Spartans we read were great Worshippers of the Passions and therefore had Temples erected to them but Fear was the Goddess they chiefly worshipped in regard of its use and influence to preserve States Certainly though they erred in thus dedicating their Temples yet they did not erre in their notion of the advantage of Fear but had a godly one fully possessed them they would much more have concluded the safety of a Nation to depend on it as being the surest Bond of Law and the only preventer of Gods Plagues I need not endeavour to prove either of these for where such a Fear has due place it will in the closest secresie oblige men to obey and engage God openly to defend them But whether outward prosperity be always the fruit I shall not enquire I am sure the success is of the last day and the sentence of mercy waits onely upon those that religiously fear to offend To these no death can be sudden nor untimely which alone is the portion of impenitent sinners who fall often to the earth with their Youth and with their Sins too as full blown and being cast down by a Judgment are not allowed a space to recover them Why then will we abuse the promises that are offer'd us There is a Golden thread of them let down from Heaven but tyed to a Sword with the point over us and while we are rioting and indulging the Flesh the thread is ready to break and the Sword to fall on us Pardon the harshness of denouncing these things for soft words are not for Ministers to deliver It is your conscience we are bound to strike whereas your eyes are enough enlightned And the Corruption of mens natures requires this Method that Promises and Threatnings should be joyn'd to chastise and temper our hopes and settle upon our spirits a right frame Otherwise we should boldly presume and learn no Holiness in Gods Fear but that Good and Evil possessing our thoughts help to quicken us in our Obedience So then I beseech you contemplate Divine Love as withal fatal to the refuser joyn the Father with the Judge and the Adoption he offers with his Severity in condemning farther consider how the Dignity of Humane Nature lies in the pureness of its faculties as a Reward follows their Exercise First you are advanced by it to be like God next in that likeness to enjoy him Last of all search out every motive to press you to Holiness which if you enter upon and persevere in the same God who was Gracious in making and is Faithful in performing what He has promised will enstate you in the Inheritance of Sons and add Eternity for its Crown The Third Discourse St. John 6.68 Then Simon Peter answered him Lord to whom shall we goe Thou hast the words of Eternal Life IF you examin the scope of these words they are a full and passionate reply to that Question Christ made in the verse foregoing where He tries the Faith of his Apostles whether they would constantly adhere to his Laws or with the rest of the Multitude forsake him For we read in this Chapter how that great Crowd of people which followed him began now to shrink and fall off because his Doctrine was like his Person no wayes suited to a carnal Apprehension And the colour they had for this their Apostacy was some supposed absurdity of what he taught as when He styl'd himself the Living Bread which came down from Heaven vers 51. and whoever eat of that Bread should live for ever So that we find upon an enquiry that a bare Metaphor was the quarrel and a Figure of Speech the foundation of the Controversie But waving the subject matter of their Dispute which is at large described in the Chapter it will not be impertinent to observe the strange levity and ingratitude of the Vulgar who being the worst judges of a discourse will yet presume to sit upon it and if it once crosses their fancy they are ready to throw off the Authority of their Lord ay and such an Authority that was before highly commended to them in all the Wonders of Mercy Hence it is said v. 66. That many of his Disciples went back and walked no more with him Upon so general a revolt He appears at that accident unconcern'd whatever pitty He had for their persons yet He leavs them to be punished by that flight they had made but as for the Twelve whom He had particularly chosen for his Attendants these He deals with as a Friend sounds their Loyalty and by his very seeming to doubt of it shows all the Tenderness of a Saviour Then said He to the Twelve Will ye also go away Then Simon Peter answered him Lord to whom shall we go Thou hast the words of Eternal Life In this Answer of St. Peters we may consider Two Particulars 1. The Sense of all the Apostles delivered by one of them which was plainly this That they ought not to seek another Master 2. The Reason of their Choice drawn from the singular excellency of his Teaching Thou hast the words of Eternal Life I begin with their General Sense Lord to whom shall we go which kind of speech does imply that should they offer to leave Christ yet a Master was needful to be their Guide in Religion For such is mans weakness and poverty by nature that he requires somewhat without him to rest on for Happiness but it here farther fignifies that they were already fixt upon a Teacher and could find out nothing comparable to him they heard This is the scope and meaning of the Question From