Recompences which he hath so plainly and clearly promised to his Subjects For this he also obscurely typified to the Jews for as I have already hinted by that Canaan which he bestowed upon them after their tedious Travel through the Wilderness he did darkly represent to them that Canaan above flowing with infinite Delights which he hath promised to bestow upon his faithful Servants after they have pass'd through the Wilderness of this World So also by their Sabbaoths and especially their Year of Jubilee wherein they were to rest from all their Labours and keep a perpetual Festivity He did obscurely decypher to them that Sabbaoth of Rest and Jubilee of endless Pleasure which vertuous Souls shall enjoy in Heaven after they have finished their Labours here on Earth as you may see at large Heb. 4. Now by these and such like Shadows of their Law which possibly the Prophets by Divine Inspiration might expound to them those who were wise and good among them it is very probable were instructed in the Article of eternal Life Hence it may be might arise that famous Controversy among the Jews concerning the Written and Oral Law which they call the Cabala or the Law by Tradition not that this traditional contained any thing that was not in the written Law but because those things which were obscurely contained in the Types of the written Law were explained and interpreted in this their Traditional Law But it is apparent that the Types of eternal Life were not fully explained in this traditional Law till after the Babylonish Captivity after which the Prophet Daniel and after him Ezekiel began to speak more plainly of the Resurrection of the Dead and from that Time forwards the Doctrine of the Resurrection and eternal Life began to be more openly taught among the Common People till about the Time of the Maccabees when it was brought forth into the Light from under those Types in which it was so obscurely represented and became a Principle even of the Popular Religion and an Article of the Jewish Faith as plainly appears from the Records of those Times particularly 2 Macc. 7.23 26. compared with Heb. 11.35 And indeed it was very necessary that then this Article should be more clearly revealed to fortify the Jews against those many Persecutions whereunto they were exposed for the sake of their Religion that they might not be terrified to apostatize from it by those cruel Martyrdoms which in the Time of the Maccabees they many of them endured and besides now the Time of the Gospel was approaching and consequently its Mysteries like the Light of the rising Sun began to break forth clearer and clearer from under that Cloud of Types wherein it was wrapt and involved till at last the Sun of Righteousness himself arose and dispersed those Clouds and brought Life and Immortality to light by the Gospel But as for the Sadducees who give no heed to the Cabala or Traditional Law in which this Doctrine was first discovered and adhered only to the written Law of Moses they still continued Infidels in this Point and believed neither Angels nor Spirits nor the Life to come So very obscurely was it represented in the Types and Shadows of the Written Law But when once the Eternal Word came to tabernacle in our Flesh he revealed this great Article so plainly and clearly to the World that 't is impossible for any one not to believe it that believes him to be the Messias or Incarnate Word And thus you see by all these Instances what a vast Difference there was in respect of Truth between Christ's tabernacling in our Nature and in the Tabernacle of Moses And now I shall conclude this Argument with two or three practical Inferences 1st He dwelt or tabernacled among us From hence I infer the high Authority of Christ and that holy Religion which he hath revealed to us For to tabernacle among us as I have already shewed you signifies to dwell in the midst of as the Shechinah Presence or Representative of the most High God as one that acted in his Father's Person and was vested with his Authority and consequently as one who hath as great a Right to exact our Obedience as the Eternal Father himself should he have come down from Heaven in his own Person to give Laws to Mankind For so when the Eternal Word went before the Camp of Israel as the Shechinah or Angel of God's Presence God requires them that they should obey him as himself Beware of him and obey his Voice saith God provoke him not for he will not pardon your Transgression for my Name is in him Exod. 23.21 and v. 22. To obey the Voice of this Angel is interpreted to be the same thing as to obey the Voice of the most High God himself But if thou shalt indeed obey his Voice saith God and do all that I speak then I will be an Enemy to thy Enemies c. So that for the Israelites to disobey this Angel who as I have proved to you was the Eternal Word or Representative of the most High God to them was to all Intents and Purposes the same Thing as if they had disobeyed the most High himself And accordingly our Saviour tells the Jews He that believeth on me believeth not on me but on the Father that sent me that is he doth not meerly believe on me but on the Father too whose Authority I have and whose Person I reprefent for so he explains himself in the following Verse He that seeth me seeth him that sent me that is I being my Father 's Shechinah or Representative Joh. 12.44 45. And therefore as every Contempt of the Deputy or Vice-Governor is an Affront to the Sovereign Prince whose Person he bears and by whose Authority he acts so every Rebellion against Christ is an open Defiance to the Sovereign God whose Person he represents and by whose Authority he reigns Hence our Saviour tells the Jews Job 5. 23. that He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him which plainly intimates that God the Father resents those Indignities which we offer to Christ and his Laws as if they were done to his own Person and that if himself should speak to us from the Battlements of Heaven or proclaim his Law to us in a Voice of Thunder he would not be more displeased to hear us openly declarethat we will not obey him than he is to see us trample upon the Laws of his Son which he hath stamp'd with his own Sovereign Authority So that if we were not infinitely fool-hardy methinks we should never dare to violate our Religion in which the Authority of the most High God is so immediately concerned For whatsoever our Religion requires of us it requires in his Name who hath an undoubted Right and Authority to command us for from all Eternity he was invested with an absolute and unlimited Power of doing any thing that is not unbecoming his Divine Perfections
inglorious Ends which we pursue and aim at O good God that thou should'st give me a Soul of an immortal Nature a Soul that is big enough for all the Joys which thy everlasting Heaven is composed of and I be such a Wretch to my self such a Traytor to the Dignity of my own Nature as to give up my self and all my Faculties to the Pursuit of such vain and wretched Trifles That I who am akin to Angels should make my self a Muck-worm and chuse Nebuchadnezzar's fate to leave Crowns and Scepters and live among the salvage Herds of the Wilderness That having such a great and noble Nature I should content my self to live like a Beast and aim no higher than if I had been born only to eat and drink and sleep and wake for thirty or forty Years together and then retire into a silent Grave and be insensible for ever Wherefore in the Name of God let us at last remember what we are and what we are born to Let us consider that we have Faculties that are capable of exerting themselves for ever in the most inravishing Contemplation and Love of the eternal Fountain of Truth and Goodness of Copying and Transcribing his most adorable Perfections his Wisdom Goodness Purity and Justice from whence the infinite Happiness of his Nature derives and thereby of glorifying us into living Images of God and rendring us like him both in Beauty and Happiness in a word that we have Faculties to converse with Angels and with blessed Spirits to bear a part in the eternal Confort of their Joys and Praises and to relish all those unknown Delights of which their everlasting Heaven doth consist And having such great and noble Powers in us is it not a burning shame that they should be always condemned to an endless Pursuit of Shadows and Impertinencies Let us therefore rouse up our selves and shake off this sordid and degenerate Temper that sinks and depresses us and makes us act so infinitely unbecoming the Dignity of our immortal Natures And since we are descended from and designed for the Heavenly Family let us learn to demean our selves upon Earth as becomes the Natives of Heaven Let us disdain all base and sordid all low and unworthy Ends of Action as Things beneath our illustrious Rank and Station in the World of Beings and live in a continual Tendency towards and Preparation for that Heavenly State which is the proper Orb and Sphere of our Natures 3ly From hence also I infer how much they undervalue themselves that sell their Souls for the Trifles of this World For since