of true Devotion more than wrong notions of Almighty God The great reason why the Heathens were over-run with Idolatry and Superstition was because the Histories of their Gods were stuff'd with folly and wickedness and they could not pretend to greater heights of Purity than the Deities that they worshipped To adore God is to bestow upon him the highest Love Veneration and esteem of our Souls His Eyes pierce to the secrets that are buried in darkness and to the Centre of our Spirits and if our Sacrifices are sullied and defil'd in their first springs and principles they are an abomination unto him No Worship can be pleasing unto God unless what is offer'd by Love Pray what do we take him to be when we endeavour to put him off with any thing less than the flower and strength of our Reason Thus our Saviour instructs the Woman of Samaria in the Nature of true Worship but the hour cometh and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth for the Father seeketh such to worship him How gross must their apprehensions be who think that he is delighted with carnal Oblations for he is a Spirit and must be worshipped in spirit and in truth If I were hungry I would not tell thee for the World is mine and the fulness thereof Will I eat the flesh of Bulls or drink the blood of Goats offer unto God thanksgiving and pay thy vows unto the most High THE Philosophers discover'd the reasonableness of this Doctrine without Revelation and the best of them undervalu'd outward services and Sacrifices in comparison of a chast Mind and a pure Soul Do ye think saith Seneca that God is pleas'd with many Sacrifices and much Blood high Temples and magnificent Structures nay rather in suo cuique consecrandus est pectore The breast of a good Man is the most lovely Temple for the Divinity the place of his peculiar residence and Habitation And this is but the language of the Prophet Isay a little varied Thus saith the Lord the Heaven is my Throne and the Earth is my footstool where is the house that ye build unto me and where is the place of my rest For all those things hath mine hand made and all those things have been saith the Lord But to this man will I look even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit and trembleth at my word He that killeth an Ox is as if he slew a man c. The Sacrifices of Gods own institution were not regarded unless they were subservient to this more excellent Oblation THIS Evangelical Sacrifice is the only and most proper mean to attain the true ends of Worship freedom from sin the favour of God and peace of Conscience are the great ends of all Religion and these things are not attain'd by the most pompous shew and parade of Ceremonies unless the Soul and Will be first sacrificed to his Obedience When ye come to appear before me who hath requir'd this at your hand to tread my Courts bring no more vain Oblations Incense is an abomination unto me the new Moons and Sabbaths the calling of Assemblies I cannot away with it is iniquity even the solemn meeting How loathsom in the eyes of God are all our publick services when the Soul is left behind He hath shewed thee O! man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God THIS is the Sacrifice that is peculiar to the New Testament when we approach the Throne of God with filial confidence like Children of the free woman disingaged from the servile incumbrances that held the Jews in bondage When we offer our selves unto God with true alacrity strong desires and a mind purified from the World and feculent adherences that stick to us from the neighbourhood of sensible Objects when we come with that masculine and chearful Devotion that becomes them that are set at liberty from the weak and dark shadows of the Law By St. Peter we are said to be a spiritual Priesthood to offer up spiritual Sacrifices And we are told by S. Paul that we have access to the Throne and liberty to cry Abba Father And commanded in our Prayers to lift up holy hands without wrath or doubting This is the Worship of the new Testament the foundation of that ingenuous Converse that is between us and Heaven Therefore do we with so much elevation of spirit magnifie the goodness of God that gave us his Son Vnto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood and hath made us Kings and Priests unto God and his Father to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever Amen THIS is true Evangelical Sacrifice and it alone affords the most solid delight and satisfaction to the Votary Outward Services when they are separated from this inward dedication have nothing in them but toil and bodily labour we are told by the Author to the Hebrews that the Jewish Religion did consist in Meats and Drinks and divers Ordinances And we find in the Prophecy of Amos that such of the Jews as did not see further than the letter of the Law thought their attendance on the Temple-service the most intolerable weariness But when we sacrifice our very Souls unto his obedience his Presence fills our hearts with joy and gladness the purest rapture and contentment Thou hast put more gladness in my heart than in the time when their wine and their oil did increase True joy arises in the Soul from an Union with God when the light of his Countenance shines upon us by its clear beams and irradiations the clouds of darkness and disasters cannot approach us we are then secure against fear and despondency we feel our selves encircled in the arms of divine Love and made strong against the assaults of anxiety God is the source of all Felicity and the nearer we draw unto him the more happy we are and rational happiness must be felt and necessarily must dilate it self in all the faculties of the Soul A Conscience void of offence towards God and towards Man is a house built upon the Rock it may be batter'd but it cannot be shaken And God loves to pour into our hearts such degrees of joy when we are purified from all filthiness of the flesh and of the Spirit when we offer our selves without reserve to his service and obedience when we sacrifice our hearts unto God when Charity consumes the Oblation and true zeal inflames the Victim I had rather said the Psalmist be one day in thy Courts than a thousand elsewhere And again O! How love I thy Law it is my meditation night and day They are strangers to true Peace and satisfaction that are unacquainted with the pure and unmixt pleasures of Religion 2. LET us consider the value that God did set upon
this spiritual Sacrifice when the Levitical Sacrifices were in force He always gave his People to understand by the Prophets that the whole train of the Mosaick Ceremonies was design'd to signifie and advance this everlasting and more spiritual Worship which was to continue when the typical figures and shadows were gone This is clear from that remarkable place in the Prophecies of Jeremiah For I spake not unto your Fathers nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt concerning Burnt-Offerings or Sacrifices but this thing commanded I them saying obey my Voice and I will be your God and ye shall be my people Strange Did not God command the Sacrifices of the Levitical Law Yes certainly but with design to advance the purer Worship of the Mind This is more precious than the most costly Offerings of the Temple The Widow's Mite recorded in the Gospel is one visible instance of it 't is prefer'd in the esteem of God to all the Rich Donations of the Scribes and Pharisees she came to the Treasury with a poor Purse and a Rich Soul a Soul made cheerful with the Love of God and in the simplicity of her heart without ostentation or reserve she offered all that she had How much God delighted in the Oblations of the Mind beyond the outward Sacrifices appears in this that he readily dispens'd with the Ceremony when that other more valuable Sacrifice was brought Two famous instances we have of this viz. David's eating the Shew-bread by which our Saviour confounded the Pharisees who doted so much on the external part of their Religion And the next is the manner of Hezekiah 's celebrating the Passeover though the people were not prepared according to the method prescribed by the Law Therefore it is a foolish Argument that the Jews make use of against our Saviour that he could not be the Messias because he did abolish the Ceremonies of Moses's Law For the Levitical Sacrifices did vanish of their own accord when our Saviour rose from the dead and gave place unto that Spiritual Worship that was more agreeable to the Divine Nature and the Spiritual Kingdom of the Messias So our Saviour tells the Woman of Samaria Woman believe me the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this Mountain nor yet in Jerusalem worship the Father but the hour cometh and now is when the true Worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth for the Father seeketh such to worship him From all this it is very evident that not only in the time of the Patriarchs but under the Law this was only the Sacrifice that was valued by God 3. LET us remember that the exact care and caution wherewith they were obliged to offer their Sacrifices under the Law did signifie and promote this Spiritual Sacrifice of the New Testament I do not here intend a just Discourse of the antient Sacrifices yet we may be oblig'd to look back into the Books of Moses to consider some particulars that concern all Sacrifices in general AND 1. All Sacrifices were offered with Salt With all thine Offerings thou shalt offer Salt This is cited in the New Testament by our Saviour I must remember that I ought not to amuse you with Cabalistick Fooleries but it is certain from the Epistle to the Galatians and the Hebrews that there was a sublime Moral couch'd and intended by the external Scheme of the Law And therefore though we are not able to trace it in all its Lines and Figures yet we may safely venture when we force the Law to say nothing but what is agreeable to the great design of Religion and the Morals of Christianity LET me return to consider this first step of their Caution in sacrificing Salt hath in it a twofold Vertue 1. It preserves from Putrefacton 2. It binds the parts together 1. I SAY it preserves from Putrefaction The Sacrifices that are offered unto the pure and incorruptible Deity must resemble his Nature the rottenness of hypocrisie fraud and malice must be banish'd from all his Sacrifices We have escaped the corruption that is in the World through lust being made partakers of the Divine Nature Thus are we exhorted to sincerity opposite to corruption by S. Peter Wherefore laying aside all malice all guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings c. See with what complacency our Saviour speaks of Nathanael Behold an Israelite indeed in whom is no guile 2. SALT bindeth the parts together We are forbidden to bring our Gifts to the Altar until first we are reconcil'd to our Brother We are directed by S. Paul to lift up holy hands without wrath or doubting Our God is the God of Peace our Religion is the Gospel of Peace and the fruits of the Spirit are Joy and Peace and the wisdom that is from above is first pure and then peaceable Such a temper and frame of Spirit does well answer the Prophecies of Isaiah That the Wolf should dwell with the Lamb the Leopard and the Kid shall lye down together And the Calf and the young Lion and the Fatling together and a young Child shall lead them i e. the fierce and unruly passions of Humane Nature shall be conquer'd and subdu'd by the Laws of Jesus every thing that is rugged and boistrous must be tam'd and smooth'd for the Earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the Waters cover the Sea I might add to this that Salt preserves the relish And therefore the Apostle exhorts Let your speech be always with Grace seasoned with Salt that ye may know how to answer every man If this were notic'd our tongues should be employed with greater Modesty and less censorious endeavouring to close rather than widen the breaches in our neighbourhood 2. ALL Sacrifices ought to be blameless according to the Prescript of the Law The Prophet Malachi upbraids the people with the neglect of this If ye offer the lame and the sick is it not evil offer it now unto thy Governour will he be pleas'd with thee or accept thy person What we offer unto God who is of purer eyes than that he can behold iniquity must be blameless and entire that ye may be blameless and harmless the Sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse Nation among whom ye shine as lights in the World We are to consider not only our inward frame but also the outward Decorum of our behaviour in the place of his presence 3. ALL Sacrifices were to be offered without Leaven No meat offering which ye shall bring unto the Lord shall be made with leaven And the New Testament commands us to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees And to purge out the old leaven of Corruption Now leaven hath a twofold quality it sowrs and it swells either or both marrs the Sacrifice whether we grow sowr with
