last Day for where the Spirit it self is not its Operations cannot be expected 'T is true indeed that Sinners and Infidels shall rise again as S t Paul says Acts 24.15 There shall be a Resurrection of the Dead both of the Just and Vnjust Those that crucified Christ in the days of his Flesh and those that crucifie him by their Wicked Lives now in his Glory shall rise no less than True Believers than his holy Apostles and Martyrs But how and to what Resurrection shall they rise Even to such a Resurrection as is no other than a Second and Worse Death a Death not of Extinction or annihilation but a Death of Eternal Duration in Torment Non-Existence being not the State of the Second Death but Endless and Insupportable Misery insomuch that they shall wish that the Grave had for ever swallowed them up that as they liv'd like the Beasts that perish so they had also dyed like them without the Expectation of any After-Being So that the Resurrection of the Wicked is but an Aequivocal Resurrection as the lifting up of the Head of Pharaoh's Baker on the Gallows and the hanging Haman fifty Cubits high were but Aequivocal Advancements The Bodies of the Saints that rose after the Passion dy'd again the same Death but those that shall rise at the Last Day not having the Spirit shall dye again not the same Death that would be a Happiness but a Death that shall have no End and the Miseries of which we can no more describe than we can the Joys of Eternal Life but we must suffer a Change and be endued with new Powers and Faculties before we can support the Bliss of the one or the Torments of the other The second Property of an Inhabitant or Dweller in a House is to Command and Rule 'T is the Saying of every man to those that withstand the Exercise of their just Authority or but their Civility Give me leave to Command in my own House The Spirit of God must Rule and Command where it dwells we must not only give it House-room but Dominion look upon him as a Tenant but revere as our Land-Lord resign our Actions Wills Affections the Whole Man to his Dispose and Guidance Faith invites the Holy Ghost but Obedience and Submission to his Gracious Motions perfumes his Habitation and makes him delight to stay in it The Spirit of Love Meekness Purity and Holiness will not reside but where these and the like Vertues bear the Sway. Let the Word of Christ says S t Paul dwell in you Richly in all Wisdom So let the Spirit of God dwell in you Richly in all Wisdom it will not Cohabit with the Sons of Men unless it be Richly i. e. in the Abundance of its own Divine Graces and Operations If we will have the Spirit of God quicken our Mortal Bodies hereafter we must suffer him to quicken our Souls in this Life if we hope to reign by his Power in the World to come we must submit to his Dominion in this present World The third Property is Residence and Mansion our Houses are called our Manours and Places i. e. the Places where we ordinarily abide and where the Law presumes we are to be found so that if a Writ be delivered to any of the Houshold or but fastned to the Ring of the Door 't is counted the same thing as if given into our hands Thus our Hearts must be the Holy Spirit 's Manour or Place for what David says of God's constant Abode in his Temple on Mount Sion This is the Hill which God delights to dwell in yea the Lord will dwell in it for ever the like must be said of the constant Abode of the Holy Spirit in our Hearts This is the Habitation of the Holy Spirit and if we grieve him not nor drive him away by our Sins he will delight to dwell in us for ever When we were devoted to God in Baptism we devolved and made-over to his Holy Spirit an Estate in our Hearts even the Whole Term we had to live in this World and if we make good this Grant or Demise he will never abandon his Tenements till he has raised them up to Eternal Glory The Reason that a Great Schole-Man gives Why God punishes the Sins of Men which were but Temporal with an Eternity of Torments is Quia peccaverunt in suo aeterno because they sinn'd out all the Eternity they had i. e. all the Time God allowed them in this World and had he continued their Lives to the End of all Ages they would have continued still the same Wicked Persons The like Reason may be given for God's rewarding the Temporal Obedience of the Righteous with Eternal Glory Quia obedientes fuerunt in suo aeterno because they were Obedient all that little Eternity he allowed them in this World and would have persever'd in their Obedience if he had drawn out their Lives to the last Period of Time Abiding and Persevering in Righteousness is that which will give us Immortality if we give up the Possession of our Souls to the Dispose and Conduct of the Blessed Spirit the Whole Little Aeternum we have in this World we shall certainly obtain an Eternity that shall have no end in the next And thus I have shew'd the Manner of the Spirit 's Dwelling in every Christian and they that pretend to his In-dwelling without these Properties boast of an In-mate which they have not and as they want this Divine Guest so they will want the Blessed Effects and Consequence of his inhabiting in them the quickning of their Mortal Bodies at the last Day to Glory Which is the second thing I propos'd to explain The Effect or Consequence of the Spirit 's dwelling in us If the Spirit dwell in you He that raised up Jesus from the Dead shall quicken your Mortal Bodies The Words suggest two things to our Consideration 1. What shall be done to such Persons in whom the Spirit dwells He shall quicken their Mortal Bodies 2. Who shall be the Author to effect or bring this to pass He that raised up Jesus from the Dead 1. What shall be done to such Persons in whom the Spirit dwells 'T is said He shall quicken their Mortal Bodies Our Bodies are Mortal three Ways by Natural Death the Dissolution of the Substance of them by Eternal Death which succeeds the Natural that Riddle of a Death which by its Existence is in truth a Life but by the Torments belonging to it may deservedly be called a Death and by Spiritual Death which is the Cause of the other two Now our Mortal Bodies may be quicken'd or reviv'd again to three Lives To a Life of Eternal Duration to a Life of Eternal Joy and to a Spiritual Life or a Life of Grace which is the Cause in us of the other two Lives Some understand these Words shall quicken our mortal bodies only of Spiritual Proselytism of the raising us from the Death of Sin and
