be the Correctives of the distempers of the Soul to quell the risings of the Appetite and Passions and bring the sensual part of us under obedience to Reason and Religion to make all calm and even in us and put us in the frame of Men and Christians of Rational and Pious Creatures And if they do not work this in us if the Soul do not meet in the performances they are not acceptable in themselves at all These are only the mint anise and cummin of our Pieties and as Origen says the condimenta actuum the sauces of Religion not the main standing parts of it which he therefore that offers solitary gives God a Sacrifice of Sallads and thinks that will be a Sin-Offering They do mistake themselves who cherish any hope from having spent a day or Lent of abstinence if the Excesses of their Vices be not made over and evacuated by it if they continue still full gorg'd with their iniquity or who think all is well they have atton'd by having bowed down the head like a bulrush if the Soul were not also humbled in them for as S. Paul does say I may give all my goods to feed the poor yet have no Charity and I may give my body to be burnt yet in those Martyr-fires there may be no heats of Love to God and then all these profit me nothing 1 Cor. xiii 3. So I may chasten my self too and yet yet receive correction or be disciplin'd and then Gods punishments are still due to me That Church indeed which hath found out the easie expiation of Indulgences that hath the Treasure of Christ's merits and all the supererogations of the Saints at her dispose and by Commission can issue them at pleasure out and apply those merits to mens uses not by Sacraments but by a Bull or Brief and not require Gospel conditions of Faith and Repentance in the Persons that receive them but visiting a Church in Rome ascending the steps in such a Chappel in the Lateran on such a day shall give a plenary remission from sin and punishment the saying of such a Prayer over daily shall do it for fourscore thousand years could they but make a Lease for men to live and sin out the indulgence too that would get them good store of Chapmen that Church I say may give encouragement to hope that God may be compounded with at easie rates that for a Surfeit I may give a Meal and God will pardon it and let me have Wine too into the bargain for they allow afflicting of our Souls in Wine that some weeks change of Dyet may go for a change of Life for indeed these come up somewhat nearer the just value than some of their Prices But though there be all the reason in the World they should let men out of Purgatory on what condition they please when themselves onely put them in and make the breath of a few noster's quite blow out those flames which burn no where but in their Doctrines Yet when without any commission from Christ they make Attrition able to secure men from Hell and an Indulgence able to release them out of Purgatory when they make new conditions of Pardon that is new Gospel new ways of application of Christs Merits and though our Saviour God when he found in his heart to dye for us yet in the Agonies of his Compassion could not find in his heart to give us easier terms of Life than such as do require Contrition Humiliation and Amendment which they commute so cheaply with his Vicar We justly stand astonish'd at such usurpation on Christ's Blood and Merits that does assign them at these rates I make no question but easie expiations get them many Converts Rome from its first foundation grew from being an Asylum to the dissolute but they that go away upon such hopes 't is to be feared that easiness betrays them into sins from which those Expiations cannot rescue them and at once makes them Proselytes to Rome and Hell Nor are our trusts much more secure if we rely upon our opus operatum too our little outward strictnesses unless the Soul be engag'd and except there be inward life of Religion all those will not avail If I deny my self my meals and give my self my sins that is so far from expiation that it aggravates I am an argument against my self that my crimes are incorrigible when I will have them though I cut off the Instruments and foments of them and though I meddle not with the Temptation yet I seize the sin What S. Austin does say of Alms In meliùs vita mutanda per eleemosynas de peccatis praeteritis propitiandus est Deus non ad hoc emendus quodammodò ut semper liceat impune peccare This is applicable to these performances also our lives must be Reformed and so on that Repentance and these strictnesses God will be reconciled and our offences done away but he will not be brib'd by these to let us alone in them he is not gratified by such performances so as to wink at Vices for their sakes and suffer us in our Rebellions upon such compositions as these take a Reward to spare the Guilt Nor is he such a soft and easie God as to take them for payment of that infinite Debt we owe that which he bought off with the Blood of God shall not be ours at such unworthy prices The Prophet Micah seeking for a Present to appease him with rejects all the Jewish rites though God prescrib'd them as insufficient and in them all things of the like external kind Mic. vi 6 7. Wherewith shall I come before the Lord and How my self before the most high God shall I come before him with burnt-offerings with Calves of a year old Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of Rams or with ten thousand Rivers of Oyl shall I give my first-born for my Transgression the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul If I do offer up whole Hecatombs to God will that atone for having offered up too plentifully to my Genius Or if I do remove my Riots from my Table to the Altar and change my few extravagant Dishes into whole Herds of thousand Sacrifices shall I by doing so remove the guilt too of my Luxuries If I give God ten thousand Rivers for my overflowing Cups will the Intemperance be wash'd away in those Or shall I think to expiate an Adultery with a Child and for that momentary and unclean delight give up the lovely and first issue of my lawful Bed And who will be content to be his own Priest in such manner to pay such Sacrifices for sins But yet that will not do as it cost more to Redeem Souls which not Rivers of Oyl can cleanse but streams must flow out of the Heart of Christ to do it nor the fruit of Mans body make a satisfaction for but the eternally begotten Son of the Divinity and none but the first born of
lives and so prepar'd themselves for Baptism on Easter Eve for that was their most solemn time as Tertullian do's assure us in the 2d Century just when that death and passion into which they were baptiz'd was celebrated Diem Baptismo solenniorem Pascha praestat cum Passio Domini in qua tinguimur odimpleta est And that they did prepare for it with watchings fastings weepings and all rigid mortifying discipline and before him Justin M. And they had in the Greek Church their forty daies for these severities and a while too in the Roman in St Hierom's time and Pope Siricius it was so but quickly sunk into this single weeks performances But in all those times they had their scrutinies their strict examinations to try whether their performances were real and sincere So nice and so severe a thing they thought it to become a Christian. The man was to be mortifi'd and die into the very name But now God knows as for the former discipline for Penitents one Church hath lost it and the other hath debaucht it into Pageantry and taught it to countenance and bolster mens continuance in Sin and minister to vice So for the other discipline too if that did import that Baptism hath such engagements in it men in every Church live now as if they either never had been Christian'd or had never known or had perfectly forgot the obligations of that Sacrament the thing which St Paul reproves here by his question Know you not c. And which therefore 't is impossible there can be a more proper time to call to your Remembrance then this is before you are to celebrate that death you were baptiz'd into Now to inform such he disputes here very closely The sum is this They that are dead to Sin cannot live any longer in it Now as Christs Death was a death to Sin for in that he died he died unto Sin once v. 10. i. e. there was an efficacy in that death of his to put an end to all the powers of Sin which being so it was impossible he could dye more then once but must be alive always afterwards to God So in like manner whoever is baptiz'd he is baptiz'd into the likeness of that death v. 5. namely into a death to Sin inasmuch as by solemn profession and express undertaking he do's die to it for he renounces it and if he answer that his undertaking do's so really and really as Christ died once so as to live always afterwards to God engaging himself to keep Gods holy will and commandments and to walk in the same all the days of his life So that the words suggest these things to be discours'd of 1. Christs death was a death to Sin 2ly They that are baptiz'd are baptiz'd into that death namely into a death to Sin 3ly They that are baptiz'd into that death are to die as Christ did i. e. to die to Sin once so as to live always afterwards to God 1. Christs death was a death to Sin i. e. there was an efficacy in Christs death to put an end to all the powers of Sin And here I mean not that extrinsic efficacy of his death as it confirm'd the Covenant of the Gospel whose rewards and punishments engage us against all those powers nor as his blood did also purchase grace whereby we are enabled to resist them but the direct influence of that death tends to destroy all the power that the Devil World or Flesh had either to command us or condemn us The Scripture tells us that by Death he destroy'd him that had the power of Death i. e. the Devil Heb. 2. 14. Christ tells us he hath overcome the world for us John 16. 23. and St Paul says by his Cross the World is crucify'd to us and assures us that God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and a Sacrifice for Sin condemned Sin in the flesh that the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfill'd in us Rom. 8. 3. Which place discovers how all was effected namely as he was a Sacrifice for Sin and that not only as that Sacrifice did consecrate him to and install him in a power to pardon Sins upon Repentance and so whomsoever by vertue of that motive he took off from serving Sin from them he took away the guilt of it but as that Sacrifice did take away the guilt of Sin from us by bearing it in his own body on the tree the direct consequence of which as to its tendency and efficacy is that we being dead to sin might live to righteousness And in both these manners by his stripes we are healed I do not mean to entertain you with the controversy that there is on the account of these two Schemes concerning the effects and uses of the death of Christ. Only I cannot choose but wonder why it should be said to be unjust in God to lay upon him the iniquity of us all so as that he bore death as the punishment due to sin by making satisfaction for us Sinners For I would gladly know to whom the wrong were don in this that makes the injustice and on whose part it was unjust not on his part that made the satisfaction sure For whether it be wrong to force an innocent person without his consent to suffer for the guilty I shall not dispute But here Christ gave himself for us Tit. 2. 14. and had power to do so John 10. 18. And having power to lay down his life and power to take it up again if he had so much love and pity for lost mankind as to lay it down for three days to prevent their everlasting death and misery no justice certainly nay no self-love forbids this Much less was there wrong don to them for whom the satisfaction was made unless eternal redemtion and eternal blessedness purchas'd at such dear rates with such infinite kindness be accounted injuries Nor yet was it unjust in him that did receive it for none charge it upon that account That death which all confess Christ did justly submit to God most justly might accept since he could so dispose it as not only by it to work the Salvation of those whom it was undertaken for but also the advancement of his humane Nature that did undergo it to the highest pitch of glory to all power in heaven and earth Phil. 2. 9. and withal thereby declare his own Righteousness Rom. 3. 26. and work the honor also of his other glorious attributes And therefore if there had bin no injustice as they say altho Sin had bin pardon'd without any Satisfaction much less could the receiving this be a wrong to him Indeed it seems as if there had bin no right don him by it because he furnisht all that makes the satisfaction and he could not receive it therefore since he gave the value to it And 't is most true in compensation of rights of real possessions and