SERMONS Preached upon Several Occasions Most of them Before the MAGISTRATES and JUDGES in the North-East-Auditory of S. Gile's Church EDINBURGH BY AL. MONRO D.D. Then PRINCIPAL of the COLLEGE of EDINBURGH LONDON Printed for Joseph Hindmarsh at the Golden Ball over against the Royal Exchange in Cornhil M DC XCIII Imprimatur May 3. 1693. Guil. Lancaster To my Friends and Acquaintances in the North-East Parish of S. Giles in Edinburgh Much Honoured and Well Beloved IF I had any other design to serve by this Address than what was in my view when I preached the following Sermons I would perhaps recommend them to the favour of some particular Patron but I rather lay hold of this opportunity that I may acknowedge in as publick a manner as is possible for me the many kindnesses that I received amongst you when I was allowed to preach the Gospel in my Native Country I was unanimously and cheerfully nam'd to the Government of the College of Edinburgh without my knowledge or interposal by the Lord Provost and Town Council I retain a grateful sense of it And this is the principal reason why these Discourses do now appear I am not so extravagantly foolish as to think that the present Age needs any of my Composures if they are innocent and well meant though attended with many other imperfections they may promote good thoughts in some who heard them with Piety and Attention They are only calculated for their Meridian Most men have different Tasts for Books as well as for other things and what is sincerely intended may sometimes be read with greater success than more accurate Treatises The World is very vain and changes its Faces and Figures every moment yet true Religion is invariable as the Author of it and therefore we are to steer our course towards Heaven by those great Truths that are uniformly received amongst all Christians and to take heed that we do not separate from the Catholick Church of Christ her antient Rules and Constitutions by which she was preserved in the Primitive Ages For it is certain that God did not suffer the Universal Church to deviate from the Apostolical Discipline when as yet she was furnished with no other Weapons to pull down Idolatry and Superstition than her Unity Prayers and Universal Charity There is nothing more opposite to Piety and Devotion than Pride and Vanity and to despise the Wisdom of all our Predecessors is not only arrogant but impious The multitude and variety of later Sectaries especially in the Isle of Britain have advanced Atheism to a prodigious Impudence and it is impossible to recover the World now sunk in Folly and Irreligion but by the extraordinary Zeal of good Men. The decays of Piety in our days appear openly amongst all Ranks and Orders and this must be imputed in a great part to that Itch after Novelties which hath so fatally overrun these Nations Ambition and Faction hath almost remov'd the distinction between things Sacred and Prophane yet it is certain that the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God and those pretended Reformations that are managed with Noise and Tumult have ordinarily no other effects than Sacrilege and Confusion We are very apt to have other thoughts of God and of our selves when we approach the Gates of Death from those which we have entertained in the days of health and prosperity and if then we have the least sense of the World to come we cannot but distinguish true Zeal to advance the Power of Godliness from the insidious arts of grasping Earthly Dominion the first is pure calm and humble merciful and compassionate the other being from the Earth is agreeable to that Spirit that prevails in the World OUR Saviour founded the Church a distinct Society from the World and therefore armed it with Spiritual Laws and Censures that she might be preserved by those Divine Helps though all Earthly Powers should endeavour to crush her and experience witnesses that she hath been more Victorious over Lewdness and Infidelity by her Patience and Sufferings than by all her Secular Intrigues and Political Methods When she stands upon the immoveable Pillars of her first foundation her outward Splendor may be eclipsed but her inward strength is made more firm and lasting by the Counterbatteries that are raised against her Peace and Prosperity Truth is not ashamed and therefore it is Weakness and Pusillanimity to deny it in the face of Danger and Persecution especially when the most Sacred Foundations are daringly invaded and trampled upon and though Ecclesiastical Politie be thought now a-days as mutable as are the inclinations of the people yet they who consider things more maturely must see that the antient Faith cannot be preserved amongst men but in its Original Vehicles of Primitive Order and Constitution and when the Apostolical Government of the Church is overthrown a multitude of Errors and Delusions creep into the World that destroy the inward Power of Godliness as well as the outward Beauty of Publick Worship I AM heartily sorry that our Country should be the Theatre of so many Complaints and Disorders and that the immediate Servants of the Sanctuary both Bishops and Presbyters should be run down with Clamour and Violence for no other reason that I know but because they are separated from the World to the peculiar Services of the Living God notwithstanding of all this we ought to possess our Souls in Patience and to believe that not a hair of our head falls to the ground without our heavenly Father And this one Truth may compose our Spirits against all Storms and Disasters and teach us to resign our selves without struggling to the disposal of Heaven When we are sincerely humbled for our Sins both National and Personal he will visit us again in the multitude of his tender Mercies and therefore it is more our duty to look unto him that smites us than complain of our Oppressors It may be that they themselves who have been most active in our Calamities are somewhat sensible of their Cruelty and if not we heartily pray that God would bring into the way of Truth all such as have erred and are deceived The present Desolations of our Church may be palliated with many little Excuses but all the Rhetorical Colours imaginable can never hide the Consequences of so monstrous a Change WHEN we are surrounded with Difficulties on the right and left hand we must make our requests known unto God by Prayer for he is a present help in time of trouble We may meet with Crosses from the smallest things and occurrences and perhaps our Afflictions are frequently multiplied that we may be taught to run unto God who can either mitigate or remove them or by them exercise our Patience and Magnanimity God knows all things but he seems to take notice more particularly of such things as we feel and recommend to his Infinite Goodness and Compassion so willing He is to have us depend on Him
Dishonours and Churchyards that are the Seminaries of the Resurrection should not be places of pasturage for all kind of Animals And would to God that the Laity only were to be blam'd for this impious Prophanation BUT Fourthly Are our Bodies so curiously built Judge what the Soul must be that Lamp of Light that Candle of the Lord the invisible Jewel that 's laid up in that Casement 't is no less than the Breath of God it bears the Image of the Deity in legible Characters How active and indefatigable is it in the the search of Truth How much above the Enjoyments of Sense and feculent Pleasures of the Body With what transport doth it embrace Conclusions drawn from their Principles How fond is it of its own Contemplations that are raised on the immoveable Pillars of Reason How swifts in its Thoughts How easily does it fly round the Earth climb the Heavens and view the Creation 'T is a divine Spark of Light from the Father of Spirits that glances in those prisons of flesh for a while it 's true Pleasures are pure and Angelical it grasps Truth for the sake of Truth with Order and Complacency and makes to it self Ladders of true Consequences from the visible Creatures to ascend to Heaven BUT let us dwell a while longer on this Meditation Did God furnish our Minds with such noble Powers only to till the Ground and make provision for the flesh to fulfil the Lusts thereof No certainly This vast and capacious Spirit that than lodge so many Truths together without Confusion or Disorder was design'd to enjoy God any thing else falls short of its Height and Grandeur WHENCE is this Appetite of Immortality that we feel within our selves Is it altogether in vain Did God place it within our Souls purely to vex us Was there nothing design'd to satisfie it Yes certainly else Mankind had been a phantastick Impertinence the vainest and the silliest nothing in the Creation For if in this life only we had hope we were of all men the most miserable confined to the Earth when our Souls fly far beyond it and immured in the Walls of Flesh when their Capacities dispose them for the Life and Enjoyment of Angels ALL the rest of the Creatures have Objects proper for their Appetites shall Man alone have Inclinations beyond the Earth and yet die like the Beasts that perish Let no such thought enter our Souls for we shall see him as he is LET me add to this If the Soul be so vivacious in its Walls of Flesh when 't is chained in this dark Tabernacle that as Quintilian observes it flies in a trace from one Object to another nothing can engross its power and strength how large and comprehensive must it be when we come to our Countrey above when we are united to the original Wisdom Light and Truth What a foolish violence doe we offer to our Souls when we bend and bow them to earthly Enjoyments Why did we not rather let them fly to the place of their rest and tranquility Their natural motion is towards Heaven and Christian Religion designs no more than their Primitive Liberty WHEN we would persuade Men to be religious we need not borrow our Arguments from