it being rarely seen that a Good Understanding goes along with a Great Estate that the same Person should be born both to much Wealth and to much Wit my Text informs men how to reconcile these together how the Rich having the advantage of Wealth may have also the advantage of Wisdom how with their Transitory things they may purchase things Eternal nay and which is yet a higher Strain of Wisdom how being but Stewards of the Riches they possess they may make after the example of one of the craftiest Dealers in this World and best practis'd in the Double ways of Cozenage the gainful Purchace of Heaven at anothers Cost and do this Innocently as he did it Fraudulently Lastly Men are taught how to remove the Difficulty and almost Impossibility of a Rich man's entering into the Kingdom of Heaven how to make its Narrow Passage which is as the Eye of a Needle to a Camel as wide as the Gate of a City or the Royal Way leading to it A Lecture which undoubtedly must be very acceptable to Great and Rich men instructing them how to possess the Good Things of this World without forfeiting those of the next how to join Celestial Joys to Earthly Felicity immortal Glory to Secular Prosperity Again which can be no less grateful to the Penurious and Covetous who love to enjoy their Wealth after they have parted with it to have it their Friend when they can hold it no longer their Servant who desire to dwell for ever if it were possible with their beloved Gold to cohabit with it in the next Life as they brooded over it in this my Text comports and complies with all these Desires Make to your selves Friends of the Mammon of Vnrighteousness that when ye fail they may receive you into Everlasting Habitations The Words offer these two things in general to our Consideration I. The Necessity of our Faâ—ling in these Habitations When ye fail II. The Policy taught us how to procure Admission into Everlasting Habitations when we fail in these and that is By making Friends of the Mammon of Vnrighteousness And without troubling you with any further Division at present I begin with the first of these The Necessity of our failing in these Habitation These Words when ye fail are by some understood two ways by our failing in Duty and our failing in our Being or Dying As the Steward in the Parable fail'd two Ways 1. In his Honesty as at ver 1. he had wasted his Master's Goods And 2 dly In his Office as at ver 2. where his Master says to him Thou may'st be no longer Steward And after the like manner all Men fail more or less in their Fidelity and Justice But all equally and necessarily in their Mortal Being But whether we fail in the one of these Ways or the other whether we come short in our Duty or are cut short in our Lives in both these Failings the Unrighteous Mammon will stand us in stead 1. If we fail in our Justice Eleemosynae sunt instar Justitiae Alms are a kind of Justice and not only to Forgive but also to Give will cover a multitude of Sins So that if we fail viz. in our Integrity we may again be restored by our Charity and when we have wasted and consumed our Graces we may recruite them by exhausting our Purses and in this Shipwrack also casting our Goods overboard may be a Means of our Preservation But though this Sense of the Words has nothing in it contrary to sound Doctrine yet it cannot be that which our Lord points at in them For the Failing here spoken of is supposed to be Inevitable Necessary and Universal when ye fail indefinitely when ye All fail neither can the Words be supposed to allude to the Common Pardonable Failing or Miscarriage of an honest Servant but to the Purloining and Cheating of a Thief which the Steward was and for that cause was turned out of his Office If therefore we say the Failing here is meant of our Duty it must be of our General Total Duty which is Apostasie or else it holds no proportion to the Steward's failing in the Parable and if we do it holds no proportion with the Truth for we must affirm our Lord supposes it Necessary and Inevitable for all Men Universally to be Apostates We must take the Words therefore in the other Sense For Failing in our Being or Mortal Bodies which are often resembled in Scripture to Houses and Tabernacles but I shall instance only in 2. Cor. 5.1 For we know if the Earthly Houses of this Tabernacle were dissolved we have a Building of God a House not made with Hands Eternal in the Heavens There is in the Words the Figure Euphemismus which terms things by more gentle and Favourable Names than properly belong to them Death sounds harsh to those 't is denounced to alleviate therefore the ungratefulness of it 't is render'd Failing But the plain Importance of these Words when ye fail is no other than this When ye Die But now though this be the true Meaning of the Words it may seem to be a Theme less necessary to be insisted on than any other To tell men they must Die Not that the Admonition is not weighty and of the highest Concern but because it is so well