and cheerfully accept this punishment of their iniquity this return of their demerits 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and since it is on their account namely thro their demerit that she is so low since they are sensible themselves did make her fall into the dust they cannot chuse but be more tender love and pity her the more and be more willing to do what they can to raise her up pulverem ejus evehere cupiunt In the words there is an holy confidence that God will grant the thing they long for mercy to Sion thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Sion 2dly A Reason of that Confidence for the time of shewing favor the appointed time for it is come 3 dy A ground for that because thy servants think upon her stones and it pitieth them to see her in the dust In handling which I shall consider 1. The Stones of Sion and those in the dust or at least in great danger of impendent ruin 2. That tho God is not alwais minded to succor his own Sion yet he hath set appointed times for that 3. That when the Sons of Sion are affected towards her as the Text expresses then is usually Gods season for deliverance his time of mercy and of shewing favor then the appointed time for it is come and then we may take holy confidence and in full assurance of faith say Thou shalt arise First of the Stones of Sion and those in the dust Sion was we know either the City of the King where there was the seat of Judgment the thrones of the house of David Psalm 122. 5. or else it was the mountain of the Lords house and so the stones of Sion are either the stones of the seat of Judgment of the Throne in the dust or the stones of the Lords house the Sanctuary there Both these therefore might be treated of and I shall speak to both but more particularly to the later And those stones may be either taken naturally as they are the stones of a material Sanctuary or else mystically in that sense they often have in Scripture which sais we as lively stones are all built up a Spiritual house 1 Pet. 2. 5. 1. The stones of Sion the material Sanctuary in the dust the Psalmist thought an object for so much pity that some Psalms are but the Liturgies of his pious resentments upon that occasion Psalm 74. is full herein Think upon Mount Sion where thou hast dwelt lift up thy feet that thou maist utterly destroy every Enimy which hath don evil in thy Sanctuary Thine Adversaries roar in the midst of thy Congregations and set up their banners for tokens they break down all the carved work thereof with axes and hammers they have set fire upon thy holy Places and have defil'd the dwelling place of thy name even unto the ground yea they said in their hearts let us make havock of them all together It is not many years since this was our complaint concerning both the house of God and of the King the Church and Monarchy as if the life of one were bound up in the others life We saw Gods honor at least the place where his honor dwelt laid in the dust nor was it suffer'd to stay there the stones of Sion not allow'd to find a place for burial in that dust which is the common grave the Church it self had not a Monument nor the tombs a sepulcher but the very ruins were disquieted the rubbish troubled and the stones and dust suffer'd a deportation us'd as if men thought with them to build a Sanctuary for those Sins that demolisht them and make a Refuge for their Sacrilege 'T is true to many this seem'd no sad spectacle nor would it now to such as think any occasional room of the lowest name and usage might do as well for the uses of Gods service Strange when there was never a Religion in the world that did acknowledg any sort of God but would allot some place peculiar to his worship with them whose deities were Sicknesses the Feaver had its Temple Yea and stranger in a world that does devote set rooms to every use of nature of convenience and of pleasure the recreations have a place made for them and the meanest instruments of sport have so meals have one and feasts have another luxury hath its offices State hath many chambers antichambers and withdrawing places merely because there may be so many rooms of which there is no use for that is Pomp if God should not have one too for all uses that relate to him to meet us in with all his train of Angels and to bless us and to entertain us with the food of heaven with himself But whether men desire it so again yet so it lately was and when his table was remov'd his entertainment too was laid aside and the Sacrament become as desolate as the Altar Gods houses his mysteries too in the dust God did arise I cannot chuse but see that we have no such object of resentment now but how much farther off it is from being thus at this time and how much less apposite to our condition at this present the discourse is so much greater demonstration of what my Text affirms that when Gods honor is affronted thus and his house vilified and ruin'd then the time for favor the appointed time is come and when the stones of Sion are thrown down into the dust his Servants humbled too into the dust with sorrow and resentments then God shall arise for so he did It was so also if we look upon the Stones of Sion in their mystical and figurative sense Now altho every sincere Christian every one in whom on the foundation of a true sound faith an holy life is superstructed be not onely in St Peters words a lively stone but in St Pauls a Temple yet more properly the whole community of Christians is in Scripture represented to us as the body of a building St Peter tells them ye are built up a Spiritual house 1 Pet. 2. 5. and St Paul saith built upon the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone in whom all the building fitly fram'd together groweth up a holy Temple in the Lord in whom ye also are built up together for an habitation of God thro the Spirit Eph. 2. 20 21 22. The ends for which 't is call'd so seem indeed more lively represented in the parallel resemblance of a natural body Rom. 12. 1 Cor. 12. 12. and that body the body of Christ Eph. 1. 23. or that of which he is the head Col. 1. 18. from which all Christians do receive their life and motion their increase and strength no otherwise then as they are united and tied by joints and nerves to one another and that head Eph. 4. 16. and have all one Spirit also 1 Cor. 12. 13. Of all which expressions as one end is to enforce such unity in the profession
it is sure if the man should suspend his action or have reason not to act according to his erring conscience he never can have reason to act according to a conscience well inform'd for it is plain his conscience does as much propose the error as his duty as it does the truth the man as really believes the one is to be don as the other and hath no reason to make difference and therefore if at any time he must follow his conscience he alwais must and t' will be sin to act against it be it what it will But then you 'l hope it will excuse to act according to it No alas this is but the other rock it is sin too to act according to it The proofs are very pregnant Gen. 12. 17. Because of Sara Abraham's wife the Lord plagu'd Pharaoh with great plagues and all his house namely those that had commended her before him v. 15. and so had contributed to the offence On the same account he plagu'd Abimelech Gen. 20. 17. altho in the 6 v. God saith he knew Abimelech did it in the integrity of his heart and tho Abimelech did plead the same to God he did it innocently v. 5. yet in the 9. v. he expostulates with Abraham what have I offended thee that thou hast brought on me and on my Kingdom a great sin Again St Paul affirms of his own nation Rom. 10. 2. that it was out of zeal to God and his Law they persevered in infidelity and opposition to Christs doctrins yet for that very opposition he affirms that they were hardned and design'd to everlasting perdition And Christ saith of the same Jews John 16. 2. that the time would come when they that kill'd his Apostles and Ministers should think they did God service 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 think they offer'd an oblation The error was so strong it made the sin look like Religion and Attonement yet that zeal and conscience was plagu'd with wrath that came upon them to the uttermost even to an utter extirpation or to restrain our selves to our Apostle he saith of himself v. 1. of the foregoing chapter I have liv'd in all good conscience before God until this day and therefore when against Christ's reformation he defended the Mosaic Law and persecuted the opposers of it he did all out of a good mind according to the dictates of his conscience sincerely what he was perswaded that he ought to do and now if conscience could excuse here was enough of that a good Conscience and could his fiery persecutions by vertue of that conscience be christian'd holy Zeal could his pure heart make his bloody hands undefil'd Oh no! 't was blasphemy and persecution and injury for all 't was conscience If this seem strange that acting thus according to the conscience should make men such sinners since all facts are estimated cheifly by the heart that they proceed from by the good or bad mind they are don with that is by the conscience of the doer we must know that where the error is not the effect of any carnal prepossession or principle but truely error there the sinfulness in this case lies not altogether formally in acting so according to their conscience unless first the conscience take up perswasions give sentence without a sufficient inquisition when there is the least appearance of a danger that 't is plain such a perswasion may engage us in a state of sin we must examin strictly and this seems the case of Pharaoh and Abimelech they were glad to think Sarah was Abrahams sister therefore made no close inquiry were content with his once saying so and on that account altho the one and afterwards the other took her in the innocency of their heart the text saith they committed a great sin for which God did plague them Especially 2dly if men have bin call'd on to consider had the opportunity of means of conviction such as God will judg sufficient in their circumstances then retaining those perswasions following such an error gives it that which is equivalent to wilfulness makes the guilt This was the Jews case and St Pauls tho Moses Law were given by God himself confirm'd by wonders and by such a constant series of Gods most immediate dispensations as might give them just cause to believe it was their certain duty to adhere to it yet when God judg'd Christs works together with the Prophecies that went of him had given a sufficient testimony to his Reformation the Jews resisting that tho out of zeal to God and in obedience to his Law and to their Guides the Priests and Sanhedrim were harden'd to excision for it or if as 't is most certain they were leaven'd into aversation to Christs doctrine by their expectation of a pompous Messiah his Religion did not serve their sensual ends 't is to be fear'd the same do's influence the more sincere and erring party of the Church of Rome yet St. Paul also tho out of a good conscience doing so esteem'd himself the chief of sinners for so doing 'T is the too hasty taking up or the too obstinate retaining this erroneous conscience makes the sin it does ingage into be so exceeding sinful therefore certainly whoever lets their conscience be surpriz'd by prejudice or warmth of mind much more ambition pride revenge or incidental discontents and disobligation reputation of a party interest design if these or any sensuality tho but lurking indiscernably for the heart is deceitful above all things who can know it have given any tincture to the heart and pufft a passion into conscience or if in the uprightness of their heart they took up their perswasions yet if they retain them in the least on any such account or else however if they do not hearken to examin any calls or means which God does either by his Providence or Ministers offer the opportunities of for their conviction specially if by seeing good and wise men do judg otherwise they have any cause to doubt and yet persist still and retain the error it is this that spoils the Conscience so that while it errs it does ensnare the man entangles him in a necessity of sinning leads him into such labyrinths of guilt that whatsoever he does he offends if he do what his erring conscience dictates to him then he sins against God's Law if he forbear he sins then against God's Vicegerent his own Conscience there is the guilt of his deed here the guilt of his heart which does oblige a man to follow that which it is sin to follow and which makes him he must and ought to do that which he must not ought not to do And then the onely application to such a Conscience is to advise the laying it aside to rectify the error good counsel this indeed but hardest to be taken in the world For that a man may set himself to rectify he must know himself in an error and if he know that he hath not
