Disobedience to Him also And where is that Man who if he may have but one darling Sin and be suffer'd to enjoy that would not willingly bate you all the rest That would not be exact in some duties if he might commute for others One Man will be as sober as you would have him if he may be allow'd to be proud and another as chast so he may have leave to be revengefull But these middle sort of people are like to get little benefit by Christ's Redemption They have the fate of Neuters to be hated by both Parties like Borderers to be equally spoiled by both Nations And surely if this state be not the worst 't is certainly the most troublesome where the Man's Practices thwart his Principles such a one is not less divided from himself than from his God His single self is at least two parties His Heart 's the seat of a perpetual Civil War He is often led Captive into both quarters and while he renews his strength 't is only for a fresh defeat and he lays in treasure to no other end but to be worth another pillage And there is one thing highly considerable in the case of this middle person That he hath neither the comforts of Vertue nor the pleasure of Sin the satisfaction of doing his duty being sowred by his thoughts of the frequent omissions of it When a Man loves God and hates his Brother is a severe and a proud person such a one is just so excellent as to deserve our pity because he hath undergone the trouble of doing some good and miss'd the reward of it In whom so much Vertue was in vain so many good things to no purpose and who possess'd such rare advantages that it might be the more remarkable how he lost them too These have the sad honour of being instances how near Men may come to Happiness and yet fail of it They shall have the miserable Comfort that in them it shall be noted how much choice treasure may be cast away Thus what the Historian says of a Nation may be affirm'd of Mankind in a Moral sense Nec totam libertatem pati possunt nec totam servitutem That they would be neither absolute slaves to sin nor wholly free from it be neither under the law of Righteousness nor altogether under that of Iniquity that is not wholly Christ's enemies nor yet well his friends But as it was his design to free us wholly from the slavery so likewise to cleanse us from the stain and pollution of every sin As to be our Redemption so our Sanctification He came to rescue and withall to refine us To purifie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works The second great End of his coming in the flesh and the last thing observable To purifie c. Of all the Religions which ever were yet in the World there is not any that hath so provided for the regulating of humane actions as Christianity hath done All others have rather been employ'd in Expiations for sin than Deleteries of it in performing such rights for which God should pardon them rather than in doing such actions for which he should love them the utmost of all their hopes being but for a Remission whereas ours aim at a Reward This bewails our infirmities so as to draw us from them and fit us for that happiness which it designs to procure us And therefore He who was the Author thereof did never intend to justifie us by his Righteousness unless he might also sanctifie us by his Spirit or procure us pardon for past sins without securing us as far as we were capable from future ones That was indeed the proper task of his Priestly This of his Prophetick Office There he did expiate Here he continually teaches us not only to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts but withall to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world and that both by his Precepts and his Example which how effectual they are if duely observed and followed to the cleansing of us from all filthiness of flesh and spirit beyond whatever the World saw till He came into it will easily appear to any that shall confront Christ's Precepts particularly those delivered in his Sermon on the Mount and his Practice with those of Heathens or Jews either From the former of these two what Purity could be expected whose very Religion its self was Impurity whose Divinity taught Men to violate Humanity and whose ceremonious Worship was nothing else but a Solemnity of the foulest Vices Their Practices and Principles their Lives and Judgments having been alike corrupt as St. Paul describes them Rom. 1. Nor was it possible how it should be otherwise where Men's Sins and their Religion were the same thing where their Gods and their Inclinations did equally contribute to Wickedness The most abominable Sins we know among them had their Temples where Theft Drunkenness and Adultery were ador'd and to prostitute their Bodies was most sacred and their very Altar-fires did kindle those foul heats from whence 't is that Uncleanness is so often in Scripture styled Idolatry And this was the condition of the