known by all and none needs this Information Linquenda domus tellus pavens uxor that our Houses Lands and tender Relations must be left by us that nothing which is either dear to us or we dear unto can exempt us from the Law of Death is News to no man all men of what Sort and Condition soever can assume Saint Paul's scio We Know that this Earthly Tabernacle shall be dissolved The Ignorant see it daily demonstrated in the Mortality of other men and the Infirmities they find in themselves the Learned yet further by Philosophy and Reason which tell them That their Bodies being made up of a Mass of contrary Humours continually jarring and fighting with one another the Victory on either side must certainly be the Destruction of the Subject in which they are contained Divinity adds to these a third Demonstration teaching men that there is a Law of Death in their Members not that which I but now spoke of a Natural Law of Mortality but a Spiritual Law of Sin and consequently of Death which Law had its Sanction from God 's own Mouth Gen. 2. In the hour thou eatest thou shalt dye This present World is but a Nursery or Seminary to another in which nothing is to be seen more common than the transplanting of Men from this to that Or it may be likened to a Tree that has at the same time upon it some Fruit decaying some ripe and some blooming the one continually succeeding and thrusting off the other till the Tree it self at last fails as not being design'd to stand for ever All Men I say are of sufficient Learning to preach such Lectures as
SERMONS PREACHED Partly Before His MAJESTY AT WHITE-HALL And Partly Before ANNE Dutchess of York AT THE CHAPPEL at S t JAMES By HENRY KILLIGREW D. D. Master of the Savoy and Almoner to his Royal Highness LONDON Printed by J. M. for R. Royston Bookseller to His most Sacred Majesty MDCLXXXV THE PUBLISHER TO THE READER THERE are so many Sermons upon all sorts of Subjects already extant that the Author of these had he been perfectly left to his own liberty would not have increased the Number But there were some Reasons which made it in a manner necessary for him to add unto the Heap though as the common complaint goes it be grown too big And none were more forcible to extort them from him than the kindness he hath for some persons Which every one that feels any touch of that passion knows to have a power to constrain us unto those things which merely for our own satisfaction alone we should not chuse to do Some near Relations that is were desirous to converse with him by the help of these Discourses when he is dead and were perswaded withal that others might now reap some profit by them in the reading whom the lowness of his Voice could not reach when they came to hear them No man I can bear him witness is more sensible than he that there are more elaborate and more universally useful Sermons and Tracts already in the peoples hands but Mankind having several tastes as well as faces and very different relishes it is possible these Discourses may be better fitted to some palates and touch some hearts more smartly than those which in themselves may be more excellent This I can say of them That there are many seasonable Truths delivered in them and expressed in words so apt so pure and clean that while they display the Object which they represent they strengthen and cherish the sight In short they both instruct and delight satisfie the appetite and excite it present solid nourishment and give it a grateful taste Nothing here I am sure is insipid much less nauseous nothing feeble and flagging much less dead but there is quickness and life every where both in the sense and in the Style Which may please even this delicate not to say fastidious Age wherein things very commendable are wont to be disrelished But whether the nice and curious be pleased or no the Author is not concerned if the pious and vertuous reap any profit by these Sermons and be the better for them And then we grow better when as the Apostle speaks we approve the things that are excellent or things that differ not entertaining falshood under the appearance of truth nor evil under the shew of Good but having a right judgment in all things and making the same difference between good and bad in our lives that we do in our minds preserve our selves sincere and without offence unto the Great Day of Judgment Ian. 26. 1684 5 S. Patrick The CONTENTS SERMON I. On Christmas-Day 1 John iii. 5 And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins and in him is no sin SERMON II. On January the 30 th 1 Sam. xii 25 But if ye shall still do wickedly ye shall be consumed both ye and your King SERMON III. John ii 4 Woman what have I to do with thee mine hour is not yet come SERMON IV. On Wednesday before Easter Dan. ix 26 And after threescore and two Weeks shall Messiah be cut off but not for himself SERMON V. On Good Friday Zech. xiii 6 And one shall say unto him What are these wounds in thine hands Then shall he answer Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends SERMON VI. On Easter-Day Rom. viii 11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Iesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal Bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you SERMON VII On the 29 th of May. Psal. ii 6 Yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Sion SERMON VIII On Whitsunday John xvi 8 And when he is come he will reprove the world of sin of righteousness and of judgment SERMON IX and X. Mark vii 37 He hath done all things well he maketh both the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak SERMON XI Amos iii. 2 You only have I known of all the Families of the Earth therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities