last Day for where the Spirit it self is not its Operations cannot be expected 'T is true indeed that Sinners and Infidels shall rise again as S t Paul says Acts 24.15 There shall be a Resurrection of the Dead both of the Just and Vnjust Those that crucified Christ in the days of his Flesh and those that crucifie him by their Wicked Lives now in his Glory shall rise no less than True Believers than his holy Apostles and Martyrs But how and to what Resurrection shall they rise Even to such a Resurrection as is no other than a Second and Worse Death a Death not of Extinction or annihilation but a Death of Eternal Duration in Torment Non-Existence being not the State of the Second Death but Endless and Insupportable Misery insomuch that they shall wish that the Grave had for ever swallowed them up that as they liv'd like the Beasts that perish so they had also dyed like them without the Expectation of any After-Being So that the Resurrection of the Wicked is but an Aequivocal Resurrection as the lifting up of the Head of Pharaoh's Baker on the Gallows and the hanging Haman fifty Cubits high were but Aequivocal Advancements The Bodies of the Saints that rose after the Passion dy'd again the same Death but those that shall rise at the Last Day not having the Spirit shall dye again not the same Death that would be a Happiness but a Death that shall have no End and the Miseries of which we can no more describe than we can the Joys of Eternal Life but we must suffer a Change and be endued with new Powers and Faculties before we can support the Bliss of the one or the Torments of the other The second Property of an Inhabitant or Dweller in a House is to Command and Rule 'T is the Saying of every man to those that withstand the Exercise of their just Authority or but their Civility Give me leave to Command in my own House The Spirit of God must Rule and Command where it dwells we must not only give it House-room but Dominion look upon him as a Tenant but revere as our Land-Lord resign our Actions Wills Affections the Whole Man to his Dispose and Guidance Faith invites the Holy Ghost but Obedience and Submission to his Gracious Motions perfumes his Habitation and makes him delight to stay in it The Spirit of Love Meekness Purity and Holiness will not reside but where these and the like Vertues bear the Sway. Let the Word of Christ says S t Paul dwell in you Richly in all Wisdom So let the Spirit of God dwell in you Richly in all Wisdom it will not Cohabit with the Sons of Men unless it be Richly i. e. in the Abundance of its own Divine Graces and Operations If we will have the Spirit of God quicken our Mortal Bodies hereafter we must suffer him to quicken our Souls in this Life if we hope to reign by his Power in the World to come we must submit to his Dominion in this present World The third Property is Residence and Mansion our Houses are called our Manours and Places i. e. the Places where we ordinarily abide and where the Law presumes we are to be found so that if a Writ be delivered to any of the Houshold or but fastned to the Ring of the Door 't is counted the same thing as if given into our hands Thus our Hearts must be the Holy Spirit 's Manour or Place for what David says of God's constant Abode in his Temple on Mount Sion This is the Hill which God delights to dwell in yea the Lord will dwell in it for ever the like must be said of the constant Abode of the Holy Spirit in our Hearts This is the Habitation of the Holy Spirit and if we grieve him not nor drive him away by our Sins he will delight to dwell in us for ever When we were devoted to God in Baptism we devolved and made-over to his Holy Spirit an Estate in our Hearts even the Whole Term we had to live in this World and if we make good this Grant or Demise he will never abandon his Tenements till he has raised them up to Eternal Glory The Reason that a Great Schole-Man gives Why God punishes the Sins of Men which were but Temporal with an Eternity of Torments is Quia peccaverunt in suo aeterno because they sinn'd out all the Eternity they had i. e. all the Time God allowed them in this World and had he continued their Lives to the End of all Ages they would have continued still the same Wicked Persons The like Reason may be given for God's rewarding the Temporal Obedience of the Righteous with Eternal Glory Quia obedientes fuerunt in suo aeterno because they were Obedient all that little Eternity he allowed them in this World and would have persever'd in their Obedience if he had drawn out their Lives to the last Period of Time Abiding and Persevering in Righteousness is that which will give us Immortality if we give up the Possession of our Souls to the Dispose and Conduct of the Blessed Spirit the Whole Little Aeternum we have in this World we shall certainly obtain an Eternity that shall have no end in the next And thus I have shew'd the Manner of the Spirit 's Dwelling in every Christian and they that pretend to his In-dwelling without these Properties boast of an In-mate which they have not and as they want this Divine Guest so they will want the Blessed Effects and Consequence of his inhabiting in them the quickning of their Mortal Bodies at the last Day to Glory Which is the second thing I propos'd to explain The Effect or Consequence of the Spirit 's dwelling in us If the Spirit dwell in you He that raised up Jesus from the Dead shall quicken your Mortal Bodies The Words suggest two things to our Consideration 1. What shall be done to such Persons in whom the Spirit dwells He shall quicken their Mortal Bodies 2. Who shall be the Author to effect or bring this to pass He that raised up Jesus from the Dead 1. What shall be done to such Persons in whom the Spirit dwells 'T is said He shall quicken their Mortal Bodies Our Bodies are Mortal three Ways by Natural Death the Dissolution of the Substance of them by Eternal Death which succeeds the Natural that Riddle of a Death which by its Existence is in truth a Life but by the Torments belonging to it may deservedly be called a Death and by Spiritual Death which is the Cause of the other two Now our Mortal Bodies may be quicken'd or reviv'd again to three Lives To a Life of Eternal Duration to a Life of Eternal Joy and to a Spiritual Life or a Life of Grace which is the Cause in us of the other two Lives Some understand these Words shall quicken our mortal bodies only of Spiritual Proselytism of the raising us from the Death of Sin and
Ghost has not perfected his Work Good God! what a Change what a Bustle as I may say did the Spirit make at his first Coming Such as is still Wonderful to Posterity to hear or read How many thousands were Converted by one Sermon How many Nations were made Proselytes by unfolding but some one Divine Truth Rich men sold their Lands the Learned in Curious Arts their Books and laid the Money at the Apostles Feet Souldiers surrendred their Swords Philosophers their Reason Kings their Scepters upon the Sight of a single Miracle and which was more than all the rest they parted with their habitual Lusts their gainful delightful Corruptions as allowable and currant generally in those days as the Coin among them and made an intire Oblation of them to the Gospel But now the Spirit of God by all the industrious and laborious Endeavours of his Servants can hardly in many Months in many Years win some one Person from a Gainless Tasteless Evil Custom only as vain Swearing Lying malicious Censuring and the like And all that Men have to say in their Defence for this is That they have not such Divine Teachers nor do see the Miracles spoken of heretofore Neither as we may reply do they need these It was necessary to remove the Jewish Law which was given by the Ministry of Angels by a no less Glorious Ministration to extirpate the long-rooted Superstition and Idolatry of the Heathens by Divine and Supernatural Convictions But do those that have been bred and train'd up in the Christian Religion need an Apostle or Supernatural Teacher to tell them They should not steal Signs and Wonders from Heaven to inform them They ought not to be Drunk to commit Adultery to be Schismaticks or Traytors If their Darkness be so great 't is not that God has not afforded them sufficient Light but they wilfully shut their Eyes against it or have Extinguisht it loving the Ways of Sin more than the Ways of Righteousness and 't is not for such as these proudly to exact Miracles again to enlighten them God expects from the World the Returns of a holy Faith and Obedience for the innumerable Miracles of his Power Wisdom and Goodness already shewed and if obstinate and obdurate Sinners ask for more Signs and Wonders they are to be answer'd as our Lord answer'd the Jews upon the like perverse Demand That no Sign shall be given them but that of the Prophet Jonas i. e. those that are already past and not regarded by them The Holy Spirit with great Benignity and Long-suffering endeavours to reclaim Lapsed Sinners gives them his preventing and assisting Grace prompts them with Good Thoughts and if they make use of these