ashamed of the Gospel of Christ for it is the Power of God unto salvation to every one that believes to the Jew first and also to the Greek THese words are utter'd by one who was himself a remarkable instance of the truth of the Doctrine contained in them Viz. of that Divine Power which did accompany the Gospel of Christ. For what can we imagine else should make him now not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ who not long before was not ashamed to persecute all those who professed it One whose spirit was fermented with the leaven of the Pharisees and inraged with fury against all who owned the name of Christ is of a sudden turn'd quite into another temper to the confusion of those who employ'd him and the amazement of them whom he designed to persecute Nay so great was the change which was wrought in him that from a Bigot of the Jewish Religion he becomes an Apostle of the Christian and from breathing flames against the Christians none more ready than he to undergo them for Christ. If he had only given over his persecution it might have been thought that he had meerly run himself out of breath and grown weary of his former fury as greater persons than he did afterwards but to retain the same fervour of spirit in preaching Christ which he had before in opposing him to have as great zeal for making Christians as he had for destroying them must needs proceed from some great and unusual cause Whilest the Jews thought he had too much learning and interest to become their enemy and the Christians found he had too much rage and fury to be their friend even then when they least expected it instead of continuing an Instrument of the Sanhedrin for punishing the Christians he declared himself an Apostle and servant of Jesus Christ. And that no ordinary one neither for such was the efficacy of those divine words Saul Saul why persecutest thou me that they not only presently allay his former heat but quicken and animate him to a greater zeal for the honour of him whom he had persecuted before And the faster he had run when he was out of his way the greater diligence he used when he found it there being none of all the followers of Christ who out-stript him in his constant endeavours to advance the Christian Religion in the World And if an unwearied diligence to promote it an uncessant care for preserving it an universal concern for all who owned it and an undaunted spirit in bearing the affronts and injuries he underwent for it be any perswasive arguments of the love a man bears to his Religion there was never any person who made a clearer demonstration than S. Paul did of the truth of his Religion and his sincerity in embracing it For his endeavours were suitable to the greatness of his spirit his care as large as the Horizon of the Sun of righteousness his courage as great as the malice of his enemies For he was neither afraid of the malice of the Jews or of the Wisdom of the Greeks or of the Power of the Romans but he goes up and down preaching the Gospel in a sphere as large as his minde was and with a zeal only parallel with his former fury He encounter'd the Jews in their Synagogues he disputed with the Greeks in their most famous Cities at Athens Corinth Ephesus and elsewhere and every-where raising some Trophies to the honour of the Gospel nothing now remained but that he should do the same at Rome also And for this he wants not spirit and resolution for he even longed to be there vers 11. nay he had often purposed to goe thither but waited for a convenient opportunity v. 13. But while God was pleased otherwise to dispose of him he could not conceal the joy which he had for the ready entertainment of the Christian Religion by those to whom he writes and that their faith was grown as famous as the City wherein they dwelt v. 8. First I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all that your Faith is spoken of throughout the whole World and he further manifests the greatness of his affection to them that without ceasing he made mention of them alwayes in his Prayers v. 9. And among the rest of the blessings he pray'd for for himself and them he was sure not to forget his coming to them v. 10. Not out of an ambitious and vain-glorious humour that he might be taken notice of in that great and Imperial City but that he might be instrumental in doing them service as he had done others v. 11 13. And to this end he tells them what an obligation lay upon him to spread the Doctrine of Christ in all places and to all persons v. 14. I am debtor both to the Greeks and to the Barbarians to the wise and to the unwise So that neither the wisdom of the Greeks nor the ignorance of the Barbarians could hinder S. Paul from discovering to them the contrivances of infinite wisdom and the excellent methods of divine Goodness in order to mens eternal welfare And although Rome now thought it self to be the seat of Wisdom as well as Empire and Power yet our Apostle declares his readiness to preach the Gospel there too v. 15. for which he gives a sufficient reason in the words of the Text for I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ for it is the Power of God to salvation c. Wherein we have considerable these two things 1. The Apostles boldness and freeness in declaring the doctrine of Christ For I am not ashamed c. 2. The ground of it in the following words for it is the Power of God to salvation c. 1. The Apostles boldness and freeness in declaring the doctrine of Christ. It was neither the gallantry of the Roman Court nor the splendor of the City not the greatness of her Power or wisdom of her Statesmen could make S. Paul entertain the meaner opinion of the doctrine he hoped to preach among them Had Christ come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with a great deal of pomp and state into the World subduing Kingdoms and Nations under him had S. Paul been a Generall for the Gospel instead of being an Apostle of it the great men of the World would then allow he had no cause to be ashamed either of his Master or of his employment But to preach a crucified Saviour among the glories and triumphs of Rome and a Doctrine of so much simplicity and contempt of the world among those who were the Masters of it and manag'd it with so much art and cunning to perswade them to be followers of Christ in a holy life who could not be like the gods they worship'd unless they were guilty of the greatest debaucheries seems to be an employment so lyable to the greatest scorn and contempt that none but a great and resolved spirit would ever undertake it For when we consider after