SERMON XII Psal. cv 44 45. And he gave them the lands of the heathen and they inherited the labour of the people That they might observe his statutes and keep his laws SERMON XIII Mark viii 2 3. I have compassion on the multitude because they have now been with me three days and have nothing to eat And if I send them away fasting to their own houses they will faint by the way for divers of them came from far SERMON XIV Luke xvi 9 Make to your selves friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness that when ye fail they may receive ye into everlasting habitations SERMON XV. On the Fifth of November Psal. xi 3 If the foundations be destroyed what can the righteous do SERMON XVI John xvi 23 Whatsoever ye shall ask the father in my nome he will give it you SERMON XVII Luke xvii 37 And they said unto him Where Lord And he said unto them Wheresoever the Body is thither will the Eagles be gathered together SERMON XVIII and XIX 1 Pet. iv 8 And above all things have fervent Charity among your selves for Charity covereth the multitude of Sins SERMON XX. and XXI Matth. xxii 46 On these two Commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets SERMON XXII Lam. iii. 39 40. Wherefore doth a living man complain a man for the punishment of his sins Let us search and try our ways and turn again to the Lord. The First Sermon 1 JOHN iii. 5 And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sin and in him is no sin THE main Drift and Scope of Saint John throughout this whole Epistle is to perswade the Christians to whom he writes Not to sin These things says he in the former Chapter I write unto ye that ye sin not For such Christians it seems there were then as well as now who believed that the Faith and a wicked Life were not inconsistent together that men might profess the Gospel and not forsake their Vices They acknowledged Christ to be the promised Messiah and Saviour that was to come into the World but they understood not rightly wherein Salvation consisted viz. that 't was not only in the remission of sins but in the reclaiming men from the commission of them not only in taking away their guilt but in reforming their evil lives The Apostle therefore to set them right in a matter of so high concernment alledges in the foregoing Chapter many Reasons against their indulging themselves in any vicious course As the
for Sin if Christ had not come in the Flesh no Redemption no Salvation of the World if the God of the World had not vouchsafed to have been born of a Woman Yes some perhaps will say God of his free Grace might have pardoned mens sins without the Incarnation of his Son or any Sacrifice or Atonement for them What belongs to this will fall-in in the next Place the handling the Purpose of the Manifestation of Christ in the â—â—â—sh which was To take away our Sins It is no Wisdom barely to understand things but this is Wisdom To understand the Purpose of things Generally the greatest Naturalists among us admire the World this stupendous Workmanship of the Almighty and Eternal Agent and think they have studied and observed fairly if they have arrived to the Knowledge of the Qualities and Properties of some particular Natural Bodies but rarely do they deduce them from their first Original the Creator and rarelier discern the chief End for which they were created they see a continual corruption and generation of Sublunary Beings and that by this means the succession of the Universe is maintained but pierce not so deep as to see that this is done not so much for the continuance of the World as for the continuance of God's Glory in the World and that many Ages may see and acknowledge his Power and partake of his Bounty and Goodness And so it is with many Believers under the Gospel they read what 's written of Christ they magnifie his Miracles admire his holy Life and Doctrine commemorate his Sufferings celebrate his Festivals But what was the main Design of these things what they were to bring to pass in the World they reflect not on as they ought to do but stand in need to be put in mind of it as the first Christians our Apostle here wrote to All men are ready to assent to this Saying of St. Paul Great is the mystery God was manifest in the Flesh justify'd in the Spirit seen of Angels preached to the Gentiles c. But then that all these Mysteries are Mysteries of Godliness i. e. such as should produce Godliness Vertue and Piety in all those to whom they are preached and revealed make them renounce their wicked ways and fulfil the Law of righteousness this they neither penetrate into nor care to be convinc'd of We cannot be therefore too solicitous and assiduous in making known the End and awakening men to the consideration of the Design and Purpose of the Transactions of their Salvation as necessary to be understood as the Transactions themselves As our Apostle does not only teach That Christ was manifested in the Flesh but adds also the Reason of it that 't was to take away our sins And this being his chief design in my Text I shall endeavour to explain How Christ assuming our Flesh did take away our sins For the contrary may be imagined that by taking our Flesh he should have taken likewise our sins but not have taken them away But Christ by his Incarnation took away our sins two ways He took them away From us And took them away out of us or From within us First He took away our sins from us And this he did by taking them upon himself and paying to God the forfeiture for them undergoing the punishment of their guilt in our behalf so that they were no longer our sins but his own the Original sin of Adam after this manner and all the Actual sins since of the whole World he made his own To