Heathenish World before our Lord's Incarnation 'T is true indeed that the more intelligent part of Mankind was not so debauch'd in its Understanding nor altogether so loose in its Practice Some few possibly there were who did a little resist the common stream and still retain so much of natural reason as serv'd them to discover the follies and impurities of others but very little to reform either others or themselves Something perhaps it did towards that too and in all likelihood make way for the more easie admission of Christianity which gave occasion to that unwary expression of one who styl'd Aristotle Christ's Forerunner in Naturals as St. John Baptist was in Spirituals And upon the like ground 't is that others affirm Christ's Incarnation to be clearly deducible from Plato's Writings How warrantably I know not but this I know That some of the Heathen Philosopher's Vertues are little better than Christian men's Vices and many of those Rules they give us to walk by very crooked nor did the exactest of them strictly observe them or follow their own Prescriptions And to say the best of the Rules themselves they were such as were fitted to the outward Man and did not at all require that inward Purity of the Heart which Christ has severely enjoyn'd his Disciples and is indeed the most effectual and only proper instrument to beget true Holiness in Men. Wherein the Christian Religion has as well exceeded the Jewish as the Heathenish one which entertain'd and amus'd its self rather with external performances affecting the Sense than divine and spiritual which alone could purifie the Soul The reason the Apostle gives why the legal Sacrifices could not make him who did the service perfect as pertaining to the Conscience because they stood in meats and drinks and carnal Ordinances Heb. 9.
not so and bring her Doves to the Altar who was more innocent and harmless than those Doves she brought too faint an Emblem of her own spotless Purity as the Lamb was of his who knew no sin though he was content to be made sin for us 4. There is one Lesson more behind and that is of Gratitude which though in the general may concern all persons to pay their solemn Thanks to God in the Congregation especially after any signal and notable Deliverance which is one great Reason of this day's Festival among the Jews yet in the particular instance of legal Purification it may seem only to point to Mothers and oblige them publickly to express their gratefull acknowledgment of God's mercy to them in preserving them from the great peril of Child-birth We see the first appearance of the Mother of our Lord was in the Temple to present the Lord with a burnt-offering as well as a sin-offering That as a Sacrifice of Praise This as a Confession of her natural Impurity Which Jewish custom no doubt as it gave just ground so good warrant for that Office our Church prescribes for the Churching of Women and though there had been reason enough to justifie the Equity of her Commands in the very Nature of the thing its self yet sure the Authority of the ancient Church of God is here of great force and a leading president For although the Political and Ceremonial Laws of the Jews are in the Particulars abrogated yet not in the General it is indeed so in the Circumstance but not in the Substance The Moral of that Rite will still remain a debt as long as such a Deliverance continues a Blessing which none can deny it to be but they perhaps who never were acquainted with the danger from which Women in that case are rescued or think there is no such thing as Gratitude due for any deliverance though to an Almighty Deliverer Let the Example of the Blessed Virgin teach them to be more thankfull for Blessings who was no sooner either able or allow'd to walk abroad but she travels to Jerusalem she goes not to her own House at Nazareth but to God's House there to offer up her Thanks and Praises If Purifyng were a Shadow yet Thanksgiving is a Substance Those whom God hath blessed with fruit of Body and safety of Deliverance if they make not their first Journey to the Temple of God have little reason to expect a second Preservation since they can as soon forget the first as they usually doe their Pains such Women partake more of the Unthankfulness of Eve than of Mary's Devotion But then as that Devotion appears in the early Tribute of her Thankfulness so that Thankfulness by more than verbal Expressions She would not appear before the Lord empty and although her Appearance was in formâ pauperis yet something she would bring to the Altar We are all willing enough to serve God of that which costs us nothing such cheap Votaries are as frequent now-a-days as to pray for fashion or fast for frugality Here is a present mean indeed in its self but sutable to the Offerer's ability and far more acceptable to God than the Widows two Mites Mark 12. Her Poverty could not furnish her with any other Present but two Doves she was not rich enough to provide such a Lamb as the Law required but she could bring that Lamb which that legal one did typifie and without which that other would not purifie a Lamb which gave Vertue and Merit to her Offering as it did to all precedent Sacrifices of the Law an Offering greater than the Temple its self and which sanctify'd that and the Altar too even the Lord of the Temple whom she presents to the Lord the next thing to be considered The Blessed Virgin had more business in the Temple than her own she came thither as to purifie her self so to present her Son having nothing so pretious as himself to make Oblation of to God And this also the Law of Moses requir'd Exod. 12. and 13. 