feet says he that it is I my self Handle me and see for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have from whence it seems to follow that we in our resurrection shall be conformable to our Saviour and resume the very same bodies that were laid in the Sepulchre 5. And Lastly It is farther urged by some of the Ancients for a proof of the resurrection of the same body that the exact justice and righteousness of God doth require it that God's justice I mean that which consists in the equal dispensation of rewards and punishments will seem to be much obscured at least will not be so illustriously manifested and displayed to the world unless the same body of flesh be raised again that so that which was here the constant partner with the soul in all her actions whether good or evil may also hereafter share with her in her rewards or punishments It seems but equal that we should be punished in the same body in which we sinned and that that very flesh in which we pleased God should be exalted and glorified at the last day and receive a just recompence of reward for all the trouble and hardship it underwent in this life Thus I have given you a brief account of this strictest sense of the Article of the Resurrection namely that the very self-same lesh and bloud which make up our bodies here on earth shall be raised again at the last day and after it hath been changed and glorified by the power and spirit of Christ I speak onely of the bodies of good men shall ascend up into Heaven and there live and dwell for ever in the presence of God I come now to shew that there is nothing in all this impossible or incredible which I shall do by proving these three things 1. That it is possible for God to observe and distinguish and preserve unmixt from all other bodies the particular dust and atoms into which the several bodies of men are dissolved and to recollect and unite them together how far soever dispersed asunder 2. That God can form that dust so recollected together of which the body did formerly consist into the same body it was before And 3. That when he hath made this body he can enliven it and make it the same living man by uniting it to the same soul and spirit that used formerly to inhabit there It cannot be denied but that these three things do express the whole of the resurrection of our flesh in the strictest sense and none of these are impossible 1. God can observe and distinguish and preserve unmixt from all other bodies the particular dust and atoms into which the several bodies of men are dissolved and recollect and unite them together how far soever dispersed asunder God is infinite in wisedom power and knowledge he knoweth the number of the stars and calleth them all by their names he measures the waters in the hollow of his hand and metes out the heavens with a span and comprehends the dust of the earth in a measure he numbers the hairs of our head and not so much as a sparrow falls to the ground without his knowledge he can tell the number of the sands of the Seashore as the Heathens used to express the immensity of his knowledge and is it at all incredible that such an infinite understanding should distinctly know the several particles of dust into which the bodies of men are mouldred and plainly discern to whom they belong and observe the various changes they undergo in their passage through several bodies Why should it be thought strange that he who at first formed us whose eyes did see our substance yet being imperfect and in whose book all our members were written from whom our substance was not hid when we were made in secret and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth should know every part of our bodies and every atome whereof they are composed The curious artist knows every pin and part of the Watch or Machine which he frames and if the little Engine should fall in pieces and all the parts of it lie in the greatest disorder and confusion yet he can soon rally them together and as easily distinguish one from another as if every one had its particular mark he knows the use of every part can readily assign to each its proper place and exactly dispose them into the same figure and order they were in before and can we think that the Almighty Architect of the world whose workmanship we are doth not know whereof we are made or is not acquainted with the several parts and materials of which this earthly tabernacle of ours is framed and composed The several corporeal beings that now constitute this Universe at the first creation of the world lay all confused in a vast heap of rude and indigested Chaos till by the voice of the Omnipotent they were separated one from the other and framed into those distinct bodies whereof this beautifull and orderly world doth consist and why may not the same power at the consummation of all things out of the ruines and rubbish of the world collect the several reliques of our corrupted bodies reduce them each to their proper places and restore them to their primitive shapes and figures and frame them into the same individual bodies they were parts of before All the atoms and particles into which mens bodies are at last dissolved however they may seem to us to lie carelesly scattered over the face of the earth yet are safely lodged by God's wise disposal in several receptacles and repositories till the day of restitution of all things in aquis in ignibus in alitibus in bestiis saith Tertullian they are preserved in the waters in birds and beasts till the sound of the last trumpet shall summon them and recall them all to their former habitations But the chiefest and most usual objection against what I am now pleading for is this That it may sometimes happen that several mens bodies may consist of the very self-same matter for the bodies of men are oftentimes devoured by beasts and fishes and other animals and the flesh of these is afterwards eaten by other men and becomes part of their nourishment till at last the same particles of matter come to belong to several bodies and it is impossible that at the resurrection they should be united to them all Or to express it shorter it is reported of some whole Nations that they devour the bodies of other men and feed upon humane flesh so that these must necessarily borrow great part of their bodies of other men and if that which was part of one man's body comes afterwards to be part of another man's how can both rise at the last day with the very self-same bodies they had here But to this it may be easily replied that but a very small and inconsiderable part of that which is eaten and descends into the
the will of God to raise again the same flesh which was laid in the grave and then we may safely have recourse to the Omnipotency of God to confirm and establish our faith of it I conclude this head therefore with that question of St. Paul's Acts 26.8 Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you that God should raise the dead The change from death to life is not so great as that from nothing into being and if we believe that God Almighty by the word of his power at first made the heavens and the earth of no pre-existent matter what reason have we to doubt but that the same God by that mighty power whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself can also raise to life again those who were formerly alive and have not yet wholly ceased to be And though we cannot answer all the difficulties and objections which the wit of men whose interest it is that their souls should die with their bodies and both perish together hath found out to puzzle this doctrine with though we cannot fully satisfy our minds and reasons about the manner how it shall be done or the nature of those bodies we shall rise with yet this ought not in the least to shake or weaken our belief of this most important Article of our Christian faith Is it not sufficient that an Almighty Being with whom nothing is impossible hath solemnly promised and past his word that he will re-animate and re-enliven our mortal bodies and after death raise us to life again Let those who presume to mock at this glorious hope and expectation of all good men and are continually exposing this doctrine and raising objections against it first try their skill upon the ordinary and daily appearances of nature which they have every