speak strictly indeed the Guilt of sin can never be taken away for sin after 't is once committed remains for ever sinful but in a Legal and Political sence Sin may be said to be taken away from us when the Guilt of it is transferr'd and the Punishment undergone by another and the Word in the Original for taking away our Sins is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies the lifting them up and is in importance the same with St. Peter's expression he bare or as the Margent of our Bible has it he bare away our sins in his Body on the Tree What our Lord said of his Exaltation on the Cross When I am lifted up from the Earth I will draw all men unto me may be affirmed of their Sins as well as of themselves of the Guilt as well as of the Persons of them that believe in him viz. that by his lifting up on the Cross the Sins of all men should be taken up from them as Exhalations are drawn up from the Earth by the heat of the Sun and after dispers'd into Air. But now if we consider seriously this great and wonderful Dispensation of God's in manifesting his Son in the Flesh to take away the Sins of the World we must certainly conceive that he had a further and more excellent aim and end in it than merely to pardon the Guilt of Sin and to cancel past Transgressions For if this had been all as 't was objected this might have been done freely and with less ado without Sacrifice or Atonement for Sin without God's sending his Son from Heaven to live so many Years upon Earth in a poor and persecuted Condition and at last to suffer a painful and ignominious Death Besides in all reason the Pardon of Sin would have been pronounced more authoritatively and satisfactorily by God in his Glory than in the Disguise of Humane Nature as the Great Lord of Heaven and Earth than as a poor Delinquent standing himself before the Tribunal of Justice Again what had all the other Mutations in the Church of the Jews the removing of the Law of Moses and the introducing a more perfect that of the Gospel to do with the bare Remission of Sin the giving so many excellent Precepts and Christ himself for an Example of a holy Life the clear discovery of a Heaven for the Reward of Well-doers and of a Hell for evil the confirming these things with so many Miracles and the Bloud of so many Divine Persons the instituting an Order of men to preach and inculcate these things to the end of the World If I say the absolving men from their past Transgressions had been all the business and nothing had been aimed at further or required of them to qualifie them to receive this Grace but barely to believe that such a Grace was offered them as too many flatter and delude themselves all these operose toilsome mysterious and astonishing Performances of Christ and the Holy Ghost might have been spar'd and any one of the least of the Sons of the Prophets would have serv'd to have proclaim'd the Remission of Sins and coming on this Errand would have found credence and welcome But alas the Case was otherwise Men were not only to be pardoned but reformed to be absolved from their Guilt but as 't is in the Benedict ' being delivered out of the hands of their Enemies they were to serve God without fear in holiness
into the hearts of Believers to quicken them and to raise them from the Death of Sin to a Life of Righteousness i. e. to sanctifie and enable them to master Sin in themselves They that saw Christ in the Flesh knew not at first That the principal Intention of his Flesh was his Spirit viz. that his Incarnation was to produce their Sanctification to conform them to his likeness in the Inner-man as he was conformed to their likeness in the Outward-Man and those that are not thus conformed that have not their Sins taken away In them by Vertue of his Nativity shall never have them taken away From them by Vertue and Merit of his Passion Secondly By his Word he takes away our sin from within us Now ye are clean says our Lord John 15.3 through the Word which I have spoken unto you i. e. you have put away your former wickedness upon believing what I have preached To believe and to be clean in a Scripture sense is the same thing For 't is not possible rightly to believe and to continue in the Pollution of Sin The Word of God is quick and powerful sharper than any two edged Sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of Soul and Spirit The efficacy of it was seen in the reprobate hearts of Herod and Felix How did it ruffle and discompose the incestuous security of the first and put an Earthquake into the stupid Conscience of the last But yet 't is then only to use Solomon's expression that wise Words are as Apples of Gold in Pictures of Silver when they meet with docile ears and honest hearts when the disposition of the Hearers concurs with the faithful intention of the Preacher and they comply to destroy Sin in themselves as he endeavours to destroy it in his Sermon Otherwise this most powerful and effectual Engine to batter and beat down Sin the Word preached profits not as 't is in the Chapter now mentioned in the Hebrews But the Word preached did not profit them not being mixt with Faith in them that heard it Thirdly Christ takes away Sin from within us by his Example i. e. by his holy Life as well as by his Word and by his Spirit his Meekness Holiness Self-denial Obedience c. were designed by him to excite his Followers to practise the same Vertues equally or above his Precepts And though we condemn the Errour of those who affirm That the Pattern of Christ's life the perfect Exemplar of Piety and Holiness which he exhibited to the World was the only means besides his Word which he used to take away our Sins We may yet more condemn the sloth and hypocrisie of