we know before-hand that the Wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all Unrighteousness and Ungodliness of Men and he hath plainly assured us that our Souls must smart for ever for our Sins it necessarily follows that whenever we knowingly suffer our selves to be inticed into Sin we make a wilful Forfeiture of our Souls He that knows that such a Draught however sweetned and made palatable is yet compounded with the Juice of deadly Nightshade and notwithstanding that will have the poisonous Draught is wilfully bent to Murder and Destroy himself And when we see that the Pleasure of our Sin draws after it the Ruin of our Souls and yet will Sin notwithstanding we do in effect stake our Souls against it and with our Eyes open make this desperate Bargain that upon Condition we may injoy such a sinful Pleasure we will willingly surrender up our immortal Spirits to the Pains of an endless and intolerable Damnation And if so O blessed God how do the Generality of Men depreciate and undervalue themselves For how often do we see Men in their little Frauds and Cozenages sell their Souls for a Penny gain in their lascivious and intemperate Humours barter their Souls for a Moments Mirth or Pleasure in their ambitious Projects and Designs part with their Souls for a Blast of vulgar Breath and popular Noise For in every Temptation to Sin the Dewil cheapens our immortal Souls bids so much Pleasure or so much Profit for them and in every Compliance with the Temptation we take his Offer and strike the fatal Bargain So that if we will Sin we had need Sin for something since we must pay so dearly for it But alas there is no Proffer the Devil can make us that is a tolerable Price for the Blood of our Souls though he should offer us the whole World for it our Saviour assures us that he would bid us infinitely to our Loss and if so what wretehed Sales do we make of our Souls when we Sin for Trifles lie and cheat to get a Penny consent to a wicked Motion for a Pleasure that will wither while we are smelling to it and expire in the very Injoyment For so much we value our Souls at and do in effect declare that in our Esteem these precious Beings which God and Angels set so high a Price on are worth no more than what that Profit or Pleasure for which we Sin amounts to O good God! What cheap and worthless Things then are our Souls in our Esteem who sell and barter them every Day for such mean and worthless Trifles How do we part with our Gold for Dross and exchange our Jewels for Pebbles What sordid Thoughts what wretched vile Opinions have we of our selves that are so ready upon all Occasions to sell our selves for nought or which is next to nought for the sorry Proffers of every base and infamous Lust O would to God we would at last make but a just Estimate of our selves and thereupon resolve as it is most reasonable we should never to comply with any sinful Motion till we can get more by it than our Souls are worth and then I am sure we should be for ever Deaf to all the Proffers which the Devil or World can make us 4ly And lastly From hence also I infer how much we are obliged above all things to take Care of our Souls For since they are Beings of such vast Capacities in themselves and of such an high Estimation in the World of Spirits methinks we should all be convinced that to take leave of their Welfare and prevent their everlasting Miscarriage is the highest Concern and Interest of a Man And yet God forgive us if we consult the common Practice of Mankind we shall find that there is scarce any thing in which we have any Interest at all that is more slighted and disregarded by us Our Body is the Darling that hath our Hearts and takes up all our Care and Thoughts and to entertain its Appetite and accommodate it with Pleasures and Conveniencies there is no Expence either of Labour or Time grudged or thought much of but as for the Soul that precious and immortal Thing which will be living and perceiving unspeakable Pleasures or Pains when this Body is dead and insensible that is overlooked as a Thing not worthy our serious Notice or Regard And though we cannot
Power yet unless we had Vnderstanding to guide and manage it it would be altogether insignificant For Blind Power acts at Random and if we had the Force of a Whirl-wind yet without a Mind to stear and manage it it would be an equal Chance whether we did well or ill with it So that unless there were some Vnderstanding either within or without us to conduct our active Powers and determine them to our Good we were as good be altogether without them because while they act by Chance it is at least an equal Lay whether they will injure or advantage us Since therefore Vnderstanding is the Rule and Measure of all our other Powers it necessarily follows that it self is the greatest and noblest of them all What an excellent Being therefore must a Soul be in which this great and Sovereign Power resides a Power that can collect into it self such prodigious Numbers of simple Apprehensions and by comparing one with the other can connect them into true Propositions and upon each of these can run such long and curious Descants of Discourse till it hath drawn out all their Consequents into a Chain of wise and coherent Notions and sorted these into such various Systems of useful Arts and Sciences That can discern the Harmonious Contextures of Truths with Truths the secret Links and Junctures of coherent Notions trace up Effects to their Causes and sift the remotest Consequents to their natural Principles That can cast abroad its sharp-sighted Thoughts over the whole Extent of Beings and like the Sun with it s out-stretched Rays reach the remotest Objects That can in the Twinkling of an Eye expatiate through all the Vniverse and keep Correspondence with both Worlds can prick out the Paths of the Heavenly Bodies and measure the Circles of their Motion span the whole Surface of the Earth and dive into its Capacious Womb and there discover the numerous Offsprings with which it is continually teeming That can sail into the World of Spirits by the never-varying Compass of its Reason and discover those invisible Regions of Happiness and Misery which are altogether out of our sight whilest we stand upon this hither Shore In a word That can ascend from Cause to Cause to God who is the Cause of all and with its Eagle-Eyes can gaze upon that glorious Sun and dive into the infinite Abyss of his divine Perfections What an excellent Being therefore is that Soul that is endowed with such a vast Capacity of Vnderstanding and with its piercing Eye can reach such an immense Compass of Beings and travail through so vast an Horizon of Truth Doubtless if humane Souls had no other Capacity to value themselves by but only this this were enough to give them Preheminence over all inferiour Beings and render them the most glorious Part of all this sublunary World 2. The Soul of Man is of vast Worth in Respect of its Capacity of Moral Perfection For by the Exercise of those human Virtues which are proper to it in this state of Conjunction with the Body it is capable of raising it self to the Perfection of those Angelical Natures which of all Creatures do most nearly approach and resemble the great Creator and Fountain of all Perfection For by keeping a due Restraint upon its bodily Appetites and thereby gradually weaning it self from the Pleasures of the Body it may by degrees be educated and trained up to lead the Life and relish the Joys of naked and immortal Spirits it may be contempered to an incorporeal State so as to be able to enjoy it self without eating and drinking and live most happily upon the Fare of Angels upon Wisdom and Holiness and Love and Contemplation And then by governing its own Will and Affections by the Laws of Reason and Religion it may by degrees improve it self so far in all these Moral Endowments which are the proper Graces of every reasonable Nature as to be at last as perfectly wise and reasonable in its own Choices and Refusals in its Love and Hatred in its Desires and Delights as the Angels themselves are For though it cannot be expected that in this imperfect state a Soul should arrive to such a Pitch as this yet even now it may be growing up and aspiring to it which if it doth as I shall shew you by and by when this is expired it hath another Life to live which being antecedently prepared for by those spiritual Improvements it hath made here will furnish it with Opportunities of improving infinitely faster than here it did or possibly could For in that Life it shall not only be freed from those many Incumbrances which do here retard it in its spiritual Progress nor shall it only be associated with a World of pure and blessed Spirits whose holy Example and wise Converse will doubtless wonderfully edifie and improve it but be also admitted into a more intimate Acquaintance with God who is the Author and Pattern of all Perfection the sight of whose ravishing Beauty will inflame it with a most ardent Love to him and excite it to a most vigorous Imitation of him All which considered it is not to be imagined how much the state of Heaven will immediately