Christ from the dead shall quicken your mortal Bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you IF the Resurrection of Christ had been of his Person only it would have been a rare and glorious Event but an Event of no Concern to us and if we did meet only this Day to celebrate his Resurrection from the Dead and not our Own that shall be though we celebrated a Great Miracle we should not celebrate a Great Benefit But S t Paul teaches us in my Text how we may be assured to commemorate our own Resurrection as well as Christ's namely If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in us Those whom the Spirit does not inhabit in this Life when they dye they dye for ever but they on the other side in whom it dwells and inhabits now the Resurrection of Christ is not to them a History but a Precedent and such Persons shall not be only Admirers but themselves Partakers of the Miracle If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the Dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the Dead shall also quicken c. To look further into this Mystery and the Expedient propos'd to bring this Wonderful thing to pass I shall observe in the Words these three Particulars I. What it is for the Spirit of God or which is all one of him that raised up Jesus from the dead to dwell in us II. The Effect or Consequence of such In-dwelling of the Spirit of God viz. if it be in a Man He that raised up Christ from the Dead shall raise up his Mortal Body III. By what Means God will produce this Effect in such a Man even by that which dwelleth in him by his Spirit that dwelleth in him I. What it is for the Spirit of God to dwell in a man The Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the Dead is no other than the Eternal Spirit of God the third Person in the Trinity the Spirit which is mentioned in Genesis that in the beginning of the World gave Life to all things is the same Spirit that still gives the Palingenesia the second Genesis or Regeneration whether we understand the Word of the Change and Renovation of our Soul and Affections to the Will of God in this Life or the Resuscitation of the Body from the Grave in the next and the Reuniting it with the Soul in order to Eternal Bliss The Spirit is said here to be the Spirit Of God but not the Spirit In God as if it dwelt in God as it dwells in us it is in God Personally and Essentially as his Being but 't is in us only by way of Tenancy as an Inhabitant or Inmate to excite in us its Gifts and Graces And this may serve to refute and silence those deceived Souls who of late times through their misunderstanding of the Union of the Saints with God exprest in Scripture have run into such high-flown and horrible Blasphemies as to say They are In-Godded in God and In-Christed in Christ thus claiming Prerogative instead of Priviledge and affirming Divinity instead of a Divine Spirit to be in them supposing themselves to be inspired even Essentially with the Divine Nature But such Blasphemous Conceits as these so audacious and injurious to the Deity are so far from being Effects of God's Spirit which is the Principle of Eternal Life in those it dwells that they are Demonstrations of the Spirit of Satan an Affectation to be like the Most High and to equal their Maker and unrepented of will certainly consign them to have a Portion with him in Eternal Death for what the Jews blindly objected against our Lord as a Crime That being but a Man he made himself God may be justly charged on these that being indeed but Men and commonly but the Dreggs of Men they fansie themselves to be Gods Only the Sin of these is more unpardonable in regard that after so long a time and so much warning of the like Miscarriage in this kind they have not exploded this old worn out Stratagem of Satan's But though this Diabolical Frenzy must be abhorr'd yet when 't is said that the Spirit of God dwells in a Man we must look upon it as denoting something more Extraordinary and Excellent than the common Lodging or Abiding of an Inhabitant in a House as representing rather God's Residence in his Temple at Jerusalem which Temple as it was Splendid and Glorious with all that Art and Cost could make it a Representation of Heaven so God by wonderful Tokens and Testimonies declared his Divine Presence in it And after this manner the Heart of every Christian ought to be embellish'd with Vertue and sanctified like a Temple appear like a little Heaven upon Earth in which the Holy Spirit may be seen to dwell by shewing his Divine Operations Know ye not says S t Paul that your Bodies are the Temples of the Holy Ghost Solomon built God but one Material House but Christ by his Spirit has raised to God as many Living Temples on Earth as there are Believers But to be more particular Dwelling in a House implies three things 1. Legitimate Possession by Legal Title and Introduction 2. Command and Dominion 3. Residence or Mansion And all these Properties the In-dwelling of the Spirit of God ought to have in those whom it hereafter quickens to Everlasting Life 1. The Spirit must have Legitimate Introduction and Possession God dwelt not in his Temple at Jerusalem till it was Dedicated and consecrated to him till he was introduced into it by Supplications and Sacrifices And his Holy Spirit will not dwell in Mens Hearts till they be dedicated and consecrated to him by Baptism and he be introduced by Prayer and Vows of Faith and Repentance Ephes. 3.17 S t Paul beseeches God that he would grant to the Ephesians according to the riches of his Glory to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the Inner-Man that Christ may dwell in their Hearts by Faith They that by Faith in Christ do not unite themselves unto him and so receive of his Spirit have not yet introduced the Spirit into its Temple and they that recede again from the Faith after they have received it dislodge and thrust the Holy Spirit out of his Tenure and Occupation The Jews reckoned that God was still among them as before when they had rejected and crucified the Holy One but after such their Infidelity and Wickedness he remained no more in their Hearts than he did in their Material Temple after that Voice was heard to come out of it migremus hinc let us depart hence Wheresoever it is so That either Men believe not on the Son of God or else having believed on him through the Allurements of the World and the Flesh fall back again into Unbelief and chuse rather to dispossess his Spirit than their Sins and Lusts there no Quickening Power will be found to revive their Mortal Bodies at the
