Structure of the Body or other Graces of a fair and amiable Person which is the Child only of an abused Fancy begot through Weakness and nurs'd up by fond Conversation Musick Feasts Comedies and other the like Genial Sports and busie Idlenesses of the times and produces no better Effects than Folly dissolute Manners Jealousie discontent Madness c. This Frenzy has obtain'd too much in being the glorified Theme of Poets and Romance-Writers who advance it above all other Concerns of Man's Life whether Secular or Sacred and while they make it the admired Subject of many Fables and the ambitious Pursuit and highest Ornament of their counterfeit Heroes the gilded Poyson is often swallow'd by the more Sober and Vertuous Our Apostle is so far from recommending or in the least degree countenancing of this Dotage that ver 3. he ranks it among the detestable practices of the Heathen and such things as Christians ought to be asham'd of For this Sensual Love in those days was not only an Immorality or Vice but a prime Branch of Idolatry from hence flew all the Cupids from hence came the Temples dedicated to Venus the Divinity of Beauty and the Deities of Women And happy it were if we could say These were not Idols still in the World for if as S t Jerome says every reigning Lust is an Idol set up in our hearts Sensual Love is no inferior Deity Quotcunque habemus Vitia says the Father quotcunque peccata tot recentes habemus Deos iratus sum ira mihi Deus est vidi Mulierem concupivi Libido mihi Deus est as many Vices we have as many Sins so many Gods we have I am angry Anger is a God to me I see a Woman and lust my Lust again's a God to me And the Reason of this is plain Because none of these things can be in us but they must be before God in us for if they can come after God they can agree with and be reconcil'd to God which is impossible and then being before or above him can we say less of them than that they are Gods in us 'T is not the Temple or the Image that constitutes the Idolatry but the Shrine the Idol has in our hearts the Adoration and Sacrifice paid to it by our Affections Neither does God require of us a higher Acknowledgment than to love him with all our Heart and with all our Mind The Love therefore recommended here by the Apostle cannot be any thing that is an Enemy to God to Man or to our Selves Charity or Love carries something Pious and Beneficial in its very Name and if these things be not in the Nature of it 't is a Spurious or Bastard Love To come then to the Love recommended by the Apostle we define it to be A Divine Vertue or Supernatural Grace inspired into us by God's Holy Spirit a Quality which resides in himself and which is subject to no perturbation an Image of it we see in the pious Love of Parents and Children the religious Amity between Brethren Friends and Neighbours and the Perfection of it in our Saviour his Apostles Martyrs and other Christian Heroes that follow'd his Example An Affection it is but a Severe and Sober one a Fire that warms the hearts of men but a pure and sanctify'd one lifted far above the Softnesses and Wantonnesses of the other Carnal heat and not kindled by the Deception of the Outward Senses or flaming from the Fewel of a bright Beauty but a reflected Beam of our Love to God descending downwards and glancing on our Brethren from a Sense of God's Goodness to us and in obedience to that Commandment of his that enjoins us to pay to men as his Proxies and Substitutes on Earth the Tolls and Tributes due unto himself So that 't is not This or That Person that this Love makes court to but to Mankind its Addresses are as Universal as the Image of God in the World no more regard is had by it of the Handsome than the Deformed of the Young than the Aged or if more be had of the one than the other 't is of the Party most to be compassioned the Object of this Love is Want or Misery in any kind and whoever it can help is its Amata or Beloved And as the Object of this Love is no less General than the Distresses of Humane Nature so its Expressions towards them are as many and various as there are Ways of doing Good and being Beneficial in any kind For Charity is not only a Largess of Money or a Dole of Bread a feeding of the hungry and a cloathing the naked c. but a parting with our Passions for the sake of our Brethren a condescending to their Weakness a complying with their Temper and tolerating their Infirmities 'T is again a relieving them with Good Counsel a Donative of Seasonable Admonition and Reproof a shewing of Severity when need requires as well as Mercy an Exacting of Punishment as well as a remitting of it for Charity is not that which is always grateful and always pleasing but which is ever salutary and ever beneficial The Wanton Love we condemned is a constant Floud of Sweetness which flows smoothly into the Ocean of Destruction a smiling Evil that knows nothing harsh or disagreeable till it turns all to Harshness and Disagreeableness But Godly Love is often bitter in the first Taste and sweet in the after Relish a rugged Mercy and an Austere Kindness a Good transferr'd with Frowns and Severe Discipline and such are the Corrections of Servants and Children the Correptions of Friends the Excommunications of the Church and the exterminating Sentences of the Law the Rod and the Stocks the Hurdle and the Axe being as instrumental unto Charity as Money Food Raiment and the like Open Rebuke says Solomon is better than secret Love and I may say Open Rebuke has in it much secret Love And to think the Remissness of Laws charitable and the Execution of them cruel is a Shortness of Reasoning which becomes only Women and Children who pity the present Sufferings of the Criminal but see not the future Good purchased by it The timely cutting off of a Notorious Malefactor has rescued a Nation from Destruction Phineas stood up and pray'd and the Plague ceas'd his seasonable Execution of two Eminent Offenders preserved the lives of many thousands of the people and holy Writ calls not his Fact Slaughter but styles it by the milder Name of Prayer because it invoked God's Mercy and propitiated his Wrath. If Pity may bind the hands of Justice and Charity protect Violence and Outrage not only one Wolf will worry a whole Flock but the Flock or Body of People will in time become Wolves and Tygers for Religion only perswades men to be Just and Righteous it does not constrain them to be so indeed it promises Rewards to Well-doers and threatens Judgment to Evil-doers but they are Rewards to come and Judgments at a