day before their eyes let them rationally solve and explain every thing that happens in this world of which themselves are witnesses before they think to move us from the belief of the resurrection by raising some dust and difficulties about it when Omnipotency it self stands engaged for the performance of it Can they tell me how their own bodies were framed and fashioned and curiously wrought Can they give me a plain and satisfactory account by what orderly steps and degrets this glorious and stately structure consisting of so many several parts and members which discovers so much delicate workmanship and rare contrivance was at first erected How was the first drop of bloud made and how came the heart and veins and arteries to receive and contain it of what and by what means were the nerves and fibres made what fixt those little strings in their due places and situations and fitted and adapted them for those several uses for which they serve what distinguisht and separated the brain from the other parts of the body and placed it in the head and filled it with animal spirits to move and animate the whole body How came the body to be fenced with bones and sinews to be cloathed with skin and flesh distinguisht into various muscles let them but answer me these and all the other questions I could put to them about the formation of their own body and then I will willingly undertake to solve all the objections and difficulties that they can raise concerning the resurrection of it But if they cannot give any account of the formation of that body they now live in but are forced to have recourse to the infinite power and wisedom of the first cause the great and sovereign orderer and disposer of all things let them know that the same power is able also to quicken and enliven it again after it is rotted and returned unto dust we must believe very few things if this be a sufficient reason for our doubting of any thing that there are some things belonging to it which we cannot perfectly comprehend or give a rational account of In this state our conceptions and reasonings about the things that belong to the future and invisible world are very childish and vain and we do but guess and talk at random whenever we venture beyond what God hath revealed to us Let us not therefore perplex and puzzle our selves with those difficulties which have been raised concerning this doctrine of the resurrection for it is no absurdity to suppose that an infinite power may effect such things as seem wholly impossible to such finite beings as we are but rather let us hold fast to what is plainly revealed concerning it namely that all those who love and fear God shall be raised again after death the fame men they were before and live for ever with God in unspeakable happiness both of body and soul Thus I have endeavoured to shew the possbility of a resurrection in the strictest sense I now proceed to the second thing I propounded which was II. Since it is certain that the body we shall rise with though it may be as to substance the same with our terrestrial body yet will be so altered and changed in its modes and qualities that it will be quite another kind of body from what it was before To give you a short account of the difference the Scripture makes between a glorified body and this mortal flesh But before I doe this I shall premise this one thing that all our conceptions of the future state are yet very dark and imperfect We are sufficiently assured that we shall all after death be alive again the very same men and persons we were here and that those that have done good shall receive glory and honour and eternal life But the nature of that joy and happiness which is provided for us in the other world is not so plainly revealed this we know that it vastly surpasses all our imaginations and that we are not able in this imperfect state to fansie or conceive the greatness of it we have not words big enough fully to express it or if it were described to us our understandings are too short and narrow to comprehend it And therefore the Scriptures from which alone we have all we know of a future state describe it either first negatively by propounding to us the several evils and inconveniences we shall then be totally freed from or else secondly by comparing the glory that shall then be revealed with those things which men do most value and admire here whence it is called an inheritance a kingdom a throne a crown a sceptre a rich treasure a river of pleasures a splendid robe and an exceeding and eternal weight of glory All which do not signify to us the strict nature of that happiness which is promised us in another world which doth not consist in any outward sensible joys or pleasures But these being the best and greatest things which this world can bless us with which men do ordinarily most admire and value and covet the possession of are made use of to set out to us the transcendent blessedness of
nor are ever like to be 4. Another rule I would give is this that we should live under the due awe of God's continual presence with us and bear this always in our minds that the pure and holy God the judge of the world before whose impartial tribunal we must all shortly stand is conscious to every secret thought and imagination that passes through our minds and that he knows them altogether that God is in us all Ephes 4.6 One God and father of all who is above all and through all and in you all that he is present in the most inward corners and recesses of our hearts and knows every one of those things that come into our minds Now who of us is there but must confess that if his thoughts were all known and open to other men if his parents his friends his neighbours or enemies could have certain cognizance of them he should be infinitely more carefull about them than he is should not allow himself that liberty and freedom which he now takes should be as watchfull that his thoughts should appear to other men orderly rational and vertuous as he is now that his words and actions may be such and while we profess to believe that the transcendent Majesty of Heaven and earth is acquainted with all our private conceits is privy to all our wishes desires and purposes observes and takes notice of all the motions of our minds and that at the last day he will bring every secret thing into judgment are we not ashamed of shewing in his sight such folly of committing such wickedness in his presence should we blush and be confounded to have but a mortal man certainly know all the childish vain wanton lustfull thoughts that possess our minds and is it nothing to us that the great God of Heaven and earth beholds and sees them all Consider this then O vain man who pleasest thy self in thy own foolish conceits with thinking how finely thou dost cheat the world by a mask of Religion and godliness consider I say that there is not an evil thought that ever thou takest any pleasure and delight in not an evil device or imagination of thy heart but what is perfectly naked and open to that God with whom we have to doe That he is with thee in the silent and dark night when no other eye seeth thee when thou thinkest thy self safe from all discovery and that thou mayst then securely indulge thy own wicked appetites and corrupt inclinations for the light and darkness are both alike unto God he compasseth thy path and thy bed he is acquainted with all thy ways And the frequent consideration of these things would certainly produce a mighty awe in us and a suitable care not willingly to entertain or cherish any such thoughts as we should be ashamed to have known to all the world nor ever to suffer any other thoughts to take place or remain in our minds than such as we should not blush to have written in our foreheads 5. For the right government of your thoughts let me recommend to you above all things serious devotion especially humble and hearty prayer to God Almighty Man is compounded of two natures a rational and spiritual and a bodily by our bodies we are joined to the visible corporeal world by our souls we are allied to the immaterial invisible world now as by our outward senses the intercourse and correspondence is maintained between us and the corporeal world so by our devotions chiefly our acquaintance is begot and kept up with the spiritual world when we