wholly Intellectual he will not only esteem the Effluxes and Emanations of the Rational Life to be the Foundations of his Felicity but seek the Amplification and Diffusion of it and reduce all exorbitant Motions to its Rules and Determinations And if we will not impose upon ourselves nor degrade our Minds below the Folly and Triflingness of Children but act like Men who prefer Things before empty Sounds and Names the eternal Rules of Justice Righteousness and Goodness will appear infinitely more eligible than any thing else in the World beside for let a man be possest of the most glorious and splendid Advantages and Satisfactions that possibly can grow out of the Earth and let him extract the Flower and Quintessence of Sublunary Delights and he will find them at the best very dilute and flashy and too base and disproportionate Objects of a pure active and indefatigable Mind And were it not that men are cheated into an Esteem and Approbation of them partly from the Example of others who daily run the greatest Hazards and Labours in their Acquisition and Purchase and partly from the innate Pravity and Iniquity of their own Spirits which being preingag'd in an early Contention after the things of Sense are more forcibly struck and moved by the Emissions and Radiations of the Corporeal World it were exceeding improbable they should forego such valuable and excellent Pleasures as those of Virtue and Holiness for the small and inconsiderable though the most refined Joys of this Region of Mutability especially when they are perpetually attended with such instant Satieties and afflictive Circumstances That blessed Author of our Felicity the Lord Christ who both knew the Soveraign Good of our Spirits and designed the Cementing and Restauration of the broken and distracted World by entring into it makes it his first care and business to purge and refine our Minds from the Dross and Pollution of material Concretions by bringing down the Price of terrestrial Love and setting a low Estimate upon what the World calls Happiness Riches and Honours and all the choicest Gratifications of the inferior Life and propounding not only such Precepts as in their own nature tended to the raising and elevating the Powers and Faculties of our Souls to their highest and most enlarg'd Perfection and which by our Conformity to them should fully satisfie all our rational Thirsts and Appetites but likewise revives our languishing Resolutions and reinspirits our Minds with new Strength and Vigour by his own Example as the most attractive and powerful Means that possibly can be offered to an ingenuous Nature All the time that he conversed upon Earth he went about doing good transcribing the fairest and most amiable Perfections and Attributes of the moral Essence of God for our Imitation redressing and healing the Imperfections of Mankind and casting a benign and auspicious Influence upon the distempered World by propagating and diffusing the holy Life of God into all capable Receptacles And that he might shew us what a small and mean Valuation he puts upon mundane and temporal Felicities and how little they contribute to the Advancement of that which is the Flower and Summity of our Souls he commands great Temperance and Moderation both in the Prosecution and Use of them and declares a high Dislike against all Exorbitancy and Excesse condemning all anxious and solicitous Thoughts about these momentany Concernments as criminous and faulty And what he enjoined upon his Disciples and Followers he himself always observ'd and practis'd never disquieting his holy Breast with doubtful and corroding Cares nor charging Heaven with Partiality and Unkindness though he became so poor for our sakes that he was forced by a Miracle to pay his Tribute-penny to the Roman Governour His blameless and immaculate Soul no impure touch of Pleasure ever defiled nor unjust and unhallowed Action ever stained and sullied its native Brightness but remained to his dying upon the Cross a spotless Temple eternally consecrated to the Divinity residing in it But that which did most of all allure and attract the Hearts and Spirits of men was his exceeding and superlative Charity which not only burnt bright within its own Orb but by a sacred Influence and Communication melted and thaw'd the benum'd and frozen World into a soft pliable and sequacious temper and set abroad a Godlike Spirit of universal Tenderness Pity and Compassion upon the Earth And that so illustrious a Person might want nothing to recommend his Life to Mankind as the most complete Pattern of the Divine Nature his Patience exhibited in a noble sufferance of all those Ignominies and Disgraces put upon him made him no less conspicuous than those other radiant Virtues rendred him acceptable to God and Man And if there be any thing more that is worthy and decorous and perfective of the Nature of Man it was eminently contained in the Lord Christ whose glorious Mind was too large and great to bring forth any poor and abject Design but took the whole World into his Care and folded the Creation within the Arms of dear Compassion By all this and much more we are taught wherein consists the greatest Excellency Beauty and Dignity of our Souls namely in the Acts of Goodness Righteousness and Mercy in profound Humility and Self-Denial in Patience Longanimity and uncorrupted Purity of Body and Spirit For these and such like Heroical Exertions of our Minds bring not only a present Delight and Gratefulness with them but pervade by a secret and insensible Influence all our Animal Powers and diffuse a certain Savour and Relish of themselves throughout our inferior Faculties As it is with Vice and Sin every pitiful and degenerate Production of which spreads its contagious Nature and leavens our whole Man with its poysonous and infectious Inspirations so much more will Truth and Righteousness disseminate a healthful Efflux and hallow our vital Capacities as being