foreign Topicks let them only look inwards let them view the frame of their own Souls their Knowledge Will and Memory the uneasie Reflections of their Consciences when they do amiss it makes them taste whether they will or not the fears of an impartial Tribunal that drags them in the midst of their Jollities before that Judge that can neither be deceived nor be imposed upon HEAR then the calm Reasonings of your own Spirits you may shift the force of our Arguments when we have urged them with all Zeal and Sincerity but you cannot hide your selves from that invisible Judge your own Souls IT were Folly in the highest degree to feed a hungry Stomach with wise Sayings excellent Diagrams or if such things were offered for the cure of a Man in a raging Fever this is the Folly we transcribe when we endeavour to satisfie our Souls with any thing short of God himself the Satisfaction and Happiness that we look after is higher than the Earth The Earth says it is not in me and the Sea says it 's not in me and the Treasures of both the Indies have nothing in them to feed the strong Desires of Immortality or to fill the Appetite of Reason BUT Fifthly Are our Souls and Bodies such Monuments of the Divine Wisdom should we not then frequently view and consider our own Frame and Composition Why are we such Strangers to our selves When the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the great deep the rest of the Creatures were formed in their order as they were commanded to appear by his word that commanded things which are not as if they were they were inded the more negligent strokes of Omnipotence but MAN appears by his deliberate Method and set off with the Characters of his Image in Wisdom Purity Liberty Immortality What Majesty in these Words Come let us make Man in our own Image And if the very rubbish of this Edifice the ruines of him in his lapsed Condition be so magnificent what was he when but a little lower than the Angels crowned with glory and dignity Especially when we remember that still he is capable of such Improvements Recover him by Education from his childish Vanities from his untamed Lust and Passions furnish him with Health Strength all Wisdom divine and humane invest him with publick Honour and Attendance and then he is but some degrees below the Angels of God And yet all this is but a shadow and a dream in compare with what Improvements he is capable of when regenerate to the Image of God and the hope of Glory ARE not we our selves then worthy of our most serious thoughts True Religion teaches a Man to converse with himself in the noblest manner to covet the highest Improvements of his own Nature to observe his own Failings Seneca tells us in one of his Epistles that it was his custom every Night when the candle was out calmly to examine himself and look narrowly into the Retirements of his own Conscience this often and seriously performed begat Calmness and Serenity in his Bosom which he compares to the Regions above the Moon where there are no Clouds no Vapours no Exhalations BUT a wicked Man is afraid to look within himself the violent Earthquakes and shakings of his Spirit make those Reflections intolerable Did we thus take our selves more accurately to task we would not have so much spare time to descant on the Actions of others we should be more merciful in our Censures less severe in our Reflections more equitable and just in all our Proceedings When Pausanias the Lacedemonian desired Simonides the Poet to bestow some memorable Saying upon him he gave him this Remember that you are a man AND indeed this contained a Compend
of the best Philosophy did we remember that we are the Offspring of God could we prostitute so noble a Nature to serve the Devil could we debase our selves so far as to truckle under the Violence and Servitude of our Passions Tully hath an admirable Saying to this purpose Put the case saith he that we should carry any thing so privately as that neither God nor man should discover us yet we should have such a reverence for our selves as not to suffer any thing that is immodest unjust or unclean to escape us So terrible is the witness of Conscience and so infallible is its decision in the great branches of our Duty THEN Sixthly Is Man such a curious piece of workmanship he must be under the peculiar Eye of Providence Thus reasons St. Paul Doth God take care of Oxen yes the very Law thou shalt not muzzle the Ox that treadeth out the corn prove sufficiently that they are under his care and the eye of his Providence BUT the care that is extended to those poor Animals that feed upon hay and corn is far below the special care that he hath of Mankind His delight is with the Sons of Men there is a peculiar eye of Favour that watches over the human Race and yet a higher degree of Love and Providence over good and holy Men. Psal 33.13 The Lord looketh from heaven he beholdeth all the sons of men v 14. From the place of his habitation he looketh upon the inhabitants of the earth v. 18. Behold the eye of the Lord is on them that fear him upon them that hope in his mercy Psal 34.7 The Angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him and delivereth them But his Love towards Mankind is so strong that it cannot fall under Words He gave us his Son and if he gave us his Son how shall he not with him also give us all things He did not take hold of the nature of Angels but of the seed of Abraham It was his Love to us that engaged him to take upon him the form of a servant and humble himself unto death even the death of the cross Seventhly IF God hath put such Marks of Beauty and Honour on the human Nature Let us love one another So the Apostle enjoins Honour all men Love the brotherhood There is something due to our Nature under the cloud of the meanest Circumstances As the Philosopher alleged when he dispensed his Alms to an unworthy Person Non homini sed humanitati Our Love must resemble the Benignity of God that maketh his Sun to rise on the evil and the good and sendeth down Rain on the just and unjust LOVE is the life of Heaven whence all Bitterness and Unkindness is banished as far as Hell 't is planted in our Nature we are enclined to it by our original Constitution it is the Livery of the Christian Religion and the Badge of our Profession The Vices opposite to it make up the Devil's Nature and his Torture too Anger Bitterness Envy and Revenge create those Storms that continually ruffle the composure of our Spirits whereas the Practice of Christian Charity hath in it the Fore-tastes of Heaven and the Life of the Blessed THERE is no injury done to us can loose us from this Obligation no Error in Opinion no Enormity in Practice no Disaster of Fortune for our Brother is of our kind and however sullied and defac't retains still the Image of God The more frequently we consider this the more we are obliged to the Psalmist's resolution I will praise thee Which leads me to the Second Particular that I mentioned viz. The Psalmist's Gratitude and Acknowledgment Now in speaking to this I shall First Mention some of those Inducements that oblige us to it And then Secondly press the Practice of it 1. GOD is to be praised because he is the only Object of Praise Love and Admiration nothing else can love us again but God or some other Creature that resembles God Therefore St. John exhorts Love not the world neither the things that are in the world if any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him AND if he is to be praised because of the Works of Nature how much more because of his inestimable Love in the Redemption of the World by our Lord Jesus Christ Let the purest Spirits in their Robes of Light and Innocence admire it and veil their Faces with their Wings and stand at a distance and behold what manner of Love this is wherewith the Father hath loved us that we should be called the Sons of God If we cannot fly about the World with that Swiftness and Rapidity as the Angels do in Heaven yet what hinders our Souls to center themselves in his Love by the most unquenchable Ardors when we contemplate his Love to Mankind manifested in Jesus Christ 2. THE true exercise of our Reason requires it What is that you admire or what is it you pursue The Principles of Reason are everlasting and they are never so duly placed as on God who is invariable and without shadow of turning for the world passeth away and the fashion thereof doth perish but a Mind refined by the Principles of Christian Philosophy endures for ever Do but call to mind as M. Antoninus hath it such as have been in eminent Glory the Hero's and Captains of former Ages or such as have been tumbled down by Disgrace or run down with Misery such as have engaged to talk of all Men in every Condition of Life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What 's become of all those things now And should our Reason spend its strength in the chase of such Shadows it cannot be duly employed in such transient Vanities had we but a view of the Impertinencies and Vanities that pass in one City but for one day how vain should we find the World to be 3. To praise God is the Enjoyment of Heaven The vision of God is nothing but the Light of Reason duly six'd on its true Object and advanc'd to its true Elevation when the Soul is dilated and enlarged and expatiates on its proper Theme Have you seen the Cedars or the Fir-trees that rise so high and spread their Branches so wide from a little Seed just so is the Soul how infinitely beyond its present self are its Operations then found to be Beloved now are we the Sons of God and it doth not yet appear what we shall be but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is Thus the Inhabitants of Heaven are frequently represented in the book of the Revelations c. 4.10 11. and elsewhere adoring the Excellencies of their great Creator The four and twenty Elders fall down before him that sat on the throne and worshipped him that liveth for ever and ever and cast their crowns before the throne saying thou art worthy O Lord to receive glory honour and power