those who set his Life above our Imitation who put his Vertues into the same Classis with his Miracles and think it as impossible for us to practise his Humility Patience and the like as to open the Eyes of the Blind or to raise the dead affirm that his Obedience and Righteousness were not set for our Example to direct and encourage us to do the like but to upbraid and reproach our weakness and infirmities In the mean time our Lord himself Joh. 17.19 declares That the holiness he practised was not only for the love of holiness but that his Disciples should follow him even in the roughest Paths he trod those of his Suffering to which his Words more particularly relate For their sakes says he I sanctifie my self or offer up my self a Sacrifice that they also might be sanctified through the Truth And S t Peter says expresly Christ suffered for us leaving us an Example that we should follow his steps And this brings me to the second Motive the Apostle alledges to disswade men from Sin the sanctity and sinlesness of Christ's Person and ye know that in him is no sin But because this in a great part has fallen-in with the former Motive and to accumulate Reasons of the same Nature rather nauseates than perswades I shall wave this Point and proceed to my last The Inference which the Argumentation of the Apostle implies from the foregoing Motives viz. That 't is the Duty of all Christ's Followers to endeavour as far as 't is possible to be also without sin and which shall serve me also for an Application The Son of God we have heard was manifested in the Flesh to take away our sins and in him is no sin Now certainly we cannot think that we comply either with the Example of Righteousness which he has set us or yet with the gracious Purpose that brought him into the World if we reflect on his Nativity only after an Historical manner as that he was born in such an Olympiad or when such an one was Emperour that such rare Events attended his coming into the World as are recorded by the Evangelists namely that he was conceived by a Virgin of the Holy Ghost welcom'd by Angels signaliz'd and reveal'd to the Gentiles by a Star c. as if we were Chronologers rather than Christian Believers But that principally we are to consider these things Doctrinally and Morally to regard the Obligations they lay upon us and the final intendment of God in them For Example to say to our selves If God came so far as from the highest Heavens to take our Flesh that he might destroy sin how much more are we concerned to destroy sin in whom it dwells whose Flesh is its Domestick Organ and which will certainly destroy us both Body and Soul unless we destroy it Again if God vouchsafe so highly to dignifie our Flesh as to assume it to his Divine Nature and to carry it up to Heaven with him and that by way of Pledge and assurance to carry up all that live holy lives thither also how ought we to respect and even to revere these our mortal Bodies and not to pollute them with sin which are designed to such sublime Honour as to reign with God in Glory Once more If the Son of God came into the World not only to teach us his Father's Will but to demonstrate to us by his own performance the feasibleness of accomplishing it and did not only discourse of the probability of mortal mens ascending to Heaven but gave an instance of it in our Flesh how are we without excuse if either upon pretence of the difficulty of the Duties enjoined or the arduous ascent to the heavenly Kingdom promised us we supersede our endeavours to attain it When the Israelites were travelling to the Land of Canaan they said to Aaron Make us Gods that may go before us i. e. visible Gods that we may behold they were not satisfied with the conduct of an invisible Deity of a God that afforded not his personal presence Christ manifested in the Flesh is such a visible palpable God as they required who marches as a Captain at the Head of us and guides us not only by his Counsel but leads us by his Bodily Presence But yet notwithstanding this compliance with our infirmities
in these days Lord Lord but do not the Will of God A Vain and Superstitious Citation of Christ's Name will avail none in their Prayers his Name is no Charm and if there be no Vertue in the Users of it there will be as little in the Letters or Sound as in other Names Which the Sons of Sceva the Jew found Acts 19. when they call'd over the Evil Spirits the Name of the Lord Jesus in imitation but not with the Faith of S t Paul for the Name protected them not but left them to the Outrage of the Devil strengthen'd and not subdu'd by the undue Invocation of it Saint Peter best interprets these Words in my Name Acts 3. when he cur'd the Lame man in the Name of Christ His Name says he through Faith in his Name has made this man Strong And our Lord himself John 15.7 shews that 't is not the Vocal but Vertual Using of his Name that prevails If you abide in me says he and my Words in you ye shall ask what you will and it shall be done unto you So that the true Quatenus or Reason of the Return of men's Prayers the Secret wherein their Strength lyes as Samson's did in his Hair is their Discipleship to Christ or in other words their doing the Will of God this only powerfully insinuates and effectually presses his Name to the Father When mere Nominal Christians present themselves before God in the Congregation of Believers 't is but as Satan intruded Job 1. among the Sons of God they are of their Company but not of their Number neither will they find any Advantage by using Christ's Name God is not to be impos'd upon like Isaac by false Pretences by counterfeit Hands a borrow'd Name or Garments but will discover the Cheat through all and he that to the