in the most General and Universal comprehension both of Prince and People not of the Prince alone as some are willing to reckon the Benefits his Majesty has receiv'd not to revere him the more for being so much in God's Favour but to make him more indebted to God than themselves as if because this is call'd the King's Day all the Mercies of it and all the Thanks for them were to be put upon his account Undoubtedly the Kings Obligations to Heaven are infinite but was he only restor'd this Day to his Crown and Country Or were not all we likewise re-call'd from the same Banishment or from Prisons and Sequestrations Dungeons and Gibbets at home to enjoy our Lives and Liberties our Religion and Estates Has all the delicious Fare of the Land been serv'd to the Kings Table All the Gold Lace been worn upon his Back Nay but I behold many at this instant standing like Kings in the presence of the King and 't is to be complain'd of that the Enjoyments of many Out vie his in their proportion Is there then no Thanks of our Own due to God We have this Obligation even more than the King has that we have him that we enjoy this Principle of Union this Bond of Peace this Foundation of Security and Prosperity O let us not forget in the loud Joys and Gaiety and Festivity of this Day the days of Sadness and Silence of Scarcity and Doubtfulness of Soul when we had no King when a Villain sat on the Throne when our Hatred and Aversion rul'd over us the Scourge of Loyalty and the Oppressor of Religion and Justice Let us not forget the Time when to be Noble was to be Guilty and to be Loyal an Enemy to the State Again when to be a Mechanick made room for the Person in the Places of Honour and a Fanatick qualify'd him for the highest Charges and Honours and our Great Ones bow'd down to these or bow'd under the saddest Misery The remembrance of these things will make us readily acknowledge the Mercies of this Day to have been General to us all and not only heighten but sanctifie our Joy make the Feast resound with Thanksgiving and Praises of God and not wholly to be spent in loose and confus'd Mirth Riot and Excess it will preserve us from falling into that Fatal Ingratitude which accompanies Prosperity and which God in the People of Israel warns all Nations of and yet which all more or less fall into The forgetfulness of the Arm that deliver'd them and the Goodness that made them Great And in the midst of our Felicity we shall remember our Duty and our Ease shall not corrupt our Manners nor our Prosperity and Affluence be snares to us And God will repeat and iterate his glorying we have heard this Day not only in the Person of our King but of his Posterity to all Ages even till all Kingdoms are swallow'd up in the Kingdom of Heaven Yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Sion Which God of the riches of his Mercy grant to whom be ascribed all Honour Glory and Thanksgiving this day forth and for evermore Amen The Eighth Sermon JOHN xvi 8 And when he is come he will reprove the World of Sin of Righteousness and of Judgment GOD who at sundry times and in divers manners says the Apostle spake in times past unto the Fathers by the Prophets hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son c. as if this were his ultimus conatus the last and utmost Effort or Endeavour of his Power and Goodness to reduce the Sinful and Unbelieving World But by miserable Event it appear'd that this Means prov'd as uneffectual as the former that the World did unto Christ as they had done unto the Prophets before him slew the Son as they had slain the Servants Yet notwithstanding the unfathomable Depths and Riches of the Divine Goodness gave not over here where Reason would have given over but shew'd it self still Infinite where Humane Imagination was Finite bow'd the Heavens again and sent down the third Person in the Trinity the Holy Ghost Pertinacia nostra exhausit Coelum the Obstinacy of Men even drain'd and exhausted Heaven Verbum Caro the Word made Flesh was not sufficient to master this Obstinacy but it must be Verbum Spiritus too the Spirit must become a Word i. e. be sent from Heaven to be a Word in the Mouth of the Apostles to reprove or as the Margent has it to convince the World of Sin And when he is come he will reprove or convince the World of Sin of Righteousness and of Judgment To convince is to force the Understanding of the Opposer by strength of Argument to acknowledge the Truth that is contended for And to reprove or rebuke is again but a Moral Conviction of Sin in a person In the Words I shall consider these two things I. The Matter of the Conviction which the Spirit shall bring the World to an Acknowledgment of namely of Sin of Righteousness and of Judgment II. The Manner how he shall bring the World to this Acknowledgment viz. by convincing it by irrefragable Arguments I begin with the Matter of the Conviction Sin Râ—ghteousness and Judgment And First He shall convince the World of Sin What Sin it is which is meant here that the Spirit shall convince the World of is doubtful It may well be thought to be the Sin of Cruelty the perverse and barbarous Inhumanity the Jews shew'd when they demanded a Murderer to be releas'd unto them and kill'd the Just One. And we read in Effect Acts 2.36 that it was one of the first Works of the Spirit after his coming to bring three thousand Souls to confess this Sin and shew their Compunction for it for after S t Peter had laid before them how by wicked hands they had crucified and slain the Lord of Life they were prick'd to the heart and said Men and Brethren what shall we do i. e. to be deliver'd from the Sin of Murder or Cruelty But though this Interpretation be plausible it agrees not with the Reason Christ himself gives in the Verse immediately following my Text why the Holy Ghost should convince the World of Sin Of Sin says he because they believe not on me It should seem then it was the Sin of Unbelief that he came to reprove or convince the World of And this is the Opinion of many on the place The truth is Infidelity is a Sin highly injurious to the Deity it makes God a Lyar as S t John says He that believeth not God hath made him a Lyar. It makes him impotent and ignorant How should God perceive says the Wicked Psal. 73.11 is there knowledge in the most High And the faithless Israelites Can God prepare a Table in the Wilderness He smote the stony Rock indeed that the Water gushed out but can he give Bread also and provide Flesh for his People Nay it
of this Pretended Messiah this bold Reprover of our Vices and Confuter of our Traditions no less by Miracles than by Reason and then we shall continue to sit in Moses's Chair lead the People as we please and none will dare to contradict us If we will not shew our selves such Friends to Christ as my Text speaks of who stain'd their hands in his Bloud let us with all Submission of Soul and Singleness of Heart embrace his Doctrines and pay Obedience to his Precepts whether they relate to Faith or to Manners and suffer neither Pleasure nor Profit Reputation among Men or any By-Respect whatsoever to disaffect us to him For the things of this World are at Enmity with Christ and if we set our Affections upon them they will lead us from the Worship of the True God as the Canaanitish Wives did the Israelites to worship Idols and the worst of Idols even themselves Christ himself will appear to us a Deceiver and we shall sooner rescue Barabbas from the Cross than him And let none in these days who have received the Knowledge of the Truth and after extinguisht the Grace of God in their Hearts by fulfilling the Lusts of the Flesh flatter themselves as the Jews did who said If we had lived in the Days of Old we would not have been Partakers of the Bloud of the Prophets So if we had liv'd in Christ's days we would not have used him as the Jews did for this is but a Pharisaical Deception those that hate Christ's Gospel would have shew'd but little Kindness to his Person who crucifie him now by their Wicked Lives would not have spared his very Life if they had liv'd in his days Idem qua idem semper efficit idem the same thing dispos'd in the same Manner will produce the same Effect the same Corruption in the Heart will always bring forth the