our selves de malo conjuncto for as appetite is implanted for the use of him in whom it is implanted so it is not proper to it to have any aversation to evil except it be some way evil to him whose appetite hath that aversation and to greive at misery I must some way conceive it to concern my self Now then as he that does not conceive himself a member of a Church nor a fellow member nor any way relating to it he cannot truly greive so he that does not greive declares no communion with it he is another thing a member quite cut off or dead and so stupid and insensible Such a judgment doest thou pass upon thy self whoever doest not mourn outlawest and excommunicatest thy self neither belongst to Church nor State nor yet to Christ. 2. As thou hast no charity to thy Brother nor to thy afflicted Mother so neither hast thou any love to God whose glory tho it be asserted by the punishment of a sinful Land or Church he is also still dishonor'd by the sins which do then reign and to which he does permit for the most part the punishment of sin and that power and authority or discipline which divisions in the Church cut short hath for its consequent all unbridled looseness and profaness Blasphemy and Atheisme the calamities of a State are embitter'd by all sorts of licences that grow when Government is weakn'd to see a whole Land mourn with the dark purple of its bloud all which bloud as it is the punishment of that Nation so it is the guilt also to see the wickedness of a Kingdom plagu'd with the ruin of many thousands of men's lives and thousands of souls too that fell in actual iniquity and yet to think that this plague is the greatest wickedness of all arm'd with the most crying sins that are that the very punishment must call for punishment and revenge of it self and help to make up the measure of judgment that the sentence of desolation may be irreversible and utter to see two inundations overflow the Land two abysses of bloud and guilt and one deep calling upon another to meet and swallow us and bury us in their graves of sin and deep ruin yea to see iniquity become impudent and sin triumphant which is the great sign of utter ruin as it was to the Jews an omen worse than Comets or Blazing-stars the dismal voice of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yea and in this ruin too I do not see how any will well free themselves from guilt for if they be the ruiners they are the great spoilers the sinners if the ruined they have contributed to make those others the sinful inflicters and if in all this there be not matter for a little mourning if God dishonor'd souls destroi'd lives perishing Church ruining and nothing but sin flourishing and ourselves not unguilty and if this be not an object for our tears we are the most uncharitable most obdurate creatures in the world Niobe's stone is not fit to be our embleme for that stone could sweat tears we are more rock than that which Moses struck whom the rod of God cannot make weep we are next degree to Lucifer himself for onely Hell is sure at ease to see its company increase 3. Lastly this not mourning in the judgment of a Nation is a sin which God does most heavily characterize and threaten Amos 6. 1 6 7 8. Isaiah 22. when the Prophet had describ'd how it should be in the day of desolation v. 4 5. then because they did not do it see the judgment v. 12 13 14. yea this very thing that men are insensible is as it were the very last judgment on a Nation and the sign of utter rejection Jer. 16. 5 6 7. But how can this duty of mourning consist with those so frequent Gospel-Commands to rejoyce in utmost afflictions James 1. 2 3. Count it all joy when ye fall into diverse temtations knowing this that the trying of your faith worketh patience and St Paul most often 'T is true indeed we are to rejoyce in them because they are Gods methods of bettering us by them he does purge ad cleanse us Isaiah 4. 4 5. and c. 1. 25 27. Redeem'd with judgment even with the judgment that I shall execute upon them But then 1. What reason have we to mourn also that we are such foul sinners as to need such ways of purging that Christs death should not have motive enough in it to turn us from iniquity that his bloud should not be sufficient laver enough to wash us but our own must be pour'd out also that our air should be so infected that nothing but an universal conflagration can purify that we should be such refractory stubborn persons whom nothing but wounding will do good upon nothing but ruin will reduce But then 2. How are we more to mourn that this very method should not be able to reduce us that we will run upon lashes swords and deaths to sin that in the midst of judgments and against them too we commit iniquity that every stripe does encrease our reckoning add to our iniquities no possible method left to reduce them whom correction will not make sensible but our villanies grow up with our sufferings and our sins are fatned by our bloud as the land is Yea lastly how are we to mourn that to the rest of our sins this also is added by us of not mourning at our judgments but using all possible means to prevent it to lay a sleep the sense of any judgment that is upon the Nation to be so far from bestowing one hour of sadness upon those so grand motives to it that they do all they can to keep it from them and if those judgments happen to some they look upon it carelesly as a thing that does not concern rather as a matter onely of rejoycing if to others whom they wish well to they search out wine and vice to quench and to divert the memory and thought of it to drown sad news in sadder sin this is to labor hard lest sadness and a virtue should creep upon me to search out means to assist me to keep Gods last method from doing any good upon me this is one cause of greatest judgment Isaiah 5. 11 12 13 14. The second and indeed the great exercise of this duty in the text is to mourn for our sins and First for the infirmities of our nature that stain that we were born with that engagement to death that we brought into the world with us and which is a clog and weight upon us throughout the whole course of our lives to disable us from doing our duty as we ought Secondly for the sins of our habits whereby we have advanc't those infirmities into customs made a covenant with that death to which we were born engag'd and our whole practice is the exercise of those things whose wages is death eternal or if we are not gon so far
to every creature Mark 16. 15. and our Church does teach us in her Articles that we must receive Gods promises in such wise as they be generally set forth to us in Holy Scripture there is no pretence for controversy with a Preacher of the Gospel who shall publish there is such an offer of Salvation made us all a time wherein we may be sure to be accepted Yea more not onely to ascertain but to work effectually this acceptance howsoever wicked and rebellious we had bin he sent his Son the Son of God to be incarnated to treat a Reconciliation for so chapter 5. 19. 't is said God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself not imputing their trespasses For this he made him shed his bloud upon the Cross and die and live again for thus it behoved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead that Repentance and Remission of sins might be preached in his name to all Nations Luke 24. 46 47. Yea for that he gave this crucified Jesus all the Glory Majesty and Power of Heaven for him hath God exalted to his right hand to be a Prince and Savior to give Repentance and Remission of sins Acts 5. 31. A wonderful Oeconomy if we reflect upon it and sufficient to astonish both our faith and apprehension also that the Great Creator and the onely Lord of all things should make God man and then ignominiously suffer a most cruel death that he might mediate and purchase for us terms of this acceptance and salvation and make that ignominious sufferer that dead man God and give him all the Power of Heaven and Earth that he might make us fit for and bestow it on us This strange transaction is no argument at all most surely that to be at peace with us can be of any consequence to him to whom felicity is most essential Lord what is man that thou art thus mindful of him and the son of man that thou so regardest him in whom if we look thro him we can find nothing in the world that 's very notable but onely that he can defy his most Almighty Maker so as nothing but the bloud of such a Mediator could be fit to satisfy for nothing but Eternal Hell fit to revenge and can defy his own concerns and interests so far as to make that Eternal Hell his choice his most deliberate option But however the Oeconomy of this so strange a mediation tho it cannot prove God is concern'd at all to have this Reconciliation wrought with us that we should be accepted and be sav'd for is it any pleasure to Almighty God that thou art just or is it gain to him that thou makest thy ways perfect If thou be righteous what givest thou him or what receiveth he of thine hand If thou sinnest what doest thou against him or if thy wickedness be multiplied what dost thou to him yet of how much the less consequence we are to God it is so much the greater demonstration of his infinite benignity and goodness who when he had no one motive in the world but pity to our lost condition was so bountiful that when all the compassion of Divinity would not serve our turn for the provision of a ransom he took in Humanity that God might give somwhat besides himself to purchase us a time of Grace and a day of salvation Yet more if we should trace him in his several ways of mercy which he constantly pursues those wretchless creatures miserable us in that all that may be effectual and succeed to our Salvation we should find he uses all means possible to engage us to accept of it for not content with all his Son had don he order'd a Succession of men to sollicite the same suit to the world's end What God was in Christ doing that he hath committed to us the ministry of Now then we are Embassadorâ—s for Christ as if God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christ's stead be ye reconciled to God 2 Cor. 5. 