Omnipotent God a power able to break in pieces the chains even of death its self strong ones indeed to hold all others but weak to hold him who was as well God as Man Whom God hath raised up c. From which words Four things are to be gather'd 1. The Certainty of Christ's Resurrection set down here as matter of fact Hath raised up 2. The principal Agent or rather the sole efficient Cause of Christ's Resurrection God Whom God hath c. 3. The Manner how 't was done Removendo impedimentum by taking away whatsoever might obstruct it the rowling away the stone as it were from the door of the Sepulchre the untying of a hard knot Having loosed the pains of Death 4. And lastly the Necessity of all this a most convincing and irresistible Argument and therefore brought up in the rear to make all sure Because it was not possible he should be holden of it Of these in their order and of such practical Inferences as doe arise out of them And first of the first Particular the Certainty of Christ's Resurrection in these words Hath raised up 1. There is not any truth in Scripture which God has been so carefull or as I may so say curious to secure as that of his Son's Resurrection Which he did as by taking away all grounds of doubting of it so by making use of all manner of proofs to ascertain it For first whereas Sceptical Men might have questioned whether Christ died truly or no or if so whether his disciples did not come by night and steal him away These two grounds of suspition God took care to remove The first by that Evidence the Centurion gave in to Pilate of his real dying besides that of so many Spectators who beheld that stream of bloud wherein he poured forth his Soul unto death And the second by the exact care of the High Priest who caused a vast stone to be rowled before the door of the Sepulchre adding his Seal and Souldiers of his own chusing to guard it from the attempts of the Disciples who had they had a will had neither power nor courage to break open a Sepulchre hewen out of a new entire Rock or force such a strong guard as kept it much less Money to bribe their silence as the High Priests and Scribes did And to say that his Disciples stole him away while the stout Watch-men slept was surely no better than a Dream or rather not a Dream but a studied Lie and yet such a Lie too as does most clearly confirm the truth of our Lord's Resurrection But then secondly As God took away all cause of doubt so did he draw Arguments from all Topicks to prove this great Truth Heaven and Earth here gave in their Evidence For not only the Souls of Holy Men were fetcht thence to be united to their Bodies for proof of that Resurrection by which themselves were raised but the Blessed Inhabitants of Heaven the Angels came down on purpose to publish it to the Women as these did to the Apostles to whom Christ shewed himself alive too after his Passion by many infallible proofs and expos'd himself to their very Senses who did not only see and hear but converse and eat with him after he was risen from the dead that they might not mistake his Body as once they did for a Phantasm or Christ for a Spirit having flesh and bones as they found he had and retaining still the marks and prints of the nails and spear to shew the Identity as well as Reality of that Body which arose The very Infidelity of an Apostle being not the least confirmation of our Faith too in this particular Not to mention other instances the Earthquake the empty grave the stone rowled away the linnen cloths curiously wrapt up together as dead Witnesses when there were so many living ones Angels and Men and among these such as were ready to seal this Truth with their dearest Bloud of such credit and honesty too as might highly recommend their Testimony to our belief of such Prudence Experience and Holiness withall as neither could betray them to Error nor suffer them to abuse the credit of others Such were the Holy Apostles who with great power gave witness of the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus and whose principal office it was to doe so as appears upon the Election of St. Matthias into the place of Judas grounded upon this necessity Act. 1. 21 22. To whom we may add no less than five hundred Brethren at once all agreeing in the same story Nemo omnes neminem omnes fefellerunt which made their Evidence rise to such a strong demonstration as was sufficient to stop the mouths of Christ's most contradicting Enemies and open ours to confess with the Disciples and Primitive Christians The Lord is risen indeed Luk. 24. 34. Thus we see how exact the Holy Ghost was as in removing all such Doubts as might in the least obstruct our Faith so in using all manner of Arguments to confirm and establish the undoubted Truth of Christ's Resurrection not only to show the possibility of a Resurrection in general by so pregnant and visible an Example but the importance of it in regard of ours whereof our Lord 's was the Fountain and Pledge 1. I say the clearing of the Truth of Christ's Resurrection was absolutely necessary in regard of the slowness and indisposition of most Men and in all times to admit of the possibility of a Resurrection The Philosopher we see could not digest it To the Stoicks and Epicureans it became matter of laughter who took it for some new Goddess Act. 17. 18 32. Nay some of the Disciples themselves lookt upon it as a Fable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luk. 24. 11. A considerable Sect too among the Jews the Sadducees utterly deny'd it Act. 23. 8. Simon Magus and the Gnosticks were of the same persuasion and so was Marcion as Tertullian informs me who deny'd the truth of Christ's flesh and consequently his Nativity and Resurrection as Valentinus's Disciple did the Resurrection of that Flesh he convers'd in Some there were who affirm'd 't was already past as Hymenaeus and Philetus Others turn'd it into a meer Allegory a Renovation Matth. 19. 28. A state of the Gospel call'd a New Heaven and a new Earth 2 Pet. 3. 13. And the World to come Heb. 2. 5. And lastly how doe all loose Christians decry it as a thing utterly inconsistent with their interest It was requisite then that this foundation should be laid very deep in men's Hearts which the Holy Ghost fore-saw so many would endeavour to over-throw 2. 'T was absolutely necessary to clear this Truth in regard of the importance of it to Christ's glory and the happiness of all true Christians 1. To Christ's glory which in the esteem of Men being much eclipsed by his Death was to shine out brighter by his Resurrection for nothing but this could take
advantage 3. Besides to make our Estate good is required Investiture so that although Christ hath made a purchase and paid a price for us yet what would this advantage us without Livery and Seizin which the same Apostle calls The Earnest of the Spirit 2 Cor. 5. 5. Lastly What are we at all the better for what Christ did for us if we be not joined to Him as He was to us and 't is by his Spirit that we are joined unto Him For he that hath not Christ's Spirit is none of his Rom. 8. 9. and then Christ will profit him nothing From whence it plainly appears That what the Father and the Son did for us could not be compleat or available without the concurrence of the Holy Ghost They could doe nothing for us without Him nor we any thing for our selves in order to our Salvation For first without Holiness we cannot see God who is therefore called Holy because he is the cause of Holiness in us his Office consisting in the sanctifying of us We are by Nature void of all saving Truth 1 Cor. 2. 10 11. None knoweth the things of God but the Spirit of God And 't is the Spirit that searcheth all things and revealeth them unto the Sons of Men That dispells their Darkness enlightens their Understandings with the knowledge of God and works in them an assent unto that which by the Word is propounded unto them Again 2dly Unless they be regenerate and renewed they are still in a state of natural Corruption Now 't is the Holy Spirit that regenerates and renews us According to his mercy he saveth us by the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost Tit. 3. 5. And Except a man be born again of Water and the Holy Ghost he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God Joh. 3. 5. We are all at first defiled by the corruption of our Nature and the pollution of our Sins but we are washed but we are sanctified but we are justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God 1 Cor. 6. 11. Thirdly We are not able to guide our selves and 't is the Spirit that leads directs and governs us in our Actions and Conversations that we may perform what is acceptable in the sight of God 'T is He that giveth both to will and to doe and As many as are thus led by the Spirit of God they are the Sons of God Rom. 8. 14. Fourthly If we be separate from Christ we are as branches cut off from the Tree which presently wither away for want of sap to nourish them Now 't is the Spirit that joins us to Christ and makes us Members of that Body whereof he is the Head For by one Spirit we are all baptized into that one Body 1 Cor. 12. 13. And hereby we know that God abideth in us by the Spirit which he hath given us 1 Joh. 3. 24. Fifthly Till we be assured of the Adoption of Sons we have no comfort no hope for 't is that which creates in us a sense of the Paternal love of God towards us The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us Rom. 5. 5. And the Spirit it self beareth witness with our Spirit that we are the Children of God Rom. 8. 16. who is therefore said to be the Pledge and the Earnest of our Inheritance In a word had not the Holy Ghost been sent to us we could have done nothing to any purpose no means on our part would have availed us Not Baptism which might wash spots from our Skins nor stains from our Souls No laver of Regeneration without renewing of the Holy Ghost Tit. 3. 5. Not the Word which without the Spirit would have proved but a killing letter Not the Sacrament The Flesh profiteth nothing 't is the Spirit that quickneth Joh. 6. 63. Lastly Not Prayer which without the Spirit is but lip-labour For unless he help our infirmities and make intercession for and with us we know not what we should pray for as we ought Rom. 8. 