lay aside all thoughts of this lower world and the concerns of this life and apply our selves to the Father of spirits and make our humble addresses to him we then more especially converse with him as far as this state will admit of and the more frequently and constantly we doe this the more we shall abstract our minds from these inferiour objects which are so apt to entangle our hearts and take up all our thoughts and shall make the things of the other world become more familiar to us for when we betake our selves seriously to our prayers we do then bid adieu to all that is visible and sublunary and for that time endeavour to employ our minds wholly on what relates to another life and therefore consequently the oftner we doe this and the more hearty and serious we are in it the more our minds will be used and accustomed to divine thoughts and pious meditations and weaned from present sensible objects Every devout exercise conscientiously performed will season our spirits and leave a good tincture upon them and dispose us for worthy and excellent thoughts it is like keeping of good company a man is by degrees moulded and fashioned into some likeness unto them and on the other side the intermission neglect or formal and perfunctory performance of our devotion will soon breed in us a forgetfulness of God and heavenly things as omitting to speak of an absent or dead friend or neglecting to call him to our mind by degrees wears him quite out of our thoughts and memory so that you see a due sense of God upon our minds and of those things that belong to our greatest interests is by nothing so well maintained as by our constant devotion this is like seeing our friends often or conversing with them every day it preserves acquaintance with them it cherishes our love and kindness towards them I end all with that excellent Collect of our Church Almighty God unto whom all hearts be open all desires known and from whom no secrets are hid cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of thy holy spirit that we may perfectly love thee and worthily magnifie thy holy name through Christ our Lord. Amen A SERMON Preached at the Anniversary Meeting OF THE GENTLEMEN Educated at St. Paul's SCHOOL The Sixth Sermon 1 COR. XIII 4 5 6 7. Charity suffereth long and is kind charity envieth not charity vaunteth not it self is not puffed up c. THE chief and most laudable design of this and other the like Anniversary Meetings being to promote love kindness and friendship amongst men from the consideration of some particular relations by which over and above what doth belong to us in common with all men and Christians we are more nearly united and linked one to the other I thought I could not entertain you with any thing more proper to this Solemnity than a discourse upon these words wherein I intend I. To describe unto you wherein this amicable friendly temper and mutual love which we are to further amongst our selves this day doth consist And II. To recommend it especially to your care and practice who have had the advantage of a liberal and ingenuous education I. To shew you wherein true and undissembled love doth consist which I shall do onely by paraphrasing or commenting as briefly as I can upon this most excellent description of Charity given us
us impatiently seek for opportunities of exercising it it will spend it self in laying out for others so far is love from projecting gain or profit to it self by that kindness it doeth to others that it is beneficent to the evil and unthankfull to the indigent and those who are unable to make any requital it teacheth us to lend not hoping to receive again nay to doe good to those who return evil for it so far is it from any base or selfish designs 1 Cor. 10.24 Let no man seek his own but every man another's wealth Christian charity obligeth us to pursue the benefit and edification of others though it be with some loss to our selves and teacheth us willingly to suffer some detriment rather than omit a fair occasion of doing a publick good We are not to please our selves but rather to please our neighbour for his good Rom. 15.1 2. for this is the mind which was in Christ Jesus who denied himself nay laid down his life for the good of mankind Christians are or ought to be so closely linked together by this bond of charity that every one should be as solicitous and concerned for the good of other men as he is for his own I am sure the love of the primitive Christians was so remarkable and raised such an admiration even amongst their very enemies and persecutours that it was a proverbial speech amongst the Gentiles see how the Christians love one another what care do they take one of another had they been all brethren according to the flesh they could not more heartily have contrived nor more industriously advanced one anothers interest and welfare than they did Was any one amongst them cast into prison all the Christians of that place presently flocked to him to visit and relieve him was any one visited with sickness all the best and greatest personages did streight condescend to minister unto him in his weak estate were any poor and in want their straits and necessities were no sooner known than they were relieved But what is now become of this brave and generous spirit when instead of doing good unto we devour and bite one another charity seeketh not her own 7. Charity is not easily provoked 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which differs from what we had before it suffereth long in this that the former especially respects revenge but this the passion of anger and though we may sometimes upon just occasions be displeased and offended yet charity will teach us always to observe these two rules I. This excellent grace of charity will give us so much power and command over our selves as that we shall not be suddenly inflamed upon every slight inadvertency mistake or misfortune of our brother we shall not be easily angred upon every little and trivial occason A charitable man is not nice and delicate apt to pick quarrels to take fire and fall out into rage and passion upon every cross accident or miscarriage he is easie in his converse and deportment and it is no difficult matter for a man to live with him without ever offending him But alas how weak and impotent are most of us in this case how doth every little forgetfulness or negligence of a servant inferiour or neighbour the breaking of a glass the loss of a trifle discompose and ruffle our minds and raise such storms and tumults in our breasts as require a great deal of time and trouble to lay and appease we have but little kindness for those whom we cannot at all bear with not onely charity but even common humanity requires this at our hands that we should mutually pass by and overlook such little indiscretions oversights mistakes and inadvertencies which we are all more or less subject unto and cannot live without II. When we have great and just cause of anger and offence given us yet charity suffereth us not to fall into immoderate passion or to be transported by blind rage and fury beyond the bounds of reason and religion it will secure us from all paroxysms of anger for so the Greek word properly signifies it will restrain that unruly and ungovernable passion within its due bounds and measures and keep it in some temper and moderation and not suffer it to betray us into any unreasonable and rash actions which end in shame and a bitter repentance Our anger how just soever should never make us hurt or injure the person offending It should never break out into fury which is the short madness of a man we should never be so far exasperated as to suffer our passion to hurry us into any indecency or excess It is certainly as lawfull on some occasions to be angry as it is to rejoice grieve pity or exercise any other affection of our minds there is no passion implanted by God in man but what was designed by our wise Maker for some good end and whilst in the exercise thereof it is directed to that end and kept within its due bounds and limits subject unto and regulated by reason the principal and imperial faculty of our souls so far it is certainly harmless nay usefull In truth all the passions in themselves simply considered are neither good nor evil Love hate hope fear joy sorrow and the rest as they