the most congenerous and agreeable Objects of our intellectual Parts The Life of God which alone ought to have the Soveraign Command over the whole rational Creation and which will in due time conquer and triumph over the dark and apostate Principality that Life I say of universal Sanctity and Righteousness is an immortal thing like its great Source and Parent and is always passing through the World and will not rest any where but in such a fit and congruous Subject as bears some Analogy and Similitude with itself And being once seated there unless it be forcibly driven out by rebellious Lusts to which it proclaims an irreconcileable War it will continually dispread its lovely Nature and enlarge its Kingdom by the total Consumption or Conversion into its own Likeness and Quality whatever resists and hinders its Progress and at last when freed from the sluggish weight of Mortality like a quick and active Flame carry up the Soul with Joy and Triumph into Heaven to which it always breaths and aspires Heaven itself is nothing but the blessed Mansion of
are a sort of Men in the World whose Minds are so deeply tinctured with Sadducean and Atheistical Principles that being otherwise furnished with a quaint Volubility of Speech and some Smatterings of Philosophy in this knowing Age deem it the highest Improvement of their Wit to laugh and jeer at that profound Wisdom which is found in Christianity now accusing its Dogmata of Impossibilities and Contradictions and then scoffing at the Historical Part as Fabulous and Romantick clearly discovering that their grand Drift is to leaven the Minds of men with that pernicious and venomous Doctrin That there is nothing but Matter in the World To begin therefore with the Birth of the blessed Jesus and the Circumstances attending of it as of the Star which led the Wise Men to him and of their Adoration of him that these things are not indecorous and ridiculous nor impertinently recorded but sutable and agreeable to the Nativity of so great a Person That a Virgin should conceive and bring forth a Child ought to be no such strange thing to the Jew since their Prophets have foretold that it should so come to pass particularly in Isa vii 14. Behold a Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son and shall call his name Immanuel And if this were not to be understood of a pure and immaculate Virgin where were that Sign which God by his Prophet ushers in with such Solemnity Ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God ask it either in the depth or in the height above for nothing is more ordinary in the World than that a young Woman should bring forth a Child Add to this that the Jewish Rabbins teach that the Generation and Nativity of the Messias shall not be after the manner of other Creatures by carnal Copulation but after an extraordinary manner and his Father shall be unknown till he himself reveal him Nor ought it to be thought a thing impossible by the Gentiles since they affirm many of their Heroes to be the Sons of the Gods and Plato is said to be begotten on Perictione by Apollo who forbad Aristo to have any familiarity with his Wife till Plato was born But to them that believe a just and righteous Providence governing all the Affairs of the Universe it is obvious to conceive that all Souls are sent into the World according to their Demerits in a former Life and therefore as a deeply lapsed Soul descends into an inequal and monstrous Body from which Adunation can result no other than a brutish cruel and intemperate Life and a Pronity to all other Vices arising from such an Asymmetral and inhospitable Society so the pure and immaculate Soul of Jesus must assume a terrestrial Body after an unusual manner more pure than the rest that it might be free from Sin and Pollution as well as fitted to converse with Men and that he might in it teach an extraordinary Temperance Justice and Goodness and all other Virtues by his Life as by his Doctrin For neither would the Justice of God precipitate so great a Soul into an unfit and incongruous Habitation nor its eximious Purity admit of an Union with an inquinated and filthy Body Nor is it any whit incongruous that an unusual Star should attend the Rising of the glorious Sun of Righteousness for though it be commonly said of Comets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that no one appears to the World but portends some Mischief which Historians plentifully observe and hence is that of Claudian Nunquam futilibus excanduit ignibus Aether Et nunquam coelo spectatum impune Cometen Yet Origen in his first Book against Celsus affirms that Chaeremon the Stoick in his Treatise of Comets proves by several Instances out of Histories that Comets sometimes presage the Approach of good things If then those great and wandring Globes be looked upon as the Presignificators of great Changes and Alterations in the World what wonder is it that the Birth of Jesus who should work so mighty a Mutation upon Earth and introduce a Religion universal and common to all Mankind should be declared by a new and stranger Star And if it be said that it is impossible for a Star in the Heavenly Regions to design punctually so small a place as a particular House upon Earth I answer that the Magi found the House wherein Jesus was not only by the disappearing and vanishing of the Star over it but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by a diligent Search and Inquisition after the Child perhaps of the Shepherds who were not far distant keeping watch over their Flocks It remains now that we Apologize for the other part of the History viz. The coming of the Wise Men from the East to Jerusalem to which purpose it will be requisite to consider the Quality of these Magi who probably were none of these grosser sort of Sorcerers that make an express Compact with the Devil but such as receiving from others certain forms and mysterious Conjurations use them as they were