that we might have time to amend them but no sooner did our fears abate but our devotion did so too we had soon forgotten the promises we made in the day of our distress and I am afraid it is at this day too true of us which is said in the Revelations of those who had escaped the several plagues which so many had been destroyed by And the rest of the men which were not killed by these Plagues yet repented not of the work of their hands For if we had not greedily suckt in again the poyson we had only laid down while we were begging for our lives if we had not returned with as great fury and violence as ever to our former lusts the removing of one judgement had not been as it were only to make way for the coming on of another For the grave seemed to close up her mouth and death by degrees to withdraw himself that the Fire might come upon the Stage to act its part too in the Tragoedy our sins have made among us and I pray God this may be the last Act of it Let us not then provoke God to finde out new methods of vengeance and make experiments upon us of what other unheard of severities may do for our cure But let us rather meet God now by our repentance and returning to him by our serious humiliation for our former sins and our stedfast resolutions to return no more to the practice of them That that much more dangerous infection of our souls may be cured as well as that of our bodies that the impure flames which burn within may be extinguished that all our luxuries may be retrenched our debaucheries punished our vanities taken away our careless indifferency in Religion turned into a greater seriousness both in the profession and the practice of it So will God make us a happy and prosperous when he finds us a more righteous and holy Nation So will God succeed all your endeavours for the honour and interest of that people whom you represent So may he add that other Title to the rest of those you have deserved for your Countreys good to make you Repairers of the breaches of the City as well as of the Nation and Restorers of paths to dwell in So may that City which now sits solitary like a Widow have her tears wiped off and her beauty and comeliness restored unto her Yea so may her present ruines in which she now lyes buried be only the fore-runners of a more joyfull resurrection In which though the body may remain the same the qualities may be so altered that its present desolation may be only the putting off its former inconveniencies weakness and deformities that it may rise with greater glory strength and proportion and to all her other qualities may that of incorruption be added too at least till the general Conflagration And I know your great Wisdom and Justice will take care that those who have suffered by the ruines may not likewise suffer by the rising of it that the glory of the City may not be laid upon the tears of the Orphans and Widows but that its foundations may be setled upon Justice and Piety That there be no complaining in the Streets for want of Righteousness nor in the City for want of Churches nor in the Churches for want of a settled maintenance That those who attend upon the service of God in them may never be tempted to betray their Consciences to gain a livelihood nor to comply with the factious humours of men that they may be able to live among them And thus when the City through the blessing of Heaven shall be built again may it be a Habitation of Holiness towards God of Loyalty towards our Gracious King and his Successors of Justice and Righteousness towards Men of Sobriety and Peace and Unity among all the Inhabitants till not Cities and Countries only but the World and Time it self shall be no more Which God of his infinite mercy grant through the merits and mediation of his Son to whom with the Father and Eternal Spirit be all Honour and Glory for evermore FINIS A SERMON Preached before the KING MARCH 13. 1666 7. By Edward Stillingfleet B. D. Chaplain in Ordinary to his Majesty Printed by His Majesties special Command The Fourth Edition LONDON Printed by R. White for Henry Mortlock and are to be sold at his Shop at the Sign of the White Hart in Westminster Hall 1669. Proverbs 14. 9. Fools make a mock at Sin WHEN God by his infinite Wisdom had contrived and by a power and goodness as infinite as his Wisdom had perfected the creation of the visible world there seemed to be nothing wanting to the glory of it but a creature endued with reason and understanding which might comprehend the design of his wisdom enjoy the benefits of his goodness and employ it self in the celebration of his power The Beings purely intellectuall were too highly raised by their own order and creation to be the Lords of this inferiour world and those whose natures could reach no higher than the objects of sense were not capable of discovering the glorious perfections of the great Creator and therefore could not be the fit Instruments of his praise and service But a conjunction of both these together was thought necessary to make up such a sort of beings which might at once command this lower world and be the servants of him who made it Not as though this great fabrick of the world were meerly raised for man to please his fancy in the contemplation of it or to exercise his dominion over the creatures designed for his use and service but that by frequent reflections on the author of his being and the effects of his power and goodness he might be brought to the greatest love and admiration of him So that the most natural part of Religion lyes in the grateful acknowledgments we owe to that excellent and supream Being who hath shewed so particular a kindness to man in the creation and Government of the world Which was so great and unexpressible that some have thought it was not so much pride and affectation of a greater height as envy at the felicity and power of mankind which was the occasion of the fall of the Apostate Spirits But whether or no the state of man were occasion enough for the envy of the Spirits above we are sure the kindness of Heaven was so great in it as could not but lay an indispensable obligation on all mankind to perpetual gratitude and obedience For it is as easie to suppose that affronts and injuries are the most suitable returns for the most obliging favours that the first duty of a Child should be to destroy his Parents that to be thankful for kindnesses received were to commit the unpardonable sin as that man should receive his being and all the blessings which attend it from God and not be bound to the most universal obedience to
