of the prime Ages of the Church had sometimes such heavenly Companions for the Consolation of their forced Solitude as St. Jerome reports of them But this is evident too that the elder the Church grew the more rare was the use of these Apparitions as of all other Miracles Actions and Events not that the Arme of God is shortned or his Care and Love to his abated but that his Church being now setled in an ordinary way has no need of any extraordinary ones no more than the Israelites had of Manna when they were once got out of the Wilderness Nay such extraordinary ones now would perhaps be not useless only but dangerous and we may justly suspect those strange Relations of the Romanists concerning later Angelical Apparitions to Saints of their own Canonizing when we see them made use of to countenance Doctrines of Men. And yet notwithstanding their false play here 't is hard to say that all those instances which sober learned Men have given us of Modern Apparitions are utterly incredible But it has often fallen out indeed that Evil spirits have appeared in this wicked and corrupt Age more than good ones The frequent experience of later days gives in here its Evidence and 't is unreasonable wholly to reject it there being no other reason but this to doe so that our selves doe not see what others so peremptorily affirm they did which were to call in question all that our own Eyes have not been witnesses to and if we will believe nothing but what we see we may as well doubt whether there be Souls as Devils And yet so far as men's Eyes may discern Spirits they may doe it in those possessed Bodies they usurp For that such Possessions have been and still are in the World though more frequent in our Saviour's time than ours is as hard to deny as that there are Witchcrafts which yet many will not allow of and the Papists would take it ill we should deprive them of this one great Argument to prove the truth of their Doctrines who though they feign Possessions where there are none and conjure up imaginary Devils that they may have the credit to lay them yet this is no good reason to say there are no such things at all And this once granted as we must needs doe unless we will contradict all credible sensible Experience there will be no ground left to dispute the real Being of bad Angels which is an Argument of equal force to prove that there are good ones But then 3dly What if we do no longer now-a-days see Angels in visible shapes may we not discover them by their several actions and operations And do not these necessarily imply the Being of things Now besides the Testimony of Scripture which represents Angels standing moving talking and the like It is apparent that there are many effects in Nature which as they cannot be attributed to any natural Causes unless we will have continual
the advantage of his Maker 4. A fourth strange opinion of theirs was a fancy they had of a temporal flourishing Messiah which serv'd to promote their carnal ambition by filling their heads with designs of worldly grandeur and begetting a contempt in them of and hatred to all other Nations while they look'd upon themselves as the only true Subjects of their mis-shapen Messiah and on all others as Rebels to Him and consequently such as they were obliged to persecute with Fire and Sword and by force of Arms to compel to come into his kingdom and so to prepare the way of the Lord as we see our modern Chiliasts have attempted hating all foreign Princes as Usurpers and deeming it no better than a sinfull Vassalage to stoop to a Heathen Sceptre and dispensing with their oaths and obligations upon the accompt of their Religion and Customs which was the ground of their frequent Rebellions especially against the Roman Emperors and of the final Ruine of their State and Religion I might here give you in a larger Catalogue of other their erroneous doctrins Concerning their over-strict observation of the Sabbath Of an Astronomical Destiny and Fatality held by them Of Vows of Continency though not perpetual Of the necessity of Washing Cups and Pots with a farrago of more ridiculous and burthensome Ceremonies as Abstaining from certain kinds of Meats as naturally unclean though God himself had not prohibited the use of them and many such like Fopperies their Talmud is stuff'd with which is nothing else but a Shop and Legend of such Impertinences But by those main doctrines I have mentioned and which are indeed of the very essence and constitution of a Pharisee 't is easie to discover their design and drift how full of impiety they were tending to the disparaging of God's Laws and the weakning of that Obedience which was due to them and men's too and to the fomenting of hypocrisie superstition and rebellion the natural conclusions of such false and dangerous premises 2. Nor did their Actions bely their Principles If we look into their carriage we shall find there nothing but Hypocrisie a mere form of godliness without the power of it Painted Sepulchres they were offering to the purblind view of men the scum and outside of their nobility and merit in the large characters of Marble Statues Heraldry and Epitaphs while they entertained the all-piercing eye of God with the nasty prospect of a Charnel-house For such they were cramm'd with the bodies of those martyr'd Prophets whose bones they so hypocritically enshrin'd Bodily worship which is but the rinde and bark of Religion was the main of the Pharisees sanctity which usually concluded like the Turkish Lents after the vizarded austerity of a few spare hours in nightly Bacchanals They would not fast without a smeared or disfigured Face nor give alms without a Trumpet nor pray without Witnesses and vain repetitions Strict observers they were of the mint and cummin and as great neglectors of the weightier matters of the law judgement mercy and truth They could strain at a Gnat and swallow a Camel were so much for Sacrifice that they neglected Charity observed the Sabbath but had no Love laying heavy loads on others which themselves would not touch with one of their fingers God had charged them to bind the Law to their hand and before their eyes meaning thereby the meditation and practice of it and they extended the dimensions of their Philacteries to fill the gazing eyes of the People bearing them not in their hearts and lives but in their foreheads hands and heels also as whipt and branded Malefactors have no more of Law than what is legible in red letters of Justice on their backs or fists In a word all they aimed at in their works of Charity was to be seen and get glory of men to make clean the outside of the platter and draw near unto God with their lips when their hearts were far from him This is the description our Saviour gives of their Hypocrisie Nor was their Ambition less in affecting the Title of Rabbi's and greeting in the markets the highest seats in the Synagogues and the chief rooms at feasts This was their carnal and their spiritual Pride which is worse was as great while their enthron'd righteousness lookt down on the integrity of all the World besides as its footstool They were not as other men true indeed for they were much worse for this very reason because they thought themselves so much better And upon this accompt they avoided all communication with any but those of their own Tribe They would not board with a Samaritan or a Publican falling foul with Christ for tasting of their bread a crime as bad with them as to eat Swines-flesh herein shewing themselves the true Successors of those in the Prophet Esay 65. 