was then is now and for ever will be an infallible sign of passing from Death to Life Now may the God of Life and Love which brought again our Lord Jesus Christ from the Dead out of his boundless Love to his Church perswade us all in this divided Age to be like-minded one towards another and towards all that fear God and work Righteousness of what Opinion soever we are in lesser Points of Christianity But while one judgeth another despieth while one saith and swaggereth I am of Apollo another I am of Paul another I am of Cephas we are all carnal and talk and walk as Men For the Kingdom of God is not in these things but in Righteousness and Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost Ro. 14.17 And the same Apostle tells us as plainly as words can speak That Circumcision is nothing nor Vncircumcision but a new Creature And that as many as walk according to that Rule viz. that do not make Christianity to be in one or the other but in the Change and turn of the whole man to God which as that Holy Man of God Arch-Bishop Vsher hath long since told us is the new Creature Peace shall be to them even that Peace which our Church teacheth us to pray for in one of her excellent Collects which the World cannot give even the Peace of God which passeth all Vnderstanding Moreover this vital Principle of Spiritual life and love is that only that makes us Christians indeed For if any Man hath not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his Ro. 8.9 This doth not only incline the Soul to God and to good Men who bear the Reflexions of his Holy Nature but likewise to the sincere Obedience of his Will and Law invigorating all the Powers and Faculties of their Minds in all their Operations and Motions inlightning their Understandings by turning them from Darkness to Light and from Satans Power to God delightfully inclining their Wills to Goodness turning their natural enmity into love fulfilling that Prophetical Gospel-Promise To make his People a willing People in the Day of his Power Psal 110.3 and according as our Saviour in his most Heavenly form hath taught us to Pray Thy will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven even with that Readiness and Alacrity that Delight and Complacency that the Angels and glorified Saints do it with in Heaven and as He did it when he was in the World Whose Meat and Drink it was to do the Will of him that sent him This divine Principle brings the Soul into a divine frame and Gospel Temper making it to be in some good measure of that Heavenly Spirit that our Blessed Redeemer was of when he was upon Earth And therefore he tells his Disciples Ye are not of the World but I have taken you out of the World If you were of the World the World would love its own but because you are not of the World therefore the World hateth you Joh. 15.19 Ye are not of the Temper and Spirit of the World The first Man is of the Earth earthy and speaketh of the Earth but the second Man is the Lord from Heaven heavenly and as is the Heavenly such are they also that are Heavenly their Conversations are in Heaven and their Hearts are where their Treasures are they look and live above Invisibles are to them the greatest Realities they antedate the Joys of Heaven Faith is to them the Substance of things hoped for the Evidence of things not seen Heb. 11.1 They persevere as having a respect to the recompence of the Reward and as seeing him that is Invisible whom having not seen as the Apostle says with their bodily eyes yet believing on him are filled with Joy unspeakable and full of Glory This makes Men easy to themselves in bringing forth the fruits of the Spirit which are Meekness and Temperance Love and Joy and Peace Long Suffering Gentleness Goodness and Faith against such there is no Law Gal. 5.22 having by the power of the divine Spirit overcome the corruptions of their Nature which made them mighty uneasie to themselves but now where the Spirit of divine Life and Love dwells there are these divine and blessed Fruits which make Men easy in and to themselves by giving them the Victory over all their turbulent and disquieting Passions setting up the Intellectual Rational power in its due place reducing the Man to himself and unto God which is a mighty point when obtained Fortior est qui se quam qui tutissima vincit Moenia which to Translate the Poet by the Prophet is He that overcometh his own Spirit is as he that taketh a City So much have our Corruptions and Passions got the ascendant of our Reasons in this our lapsed State that the Prophet calls such the Beast of the People And 't is not improbable that they were such Beasts with whom St. Paul fought at Ephesus 1 Cor. 15. which he in another place calls unreasonable Men. Finally Brethren pray for us that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked Men 2 Thes 3.1 2. where unreasonable and wicked Men are put together because all Wickedness is