the cold embraces of the Grave 'T is inconsistent with the Goodness and Wisdom of God to make so noble a Creature and assign him no higher end than what may be attain'd with greater advantages by the Beasts that perish But those carnal lusts do not only weaken and blunt the edge and vigor of our Spirits in their natural perfections BUT 2. They do sully darken and defile them in their moral endowments See with what solemnity and magnificence the History of our Creation is introduc'd Gen. 1. Let us make man in our Image 'T was a design truly becoming the Majesty of God to repair the breaches made in this Image We are fallen from our Original Life and Purity that beauty and light that adorn'd our Nature is become almost deformity and darkness and so incurable is this bruise and wound that all the Rules of human Philosophy cannot remove the distemper God was manifested in our flesh that he might heal our Nature and restore his own Image upon our Souls he awakens us to fix our eye on this as our highest honour to be renewed again to the Image of him that created us And when he disparages the things that chiefly take up the thoughts of Mankind and endeavours to remove our mistakes concerning them he does it by this ponderous motive that ye may be like your Father which is in heaven To be like God is the highest beauty and the most glorious ornament of rational Souls The Image of God consists in light power love universal benevolence unconfin'd Goodness Charity Patience Greatness of Spirit Now where those Graces are there heaven is begun and the Soul is made strong and impregnated with divine force is more than Conqueror through Jesus Christ that loved us WE have heard the Catalogue of the Works of the Flesh out of the Epistle to the Galatians Let us view next the Fruits of the Spirit that are reckoned v. 22. Love joy peace long-suffering gentleness goodness faith meekness temperance against such there is no Law When we confront the one with the other the Fruits of the Spirit with the Lusts of the Flesh there is no doubt to be made but that by the last our Souls are much sullied and defiled in their moral endowments 3. THOSE Fleshly Lusts rob us of our supernatural rewards not only by their merit but by their natural causality they indispose us for that place and employment where nothing enters that is impure Let us then awake and ask our selves if no consideration no argument be strong enough or great enough to startle us out of our sleep and lethargy Must those Souls of ours that have been made to serve God and to converse with him in the noblest manner be suffered to grovel in the dust to look no higher than the entertainments of Goats and Swine and Worms O! what an indignity is this to our Nature what a reproach to our Manhood what a dishonour to the Author of our Being how disgraceful is it to be accus'd of such follies as tne most part of Mankind are engaged in before the Throne of God! THERE is a second Argument to alienate our affections from fleshly lusts and that is taken from the consideration of our state and condition We are Pilgrims and Strangers Men cut off by their Religion from the Earth whose aims and designs are for another Kingdom and a life more pure and immovable more fixt and serene We are told by the Author to the Hebrews that here we have no continuing City THAT I may make this a little more clear let us enquire in what sense Christians are said to be Strangers upon Earth and Secondly What improvement we are to make of it 1. THEY are strangers in their language It is the most infallible character of a stranger so the Maid that accus'd S. Peter she thought she was very sure he was a Gallilean The Christian breaths in a heavenly air his heart and consequently his tongue is perfum'd with the odors of heaven S. James exhorts us Chap. 2. v. 12. So speak ye and so do as they that shall be judged by the Law of Liberty And the same S. James in Chap. 1. v. 26. assures us That if any man seem to be religious and bridleth not his tongue he deceiveth his own heart his Religion is vain And again He that offendeth not in word is a perfect Man THE faults of the tongue are innumerable that glibe slippery and nimble Member that is certainly the glory of our Nature is frequently abus'd to the dishonour of God S. James Chap. 3. excellently paints its unruliness and extravagance v. 6. And the tongue is a fire a world of iniquity so is the tongue amongst our members that it setteth the course of nature on fire and it is set on fire of hell We are exhorted by the Apostle to have our speech seasoned with salt that we may know how to answer every man with Christian discretion modesty and charity free of all filthiness error levity slander detraction or evil surmisings Let us by our tongues discover the language of our Country of that heavenly Jerusalem that is above where the tongues of the Inhabitants are wholly taken up in the praises and acknowledgments of the Divine Goodness 2. THEY are strangers with regard to their Laws Matth. 5. v. ult Love your enemies do good to them that hate you pray for them that despitefully use you bless them that curse you Can there be any thing devis'd or thought of that runs more directly opposite to the Spirit and Genius that prevails in the World the treachery rapine revenge fraud and ambition that fill all places with noise and tumult They that fight under the Worlds standard look upon those pure Laws of Christian innocence humility and patience as the Romantic follies of imagination Their lust revenge and passion give them Laws they disdain to stoop to those Laws that are so different from the Statutes of the Kingdom of darkness and therefore the serious Christian is judg'd a fool by the World when this undefil'd Religion becomes the rule of his actions Our Saviour in the forming of his Laws had an eye to lessen and disparage all those things that the World most admires present and sharp revenge satisfies the carnal man to the highest degree and nothing so precious and gallant in his eyes But the Christian Religion restrains the very first motions towards anger it stifles those flames before they break out into malice passion and revenge In a word it was the design of our Saviour to strip the World bare of that painted glory which it had from our deluded imaginations He came to rectifie our judgments and inform us that to make us meet partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light we must be rul'd by other Laws than the Laws and Threatnings of this World When such as were left of the Race of David relations of our Saviour were brought before Domitian
Christian all of them acknowledge that this is pure and undefiled Religion because it is agreeable to the Nature as well as the Authority of God for he hath no pleasure at all in the death of a sinner And therefore we are plainly told by the Prophets and the Apostles that nothing short of true integrity can please God and that this is his delight Have I any pleasure at all that the Wicked should dye saith the Lord God and not that he should return from his ways and live Consider that remarkable advertisement of the Prophet Micah He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God Therefore we are commanded by the Baptist to bring forth fruits meet for repentance It is not every one that saith Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doth the Will of my Father which is in Heaven The conclusion of all this is no other than that every one that nameth the name of Jesus must depart from all iniquity Our Religion is very pure and it is the last revelation of his Will that God vouchsafes to Mankind And therefore it bears the nearest resemblance of the Divine Nature and is perfective of ours and the Disciples of this Religion must not think to recommend themselves to God or Mankind by artificial knacks of hypocrisie disfigured faces and Pharisaical Prayers but rather by ardent zeal unaffected simplicity the most generous charity sincere mortification and a Will resign'd to his Infinite Wisdom 2. LET us suppose that the Scriptures did not so peremptorily inculcate the necessity of this change yet the Notions that we have of God confirm this truth that nothing short of true Piety can recommend us unto Him that in order to our Salvation we must be partakers of the Divine Nature Is he such an easie Majesty that he may be put off with multitude of Sacrifices costly Oblations and outward Solemnities of Religion Can he be diverted from the execution of his Justice by complemental Addresses Pray what do we take him to be Is he fond of Trifles and Ceremonies To imagine that sighs and tears and melancholy reflections will propitiate the Deity charges him with severity and cruelty as if he took pleasure in the calamities and sufferings of his Creatures Whereas nothing is intended but our true reformation and freedom from sin We are to remember that Innocence Purity Ingenuity and Simplicity Heavenly mindedness and Charity are the Sacrifices most agreeable to the Deity 3. SUCH is the distance of our Nature from Heaven and the employment of that State that we must do violence to our corrupt inclinations before we can act our part among the Spirits of just men made perfect we must become meet partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light Sin though pardoned yet if it is not extirpated must sink us unto Hell It is in its nature most opposite unto God i. e. to his Wisdom Goodness and Power because it carries along with it all the lineaments of baseness weakness and malice This should make us hate all those Principles in Religion that make the way broad that our Saviour hath pronounced strait All those Doctrines and Opinions that seem to promote licentiousness folly and wickedness if the light that is in thee be darkness how great is that darkness but when corrupt Nature and corrupt Principles are combin'd together there is no hope of our recovery and we are carried headlong into all folly and misery 2. LET us enquire wherein the Characters of the Divine Nature appear God is the first and original beauty and true Religion is but a Transcript of his Nature And 1. IT carries the Lineaments of his Power and Victory True Religion is a Confederacy with the Almighty We can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth us The Lord is my strength saith David my rock and my fortress my deliverer my God in whom I will trust My buckler the horn of my salvation and my high tower His Power is visible in our conquests over sin we must prove our selves to be the Sons of God by our triumphs and victories over the World because he that is in us is greater than he that is in the World THE ravishing beauty of the Divine Nature shines in the conversations of the righteous For all round about them see their good works and glorifie their father which is in heaven They are blameless and harmless without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse Nation THE Purity of the Divine Nature is copied in the life of a Christian pure and undefil'd Religion flies from all filthiness and hypocrisie by a divine instinct and sensation The Scripture seems to search for all Metaphors to represent unto us the filthiness of sin The Rottenness of the Grave the Vomit of Dogs the Poyson of Vipers the Filthiness of Swine are some of the expressions that point unto us the odious Nature of sin But God is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity And the Wisdom that is from above is first pure then peaceable gentle and easie to be intreated full of mercy and good fruits without partiality and without hypocrisie THE Wisdom of God is no less seen in the lives of good men True Religion is the knowledge of the most excellent Truths the contemplation of the most glorious objects and the practice of such duties as are most serviceable to our happiness The fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom The Children of this World are said to be wiser in their own generation than the Children of Light i. e. they are more skilful to manage worldly affairs But in the true estimate of things they are fools in the strictest sense The truly Religious is the only Wise Man he alone improves his Reason to the best advantage for he looks to things future as well as to the things present he prefers great things to small things and chuses the fittest Means to attain his ends this is to be wise unto salvation WE are taught by the Christian Religion to imitate the Divine Goodness his unenvious Bounty his unconstrain'd Liberality Love your enemies bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you that you may be the Children of your Father which is in Heaven for he maketh his Sun to rise on the evil and on the good and sendeth rain on the just and unjust GREATNESS of Spirit is a branch of the Divine Nature and the Christian is great in his Victories Expectations and Behaviour nothing mean and sordid in the behaviour of the true Sons of God they are heirs of God and coheirs with Christ and therefore must needs have the world under their feet FROM what I have said we may easily