Righteous is all Ear to the Wicked will be as an Idol that has Ears and hears not those I say that regard not the Words of his Commandments nor understand the Voice of his Spirit are to him also as Barbarians as a People whose Language he understands not Nay and 't is well if it fares no worse with them than not to be understood and that their Petitions are only answered with Silence for God many times breaks forth in Fury and Indignation against such for their double Provocation of him for rebelling against him and presuming to make Addresses for his Favour Vnto the Wicked says God What hast thou to do to declare my Statutes or that thou shouldest take my Covenant into thy mouth seeing thou hatest to be reformed c. Such as these when they make their Prayers add Sacriledge to Disobedience and as they have corrupted themselves they prophane the Ordinances of Religion and God is not only deaf to their Devotion but angry at their Presumption Men themselves are not patient of such an Usage that those that injure them be they never so much their Near Relations should importune them for the highest Benefits And can we imagine that God should brook the bold and impudent Sollicitations of those that Sin against him which are his only Enemies be they Jews or be they Christians Esse Christianum grande est non videri as S t Jerome says 't is a Blessed and Glorious Priviledge to be a Christian but not only to be call'd one and they are hugely deceiv'd as the Father goes on that think a Good Name can profit those that do wickedly a fair Appellation justifie such as have foul Manners If we will have God Kind and Propitious to us we must be first Kind to our Selves if we will have his Ears open to our Prayers we must keep our Ears open to his Commandments we must be Obedient if we expect he should be Gracious like David we must search and try our Hearts whether any Iniquity be found in us for we may assure our Selves where Iniquity is found Favour will not be found There is no Name under Heaven given among men whereby they can be sav'd but that of the Lord Jesus But as we must not trust in a Wrong Name so neither must we trust in the Right Name a Wrong Way we must not entertain Vain Confidences in our Saviour himself hope that he will countenance any thing contrary to his Gospel as S t Paul says Let every one that nameth the Name of Christ depart from Iniquity Which God give us Grace all to do to whom be ascrib'd all Honour Glory c. The Seventeenth Sermon LUKE xvii 37 And they said unto him Where Lord And he said unto them Wheresoever the Body is thither will the Eagles be gathered together AS the Spirit of God before the time of the Gospel was fain to turn and winde it self as I may say many ways to reclaim the World from Sin So after the Son of God came into the World to preach to it he found it necessary to use many holy Arts to win upon it Sometimes the Convictions of Miracles sometimes the Invitations of Promises sometimes the Terrours of Threats and Judgments as in my Text and those Judgments not only temporal which concerned the Jewish Nation but eternal which concerned all Mankind And we that live in these Days so much nearer the Approach of the final Judgment prophesy'd of by our Lord have reason to deplore the strange Contumacy which is yet seen in the World that the Hearts of men are still so Unalterable from their Evil Ways that those Engines that heretofore were so successful in oppugning Sin should now like antiquated Engines of War become wholly unserviceable those powerful Methods of the Gospel which could convert the Heathen World cannot reclaim the Relaps'd and Apostate If the Preacher does paulo majora canere add Terrours to his Perswasions join the Voice of the Trumpet and even of the last Trumpet to his own Voice leave Christ's Sermons and take his Prophecies for Texts threaten Destruction to restrain Vice Damnation to awe Impiety it effects nothing But where the Pulpit is Ominous Men are Obstinate and Obdurate hear of Christ's coming in the Clouds and their appearing before his Tribunal as unconcerned as they hear a Poetick Fable shew not that Fear and Amazement however mixt with hesitancy and doubting which the yet raw Disciples did upon their being informed of these things And they said unto him Where Lord And he said unto them Wheresoever the Body is thither will the Eagles be gathered together Before I proceed to explain the Words it will be necessary to shew to what they appertain The which that I may do I must have recourse to the 24 th Chapter of S t Matthew where the Subject of which my Text is but a Branch is more fully treated of than by our Evangelist And there we read at the third Verse That the Disciples enquired of our Lord three things When the Time of his Coming the Destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple and the End of the World should be To which