are parts of our nature are things indifferent but when they are fitly circumstantiated and ordered they then become morally good and are highly beneficial to us and serve many excellent purposes but when they are misplac'd or extravagant when they command us and are our masters they then become morally evil and the most troublesome things in the world both to our selves and others We must take great care therefore to curb and bridle this passion of anger to keep it under government and not suffer it to dethrone our reason or to hinder the free use of it or to make us act any thing precipitantly unadvisedly or foolishly And this I think may be given as a certain rule whereby we may judge when our anger becomes sinfull and vitious and doth transgress the limits of charity namely when it is raised to such an height as that we have no perfect command over our selves and cannot freely use or exercise our reasons and understandings when we drive on headlong and the beast rides the man when we doe we know not what and repent of it after it is done when our passion is got into the chair and carries all before it when our bloud boils and our spirits are in a great fermentation and we are so blinded with fury and rage that we know no difference between friend or foe right or wrong but are hurried on by the torrent of an impetuous passion to the commission of the greatest outrages to the most disorderly and unseemly actions this is surely contrary to charity which is not easily provoked 8. Charity thinketh no evil is apt and ready to put the best and sairest interpretations upon all the actions of other men Whatever vices other
aversation and disrespect In a word if you would excell others in point of true worth and excellency endeavour to get your souls possessed with this divine grace of charity which is the onely thing that doth truly ennoble a man that doth exalt and dignify his nature and raise him above the rest of his fellow-creatures A SERMON Preached at WHITE-HALL The Seventh Sermon NUMB. XXIII 10. Let me die the death of the righteous and let my last end be like his I Shall not now trouble you with enquiring into the strict meaning of these words as uttered by the Prophet Balaam but I shall consider them onely as they are commonly understood viz. as containing in them the secret wish and desire of most wicked and ungodly men who though they are loth to be at the pains of living the life yet would fain die the death of the righteous and would gladly that their latter end should be like his As well as men love their sins yet they would not willingly be damned for them They can't endure to think seriously of passing out of this World in an impenitent state For it is what but a very few can arrive unto wholly to shake off or wear out all sense of good and evil of reward and punishment The fears of another World will ever and anon be stirring and erowding themselves in and will fret and gall the Sinner sorely and make his thoughts troublesome to him An uneasie bed a broken sleep a sudden affliction an hand-writing on the wall will sometimes force us whether we will or no to smite upon our breasts and reflect sadly upon our past dishonourable misdeeds and the satal issue of them and very often our own conscience will fly in our face notwithstanding all our arts to divert it or our charms to lull it asleep nor could a wicked man ever be at quiet in his mind but that he is resolved by God's grace when time shall serve to doe something or other he doth not well know what or when whereby he may obtain pardon for all the follies and miscarriages of his life past I am very confident I now represent to you the secret mind of most wicked Christians who at any time think seriously viz. that that which makes them so hardy and stupidly neglectfull of their immortal concerns and so jocund and pleasant whilst they live in plain known sins is this that they promise themselves and depend on God's goodness for time and opportunity of making amends in a lingring sickness or in a declining age They are now young and healthfull strong and lusty their pulse beats evenly their bloud moves briskly their spirits are active and subtile and they feel no symptoms of any approaching sickness Hereafter therefore they think it will be time enough to look after another life when they shall be nigh leaving this when their bodies shall begin to decline and their strength to decay and death shall make its approaches Thus there are as it were two ways propounded to Heaven one and that is counted a very dull tedious and difficult passage by the constant doing of good by living righteously and godlily and soberly in this present world The other which is a shorter cut and a much broader way by repenting at our death of a wicked life and it is not at all hard to guess which way the greatest part of men will chuse And would this doe it were indeed a very fine and subtile management of things for thus we might swallow the bait and never be hurt by the hook we might have both the pleasure of being wicked and the hopes of being saved We might spare our selves all the trouble of Religion and yet not miss of the reward of it We might spend all our days as we list gratify every vain humour and appetite enjoy this world as much as we can deny our selves nothing that our lusts and passions crave live all our life long without God in the world and yet at last die in the Lord. The great enemy of mankind hath not in all his magazine a more deadly engine for the destruction of souls Nor is there any thing I know of that doth so notoriously frustrate and defeat the whole design of our Saviour's coming into the world and render our Christianity so useless to us as this one presumption that the whole of Religion or all that is necessary to salvation may be performed upon a sick or death-bed For if it may be done as well at the last in good truth what need we trouble our selves about it sooner what need we disquiet our selves in vain about the exercises of vertue and piety or forego the sweet pleasures of this life or constantly maintain a painfull and ungratefull conflict with the inclinations and inordinate cravings of our flesh or renounce our secular interests or undertake a sharp and troublesome service whenas it is but at any time lamenting over our sins and trusting to the performances of Jesus Christ and we shall be as secure of Paradise as if we had all our days kept a conscience void of offence both towards God and towards all men and in so doing shall run no other hazard but that of dying suddenly which doth not happen to one man in five hundred Eternal bliss and happiness is a thing of so very great and weighty consideration of such vast moment to us that to put off the thoughts thereof or provision for it but one day after that we are become capable of thinking and acting like men is certainly a very great and unaccountable indiscretion but for a man to give all his days to himself and to his own pleasure and humour and to reserve for God for whose service he was born but one and that the worst and the last This is surely madness beyond all measure The extreme folly and danger of such practices I shall now indeavour to evince by shewing briefly these three things I. How little all that amounts to which can be done by a wicked man in order to the obtaining the pardon of his sins on a sick or death-bed II. How far short all this comes of what the holy Scriptures require as the indispensable conditions of salvation III. What small hopes or encouragement God hath any where given men to believe that he will at all abate or remit of those conditions he hath propounded in the Gospel or accept of any thing less than a good life I. How little all that amounts to which can be done by a wicked man on his sick or death-bed Now some at this time can doe more some less according as God affords them space and ability but ordinarily the whole of a death-bed repentance is no more than a few good words and wishes a superficial confession of sin and wickedness in general some broken prayers and pious expressions to the Minister who then shall be sure to be sent for in all haste however despised by the sinner all his