delivered to them without enquiring further into their Nature And perhaps the black Society may oblige themselves to attend such dark and hidden Mysteries whether the Transactors of them know them to be theirs or not But whether these Magi were such or had a more open and visible Commerce with evil Spirits it matters not since this is certain that the airy Principality can act no further where a more divine and excellent Power intervenes Wherefore through the mighty Virtue of the Divinity residing in the Soul of Jesus and the unexpected descent of a glorious Host of Angels to these terrestrial Regions singing an Anthem of Praise at the Birth of Jesus it came to pass that the Power of the airy Principality was on a sudden restrained and an universal Chilness and Horror ran through the dark Kingdom so that they were unable to attend their own Hellish Mysteries which the Magi perceiving their usual Incantations not succeeding nor the accustomed Effects following their secret Rites and Ceremonies they began to think the Cause of this unexpected Accident to be extraordinary and knowing the Prophecy of Balaam that a star should come out of Jacob and a scepter rise out of Israel conjectured that the Man foretold to come with the Apparition of a Star was now born into the World and believing him to have a transcendent Power over the aereal Agents resolved to come and worship him presenting him with the choicest Gifts of Arabia Gold and Myrrh and Frankincense as to a King a Man and a God And if any man desire a further Mystery he may take the learned Grotius his Observation that by these three are denoted those three Evangelical Sacrifices which through Christ we offer unto God viz. Works of Charity and Mercy Phil. iv 18. Incorrupted Purity of Body Rom. xii 1. and Prayers Psal cxli. 2. We that are Christians are taught in the Gospel that Jesus Christ the Saviour of Mankind is God as well as Man
the Salvation and future Happiness of a Christian we may take a brief Abstract or Sum of our Duty which is this To love the Lord our God with all our hearts and to have a firm and radicated Faith in his Goodness declared to the World by his only begotten Son Jesus Christ an universal Abstinence from all Wrong and Injustice a hearty Love and Good-will to all men whatever to hold fast that which is Good and to abstain from all appearance of Evil to be of a compassionate and forgiving Spirit and if we have received an Injury not to recompense it again in any kind to abstract and withdraw our hearts and minds from earthly Goods and make Treasures for ourselves in Heaven and to be no more solicitous for worldly concernments than the Lilies of the field or the Fowls of the air but that having food and raiment therewith to be content to keep ourselves pure and undefiled not only from outward and grosser but inward and more refined Pollutions to be ready to do good and distribute to the Necessities of our Brethren to live peaceably if it be possible with all men In a word whatever things are true whatever things are honest just lovely and of good report if there be any virtue if there be any praise to think on such things What can be plainer and easier than this Nor is the Simplicity of the Gospel any derogation from it though that impious Epicurean Celsus deride it upon that account extolling the Writings of Plato above the Scriptures For as Origen acutely enough replies the Design of God in the Gospel being to make men good and virtuous it was necessary the Precepts tending to that end should be delivered plainly and perspicuously suitable to the Capacities of the illiterate Vulgar who are better allured and won by a common and usual form of Speech than by the artificial Deckings and gay Schemes of Rhetorick 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And therefore Christ and his Apostles did much more advance that which was their chief aim the Life and Nature of God in the World by that as Celsus calls it rude and rustical manner of speaking than all the elegant Writings of Plato which if they ever were advantageous for the rectifying and amending the Lives of men it was only to such whose Intellectual Faculties were raised and elevated above the Plebeian Strain Therefore did the Holy Jesus on purpose make choice of ignorant and illiterate Persons that it might appear that the things which they spake were not in the words which mans wisdom teacheth but which the Holy Ghost teacheth and that by the foolish things of the world God might confound the wise and by the weak destroy the things that are mighty Object But you will say To what purpose is that Intricacy and Perplexity which is found in many Places of Holy Scripture and wherefore are many of the chiefest of its Doctrines involved in such Darkness and Obscurity Answ 1. It was in some measure requisite that the Scripture should be obscure to conciliate Reverence and to beget a greater Esteem of its Worth and Dignity For the Gospel is often called a Mystery which supposes somthing venerable and secret and hidden from the eyes of vulgar Persons And God as in Nature he hath hid many pretious things in the Bowels of the Earth which cannot be obtained without great Labour and Diligence in like manner hath he veiled many inestimable Treasures in the Christian Mystery which are only attainable by the diligent Search and sincere Endeavours of pious men For should the Divine Wisdom have displayed at once all the Glories and Beauty of this sacred and recondite Method of recovering Souls it would appear contemptible and worthless as being the easie purchase of every profane and impious Person 2. The Reason of the Obscurity of Christianity lies not so much in the Nature of the thing itself as in the incongruity of mens Minds and Understandings with so high and raised an Object The Eye cannot behold the Sun unless it have some Resemblance and Similitude of it within itself for like is known by its like and if mens