improve those happy Souls that are prepared and disposed for it But then considering that Moral Perfection is as infinite as the Nature of God in which there is an Infinity of Holiness and Justice and Goodness within this boundless Subject there will be Room enough for Souls to make farther and farther Improvements in even to Eternity And then when they shall still be growing on so fast and yet be still forever improving to what a transcendent Height of Glory and Perfection will they at last arrive For tho no finite Soul can ever arrive to an infinite Perfection yet still it may be growing on to it because there will still be possible Degrees of it beyond its present Attainments and when it is arrived to the farthest imaginable Degree yet still it will be capable of farther and so farther and farther to all Eternity And if so O blessed God of what a Capacious Nature hast thou made these Souls of ours which tho they will doubtless improve in Goodness as fast in the other Life as is possible for them with all the Advantages of a Heavenly State yet will never attain to an utmost Period but still be growing perfecter and perfecter for ever 3. The Soul of Man is of vast Worth in Respect of its immense Capacities of Pleasure and Delight For its Capacity of Pleasure must necessarily be as large and extensive as its Capacity of Vnderstanding and of Moral Perfection because the proper Pleasure of a Soul results from its own Knowledge and Goodness from its farther Discoveries of Truth and farther Proficiency in inward Rectitude and Virtue and consequently as it Improves farther and farther in Vnderstanding and in Moral Perfection it must still gather more and more Fuel to feed and encrease its own Joy and
them he designed to grant it to them in such a Way and upon such a wise and weighty Consideration as might at once affect them with the greatest sense of his Love and the deepest A we of his Severity that so whilst by the former he allured by the later he might terrify to Repentance To which end he determined not to grant it to them upon any other Consideration than that of anothers suffering for them and undergoing the Punishment of their Sin in their stead that so whilst he shewed his Love to them in admitting another to suffer for them he might express his Hatred to their Sin in not Pardoning it without anothers suffering And that he might manifest this his Love to them and this his Hatred to their Sin in the highest Degree as he admitted another to suffer for us so he resolved to accept no meaner Suffering than that of his own beloved Son And that this his suffering might be the more effectual he proposed to send him down to us into this lower World cloathed in our Natures that so he might not only the more familiarly instruct us by his Doctrine and Example but the more exactly personate us in undergoing the Punishment of our Sin and upon his undertaking to undergo it the most Merciful Father agreed to this Covenant of Mercy by which he obliged himself to receive us into his Favour upon our unfeigned Repentance and impower'd his Son to govern us according to the Tenour of it that is to Crown us with the Rewards of it if we Repented and inflict on us the Punishments of it if we went on in our Impenitence And that there might be nothing wanting to render this Government of his Son successful and us obedient to it he also agreed upon this his Mighty undertaking to substitute to him the Holy Ghost to be the supreme Minister of his Government that so by the Agency of this vicarious Power he might bow and incline the Hearts of Men to submit unto him and comply with the Terms of this Merciful Covenant in which their everlasting Welfare is so abundantly provided for This is the mighty Project which for the sake of the Souls of Men the Father of Spirits hath contrived and upon which he hath acted and proceeded even from their first Fall to this very Moment And by this he hath most plainly expressed the high and great Veneration that he hath of them for doubtless had they not been exceeding precious in his Eyes he would never have thought it worth the while to project and act such mighty Things to redeem and save them He would rather have left them to their own Fate and not have concerned himself about them or not have concerned himself to that Degree as to make them the Subjects of such a vast Design For all wise Agents measure their Designs by the Worth and Value of the Things they aim at and do never lay great Projects for the sake of little Trifles and unless God had a mighty Value for the Souls of Men his making such vast Preparations to save them would be like that foolish Emperors raising a numerous Army only to go and gather Cockle-shells 2. Let us consider the vast Price which God the Son hath set upon Souls For it is plain he valued them at that mighty Rate as that for their sakes he willingly undertook to execute this vast Design of his Father and that to save these precious Beings he thought it would be very well worth his while to come down from Heaven and vail his Divinity in our Natures to put on the Form of a Servant and make himself of no Reputation to live a Miserable Life and die a painful and accursed Death And can we think he would ever have laid down so vast a Price as his Glory and Happiness his Life and Blood amounts to for Things of a mean and inconsiderable Value Had he so low an Esteem of his Father's Bosom and his own Heavenly Glory as to part with them for Trifles Such slight Apprehensions of Shame and Sorrow Pain and Misery as to cast himself into them for the sake of Beings he had little or no Esteem of Could any thing but what is inestimable countervail to that Glory he parted with and that Misery he indured Or can you think those Souls of little Worth which the Son of God thought worth his dying for No certainly if we knew nothing of our Souls but this that the Son of God thought them a good Purchase at the dear Price of his Bliss his Glory and his Blood yet from thence we have infinite Reason to conclude them most precious and inestimable Beings it being impossible that he who doth so perfectly understand the Worth and Value of Things should ever be so over-seen as to pay so vast a Sum for slight and cheap Commodities 3. Let us consider the vast Price which God the Holy Ghost hath set upon Souls For 't is for their sakes that he doth so Industriously operate in the Kingdom of our Saviour that he takes so much Pains in it as he doth and hath alway done ever since it was first erected to drive on that blessed Design of making the Souls of Men the native Subjects of it happy It is upon their Account that he hath made so many Revelations of God's Will to the World and confirmed them by so many Miracles that so he might extricate those precious Beings out of those Labyrinths of Error in which they had involved and lost themselves and direct them into the way to true Happiness And it is for their good that he still continues shedding forth his Heavenly Influences upon them that he still inspires them with so many good Thoughts importunes them with such urgent Motives presses upon them with such earnest Struglings and vigorous Efforts not only of his preventing but of his assisting Grace too that if possible he may awaken them into a Sense of their Danger and excite and quicken them to pursue the Methods of their own Safety and Happiness So infinitely jealous is this blessed Spirit lest these precious Beings should Miscarry that tho one would think them sufficiently safe-guarded in their Voyage through this dangerous Sea under the Convoy of their own Reason yet he dares not trust them to themselves but bears them Company all along and keeps a watchful Eye over them and when any Rock is nigh he warns them of it and when they are beset with evil Spirits those mischievous Pirates that lie in wait to Captivate and Inslave them he presently comes into their Assistance and unless they are resolved to betray themselves always brings them off victoriously Nay tho they many times not only yield to these Piratical Spirits but joyn their Forces with them to resist and beat off their merciful Friend and Deliverer yet he doth not therefore presently abandon them but being infinitely concerned for their Rescue follows them even to the Mouth of