Jesus and their own Prophets and persecuted us and are Contrary to all men 2. Because Love easily forgives Injuries hardly perceives any can never possibly wrong the Party Beloved and the Object or Party Belov'd of Divine Love is all Mankind So that there needs no Admonitions here to suppress Malice or Uncharitable Inclinations for the first Motions of them never arise in the heart to be suppress'd 3. Because Love of all other Vertues of the Soul goes forth of a Mans self and places its Content in the Good it does to another that so hard a Duty to Flesh and Bloud which the Apostle commands 1 Cor. 10.12 Let no man seek his own but every man an Others Wealth is its Choice and Delight No Vertue therefore qualifies us equal to this to perform the Works of Piety Justice and Charity 4. Because of the wonderful Activity of Love in the Soul and enflaming it more than any other Vertue to Great Actions for indeed whatsoever is Vigorously performed is the Effect of Love This Grace is like a Fire in the Heart and makes it restless in what it conceives will be acceptable to the Person beloved it renders it also undaunted in the greatest Difficulties and Dangers and for this reason 't is Faiths chiefest Instrument to conquer the World and the Temptations of it This is the Victory that overcometh the World says S t John even your Faith but then 't is that Faith which as S t Paul speaks worketh by Love 'T is a strange word in the Original which the Apostle uses in that place for working by Love 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which imports as much as being possess'd with Love as a Demoniack is possess'd with an Evil Spirit which kind of Persons are ordinarily indued with an Unusual Strength to do things which naturally they could not do as the Demoniack that met our Lord out of the Tombs whom no Chains of Iron could hold but he brake them asunder Those that are acted by Love are transported after the like manner to perform things above their own and other mens Measures As the Spouse speaks in the Canticles Love is strong as Death i. e. conquers all things and nothing can stand against it 2 Cor. 5.13 S t Paul says again That for the Love of God and the cause of the Gospel and the sake of the Brethren he had done some things that in the Eye of the World appeared Wild and Extravagant But whether we be Beside our Selves says he it is to God or whether we be sober 't is for your Cause for the love of Christ Constraineth us For the Influence therefore Love has upon all other Good Works as well as for its own Good Nature it is that God so highly Esteems it and 't is no wonder that 't is the Favourite of his Graces when as S t John says God himself is Love and though he be no more Love essentially than he is Wisdom Justice Power or any of his other Attributes yet because he exerts and diffuses his Love more among men and is revealed and made known more by it than by another Attribute it is spoken of as his Sole Being And now after so many Excellent things have been said of this Divine Grace namely That 't is the Summ of the Commandments the Soul of all Vertue the Favourite of God and in a Sense God himself certainly it will be worth our best Endeavours to acquire it and how we may do this is the last thing I am to shew How we may acquire or attain Divine Love That we may take the right course to attain this Vertue we must look upon it as upon all other Vertues partly as a Grace of God's bestowing and partly as that which is to be acquired by our own Labour for there is something of Gift and something of Industry in it First We must look upon it as a Grace of God's Donation For what our Lord says of Faith That all men have it not and S t Paul That no man has it of himself but it is the Gift of God may likewise be said of the Love of God and of our Neighbour We have them not of our Selves but they are Heavenly Gifts born of a Divine Seed and we must not conceive that by our own mere Natural Power and humane Will we can acquire them to the Soul and that we have no more to do but to resolve to obtain them and the Possession will follow But we must seek them by devout Addresses from God and expect them from his Bounty they being as I say Graces as well as the Fruits of our Labour As our Church therefore sets before the Epistle of Charity a Collect or Prayer to God for it Send O Lord into our Hearts the most Excellent Gift of Charity without which all our doings are nothing worth c. we must also supplicate for this Grace before we can hope to attain it But then Secondly 't is also an Acquisition of Labour and to be arriv'd to as other Vertues or Habits by Industry There are that have written of the Art of Vnchaste Love and all the Mysteries of it taught men how to accomplish their Wicked Ends which it would have been happier for them if they had been ignorant of And the Art of Godly Love may be also taught Rules and Precepts given to make men Masters of it And the Way in general to raise our Affections to the Love of God is to take the same course which we do when we betray our selves into a humane Passion reflect on what is Excellent and Amiable in God meditate on his Unparallell'd and Glorious Perfections which are sufficient to ravish us from the Desire of all Earthly things The reason that the Love of many waxes cold and their Affection to God as I may say is without Affection without heat and ardour is because they understand not the Beauties of his Essence and the Glorious Operations of his Power Wisdom and Goodness Men profess to be Worshippers of God to be brought up and skill'd in the Knowledge of him and his Religion but generally they are Strangers to him and his ways and what the Psalmist says of the Ungodly That they care not for God neither is God in all their thoughts I fear without Injustice may be affirmed of most men That they care not for God neither is he in all their thoughts and then what wonder is it si ignoti nulla cupido if men have no longing after a Good that they are ignorant of or at least never weigh and consider The Spouse in the Canticles numbers up and runs over in her Thoughts the manifold Graces that are in Christ which made him so amiable in her own and others Eyes before she sigh'd out her Love for him My Beloved says she is white and ruddy the chiefest among ten thousand again Because of the Savour of thy Ointments therefore do the Virgins love thee There must be some Fewel
SERMONS PREACHED Partly Before His MAJESTY AT WHITE-HALL And Partly Before ANNE Dutchess of York AT THE CHAPPEL at S t JAMES By HENRY KILLIGREW D. D. Master of the Savoy and Almoner to his Royal Highness LONDON Printed by J. M. for R. Royston Bookseller to His most Sacred Majesty MDCLXXXV THE PUBLISHER TO THE READER THERE are so many Sermons upon all sorts of Subjects already extant that the Author of these had he been perfectly left to his own liberty would not have increased the Number But there were some Reasons which made it in a manner necessary for him to add unto the Heap though as the common complaint goes it be grown too big And none were more forcible to extort them from him than the kindness he hath for some persons Which every one that feels any touch of that passion knows to have a power to constrain us unto those things which merely for our own satisfaction alone we should not chuse to do Some near Relations that is were desirous to converse with him by the help of these Discourses when he is dead and were perswaded withal that others might now reap some profit by them in the reading whom the lowness of his Voice could not reach when they came to hear them No man I can bear him witness is more sensible than he that there are more elaborate and more universally useful Sermons and Tracts already in the peoples hands but Mankind having several tastes as well as faces and very different relishes it is possible these Discourses may be better fitted to some palates and touch some hearts more smartly than those which in themselves may be more excellent This I can say of them That there are many seasonable Truths delivered in them and expressed in words so apt so pure and clean that while they display the Object which they represent they strengthen and cherish the sight In short they both instruct and delight satisfie the appetite and excite it present solid nourishment and give it a grateful taste Nothing here I am sure is insipid much less nauseous nothing feeble and flagging much less dead but there is quickness and life every where both in the sense and in the Style Which may please even this delicate not to say fastidious Age wherein things very commendable are wont to be disrelished But whether the nice and curious be pleased or no the Author is not concerned if the pious and vertuous reap any profit by these Sermons and be the better for them And then we grow better when as the Apostle speaks we approve the things that are excellent or things that differ not entertaining falshood under the appearance of truth nor evil under the shew of Good but having a right judgment in all things and making the same difference between good and bad in our lives that we do in our minds preserve our selves sincere and without offence unto the Great Day of Judgment Ian. 26. 