of true Devotion more than wrong notions of Almighty God The great reason why the Heathens were over-run with Idolatry and Superstition was because the Histories of their Gods were stuff'd with folly and wickedness and they could not pretend to greater heights of Purity than the Deities that they worshipped To adore God is to bestow upon him the highest Love Veneration and esteem of our Souls His Eyes pierce to the secrets that are buried in darkness and to the Centre of our Spirits and if our Sacrifices are sullied and defil'd in their first springs and principles they are an abomination unto him No Worship can be pleasing unto God unless what is offer'd by Love Pray what do we take him to be when we endeavour to put him off with any thing less than the flower and strength of our Reason Thus our Saviour instructs the Woman of Samaria in the Nature of true Worship but the hour cometh and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth for the Father seeketh such to worship him How gross must their apprehensions be who think that he is delighted with carnal Oblations for he is a Spirit and must be worshipped in spirit and in truth If I were hungry I would not tell thee for the World is mine and the fulness thereof Will I eat the flesh of Bulls or drink the blood of Goats offer unto God thanksgiving and pay thy vows unto the most High THE Philosophers discover'd the reasonableness of this Doctrine without Revelation and the best of them undervalu'd outward services and Sacrifices in comparison of a chast Mind and a pure Soul Do ye think saith Seneca that God is pleas'd with many Sacrifices and much Blood high Temples and magnificent Structures nay rather in suo cuique consecrandus est pectore The breast of a good Man is the most lovely Temple for the Divinity the place of his peculiar residence and Habitation And this is but the language of the Prophet Isay a little varied Thus saith the Lord the Heaven is my Throne and the Earth is my footstool where is the house that ye build unto me and where is the place of my rest For all those things hath mine hand made and all those things have been saith the Lord But to this man will I look even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit and trembleth at my word He that killeth an Ox is as if he slew a man c. The Sacrifices of Gods own institution were not regarded unless they were subservient to this more excellent Oblation THIS Evangelical Sacrifice is the only and most proper mean to attain the true ends of Worship freedom from sin the favour of God and peace of Conscience are the great ends of all Religion and these things are not attain'd by the most pompous shew and parade of Ceremonies unless the Soul and Will be first sacrificed to his Obedience When ye come to appear before me who hath requir'd this at your hand to tread my Courts bring no more vain Oblations Incense is an abomination unto me the new Moons and Sabbaths the calling of Assemblies I cannot away with it is iniquity even the solemn meeting How loathsom in the eyes of God are all our publick services when the Soul is left behind He hath shewed thee O! man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God THIS is the Sacrifice that is peculiar to the New Testament when we approach the Throne of God with filial confidence like Children of the free woman disingaged from the servile incumbrances that held the Jews in bondage When we offer our selves unto God with true alacrity strong desires and a mind purified from the World and feculent adherences that stick to us from the neighbourhood of sensible Objects when we come with that masculine and chearful Devotion that becomes them that are set at liberty from the weak and dark shadows of the Law By St. Peter we are said to be a spiritual Priesthood to offer up spiritual Sacrifices And we are told by S. Paul that we have access to the Throne and liberty to cry Abba Father And commanded in our Prayers to lift up holy hands without wrath or doubting This is the Worship of the new Testament the foundation of that ingenuous Converse that is between us and Heaven Therefore do we with so much elevation of spirit magnifie the goodness of God that gave us his Son Vnto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood and hath made us Kings and Priests unto God and his Father to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever Amen THIS is true Evangelical Sacrifice and it alone affords the most solid delight and satisfaction to the Votary Outward Services when they are separated from this inward dedication have nothing in them but toil and bodily labour we are told by the Author to the Hebrews that the Jewish Religion did consist in Meats and Drinks and divers Ordinances And we find in the Prophecy of Amos that such of the Jews as did not see further than the letter of the Law thought their attendance on the Temple-service the most intolerable weariness But when we sacrifice our very Souls unto his obedience his Presence fills our hearts with joy and gladness the purest rapture and contentment Thou hast put more gladness in my heart than in the time when their wine and their oil did increase True joy arises in the Soul from an Union with God when the light of his Countenance shines upon us by its clear beams and irradiations the clouds of darkness and disasters cannot approach us we are then secure against fear and despondency we feel our selves encircled in the arms of divine Love and made strong against the assaults of anxiety God is the source of all Felicity and the nearer we draw unto him the more happy we are and rational happiness must be felt and necessarily must dilate it self in all the faculties of the Soul A Conscience void of offence towards God and towards Man is a house built upon the Rock it may be batter'd but it cannot be shaken And God loves to pour into our hearts such degrees of joy when we are purified from all filthiness of the flesh and of the Spirit when we offer our selves without reserve to his service and obedience when we sacrifice our hearts unto God when Charity consumes the Oblation and true zeal inflames the Victim I had rather said the Psalmist be one day in thy Courts than a thousand elsewhere And again O! How love I thy Law it is my meditation night and day They are strangers to true Peace and satisfaction that are unacquainted with the pure and unmixt pleasures of Religion 2. LET us consider the value that God did set upon
this spiritual Sacrifice when the Levitical Sacrifices were in force He always gave his People to understand by the Prophets that the whole train of the Mosaick Ceremonies was design'd to signifie and advance this everlasting and more spiritual Worship which was to continue when the typical figures and shadows were gone This is clear from that remarkable place in the Prophecies of Jeremiah For I spake not unto your Fathers nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt concerning Burnt-Offerings or Sacrifices but this thing commanded I them saying obey my Voice and I will be your God and ye shall be my people Strange Did not God command the Sacrifices of the Levitical Law Yes certainly but with design to advance the purer Worship of the Mind This is more precious than the most costly Offerings of the Temple The Widow's Mite recorded in the Gospel is one visible instance of it 't is prefer'd in the esteem of God to all the Rich Donations of the Scribes and Pharisees she came to the Treasury with a poor Purse and a Rich Soul a Soul made cheerful with the Love of God and in the simplicity of her heart without ostentation or reserve she offered all that she had How much God delighted in the Oblations of the Mind beyond the outward Sacrifices appears in this that he readily dispens'd with the Ceremony when that other more valuable Sacrifice was brought Two famous instances we have of this viz. David's eating the Shew-bread by which our Saviour confounded the Pharisees who doted so much on the external part of their Religion And the next is the manner of Hezekiah 's celebrating the Passeover though the people were not prepared according to the method prescribed by the Law Therefore it is a foolish Argument that the Jews make use of against our Saviour that he could not be the Messias because he did abolish the Ceremonies of Moses's Law For the Levitical Sacrifices did vanish of their own accord when our Saviour rose from the dead and gave place unto that Spiritual Worship that was more agreeable to the Divine Nature and the Spiritual Kingdom of the Messias So our Saviour tells the Woman of Samaria Woman believe me the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this Mountain nor yet in Jerusalem worship the Father but the hour cometh and now is when the true Worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth for the Father seeketh such to worship him From all this it is very evident that not only in the time of the Patriarchs but under the Law this was only the Sacrifice that was valued by God 3. LET us remember that the exact care and caution wherewith they were obliged to offer their Sacrifices under the Law did signifie and promote this Spiritual Sacrifice of the New Testament I do not here intend a just Discourse of the antient Sacrifices yet we may be oblig'd to look back into the Books of Moses to consider some particulars that concern all Sacrifices in general AND 1. All Sacrifices were offered with Salt With all thine Offerings thou shalt offer Salt This is cited in the New Testament by our Saviour I must remember that I ought not to amuse you with Cabalistick Fooleries but it is certain from the Epistle to the Galatians and the Hebrews that there was a sublime Moral couch'd and intended by the external Scheme of the Law And therefore though we are not able to trace it in all its Lines and Figures yet we may safely venture when we force the Law to say nothing but what is agreeable to the great design of Religion and the Morals of Christianity LET me return to consider this first step of their Caution in sacrificing Salt hath in it a twofold Vertue 1. It preserves from Putrefacton 2. It binds the parts together 1. I SAY it preserves from Putrefaction The Sacrifices that are offered unto the pure and incorruptible Deity must resemble his Nature the rottenness of hypocrisie fraud and malice must be banish'd from all his Sacrifices We have escaped the corruption that is in the World through lust being made partakers of the Divine Nature Thus are we exhorted to sincerity opposite to corruption by S. Peter Wherefore laying aside all malice all guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings c. See with what complacency our Saviour speaks of Nathanael Behold an Israelite indeed in whom is no guile 2. SALT bindeth the parts together We are forbidden to bring our Gifts to the Altar until first we are reconcil'd to our Brother We are directed by S. Paul to lift up holy hands without wrath or doubting Our God is the God of Peace our Religion is the Gospel of Peace and the fruits of the Spirit are Joy and Peace and the wisdom that is from above is first pure and then peaceable Such a temper and frame of Spirit does well answer the Prophecies of Isaiah That the Wolf should dwell with the Lamb the Leopard and the Kid shall lye down together And the Calf and the young Lion and the Fatling together and a young Child shall lead them i e. the fierce and unruly passions of Humane Nature shall be conquer'd and subdu'd by the Laws of Jesus every thing that is rugged and boistrous must be tam'd and smooth'd for the Earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the Waters cover the Sea I might add to this that Salt preserves the relish And therefore the Apostle exhorts Let your speech be always with Grace seasoned with Salt that ye may know how to answer every man If this were notic'd our tongues should be employed with greater Modesty and less censorious endeavouring to close rather than widen the breaches in our neighbourhood 2. ALL Sacrifices ought to be blameless according to the Prescript of the Law The Prophet Malachi upbraids the people with the neglect of this If ye offer the lame and the sick is it not evil offer it now unto thy Governour will he be pleas'd with thee or accept thy person What we offer unto God who is of purer eyes than that he can behold iniquity must be blameless and entire that ye may be blameless and harmless the Sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse Nation among whom ye shine as lights in the World We are to consider not only our inward frame but also the outward Decorum of our behaviour in the place of his presence 3. ALL Sacrifices were to be offered without Leaven No meat offering which ye shall bring unto the Lord shall be made with leaven And the New Testament commands us to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees And to purge out the old leaven of Corruption Now leaven hath a twofold quality it sowrs and it swells either or both marrs the Sacrifice whether we grow sowr with