this he will take as a better expression of our gratitude than if we spent never so many days in verbal praises and acknowledgments of his love and bounty Let us all open our hearts and breasts to receive and entertain this great friend of mankind this glorious lover of our souls and suffer him to take full possession of them and there to place his throne and to reign within us without any rival or competitour and let us humbly beg of him that he would be pleased to finish that work in us which he came into the world about that by his bloud he would cleanse and wash us from all filthiness both of flesh and spirit that he would save us from our sins here and then we need not fear his saving us from everlasting destruction hereafter Which God of his infinite mercy grant to us all for the alone sake of our blessed Lord and Redeemer to whom with the Father c. A SERMON Preached on ASH-WEDNESDAY The Tenth Sermon St. MARK VI. 12. And they went out and preached that men should repent THOUGH repentance be a duty never out of season nay is indeed the work and business of our whole lives all of us being obliged every day to amend yet there are some particular times wherein we are more especially called upon to review our actions to humble our souls in God's presence to bewail our manifold transgressions and to devote our selves afresh to his service such are times of affliction either personal or publick when extraordinary judgments are abroad in the earth or are impendent over us or when we our selves are visited with any sickness or grievous calamity so also before we receive the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper we are then more strictly to examine our selves and renew our vows and resolutions of living better And to name no more the Church in all ages hath thought fit to set a-part some solemn times to call upon men more earnestly to repent and to seek God's face before it be too late such were the fasting-days before the feast of the resurrection or Easter and accordingly our Church as you have heard in the exhortation this day read to you doth at this time especially move us to earnest and true repentance that we should return unto our Lord God with all contrition and meekness of heart bewailing and lamenting our sinfull lives acknowledging and confessing our offences and seeking to bring forth worthy fruits of penance And such as now seriously set themselves to repent of all the sins they have committed using such abstinence as is necessary for the subduing the flesh to the spirit do certainly keep Lent far better than they who for so long time onely scrupulously abstain from all flesh and call filling themselves with the choicest fish sweet-meats and wine fasting I shall at this time suppose you sufficiently instructed in the nature of repentance it being one of the first principles of the doctrine of Christ as the Apostle to the Hebrews calls it Heb. 6.1 and also that you will readily acknowledge the indispensible necessity of it in order to the obtaining the pardon of your sins and eternal life and that which I now design is onely to set before you some if not the main hindrances and impediments that keep men from repentance and to endeavour to remove them and I shall discourse in order of these three of the many that might be mentioned I. Want of consideration II. The unsuccesfulness of some former attempts when men have resolved and begun to reform but have soon found all their good purposes and endeavours blasted and defeated this discourageth them from making any farther trials III. The hopes of long life and some better opportunity of repenting hereafter One of these is commonly the ground and cause of those mens remaining in an impenitent state who yet are convinced of the absolute necessity of repentance in order to their peace and happiness I. Want of consideration For could men but once be persuaded seriously and in good earnest as becometh reasonable creatures to consider their ways and actions patiently to attend to the dictates of their own minds and soberly to weigh the reasons and consequences of things their is no doubt to be made but Religion would every day gain more proselytes vertue and righteousness would prosper and flourish more in the world and men would soon become ashamed and afraid of nothing so much as vice and wickedness Of such infinite moment are the matters of Religion so mighty and strong are the arguments which it propounds to us so clear and convincing are the evidences it gives us of its truth and certainty so agreeable to our minds are all its principles so amiable and excellent its precepts so pleasant and advantageous is the practice of them that there seemeth nothing farther required to make all men in love with it but onely that they would open their eyes to behold its beauty that they would not stop their ears against all its most alluring charms Let men but once throughly ponder the folly and mischief of sin with the benefits and rewards of piety and an holy life let them but compare their several interests together and look sometimes beyond things present unto that state wherein they are to live for ever and use their understandings about these matters as they do about other affairs and it is impossible they should enjoy any tolerable peace or ease without a carefull and strict provision for another world Vice oweth its quiet possession of mens minds onely to their stupidity and inadvertency to their carelesness and inconsideration it reigns undisturbedly onely in ignorant secure unthinking spirits but streight loseth all its force and power when once men begin to look about them and bethink themselves what they are doing and whither they are going Could we but once gain thus much of wicked men to make a stand and pause a little and to cease but a while from the violent pursuit of their pleasures and fairly reflect upon their lives and see what is the fruit of all their past follies and consider the end and issue of these things could we I say but obtain thus much we might spare most of our pains spent in persuading them to repent their own thoughts would never suffer them to be in quiet till they had done it Let us but once begin to deliberate and examine and we are sure on which side the advantage will lie sin and wickedness can never stand a trial let our own reasons be but judges it hates nothing so much as to be brought to the light A vitious man however he may brave it in the world yet can never justify or approve himself to his own free thoughts and however he may plead for sin before others yet he can never answer the objections his own conscience would bring against it would he but once dare impartially to consider them But the misery of wicked men is that they
unmixt from the dust of other bodies be all disposed into the same order figure and posture they were before so as to make the very self-same flesh and bloud which his soul at his dissolution forsook This seems a Camel too big for any considering person to swallow he must be of a very easie faith who can digest such impossibilities Ezekiel indeed when the hand of the Lord was upon him and he was carried out in the spirit of the Lord thought he was set down in the midst of a valley full of dry bones and that afterwards he heard a noise and behold a shaking and the bones came together bone to his bone the sinews and the flesh came up upon them and the skin covered them above and the breath came into them and they lived and stood upon their feet This may pass well enough in a Prophetical Vision and did handsomely represent the wonderfull restauration of the Jewish People But that all this and much more should in truth come to pass that our bones after they are resolved into dust should really become living men that all the little atoms whereof our bodies consisted howsoever scattered or wheresoever lodged should immediately at a general summons rally and meet again and every one challenge and possess its own proper place till at last the whole ruined fabrick be perfectly rebuilt and that of the very self-same stuff and materials whereof it consisted before its fall that this I say should ever really be effected is such an incredible thing that it seems to be above the power of reason so much as to frame a conception of it And therefore we may observe that the Gentiles did most especially boggle at this Article of our Christian faith as we reade in the 17th of the Acts when St. Paul preached unto