1684 5 S. Patrick The CONTENTS SERMON I. On Christmas-Day 1 John iii. 5 And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins and in him is no sin SERMON II. On January the 30 th 1 Sam. xii 25 But if ye shall still do wickedly ye shall be consumed both ye and your King SERMON III. John ii 4 Woman what have I to do with thee mine hour is not yet come SERMON IV. On Wednesday before Easter Dan. ix 26 And after threescore and two Weeks shall Messiah be cut off but not for himself SERMON V. On Good Friday Zech. xiii 6 And one shall say unto him What are these wounds in thine hands Then shall he answer Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends SERMON VI. On Easter-Day Rom. viii 11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Iesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal Bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you SERMON VII On the 29 th of May. Psal. ii 6 Yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Sion SERMON VIII On Whitsunday John xvi 8 And when he is come he will reprove the world of sin of righteousness and of judgment SERMON IX and X. Mark vii 37 He hath done all things well he maketh both the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak SERMON XI Amos iii. 2 You only have I known of all the Families of the Earth therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities SERMON XII Psal. cv 44 45. And he gave them the lands of the heathen and they inherited the labour of the people That they might observe his statutes and keep his laws SERMON XIII Mark viii 2 3. I have compassion on the multitude because they have now been with me three days and have nothing to eat And if I send them away fasting to their own houses they will faint by the way for divers of them came from far SERMON XIV Luke xvi 9 Make to your selves friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness that when ye fail they may receive ye into everlasting habitations SERMON XV. On the Fifth of November Psal. xi 3 If the foundations be destroyed what can the righteous do SERMON XVI John xvi 23 Whatsoever ye shall ask the father in my nome he will give it you SERMON XVII Luke xvii 37 And they said unto him Where Lord And he said unto them Wheresoever the Body is thither will the Eagles be gathered together SERMON XVIII and XIX 1 Pet. iv 8 And above all things have fervent Charity among your selves for Charity covereth the multitude of Sins SERMON XX. and XXI Matth. xxii 46 On these two Commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets SERMON XXII Lam. iii. 39 40. Wherefore doth a living man complain a man for the punishment of his sins Let us search and try our ways and turn again to the Lord. The First Sermon 1 JOHN iii. 5 And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sin and in him is no sin THE main Drift and Scope of Saint John throughout this whole Epistle is to perswade the Christians to whom he writes Not to sin These things says he in the former Chapter I write unto ye that ye sin not For such Christians it seems there were then as well as now who believed that the Faith and a wicked Life were not inconsistent together that men might profess the Gospel and not forsake their Vices They acknowledged Christ to be the promised Messiah and Saviour that was to come into the World but they understood not rightly wherein Salvation consisted viz. that 't was not only in the remission of sins but in the reclaiming men from the commission of them not only in taking away their guilt but in reforming their evil lives The Apostle therefore to set them right in a matter of so high concernment alledges in the foregoing Chapter many Reasons against their indulging themselves in any vicious course As the
for Sin if Christ had not come in the Flesh no Redemption no Salvation of the World if the God of the World had not vouchsafed to have been born of a Woman Yes some perhaps will say God of his free Grace might have pardoned mens sins without the Incarnation of his Son or any Sacrifice or Atonement for them What belongs to this will fall-in in the next Place the handling the Purpose of the Manifestation of Christ in the â—â—â—sh which was To take away our Sins It is no Wisdom barely to understand things but this is Wisdom To understand the Purpose of things Generally the greatest Naturalists among us admire the World this stupendous Workmanship of the Almighty and Eternal Agent and think they have studied and observed fairly if they have arrived to the Knowledge of the Qualities and Properties of some particular Natural Bodies but rarely do they deduce them from their first Original the Creator and rarelier discern the chief End for which they were created they see a continual corruption and generation of Sublunary Beings and that by this means the succession of the Universe is maintained but pierce not so deep as to see that this is done not so much for the continuance of the World as for the continuance of God's Glory in the World and that many Ages may see and acknowledge his Power and partake of his Bounty and Goodness And so it is with many Believers under the Gospel they read what 's written of Christ they magnifie his Miracles admire his holy Life and Doctrine commemorate his Sufferings celebrate his Festivals But what was the main Design of these things what they were to bring to pass in the World they reflect not on as they ought to do but stand in need to be put in mind of it as the first Christians our Apostle here wrote to All men are ready to assent to this Saying of St. Paul Great is the mystery God was manifest in the Flesh justify'd in the Spirit seen of Angels preached to the Gentiles c. But then that all these Mysteries are Mysteries of Godliness i. e. such as should produce Godliness Vertue and Piety in all those to whom they are preached and revealed make them renounce their wicked ways and fulfil the Law of righteousness this they neither penetrate into nor care to be convinc'd of We cannot be therefore too solicitous and assiduous in making known the End and awakening men to the consideration of the Design and Purpose of the Transactions of their Salvation as necessary to be understood as the Transactions themselves As our Apostle does not only teach That Christ was manifested in the Flesh but adds also the Reason of it that 't