Minds be not purified and brought into some Cognation and Likeness with the Truths offered to them it is impossible they should ever have any true and genuine Apprehension of them There is a Learning and Knowing the Truth as it is in Jesus in that God-like meek and resigned Spirit and till mens Tempers be plain'd and smooth'd from the ruggedness of their Passions and the stubborn Asperities of their Lusts and won to the embracing of the Truth in the love of it in that Christ-like Nature of Humility and Self-Denial they may fill their heads with sapless and lean Notions windy and turgent Fancies but never nourish up their Souls with solid and substantial Knowledge The true sense of Religion and Christianity arises out of a mind devoid of Passion and in which the Life of God has taken deep root and flourishes and spreads itself throughout all the powers of the Soul giving a tincture relish and savour of itself to every Thought Word and Deed in the whole course of a mans Life And without this purified sense we feed upon nothing but the Husks and Shells of Religion and fall in love with Shadows instead of lasting and durable Substances And this is no more than what the Scripture speaks of itself 1 Cor. ii 14. The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned There is required a spiritual Sense a Life of Holiness and Justice of Benignity and Righteousness to the true discrimination of Good and Evil. And further to the Knowledge and Understanding of Divine Mysteries there is necessarily required the Aid and Assistance of that Almighty and Omnipresent Spirit who by his fostering Incubation brought into Being the goodly frame of Heaven and Earth and that this Holy Spirit of Truth may begin the Efformation of the new and heavenly Nature a considerable part of which is Divine and Spiritual Wisdom there must be some previous Preparations and men must be morally good and virtuous or else they will be perfectly incapable of the illapse of his Celestial Influence And therefore it is no marvel if to brutish and immoral Persons the Mystery of Godliness be hid and obscure 3. That there might be somthing still reserved for the gratification of all degrees of Christians in all Ages of the World There are both weak and strong Christians some that are Babes in Christ and are fed with Milk others that are of full Age and have a discriminating sense of Good and Evil. For the one there was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a rudimental way of instruction whereby men were led as it were by the hand through the Principles of Religion as the Author to the Hebrews intimates Heb. vi where the first thing required
Destruction of Jerusalem and Lazarus being then alive when the others wrote their Gospels they purposely omitted it lest the reciting and recording so eximious and convictive a Miracle might exasperate the Jews against him and bring him to ruine but being dead St. John might safely transmit it to Posterity in his Gospel Again It is very improbable they would deceive others For Cui bono to what end or purpose or what Design could they aim at in deceiving the World Honours and Preferments they could not expect they being all in the hands of the Pagans or of the Jews their bitter Enemies who hated the holy Jesus with an implacable hatred and for that very reason persecuted all his Adherents nor could they hope for Riches when the Profession of Christianity exposed them to the Loss of all temporal Goods neither could the Gospel be preached without the neglect of mundane affairs But perhaps some will say they imposed upon the World that they might be the Authors of a new Sect But 1. either they believed the Doctrins which they taught to be true or they did not if they did not believe them we cannot easily imagine they should so far forth put off all Humanity and good Nature which they so seriously and frequently inculcate in their Writings as to expose so many thousand innocent Persons to Death upon their Assertion of a Falshood yet if they could be so prodigiously cruel to others would they be so prodigal of their own Blood as to throw it away upon an uncertain Delusion If they thought them to be true as it is most likely they did their Writings shewing that they were in good earnest then 't is certain that it was not the poor and trifling Glory of being the Authors of a new and unheard of Sect but the real Good and Advantage of Mankind which animated and encourag'd them to such an Undertaking 2. It is not the manner of Cheaters to provoke to so many Witnesses as we find the Apostles did St. Paul asserting the Resurrection of our blessed Lord beside the Testimony of the twelve Apostles brings in five hundred upon the Stage at once to confirm the same Truth the major part of which were then alive when he wrote that Epistle 1 Cor. xv Add to this that a Lie is strictly forbidden by their Writings and those that delight in it menaced with eternal Destruction Eph. 4.25 Col. 3.9 Rev. 21.8.3 3. Suppose men could be so wicked yet would the Goodness of God suffer such a Cheat to be put upon the World If we look upon the whole frame of the Christian Religion it is such that the more good any man is the more likely to adhere to it and the most harmless and innocent Persons in the world are most apt to be charmed and overcome by it But surely to them that believe a just and righteous Providence governing the affairs of the World it is apparent that God would not have suffered an Error so universally to prevail nor those who most of all resemble his blessed Nature in Justice Mercy and Compassion to be involved in Obscurity and Ignorance and eternally to perish in a Delusion since he may and acting according to his Nature must necessarily detect it Now because the glorious Resurrection of Jesus Christ the Son of God dismantling the Prisons of Death and freeing himself from the Chains and Fetters of the Grave is the great Pillar and Foundation of the Christian