if after all their Labout Craft and Contrivance they can but seise the Game they hunt for the Blood of a Soul is so rich a Draught that they think it a sufficient Recompence for all their painful and mischievous Devices for St. Peter tells us that they go about like roaring Lions seeking whom they may devour And to be sure those malignant Spirits would never be so impertinently mischievous as to spend their time in catching Flies and did they not know our Souls to be noble Preys they would never go so far about as they do nor take so much Care and Pains to Catch and Insnare them So that from their unwearied Diligence to seduce and ruin us we may most certainly conclude either that they are very foolish Devils or that our Souls are very precious Beings but howsoever their Diligence to destroy them is a plain Argument that they esteem them precious it being by no means to be supposed that such Wise and Intelligent Beings as they are would so much concern themselves as they do about things which they had little or no Esteem for And thus you see at what a vast Rate our Souls are valued by the whole World of Spirits how from the highest to the lowest those best and wisest Judges of the just Worth of Souls do all unanimously concur in a great and high Estimation So that whether we value them by their own natural Capacities or by the Estimation of those who are best able to judge of their Worth and Excellency we have abundant Reason to conclude them most precious and inestimable Beings And now I shall concude this Argument with some Inferences 1. From hence I infer by what it is that we ought to value our selves and estimate the Dignity of our own Natures viz. by our rational and immortal Souls those excellent Beings that are so invaluable in themselves and so highly esteemed by the best and wisest Judges 'T is this intelligent and immortal Nature within us that is the Crown and Flower of our Beings 't is by this that we are exalted above the Level of meer Animals by this that we are allyed to Angels and do border upon God himself And he that values himself by any thing but his Soul and those things which are its proper Graces and Ornaments begins at the wrong End of himself forgets his Jewels and estimates his Estate by his Lumber And yet good God what foolish Measures do the Geneerality of Men take of themselves Were we not forced by too many woful Experiments it would be hard to imagine that any Creature that believes a rational and immortal Soul to be a Part of its Nature should be so ridiculous as to value it self by the little trifling Advantages of a well-coloured Skin a suit of fine Cloaths a Puff of popular Applause or a few Baggs of white and red Earth and yet God help us these are the only things almost by which we value and difference our selves from others You are a much better Man than your Neighbout he alas is a poor contemptible Wretch a little creeping despicblae Thing not worthy to be looked upon or taken notice of by such a one as you Why in the Name of God what is the Matter Where is this mighty Difference between you and him Hath not he a Soul as well as you a Soul that is capable to live as long and to be as happy as yours Yes yes 't is true indeed but notwithstanding God be thanked you are another-guess Man than he for you have a much handsomer Body your Apparel is much more fine and fashionable you live in a more splendid Equipage and have a larger Purse to maintain it and your Name forsooth is more in Vogue and makes a far greater Noise in the World And is this all the Difference between your mighty selves and your pitiful Neighbours Alas poor Men A few Days more will put an End to this and when your rich Attires are reduced to a Winding-sheet and all your vast Possessions to six Foot of Earth what will become of all those little Trifles by which you value your selves Where will be the Beauty or Wealth the Port or Garb which you are now so proud of Alas Now that lovely Body looks as pale and ghastly that losty Soul is left as bare as poor and naked as your despised Neighbours Should you now meet his wandering Ghost in the wide World of Spirits what would you have to boast of more than he now your Beauty is withered your Wealth vanished and all your outward Pomp and Splendor shrouded in the Horrors of a silent Grave Now you will have nothing distinguish you from the most Contemptible unless you have wiser and better Souls and by so much as you were more respected for your Beauty and Wealth your Garb and Equipage in this World by so much will you be more despised for your Pride and Insolence your Covetousness and Sensuality in the other Let us therfore learn to value our selves by that which will abide by us by our immortal Souls and by those heavenly Graces which do adorn and accomplish them by our Humility and Devotion by our Charity and Meekness by our Temperance and Justice all which are such Preheminences as will survive our Funerals and distinguish us from base and abject Souls for ever But for a rational and immortal Creature to prize it self by any such temporary Advantages is altogether as vain and ridiculous as it was for the Emperor Nero to value himself for being an excellent Fidler 2ly From hence also I infer how much we are obliged to live up to the Dignity of our Natures Should a stranger to Mankind be admitted into this busy Stage of humane Affairs to survey our Actions and the paultry Designs we drive at certainly he would hardly imagine that we believed out selves to be such a noble sort and strain of Beings as we are If you saw a Man seriously imploying himself in some sordid and beggarly Drudgery could you imagine that he believed himself to be the Son of a King and the Heir of a Crown And when it is so apparent that the main of our Design is to prog for our Flesh and make a comfortable Provision for a few Years Ease and Luxury who would think that we believed our selves to be immortal Spirits that must live for ever in an inconceivable Happiness or Misery When we consider the high Rank which we hold in the Creation the vast Capacities which there are in our Natures and the noble Ends which we were made and designed for are we not ashamed to think how poorly we prostitute our selves and vilify our own Faculties by the sordid Drudgeries wherein we exercise and imploy'em When we think what a Reputation we have throughout all the World of Spirits what a vast Rate we are valued at by God and Angels and Devils are we not confounded to think how we under-value our selves by those low and
solicited to Evil they have the Advantage of preingaging our Affections to them before we arrive to the Use of our Reason for in our tender years these are the only Goods that we can relish they are these that do feed clothe and furnish us in hand with whatsoever our natural Appetites do gape for that are the sole Entertainment of our childish Fanices and the only Objects our yet unfledg'd Thoughts and Desires can reach at and our Youth being thus intirely inured to them by that time we are grown up to the Age of Reason and the Capacities of Virtue and Religion we have generally contracted such an excessive Inclination towards them and are so strongly biass'd with the Love of them that whensoever they beckon to us we are ready to follow them through all the forbidden Tracts that lead to everlasting Ruin For our Natures being thus vitiated the Temptations without us have a strong Party within us a Party of traytorous Inclinations which upon every Summons solicites us to yield and surrender up our Virtue and Innocence and no sooner can any Temptation from without give the Alarm but presently our own Lusts are up raising a Mutiny within us and with the Heats of our corrupted Fancy do many times so disorder our Understanding that it cannot rally up its Considerations against them For before ever our Understanding could be Furnished with Considerations our Hearts were prepossessed with such an excessive degree of ambitious covetous and luxurious Inclinations that when afterwards the Pleasures Profits and Honours without begin to hold forth their grateful Lures to us and to tempt us away to Fraud or Treachery to Vanity or Licentiousness those depraved Inclinations have gotten such Head within us that they prove most commonly too strong for all our Consideration and with their impetuous Current carry us away and drive us headlong down towards eternal Ruin and unless we put forth all the strength of our Reason and Resolution and the Grace of God also come in to our Aid it will be impossible for us to stem such a furious Tide when it is driven by the Wind of an outward Temptation When therefore our own Inclinations do so vigorously conspire with the Temptations without to thrust us on into Sin and Perdition how we can be insensible of the eminent danger we are in of Miscarrying for ever But 5ly We are liable also to fall into a sinful State and from thence into Eternal Misery from the unwearied Diligence and great Subtilty of the Devil to make Use of and apply these Temptations to us For that the Devil doth commonly as an assistant Genius to the Corruption of our Natures excite and provoke Men to Wickedness is very evident from Scripture where he is said to work in the Children of Disobedience Eph. 2.2 To fill the Heart of Ananias to lie to the Holy Ghost Acts 5.3 And to take away the Word out of Mens hearts lest they should believe and be saved Luke 8.12 All which Expressions do plainly imply that the Devil is a constant Agent in the Sins of Men. And being a Spiritual Agent he must needs be supposed to have a nearer Access to the Soul than any material Cause whatsoever For tho he be totally debarr'd from all kind of Intercouse with the immediate Operations of the reasonable Soul and can no more look into the Thoughts than we can into the Bowels of the Earth yet he can easily get into the Fancy which stands next to that mysterious Chamber that is open to no Eye but Gods and make what use he pleases of the