5. whose Motto 't was Stand a-part Come not near me for I am holier than thou And thus we find the Pharisee praying by himself leaving the despised Publican in the utmost Porch of the Peoples Court whom he brands with the odious contemptible name of This Publican Uncharitableness being the natural brat of Pride and none more ready to spy a mote in another's eye than he who has a beam in his own To their Hypocrisie and Pride I may add their excessive Covetousness and Extortion charg'd upon them which was so unsatiable that their throat was an open Sepulchre swallowing up whole Widows houses and the Estates of Orphans dress'd in the poynant Sawce of their owners Tears and eaten with their leavened Bread of deceit in a traiterous Executorship And what was their Corban but an art to fill their Treasury by cheating Parents of their due upon the score of Religion Or what were all their subtle arts to gain and uphold a Party but Interest Wherein their blind zeal and industry did vye with their policy compassing Sea and Land to make but one Proselyte who when they had made him such would be sure to be twofold more the child of Hell than themselves As Renegadoes among the Turks exceed the Natural Turks in their hatred and malice to Christians and for that reason have priviledges above the Natives And indeed 't is hard to say which was greater their Malice or Cruelty to those who refused to subscribe to such dictates as they Magisterially delivered out of Moses's Chair which were to be received as infallible Oracles Of such invincible Incredulity too that though they continually required Signs and Miracles yet none though as clear as light could convince them so far were they from believing Christ that they were most jealous lest any others should doe so Doe any of the Pharisees believe on him Joh. 7. 48. Nay Were there not many that durst not confess him lest they should be cast out of their Synagogues Thus would they neither enter into the kingdom of Heaven themselves nor suffer
their wrecks And to this purpose like another Aeolus he lets fly his boisterous Winds his Seminary Priests and Jesuits Alas He is the principal Author of our disturbances These but the Instruments who like so many Puppets dance by the motion of his hand 'T is no marvel if these his sworn Vassals his Janizaries in continual pay should advance the Interest and fight for the Cause of their great Lord and General wherein themselves are so much concern'd Nor do they boggle at any thing that may promote it be it never so impious while the good of the Catholick Cause as the Pharisaical Gold did their Altar shall sanctifie all their lewdest practices 'T is no marvel I say that such men should doe any thing who are members of such a Church whose tender mercies are cruelty whose piety butchery religion faction devotion sedition zeal fire and martyrs traytors Surely such Cannibals as daily devour their God will make no bones to swallow up whole States or which is worse to blow them up This was their attempt this day and this is still their design no doubt 'T is no Fable this but a History Habemus confitentes reos What need we any farther Witnesses than the Parties themselves All Garnet's tricks and equivocations at last fail'd him when being put to it he could not deny but that he had a head and hand in it confessing withall that his principal motive to this villany was an Excommunication thundred out against Queen Elizabeth by Pius Q. and Sixtus V. which sticking still on King James as not repealed but rather confirmed by their Successors obliged him in Conscience to attempt the Murther of his Sovereign in obedience to the Pope his greater Lord. This Bill was produc'd in the indictment of the said Garnet and gave occasion to the Oath of Supremacy So that the matter of fact being as clear as the confessions of the Contrivers and Instruments themselves could make it all the subtlety of Papists can never disprove or disguise it Here is no shift no starting-hole left them The Mine was contrived at Rome though 't was to be sprung here at Westminster The Pope himself laid the Train which his Ministers by his order were to give fire to And how near were they to doe it and we to be undone There wanted but a little light Match to have sent up a Church and State into the air Nor did our Enemies make any doubt but that they should have seen us flying there and which was their charity that our Fall thence should have been as low as Hell However lest the Plot should possibly fail as through God's infinite mercy it did of its intended effect they had a Declaration ready to indict the Protestants of that Treason For the Brat would have been too foul for the Pope to father though himself very well knew it was his own natural issue and all the world besides And indeed the very shape and complexion of this Monster shews it not to be of an English Extraction Nothing but the Pope and the Devil could lay such a Cockatrice's Egg nor any but a Jesuite hatch it Let them take it between them and let it remain an eternal blot upon them and their religion guilty of a design than which nothing yet ever lookt more like Hell the darkness and the flames of it being all in it I need not display the horror of it the very prospect thereof being ghastly beyond all expression Let your thoughts supply the defect of my rhetorick and tell you whether such fruits as these be the fruits of the Spirit of God or of his true Prophets Surely their Vine is the Vine of Sodom their Grapes are Grapes of Gall and their clusters bitter And yet how many are there that can relish no other but what an Italian soil produceth though they be as mortal as those of the forbiddentree Without doubt our English palats have been strangely corrupted of late days that we should be so bewitch'd and intoxicated with the cup of Rome's abominations as to suck out the very lees and dreggs thereof with such delight and pleasure I know the troubles of our late Wars have given the Romish Emissaries opportunity of beguiling many who discontented with their sufferings at home and pincht with necessity or offended with the many Sects which the licentiousness of the War had begot or couzened with the pretences of antiquity vanity glory and splendor of the Romish Church and perhaps allured by those pleasing