Therefore they must needs invent a Religion that is calculated to serve their designs and to silence the troublesome alarms of their mind But be not you deceived God is not mocked for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap Our Saviour set himself to undeceive the World in this great affair and to remove the Pharisaical paint and varnish from the Law and to let us understand that our God is not an Idol that he values no Sacrifices but such as resemble his Nature For he is a Spirit and must be worshiped in Spirit and in Truth 2. A SECOND part of our Saviour's design was to give true repose and tranquillity to the Spirits of Men. Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest The inward disorder of our Spirits is the cause of all our trouble when the Light of the Gospel removes our Errors and by its beams warms our affections the day-star from on high ariseth in our breasts our fears and dreadful apprehensions are over and there is a perfect calm and tranquillity One great instruction in our Saviour's Commission was to bind up the broken hearted The Souls of Men are at variance with themselves until they are united unto God He fixes their Spirits in their operations and choice and creates within them that harmony and peace which the World cannot give them Then they are arm'd against all events and disasters they are like a Rock of Adamant immoveable against the most tempestuous waves and storms the winds may blow and the storms may threaten and beat upon the Rock with the loudest roarings but they are quickly beat back into froth and disappointment The righteous are like mount Zion which cannot be mov'd THAT it was a part of our Saviour's design to establish this tranquillity of Spirit appears from this very Sermon on the Mount where he endeavours by so many arguments to fortifie us against all fears discouragments and solicitude The Wisdom of God levell'd the strongest arguments against the most desperate diseases and therefore the Doctrine of the Gospel in all its branches hath an admirable tendency to create this peace When we believe that all things are ordered and dispos'd by an universal infinitely wise unlimited and active Providence With what acquiescence and serenity of Spirit may we give up all things to his conduct and government Not a hair of your head falleth to the ground without his pleasure The nature and frame of all the Graces of the Spirit the whole spiritual furniture of the Gospel naturally lead to peace love joy and meekness We are assured that all things work together for good to them that love God Even our light afflictions that endure but for a moment work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory And the belief of this establishes the mind against all the shakings of adversity And we may add to all the former considerations that we are frequently exhorted to place our affections on the things that are above to leave this World ' its hurry and noise and to get above it in our affections and to view with satisfaction and ease amidst our lowest depressions that Country that is above 3. ANOTHER part of our Saviour's design was to unite us together in the straitest bonds of humane society In order to which he hath made Love the badge and character of his profession So exactly fulfilling the Prophecies concerning the Messias that in his days the Wolf should dwell with the Lamb the Leopard and the Kid should ly down together i. e. that the fierceness of human Nature should be banish'd and all the rugged and uneven excrescencies of passion the boisterous swellings of humour should be filed off John the Baptist told that every valley should be fill'd and every mountain brought low the crooked should be made straight and the rough ways should be made smooth i. e. All injustice fraud and oppression all pride hypocrisie and violence should give place unto everlasting righteousness every one should keep his own post and move in his own Orb with contentment and sobriety Hence Servants are exhorted not to repine at their condition for as the members of the body natural must hold their distance and situation so must the members of the body political 4. ANOTHER part of his design was to liberate us from the Yoke of Moses Law I only name this particular I will not insist on it at present Now if the design of Christian Religion was to restore true morality the image of God humility patience the love of God and contempt of the World and to discover the hypocrisie and wickedness of the Pharisees Let us then enquire In the Second place IN what instances the Pharisaical Religion did cross the Christian and we shall discover the manifest opposition of the one to the other When we consider 1 THE Vices that they were most addicted to 2. THE Prejudices that they were blinded with 3. THE Maxims and shifts that they espous'd into their Doctrine to defend their wickedness and immoralities 1. Do but consider the Vices that they were most addicted to Pride contrary to the humility of the Gospel Avarice in opposition to that contempt of the World that our Saviour taught Hypocrisie that overthrows the ingenuity recommended and enjoyn'd by our Religion Revenge Cruelty and Rebellion contrary to the Loyalty Meekness and Obedience of our most holy Faith We are inform'd by Josephus though he was himself much addicted to the Sect of the Pharisees that they were a crafty and subtile generation of men and so perverse even to Princes themselves that they would not fear many times openly to affront them They had a mighty ascendent over the People and by their long prayers superstitious tricks and disfigur'd faces they got the Rable once of their side and by their interest in the multitude they became terrible to the Governours Alexander Jannaeus when he lay a dying advis'd his Queen not to irritate and displease the Pharisees and told her plainly that this was the very thing that deriv'd the Odium of the Nation upon him that he had comply'd so little with that restless and pragmatick Generation IF the Vices of the Pharisees prevail amongst the Christians what a reproach is it unto us and to our Religion When we remember that we are to obey for Conscience sake We may easily see that there is nothing more opposite to Christianity than Rebellion And this very Sect amongst the Jews strove to advance their Religious Tyranny above the Highest Powers as if they had been bred near the Infallible Chair or a General Assembly Many Popes declar'd it to be of necessity to Salvation to every humane Creature to be subject to the Roman Pontiff and the instances are many as they are undeniable Therefore we are smoothly told by some of them that this is not matter of Faith but Discipline I confess it is
FROM what was heard let us go forward to what was seen and there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire and sat upon each of them 1. There appeared Tongues The Apostles that were formerly silent had now their tongues loos'd they lifted up their voice like Trumpets and spake the wonderful things of God and the Jewish Proselytes from all Nations that were now at Jerusalem were astonish'd to hear the poor Galileans open up the profoundest Mysteries so readily and so successfully their Tongues as if they were cloven by the finger of God spake those words that were like sparks of fire in the Souls of men now they appear'd to be the genuine Disciples of him who spake as never man spake who taught as one having authority whose words did reach the Souls of men with life and force and pierc'd between the Soul and the Spirit between the joynts and the marrow It was then true of the Apostles what was prophetically said by the Psalmist of our Saviour Grace is poured into thy lips therefore God hath blessed thee for ever The streams of their heavenly eloquence ran smoothly and fluently in Mysteries in Revelations in Reproofs in Directions in Counsels in Wisdom in Knowledge in Purity not exactly limned and proportion'd by elaborate periods and artificial dresses but in the greatest plainness mixt with the greatest power they deliver'd their message how boldly and how pertinently did they confute the slanders of Infidelity With what courage did they upbraid the Sanhedrim with the Murder of the Lord of Life Who among their Scribes and their learnedest Pharisees durst encounter the Wisdom of S. Stephen when once filled with the Holy Ghost How flat are Humane Reasonings against the Wisdom of God How feeble and how dull are all contrivances against the Council of the Almighty And now the Apostles found the Prophecy concerning the Messias in a great measure verified in his Disciples The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the Learned that I should know to speak a word in season to him that is weary 2. THOSE Tongues were cloven There are some Tongues cloven by the Devil that can nimbly shuffle themselves into different figures and are so accurately vers'd in the little arts of dissimulation that you may come much sooner to their meaning when you understand every thing that they say in a contradictory sense than when you swallow it down in the literal meaning S. James telleth us that with the same tongue we both bless God and curse man but the Tongues of the Apostles were cloven for a more noble end viz. that they might divide aright the Word of God unto all Nations under Heaven Parthians Medes and Elamites and the dwellers in Mesopotamia in Judea in Cappadocia Pontus Asia Phrygia and Pamphylia strangers of Rome Jews and Proselytes Cretes and Arabians all of them heard the Apostles in their own language speak the wonderful things of God The Church was no longer to be confin'd to the Land of Judea but from the rising of the Sun to the going down thereof the Worship of the Living and true God was to be set up in all Nations without distinction of Jew and Gentile So our Saviour tells the Woman of Samaria that the hour was come when the Worship of the true God was neither confin'd to Jerusalem nor the Mountains of Samaria but that he should be worshipped in Spirit and in Truth 3. THOSE Tongues appear'd in the similitude of Fire the Tongues of the Apostles were fired from Heaven and this is evident whether we consider 1. The Heat of their Zeal or 2. The Light of their Doctrine or 3. The Force Activity and Success of their Ministry 1. I SAY View the Heat of their Zeal what a flame was kindled by it in the hearts of other men How did they crowd into the Church when there was nothing to be gain'd by it but Death Disgrace and Martyrdom What a change was wrought upon the Spirits of men by the Light of the Gospel How earnestly and how vigorously did they serve God when they first came over from Paganism and Superstition How joyfully did they take the spoiling of their goods And with what courage did they offer themselves before all Judges Courts and Tribunals to be sacrificed for the Name of Jesus 2. Next to this let us consider the Light that is in it now the World was convinc'd that the Messias was the Light of the Gentiles in the highest sense that He was the light come down from heaven and the day-star from on high that visited us How swiftly did Error Darkness and Superstition flee before him When the Enemy of Mankind did bend all his forces to retard obscure his Victories the Light of the glorious Gospel of Christ broke through those Clouds and appeared in its Meridian Splendor maugre all opposition When the Sun ariseth then man goeth forth unto his labour and the Beasts retire into their Dens but when the Sun of Righteousness thus appear'd the Demons that formerly enslav'd Mankind were forced to retire Their Idolatrous Rites and Ceremonies were deserted and made to leave the field to the triumphant Standard of our Blessed Saviour This Light look'd men so broad in the face that they were asham'd of their former folly and wickedness they surrendered themselves captives to its clear discoveries and illuminations for its evidence was so strong and undeniable S. Paul telleth us that it was the main scope of their Commission and Design to open mens eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them that are sanctified 3. FIRE did resemble the Holy Ghost because of its Force and Activity and when we consider the success of their Ministry we must acknowledge that the Power of God was engag'd to second their Commission Who can without the deepest astonishment and Adorations of Gods infinite Wisdom think of the Atchievments of those poor men When we remember what it was that our Saviour commanded and by what means they were to put his Commands into execution and what opposition they ought in all reason to look for if they attempted any such thing what was it then that he did command them No less than to go and teach all Nations i. e. to renverse the establish'd Laws Sacrifices and Customs of the whole World to destroy the Worship of all false Gods to introduce the Mystical Judaism in the room of the Literal of which the Jews were so obstinately fond to reform the manners of all Mankind to teach them to live by new Principles and in hopes of distant and unseen rewards to mortifie and subdue inveterate prejudices and their strongest inclinations to run up the Hill against the force of Custom Law and Example In a word to make the most incredible Changes in the World by such men
SERMONS Preached upon Several Occasions Most of them Before the MAGISTRATES and JUDGES in the North-East-Auditory of S. Gile's Church EDINBURGH BY AL. MONRO D.D. Then PRINCIPAL of the COLLEGE of EDINBURGH LONDON Printed for Joseph Hindmarsh at the Golden Ball over against the Royal Exchange in Cornhil M DC XCIII Imprimatur May 3. 1693. Guil. Lancaster To my Friends and Acquaintances in the North-East Parish of S. Giles in Edinburgh Much Honoured and Well Beloved IF I had any other design to serve by this Address than what was in my view when I preached the following Sermons I would perhaps recommend them to the favour of some particular Patron but I rather lay hold of this opportunity that I may acknowedge in as publick a manner as is possible for me the many kindnesses that I received amongst you when I was allowed to preach the Gospel in my Native Country I was unanimously and cheerfully nam'd to the Government of the College of Edinburgh without my knowledge or interposal by the Lord Provost and Town Council I retain a grateful sense of it And this is the principal reason why these Discourses do now appear I am not so extravagantly foolish as to think that the present Age needs any of my Composures if they are innocent and well meant though attended with many other imperfections they may promote good thoughts in some who heard them with Piety and Attention They are only calculated for their Meridian Most men have different Tasts for Books as well as for other things and what is sincerely intended may sometimes be read with greater success than more accurate Treatises The World is very vain and changes its Faces and Figures every moment yet true Religion is invariable as the Author of it and therefore we are to steer our course towards Heaven by those great Truths that are uniformly received amongst all Christians and to take heed that we do not separate from the Catholick Church of Christ her antient Rules and Constitutions by which she was preserved in the Primitive Ages For it is certain that God did not suffer the Universal Church to deviate from the Apostolical Discipline when as yet she was furnished with no other Weapons to pull down Idolatry and Superstition than her Unity Prayers and Universal Charity There is nothing more opposite to Piety and Devotion than Pride and Vanity and to despise the Wisdom of all our Predecessors is not only arrogant but impious The multitude and variety of later Sectaries especially in the Isle of Britain have advanced Atheism to a prodigious Impudence and it is impossible to recover the World now sunk in Folly and Irreligion but by the extraordinary Zeal of good Men. The decays of Piety in our days appear openly amongst all Ranks and Orders and this must be imputed in a great part to that Itch after Novelties which hath so fatally overrun these Nations Ambition and Faction hath almost remov'd the distinction between things Sacred and Prophane yet it is certain that the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God and those pretended Reformations that are managed with Noise and Tumult have ordinarily no other effects than Sacrilege and Confusion We are very apt to have other thoughts of God and of our selves when we approach the Gates of Death from those which we have entertained in the days of health and prosperity and if then we have the least sense of the World to come we cannot but distinguish true Zeal to advance the Power of Godliness from the insidious arts of grasping Earthly Dominion the first is pure calm and humble merciful and compassionate the other being from the Earth is agreeable to that Spirit that prevails in the World OUR Saviour founded the Church a distinct Society from the World and therefore armed it with Spiritual Laws and Censures that she might be preserved by those Divine Helps though all Earthly Powers should endeavour to crush her and experience witnesses