actuates their Repentance strengthens them to improve and encrease in Righteousness and the like But if they despise these Favours stand upon Terms and expect Miracles will be converted at no Cheaper Rate than the Holy Ghost's shewing himself in that Outward astonishing Manner as he did at the first Pentecost they will sooner provoke him to exercise his last Dreadful Act which is to Seal up obstinate Sinners in the Hardness of their Heart than win him to prostitute his Divine Power to their wicked Fancies urge him to pronounce to them what he does to the like Uncorrigible Sinners Rev. 22.11 He that is unjust let him be unjust still and he that is filthy let him be filthy still i. e. the Time of Grace being forfeited by them he will give them up to their own ways and certain Destruction Those therefore that thus Exalt themselves like Lucifer let them take heed while 't is yet allowed them so to do that they fall not also like him into the same Abyss of Eternal Misery consider that it becomes not those that have been Rebels to Heaven to article and capitulate for the Manner of their Pardon and Reception into Favour to demand such Conditions and Priviledges as the Greatest Saints presume not to beg viz. to stipulate for Miracles when Pardon is too high a Grace as if Salvation was not their aim but to triumph in the Contempt of God and the breach of his Laws The Prodigal Son when he had spent his Portion in riotous Courses among Harlots did not send impudently to his Father to supply him with more Considerable Summs upon the consideration that what he had received of him was Small and Contemptible but confess'd his Miscarriage that he had wasted in Lewdness and Dissoluteness a Liberal Patrimony and was not worthy to be counted the Son of so Good a Father that to be as one of his hired Servants was above his desert thus as his Crimes were heinous his Thoughts of himself were lowly and mean as his Name was infamous his Person squalid his Condition indigent and vagabund his Deportment and Requests were stampt with the profoundest Humility and Submission And this being not a History of one that had spent a Portion in Money but a Parable of such as have wasted the Stock of Grace given them by God upbraids those that are arrogant and pufft up in the like Circumstance teaches them that 't is their part to put their Mouths in the Dust and to abhor themselves to repent in Sackcloth and Ashes and to catch greedily and thankfully at the least Glimpse of Pardon even upon the hardest Terms and that this is the only Course to turn their Rags into Rich Robes and Gold Rings their Husks into a Fatted Calf their accursed Condition without a Figure into a Blessed and Heavenly The Ninth Sermon MARK vii 37 He hath done all things well he maketh both the Deaf to hear and the Dumb to speak OUR Lord had cured a man that was born deaf and dumb by pronouncing the word Ephata or be opened and given him and the Standers-by a Charge not to make known the Miracle but streight as if the Ephata spoken to one had been to many thousands the untying the Dumb mans tongue had been the letting loose of the whole Multitudes all the People began to spread and divulge the Fact and whereas he forbad them to whisper it they proclaim'd it whereas he restrained them the Use of the Tongue they employ'd as I may say the Trumpet and he that could make the Deaf to hear and the Dumb to speak could not make the Multitude hold their peace Neither does it appear that they were faulty but grateful in what they did perverse or refractory but faithful and just There were some Kind of Miracles or rather some Conjunctures of Time in which our Lord wrought his Miracles that he thought fit to suppress the Knowledge of them not that they were less Glorious or likely to prove less Edifying but contrariwise too Edifying and too Glorious and would have disclosed his Divine Nature too early and abruptly to the World before his Counsels permitted it But the People who supposed the reason of his concealing his Miracles proceeded only from a Modesty that fled publick Applause after
of thy Strange and astonishing Miseries thy low Condition and sad Wants thy perpetual Dangers and Persecutions What is the meaning of thine Agony and bloudy Sweat thy Crown of Thorns platted and crusht into thy Head thy being Mockt and Spit on What is the meaning of thy Submitting not only to the Dishonours of a Humane Birth but to those also of a Violent and Ignominious Death Being the Son of God why didst thou suffer any Evil Why didst thou not convert the Stable in which thou wert Born into a Palace and the Cross to which thou were Nail'd into a Throne Why didst thou undergo such Miseries and Indignities as made the World doubt of thy Divine Nature and not exert thy Deity and destroy thy Murderers and burn up their City as thou spak'st in one of thy Parables Thy People expected thee a mighty Prince but thou shew'd'st thy self a Destitute Forlorn Person they lookt for a Deliverer but behold one Obnoxious to Bonds and Death for a Redeemer but Alas none needed Redemption more himself Great undoubtedly and wonderful was the Mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God and that he should not only be born in a Mortal but in a Miserable Condition The Apostle might well give it the precedence to all other Mysteries of Godliness Great is the Mystery of Godliness says he God was manifested in the Flesh justify'd in the Spirit seen of Angels c. But that Christ should suffer the things he did in our Nature was no less Necessary than Wonderful And to omit all other Reasons for it I shall insist only on that One Great One Because Sin could not otherwise have been abolisht the End for which Christ came into the World attain'd which was To destroy the Works of the Devil Christ could have destroy'd the Devil with more Facility if he had come in Majesty and Glory as the Apostle says 2 Thess. 2. He shall consume Anti-Christ with the Spirit or breath only of his Mouth and the Brightness of his Coming But our Lord's Business at this time was not to destroy the Person but the Power of the Devil Sin was both the Stratagem by which he conquer'd and the Chain by which he held Mankind in Captivity and Christ undertaking to rescue them from this Thraldom to bind the Strong Man and to take from him the Armour in which he trusted he was not to do this by an Omnipotent Power as he brought the World out of Nothing Light out of Darkness c. but by an Heroick Vertue such as he shew'd when he trampled upon the Temptations of the Devil in the Wilderness He therefore enter'd the Lists against Satan as a Champion or Combatant according to the fair Law of Armes as they say i. e. with a sutable Strength and Appointment to his Adversaries Man was lost by Sin and could only be restored by Righteousness he had forfeited God's Favour and his Felicity by his Transgressions and could recover them again no other way but by Obedience On this Account Christ laid by his Majesty and Glory and took our Nature that in the Infirmity of our Flesh he might foil our Strong Enemy the Second Adam redeem the Glories lost by the First Adam the Seed of the Woman bruise the Serpents head made himself subject to the Law that he might fulfil the Law obnoxious to Death that he might subdue Death and the Author of it by suffering Death as S t Paul says Heb. 2.14 That through Death he might destroy him that had the Power of Death that is the Devil So that we see here was no place for Thunder and Lightning for an O'er-bearing Irresistible Power but only for Divine Graces or Vertues and the Weapons Christ used in this Conflict were only Courage Holiness Obedience Patience Self-denial Meekness and the like such as were in the Power of Men also to make use of he so conquer'd as they might conquer after him For the Great Business was not Christ's Personal Victory that was secure but the Victory of his Followers he indeed was to break the Power of the Kingdom of Darkness but they were to compleat the Conquest every one in his own Particular to subdue Sin and Satan And thus while Christ destroy'd the Power of the Devil disarm'd him and made those that had been his Slaves Lords over him by consequence and in a Political Sense he destroy'd the Devil himself as a Prince is said to be destroy'd that is stript of his Forts and Castles his Territories and Armies his Ammunition and Harness of War though his Person still survives However then that Zipporah upbraided Moses upon the Circumcising of her Child saying factus es mihi Sponsus sanguinum thou art to me a Bloudy Husband we have no reason to quarrel that Christ was to us Salvator Sanguinum a Bloudy Saviour i. e. a Saviour drencht in his own Bloud for without the Bloud of Christ there had been no Redemption But to be more particular and distinct There are two Ways by which Christ destroy'd the Power of the Devil and delivered Mankind from his Bondage and those are Pretio Exemplo by the Price or Satisfaction he paid for Sin And by the Example of his Holy Life By the first he destroy'd the Guilt of Sin And