26. To summ up all It was expedient nay absolutely necessary that the Spirit should have his Advent as well as Christ. Christ's Advent was necessary for the fulfilling of the Law and the Spirit 's for the compleating of the Gospel Christ's to redeem the Church and the Spirit 's to teach it Christ's to shed his bloud for it and the Spirit 's to wash and purge it in that bloud Christ's to preach the acceptable year of the Lord and the Spirit 's to interpret it The one without the other is imperfect Christ's Birth Death Passion Resurrection are good news but sealed up a Gospel hid till the Spirit come and open it Of such importance was his coming and so expedient yea and necessary for us it was that our Lord should go away to send Him to us And as he did send Him to the Apostles in an extraordinary manner in cloven tongues like as of fire as at this time so all Christians have a promise of the Comforter though not of the firey tongues The promise is to you and to your Children and to all that are a-far off even as many as the Lord our God shall call Act. 2. 39. That is To all that wait for and are in such a fit posture and condition to receive Him as the Apostles themselves were To all that are like Him Holy Pure Charitable Peaceable That have those fruits of the Spirit mentioned Gal. 5. 22 23. That are void of carnal sensual Affections than which nothing will more obstruct his entrance He being a Spirit and having therefore no commerce with the Flesh. Christ carnally apprehended we see could not avail any thing and so long as our Thoughts and Desires run after things here below his Spirit from above will not fill or inflame them Therefore sur sum corda let us lift up our hearts towards Him He will meet us and Christ will send Him to us if we meet Him in his way Send Him if we send for Him too if we send up our Prayers to fetch Him down For being a Spirit of supplication Zach. 12. 10. the proper means to obtain Him is Prayer And surely He is worth the asking for being the greatest gift God can give us or we receive In giving whereof He is said to give us all things Mat. 7. 11. In whom we have a Teacher to instruct The Spirit of Truth to lead us into all Truth necessary for us An Advocate to plead for and defend us A Comforter in all our outward and inward distresses so that Direction Protection Consolation and all that is beneficial to us or we can desire we have in Him But then when we have got let us be sure to retain and to cherish Him not chase Him away for then we had better never to have had Him Be sure not to resist Him by our Pride quench Him by our Carnality and so grieve Him
recourse to Miracles we must of necessity conclude them to be of a higher Efficiency Those many more than ordinary Tempests devouring Earthquakes firey Inundations and Apparitions which have been seen and heard of so many though they may indeed have natural Causes yet 't is highly probable that these things are not the ordinary Effects of Nature but that the Almighty for the Manifestation of his Power and Justice may set Spirits whether good or evil on work to do the same things sometimes with more State and Magnificence of horror As the Frogs of Egypt ordinarily bred out of putrification and generation were yet for a plague to that wicked Nation supernaturally also produced I might instance in sundry miraculous Preservations whereunto in all probability Angels concur How many have fallen from very high Precipices into deep Pits past the natural probability of hope which yet have been preserved not from Death only but from Hurt How many have been raised up from deadly Sicknesses when all natural Helps have given them for lost God's Angels no doubt have been their secret Physicians Have we had instinctive intimations of the Death of some absent friends which no humane intelligence had bidden us to suspect who but Angels have been our Informers Have we been kept from Dangers which our best Providence could neither have foreseen nor diverted we owe these strange escapes to our invisible Spies and Guardians And thus Gerson attributes the wonderfull preservation of Infants from so many perils they usually run into to the super-intendency of Angels Indeed where we find a probability of second Causes in Nature we are apt to confine our Thoughts to them and look no higher yet even there many times are unseen Hands Had we seen the House fall upon the Heads of Job's Children we should perhaps have ascrib'd it to the natural force of a vehement Blast when now we know it was the work of a Spirit Had we seen those Thousands of Israelites falling dead of the Plague we should have complain'd of some strange infection in the Air when David saw the Angel acting in that Mortality When the Israelites forcibly expell'd the Canaanites nothing appear'd but their own Arms but the Lord of Hosts could say I will send mine Angel before thee by whom I shall drive them thence Exod. 33. 2. Nothing appear'd when the Egyptians first-born were struck dead in one night the Astrologers would perhaps say they were Planet-struck but 't was an Angel's hand that smote them Balaam saw his Ass disorderly starting in the path He who formerly had seen Visions now sees nothing but a Wall and a Way but his Ass who for the present had more of the Prophet than his Master could see an Angel and a Sword Nothing was seen at the Pool of Bethesda but a moved Water when the sudden Cures were wrought which perhaps might be attributed to some beneficial Constellation but the Scripture tells us that an Angel descended and infused that healing quality into the Water Elias could see an Army of the Heavenly Host encompassing Him when Gehezi could not till his Master's Prayers had opened his Eyes We need not make use of Cardan's Eye-salve to discern Spirits in the Air our Reason may discover them though our Eyes cannot and by the manifest good Effects they produce we may boldly say Here hath been an Angel though we have not seen Him All this may serve to confute the ancient Error of Sadducees who made Angels to be nothing but good Motions or good Thoughts turning them into an Allegory as Hymeneus and Philetus did the Resurrection And 't is observed that they who deny'd Angels did withall deny a Resurrection and both upon the same ground their loose temper which prevails so much with their Successors inclining 'em to baffle themselves out of the belief of those things whose real Being brings them so little advantage 'T is not strange that such men's Senses should swallow up their Faith since it deprives them of their Reason though probably such fancies are rather the issues of their Desires than of their Judgment Behold here a cloud of Witnesses against them not Revelation only but even Sense too backt with Reason Authority and Experience of all Ages and of all Conditions of Men Good and Bad Heathens and Christians If nothing will satisfie their curiosity but a Vision I must tell them that the commerce we have with Spirits is not now by the Eye nor shall any thing confute their Infidelity but Hell where to their cost they shall meet with those Devils whose company they are here so fond of and yet their very Infidelity methinks were they not stupid as well as impious might serve to rectifie their belief here which being the unquestionable effect of Satan is no small evidence of his Existence I shall not stand to confute them the Text does it for me If their Faith be not strong enough their Eyes to be sure will be too weak to discern Angels these cannot be the Objects of Sense since they are Spirits which points to the first thing exprest here their Nature Spirits 'T is an easier matter to prove that there are Angels than to describe what they are Spirits have so little affinity with our Natures that 't is no marvel if they exceed our Apprehensions But this notion suggests so much to us that they are intellectual Substances immaterial incorporeal and consequently immortal In all which capacities most resembling the Almighty and the fairest Copies of the great Original of all things Yet are they not void of all kind of matter no more than the Soul of Man is it being peculiar to the Father of Spirits to be one most pure and simple Act whereas every created Being though never so refin'd admits of some dross some alloy is compounded either by natural composition as consisting of matter and form or at least Metaphysical of the Act and the Power Yet so far we may and ought to allow Angels to be immaterial as not to consist of any corporeal matter though never so fine and subtle for this were to destroy the very Nature of a Spirit and our Saviour's argument whereby he convinced the Disciples that he was no Spirit as they took him for Behold my hands and my feet that it is I my self for a Spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have Luk. 24. 39. I shall not trouble you with any Philosophical discourse to prove Angels incorporeal nor with those tedious and impertinent Niceties of the Schools grounded upon their being so How Millions of Angels can lodge together in one point as a Legion of them did in one Man How they move in an instant and pass from one extream to another without going through the middle parts and the like curious matters contributing nothing at all to our edification Some passages there are indeed in Scripture which at first blush seem to favour the corporeity of Angels but in effect