2. And the reason of that Rite God himself is pleas'd to give Numb 8. 17. why the Israelites should consecrate their first-born to him to mind them of their great Deliverance when he smote the first-born in Egypt to be a Memorial or standing Record of God's particular favour and mercy to that People in that their miraculous Preservation from the destroying Angel and withall a Type of Christ the true Paschal Lamb whose Bloud should save all Mankind from a worse Destroyer and free us from the Bondage not of Egypt but of Hell And indeed the Anti-type here does in all points answer its Type for Christ was both the Lamb and the first-born too the only begotten Son of God as well as the first-born Son of the Blessed Virgin who bare none before or after him whatever Heliadians dreamt And therefore St. Paul calls him the first-born among many Brethren Rom. 8. 29. A style justly belonging to him both upon the account of Grace as by whom we are born a-new and made new Creatures Ephes. 5. 2. So of Power too as being the first-fruits of them that sleep 1 Cor. 15. 20. and the first-born of the dead Coloss. 1. 18. Upon all which accounts he belong'd unto God not only as the Son of God by eternal Generation before time and by miraculous Conception in time but also by the common course of nature But though he might have pleaded an Exemption from that Law whereof he was the Author yet as good Princes use to observe those Laws themselves make he was most willingly subject to this Rite of Presentation upon the same grounds his Holy Mother was to that of her Purification to teach us the same Lessons of a most exemplary Obedience Humility and Charity when we see that he who was free from the common condition of our Birth would not yet since the Mosaical Law requir'd it deliver himself from those ordinary Rites which imply'd the weakness and blemishes of Humanity And indeed as it became him to countenance his own Institution so did our Necessities and his own Justice require his Obedience to it 1. Our Necessity did so that by submitting himself to this Mosaical Rite as to that of Circumcision and so making himself a debtor to the Law he might redeem us who were under the obligation and curse of it 2dly His Justice to make that full satisfaction to that Law which we had broken and himself had obliged himself for our sakes to fulfill For although He was the Most Holy and the Just One and as such out of the reach of any Law which as St. Paul tells us is not made for the righteous Man and much less for him who was Righteousness its self yet was He in some sense the greatest of Sinners namely by Imputation being charg'd with the Sins of the whole World and consequently obnoxious to the Law
as our Surety and Undertaker Thus was He presented this day in the Substance or as St. Paul Rom. 8. 3. phrases it in the likeness of our sinfull flesh and in the same sense must be said to have been purified too and therefore whereas some Copies with our Translation reade in the beginning of this Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Her purification others as Erasmus have it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 His or Their Purification including the Child as well as the Mother both appearing this day in the habit and guise of Sinners though each of them spotless She by Grace and He by Nature too 2. For these and the like Reasons would our Lord be this day presented and the place wherein was the Temple at Jerusalem which received a second and better Consecration by his Presence than it had done by Solomon's Dedication This was God's House and whither should the Son of God who had no other be brought but to his Father's House There God had a long time dwelt At Salem was his Tabernacle and his dwelling at Sion Psal. 76. 2. And in that place 't was fit our Lord should first appear And this his first Offering in the Temple which some have styl'd his Morning Sacrifice was but a Preface to that his Evening one which was to be made on the Cross. In the former he was redeemed in the latter he did redeem us giving himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God of a sweet-smelling savour Ephes. 