was to take away our sins And this being his chief design in my Text I shall endeavour to explain How Christ assuming our Flesh did take away our sins For the contrary may be imagined that by taking our Flesh he should have taken likewise our sins but not have taken them away But Christ by his Incarnation took away our sins two ways He took them away From us And took them away out of us or From within us First He took away our sins from us And this he did by taking them upon himself and paying to God the forfeiture for them undergoing the punishment of their guilt in our behalf so that they were no longer our sins but his own the Original sin of Adam after this manner and all the Actual sins since of the whole World he made his own To speak strictly indeed the Guilt of sin can never be taken away for sin after 't is once committed remains for ever sinful but in a Legal and Political sence Sin may be said to be taken away from us when the Guilt of it is transferr'd and the Punishment undergone by another and the Word in the Original for taking away our Sins is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies the lifting them up and is in importance the same with St. Peter's expression he bare or as the Margent of our Bible has it he bare away our sins in his Body on the Tree What our Lord said of his Exaltation on the Cross When I am lifted up from the Earth I will draw all men unto me may be affirmed of their Sins as well as of themselves of the Guilt as well as of the Persons of them that believe in him viz. that by his lifting up on the Cross the Sins of all men should be taken up from them as Exhalations are drawn up from the Earth by the heat of the Sun and after dispers'd into Air. But now if we consider seriously this great and wonderful Dispensation of God's in manifesting his Son in the Flesh to take away the Sins of the World we must certainly conceive that he had a further and more excellent aim and end in it than merely to pardon the Guilt of Sin and to cancel past Transgressions For if this had been all as 't was objected this might have been done freely and with less ado without Sacrifice or Atonement for Sin without God's sending his Son from Heaven to live so many Years upon Earth in a poor and persecuted Condition and at last to suffer a painful and ignominious Death Besides in all reason the Pardon of Sin would have been pronounced more authoritatively and satisfactorily by God in his Glory than in the Disguise of Humane Nature as the Great Lord of Heaven and Earth than as a poor Delinquent standing himself before the Tribunal of Justice Again what had all the other Mutations in the Church of the Jews the removing of the Law of Moses and the introducing a more perfect that of the Gospel to do with the bare Remission of Sin the giving so many excellent Precepts and Christ himself for an Example of a holy Life the clear discovery of a Heaven for the Reward of Well-doers and of a Hell for evil the confirming these things with so many Miracles and the Bloud of so many Divine Persons the instituting an Order of men to preach and inculcate these things to the end of the World If I say the absolving men from their past Transgressions had been all the business and nothing had been aimed at further or required of them to qualifie them to receive this Grace but barely to believe that such a Grace was offered them as too many flatter and delude themselves all these operose toilsome mysterious and astonishing Performances of Christ and the Holy Ghost might have been spar'd and any one of the least of the Sons of the Prophets would have serv'd to have proclaim'd the Remission of Sins and coming on this Errand would have found credence and welcome But alas the Case was otherwise Men were not only to be pardoned but reformed to be absolved from their Guilt but as 't is in the Benedict ' being delivered out of the hands of their Enemies they were to serve God without fear in holiness
of thy Strange and astonishing Miseries thy low Condition and sad Wants thy perpetual Dangers and Persecutions What is the meaning of thine Agony and bloudy Sweat thy Crown of Thorns platted and crusht into thy Head thy being Mockt and Spit on What is the meaning of thy Submitting not only to the Dishonours of a Humane Birth but to those also of a Violent and Ignominious Death Being the Son of God why didst thou suffer any Evil Why didst thou not convert the Stable in which thou wert Born into a Palace and the Cross to which thou were Nail'd into a Throne Why didst thou undergo such Miseries and Indignities as made the World doubt of thy Divine Nature and not exert thy Deity and destroy thy Murderers and burn up their City as thou spak'st in one of thy Parables Thy People expected thee a mighty Prince but thou shew'd'st thy self a Destitute Forlorn Person they lookt for a Deliverer but behold one Obnoxious to Bonds and Death for a Redeemer but Alas none needed Redemption more himself Great undoubtedly and wonderful was the Mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God and that he should not only be born in a Mortal but in a Miserable Condition The Apostle might well give it the precedence to all other Mysteries of Godliness Great is the Mystery of Godliness says he God was manifested in the Flesh justify'd in the Spirit seen of Angels c. But that Christ should suffer the things he did in our Nature was no less Necessary than Wonderful And to omit all other Reasons for it I shall insist only on that One Great One Because Sin could not otherwise have been abolisht the End for which Christ came into the World attain'd which was To destroy the Works of the Devil Christ could have destroy'd the Devil with more Facility if he had come in Majesty and Glory as the Apostle says 2 Thess. 2. He shall consume Anti-Christ with the Spirit or breath only of his Mouth and the Brightness of his Coming But our Lord's Business at this time was not to destroy the Person but the Power of the Devil Sin was both the Stratagem by which he conquer'd and the Chain by which he held Mankind in Captivity and Christ undertaking to rescue them from this Thraldom to bind the Strong Man and to take from him the Armour in which he trusted he was not to do this by an Omnipotent Power as he brought the World out of Nothing Light out of Darkness c. but by an Heroick Vertue such as he shew'd when he trampled upon the Temptations of the Devil in the Wilderness He therefore enter'd the Lists against Satan as a Champion or Combatant according to the fair Law of Armes as they say i. e. with a sutable Strength and Appointment to his Adversaries Man was lost by Sin and could only be restored by Righteousness he had forfeited God's Favour and his Felicity by his Transgressions and could recover them again no other way but by Obedience On this Account Christ laid by his Majesty and Glory and took our Nature that in the Infirmity of our Flesh he might foil our Strong Enemy the Second Adam redeem the Glories lost by the First Adam the Seed of the Woman bruise the Serpents head made himself subject to the Law that he might fulfil the Law obnoxious to Death that he might subdue Death and the Author of it by suffering Death as S t Paul says Heb. 2.14 That through Death he might destroy him that had the Power of Death that is the Devil So that we see here was no place for Thunder and