implies Tender compassions even beyond those of Mother Bowels of Mercies not one Mercy but a cluster of them nor those common ones promiscuously scattered on good and bad but such as concern our Souls and better life which the Illative Particle Therefore implies sending us back to the former part of this Epistle wherein the Apostle had at large discoursed of God's infinite Mercies from all Eternity prepared for us of our Predestination Election Justification in Christ and the like These are those Bowels of Mercies by which the Romans and we are conjured The Mercies of God indeed for who but He could bestow them And who so hard a Flint whom such soft Feathers cannot break Who such an Adamant whom the Bloud of God shed for him cannot soften Who as he gave Himself for us may well expect we should offer up our selves unto Him Which leads me to the main Duty of the Text in these words That ye present your Bodies c. And here the first thing to be considered is What we are to present unto God to wit Our Bodies and those first in the most strict and literal sense as being the most visible part of our Christian Sacrifice the Organs of our Souls whereby they both work and discover their Operations There is indeed a hidden man of the heart as St. Peter calls it 1 Pet. 3. 4. whose inward Oblations are as invisible as that God to whom they are made and only discernable by that Eye to whom all things are naked But there must be something visible that must take and affect ours The smoak of our Incense must yield a pleasing odour to Men as well as to God and the fire of our Sacrifice blaze out on the Altar There are who would exempt their Bodies from the Service of God God say they is a Spirit and must be worshipped in spirit and in truth and Evangelical worship is Spiritual worship These Men are so Angelical that they forget themselves to be Men and yet St. Paul will tell them that the very Angels themselves have their knees Phil. 2. 10. and we find that Holy Men have ever employ'd them in the Worship of God and yet never thought their Worship the less spiritual for all that The Prophet David calls for falling down and worshipping and kneeling before the Lord Nay our Lord Himself in his prayers lay prostrate on his body and bowed his head on the Cross with adoration as much as languor thereby teaching us that our addresses to God are not the less spiritual for being mannerly 'T is true indeed that an humble Body and a stiff unpliant Soul doe ill suit together The service of That like the Mint and Cummin is not to be left out while the inward devotion of the Soul like the weightier matters of the Law claims the precedency and is the main part of our Sacrifice without this the bowels thereof will not be sound and entire but like Caesar's portentous Sacrifice want a heart or resembling that hypocritical one of him in Lucian who presented his Deity with an Oxes bones covered with the Hide when the Flesh and Entrails were gone But St. Paul has made up the Christian Sacrifice full and compleat 1 Cor. 6. 20. Glorifie God in your body and in your spirit and he has given us a very good reason why each of them should be employ'd because both are God's both bought with a price and therefore 't is no less than such a kind of Sacriledge as was that of Ananias and Saphyra to keep back any part of this price to make any reserve where all is God's Our Bodies and Souls cannot be parted here and 't is the Devil that would fain divide them And therefore well knowing that God would be glorified in both he required but one part of Christ for his share only the homage of his outward Man being assured that if God had not both he would have neither But not to trouble you with the proof of so clear a truth let it be our endeavour so to present each part to God that it may be acceptable And first Our Bodies The Psalmist prophetically bringing in Christ into the World shapes him a Body A Body hast thou prepared me Psal. 40. 5. For what end and purpose It follows ver 7. To doe thy will O God And we must endeavour so to fit and prepare ours that by them God's will may be done too And that we shall doe by making them as much as in us lyes Spiritual and Angelical active and nimble in the Service of God by laying aside every weight that clogs and renders them unapt for that service by keeping them under and making them servants to those Souls which have a natural right over them by preserving these garments of the Soul unspotted from the world and by the flesh so far should we be from presenting God with Bodies worn out in the drudgery of Sin and Satan and which have as it were pass'd through the fire to Moloch to whom our Souls like Mezentius guests in the Poet are ty'd as to so many loathsome Carkasses Bodies not of God's making but of our own ours indeed appropriated to us but not such as the Apostle here beseecheth us to offer up unto God But then 2. As our Souls doe as far exceed our Bodies as Jewels doe their Caskets so should our main care be for them so to adorn and enrich them with all spiritual graces that they may be fit presents for God For if our Souls which are but like Salt to keep our Bodies from Corruption shall themselves be rotten and unsavoury wherewith shall they be seasoned Now as these have their fleshly part too which must be mortified and consumed so have they their spiritual part which must be refined St. Paul calls it the spirit of our mind Eph. 4. 23. wherein we are chiefly to be renewed viz. the superior faculties of Reason and Understanding which we are to offer up unto God as the purest part of our Sacrifice and which is properly our Reasonable service For God who is a God of Understanding is to be worshipped purâ mente in those faculties which carry in them a more express character of his Image and whereby we doe in a more especial manner partake of the divine Nature as we doe by our Reason which in a Heathen's expression is nothing else but Deus in humano corpore hospitans And this we give up to Him when we wholly resign it up to his Wisedom when we sacrifice this our Isaac at the foot of his Altar We give Him our Wit by maintaining his Truths and our Memory by treasuring them up We give Him our Thoughts by meditating on his Word and Works Our Wills by thoroughly conforming them to his Will and our Affections by setting them on things above 3. And this is properly that Sacrifice which the Text enjoyns us alluding to that manner of Worship which was ever in
the work of Man's Redemption which could not have been perform'd but in such a Body as his own nor could the Seed of the Woman be said to bruise the Serpent's head had not Christ been conceived of that Seed nor the Promise renew'd to Abraham Gen. 22. 18. In thy seed shall all the Nations of the Earth be blessed have been made good had not the Mother of our Lord descended from his loins too And surely well may she be call'd Blessed without whom we could never have been so since 't was she that furnish'd those Materials that repair'd our ruines from whose Bloud also flow'd that most pretious One which alone can cleanse and redeem us Our Mother Eve could brag when she had brought forth her first-begotten and he but an untoward Child for St. John tells us he was of that wicked one the Devil 1 John 3. 12. as all other Reprobates are there said to be vers 10. I have gotten a Man from the Lord Gen. 4. 1. i. e. as some interpret the words That famous Man the Lord fancying Cain to be that Seed of the Woman that should bruise the Serpent's head But how truly may each of us now say Possedi Deum per Virginem I have gotten the Lord my Redeemer by the means of a pure Virgin of whom my Saviour was made Man that I might be made the Son of God How much better may the Virgin Mary deserve the name of the Mother of all the Living than Eve did Gen. 3. 20. who at best convey'd unto us but a Natural whereas the former a Spiritual life in giving us Him who is the Life so far was Eve from being Mater Viventium in this sense that she brought forth all her Posterity still-born into the World dead in trespasses and sins She indeed hearkned to the Suggestions of an evil Spirit but the Holy Virgin to the Message of a good one If she were the Mother of the Living then this of the Predestinate and if by the former Satan bruised our heel by this Anti-Eve we crush his head being instated in a better condition than we had forfeited Now if they who were the first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Benefactors to Mankind were thought worthy of divine Honours the first occasion of Idolatry there being nothing that renders a person more like God than to doe good especially to oblige all Manking nothing that could raise such Persons so high in the Esteem of Mortals as such a large and comprehensive Goodness surely none came so near the Almighty in this so divine a quality as the Holy Virgin did by whose means not only the Inhabitants of the Earth but in some sort too those of Heaven became certainly and immutably Blessed confirm'd in such a state of happiness by her Son as they are uncapable of losing And therefore well might the Angel pronounce her Blessed who with the rest of his Order were so much obliged by her And surely all generations of Men much more who in part owe unto her their recovery and those hopes they have of being one day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 alike Blessed with them and if St. Paul was Blessed in being a chosen Vessel to bear Christ's name then the Holy Virgin much more by conveying a humane Nature to him who alone makes us partakers of the divine one All these advantages had the Mother of God glorious indeed but not the chiefest part of her happiness nor was she to value her self for her relation purely considered in its self Yea rather Blessed are they says our Lord who hear the Word of God and keep it Whereby it appears how little he set by any carnal propinquity and how much nearer and dearer to him the Righteous are than his own bloud not that he did in the least despise his Parents for his own Example preaches Subjection to them Luke 2. 51. but only preferr Spiritual kindred to Carnal as he often does letting us know That to doe the will of his Father which is in Heaven is to be his Brother Sister and Mother Matth. 12. 50. That true Christian Heraldry is founded in Grace and not in Bloud That to be joined unto him in one Spirit is a closer Union than to be united to him in the flesh and to be obedient to his Commands far more advantageous than to relate to his Person Nay so little would our Lord have us too to prize such outward things as these that unless in some cases we hate Father and Mother Wife and Children Brethren and our selves too he plainly tells us we cannot be his Disciples Luke 14. 26. And for this reason Moses blessed Levi Deut. 33. 9. Who said unto his Father and to his Mother I have not seen him neither did he acknowledge his Brethren nor knew his own Children but observed God's Word and kept his Covenant This is certain that all outward favours and privileges how pompous soever in themselves are wholly insignificant and ineffectual without the grace of Obedience being at best but gratioe gratis datoe non gratum facientes rather ornaments than benefits which as we are not thanklesly to over-slip so neither presumptuously to over-ween See how little account St. Paul makes of them 2 Cor. 5. 16. Though we have known Christ after the flesh have familiarly convers'd with him been eye-witnesses of all those glorious things he did as his Apostles yet now henceforth know we him no more we disclaim all such carnal acquaintance and if we should know Christ no better he would not know us nor own us for his we might be nearly related to him and yet be far enough from him and without him for so 't is expresly recorded of some of his Brethren that they did not believe in him Joh. 7. 5. So far were they from looking upon him as their Saviour that they took him for no better than a mad-man one besides himself Mark 3. 21. though in process of time some of them indeed became his disciples and no doubt of Christ's Genealogy not a few were eternally lost The Jews much prided themselves in being Abraham's sons and yet one of them that calls himself so fryes in Hell What did it avail Saul to be a Prophet or Judas an Apostle when such privileges serv'd them for no other purpose but to enhanse their damnation We reade not of any dignified with more glorious Prerogatives than these two the Blessed Virgin and St. John the Evangelist the one for bearing our Saviour in her Womb and the other for leaning on his Breast yet how little had these things benefited them had not Faith and Piety seasoned such outward privileges and made them as gracious as they were glorious Happier Mary for bearing Christ's Sayings in her Heart than Himself in her Womb in that she partook of the Merit than imparted the Matter and Substance of his bloud 'T was not so much the loveliness of her Motherhood as the lowliness of her Handmaidship that He regarded