5. And as the Jewish Holy Priest was in several respects a Type of Christ so his entring into the Holy of Holies was but a Figure of this his Presentation in the Temple as well as of his Sacrifice on the Cross. Nor was that his Presentation any thing else but his solemn Consecration to his Priestly Office and no place sure so proper for that as the Temple But besides that the Law required he should be presented here as the first-born an obligation common to him with others who in that consideration were God's peculiar Portion and consecrated to him as soon as born He was himself the Lord of the Temple and as such was concern'd to make his first appearance there upon these several accounts 1. To give Authority to his own Ordinance to set his Seal to what himself had commanded The same God was the Author as of the Gospel so of the Law of the Jewish Synagogue as well as the Christian Church Moses was but the Overseer of the Work God the Contriver of the Building and the Architect and there was not one Pin in the whole Structure either of the Tabernacle or Temple which himself did not precisely order even to the meanest Utensils thereof he appointed all every Ordinance every little Rite and Ceremony was from him Moses did all according to the Pattern shown him in the Mount a Servant he was and as such faithfull in the House of God but Christ was the Lord of it and therefore in honour oblig'd to maintain whatsoever his Servant Moses had done by his order and direction 2. He appear'd in the Temple to visit and repair it It was now grown ancient and much decay'd quite fallen from its primitive beauty and luster All the glory thereof was without only in the external Pomp and Magnificence of its Structure nothing within it but dust and filth the abomination of hypocrisie and profaneness of desolation and the worst thing there was the Priest himself All was now very much out of order God had long and often complain'd by his Prophets of the Profanation of his Sanctuary and our Lord was constrain'd at last to cleanse it Himself by whipping the buyers and sellers therein who had made his House a House of Merchandize and a Den of Thieves wherein he express'd an extraordinary zeal transporting him beyond the bounds of his natural meekness Nor doe we find that ever he discovered so much holy Passion as in this instance Thus as himself tells us for Judgment came he into the World and this Judgment was to begin at the House of God and as he came with his Fan in his hand to purge this his Floor so the Prophet Malachi makes this the great reason of his coming to the Temple Chap. 3. v. 3. That he might sit there as a refiner and purifier of Silver to purifie the Sons of Levi and purge them as gold and silver that they might offer unto the Lord an offering of Righteousness Thirdly He came to the Temple to put an end to it i. e. to the Mosaical Oeconomy whose very designment was at first but Temporary For the Temple as the Tabernacle was never intended for God's fixt and setled Habitation and though the former was the more lasting of the two yet neither of them was to be Eternal The Prophet Daniel as other Prophets before him had expresly fore-told that when the Messias came he should cause the Sacrifice and the Oblation to cease break down all Jewish Altars and make the whole World his Temple God had indeed long dwelt in the Temple at Jerusalem in his Spiritual and Typical Presence There was nothing either plac'd or done within those Walls whereby he was not resembled but now the body of those Shadows is come and presents himself where he had ever been represented and when that which was perfect was come 't was fit that which was imperfect should be done away That Moses should veil to Christ the Servant give up the keys of the House to his Lord who was to erect his Church on the ruines of the Temple chuse and order to himself a new Family and govern it by better and more spiritual Laws The true and full meaning of that of St. Paul Rom. 10. 4. Christ is the end i. e. the perfection of the Law which he came not to destroy but to fulfill No more than the Temple but in order to the erecting of a more glorious Fabrick and when he pull'd down that once stately Building he did it not in an instant but by degrees rent not the Veil thereof till at his Death nor quite demolished it till a good while after such respect had he for that place which himself had chosen and so long honoured with his Presence that he would not have it fall but with a State answerable to its first rising and when the legal Rites and Ordinances were dead provided them a pompous Funeral and a solemn Interment 4. To this I may add a fourth Reason which is this That he might at once represent and consecrate us all to God as the first-fruits of the whole lump For as he was our Head so did he appear as the Representative of all Mankind the second Adam was as publick a Person as the first and whatever Mischiefs were deriv'd from him to us in that common capacity as great Advantages flow'd to us from Christ as an universal restorer If we run