that either it is impossible for man to know when his choice is free or if it may be known the constant experience of all evil men in the world will testifie that it is so now Is it possible for the most intemperate person to believe when the most pleasing temptations to lust or gluttony are presented to him that no consideration whatever could restrain his appetite or keep him from the satisfaction of his bruitish inclinations Will not the sudden though groundless apprehension of poyson in the Cup make the Drunkards heart to ake and hand to tremble and to let fall the supposed fatal mixture in the midst of all his jollity and excess How often have persons who have designed the greatest mischief to the lives and fortunes of others when all opportunities have fallen out beyond their expectation for accomplishing their ends through some sudden thoughts which have surprized them almost in the very act been diverted from their intended purposes Did ever any yet imagine that the charms of beauty and allurements of lust were so irresistible that if men knew before hand they should surely dye in the embraces of an adulterous bed they could not yet withstand the temptations to it If then some considerations which are quite of another nature from all the objects which are presented to him may quite hinder the force and efficacy of them upon the mind of man as we see in Josephs resisting the importunate Caresses of his Mistris what reason can there be to imagine that man is a meer machine moved only as outward objects determine him And if the considerations of present fear and danger may divert men from the practice of evil actions shall not the far more weighty considerations of eternity have at least an equal if not a far greater power and efficacy upon mens minds to keep them from everlasting misery Is an immortal soul and the eternal happiness of it so mean a thing in our esteem and value that we will not deny our selves those sensual pleasures for the sake of that which we would renounce for some present danger Are the flames of another world such painted fires that they deserve only to be laughed at and not seriously considered by us Fond man art thou only free to ruine and destroy thy self a strange fatality indeed when nothing but what is mean and trivial shall determine thy choice when matters of the highest moment are therefore less regarded because they are such Hast thou no other plea for thy self but that thy sins were fatal thou hast no reason then to believe but that thy misery shall be so too But if thou ownest a God and Providence assure thy self that justice and righteousness are not meer Titles of his Honour but the real properties of his nature And he who hath appointed the rewards and punishments of the great day will then call the sinner to account not only for all his other sins but for offering to lay the imputation of them upon himself For if the greatest abhorrency of mens evil wayes the rigour of his Laws the severity of his judgements the exactness of his justice the greatest care used to reclaim men from their sins and the highest assurance that he is not the cause of their ruine may be any vindication of the holiness of God now and his justice in the life to come we have the greatest reason to lay the blame of all our evil actions upon our selves as to attribute the glory of all our good unto himself alone 2. The frailty of humane Nature those who finde themselves to be free enough to do their souls mischief and yet continue still in the doing of it find nothing more ready to plead for themselves than the unhappiness of mans composition and the degenerate state of the world If God had designed they are ready to say that man should lead a life free from sin why did he confine the soul of man to a body so apt to taint and pollute it But who art thou O man that thus findest fault with thy Maker Was not his kindness the greater in not only giving thee a soul capable of enjoying himself but such an habitation for it here which by the curiosity of its contrivance the number and usefulness of its parts might be a perpetual and domestick testimony of the wisdom of its Maker Was not such a conjunction of soul and body necessary for the exercise of that dominion which God designed man for over the creatures endued only with sense and motion And if we suppose this life to be a state of tryall in order to a better as in all reason we ought to do what can be imagined more proper to such a state than to have the soul constantly employed in the government of those sensual inclinations which arise from the body In the doing of which the proper exercise of that vertue consists which is made thâ— condition of future happiness Had it noâ— been for such a composition the difference could never have been seen between gooâ— and bad men i. e. between those who maintain the Empire of reason assisted by the motives of Religion over all the inferiour faculties and such who dethrone their souls and make them slaves to every lust that will command them And if men willingly subject themselves to that which they were born to rule they have none to blame but themselves for it Neither is it any excuse at all that this through the degeneracy of mankinde is grown the common custom of the world unless that be in it self so great a Tyrant that there is no resisting the power of it If God had commanded us to comply with all the customs of the world and at the same time to be sober righteous and good we must have lived in another age than we live in to have excused these two commands from a palpable contradiction But instead of this he hath forewarned us of the danger of being led aside by the soft and easie compliances of the world and if we are â—ensible of our own infirmities as we have â—ll reason to be he hath offered us the â—ssistance of his Grace and of that Spirit of â—is which is greater than the Spirit that is â—n the World He hath promised us those weapons whereby we may withstand the â—orrent of wickedness in the world with far greater success than the old Gauls were wont to do the inundations of their Countrey whose custom was to be drowned with their arms in their hands But it will be the greater folly in us to be so because we have not only sufficient means of resistance but we understand the danger before hand If we once forsake the strict rules of Religion and goodness and are ready to yield our selves to whatever hath got retainers enough to set up for a custom we may know where we begin but we cannot where we shall make an end For every fresh assault makes the breach wider