fondly dream which the Prophets of old might nay every good and vertuous Man may still doe and in this sense become our Saviour as well as He And therefore St. Peter plainly distinguishes these things between Christ's suffering for us and his leaving us an example 1 Pet. 2. 21. And the Scripture every-where is express to this purpose That Christ came to give himself a ransome for all so says St. Paul 1 Tim. 2. 6. Nay so says Christ Himself Mat. 20. 28. He came to satisfie for us the clear import of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the like words so frequently occurring in Scripture and of those expressions of St. Paul of Christ's being made sin and a curse for us his blotting out the hand-writing of Ordinances that was against us and the like These were the several ways whereby Christ freed us and this was the main design and end of his coming in the flesh this day and we can never truly value the Blessing of it but by reflecting on the Misery of our former slavery whereby we became Servants to Corruption and so beneath and viler than Corruption its self as the Servant is below his Master the Condition of every one that committeth sin and is at the mercy and under the power thereof its eternal drudge forc'd to go and come as it bids him and consequently lay under the guilt of Sin and so obnoxious to God's Judgment and under the sentence and condemnation of Death all our life-time subject to this bondage too and at the mercy of our most cruel and implacable enemy the Devil who could have no power over us but what our Sin gave him And now that we are restored to this glorious Liberty of the Sons of God let us stand fast in this our Liberty The Son of God has done his part He has made us free indeed if we will be so for nothing can re-enslave us but our own wills and 't is strange we should desire to be slaves when we may be free nay a strange choice this rather to be Sin and Satan's slaves than God's free-men To be not so much conquered by Hell as willingly subject to it not so much Press'd men as Volunteers in its Service To be led by Satan at his will and with our own too in love with his chains of darkness and desirous to have our Ears bored through with his Awl in token of our Eternal vassalage Doubtless Christ by coming down from Heaven never design'd Redemption for such willing Slaves never intended to buy them who sell him and that for naught as every Sinner doth nay who sell themselves with Ahab to doe wickedly He did not put such a price into fools hands that will not sue out their freedom with it nor give men this liberty only to be licentious and so no otherwise free than as St. Paul expresseth it from righteousness Did He therefore break off Sin and Satan's yoke from our necks that we should cast off his or make us the Sons of God that we should make our selves the Sons of Belial impatient of any yoke though it be of his own most easie and light one Did He therefore cancel our old debts that we should study to make new ones as if the end of his coming in the flesh had not been to redeem us from our old Conversation but to it No sure He came to buy us Ye are bought with a price says our Apostle and therefore ought we to glorifie God in our bodies and in our spirits which are Gods God's as well by right of Redemption as of Creation If we be delivered by Him from the hand of our Ghostly Enemies 't is that we should serve Him without fear indeed but not cast off his fear And surely the obligation is very strong and binding and the Consequence unavoidable He hath saved us and therefore we must serve Him promote the honour of our Deliverer and advance the interest of this our great Lord and Master Servants says the Philosopher are but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 living Tools or Instruments to be used or employed at the discretion of their Masters They are not sui juris not their own Men and all that they acquire is for him they serve Nay by the Civil Law ingratitude to their deliverer did make Men forfeit the benefit of their freedom And surely if we abuse Ours and Him that bestows it Our Lord may justly return us to our former slavery make us Satan's slaves once more who refuse to be God's freemen and his slaves we are while bound unto him by any one of his Chains and since the least of them will be strong enough to tie us fast to him let us break all his bonds asunder and cast away all his cords from us An Obligation which lyes upon us as at all times so now especially when we are to partake of the benefit of that Redemption Christ has wrought out for us His Bloud was the price of it In whom we have Redemption through his bloud the Remission of sins Ephes. 1. 7. and the Cross the Altar where that price was paid or else there could have been no perfect reconciliation for us So the same Apostle Col. 1. 20. Having made peace through the bloud of his Cross by him to reconcile all things So that remission of sins peace with God and with our selves freedom from the slavery of Sin Death and Satan all this is the purchase of Christ's bloud shed upon his Cross and apply'd to us in his blessed Sacrament to which we are now invited Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will refresh you says Christ Mat. 11. 28. In like manner does he bespeak us here too Come unto me all ye that are in bondage to Sin and Satan and I will release you Subdue the power of them by my grace and restore you at last to the glorious Liberty of the Sons of God Let the door-posts of your Hearts be sprinkled with my bloud and the destroying Angel shall pass and not hurt you O let us then hearken to His most gratious invitation and having such encouragement draw near to his Holy Table with a true heart in full assurance of faith and for the time to come wholly give up our selves to Him who gave Himself for us this day of his Birth by taking our Flesh and now offers up Himself again for us at his Passion whereof this Sacrament is so lively a representation and seal of our Redemption In a word as Christ has redeemed us so let us for the time to come walk as the redeemed of the Lord and his peculiar people that so we may obtain those Blessings which belong to such both here and hereafter Which God of his infinite Mercy grant c. Amen A SERMON PREACHED The Sunday after Christmas TITUS II. 14. Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity
turn'd Men into destruction to say Come again ye Children of Men. If the Disputer of this World the conceited Rationalist should deny a possibility of a return from a privation to a habit a re-production of the same thing once corrupted Let me ask him why that God who created our Bodies out of nothing cannot be able to recall them out of something For since even Philosophy its self will grant that in every dissolution the parts dissolved doe not perish the Materials still continuing All the Skill here will be but to join and reunite the scattered parcels Quasi non majoris miraculi sit animare quà m jungere Tertullian's reasoning here is very concluding and we cannot resist the argument Utique idoneus est reficere qui fecit quanto plus est fecisse quam refecisse initium dedisse quà m reddidisse Ita restitutionem carnis faciliorem credas institutione An Artificer can take a Watch or Clock asunder and put it together again and shall not the great Creator be able to doe as much here to re-unite what he has severed having still reserved the loose scattered pieces and fragments The separation of our Bodies and Souls by death as 't was violent so their desire of re-union being natural shall not be frustrated They are incompleat Substances in that state and long for their perfection which is their re-union for by that are the spirits of just Men departed made perfect and God will not leave them in an imperfect condition lest a power and inclination should for ever be in the root and never rise up to fruit This may suffice to silence though not to satisfie Natural reason especially if we consider that many Philosophers have had strong apprehensions of a Resurrection upon the dissolution of the World by fire a reduction of all things to a better state as Seneca terms it Nor was there any Article of the Faith more generally believed among the Jews than this as appears by Joh. 12. 24. and Act. 23. 8. The Patriarchs were certain of it witness their great care before their death to have their Bones carried away by the Children of Israel out of Egypt that they might be buried in Abraham's Field out of a hope no doubt of being the first that by vertue of Christ's Resurrection might rise from the dead as 't is very probable they were of the Number of those many Saints which arose and came out of their Graves after his Resurrection and went into the holy City and appeared unto many Matth. 27. 53. But then to the Faith of a Christian nothing is so easie as a Resurrection since God's Word clearly tells us That Christ is our Resurrection and our Life Joh. 11. 25. and that our life which is now hid with him in God shall one day be revealed Colos. 3. 3. That God is not the God of the dead but of the living Matth. 22. 32. Nay the Lord of dead and living Rom. 14. 