doctrines and opinions whereby their Casuists gratifie Sinners have revolted from us and do still revolt Much talk there is of the increase of Popery and if true 't is not much to be wonder'd at for a Plague is infectious and a Gangreen spreading and evil as well as good communicative But surely Papists need not bragg much of their gain when they consider how and whom they get They are such as we can spare them men that had no religion till they found them one and whose noreligion was better than what they have gotten who living like Atheists that they may seem at least to be of some religion pretend to be Papists and being cast out by us were fit for them to receive These be their prey These their spoils I envy them not such Proselytes who add nothing to the repute of any side but number nor do we lose any thing but what would shame us our Church being but the purer for having such dreggs purg'd out Ancient Rome had at first wanted men to inhabit it if Romulus had not opened an Asylum and modern Rome would not be so much replenished if there were not a Sanctuary there for such Converts Let me bespeak such as St. Paul did his Galatians O ye foolish People who hath bewitched you that ye should not obey the truth That having known God as ye have done ye should turn again to weak and beggarly Elements whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage Lick up your vomit and forsake the truth of God to follow lies and Jewish fables For what is Popery but one great one what are its new doctrines but old heresies patch'd and trick'd up and only so old as to be rotten Look into its practices too whether that which Tacitus says of Rome heathenish be not as true of Rome apostate That all shameless and heinous enormities ran into it as into a common sewer Christian Rome now if I may give it that name is no more like what once it was than Jesuits are like Apostles And yet these be the men ye doat on and if you can get any one of their Tribe into your houses you can say to your selves as Micah did Judg. 17. 13. Now I know the Lord will doe me good because I have a Priest Such a Priest indeed as his was who like a Serpent cherisht in your bosome will sting you to death Let me apply the old Proverb 'T is ill going in Procession where the
the time cometh that whosoever killeth you will think that he doth God service And these things will they doe unto you because they have not known the Father nor Me. THAT Religion is the great Instrument of that happiness they expect hereafter is what all good men doe believe And that it is withall a special means of procuring Temporal happiness is what the most unbelieving doe allow by making it or at least the pretence thereof so necessary to the well-being and support of humane Societies that without this foundation they cannot in their opinion possibly subsist And therefore Politick men finding this Engine so forcible to turn and manage the World have always successfully employ'd it to that purpose and governed others though Themselves were least governed by it And certainly if the bare appearance of Religion hath been thought even by the worst of men so effectually conducing to the peace and benefit of Mankind It is a plain confession that the Reality thereof must needs be much more and that not only by a Divine but also by a Moral Causality For besides that Religion by over-awing men's Consciences keeps them firm and steady in their Obedience to Magistrates It does in its own Nature and Constitution carry such a mollifying uniting Vertue in it as is apt to soften the most obdurate and pacifie the most turbulent Minds having such a powerfull Influence as well on the Persons as Actions of Men that it turns Wolves into Lambs and where it once lays hold on Conscience is the strictest band of humane Laws the best security for Princes and the greatest Endearment of Obedience which can never be firm and lasting without it It being impossible that He should ever be true to Man that is not so to God But if this be the natural Effect of Religion how comes it then to pass that it is not constant If it disposeth Men to Peace and Order why does it so often break them How comes that which is the Cement of humane Societies and the bond of peace to be such a Make-bate in the World as we see it is by those bitter Feuds and Animosities those mortal and implacable Hatreds it raises and foments every-where to the ruine and destruction not only of private Families but even of States and Kingdoms This I confess is a fatal Consequent and an accidental Event not any proper and natural Effect of Religion but rather of men's Lusts Passions or their Mistakes about it Of the Hypocrisie of some who make it a stalking-horse to temporal Interest carrying on their worldly designs under its Mask and Vizard As the Pharisees made long prayers to devour Widows houses or Of the misapprehensions of better-meaning people who fight against God under his own Banner break his Laws in pure Obedience to them and while they turn his Servants out of their Synagogues and kill them into the bargain think thereby to doe their Master service with these in the Text. One would think it should have been impossible for any Men to be so persuaded but that our Lord hath here plainly foretold it and the Experience of all Times and of ours especially hath abundantly verified his Prediction For we see Men though most opposite in their Judgments yet perfectly agreeing in this Point That whosoever is not with is against Them and whosoever is against Them is against God and so to be run down as an Enemy to him So that when once people make their own God's quarrel no quarter then is to be expected from them and to be remisly cruel shall pass with them for a doing of the work of the Lord negligently And this shall justifie yea and sanctifie all inhumane bloudy acts propitiate for all other faults and turn Murther it self into a Sacrifice and by slaying all that stand in their way Men shall consecrate themselves to the Lord as they are said to doe who slew the Idolaters Exod. 32. 