infinite Images and Phantasms that are in it and dispose and order and distinguish them into the Pictures of what Objects he pleases just as the Painter doth his numerous Cojours that lie confusedly before him in their several Shells and continue and repeat those Pictures and Representations as long and as oft as he pleases And then considering what the natural Use of the Fancy is both to the Vnderstanding and Will how it prompts the one with matter of Invention and supplies it with Variety of Objects to work on and draws forth and excites the other to chuse or reject those Objects it presents according as they are pleasing or displeasing we must needs suppose that the Devil hath a vast Advantage of insinuating his black Suggestions into the Soul by having such free Access into the Fancy And accordingly he is said to put it into the heart of Judas to betray Christ John 13.2 But then he being not only a spiritual but also an intellectual Agent of a vast and capacious Understanding by Nature and particularly improved in the black Art of temping by a long Experience of its Wiles and Stratagems having been a Tempter almost ever since he hath been an Angel he must needs be supposed to be wonderfully expert and fagacious in it that after having had five Thousand years experience of the Methods of seducing Souls to increase and perfect his natural Subtilty he must by this be fully instructed when and how to apply himself to every Age and Constitution For this hath been his sole Business wherein he hath been infinitely intent and active ever since he became a Devil and if from a Man then much more from a Devil of one Business Good Lord deliver me from a Devil that for five Thousand Years hath been continually making Experiments of Temptation and drawing them into Rules to direct and order his mischievous Practice on the Souls of Men. But besides as the Devil is of a spiritual and ingelligent Nature so he hath a vast Number of his black Angels continually roving about the World to seduce and captivate us into Sin and Ruin And tho these malignant Spirits have no ligament of natural Love between them to tie and oblige them to one another yet by that perfect Hatred which they all bear to God and Men they are united together in an inviolable League and go hand in hand with one another in pursuance of their desperate Design to involve our wretched Souls in the same eternal Ruin with themselves which renders their Force so much the more formidable And when we have so many spiritual subtil and Powerful Adversaries combining against and continually wandring to and fro like roaring Lyons to devour us we cannot but apprehend our Danger exceeding great especially considering the infinite Temptations from without that this World affords the great Variety of sensual Goods and Evils which they have to object to our carnalized Minds For these mischievious Spirits having so great Insight into our Tempers and so great a Choice of Objects to suggest to our Fancies can never be at a Loss how they may nick us with a convenient Temptation and that which gives their Temptations a vast Advantage over us is that we know not how to distinguish them from the Motions of our own Hearts For could we see the Devil at our Elbows or hear him whispering at our
to plunge our selves into all those endless Miseries which the loss of our Souls implies What then remains but that being seriously affected with the Sense of our Danger we presently awake out of our Security and with the deepest Concern for our immortal Souls cry out with St. Peter's Auditors Men and Brethren what shall we do to be saved Verisly when I reflect upon the strange Unconcernedness of Men about their future Condition I am tempted to think either that they do not believe that they have an immortal Soul in them or that if they do they believe it is impossible it should for ever miscarry For how is it conceivable that Men who in other matters are so solicitous when their Interest is at Stake and exposed to the least Hazard should believe that they have Souls in Danger of perishing for ever and yet take no more Care or Regard of them but like the forgetful Mother who when her House was on Fire to save her Goods forgot her Child lay out all their thoughts upon the little Concerns of this frail and mortal Life and in the mean time forget their precious Souls and leave them perishing in the Flames of Perdition O stupid Creature what art thou made of that canst consider that thou hast an immortal Soul surrounded with so many Dangers of being lost for ever and yet be no more concerned for its Preservation Methinks if thou hadst any Sense in thee having a Prospect of such endless Miseries before thee the remotest Possibility of falling into them should be enough to startle and awake thee but when thou art so near the Brink of those Miseries and hast so many Causes round about thee shoving thee forward and thrusting thee headlong down into them and yet be no more concerned at it is such a Prodigy of sensless Stupidity as Heaven and Earth may justly be astonished at 'T is true if the Danger thou art in were such as is impossible to be evaded it would then be the wisest Course thou couldst take to concern thy self as little as may be about it but rather to live merrily whilst thou mayst and not antedate thy Misery by thinking of the dismal Futurity But God be praised this is not our Case though our Condition be dangerous yet it is far from desperate for if we will use our honest Endeavour and vigorously exert the Faculties of our Nature we not only may but shall escape There are indeed a great many Causes of our Danger a great many Enemies concurring to our Ruin but none of these are able to effect it unless we our selves joyn hands in the fatal Conspiracy If we will be but faithful Friends to our selves and true to our own eternal Interest it will be beyond the power of all those Causes together to do us any material Injury For blessed be the good God those that are for us are far greater and mightier than those that are against us against us we have the World the Flesh and the Devil the weakest of which is I confess a dangerous and puissant Enemy but for us we have God and Angels and our own Reason assisted with the most invincible Motives with vast and glorious Promises that stand beckoning to us with Crowns of Immortality in their Hands to call us off from the Pursuit of our Lusts to the Practice of Virtue and Religion with direful Threatnings that are continually Alarming and warning us of the dreadful Consequents of our Sins and sundry other such mighty I had almost said Almighty Motives as if we would seriously attend to would certainly render our Souls impregnable against all the Temptations of Vice And besides our Reason thus Armed and Accountered we have on our side the Holy Angels of God who are always ready to prompt us to and assist us in our Duty and to second us in all our spiritual Combats against the Enemies of our Souls And besides all these we have with us the Almighty Spirit of God who upon our sincere Desires and honest Endeavours is engaged to aid us and co-operate with us in working out our Salvation whose Grace is abundantly sufficient for us to strengthen us in our Weakness to support us under our greatest Difficulties and carry us on victoriously through the most violent Temptations And being back't with such mighty Auxiliaries how is it possible that we should miscarry unless we are resolved to betray our selves and give fire to the fatal Trains of our Enemies and if we are so bent there is no Remedy for our Obstinacy and it is just and fit we should be left to the dismal and pitiless Effect of our own Folly and Madness For if when we see our sleves in so much danger and it is yet in our Power to escape if we please we will notwithstanding precipitate our selves into Ruin all the World must agree upon an impartial Inquisition for the Blood of our Souls that we murdered our selves that God is just and that his hands are clean from any stain of our Blood and that our own Ruin is wholly owing to our own invincible Obstinacy III. I proceed now to the Third Proposition That our renouncing of Christ and his Religion will most certainly infer the loss of our Souls For as I have shewed you these Words are urged by our Saviour as a Motive to deter his Disciples from forsaking him as is plain from Ver. 24 25. which necessarily supposes that upon their forsaking him this Loss would most certainly and inevitably follow In the Prosecution therefore of this Argument I shall endeavour these two things 1. To shew you what that forsaking of Christ is which infers this Loss 2. Upon what Accounts our thus forsaking him infers it 1. What that forsaking of Christ is which infers this Loss To which I answer there is a Four-Fold Forsaking of Christ which the Scripture takes notice of as capital and damnable to the Souls of Men. 1. When we forsake him by a total Apostacy 2ly When we cowardly renounce the Profession of his Doctrine or any Part of it notwithstanding we still believe and are convinced of the Truth of it 3. When by obstinate Heresy we either add to or subtract from the Faith of Christ 4ly When by any wilful Course of Disobedience we do vertually renounce the Authority of his Laws 1. We lose and forfeit our Souls when we forsake Christ by a total Apostacy from him When after we have been Baptized into his Name and thereby have made a visible Profession of our believing his Doctrines and obeying his Laws we turn Runagadoes and cast off our Belief of the one and disown our Obligation to the other we do most justly incur the Loss and Forfeiture of our Souls For so strong and cogent is the Evidence of Christianity that it is not to be supposed that any professed Christian can be either innocently or excusably seduced into a Disbelief of it For Religion being a Matter of the vastest Moment and Concern