9. For that he will one day raise them up to life again For the dead Bodies of Saints while they lye rotting in the Grave being still united to Christ as his Body there was to the Deity cannot be for ever separate from him the Members must at last be joined to their Head If the first-fruits be risen the whole lump shall follow Not one hair of our head shall perish He that numbers the sand of the Sea numbers our dust nor can the least Attom escape him All our members are written in God's book He that puts our tears into his bottle locks up the pretious dust of his Saints in his Cabinet can recall our dispers'd Ashes and require our Bloud of every Beast that has drunk it fetch those several parcels of us which have been buried in a thousand living Graves and been made a part of those Graves which have devoured them God can make the Earth cast out her dead cause the Sea to disgorge them and our dry bones to gather together as in Ezekiel's Vision ch 37. He that calleth all the Stars by their names knows his by name for their names are written in Heaven and will call them by their names as he did Lazarus bid them come forth and by bidding enable them to doe so in spight of all their bands Now that we may be of the number and partake of the lot of these happy ones we must hear Christ's voice here calling us to repentance and newness of life that we may hear that with comfort which shall hereafter call us to Judgment and be able to answer it with joy and confidence Here we are Let us be sure of our part in the first Resurrection that the second death may have no power over us All shall one day be raised All must one day appear before the Judgment-seat of Christ good and bad But there is a Resurrection of damnation for these and for those of life Both shall come out of their Dungeons but the one like Pharaoh's Baker to an Execution the other like his Butler to an Exaltation The former shall have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the latter only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sinners shall arise but the godly be quickned How happy would it be for wicked Men if they should never have been born or should never rise again since they shall rise no otherwise than as drowsie Malefactors who lying down with their Sentence are afterwards awakened to be set on the Rack But 't is not so with the Godly who sleeping in Christ doe rest in hope I would not have you ignorant Brethren concerning them which are asleep says St. Paul that ye sorrow not even as other which have no hope For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him What doest thou fear then O good Christian Sin Behold the Resurrection of thy Redeemer publishes thy discharge Thy Surety has been arrested and cast into the prison of his Grave for thee Had not the utmost farthing of thine Arrearages been paid he could not have come forth But now that thou seest he is come forth now that the summ is fully satisfied what danger can there be of a discharged debt Or is it the Wrath of God thou dreadest Wherefore is that but for Sin And if thy Sin be defrayed that quarrel is at an end And if thy Saviour suffered it for thee how canst thou fear to suffer it in thy self Surely that infinite Justice hates to be twice paid He is risen and therefore he hath satisfied Who is he that condemneth It is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again Rom. 8. 34. Lastly Is it Death that affrights thee Behold thy Saviour overcoming Death by dying and triumphing over it in his Resurrection And canst thou fear a conquered Enemy What harm is there in this Serpent but for his sting The sting of death is sin And when thou seest
therefore this truth for granted I shall only speak to his Office described here by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies two things 1. A Comforter 2. An Advocate 1. A Comforter and such He was to be 1. To the Apostles themselves 2. To the whole Church 3. To each faithfull Believer 1. To the Apostles themselves It was indeed a seasonable time to talk to them of a Comforter when sorrow and distress were coming upon them and they were to be as sheep without a shepherd They had left all for Christ but while he was with them they found all in Him who was dearer to them than all their possessions While He lived with them their joy and satisfaction was full and compleat but a joy that was to last no longer than his Corporal presence which the Holy Spirit was to supply and that abundantly For although they could no longer have recourse to their Lord for Resolution of Doubts or Protection from Dangers yet should they not want an Oracle to clear the one nor a Sanctuary to secure them from the other The Holy Ghost should both enlighten their Understandings and dispell their Fears Being endewed with power from on high Afflictions themselves should prove Consolations unto them and they should find more satisfaction in their very Sufferings than worldly Men in their highest Enjoyments as we find they did Act. 5. 41. when departing from the presence of the Counsel they rejoyced and that with joy unspeakable that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for Christ's Name But then 2. The Holy Ghost was to be a Comforter not only to the Apostles but to the whole Church of God The Father under the ancient legal Dispensation was a severe Law-giver rewarding Obedience and strictly punishing Rebellion He appeared terrible on Mount Sinai Nothing was to be seen there but Fire and Smoak and thick Darkness Nothing to be heard but Thunder and the Trump of an Angel insomuch that Moses himself trembled and quaked Such an Appearance suiting well with the Promulgation of the Law as denouncing nothing but Woes and Curses to Offenders But under the Gospel-Oeconomy there was another face of things The Son of God while in the Flesh had no such marks of terror and severity attending him more proper to a Creator than a Redeemer He came not with a Rod but in the Spirit of Meekness His condition was a condition of Humility agreeable to one whose Kingdom was not of this World and suitable to his appearance in the Flesh was that of the Holy Ghost whose descent was indeed in Fire but to warm and cherish not to consume In a mighty rushing Wind to represent his divine Power and Efficacy not his Impetuosity 'T was not such a Wind as God came to Elijah in which rent the Mountains and brake the Rocks in pieces The motions of the Holy Spirit are not violent He does not affright those He lights on nor create Fear but Love in that Heart he fills 'T is He that makes us cry Abba Father That begets in us a holy generous Confidence and speaks peace to his People The cords he brings with Him are those of a Man such as chain and captivate Hearts The Oeconomy of the Divine Spirit was to be an Oeconomy of Sweetness and Consolation to the Church becoming the Gospel of Peace and the God of all Consolation 3. The Holy Ghost was to be a Comforter to all true Believers not only as begetting Faith in their Hearts and dispelling that Darkness which naturally possesseth their Understandings but as giving them Peace of Conscience and that unspeakable joy which the World is unacquainted with and cannot take from them Hence He is said to seal them unto the day of their Redemption Ephes. 4. 30. To be the Earnest of their heavenly Inheritance and to make them fore-tast the joys of Heaven here on Earth What comfort what ravishing joys does he still raise in the Souls of all the Faithfull by the apprehension and sense he gives them of the Love of God and that certain hope they have by him of enjoying Him in Heaven Grace is the Paradise of the Soul Holiness its Crown and the assurance it has of God's Love to it the choicest flower of that Crown Nor is he thus only a Comforter to each true Believer but he is so too as his Teacher and another-guess Teacher than Men are to one another For let their Methods of Teaching be never so perspicuous and their care and pains to inform us never so great yet when all is done they cannot communicate unto us either clearness of Apprehension faithfulness of Memory or soundness of Judgment and where they find us dull or stupid all their pains and skill are but thrown away upon us But the Holy Ghost does so teach as withall to change the natural temper and disposition of men's Minds working so upon their Understandings by the clearness and evidence of those Reasons he proposeth that they are not able to resist or stand out against the force of his Demonstrations drawing them to Him in so sweet and yet effectual a manner that although sensible of the effect yet the way of his Attraction is as imperceptible to them as the power thereof is uncontroulable The Manner of the Holy Spirit 's operation on Believers now is very different from that on the Prophets of old which was so forcible that Elisha could not Prophecy without the help of Musick to compose and tune his Spirit But under the Gospel-Dispensation the Holy Ghost deals otherwise with his Servants No such Enthusiasms or Transports here Their Understandings are enlightned without any disturbance to their Bodies They receive the Holy Ghost's Inspirations without the least astonishment or discomposure while he gently glides and descends into them like rain into a fleece of wool in the Prophet David's expression Psal. 72. 6. And thus the Holy Ghost is a Comforter But then 2dly He is withall an Advocate The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly signifies so much one that maintains the Cause of a Criminal or at least of an Accused Person Now the Spirit does so by justifying our Persons and pleading our Causes against the Accusations of our Spiritual Enemies 1. Against the Severity of God's Law and that most righteous undeniable Charge of Sin laid thereby upon us 2dly Against the Devil who we know is styled the Accuser of the Brethren and doth not only load our Sins upon our Consciences but farther endeavoureth to exclude us from the benefit of Christ by charging us with Impenitency and Unbelief Here the Spirit enableth us to clear our selves against this Father of lyes to secure our Title to Heaven against the Sophistical Exceptions of this our subtle Adversary and when by Temptations our Eye is dimmed or by the mixture of Corruptions our Evidences defaced he by his Skill helpeth our infirmities and bringeth those things which are blotted out and forgotten into our