Lightning for an O'er-bearing Irresistible Power but only for Divine Graces or Vertues and the Weapons Christ used in this Conflict were only Courage Holiness Obedience Patience Self-denial Meekness and the like such as were in the Power of Men also to make use of he so conquer'd as they might conquer after him For the Great Business was not Christ's Personal Victory that was secure but the Victory of his Followers he indeed was to break the Power of the Kingdom of Darkness but they were to compleat the Conquest every one in his own Particular to subdue Sin and Satan And thus while Christ destroy'd the Power of the Devil disarm'd him and made those that had been his Slaves Lords over him by consequence and in a Political Sense he destroy'd the Devil himself as a Prince is said to be destroy'd that is stript of his Forts and Castles his Territories and Armies his Ammunition and Harness of War though his Person still survives However then that Zipporah upbraided Moses upon the Circumcising of her Child saying factus es mihi Sponsus sanguinum thou art to me a Bloudy Husband we have no reason to quarrel that Christ was to us Salvator Sanguinum a Bloudy Saviour i. e. a Saviour drencht in his own Bloud for without the Bloud of Christ there had been no Redemption But to be more particular and distinct There are two Ways by which Christ destroy'd the Power of the Devil and delivered Mankind from his Bondage and those are Pretio Exemplo by the Price or Satisfaction he paid for Sin And by the Example of his Holy Life By the first he destroy'd the Guilt of Sin And by the second the Dominion or reigning Power of Sin 1. Therefore we may say There was a Necessity of Christ's Death and Sufferings and that he should be a Wounded Saviour that he might pay a Price make Satisfaction to God the Father for the Sins of the World For whether it be that the Vindicative Justice of God for Sin be so natural and intimate to his Essence that he cannot without renouncing his very Nature and Being pardon Sin without a Competent Satisfaction as some would have it Or whether it be only his Declared Will not to pardon Sin without a Competent Satisfaction as others more sutably to the Divine Goodness and Glory affirm I shall not need here to dispute seeing both Sides agree in one and the same Conclusion That it was necessary for Christ to Dye for the Sins of the World The Wages of Sin is Death says the Apostle and in another place Almost all things by the Law were purged by Bloud and without shedding of Bloud there was no Remission Now though the Bloud there mentioned was but the Bloud of Beasts that were sacrificed yet those Beasts were the Proxies and Representatives of Men and also Types of the Great Sacrifice which Christ was once to offer on the Cross and derived from it all their Vertue and Merit and God revealed this Way of atoning by Sacrifice early to the World and afterwards prescribed it to his People the Jews by written Laws from whom it was deriv'd to all Nations though the Mystery that Sacrifices were founded in the Death of Christ was not clearly understood till the Days of the Gospel As a Remedy for Sin was promised from the Beginning so 't was
last Day for where the Spirit it self is not its Operations cannot be expected 'T is true indeed that Sinners and Infidels shall rise again as S t Paul says Acts 24.15 There shall be a Resurrection of the Dead both of the Just and Vnjust Those that crucified Christ in the days of his Flesh and those that crucifie him by their Wicked Lives now in his Glory shall rise no less than True Believers than his holy Apostles and Martyrs But how and to what Resurrection shall they rise Even to such a Resurrection as is no other than a Second and Worse Death a Death not of Extinction or annihilation but a Death of Eternal Duration in Torment Non-Existence being not the State of the Second Death but Endless and Insupportable Misery insomuch that they shall wish that the Grave had for ever swallowed them up that as they liv'd like the Beasts that perish so they had also dyed like them without the Expectation of any After-Being So that the Resurrection of the Wicked is but an Aequivocal Resurrection as the lifting up of the Head of Pharaoh's Baker on the Gallows and the hanging Haman fifty Cubits high were but Aequivocal Advancements The Bodies of the Saints that rose after the Passion dy'd again the same Death but those that shall rise at the Last Day not having the Spirit shall dye again not the same Death that would be a Happiness but a Death that shall have no End and the Miseries of which we can no more describe than we can the Joys of Eternal Life but we must suffer a Change and be endued with new Powers and Faculties before we can support the Bliss of the one or the Torments of the other The second Property of an Inhabitant or Dweller in a House is to Command and Rule 'T is the Saying of every man to those that withstand the Exercise of their just Authority or but their Civility Give me leave to Command in my own House The Spirit of God must Rule and Command where it dwells we must not only give it House-room but Dominion look upon him as a Tenant but revere as our Land-Lord resign our Actions Wills Affections the Whole Man to his Dispose and Guidance Faith invites the Holy Ghost but Obedience and Submission to his Gracious Motions perfumes his Habitation and makes him delight to stay in it The Spirit of Love Meekness Purity and Holiness will not reside but where these and the like Vertues bear the Sway. Let the Word of Christ says S t Paul dwell in you Richly in all Wisdom So let the Spirit of God dwell in you Richly in all Wisdom it will not Cohabit with the Sons of Men unless it be Richly i. e. in the Abundance of its own Divine Graces and Operations If we will have the Spirit of God quicken our Mortal Bodies hereafter we must suffer him to quicken our Souls in this Life if we hope to reign by his Power in the World to come we must submit to his Dominion in this present World The third Property is Residence and Mansion our Houses are called our Manours and Places i. e. the Places where we ordinarily abide and where the Law presumes we are to be found so that if a Writ be delivered to any of the Houshold or but fastned to the Ring of the Door 't is counted the same thing as if given into our hands Thus our Hearts must be the Holy Spirit 's Manour or Place for what David says of God's constant Abode in his Temple on Mount Sion This is the Hill which God delights to dwell in yea the Lord will dwell in it for ever the like must be said of the constant Abode of the Holy Spirit in our Hearts This is the Habitation of the Holy Spirit and if we grieve him not nor drive him away by our Sins he will delight to dwell in us for ever When we were devoted to God in Baptism we devolved and made-over to his Holy Spirit an Estate in our Hearts even the Whole Term we had to live in this World and if we make good this Grant or Demise he will never abandon his Tenements till he has raised them up to Eternal Glory The Reason that a Great Schole-Man gives Why God punishes the Sins of Men which were but Temporal with an Eternity of Torments is Quia peccaverunt in suo aeterno because they sinn'd out all the Eternity they had i. e. all the Time God allowed them in this World and had he continued their Lives to the End of all Ages they would have