20. a little before my Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith St Chrysostome when he that had obliged us infinitely our Almighty Benefactor and had bin as infinitely affronted and provoked with all ingratitude imaginable and all possible defiance gave his own Son to be reconciled and when they murder'd that Son when he came to mediate and were so far from kearkning to him that they crucified him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one would think 't were time to leave such to themselves and give them over as things hopeless and irreconcileable No he sends others on the Embassy and will not let it fall with all the soft and lowly arts of invitation they must pray you and in Christ's name beg of you and God does beseech you by them Now did he please out onely to expostulate it with us why we will resolve to be at enmity with him and Salvation too why we will die for ever it would argue a concern for us the apprehension of which ought to be very comfortable to us but when God descends to beseech us the expression looks uncouth indeed but yet it is not strange he should intreat that which he died for beg of us what he ask'd for not with importent weak tears but with strong cries on the Cross with the bloudshed of his own onely-begotten Son when he thus conveighs his importunate entreaties to us that we would endure his kindness a 〈◊〉 own eternal Blessedness would suffer ourselves to be sav'd it is impossible there can be more assurance given he would have us be so that 't is offer'd us and we may be accepted Nor did he send these his Ambassadors as bare petitioners with emty importunities and meer intreaties of this but they strengthen these proposals with exceeding great and precious promises as St Peter calls them Epist. 2. 1. 4. promises both of the life that now is and of that which is to come St Paul says 1 Tim. 4. 8. yea and these as sure as that there is a God that made them Neither are they wanting to inform us of the dangers we most certainly incurr if we refuse him merely to affright us to him to incline us to admit Salvation rather and preferr it before everlasting misery and all this by his express commission they being set by God as watch-men to give warning to the wicked from him as he tells Ezekiel c. 3. 17. And least their discourse should be too faint and not have force to move us God does frequently step in himself by providential acts when unsubduable by Reason or Religion deaf to our very interests we pursue our sinful satisfactions with ungovernable fierce carrier he lays a Cross on us to trash us or le ts loose a feaver at us so to bring us low and make us sensible or else he suffers our own evil counsels to entangle us we are catcht in our own machinations and designs he lets us tast the bitter fruit of
tenth Commandment is the certain consequent of this disposition of mind or indeed rather it is but several instances of forbidding discontentedness with our own condition and in it Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife is not meant thou shalt not desire to commit adultery with her for that was forbidden in the seventh Commandment but as thou shalt not covet his house which do's not signify thou shalt not desire once to walk thro it or to sit and dine in it but thou shalt not desire the possession nor propriety of what is not thine own shalt not desire it should be thy house but be contented with thy lot so here thou shalt not be troubled that his wife or servant is not thy wife or servant and think it as fit thy Neighbor should enjoy the comforts of a happy wife if God have given him one or the pleasures and splendors of an estate or the advantages of a commodious servant as thou dost think it fit thou shouldest enjoy what is thine and not desire not only to be theif but not the owner of them be content with what is thine 4. All the Seditions and Rebellions in the world and those armies of Sins that attend them that wage their wars which are upheld by legions of villanies as numerous as those of men all the disturbances of States and Churches are but the effects of discontented spirits men that were unsatisfied with their condition desir'd a change and car'd not by what means they compast it They can charge thro seas of bloud and sin over the faces of men and conscience to get out of the condition which they are not well content with I could assign more sins that do attend a discontented heart when it hath opportunity to break into them all the effects of anger and of malice and of concupiscence and a whole shole of others are in its train but that I must reserve one word for Envy 2. Envy to say all in one word however slight a thing we may esteem it For to envy at another person 's having better qualities or greater dignities or richer furnitures or wider estates or handsomer provisions this we think do's no mischief to the persons and therefore is no crying crime Yet besides that it is more unjust than hatred or than malice for these have still pretences that do look like reason I cannot hate a man but because he do's me some wrong and that is some reason for I hate his injustice but envy hath not any least pretence Is it a wrong to me because that person is better qualified or better endowed Is he unjust because he is rich or learned or well provided and yet for this I envy him Besides this I say to stab it with one thrust Envy hath all the vices and all the ruins in the world for its issue all sin and all damnation is its brood The Devil envied man's felicity and therefore temted him and so man lost Original Righteousness and he lost Paradise and he envies his recovery by Christ and therefore temts him still until he ruin him eternally Whatever guilt and whatever misery is in the world hence it springs it is a feind-like devilish humor And now would you take the prospect of these two qualities discontent and envy Lucifer was not satisfied with his condition and he was therefore cast from Heaven and all his fellow Angels became Devils and then he envied man's condition and chang'd his Paradise into everlasting misery These two qualities rob'd Heaven it self of those inhabitants that should have fill'd it and the Son of God himself and peopled Hell it made Angels become Feinds it made God die and made men damn'd and there is enough for that 3. Covetousness I am sure I can say no more of that than what S. Paul hath said nor more to my purpose 1. Tim. 6. 6 7 8 9 10. Godliness with contentment is great gain for we brought nothing into this world and it is certain we can carry nothing out and having food and raiment let us be therewith content But they that will be rich fall into a temtation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtfull lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition for the love of mony is the root of all evil which while some coveted after they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves thro with many sorrows And oh that three such dismal qualities with their accursed trains should breed in that same little part the eie An evil eie is the womb wherein they are conceiv'd and if that one small faculty be so fruitful in guilt and in destructions how shall we reckon the whole man Miserable men that we are who shall deliver us from a whole body of death and from the state of those deaths and from darkness in which this evil eie engages us A darkness which our Savior could not otherwise express but by astonishment How great is that darkness A darkness great indeed because 't is wilfully incurable no state do's so withstand the light as this The Sun of Righteousness the Day-spring from on high that came to visit us could strike the light thro darkness and make the shadow of death bright Luke 1. 79. that did shed light that was a glory Luke 2. 32. could not yet break in upon a Country clouded with this humor his Miracles and he were both desired to withdraw could have no least Reception when interest and profit came to be toucht and a Legion of Devils that did plot together could contrive no surer means to keep out Christ himself than by setting up an evil eie to look upon him and his Miracles than by engaging this greedy affection against him and that but in a small instance We read a strange story Matt. 8. 28. Marke the contrivance and the policy the Devils knowing that Christ would cast them out of the two possessed men and by that Miracle so far show forth his power that it would probably bring all the Country to believe on him they desir'd to prevent this and thereupon fall on this project which might incense the men of that Country against him and in order to it they besought Christ that if he did cast them out he would suffer them to go into the herd of Swine and tho he seldom wrought any destructive Miracles yet that the people might see the virulency of these Devils how destructive they were if not restrain'd by his omnipotent goodness and so they might understand the mercy don to those that were possessed and likewise see the mercy now approching to their Country by the coming of Christ if they will accept of it and withal to try whether their love to their Swine was greater than that to their own souls he permitted the Devils to go into the Swine he would not restrain them and they went into them They who fed the Swine gave to the owners notice of their loss and did let them know
8. which if after all the Husbandmans methods of Care and Art it brings forth only thorns and briars it is rejected by him he will bestow no more labour on it but can hardly forbear cursing such an ill piece of ground and its end is to be burnt So we after Gods Husbandry of Afflictions when the Plowers plowed upon our backs and made long furrows and the Iron teeth of Oppressors as it were harrowed us if we bring forth only the fruits of the Flesh we are rejected reprobated God will bestow no more Arts on us we are not far from his curse and there remains only a fearful looking for of Judgment and fiery Indignation If any did continue refractory to the Rod sinn'd under and against Judgment and did commit with an high hand even while the Lords hand was stretch'd out against them what shall reform what can express their guilt To have beheld that tragical iniquity we read of Lyons where when the City was so visited with the Pestilence that scarce any were free that the Dead without a figure buried their dead falling down one upon another each being at once a Carcass and a grave the Soldiers of the Cittadel would daily issue forth and deflour Virgins now giving up the ghost defile Matrons even already dead committing with the dust warming the grave with sinful heats and coupling with the Plague and Death would not this have seemed the Landskip of Hell to us when they suffer and sin together Yet when a Church and State were on their death-beds Gods Tokens on them visited with the treasures of his Plagues and our selves sinking in that our Ruin if any went a whoring after their own flesh still fulfilling the lusts thereof and in the midst of Deaths searching for sins what was this but to do the same things whose story does affright us while the actions please and in this case what method will be useful do we think our selves of that generous kind that will do nothing by compulsion but will for kindness and though we would not be chained yet we will be drawn to Vertue by the cords of Love and now God hath shewn mercy on us we will return him service out of gratitude Truly I make no question but most of us have promised some such things to God how if he would but save us from our Enemies that we might serve him without fear that we would do it in holiness and Righteousness before him And if he would restore his opportunities of Worship how we would use them Thus we did labour to tempt God and draw him in to have compassion and this was Ephraims Imagination just I heard Ephraim bemoaning himself saith the Prophet as a Bullock unaccustomed to the yoke turn thou me and I shall be turned turn my Captivity and I will turn my life But this was as a Bullock unaccustomed to the yoke that did not like the straitness and pressure of it and would promise any thing to get it off thought it more easie to reform than bear Affliction But is this hopeful think you The Soldiers of Lyons that would ravish Death and break into the Grave for Lust it may be would have been modest and retired from the fair Palaces that are prepared to tempt and entertain that Vice Cold and insensible of all those heats that Health and Beauty kindle but remember it was the taking off Gods hand that hardened Pharaohs heart and a release from punishment was his Reprobation And as for those that were humbled under the Rod and when God had retrench'd from their enjoyments did put restraints upon themselves gave over sinning I have a word of Caution for them that they examine well and take a care it be a ceasing from sin