that pull'd out by thy powerfull Redeemer how can it now hurt thee It may possibly hiss at but it cannot bite thee Look upon the Serpent lifted up for thee on the Cross and this Serpent's sting if it has any to wound it can have none to kill thee If thy Saviour has not quite destroy'd this thine enemy at least he has brought it under and made it subject like the Gibeonites if not banished 't is enslaved and made now instrumental to Christ's Kingdom Loose thou then the bands of thine iniquity and those of death which Christ has broken shall no more be able to hold thee than they could doe him Death in its most affrighting shapes to thee is but a scare-crow 't is but the shadow of death while God is with thee Nay 't is but an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a going out a departing in peace to a Holy Simeon 'T was no more between God and Moses but go up and dye as 't was said to another Prophet up and eat Ever since our Lord has swallow'd death up in victory our Tombs become Death's Graves more than ours Sepulchrum non jam mortuum sed mortem devorat says a Father Our Bodies are not lost in the Earth but laid up to be improved like Porcellane-dishes which the ground does not consume but refine In the Transfiguration that body of Moses which was hid in the valley of Moab appeared glorious in the Mount of Tabor And though we appear now like Aaron's dry rod yet that dry rod shall at last bud and bring forth fruit unto glory The Israelites garments indeed in the Wilderness waxed not worse for wearing but though our Bodies which are the garments of our Souls doe so and are rent and torn by afflictions and death yet God can and will mend them Nay when these Temples of the Holy Ghost we carry about us are dissolved he will so build them up that as it was said of the first and second Jewish Temples Haggai 2. 9. the glory of our latter houses shall be greater than that of the former Diruta stante Major Troja fuit God will bless us as he did Job more at our latter end than at our beginning and Exalt us as he did Christ by our Sufferings If with him we drink of the brook in the way tast of his Cup he will lift up our heads too We shall be like him as now He is A golden Head and Members of Clay suit not well together This is our great comfort that Christ is risen for if the Head be above water the Body is safe Joseph is alive said Jacob and that news revived the drooping Patriarch So when we hear that Christ our elder Brother the first-begotten from the dead is alive too let us take courage go and find him out seek him not in the Grave He is not there he is risen and why should we seek the living among the dead but in Heaven where he now is and set our affections on things above and not on things below It befits us not to lye in our Beds of ease and pleasure to lye sleeping there when Christ is up such a spiritual Lethargy does not suit with a Resurrection How are we conformable to Him if when He is risen up we remain still in the Grave of our Corruptions How are we Limbs of his Body if while He hath perfect dominion over death death hath dominion over us if while he is alive and glorious we lye rotting in the dust of death O let us then rouse our selves up this day with the Lion of the Tribe of Judah Let this be our Resurrection-day too and that it may be so let it be our Passion-day also as it is our Lord's For as he rose this day for us so does he now this day dye for us too And although St. Paul tells us Rom. 6. 9. That Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more and that death hath no more dominion over him or to speak in the Language of the Text that he be not holden of it yet in regard of the constant vertue and benefit of his Death and Passion he may be said to dye daily for us who receive him worthily in the Blessed Sacrament Let me then bespeak you in the words of St. Thomas utter'd upon another occasion Joh. 11. 16. Let us also go and dye with him Dye with him unto sin that we may live unto God through him Rom. 6. 9 10. Let us feed on him by Faith flock like true Eagles to his Holy Carcass and eat thereof that we may live This is the way to be raised to glory Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my bloud hath Eternal life is even now in possession of it and I will raise him up at the last day says Christ himself Joh. 6. 54. The very touch of the Prophet Elias's bones Ecclesiasticus 48. 5. could raise up a dead Man to a Temporal and shall not the sense and application of Christ crucified be able to quicken us who are dead in trespasses and sins to a spiritual and immortal Life O let us then be planted with him in the likeness of his Death that we may be also in the likeness of his Resurrection Rom. 6. 5. Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus that great Shepherd of the Sheep through the bloud of the Everlasting Covenant make you perfect in every good work to doe his Will working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ To whom with the Father c. Amen Soli Deo gloria in aeternum A SERMON Preached on Whit-sunday JOHN XVI 7. Nevertheless I tell you the truth it is expedient for you that I go away for if I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you but if I depart I will send him unto you WE find the Disciples here in a very sad and disconsolate Condition Christ had told them that He was going his way to Him that sent Him V. 5. and thereupon Sorrow had filled their hearts V. 6. And no marvel for they were to be separated from one who hitherto had been their only comfort and support Had we been under the same circumstances we should no doubt have equally resented that loss They had had the happy advantage of beholding his glorious Miracles wrought by his All-powerfull Voice in the cure of Diseases in the confusion of Devils and the raising of the Dead They had heard those his ravishing Discourses which forc'd his most implacable Enemies in spight of all their prejudice against Him to confess That never Man spake as He did They had been Eye-witnesses of that Eminent Holiness that pure and unspotted Innocence which gave beauty and lustre to all his actions and of that glory too which discovered Him to be the only Son of God full of Grace and Truth And now unless we can suppose them void of all natural affection and
respect of doctrines to be examined full and adequate And to this we are sent by Moses to judge of a Prophet Deut. 13. 1 2 3. where though a Prophet should work Miracles or foretell things to come yet if he delivered any doctrine contrary to the Precepts of the Law he was to be rejected The very Rule St. Paul gives us too 1 Tim. 6. 3. If any man teach otherwise or any other thing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and consent not to wholsom words even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and to the doctrine which is according to godliness he is proud knowing nothing So Gal. 1. 8 9. Though we or an Angel from Heaven preach any other Gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you let him be accursed Here then is the Test all doctrines are to be brought to viz. to the Written Word of God to the Law and to the Testimony we must weigh them all in the Balance of the Sanctuary and judge of them by that Analogy and Proportion of Faith mentioned Rom. 12. 6. That form of doctrine delivered Rom. 6. 17. and of sound words 2 Tim. 1. 13. That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the whole Body as I may call it of divine Truths between the parts and members whereof there is an exact harmony so that as in the natural body a member would become monstrous should it exceed its due proportion to the other its fellow members if we carefully compare a doctrine concerning one Article with a truth concerning others we may then exactly judge of the part by its symmetry and proportion to the whole Where-ever then we find any doctrine either expresly contained in Scripture or deducible thence by necessary consequence and agreeing to the Analogy or Proportion of the Christian Faith we may conclude it is of God if not to be none of his Every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh that denies his Incarnation or his Gospel is not of God no more than that doctrine can be which tends to the drawing us off from Christ and the promoting the interest of Sin and Satan and they who bring any such doctrine are infallibly Satan's Emissaries not Christ's Apostles Their very Speech bewrayeth them and we may easily distinguish them by their Shiboleth Their corrupt and abominable doctrines will certainly tell us whom they belong to 2. A Second sort of Fruits whereby we are to distinguish false Prophets from true ones are their corrupt practices the natural issues of their corrupt doctrines Heresies are indeed properly seated in the Understanding and yet Saint Paul ranks them among the works of the Flesh Gal. 5. 20. because they dispose us to and ever determine in them Men first dream says St. Jude i. e. are intoxicated with their own fantastical and carnal opinions and then defile the flesh first cast off all obedience to God and then to men by despising Dominions and speaking evil of Dignities It has therefore been a constant Observation that most Hereticks have been Ill-livers and the Scripture still brands them where-ever it mentions them sometimes with the Character of Boasters otherwhiles of Flatters and Men-pleasers sometimes representing them as Self-seekers and doing all for filthy lucres sake at other times as ambitious and affecting pre-eminence sometimes cruel as Wolves and sometimes subtle and insinuative as Serpents working upon the weakness of silly People