the Matter thus declared and from the Occasion of doing it we may note Two things 1. The Nobleneness of a right Faith when once seated in the Soul 2. The Authority of Truth notwithstanding the Opposition of the World 1. The Nobleness of a right Faith c. And it is this That it sets upon Difficulties and conquers them Let the times of Profession be bad and reproachful too for those numbers that backslide yet he that is well grounded in his Belief has his thoughts higher planted He is above the Poor Circumstance of time and beyond the Contagion of an Example Now the rules that govern most men in their course are Private Interest and Publick Opinion so that like Puppits they move and the principle of their acting is without them but he that is led by neither of these but makes Religion his Interest and obedience to it his Fame he may be call'd a Believer indeed for he expresses the Man and the Christian together Others are but Reeds in their Station shaken with every wind and mark'd for their barrenness while they stand but he is a Tree set by the Rivers of water that has depth of root and fruitfulness to crown it Yet the constancy he has is not any stiffness of mind that proceeds from the prejudice of Education for that is no better than the stiffness of earth
the face of it being spoil'd in the Storm On the other side the calm and lustre of outward good this is generally the wicked mans share we may call it Punishment thus to flourish but it is a Punishment desired Now to break up the Pit and shew those Treasures of vengeance shut up there to search into a wicked mans Fate and discover the Miseries that follow it to represent him naked in his Grave and awak'd afterwards in that nakedness for scourging this is properly to reveal Wrath and to the Gospel we must owe such a Discovery Thus much for my Second Particular There remains the Third to discuss which is this III. How justly it is exercised upon those who hold the Truth in Unrighteousness In discussing this Head I shall first open the Charge and then it will be easie to prove the justness of the Sentence The Charge laid against the Sinner is not error of mind nor weakness of passion nor decay of nature which are Guilt attended with an Apology but the tyranny of a corrupt heart That hating the Empire of Truth takes it prisoner to be freed from its Government for so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly signifies namely forcibly to withhold or detain Truth that is to obstruct the power of Religion What a high piece of injustice this is will be evidenc'd if you regard 1. The Act in it self 2. The Motives that lead men to it 3. The Effects that flow from it 1. As to the Act it is no less than the seizure of a Soveraign Prince for such Truth is and therefore justly demands to have Jurisdiction in the soul and like Light to spread in its full liberty What have Subjects to do with fettering Princes whom they are bound to obey or keeping them in the dark when they ought to be visible in the Throne Kings are only at Babylon led captive There they have their eyes put out and their feet bound that they can neither see nor walk abroad So the Christian Law that ought to rule in the World is at Rome barbarously used a place eminent for kindling of Lamps and for smothering of Light for adorning of Altars and for corrupting the Sacrifice What I beseech you is all their Worship but blind and lame Truth being so ill rack'd with their handling that they can only acquaint us with the deformities of its body The Prison it suffers in is that of One Language hardly revealed to the Priests themselves the Eyes it has are those Figur'd ones of an Idoll that need the gildings of Art to be own'd the Feet are the supports of a Tradition which requires an Implicit Faith that is Faith of the same lameness Who that sees Truth in this shape will not say it is vilify'd by its professors when the bare withholding it from others is a high Act of Injustice For that Act is a withholding of the Birth-right and Inheritance of Men and a frustrating of Gods purpose in the gift of it who as he has design'd the Elements of Nature to be commonly enjoyed for our Bodily sustentation so he has also design'd the Elements of Truth to be with a like commonness imparted for preserving the Soul Yet these kind of men that lead Scripture captive dare plead the Infallibility of their own Church a word wherein the Mystery of Iniquity is sum'd up and from whence they have fetcht all their Artillery to beat down every thing that opposed them which puts me in mind of that famous Engine Demetrius contriv'd and is mentioned by Plutarch in his Life that had several Rooms and Partitions in it to hold Souldiers and the men that lodg'd there did fight with all sorts of weapons Such is their Engine of an Infallible Guide but certainly of it self it would little prevail were it not for its many Cells and the Forces that fill them For behold what Bands of Friers what Companies of Priests lie there arm'd and prepar'd to defend their Cause This word Infallible has strength enough with them to solve all Arguments for Truth to remove all objections against Error and withall it so blinds their whole party that they can neither discern any compounded mixtures in Faith nor notorious