or wish for the most impossiblâ— things than believe they shall ever be punished for their impieties If the Apostate Spirits can by reason of their presenâ— restraint and expectation of future punishments be as pleasant in beholding the folliâ—… of men as they are malicious to suggest them it may be one of the greatest diversions of their misery to see how active and witty men are in contriving their own ruine To see with what greediness they catch at every bait that is offered them and when they are swallowing the most deadly poyson what arts they use to perswade themselves that it is a healthful potion No doubt nothing can more gratifie them than to see men sport themselves into their own destruction and go down so pleasantly to Hell when eternal flames become their first awakeners and then men begin to be wise when it is too late to be so when nothing but insupportable torments can convince them that God was in earnest with them that he would not alwayes bear the affronts of evil men and that those who derided the miseries of another life shall have leisure enough to repent their folly when their repentance shall only increase their sorrow without hopes of pardon by it 3. But if there were any present felicity or any considerable advantage to be gained by this mocking at sin and undervaluing Religion there would seem to be some kind of pretence though nothing of true reason for it Yet that which heightens this folly to the highest degree in the last place is that there can be no imaginable consideration thought on which might look like a plausible temptation to it The covetous man when he hath defrauded his neighbour and used all kinds of arts to compass an Estate hath the fulness of his baggs to answer for him and whatever they may do in another world he is sure they will do much in this The voluptuous man hath the strong propensities of his Nature the force of temptation which lies in the charms of beauty to excuse his unlawfull pleasures by The ambitious man hath the greatness of his mind the advantage of authority the examples of those who have been great before him and the envy of those who condemn him to plead for the heights he aims at But what is it which the person who despises Religion and laughs at every thing that is serious proposes to himself as the reason of what he does But alas this were to suppose him to be much more serious than he is if he did propound any thing to himself as the ground of his actions But it may be a great kindness to others though none to himself I cannot imagine any unless it may be to make them thankfull they are not arrived to that height of folly or out of perfect good nature lest they should take him to be wiser than he is The Psalmists fool despises him as much as he does Religion for he only saith it in his heart there is no God but this though he dares not think there is none yet shews him not near so much outward respect and reverence as the other does Even the Atheist himself thinks him a Fool and the greatest of all other who believes a God and yet affronts him and trifles with him And although the Atheists Folly be unaccountable in resisting the clearest evidence of reason yet so far he is to be commended for what he sayes that if there be such a thing as Religion men ought to be serious in it So that of all hands the scoffer at Religion is looked on as one forsaken of that little reason which might serve to uphold a slender reputation of being above the beasts that perish nay therein his condition is worse than theirs that as they understand not Religion they shall never be punished for despising it which such a person can never secure himself from considering the power the justice the severity of that God whom he hath so highly provoked God grant that the apprehension of this danger may make us so serious in the profession and practice of our Religion that we may not by slighting that and mocking at sin provoke him to laugh at our calamities and mock when our fear comes but that by beholding the sincerity of our repentance and the heartiness of our devotion to him he may turn his anger away from us and rejoyce over us to do us good FINIS Luke 7. 35. But Wisdom is justified of all her Children OF all the Circumstances of our Blessed Saviours appearance and preaching in the World there is none which to our first view and apprehension of things seems more strange and unaccountable than that those persons who were then thought of all others to be most conversant in the Law and the Prophets should be the most obstinate opposers of him For since he came to fulfill all the Prophesies which had gone before concerning him and was himself the great Prophet foretold by all the rest none might in humane probability have been judged more likely to have received and honoured him than those to whom the judgement of those things did peculiarly belong and who were as much concern'd in the truth of them as any else could be Thus indeed it might have been reasonably expected and doubtless it had been so if interest and prejudice had not had a far more absolute power and dominion over them than they had over the rest of the people If Miracles and Prophesies if Reason and Religion nay if the interest of another World could have prevailed over the interest of this among them the Jewish Sanhedrin might have been some of the first Converts to Christianity the Scribes and Pharisees had been all Proselytes to Christ and the Temple at Jerusalem had been the first Christian Church But to let us see with what a jealous eye Power and Interest looks on every thing that seems to offer at any disturbance of it how much greater sway partiality and prejudice hath upon the mindes of men than true Reason and Religion and how hard a matter it is to convince those who have no minde to be convinced we finde none more furious in their opposition to the person of Christ none more obstinate in their infidelity as to his Doctrine than those who were at that time in the greatest reputation among them for their authority wisdom and knowledge These are they whom our Saviour as often as he meets with either checks for their ignorance or rebukes for their pride or denounces woes against for their malice and hypocrisie These are they who instead of believing in Christ persecute him instead of following him seek to destroy him and that they might the better compass it they reproach and defame him as if he had been really as bad as themselves And although the people might not presently believe what they said concerning him yet that they might at least be kept in suspence by it they endeavour to fasten the blackest