29. or as 't is in the Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Chaldee Paraphrase renders Offer an oblation unto God Now it seems very strange how any Man should be able so far to subdue his Reason as to persuade himself that to persecute excommunicate nay and to kill another meerly for differing from him in opinion can be an acceptable service unto God But what Natural Reason boggles at Religion we see or rather a false conceit thereof not only swallows but digests as a pleasing Morsel making some doe that out of choice which others doe out of rage and frenzy and corrupting their Judgments to that pass as to persuade themselves they doe best where they doe worst Such were the Persons our Lord speaks of forewarning his Disciples that they might not be offended v. 1. when they should be counted as sheep appointed to be slain when they should see themselves set apart for the Altar killed all the day long for his sake and the Gospel Appointed unto death in the design and intention of their cruel and implacable Enemies who should not only safely but meritoriously kill them as so many proscribed Persons on whose heads rewards are set and who thereby should not only deserve well of Men but of God 1. Now who they were that should doe so and what were the Reasons or Motives prevailing with them to make them think they should doe God service by such violent ways as the putting Christ's Disciples out of their Synagogues and killing them I shall in the first place inquire into And then in the next 2. I shall shew you our Saviour's judgment of or rather the heavy doom He passeth here upon all such Men and their Practices as proceeding from perfect ignorance from their not knowing the Father nor Him And wherein this their Ignorance did consist shall be my second Inquiry Which two Heads of discourse when I shall have gone thorough I shall 3. In the third place conclude with some Application The first thing to be inquired into is who They were our Saviour here points to And to this Query my Answer in short is That they were three sorts of very different people Jews Heathens and Christians 1. Jews Against whom these words are here directly levelled For who could those be that should put Men out of their Synagogues but the Jews especially the leading Men amongst them The Scribes and Pharisees The Elders or Sanedrim who were the Highest Ecclesiastical Court in that Nation Had they not agreed among Themselves That if any man did confess that Jesus was Christ he should be put out of the Synagogue Joh. 9. 22. And in pursuance of that Order and Agreement doe we not find that they did cast out the blind Man for owning Christ to be the true Messiah ver 34 Nor did their rage stop here but as in process of time they proceeded to the Murther even of the Son of God Himself so to the Persecution of all his Followers They both killed the Lord Jesus and have
persecuted us says St. Paul 1 Thess. 2. 15. Adding this farther character of them there That they pleased not God and were contrary to all Men That is to all that were not of their way but to Christians above all others Which is that our Lord had expresly foretold they should doe Mat. 23. 34. and St. Stephen upbraids them for having done Act. 7. 52. And we see what havock St. Paul himself made of the Church before his Conversion breathing out threatnings and slaughter against the Disciples of the Lord And himself tells us why he did so namely out of a full persuasion that he was in conscience obliged to persecute Christians who were as he then thought the main Enemies of the Jewish Religion I verily thought with my self says he that I ought to doe many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth Act. 26. 9. And he tells us Phil. 3. 6. That out of zeal he persecuted the Church Affirming the same of the other Jews being all zealous of the law Act. 21. 20. So that all his and their rage against Christ and his Disciples proceeded from their great Zeal to the Mosaical Law For the Mosaical Law having been of divine Institution they lookt upon all those that opposed it as professed Enemies to God as guilty of the highest presumption and sacriledge who should endeavour to repeal and make void what God Himself had once enacted And then what more acceptable service think we what better sacrifice could they offer up to Him than the bloud of such Miscreants who should presume to set up a way of Worship in opposition to what Himself had prescribed We find this charg'd upon St. Stephen as his great crime That he should affirm That Jesus of Nazareth should destroy the holy Place and change the customs which Moses had delivered them Act. 6. 13 14. And so strongly were the Jews possessed with a conceit of their being the peculiar People of God that they could not endure the least mention of any others sharing with them in this Priviledge insomuch that they could hear St. Paul with patience enough till once he spake of his being sent to the Gentiles They gave him audience till then says the Text And then cryed out Away with such a Fellow from the Earth for it is not fit that he should live Act. 22. 21 22. Contradicting and blaspheming the truth Paul preacht unto them Act. 13. 45. And stirring up the devout and honourable Women that is such as had embrac'd the Law of Moses and the Jewish Religion being led with blind Zeal against the Gospel which they knew not and so were the fittest Agents to their Party and for their turn to promote Persecution against the Church as having a great Interest in men's Affections All this plainly shews that what the most part of the Jews did in opposition to the Gospel was out of pure Zeal to the Law and out of a conscientious but blind Persuasion That it was their Duty to persecute and destroy All that were Enemies thereunto wherein many of them did bono animo errare err with a good Mind and holy Intention Thinking thereby to doe God service But although the Generality of the Jews did Think so yet some and They the leading Party among them did think to doe themselves some service as well as God driving on their Politick designs under the fair and colourable pretence of Religion Of this sort were the chief Governors who dreaded the ruine of their Synagogue That their Law and Government would sink together and that Christianity if not timely crusht would sweep away both This appears clear from that saying of theirs Joh. 11. 48. If we let this Man that is Christ alone All men will believe on Him And then what will become of our Power and Authority The Romans shall come and take away both our Place and Nation This was their great Fear They saw that the World was already gone after Christ And if things should go on at that rate they should then be left alone and the People should fall off from them from whom they suckt no small advantage It was this Apprehension that vexed them at the heart This made them straitly threaten the Apostles not to preach any more in Christ's name left a doctrine so dangerous to them should spread any farther Act. 4. 17 18. The Law was their great Pretence but Interest their chiefest Motive to persecute Christians who were such dangerous Enemies to their Religion and which was more considerable to them to Themselves to their Sway and Authority And both these meeting together would not fail to give their rage the keenest Edge But this consideration was not perhaps that which moved the generality of the People who had no such deep reach and had more sincere Hearts and honest Intentions being but so many Tools in the hands of more cunning Designers These men being possessed and acted by a Religious frenzy bore all down before them not valuing their own Lives to be masters of other men's Such were those devout Assassins who had bound themselves under a great Curse an Oath of Execration That they would neither eat nor drink till they had killed Paul Act. 23. 