scandals in practice though the one proceeds from all the grossness of Humane Invention and the other from all the licentiousness of Corrupt Nature But the falseness of that Title they pretend to is sufficiently laid open in the world and they themselves too might be convinc'd of the arrogance of their claim since what-ever promise they may plead for such an assistance concerns only the leading of the Universal Church and is limited too in its sense to points necessary for its salvation whereas they being only a part of that Body and a part wretchedly fallen in Christian Principles cannot truly be said to be upheld by the Spirit but rather Judicially forsaken by reason of their banishing the Word of Truth which can only secure the Spirits Conduct But I pass from hence to the Second Aggravation of this sin wherein I shall consider 2. The Motives that lead men to it Could men urge some powerful Temptation for the reason they had to hinder the Authority of Religion over them they might fetch an excuse from it but when a base lust a sordid appetite shall get strength to prevail this heightens the Crime because of the shamefulness of that Conquest In all Irreligion we are poorly master'd or rather betray'd The Will quits its allegiance to the Understanding which by nature it is a servant to for a mean narrow shrunken object that cannot so much as bribe it by a Reward Atheism is built upon gross dictates of Sense and Lust forms to its self principles to resist Conscience wherein Man pretending to live free is left miserably bound by his Slave Consult the whole Method of an Atheistical discourse In Flesh it begins and ends with it but take once out of Mans mind carnal Hopes and sensual Imaginations then the Soul comes to do it self right by being filled with proper Ideas of God and Eternity Devotion is the genuine birth of our Thoughts while the streams of them are pure but Impiety is a Monster that out of mud and stime is formed We may know its Original by its Fruits and the debauchery of an Atheist's reason by his practice whose love of Drink Whoredom Gluttony and other foul Uncleannesses furnishes him with Arguments to defend them Upon the same score the Heathens maintain'd their Idol-Temples because their inclinations led them to vice and the Gods of those Temples showed them the way The like Reason may be given for that exact care and diligence in the Roman-Church to suppress Truth which is Lust and Interest These are the Two commanding Principles they are sway'd by and Unrighteousness is serv'd by them for low wages They hide the true doctrine of a present Repentance that their followers may sin all their life-time without fear and at last
with that contemplation no more than we are with the prospect of Shores and Havens that receive us safe from a Storm How is the soul quieted to think that those evils it suffers are passing away and a settled rest is prepared With what peace does it apprehend a moments danger when a perfect Liberty is the recompence This and much more does a blest Eternity import and through that encouragement is a Christian arm'd to encounter any affliction And so we read what a stoutness of spirit was rais'd in the Primitive Professors that preach'd up Christianity and ventur'd all upon it A bare Faith did not carry them to that act but a Faith that was grounded upon the Heavenliness of the Doctrine Courage of Martyrs and Power of Miracles strong Promises that will infer as strong Conclusions except wee 'l say Heaven and Earth were combin'd together in a plot to abuse and the abuse too must be this viz. a cheating of an Idolatrous world into good living Let the Scoffer count it madness to quit Sense for a Good that is yet hid from him I could tell him that even a Present Good is invisible for we want time to discern it for its shortness we want a Substance to be discern'd for its emptiness whereas an eternal one is invisible for its transcendent fulness Thither does right Reason drive us and a true principle of Self-love it being our interest to seek a Treasure that will not fail us But should we take the opposite state to This Life namely Eternal Death which is the Curse he threatens to those that deny him here we are ty'd to our Masters service by a sure chain which the dread of Omnipotence puts on Earthly Powers can awe their Subjects and justly too with what they are able outwardly to inflict yet Death being the utmost stroke of that Justice seems indeed but a retreat from it But the Grave how free and quiet soever it be is no Sanctuary to keep us from Gods hand It dissolves our Bodies but not his Government who watches every particle of our dust and locks it up safe for an after-summons but the Soul He makes the the immediate subject of his Tribunal Therefore the highest homage may be well demanded of us upon whom the highest Soveraignty is shown I confess none come up from the dead to tell us this news no they cannot for the Judges Sentence binds them to their seats where their great part is suffering and if they could 't is useless no ways tending to settle our Faith but rather confirming our suspicion that in Satans Errand some Ghost may be employed If Scripture which St. Peter calls a light that shineth in a dark place be with all its evidence of Divine