that she hath been more Victorious over Lewdness and Infidelity by her Patience and Sufferings than by all her Secular Intrigues and Political Methods When she stands upon the immoveable Pillars of her first foundation her outward Splendor may be eclipsed but her inward strength is made more firm and lasting by the Counterbatteries that are raised against her Peace and Prosperity Truth is not ashamed and therefore it is Weakness and Pusillanimity to deny it in the face of Danger and Persecution especially when the most Sacred Foundations are daringly invaded and trampled upon and though Ecclesiastical Politie be thought now a-days as mutable as are the inclinations of the people yet they who consider things more maturely must see that the antient Faith cannot be preserved amongst men but in its Original Vehicles of Primitive Order and Constitution and when the Apostolical Government of the Church is overthrown a multitude of Errors and Delusions creep into the World that destroy the inward Power of Godliness as well as the outward Beauty of Publick Worship I AM heartily sorry that our Country should be the Theatre of so many Complaints and Disorders and that the immediate Servants of the Sanctuary both Bishops and Presbyters should be run down with Clamour and Violence for no other reason that I know but because they are separated from the World to the peculiar Services of the Living God notwithstanding of all this we ought to possess our Souls in Patience and to believe that not a hair of our head falls to the ground without our heavenly Father And this one Truth may compose our Spirits against all Storms and Disasters and teach us to resign our selves without struggling to the disposal of Heaven When we are sincerely humbled for our Sins both National and Personal he will visit us again in the multitude of his tender Mercies and therefore it is more our duty to look unto him that smites us than complain of our Oppressors It may be that they themselves who have been most active in our Calamities are somewhat sensible of their Cruelty and if not we heartily pray that God would bring into the way of Truth all such as have erred and are deceived The present Desolations of our Church may be palliated with many little Excuses but all the Rhetorical Colours imaginable can never hide the Consequences of so monstrous a Change WHEN we are surrounded with Difficulties on the right and left hand we must make our requests known unto God by Prayer for he is a present help in time of trouble We may meet with Crosses from the smallest things and occurrences and perhaps our Afflictions are frequently multiplied that we may be taught to run unto God who can either mitigate or remove them or by them exercise our Patience and Magnanimity God knows all things but he seems to take notice more particularly of such things as we feel and recommend to his Infinite Goodness and Compassion so willing He is to have us depend on Him
Dishonours and Churchyards that are the Seminaries of the Resurrection should not be places of pasturage for all kind of Animals And would to God that the Laity only were to be blam'd for this impious Prophanation BUT Fourthly Are our Bodies so curiously built Judge what the Soul must be that Lamp of Light that Candle of the Lord the invisible Jewel that 's laid up in that Casement 't is no less than the Breath of God it bears the Image of the Deity in legible Characters How active and indefatigable is it in the the search of Truth How much above the Enjoyments of Sense and feculent Pleasures of the Body With what transport doth it embrace Conclusions drawn from their Principles How fond is it of its own Contemplations that are raised on the immoveable Pillars of Reason How swifts in its Thoughts How easily does it fly round the Earth climb the Heavens and view the Creation 'T is a divine Spark of Light from the Father of Spirits that glances in those prisons of flesh for a while it 's true Pleasures are pure and Angelical it grasps Truth for the sake of Truth with Order and Complacency and makes to it self Ladders of true Consequences from the visible Creatures to ascend to Heaven BUT let us dwell a while longer on this Meditation Did God furnish our Minds with such noble Powers only to till the Ground and make provision for the flesh to fulfil the Lusts thereof No certainly This vast and capacious Spirit that than lodge so many Truths together without Confusion or Disorder was design'd to enjoy God any thing else falls short of its Height and Grandeur WHENCE is this Appetite of Immortality that we feel within our selves Is it altogether in vain Did God place it within our Souls purely to vex us Was there nothing design'd to satisfie it Yes certainly else Mankind had been a phantastick Impertinence the vainest and the silliest nothing in the Creation For if in this life only we had hope we were of all men the most miserable confined to the Earth when our Souls fly far beyond it and immured in the Walls of Flesh when their Capacities dispose them for the Life and Enjoyment of Angels ALL the rest of the Creatures have Objects proper for their Appetites shall Man alone have Inclinations beyond the Earth and yet die like the Beasts that perish Let no such thought enter our Souls for we shall see him as he is LET me add to this If the Soul be so vivacious in its Walls of Flesh when 't is chained in this dark Tabernacle that as Quintilian observes it flies in a trace from one Object to another nothing can engross its power and strength how large and comprehensive must it be when we come to our Countrey above when we are united to the original Wisdom Light and Truth What a foolish violence doe we offer to our Souls when we bend and bow them to earthly Enjoyments Why did we not rather let them fly to the place of their rest and tranquility Their natural motion is towards Heaven and Christian Religion designs no more than their Primitive Liberty WHEN we would persuade Men to be religious we need not borrow our Arguments from foreign Topicks let them only look inwards let them view the frame of their own Souls their Knowledge Will and Memory the uneasie Reflections of their Consciences when they do amiss it makes them taste whether they will or not the fears of an impartial Tribunal that drags them in the midst of their Jollities before that Judge that can neither be deceived nor be imposed upon HEAR then the calm Reasonings of your own Spirits you may shift the force of our Arguments when we have urged them with all Zeal and Sincerity but you cannot hide your selves from that invisible Judge your own Souls IT were Folly in the highest degree to feed a hungry Stomach with wise Sayings excellent Diagrams or if such things were offered for the cure of a Man in a raging Fever this is the Folly we transcribe when we endeavour to satisfie our Souls with any thing short of God himself the Satisfaction and Happiness that we look after is higher than the Earth The Earth says it is not in me and the Sea says it 's not in me and the Treasures of both the Indies have nothing in them to feed the strong Desires of Immortality or to fill the Appetite of Reason BUT Fifthly Are our Souls and Bodies such Monuments of the Divine Wisdom should we not then frequently view and consider our own Frame and Composition Why are we such Strangers to our selves When the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the great deep the rest of the Creatures were formed in their order as they were commanded to appear by his word that commanded things which are not as if they were they were inded the more negligent strokes of Omnipotence but MAN appears by his deliberate Method and set off with the Characters of his Image in Wisdom Purity Liberty Immortality What Majesty in these Words Come let us make Man in our own Image And if the very rubbish of this Edifice the ruines of him in his lapsed Condition be so magnificent what was he when but a little lower than the Angels crowned with glory and dignity Especially when we remember that still he is capable of such Improvements Recover him by Education from his childish Vanities from his untamed Lust and Passions furnish him with Health Strength all Wisdom divine and humane invest him with publick Honour and Attendance and then he is but some degrees below the Angels of God And yet all this is but a shadow and a dream in compare with what Improvements he is capable of when regenerate to the Image of God and the hope of Glory ARE not we our selves then worthy of our most serious thoughts True Religion teaches a Man to converse with himself in the noblest manner to covet the highest Improvements of his own Nature to observe his own Failings Seneca tells us in one of his Epistles that it was his custom every Night when the candle was out calmly to examine himself and look narrowly into the Retirements of his own Conscience this often and seriously performed begat Calmness and Serenity in his Bosom which he compares to the Regions above the Moon where there are no Clouds no Vapours no Exhalations BUT a wicked Man is afraid to look within himself the violent Earthquakes and shakings of his Spirit make those Reflections intolerable Did we thus take our selves more accurately to task we would not have so much spare time to descant on the Actions of others we should be more merciful in our Censures less severe in our Reflections more equitable and just in all our Proceedings When Pausanias the Lacedemonian desired Simonides the Poet to bestow some memorable Saying upon him he gave him this Remember that you are a man AND indeed this contained a Compend
for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created And again chap. 5. v. 13. And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea and all that are in them heard I saying blessing honour glory and power be unto him that sitteth on the throne and unto the Lamb for ever 4. 'T is the Voice of universal Nature Vide Psal 148. 5. THIS is it that keeps us sobet and humble and makes us refer our prosperous Successes to their true Original and by this frame of Spirit we engage the divine Aid we are apt to idolize our own Strength Wisdom and Contrivance when any thing answers our Expectations we are ready to erect Statues and Memorials to our own Conduct as if we our selves had brought the affair to its desirable period Thus the ungrateful Person is said by the Prophet Habbakuk c. 1.16 to sacrifice to his net and burn incense to his dray how elegantly does the Royal Psalmist trace his Mercies to their true Original how pathetically does he summon our Thoughts towards Heaven Psal 44. v. 3. For they got not the land in possession by their own sword neither did their own arm save them but thy right hand and thine arm and the light of thy countenance v. 7. I will not trust in my bow neither shall my sword save me in God we boast all the day long and praise thy name for ever and ever This Conclusion is laid down by Solomon long ago Eccles 9.11 The race is not to the swift nor the battel to the strong nor bread to the wise nor riches to men of understanding nor favour to men of skill 'T IS neither the Strength of thy Body nor the Wisdom of thy Mind nor tne Favour of thy Friends can accomplish thy business without the Aids of divine Providence how chearfully then should we adore and acknowledge this Providence that twists it self with and secretly moves the most intricate affairs Psal 115. Not unto us O Lord not unto us but unto thy name give glory So we find Job elegantly vindicate himself that he did not put his confidence in any thing but in God only Job 31.26 27. Psal 108.3 4. I will praise thee O Lord amidst the people I will sing unto thee among the Nations for thy mercy is great unto the heavens and thy faithfulness unto the clouds and Psal 139.17 How precious also are thy thoughts unto me O God! how great is the sum of them if I should count them they are moe in number than the sand when I awake I am still with thee But 6. THIS is the only Theme which cannot be exhausted Psal 139. If I ascend up into heaven thou art there c. Heaven Earth Sea and Air proclaim his infinite Goodness and the thought of every thing perishes but in its relation to God for if you view it under any other relation it is but vanity and vexation of Spirit and hath not solidity enough to abide the porings and contemplations of an intellectual Being WHAT employment more proper for us than that of the glorious Hosts of heaven the invincible Legions who have Crowns on their heads and Palms in their hands and the glorious company of the Apostles the goodly fellowship of the Prophets the noble Army of Martyrs the Seraphims and the Cherubims who are thus employed what exercise more proper for us who breath for heaven than to say with the Psalmist Psal 45. I will extol thee my God O King and I will bless thy name for ever and ever v. 2. every day will I bless thee and I will praise thy name for ever and ever v. 3. Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised and his greatness is unsearchable v. 4. One Generation shall praise thy works to another To God the Father Son and Holy Ghost be all Praise and Dominion for ever Amen A SERMON ON 1 PET. 2. V. 11. Dearly Beloved I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the Soul FROM the ninth Verse the Apostle sets off the Dignity of the Christian State the Honour and Prerogative of that high relation Ye are a chosen generation a Royal Priesthood an holy Nation a peculiar people They were thus advanc'd that they might shew forth the praises of him that had called them out of darkness into his marvellous light They could not but with the highest contentment and joy call to mind the difference between their present and their former condition IT is upon this foundation that S. Peter makes his address with so much love and zeal that he may provoke them to a life pure and heavenly and becoming that relation into which they were lately adopted IN the Verse that I have read he alludes unto the Phrase that he made use of in the first Verse of the first Chapter of this Epistle which is address'd to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus Galatia Cappadocia Asia and Bythinia remov'd far from the Country and Habitation of their Ancestors It was easie for them from the consideration of their Earthly Pilgrimage to remember that they were not only strangers with regard to that Country but in a higher sense strangers upon Earth a people distinguished from the World And not only so but quite contrary unto it and far above it in their aims studies and desires THAT which takes up the thoughts the talk and the admiration of Mankind was so little valued by our Saviour that when he cloth'd himself with our flesh he drew up a System of Religion that ruin'd the esteem that such things had got in our affections the lusts of the eys the lusts of the flesh and the pride of life did in a manner command the Adorations of Jew and Gentile He stript those Idols of that meretricious varnish and paint that had for a long time inveigled Mankind and he made himself of no reputation that he might trample upon human glories and raise our affections to that honor which is solid and durable He exemplify'd his Precepts in his own practice and by a new Philosophy raised mens Spirits to a clear sight of God to a just value of themselves and consequently to the highest contempt of the World in all its pomps and fantastick appearances THE Exhortation that I have read is so essential to the Christian Religion that it is enforc'd by its strongest arguments every one may see it to be the natural result and consequence of such heavenly Premisses that we should abstain from fleshly lusts because they war or set themselves in battel array against the Soul BY Fleshly Lusts I understand those passions lusts and desires that unregenerate men do pursue with all the strength and vigor of their Soul whether they pröceed from covetousness ambition or sensuality And though I understand the words in this extent and latitude yet I design to level the most part of