inconvenient for his Apostles that He should still have remained with them considering how carnally affected they were to him Nay very convenient it was for them that he should withdraw his Presence when they grew too fond of it as we see Mothers deal with their little Children in the like case We know nothing would satisfie them but Christ's Flesh and his fleshly Presence nothing but that still them And we know who said If thou hadst been here Lord As if absent he had not been as able to doe it by his Spirit as present by his Body We know also that St. Peter would have built him a Tabernacle to keep him still on Earth and ever and anon his Disciples were dreaming of an Earthly Kingdom and their chief Seats therein All their Thoughts and Fancies being gross and carnal 't was time to refine them They were not to be held as Children still but to grow to Men's estate to perfect age and strength If they had hitherto known Christ after the flesh 't was fit that henceforth they should thus know him no more And so 't is for all Christians too who so long as they should stand affected in like sort as the Apostles here were would no doubt run into the same error with them as to conceit they could not be without Christ's bodily Presence though the Spirit it self should supply it Surely 't is much better for us by faith to converse with Christ in Heaven than by sight to behold him on Earth Because thou hast seen thou believest says he to St. Thomas Blessed are they that have not seen and yet believe Joh. 20. 19. Better it is for us to look to those things that are not seen than to those that are seen The time will come when it shall be our chiefest happiness to see our Redeemer as Job says with these fleshly Eyes we carry about us But that we cannot now doe or if we could that very sight would but astonish and confound us The only Glass to behold him in here is his Gospel as the only place to find him in is Heaven Thither he is now gone from us and 't is well for us as it was for his Apostles that he is so and so hath left us to the guidance and conduct of his Spirit Nay I dare say farther that 't is expedient for us Christians that Christ should withdraw even his Spiritual Presence from us in some cases As 1. when we grow faint in seeking and careless in keeping him When with the Spouse in the Canticles we lye in bed and take him there When 2. we grow high conceited of our selves and say with David We shall never be moved Psal. 30. 7. But then may it not be said If Christ leave us if he withdraw his spiritual Presence from us shall we not then fall into Sin And can that be expedient for any one of us It is good that I have been in trouble for before I was troubled I went wrong says David Psal. 119. 67. But is it good for any of us to fall into Sin If I should say so I have St. Augustine's warrant for it Audeo dicere I dare affirm says that Father Expedit superbo ut incidat in peccatum It is not amiss sometimes for a proud Man to fall with David and Peter into some notorious Sin to fill his Face with shame and to teach him Humility That this Messenger of Satan should sometimes thus buffet him as he did St. Paul to keep him down for the Holy Ghost will not come to him till he find him in this posture He will come to none rest on none nor give grace to none but to the humble In all respects then we see how expedient it is that Christ should leave us that he should withdraw himself from us as he did from his Apostles that he should go away to prepare a place for us where we may be with him for ever and that we should prepare our selves too for that better place he hath prepared for us by withdrawing our Thoughts and Affections from that we now are in For if that fond affection the Apostles had for his corporal Presence was a hinderance to the Spirit 's coming to them much more will our impure earthly ones keep him off from us Nor ought we to be troubled but rather to rejoyce that Christ our forerunner is gone before to take possession of a heavenly place for us in his flesh or to imagine that we shall lose any thing by his absence as if his Spirit could not abundantly make up that loss or that with his bodily Presence he had withdrawn his love or care from us In the midst of his Glories he still minds us He is not only a compassionate High-Priest to pity but an Advocate to plead and an Intercessor still to mediate for us Amidst the Angelical Acclamations and Hallelujahs he not only hears our sighs and groans but joyns in the Consort and shares with us too in our Sufferings Nay it is now that he is most intimately present with us that he dwells in our hearts by faith and if thereby we hold him fast he will then never leave us at least never leave us comfortless no more than he did his Apostles but will send the Holy Ghost to comfort us as he did them for his promise of sending him was not so ty'd up to them as to exclude us but is general here to all the faithfull If I depart I will send him unto you And thus we see how expedient and necessary it was that our Lord should depart that his Holy Spirit might come to us That without his Ascension-day there had been no Pentecost for us and so we should have wanted our Comforter and all those inestimable Blessings He brings along with Him 1. For had He not come the work of our Salvation had been but half done 'T is true indeed that our Lord just as he breathed out his Soul on the Cross did pronounce a Consummatum est and if we consider the Work it self he compleated all he came to doe for us here below for he exactly performed the part of a Mediator by putting an end to all the Ceremonies of the Law which prefigured Him but in regard of us and making that his work ours all had not been finished without the Coming of the Holy Ghost For to speak after the manner of Men we know a Word though written a Deed is of no force till the Seal be added 't is that which makes it Authentical Christ is indeed the Word but the Holy Ghost is the Seal In whom ye are sealed unto the day of Redemption Ephes. 4. 30. 2. Nor is this all The Will of a Testator is of no force when sealed till Administration be granted Christ is the Mediator of the New Testament Heb. 9. 15. But the Administration is the Spirit 's 1 Cor. 12. 11. And without that the Testament is of no
respect of doctrines to be examined full and adequate And to this we are sent by Moses to judge of a Prophet Deut. 13. 1 2 3. where though a Prophet should work Miracles or foretell things to come yet if he delivered any doctrine contrary to the Precepts of the Law he was to be rejected The very Rule St. Paul gives us too 1 Tim. 6. 3. If any man teach otherwise or any other thing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and consent not to wholsom words even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and to the doctrine which is according to godliness he is proud knowing nothing So Gal. 1. 8 9. Though we or an Angel from Heaven preach any other Gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you let him be accursed Here then is the Test all doctrines are to be brought to viz. to the Written Word of God to the Law and to the Testimony we must weigh them all in the Balance of the Sanctuary and judge of them by that Analogy and Proportion of Faith mentioned Rom. 12. 6. That form of doctrine delivered Rom. 6. 17. and of sound words 2 Tim. 1. 13. That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the whole Body as I may call it of divine Truths between the parts and members whereof there is an exact harmony so that as in the natural body a member would become monstrous should it exceed its due proportion to the other its fellow members if we carefully compare a doctrine concerning one Article with a truth concerning others we may then exactly judge of the part by its symmetry and proportion to the whole Where-ever then we find any doctrine either expresly contained in Scripture or deducible thence by necessary consequence and agreeing to the Analogy or Proportion of the Christian Faith we may conclude it is of God if not to be none of his Every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh that denies his Incarnation or his Gospel is not of God no more than that doctrine can be which tends to the drawing us off from Christ and the promoting the interest of Sin and Satan and they who bring any such doctrine are infallibly Satan's Emissaries not Christ's Apostles Their very Speech bewrayeth them and we may easily distinguish them by their Shiboleth Their corrupt and abominable doctrines will certainly tell us whom they belong to 2. A Second sort of Fruits whereby we are to distinguish false Prophets from true ones are their corrupt practices the natural issues of their corrupt doctrines Heresies are indeed properly seated in the Understanding and yet Saint Paul ranks them among the works of the Flesh Gal. 5. 20. because they dispose us to and ever determine in them Men first dream says St. Jude i. e. are intoxicated with their own fantastical and carnal opinions and then defile the flesh first cast off all obedience to God and then to men by despising Dominions and speaking evil of Dignities It has therefore been a constant Observation that most Hereticks have been Ill-livers and the Scripture still brands them where-ever it mentions them sometimes with the Character of Boasters otherwhiles of Flatters and Men-pleasers sometimes representing them as Self-seekers and doing all for filthy lucres sake at other times as ambitious and affecting pre-eminence sometimes cruel as Wolves and sometimes subtle and insinuative as Serpents working upon the weakness of silly People laden with iniquity as Satan did on Eve and soothing them in their Corruptions to keep them fast and maintain a Party being full of all impurity themselves notwithstanding all their braggs of extraordinary light and sanctity such as the Scripture describes the Gnosticks to be who professing to know God much better than all other Christians did in works deny him and were abominable disobedient and to every good work reprobate 'T is true indeed that the first addresses of false prophets are usually made with all the semblances and exterior appearances of holiness but those appearances prove no better at last than fantastical illusions like false meteors which after a little blaze usually expire in a stench Nemo potest diu personam ferre Those vizards Seducers put on either fall off of themselves or are so transparent that every prying eye may see through them The sheeps-cloathing is too thin a veil to conceal the Wolf though he wrap himself up never so close in it The very affectation of Sanctity renders the pretenders to it suspected and their too much subtlety oft betrays them nothing being so gross and palpable as too curious a disguise Truth as it is always constant to it self the same yesterday to day and for ever so are they who teach and follow it Their lives will still be answerable to their Principles and we shall seldom or never find them halting They are no wandring Planets but fixt Stars that know no excentrick motions 'T is not so with them who have but the form of godliness These wax worse and worse and their folly will at last be made manifest to all men who have but any common reason and prudence to try them Their golden heads are supported by feet of clay If they seem to begin in the Spirit they end in the Flesh. Sometimes you shall find them stooping low but 't is to mount the higher at other times soaring high but if you follow them with your eye you shall quickly see them lighting on some carrion Their pretence is Zeal but their design Gain God is in their mouths and Diana in their hearts Notwithstanding all their feigned mortifications and abstinences 't is their Belly they serve and not Christ. Observe then their carriage all along This truly speaks a man and what he does and does constantly to be sure That he is For though every bad act denominates not a Sinner as we are not to call Noah a Drunkard because he was once overtaken with Wine yet a bad habit does Some withered or blasted fruit may possibly be found on a good tree but that must needs be a bad one which constantly yields bad fruit Here then is the tryal of a false Prophet and therefore the Pharisees themselves did not argue amiss Joh. 9. 