Doctrin therefore it will be requisite to wipe off those Spots the mouth of Envy and Detraction hath cast upon it To this end I shall examine that Objection of the Jews who seeing the clear and evident Proofs of the Resurrection of Jesus invented this Elusion of it That his Disciples came by night and stole him away while the watch slept To which the many improbable and unlikely Circumstances it is attended withal will be a sufficient Answer and Reply As 1. how unlikely is it that his Disciples who just before fled every one from him should now resume such Courage as to venture to steal his Body from a Guard of Souldiers 2. It is not likely that all the Watch should be asleep at one time 3. If they were yet 't is hard to imagine that his Disciples should come just at that time 4. How could they roll away the Stone and take out the Body which surely would have made no small noise and yet none of the Guard hear them 5. Suppose they had taken away the Body Quid ex cadavere emolumenti what benefit could they have expected from a dead Carcase would the dead and infamous Body of an Impostor be a sufficient Motive to induce them to deny Friends and Relatives worldly Interests and Profits yea Life itself to maintain his Credit by telling the World a fair Story of his Resurrection if indeed there were no such thing This being then sufficiently evidenced that Christ rose from the dead it is an undeniable Confirmation that all his other Miracles were true And indeed it could not suit with the Justice of God to leave his Soul in Hell or suffer his Flesh to see Corruption For the Innocence of the Lord Christ was bright as the noon-day and all his Sufferings being undergone upon our account and having made a full and perfect atonement for Sin the righteous Providence of God was engaged to raise him up and instate him in that blessedness which he merited for himself by his voluntary Humiliation and Condescent According to what the Apostle affirms of him Acts ii 24. Whom God hath raised up having loosed the pains of death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it was not possible i.e. it was not meet suitable or agreeable to the Justice of God that he should be holden of it We have seen the Objection of the Jew and I shall now conclude this Particular by considering what the Heathen and Atheist hath to say against the Resurrection of Jesus and he brings his Exception after this manner If Jesus did really rise from the dead why did he not then shew himself alive to all or at least to the chief Priests and Rulers of the Jews who condemned him to be crucified and not only to his own company and that not constantly to them but like a Spectrum or Ghost appearing and then vanishing away But it is no wonder if impure and Atheistical men do not apprehend the Divine Dispensation of Jesus in the Flesh since there is a perpetual Antipathy between their gross and feculent Souls and the Holy Spirit of heavenly Wisdom but to them that are sincere there is nothing in this instance but may admit of a fair Apology We must know then that the Soul of the Holy Jesus being vitally united to the eternal Logos and never lapsed from the pure and immaculate Regions of Blessedness with the rest of Mankind but so qualifying his Glory as to fit himself for an Union with a terrestrial Body must have even
in these earthly Habitations a very efficacious Principle of Life and Virtue within him which though shut up and constrained by the encumbrances of Flesh and Blood yet shone through the Veil and sometimes broke forth into pure Light and Glory wherefore through the Plenitude and Perfection of this high and exalted Life it so came to pass that in the time of his converse with Mortals before his Death he was not seen alike and after the same manner by all but according to the Measure and Model of their frail Capacities And some such thing Judas who betraid him seems to intimate by giving a Sign to the Apprehenders of Jesus to know him when yet it was true what Christ said that he was daily with them teaching in the Temple And certainly we cannot but think somthing extraordinary to be in the blessed Jesus when the Scripture tells us that the children of Israel were not able to behold the glorious Visage even of Moses when he descended from his converse with God in the Mount Although then in the frailties of his Flesh when he was a Man of Sorrows and had not yet spoiled Principalities and Powers nor died for Sin he suffered himself to be seen of all yet when he had broken the Powers of Hell and rose as a triumphant Conquerour from his Bed of Darkness the Grave he was not then the Object of every mans sight his Divinity being more refulgent when the Oeconomy he undertook in the Flesh was finished but to those who were capable of his Presence he appeared and shewed himself alive to confirm and strengthen their Faith and yet spared their Imbecillity and Imperfection by staying but a little with them at a time For even his Apostles were not all capable of beholding him at all times and therefore he selected Peter James and John who alone were able to bear that glorious Spectacle of his Transfiguration and behold Moses and Elias in their celestial Robes and hear not only their Discourse but the voice which came to them from the clouds And hence we gather that he would not appear to those who insulted over him in his misery and were the Authors of his ignominious Death out of compassion towards them lest they should be struck with Blindness as the wicked Sodomites who sought to abuse those Angelical Personages that were hospitably received into the House of Lot And thus we read that Saul in his Journey to Damascus was struck blind by that excellent Glory which yet became an innocuous and recreating Splendor to St. Stephen a little before his Death CHAP. III. That Christianity contains nothing light and trivial but grave and sober Truths delivered in that decorous and becoming Majesty