Order and Purity and will make Religion and Truth to flourish to our Praise and Renown Abroad our Peace and Comfort at Home and to further and facilitate our attainment of Eternal Life hereafter Amen SERMON IX On REV. II. 17. He that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden Manna and will give him a white stone and in the stone a new name written which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it THESE words were first directed to the Church of Pergamus but they were not intended for that Church only for every one is required to give ear to them We have all the same Vocation the same Obligations are on us and the same rewards are proposed to us and therefore likewise we are all tied to the same Duty The different Stations and Orders of the Church do indeed call for some difference in Persons behaviour but otherwise all Christians have the same task enjoined them and what is spoken to one is spoken to all The first thing here called for is an Attention to the Voice of God a listning to what his Spirit saith unto us Let him who hath an ear hear c. So likewise began the Law and the Prophets for their usual Preface was Hear O Israel Hearing is a sign of a ready and willing Mind and is necessary to prepare the way to those other Acts and Exercises required of us It is indeed neither the only nor the main thing we have to do and therefore they who are only Hearers deceive themselves as St. Iames speaks As the Body would be deformed if it were all Ear so that Mans Religion is mis-shapen which is wholly exercised in Hearing But however Hearing is necessary it must not swallow up all other Parts of the Christian Service but neither must it be slighted and neglected He who turns away his Ear and will not hear shews an averseness to his Duty and though he would set himself to it he could not go rightly about it for all our knowledge of Spiritual things comes by Hearing This is not to be fetcht from within and therefore he who heareth not must continue in gross Ignorance We should begin with Hearing and we should never cease to hear that we may be informed of our Lord's Will that we may be kept in Mind of it and finally quickned to it as Servants wait daily on their Masters to know their Pleasure and to receive their Commands so should we wait on God I will saith the Psalmist hear what God the Lord will speak This is every ones Duty none are exempted from it not the Ignorant to be sure nor yet he who thinks he hath Knowledge The Man of leisure and he who is retired from the World can pretend no excuse nor will the Man of business be excused if he neglect to hear As many as have Ears and Faculties to perceive are obliged and commanded to hear for the words of our Text are Let him who hath ears which certainly comprehends all and every one But as we are obliged to hear so we ought to take heed how we hear as it is Luke viii 18. That we hear aright else we had better not hear at all Now he hears not rightly who lets only the Voice or the sound of the Word strike his Ear But who suffers it to pierce thorow to his Mind and inner Man and to leave an impression there Wherefore as we must hear so we ought to have our Ears well purg'd of whatever may stop what is spoken from going to the Heart or hinder its working there For the hearing here required is opus animi non auris It 's a pondering with the Mind as well as hearkning with the Ear. Wherefore as St. Iames adviseth we ought to lay aside prejudice and filthiness and all superfluity of naughtiness and to receive with meekness the ingrafted Word of God And sure none can refuse this who considers either the dignity of him who speaks or the excellency of what is spoken He who speaks is greater than Socrates or Plato or any of the ancient Philosophers whom many travelled far to hear speak He is greater than Solomon whom the Queen of Sheba was so desirous to hear And what is delivered doth not tickle the fancy but satisfies and ravishes the Mind It is not airy Notions and fruitless Speculations which we are bid hear but a Word which is able to save our Souls And that we may hear this joyful and comfortable Word we must not listen to the dictates of our corrupt Nature nor to the Maxims of a degenerate World nor to the particular Traditions of Elders for these do often misguide us and tho' sometimes they seem to speak fair yet they only flatter that they may the better deceive and ensnare us to make void the Commandments of God Neither the Clamours of the People nor the Calls of the Court are always to be hearkned to for the Psalmist tells us that both the one and the other have sometimes consulted and conspired against the Lord and against his Christ. We must not answer every Voice nor believe every Spirit for there be many Lying and false Spirits in the World But we must only hearken to what the Spirit of God saith and then we are sure not to be deceived This holy Spirit sometimes speaks to us by inward Motions and Inspirations to Truth and Goodness and would certainly do it oftner if we were rightly disposed and careful to attend to them but it always speaketh to us in the Scriptures they are the Voice of God which we ought to hear for no Scripture is of private Interpretation neither