the Earth below So at the End of the World when God shall come to judge it he will distinguish and separate the Mass of men according to the Quality of their Works and those who have set their Hearts on heavenly things shall be thought worthy of Heaven and to reign for ever with him and his holy Angels in Glory and those who have hated heavenly things and set their Affections on things below corrupted themselves with the Vices of this Life to use the Psalmists words shall be turn'd into Hell And the revealing of this Mystery does vindicate the Justice of the Deity and absolve Providence from the Censures and hard Speeches of men for our Lord has plainly taught That there shall be a Day of calling all Flesh to account for what they have done in this Life and however the Good and Bad are promiscuously join'd at present and seem to be every way alike and equal to one another though they be in the same Field as he says or the same Bed yet one shall be taken and the other left Again in another place The hour is coming when all that are in the Graves shall come forth those that have done Good unto the Resurrection of Life and they that have done Evil unto the Resurrection of Damnation And this being asserted by the mouth of Truth it self and also the Fundamental Part of our Creed which sustains its whole Frame and Fabrick it will be sufficient thus to have illustrated it without bringing any Proofs of the Matter The Article of Christ's judging the Quick and the Dead though it be last in Place in the Confession of our Faith yet it is the first in Office and Importance and has an Influence on all the Articles that go before it and which would be of no Consequence without it For what avails it to believe there is a God if neither in this Life nor in the Life to come he will make any Difference between the Righteous and the Wicked What profit is it to believe a Redeemer or a Saviour if there be no Salvation or Damnation That there is a Holy Ghost if in the Issue it shall be all one to those that are Sanctify'd and to those that are not Sanctify'd The very Equity and Reason of the thing that there should be a Day of Judgment is a sufficient Demonstration that there shall be such a Day Instead therefore I say of bringing Proofs of this Doctrine I shall rather advise men to make the best Use of it and not to be deceived with the present Uniformity and Identity as 't were of the Condition of the Godly and Ungodly in this World but to reflect on what is said of the Severe Scrutiny that shall be at the Last Day when the present Mask shall be pull'd off from the Face of the World and no Action whatsoever be concealed when the secret Sins as well as secret Counsels of Princes whatever they have done amiss or been the Authors of others doing amiss without regard to their Persons shall be laid open when the delinquencies of the Meaner Sort shall not be past over or lost in Oblivion by reason of the Obscurity of their Condition When the Nice in point of Fame and Reputation but regardless of their Innocence shall have their Sly and close Sins ript open and publisht to their greater Confusion before Men and Angels When the Player and Actor in Religion the Hypocrite shall be stript of his Vizard and Mantle of Holiness and the loathsome Vices concealed under them exposed For as 't is said At the coming of Christ Anti-Christ shall no longer deceive the Nations So it shall arrive to all those that have liv'd Anti-Christs at the coming of Christ to Judgment they shall no longer deceive however successful their Cozenages have been in this Life The Children of Darkness are many times to outward Appearance clad in richer Robes of Righteousness and make a goodlier Shew of Piety and Devotion than the Children of Light But in the Day that God shall make up his Jewels as the Prophet Malachi speaks he will distinguish the true from the false and however the Counterfeit Vye at present in Lustre with the right and Orient and exceed them in Magnitude then it shall be seen what trash they are Which if men would duely consider and that this Tryal and Examination of all Flesh is not only to lay open their Actions to the Eye of the Judge for alas he knew them in the hour they were committed or yet to expose them only to Shame before the innumerable Host of Men and Angels that will be there assembled for that is but the Beginning of the Evils they are to expect But 't is that every One may receive a Reward according to his Merit as our Lord says They that have done Well Everlasting Glory and they that have done Evil Everlasting Fire I say if men would seriously consider this they would anticipate this Work of Tryal and Judgment while time was allowed them to do it they would tear off their Disguises of Sin before they were stript of them they would distinguish and separate themselves from the Wicked by a Holy Life before the Great Day of Separation of the Just and Unjust prevent God's severe Sentence on their Misdeeds by their own severe Condemnation of them before-hand that whether they labour at the Mill or in the Field in the City or in the Camp whatever their Callings and Employments be they may be of the number of those that are taken and not of those that are left And let this suffice to be said of my first Observation That at the last Day there shall be an exact Discrimination between the Righteous and the Wicked I proceed to my Second Observation That there shall be some particular visible Place to which all men shall be brought to Judgment Although it be in the Power of the Almighty where-ever Sinners shall be found at the last Day there to sentence and send them to Hell and where-ever the Righteous shall be found from thence to translate them to Heaven Yet as 't is the manner of Earthly Princes to summon their People to receive Justice at some certain Place their chief City where their Court and ordinary Residence are so it seems good to the Wisdom of God to assemble all Persons both Just and Unjust to one Place of Common Judicature and Writers do most probably conceive the place shall be Jerusalem the City of God's most visible Residence on Earth And that for these two Reasons 1. For the Reparation of Christ's Honour Because he suffered there not only the Scorn and Despight of the Jews who put him to a cruel unjust and shameful Death but the Affronts also of all Nations gathered together at the Feast of the Passover it being God's will that he should receive Reparation and Amends where he had received the greatest Outrage and Indignity and that the Prophecy of Zechary should be