unreasonable 't is the very extremity of Madness and Folly And this doth not only make Men easy to themselves but to all others How easily are such Men Govern'd by the Laws of Civil Government which are all grounded upon Reason who make their own Reason to govern themselves To them as the Apostle calls the moral Law the Law may be as a School-master to instruct and now and then to correct some mistakes that must be allowed for the Frailty of human Nature but it can never be a Judge to Condemn them for as where there is no Law there is no Transgression so where there is no Transgression there can be no Punishment There is therefore saith St. Paul No Condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit for the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the Law of Sin and Death This Spirit of holy Life and Love makes all good Men fit for all humane Conversation in this World All the Commotions and Troubles not only within our Selves but within our Houses our Towns and Cities our Kingdom and our Church proceed from our unsubdu'd Corruptions our Pride and Covetousness our Revenge and Malice and the like From whence come Warrings and Fightings among you Come they not from hence even from your Lusts that War in your Members For ye Lust and have not ye Kill and desire to have and cannot obtain Jam. 4.1 2. As much as if St. James had said By these rampant and reigning Lusts of yours you make all the mischief in the World and when you have done all you get nothing by it And then how fit these good Men are for all humane Societies and Government who have by the power of divine Grace mortified
A SERMON PREACHED On the First of January 1698. IN THE Parish Church of St. Nicholas Cole-Abby BEING A New-Years-Gift To the Society of Christians united there to Worship God in a more Solemn manner after the way of the Church of England By Robert Howson Lecturer there Rector of Stanford-Deanly in the County of Berks and Chaplain to the truly Honourable The Lady Dowager Seymore Baroness of Trowbridge LONDON Printed by W. Downing in Bartholomew-Close for the Author To the Stewards Collectors and the rest of the Members of the Society of St. Nicholas Cole-Abby in the City of London Dear Friends THE ensuing Sermon came to the Pulpit by your Desire and by the same it comes from the Press with no Variation and but with very little Addition Fine Cadencies of Speech well clinched Periods and harangues of Rhetorick were never my Talent or if they had I would have Napkin'd it in the Pulpit that the Faith of Christians should not be thought to stand in Words of Mans Wisdom but in the Power of God For which purpose that most excellent Prelate and Gospel Preacher Arch-Bishop Usher laid aside all his Learning in Preaching the Gospel as appears by his plain and practical Discourses yet Extant And as I have heard gave it always in charge to such on whom he laid Hands to Preach to be sure to remember the Alleys by suiting their Sermons to the Capacities of their Hearers A course that for Thirty Years past I have always found most conducing to the great end of Preaching viz. Turning Men from Darkness to Light and from Satan's Power to God And therefore shall continue in it till I am convinc'd that plain Preachers and plain Hearers shall be as much decried in another World as they are in this Gentlemen in this Respect your Lines are faln in a pleasant place you have a goodly Heritage even the Blessing of a learned pious practical and savory Ministry May it be therefore a Savour of Life unto Life unto every one of you and not of Death unto Death unto any for it will certainly be one or the other is and ever shall be the Prayer of Your Affectionate Friend And Faithful Servant In the Greatest Work ROBERT HOWSON John XIII Ver. 34. A New Commandment I give unto you That you Love one another THere is nothing that doth more conduce to the Good of Mankind in general than being good to and doing good one for another in particular This engages the Affections and excites the Endeavours of all This monopolizeth all the Strength and Powers of Men not only for one another but also for the publick Communities and Societies of which they are Members This answers the End of mens Being in this lower World and glorifies that Eternal Goodness that is their Being in this Life and will for ever be their Blessedness in another On the contrary There is nothing doth more directly tend to destroy the Souls and Bodies the Liberties and Properties of Men in particular and the Good of publick Societies in general than Selfishness Pride and Covetousness This ham-strings all just Powers weakens Authority cuts all the Ligaments of the Body Politick makes every part loose and independent one upon another like Bones wier'd in an Anatomy And therefore our Blessed Saviour fore-seeing how necessary this would be in all the Churches of God to the End of the World injoins this great Catholick and Christian Duty To Love one another which He calls A New Commandment that is the Old Commandment that God gave by Moses Levit. 