did the Penmen of Scripture speak and write of their own Head but as they were moved by the Holy Ghost So then it is not Man who speaks to us in the Scripture but the Spirit of God And seeing God is not like Man that he should alter his Mind seeing his Will as his Nature is unchangeable therefore nothing is from God which contradicts what is said to us in the Scripture and therefore also whatever Voice we hear whether within us or without us we ought to compare the same with what the Spirit saith to the Churches in the Scripture If it agree therewith we have reason to believe and obey it But if they sound not alike if there be no Harmony but a perfect Discord betwixt them then that is not from God It is but a Cheat and Delusion which disagreeth with the written Word and ought to be rejected whoever brings it But it is to be remembred that the quoting Texts of Scripture and the speaking in Scripture terms is not a certain sign that they who do so are true Prophets or that their Doctrine is true and from God for Men may and often do wrest the Scripture and use it ignorantly and impertinently The Devil when
their Hearts were swelled up with Grief their Souls were inwardly pierced with excessive Sorrow which abundantly appeared by all the ways by which People use to express their sorrowful Thoughts and sad Apprehensions smiting their Breasts and rending their Garments which the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth howling and mourning with the Voice which is the signification of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now it will be worth the while and very proper for the Day to consider what it was that moved them to all this Indeed the Hearts of Women by Nature are soft and tender and their Passions are sooner and more easily moved than those of Men but if we view the Object of their Grief we will not think it strange that these Women did thus bewail and lament it will be much more strange if we can restrain our Passions and refrain from weeping at the account of it and yet all know that the sight of a thing toucheth more sensibly than the hearing of it doth These Women had seen all which our Lord had hitherto suffered at the hands of wicked and sinful Men and had lively Apprehensions of what he was yet to suffer for the Death he was going to was known and ordinary but known only to be a vile shameful and most painful Death as upon other accounts so upon this that it was not a speedy but a lingering Death If they themselves were not Witnesses yet they well enough understood how he was seiz'd in the Garden as a Thief when he was most serious in Devotion and Prayer and dragged from thence to the High-Priest's Palace which ought to have been a Refuge to Innocence and a Safeguard against Indiscretions and an Unmerciful Threatment But alas even there they saw him unjustly used and most indiscreetly Handled falsely Accused illegally convicted of Blasphemy and other Crimes and all the rules of Discretion Civility and Good Manners broken in treating him He was Spit upon and Buffetted Blindfolded and smitten on the Cheek with a Prophesie who it was that smote thee By the break of Day he was hurried away to Pilate from him to Herod and back again to Pilate every one making their Sport of him After some Mock-Formalities of Law and Justice these Women saw him delivered to the Roman Soldiers a sort of Men who took Pleasure in Blood and Cruelty and then they beheld him dressed like a Fool with a Crown of Thorns a Purple Robe and a Reed instead of a Scepter because he was said to be the King of the Iews They saw him strip'd of these Ornaments of mocked Majesty and unmercifully Whipt and Scourged by the same Soldiers with Cords till Furrows were made in his Back and the Blood ran down his innocent Body And when all this would not satisfie the Malice of his Enemies they saw him given in exchange for a Villain and Notorious Robber and against all Law and Reason meerly upon the importunity of an unreasonable Multitude condemned to a Violent and Cruel Death and contrary to all Equity denied any respite or breathing time but instantly forced away to the place of Execution and made to bear that Cross on which he was to hang and pine away his Life in Pain and Torment Represent all this to your selves and consider if it be not sad and doleful who would not shed Tears at such a Sight May not this force Tears either from Man or Woman Suppose Jesus had been as bad and criminal as his Enemies would have made him yet such cruel and unmerciful Usage called for Compassion Quod non homini detur humanitati Even when it is necessary to satisfie the Law and to execute Justice Pity should be shewn to the Offender But if Pity and Compassion be due to Calamity and Misery even when there is guilt to deserve it what should be shewn when there is no Guilt at all If it should touch our hearts to see any of our Fellow-Creatures suffer though it be no more than the just Punishment of their Sins how should we be affected How should our Passions be stirred when unspotted Innocence and Vertue suffer These good Women knew that Jesus had no Crime they saw his very Enemies could not fix any upon him and that they were baffled when they undertook to prove any