by the second the Dominion or reigning Power of Sin 1. Therefore we may say There was a Necessity of Christ's Death and Sufferings and that he should be a Wounded Saviour that he might pay a Price make Satisfaction to God the Father for the Sins of the World For whether it be that the Vindicative Justice of God for Sin be so natural and intimate to his Essence that he cannot without renouncing his very Nature and Being pardon Sin without a Competent Satisfaction as some would have it Or whether it be only his Declared Will not to pardon Sin without a Competent Satisfaction as others more sutably to the Divine Goodness and Glory affirm I shall not need here to dispute seeing both Sides agree in one and the same Conclusion That it was necessary for Christ to Dye for the Sins of the World The Wages of Sin is Death says the Apostle and in another place Almost all things by the Law were purged by Bloud and without shedding of Bloud there was no Remission Now though the Bloud there mentioned was but the Bloud of Beasts that were sacrificed yet those Beasts were the Proxies and Representatives of Men and also Types of the Great Sacrifice which Christ was once to offer on the Cross and derived from it all their Vertue and Merit and God revealed this Way of atoning by Sacrifice early to the World and afterwards prescribed it to his People the Jews by written Laws from whom it was deriv'd to all Nations though the Mystery that Sacrifices were founded in the Death of Christ was not clearly understood till the Days of the Gospel As a Remedy for Sin was promised from the Beginning so 't was
Success The Life of a Christian is full of Difficulties and Troubles many Lusts are to be mortifi'd many Affections to be rectifi'd many Vices to be rooted out and many Vertuous Habits to be acquir'd which things are not Easie even to the best of Men again Persecutions and Evils loss of Goods of Liberty and Life it self are the Lot often of the most Righteous and for their Righteousness So that there was need of a Great Encouragement and a Generous Precedent to excite Men to undertake the Heroick Duties of Christianity God therefore afforded them his Own Son clothed in our Nature to go before them his Own Son I say to add the Greater Authority to his Example and cloathed in our Flesh to remove all Objections which Sloth might otherwise make against the Possibility of following his Steps I am not Equal says one to the Burdens and Dangers required in a Christian Life able to undergo Imprisonment Beggary Martyrdom c. Behold my Hands and my Feet says Christ these Wounds I suffered for thy Salvation and canst not thou who art framed of the same Flesh and Bloud endure as much for thy Self as another could endure for thee Says another I cannot digest Injuries and Affronts my Temper my Profession of Life are inconsistent with these things Learn of me says Christ I am lowly and meek and when I was enthron'd in the highest Heavens I disdained not to descend into this World in the form of a Servant and to bear Indignities and Outrages when the Wisdom of God so order'd it and well then mayst thou submit to the like whose Original is but from the Earth These things are too plain to be long insisted on let thus much suffice to be said in Satisfaction to this Question What are these Wounds in thy Hands viz. they signifie first Malum culpae the Evil Demerit of Sin which Christ suffered that we might be excused Secondly Malum poenae the Toleration of Evil which Christ underwent to leave us an Example to follow him I proceed to shew For what Reason the Divine Wisdom so order'd it that Christ should be wounded by those be deserved Best from in Explanation of these Words Those with which I was wounded in the House of my Friends Of whom do the Kings of the Earth take Tribute says Christ Of their Children or of Strangers Not of their Children but of Strangers So again Who are those Men usually Wound and Kill their Friends or their Enemies certainly not their Friends but their Enemies Yet so it was that the Messiah was wounded and murthered by his Own Nation and Kindred The Gentiles bore him no Malice Herod laid nothing to his Charge Pilate would have set him free Am I a Jew says he thine own Nation and the Chief Priests have delivered thee unto me all Strangers honoured him but as S t John says He came unto his Own and his Own received him not Received him not is a Meiosis or mitigated Expression for the Worst of Usages they Persecuted him with the highest Malice and Hatred the more to disgrace him they hung him between two Thieves and put him to Death in their Capital City But though the Nation of the Jews were not his Friends de facto yet they are so called because they ought to have been his Friends de jure for they were his Compatriots and Kindred he chose to be born of their Stock before any other he preacht the Gospel to them first made Palestine the Scene of his Holy Life and Miracles design'd their whole Nation the Honour of being his Apostles at large to be the Preachers of Salvation to the rest of the World and by how much the more they ought to have been his Friends for these Obligations the more unpardonable was their Barbarity not only to make him so Strange a Spectacle as Saint Paul says himself was made Legatus in vinculis an Ambassadour in Bonds but also Legatus cum vulneribus an Ambassadour wounded and crucified What Malice besides the Jews was ever so Great as to destroy so much Vertue and Goodness What Envy so black and rancorous to persecute so much Meekness and Humility What Wickedness ever so unfortunate and unhappy as to cut off the Saviour of their Nation and of the World to the Salvation of others and to their own only Destruction It appears at first hearing the most Mysterious and unaccountable the most Strange and amazing Event that ever the Wisdom of God produced in the World That he should permit his Own People of all the People of the Earth to be the Murderers of his Son Acts 2.23 says S t Peter Him being delivered by the determinate Counsel and Foreknowledge of God ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain But the wonder of this will vanish as soon as the Reason appears for if we consider the Blindness and Hardness of the Jews Hearts after so many Glorious Revelations their Uncorrigible Lives under so many holy Laws their high Ingratitude after so many Benefits Who deserved to be condemned to such a Prodigious Punishment but those who were the Greatest Prodigies of Stubbornness and Impiety From this wonderful and dreadful Judgment of God I shall reflect upon two things for our Edification First The Wickedness of Mens Hearts when they are void of the Spirit of Grace For upon such no Reason no Benefits no Miracles whether of Power or Goodness can effect any thing but those very Means and Endeavours which are employed for their Salvation serve only for their greater Obduration those that are their chiefest Friends and of whom it may be said as of the Apostles These Men are the Servants of the most High God which shew the Way of Salvation if they rebuke them for their Sins seek to instruct their Ignorance or to confute their Folly they will look upon them as the Worst of Enemies Am I become your Enemy says S t Paul because I tell you the Truth Yes Blessed Apostle there 's nothing more certain nothing turns Friends sooner into Foes than an Unwelcome Truth they that will not be reformed will not be taught and to instruct one that loves his Sins is like the bringing a Candle upon him when he is retir'd to commit it And 't is observable in all times that those Persons who mov'd by an Heroick Piety have attempted to reform the Errours and Vices of a Nation have found as hostile a Reception as those who have sought to Enslave it men defending their long-wedded Opinions as passionately as their Riches their Hereditary Corruptions as their Hereditary Country In the Parable in which our Lord set forth his own Ill Success in seeking to convert Sinners when he liv'd upon the Earth he introduces certain Husbandmen saying Come this is the Heir let us kill him and the Inheritance shall be our own For such was the Consultation of the Sanhedrim or principal Council of the Jews concerning him Come let us rid our selves