continued still the same Wicked Persons The like Reason may be given for God's rewarding the Temporal Obedience of the Righteous with Eternal Glory Quia obedientes fuerunt in suo aeterno because they were Obedient all that little Eternity he allowed them in this World and would have persever'd in their Obedience if he had drawn out their Lives to the last Period of Time Abiding and Persevering in Righteousness is that which will give us Immortality if we give up the Possession of our Souls to the Dispose and Conduct of the Blessed Spirit the Whole Little Aeternum we have in this World we shall certainly obtain an Eternity that shall have no end in the next And thus I have shew'd the Manner of the Spirit 's Dwelling in every Christian and they that pretend to his In-dwelling without these Properties boast of an In-mate which they have not and as they want this Divine Guest so they will want the Blessed Effects and Consequence of his inhabiting in them the quickning of their Mortal Bodies at the last Day to Glory Which is the second thing I propos'd to explain The Effect or Consequence of the Spirit 's dwelling in us If the Spirit dwell in you He that raised up Jesus from the Dead shall quicken your Mortal Bodies The Words suggest two things to our Consideration 1. What shall be done to such Persons in whom the Spirit dwells He shall quicken their Mortal Bodies 2. Who shall be the Author to effect or bring this to pass He that raised up Jesus from the Dead 1. What shall be done to such Persons in whom the Spirit dwells 'T is said He shall quicken their Mortal Bodies Our Bodies are Mortal three Ways by Natural Death the Dissolution of the Substance of them by Eternal Death which succeeds the Natural that Riddle of a Death which by its Existence is in truth a Life but by the Torments belonging to it may deservedly be called a Death and by Spiritual Death which is the Cause of the other two Now our Mortal Bodies may be quicken'd or reviv'd again to three Lives To a Life of Eternal Duration to a Life of Eternal Joy and to a Spiritual Life or a Life of Grace which is the Cause in us of the other two Lives Some understand these Words shall quicken our mortal bodies only of Spiritual Proselytism of the raising us from the Death of Sin and
Perverse Judgment of Christ and the other things appertaining to God He shall convince the World says he de Peccato quod dissimulat de Justitia quod non ordinat de Judicio quod usurpat of the Sin which they now cloak or dissemble of the Righteousness which they direct not aright and of the Judgment they unduly exercise But the 11 th Verse clearly opposes this Interpretation and shews that the Judgment spoken of is not meant of the World Actively which the World had made but Passively which shall be made or pass'd upon the World Now the World or Unbelieving Part of it are said to be convinc't by the Judgment that should come upon them in this That the Prince of the World is cast out For he that hath Master'd the Prince broken the Power of his Kingdom and holds him in Vassalage may be accounted to have master'd and subdu'd his People also And the Prince of the World is said to be thus Judg'd two Ways First By spoiling him of his Strength Having spoiled Principalities and Powers he made a shew of them openly triumphing over them in it Coloss. 2.15 What is a Prince when he is stript of his Power When his Counsels and Policies are defeated or detected his Officers arrested his Prisons broke open his Fortresses ruined and dismantled his Harness and Ammunition of War seised and the like And thus Satan was divested and unthroned by Christ and shewed openly to be judged and subdued after the Coming of the Holy Ghost Sin his strong Yoke by which he held Mankind in Bondage and Slavery was broken Guilt the Plea of his Dominion and Tyranny over them taken away by Satisfaction made for it Temptation his great Stratagem made weak and invalid by Grace Death his Sergeant himself mortified the Grave his Prison set open and made only a Dormitory and harmless Through-fare to Life These things were his first Judgment before the great and final Day when the Staff of his Authority was as 't were broken over his head and no Power left him but what those that love Servitude better than Freedom chose their own Destruction before the Salvation purchas'd for them voluntarily give him over themselves These things I say did evince the Fall of Satan as manifestly as the train of Light which follows that which the People call a Falling Star evinces the descent of that Meteor and which possibly our Lord alluded to when he said I beheld Satan as Lightning fall from Heaven But then Secondly Satan is judged Personally for though his Sentence of Condemnation be yet as I may say but Ambulatory in regard of the Execution yet it is Final and Peremptory in regard of the Determination He that has forfeited his Life to the Law and is reserved in Chains in expectation of the next Assize or waits only donec sternuntur Subsellia till the Judge puts on his Robes and the Court sits differs but little from him that has actually received his Doom And such is Satans Condition since the Coming of Christ and the Holy Ghost Datur mora parvula some little stay there is till the Figure of this World be changed and then he goes for ever to his Proper Place And let this suffice to be said of the Matter which the Spirit shall reprove or convince the World of namely of Sin of Righteousness and of Judgment I come in the next place to shew the Manner how the Spirit did convince the World The Manner of the Conviction The word in the Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies as was said either to Reprove or to Convince to convince the Understanding of an Errour or to reprove the Will of a Crime And the Holy Ghost performed both these parts at his Coming First He convinced mens Understandings that they were in Sin under the Guilt contracted by the first Man and that Belief in Christ who was the Seed of the Woman that was to bruise the Serpents head and who had power to cast out the Prince of the World that he should no more abuse the Nations was the only Way to get out of that and all other Sins and to obtain Justification And this was de facto brought to pass in so great a Part of the World 's being converted after the Coming of the Holy Ghost and being content to go down into the Laver of Regeneration the Waters of Baptism to cleanse away their Sins and the Church of Christ in those days might have been compared as Solomon compared the Jewish to a Flock of Sheep newly come up from washing For all these renounced the Prince of this World and acknowledged Jesus Christ to be the only Saviour and those that made use of and improved the Grace given them in Baptism found the Devil a weak and impotent Prince that might easily be resisted and foiled that had no Power but what was meerly precarious and delusive such as might perswade or deceive men into Sin but could not compel them But then as the Holy Ghost wrought this Conviction on the Unbelieving World by what Means did he work it There are two Ways of convincing Mens Judgments The one by Argumentation and necessary Consequence on certain Premisses granted The other by sensible and ocular Demonstration And though the last Way of these by Aristotle and the Masters of Reason be