though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow though they be red like crimson they shall be as wooll 'T is in the vertue of this blood that we approach the Throne without fear and diffidence the God of Pity and Compassion cannot shut his ears against those prayers that are made under the mediation of Jesus Christ the hands of Justice are bound up when his bloody Sweat and Agony his Passion Death and Burial are commemorated How fixt and immoveable is this foundation of our Faith that we have such an High-Priest at the right hand of the Father who by one Oblation of himself through the Eternal Spirit sat down victorious on his Throne Powers Dominions and Principalities being put under him Though the Doctrine of the Cross be the Scorn of Jews and Gentiles yet let us say with S. Paul God forbid that I should glory save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ And this is still so much the surer when we consider the Nature of that Attonement that our Saviour made This Sacrifice was propitiatory and piacular for he suffered not only for our good but in our room and they who would make him to act no more in all this than the part of a resolute Martyr destroy one of the prime foundations of our Religion and of our hope in the hour of death and at the day of Judgment Fourthly WHEN we fix our thoughts on the death of Jesus we ought to practise those Graces that then appear'd most eminently in him his Contempt of the World his Love to his Enemies his Patience and Resignation Can we dwell on the thoughts of his love towards Mankind and not be inflam'd with the highest Zeal to serve him How can we forget the glorious adventures of his Love who dyed for us and washed us from our sins in his own blood and hath made us Kings and Priests unto God Who shall separate us from the Love of Christ Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword V. 38. For I am perswaded that neither death nor life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor heighth nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the Love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. To God the Father Son and Holy Ghost be all Power Praise and Dominion World without end Amen A SERMON ON 1. COR. ii V. 3 4 5. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling And my speech and my preaching was not with inticing words of mans wisdom but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men but in the power of God IN the First Chapter S. Paul had in his view the allaying the differences that had arisen amongst the Corinthians concerning their Teachers whom they should follow He puts them in mind how he had preached the Gospel amongst them and by what Arguments they had been perswaded to embrace it i. e. not with the wisdom of words And again not with enticing words of mans wisdom HE thought it not proper to advance his doctrine and design amongst them by the accurate and artificial reasonings of the wise men of the Gentiles but in the demonstration of the Spirit and of power THE elegant Orations and Philosophical Discourses of the Learned Gentiles by which they were wont to put off their opinions to the people withal he did not judge proofs proper for and suitable to the nature of his Doctrine It being wholly Divine it required divine demonstration something above the reach of human speculation something yet untraced by their most accurate Disquisitions So the supernatural gifts bestowed on the followers of Christ by which they were made to interpret the sacred Oracles and ancient Prophecies concerning the Messias and accommodate those Prophecies to the most particular circumstances of his Kingdom By which they were enabled to discern Spirits and dispossess Devils such and such miraculours appearances together with the Miracles of Christ and his Apostles both upon the dead and the living were proofs of divinity in their own Nature far beyond the subtile reasonings of Orators and Philosophers more suitable to the design in hand more undeniable and authentick and therefore a proof much more solid and clear than if they had recommended the Doctrine of Christianity with all the eloquence and ostentation of words THIS method propos'd in the first Chapter He owns and vindicates in this from all the objections and carnal imputations that the admirers of Philosophy on the one hand and heretical Seducers on the other might lay to his charge He did not declare unto them the Testimony of God with the excellency of speech or wisdom It was not his design to read unto them Lectures of Plato's Philosophy but to recommend Christ and him Crucified to preach the humble doctrine of the Cross the plain and necessary Articles of Christianity the very first and indispensible principles of our Faith not the more abstruse mysteries of which as yet possibly they were not capable but those early lessons that we must know as soon as we become Disciples of that Heavenly Institution THIS Doctrine recommended at such a time and by such men so far above the genius of all the prevailing sects of Philosophers and appearing with so much modesty and humility had certainly been run down in triumph by the Patrons of Paganism and Infidelity if it had not been supported by another kind of proof and demonstration than that which was taught in the Athenian Schools Therefore the Corinthians ought not to be much stumbled at the petulancy and ignorance of false teachers who despis'd what they did not understand and measur'd wisdom by a standard of their own The Gospel was recommended amongst them by such proofs as were agreeable to its Nature that their belief might not depend upon any thing that was human and artificial but on the most solid and immoveable foundations the Wisdom and Power of God clearly display'd in vindication of the Gospel This is shortly the scope of the words that I have read The success and efficacy of what he preach'd did not at all depend on the order and composure of his periods tho one might observe Eloquence and Majesty in his Expressions if they were not too much addicted to what they valued amongst the Grecian Orators yet did he not at all affect that which the wise men of Greece most gloried in he design'd that it might be very clear That the success of his Doctrine should depend on supernatural proofs or the light and majesty and conviction that attends the power of miracles LET us view those words more closely and examine their phrase and dependance and see how clear a proof they contain of the excellency of Christian Religion And in them we have three particulars I. HIS uneasie
that kind of Religion to which they were most addicted And therefore our Religion must needs be of another stamp entirely pure gentle easie to be intreated full of good works without partiality and without hypocrisie 2. They thought that they might compensate for moral Miscarriages by long prayers and bodily severities And they would gladly submit to any thing rather than reform what ought to be truly amended 3. They believ'd they might merit eternal Life by the observation of one Precept though they liv'd in the habitual contempt and violation of all the rest Such a Precept they took their Sabbath to be WHEN we view the pure and unaffected complexion of our Religion how great an Enemy it is to all unworthy shifts and disguises how generous and refin'd above that Spirit that prevails in the World how amiable in the Eyes of God and Men then I say we may easily perceive that there is nothing more opposite unto it than that peevish superstition and hypocrisie that prevail'd in the Jewish Church when our Saviour appear'd And to the end that we may feel the force of our Religion to the best advantages Let us observe the following Directions 1. WE must understand our Religion thorowly and fix it in our Souls by the most accurate and serious consideration For though the motives of Christianity be of that moment that they may easily conquer our Souls yet unless they are duly applyed by Thought Reason and Meditation they loose their force and efficacy and they never impart to us the least degree of spiritual courage and activity God assaults our Reason in the first place and when we are overcome by Argument we are then a willing People we are Subjects by our choice and not by constraint Therefore are we frequently to view and consider the motives and arguments of our Religion and weigh them in the balance against the difficulties that oppose us That when we have examin'd and seriously debated whatsoever makes for or against our being Christians we may go forth to meet our Enemy with spiritual furniture and strength Shall the World and its triffling Interests notwithstanding that we are convinc'd of its emptiness and vanity take up so many of our Thoughts And shall we forget our immortal Souls and the Judgment to come Religion enters the Soul by Meditation and no Man can be Religious but by the acts of his Mind It is a reasonable service that we are call'd to and to make us continue in it with delight our Reason must be first engag'd How necessary this consideration is our Saviour represents in the Gospel of S. Luke What King goeth out to war doth not first sit down and consider if with his ten thousand he be able to meet him that comes against him with twenty thousand Or if a man resolve to build a Tower he first computes the expence and then he builds SUCH as are hastily engag'd in the service of Religion are frequently forc'd to retire with shame and dishonour And this is the usual result of rash and unsettled purposes which men make in the heat of their passion and under the power of some transient conviction 2. WE are always to perfer the Morals of Religion to its lesser Appendages and Ceremonies and to remember that the last are only subservient to advance the first True Christian Life is the Transcript of the Divine Nature Be ye holy as I am holy And again Be ye merciful as your Father in heaven is merciful There are such legible impressions of the Divine Nature felt in the Souls of the Regenerate that they attract his presence they are his peculiar habitations where he fixes his residence Nothing so enlarges the Spirit of a Man as to fix his eyes on the Life of Jesus to view with attention and delight how much he was above the World when environ'd with its terrors and flatteries He spoke of the invisible things as one does of his own Country He reason'd men out of their folly by all the force and weight of Heaven and Eternity And if we allow him to speak to our Consciences it is not possible to resist his reasonings He went about doing good He made himself accessible to us by the interposal of his humanity that we might see as well as hear the beauties of Christian Religion He taught us a Doctrine that is exactly calculated to refine our Nature to make us better in all relations And by this rule we are to examine the different pretences of all divided Parties If they advance by the plainest and nearest methods true Piety Innocency and Simplicity and propagate them in the Spirit of Love Unity and Subordination this is the surest mark to know that they belong to the Household of Faith 3. WE are here but Pilgrims and Strangers we are so to demean our selves as Candidates for Eternity Our Christian Life is but a flight from