of all things and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 6 De Somn. p. 466. the Vice-roy of God and also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 7 Lib. Cherub p. 100. that is the Instrument of God by whom he made the World As in Christ the Fulness of the Godhead is said to dwell Colos 2.9 so Plotin tells us of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it is filled with God 8 Ennead 5. l. 3. c. 12. As Christ is called the great Shepherd of our Souls 1 Pet. 2.25 so Philo tells us that God who is King and Pastor of the World hath appointed the Word his first-begotten Son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 9 De Agricult p. 152. to undertake the Care of his sacred Flock as his own Vice-roy and Substitute and accordingly in the same place he makes The Word to be that Angel whom God had promis'd to send before the Camp of Israel to conduct them through the Wilderness In short as the Angels are said to be subject unto Christ 1 Pet. 3.22 and as Christ is said to be the Angel or Messenger of God Joh. 9.4 so Philo calls the most ancient Word the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Quaest Rerum divin haer p. 397. that is the Prince of the Angels and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 De Somn. p. 466. the Angel or Messenger of God And to name no more as Christ is called the Mediator of the new Covenant Heb. 12.24 and the Intercessor between God and Man Heb. 7.25 and the Propitiation and Atonement So saith Philo which is highly worthy of our Observation the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 3 Quaest Rerum Divin her p. 397. is the Intercessor for Mortals with the immortal God and also the Embassador of that great King to his Subjects which Office saith he he willingly undertook saying I will stand in the middle between the Lord and you as being neither unborn as God nor born as you but being a Medium between those two Extreams I will be a Pledge for both for his Creatures that they shall not utterly apostatize from him for God that he will not be wanting in his Fatherly Care towards them And in another place he tells us that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 4 De Somniis p. 447. that is the Beginning and the End of God's Good-will to the World which is all one with Propitiation And these Authorities of Philo I have the rather insisted upon because he being a Jew and a Platonick Philosopher must needs understand the Theology of Jews and Gentiles and living about the Time of our Saviour he must be supposed to have written in Terms that were then in use and were very well understood both by Jews and Gentiles And if so then it must necessarily follow that this Phrase The Word so common in that Author was very commonly used both by Jews and Gentiles in our Saviour's Time and consequently that it was derived from them and so appropriated to our Saviour by the inspired Writers of the New Testament And indeed it is not to be imagined how those inspired Writers should ever have so exactly agreed with the Jews and Gentiles in the Titles and Characters of the Eternal Word had not either they themselves or the Spirit of God which dictated to them purposely derived it from them 2. That the New Testament giving no distinct Explication of this Phrase The Word it is most safe and reasonable to fetch the Sense of it from that ancient Theology whence it was derived I do not deny but it is usual with all Writers to use Terms and Phrases by way of Accommodation and to illustrate their Sense by alluding to something that is like it and therefore are not always to be understood in the Sense which those Terms and Phrases do most commonly signify but in a Sense that hath some Proportion with it as the Drift and Connection of their Discourse doth plainly intimate But when Writers use Words in a literal Sense without any Note of Allusion and without explaining themselves into any different Sense either they must mean the same Thing which those Words do commonly signify or else they must mean to deceive and impose upon their Readers And thus stands the Case before us our Saviour is here stiled The Word a Term of Art which was very common both in the Jewish and Gentile Philosophy and neither here nor any where else is there the least Intimation that he is called so only by way of Allusion nor is it in all the New Testament explained into any other Sense than that wherein it was commonly used and therefore the Intent of the Sacred Writers in using it must be either to denote the same thing which it signified before or to deceive and impose upon the World But doubtless if the Holy Spirit which inspired those Writers had meant any thing else by it than what it ordinarily fignifies he would have told us of it and not have given us such an unavoidable Occasion to mistake in so great a Doctrine by clothing its Sense in such a Phrase as generally signifies what he never meant For when he called Christ by the same Name and attributed the same Titles and Characters by which the Jews and Gentiles were wont to describe their ΛΟΓΟΣ he could not but foresee that all inquisitive Persons would be apt to conclude that he meant the same thing and therefore if he had not meant so he would doubtless either not have given him that Name and those Titles or else to prevent our being imposed upon by them he would have explained them into some other meaning which since he hath not done we may safely and rationally conclude that he hath meant the same Thing by this Name and those Titles with those from whom he did derive them and consequently that the most certain way for us to understand what is the Sense of Christ's being The Word is to consider what those Jews and Gentiles meant by it from whose Philosophy it was first borrowed and derived 3. That both the Jewish and Gentile Theology used this Phrase The Word to signify a Vital and Divine Subsistence For as for the Jews it 's plain that by The Word they meant the Messias and therefore Ps 110. which they say contains the Mysteries of the Messias the Chaldee Paraphrase instead of the Lord said unto my Lord read the Lord said unto his Word that is consequently to his Messias And Rab. Arama upon Genesis explaining that Passage in the 107 Ps 20. The Lord sent forth his Word and they were healed expresly tells us that by this Word is meant the Messias And Rab. Simeon the Son of Johni expounding those Words of Job 19.26 Yet in my Flesh shall I see God faith that the Mercy which proceeds from the highest Wisdom of God shall be crowned by The Word and take Flesh of a Woman by which
if we could because we are able to do all through Christ who will strengthen us if we will but do what we can so that this methinks should be sufficient to encourage any reasonable Man in the World to undertake his Service to consider that he who is my Master will co-operate with me and proportion my Strength to the Work he enjoyns me that he will not stand still with his Arms in his Bosom and see me struggle in vain under an insupportable But then of Duties but that he will set too his own Shoulders and contribute his own Strength and enable me by degrees to undergo it with Ease and Alacrity so that though thro' the Weakness and Importency which I have voluntarily contracted my Duty is become too heavy for my Shoulders yet I will never be disheartened so long as I am sure it is not too heavy for my Saviour's for if I heartily endeavour I am confident I shall undergo it if it be in the Power of an Almighty Grace to enable me 5. And lastly He was full of Grace to us also in Respect of that glorious Recompence which he hath promised to us and prepared for us I confess were his Service all Work and no Wages there were some Reason to be disheartned but when he hath promised and so amply assured us that after we have spent a few Days or Years in his Service upon Earth he will receive us into the Participation of his own Joys where we shall commence as happy as it is possible for an everlasting Heaven to make us methinks we should kiss his Yoke and court his Service and think we can never do too much for such a bountiful Master who rewards all his Servants with such immortal Preferments For what is the Labour of a few Moments compared with that everlasting Rest and Pleasure wherein it shall shortly terminate And when once we are arrived to the Heavenly