12. Like those among the Mahumetans who strongly deluded and besotted with their Superstition count it meritorious to murther any Enemy thereof though Themselves perish in the Attempt And thus you see who were the principal Persons our Lord here aims at to wit the Jews And what were the main Grounds and Motives that transported them with such rage and fury against Christ's servants a blind zeal for their Law and a strong persuasion that they were bound in duty and conscience to use all manner of violence against them who were in their account utter Enemies to their Law and consequently to Themselves as well as to God the Author of it 2. But these were not the only People here pointed at The time cometh faith our Lord that whosoever killeth you will think that he doth God service That Time was not yet come but it was coming and near at hand too when every one as much bigotted as the Jews could be should think they should perform the same service Deo opiniativo as St. Augustine phraseth it to what they took for God to those false Gods they worshipped as the Jews did to the true by mingling theirs as Pilate once did the Galileans bloud with their Sacrifices This points to Heathens So Tertullian speaking of Maximilian tells us That he thought the bloud of Christians a most pleasing Sacrifice to his Gods Christianorum sanguinem Diis gratissimam esse victimam Budoeus is of opinion that St. Paul speaking of Christians being accounted as the filth of the World and the off-scowring of all things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 4. 13. Alludes to those Expiations in use among Heathens where certain condemned Persons were
crosseth the very end and design of his Coming into the world and is expresly contrary to his Doctrine and Example 2. Because it is a very improper way to advance Religion by And 3. Such as does not serve their purpose who make use of it which is To gain Proselytes to their Cause 1. I say It crosseth the very end c. For as God the Father was not in the whirlwind but in the still voice so his Son 's coming into the world is said to be like rain coming down into a fleece of wooll scarce to be heard He shall not strive nor cry neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets says the Prophet Esay speaking of Christ ch 42. v. 1. His behaviour was to be mild and gentle not boisterous and clamorous such a way becoming Him who was the Prince of Peace whose business it was to reconcile men to God and to themselves and who came not to destroy men's lives but to save them He tells us indeed in one place that He came not to send peace on earth but a sword Matt. 10. 34. or as it is in St. Luke ch 12. v. 51. divisions yea and such divisions as should set a man at variance against his father and the daughter against her mother v. 35. that is He foresaw what would be the event of his coming That the nearest Relations would hate and persecute one another to death upon the score of Religion That different pretences thereunto would separate those whom nature and bloud had most closely link'd together That none here would pardon less than they who were by nature obliged to love most And we see how sharp-edged this Sword has always proved even to the cutting asunder all natural and civil tyes and obligations so that a man's greatest foes are many times those of his own houshold Now this was no natural but an accidental effect of Christ's coming and of that Doctrine He brought with Him whose proper character it is to be pure and then peaceable Jam. 3. 17. mild and gentle not like the Law a killing letter much less like Draco's Laws writ in bloud but admirably fitted for the perfecting men's Natures and the sweetning of their Tempers and Spirits and calculated for the peace and order of the World which how inconsistent it is with those violent ways of Excommunications and Murthers some Men practice against such as differ from them never so little in opinion in matters of Religion I cannot see Nor indeed can I find any thing in the Gospel in the Doctrine or Practice either of Christ Himself or of his Apostles to authorize or countenance any such violent proceedings but enough to condemn them When an enemy had sown Tares in the field and some over-hasty people were presently for plucking them up our Lord we see forbids them and will have them both grow up together till the harvest when God should make the separation Matth. 13. 28 29 30. So when the Disciples would call down fire from Heaven to consume the Samaritans who were both Schismaticks and Hereticks He checks them for it telling them That they knew not what Spirit they were of Luk. 9. 54 55. That however the doing so might suit with the firey temper of Elias it did not at all with that of his Disciples It is not for Christianity to assume a power to inflict itself nor is it commissionated to plant it self with violence or to destroy all that refuse or oppose it If it be to be writ in bloud 't is in that of its own Confessors only as it was in that of its Author whose practice was as mild and gentle herein as his doctrine For when some of his Disciples being scandalized at the eating of his flesh went back and walked no longer with Him which was direct Apostasie does He use any menaces or force to reduce them No He leaves them to themselves and only cautions his Disciples to beware of their pernicious Example by gently expostulating with them Will ye also go away Joh. 6. 67. And when He afterward sent out those his Disciples to convert the World He sent them forth as Lambs among Wolves Luk. 10. 3. which does not found like a Commission to tear and worry them that would not come into the flock but rather to be torn and worried by them Their Commission was to preach the Cross not to inflict it And when any City would not receive their Doctrine all they were to doe in such a case was only to shake off the dust of their feet against it That is to suffer nothing of theirs to cleave unto them to have nothing more to doe with them but to leave them to their own ways and to God's judgment How well our Modern Apostles have copied out this Doctrine and these Examples I leave it to all the World to judge Surely those qualifications which St. Paul requires in the servants of the Lord not to strive but to be gentle unto all men and in meekness to instruct those that oppose themselves 2 Tim. 2. 24 25. are not to be found in them who now call themselves Converters who carry the Gospel in one hand and a Sword in the other That if Men will not receive That into their Heads They shall be sure to have This sheath'd in their Bowels 2. But this as it is a most unchristian so is it a very improper way to advance Religion by it being impossible to settle That by violence which cannot be forc'd and where 't is forc'd 't is not Religion The Understandings and Wills of Men are not to be bound with the same fetters their Bodies are The Apostle indeed says There is a way of bringing every thought into Captivity to the obedience of Christ but he tells us withall that the weapons by which that victory is obtained are not carnal 2 Cor. 10. 