16. This man is not of God because he keepeth not the sabbath-day The Proposition was sound had they not mistaken themselves in the Assumption He that keepeth not the Sabbath is not of God We may safely reason in like manner He that transgresseth Christ's Law can never be a true Disciple of his no more than he who teaches men to doe so his true Apostle But because each of these fruits distinctly considered may prove but a partial and incomplete Rule whereby to judge of men according to that of Seneca De toto non de partibus judicandum Let us put both together and we shall be sure then not to be mistaken The doctrines and practices of men in conjunction will prove a true glass to
the World and is as ancient as Religion it self 'T was so before and under the Law Abel Noah Job sacrificed then And under the Law the Jews were expresly commanded so to doe Exod. 8. 20. 10. 26. And as Nature did of old so does it still prompt Heathens to this way of worship thereby doing homage to the great Creator and acknowledging him Lord of all things and themselves absolutely depending on Him For Almighty God from whom we had all our subsistence hath in all Ages required one thing of us back again that we should repay something as an acknowledgment that he deserv'd all and hence probably came the Original of Sacrifices But the Jews were instructed in another super-added meaning of that custome besides viz. That God was not only to be adored as a Lord but to be appeased as a Judge his Empire by being so owned was to be dreaded too When we slew our Beasts we were to remember that our selves deserv'd that death we inflicted and punished only what we were to have endured That innocent Beasts were to be offered up for guilty Men and what was due to the Sacrificer was to be laid on the head of the Sacrifice Et viles animas pro meliore damus Poor man whose sin hath brought him to so great a distance from his Maker that the very Beasts must set him nearer Sin hath strangely transform'd us that we are not to approach Heaven unless a Brute make way Man is plac'd in a strange order of being when 't is a disputable case whether Beasts are below or above him On the one hand we command them on the other they attone for us Here we give Laws to them There we beg pardon by them We feast upon and we sacrifice by them They are our luxury and they expiate it by them we sin and we pray who make up so much of our crime and our devotion too make up a great part of our guilt and then remove it Here God hath certainly represented unto us the meanness of sin by the vileness of the price that is paid for it and Man is fallen into an order below that out of which he takes his Intercessor But however the Jews or other Nations might think that Sacrifices could remove the guilt certainly they did but upbraid it and rather signifie our death than remove it It is not possible that the bloud of Bulls and of Goats should take away sin There is need of better bloud to satisfie the God that is offended and there must be other Purgations for the Conscience that is defiled The Law was in its Ways and Institutions too weak for so high a purpose It could little more than adumbrate what the Gospel did perform St. Paul who understood the Nature of Judaism handles that argument in all his Epistles especially in this and that to the Hebrews and there useth those terms which express not how the Law of Christ doth oppose that of Moses but how it doth exceed it how it does accomplish what that did barely signifie and by their figures expresses our duties He does not take away Sacrifice for without Sacrifice no Religion but only change it For the Law being changed it is necessary that the Sacrifice should be so too That what was before Carnal should now be wholly Spiritual That now Men should be sacrificed instead of Beasts That Innocence and Meekness should be the Dove or the Lamb and Lust the Goat The Heart the only Altar Mortification the Knife and Charity the true Fire In a word Devotion now is the proper Sacrifice of a Christian and Himself the Temple the Priest and Sacrifice too Whereby we may clearly see how much more favourably God deals with us Christians than he did with the Jews among whom certain persons had right to sacrifice and at certain places and times whereas now those distinctions are quite taken away every Christian being a Priest of a nobler order than that of Aaron and not confin'd either to time or place 2ly In that God requires not now of us such an expensive Devotion as formerly he did of the Jews no herds of Bulls and Rams nor Rivers of oil no such costly Sacrifice as Solomon offered up at the Dedication of the Temple and such as would perhaps undo us We need not go to the herds to fetch an Offering were we now to sacrifice as did the Jews the loss of a Beast would perhaps restrain us more than the sense of God's anger or our own demerit But here he that cannot give a Lamb for his Transgression may give some of himself offer hunger for shew-bread and thirst for a drink-offering consecrate a meal instead of a beast and shed a sowr fasting sigh for incense And such an easie way no doubt we will well like of who as we can object that legal Sacrifices were an insufficient expiation can at the same time quarrel with them too for being an expensive one When we rejoice that we are to be atton'd by a nobler Sacrifice we are better pleased perhaps that it is also a cheaper one But are our Beasts spared from the Altar think we only to glut our Tables Hath the great God remitted them only for the sake of our other God our Bellies Is our devotion chang'd only to gratifie our lusts or shall we be content to offer up to God what costs us nothing God did indeed once say That He did not eat the flesh of Bulls or drink the bloud of Goats But there is a sense in which he does doe both viz. when a poor Man feeds upon them Then do we attone for Gluttony when we feed the Hungry Restitution expiates for Injustice and Charity for Rapine And thus St. Paul calls Alms An odour of a sweet smell A sacrifice acceptable well-pleasing to God Phil. 4. 18. Heb. 13. 16. And not only our Charity but our Prayers our Faith our Praises our Obedience our Repentance and Mortification are in Scripture language Sacrifices too and such as without them all others are but abominations to the Lord Prov. 15. 8. Dead Carkasses not living Sacrifices which is the first property here required to render them acceptable I beseech you Brethren that you present your bodies a living Sacrifice And that 't will be 1. If it be a dying one The Beasts heretofore we know dyed when they were sacrificed Mortification is the life of a Christian If ye through the spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live says our Apostle Rom. 8. 13. 2. A living That is A quick and active Sacrifice The Soul of a Christian as well as of a Man is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a kind of perpetual motion And therefore those Blessed spirits whose activity in God's service Christ proposeth to our imitation are by the Psalmist styled a flaming fire active and restless for God's glory That Maxim in Tully De natura deorum Qui nihil agit
esse omnino non videtur is most true in matter of Piety Here 't is the same thing not to be as not to be doing Nor was it without reason that the Stoick observing one given over to a Lethargy of Ease and Idleness pronounceth him morally dead and makes his Epitaph Vacia hic situs est so does Saint Paul her that lives in pleasure That she is dead while she liveth 1 Tim. 5. 6. And surely we may well conclude him sick in Religion whose Pulse beats slow and dead when it ceases and to have a name only that he lives Rev. 3. 1. 3ly Those things we count living that move of themselves not like an Engine or Automatum Alienis mobile nervis Compelled service to God is but a lame offering and as unacceptable in the Gospel as it was in the Law Heathens counted it an ill presage when their sacrifices did not as it were court their own deaths nor will ours pass for any better in the sight of God if they come with reluctancy and dragg'd as it were to his Altar The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here implies a voluntary Act an offering-up of our selves not a being offered up God who gives us all things freely does Himself also love a chearfull giver Lastly Our Sacrifice will then be a living one when 't is offered up in Faith and Love For as Faith is the true life of a Saint The Just shall live by faith says the Prophet Habac. 2. 4. so without that 't is impossible to please God says our Apostle Heb. 11. 6. Our gifts will be as unacceptable without our persons as Cain's was And where there is no Love our hand only presents them not our heart the only true Altar that sanctifies our gifts But then 2ly As our Sacrifice must be a living so a holy one For without holiness it can never please a holy God And we find that for want of this necessary qualification he often disclaims nay seems to abhorr what Himself had commanded in the time of the Law Now to make our Sacrifices holy two things shadowed to us by legal Sacrifices are requisite 1. That they be entire and that in all their parts For as God would not then endure a maimed Sacrifice Levit. 22. 22. Mal. 1. 