Prospera in plebem ac vilia ingenia deveniunt a constant even Prosperity is the Lot of mean Persons and Spirits the Noble and Magnanimous are oppos'd to the Storms and Outrages of Fortune nor are they otherwise to be distinguisht from the Vulgar than by these Encounters That Great Person says Seneca that never prov'd Adversity is like a Champion that enters the Lists without an Antagonist Coronam habet Victoriam non habet He may gain a Crown but he never got a Victory In a still Calm of Affairs God himself gets less Glory he has no Field to shew his Power his Wisdom and his Goodness in the Opportunity is not afforded him to frustrate the Counsels of the wicked and to bring the Preparations of the Mighty to nought 'T is true He governs all things at all times but every Act of his Providence is not a Victory over his Enemies and though he disposes Crowns and Scepters as he pleases 't is when the wicked resists that he says Yet have I set my King And so I pass to my Third Part God's Glorying in his Establishment of David The Holy Ghost in this Second Psalm sets down the Method which the Enemies of David used to prevent his succeeding in the Throne which is also the Scheme ordinarily of all Sedition and Rebellion First The Heathen did rage i. e. The Neighbour Princes were jealous and angry out of apprehension of their own Estates and this is commonly the ground of Defection and Rebellion For a King 's own Subjects though they be malecontent and bear him ill-will in their hearts yet they often want Courage or Opportunity to execute it till they are backt by a Foreign Power But then Secondly The People i. e. the Prince's own People begin to imagine vain things which may either mean false things which shall not take Effect or Wicked which shall for in both sences Vain is taken in the Hebrew In the Third place The Kings of the Earth and the Rulers take counsel together i. e. The Neighbour Kings and the Magistrates and Great Ones of the Realm fall into Combinations and Associations And then Fourthly Nothing remains but open defection the breach of all Covenants and Contracts and Sedition is heard in every mans mouth as Verse 3. Let us break their Bonds asunder and cast away their Cords from us Their Bonds and their Cords i. e. both of the Lord and of his Anointed all Obligations both Humane and Divine are Cancell'd By Bonds may be understood the softer and gentler Tyes of Natural Love and Loyalty which every Subject owes unto his Sovereign by Cords the stronger Obligations of Oaths those Sacramental Chains that bind men like Iron Shackles and Fetters But both these are broken and for fear they should be again united cast quite from them And why was all this as the Question is deservedly ask'd at Verse 1. with wonder and indignation Why did the Heathen rage Why did the prople imagine a vain thing Why did they take Counsel together David was just to his Allies abroad and gracious to his Subjects at home God prosper'd him and made him Victorious in all his Enterprizes Why Lord To answer in the Words of another in a like Case Odiorum causae acriores quia iniquiores their hatred was the sharper and more implacable because it was the â—â—juster Innocence is abhorr'd by the Wicked more than Injury and Violence The Religion and Piety of David was more insupportable to his Enemies than the Yoke of Tyranny and Oppression and they chose rather to bear the Iron Scepter of the Nations or of a base Usurper than his holy and righteous Scepter And this it was which made the Establishment of David so difficult because there was no Why no Just Cause for the Aversion of his Enemies had there been a Reason it might have been remov'd had there been a Wrong there might have been a Reparation but Perverseness and Impiety only govern'd and God utters himself as if he had broke through some great Obstruction in setting David on the Throne Like one that for a long time roll'd a Stone against a Hill which often return'd upon him or Row'd against a strong Tide which forc'd his Boat back and when at last by many a weary stretch and Strain of his Arms has got the better sits down and reflects on what has past congratulates his labour and tells himself what himself has done Yet I have planted my Stone upon the Top of the Hill or yet I have stemm'd this Churlish Stream and got my Boat a-head of it So God is pleas'd to speak in the Restoring of David as if he had been hard put to it and groan'd under the performance and Glory'd in having at last carry'd it through Yet have I set my King But perhaps some will say Is there any thing difficult to the Almighty Could not he have crusht the Cockatrice in the Shell Dasht the yet Infant-Plot against the Stones Scatter'd his Enemies in their first Imaginations Why did he suffer them to Combine before he confounded them Confederate and grow to strength before he cast them down and had them in derision as 't is said ver 4. Even for this very reason That he might not spoil such his Scene of Laughter prevent the Glory of his Triumph obscure the wise Dispensations of his Providence that David might see the whole Wonder of his Deliverance and his wicked Adversaries the whole Folly of their Enterprize A wise General will not presently give on the Charge upon an Enemy passing a Ford till a considerable Party have gain'd the Bank that he may not only shew his Courage but his Conduct and cut off the adverse Power as well as repulse it Thus though God had it in his hands to dissipate and discourage the first Attempts of his own and David's Opposers he chose rather to let them proceed and prosper to a degree that he might not only obstruct their wickedness but defeat it disturb the Conspiracy but confound the Conspirators And our Blessed Lord practis'd this piece of Policy when he suffer'd the Devil by his wicked Instruments the Jews to take away his Innocent Life and lay him in the Grave For after Satan flatter'd himself that he had surpriz'd his strong Foe he let him see he was surpriz'd by him that instead of receiving a Captive he had receiv'd a Conquerour within his Gates one that sack'd and despoil'd his Kingdom dismantled his Forts and raz'd his Strong-holds And this was a performance worthy of that Triumphant Speech O Death where is thy Sting O Grave where is thy Victory A down-right Defeat is not so renowned to the Conquerour or so grievous to the Conquered as to turn his Stratagems upon himself and to overthrow him by his own Subtilty and Treachery Again to Mock and Vex an Enemy is a further degree of Revenge than to destroy him When the Pyrates of Cilicia began to treat some Passengers of Italy with the
fansies him also Wicked as those words spoken in the Person of God Psal. 50. do shew Thou thoughtest I was altogether such an one as thy self And in the last place it concludes him to be Nothing at all The fool hath said in his heart There is no God Infidelity first entertains Mean thoughts of God doubts of his Attributes and afterwards of his very Being Infidelity moved God to send upon the Israelites in the Wilderness almost as many and grievous Plagues as he had sent upon the Egyptians And many Christian Professors are so possest against this Sin that they have not doubted to aver That as there is no Vertue that justifies but Faith so there is no Sin that condemns but Infidelity And that the Jews were highly guilty of this Sin in reference to Christ there is no question for though he had wrought so many Miracles among them as the Evangelist says they believed not on him They might have known who he was if they had not been wilfully blind by the Rule given them by Moses Deut. 18.12 to discern a True Prophet from a False and again at the 18 th ver to distinguish the Messiah from other Common Prophets yet blinded with Pride Malice Envy and the like the Great Council it self of the Sanhedrim condemned the Lord of Life for an Impostor and crucified him affirmed That by a Confederacy with the Devil he cast out Devils So that this their Unbelief and perverse Proceeding might be a very just Cause of the Descent of the third Person in the Trinity to vindicate the Injury and Outrage done to the second after a Judicial Manner to arraign and convince the World of Sin i. e. of Infidelity and Injustice to the Son of God But though there was Infidelity in the Case I conceive they do exactliest hit the meaning of the place who make not our Lord's Words point so much at any particular determinate Sin after his Coming as at the General Sin wherein all the World lay before his Coming viz. the Sin of Adam in which both Jew and Gentile were concluded and from which 't is said He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned Now the Holy Ghost when he came into the World to bear Testimony to all that Christ did reproved and convinced it that is all Unbelievers that they lay still under the Old Condemnation of the First Man seeing they embraced not the Means of Grace and Pardon offer'd by Christ in the Gospel nay and that their Infidelity added a new and worse Guilt to the former they lay under the Guilt of refusing Offer'd Redemption which would make their Condemnation yet heavier For though Hell be the ultimum Supplicium the utmost Punishment the Divine Vengeance can inflict yet as there are Degrees of Sins so there are Degrees of Torment and as 't is said Hell shall be a second time heated for those that leave their first Station so we may say it shall be a second time heated for those that refuse the Salvation offer'd by Christ. The second Particular the Spirit shall convince the World of is of Righteousness But how must this be understood Shall he convince the World of Sin and of Righteousness both Yes de Peccato proprio Justitia aliena as S t Augustine distinguishes of its Own Wickedness and of an Others Righteousness the Spirit shall convince the World that 't is sinful and that Christ was Righteous And thus our Lord