against him Nay he was not only innocent but also perfectly righteous he not only was guilty of no Ill but also he was one who went up and down doing good and had done many great and good and wonderful Works The Malice of his Enemies was not occasioned by any Fault of his but only by the Truth and Purity and Powerfulness of his Doctrine and by the Holiness and Integrity of his Life both which reproved their Errors their false Teaching their Hypocrisie and their Covetousness Add to all this his Quality which was the greatest in the World For tho' these Women were not yet instructed fully about his eternal Generation nor yet perhaps believed him to be the true Son of God equal with the Father as the Catholick Church doth teach and hath always taught and which must be believed if the Scriptures be true and genuine yet they believed him a Prophet and knew him to be a good Man mighty in Word and Deed they were perswaded that he was the Messiah and trusted that it was he who should have redeemed Israel Judge I pray you then what cause of Grief was here The greatest Dignity trampled upon and affronted The greatest Innocence condemned The greatest Righteousness punished The greatest Meekness reviled The greatest Charity and Beneficence persecuted The Man who preached the Word of God with Authority who shewed them the true way to Life who comforted them in their Affliction who cured their Diseases who restored their Children and Friends to Life who fed them with Miracles and from whom they expected the Salvation promised by all the Prophets to see this Man mocked scourged and put to Death before their Eyes Lord what matter of Grief was this What Occasion for Weeping Mourning and great Lamentation But though all this was more than sufficient to afflict and grieve the minds of these Women yet there was something more than all this which Jesus suffered which they knew not he suffered in his Soul and Spirit by the immediate Hand of God which none was sensible of save himself Inward Trouble and Disturbance of the Soul is much more sad and weighty than Pains and Torments in the Body The spirit of a man may sustain his Infirmity but a wounded spirit who can bear Jesus was at this time drinking the Cup of his Father's Wrath and Displeasure against Sin and the Sin not of one or two but of all Mankind What it was that he suffered in his Soul on this Account we do not know but that he did suffer in that part is certain and that he suffered heavily appears from his sweating Blood in the Garden in a cold Night from his praying three
he tempted our Saviour quoted Scripture but we ought to look to the nature and tendency of the Doctrine and consider whether it agree to the Scope of the Scipture in its particular Precepts for that is the true Standard and Measure Ye shall know saith our Saviour the tree by its fruit Now the sum of what the Spirit saith to the Churches and to us by the Churches in the Scripture is what we have in the Text viz. To him that overcometh c. In handling of which words we shall first explain what is meant by overcoming Then Secondly what is the Reward here promised to him that overcometh As to the First seeing there is mention here of overcoming that necessarily supposeth Fighting for there can be no Victory without Fighting and if there must be a Fight there must also be Enemies for we cannot fight but against Enemies And by this it appears that the Life of a Christian is a Warfare and that by coming to Christ we become Soldiers who are engaged to fight Idleness and Ease is not the End of our Calling nor are we listed merely for shew and ostentation for we are called to Wrestle and Fight and that so stoutly and valiantly so constantly and stedfastly until we overcome It is not enough to begin to make ready and present our selves to the Battel nor yet to Fight a while to hold out against two or three Onsets but we must never turn back never yield or give over but must hold out to the end and so too as to carry away the Victory for the Promise is here only to him that overcometh As in the Olympick Games none got the Prize until he had first got the Mastery over his Antagonists and as among the Romans a Triumph was granted not to him that had essayed the War but to him who had come off Victorious So Christians are not to expect these glorious things here proposed unless they have not only enterprized the good Fight but gained a Victory therein If any man turn back saith God my soul shall have no pleasure in him But blessed is he who endureth to the end for the same shall be saved Heb. x. 22. But then you 'll ask whom we are to fight with and after what manner In the first place our Text speaks not of Carnal Fighting we are not to understand it of Mustering Human Forces of Encamping Armies setting of Battels laying of Sieges making Assaults upon Cities to take them nor of using these or any other Stratagems of War where there is occasion of shewing Military Art and Valour and where only Carnal and Material Weapons are used The Rewards of these Earthly Victories are Conquests of new Dominions the Submissions of the Conquered acquirements of great Power and Riches the erection of Trophies in the places of Victory Publick Triumphs and the result