same Wickedness in the Hands The second Reflection I shall make upon Christ's being wounded in the House of his Friends Is the Part which God performed after the Jews added this Great Wickedness of murdering the Messiah to all their former Impieties For if we look on the Reverse of the Coin as I may say the Vengeance God sent upon them we shall find it stampt in as deep and legible Characters as their Wickedness was engraved on the other Side it being no less than the utter Rejection and Ruine of their Nation and with such Tragical Circumstances as are in no Story to be parallell'd but they are so generally known that I shall spend no time to dilate on them but rather exhort all such who after the manifold Admonitions and frequent Warnings of God still persist in their Sins and are deaf and incorrigible to all his Invitations to Repentance to consider How for the like Refractoriness and Hardness of Heart God suffered his Own People to proceed from Wickedness to Wickedness till they arriv'd at last in profundum malorum into such a Gulph of Perdition that if the most Desperate among them had seen the End of their Rebellious Ways at their first setting-out in the Course of them they would have started back with Horrour at the Prospect The 2 d Kings 5. we read that when the Prophet Elisha foretold to Hazael yet a Private Person and unacquainted with his own Temper what Immanities and Cruelties he would commit when he came to be King of Assyria that he would butcher Men rip up Women with Child dash Infants against the Stones c. He answer'd But what is thy Servant a Dog that I should do these things And the very Scribes and Pharisees who were the Chief Actors in this Days Tragedy when our Lord insinuated to them in the Parable I late mentioned of the Husbandmen consulting to kill the Heir that they would be his Murderers and by it pull certain Destruction on their Nation they reply'd God forbid Not only deprecating the Punishment but detesting the Crime The raw Novice-Sinner knows not at first to what a Villain to what a Devil he will grow Men ought therefore to fear the first Motions of Sin and to suppress the Beginnings of Wickedness if for no other Reason but this Lest they become Worse than they could have imagined it possible for them to have been Who allows himself at first only to Over-reach his Brother by degrees will take from him by Violence or Open Robbery who makes no Scruple to be Factious and Seditious will hardly stop till he arrives at Rebellion and Treason who indulges himself at first in a Negligent Irreverent Performance of God's Service and makes the Church the Scene of his Vanity and not of his Devotion is in the ready Path to proceed from Prophaneness to Atheism But as Sin encreases we have heard that Vengeance also ripens and Encreases says our Lord Whoever falls on this Stone shall be broken but on whomsoever it shall fall it will grind him to Powder The first Sins a man commits dangerously wound his Soul they dash against Christ as an Earthen Vessel does against a Rock but Presumption and Obstinacy in Sinning causes Christ to fall upon the Sinner as a Rock upon an Earthen Vessel which is sure to crush it to Dust. To conclude Though we that are here present are not of the House of Christ's Friends i. e. of his Kindred and Nation yet we have a Nearer and more Excellent Relation to him in that we are of the Houshold of Faith and of the Family of his Church as himself declared when he stretcht forth his Hand to his Disciple saying Behold my Mother and my Brethren for whoever shall do the Will of my Father which is in Heaven the same is my Mother my Sister and my Brother Now if we in our Spiritual Relation shall by our Sins crucifie Christ in his Glory as his Kindred according to the Flesh nail'd him to the Cross when he liv'd on Earth our Wickedness will far exceed theirs as the Wickedness of a Disciple far exceeds that of an Unbeliever the Wickedness of Judas did that of Pontius Pilate and Caiaphas It is our Unspeakable Happiness that Christ was Wounded for us but it will be our Unexcusable Impiety if he be wounded by us 't is again our Strange Felicity that when Others slew him we reap the Benefit of his Death when the Husbandmen Kill'd the Heir that we inherit the Vineyard And if we make that faithful Use of Christ's Death which we ought while the Jews bear the Guilt of his Bloud we shall be purged by it from all our Transgressions and while Eternal Infamy and Wrath cleaves to them Eternal Glory and Felicity shall be our Portion which God of his Infinite Mercy through our Lord Jesus Christ grant to us And to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost be ascribed all Honour Glory c. Amen The Sixth Sermon ROMANS viii 11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the Dead dwell in you he that raised up
last Day for where the Spirit it self is not its Operations cannot be expected 'T is true indeed that Sinners and Infidels shall rise again as S t Paul says Acts 24.15 There shall be a Resurrection of the Dead both of the Just and Vnjust Those that crucified Christ in the days of his Flesh and those that crucifie him by their Wicked Lives now in his Glory shall rise no less than True Believers than his holy Apostles and Martyrs But how and to what Resurrection shall they rise Even to such a Resurrection as is no other than a Second and Worse Death a Death not of Extinction or annihilation but a Death of Eternal Duration in Torment Non-Existence being not the State of the Second Death but Endless and Insupportable Misery insomuch that they shall wish that the Grave had for ever swallowed them up that as they liv'd like the Beasts that perish so they had also dyed like them without the Expectation of any After-Being So that the Resurrection of the Wicked is but an Aequivocal Resurrection as the lifting up of the Head of Pharaoh's Baker on the Gallows and the hanging Haman fifty Cubits high were but Aequivocal Advancements The Bodies of the Saints that rose after the Passion dy'd again the same Death but those that shall rise at the Last Day not having the Spirit shall dye again not the same Death that would be a Happiness but a Death that shall have no End and the Miseries of which we can no more describe than we can the Joys of Eternal Life but we must suffer a Change and be endued with new Powers and Faculties before we can support the Bliss of the one or the Torments of the other The second Property of an Inhabitant or Dweller in a House is to Command and Rule 'T is the Saying of every man to those that withstand the Exercise of their just Authority or but their Civility Give me leave to Command in my own House The Spirit of God must Rule and Command where it dwells we must not only give it House-room but Dominion look upon him as a Tenant but revere as our Land-Lord resign our Actions Wills Affections the Whole Man to his Dispose and Guidance Faith invites the Holy Ghost but Obedience and Submission to his Gracious Motions perfumes his Habitation and makes him delight to stay in it The Spirit of Love Meekness Purity and Holiness will not reside but where these and the like Vertues bear the Sway. Let the Word of Christ says S t Paul dwell in you Richly in all Wisdom So let the Spirit of God dwell in you Richly in all Wisdom it will not Cohabit with the Sons of Men unless it be Richly i. e. in the Abundance of its own Divine Graces and