19.18 renewed under the Gospel Dispensation for which he proposeth himself as an excellent Pattern saying As I have Loved you In speaking to which I shall shew I. What 't is to Love another II. What are the good Effects of Loving one another in the Hearts and Lives of good Men. III. How it makes Men easie in and to themselves to the Government and Communion they are Members of in this World And IV. How it fits them for the Communion and Blessed Society of the glorified Saints in Heaven By Loving one another understand that Brotherly Love that the Apostle commends Heb. 13.1 which is such a Love as Brothers have or ought to have one towards another in Nature who have the same Father and the same Mother from whom they derive their Natural Lives Brethren we have all the same Father which is God and the same Mother which is our Church and from them we derive our vital Principle of Spiritual Life And therefore as they that are Born after the Flesh do love one another in a Natural manner so we that are Born after the Spirit should love one another in a Spiritual manner For Spirits have their Spiritual Actings and Motions one towards another as well as Bodies Where the Appearance is of God's Holiness in the Hearts and Lives of good Men it draws out a Spiritual Love to and delight in them one towards another O my Soul thou hast said unto the Lord Thou art my Lord my Goodness extendeth not unto thee But to the Saints and to the Excellent that are in the Earth in whom is all my delight Psal 16.2 3. And as the appearance of Goodness in good Men draws them one to another in holy Delight and Love so the Light of the Glory of God in the Face of Jesus draws them all to Christ Because of the savour of thy good Ointments thy Name is poured forth therefore do the Virgins love thee Cant. 1.3 Draw me and we will run after thee Therefore saith our Blessed Saviour No Man can come unto me except the Father draw him and the Father draws and never drives by the Cords of a Man by the Bands of Love Hosea 11.4 displaying the Riches of Gospel-Grace viz. the heigth and depth the length and breadth of the Love of God in Christ Love in all dimensions and all dimensions in their Abstract so that as many as look unto Jesus till they love Him and love Him so as to obey Him purely from a Principle of Divine Love implanted in them by the Ministration of the Gospel shall be Saved by Him Now as natural Motion is a sure sign of natural Life so these spiritual Motions of Holy Souls to desire after and delight in good Men as such are infallible symptoms of Spiritual Life For by this we know that we are passed from Death to Life because we love the Brethren Joh. 1.3 4. In which words by the Brethren I humbly conceive such and all such and none but such as have received the Faith of the Gospel and did publickly profess and piously practise it according as they had received from the Apostles how they ought to walk and to please God and so were Disciples of the Crucified Jesus abstractedly considered without any relation to their being of Paul or Apollo or Cephas according as some did most uncharitably and factiously discriminate themselves 1 Cor. 3.4 which Love to the Brethren as such
these Lusts of their Members which make all the Troubles and Confusions in the lower World you may easily Judge And therefore let Brotherly love continue among us my Dear Friends that we may be what we are all Born for viz. a Blessing to our selves and to the best of Governments we live under and the best of Churches we are Members of This is the very Spirit and Life of Christian Religion which as St. James saith chap. 3. ver 15. Is not earthly sensual and devilish but the contrary divine heavenly and spiritual coming from above A Religion or Wisdom which is all one for Religion is the highest Wisdom that hath infinite Love for its Author and End that gives Spiritual Laws to govern the Hearts and Spirits of Men. Mens Words and Actions fall under the Cognizance of human Laws these are things as Job saith To be tryed by the Judge but the thoughts and imaginations of the Heart fall under the cognizance of the Spiritual Law of the God of Spirits who will Judge the secrets of all Men according to his Gospel A Religion that exalts and perfects Mans Nature that gives him true Understanding Power and Goodness and that as Sin hath ras'd out and defaced the Image of God imprest upon his Divinely created Soul this reprints it there and restores him again in some good measure to his pure Paradisiacal State According as his divine Power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto Life and Godliness through the knowledge of him that hath called us to Glory and Vertue whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious Promises that by these you might be