as well suited with that Blessed Spirit which inspired the Prophets and Apostles THe third Particular to be proved in order to the Declaration of the Excellency of Christianity is that it treats of no small and trifling things but such as are of the greatest importance in the world For what is more noble and generous than that which concerns the Happiness and Welfare of the whole Creation What more sublime and excellent than that which tends to the unmasking the cloudy and obscure face of Providence and discovering the unsearchable Wisdom of God in the harmonious Order and Symmetry of the World But to descend more particularly 1. The Gospel teaches us that the true and genuine Felicity of Mankind is the Participation of the Nature of God That the Souls of men are in an undue and wrong estate in this World that is that their Natures are by some means or other corrupted and vitiated and forced from their proper Bent and Inclinations needs no other confirmation than the great Inquietude and Dissatisfaction they find in the best terrestrial Joys and Delights and their diligent and indefatigable Inquisition after some noble and permanent Good which may be commensurate with the vastness of their Capacities and Desires And although as men come into the World their Animal Powers and Faculties whose proper Objects are the Results of Sense and corporeal Motion are fully awake and usurp the Throne of Reason and Intellect yet those Lordly Powers like an oppressed Prince still lay claim to the Soveraignty and Dominion and whenever any due occasion is offered give an evident proof of their heavenly Birth and Extraction and strive to free themselves from their unjust Captivity and regain their native Liberty and Command And if by a favourable Assistance and timely Aid the Minds of men conquer and suppress the rebellious Passions and Desires of the mortal Body and become in any measure healthy and strong to relish their proper Food and Nourishment and amidst all the flattering Appearances and fine Shows presented to them from this outward World discriminate between real Good and Evil and select true and substantial from false and adulterate Joys they behold with Pleasure and Enravishment a perfect Union and Harmony between whatever Truths shall duly be propounded to them and their rational Natures For the Souls of men being in their general Strictures and Lineaments Intellectual it cannot be but that their highest Felicity and truest Accomplishments must flow from the exercise of their higher and more immaterial Powers and the more spiritualiz'd and refined they are from baser Alloy the more tender and apprehensive are they of whatever is Noble and Excellent and agreeable to the Purity of their Natures Albeit therefore our Faculties be depraved and debased as we appear upon the Stage of this World yet there being in us a strong Propension to return to our first and primitive state out of which we were forced by the unjust Usurpation of Iniquity and Sin Truth and Goodness and all those beautiful Forms and Ideas which shone in our Souls before their unhappy Lapse and Revolt from the blessed Laws and Government of Gods own Life will upon a congruous Proposal renew their antient League and Friendship and conspire the utter Subversion of all irregular Appetites and Desires and reduce the whole Man into a strict Obedience and Observance of the Dictates and Prescriptions of that holy and exalted Principle of Life which being once fully seated and radicated in our Minds and Spirits is alone able to make us perfectly happy and blessed For the Souls of men are not devoid of innate Knowledge but are essentially stored through the gracious Bounty and Liberality of the first and blessed Author of all things with the Principles of all manner of Science and Wisdom whatever and hence cannot but embrace and receive every thing that hath any Cognation and Affinity with those first Inscriptions on their Natures Now the great Happiness Delight and Satisfaction of every degree of Life in the World consisting in and arising from the kindly and agreeable Actings of its chiefest and best Faculties and Capacities and the Nature of Man so far forth as it is capable of moral Good and Evil being made up of such Principles as are
them a true and faithful discrimination of Objects Wherefore Divine Wisdom hath treated the Sons of men after a sensible manner and engaged them by Arguments that more forcibly strike their Fancies and Imaginations and have a greater Influence for the promoting the indispensable Duties of Sanctity and Truth than any terrestrial Pleasure can possibly be allective to the contrary 'T is true if Religion could consist with Avarice Vain-Glory and Ambition the covetous Miser who rips up the Bowels of the Earth for Treasure and spins out his Life in a golden Thread would become a Proselyte and he who seeks to ride upon the shoulders of the Multitude and lives upon the Air and Breath of Popular Applause would need no Inducements to turn Christian But when things go directly contrary and he that will be a sincere Disciple of the Son of God must crucifie his rebellious Lusts and descend into the Grave of Mortification and cashier every inordinate Motion and Desire that hinders or any way obstructs his approach to so inestimable a good as the Possession of the blessed Life of God and this not to be done without indefatigable Industry and Care and as it were a Dilaceration of himself from himself that is a forcible Subjection of that grand Principle of our Apostasie and Deviation from God which is so mischievously powerful to the Commands and Laws of our superior Life there is no man can doubt but that the Promises of the Gospel are infinitely necessary in order to that weighty Design eternal Wisdom seeks to carry on by the Promulgation of them to the World Which Promises we may refer to these three general Heads 1. Pardon of all our Sins upon a true Repentance and