Witnesses disown'd how can we believe a testimony from the Damn'd that would be sure to bring with them all their night to deceive This then can be no objection The true one is form'd by our own corrupt hearts and we are apt to question the Evil-day because we would not be checkt nor controll'd in our finning In the mean time we baffle that design by starting such a doubt which unsettling the soul in its pleasures does thereby hinder it from enjoying them We labour to be Scepticks that we may offend and after we are so we find our selves pain'd with that Uncertainty Oh let us be wise for our latter end and choose to serve our God by a true Faith since our endeavouring to shake it does but wake Conscience to torture us Hitherto I have handled the Argument St. Peter lays down for following his Lord and by the way toucht upon the Sinners Judgment I have shown the nobleness of Faith the authority of Truth and the excellent manner of revealing it by Christ above all those discoveries that were made The natural result from all is this that we would seriously inquire whether we can better our life under another service and if that be not possible then immediately list our selves his Disciples in all the watchfulness of Devotion As to the matter of Inquiry it becomes us as men not to take any Master upon trust or the custome of others Credulity is proper to Children that are weak and want sinews but the strength of Wisdom consists in this to prove all things and not be easily govern'd in our actings Yet this childish weakness are most men subject to in their main end when they relinquish their own Faculties that would lead them to Christianity and suffer themselves to be led by a Customary Discipline that destroys it What that teaching is and how far it extends every one knows The mind is not taught here but the brutish part and some transient reward propounded to encourag it Transient I call it with respect to those two Masters that rule over us Flesh and the World which pretend to nothing higher in their offers of Good for all the colour they have to invite us is only the gratifying of our senses for a few moments onely Satan makes bold to counterfeit our Lord and wears his shape in a full promise that so his hook may the better fasten and catch our appetite when he tempts us He has therefore in readiness for his followers words of Eternal Life as he had for Eve but those very words prove fatal for with the same breath he kills the Sholar that hears him What other effect can be look'd for from a Serpent condemn'd who delights in the spreading of his plague and knows no other liberty from torment than that pleasure he takes in enlarging his Hell To this end he continues down the poyson of that Doctrine Eat and live sin and be happy in the mouths of his False-Prophets who are very busie to reconcile Faith with an Evil Conscience and would fain compound up a Religion of Flesh which are arts indeed to draw many after them in regard they bribe their Sensuality But let us see the issue of all this and what fruit there is in obeying such Doctrines when the Good there promised is blown away with our breath and instead of light we find darkness On the contrary under Christs rule we have an Eternal Life tendred to us in all certainty and the condition He requires of us is an excellent part of that Life since it gives us a proper Eye to enjoy it The condition I mean is Purity of Heart a Grace that doubly profits the Soul first in refining our natures next in strengthening us to see Glory Who would not endeavour to be thus qualified for Heaven Can any corruption move us to forfeit Security and can there be greater security than the Good here promised Mans Knowledge you will grant is much exalted in foreseeing future things but his Reason is more advanc'd in pursuing them And whither would we go from our Lord Other Offerers of happiness do betray us He onely can save To him Nature has subjected us as being made Gratitude as being redeem'd Interest as
I answer not immediately from his Satisfaction but from the time of our rightly believing in him We are justified by his Blood in one sense and we are justified by faith in his Blood in another His bloody Death procur'd for us the Pardon which is nothing else but putting us into capacity of being pardoned but True Faith applies the Pardon to the Soul whereby we actually enjoy it How Faith here will be understood may be found out by comparing two places of Scripture namely Acts 10.43 with Acts 3.19 In the one it is said Whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins in the other Repent and be converted that your sins may be blotted out so that True Faith is the Principle of a new life the beginning of Sanctification when the Heart is resign'd up to God and with sincere resolutions turns to him No Faith can justifie us but as Faith that thus worketh for as God will take no unsanctified person to his Glory so neither will He seal to him in that condition pardon of sin here which is the earnest of that Glory Trust not then to his Wounds if thou bearest not the marks of them in thy Soul rely not on his Death if sin in thee be not crucified They were Reprobate Jews that turn'd his Passion into a Sight and came off not wounded but true Christians are