Canaan and have tasted those ravishing Delights with which it flows and abounds how light and inconsiderable will all these Difficulties in our Voyage appear to us which now do so startle and affright us How shall we wonder at our own Sloth and Faint-heartedness to think that ever we should be such wretched Cowards as to be afraid of any thing that hath Heaven at the End of it which is a Happiness so vast and unspeakable that the Hope of it is sufficient to turn Torments into Recreations How shall we be astonished at our selves to think that we could ever be such wretched Fools as to deliberate one Moment whether Heaven were preferable before all the Pleasures of Sin or whether it were more eligible to dwell with Harlots and Drunkards for a Moment and wallow in their beastly Pleasures than to enjoy the Society of God and Saints and Angels to all Eternity The Odds will then appear so vast and the Disproportion so unspeakable that we shall wonder how we could ever be so sensless as to make a Comparison between them Sure Sirs we do not believe that Heaven is the Recompence of Christ's Service for if we did methinks we should more heartily engage in it For could we stand thus deliberating upon the Shore whether we shall bid adieu to our Lusts take Leave of all their fulsom Pleasures and imbark our selves in the Service of our Saviour Could we stand pausing thus as we do whether we shall venture into those petty Storms that are like to attend us in our spiritual Voyage did we verily believe that a few Leagues Distance lies that blessed Shore where we shall be crowned as soon as we are landed with all the Joys than an everlasting Heaven means Certainly the Belief of this is sufficient to put Life and Courage into the most crest-fallen-Soul in the World and to give her Spirit and Vigour enough to carry her triumphantly through all the weary Stages of her Duty So that considering how in all Respects our blessed Lord abounds in Grace and Goodness to us we have the greatest Encouragement imaginable to engage us to his Service 3dly He was full of Truth From whence I infer that the Christian Religion is a very plain and intelligible thing For this as I have shewed you at large is one of the great Notes of Distinction between Christ's tabernacling among the Jews and among Christians that whereas among the Jews he was full of obscure Types and mystical Representations among us Christians he is full of Truth that is he is plain and open and clear without any dark Reserves or Mysteries now he hath plainly revealed that which before he did so obscurely decypher now he hath unriddled all those mystical Types and turned them as it were inside outwards and given us their hidden Sense and Meaning in plain and naked Propositions and of these our holy Religion is composed So that those Doctrines which before were all Mystery whilst they lay obscurely couched under the Types and Figures of the Law are now brought forth from behind the Curtain into the open View of the World and presented barefac'd to our Understandings in the most plain and easy and familiar Senfe Not but that Christianity hath some Mysteries in it still whose Depths we are not able to fathom but 't is not because Christ hath not revealed them but because our Understandings are incapable of comprehending them such are the Doctrines of the Holy Trinity the Incarnation of our blessed Saviour and the Hypostatical Vnion of the Divine and Humane Nature in him Nor indeed is it much to be wonder'd at that we who with all our Wit and Reason are not able to explicate the Mysteries of a Mite or Flea of a Plant or a Stone or any of those innumerable things that are before us should not be able to understand such incomprehensible to order such infinite or define such ineffable things but though we cannot comprehend the Modes nor understand the strict Philosophy of them yet if we would but strip them out of their false Disguises into their original Plainness and Simplicity we might doubtless easily disintangle them from all Repugnancy and Contradiction which is sufficient to render them rationally credible they being contained in that excellent Religion whose Truth is demonstrated by such abundant Evidence But perhaps as God continued all the Doctrines of Christianity in a Mystery among the Jews and reserved the clear Revelation of them to the coming of the Messias so for the same Reason he hath still reserved the clear Discovery of those Doctrines which are still Mysteries to us Christians for the future State and then it may be we may as fully understand these as the believing Jews after the Coming of Christ did those other Doctrines of the Gospel which before were all Mysteries to them But God be praised whatsoever is necessary to make us good and happy is now so plainly discovered to us that we cannot be ignorant of it unless we wilfully shut our own Eyes We need not dive
can urge at the Judgment-Seat of Jesus Christ which here hath not been fully answered And if so how inexcusable shall we be when we come to plead our own Cause in the great Assembly of Spirits For when these Aggravations of our Disobedience shall be laid open our Guilt will apear so foul and monstrous that we shall doubtless be condemned by the unanimous Vote of all the Reasonable World and as soon as the great Judge hath pass'd his Sentence upon us our own Consciences will be forc'd to eccho Just and righteous art thou O Lord in all thy Ways Wherefore as we would not be found inexcusably guilty when we come to plead for our Lives before the Tribunal of our Saviour let us all be perswaded to return to his Service and faithfully to continue in it that so instead of Goye cursed we may hear from his Mouth that welcome Approbation Well done good and profitable Servants enter into the Joy of your Master III. I come now the last Proposition in the Text viz. And we beheld his Glory the Glory as of the only Son of the Father In handling of which I shall do these two Things 1. Explain to you what this Glory of the Word was which the Apostle tells us they beheld 2. Shew you that it was the Glory as of the only begotten Son of the Father 1. What was the Glory of the Word which the Apostle tells us they beheld I answer in general By this Glory here must be understood something that is resemblant to the Glory of his dwelling in the Tabernacle because as I have already shewed you the Apostle seems plainly to refer it in that he doth not only tell us that the Word tabernacled among us which alludes to his Tabernacling among the Jews but he also tells us that they saw his Glory which alludes to that Glory of the Lord which the Jews beheld in that ancient Tabernacle Since therefore the Apostle mentions this Glory of the Word Incarnate by way of Allusion to the Glory of his Divine Presence in the Tabernacle it must necessarily bear some Resemblance or Proportion to it because else it would be no proper Allusion The best Way therefore for us to discover what this Glory of Christ was which they beheld is to consider wherein the Glory of the Divine Presence in the Tabernacle did chiefly discover it self and that you shall find was in these four Things First In a bright and luminous Appearance Secondly In exerting of an extraordinary Power Thirdly In giving Laws and Oracles Fourthly In sensible Significations of its own immaculate Sanctity and Purity And in Proportion and Correspondence to these the Glory of the Word Incarnate also must consist in these four Things 1st In the visible Splendor and Brightness with which his Person was arrayed at his Baptism and more especially at his Transfiguration 2dly In Those great and stupendous Miracles that he wrought in the Course of his Ministry 3dly In the incomparable Purity and Goodness of his Life 4thly In the surpassing Excellency and Divinity of his Doctrine 1st That Glory of the Word which St. John and the Apostles beheld consisted in that visible Splendor and Brightness with which his Person was arrayed at his Baptism and more especially at his Tranfiguration in Resemblance to that visible Splendor and Brightness in which he appeared in the Mosaick Tabernacle where it is frequently said that the Glory of the Lord abode and appeared as you may see Exod. 24.16 40.34 Which Glory t 's evident discovered its self in an extraordinary visible Splendor that shone from between the Cherubims and diffused it self thence all over that sacred Habitation And accordingly in Ezek. 43.2 it is said that the Glory of the God of Israel came from the Way of the East and the Earth shone with his Glory which denotes that it was extraordinary bright and luminous since the Earth shone with the very Reflection of it And in this same glorious Splendor was Christ arrayed first at his Baptism and afterwards at his Transfiguration For at his Baptism it is said that the Heavens were open'd unto him and that he saw the Spirit of God descending like a Dove and lighting upon him Matth. 