sincere Conformity of our Minds and Spirits to the Will of God And this was the great End of Christs coming into the World that he might reconcile it unto God and assure guilty Sinners who had made themselves obnoxious to Divine Wrath and Displeasure that if they will return to their Loyalty and Obedience and express an unfeigned Repentance by sincere Purposes and Resolutions of a new Life God will forgive their past Trespasses and remember their Iniquities no more The whole Gospel what else is it but a free and gracious Declaration of Pardon and Forgiveness to the World which as it takes away all direful and jealous Thoughts which criminal Persons through a Conscience of their own Guiltiness and Sin and frequent Presages of Divine Vengeance are apt to retain of God so it gives them a true and faithful Representation of his Nature that he is no dreadful and hurtful Being encircled with Tempests and devouring Flames no Tyrant whose arbitrary Love or Hate are the Rules and Laws of his Government but an Almighty Goodness whose pregnant Fecundity gave Life and Being to the whole Creation and studiously endeavours the Conservation of all things in all that Happiness their Natures are capable of This was it to which the holy Jesus bare witness and published to the Sons of men by going about doing good and diffusing a Spirit of real Righteousness throughout the World He took it upon his Death that this was true that God did infinitely desire the Reconciliation of the World to himself and that not for any Self-Ends or Designs for what can accrue to him who is infinite Life and eternally possessed of whatever speaks Perfection but for the sole Good and Welfare of things themselves that every Being might obtain that Place and Order in the Universe and enjoy all that Felicity to which it was at first intended and from which nothing but its own wilful Wretchedness could degrade it For Gods Justice is nothing but his Goodness Power and Wisdom imployed for the Maintenance and Conservation of what is eternally just and right and if this may be done without Extremity and Rigour his Goodness doth as much oblige him to take the gentlest and mildest Course as any man can pretend his Justice for exact Punishment and Severity But that all the Attributes of the Deity might be at once secured and fallen Man restored to a Capacity of being made happy again Christ appearing in human Nature hath undertaken the Cause of Man and given himself a Ransom for all the Punishment due to us being transferred on him and through the Sacrifice and Death of Jesus God is upon terms of Peace and Friendship with the World and proclaims a free Indulgence to all who will lay down their Hostility and Rebellion and become obedient Subjects to his Kingdom God takes no advantage against any man to destroy him and 't is a horrid Impiety in us to suspect him of Treachery and Deceit and to represent God to our minds in such a fearful Garb and Image as eternally wishing the Destruction of the greatest part of his Creatures is no less Idolatry than to fall down and worship the Works of our own hands 2. The powerful Assistance of Gods Spirit to enable us to perform his Commands When the great Love the holy Apostles bare to the Lord Christ made them sorrowful for his Departure they supposing he would then leave them to the Mercies of a faithless and perverse Generation he takes Compassion on his Charge and assures them that when the time comes that his bodily Presence should be withdrawn from them he would not leave them destitute and forsaken but send the Comforter the Spirit of Truth unto them who should not only perform the Office of an Advocate in pleading and maintaining the Justice of his Cause against the unrighteous World but be a Principle of Love and Purity in their hearts and conduct them through the various Windings and Obliquities of Error and Falshood into the plain and easie Paths of Truth and Righteousness And for a Confirmation of this Promise he appeals to common Sense and the Evidence of all Mankind If ye who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children how much more shall your heavenly Father from whom all Creatures proceed and upon whom they depend more intimately than Faculties and Actions upon the Principles from whence they flow bestow his Holy Spirit upon them that ask it of him Wherefore that no man might despair and count it an impossible thing to atchieve a perfect Victory and Conquest over his Lusts and Corruptions God has promised that the Business shall not be transacted by our own single Effort and solitary Endeavours but that we shall have the powerful Aid of his blessed Spirit than which nothing can be a more vigorous Encouragement For what can resist his Almighty Energy and Virtue or what can be so stubborn and refractory that he cannot render sequacious and obedient who at first brought all things out of nothing Be our Lusts never so mighty and gigantick and the Powers of Darkness never so resolutely armed against us yet the Strength and Assistance derived to us from Heaven is able to put to flight all our Enemies and make us perfectly