afterwards interprets his own Words He will convince the World of Wickedness because I go to my Father The World spared not while Christ was on Earth to spend their rash Judgments of him He is a Good Man say some Nay say others but he deceiveth the People Others again He is a Samaritan and hath a Devil and the like But his going to the Father stopt the Mouth of all Slander For as this was an approv'd Maxim which was utter'd by the Man that was born Blind God heareth not Sinners So this was a Truth likely to find a more Easie and General Admittance God translateth not Sinners miraculously and visibly to Heaven Enoch and Elias were thus translated but 't is testified of the first That he pleased God and of the last That his Zeal for God's Glory exceeded Christ therefore being translated to Heaven it was an irrefragable Proof of his Righteousness But how did the Holy Ghost convince this Why by his very coming into the World had he born no other Testimony For Christ had said in the Verse before my Text If I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you but if I depart I will send him unto you The Descending of the Holy Ghost was the Consequent of Christ's Ascending But then the Righteousness which the Spirit shall here convince the World of must be understood in a greater Latitude than only of the Inherent Righteousness in Christ's Person it comprehends also the Transient Righteousness that past from him to others As S t John says in another place That he was not only a Glorious Light in himself but the Light of the World and the Light of Men. A Righteousness of greater Concern and Importance than his Inherent Righteousness for that made his Person only Illustrious but this brought Utility and Benefit to Mankind and as the first spoke him the Son of God the last also the Saviour of the World Christ's Righteousness is therefore here to be understood Causativè that he was the Author or Cause of Righteousness not only that he was Righteous but Righteousness unto others and that two Ways First In respect of his Doctrine that was Righteousness the very Rule and Standard of it the perfect Will of God able to conform us to his Likeness and the World rejected it only because their Deeds were Evil. And this the Holy Ghost when he came convinc't the World of viz. of the Desperateness of its Condition that it had refused the True Light and for no other reason than for that which was named Because their Deeds were Evil and they hated to be reform'd Secondly Christ was Righteousness in respect of the Justification of the World as he was Justitia nostra the Lord our Righteousness as the Prophets had foretold And indeed this was the Chief Office and Business of the Holy Ghost at his coming to convince Men That there was no other Name under Heaven by which they could be sav'd but only by that Name That neither the Contemplation of things Divine together with the Practice of Moral Vertues which was the Gentiles Way nor the Plea of being Circumcised and descended from such and such Parents which was the Jewish Way avail'd any thing towards the obtaining of Justification without the laying hold of Christ's Righteousness The third Particular the Spirit shall convince the World of is of Judgment S t Bernard understood the Words Actively viz. That the Spirit shall convince the World of its
they were not born with cannot immediately make a Right Use of them and upon this account divers Counterfeits have been detected while they have too soon confest a distinct Knowledge of Objects and their Accidents after their pretended Recovery shewing at once both their Fraud and Ignorance by their too quick revealing their Experience This therefore I say greatly adds to the Glory of the Miracle if it were indeed so that the Organ and the skill the Faculty and the Learning were both given together We are taught from hence these two Lessons 1. That whatever our Wants or Distresses are however amazing and seemingly insuperable our Dangers yet to trust and confide in that Omnipotent God to whose Power nothing can give check who when the Senses could not be cured could yet create them and when there was no Remedy in Nature could find one by a Miracle 2. We are taught no less to adore his Bounty and Goodness who knows no other Measure of Giving but to supply all that is Necessary who to the Impotent Man gave Senses to his Senses added Knowledge to his Knowledge Faith to his Faith Salvation For God deals no otherwise with men at this day if they reject not his Grace whoever are his Patients he desires should be also his Disciples upon whomsoever he bestows Corporal or Worldly Blessings he is more ready to bestow Spiritual and Heavenly And let this suffice to be said of the first Particular the Substance of Christ's Performance his giving of Hearing and giving of Speech I shall consider in the next place the Manner of his doing it or the Ceremony and Circumstances which he used in performing his Cure The first of which was The Touch of his Finger But you will say what need was there of this Do but speak the Word as the Centurion said and my Servant shall be whole so do but speak the Word and the Deaf and Dumb shall hear and speak Christ's Ephata had been enough without his Touch the Breath of his Mouth could have wrought the Cure without the help of his Finger 'T is true and in many of his Miracles our Lord used only his Voice he restored Lazarus to Life still'd the Tempest cast out Devils merely by his Word But yet frequently he did his Cures by his Touch he took the Damsel that was dead by the hand and she arose and he laid his hands upon the Sick and healed them For some reason therefore it must be that not only at this time but at many others he performed by many Circumstances what he could have performed if he had pleased by fewer or by none at all And the first Reason might be this That the Beholders might see the Cure came from himself from no Confederacy with Spirits or any External Power and from thence might have a greater Veneration both of his Person and his Doctrine be perswaded that what proceeded from his Mouth must be True when they saw what proceeded from his Body was Divine The second Reason might be That by a greater Number of Circumstances the Miracle might make a deeper Impression and be longer remembered both by the Person healed and by the Standers-by remain a Monument as well as a Demonstration of his Power and Goodness God in the days of Moses gave not only his Precepts in Writing but expos'd them to the Touch and Sight of his People made his Commandments dangle between their Eyes in Phylacteries and trail at their feet in Fringes that what they would have forgot in Books they might remember wearing as Dresses and Ornaments And 't was for a like reason to this that our Lord instituted Baptism and his Last Supper for he could have convey'd to us the Pardon of our Sins and the Grace of his Holy Spirit without the Ceremonies of Washing and breaking of Bread but he thought fit to adde these Performances not only to make Spiritual things more plain and conceiveable but to make Transient things more permanent that his Benefits being thus rendred operatiora more full of Business and Toil they might be also memorabiliora more full of Remark and better fixt in our Minds The third Reason why our Lord wrought this Miracle by his Touch and such a Singular Touch as thrusting his Finger into the Ear and putting his Spittle upon the Tongue might be because these Actions have a Resemblance and kind of Similitude to the Means which Art ordinarily uses in like Cases Obstructions are opened by Perforations and Lenitives cause Lubricity and Volubility and the more to set off the Greatness of his Power he would have it seen that he could cure by the Figures and Images only of those things by which Surgeons and Physicians exercise their Narrow and restrained Skill he used as one says Metaphoram in facto a Metaphor in Fact employ'd his Finger as a Probe and his Spittle as an Ointment It was a wonderful Performance to cure an Original Dumbness and Deafness by any Means but to do it by such things as were indeed No Means that was more Wonderful To proceed the second Ceremony Christ used was The Lifting up of his Eyes and Sighing A Look to Heaven and a Sigh are the Prayers of them that have no other Opportunity to make their Supplications Levavi oculos meos says the Psalmist I lift up mine Eyes unto the Hills from whence cometh my help That little Motion of the Prophets the looking only for Help in Faith was his Impetration of it and S t Paul says By Sighs and Groans the Spirit makes Intercession for things that cannot be uttered or distinctly exprest Thus our Lord by casting up his Eyes to the Throne of God made his Petition and his Sighing was his Strong Intercession Not that the Father did not hear him readily and at all times as himself said but he pray'd after this manner to shew the Correspondence he held with Heaven and that the People might see that the Miracles which he wrought were the Return of his Prayers that as his Finger toucht the Ear and Tongue of the Impotent Man so his Request toucht the Throne of God But we must look upon this and all other Ceremonies which Christ used in working his Miracles as things no way needful to what he did but needful to our Imbecillity to help our Faith not to help him in his Performances they were like the Voices that came to him from Heaven not for his own Sake but for the sake of the Standers-by The third Circumstance was the Word our Lord used Ephata or be opened And if the former Circumstances which he made use of express'd any seeming Weakness or Insufficiency this last declared the Fullness of his Power and Omnipotence it being a Word like that which God spake at the Creation Let there be Light and there was Light a Word pronounced as Imperatively and Magisterially and which found as ready Obedience it was dictum factum as 't is said a Word and a Deed. The