preserved its primitive honour in the world For so far were men then from making their zeal for Religion a pretence to rebellion that though Christianity were directly contrary to the Religions then in vogue in the world yet they knew of no other way of promoting it but by patience humility meekness prayers for their persecutors and tears when they saw them obstinate So far were they then from fomenting suspicions and jealousies concerning the Princes and Governours they lived under that though they were generally known to be some of the worst of men as well as of Princes yet they charge all Christians in the strictest manner as they loved their Religion and the honour of it as they valued their souls and the salvation of them that they should be subject to them So far were they then from giving the least encouragement to the usurpations of the rights of Princes under the pretence of any power given to a head of the Church that there is no way for any to think they meant it unless we suppose the Apostles such mighty Politicians that it is because they say nothing at all of it but on the contrary bid every soul be subject to the higher powers though an Apostle Evangelist Prophet whatever he be as the Fathers interpret it Yea so constant and uniform was the doctrine and practice of Obedience in all the first and purest ages of the Christian Church that no one instance can be produced of any usurpation of the rights of Princes under the pretence of any title from Christ or any disobedience to their authority under the pretence of promoting Christianity through all those times wherein Christianity the most flourished or the Christians were the most persecuted And happy had it been for us in these last ages of the World if we had been Christians on the same terms which they were in the Primitive times then there had been no such scandals raised by the degeneracy of men upon the most excellent and peaceable Religion in the world as though that were unquiet and troublesome because so many have been so who have made shew of it But let their pretences be never so great to infallibility on one side and to the Spirit on the other so far as men encourage faction and disobedience so far they have not the Spirit of Christ and Christianity and therefore are none of his For he shewed his great wisdom in contriving such a method of saving mens souls in another world as tended most to the preservation of the peace and quietness of this and though this wisdom may be evil spoken of by men of restless and unpeaceable minds yet it will be still justified by all who have heartily embraced the Wisdom which is from above who are pure and peaceable as that Wisdom is and such and only such are the Children of it 3. I come to shew That the design of Christs appearance was very agreeable to the infinite Wisdom of God and that the means were very suitable and effectual for carrying on of that design for the reformation of Mankind 1. That the design it self was very agreeable to the infinite Wisdom of God What could we imagine more becoming the Wisdom of God than to contrive a way for the recovery of lapsed and degenerate Mankind who more fit to employ upon such a message as this than the Son of God for his coming gives the greatest assurance to the minds of men that God was serious in the management of this design than which nothing could be of greater importance in order to the success of it And how was it possible he should give a greater testimony of himself and withall of the purpose he came about than he did when he was in the world The accomplishment of Prophesies and power of Miracles shewed who he was the nature of his Doctrine the manner of his Conversation the greatness of his Sufferings shewed what his design was in appearing among men for they were all managed with a peculiar respect to the convincing mankinde that God was upon terms of mercy with them and had therefore sent his Son into the world that he might not only obtain the pardon of sin for those who repent but eternal life for all them that obey him And what is there now we can imagine so great and desireable as this for God to manifest hiâ— wisdom in It is true we see a great discovery of it in the works of Nature and might do in the methods of Divine Providence if partiality and interest did not blinde our eyes but both these though great in themselves yet fall short of the contrivance of bringing to an eternal happiness man who had fallen from his Maker and was perishing in his own folly Yet this is that which men in the pride and vanity of their own imaginations either think not worth considering or consider as little as if they thought so and in the mean time think themselves very wise too The Jews had the wisdom of their Traditions which they gloried in and despised the Son of God himself when he came to alter them The Greeks had the wisdom of their Philosophy which they so passionately admired that whatever did not agree with that though infinitely more certain and usefull was on that account rejected by them The Romans after the conquest of so great a part of the World were grown all such Politicians and Statesmen that few of them could have leisure to think of another world who were so busie in the management of this And some of all these sorts do yet remain in the World which maâ—â— so many so little think of or admire tâ—…s infinite discovery of divine Wisdom nay there are some who can mix all these together joyning a Jewisâ— obstinacy with the pride and self-opinion of the Greeks to a Roman unconcernedness about the matters of another life And yet upon a true and just enquiry never any Religion could be found which could more fully satisfie the expectation of the Jews the reason of the Greeks or the wisdom of the Romans than that which was made known by Christ who was the Wisdom of God and the Power of God Here the Jew might find his Messias come and the Promises fulfilled which related to him here the Greek might find his long and vainly looked for certainty of a life to come and the way which leads to it here the Roman might see a Religion serviceable to another world and this together Here are Precepts more holy Promises more certain Rewards more desireable than ever the wit or invention of men could have attained to Here are Institutions far more pious usefull and serviceable to mankinde than the most admired Laws of the famous Legislators of Greece or Rome Here are no popular designs carried on no vices indulged for the publick interest which Solon Lyourgus and Plato are charged with Here is no making Religion a meer trick of State and a thing only