the World and the more we are alienated from the Spirit that prevails in it the more ripe we are for that incorruptible inheritance that is reserv'd for us Let us make the things of another World present to our selves by Faith For the fashion of this World passeth away And we are shortly to appear before Gods Tribunal stript naked of all the thin cobwebs and excuses whereby we endeavour'd to hide our deformities upon Earth 4. And lastly WHEN you have deliberately resolv'd consider the evil of back-sliding and its dreadful consequences There are but few who plainly and openly deny the Faith unto which they are Baptized yet many hundreds deny the Lord that bought them by their wicked Lives and unchristian Practices Now the just shall live by Faith but if any man draw back my Soul shall have no pleasure in him But we are not of them who draw back into perdition but of them that believe to the saving of the Soul To God the Father Son and Holy Ghost be all Glory Praise and Dominion for ever Amen A SERMON Preached on Whitsunday 1688. ON ACTS ii v. 1 2 3 4. And when the day of Pentecost was fully come they were all with one accord in one place And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind and it filled all the house where they were sitting And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire and it sat upon each of them And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance THE Christian Church from the Ascension of our Blessed Saviour into Heaven until the Effusion of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles was full of great expectations and great fears they had not yet quite broke off from the Communion of the Jewish Church yet they continued in their solitude and retirements and in the true exercise of Charity and Patience until our Saviour should scatter his Royal Donatives upon his solemn and magnificent entrance into the
hands of the Apostles against Infidelity and Atheism by such plentiful effusions of the Holy Ghost the Cataracts of Heaven seem'd to be opened and the Apostles were made to speak with irresistible Wisdom and the same Spirit is given unto the Church in proportionable measures as her necessities require to the end of the World especially to the immediate Servants of the Sanctuary if they do not wickedly shut their Eyes against its light and beauty The garments of the Church are of Needlework variegated with the manifold Excellencies of the Spirit the interchangeable appearances of those gifts that in different Figures make up the decorum of the whole were not so entirely confin'd to the Primitive Ages but that his more immediate Servants are furnished in all periods of the Church according to the nature and difficulty of their undertaking He doth not give all gifts to every one but parcels them out with that heavenly discretion that no man may say to his Brtoher I have no need of thee therefore the Spirit of Love scattereth his Donatives so as at once to supply our Necessities and advance our Charity that all of us might hang upon one another in the closest Relations and dependencies the mystical Body of the Church being knit together by Joints and Bands as is the Natural NOW when we add unto the former considerations that the gifts of the Spirit did not only seal our Religion by all possible external evidence in the Apostolical Ages but that now the very same Spirit by its sanctifying power and Vertues unites us to Christ What reason have we to rejoice in God our Saviour It is the Spirit that breaks our bonds and fetters and makes us run the Race that is set before us with joy and alacrity it is by this that we crucifie the flesh with the affections and lusts thereof by this we become the Temples of the living God resolute against Temptations humble chast sober heavenly minded in a word it is the earnest of our inheritance the Spirit by which we cry Abba Father the Spirit that helpeth our infirmities and makes us more than Conquerors through Jesus Christ that loved us Can there be any more ample matter of Praise What is it can loose our Tongues unto the most joyful acknowledgments if this does not Let us say with the Psalmist when we view the whole Oeconomy of our Redemption I will extol thee my God O King and I will bless thy Name for ever and ever And let us conclude that we cannot escape if we neglect so great a salvation which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed unto others by them that heard him God also bearing them witness both with Signs and Wonders and with divers Miracles and Gifts of the Holy Ghost according to his own Will To God the Father Son and Holy Ghost be Glory Dominion and Power for ever and ever Amen A SERMON ON PSALM xxvi v. 6. I will wash mine hands in innocence so will I compass thine Altar O Lord. THIS Psalm is David's Appeal to the Omniscience of God as to his own Innocence and Integrity and it seems tacitly to refer to the Calumnies and Slanders propagated against him during the Reign of Saul and therefore he puts his trust in the strength of the Almighty that he should never be shaken by the fury and malice of his Enemies THE Verse that I have read is but a part of that Appeal and though our English Version reads it in the future yet the scope of the Context the Analogy and coherence of the whole allow the reading of it in the preterit as may appear easily to the attentive Reader but whether the one or the other is not so much my business to enquire This is certain that the custom of Washing before Sacrifices both amongst the Jews and the Gentiles had this Moral in its bosom that all our approaches to the Divine Majesty especially our most solemn and extraordinary ought to be performed with the most accurate Preparation purity of Mind and recollection of Spirit therefore the Psalmist as a part of hiâ— Appeal made use of this Argument in his Defence that he walked in his Integrity constantly and when he brought his Sacrifices to the Altar he viewed his Soul with the most accurate search and enquiry to see if there was any thing that might indispose him to come so near the divine Presence THESE words have in them no remarkable difficulty they are a plain allusion to that known Custom of Washing before Sacrificing both amongst the Jews and the Gentiles All the Eastern Nations were very frequent in their Washings especially before they approached their most solemn and sacred Mysteries and therefore I may the more safely apply this Text to the highest Mystery amongst the Christians which is the Sacrament of the Lords Supper which now requires in a peculiar manner our Attention and Meditation IT is in it self by the confession of all Christians the highest Mystery of our Religion nay all the Mysteries of it gathered together in one and therefore all the Graces of the Spirit ought to adorn our Souls when we come so near unto God they meet together at this Solemnity all of them in their highest slight and Exaltation I shall confine my Discourse at present to two Particulars 1. OUR Duty and Obligation of coming to the Sacrament of the Lords Supper 2. I will direct the manner of our coming and how we must attempt it 1. LET us consider our Obligations to attend this Solemn and Magnificent Entertainment and there is nothing more clear if we consider the Authority of him who enjoins it God upbraided his People of old that the Nazarites were more careful and observant of the original Rules and directions of their founder than his People were of his Laws who was the Creator of Heaven and Earth All the Sects of Philosophers up and down the World thought it their honour and their interest to propagate the Opinions of the first of their Order AND will our dearest Lord and Master give us a Command of the highest consequence and dare we refuse to obey it This is an indignity to his Authority an immediate affront to his Sovereignty and Power How highly would an earthly Prince resent an injury of this nature Here is a Feast prepared noble and plentiful and design'd to express the highest kindness and respect This Metaphor is used by Solomon and by a greater than Solomon mystically to set off the ingratitude of such as refuse and trample upon the inestimable offers of his Love and Favour WHEN we remember who invites us to this Feast the Author and finisher of our Faith whose dominion is from everlasting to everlasting who came from the bosom of the Father to rescue us from the bottomless Abyss of our miseries is it not the highest impudence the rudest affront to the Majesty of Heaven the most daring violation of
the true Philosophy that animates against the pale fears and gloomy apprehensions of the Grave The merry Atheist that braved Death at a distance begins to tremble when it makes its approaches nearer then his Jests and his wanton Efforts of Fancy vanish into fearful expectations He flies to his desperate Complaints uneffectual Wishes and fruitless Prayers for the time of Prayer is over but the Christian gathers his Forces and strengthens himself in the Victory and Sacrifice and Power of our Lord Jesus Christ O how sad is it to delay the examination of our Consciences the confession of our Sins the amendment of our Lives until we have no more time than the few moments that just enter us into the Grave 6. WHEN we think of the Resurrection it should spiritualize our Souls and teach us in our desires and designs to fly above this terrestrial feculent Globe How come we to be so unwilling to leave those Habitations of sin and misery How come we to admire nothing and vanity when we are Candidates for a heavenly Kingdom If ye be risen with Christ set your affections on the things that are above c. Let the belief of the Resurrection put us in mind of the future Judgment For he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained whereof he hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead Can we think of that solemn Appearance without fear And if we call on the Father who without respect of persons judgeth every man according to his works Let us pass the time of our sojourning here in fear Let our zeal appear more and more in trimming and preparing our Souls for Eternity That we may know him and the power of his Resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death if by any means we may attain unto the resurrection of the dead THE third thing I proposed to speak to is the Interest that our faith gives us in a happy Resurrection I mean such a lively faith as is recommended to us in the Gospel Not every one that saith Lord Lord but he that doth the will of my Father which is in heaven I mean the faith that purifies the heart and overcomes the World and assimilates us to the temper and Spirit of the blessed Inhabitants above and makes us more than Conquerors through Jesus Christ that loved us MY Lords and Gentlemen so far have I discours'd of this Consolatory Argument to ease our mind upon this sorrowful occasion But you see another Text viz. the earthly remains of the noble Viscount of Strathallan When I remember his true Vertues I despair to say any thing proportionable to his worth the naming of him once suggests greater thoughts than ordinarily occur When we form to our selves the most perfect Idea's of Valour and honour and generosity then we have the best Notion of that great Soul that once lodged in that Tabernacle All the Projects of his Mind were beyond the common Level The generous Inclinations he derived from his Ancestors began to appear very early A Family too well