my Discourse against fleshly lusts in the strictest sense as they signifie all manner of uncleanness contrary to chastity General Discourses against vice are seldom successful towards the recovery of men from under their dominion and therefore when we assault the body of death we must level our strokes against particular limbs and members as the surest and the speediest way to our victory BUT that I may discourse with the better success let us consider First the Exhortation it self Abstain from fleshly lusts and this Exhortation is strengthen'd with a twofold Argument one is taken from the opposition of such lusts to the Soul and the other taken from our present state condition and relation We are but pilgrims and strangers NOW that I may make those fleshly lusts as odious to the Christian eye as is possible I will in the first place lay before you some considerations to represent them in their true and proper colors And Secondly I will offer those Remedies from Reason and the holy Scriptures by which we may be defended against their assaults First Do but consider that those fleshly lusts are directly opposite unto the Nature Spirit and Tendency of Christianity It was our Saviour's great design when he took upon him our Nature to fortifie our Spirits beyond the reach of bodily impressions to establish them in an absolute Empire and just Sovereignty over the Senses to exalt that part of us that is divine and heavenly to its true elevation that it might no more truckle under the body that the senses and all the motions that we feel by them might be kept at their true distance and not meddle with that command and authority that belongs to the mind In a word that our Souls might be adorn'd with their true Glory and Majesty When we are thus set at liberty then and not till then are we free indeed when we remember the value strength and excellency of the Soul which though it be united to the Body and therefore must mind the concerns of the Body with great care and tenderness yet it more vigorously desires to be united unto God It may subsist without its Union to the Body but it cannot be happy unless it be united unto God so that this Union of the Soul with God is in a manner folded up in its very nature and essence WE are in the strictest sense the off-spring of God and it was reasonable for us to expect that when the Son of God did appear to reform Mankind he should level his Directions and Precepts against those vices and sins most vigorously that did sink the Soul below its true glory and dignity the sins that took down its Plumes by which it mounted the heavens but now was become soft trifling and degenerate And because no lusts did break the vigour of our mind and blunt the edge of our Spirits and weaken our union with God more than fleshly lusts in the strictest sense therefore do we find the cautions against those sins so frequent in the New Testament with this assurance that he that is in Christ Jesus hath crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts thereof THE Arguments that S. Paul makes use of against those sins are heavenly and sublime 1 Cor. 6.19 20. Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost and you are bought with a price therefore glorifie God in your bodies and in your spirits which are Gods Answerably to this we find that the first Christians notwithstanding of the blackest Calumnies of their Pagan adversaries lived the life of Angels in earthly Bodies their Chastity was so great a Jewel in their eyes that many of their Christian Women most cheerfully resign'd their life rather than part with their honour And Tertullian towards the close of his Apology resolutely defies the impudence of the Pagans for they themselves did acknowledg the purity and innocence of the Christians in this matter because they judg'd it a more intolerable punishment for their Women to be condemned to the Stewes than to suffer Martyrdom How many of the Christian Women among the Romans when the Goths and Vandals made their Irruption into Italy threw themselves into Tyber rather than be expos'd to the savage Embraces of lust and dishonour The Story of the young man recorded by S. Jerom is very memorable who feeling himself entangled in the embraces of a wanton Strumpet did bite off his own Tongue and spit it in her face lest the strength of his temptation and the weakness of humane nature might betray him into Indecencies unbecoming his holy Profession We see then it is most certain and clear that fleshly lusts are in their nature and tendency contrary to that Religion which our Saviour planted and the first Christians embrac'd But Secondly LET us remember that these fleshly lusts are severely punish'd both here and hereafter We are told by Solomon Prov. 6.26 that by means of a whorish woman a man is brought unto a piece of bread And the Parable of the Prodigal in the fifteenth of S. Luke represents the miserable estate of such with great advantage the sufferings that those lusts expose men to are not confin'd to one single capacity but they spread their Poison not only through the body reaching sometimes even beyond the bones into the marrow but also through all the suffering capacities of human nature health fortune life and reputation are the ordinary Sacrifices that are brought to the Altars of this unclean Devil Solomon again tells us Prov. 66.33 That a wound and dishonour is his reward and his reproach shall not be wiped away Have you sometimes observed the macerated Skeletons of Lust worn in the Devils warfare bearing the dishonourable marks of their Masters service sometimes in their foreheads to such a degree of infamy that hardly one would think that Mankind could be made so miserable And though those Trophies of Misery have frequently been displayed to the scandal of Religion disgrace of human nature and the terrour of all Spectators yet so inconsiderate are the most part of Mankind and so stupifying is the Enchantment that it requires a heavenly frame and a bold Resolution to subdue those imperious and stubborn lusts How many did God remarkably punish for this sin Numb 25. Zimri and Cozbie were slain in the very act and four and twenty thousand of the Children of Israel fell for their unlawful mixture with strange Women And though God had left those filthy Creatures without Punishment yet the sin carries corruption in its Nature for he that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption in the most literal sense Add to all this the flames of unquenchable fire that are prepared for the Sons of Lust and Wantonness in the other World They may possibly escape the notice and observation of earthly Judges but when the hidden things of dishonesty are brought to light then Heb. 13.4 God will judge whoremongers and adulterers Thirdly CONSIDER that
one earthly the other heavenly Secondly THIS opposition appears if we will consider the things that the World most admires loves and preserves We are exhorted by S. John 1 Ep. ch 2. v. 15. Love not the world nor the things that are in the world for all that is in the world the Lust of the Eyes the Lust of the Flesh and the Pride of Life THE Lust of the Eyes tempts out Covetousness the Lusts of the Flesh set on fire those appetites that deserve that name in the strictest notion of the phrase The Pride of Life are honors preferments and glories that men pursue with so much concern and eagerness But How poor and despicable are these things to the enlightned eye of a Christian that sees by the eye of Faith How thin are they how unworthy of our choice how disproportionate to the Soul of Man how feculent and paultry are the pleasures of Sense attended with so much toil in the purchase vanity in their enjoyment uncertainty in their continuance And if the World had nothing else to make it vain beyond all expression but this one thing that those who have admired it most and sought those satisfactions from it have been forced at length to acknowledge that there was nothing in it but vexation of Spirit This I say might convince us that the things the World most admires are very unsuitable to the Soul of Man BUT instead of such things the Christian Religion offers to our view and choice the pure and masculine pleasures of Devotion the savour of God the peace and tranquillity of our Consciences the victory and dominion over our lusts and passions and those riches that are at Gods right hand in the Heavens The chast and solid satisfaction of having overcome our vices brings more true honour than the atchievments that are proclaimed by the loudest fame 'T is more glorious to overcome evil habits and inveterate diseases of the mind than to surprize or take by open force a City IN a word let us but remember what are the conquests glories and triumphs that are exposed to our view by the Christian Religion and we shall find that they move in a far higher Sphere than the little things that take up the time talk business and thoughts of worldly men THE voluptuous Man sacrifices his Soul to the appetites of the flesh as if it had been given him to make provision for the lust thereof The rich Miser pierces himself through with so many cares and fears lest his Angels should take wings to themselves and fly The Ambitious is filled with a Phantom of honour which he hath painted in his own fancy that he forgets his sleep and all things else to place himself where he would be BUT the Christian Religion teacheth us not only to neglect but despise such fantastic apparitions such dreams such nothings that the blind World adores with so much pageantry and folly We are taught by it to recollect our selves from this hurry and madness to strip those things naked of their borrowed lustre to pierce into their very essence and feel that we are not made for such mean things as human fancy and opinion hath magnified beyond their true size when we come up close to them and consider them then their paint falls off and we must acknowledge that we were fools to the greatest degree So intangled are the Labyrinths of the World which made Augustus Cesar wish so frequently for his retreat and ended many of his Discourses to the Senate with the pleasant hope of his retirement that now bore up his Spirit under the load of so many affairs He had so many Armies at his command the Roman Empire to maintain them he enjoyed the applause of the Wisest Senate yet how did he sigh after the advantages of enjoying himself WE are in the truest sense the off-spring of God why then should our affections be mean Why should we so much admire what is despicable for the world passeth away and the fashion thereof but our Spirits and thoughts run parallel with eternity nothing less can satisfie the immortal Spirit of Man THEREFORE are we exhorted so frequently in the New Testament to place our affections on things alove and not on the things of the Earth to remember that here we have no continuing City that here we are Pilgrims and Strangers that when this tabernacle is broken down we have a house with God not made with hands eternal in the heavens These and such treasures are the things that we are taught to admire by our Religion these are the things we are commanded to pursue since we are Heirs and Co-heirs with Christ HE holds forth to us a Crown of immortal happiness that the sight of it might provoke us to the most heroick efforts of virtue piety self-denyal mortification patience and humility Now it is most evident that the World and the Spirit of Christianity pursue and admire things of a different nature But this opposition will more fully appear if we consider Thirdly THE rewards by which the World allures to its friendship and those proposed by our Saviour what do men expect from the World when they have sold themselves to serve it when they have sacrificed their time and strength to court its honours and follow its genius Such as have prostituted their very Souls to comply with its folly and wickedness how miserable is their gain or rather how infinite is their loss how emphatick is the Interrogation of our Saviour What hath a man gained when he hath lost his own Soul We find the World cannot relieve a Man when he hath most need of help and consolation LET him but put the friendship of the World to the Test when he groans under the terror of Conscience or when his Soul is ready to leave his body and then let him sincerely declare what weak and brittle reeds these things are that he most admired to support him against his own fears WERE we so wise as in our fancy to go down into the Grave before we are carried thither to converse with the dead that are gone before us to live a while under ground to wrap our selves in our Winding sheets and then from that place of silence and darkness to view the things that keep the Men of the World so much in agitation WOULD not we be astonished to see Men made after the Image of God so much enslaved to those Idols of fancy to those shadows that vanish so quickly to such trifles that are the object of childish appetites Did we but call to mind the present regrets and tortures of the damned Were we allowed to see Dives turned down from his sumptuous Table his stately Palace his numerous attendants and fine linnen into the scorching flames of Hell And on the other side could we see the Martyrs that have gone through the flames of persecutions and disasters now seated above malice and misery in the Regions of peace