to punish it he remits the sinner as he assures him by the death of Christ he will not punish upon his repentance but he fully remits both when he delivers the person upon the tryall of the great day from all the penalties which he hath deserved by his sins So that our compleat justification and salvation go both upon the same terms and the same Faith which is sufficient for one must be sufficient for the other also What care then ought men to take lest by mis-understanding the notion of Believing so much spoken of as the condition of our salvation they live in a neglect of that holy obedience which the Gospel requires and so believe themselves into eternal misery But as long as men make their obedience necessary though but as the fruit and effect of Faith it shall not want its reward for those whose hearts are purified by Faith shall never be condemned for mistaking the notion of it and they who live as those that are to be judged according to their works shall not miss their reward though they do not think they shall receive it for them But such who make no other condition of the Gospel but Believing and will scarce allow that to be call'd a Condition ought to have a great care to keep their hearts sounder than their heads for their only security will lye in this that they are good though they see no necessity of being so And such of all others I grant have reason to acknowledge the irresistible power of Divine Grace which enables them to obey the will of God against the dictates of their own judgements But thanks be to God who hath so abundantly provided for all the infirmities of humane Nature by the large offers of his Grace and assistance of his Spirit that though we meet with so much opposition without and so much weakness within and so many discouragements on every side of us yet if we sincerely apply our selves to do the will of God we have as great assurance as may be that we shall be kept by the power of God through Faith unto Salvation FINIS Hebr. 2. 3. How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation WHen the wise and eternal Counsels of Heaven concerning the salvation of Mankinde by the death of the Son of God were first declared to the World by his own appearance and preaching in it nothing could be more reasonably expected than that the dignity of his Person the authority of his Doctrine and the excellency of his Life should have perswaded those whom he appeared among to such an admiration of his Person and belief of his Doctrine as might have led them to an imitation of him in the holiness of his life and conversation For if either the worth of the Person or the importance of the Message might prevail any thing towards a kinde and honourable reception among men there was never any person appeared in any degree comparable to him never any Message declared which might challenge so welcome an entertainment from men as that was which he came upon If to give Mankinde the highest assurance of a state of life and immortality if to offer the pardon of sin and reconciliation with God upon the most easie and reasonable terms if to purge the degenerate World from all its impurities by a Doctrine as holy as the Author of it were things as becoming the Son of God to reveal as the Sons of men to receive nothing can be more unaccountable than that his Person should be despised his Authority slighted and his Doctrine contemned And that by those whose interest was more concerned in the consequence of these things than himself could be in all the affronts and injuries he underwent from men For the more the indignities the greater the shame the sharper the sufferings which he did undergo the higher was the honour and glory which he was advanced to but the more obliging the instances of his kindness were the greater the salvation that was tendered by him the more prevailing the motives were for the entertainment of his Doctrine the more exemplary and severe will the punishment be of all those who reject it For it is very agreeable to those eternal Laws of Justice by which God governs the world that the punishment should arise proportionably to the greatness of the mercies despised and therefore although the Scripture be very sparing in telling us what the state of those persons shall be in another life who never heard of the Gospel yet for those who do and despise it it tells us plainly that an eternal misery is the just desert of those to whom an eternal happiness was offered and yet neglected by them And we are the rather told of it that men may not think it a surprize in the life to come or that if they had known the danger they would have escaped it and therefore our Blessed Saviour who never mentioned punishment but with a design to keep men from it declares it frequently that the punishment of those persons and places would be most intolerable who have received but not improved the light of the Gospel and that it would be more tolerable for the persons who had offer'd violence to Nature and had Hell-fire burning in their hearts by their horrid impurities than for those who heard the Doctrine and saw the Miracles of Christ and were much the worse rather than any thing the better for it But lest we should think that all this black scene of misery was only designed for those who were the Actors in that dolefull Tragedy of our Saviours sufferings we are told by those who were best able to assure us of it that the same dismal consequences will attend all the affronts of his Doctrine as if they had been offer'd to his own person For it is nothing but the common flattery and self-deceit of humane nature which makes any imagine that though they do not now either believe or obey the Gospel they should have done both if they had heard our Saviour speak as never man spake and seen him do what never man did For the same disposition of minde which makes them now slight that Doctrine which is delivered to them by them that heard him would have made them slight the Person as well as the Doctrine if they had heard it from himself And therefore it is but reasonable that the same punishment should belong to both especially since God hath provided so abundantly for the assurance of our Faith by the miraculous and powerfull demonstration of that divine spirit which did accompany those who were the first publishers of this Doctrine to the world And therefore the Author of this Epistle after he hath in the words of the Text declared that it is impossible to escape if we neglect the great salvation offered us by the Gospel in the following words he gives us that account of it that at first it began to be spoken by the