4. One may as well invade and think to get a conquest over thoughts and chain up a mind as force a Man to will against his own will Not whole Armies can besiege ones Reason nor Cannons batter his Will Religion is seated in those Faculties to which outward force can have no access The Sword hath no Propriety that way Silence it may but it can never convince and rather breed an aversion and abhorrence of that Religion whose first address is in bloud and rapine For 3ly It is certain that all compulsion here gains nothing to any Cause but the infamy of those rigours that are used to promote it Outward force may make a Man more a Hypocrite than he was before but never more a Convert It may tye up his Tongue or his Hand not change his Heart make him perhaps dissemble his Opinion but never constrain him to alter it And what is the advantage that is got by such Proselytes who shall still bear an Enemies heart towards those who force them outwardly to profess what inwardly they abhor and to be of their
much more troubled minds And without question the keenness of Christ's apprehension of what sin deserved was a high aggravation of what he suffered In which respect Christians also are more unhappy than the most bruitish men yea than the beasts that perish For whereas these feel their misery when it comes but doe not anticipate it those shall doe what the Devils deprecated continually torment themselves before the time and but with imaginary Evils if there be no such thing as a Hell Mortality and corruption would then make unreasonableness its self a priviledge and the Atheist would in this life be far happier than the best Christian and still happier than he is if he could bring himself to have as little reason as he has religion There is no doubt but that supposing no other life his enjoyments here would be so much the greater as his fears were less Thus the Hog makes good cheer in a tempest while Men make vows and prayers he is secure while the Philosopher looks pale and affrighted and owes that tranquillity to his stupidity which the others Philosophy and Reason shall but disturb 'T is certain that still as a man's apprehensions of another life have been less his enjoyment of this has ever been more free and full The Epicure who denied a God or at least his Providence did little trouble himself with his Anger while he fancied such a Deity as would not disturb men's pleasures so he might peaceably enjoy his own himself became as voluptuous as that God he made and so 't was his whole business to create himself an imaginary Paradise while he thought there was no real one This made such persons give themselves over to all licentiousness for their Principles being loose their Lives could not be strict while their opinions were so low of the Soul their care could not be but great for their Bodies The Immortality of the Soul once denied the concerns for it could not be much it being not probable that such men should please themselves with a pretence of vertue who deny'd the future rewards of it And from such premises that conclusion here mentioned by St. Paul could not but follow Let us eat and drink for to morrow we dye It is but reasonable to imagine that they who thought they should dye like beasts should live like them husband that life the best they could which should never return when once gone and make it as pleasant as they saw 't was short Which if there were no other life to come was no doubt a rational course and the highest wisedom And this supposed The Children of this World must needs be wiser than the Children of Light Martha's choice much better than Maries That Cardinal who said he would not change his part in Paris for that in Paradise appear as wise as we can imagine him Atheistical and those men's profession Malachi 3. That 't is a vain thing to serve the Lord and little profit to be found in keeping of his Ordinances were to be lookt upon as the highest reason The true Christian should be of all other the most unprofitable servant To be vertuous and to be vitious would be all one or rather to be vertuous would be but a trouble and a check to us nothing else but a subtle invention to debar our selves of the benefit of the good things of this world when no better were to be expected 2. The second thing I laid down in order to the proving the Christian more miserable than all other men upon supposition of no future state is this That the higher men's hopes are the greater their misery in their disappointment If hope but deferr'd vexes the Soul then hope utterly frustrated must needs confound it Which is so true that the higher we rise in our expectations the greater must our fall be when we find them defeated Now no profession bids higher than Christianity It bids the poorest beggar look upon himself as a King one born to a Throne and by filling him with expectations of a Sceptre which he shall never have turns that Heaven he strongly fansies into a fool's Paradise His fall from that place he so eagerly aspires to is like that of Lucifer from that he was once possess'd of He hopes to shine as a star in the firmament when his glory must suffer an eternal Eclipse Thus does he please himself with an empty title when he shall never enjoy the Inheritance and so in pursuance of a dream shall he lose the more solid comforts of this life and let go a substance to catch at shadows of good things to come if those good things be only in his Imagination if that death which puts an end to his misery shall add a greater one by for ever depriving him of his fancy'd enjoyments I shall add this one Consideration more that Christians as they are more miserable than other men by their Profession so do they make themselves yet more miserable by their severe Principles of Mortification and Self-denial debarring themselves of those Comforts and Satisfactions which others freely enjoy Thus shall the very Religion they profess persecute them more than another's rage and envy and while the World shall deprive them of things convenient for this life they shall do more of things necessary That shall deny them things lawfull They themselves things expedient too If Providence has given them a plentifull fortune their Religion shall forbid them the full and free use of it They must be poor in spirit in the height of honours low in their desires though never so high in wealth and plenty Thus in the midst of enjoyment do they scarce enjoy their Appetite must be curb'd in the opportunities of its utmost indulgence and while good things are presented to their view they must not reach out their hand to them neither touch taste nor handle nor use the World but as if they used it not In which respect as they suffer more than others so shall they enjoy less too while they lose the good things here and fail of those hereafter But here some may object That although there were no God nor life to come yet there is so much satisfaction in living according to the rules of right reason and vertue that even that consideration should oblige men to doe so and so make them most happy I confess that to live according to the rules of right reason is most agreeable to humane nature and conducing to happiness in this life and that they who keep closest to such rules should have a considerable temporal advantage over those that break them For sobriety temperance meekness chastity and the like do no doubt add as well to the pleasure as length of men's days and therefore Christians who best observe and practise those Vertues must needs upon this account enjoy themselves most in this World although they should fare no better than others in the next But to this it may be reply'd That