true humility than to be acquainted with thy self the diseases of our Body are so many that Physicians have not names for them and the weaknesses of our Mind are many more So many are the tossings and contradictions of our thoughts the multiplicity of our fancies the rovings and variety of our imaginations that in a minute we may learn that every man at his best estate is altogether vanity CAN there be then any enquiry more seasonable and more profitable than to ask if this Corruption may be escaped And this leads me to the second Particular that I promis'd to speak to and that is 2. THAT this Corruption may be escaped And this I shall endeavour to make clear from these three Considerations 1. The Remorse of our own Consciences 2. The Pleadings and Expostulations of God himself in the Holy Scriptures 3. The Strength Nature and Efficacy of Spiritual Assistances offered in the Gospel 1. I SAY Consider the Remorse of Conscience S. Paul is witness that the very Heathens had it when they transgress'd the Laws of Nature the Soul did punish it self by remorse and bitter reflections and when they were innocent there innocence was an invisible support against all Calumnies and Reproaches Their thoughts did both accuse and excuse I would gladly know whence the uneasiness of a Man's mind upon the wilful violation of God's Law arises The severe regrets and piercing thoughts wherewith the Soul lashes her self if there were no other Argument to prove the whole of Natural Religion this remorse alone must necessarily infer and defend all its Principles Do we use to blame our selves because we do not fly with Wings because we cannot measure the Heavens drain the Seas or remove Mountains No certainly THE remorse of Conscience feeds it self with this thought alone that the evil which we have committed might have been avoided And if there be no ground for any such thought there is no more place for any degrees of this remorse of Conscience Listen then to the suggestions of thy own mind and you shall immediately feel that you might have done otherwise that you might have followed that which is just and right and have avoided that very sin for which thou art so severely chastis'd and lash'd by thy Conscience else whence is this sharp and piercing torture of thy mind upon the commission of wilful and deliberate sins EPICTETUS his Philosophy may be reduc'd to these two 1. To order prudently the things that fall within our power 2. To suffer cheerfully that which we cannot possibly avoid And the Light of Nature could not possibly prescribe a more excellent method to attain true tranquillity of Spirit When thou art then most impartial in the survey of thy Conscience tell me sincerely whom do you blame and if you blame your self then is it purely upon this account because you might have reform'd the faults and omissions that are then under consideration 2. THIS Truth appears from the pathetick expostulations of God in the Holy Scriptures He as it were comes down from his Throne of Majesty and stoops to reason the case with incorrigible sinners He pleads with them from acknowledg'd Principles of Reason as if he stood upon even ground not to upbraid them with their weaknesses but to provoke their ingenuity to work upon all their Passions to assault their Souls on all quarters to see if they will repent and be reclaim'd Come now and let us reason together saith the Lord though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow though they be red like crimson they shall be as wooll Thus saith the Lord What iniquity have your fathers found in me that they are gone far from me and have walked after vanity and are become vain And again Pass over the Isles of Chittim and see and send unto Kedar and consider diligently and see if there be such a thing Hath a Nation changed their Gods which are yet no Gods But my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit Be astonished O ye heavens at this and be horribly afraid And again Hear now O house of Israel are not my ways equal are not your ways unequal Sometimes he courts their Passions by the most powerful Charms all crowded together in a strain of pity condescension and severity Wo unto thee O Jerusalem when wilt thou be made clean when shall it once be And our Saviour in the Gospel thus assaults them when they were upon the precipice of ruine O Jerusalem Jerusalem how often would I have gathered thee as a Hen gathereth her Chickens under her wings but ye would not And again You will not come unto me saith our Saviour that you might have life FROM all these reasonings put together we see that God condescends to plead with us from our own Convictions and indeed if our Souls were not accessible to Arguments and Reasonings the Stones might be as wisely address'd to as we could be reason'd unto reformation THE possibility of this change and escape from the Corruptions of the World appears 3. From the strength and efficacy of that Grace which is offer'd in the Gospel We need no other proof of the possibility of such a Reformation as we plead for than the Victory and Success of Christianity over Vice and Corruption amongst them who have cordially embraced it This was the Argument that the first Apologists for our Religion made use of to prove its Divinity Such a wonderful change could not be wrought in its Proselytes without a heavenly Power and if so many have been actually changed then it is modest to infer that our reformation is possible WHEN we remember the biass of our inclinations how contradictory they are to the designs of the Gospel how adverse to purity simplicity and self-denyal it can be nothing less than a Miracle to pull down strong holds and lofty imaginations and to lead every thought captive to the obedience of Christ to take up our Cross and follow him this is the triumph of the Gospel And if the Grace of God did not assist us how is it conceivable that such weak and feeble Creatures should grapple with so many difficulties and at last overcome them That the Change we plead for is possible even from under the power of the most inveterate habits and the grossest sins is further clear from 1 Cor. 6.9 10 11. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Be not deceived neither Fornicators nor Idolaters nor Adulterers nor effeminate nor abusers of themselves with mankind nor thieves nor covetous nor drunkards nor revilers nor extortioners shall inherit the Kingdom of God And such were some of you but ye are washed but ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God FROM what I have said it is very evident that no man ought to plead for his impenitence as if he
have no relish to the Soul illuminated with the knowledge of Christ The eye of Faith discovers their emptiness they are but shadows and appearances of things attended in their most flattering dress with vanity and vexation of Spirit Let us awake then and see what is it that thus inchants us into folly and sin What are those pleasures that we doat so much upon if once compar'd to the pure rivers of pleasure that are at his right hand 4. SOME plead the severity of Christianity to excuse them from the practice of it The Precepts of humility meekness and self-denyal are intolerable to such but I must tell them that such Precepts appear only terrible to strangers and such as have no mind to come under any yoke or discipline at all The experience of the best men puts it beyond all debate that there is no rest or tranquillity of Spirit but in the practice of such Commandments Nay the pleasures that attend a pious life are pure and unmixt they are sweeter than the honey or the honey-comb With what transports and exstatic elevations did the Psalmist long to appear in the place of God's presence O when shall I come and appear before God! We are not acquainted with the ravishing satisfactions of Religion because we keep at a distance and therefore we are terrified by our first conflicts but if we struggled vigorously until the noisome rubbish of our corruptions were remov'd then our Souls might become a clean habitation for the Spirit of God and where the Spirit of God dwells there is also peace light and tranquillity joy unspeakable and full of glory What an impregnable Garrison against calumny and disaster is a Conscience void of offence towards God and towards man How vain is it to endeavour the painting of it by rhetorical colours Words cannot reach it the bold Metaphors of Poets are faint in comparison of it It receives comforts immediately from the hand of God and such as cannot be taken away from us so strong are the pleasures that do attend the practice of true Religion WHY then are we frighted with Mormo's and apparitions of our own invention Let us believe our Saviour who hath expresly told us that his yoke is easie and his burden is light The more we plead in favour of our bondage the more entangled we are by our corruption and the more miserable is our condition This Corruption may be escaped and reform'd and whatever is usually pleaded in its defence is vain and unreasonable Let me ask then how this Contagion that has so universally over-run Mankind may be cured And the Text makes answer to this that this Corruption is escaped by the great and the precious promises AND this leads me to the third Particular that I am oblig'd to speak to The Gospel in it self is the great and last Engine of God's Goodness and Wisdom for the recovery of the World and the Promises of the Gospel are the Wheels upon which it moves So much Spirit and Life did go alongst with the first preaching of the Gospel that it shook the Pillars of the Kingdom of Darkness threw open the Prisons of Satan and loos'd whole Societies of Men from their bondage The Apostles did open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God The Promises of the Gospel are the counterpoise that God hath laid in the other Scale against sin He principally designs to deliver from sin and from the Love of the World because it leads unto sin and the Promises of the Gospel have a peculiar energy to save us from the one and to deter us from the other If we believ'd the Promises of the Gospel without fear and hypocrisie we would immediately turn our backs upon our sins especially when we remember that these very Promises are environ'd about with the most terrible denunciations of the wrath of God against the disobedient The Lord Jesus Christ shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ Can there be any thing so powerful to alienate our affections from the World as the Promises of the Gospel How far was the glory of the Court of Egypt below the Spirit of Moses when he saw him that is invisible and had respect unto the recompence of reward We are expresly told by S. John that if any man love this world the love of the Father is not in him And again that the friendship of this world is enmity with God And S. Paul tells us that the Christians must not set their affections on the things on Earth for their life is hid with God in Christ THE brightness of our Inheritance obscures the glory of the World This is the promise that he hath promised us eternal life And now are we the sons of God and it doth not yet appear what we shall be but this we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is Did we weigh the Gospel Promises as they deserve and think of them with love and application how powerful are they to disengage us from the entanglements of this present life and to promote the reformation that the Gospel enjoins 1. LET us heartily believe the Promises Eternity seriously and frequently pondered exhausts all our strength and all our thoughts It fortifies our Souls against the flatteries of the World and alienates our affections from the Earth The Patriarchs saw the promises afar off and embraced them and confessed that they were but strangers and pilgrims upon the earth And if the dark view that the Patriarchs had was so mighty to support their Spirits under the old Oeconomy what may not we do who are animated by the clear and glorious Promises of the Gospel 2. LET us lean on these Promises in our most difficult circumstances For which cause we faint not but though our outward man perish yet the inward man is renewed day by day For our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a-far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory While we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal We rejoyce says the same Apostle in our tribulations Patience under sufferings is the peculiar ornament of our Saviour's Disciples for they only have the surest Antidote against despondency The Devil that can transform himself into an Angel of Light cannot counterfeit Christian Meekness and Patience It is no stupidity but a rational submission to the Will of our Father they that are Martyrs for the World or their own Pride may for a while put on a resolute sullenness but true Christian calmness and magnanimity springs from the hope of glory and
fail for he is everlasting truth and he cannot lye Thus saith the Lord which giveth the Sun for a light by day and the Ordinances of the Moon and of the Stars for a light by night which divideth the Sea when the waves thereof roar the Lord of Hosts is his Name If those Ordinances depart from before me saith the Lord then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a Nation before me for ever These Promises are made to the Spiritual seed of the true Israelites as is proved by S. Paul And therefore to remove all our doubts and diffidence all our distrust and hesitation they are confirm'd by his Oath Wherein God willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his Counsel confirmed it by an Oath That by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lye we might have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us 3. THE Promises are precious in regard of their durableness I mean that the things promised are eternal There is nothing liable to decay that can give true repose to the Spirit of a Man the Christian Religion settles the frame and satisfies the enquiries of our Souls by bringing life and immortality to light Nothing else can satisfie the vast capacities of the mind of Man The endless duration of our happiness is express'd in the Scriptures by full and plain phrases And this is the promise that he hath promised us even eternal life And again in the Gospel of S. John He that keepeth my sayings shall never see death And S. Peter assures us that we are begotten again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead To an inheritance incorruptible undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for you And can there be any thing that so adequately satisfies the boundless desires and intellectual appetites of a reasonable Creature as an eternal weight of glory O Eternity who can forget Thee that remembers himself and the frame of his Nature Who can contemn eternal things that thinks that he himself is any thing more excellent than the Beasts that perish Have we naturally such strong inclinations to immortality and can we despise the Gospel that prepares and trims our Souls for life eternal Who can reflect on the variety and Spirituality of his own thoughts and yet conclude that he was made to make provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof Let no such thoughts dwell within thee but rather look at the things which are not seen For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the heavens And now when we look upon whole Gospel its entire frame and design we may safely say of it as the Apostle says of its Promises that it is Great and Precious in all its lineaments and features Especially when we consider the great design that is carried on by the Gospel and that is nothing less than to make us partakers of the Divine Nature And this leads me to the fourth Particular that I promis'd to speak to viz. 4. THE Scope of the Gospel and its Promises