and suspicions of God what distrusts of humane Nature what unspeakable ingratitude and unaccountable folly lies at the bottom of all this uncertainty O fools and slow of heart to believe not only what the Prophets have spoken but what our Lord hath declared God himself hath given testimony to and the Holy Ghost hath confirmed 3. But is not your Interest concerned in these things Is it all one to you whether your souls be immortal or no whether they live in eternal felicity or unchangeable misery Is it no more to you than to know what kind of Bables are in request at the Indies or whether the customs of China or Japan are the wiser i. e. than the most trifling things and the remotest from our knowledge But this is so absurd and unreasonable to suppose that men should not think themselves concern'd in their own eternal happiness and misery that I shall not shew so much distrust of their understandings to speak any longer to it 3. But if notwithstanding all these things our neglect still continues then there remains nothing but a fearfull looking for of judgement and the fiery indignation of God For there is no possibility of escaping if we continue to neglect so great salvation All hopes of escaping are taken away which are onely in that which men neglect and those who neglect their only way to salvation must needs be miserable How can that man ever hope to be saved by him whose blood he despises and tramples under foot What grace and favour can he expect from God who hath done despight unto the Spirit of Grace That hath cast away with reproach and contempt the greatest kindness and offers of Heaven What can save him that resolves to be damned and every one does so who knows he shall be damned if he lives in his sins and yet continues to do so God himself in whose only pity our hopes are hath irreversibly decreed that he will have no pity upon those who despise his goodness slight his threatnings abuse his patience and sin the more because he offers to pardon It is not any delight that God takes in the miseries of his Creatures which makes him punish them but shall not God vindicate his own honour against obstinate and impenitent sinners He declares before-hand that he is far from delighting in their ruine and that is the reason he hath made such large offers and used so many means to make them happy but if men resolve to despise his offers and slight the means of their salvation shall not God be just without being thought to be cruel And we may assure our selves none shall ever suffer beyond the just desert of their sins for punishment as the Apostle tells us in the words before the Text is nothing but a just recompence of reward And if there were such a one proportionable to the violation of the Law delivered by Angels how shall we think to escape who neglect a more excellent means of happiness which was delivered by our Lord himself If God did not hate sin and there were not a punishment belonging to it why did the Son of God die for the expiation of it and if his death were the onely means of expiation how is it possible that those who neglect that should escape the punishment not only of their other sins but of that great contempt of the means of our salvation by him Let us not then think to trifle with God as though it were impossible a Being so mercifull and kind should ever punish his Creatures with the miseries of another life For however we may deceive our selves God will not be mocked for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he reap for he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting I shall only propound some few Considerations to prevent so great a neglect as that of your salvation is 1. Consider what it is you neglect the offer of Eternal Happiness the greatest kindness that ever was expressed to the World the foundation of your present peace the end of your beings the stay of your mindes the great desire of your Souls the utmost felicity that humane Nature is capable of Is it nothing to neglect the favour of a Prince the kindness of Great Men the offers of a large and plentifull Estate but these are nothing to the neglect of the favour of God the love of his Son and that salvation which he hath purchased for you Nay it is not a bare neglect but it implyes in it a mighty contempt not only of the things offer'd but of the kindness of him who offers them If men had any due regard for God or themselves if they had any esteem for his love or their own welfare they would be much more serious in Religion than they are When I see a person wholly immersed in affairs of the World or spending his time in luxury and vanity can I possibly think that man hath any esteem of God or of his own Soul when I finde one very serious in the pursuit of his Designs in the World thoughtfull and busie subtle in contriving them carefull in managing them but very formal remiss and negligent in all affairs of Religion neither inquisitive about them nor serious in minding them what can we otherwise think but that such a one doth really think the things of the World better worth looking after than those which concern his eternal salvation But consider before it be too late and repent of so great folly Value an immortal Soul as you ought to doe think what Reconciliation with God and the Pardon of sin is worth slight not the dear Purchase which was bought at no meaner a rate than the Blood of the Son of God and then you cannot but minde the great salvation which God hath tender'd you 2. Consider on what terms you neglect it or what the things are for whose sake you are so great enemies to your own salvation Have you ever found that contentment in sin or the vanities of the World that for the sake of them you are willing to be for ever miserable What will you think of all your debaucheries and your neglects of God and your selves when you come to dye what would you give then if it were in your power to redeem your lost time that you had spent your time less to the satisfaction of your sensual desires and more in seeking to please God How uncomfortable will the remembrance be of all your excesses oaths injustice and profaneness when death approaches and judgement follows it What peace of mind will there then be to those who have served God with faithfulness and have endeavoured to work out their salvation though it hath been with fear and trembling But what would it then profit a man to have gained the whole World and to lose his own soul Nay what unspeakable losers must they