Operations If we will have the Spirit of God quicken our Mortal Bodies hereafter we must suffer him to quicken our Souls in this Life if we hope to reign by his Power in the World to come we must submit to his Dominion in this present World The third Property is Residence and Mansion our Houses are called our Manours and Places i. e. the Places where we ordinarily abide and where the Law presumes we are to be found so that if a Writ be delivered to any of the Houshold or but fastned to the Ring of the Door 't is counted the same thing as if given into our hands Thus our Hearts must be the Holy Spirit 's Manour or Place for what David says of God's constant Abode in his Temple on Mount Sion This is the Hill which God delights to dwell in yea the Lord will dwell in it for ever the like must be said of the constant Abode of the Holy Spirit in our Hearts This is the Habitation of the Holy Spirit and if we grieve him not nor drive him away by our Sins he will delight to dwell in us for ever When we were devoted to God in Baptism we devolved and made-over to his Holy Spirit an Estate in our Hearts even the Whole Term we had to live in this World and if we make good this Grant or Demise he will never abandon his Tenements till he has raised them up to Eternal Glory The Reason that a Great Schole-Man gives Why God punishes the Sins of Men which were but Temporal with an Eternity of Torments is Quia peccaverunt in suo aeterno because they sinn'd out all the Eternity they had i. e. all the Time God allowed them in this World and had he continued their Lives to the End of all Ages they would have continued still the same Wicked Persons The like Reason may be given for God's rewarding the Temporal Obedience of the Righteous with Eternal Glory Quia obedientes fuerunt in suo aeterno because they were Obedient all that little Eternity he allowed them in this World and would have persever'd in their Obedience if he had drawn out their Lives to the last Period of Time Abiding and Persevering in Righteousness is that which will give us Immortality if we give up the Possession of our Souls to the Dispose and Conduct of the Blessed Spirit the Whole Little Aeternum we have in this World we shall certainly obtain an Eternity that shall have no end in the next And thus I have shew'd the Manner of the Spirit 's Dwelling in every Christian and they that pretend to his In-dwelling without these Properties boast of an In-mate which they have not and as they want this Divine Guest so they will want the Blessed Effects and Consequence of his inhabiting in them the quickning of their Mortal Bodies at the last Day to Glory Which is the second thing I propos'd to explain The Effect or Consequence of the Spirit 's dwelling in us If the Spirit dwell in you He that raised up Jesus from the Dead shall quicken your Mortal Bodies The Words suggest two things to our Consideration 1. What shall be done to such Persons in whom the Spirit dwells He shall quicken their Mortal Bodies 2. Who shall be the Author to effect or bring this to pass He that raised up Jesus from the Dead 1. What shall be done to such Persons in whom the Spirit dwells 'T is said He shall quicken their Mortal Bodies Our Bodies are Mortal three Ways by Natural Death the Dissolution of the Substance of them by Eternal Death which succeeds the Natural that Riddle of a Death which by its Existence is in truth a Life but by the Torments belonging to it may deservedly be called a Death and by Spiritual Death which is the Cause of the other two Now our Mortal Bodies may be quicken'd or reviv'd again to three Lives To a Life of Eternal Duration to a Life of Eternal Joy and to a Spiritual Life or a Life of Grace which is the Cause in us of the other two Lives Some understand these Words shall quicken our mortal bodies only of Spiritual Proselytism of the raising us from the Death of Sin and
fansies him also Wicked as those words spoken in the Person of God Psal. 50. do shew Thou thoughtest I was altogether such an one as thy self And in the last place it concludes him to be Nothing at all The fool hath said in his heart There is no God Infidelity first entertains Mean thoughts of God doubts of his Attributes and afterwards of his very Being Infidelity moved God to send upon the Israelites in the Wilderness almost as many and grievous Plagues as he had sent upon the Egyptians And many Christian Professors are so possest against this Sin that they have not doubted to aver That as there is no Vertue that justifies but Faith so there is no Sin that condemns but Infidelity And that the Jews were highly guilty of this Sin in reference to Christ there is no question for though he had wrought so many Miracles among them as the Evangelist says they believed not on him They might have known who he was if they had not been wilfully blind by the Rule given them by Moses Deut. 18.12 to discern a True Prophet from a False and again at the 18 th ver to distinguish the Messiah from other Common Prophets yet blinded with Pride Malice Envy and the like the Great Council it self of the Sanhedrim condemned the Lord of Life for an Impostor and crucified him affirmed That by a Confederacy with the Devil he cast out Devils So that this their Unbelief and perverse Proceeding might be a very just Cause of the Descent of the third Person in the Trinity to vindicate the Injury and Outrage done to the second after a Judicial Manner to arraign and convince the World of Sin i. e. of Infidelity and Injustice to the Son of God But though there was Infidelity in the Case I conceive they do exactliest hit the meaning of the place who make not our Lord's Words point so much at any particular determinate Sin after his Coming as at the General Sin wherein all the World lay before his Coming viz. the Sin of Adam in which both Jew and Gentile were concluded and from which 't is said He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned Now the Holy Ghost when he came into the World to bear Testimony to all that Christ did reproved and convinced it that is all Unbelievers that they lay still under the Old Condemnation of the First Man seeing they embraced not the Means of Grace and Pardon offer'd by Christ in the Gospel nay and that their Infidelity added a new and worse Guilt to the former they lay under the Guilt of refusing Offer'd Redemption which would make their Condemnation yet heavier For though Hell be the ultimum Supplicium the utmost Punishment the Divine Vengeance can inflict yet as there are Degrees of Sins so there are Degrees of Torment and as 't is said Hell shall be a second time heated for those that leave their first Station so we may say it shall be a second time heated for those that refuse the Salvation offer'd by Christ. The second Particular the Spirit shall convince the World of is of Righteousness But how must this be understood Shall he convince the World of Sin and of Righteousness both Yes de Peccato proprio Justitia aliena as S t Augustine distinguishes of its Own Wickedness and of an Others Righteousness the Spirit shall convince the World that 't is sinful and that Christ was Righteous And thus our Lord afterwards interprets his own Words He will convince the World of Wickedness because I go to my Father The World spared not while Christ was on Earth to spend their rash Judgments of him He is a Good Man say some Nay say others but he deceiveth the People Others