the Athenians concerning the resurrection of the dead the Philosophers mocked at him and entertained his doctrine with nothing but scoffs and flouts and indeed it was one of the last things that the Heathens received into their belief and it is to this day the chiefest objection against Christianity How are the dead raised up and with what body do they come In my discourse of these words I shall doe these three things I. I shall shew that the resurrection of the dead even in the strictest sense as it is commonly understood and explained of the very self-same body that died and was buried contains nothing in it impossible or incredible II. Since it is certain that the body which we shall rise with though it may be as to substance the same with our terrestrial body yet will be so much altered and changed in its modes and qualities that it will be quite another kind of body from what it was before I shall give you a short account of the difference the Scripture makes between a glorified body and this mortal flesh And III. Lastly I shall draw some practical inferences from the whole I. I shall shew that the resurrection of the dead even in the strictest sense as it is commonly understood and explained of the very self-same body that died and was buried contains nothing in it impossible or incredible Whether this strict sense of the Article be the true or not I think I need not determine it is sufficient for me to shew that if this be the true sense of it yet the Atheist or Sceptick hath nothing considerable to object against it but what is capable of a fair and easie answer However give me leave just to lay before you some of the principal reasons and Scriptures upon which it is built and established And 1. I think it must be acknowledged that this hath been all along the most common received opinion amongst Christians that at the last day we shall rise again with the very same flesh with which we are clothed in this state and which we put off at our death and that our heavenly bodies will not onely consist of the same substance and matter with our earthly but will be of the same consistency and modification perfect flesh and bloud though in some properties altered and changed Most of the ancient Fathers of the Church excepting some few that were of a more inquisitive temper and philosophical genius than the rest as Origen and some others did believe and teach that at the general resurrection men should he restored to the very same bodies which they dwelt in here and which at last were laid in the grave that their bodies should be then as truly the same with those they died in as the bodies of those whom our Saviour raised when he was upon earth were the same with those they had before that no other body should be raised but that which slept and that as our Saviour Christ arose with his former flesh and bones and members so we also after the resurrection should have the same members we now use the same flesh and bloud and bones And that this was the common belief and expectation of all Christians in the primitive times that they should appear again at the general resurrection with the very same bodies they lived in here on earth will appear from that spite and malice which the Heathens sometimes shewed to the dead bodies of Christians reducing them to ashes and then scattering them into the air or throwing them into rivers that thereby they might defeat and deprive them of all hopes of a resurrection of this Eusebius gives us an eminent instance out of the Epistle of the Churches of Vienna and Lyons in France to those in Asia and Phrygia under the Persecution of Antoninus Verus which gives an account how that the Heathens after many vain and fruitless attempts to suppress the Christian Religion by inflicting the cruelest torments on the Professours of it which they bravely endured looking for a joyfull resurrection at last thought of a way to deprive them as they fondly imagined of that great hope which ministred so much joy and courage to them under the severest trials which was by reducing the wrackt and mangled bodies of the several Martyrs into the minutest Atoms and then scattering them in the great River Rhodanus Let us now say they see whether they can rise again and whether their God can help them and deliver them out of our hands Now this is a sufficient intimation to us that it was then the known common opinion of Christians that the very same body and flesh which suffered and was martyred here on earth should be raised again at the last day And indeed those amongst the Ancient Christians who have undertaken to defend or explain this Article of the resurrection of the dead do it mostly by such principles arguments and illustrations as do suppose the very same body and flesh and members to be raised again which the soul animated here in this life 2. This hath not onely been the common received opinion of Christians but also the most plain and easie notion of
assistence and charity of others how irksome and uneasie will it be to us to remember how little our bowels were moved at the misfortunes of our poor neighbours and what little compassion we shewed to the miserable and necessitous and how loth we were in our flourishing condition to doe any one a good turn if it put us but to the least expence or trouble However great and prosperous your present condition may be yet often consider it may shortly be otherwise with you daily interpose the thoughts of a change should I lose this honour esteem authority and dignity I am now possessed of how many untoward scars and blemishes will stick upon me should I be reduced to a mean low estate shall I not then blush to be put in mind of that pride vain-glory haughtiness oppression and domineering I was guilty of when I was in place and power and will not the forced remembrance of such our base and unworthy behaviour be more grievous and afflictive to us than any outward loss or pain our consciences which now we stifle and smother will at such a time be even with us and our own wickedness shall reprove us and our iniquity shall correct us as the Prophet expresseth it Learn therefore so to demean your selves in prosperity as that your hearts may acquit you and have nothing to chide and rebuke you for when you come into adversity and so to husband and improve those present advantages and opportunities you have in your hands that when they are withdrawn from you you may be able with great comfort and satisfaction to reflect upon the good you have done with them the sense of which will mightily blunt the edge and mitigate the sharpness of those evils that do at any time befall you this was Job's great comfort and support under all his dismal sufferings when he was fallen from the highest pinacle of wealth and honour almost as low as hell that he had held fast his integrity and that his mind could not reproach him 2. We should never either to prevent or to redeem our selves from any outward evil or calamity doe any thing which our own minds and consciences do disapprove and condemn Though Job had lost all other things that men usually call good yet his righteousness he held fast and would not let it go and indeed the peace of our own minds is more to be valued than any temporal blessing whatever and there is no pain or loss so intolerable as that inward fear regret and shame which sin and guilt create so that whatever external advantage we acquire in the world by wounding our consciences we are certainly great losers by it no real good can ever be obtained by doing ill a guilty conscience being the sorest evil that a man can possibly be afflicted with Herein especially do inward troubles exceed all outward afflictions whatever that can happen to our bodies or estates namely that under all temporal calamities how desperate and remediless soever they be yet we have something to buoy up and support our spirits to keep us in heart and ennable us to bear them the joys of a good conscience the sense or hopes of God's love and favour the inward satisfaction of our own minds and thoughts these things will wonderfully carry us through all those difficulties and adversities which we shall meet with in the world and are able to uphold and chear our hearts under the greatest pressures and hardships but when a man's mind it self is disturbed and disquieted where