to restore the Image of God on the Souls of men to repair the breaches and decays of Humane Nature to make him look up again to Heaven with briskness and innocence as he did when he was newly form'd by the finger of God to restore life unto the degenerate World not that animal and feculent life that oppresses the Divine Nature but a life of true Reason united to God and fitted for the Society of Angels to make Man as near unto God as Humane Nature could allow and all Mankind who allow themselves the exercise of their Reason must acknowledge at first view that this is the top of Humane Glory the heighth of true felicity the elevation of Reason to its noblest exercise and object to be made like unto God THE Eternal Son of God became Man that he might heal the bruises and wounds that we received by the first A-Adam To as many as received him to them gave he power to become the Sons of God even to them that believe on his Name Which were born not of blood nor of the Will of the Flesh nor of the Will of Man but of God Behold what manner of Love the Father hath bestowed on us that we should be called the Sons of God We must be new moulded into the Image of our Maker we must live no more unto sin but unto God we must be acted by higher Motives and Principles than the Life of Nature We must steer our course towards Heaven by other Engines than such as set the World in motion And so much is imply'd in that saying of our Saviour He that loveth Father or Mother more than me is not worthy of me and he that loveth Son or Daughter more than me is not worthy of me And he that taketh not his Cross and followeth after me is not worthy of me To make this a little more clear I shall enquire into two things 1. Why there must be such a thorough change of our Nature 2. Wherein do the Characters of the Divine Nature plainly appear 1. There must be such a thorough change of our Nature Whether we consider 1. The plain account of Scripture Or 2. The Notions we have of the Deity Or 3. The Corruption of our Nature and its distance from Heaven 1. Do but consider the plain account of Scripture Without Holiness it is impossible to see God He that is in Christ hath crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts thereof He that hath this hope purifieth himself even as he is pure God hath declared in innumerable places of Scripture that there is no access to his favour but by an entire reformation his eyes penetrate to the Center of our Spirits all things are naked and open before him Though the Gospel hath the Nature of a Covenant it is no less the transcript of his Nature than his Royal Edict Holiness is as much our happiness as our duty and no arts no shifts can preserve the favour of God and our sins together How strangely presumptuous must they be who think to compound with the Almighty and venture to bring instead of a true heart sincere love and filial simplicity Sacrifices Oblations and Perfumes To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me saith the Lord I am full of the burnt offerings of Rams and the fat of fed Beasts and I delight not in the blood of Bullocks or of Lambs or of He-Goats Learn to do well seek judgement relieve the oppressed judge the Fatherless plead for the Widow The New and the Old Testament the Patriarchal as well as the Mosaic Dispensation the Pagan as well as the
positae quoniam suaves miscetis odores And this is prophesied of the Messias that his Garments should smell of Myrrhe Aloes and Cassia And from him the Church hath all those excellent Smells mentioned Verse 14. Saffron Calamus and Cinnamon to teach us that though the Gifts of the Spirit are and have all their several excellencies yet they are all useful to the Church whose garments are made of needle work and different colours and therefore it is an unpardonable vanity in the People to make saucy comparisons between the Gifts of Ecclesiasticks for stabit unus quisque sorte sua and the Philosophy of S. Paul to the Corinthians should teach them more modesty If the foot shall say because I am not the Eye I am not of the Body is it therefore not of the Body If we look up to our Superiours for assistance conduct and direction they must look down to us for obedience deference and submission THE third Thing that I promised was the rise of those Waters they come from Mount Libanus by an impetuous force and vigour Nothing can more lively represent the first rise and beginning of those heavenly Oracles The Gospel is the day star from on high and the Doctrine that our Saviour hath revealed is from Heaven We are told by Historians that at the foot of Mount Libanus there arises a pleasant Fountain aquas habens limpidissimas that run down from it through subterraneous passages most impetuously and there burst forth in great plenty and by several Conduits waters all the Gardens of the Plain And this leads us naturally to the Divinity of our Religion but here I stop being afraid that I have transgress'd already the time that was allowed me To God the Father Son and Holy Ghost be Glory for ever Amen A SERMON ON ROM xii 1. I beseech you therefore Brethren by the mercies of God that you present your Bodies a living sacrifice holy acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service THE Apostle in the former part of this Epistle asserted the Doctrine of Evangelical Justification against the unbelieving Jews who stuck so tenaciously to the System of Moses's Laws And now he sums up in one pathetic Exhortation the strength and design of the Gospel and of all Religion Christianity was not a Collection of dry and airy Notions calculated to amuse the World but a Discipline the highest and the purest that ever was received amongst men the immediate Revelation of Infinite Wisdom which brought along with it true and everlasting righteousness And therefore they ought not to let their thoughts dwell so much and so long on the glory of their Temple and the variety of their Sacrifices under the Levitical Oeconomy They were now invited to offer unto God more valuable Oblations than any of their former They were to bring themselves to the Altar of God and resign their Will to his Will And this was more agreeable to the nature of true Religion the design of the Gospel and the highest exercise of Reason When we bring unto God only things that are without us we mistake his Nature and despise his Goodness Reason taught us that the best things are to be offered unto God and therefore the Heart and Soul and Mind of Man are the only Sacrifices that are truly valuable And this is the reason why the Apostle addresses to the Christians at Rome with so much zeal and affection I will shortly consider 1. His Preface 2. His Exhortation And 3. The Motive to enforce it And 1. For the Preface By the mercies of God We easily infer from the fervour and solemnity of the Apostles Introduction the weight and importance of his Exhortation i. e. I do beseech you with all the earnest passion and true tenderness that I am capable of I exhort you by the Mercies of God i. e. by what is uppermost in his Nature his boundless Compassions that are in the front of all his glorious Perfections and in the Language of the Psalmist from everlasting to everlasting by all that is great sacred and venerable that which takes up the wonder of Angels the praises of men and the adorations of the Saints in glory that you no longer resist the Light of the Gospel but since you are redeem'd from the pompous drudgery of an external Religion that you would think no Sacrifices worthy of God but such as are attended with your life strength zeal and devotion for this is the true Worship of the New Testament when our Will is united to the Will of God 'T IS easie to observe the holy Violence and Fire of S. Paul's Spirit when he endeavours to plant-true and solid Religion Here he speaks as if his Soul was ready to crack the strings that ty'd it to his Body He is all flame all love all endeavour all charity He wishes himself an Anathema i. e. a publick Sacrifice for the unbelieving Jews if this could recover them from their Infidelity to the acknowledgement of the Truth as it is in Jesus HE made use of this weighty Argument in this place because there is none of greater force If the Angels were to preach to us and gain us to the belief of the Gospel they could not fly higher in their Perswasives than the Mercies of God It is by them that he chuses to proclaim all his Titles of Honour to the World The Lord the Lord God slow to anger and of great goodness So when the Apostle exhorts by the Mercies of God he exhorts by God himself and all those ineffable appearances of his Goodness that are felt by the intelligent World and every moment proclaim'd with wonder and acknowledgement HOW merciful must he be who suffers without present revenge the many horrid Crimes that are daily committed the provocations that fly in the face of Heaven their multitude their variety and their circumstances as if men would pull down the Almighty from his Throne and reverse the foundations of good and evil And yet such is the love of God to mankind that after many unkind denyals and rude affronts he besieges the Consciences of men by the force of his Convictions he makes the Light of his Word to pierce to the bottom of the Soul and powerfully overcome the stubborness of our Will How wisely does he conduct us through the labyrinth of tentations How sweetly does he engage us by the motions of his Spirit How kindly does he receive the Prodigal when as yet he had but some small beginnings of wisdom sobriety and calmness He saw him afar off he ran to him fell upon his neck and kissed him WHEN we remember that the Mercies of God are our surest Refuge and Sanctuary in all our fears straits and difficulties we need say no more to amplifie them This is the strong Hold that we flee to when we are assaulted by fear despair or the terrour of the Law WHEN Nathan the Prophet by a
witty Parable forc'd open the Conscience of David when the terrours of God began to take hold of him he immediately ran to the horns of this Altar According to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my sins and my transgressions This is the argument which God himself cannot resist See with what zeal and holy Rapture it is pleaded by Daniel in behalf of the Captives of Babylon O Lord hear O Lord forgive O Lord hearken and do defer not for thine own sake O! my God for thy City and thy people are call'd by thy Name NOW we may easily guess what stress the Apostle laid upon this Argument like a skilful Orator he reserves his strongest motives for the last Place that by one stroke he might batter down all Objections He had sufficiently reasoned the case in the former Chapters and now he pleads that his Reasonings may not be in vain that they may not resist so much Light and Authority but rather that they ought to give way to their own Convictions and the true designs of Christianity and yield up themselves an entire Victim to the Will of God IT is usual with the Apostle when he recommends those comprehensive Duties that have in them the Soul and strength of Christianity to enforce them by this Argument If there be therefore any consolation in Christ if any comfort of Love if any fellowship of the Spirit if any bowels of mercies c. But shortly the reasons why the Apostle pitch'd upon this Argument are these I. BECAUSE the contempt of God's mercies is attended with the sharpest and the saddest marks of his displeasure and indignation And this is just in its self if we consider that we have nothing to say on our own behalf when we trample upon his Love and Mercy So argues the Author to the Hebrews How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him And again He that despised Moses Law died without mercy under two or three witnesses of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy that hath trodden under foot the blood of the Son of God The contempt of his Love and Mercy manifested in the Gospel is the most inexcusable folly and madness This is the condemnation that light is come into the world and men love darkness rather than light This is the Vinegar and Gall that fill the Souls of the damn'd with self-horror confusion and indignation This is the thought that eternally disquiets the dark Habitations below viz. that once they might have been sav'd that once they had their day and that they refus'd the Light when it shin'd No Tortures so exquisite as the lashes of an inrag'd Conscience The Light that they despis'd whilst they were here looks them broad in the face and makes them roar to all Eternity And these accusations of the Soul against it self the upbraidings and inward whips of the Mind make up the miseries of an intellectual Being 2. THE Apostle made choice of this Argument from the Mercies of God in this place when he summ'd up the whole Christian practice into one Exhortation because his Mercies in the Gospel are his last remedy for our Recovery Upon other occasions the Apostle moves men to their duty by the consideration of his Power So he exhorts the Corinthians Knowing therefore the terrour of the Lord we persuade Men. But there are other Arguments to move us when those from his Power and Sovereignty are us'd If we sin against his Dominion and Power we fly to his Mercy but when we sin against his Mercy there is not another Attribute in God to which we can fly his Mercy is the last remedy for the recovery of Mankind This is decipher'd excellently in that Parable of the Gospel the Master of the Vinyard when all his former Servants and Messengers had been baffled and abus'd resolves at last to send his beloved Son It may be said he they will reverence him when they see him and if they did not the patience and goodness of God was no longer to struggle with them If we reflect a little on the weight and solemnity of this Preface we may justly infer the consequence of that Exhortation to which it is prefix'd I beseech you by the most sacred Mysteries of our Religion I beseech you by all that is amiable and delightful by the mercies of God that soften the most rugged dispositions and melt the most obdur'd hearts by that great Propitiation brought to light by the Gospel that you would present your bodies a living sacrifice holy acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service AND this leads me to consider this Exhortation more particularly The Apostle asserted formerly our freedom from the Levitical Sacrifices and lest we should think that by our Christian Liberty we are loos'd from all worship and obedience he informs us here what was the Sacrifice that was chiefly design'd under the Symbols and Figures of the ancient Law and indispensably requir'd under the Oeconomy of the Gospel And tho Interpreters may vary in their Expressions yet all of them must agree that there is no more intended than that the Christians instead of Beasts and bloody Sacrifices would offer up themselves i. e. their Wills Strength and Affections with purity and zeal to the service of God The word in the Original in several good Authors signifies persons That ye present your bodies i. e. Your selves for this under the New Testament is the only acceptable Sacrifice This is the whole of the Christian Religion this is the life and design of the former Ceremonies and this is the Abstract and Compend of all true Worship And because this one truth is of such vast consequence to the Souls of Men and hath in it the Spirit and Quintessence of all practical Devotion I shall endeavour to recommend it and give further light unto it in the following Method 1. I WILL consider the excellency of this Sacrifice abstractly and in it self 2. THE value that God did set upon it when the Levitical Sacrifices were prescribed by the Law and were most in vogue amongst the Jews 3. THAT this Sacrifice was principally intended by all the care caution and ceremony wherewith all other Sacrifices were offered 4. I WILL separately explain the Epithets by which this Sacrifice is recommended with allusion to the old Sacrifices of the Law And from all these particulars we must necessarily conclude that this is the Sacrifice that truly recommends us to God 1. LET us view the excellency of this Sacrifice and total surrender of our selves to his disposal There is nothing else suitable to the Divine Nature it is not Gold nor Frankincense nor the costly Perfumes of Arabia that propitiate the Deity a Soul purified from vice and sin is his peculiar Habitation Nothing quenches the fire