like that in the Text a dying to it that they no longer live the rest of their time in the flesh to the lusts of men For if this Old Man be only cold and stiff not mortified by the calm and sunshine of Peace likely to be warm'd into a recovery if thou owe all thy Innocence to thy Pressure wert only plunder'd of thy sins and thy Vertue and Poverty hand in hand as they were born so they will die together thy Vices and Revenues come in at once What is this but to invite new Desolations which God in kindness must send to take away the opportunities and foments of our ruining sins 'T is true when God has wrought such most astonishing miracles of mercy for us when he did make Calamity contribute to our Happiness when we were Shipwrackt to the Haven and the Shore when Ruins did advance us and we fell upwards it is an hopeful argument God would not do such mighty works on purpose to undo them we have good ground of confidence that he will preserve his own mercies and will not throw away the issues of his goodness in which his bounty hath so great an interest and share But yet if we debauch Salvation and make it serve our undoing if we order these opportunities of mercy so that they only help us to fill up the measure of our sins if we teach Gods long-suffering only to work out our eternal sufferings these Mercies will prove very cruel to us and far from giving any colour for our hopes When the Prodigal was received into his Fathers house and arms had a Ring put on him and the fatted Calf killed for him if he should strait have invited the companions of his former Riot to that fatted Calf and joyn'd his Harlot to him with that Ring he had deserved then to be disinherited both from his Fathers house and pitty who would have had no farther entertainment nor no bowels for him To prevent such a fate let us make no relapses but quite cease from sin which if we do not a little Logick will draw an unhappy inference from this Text if he that hath suffered hath ceast from sin then he that hath not ceast from sinning hath not suffered and then what is all this that we have felt and so lain under What is it if it be not suffering If this be but preparative then what is the full Potion the Cup of Indignation when all his Vials shall be poured into it If such have been the beginnings of sufferings what shall the issues be If the morning dew of the day of punishment have been so full of blood what shall the Storm and Tempest be the deluge and inundation of Fury Take heed of making God relapse 't is in your power to prevent it your Reformation will be his preservative and Antidote That is the way to keep all whole to settle Government and Religion both at once to establish the Kings Throne and Christs For notwithstanding mens pretensions these Thrones are not at all inconsistent For that there must be no King but Christ that there cannot be a Kingdom here of this World because there is a Kingdom that is not of this World is such
it would A setled tendency a resolv'd inclination to sin that presseth with its utmost agitation is that weight which though it may perchance be stop'd in its career yet it tends to the Abysse its center and will not rest but in that Pit that hath nor rest nor bottom the Heart in this case is as liable as it can be because here it hath done its worst and such a Will shall be imputed to its self And now I need not tell those who are still designing sin or mischief in the heart although it never dares come out of those recesses how far they are removed from the goodness of God to Israel A Father finds a way to prove such souls have larger doses of Gods Vengeance who when he had asserted that the soul does not die with the body and then was ask'd what it did in that long interval for sure it is not reasonable that it should be affected with any anticipations of the future Judgment because the business of the day of Judgment should be reserved to its own day without all prelibation of the sentence and the restitution of the Flesh is to be waited for that so both soul and body may go hand in hand in their Recompences as they did in their demerits joynt Partners in the Wages as they were in the Works To this he answers The Soul does not divide all its operations with the Body some things it acts alone and if there were no other cause it were most just the Soul should there receive without the Body the dues of that which here it did commit without the Body That 's for the former sort of sins those meerly of the Heart And for the latter sort the Soul is first engaged in the commission that does conceive the sin lays the design of compassing and does contrive and carry on the machination and then why should not that be first in Punishment which is the first in the Offence Go now and reckon that thy outward gross Transgressions are the only dangerous and guilty ones and slight thy sins of Heart but know that while thy flesh is sleeping in the quiet Grave at rest and ease thy Spirit then 's in Torments sor thy Fleshes sins and feels a far severer Worm than that which gnaws thy Body Poor Soul Eternity of Hell from Resurrection to For-ever is not enough to punish it all that while it must suffer with the Body but it must have an age of Vengeance besides particularly for it self to plague it for those things it could not execute and punish it for what it did not really enjoy only because it did allow it self to desire and contrive them and it must be tormented for those unsatisfied desires And though indeed desires where they are violent if they be not allayed by satisfaction are but so much agony yet do they merit and pull on them more these Torments shall be plagued and the soul suffer for its very passion even from Death to the last Judgment and 't is but just that being it usurp'd upon the pleasures and the sins of Flesh it should also seize on and take possession of the Vengeance appointed for those sins it should invade and should usurp their condemnation But why do I stand pressing aggravations against uncleanness of Heart in an Age when God knows Vice hath not so much modesty or fear to keep within those close and dark restraints Instead of that same Cleanness which the Text requires we may find Purity indeed of several sorts but 't is either pure Fraud or pure Impiety the one of these does make a strange expression very proper pure Corruption for so it is sincere and without mixture nothing but it self no spots of Clean to chequer it but all stain The other is pure white indeed but it is that of whited Sepulcres a Life as clean as Light a bright pure Conversation but it shines with that light onely which Satan does put on when he transforms himself into an Angel of Light and it is but a glory about a fiend But yet this shines however whereas others do stand Candidates of Vice and would be glorious in wickedness and that is such a splendor as if Satan should dress himself with the shine of his own flaming Brimstone and make himself a glory with the streamings of his Lake of Fire And yet thus is the World we do not onely see men serve some one peculiar vicious inclination and cherish their own wickedness but they make every Vice their own as if the Root of bitterness branch'd out in each sort of Impiety in them such fertile soyls of sin they are here insincerity were to be wish'd and where there is not cleanness that there were a Mask that there were the Religion of Hypocrisie We may remember God was good to Israel of old by Obligation and performance the one as great as he could enter the other great to Miracle and astonishment when after seventy years Captivity and Desolation he did rebuild a Temple where there was no Monument of its Ruines and raised a Nation and Government of which there was no Reliques And yet at last when the Religion of some turned into Faction of others into Prophaneness when the strictest Sect of them the Pharisees became most holy outwardly to have the better means 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to mischief those that were not of their Party and got a great opinion of Sanctity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so as to be believed in whatsoever they did speak against the King or chief Priests and that so far as to be able openly to practise against both and raise Commotions They are Josephus's words of them and when another Sect the Zelots the most pernicious of all saith Bertram did commit Murders Sacriledg Prophanations and all kind of Villanies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with good Intentions saith the same Josephus and when those who did not separate into Sects but were the Church of Israel became lukewarm supine and negligent in their Profession yea and licentious and Prophane fit only to be joyned with Publicans in Christs expressions when sin grew generally Impudent when they did live as if they would be Scandalous as well as vicious as if they lov'd the guilt as much as the delights of sin and cared not to be wicked to themselves but must debauch as if they did enjoy the ruine of other persons sinning just as the Devil does who does not taste the sin but feasts upon the Sinners Condemnation Then did God execute a Vengeance whose prediction was fit to be mistaken for that of the Day of Judgment and whose event almost fulfill'd the terrors of that day I need not draw resemblances shew how Gods goodness to our Israel does equal that to them applying to our selves their Raptures how when the Lord turned the Captivity of our Sion we also were like them that dream surprized with Mercy Indeed as in a Dream Ideas
Church First If the Church of Rome have reason to expect infallible assistance of the Spirit in any case it is as much in Canonizing of a Saint as in any other it being as unhappy to determine a false Object for Religious Worship to their Church as a false Article of Faith there is as much need that there should be an infallible proposal of the one as other for when she does Decree by the Authority of the Omnipotent God such a one is a Saint receiv'd in Glory and so renders him the Object of their Worship if he should chance to be a Reprobate to cause the People to fall prostrate to the Shrine of one that 's damn'd and call his flames to warm Gods Altar and the Votaries breast to make the whole Church worship one that is in Hell is liable to greater aggravations of impiety than an erroneous Opinion in very many of their points of Faith can be But it is known their Church hath Canoniz'd one of this Nation Becket who though he was indeed illegally and barbarously Murthered yet 't is not the Suffering but the Cause that makes the Martyr now he did not fall a Sacrifice for his Religion but was slain because he did disturb the State by suspending all the Bishops that upheld the Kings just cause against him so that neither King nor State could live in peace for him for opposing also those Laws which himself had sworn to Laws that were not onely truly Sovereign Rights but are maintain'd even unto this day as Priviledges by the Gallican Church and they not branded for so doing In a word he was slain for those actions which his own Bishops condemned him for as a perjur'd man and a Traytor And for persisting in them to the death he was Sainted Now whatever the estate of this man be in the next World I meddle not with that Yet for Disobedience and Rebellion to place one in Heaven whence for those things Lucifer did fall does seem to shew what Spirit they are of that Canonize such Saints For the Church to pray to Christ that by the wounds of this Saint he would remit their sins does express what rate their Church does set upon the merits of resisting Princes and disturbing States in the behalf of Holy Church When such actions make men fit to be joynt purchasers with Christ in the Redemption of the World But when the French Histories say 't was disputed long after in Paris whether he were Damn'd or Sav'd that the Church in her publique Offices should pray to go thither where he is gone to have his Society though it express their most infallible assurance of the condition of those men who for their sakes resist the Secular Powers yet O my Soul enter not thou into their counsels in this world neither say a Confederacy to whom they say a