shall he seek for where can he find any ease or remedy This seems to be the meaning of the Wise-man in the 18th of the Proverbs the 14th Verse the spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity but a wounded spirit who can bear It is a saying much like that of our Saviours if the salt hath lost its favour wherewith shall it be salted if that by which we season all other things it self want it by what shall it be seasoned so here the spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity i. e. a mind and spirit that is at peace within it self that is conscious of its own innocence and integrity will enable a man to bear with great patience and contentment those chastisements which God may see good to exercise him with in this life but a wounded spirit who can bear i. e. if that spirit or mind which should help us to bear all those evils that betide us be it self wounded and disquieted what is there then left in a man to sustain it when our onely remedy is become our disease when that which alone can support us in all our troubles and distresses is become it self our greatest torment how shall we be able to bear it What dangers soever therefore we are exposed unto let us be sure to preserve a good conscience nay let us rather suffer the greatest evils than doe the least If we always continue faithfull and constant to the dictates of reason and religion our minds will be in peace and the conscience of our having pleased God and done our duty and secured our greatest interest will hugely ease and alleviate our afflictions and sustain us under the most pressing evils we can suffer in this life whereas on the other side the greatest confluence of the good things of this world will not be able to free us from the disturbance and anxiety of an evil conscience or to quiet and settle our minds when harassed and tortured with the sense of guilt And this shall lead me to the second thing I propounded which was II. To consider these words more generally as they may be applied to men in all states and conditions and then they propound to us this rule which we should always live by namely that we should upon no consideration whatever doe any thing that our minds or consciences reprove us for And this is the just character of an honest man and of one fit to be trusted that he will never either out of fear or favour consent to doe any thing that his mind tells him is unfit unworthy or unbecoming or that he cannot answer or justify to himself but in all cases will doe what is right and honest however it may be thought of and relished by other men and resolutely adhere to his plain duty though perhaps it may hinder his preferment and advancement his trade and gain and expose him to many inconveniences in this world I wish you would all with Job in my Text take up this brave resolution My righteousness I will hold fast and will not let it go my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live For your encouragement I shall onely crave leave to represent unto you these two things 1. That this is the plainest easiest and most certain rule that we can propound to our selves 2. That it is the wisest and safest rule the best policy all things considered 1. That this is the plainest easiest and
most certain rule that we can propound to our selves Let times be never so difficult or dangerous and affairs never so intricate and involved yet an honest man is hardly ever at a loss what to doe The integrity of the upright shall guide him and the righteousness of the perfect shall direct his way The path of justice and honesty is streight right on neither to the right hand nor to the left there are no labyrinths or winding Meanders in it so that there is no great wit or cunning required to find it out To any one whose mind is free from prejudice and evil affections who is not governed by blind passion or interest or any bye corrupt designs the way he should walk in is plain and obvious like the high-way So it is called by the Prophet Isaiah An high-way shall be there and it shall be called the way of holiness and wayfaring men though fools shall not err therein As for those indeed that will not keep the direct road but thinking to pass some nearer way travel in untrodden paths through desart woods or solitary fields over hedge and ditch as we say it is no wonder if they are sometimes out of their way and go backward and forward and are often at a stand not knowing how to guide their steps and what path to chuse till at last they are utterly lost and bewildred and such are all the wise men of this world who make haste to be rich and are resolved by right or wrong to be great and powerfull and mind nothing but their own interest and worldly advantage who forsake the plain and beaten â—enin of vertue and piety and betake themselves to the crooked ways of unrighteousness they are infinitely various and uncertain sometimes they go streight forward and then quite back again sometimes they are of one party sometimes of another to day of this Religion to morrow of that reeling to and fro like a drunken man so that whatever they profess themselves to be this week yet neither themselves nor any one else can guess what mind they will be of the next seeing their opinions and judgments and practices depend upon such causes as are as variable as the wind or weather they are always ready to turn as the tide and stream does and are resolved to please those that are uppermost like the Roman that told Augustus Caesar in his Civil-wars when asked by him what side he would take that he would be praeda victoris of that party which prevailed But alas what an absurd and unequal life do such men lead How do their minds their words their actions clash and interfere one with the other How often are they forced to contradict themselves and to call themselves fools or knaves for doing those things which afterwards when another interest is to be served they are fain to disown nay to doe the quite contrary Into what mazes and perplexities doth this wandring fickle and desultory temper betray men what pitifull shifts are they put to to patch up such disagreeing practices and to reconcile such different designs since they are forced servilely to comply with so many several humours to act so many different parts and so often to follow other counsels and take new measures with what great artifice and subtilty must they continually manage themselves with what wariness must they direct their feet lest by any misadventure they should expose their own mean and sordid designs Now such persons as are thus fickle and inconstant to themselves and are guided by no fixt and steady principles but onely by their own present interest which depends upon the uncertain state of worldly affairs and a thousand other little contingencies must needs be often at a loss which way to steer themselves and can never be certain they are in the right They are always to seek and are utterly unresolved what to say or doe till they can smell out how matters are likely to go and see the final event and issue of things such men are like the Samaritanes who as Josephus tells us when the Jews were in any affliction or danger disclaimed all acquaintance with them and relation to them and knew them not but at another time when the Jews prospered and were great and potent then they boasted of their alliance and would needs be near a-kin to them of the race of Ephraim and Manasses the Sons of Joseph But on the other side he that aims at nothing more than to please God and his own conscience and to doe the duty of the place he is in fairly and justly in all times knows what to doe and is still the same man and meddles not with those that are given to change his own honesty is his tutour and directour his counsellour and guide He knows that the nature of goodness and vertue is always the same and cannot be altered by any change of the times or state of affairs and therefore under all external changes and occurrences whatever he keeps the same smooth and even course of righteousness peaceableness sobriety loyalty and charity whether the world smiles or frowns upon him he still holds to his principles does the same things and goes on in the same road and nothing neither honour nor dishonour neither good report nor evil report can divert him from it 2. This is not onely