he spared not the Natural Branches take heed lest he spare not you 'T is not so much the Contingency that is in the Nature of the things of this World as the Sins of Men that make them unstable the Fortunes of Kingdoms are not tost like the Waves of the Sea lift up one while to the Clouds and then carried down again to the Center by the force of Winds but according to their Righteousness or Unrighteousness God pulls down one and sets up another Neither are they governed by the Power of Stars The Jews have an excellent Saying Non est Planeta Israeli Israel has no Planet i. e. though God gave up the Heathen oft-times to be governed like the Plants of the Earth by the Influences of Stars because they trusted in such Vain things yet he orders and disposes the Affairs of his faithful People immediately himself And 't is a mere Vulgar Conceit that Comets cause Wars and Changes of States Divine Philosophy tells us Mens Sins occasion God to send Comets and to fill the Sky with Prophetick Prodigies We affect to look as far beyond our selves as we can for the Causes of our Evils but they are to be found nearer at Home and arise out of our own Breasts the Heavens are not the Authors of our Misfortunes i. e. the Conjunctions or Revolutions of the Celestial Bodies but our own Wicked Lives and the surest Prognosticks are to be made from the Innocence or Guilt of a Nation and not from the Face of the Sky Let no Man think I cast a Cloud upon the Glory of this Day Illustrious in the Birth Illustrious in the Restoration of our most Gracious King that instead of exciting I affect to damp the Publick Joy by Ill Bodings unless he also supposes that the Blessings of a Nation cannot be rightly commemorated and celebrated without Noise and Inconsideration Tumult and Riot Excess and Debauchery setting-light by Sin and forgetfulness of Religion A sad and severe Reflection on our Unthankfulness to God for the Singular Mercies of this Day with a serious Resolution of our better Acknowledging them by a future Holy Life will add more Lustre and true Joy to it than the Bravery and Feasts the Bells and Bonfires and all the other Pomps that solemnize it For let us consider That every Wise Agent works to some End or other and that not only the Words we have heard this Day explain'd but the whole Tenour of Scripture concurs in this That the End and Purpose of God's bestowing Benefits on a Nation is to make them Righteous and Holy and that the only Expedient on our part to secure a Continuation of them is to have a strict regard to our Duty that Obedience is the best Preserver of our Happiness and the Means always to keep God's Favour is always to keep his Laws The Thirteenth Sermon MARK viii 2 3. I have Compassion on the Multitude because they have now been with me three days and have nothing to eat And if I send them away fasting to their own houses they will faint by the way for divers of them came from far THESE Words were the Introduction to that Illustrious Miracle by which our Lord fed four thousand Souls with seven Loaves and a few small Fishes made the bare and spare Allowance of seven Persons as some suppose sufficient to satisfie the Hunger of so great a Multitude A Miracle that baffled one of the clearest and most irrefragable Principles in Natural Reason namely That the Part is less than the Whole making it appear that when the Lord of Nature will have it so a Part shall as many times exceed the Whole as he pleases as the Bread and Fishes here encreased by being eaten and consumed multiplied by being dol'd and distributed about and the Fragments which remained exceeded seven times seven fold the Provision which at first was set before them that eat Our Lord wrought this Miracle as himself declares to relieve the Hunger of the Multitude but his principal Design here as in all his other Miracles was to create Faith in such as received Benefit by them to teach those whom he healed that he was the great Physician of the Soul and whom he fed that he was the true Bread that came down from Heaven And if We at this great Distance of time by our Meditations and Reflections on this Miracle shall make it also nourish our Souls refresh our Faith relieve and sustain our fainting Spirits ready to sink under the continual Opposition of Sin and the length of Duties we shall add yet to the Glory of it and in a Spiritual Sense make these Words spoken to us I have Compassion on the Multitude because they have now been with me three days and have nothing to eat c. This Portion of Scripture is part of a larger Narrative and I shall take that Way in handling it which those do who make Remarks and Observations upon Notable Occurrents and Events in History reflect and descant on the Principal Passages in it as I conceive they may be most edifying and useful And in order to this I shall observe in the Words three things 1. Our Lord 's tender and compassionate Spirit I have Compassion 2. The Object of his Compassion the Persons to whom he shew'd it the Multitude I have compassion on the Multitude 3. The Motives of his Compassion which are exprest to be two Their present Distress they were Hungry and had nothing to eat And their future feared Danger in case they were so dismiss'd they will faint by the way I begin first with Christ's tender and compassionate Spirit I have Compassion The Great Preacher our Blessed Lord had ended his Sermon to the People and as the antient custom of the Church was at the End of the first Service to dismiss the Poenitentes and Catechumeni all such as were not qualify'd to receive the Sacrament with these Words Ite missa est Depart and void the Church So the Disciples might very fairly here have pronounc'd an Ite missa est to the Multitude Ye may be gone there is nothing more at this time to be expected the Prophet has no further words of Instruction to impart to you For as for their want of Bread whether it proceeded from Negligence or Necessity it was not chargeable on the Preacher he that ministred Spiritual things was not also to minister Temporal but in these to be ministred to But our Lord had no purpose to shift off a Work of Mercy when 't was seasonable and in his power though he might never so fairly have done it he cast not therefore in his thoughts how he might plausibly Excuse his not relieving the peoples Hunger but which way he might do it best for the Glory of God and their Comfort and Edification There were a Sort of Preachers in this Kingdom in the days of its late Troubles who when they had usurp'd the whole Revenues of the Church grudg'd to allow
Neighbour as thy Self And this Commandment makes our Love to our own Selves the Pattern or Standard of that which we ought to bear to other Men Not that we are obliged to love other men every way Equal to our selves that is not the meaning of the Rule it implies not an Equality but a Similitude not a Parity but a Resemblance of it in Truth and Reality Our Love must be as Sincere and Cordial to our Brethren as to our Selves we must heat our Affections in the same Forge have the like Zeal the like Promptness to snatch all Occasions to advance their temporal and spiritual Good as we would to advance our own but yet still other mens Concerns ought to be but our second Care before we preach to others before we labour for their Salvation we must take heed with S t Paul that we our selves be not Cast-aways I shall not need in these days in which Self-Love so much abounds and Christian Love so little to give Cautions against Supererogating and overflowing Charity but though little will need to be said against any Excess in this Grace yet much may be behoof-ful to prevent the Mistakes of it For many think that for Friendship-sake they are obliged to engage in all manner of Wickedness to drink Drunk and fight Duels to spend the main of their Life in Gaming and other dissolute Courses nay to enter into treasonable Practices against their Prince and Country And there are those again that will debauch as highly in matters of Religion out of their Kindness to a Sect dip their hands in Bloud and put a Nation into a Flame and Combustion for their Love to an ill-taken up Opinion and a Party they have long adhered