Confederacy much less pray to be in their Society who by resisting S. Paul says do receive unto themselves Damnation Secondly It is notorious that in their first General Council at Lyons Anno 1245. the Emperour Frederick the second by the Sentence of the Pope and the whole Council after long deliberation and producing several Arguments which they say are not sleight but effectual to prove the suspicion of Heresie is depriv'd of his Empire all his Subjects are absolv'd from their Oath of Allegiance and by Apostolical Authority forbidden to obey him Therefore that such things may be done in the cases of Religion hath the Authority of a General Council 't was that Council that Decreed Red Hats to Cardinals Hats red it seems not onely with the Royal Purple but with the Blood of Kings and of Royalty it self Thirdly I should have urged the well known Canon of the General Council of Lateran the greatest their Church ever boasted of which says That if the temporal Lord shall neglect to purge his Territories from such as the Church there declares Hereticks he shall be Excommunicated by the Metropolitan and if he do not mend within a year complained of to the Pope that so he may declare his Subjects absolv'd from their Allegiance and expose his Lands to be seiz'd by Catholicks who shall exterminate the Hereticks saving the right of the chief Lord Provided he give no impediment to this But the same law shall be observed to those that have no chief Lords that is who are themselves Supream This I should urge but that some say that penal Statutes which are leges odiosae tantum disponunt quantum loquuntur Therefore this Canon since it does not name Kings it does not they say concern them although 't is plain it do sufficiently enough But that there may be therefore no evasion Fourthly In the General Council of Constance that part of it I mean that is approv'd by their whole Church The Pope and Council joyn together in commanding all Arch-Bishops Bishops and Inquisitors to pronounce all such Excommunicate as are declared Hereticks in such and such Articles and that of Transubstantiation half-Communion and the Pope's Supremacy are among them or that favour ot defend them or that Communicate with them in publique or in private whether in sacred Offices or otherwise etiamsi Patriarchali Archiepiscopali Episcopali Regali Reginali Ducali aut aliâ quâvis Ecclesiasticâ aut mundanâ proefulgeant dignitate And Commands them also to proceed to Interdicts and deprivation of Dignities and Goods and whatsoever other Penalties vias modos Thus that Council though it took away the Peoples right to the Blood of Christ denying them the Cup in the Sacrament gave them in exchange the Blood of their own Kings making them a right to that And that they extend the force of these Canons to the most absolute Princes even to him that pleads exemption most to the King of France is plain because when Sixtus the fifth thundred out his Bulls against the then King of Navarre afterwards King Henry the fourth of France and the Prince of Conde depriving them not onely of their Lands and Dignities but their Succession also to the Crown of France absolving their Subjects from their Oaths forbidding them to obey them he declared he did it to them as to relapsed Hereticks favourers and defenders of them and as such fal'n under the Censures of the Canons of the Church Now there are no other Canons that do take in Kings but these which can touch him for that of Boniface the eighth which says the Pope hath power to judg all temporal Powers is declared not to extend to France Cap. meruit de priviledg in extravag communibus Thus by the publique Acts of their Church and by the Canons of their General Councils we have found in causes of Religion Deprivation of Princes Wars and Bloodshed and the other consequent Miseries are establish'd Rebellion encouraged by a Law And if Rebellion be as the sin of Witchcraft then we know what manner of Spirit they are of that do
you not seen him in that state when he supposed that sinning was now done with him and the next thing was Judgment when God's Tribunal seemed to be within his view and Hell to gape for him as wide as the Grave both opening to receive their parts of him at the same time and himself ready to divide himself into those two sad Habitations With what effectual Sermon will he then Preach to himself against his sins and that you may be sure shall work upon him he instantly resolves against his Vices he will not carry them along with him out of this Life but cast them off as too sad dangerous Company nor yet if God shall lend him life will he retain them but it shall be a New Life which he will lead And yet when God hath rais'd him up after a while he returns to his Vomit his Sins recover with his Body he owes his Innocence but to his Weakness nor is it more long-liv'd his holy purposes decay as his strength grows and die as soon as setled health does come And he who never would commit the Sin again when he was Dying mends into it again And then what hopes is there in this mistaken Method when we see men come themselves from the Deadunto themselves yet cannot make themselves Repent But if we are not all concerned in this take a more spreading and more visible experiment If ever one came from the Dead this Church and State came thence And by as great a Miracle of Resurrection But where is the Repentance such a Miracle may have flattered our Expectations with as I am confident the resolutions of it did in that sad dying state are not some men as violent in those wicked practices that merited our former Ruin and others in those cursed Principles that did inflict it as they ever were 't is said by many that have evil will at Sion and it is our concern to take a care they speak not truth that in the Church some that are risen up again have still the silence of the Grave upon them and are as dumb as if their mouth were yet full of their monument Earth And yet as if it were not full of Earth nor had been satisfied with it in the Sepulchre they gape still like the Grave that never can be satisfied And we see others who as if this Resurrection were but a start out of a sleep or lucid interval of former madness have their hands ready not onely to tear off the hair the unessential accessary beauties of the Body of the Church and State but to scratch the Face pull out the Eyes and tear open those Wounds which their last fit of Fury did inflict so to let life out again And as for the Community of the Nation 't is true we are as it were risen from the Grave but have we not brought up with us the Plague sores are not the Spots upon us still the Venom Ulcer and infection about us Yea more contracted Stench and Putrefaction such as Death and the Grave do add and coming from the dead we will not yet part with these but dress our selves in those infected and defiled grave-cloaths and rise into corruption and so confute Gods Method of a Resurrection 'T were happier if we would so far confute the Text that coming our selves from the dead we would renounce communion with all Deaths adherencies begin the incorruptible which shall be consummated when we shall rise again a Church triumphant when Death shall be swallowed up in Victory and neither Sin nor Repentance shall be any more but Holiness and Life and Glory too shall be Immortal and unchangeable To Which c. The Twelfth SERMON Preached at CHRIST-CHURCH IN OXFORD Decemb. 31. 1665. LUKE II. part of the 34. verse Behold this Child is set for the Fall and Rising again of many in Israel and for a sign which shall be spoken against AND Simeon Blessed them and said c. A Benediction sure of a most strange importance If to bring forth one that is to be a large Destruction if to be delivered of a Child that must be for the Fall of many and the killing of the Mothers self be blessed if Swords and Ruins be Comforts then my Text is full of these But if this be to Bless what is it to forespeak and abode ill Yet however ominous and fatal the words are they give us the event and the design too of the Blessed Incarnation of the Son of God the Child of this Text and of this Season A short view of Gods Counsel in it and the Effects of it The Effects in these Particulars 1. This Child is for the Fall of many 2. For the Rising again of many 3. For a Sign With the quality of that sign he is for a sign that shall be spoken against 2. The Counsel and Design of this is signified in the word here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he is set and preordain'd to be all this First of the first Effect This Child is for the Fall of many And here I shall but onely name that way whereby many men set this Child for their own Fall while they make his holy Time to be but a more solemn opportunity of â—â—â—â—ing We know many celebrate this great Festival with Surfeits and Excesses the usual appendages of Feasting Oathâ— and Curses the ingredients of Gaming Dalliance and Lasciviousness the attendants of Sporting of all which this seems as it were the Anniversary a set time for their return Thus indeed the Israelites did solemnize the Birth of their Idol-Calf They sate down to Eat and Drink and rose up to Play And must we celebrate this Child too like that Calf because he was born among Brutes And must his Votaries also be of the Herd And he live and be worship'd always in a Stable Because God became Man must Men therefore become Beasts Is it fit to honour that Child with Iniquity and Loosness that did come into the World upon designs of Holiness to settle a most strict Religion Nothing can be more incongruous than this and certainly there is nothing of Gods Counsel in it But to you whose time seems nothing else but a constant Festival always hath the Leisure and the Plenties and the Sports of one who as to these things keep a Christmas all your life this Season as it does not seem to challenge those things to it self peculiarly so I shall not now insist on them but proceed to those ways by which Simeon did Prophecy This Child would be for the fall of many in Israel And they are three 1. This Child whom I but now declar'd God had prepar'd to be the Glory of his People Israel yet his Birth was so inglorious and his Life answerable to it shall be so mean and poor and his Death so full of shame and curse that these shall prove a scandal to his People who shall be offended at them and being prepossess'd with prejudices of