known in Britain for every thing that is great ancient loyal and generous to need any particular descants of mine I am not to act the part of a Herauld from this place there is none capable to be my Hearer but knows already how needless it is to tell Scotchmen of the noble Atchievments and many Illustrious branches of that Cedar of which our deceased General is descended He began to bear Arms when as yet he had not strength enough to manage them the vigour and alacrity of his Spirit out running the growth of his body He then when but a Child lodged no thought in his Breast but such as were daring great and difficult When he was a Boy at St. Leonard's College he gave all the proof of a docile and capacious Spirit far above any of his School-fellows but his Mind that always entertain'd extraordinary Enterprises began to be weary of an unactive life Then it was that he was made Captain in that Regiment that went to Ireland against the Rebels under the Command of an old and experienced Officer In that expedition he behaved with so much life and resolution as drew upon him the eyes of all men and every body concluded the young Captain was calculated for the greatest actions There are no words so proper for this period of his life as those we meet with in the life of Agricola Nec Agricola licenter more juvenum qui militiam in lasciviam vertunt neque segniter ad voluptates Commeatus titulum tribunatus inscitiam retulit Sed noscere provinciam nosci exercitui discere à peritis sequi optimos nihil appetere jactatione nihil ob formidinem recusare simulque anxius intentus agere And this without the change of one word was his deserved Character when first he appeared in the Fields HE came over from Ireland some years after and assisted those Forces that beat the Rebels once at Stirling and all those Loyal Gentlemen engaged in that Expedition upon all occasions bestow'd upon him the most ample Applause and unforced Commendations that were truly due to his skill conduct and fidelity AFTER this General Drummond and all his Associates became so odious to the prevailing Faction of the Covenanters that until the Mock-repentance after Dunbar fight he was not suffered to engage in his Majesties Service Mean while he went to London and the Forces commanded by his Friend were disbanded And there he was a Spectator of that Tragedy that pierced his Soul with the most exquisit grief I mean the Martyrdom of King Charles the First The Scene he saw and the preparations to the fatal blow but more he could not endure He himself could not afterwards give an account of that consternation that seized his Spirits All that 's black and terrible invaded his Soul at once the most dismal Passions struggled within his Breast confusion and indignation possest his Heart and nothing but the force of Christian Religion and the belief of Providence could have preserved his Mind from sinking How can his great Soul but burst forth into all expressions of Sadness to see prosperous Villany lift up its head withy so much rage and insolence and defie the Justice of the Almighty and pull down his Image upon earth and sacrifice the best of Men the best of Kings to the fury and hypocrisie of the Rabble O Heavens Let not the Plagues due to the Cry of that sacred Blood fall upon Britain Next day after with all speed he went to Holland to the Prince and there he was the first that saluted him King He came over with his late Majesty and commanded a Brigade of that Army that went to Worcester where his Courage and Magnanimity appear'd to the highest
have no relish to the Soul illuminated with the knowledge of Christ The eye of Faith discovers their emptiness they are but shadows and appearances of things attended in their most flattering dress with vanity and vexation of Spirit Let us awake then and see what is it that thus inchants us into folly and sin What are those pleasures that we doat so much upon if once compar'd to the pure rivers of pleasure that are at his right hand 4. SOME plead the severity of Christianity to excuse them from the practice of it The Precepts of humility meekness and self-denyal are intolerable to such but I must tell them that such Precepts appear only terrible to strangers and such as have no mind to come under any yoke or discipline at all The experience of the best men puts it beyond all debate that there is no rest or tranquillity of Spirit but in the practice of such Commandments Nay the pleasures that attend a pious life are pure and unmixt they are sweeter than the honey or the honey-comb With what transports and exstatic elevations did the Psalmist long to appear in the place of God's presence O when shall I come and appear before God! We are not acquainted with the ravishing satisfactions of Religion because we keep at a distance and therefore we are terrified by our first conflicts but if we struggled vigorously until the noisome rubbish of our corruptions were remov'd then our Souls might become a clean habitation for the Spirit of God and where the Spirit of God dwells there is also peace light and tranquillity joy unspeakable and full of glory What an impregnable Garrison against calumny and disaster is a Conscience void of offence towards God and towards man How vain is it to endeavour the painting of it by rhetorical colours Words cannot reach it the bold Metaphors of Poets are faint in comparison of it It receives comforts immediately from the hand of God and such as cannot be taken away from us so strong are the pleasures that do attend the practice of true Religion WHY then are we frighted with Mormo's and apparitions of our own invention Let us believe our Saviour who hath expresly told us that his yoke is easie and his burden is light The more we plead in favour of our bondage the more entangled we are by our corruption and the more miserable is our condition This Corruption may be escaped and reform'd and whatever is usually pleaded in its defence is vain and unreasonable Let me ask then how this Contagion that has so universally over-run Mankind may be cured And the Text makes answer to this that this Corruption is escaped by the great and the precious promises AND this leads me to the third Particular that I am oblig'd to speak to The Gospel in it self is the great and last Engine of God's Goodness and Wisdom for the recovery of the World and the Promises of the Gospel are the Wheels upon which it moves So much Spirit and Life did go alongst with the first preaching of the Gospel that it shook the Pillars of the Kingdom of Darkness threw open the Prisons of Satan and loos'd whole Societies of Men from their bondage The Apostles did open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God The Promises of the Gospel are the counterpoise that God hath laid in the other Scale against sin He principally designs to deliver from sin and from the Love of the World because it leads unto sin and the Promises of the Gospel have a peculiar energy to save us from the one and to deter us from the other If we believ'd the Promises of the Gospel without fear and hypocrisie we would immediately turn our backs upon our sins especially when we remember that these very Promises are environ'd about with the most terrible denunciations of the wrath of God against the disobedient The Lord Jesus Christ shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ Can there be any thing so powerful to alienate our affections from the World as the Promises of the Gospel How far was the glory of the Court of Egypt below the Spirit of Moses when he saw him that is invisible and had respect unto the recompence of reward We are expresly told by S. John that if any man love this world the love of the Father is not in him And again that the friendship of this world is enmity with God And S. Paul tells us that the Christians must not set their affections on the things on Earth for their life is hid with God in Christ THE brightness of our Inheritance obscures the glory of the World This is the promise that he hath promised us eternal life And now are we the sons of God and it doth not yet appear what we shall be but this we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is Did we weigh the Gospel Promises as they deserve and think of them with love and application how powerful are they to disengage us from the entanglements of this present life and to promote the reformation that the Gospel enjoins 1. LET us heartily believe the Promises Eternity seriously and frequently pondered exhausts all our strength and all our thoughts It fortifies our Souls against the flatteries of the World and alienates our affections from the Earth The Patriarchs saw the promises afar off and embraced them and confessed that they were but strangers and pilgrims upon the earth And if the dark view that the Patriarchs had was so mighty to support their Spirits under the old Oeconomy what may not we do who are animated by the clear and glorious Promises of the Gospel 2. LET us lean on these Promises in our most difficult circumstances For which cause we faint not but though our outward man perish yet the inward man is renewed day by day For our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a-far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory While we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal We rejoyce says the same Apostle in our tribulations Patience under sufferings is the peculiar ornament of our Saviour's Disciples for they only have the surest Antidote against despondency The Devil that can transform himself into an Angel of Light cannot counterfeit Christian Meekness and Patience It is no stupidity but a rational submission to the Will of our Father they that are Martyrs for the World or their own Pride may for a while put on a resolute sullenness but true Christian calmness and magnanimity springs from the hope of glory and