to renounce the Church and Truth which in effect is God himself chuse rather to live and dye in Disobedience and a damnable Schism than seem to be inconstant and to carry their Flocks along with them in the way of Perdition than undeceive and grieve them with an Unwelcome though Necessary Truth Such as these are not tender of their Brethrens Peace but guilty of their Destruction and set not so high a Price on their Contentment as a cheap on their own Consciences 't is not possible to be Wicked and Charitable to love men and sooth them in their Sins What S t Paul says of the false Teachers among the Galatians is true of these They zealously affect you but not well yea they would exclude you that you might affect them i. e. they had rather their Congregations should miss of Salvation than they lose the Interest they have in them There may be some Extraordinary Cases in which we ought to prefer our Neighbours Good before our own as their greater Good before our lesser their Spiritual before our Temporal c. But the Rule holds in General I am not to destroy my self out of Courtesie I am not to contract Guilt to preserve another Innocent I must love my Neighbour As my self not Above not Before my self But this Doctrine seems to be oppos'd by the Practice of the two greatest Guides of the Jewish and Christian Church Moses and S t Paul The one Exod 32.31 when the Israelites had so heinously transgress'd in the Golden Calf interceded for them in this manner This people have sinn'd a great Sin they have made them Gods of Gold yet now if thou wilt forgive their Sin if not blot me I pray thee out of the Book which thou hast written And the other Rom. 9.7 out of his heat of Zeal for the Salvation of the same Seed of Abraham utters these words I could wish my self Accursed from Christ for my Brethren And both these seem to prefer not only the Temporal but Spiritual Good of others before their own insomuch as to salve their Excess of Charity some have thought nothing less sufficient than to say There are many things done in Scripture by Persons acted by an Extraordinary and Heroick Spirit which are not to be brought into Practice by us who are mov'd by lower Degrees of the Spirit and though we may admire them we must not imitate them Others again on the other side have as much depress'd the transcendent Charity of these Great Persons by parallelling what they did with like Usages and Customs common among the Jews For first they resemble Moses's Intercession for the people to a friendly Complement or Expression of Good-Will familiarly used by those of the Circumcision and possibly first taken up in imitation of Moses's intercession May I be thy Propitiation or Expiation my Brother i. e. may I undergo the Penalty of the Law in thy Stead to rescue thee from the Divine Displeasure bear thy temporal Punishment And after the like manner they parallel S t Paul's words I could wish my self Accursed from Christ to a like Passage found in Ignatius who was an Auditor of the Apostles Let the Punishment of the Devil come upon me only let me obtain Christ. Where the Punishment of the Devil cannot possibly import the Eternal Torments of Hell for from thence there is no Redemption or returning to enjoy Christ and therefore it must point at Excommunication to the giving up to Satan and the Punishments he had power to inflict on the Excommunicated so frequently mentioned in Scripture but I shall need to give only one instance of Deliver such an one unto Satan for the Destruction of the Flesh that the Spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus 1 Cor. 5.5 But there seems here to be no need of these Extraordinary Salvo's these however ingenious and learned Accommodations For put the Case we should take the Words of Moses in the strictest literal Sense they can bear and we must take them so if we will take them as God's Answer shews he took them Whosoever has sinn'd against me says he him will I blot out of my Book what would be the Danger or Inconvenience What did his Intercession import more than may be thus fairly paraphrased Lord let me prevail with thee to revoke thy Sentence of totally destroying this People thou hast done such wonderful things for or involve me in their Destruction which is easier for me to bear than to survive so great a Calamity and to hear the Heathen insult and blaspheme thy Name on this Occasion But Moses's words relate to an Eternal blotting out Not necessarily no nor probably for whatever knowledge he might have of another Life the less 't is to be supposed that he should be willing to undergo an Eternal Death to save the People only from a Temporal And as fair an account may be given of S t Paul's words who does not say I do but I could wish my self accursed from Christ for my Brethren So that his words are not an anathematizing or devoting himself but only a Meditation as if he had said I could in my Imagination be contented upon the Condition or Contemplation of an Event so much to God's Glory
Wings to their Devotion and raise it to a higher Pitch than the quiet Actings of the Heart alone can do And as a man by vehement Speeches and Emotions of his Body may chafe himself into a greater Degree of Anger so by devout Gestures in Prayer he may heighten and enflame his Zeal 3. Ceremonies are useful in regard of the Beholders The reverent solemn and holy Rites of the Church being suited to the Majesty of the Deity that is worshipp'd excite Faith and a more awful Regard in the Hearts of men and 't was for this very Reason as I said that our Lord used so many Circumstances and Ceremonies in the working of his Miracles For such Visible Performances are many times more Efficacious Lessons than long Harangues and though men affect to appropriate the term of Edification to Sermons only the External Parts of Religion are not without their Edification too and a holy Practice or Custom may make a smarter Impression on the Soul than the Inculcations of a flat and heavy Sermon 4. Ceremonies are useful in regard of the Light they give to many Doctrines which being assisted and seconded by such Sensible Circumstances as Exhibit them to the Eye as well as to the Ear they are the better explain'd and establish'd in the Understanding by the help of two Senses as Differences in Law are by the Mouths of two Witnesses and we may term the Ceremonies which accompany the Precepts of Religion the Jael or Nail that fastens the Substance of them in our Minds as the holy Matron of that Name rivetted the temples of Sisera to the ground Or we may call them the Masorah of the Church for as the Jewish Masorah by an exact and critical Calculation of the Number of Words Syllables and Letters in the Scripture hedg'd in the Text both from Mutilations and Additions So Ceremonies often empale the Substance of Religion and guard it from Innovation and Corruption And may we not then justly condemn the Perverseness of those that make such Out-cries against such Useful such Innocent nay such Necessary things as Ceremonies who decry the same things for Superstition when used in the Church which they allow to be Wisdom when practis'd by our Saviour But Wisdom is justified of her Children impartially and those that have the Ingenuity and Goodness of the People in my Text and no Taint of Pharisaical Pride and Hypocrisie will approve the Rites of our Church as well as her Doctrines and say She has done all things Well She has made the Unanimous in Faith Uniform in Worship added to the Beauty of Truth the Beauty of Holiness neither dressing up the Service of God in that Strumpet-like Attire which the Church of Rome does nor stripping it into that deformed and sordid Nakedness which is seen in the Fanatick and Congregational Assemblies The Tenth Sermon MARK vii 37 He hath done all things well he maketh both the Deaf to hear and the Dumb to speak I Observed in the Testimony or Verdict of the People three things 1. The Appellation or Denomination they give our Lord He or This Man 2. The Kind or Nature of their Verdict it was an Approbation That he had done Well 3. The Extent of their Approbation That he had done All Things well I begin first with the Appellation or Denomination they give our Lord He or This Man The Peoples Appellation here is but a lame and imperfect Acknowledgment of Christ it exprest only one half and the meanest half of his Condition It was not the Style in which Believers in after-times spoke of him who never mentioned him as mere Man but as God or the Eternal Son of God When the Primitive Christians met in their early Devotions before day laudes Christo tanquam Deo canebant they sung Hymns to Christ as to a God as a Heathen could bear witness But however the Appellation of the People was less Honourable at the present it was accepted from them and registred as a Proof of their Ingenuity that they gave Christ the Due of his Actions though under an imperfect Style of his Person God opens the Eyes of mens Understanding and cures the Infirmities of their Souls by Degrees as Christ in the following Chapter cured the Blind mans Eyes who first saw Men like Trees and afterwards Men like Men. 