victorious The Spirit of God is no dull and sluggish Principle but a quick and active Life and into whatever Soul it enters it is perpetually cleansing and purifying and refining it till it have wholly extirpated and destroyed whatever beats no similitude with itself and rendred the whole Man an immaculate Temple for the Manifestation of its own glorious Presence Let no man then pretend an invincible Infirmity or that he is fatally bound and enslaved to Sin and Vice for if we would but excite those Powers God has given us and by ardent Breathings invocate the gracious Auxiliaries of Heaven there would be Wonders wrought upon our Souls the Strength of our Corruptions would abate and our furious Passions be restrained and reduced into Discipline and Order 3. The last general Head is the Promise of a future and blessed Immortality in Heaven when this present Life is ended The blessed Jesus while he lived upon Earth did not wholly obscure his Glory in the mantle of Flesh and Blood but gave a notable Specimen of that efficacious Life and Power which as he himself was already possessed of so all those that believe in his Name should hereafter be endued withal which should melt their Corruptible into Incorruption and translate them to the quiet and peaceful Regions of Immortality in his Transfiguration upon Mount Tabor which was enough to call off the Thoughts and Cares of men from the trifling Concerns of this World and teach them that there was a better Portion to be expected for all the Sons of God and Virtue in the pure and undefiled Mansions of Heaven where dwells nothing but Truth and Goodness But the most lively and pregnant Evidence of the future Subsistence of our Souls was his glorious Resurrection from the dead whereby as he was declared to be the Son of God with Power so it gives us a full Assurance and convictive Demonstration even to outward Sense that the comfortless Chambers of the Grave shall not for ever detein us but that when he who is our Life shall appear and summon Earth and Sea to deliver up their dead and open the secret Receptacles of Souls then shall all holy and righteous Persons appear with him in Glory and take possession of their long expected Joy and receive the just Recompence of all their Pains and Labours an Inheritance incorruptible undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved by a gracious Providence in the Heavens for them All Power is committed into the hands of Christ who hath vanquished Death and Hell and captivated all the Powers of Darkness and begotten us to a lively Hope that when we shall put off our Mortality and be released from all terrestrial Pressures and Incumbrances he will cloth us with an heavenly Body like unto his own Body of Light and Glory But lest we should undo ourselves with fruitless Expectations and flie to Heaven in our vain Dreams of Salvation before our sincere Conformity to Gods blessed Will and Commands has rendred us capable of that pure and holy State fancying we can read our Names written among the Stars before we have learnt the Precepts of a holy Life God hath annexed Conditions of Obedience to all his Promises and resolved that no man shall be crowned but he that with Courage and Perseverance maintains the War against Sin and Hell And indeed the Reward that is promised to all virtuous Persons in the Gospel hath so great Affinity and Agreement with Holiness the Condition of it that in the Nature of the thing itself he cannot be capable of the one who is not aforehand invested with the other For what is Heaven but a state of spotless Love and Purity where no Envy nor Malice straitens and contracts the boundless and enlarged no clouds of Passion or disordered Lust obscure the Brightness of that eternal Day where the Sun of Righteousness neither rises nor sets upon the Horizon of Time but remains Vertical for ever And now what Concord can possibly be imagined between such transcendent Beauty and Glory and the Deformity and Ugliness of the Frame and Temper of an unrighteous mans Spirit where every thing lies cross and untoward and his unruly Desires like the boisterous Waves enraged by a sudden Storm sweep the bottom of his polluted Soul and throw up so much Mire and Dirt that it defaces whatever is comely and leaves not the least Emblem of Heaven to be discerned in it This is the grand importance of the Promises of the Gospel which is enough to demonstrate the prudent Care and dear Affection of the Son of God to the Children of Men and a sufficient Manifestation of the great Ingratitude and Unworthiness of those who do not believe in him that it is not the Want of Reasons or convictive Arguments but their own careless and wretchless Neglect of Consideration that makes them deaf to such Charms of Love and stupid and unmindful of so important Interests But men seldom want Objections against that which they have no mind to believe against this therefore 't is said That if the Promises of that eternal Reward Christ has made to us in the Gospel be so framed as to be inevident to men and leave them place of doubting it will be no such great Crime in wicked Persons not to believe those Promises and so not to embrace them To this I say 1. That the Gospel leaves no such place of doubting as to make Infidelity or a Disbelief of it excusable For Unbelief can then only be excusable when there are really wanting such Arguments as may beget Faith in a rational and unprejudic'd Person But the Gospel and the Promises thereof being sufficiently confirmed by such prevalent Reasons as are apt to acquire Belief and Credence from an unbias'd Nature the pretended Inevidence where there is no just Cause or Suspicion of Doubting cannot at all patronize Infidelity nor be a reasonable ground to act contrary to what Belief would otherwise incite them It s true were the Arguments for the Disbelief of the Promises of Life and Salvation equal to and strong as those that perswade us to the Belief of them there would be some Colour and Appearance of Reason for rejecting them but when there can be no such Doubting or Fluctuation of Judgment as proceeds from an Equilibration of Arguments on both sides it is impossible that Infidelity should have any rational Apology For what can be more convictive than to have some holy and divine Person come into the World who should by many infallible Miracles Wonders and Signs give an evident Proof that he came from God and for a full Confirmation of his Doctrin rise from the dead the third day after the suffering a painful and ignominious Death and to shew that he was no Spectrum or illusive Phantasm conversing with his Disciples for the space of forty days and afterwards ascending in their Presence into the highest Heavens there to rule and govern his Church till the End of