the plainest but the wisest and safest rule the best policy all things considered For if we resolutely maintain our innocence and integrity 1. We shall ordinarily escape best in this life but however 2. We shall be sure to come off well at last and to be plentifully rewarded for our faithfulness and uprightness in the other world 1. We shall ordinarily escape best in this life There is nothing that doth more contribute to our safety and security even in the worst and most dangerous times than a firm and constant adherence to our duty For 1. By this we engage God Almighty to be our friend and do most effectually recommend our selves to his care and good providence so long as we commit our ways unto God in well-doing and no hazards or dangers on the one side nor any worldly advantages or conveniences on the other can prevail with us in any one instance to disobey him we may be assured that he will never forsake us but that he will either deliver us from those evils we fear or else support us under them and by the assistences of his blessed spirit enable us to bear them with patience and chearfulness A good man in all his dangers and distresses hath a sure friend who will always stand by him an Almighty Saviour and Deliverer on whom he may securely rely for salvation and protection he is not afraid of evil tidings his heart is fixed trusting in the Lord He hath nothing to agast him or fill him with pale fears and dreadfull terrours and jealousies he hath no secret guilt that haunts him and stares him in the face
his own conscience will be sure to come off well at last in the final account and judgment then God will confirm and ratify the sentence of his conscience and publickly own and approve of what he hath done and clear and vindicate his innocency and reward his fidelity and constancy before all the world At that day when all our great undertakers and contrivers of mischief all the cunning practisers of guile and hypocrisie shall lie down in shame when their secret arts and base tricks whereby they imposed on the world shall be detected and proclaimed as it were upon the house-top and all their unworthy projects and designs shall be laid open and naked being stript of those specious pretences they here disguised them with when the hidden things of darkness shall be brought to light and the counsels of all mens hearts shall be made manifest as the noon-day at that day I say the upright and righteous man shall stand in great boldness and shall lift up his head with joy and confidence and then it will appear that he was the best politician and the onely person that either understood or regarded his true interest To conclude all Our consciences are either our best friends or our greatest enemies they are either a continual feast or a very hell to us A conscience well resolved and setled is the greatest comfort of our lives the best antidote against all kind of temptations the most pretious treasure that we can lay up against an evil day and our surest and strongest hold to secure us from all dangers which can never be taken unless through our own folly and negligence But an evil clamorous conscience that is continually twitting and reproaching us is a perpetual wrack and torment it wasts our spirits and preys upon our hearts and eats out the sweetness of all our worldly enjoyments and fills us with horrid fears and ghastly apprehensions this is that knawing worm that never dieth the necessary fruit of sin and guilt and the necessary cause of everlasting anguish and vexation A SERMON Preached at WHITE-HALL The Thirteenth Sermon 2 TIM I. 10. And hath brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel LIFE and immortality by a figure often used in the holy Scriptures is the same with immortal life which our Saviour hath brought to light that is hath given us undoubted assurance of by the revelation of the Gospel For though all men by the light of nature have some apprehensions of a future state yet their reasonings about it when left to themselves are miserably vain and uncertain and often very wild and extravagant The best discourses of the Heathens about the other life were weak and obscure and the wisest Philosophers spake but doubtfully and conjecturally about it nor even in the books of Moses or writings of the Prophets are there contained any plain express promises of eternal life all the knowledge men had of it before was but like the faint glimmerings of twilight till the sun of righteousness appeared till God was pleased to send one from that invisible world even his own most dear Son to dwell here and converse amongst men to make a full discovery to us of this unknown countrey and to conduct us in the onely true way to this everlasting happiness an happiness so great that we have not words big enough to express it nor faculties large enough to comprehend it but yet so much of it is clearly revealed to us in the Gospel as is most abundantly sufficient to raise our thoughts and incite our sincerest endeavours for the obtaining of it By which plain revelation of this state of immortality First Is most illustriously manifested to us the transcendent goodness and indulgence of our most mercifull Creatour in that he will be pleased to reward such imperfect services such mean performances as the best of ours are with glory so immense as that eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor can it enter into the heart of man to conceive the greatness of it There is nothing in us nor any thing done by us that bears the least proportion to such an ample recompence Our best actions stand in need of a pardon so far are they from deserving to be crowned All possible duty and obedience we certainly owe to him to whom we owe our beings and should God almighty have exacted it from us onely on the account of his sovereign authority over us as we are his creatures we had been indispensably obliged to all subjection to him but that he should over and above promise to reward our faithfulness to him with eternal life this is a most wonderfull instance of his infinite grace and goodness Secondly By this revelation of immortal life is farther demonstrated the exceeding great love of our ever blessed Saviour who by his death and perfect obedience not onely purchased pardon for all our past rebellions and transgressions not onely redeemed us from hell and destruction to which we had all rendred our selves most justly liable which alone had been an unspeakable favour but also merited an everlasting kingdom of glory for us if with true repentance we return to our duty And this if any thing shews the infinite value and efficacy of our Saviour's appearing on our behalf that by his most powerfull mediation he obtained not onely freedom from punishment but also unexpressibly glorious rewards for us vile and wretched sinners upon easie and most reasonable conditions Thirdly This especially recommends our Christianity to us which contains such glad tidings which propounds such mighty arguments to engage us to our duty such as no other religion ever did or could For since hope and fear are the great hinges of all government and the most prevailing passions of humane nature what better thing can be propounded to our hope than to be as happy both in body and soul as we can be and that for ever what more dreadfull thing to our fear than everlasting misery and this indeed is the utmost that can be said or offered to men in order to the reclaiming them from their sins and recovering them to a conscientious observance of God's laws that God hath appointed a day wherein he will call all men to an account for the deeds they have done in this body and reward the sincere faithfull Christian with immortal glory and punish the disobedient and impenitent with everlasting vengeance and if men can harden themselves against these most powerfull considerations if they are not at all concerned or solicitous about their eternal happiness or misery what other motives are likely to prevail with them or able to make any impression upon them For is there any thing of greater weight and moment that can be propounded to the reasons and understandings of men than what shall become of them in a state which they are very shortly to enter upon and which shall never have an end I humbly therefore beg your patience whilst with all the