when shall I come and appear before God 2. To make the Sacrifice Acceptable it must needs be offered unto God without retractation with a chearful liberal Soul And this no doubt was the Essential difference between the Sacrifice of Cain and Abel Abel gave his Sacrifice with a bountiful benign Soul Cain gave his with a penurious unwilling Miâ—d And therefore the Author to the Hebrews tells us that Abel offering unto God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a more plentiful Sacrifice he gave it with a Soul as vast aâ— the whole Universe he came to the Altar with a heart fir'd with Love to the divine Honour But Cain drew a black Picture of God in his own Mind aâ—d therefore he came with affections as â—ark as the Vaults of Hell a mean and knavish Soul who measur'd the Almigâ—ty by no other Standard than that of hiâ— own angry and troubled Mind God is the God of Love nay he is Love it self Let all our Sacrifices thereore be enflam'd with true Love this nakes the Incense burn on the Altar with a sweet smelling savour this unites â—s to that blessed Company above whosâ— very Life is made up of chearfulness hâ—rmony and alacrity of Spirit 3. â—f the Sacrifice be Acceptable it must â—e offered of such things as the Law allowed to be sacrific'd Hence that known distinction of things clean and unclean What we sacrifice unto God under the New Testament must be something within the Circle of his Commandment It is a wild fancy and Enthusiastick madness for men to think that for the glory of God we nay turn sanguinary Rebels and barbarous Murderers as if the glory of God could be advanc'd by violating his Laws and renversing the boundaries between Good and Evil. True Religion grows upon the Foundation of Reason and is so congenial to our Nature that the one cannot act regularly without the other Do not we think that the Almighty is infinitely Wise and powerful to act for his Church Why do these unreasonable Men officiously interpose by their unhallowed Sacrifices and strange Fire They pretend to serve God zeaously when they let loose those Passions the suppressing whereof is the most acceptable Sacrifice NOW I have sufficiently demonstrated what was intended by the â—ncient Sacrifices and what the Christia Sacrifices ought to be And that is no other than this which is recommended in the Text. The first Christians were derided because of the simplicity of their Religion and their Apologists unanimously declar'd that God respected no Man for any external Excellencies or Advantages it was the pure and holy Soul that he delighted in He stands not in need of Blood Smoak Perfumes or Incense the best Sacrifice is to offer up a Mind truly devoted to his fear and this is certainly our most reasonable service And this leads me to enquire IN the third and last Place into the Motive whereby he enforces his Exhortation and that is It is your reasonable Service It is the Rational Worship opposite to the foolish Pageantry of the Pagan Ceremonies and the cumbersom Yoke of the Jewish Law It is that rational Adoration of God that is founded upon the Eternal Rules of immutable Reason and not oâ— variable Constitutions This Sacrifice then may be call'd in the strictest sense the Rational Worship I. BECAUSE our Reason was given us for this very end that we might converse with God This is the End that God had in his view in our first Creation Let us make man in our Image There is nothing capable of conversing with God but that which hath some resemblances of himself Society is for Delight and therefore we cannot converse but with such as are like our selves In our first Creation God made us after his own Image that he might converse with us 2. THIS is Reason in its highest Elevation It cannot be rais'd higher than thus to sacrifice it self to God For here we converse with the most perfect Object and in the noblest manner and with the purest Delight True Reason is a Beam of the Divinity a Ray of that first Light that enlivens all things and the nearer it draws to the Center the more it is itself If Truth and Light and clear Perception be the Life of the Soul then no doubt the nearer we draw unto the Original Truth the more we are our selves the more we act according to Reason and the Primitive Excellency of our Souls THIS is the true Life of the Soul the nearer approaches that it makes to matter in all its Appetites the nearer it is to Death it self and therefore our present state when we wrestle with the Tentations that assault us from the lower World is but a state of Misery Anxiety and Darkness if we compare it with that state of pure and unmixt Light where our Souls are made free from these unwieldy Tabernacles Now they are confin'd in their operations to some few and dull Senses but when we are got above this little Globe of Earth we may reasonably presume that our Souls will then display new Powers and Faculties upon new Objects which could not be exerc'd in its state of Union to this corruptible Body and will feel themselves more at liberty and uncon-fin'd and loos'd from that manner of Operation that their Kindred to an earthly Body did oblige them to nay the Philosophy of Plato gave noble Ideas of the state of Separation but our Blessed Saviour alone hath brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel 'T is He that hath revealed by the Father unto us and taught us to approach him with that rational and manly Worship that became the true Sons of God and the Heirs of eternal Life The more therefore that we are purified from Sensuality and the nearer we draw to the Life of the Blessed Jesus and the accurate Rules of his Gospel the more dispos'd and the more ripe we are for the felicities of the World to come and the Life of the Spirits of just men made perfect 3. THIS Religious Reason is the Characteristick difference of our Nature So that Man is better defin'd by Religion than by Reason without Religion The inferiour Creatures have some dark Vestiges of Reason Sagacity and Conduct but no shadow of Religion then may not we venture to say that Reason separately considered without Religion will not make up the Essential difference of our Nature The Philosophick Orator informs us that there is no Nation so savage and unpolished but that they had their Religious Solemnities their Gods and their Sacrifices And tho Cesar tells us of some of the old Germans that they had neither Priests nor Sacrifices yet they worshipped the Moon and the Fire Thus Religion seems to be the hereditary Ingredient of our Nature we must shake off what is most intimate to our Souls unless we employ our Reason in the Worship of God 4. THIS is a Reasonable Service because there
Religion so worthy of God to reveal so proper for us to be taught in as that system of true Piety and unaffected Morality that he has brought to Light WHEN I say Morality I do not understand Morality in the usual lame and defective signification of it as it regards our outward behaviour towards Man But rather the whole of our profound submission and obedience to the first and second Table of the Law And in this true and comprehensive notion I affirm that it was our Saviour's design to advance it unto practice and reputation amongst Mankind THE Jewish Religion take it all together was rather Gods indulgence and toleration than his law and commandment And tho it had the Seal of his Authority yet it was not in it self the best Religion but the best that they could bear When they returned from Aegypt the impressions of their servitude were not so soon worn off but that their proneness to Idolatry and former slavish dispositions remain'd And ever and anon upon all occasions for a long time after they relapse into their superstitions and Aegyptian Ceremonies IF we view them in the best periods of the Jewish Oeconomy their Religion was defective Many things were plainly permitted or tacitely conniv'd at as Polygamy and Divorce and some degrees of uncharitableness and revenge which natural and uncorrupted reason dislikes and condemns But when Our Saviour appear'd it was then high time to recover the World from their beggarly elements and to give us the true notions of Almighty God the spirituallity of his Worship and the extent of his universal Empire over Jew and Gentile and to form our manners by that accurate rule of his Doctrine and Example By which we were not only assured of Eternal Life but partly in a manner put in the possession of it A scheme of Christian Morals is given us in the Sermon on the Mount so pure and angelical that at first view we are forc'd to acknowledge that it came down from the Father of lights We are exhorted to whatsoever things are true honest just pure lovely and of good report if there be any vertue and if there be any praise to think on these things TO advance and facilitate the practice of this Morality was the design of our Saviour's undertaking when we consider the Gospel in its uniform strength and vigour as also to calm the consciences of men to remove our fears and to teach us to approach the Throne of God with a generous assurance of mind to bind us in the strongest bonds of Society amongst our selves and to liberate us from the yoke of Moses Law This was our Saviour 's business when he took upon him our Nature when we beheld his glory the glory as of the only begotten of the Father full of Grace and Truth 1. I SAY one great part of his design was to form us into true Morals This is the comprehensive character by which good men are distinguished in the Holy Scriptures In this the Children of God are manifest and the Children of the Devil whosoever doth not righteousness is not of God neither he that loveth not his brother Thus runs the description of Job that he was a man perfect and upright one that feared God and eschewed evil AND David's religious man walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness and speaketh the truth in his heart The great character of Moses was that he was very meek above all the men upon the face of the Earth And Cornelius the Centurion is said to be a devout man and one that feared God with all his house which gave much alms to the People and prayed to God alway BUT all along the New Testament the Pharisees are stigmatiz'd that they were cold and indifferent in the great Morals of Religion while they were very zealous and pragmatick to advance the rituals of it They were blind guides who strain'd at a Gnat and swallowed a Camel They tithed Mint Annise and Cummin and neglected the weightier matters of the Law WHEN the whole of Religion is summ'd up in the most compendious manner there is nothing else nam'd but the love of God and our neighbour Or the most ingenuous expressions of both What doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God And our Saviour tells us that on the Love of God and our neighbour hangs all the Law and Prophets And this is the same Doctrine that is preached by S. Paul for Love is the fullfiling of the Law And therefore we find that the Prophets upon all occasions did endeavour to withdraw the thoughts of the Jews from the External drudgery of their Religion to that Immortal Deity that was Worshiped and to convince them that if their Sacrifices were not attended with the Love of God and their Neighbour they could not be acceptable The blood of Bulls and of Goats was no entertainment for him that made Heaven and Earth A Soul disengaged from the corruptions of Life and animated in all its actions with true zeal and sincerity was the only acceptable Sacrifice AND the Rituals of Christianity if they are destitute of their true Spirit and Life are of no greater value Our Faith without works is dead in the language of S. James And S. Peter compares our Baptism if separated from Purity of Manners to the washing of Swine And our Communicating without Devotion is by S. Paul said to be our coming together to condemnation It is the pure heart and clean hands the modest and ingenuous temper of Spirit that perfume our Faith our Prayers and our Assemblies When we look into the New Testament this Doctrine runs through all its parts and breaths almost in every Line the Grace of God that bringeth Salvation hath appeared unto all Men teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world looking for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works And for this very purpose the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the Devil IN all ages men have endeavoured to cross and oppose this part of our Saviour's design and to reconcile by little distinctions plausible and artificial tricks their Religion to their Lusts Some Religion they must have and that which renders them truly acceptable unto God penetrates too deep into the Soul searches the Hearts and Reins and teaches them to live in opposition to the corrupt Spirit of the World and to lead captive secret thoughts and imaginations unto the obedience of Christ The impressions of the Divinity are folded up in the Soul of Man the apprehensions and fears of an after reckoning haunt us whether we will or not