then be that lose their Souls for that which hath no value at all if compared with the World 3. Consider what follows upon this neglect not only the loss of great salvation but the incurring as great damnation for it The Scripture describes the miseries of the life to come not meerly by negatives but by the most sensible and painfull things If destruction be dreadfull that is everlasting destruction if the anguish of the soul and the pains of the body be so troublesom what will the destruction be both of Body and Soul in Hell If a Serpent gnawing in our bowels be a representation of an insupportable misery here what will that be of the Worm that never dies if a raging and devouring fire which can last but till it hath consumed a fading substance be in its appearance so amazing and in its pain so violent what then will the enduring be of that wrath of God which shall burn like fire and yet be everlasting Consider then of these things while God gives you time to consider of them and think it an inestimable mercy that you have yet time to repent of your sins to beg mercy at the hands of God to redeem your time to depart from iniquity to be frequent in Prayer carefull of your Actions and in all things obedient to the will of God and so God will pardon your former neglects and grant you this great salvation FINIS Hebr. 12. 3. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself lest ye be weary and faint in your minds IT hath never yet been so well with the World and we have no great reason to hope it ever will be so that the best of things or of men should meet with entertainment in it suitable to their own worth and excellency If it were once to be hoped that all Mankinde would be wise and sober that their judgements would be according to the truth of things and their actions suitable to their judgements we might then reasonably expect that nothing would be valued so much as true goodness nothing so much in contempt and disgrace as impiety and profaneness But if we finde it much otherwise in the Age we live in we have so much the less cause to wonder at it because it hath been thus in those times we might have thought would have been far better than our own I mean those times and ages wherein there were not only great things first spoken and delivered to Mankinde but examples as great as the things themselves but these did so little prevail on the stupid and unthankfull world that they among whom the Son of God did first manifest himself seem'd only solicitous to make good one Prophesie concerning him viz. That he should be despised and rejected of men And they who suffer'd their malice to live as long as he did were not contented to let it dye with him but their fury increases as the Gospel does and wherever it had spread it self they pursue it with all the rude clamors and violent persecutions which themselves or their factors could raise against it This we have a large testimony of in those Jewish Christians to whom this Epistle was written who had no sooner embraced the Christian Religion but they were set upon by a whole army of persecutions Heb. 10. 32. But call to remembrance the former dayes in which after ye were illuminated ye endured a great fight of afflictions As though the great enemy of souls and therefore of Christians had watched the first opportunity to make the strongest impression upon them while they were yet young and unexperienced and therefore less able to resist so sharp an encounter He had found how unsuccessfull the offer of the good things of this World had been with their Lord and Master and therefore was resolved to try what a severer course would do with all his followers But the same spirit by which he despised all the Glories of the World which the Tempter would have made him believe he was the disposer of enabled them with a mighty courage and strange transports of joy not only to bear their own share of reproaches and afflictions but a part of theirs who suffer'd with them v. 33 34. But least through continual duty occasion'd by the hatred of their persecutors and the multitude of their afflictions their courage should abate and their spirits saint the Apostle finds it necessary not only to put them in mind of their former magnanimity but to make use of all arguments that might be powerfull with them to keep up the same vigour and constancy of mind in bearing their sufferings which they had at first For he well knew how much it would tend to the dishonour of the Gospel as well as to their own discomfort if after such an early proof of a great and undaunted spirit it should be said of them as was once of a great Roman Captain Ultima Primis cedebant that they should decline in their reputation as they did in their years and at last sink under that weight of duty which they had born with so much honour before Therefore as a General in the Field after a sharp and fierce encounter at first with a mighty resolution by his Souldiers when he finds by the number and fresh recruits of the enemy that his smaller forces are like to be born down before them and through meer weariness of fighting are ready to turn their backs or yield themselves up to the enemies mercy he conjures them by the honour they have gain'd and the courage they had already expressed by their own interest and the example of their Leaders by the hopes of glory and the fears of punishment that they would bear the last shock of their enemies force and rather be the Trophies of their Courage than of their Triumphs so does our Apostle when he finds some among them begin to debate whether they had best to stand it out or no he conjures them 1. By the remembrance of their own former courage whereby they did bear as sharp tryals as these could be with the greatest chearfulness and constancy and what could they gain by yielding at last but great dishonour to themselves that they had suffer'd so long to no purpose unless it were to discover their own weakness and inconstancy 2. By the hopes of a reward which would surely follow their faithfulness v. 35 36. Cast not away therefore your confidence which hath great recompence of reward For ye have need of patience that after ye have done the will of God ye might receive the promise and the time will not be long ere ye come to enjoy it v. 37. but if ye draw back you lose all your former labours for he who alone is able to recompence you hath said that if any man draw back my soul shall have no pleasure in him v. 38. and then from the example of himself and all the genuine followers of Christ but