of all Vain-glory and false Renown which reach not further than this lower World But the Manna the white Stone and new Name and the Glories signified by them are true substantial and eternal and regard the life to come which is Everlasting And tho' doubtless some great Warriors are in Heaven some great Conquerours will triumph with the Lord Jesus at the last Day yet most of those who acquired Kingdoms in any Ages here below will lose that above and be condemned at the last Judgment as Thieves Robbers and Murtherers for Plunder and Rapine and shedding of Blood But as for those few warlike Princes who have gone to Heaven they have not got thither by their mighty feats of Arms but by the Justice and Equity of their respective Causes for which they took up Arms and by using of them with Mercy and Tenderness and with a sincere intention for Peace or else if their Wars were Unjust by true and serious Repentance for all the Violence committed in them and by making Restitution and Satisfaction for all Injuries to their utmost power But the Spiritual Conquerours cannot fail of Heaven their very Conquest entitles them to it and all the Glories of it because it is a Spiritual Conquest and the Weapons of their Warfare are not Carnal but Spiritual and the World the Flesh and the Devil the Enemies which they conquer are Spiritual Enemies against which they Arm themselves with the whole Armour of God with the Girdle of Truth the Brest-plate of Righteousness the Shield of Faith the Helmet of Salvation and the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God because as the Apostle saith we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against Principalities against Powers against the Rulers of the darkness of this World against spiritual wickedness in High places Eph. vi 12. More particularly if we do well consider these Letters to the Seven Churches which our Lord shuts up with these words to him that overcometh we shall find the Enemies he proposeth to be encountered are such as go about to destroy our Faith to defile our Worship to extinguish our Charity and to stain the Purity of our Christian Life and Conversation Persecutions and Trouble for the sake of the Gospel or any part of it Idolatry and Superstition Heresie and false Doctrine the Corruption and inordinate Lusts within us and the Pollution and wicked Practises of the World without us are the things we have to struggle and wrestle with And the word overcome in our Text hath a reference to a perpetual War which ought to be maintained against all and every one of them For it is not enough to attack or resist stoutly any one of them if we do not withstand all He doth not overcome according to the Text nor can he claim the Reward promised therein who strikes in with any one of these or meanly yields to it though he stand never so stiffly out against the rest As for Example He cannot be said to overcome who resists Errour and false Doctrine and yet suffers himself to be captivated by Vice or Sin nor is he to be accounted Victorious who meets Trouble and Persecution with Courage and Undauntedness and in the mean time is not careful to keep a sound Faith and a good Conscience it is Treachery and Cowardice to yield to or make an Agreement with any Enemy whatsoever But wherein will you say doth this Victory properly consist Doth Christ require us to destroy the Superstitions and Idolatries of the World to amend the Corruption of the Age we live in and to stop Persecution and Trouble which come upon the Church For according to the usual way of speaking he overcometh that gets the upper hand of his Enemies and ruins them Truly the Church of God should not suffer Idolatry and Superstition to creep into its Worship and should guard its Discipline and Constitutions from being vitiated and if it were in her power to deliver her self from Persecution by ways just and lawful the Motions of Nature would induce thereto and Nature in this is not contrary to the
who humbleth and exalteth saith the wise Son of Syrach And Solomon whose Words have yet greater Weight saith whoso mocketh the poor reproacheth his Maker and he that is glad at Calamities shall not be unpunished So the Prophet Habakkuk saith That he was humbled at these Disasters of Midian and Cushan that he himself might rest in the day of trouble Who wisely and seriously consider the Instability of humane Affairs will neither be lifted up with their own Prosperity nor will they insult over their Neighbours Misery For what is the ones Case to Day may be the others to Morrow Who at present braves it out with Pride and Scorn may within a little time come to be contemptible Quem dies vidit veniens superbum Hunc dies vidit fugiens jacentem Res Deus nostras celeri citatas turbine versat Secondly We see here that the Church and People of God are often visited with the Rod of Afflictions The Text declareth it and if any Persons doubt it let them read the History of the Church and they shall be fully convinc'd As for the Iewish Church 't was first sadly oppress'd in Egypt and thereafter for the space of forty Years 't was exercised in a barren Wilderness with divers kinds of Afflictions After they came to Canaan during the time of the Judges they were