the World and is as ancient as Religion it self 'T was so before and under the Law Abel Noah Job sacrificed then And under the Law the Jews were expresly commanded so to doe Exod. 8. 20. 10. 26. And as Nature did of old so does it still prompt Heathens to this way of worship thereby doing homage to the great Creator and acknowledging him Lord of all things and themselves absolutely depending on Him For Almighty God from whom we had all our subsistence hath in all Ages required one thing of us back again that we should repay something as an acknowledgment that he deserv'd all and hence probably came the Original of Sacrifices But the Jews were instructed in another super-added meaning of that custome besides viz. That God was not only to be adored as a Lord but to be appeased as a Judge his Empire by being so owned was to be dreaded too When we slew our Beasts we were to remember that our selves deserv'd that death we inflicted and punished only what we were to have endured That innocent Beasts were to be offered up for guilty Men and what was due to the Sacrificer was to be laid on the head of the Sacrifice Et viles animas pro meliore damus Poor man whose sin hath brought him to so great a distance from his Maker that the very Beasts must set him nearer Sin hath strangely transform'd us that we are not to approach Heaven unless a Brute make way Man is plac'd in a strange order of being when 't is a disputable case whether Beasts are below or above him On the one hand we command them on the other they attone for us Here we give Laws to them There we beg pardon by them We feast upon and we sacrifice by them They are our luxury and they expiate it by them we sin and we pray who make up so much of our crime and our devotion too make up a great part of our guilt and then remove it Here God hath certainly represented unto us the meanness of sin by the vileness of the price that is paid for it and Man is fallen into an order below that out of which he takes his Intercessor But however the Jews or other Nations might think that Sacrifices could remove the guilt certainly they did but upbraid it and rather signifie our death than remove it It is not possible that the bloud of Bulls and of Goats should take away sin There is need of better bloud to satisfie the God that is offended and there must be other Purgations for the Conscience that is defiled The Law was in its Ways and Institutions too weak for so high a purpose It could little more than adumbrate what the Gospel did perform St. Paul who understood the Nature of Judaism handles that argument in all his Epistles especially in this and that to the Hebrews and there useth those terms which express not how the Law of Christ doth oppose that of Moses but how it doth exceed it how it does accomplish what that did barely signifie and by their figures expresses our duties He does not take away Sacrifice for without Sacrifice no Religion but only change it For the Law being changed it is necessary that the Sacrifice should be so too That what was before Carnal should now be wholly Spiritual That now Men should be sacrificed instead of Beasts That Innocence and Meekness should be the Dove or the Lamb and Lust the Goat The Heart the only Altar Mortification the Knife and Charity the true Fire In a word Devotion now is the proper Sacrifice of a Christian and Himself the Temple the Priest and Sacrifice too Whereby we may clearly see how much more favourably God deals with us Christians than he did with the Jews among whom certain persons had right to sacrifice and at certain places and times whereas now those distinctions are quite taken away every Christian being a Priest of a nobler order than that of Aaron and not confin'd either to time or place 2ly In that God requires not now of us such an expensive Devotion as formerly he did of the Jews no herds of Bulls and Rams nor Rivers of oil no such costly Sacrifice as Solomon offered up at the Dedication of the Temple and such as would perhaps undo us We need not go to the herds to fetch an Offering were we now to sacrifice as did the Jews the loss of a Beast would perhaps restrain us more than the sense of God's anger or our own demerit But here he that cannot give a Lamb for his Transgression may give some of himself offer hunger for shew-bread and thirst for a drink-offering consecrate a meal instead of a beast and shed a sowr fasting sigh for incense And such an easie way no doubt we will well like of who as we can object that legal Sacrifices were an insufficient expiation can at the same time quarrel with them too for being an expensive one When we rejoice that we are to be atton'd by a nobler Sacrifice we are better pleased perhaps that it is also a cheaper one But are our Beasts spared from the Altar think we only to glut our Tables Hath the great God remitted them only for the sake of our other God our Bellies Is our devotion chang'd only to gratifie our lusts or shall we be content to offer up to God what costs us nothing God did indeed once say That He did not eat the flesh of Bulls or drink the bloud of Goats But there is a sense in which he does doe both viz. when a poor Man feeds upon them Then do we attone for Gluttony when we feed the Hungry Restitution expiates for Injustice and Charity for Rapine And thus St. Paul calls Alms An odour of a sweet smell A sacrifice acceptable well-pleasing to God Phil. 4. 18. Heb. 13. 16. And not only our Charity but our Prayers our Faith our Praises our Obedience our Repentance and Mortification are in Scripture language Sacrifices too and such as without them all others are but abominations to the Lord Prov. 15. 8. Dead Carkasses not living Sacrifices which is the first property here required to render them acceptable I beseech you Brethren that you present your bodies a living Sacrifice And that 't will be 1. If it be a dying one The Beasts heretofore we know dyed when they were sacrificed Mortification is the life of a Christian If ye through the spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live says our Apostle Rom. 8. 13. 2. A living That is A quick and active Sacrifice The Soul of a Christian as well as of a Man is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a kind of perpetual motion And therefore those Blessed spirits whose activity in God's service Christ proposeth to our imitation are by the Psalmist styled a flaming fire active and restless for God's glory That Maxim in Tully De natura deorum Qui nihil agit