and by that Miracle so far shew forth his Power that in probability the whole Countrey would believe on him they fall upon this project to prevent it they besought him if he would cast them out to suffer them to go into an herd of Swine there feeding hoping by destroying them to incense the Owners against Christ And to try them he permitted this The possessed Swine ran violently down into the Lake and perished Now a man would think the virulency of these Devils which were so destructive when they were at liberty and not restrained would have endeared the mercy that had cast them out of the poor men and came to dispossess the Countrey of them and that their astonishment at so great a Miracle would possess them all with Reverence and belief of him and that they would therefore seise and possess him also and not let the mercy go But on the contrary the whole City and Countrey came out to meet Jesus and in consideration of the loss of their Swine desire him to depart out of their Coast. Lo here an equal Enemy to Christ and all his Miracles that was indeed too hard for them The Senate of Hell had no project to keep out Religion like to this to make Religion thwart an Interest Rather no Christianity than lose an Earthly satisfaction by it Rather have the Swine than Christ himself 4. But if he chance to fail in this Assault as by our Saviour he was beaten off he hath yet a reserve in which he places his last strongest confidence with which he ventured to charge Christ when it is probable he knew he was the Son of God He takes him up into an high Mountain and shews him all the Kingdoms of the Earth in the twinkling of an eye and the glory of them and says All these things will I give thee He thought it was impossible for such a Prospect not to make impression on the Appetite raise some desire or stir one Covetous or Ambitious thought which if it could but do he made no scruple then to clog the Gift with such conditions as that there All these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me 'T is said indeed the Covetous man is an Idolater And here we see the God he does do homage to and worship The Devil does require that those whom he gives Wealth to now 't is he that gives it to the Covetous to all indeed that get it with injustice or with greediness he requires I say that these should pay all their Religion to Himself And the Ambitious in however high a place he sets them must fall down to him And truly these two dispositions can give worship to no other God but such an one as is Abaddon the Destroyer of Mankind For all the great Commotions of the World all those Convulsions that tear Provinces and Empires all Seditions and Rebellions with those Armies of Iniquities that attend them and that wage their Designs which are upheld by legions of Villanies as well as men all the Disturbances of States and Church are but attempts of Covetous and Ambitious spirits men that are unsatisfied with their condition and desire a change and care not how they compass it They can charge through Seas of Bloud and Sin over the face of Men and Conscience to get out of that condition which they therefore are not well content with because something they like better beckens their ambitious and their covetous Desires Would you see what one of these will venture at When Christ our Saviour was to be betrayed when a Person of the Godhead was to be delivered up and Crucified the Devil had no passion to imploy on that Design so fit as the desire of getting money and when that desire was once entertain'd we see he enters really in person and possesses such a Soul and when he is there he designs no farther but to warm and stir that passion 'T is sufficient fruit of his possession he hath done enough in such an heart wherein he dwells if he but keep alive that desire of Money For he knows that will make the man adventure upon any guilt for it made Judas undertake to betray Christ. And as for the other passion which the Devil did design the glories of his prospect to give fire to though he could not stir it in our Saviour yet he knew it vanquish'd him himself when he was Angel What height is there which Ambition will not fly at since it made this spirit aim at an equality with the Most High Heaven it self was not sufficient to content him while there was a God above him in it And since this affection peopled Hell with Devils 't is no wonder if it people Earth with Miseries and Vices 5. The remaining Trial with which Satan did assault our Saviour when he tempted him with Scripture and God's Promises and sought to ruine him with his own priviledges with that also 6. His being a lying spirit in the mouth of all the Prophets by which long ago he did destroy an Ahab in the 1 Kings xxii 22. But since by sad experience we know he ruined the best King purest Church and most flourishing State by the same Stratagem But these with those other which S. Paul does call his wiles I must omit sufficient hath been said already to inforce the necessity of resisting which is the Duty and the next considerable Resist the Devil That is do not you consent to his Temptations for there is no more required of us but this onely not to be willing to be taken and led captive by him For let him suggest incite assault and storm us no impression can be made upon us till we yield and till we give consent no hurt is done It is not here as in our other Wars In those no resolution can secure the Victory but notwithstanding all resistance possible we may be vanquish'd yea sometime men are overpress'd and die with Conquering and the Victor onely gains a Monument is but buried in the heaps of his slain Trophies But in these Wars with the Devil whosoever is unwilling to be vanquish'd never can be For he must first give consent to it and will the ruine for men do not sin against their wills Onely here we must distinguish betwixt Will and thin Velleity and Woulding For let no man think when he commits deliberate iniquity with aversness and reluctancy of mind allows not what he does but does the evil that he would not what he hates that he does that this is not to be imputed to the Will that in this case he is not willing but here the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak and yields through meer infirmity For on the contrary the Devil finds the Flesh so strong in this case that with it alone he does assault the mind and breaks through its reluctancies and aversations bears down all its resolutions triumphs over
indulg'd license makes them too big and heady to be brought under discipline And is 't not so with us Among many of those that stay within the Church I know not whether I do well to say so when of these I mean there is little other Evidence of their doing so but this that they will swear and drink of the Churches side blessed Sons of a demolished Church who think to raise their Mother a Temple by throwing stones at her by reason of the late overthrow of Government and discipline and the consequent licences Vice hath been so nurst up not only by an universal barefac'd uncorrected practice but by principles of liberty that can dispute down all Ecclesiastical restraints and have set up the Religion of License that now sin is grown so outragious as to be too strong for discipline nay rather than it should be set up 't is to be feared they would endeavour to reverse all in the Church and enterprise as much in their vices quarrel as others have done for mistaken Religion And indeed to what purpose were the Censures whose first and medicinal effect is shame amongst men where 't is in very many instances the only shameful thing not to be vitious where men stand candidates for the reputation of glorious sinners take to themselves sins they have not committed that are not theirs and usurp Vice sins and damnations hypocrites What work is here for discipline But this state wants not precedents the censures of the Church were not only lay'd aside in the Vastations of the Arian heresie and persecution when the weapons of the Churches warfare were too weak to make defence against all their cruelties and impieties and before that in Diocletian's days against the Lapsi But we find also that Saint Paul is forc'd to break out only in a passionate wish 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I would they were even cut off that trouble you cut off by excommunication he means Gal. 5. 12. When he saw the ill humours were too spreading and too tough also Sedition and Sehisme wide and obstinate so that neither his authority could reach nor his methods cure but were more likely to exasperate them Then he does excommunicate them only in desire And again 2 Cor. 10. 6. And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience when your obedience is fulfill'd It becomes therefore every one that hath good Will for Sion to labour to fulfill his own obedience that so the Church may be empower'd to use Christ's Method for reforming of the rest And thet that will not do so must know they shall not only answer for their sins but for refusing to be sav'd from them that they resist all medicine as men resolv'd that nothing shall be done towards their Cure as men that rather choose to perish and prefer destruction And for the seasons and degrees of putting this work into Execution Wisdom must be implor'd from that Spirit of Wisdom that calls unto this work The last Part Whereunto I have called them The Nature of the calling of the Holy Ghost is a Subject that would bear a full discourse But waving those pretensions which Necessity and inward incitation do make to be the Calls of the Holy Ghost I shall positively set down that the call of God and of the Holy Ghost to any Work or Office for I enquire not of his calling to a privilege or state of favour is his giving abilities and gifts qualifying for that Work or Office The call immediate when the gifts were so but mediate and ordinary when the abilities are given in his blessing on our ordinary labours 'T is so in every sort of things Exod. 31. 2. See I have call'd Bezaleel and I have fill'd him with the Spirit of God in Wisdom and in understanding and in knowledge and in all manner of Workmanship to devise cunning works and to work in all manner of Workmanship and behold I have given him Aholiab and in the hearts of all that are wise-hearted I have put Wisdom that they may make all that I have commanded thee And he repeats the same again Chap. 35. 30. adding that he hath put in his heart that he may teach both he and Aholiab so that giving this skill to work and teach is nam'd Gods calling So in another case the Lord does say of Cyrus I have call'd him Esay 48. 15. which he explains in the 49. I have holden him by my right hand to subdue Nations before him to loose the loyns of Kings I have girded him So when Isaiah saith the Lord hath call'd me from the Womb or rather says that of our Saviour Isa. 49. 1. he tells you how ver 5. he form'd me and prepared me from the Womb to be his servant to bring Jacob to him And throughout the New Testament as his Call to a privilege is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his grace in allowing such a state of favour so his calls to a Work are his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his gifts enabling for it The Gifts of these Apostles by which they were enabled for their Office and which made up their call are set down Those of Barnabas in the fore-cited 11 Act. He was a good man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost and Paul's call was a little Extraordinary If we look into times we shall find reason to believe those Revelations in 2 Cor. 12. were given to Paul a little before this consecration of him in the Text. That Epistle was writ saith Baronius in the second year of Nero and this separation was in the second of Claudius as may be gathered also in some measure from the famine mention'd in the 28th verse of the 11th chap. betwixt these two were fourteen years now saith Saint Paul when he wrote that he had his revelation somewhat above 14. years before a little therefore before this solemnity Here was a call indeed call'd up to the third heaven to receive instructions for his Office and for ought he did know call'd out of his own body too that he might be the fitter for it whether in the body or out of the body I cannot tell God knows v. 2. and that again v. 3. They whom Gods Spirit qualifies for Consecration to separate to these diviner Offices may be stil'd Angels well when they are call'd from all regards or notices of any body that belongs to them their gifts and graces set them above the consideration of flesh In the entertainment of these qualifications the Soul is swallowed up so that it cannot take cognizance whether it have a body of its own and is not sensible of that deer partner of it self it is so onely sensible of this Employment 'T is not for an Apostle or for his Successor to think of things below with much complacency When these have all their uses all their glories on they but make pomp to dress the body which an Apostle does not design for nor knows whether he be concern'd at all