laden with iniquity as Satan did on Eve and soothing them in their Corruptions to keep them fast and maintain a Party being full of all impurity themselves notwithstanding all their braggs of extraordinary light and sanctity such as the Scripture describes the Gnosticks to be who professing to know God much better than all other Christians did in works deny him and were abominable disobedient and to every good work reprobate 'T is true indeed that the first addresses of false prophets are usually made with all the semblances and exterior appearances of holiness but those appearances prove no better at last than fantastical illusions like false meteors which after a little blaze usually expire in a stench Nemo potest diu personam ferre Those vizards Seducers put on either fall off of themselves or are so transparent that every prying eye may see through them The sheeps-cloathing is too thin a veil to conceal the Wolf though he wrap himself up never so close in it The very affectation of Sanctity renders the pretenders to it suspected and their too much subtlety oft betrays them nothing being so gross and palpable as too curious a disguise Truth as it is always constant to it self the same yesterday to day and for ever so are they who teach and follow it Their lives will still be answerable to their Principles and we shall seldom or never find them halting They are no wandring Planets but fixt Stars that know no excentrick motions 'T is not so with them who have but the form of godliness These wax worse and worse and their folly will at last be made manifest to all men who have but any common reason and prudence to try them Their golden heads are supported by feet of clay If they seem to begin in the Spirit they end in the Flesh. Sometimes you shall find them stooping low but 't is to mount the higher at other times soaring high but if you follow them with your eye you shall quickly see them lighting on some carrion Their pretence is Zeal but their design Gain God is in their mouths and Diana in their hearts Notwithstanding all their feigned mortifications and abstinences 't is their Belly they serve and not Christ. Observe then their carriage all along This truly speaks a man and what he does and does constantly to be sure That he is For though every bad act denominates not a Sinner as we are not to call Noah a Drunkard because he was once overtaken with Wine yet a bad habit does Some withered or blasted fruit may possibly be found on a good tree but that must needs be a bad one which constantly yields bad fruit Here then is the tryal of a false Prophet and therefore the Pharisees themselves did not argue amiss Joh. 9. 16. This man is not of God because he keepeth not the sabbath-day The Proposition was sound had they not mistaken themselves in the Assumption He that keepeth not the Sabbath is not of God We may safely reason in like manner He that transgresseth Christ's Law can never be a true Disciple of his no more than he who teaches men to doe so his true Apostle But because each of these fruits distinctly considered may prove but a partial and incomplete Rule whereby to judge of men according to that of Seneca De toto non de partibus judicandum Let us put both together and we shall be sure then not to be mistaken The doctrines and practices of men in conjunction will prove a true glass to
implies Tender compassions even beyond those of Mother Bowels of Mercies not one Mercy but a cluster of them nor those common ones promiscuously scattered on good and bad but such as concern our Souls and better life which the Illative Particle Therefore implies sending us back to the former part of this Epistle wherein the Apostle had at large discoursed of God's infinite Mercies from all Eternity prepared for us of our Predestination Election Justification in Christ and the like These are those Bowels of Mercies by which the Romans and we are conjured The Mercies of God indeed for who but He could bestow them And who so hard a Flint whom such soft Feathers cannot break Who such an Adamant whom the Bloud of God shed for him cannot soften Who as he gave Himself for us may well expect we should offer up our selves unto Him Which leads me to the main Duty of the Text in these words That ye present your Bodies c. And here the first thing to be considered is What we are to present unto God to wit Our Bodies and those first in the most strict and literal sense as being the most visible part of our Christian Sacrifice the Organs of our Souls whereby they both work and discover their Operations There is indeed a hidden man of the heart as St. Peter calls it 1 Pet. 3. 