counted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unartificial and less Noble yet in Assurance it goes beyond all manner of Reasoning And this was the Way the Holy Ghost took to Convince the Gain-saying World of the Salvation preached by Christ Our Lord himself also points at this Way Joh. 15.26 where he says to his Disciples When the Comforter is come the Spirit of Truth he shall testifie of me and ye also shall bear Witness Ye also shall bear Witness was not unnecessarily added for a Spirit has no Voice of its own no more than it has Flesh and Bones But the Apostles were the Spirit 's Agents their Sermons were its Voice and their Hands its Organs by which it wrought its Miracles the Epistles of S t Paul and of the rest of the Apostles we may say were the Rhetorick but the Acts of the Apostles were the Logick of the Holy Ghost The truth is whatever other Proofs were brought for the Confirmation of Christian Religion Miracles were the Strength of it the Unresistible Engines that bore down all Infidelity before them and S t Paul Heb. 2.3 shews the Unexcusableness of not yielding to this Conviction How shall we escape says he if we neglect so Great Salvation which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that heard it God also bearing them Witness with Signs and Wonders and with divers Miracles and Gifts of the Holy Ghost But then here some will say That this Conviction by the Miraculous Operations of the Holy Ghost was indeed a Powerful Conviction to those that were Witnesses of them and saw these things done but
what do they signifie to us upon whom the Ends of the World are come and saw them not To answer this Objection at large would be in Effect to ingage in a Discourse of the whole Subject of the Truth of Christian Religion or the Demonstration Evangelical of which Eusebius the first Christian Historian after the Apostles now extant wrote seven Books I shall therefore content my self in the short time that remains to me to present you by way of Answer only with one Consideration but 't is a Consideration that had great force with S t Augustine and 't is this The very Conversion of the World is the highest Argument imaginable that it was converted by the Miraculous Power of the Holy Ghost For that Man says the Father that can conceive the World should relinquish their long doted on Religion received from their Ancestors with so much Veneration and a Superstitious Conceit that they had been Prosperous under it a Religion so well suited to their Carnal Affections and receive in Exchange of it a New Religion derived from so despicable and infamous an Author as a Mean Man crucified by his own Nation and the very Principles of which were so harsh to Flesh and Blood and contrary to all worldly Glory and Interest That Man says S t Augustine that can conceive this could be done without Miracle is himself a greater Miracle than those he thinks so hard to be believed There were among the Roman Fencers of old one sort that with a Net and Trident maintained Combate against their Opposers armed with a Sword and Helmet and were so dextrous as to intangle and vanquish their Adversaries with these Uncouth Weapons The Apostles of Christ those Fishers of Men may be likened to these Retiarii these Fencers with Nets who with the Metaphorical Nooses and Meaches of preaching seconded by the Power of Miracles ensnared and captivated to the Gospel the armed potent proud Idolatrous learned and vicious World And this was the Way the Spirit took at his Coming if we interpret 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Convince the Understanding of the World of its Errors But if we take it in the other Sense redarguet Mundum he shall Reprove the World for its Sins it imports these two things That the Spirit shall shame the World And condemn it First That it shall reproach and shame the World for loving Darkness more than Light Death than Life for lying under Wickedness and Guilt when the Means of becoming Innocent was offered them for chusing things Base and Degenerate before things Noble and Praise-worthy things Vicious and accompanied with Danger rather than things Vertuous though accompanied with Glory and Felicity in a word for chusing rather to perish in their Sins and Ignorance than to be Instructed reformed and saved And as the Spirit shall shame the World for so brutish and sottish a Choice so Secondly it shall Condemn it Shame and Confusion of Face is but the beginning of the Misery of Sinners the consequent of the Discovery of their Wickedness not the Punishment of it What the Wiseman says shall be the Portion of those that love Danger they shall perish in it is true also of those that love Darkness more than Light and the ways of Death than the ways of Life that they shall prove what the Riddle of Eternal Death is of a Death that never dyes and dwell in Eternal Night and Darkness And thus that Spirit which is the Spirit of Love and Gentleness which descended in the Similitude of a Creature that has no Gall nor Anger and whose Office 't is to save to comfort and support shall exercise a Part so contrary to its Name and Nature as to Condemn destroy and confound instead of shewing it self the Spirit of Lenity and Kindness shew it self the Spirit of Indignation and Fury a Froward Chiding and Reproaching Spirit O ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in Heart and Ears says the Holy Ghost by the mouth of S t Stephen which of the Prophets have not your Fathers persecuted and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One of whom ye have been now the Betrayers and Murderers Stephen who dyed the Example of Meekness the Miracle of Patience and Charity inspired by the same Divine Spirit lived a sharp Reprover and severe Condemner of their Hardness of Heart and Unbelief And now Beloved to make some Application of what has been said Are the things we have heard this day remote and unconcerning Stories Tales only of the Apostles Times and Events at the first preaching of the Gospel Or is it not still the Business of the Spirit to Convince the World of Sin of Righteousness and of Judgment To rebuke and reprove it for the little or ill Use it has made of the Unvaluable Benefits offered it by Christ To Judge and Condemn it for preferring the Ways of Death and Destruction before those of Life and Salvation even rejecting and crucifying the Lord of Glory a second time by their Sins 'T is true the Extraordinary Miraculous Operations of the Holy Ghost are ceased but his Ordinary his Inward Reproofs and Convictions by the Outward preaching of the Word his converting sanctifying and justifying of some and final Condemnation and sealing up of others in their Impenitence still remain Christ's Work of our Salvation lasted but a while and had its Period on the Cross but the Spirit of Christ which came after him had no Period no Hitherto of his working but his Operations continue to the End of the World And 't is wonderful to consider That after so many Unwearied and powerful Endeavours of the Spirit for sixteen hundred Years that so much gross Infidelity and so many scandalous Impieties are still in the World That the Unjust and Unmerciful are Unjust and Unmerciful still the Voluptuous and Incontinent are voluptuous and incontinent still the Prophane and Atheistical are prophane and atheistical still the Seditious and Disobedient to Government persist to be so still as if the World were grown too Old to blush or to learn and what was said in Praise of our Lords Constancy and Resolution in Suffering That he Despised the Shame were Commendable also in the Effrontery and Impudence of the World in its Sins That it despises all Shame S t Augustine says That in his Young Unconverted days he boasted of many Sins which he had never committed ne viderer abjectior quo innocentior lest I should have appeared Abject and poor Spirited if I had been known to be Innocent And too many there are in this Age that count the Vices of the Time the Gallantries of it and are as much abasht to come behind in any Lewdness in Vogue as to be late in the Fashion And when things stand thus that those that have given their Names to Christ in Baptism are more profligate Sinners than Turks and Infidels may not Preachers be allow'd to say The World is not yet Converted the Holy