again He is a Samaritan and hath a Devil and the like But his going to the Father stopt the Mouth of all Slander For as this was an approv'd Maxim which was utter'd by the Man that was born Blind God heareth not Sinners So this was a Truth likely to find a more Easie and General Admittance God translateth not Sinners miraculously and visibly to Heaven Enoch and Elias were thus translated but 't is testified of the first That he pleased God and of the last That his Zeal for God's Glory exceeded Christ therefore being translated to Heaven it was an irrefragable Proof of his Righteousness But how did the Holy Ghost convince this Why by his very coming into the World had he born no other Testimony For Christ had said in the Verse before my Text If I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you but if I depart I will send him unto you The Descending of the Holy Ghost was the Consequent of Christ's Ascending But then the Righteousness which the Spirit shall here convince the World of must be understood in a greater Latitude than only of the Inherent Righteousness in Christ's Person it comprehends also the Transient Righteousness that past from him to others As S t John says in another place That he was not only a Glorious Light in himself but the Light of the World and the Light of Men. A Righteousness of greater Concern and Importance than his Inherent Righteousness for that made his Person only Illustrious but this brought Utility and Benefit to Mankind and as the first spoke him the Son of God the last also the Saviour of the World Christ's Righteousness is therefore here to be understood Causativè that he was the Author or Cause of Righteousness not only that he was Righteous but Righteousness unto others and that two Ways First In respect of his Doctrine that was Righteousness the very Rule and Standard of it the perfect Will of God able to conform us to his Likeness and the World rejected it only because their Deeds were Evil. And this the Holy Ghost when he came convinc't the World of viz. of the Desperateness of its Condition that it had refused the True Light and for no other reason than for that which was named Because their Deeds were Evil and they hated to be reform'd Secondly Christ was Righteousness in respect of the Justification of the World as he was Justitia nostra the Lord our Righteousness as the Prophets had foretold And indeed this was the Chief Office and Business of the Holy Ghost at his coming to convince Men That there was no other Name under Heaven by which they could be sav'd but only by that Name That neither the Contemplation of things Divine together with the Practice of Moral Vertues which was the Gentiles Way nor the Plea of being Circumcised and descended from such and such Parents which was the Jewish Way avail'd any thing towards the obtaining of Justification without the laying hold of Christ's Righteousness The third Particular the Spirit shall convince the World of is of Judgment S t Bernard understood the Words Actively viz. That the Spirit shall convince the World of its
Perverse Judgment of Christ and the other things appertaining to God He shall convince the World says he de Peccato quod dissimulat de Justitia quod non ordinat de Judicio quod usurpat of the Sin which they now cloak or dissemble of the Righteousness which they direct not aright and of the Judgment they unduly exercise But the 11 th Verse clearly opposes this Interpretation and shews that the Judgment spoken of is not meant of the World Actively which the World had made but Passively which shall be made or pass'd upon the World Now the World or Unbelieving Part of it are said to be convinc't by the Judgment that should come upon them in this That the Prince of the World is cast out For he that hath Master'd the Prince broken the Power of his Kingdom and holds him in Vassalage may be accounted to have master'd and subdu'd his People also And the Prince of the World is said to be thus Judg'd two Ways First By spoiling him of his Strength Having spoiled Principalities and Powers he made a shew of them openly triumphing over them in it Coloss. 2.15 What is a Prince when he is stript of his Power When his Counsels and Policies are defeated or detected his Officers arrested his Prisons broke open his Fortresses ruined and dismantled his Harness and Ammunition of War seised and the like And thus Satan was divested and unthroned by Christ and shewed openly to be judged and subdued after the Coming of the Holy Ghost Sin his strong Yoke by which he held Mankind in Bondage and Slavery was broken Guilt the Plea of his Dominion and Tyranny over them taken away by Satisfaction made for it Temptation his great Stratagem made weak and invalid by Grace Death his Sergeant himself mortified the Grave his Prison set open and made only a Dormitory and harmless Through-fare to Life These things were his first Judgment before the great and final Day when the Staff of his Authority was as 't were broken over his head and no Power left him but what those that love Servitude better than Freedom chose their own Destruction before the Salvation purchas'd for them voluntarily give him over themselves These things I say did evince the Fall of Satan as manifestly as the train of Light which follows that which the People call a Falling Star evinces the descent of that Meteor and which possibly our Lord alluded to when he said I beheld Satan as Lightning fall from Heaven But then Secondly Satan is judged Personally for though his Sentence of Condemnation be yet as I may say but Ambulatory in regard of the Execution yet it is Final and Peremptory in regard of the Determination He that has forfeited his Life to the Law and is reserved in Chains in expectation of the next Assize or waits only donec sternuntur Subsellia till the Judge puts on his Robes and the Court sits differs but little from him that has actually received his Doom And such is Satans Condition since the Coming of Christ and the Holy Ghost Datur mora parvula some little stay there is till the Figure of this World be changed and then he goes for ever to his Proper Place And let this suffice to be said of the Matter which the Spirit shall reprove or convince the World of namely of Sin of Righteousness and of Judgment I come in the next place to shew the Manner how the Spirit did convince the World The Manner of the Conviction The word in the Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies as was said either to Reprove or to Convince to convince the Understanding of an Errour or to reprove the Will of a Crime And the Holy Ghost performed both these parts at his Coming First He convinced mens Understandings that they were in Sin under the Guilt contracted by the first Man and that Belief in Christ who was the Seed of the Woman that was to bruise the Serpents head and who had power to cast out the Prince of the World that he should no more abuse the Nations was the only Way to get out of that and all other Sins and to obtain Justification And this was de facto brought to pass in so great a Part of the World 's being converted after the Coming of the Holy Ghost and being content to go down into the Laver of Regeneration the Waters of Baptism to cleanse away their Sins and the Church of Christ in those days might have been compared as Solomon compared the Jewish to a Flock of Sheep newly come up from washing For all these renounced