4. whose inward Oblations are as invisible as that God to whom they are made and only discernable by that Eye to whom all things are naked But there must be something visible that must take and affect ours The smoak of our Incense must yield a pleasing odour to Men as well as to God and the fire of our Sacrifice blaze out on the Altar There are who would exempt their Bodies from the Service of God God say they is a Spirit and must be worshipped in spirit and in truth and Evangelical worship is Spiritual worship These Men are so Angelical that they forget themselves to be Men and yet St. Paul will tell them that the very Angels themselves have their knees Phil. 2. 10. and we find that Holy Men have ever employ'd them in the Worship of God and yet never thought their Worship the less spiritual for all that The Prophet David calls for falling down and worshipping and kneeling before the Lord Nay our Lord Himself in his prayers lay prostrate on his body and bowed his head on the Cross with adoration as much as languor thereby teaching us that our addresses to God are not the less spiritual for being mannerly 'T is true indeed that an humble Body and a stiff unpliant Soul doe ill suit together The service of That like the Mint and Cummin is not to be left out while the inward devotion of the Soul like the weightier matters of the Law claims the precedency and is the main part of our Sacrifice without this the bowels thereof will not be sound and entire but like Caesar's portentous Sacrifice want a heart or resembling that hypocritical one of him in Lucian who presented his Deity with an Oxes bones covered with the Hide when the Flesh and Entrails were gone But St. Paul has made up the Christian Sacrifice full and compleat 1 Cor. 6. 20. Glorifie God in your body and in your spirit and he has given us a very good reason why each of them should be employ'd because both are God's both bought with a price and therefore 't is no less than such a kind of Sacriledge as was that of Ananias and Saphyra to keep back any part of this price to make any reserve where all is God's Our Bodies and Souls cannot be parted here and 't is the Devil that would fain divide them And therefore well knowing that God would be glorified in both he required but one part of Christ for his share only the homage of his outward Man being assured that if God had not both he would have neither But not to trouble you with the proof of so clear a truth let it be our endeavour so to present each part to God that it may be acceptable And first Our Bodies The Psalmist prophetically bringing in Christ into the World shapes him a Body A Body hast thou prepared me Psal. 40. 5. For what end and purpose It follows ver 7. To doe thy will O God And we must endeavour so to fit and prepare ours that by them God's will may be done too And that we shall doe by making them as much as in us lyes Spiritual and Angelical active and nimble in the Service of God by laying aside every weight that clogs and renders them unapt for that service by keeping them under and making them servants to those Souls which have a natural right over them by preserving these garments of the Soul unspotted from the world and by the flesh so far should we be from presenting God with Bodies worn out in the drudgery of Sin and Satan and which have as it were pass'd through the fire to Moloch to whom our Souls like Mezentius guests in the Poet are ty'd as to so many loathsome Carkasses Bodies not of God's making but of our own ours indeed appropriated to us but not such as the Apostle here beseecheth us to offer up unto God But then 2. As our Souls doe as far exceed our Bodies as Jewels doe their Caskets so should our main care be for them so to adorn and enrich them with all spiritual graces that they may be fit presents for God For if our Souls which are but like Salt to keep our Bodies from Corruption shall themselves be rotten and unsavoury wherewith shall they be seasoned Now as these have their fleshly part too which must be mortified and consumed so have they their spiritual part which must be refined St. Paul calls it the spirit of our mind Eph. 4. 23. wherein we are chiefly to be renewed viz. the superior faculties of Reason and Understanding which we are to offer up unto God as the purest part of our Sacrifice and which is properly our Reasonable service For God who is a God of Understanding is to be worshipped purâ mente in those faculties which carry in them a more express character of his Image and whereby we doe in a more especial manner partake of the divine Nature as we doe by our Reason which in a Heathen's expression is nothing else but Deus in humano corpore hospitans And this we give up to Him when we wholly resign it up to his Wisedom when we sacrifice this our Isaac at the foot of his Altar We give Him our Wit by maintaining his Truths and our Memory by treasuring them up We give Him our Thoughts by meditating on his Word and Works Our Wills by thoroughly conforming them to his Will and our Affections by setting them on things above 3. And this is properly that Sacrifice which the Text enjoyns us alluding to that manner of Worship which was ever in