8. so neither will he now away with it The whole Spirit Soul and Body all and every part must be God's Lust must not have the Eye nor Folly the Ear Oppression must not have the Hand nor Covetousness the Heart There is no serving God by halves no serving Him and Mammon too The true Mother would not suffer the Child to be divided nor will our heavenly Father his 'T was Ananias and Saphira's sacriledge to keep back part of what they had once voluntarily offered up and 't will be no less in us too 2. The Sacrifices of the Law were to be pure and separate from common use Levit. 3. 1. and 12. 5. such our Apostle makes Christ our Sacrifice undefiled and separate from sinners Heb. 7. 26. and without spot says St. Peter 1 Pet. 1. 19. such must ours be too spotless pure and separate from the world the least touch of that will pollute it And as we are to keep our selves unspotted from the world Jam. 1. 27. so are we likewise to hate even the garment spotted by the flesh Jude v. 23. In a word We must cleanse our selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit ere we presume to present our selves unto God Now as Holiness in the Gospel-sense commonly signifies the whole complexum of Duties and Graces so has it sometimes there a distinct peculiar signification both as to the Body and to the Soul And here according to the observation of a late excellent Annotator the Purity of the Body is particularly designed in opposition to the Uncleannesses practised by the Gentiles and applauded by the Gnosticks A sort of Christians if they might deserve that name whose practices made the name of Christ to be abhorred by the soberer Jews And indeed whosoever shall look into the first Chapter of this Epistle and there observe what manner of lives the Heathen Romans led will allow this Interpretation as most pertinent to the scope of our Apostle For when they did no longer like to retain God in their knowledge they quickly left off to be men and when they ceased to hearken to their natural reason they soon fell into a reprobate sense For they not only changed God into Stocks and Stones but their Worship into most abominable Wickedness not only made the vilest Creatures Deities but the foulest Actions Religion they turned a Passion and a Disease into a God and Sin into Devotion They thought it a most sacred thing to prostitute their Bodies and their very Altar-fires did kindle those foul heats whence Uncleanness is so often called Idolatry in Scripture Practices taken up and even out-done by viler Christians and that in the first and purest times of the Gospel and frequently objected to them by the Jews who could boast and that with some colour of truth that their Doctrine was opposed not so much by sharp Intellectuals as by debauch'd Morals And not only the Jews but Heathen Philosophers also as Hierocles for one could make the same objection and upon the same score detest the Religion of Christians or rather as he mistook it the Wickednesses of the Gnosticks which made the name of Christ to be evil spoken of throughout the whole World and are indeed directly opposite to the Spirit of Christ which is a Spirit of Purity and to the Rule of the Gospel which every where forbids us to walk in the lust of concupiscence as did the Gentiles who knew not God and which commands every Christian to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour there being no Vice so dishonourable to a Man as that of fleshly impurity which turns him into a Beast making him have as foul a Name as a Body as loathsome a Character as a Carkass rendring him despised by all Men and not the least by himself when David fell into this sin at his repentance he prays for his free spirit once again he found that thereby he had lost not only the Spirit of God but of a Man being asham'd of himself and afraid of his servants The strange woman's house says Solomon leads to death and sure a death 't is where the poor wretch is not less corrupt than if he were buried and that ditch he mentions is no less noisome than the Grave He goeth on and tells us That her house leads to hell and doubtless 't is a part of it where there is not only the stench but the heat of it all its Attendants whether sin or punishment the blackness and the flames withall being found in it 'T is not for this place to describe what such persons deserve and endure The very reproof of this sin must consist of such foul things as a
not any Excellency they had in their own Nature being not good but only in respect of what was worse It being better to sacrifice to God than to Devils nor otherwise than as Types of the Lamb slain from the Foundation of the World and did therefore vanish as soon as He was once offered upon the Cross Whereas true Religion remains still a Juge Sacrificium and is more lasting than the Heavens themselves which as it was long in the World before any Command came forth for Sacrifice So is it now most glorious when Jewish Altars are down 'T is not confin'd to time or place nor ever to be dispenc'd with as we find legal Sacrifices oft-times were And as 't is in the sight of God the best of all Sacrifices who requires Mercy and not bruitish Oblations so is it a most Reasonable Service being not founded in mera voluntate imponentis but in the Reason of the thing it self the Sacrifice not of a Brute Beast but of a man endued with Reason and withal most suitable to the Nature of God who as He is a Spirit will be worshipped in Spirit and in Truth and as He is a most wise God will not away with the Sacrifice of Fools Eccles. 5. 1. But will have the Evangelical as well as the Legal Sacrifices salted with salt our words and actions seasoned with discretion For we are fed with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as well as with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as well with the Rational as with the sincere milk of the Gospel so far is Christian Religion from divesting men of their reason that it strictly requires them to be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh them a reason of the hope that is in them 1 Pet. 3. 15. Being in it it self as 't is easie to demonstrate of all other the most Reasonale service and to present God with any other worship were but to offer strange Fire before him And now let me bespeak you in like manner as Naaman's Servants did their Master 2 Kings 5. 13. If the Lord had bid us do some great thing should we not do it Might he not require of us as of the Jews whole Herds of Cattle and Woods of Spices and Incense Nay which is more the Sacrifice of our Bodies in the most strict and severe Sense He might surely as being Lord of all but here we see He does not No other Bloud now to be shed but what St. Bernard calls sanguinem animi vulnerati that of a wounded troubled Spirit of a broken and contrite heart Slay thy lust and thou shalt offer him a Beast give him thy Reason or which is perhaps dearer to thee Thy Will and thou shalt sacrifice a Man to him He will accept thy Tears for drink-offerings and prefer thy very Fasts to meat-offerings Thou needest not appear before thy God empty while thou presentest thy self to him every part of thy Body and every faculty of thy Soul nay every thing thou possessest and which many times thou accountest more pretious than that very Soul of thine may be a Sacrifice and a far more acceptable one too than all the Beasts of the Forrest Give the Lord thy Heart and that will be the Fat of thy Sacrifice As thy Charity the true fire of it without which the Incense of thy Prayers and of thy Devotions will not smoak nor ever ascend up to Heaven nay without which Martyrdom it self will prove a vain and insignificant oblation and though thou shouldst give thy Body to be burnt yet thou shouldst be nothing In a word give thy God thy self and in such a manner as He requires thee to do it and thou canst give him no more and yet when all this is done no more than what he first gave thee Thus shalt thou make him Thine and be infinitely more thy self by being His. 'T is like laying up Treasure in the Temple which thereby becomes more sacred and more assured too But then in the last place let us remember that what we have once solemnly dedicated to God cannot without Sacriledge be alienated Our Bodies being once his they are no more then our own For to whom we yield our selves Servants to obey his Servants we are to whom we obey Rom. 6. 16. Our gifts here like God's must be without Repentance nor can we recall much less employ them to any other use either of the World or Satan as we cannot serve God and Mammon so neither ought we to give him the Lean and this the Fat of our Sacrifice If our God will not part stakes surely he will not content himself with the worser share Let us then give him all and that all will be our Heart and our Affections that when we appear before him our Souls may ascend up to him as the Angel did in the flame of the Altar and that Flame may still be kept alive upon it be a continual Sacrifice such as may never cease and we may do that constantly on Earth which shall be our Eternal Employment in Heaven still praise and adore our Creator Then shall he change these our Sacrifices into everlasting Temples for himself to dwell in what we now present him natural Bodies turn into spiritual and make these our vile ones like unto his glorious one Which God of his Infinite Mercy grant c. Amen Soli Deo Gloria in aeternum A SERMON ON ESAY V. 20. The former Part of the Verse Wo unto them that call Evil good and Good Evil. THE great Creator has never been wanting to Man in prescribing him such Laws as might be sufficient if obeyed to make him happy whether we consider him in the State of Primitive Integrity or out of it In the former God so left him in the hands of his own Councel as to make himself his own Rule Nature was to him instead of Revelation he had then the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil planted in him Conscience was his Oracle and Reason his Guide and to know his Duty was but to consult himself God did not only wind him up as a Watch to a regular Motion but did withal place in him a Sun-dial to set himself by if he should go false so that his very Essence and Rule was then so much the same that to transgress was not so much to break a Law as a Man Nor did he by his Fall wholly forfeit all his natural Advantages either to himself or his Posterity For though our first Parent brake the natural Tables as Moses afterwards did those of Stone yet from the scattered pieces thereof set together we may all of us though imperfectly spell out our Duty The worst of men are born with a certain Decalogue Their Souls are not mere Rasae Tabulae there is a Book of Conscience wherein the different Characters of Good and Evil are plainly legible and by the help of those practical Notions which make