the Prince of this World and acknowledged Jesus Christ to be the only Saviour and those that made use of and improved the Grace given them in Baptism found the Devil a weak and impotent Prince that might easily be resisted and foiled that had no Power but what was meerly precarious and delusive such as might perswade or deceive men into Sin but could not compel them But then as the Holy Ghost wrought this Conviction on the Unbelieving World by what Means did he work it There are two Ways of convincing Mens Judgments The one by Argumentation and necessary Consequence on certain Premisses granted The other by sensible and ocular Demonstration And though the last Way of these by Aristotle and the Masters of Reason be counted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unartificial and less Noble yet in Assurance it goes beyond all manner of Reasoning And this was the Way the Holy Ghost took to Convince the Gain-saying World of the Salvation preached by Christ Our Lord himself also points at this Way Joh. 15.26 where he says to his Disciples When the Comforter is come the Spirit of Truth he shall testifie of me and ye also shall bear Witness Ye also shall bear Witness was not unnecessarily added for a Spirit has no Voice of its own no more than it has Flesh and Bones But the Apostles were the Spirit 's Agents their Sermons were its Voice and their Hands its Organs by which it wrought its Miracles the Epistles of S t Paul and of the rest of the Apostles we may say were the Rhetorick but the Acts of the Apostles were the Logick of the Holy Ghost The truth is whatever other Proofs were brought for the Confirmation of Christian Religion Miracles were the Strength of it the Unresistible Engines that bore down all Infidelity before them and S t Paul Heb. 2.3 shews the Unexcusableness of not yielding to this Conviction How shall we escape says he 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 it God also bearing them Witness with Signs and Wonders and with divers Miracles and Gifts of the Holy Ghost But then here some will say That this Conviction by the Miraculous Operations of the Holy Ghost was indeed a Powerful Conviction to those that were Witnesses of them and saw these things done but
constantly terms them for no man can will a Wrong Action that is not Ignorant and Mistaken and whether the Mistake lye in the thing Chosen or in the Principle by which 't is chosen it matters not if it be still a Mistake and the grosser the Errour is the more pitiable still it is and if we can pardon Fools and Mad Folks Children and Sick persons and cannot likewise commiserate the Sick in Sin the Mad and Foolish in Wickedness we are as blind in our Anger as they are in their Actions How will that man stand before the Severe Tribunal of God who weighs every Grain and Scruple in his Brothers Trespasses against him who shews the exactest and highest Rigour of Justice in his Revenges and perhaps was never just in any other passage of his Life how will he be able to excuse his non-payment of the vast Arrears he is indebted to God who has exacted the utmost Farthing of his Brother Beloved we make our Condition in the World to come according to our Charitableness or Uncharitableness in this God will love us or hate us judge us or justifie us enlarge his Mercy or shut it up to us as we do these things to others if we be difficult in remitting our Brothers Faults he will be difficult in remitting ours if we forgive only small Offences he will not pardon our Great if we forgive only in part we shall not be absolv'd in the whole He shall have Judgment without Mercy as S t James says that shew'd no Mercy Let no man therefore seek an Excuse or be glad when he has found a Distinction to take him off from pardoning his Brother for what profit is there in that Wrath which does but treasure up Wrath against the Day of Wrath The Fourth Council of Carthage forbad that the Oblations of Contentious Persons should be received into the Treasury of the Church for the same reason that the High Priest refus'd to put the money return'd by Judas into the Treasury of the Temple because it was the Price of Bloud So this the Council Obligationes dissidentium Fratrum neque in Sacrario neque in Gazophylacio Episcopi recipiant As there is no place in the Church of God for Uncharitableness so we may be sure there 's as little in the Kingdom of Heaven I have not time to set forth all the Instances of Christ's Love but there is One which I must not omit and 't is that which differences and distinguishes Spiritual Love from Worldly and Carnal above all others and that is Christ's performing all he did merely for their Sakes for whom he did it Carnal Love or Dotage on outward Beauty can in a measure imitate the former things we have mentioned love first before it be beloved love without Merit in the Person affected digest all their Peevishness and Affronts and hang on still and leave no means unattempted to bring their Mind about but then they do this not for their sakes but their own to attain the Fruition of what they have so much desired But Alas what End what Design could the Creator of all things have on his own Creatures What Advantage could he receive by them As Christ therefore lov'd us not for his own Good but ours as it was our Salvation our re-estating in Immortality that he intended and not his own so in our Love to our Brethren we must not have an Eye to any Sordid Profit of our own we must not chaffer Kindness huckster as I may say friendly Offices Charity requires the mind of a Prince not of a Merchant and we must make a difference between Christianity and Factoring As I have loved you so love one another If it be here objected That the most Spiritual and Divine Love was never so abstracted as to be without all Intuition of Reward and that our Lord himself for the joy that was set before him endur'd the Cross and despised the Shame It will be enough to say in answer That as in a Kingdom or Commonwealth they are accounted Disinterested Persons and without all Designs who pursue only the Publick Interest and Honourable Designs So in the Kingdom of the Gospel those are counted to love without all Design who have no base and bye Design who love God and their Neighbour for Heavens sake are interpreted to love them purely for their Own sakes And let this suffice to be said of the Habit or Grace of Love enjoined by the Apostle I proceed next to speak of the Degree of it Have Fervent Charity The Word in the Original for Fervent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies as well the Continuation of Time as the Vehemence and Intenseness of the Quality the Constancy that should be in our Love as well as the Ardour I shall therefore handle it according to both Senses 1. In regard of the Time or Constancy of this Quality our Charity must not be Fantastick interrupted and uncertain there must not be several Weathers in our Affections they must not change like the Winds but move like the Heavens in one constant Circumvolution shedding and dispensing their favourable Influences For he that loves not always when he does love loves out of Humour not Vertue and we may account all the good Offices he does only the Fits and Starts of some momentany Passion and not the Actions of a settled and radicated Habit. Again this Vertue must not be taken up only at the Alarm of a Danger or Sickness at the approach of a