shew'd them not the Father now in the Person of another but in their Own in his Divine and Omnipotent Power displayed in themselves And this was not only a Plain and Evident but a Gracious Revelation of the Father which as it improv'd their Knowledge of him so it gave them also Demonstrations of his Love and Favour The Father was both gracious to them and present with them before under the Law he was their God and they were his People but after they had embrac'd the Gospel he sent his Son into the World to preach they were admitted into a Nearer Relation and were not only call'd the People and Servants but the Children of God the adopted Brethren of Christ and the Father of Heaven and Earth was appropriated by our Lord no less to them than to himself I go says he to my Father and to your Father to my God and to your God And this being the blessed Condition not only of the first Disciples but of all true Believers since I cannot chuse but take Occasion from hence to say That those Christians are not sensible of their own Priviledge and Dignity that go a Compass to God when they are allowed the Directest and Shortest Way to him who keep a Distance when they are invited and encouraged to make a Near and familiar Address out of an affected Humility move them that they may move her that she may move Christ that Christ may move the Father What a trifling Ambages is this after our Lord has promised an Immediate Access and upon no better ground but because forsooth the like is practised in the Courts of Earthly Princes where Strangers and Unknown Persons are not allow'd to make their Approach to the King without the Introduction of some in Place Alas to the Court of Heaven there comes no Strangers or Unknown Persons all the Suters there are Sons and these use not to implore the help of Servants but being first in Power and Place themselves go directly and boldly to the Throne of the King their Father as S t Paul Heb. 4.16 encourages the Faithful to do Let us come boldly says he to the Throne of Grace and our Lord at the 16 th Verse of this Chapter speaks as if his own Mediation were not always necessary At that day says he ye shall ask in my Name and I say not unto you that I will pray the Father for you for the Father himself loveth you because ye have loved me and have believed that I came out from God Those that believe that Jesus is the Christ as the Apostle says are born of God and begotten of his Spirit and they need no other Advocate to speak for them but the Spirit and such their Propinquity by Faith and to distrust their Interest were to distrust God's Love and Christ's Truth and we may say of such a Diffidence what one says of the like in humane Alliance peccat Qui commendandum se putat esse suis he sins against the Right of Kindred that thinks he needs to be recommended to his own Relations Therefore though we decline not with the ranker Socinians the Intercession of Christ who say He is mere Man and not God and consequently that all Prayers made to him are idolatrous Nor yet comply with the more allay'd and qualify'd Poyson of others of them who allow it lawful to pray to Christ but not necessary yet we may vindicate the Prerogative given to a Disciple in my Text against the Shew of Wisdom in Will-Worship and Humility practis'd in the Church of Rome For we who are rightly instructed in the Close Conjunction of the Father and the Son that teach he is both God and Man know it is indifferent whether we supplicate the Father or the Son whether with our Lord himself we say Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit or whether with S t Stephen Lord Jesu receive my Spirit who praying after this manner is said also to have call'd upon God And in truth when our Lord sends his Disciples in my Text to his Father he neither extinguishes his own Adoration nor Mediation but sends them from his Humane Nature as I may say to meet them again in his Divine And this is the true Importance of his sending them to the Father but they were not capable at this time of receiving the Doctrine of his Divinity for a little before in plain terms without a Figure he had discoursed to them of his Death and Passion and those to whom it was a hard Saying That they should eat his Flesh and drink his Bloud would have thought it a much harder to have heard That he was the Eternal God and could yet be Crucify'd by Wicked men Not willing therefore to force their Reason either by his Argumentation or Authority he let this Mystery alone to be revealed in due time by the Holy Ghost and establisht their Comfort on a Foundation more easie to be conceived by them the Goodness and All-Sufficiency of the Father For however they did believe their Master to be an Extraordinary and Divine Person they could not chuse but believe their God was Greater and if it were a happiness to follow the Son it must be yet a higher Felicity to be Favourites to the Father of whom the whole Family of Heaven and Earth is named Now this being the Condition which a Disciple was left in at his Lord's Departure he had no reason to mourn and languish for his Absence with S t Augustine to desire to see Christum in ore Christ's natural face again while he enjoyed Christum in Patre Christ in the power and presence of the Father When a less Person at his Departure gives us the Favour of a Greater we may say He does not Desert us but bestows his Absence on us But Christ's Care of his Disciples and kindness to them will be seen yet more in the Unlimited Measure in which they were promised God's Favour exprest in these Words Whatsoever ye shall ask he will give it you Which is the next thing I am to explain Whatsoever ye shall ask he will give it you This was a large Promise and yet as largely and stupendiously made good For 1. Such was the Power of a Disciple by Prayer upon Earth that he could cast out Devils chase away all Diseases heal all Infirmities call the Dead out of their Grave and send the Living into it 2. Such was his Power in the Sea that when the Ship was become a Prey to the merciless Element and nothing but Death and Desperation appear'd to all others a S t Paul could say Not one of the Company shall perish And why so Because he had pray'd and God had given him the Lives of them that sail'd with him 3. Such was his Power in Heaven that the Holy Ghost stood press'd and ready as I may say upon the laying-on of the Apostles hands as upon a Sign given to descend in all his various and wonderful