not any Excellency they had in their own Nature being not good but only in respect of what was worse It being better to sacrifice to God than to Devils nor otherwise than as Types of the Lamb slain from the Foundation of the World and did therefore vanish as soon as He was once offered upon the Cross Whereas true Religion remains still a Juge Sacrificium and is more lasting than the Heavens themselves which as it was long in the World before any Command came forth for Sacrifice So is it now most glorious when Jewish Altars are down 'T is not confin'd to time or place nor ever to be dispenc'd with as we find legal Sacrifices oft-times were And as 't is in the sight of God the best of all Sacrifices who requires Mercy and not bruitish Oblations so is it a most Reasonable Service being not founded in mera voluntate imponentis but in the Reason of the thing it self the Sacrifice not of a Brute Beast but of a man endued with Reason and withal most suitable to the Nature of God who as He is a Spirit will be worshipped in Spirit and in Truth and as He is a most wise God will not away with the Sacrifice of Fools Eccles. 5. 1. But will have the Evangelical as well as the Legal Sacrifices salted with salt our words and actions seasoned with discretion For we are fed with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as well as with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as well with the Rational as with the sincere milk of the Gospel so far is Christian Religion from divesting men of their reason that it strictly requires them to be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh them a reason of the hope that is in them 1 Pet. 3. 15. Being in it it self as 't is easie to demonstrate of all other the most Reasonale service and to present God with any other worship were but to offer strange Fire before him And now let me bespeak you in like manner as Naaman's Servants did their Master 2 Kings 5. 13. If the Lord had bid us do some great thing should we not do it Might he not require of us as of the Jews whole Herds of Cattle and Woods of Spices and Incense Nay which is more the Sacrifice of our Bodies in the most strict and severe Sense He might surely as being Lord of all but here we see He does not No other Bloud now to be shed but what St. Bernard calls sanguinem animi vulnerati that of a wounded troubled Spirit of a broken and contrite heart Slay thy lust and thou shalt offer him a Beast give him thy Reason or which is perhaps dearer to thee Thy Will and thou shalt sacrifice a Man to him He will accept thy Tears for drink-offerings and prefer thy very Fasts to meat-offerings Thou needest not appear before thy God empty while thou presentest thy self to him every part of thy Body and every faculty of thy Soul nay every thing thou possessest and which many times thou accountest more pretious than that very Soul of thine may be a Sacrifice and a far more acceptable one too than all the Beasts of the Forrest Give the Lord thy Heart and that will be the Fat of thy Sacrifice As thy Charity the true fire of it without which the Incense of thy Prayers and of thy Devotions will not smoak nor ever ascend up to Heaven nay without which Martyrdom it self will prove a vain and insignificant oblation and though thou shouldst give thy Body to be burnt yet thou shouldst be nothing In a word give thy God thy self and in such a manner as He requires thee to do it and thou canst give him no more and yet when all this is done no more than what he first gave thee Thus shalt thou make him Thine and be infinitely more thy self by being His. 'T is like laying up Treasure in the Temple which thereby becomes more sacred and more assured too But then in the last place let us remember that what we have once solemnly dedicated to God cannot without Sacriledge be alienated Our Bodies being once his they are no more then our own For to whom we yield our selves Servants to obey his Servants we are to whom we obey Rom. 6. 16. Our gifts here like God's must be without Repentance nor can we recall much less employ them to any other use either of the World or Satan as we cannot serve God and Mammon so neither ought we to give him the Lean and this the Fat of our Sacrifice If our God will not part stakes surely he will not content himself with the worser share Let us then give him all and that all will be our Heart and our Affections that when we appear before him our Souls may ascend up to him as the Angel did in the flame of the Altar and that Flame may still be kept alive upon it be a continual Sacrifice such as may never cease and we may do that constantly on Earth which shall be our Eternal Employment in Heaven still praise and adore our Creator Then shall he change these our Sacrifices into everlasting Temples for himself to dwell in what we now present him natural Bodies turn into spiritual and make these our vile ones like unto his glorious one Which God of his Infinite Mercy grant c. Amen Soli Deo Gloria in aeternum A SERMON ON ESAY V. 20. The former Part of the Verse Wo unto them that call Evil good and Good Evil. THE great Creator has never been wanting to Man in prescribing him such Laws as might be sufficient if obeyed to make him happy whether we consider him in the State of Primitive Integrity or out of it In the former God so left him in the hands of his own Councel as to make himself his own Rule Nature was to him instead of Revelation he had then the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil planted in him Conscience was his Oracle and Reason his Guide and to know his Duty was but to consult himself God did not only wind him up as a Watch to a regular Motion but did withal place in him a Sun-dial to set himself by if he should go false so that his very Essence and Rule was then so much the same that to transgress was not so much to break a Law as a Man Nor did he by his Fall wholly forfeit all his natural Advantages either to himself or his Posterity For though our first Parent brake the natural Tables as Moses afterwards did those of Stone yet from the scattered pieces thereof set together we may all of us though imperfectly spell out our Duty The worst of men are born with a certain Decalogue Their Souls are not mere Rasae Tabulae there is a Book of Conscience wherein the different Characters of Good and Evil are plainly legible and by the help of those practical Notions which make