3.16 where by the Holy Ghost's descending like a Dove it is not necessary we should understand his descending in the Shape or Form of a Dove but that in some glorious Form or Appearance he descended in the same manner as a Dove descends and therefore St. Luke expresses it thus And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily Shape like a Dove upon him Luke 3.22 that is he descended in some very glorious and visible Appearance in the same Manner as Doves are wont to descend when they come down from the Skes and pitch upon the Earth But what that Shape was in which he appeared is not here expressed but that which seems to be most probable is this that the Holy Ghost assuming a Body of Light or surrounded as it were with a Guard of Angels appearing in luminous Forms came down from above just as a Dove with his Wings Spread forth is observed to do and lighted upon our Saviour's Head and the Reason why I think so is this both because where-ever any mention is made of God's or the Holy Ghost's appearing in an indefinite Form it is always in a Body of Light and visible Splendor of which I have given you sundry Instances and also because it seems to have been a very early Tradition in the Church that it was in a very glorious Appearance of Light that the Holy Ghost came down upon our Saviour And therefore in the Gospel of the Nazarens as Grotius observes it 's said that upon the Holy Ghosts Descent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 immediately a great Light shone round about the Place and Justin Martyr speaking of our Saviour's Baptism saith expresly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that there was a Fire lighted in the River Jordan that is the Water immediately after he was baptized in it seemed to be all on Fire by the Reflection of that bright and flaming Appearance in which the Holy Ghost descended upon him so that while he wore this Crown of visible Light his Head as the Painters are wont to express it was circled round with the Rays of that Glory in which he was wont to appear from between the Cherubims And this Glory of his was questionless seen by many of the Apostles who were sundry of them Disciples to John the Baptist and so may reasonably be supposed to be present at the Baptism of our Saviour And as for his Transfiguration upon Mount Tabor it is said that upon it his Face did shine as the Sun and that his Raiment was white as the Light or as St. Luke expresses it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is his Raiment was like the Whiteness of a Flash of Lightning Luke 9.29 So that from Head to Foot he was all inrobed in a visible Glory and
now proceed to the second Branch of my Discourse which was to shew you that this was the Glory as of the only begotten Son of the Father But before we proceed to the Proof of it it will be necessary to explain this Phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Glory as of the only begotten Son Which Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or as is in Scripture taken two Ways sometimes as a Note of Similitude or Comparison so Mat. 6.10 Thy Will be done in Earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is in Heaven that is like as it is in Heaven and if we take it in this Sense then the Meaning of the Words must be this And we beheld his Glory which was like unto the Glory of the only begotten Son of the Father that is like unto that Glory in which the only begotten Son was wont to appear when he dwelt in the Tabernacle and conversed with the antient Patriarchs And in this Sense I have shewed you already how it was as the Glory of the only begotten Son by shewing you the great Agreement and Similitude there was between the Glory of Christ when he dwelt in the Tabernacle of Moses and in the Tabernacle of our Nature And when I consider how plainly this Text doth allude to the Shechinah or Divine Presence of the Word in that antient Tabernacle I am very much induced to think that we ought not to exclude this Sense of it namely that as he dwelt in the Tabernacle of our Nature like as he dwelt in the Tabernacle of Moses so that Glory of his which they beheld in the Tabernacle of our Nature was like unto that Glory in which he appeared in the ancient Tabernacle But then this Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is sometimes also taken for a Note of Confirmation So Psal 73.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Truly God is good to Israel And thus St. Chrysostome understands it here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. It is not a Note of Similitude and Comparison but of Confirmation and unquestionable Distinction as if the Evangelist had said we saw his Glory such as became and was fit for the only begotten and truly natural Son of God For my Part I see no Reason why the Words may not be fairly understood in both Senses since they are no Ways opposite to nor inconsistent with one another and if so then this must be the Meaning of the Words We behold his Glory which was like unto that Glory in which the only begotten Son appeared in the old Tabernacle and which was such as was every Way becoming the only begotten Son to appear in The first of which Senses I have proved to you already that the Glory of Christ in the Tabernacle of our Natures was like unto his Glory in the Tabernacle of Moses and therefore now I shall only prove the second that it was such as became and was every Way worthy of the only begotten Son of the Father and this I doubt not will plainly appear by considering the several Particulars of it 1st That visible Splendor and Brightness in which he appeared at his Baptism and Transfiguration was such as became him and was worthy of him For in all Probability that Splendor consisted of Angelical Beings clothed in bright and luminous Bodies because as I have formerly proveed to you that Brightness in which he appeared upon the Mount and which he displayed from between the Cherubims was nothing else but those Angels of Light or ministring Spirits which he made to appear as Flames of Fire round about him and therefore that Train of Angels whom Esay saw filling the Temple Esay 6.1 our Saviour calls the Glory of the Lord Jo. 12.41 that is that visible Glory in which the Lord appear'd from between the Cherubims And if that visible Glory consisted in a Train of Angels appearing in glorious Forms then there is no doubt but that visible Glory of our Saviour at his Baptism and Transfiguration was the same since as I have already shewed you it is described by the same Name and in the same Manner of Appearance and if so how well did it become the only begotten Son to be surrounded with the illustrious Guards of his Father's Court and attended on with those high-born Spirits whose Office it is to minister before the Throne of the most High For never was the most glorious Potentate upon Earth attended with such a splendid Train and Retinue the meanest of which was far more illustrious than the greatest and most high-born Monarch in the World So that as the most High God did by a Voice from Heaven both at his Baptism and Transfiguration declare him to be his beloved Son so by the glorious Train of Attendants he sent in him he manifested the Truth of his Declaration for we must needs suppose him to be the Son of the most High when we see the most glorious Beings in all the Creation so willingly submit themselves to his Service and Attendance And when we see the most High adorning his Outside with the luminous Bodies of Angels we may reasonably conclude that there was a Divinity within and that the Jewel was God because the Casket was Angels But whatsoever this glorious Splendor was in which he was clothed at his Baptism and Transfiguration it was apparently such as very well became the only begotten Son not only because as the Philosopher saith that if God would ever take upon him a Body it would be certainly Light which is a Vestment most suitable to his Glory and Majesty but also because that miraculous Splendor was an infallible Token of the Presence of the Divinity in him for it never was but where God was present and therefore it is called the Glory of God it being the inseparable Concomitant of his more peculiar Residence For thus as I have shewed you upon the Mount and in the Tabernacle it was a visible Demonstration of the special Presence of the invisible God and wheresoever in all the Old Testament any Mention is made of its Appearance you shall find that there God himself did peculiarly reside And therefore it is not to be imagined that God would have communicated to our Saviour this inseparable Token of his own Presence unless the Divinity had resided in him For Jesus Christ was the only Person upon whom this visible Glory descended never did the Hand of Heaven put forth such a Robe and Diadem of Glory upon any person in the World as this which our Saviour wore at his Baptism and Transfiguration which plainly denotes that he was the only Person in whom the Divinity was substantially united and did essentially dwell So that as this visible Glory was a certain Token of God's peculiar Residence in the Tabernacle and Temple so it was also of his special Presence in Christ for the History of his Baptism tells us that it did not only make a transient Appearance but that it remained on him signifying that the