'T was enough upon our Lord's first entering on his Prophetick Office and preaching to the World that the People received his Doctrine and conceived rightly of his Miracles though not of his Divine Nature that they acknowledged him to be a Good Man though not the Son of God Incarnate which at that time was not understood even by the Apostles themselves But then that which was an Ingenuous Expression in those days would be an Injurious or Blasphemous one in these if men should now so far debase Christ as to restrain him to his Humane Nature only and deny his Divine as the Socinians do who allow no higher Title to be due to him than this Man this Man has done all things well this Man was born of a pure Virgin this Man died rose from the Grave ascended into Heaven and sitteth at the right-hand of God and the like And 't is not without good reason that some have doubted whether those that are of this Perswasion are to be numbered among Christians who after so full and perfect a Revelation of Christ apprehend him yet so imperfectly who with a greater blindness if not malice persecute his Divinity than the Scribes and Pharisees did his Humanity use greater Endeavours to destroy the Son of God than they did to destroy the Supposed Son of Joseph and Mary I say though He or This Man was a pardonable appellation from the People who were yet but Raw Auditors of the Gospel yet 't is intolerable coming from Grown Christians and such Elementarii Senes Grey-headed Ignorants as stick still at the first Rudiments of the Faith deserve to be expell'd the School of Christ for their Non-proficiency Saint Paul 1 Cor. 1.12 sharply reproves Believers for saying I am of Paul I of Apollos I of Cephas I of Christ and not only for their Schisms but chiefly for levelling our Lord with his Servants and making him only the Head of a Sect a Partial Minister of mens Salvation when he was the Sole Author and Finisher of their Faith But what shall we say then of those Fanaticks of later times who deny not only the Divinity but Humanity of Christ affirm that what the Gospel says of God Incarnate is not to be understood Historically but Morally not of a Particular Single Person but of all that are True Believers and that themselves are the Godded with God those in whom God is Man'd or Humaniz'd as they delight to Cant. Acknowledge no Saviour or Redeemer of the World but make themselves all to be Christs assume his Attributes and Prerogatives pretend to be without Sin Not that they do not do those things which the Worst of
Men do but the Spirit of God as they fansie doing all things in them to say they could sin were to say that God himself could Sin however therefore all Breaches and Transgressions of the Law are Criminal in other Men in them they are only Nominal and Seeming Sins Sins improperly and falsly so called from the similitude they bear to them And on this account they reprove none among themselves for committing the most heinous and flagitious Crimes but for shewing Sorrow for them after it being not Sin in their Opinion but a Remorse for Sin that is the Sign of an Unregenerate State the discerning a Difference between Good and Evil which they call the Relish of Eves Apple still remaining and endeavour by all means to eradicate perswading themselves that when they have destroyed all Sense of Sin they are arrived to the highest Point of Saintship and Perfection to the very State of Innocence in which Adam was created the State in which he knew no Evil. Miserably dreaming because Adam knew no Difference between Good and Evil Experimentally before his Fall that he knew not any Intellectually And thus we see not to believe Rightly of the Person of Christ is in truth not to believe in Christ to deny either his Humanity or Divinity is in Effect not to be a Christian. It is not only necessary therefore to receive all that is delivered By him but also all that is delivered Of him to acknowledge him to be our God as well as our Saviour and to adore him as well as to be Instructed by him To say in these days with the People in my Text He or This Man hath done all things well were no less than Sacriledge when our Style ought to be The Eternal Son of God blessed for evermore hath done all things well And so I pass to the Second Particular The Kind or Nature of the Peoples Verdict it was an Approbation He hath done Well The Peoples Approbation here was rightly grounded they concluded with good Reason That he that had made the Deaf and Dumb to hear and speak was a Prophet and no Deceiver that he whose Works were so Mighty must himself be Holy and his Words True Miracles are infallible Signs of a Divine Person Irrefragable Testimonies of a Man of God as the Widow of Zarephath rightly concluded when Elijah restored her dead Son to Life Now says she I know thou art a Man of God and that the Word of the Lord in thy Mouth is Truth and likewise Nicodemus when he said to our Lord Rabbi we know thou art a Teacher come from God for no Man can do the Miracles thou dost except God be with him Our Lord himself made use of this Argument drawn from his Mighty Works as his last Appeal for the Truth of his Divine Mission says he If I do not the Works of my Father believe me not but if I do though ye believe not me believe the Works Thus even licensing the Infidelity of men in case he had not performed Works above the Power and Ability of men At the first production of the Creatures there were certain Properties or Qualities implanted in them as Descending to heavy Bodies Ascending to light moving Circularly to heavenly c. Now when it comes to pass that Heavy things move Upwards and Light Downwards when Water a fluid Body is made a Pavement or a Wall the Fiery Furnace a Refrigeratory as Nebuchadnezzar's was to the three Children circa frigidos capillorum globulos innoxium luxit incendium says S t Jerome the harmless Flame did only shine upon not singe their curled Locks When I say the Courses of Nature are thus changed and its Laws inverted when the Creature is fashioned again anew as the Author of the Book of Wisdom speaks and is made to observe Particular Commands it is a Kind of Second Creation For none can change the Laws of Nature but the God of Nature Well therefore did S t Augustine say Habent Miracula linguam suam opera sunt argumenta Miracles have a Tongue and speak and they are not only Works but Arguments To give a man Speech that was born without it is even of it self a Kind of Speech the Speech no less than of the Almighty for God appears not Personally to converse with Men but such as these are his Utterances of himself to the World neither did the Voices that broke from the Clouds at the Baptism and Transfiguration of our Lord saying This is my Beloved Son more clearly and intelligibly declare to the Hearers who Christ was than the Voice of God in every Miracle he wrought pronounc'd the same thing but on all his Mighty Works was engraved in bright and shining Characters This is my Beloved Son and again This is my Beloved Son hear him The first Way I say was not more convincing to mens Senses than the second was argumentative to their Reason and there is but One and the same Proof of the Deity and of the Truth of Christ's Pretences and they are either both True or both False he that gives Hearing to the Deaf-born is a Righteous Person or he that made the Ear is nothing he that gives Speech to the Dumb-born has done well or he that made the Tongue is a mere Chimaera But yet this is to be received with some Caution for there are two Uses which God makes of Miracles The one to plant Faith And the other to try the Constancy of Believers And as God sent Christ and the Prophets before him with the Power of working Miracles for the first End so he permits Anti-Christ and other Impostors to work False Signs and Wonders for the second End and those so seemingly true as to deceive if it were possible the very Elect. You will say then Which of these two shall have the Preheminence in our Belief how shall we know to which to adhere both performing the same Works but drawing several Ways Must these Miracle-Workers as one asks the Question take place as Women in a Bake-house the first Comer the first served There is a Rule set down Deut. 13.1 how we are to carry our selves in this Case and to judge of Miracles If there arise among you a Prophet says Moses or a Dreamer of Dreams and gives you a Sign or a Wonder and the Sign or the Wonder comes to pass whereof he spake unto you saying Let us go after other Gods which you have not known and let us serve them you shall not hearken unto the Word of that Prophet for the Lord your God proveth you Now the Wonders and Signs performed by Anti-Christ and other Impostors are all to this Purpose To draw men from the Worship of the True God or at least from some Fundamental Points in Religion For as S t Paul says of Anti-Christ He opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God so that he as God sitteth in the Temple of God shewing himself to be God When