pierced with beholding him and find it operative upon their lives Should we be justified without doing any thing on our part obedience to Gods Commands would rather be a Gift than a Debt whereas the Gospel enjoyns it us as necessary to please Him let us then so come to his Grave as not idly to bury our selves there for we are but dead men in doing so neither will our Master be found since the Angel can tell us He is not there but is risen whence we ought not to rest in that place but go forth to seek him All the vertue that is in the Sepulcher comes out to those that rise and resemble him who is risen That like as he was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father so they likewise might walk in newness of life Thus much for the First Observable I proceed to handle the Second Proposition II. That there are proper and peculiar Advantages in Christs rising above that death yea rather is risen again All the time Christ slept in the Grave was a time of gloominess and thick darkness but here God speaks as he did in the old Creation Let there be light His rising bring us day and the joyes of it wherein Death has lost all its spoyls and Life his victory Sin has spent all its force and Mercy triumphs the Synagogue it self ends and our Church begins A Day very pleasant in the speculation but may no doubt come in that it is artificially fram'd and devised by Christians Truly doubts cannot be hindred where corruption and infidelity so much reigns but the reason of our doubting is taken away by the clear evidence that is given us of his Resurrection If you ask what that is behold it is grounded upon Prophets that fortell Eye-witnesses that confirm and God himself attesting the truth of both by the power of his Spirit that worked in the Preachers to make this Point undeniable To the Prophets St. Acts 2. Peter appeals for convincing the Jews and St. Paul makes it a standing proof how He rose again according to the Scriptures 1 Cor. 15.4 Eye-witnesses are produc'd to convince the Gentiles not onely a few Women and Apostles whom he had chosen but Five hundred Brethren at once and those He appear'd to were not so much considerable for their number as for their nicety in believing men that had scruples of sense which kept them from being deceived as well as scruples of concience which kept them from deceiving others The first of these is manifest from hence That they would not thoroughly believe He was risen though they saw him till they were convinc'd by the very touch the latter is cleer from that Doctrine they embraced which forbad the least sin and how can we imagine they durst propagate a Cheat under all discouragements when they knew they not onely ran the hazard of losing their Lives as they did by professing him but their Hopes too of a better life the onely Anchor of their Profession from which a Lye would certainly exclude them Add to this the Spirit they received the Wonders they wrought and the Success they had in their Ministry when their Doctrine spread through the world from poor naked beginnings meerly by the force of this Article it shows the Body of their Master was not stoln away as the Keepers absurdly reported but that God himself was risen to defend them These things well consider'd if they amount not to Demonstration yet afford so rational a proof as will engage our assent to the Truth and convince us of folly in denying it Now the Advantages of Christs Rising above his Death have a double aspect for they either relate to Christ or to Us. First to Christ and so the Dignity of his Resurrection is seen in these Particulars 1. It justified the Innocence of his Humanity When Christ was laid hold of and carried away to be condemn'd by the Jews then his very Cause seem'd to be given up It was counted criminal with them that He would submit to an Arrest and a sufficient evidence to make him a Malefactor that He did so tamely yield to the Trial. But when He endured the Sentence to be pronounced went patiently to his Cross and suffer'd his Body to be fastned with the nails as if He had the guilt of a Slave with the punishment here was the Hour to overcome Truth and the Power of darkness to cover him who is the light of the world But his Rising from death removed that Eclipse cleard that Innocence by the distinction it made of his Fate when the Vileness of his Execution gave Authority to the Charge This caused such boldness in Peter to plead for his Master and return the fault upon his Persecutors which He was so guilty of himself Ye have denyed the holy one and the just Acts 3.14 and he proceeds farther to aggravate their Crime and maintain the righteousness of his Cause by that convincing Argument of Gods raifing Vers 15. him from the dead Now it is easie for any one to conclude that had our Lord been an Impostor or an evil doer he could not rise such kind of men would surely rot in the Grave and know no other Resurrection than that of the last Day to a worse Judgment because for God to punish them with Death here and allow them presently to rise that so they might confirm their own followers in those Errors they taught and those Evils they practised here a work of Divinity would be employed to destroy the true worship of it which is a flat contradiction to his Goodness