partakers of the divine Nature having escaped the Corruption that is in the World through Lust 2 Pet. chap. 1. vers 3 4. This is the fulfilling of the whole Law Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Heart and with all thy Soul and with all thy Might This is the first and great Commandment and the second is like unto it Thou shalt Love thy Neighbour as thy self On these two Commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets Mat. 22.37 38 39 40. Love worketh all Obedience to God and sincere Obedience is the greatest demonstration of our Love to him If you love me keep my Commandments He that loveth God with all his Heart will never own another God besides him much less will he make to himself any graven Image or the likeness of any thing that is in Heaven or Earth For whereunto will you liken me saith the Lord He that loveth God truly will worship him in Truth and Spirit for he is an infinite glorious and incomprehensible Spirit and therefore he will be Worshiped in Spirit and Truth Joh. 4.24 All Worship that is not Spiritual of what Mode or Scheme soever it is is no more than the cuting off a Dog's Neck or the offering of Swines Blood nay though it be such as God himself hath commanded as to the matter of it To what purpose is the multitude of your Sacrifices to me saith the Lord I am full of the Burnt Offerings of Rams and the fat of fed Beasts and I delight not in the blood of Bullocks or of Lambs or of He-Goats c. When you come to appear before me who hath required this at your hand to tread my Courts Bring no more vain Oblations Incense is an abomination unto me the New-Moons and Sabbaths though I have bid you remember to keep them Holy are abomination to me the calling of the Assemblies I cannot away with it is Iniquity even the solemn Meeting The New Moons and your appointed Feasts my Soul hateth speaking after the manner of Men they are a Trouble to me I am weary to bear them Isai 1.11 12 13 14. He that worships God truly thinks it highly reasonable to give Him a Worship suitable to his own blessed Nature not only as to the matter but also as to the manner of his Worship And therefore he strives and wrastles he fights and runs he is Fervent in Siprit serving the Lord Rom. 12.11 He that loveth God truly will never lightly use or Prophane his Great Name neither any of his Divine Attributes which are himself nor his Word or Works He that loveth God truly will honour every thing that hath any relation to or beareth any reflexion of his Holiness especially his Holy Day which because of the extraordinary Holiness that God hath imprest upon it is Prefac'd with a Remember Remember to keep Holy the Sabbath Day not only in the external performance of external Worship but in secret Prayer Meditation Self-Examination Holy Conferences and Spiritual Anhelations in which the Souls of good Men have a most Heavenly Communion and Fellowship with God the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you that you also may have Fellowship with us And truly our Fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ The moral part of this Precept is to keep one Day in seven in this Heavenly Work and where this is done it kindles such a sacred fire upon the Altar of the Heart that burns from Sabbath to Sabbath which was lively typified by the Fire upon the Altar under the Jewish Oeconomy and is always attended with all the Blessings of this Life If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath from doing thy Pleasure on my Holy-Day and call the Sabbath a Delight the Holy of the Lord Honourable and shalt honour him not doing thine own Ways nor finding thine own Pleasure nor speaking thine own Words Then shalt thou delight thy self in the Lord and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the Earth and feed thee with the Heritage of Jacob thy Father Isa 58.13 14. The Glory of our Law and of his Day too Sir Matthew Hales tells us in his Meditations That when he had been careful in the Work of this day he did observe that all his Business the Week following did well succeed but when he had made a fault in this he soon found it in that He that loveth his Neighbour cannot but love his Father and Mother in the first place and give unto all Men especially to the King and all that be in Authority that Duty and Obedience that is due to them in their several places and relations giving Honour to whom Honour Fear to whom Fear is due He that loveth his Neighbour as himself can never have or harbour any Malice or Hatred in his heart against him much less will he defile his Bed or defraud him in his Estate or go beyond him in any matter And he that loveth God with all his Heart and his Neighbour as himself doth good to himself too for all Goodness and Vertue reflects it self upon him that hath it like an Echo bringing back the Voice to the ear of him that spake it Every good Work that a good Man doth gives him that