Holy Season or by way of Preparation to the Communion for they are far from fulfilling the Law of Charity that lay down their Grudges and Quarrels to their Brethren out of some Affright or Design but as soon as these are over reassume them again imitating the Serpent that casts up her Poyson when she goes into the Water and as soon as she comes on dry Land licks it up again God accepts not those kind of Truces where Battel ceases but the hatred does not where the Weapons rest but the Affections still rage Though Charity ought to flourish more eminently at holy Seasons yet it must live and be exercised all the whole Year Our Saviour's Example will direct us here in the Continuation of our Love as formerly it did for the Manner of it of whom we read That having loved his own which were in the World he lov'd them unto the End 2. In regard of its Degree our Charity must be Vehement and Intense it must confess its Part in its Ardour the Holy Ghost which is call'd the Spirit of Love and has appeared oftener to the World in Fire than under any other Form Good will without Fervency is but the Endeavour of an imperfect Elementary Charity That we may know therefore the Just Degree and certain Temper that is required in our Love the best means will be to bring it to the Test and Tryal of the Rule which is given us to measure it by which is Thou shalt love thy
Ghost has not perfected his Work Good God! what a Change what a Bustle as I may say did the Spirit make at his first Coming Such as is still Wonderful to Posterity to hear or read How many thousands were Converted by one Sermon How many Nations were made Proselytes by unfolding but some one Divine Truth Rich men sold their Lands the Learned in Curious Arts their Books and laid the Money at the Apostles Feet Souldiers surrendred their Swords Philosophers their Reason Kings their Scepters upon the Sight of a single Miracle and which was more than all the rest they parted with their habitual Lusts their gainful delightful Corruptions as allowable and currant generally in those days as the Coin among them and made an intire Oblation of them to the Gospel But now the Spirit of God by all the industrious and laborious Endeavours of his Servants can hardly in many Months in many Years win some one Person from a Gainless Tasteless Evil Custom only as vain Swearing Lying malicious Censuring and the like And all that Men have to say in their Defence for this is That they have not such Divine Teachers nor do see the Miracles spoken of heretofore Neither as we may reply do they need these It was necessary to remove the Jewish Law which was given by the Ministry of Angels by a no less Glorious Ministration to extirpate the long-rooted Superstition and Idolatry of the Heathens by Divine and Supernatural Convictions But do those that have been bred and train'd up in the Christian Religion need an Apostle or Supernatural Teacher to tell them They should not steal Signs and Wonders from Heaven to inform them They ought not to be Drunk to commit Adultery to be Schismaticks or Traytors If their Darkness be so great 't is not that God has not afforded them sufficient Light but they wilfully shut their Eyes against it or have Extinguisht it loving the Ways of Sin more than the Ways of Righteousness and 't is not for such as these proudly to exact Miracles again to enlighten them God expects from the World the Returns of a holy Faith and Obedience for the innumerable Miracles of his Power Wisdom and Goodness already shewed and if obstinate and obdurate Sinners ask for more Signs and Wonders they are to be answer'd as our Lord answer'd the Jews upon the like perverse Demand That no Sign shall be given them but that of the Prophet Jonas i. e. those that are already past and not regarded by them The Holy Spirit with great Benignity and Long-suffering endeavours to reclaim Lapsed Sinners gives them his preventing and assisting Grace prompts them with Good Thoughts and if they make use of these actuates their Repentance strengthens them to improve and encrease in Righteousness and the like But if they despise these Favours stand upon Terms and expect Miracles will be converted at no Cheaper Rate than the Holy Ghost's shewing himself in that Outward astonishing Manner as he did at the first Pentecost they will sooner provoke him to exercise his last Dreadful Act which is to Seal up obstinate Sinners in the Hardness of their Heart than win him to prostitute his Divine Power to their wicked Fancies urge him to pronounce to them what he does to the like Uncorrigible Sinners Rev. 22.11 He that is unjust let him be unjust still and he that is filthy let him be filthy still i. e. the Time of Grace being forfeited by them he will give them up to their own ways and certain Destruction Those therefore that thus Exalt themselves like Lucifer let them take heed while 't is yet allowed them so to do that they fall not also like him into the same Abyss of Eternal Misery consider that it becomes not those that have been Rebels to Heaven to article and capitulate for the Manner of their Pardon and Reception into Favour to demand such Conditions and Priviledges as the Greatest Saints presume not to beg viz. to stipulate for Miracles when Pardon is too high a Grace as if Salvation was not their aim but to triumph in the Contempt of God and the breach of his Laws The Prodigal Son when he had spent his Portion in riotous Courses among Harlots did not send impudently to his Father to supply him with more Considerable Summs upon the consideration that what he had received of him was Small and Contemptible but confess'd his Miscarriage that he had wasted in Lewdness and Dissoluteness a Liberal Patrimony and was not worthy to be counted the Son of so Good a Father that to be as one of his hired Servants was above his desert thus as his Crimes were heinous his Thoughts of himself were lowly and mean as his Name was infamous his Person squalid his Condition indigent and vagabund his Deportment and Requests were stampt with the profoundest Humility and Submission And this being not a History of one that had spent a Portion in Money but a Parable of such as have wasted the Stock of Grace given them by God upbraids those that are arrogant and pufft up in the like Circumstance teaches them that 't is their part to put their Mouths in the Dust and to abhor themselves to repent in Sackcloth and Ashes and to catch greedily and thankfully at the least Glimpse of Pardon even upon the hardest Terms and that this is the only Course to turn their Rags into Rich Robes and Gold Rings their Husks into a Fatted Calf their accursed Condition without a Figure into a Blessed and Heavenly The Ninth Sermon MARK vii 37 He hath done all things well he maketh both the Deaf to hear and the Dumb to speak OUR Lord had cured a man that was born deaf and dumb by pronouncing the word Ephata or be opened and given him and the Standers-by a Charge not to make known the Miracle but streight as if the Ephata spoken to one had been to many thousands the untying the Dumb mans tongue had been the letting loose of the whole Multitudes all the People began to spread and divulge the Fact and whereas he forbad them to whisper it they proclaim'd it whereas he restrained them the Use of the Tongue they employ'd as I may say the Trumpet and he that could make the Deaf to hear and the Dumb to speak could not make the Multitude hold their peace Neither does it appear that they were faulty but grateful in what they did perverse or refractory but faithful and just There were some Kind of Miracles or rather some Conjunctures of Time in which our Lord wrought his Miracles that he thought fit to suppress the Knowledge of them not that they were less Glorious or likely to prove less Edifying but contrariwise too Edifying and too Glorious and would have disclosed his Divine Nature too early and abruptly to the World before his Counsels permitted it But the People who supposed the reason of his concealing his Miracles proceeded only from a Modesty that fled publick Applause after