70 times 7 times And 't is not easily provok't not apt for sudden violent heats instantly all one fire quick as lightning Such heats are from another passion which though sometimes they do but flash and die yet oft they have their Thunder-bolt and most what do fore-run a storm whereas the heats of Charity are calm as sun-shine such as do not consume but cherish For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the same verse Love is kind and gracious full of humanity This Vertue is a kind of universal friendship hath nothing of reserv'd morose or sour an humour that makes solitude in the midst of Society and makes men onely their own company their Rule and scope and such a person Aristotle says must be either a God who can enjoy nothing beside himself is his own blessed and immortal entertainment or a wild beast whose nature is unsociable because 't is savage whereas Love is a pious complaisance to all 't is condescention too for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the 5. v. does not think any thing unseemly how contemptible soever nor unworthy of him so he may do his Neighbour good he will debase himself to meanest Offices to work a real kindness Thus Christ because he lov'd his own knowing the Father had given all things into his hand he took a Towel and girded himself and put water in a Basin and washt his Disciples feest making the lowest act of servitude be his Expression and our Example That is but slender Charity that will keep state Heaven could not unite Majesty and Love But to exercise this God did descend from Glory into the extremity of Meanness 'T is Bowels that express compassion and tender kindness Now those we know of all parts of the Body are employed in the most low ignoble Offices and to such Love condescends where 't is true Again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it cover all the naked with a garment and the deformed the leprous Sinner with a covering too for Charity covers a multitude of sins hides his own wrong from his own eyes this Love too like that in the Poets cannot see yea covers all that is no fit for light suffers onely the graces to be naked near him and not to name all which you may find there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ver 7 believeth all things however incompatible to love and to be wise have been accounted yet this Love is S. James his Wisdom that came down from Heaven Cap. 3. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 interpret any thing to the most favourable sense and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 easie to â—â—persuaded still believes the best and where it cannot yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hopes the best Affection while it lives cannot despair for then it must deposite its desires which are onely the warmth of Love and 'till it die cool not but if all do not answer hopes yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he does wait for it is not discourag'd with relapses and the repetitions of injuries but still expects and suffers all the contradictions of spite and wrong Now if all these acts and the many other there are essential to Love and all be under Obligation and S. Paul says there they are so much Duty that without these performances all Faith and all Graces profit nothing the Preaching Rhetorick of Men and Angels would be nothing else but tinkling and working Miracles but shewing tricks It follows then these Acts must necessarily have a certain object there must be some body that we are bound to love thus And if that Object be or Neighbour as that is most sure 't is clear my Neighbours injury or hate or enmity to me cannot take off nor yet diminish in the least that Obligation I have to all those Acts but I must love him though he be mine enemy in every of those instances For it is plain his having wrong'd me does not make him cease to be my Neighbour nay more that enmity does formally dispose and qualifie my Neighbour for the Object of my love And many of its Acts cannot relate but to a man that injures me it must be in respect to provocations that love is said to cool into such a temper as is not easily provokt For men are not provokt with kindnesses I cannot suffer any thing but wrong nor suffer long except there be continuation and frequency of wrongs Nor is it possible I should forgive unless it be offences done against me And so for divers of the rest Now it were strange the enemy should supersede the obligation of the Duty which cannot be a Duty but in order to an Enemy that injury should give me a release from doing that which I can neverr have cause or occasion to do but in the case of injury that I should have leave not to obey the Command for that meer reason which alone maks it possible to obey it and which alone makes the Command Whereas indeed because I must needs love in these expresses therefore he must needs be my enemy whom I must love But if he be without all provocation very unjustly so if his hate be his sin so that he hath offended God too in it may I not then espouse Gods quarrel thus farr not to love his Enemy if I must mine own not to love the injurious the sinner Vice certainly is the most hateful thing that is and therefore it must needs render the subject not to be belov'd accordingly 't is said that the ungodly and his ungodliness are both alike hateful unto God Wis. 14. 9. and David does comply with God in this Psalm 139. Do not I hate them O Lord that hate thee yea I hate them with perfect hatred I count them mine enemies And when I reflect on mine under this Notion or if mine be such as set themselves against Religion and the peace and quietness of the Church am I bound to love them If so then I may be allow'd to do it with a little regret sure But yet if we consider how these in the Text are designated by that Appropriation your enemies which means those that hate you my Disciples those that in the last words of my Text will persecute you even for your being mine and yet those they are bid to love we may conclude in the next place we may not hate our enemies as Sinners Nor yet does enmity with God his Church or his Religion qualifie a person for our aversation or mischiefs I except here Apostacy and utter obduration in it a state that incapacitates for mercy and by consequence for love and kindness There is a sin which S. John would not say that we should pray for and the Church thought that there was such a sinner Iâ—dian but as to less degrees they that are suppos'd to persecute Disciples and in doing so persecute Christ himself may well be granted sinners enemies to God and Christianity but yet says he I say unto you love these your enemies Tertullian
For them it is very necessary for persecution or despightful usage offending God as by a disobedience to his precept so also by the sufferings it does inflict on man to forgive or require which that man hath right God does not use to put the injur'd person by this right or by its paramont Authority assume to pardon the mans part of the wrong but does retain the sin till that either in deed or desire do satisfied for or remitted there being 'till then an obstruction to Gods forgiveness for 'till then the man hath not repented but when the fufferer does pray for him in doing so he pleads that that obstruction is remov'd that his part is remitted and so leaves no bar in the way to that pardon which he begs for him of God and which that bar being gone the Lord is us'd to grant with all advantage the prayers of our Martyr in the seventh of the Acts are a demonstration to which the Fathers say the Church did owe not only her deliverance from all the violent intentions of Saul but all that Christianity which St. Paul planted the dying voice of that petition Lord lay not this sin to their charge was answered by that voyce from Heaven which converted Saul in his career of fury One prayer for a persecutor puts an end to persecution si Stephanus non or asset Ecclesia non habuiesset Paulum Jobs miserable comforters whose visits prov'd afflictions to him could not a tone themselves to God by their burnt offerings but Job must pray for them 42. Chr. 8. seven Bullocks and seven Rams cannot expiate but one petition from the sufferer will do it for him I will accept saith God and he accepted him not for them only but for himself for the Lord turned the Captivity of Job when he prayed for them vers 10. These intercessions speed sooner then direct supplications and such a petition is heard to our selves when 't is made for others And reason good for such requests lay the condition of our pardon before God making evidence of our performance and they cry for we forgive and so call for pardon And to encourage this procedure our Saviour before he did commend his own spirit into the hand of his Father he commended his Executioners to the mercies of his Father Our Martyr did not so indeed but first pray'd for himself Lord Jesus receive my Spirit Acts. 7. 59. But though Heaven opening he saw that Jesus standing at the right hand of God as ready to receive it yet his spirit would not leave his body so yet made him live yet to endure more stoning from his persecutors for whom he had not pray'd yet but when he once fell on his knees not beaten down by their storm but his Charity and pray'd Lord lay not this sin to their charge when he had said so he fell asleep v. 60. his Spirit taken hence as it were osculo pacis though by the most violent death and he lies down in a perpetual rest and peace that thus lies down in Love These are requests to breath out a soul into heaven in and heaven it self did open to receive that soul that came so wafred And now we are at the top of Christ's Mount the highest and the steepest point of christianity which view with that â—o which our Martyrs Spirit did ascend For it makes perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect it sets our heads within those higher and untroubled Regions wherein there are no Meteor-fires the flame of Passion cannot wing it thither for he that is above the power of injury discontent cannot look up to him it is with him as in the upper Orbs where there is only harmony and shine all is peace and love the state of heaven it self Now as it does happen to them that look down from great heights every Object below is dwarf'd And if the distance of the prospect be as great as that from Heaven to Earth they tell us this whole Globe would be but like a spot all being swallowed in it self so if from this great height of duty we should look down upon the World of Christianity would it not almost wholly disappear and vanish Something like a dark spot of it you may perchance behold stain'd and discolour'd with the Blood of Christians which their constant quarrels shed Some it may be dye that Blood in colours of Religion their Animosity is christened Zeal they kill only for Sacrifice thus they interpret and fulfill Christs precepts this they call holy love as if Christ when he bid his Disciples take no Staves with them meant they should carry Swords as if the love he had commanded we should have for them that are in errour if our enemies be so indeed were but to murder them forsooth out of their errours Next for the kindnesses that Christians do to those that hate them or have disoblig'd them they are God knows so little that no perspective can shew them from this height we are upon And yet 't is not for want of light we cannot see them 't is very rare men do those things in the dark for if they do not blazon them themselves the enemy whom they oblige must do it The distance also is too great to hear the prayers that are made for those that treat men with despiteful usage perhaps it is because they are put up in secret bur then what means the yelling of those curses That ill Language that is banded to and fro While none will be behind in the returns of these how far soever we are off like Thunder these are heard And thence you may behold them also tearing Christs wounds wider to mouth their swelling passion We may see their anger redden with his Blood and themselves spitting out that Blood by imprecations at the face of him that did provoke them we may see them raking Hell to word these prayers sending themselves thither in wishes that they may express them with more horrour The Hatreds and Revenges which men act on them that have offended them hates that seldom ever dye 'till themselves do which the Frost of the Grave onely cools yea many times they are rak'd up and keep their heat in the ashes live in the grave and are as long liv'd as the families which for the most part is more careful and tenacious of them than of their Inheritance The executions of these are often writ in Characters legible at utmost distance in this Mount of the Lord they may be seen but where now are the Christians of my Text and of this day There 's no appearance of them in the face of the whole Globe of our Profession nay worse it is scarce possible they should appear the Duties of loving enemies of returning affronts with kindnesses these are banisht thence other virtues are practic'd down but these are scorn'd and quarrel'd down 'T is become a base thing and not to be endur'd to be a Christian