often brought low They had Peace a part of David's and all Solomon's Life but afterwards it was continually interrupted till they were carried Captive to Babylon When they were brought back and restored to their own Land they were not settled without hot Debates and Contests with their Neighbours and after their Settlement they had severe Wars and were kept in continual Exercise with divers sore Troubles until Christ as appears from Iosephus and the History of the Maccabees And as for the Christian Church Trouble sprang up with it and continually attended it for the space of Three Hundred Years it suffered Ten severe General Persecutions besides many sad particular Conflicts And tho' after that the Emperours and Rulers turned Christian there was no general Persecution for the Name of Christ and the Sake of the Gospel yet there was no particular Church or People without the Rod of Correction They have been visited either with Foreign Wars or Intestine Divisions with Pestilence or Famine or some other Calamity No Nation or People can boast of an Immunity from such Disasters but for the space of One Hundred Years As Man in his private Capacity so States and Societies are born to Trouble Nor is an Exemption from the same among the Privileges of the People of God The Roman Church makes Temporal Felicity one of the Notes of the true Church But her Infallibility appears as little here as in other things For as it is no where promised in Scripture so no Church can de facto shew it She her self would fail if she were put to prove her self the true Church by this for where was her Temporal Felicity when Rome it self was sacked and the Pope shut up in Prison Calamities and Afflictions do indeed indicate that they who suffer them are Sinners But they do not prove them to be Reprobates and Cast-aways for the People of God may expect them as well as others nay they may look for them more than others because God is more jealous of them and his glory is more concerned to Punish Sin in them Thirdly We may observe here that even when God is most provoked to lay on his afflicting Hand and to Punish he doth not forbear to shew Kindness And that in the extreamest Misery there is still ground to Hope in God for a Deliverance None ever provoked God more than the People of Israel and Iudah in the days to which this Prophecy referrs nor did any Peoples case look more desperate than theirs when carried Captive by the King of Assyria And yet you see here that the Prophet in regard to them then saith when I fall I shall rise when I sit in darkness the Lord shall be a light unto me As God casts down with one Hand he lifts up with another Soepe premente Deo fert Deus alter opem Thus when he cast the Israelites out of their own Land he made them to find favour with the People among whom they were dispersed God wisely tempereth his Punishments so that while they vindicate his Holiness and Justice they also serve to manifest his Mercy and Good-will God hath no pleasure in Wickedness and therefore when he seeth it he punisheth it But all his hatred being against the Crime and not the Person therefore he saveth and comforteth them and maketh their very Afflictions tend to their Good unless they have made themselves altogether incorrigible and have hardned their Hearts against all his Methods and then indeed he gives them up to Destruction When he sees it necessary to withdraw external and worldly Comforts he doubles inward and spiritual Consolations So the Prophet Isaiah having denounced Judgments against Israel he addeth And therefore will the Lord wait that he may be gracious unto you and therefore will he be exalted that he may have mercy upon you And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of Affliction yet shall not thy Teachers be removed into a corner any more but thine eyes shall see thy Teachers and thine ears shall hear a word behind thee saying this is the way walk ye in it when ye turn to the right hand and when ye turn to the left The felicity of the Soul is to be preferred to the welfare of the Body and Spiritual Consolations to Worldly Advantages Now because ordinarily People are insensible of the former and indisposed to receive them while the latter abound with them Therefore he takes away this that they may seek the other and be capable of them so that we really gain by our losses and our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory Thus it is said Hos. ii 14. Therefore behold I will allure her and bring her into the wilderness and speak comfortably unto her and I will give her her vineyards from thence and the valley of Achor for a door of hope and she shall sing there as in the days of her youth and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt These words shew that God comforteth his People in their Afflictions and therefore afflicteth them that he may make them sensible of his Kindness and have occasion to speak comfortably to them As also that in due time he will deliver them and make them to rejoice for the days wherein they have been afflicted It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. There is always ground to hope and never reason to despair be our condition never so low perplex'd and troubled For he is