what do they signifie to us upon whom the Ends of the World are come and saw them not To answer this Objection at large would be in Effect to ingage in a Discourse of the whole Subject of the Truth of Christian Religion or the Demonstration Evangelical of which Eusebius the first Christian Historian after the Apostles now extant wrote seven Books I shall therefore content my self in the short time that remains to me to present you by way of Answer only with one Consideration but 't is a Consideration that had great force with S t Augustine and 't is this The very Conversion of the World is the highest Argument imaginable that it was converted by the Miraculous Power of the Holy Ghost For that Man says the Father that can conceive the World should relinquish their long doted on Religion received from their Ancestors with so much Veneration and a Superstitious Conceit that they had been Prosperous under it a Religion so well suited to their Carnal Affections and receive in Exchange of it a New Religion derived from so despicable and infamous an Author as a Mean Man crucified by his own Nation and the very Principles of which were so harsh to Flesh and Blood and contrary to all worldly Glory and Interest That Man says S t Augustine that can conceive this could be done without Miracle is himself a greater Miracle than those he thinks so hard to be believed There were among the Roman Fencers of old one sort that with a Net and Trident maintained Combate against their Opposers armed with a Sword and Helmet and were so dextrous as to intangle and vanquish their Adversaries with these Uncouth Weapons The Apostles of Christ those Fishers of Men may be likened to these Retiarii these Fencers with Nets who with the Metaphorical Nooses and Meaches of preaching seconded by the Power of Miracles ensnared and captivated to the Gospel the armed potent proud Idolatrous learned and vicious World And this was the Way the Spirit took at his Coming if we interpret 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Convince the Understanding of the World of its Errors But if we take it in the other Sense redarguet Mundum he shall Reprove the World for its Sins it imports these two things That the Spirit shall shame the World And condemn it First That it shall reproach and shame the World for loving Darkness more than Light Death than Life for lying under Wickedness and Guilt when the Means of becoming Innocent was offered them for chusing things Base and Degenerate before things Noble and Praise-worthy things Vicious and accompanied with Danger rather than things Vertuous though accompanied with Glory and Felicity in a word for chusing rather to perish in their Sins and Ignorance than to be Instructed reformed and saved And as the Spirit shall shame the World for so brutish and sottish a Choice so Secondly it shall Condemn it Shame and Confusion of Face is but the beginning of the Misery of Sinners the consequent of the Discovery of their Wickedness not the Punishment of it What the Wiseman says shall be the Portion of those that love Danger they shall perish in it is true also of those that love Darkness more than Light and the ways of Death than the ways of Life that they shall prove what the Riddle of Eternal Death is of a Death that never dyes and dwell in Eternal Night and Darkness And thus that Spirit which is the Spirit of Love and Gentleness which descended in the Similitude of a Creature that has no Gall nor Anger and whose Office 't is to save to comfort and support shall exercise a Part so contrary to its Name and Nature as to Condemn destroy and confound instead of shewing it self the Spirit of Lenity and Kindness shew it self the Spirit of Indignation and Fury a Froward Chiding and Reproaching Spirit O ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in Heart and Ears says the Holy Ghost by the mouth of S t Stephen which of the Prophets have not your Fathers persecuted and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One of whom ye have been now the Betrayers and Murderers Stephen who dyed the Example of Meekness the Miracle of Patience and Charity inspired by the same Divine Spirit lived a sharp Reprover and severe Condemner of their Hardness of Heart and Unbelief And now Beloved to make some Application of what has been said Are the things we have heard this day remote and unconcerning Stories Tales only of the Apostles Times and Events at the first preaching of the Gospel Or is it not still the Business of the Spirit to Convince the World of Sin of Righteousness and of Judgment To rebuke and reprove it for the little or ill Use it has made of the Unvaluable Benefits offered it by Christ To Judge and Condemn it for preferring the Ways of Death and Destruction before those of Life and Salvation even rejecting and crucifying the Lord of Glory a second time by their Sins 'T is true the Extraordinary Miraculous Operations of the Holy Ghost are ceased but his Ordinary his Inward Reproofs and Convictions by the Outward preaching of the Word his converting sanctifying and justifying of some and final Condemnation and sealing up of others in their Impenitence still remain Christ's Work of our Salvation lasted but a while and had its Period on the Cross but the Spirit of Christ which came after him had no Period no Hitherto of his working but his Operations continue to the End of the World And 't is wonderful to consider That after so many Unwearied and powerful Endeavours of the Spirit for sixteen hundred Years that so much gross Infidelity and so many scandalous Impieties are still in the World That the Unjust and Unmerciful are Unjust and Unmerciful still the Voluptuous and Incontinent are voluptuous and incontinent still the Prophane and Atheistical are prophane and atheistical still the Seditious and Disobedient to Government persist to be so still as if the World were grown too Old to blush or to learn and what was said in Praise of our Lords Constancy and Resolution in Suffering That he Despised the Shame were Commendable also in the Effrontery and Impudence of the World in its Sins That it despises all Shame S t Augustine says That in his Young Unconverted days he boasted of many Sins which he had never committed ne viderer abjectior quo innocentior lest I should have appeared Abject and poor Spirited if I had been known to be Innocent And too many there are in this Age that count the Vices of the Time the Gallantries of it and are as much abasht to come behind in any Lewdness in Vogue as to be late in the Fashion And when things stand thus that those that have given their Names to Christ in Baptism are more profligate Sinners than Turks and Infidels may not Preachers be allow'd to say The World is not yet Converted the Holy