the Spirit of Jesus 3. Having these promises saith the Apostle let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness both of the Flesh and of the Spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God 'T is certain that every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure If we are Candidates for eternal life our Souls must be purified from Vice for the pure in heart only shall see God 4. Let us therefore fear lest the promise being left us of entring into his rest any of you should seem to come short of it The Israelites in the Wilderness came short of the Promises made to them by their sickleness and inconstancy Their goodness was like the early dew as the Prophet speaks and by their cowardice they were afraid of the Children of Anak partly by their unbelief they would not believe Moses nor the faithful Spies And this is easily applicable to our case for there is no way to be saved but to believe the Promises to break through all obstacles to fight the good fight of Faith and to lay hold of eternal life 5. LET us ponder and consider the excellencies of these Promises I shall name but the two Epithets bestow'd upon them in the Text. 1. They are Great 2. They are Precious I say 1. They are Great and that in three regards 1. With regard to their Author the only begotten Son of God whom all the Angels worship and adore He is the brightness of his Fathers glory and the express image of his person and upholds all things by the word of his power This one consideration is enough to overawe the boldest sinner and it is frequently taken notice of to magnifie the Gospel and to recommend to us the Precepts of our Saviour that he was in the form of God and thought it no robbery to be equal with God but made himself of no reputation c. Shall we contemn the Promises made by the Son of God God sent his Son to give the Jews the last and most undenyable proof of his Love and Wisdom Certainly they will reverence my Son Thus reasons the Author to the Hebrews How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him And again He that despised Moses Law died without mercy under two or three Witnesses of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden under foot the Son of God and hath counted the blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing and hath done despite unto the Spirit of Grace Against whom does the incorrigible sinner sport himself against the Son of God and the clearest proofs of his love For herein is love not that we loved him but that he loved us and gave his Son to be a propitiation for our sins 2. THE Promises are Great in their intrinsic value I mean not only the Promise of eternal life but all the other Promises that are of a relative and subordinate Nature the Graces of the Spirit the remission of our sins the peace of our Consciences these are things to be valued above Gold and Silver Wisdom is preferred above the choicest Rubies the Gold of Ophir is not to be compar'd unto her Therefore the Graces of the Spirit are compar'd unto the most costly things I counsel thee to buy of me Gold tried in the fire that thou mayest be rich and white rayment that thou mayest be cloathed and the shame of thy nakedness do not appear and anoint thine eyes with eye-salve that thou mayest see 3. The Promises are Great in their tendency and design to recover the World sunk into Corruption to overthrow the Worship of Devils to enlighten the World to take down the Kingdom of Darkness and to advance the Image of God upon the Souls of Men were designs becoming the Goodness and Majesty of the Son of God But of this I shall have occasion to speak under the fourth Particular And therefore I consider the second Epithet bestowed upon the Promises They are not only Great but 2. PRECIOUS And that in regard of their 1. Price 2. Certainty 3. Durableness 1. In regard of their Price S. Peter informs us that we are not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from our vain conversation but with the precious blood of Christ as of a Lamb without spot or blemish There is no Religion wants its Sacrifice and this is the Mysterious Sacrifice of our Religion the blood that speaketh better things than the blood of Abel that powerful Atonement that so successfully pleads for pity and compassion in the ears of God the Sacrifice under whose intercession we come with boldness to the Throne of Grace the Sacrifice that laid aside all the Mosaick Oblations the Sacrifice that was typified by all the former and was more acceptable unto God than the Cattel upon a thousand bills This is the Sacrifice that the Prophets foretold and the Apostles preach'd and upon which we must lean at the hour of death Nature teacheth us to fly to the strongest refuge when we are reduc'd to the saddest extremities And therefore do we grasp the Merit of his Sacrifice in our last conflicts and agonies for he is the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world This is the Sacrifice that bears the weight of all their sins who are penitent So reasons the Divine Author to the Hebrews for if the blood of Bulls and of Goats and ashes of an Heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifieth to the purifying of the Flesh how much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God purge your Conscience from dead works to serve the living God THEY that allow him no more than to be a resolute Martyr for the Truth who rob us of the comforts of his Sacrifice and Propitiation take away the great pillar of our hope at the hour of death they would reform us unto a gentile kind of Paganism though there be no error more plainly opposite to the Scriptures than theirs For the Notion of a piacular Sacrifice and the penal substitution of it in the room of the criminal was receiv'd amongst all Nations and the Scripture makes use of the same words that are used by other Authors to express a proper atonement when they speak of the Sacrifice of our blessed Saviour WHEN we consider this it may confirm our hope and withal put us in mind how fearful a thing it is to trample upon the blood of the Son of God for being redeem'd by his blood we are no more our own 2. THE Promises are precious because of their certainty The frame of Nature may sooner be dissolv'd the pillars of the Creation may shake and crumble into their first disorder rather than that his Word should
as were most unlikely to bring them to pass Must rude and illiterate Mechanicks grapple with the Rabbies and Philosophers of East and West By what Armies by what deep Contrivances must this Design be set on foot How ridiculous is the very thought of it to a man that stands no higher than on the level of Humane Maxims Yet this Divine Fire in their Tongues burnt up and consum'd the Worship of the Devil and silenc'd his most famous Oracles and brought the whole World in a manner under new Laws and as a rapid and violent flame devours combustible matter without mercy without resistance so the Christian Religion pulled down the Rites Customs and Solemnities of Superstition even then when the Learning Zeal and Power of all Mankind were engag'd to support it S. Paul tells us that the foolishness of God is wiser than men i. e. the most unlikely means seconded by his assistance produce the most wonderful and astonishing effects the methods that seem comtemptible to humane eyes overcome the wisest and the most subtile contrivances the meanest and weakest arrow in his quiver the clownish Fishers of Gallilee will baffle and confound all the Sons of Wit and Speculation the most accurate amongst them who had been train'd from their infancy in the Arts of Sophistry and Eloquence stood mute and stupid before those new Philosophers who came to discover unto us life and immortality The Topicks and the Methods of the Athenian Schools were swept down like thin Cobwebs when this true Light appear'd their curious Schemes were all rejected and a higher Doctrine than any that was formerly taught was establish'd upon no lower Principles than the evidence and demonstration of the Spirit the little knacks of the Philosophers that consisted most in the shufflings and turnings of Words and Phrases vanish'd like aery Phantoms when Truth it self in its Meridian Splendor inspir'd those frail men can we attribute this their Victory to any thing short of God himself His word is like a fire and as a hammer that breaketh the rocks in pieces So the Apostles forc'd their way through Rocks and pierc'd to the Center of mens Souls and gain'd to the obedience of Christ those hearts that one would think were altogether inaccessible they pulled down strong holds and lofty imaginations and by their swift and universal success at such a Time and against such Mountains of Opposition they gave the World to understand that their Mission was from above And here are the Trophies and Triumphs of Christianity the wonderful Propagation of our Religion made it evident that this Fire that came down upon the Apostles in Cloven Tongues was not a flitting and vagrant Meteor unfixt and moveable but a solid and durable Light which was to continue in the Church until the consummation of all things 3. HERE we may consider the accomplishment of the Promise contain'd in the fourth Verse They were all filled with the holy Ghost That the Apostles were inspir'd by God is beyond all contradiction and they who impute their Progress in the Conversion of Nations their Languages and Miracles their divine Reasonings and Revelations to any ordinary Cause subvert the Principles upon which our Religion stands All Civiliz'd Nations ancient and modern do acknowledge the possibility of a Divine Revelation nay that it is reasonable for Mankind to expect it in some extraordinary Cases and most people plead it in favours of some one Custom or other received amongst themselves and if all men agree in this that it is reasonable to look for it and that by the strength of Reason we may distinguish a true Revelation from what is counterfeit What should harden men against the Christian Religion for the miraculous Inspiration which the Church commemorates this Day hath stampt upon it all the Characters of Divinity that our Souls can think of even when they examine things most calmly and accurately LET us therefore thank Almighty God that he gave us the highest assurances of our Religion that he made our hope so sixt that it cannot be battered for when we read that the Holy Ghost came down upon the Apostles in this manner we may conclude infallibly that our Lord is not only risen from the dead but invested also with the highest Power at the right hand of God the Father The Gifts and magnificent Donatives that he scattered amongst his Subjects when he enter'd into the Heavens sufficiently convince us that all power in heaven and in earth is given unto him To his Ascension may be applied that of the Psalmist Thou hast ascended up on high thou hast led captivity captive thou hast received gifts for men yea for the rebellious also that the Lord God might dwell among them Let us say then as the Psalmist invites I will bless the Lord at all times his praise shall continually be in my mouth O magnifie the Lord with me and let us exalt his Name together This Effusion of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles is so full a proof of his Victory that now we lean on his Promise with the greatest tranquillity and assurance He hath ridden prosperously because of truth and meekness and righteousness his right hand hath taught him terrible things the enemies of his Kingdom fall before him he hath broken them as with a rod of iron he hath dasht them in pieces like a potters vessel he is established for ever King in Zion The meditation of this fills our hearts with joy and gladness that our Redeemer who is bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh hath trodden all our enemies under his feet We have this hope as an anchor of the Soul both sure and steadfast and which entreth unto that within the Veil whither the forerunner is for us entered even Jesus made an High Priest for ever after the order of Melchizedeck NOR are we to think that because now he is encircled with Glory and Majesty that he can be unmindful of us no more than he was when he was compass'd with our Infirmities and as he made good his Promise to the Apostles and sent upon them the Holy Ghost to plead his cause against Infidelity so we may rely on his Word that he will raise us again unto life and immortality tho our dust stould mingle with all the scattered Atoms of the Creation he will change our vile bodies that they may be fashion'd like unto his glorious body according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself And the same Apostle assures us that if the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in us he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken our mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in us Thus from the fulfilling of what is past we may reason our selves into the belief and certainty of what is to come AND let us thank our heavenly Father that so early strengthen'd the