that kind of Religion to which they were most addicted And therefore our Religion must needs be of another stamp entirely pure gentle easie to be intreated full of good works without partiality and without hypocrisie 2. They thought that they might compensate for moral Miscarriages by long prayers and bodily severities And they would gladly submit to any thing rather than reform what ought to be truly amended 3. They believ'd they might merit eternal Life by the observation of one Precept though they liv'd in the habitual contempt and violation of all the rest Such a Precept they took their Sabbath to be WHEN we view the pure and unaffected complexion of our Religion how great an Enemy it is to all unworthy shifts and disguises how generous and refin'd above that Spirit that prevails in the World how amiable in the Eyes of God and Men then I say we may easily perceive that there is nothing more opposite unto it than that peevish superstition and hypocrisie that prevail'd in the Jewish Church when our Saviour appear'd And to the end that we may feel the force of our Religion to the best advantages Let us observe the following Directions 1. WE must understand our Religion thorowly and fix it in our Souls by the most accurate and serious consideration For though the motives of Christianity be of that moment that they may easily conquer our Souls yet unless they are duly applyed by Thought Reason and Meditation they loose their force and efficacy and they never impart to us the least degree of spiritual courage and activity God assaults our Reason in the first place and when we are overcome by Argument we are then a willing People we are Subjects by our choice and not by constraint Therefore are we frequently to view and consider the motives and arguments of our Religion and weigh them in the balance against the difficulties that oppose us That when we have examin'd and seriously debated whatsoever makes for or against our being Christians we may go forth to meet our Enemy with spiritual furniture and strength Shall the World and its triffling Interests notwithstanding that we are convinc'd of its emptiness and vanity take up so many of our Thoughts And shall we forget our immortal Souls and the Judgment to come Religion enters the Soul by Meditation and no Man can be Religious but by the acts of his Mind It is a reasonable service that we are call'd to and to make us continue in it with delight our Reason must be first engag'd How necessary this consideration is our Saviour represents in the Gospel of S. Luke What King goeth out to war doth not first sit down and consider if with his ten thousand he be able to meet him that comes against him with twenty thousand Or if a man resolve to build a Tower he first computes the expence and then he builds SUCH as are hastily engag'd in the service of Religion are frequently forc'd to retire with shame and dishonour And this is the usual result of rash and unsettled purposes which men make in the heat of their passion and under the power of some transient conviction 2. WE are always to perfer the Morals of Religion to its lesser Appendages and Ceremonies and to remember that the last are only subservient to advance the first True Christian Life is the Transcript of the Divine Nature Be ye holy as I am holy And again Be ye merciful as your Father in heaven is merciful There are such legible impressions of the Divine Nature felt in the Souls of the Regenerate that they attract his presence they are his peculiar habitations where he fixes his residence Nothing so enlarges the Spirit of a Man as to fix his eyes on the Life of Jesus to view with attention and delight how much he was above the World when environ'd with its terrors and flatteries He spoke of the invisible things as one does of his own Country He reason'd men out of their folly by all the force and weight of Heaven and Eternity And if we allow him to speak to our Consciences it is not possible to resist his reasonings He went about doing good He made himself accessible to us by the interposal of his humanity that we might see as well as hear the beauties of Christian Religion He taught us a Doctrine that is exactly calculated to refine our Nature to make us better in all relations And by this rule we are to examine the different pretences of all divided Parties If they advance by the plainest and nearest methods true Piety Innocency and Simplicity and propagate them in the Spirit of Love Unity and Subordination this is the surest mark to know that they belong to the Household of Faith 3. WE are here but Pilgrims and Strangers we are so to demean our selves as Candidates for Eternity Our Christian Life is but a flight from the World and the more we are alienated from the Spirit that prevails in it the more ripe we are for that incorruptible inheritance that is reserv'd for us Let us make the things of another World present to our selves by Faith For the fashion of this World passeth away And we are shortly to appear before Gods Tribunal stript naked of all the thin cobwebs and excuses whereby we endeavour'd to hide our deformities upon Earth 4. And lastly WHEN you have deliberately resolv'd consider the evil of back-sliding and its dreadful consequences There are but few who plainly and openly deny the Faith unto which they are Baptized yet many hundreds deny the Lord that bought them by their wicked Lives and unchristian Practices Now the just shall live by Faith but if any man draw back my Soul shall have no pleasure in him But we are not of them who draw back into perdition but of them that believe to the saving of the Soul To God the Father Son and Holy Ghost be all Glory Praise and Dominion for ever Amen A SERMON Preached on Whitsunday 1688. ON ACTS ii v. 1 2 3 4. And when the day of Pentecost was fully come they were all with one accord in one place And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind and it filled all the house where they were sitting And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire and it sat upon each of them And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance THE Christian Church from the Ascension of our Blessed Saviour into Heaven until the Effusion of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles was full of great expectations and great fears they had not yet quite broke off from the Communion of the Jewish Church yet they continued in their solitude and retirements and in the true exercise of Charity and Patience until our Saviour should scatter his Royal Donatives upon his solemn and magnificent entrance into the
Love in the first Epistle of St. John give us to understand that the Love of God and his Neighbour did actuate and enliven his Soul to the highest warmth and Charity WHEN we look upon the Apostles in this interval between Christs Ascension and the effusion of the Holy Ghost before they proclaim'd boldly and openly the wonderful things of God in the name of Jesus before they came forth with displayed Banners against the Kingdom of darkness then it was that their Unity did miraculously support ' them and what degrees of chearfulness and courage were found in any of them came seasonably to the relief of every one upon all occasions Their Unity first strengthened their Prayers they went up to Heaven as the Evening Sacrifice and with united force prevailed The Prayers of those Souls that are knit in Charity soon fly to the Ears of God they are raised above the Skies on the wings of servent Love the Devotions that are harmoniously poured forth on Earth resound with an Eccho in the Heavens as if the Inhabitants of the upper and the lower World had begun already the most intimate friendship and familiar Converse 2. THEIR Unity among themselves filled their Souls with great Tranquillity and though they were not yet actually inspired as afterwards they were with the gifts of the Holy Ghost yet by their unanimity they were so prepared for them and thirsted after them as the parched and gasping Earth thirsts for the showers of the latter Rain 3. THIS Unity had with it also some foretasts of the joys of Heaven Those triumphant Spirits that are above are twisted together in the mutual Embraces of Love it is their Element where they move it is the life of their Soul they cannot live without it either here or hereafter 4. THIS Unity dispos'd the Apostles and the Disciples to a clearer understanding of the truths of the Kingdom of Heaven Truth is the true nourishment of the Mind and this Truth enters not in its force and influence unless the Soul is first alienated from all harsh rugged and ill-natured Passions Proud and unmortified Men may make a great ostentation of Wisdom and Knowledge but the truth all this time is not successfully united to the essence of the Mind and the retirements of the Conscience though the words that convey it to our Ears may be lodg'd in the memory and imagination when we come to know the Truth in its divine energy and strength then are we made free from sin and hereby we know that we know him if we keep his Commandments Now the Apostles locked themselves up from the noise of the World and felt those invisible supports of Faith and Love when as yet they had not courage enough to venture abroad but Unity cannot long be preserved without uniformity and therefore they are said not only to be of one accord but also in one place THE Order and Discipline of the Catholick Church into which we are received by Baptism oblige not only to inward peace but also to an outward Decorum and visible Uniformity The Church in the language of Solomon is beautiful as Tirzah comely as Jerusalem terrible as an Army with banners The comprehensive Apostolick Canon is that all things be done with decency and in order and therefore are we exhorted by the Author to the Hebrews not to forsake the assembling of our selves together as the manner of some is i. e. We are not to erect Altar against Altar but to continue in the Communion of the Christian Church observing those Laws and Rules by which the spiritual Society of Christs Family has been best preserved in the times of greatest danger and persecution If we cut our selves off from Christs mystical Body the consequences are fatal and dreadful THE publick Worship of the Sanctuary is Christs Trophy over his Enemies his Standard erected and set up in those very places where the Devil had his Altars are not his Oracles now silenced and his Sacrifices deserted where our Saviour is acknowledged King and Sovereign Is not the publick Worship the very joy of our hearts as the Prophet foretold Come ye and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord to the house of the God of Jacob and he will teach us of his ways and we will walk in his paths See with what fervour the best of Gods Servants pray for it and with what satisfaction they speak of it Pity saith Daniel thy Sanctuary that is desolate for the Lords sake And the Psalmist Thy servants take pleasure in her very stones and favour the dust thereof And again I was glad when they said unto me let us go into the house of the Lord our feet shall stand within thy gate O Jerusalem HOW hateful then are they to God and how contrary to the Spirit and design of the Gospel who destroy the publick Worship and the uniform Meetings of Christs Family upon Earth by Faction Mutiny Tumult Schism or Disobedience Is it not sad to consider how implacably Schismaticks are set to destroy the peace and order of the Sanctuary 'T is true as we shall have occasion to consider within a little the Holy Ghost came upon the Apostles in cloven tongues of fire but all fiery Tongues are not from the Holy Ghost A Sect there is of unquiet and restless Spirits who have no Principles but what tend to destruction and though it be no part of my design or inclination to rake into that Puddle of little Cavils and Exceptions that have been boisterously vented against the beauty and order of our National Church yet I would offer to the consideration of the meanest Hearer these four Particulars and then let them declare their thoughts of the present Schism and Wall of Partition that the Presbyterians have rais'd between themselves and the Catholick Church 1. CONSIDER that they and their Practices are disclaim'd by all Protestant Churches With what face do they alledge that they themselves are the strictest Patrons of the Reformation who have deserted all other Churches and by their Principles now think it unlawful to keep the Communion of any setled Church in Europe 2. ARE they not Nonconformists to themselves Their former Confessions of Faith and their Ringleaders as well as to the present Church the windings and turnings of Errour are infinite it leads them to a thousand absurdities it hath no solid Basis to rest upon but the present crasis of the Imagination and as that changes its Figure the Errour shifts its appearance and comes forth with further improvements And yet such is the unlucky fate of all Schismaticks that after all their refinings and Reformations they still retain some one thing or other that baffles and confounds all their childish and whiffling Objections against the Church I will instance but in one Particular which to this day is practised by the Presbyterians and that is they appoint Adulterers and such as are most eminently scandalous to wear
as were most unlikely to bring them to pass Must rude and illiterate Mechanicks grapple with the Rabbies and Philosophers of East and West By what Armies by what deep Contrivances must this Design be set on foot How ridiculous is the very thought of it to a man that stands no higher than on the level of Humane Maxims Yet this Divine Fire in their Tongues burnt up and consum'd the Worship of the Devil and silenc'd his most famous Oracles and brought the whole World in a manner under new Laws and as a rapid and violent flame devours combustible matter without mercy without resistance so the Christian Religion pulled down the Rites Customs and Solemnities of Superstition even then when the Learning Zeal and Power of all Mankind were engag'd to support it S. Paul tells us that the foolishness of God is wiser than men i. e. the most unlikely means seconded by his assistance produce the most wonderful and astonishing effects the methods that seem comtemptible to humane eyes overcome the wisest and the most subtile contrivances the meanest and weakest arrow in his quiver the clownish Fishers of Gallilee will baffle and confound all the Sons of Wit and Speculation the most accurate amongst them who had been train'd from their infancy in the Arts of Sophistry and Eloquence stood mute and stupid before those new Philosophers who came to discover unto us life and immortality The Topicks and the Methods of the Athenian Schools were swept down like thin Cobwebs when this true Light appear'd their curious Schemes were all rejected and a higher Doctrine than any that was formerly taught was establish'd upon no lower Principles than the evidence and demonstration of the Spirit the little knacks of the Philosophers that consisted most in the shufflings and turnings of Words and Phrases vanish'd like aery Phantoms when Truth it self in its Meridian Splendor inspir'd those frail men can we attribute this their Victory to any thing short of God himself His word is like a fire and as a hammer that breaketh the rocks in pieces So the Apostles forc'd their way through Rocks and pierc'd to the Center of mens Souls and gain'd to the obedience of Christ those hearts that one would think were altogether inaccessible they pulled down strong holds and lofty imaginations and by their swift and universal success at such a Time and against such Mountains of Opposition they gave the World to understand that their Mission was from above And here are the Trophies and Triumphs of Christianity the wonderful Propagation of our Religion made it evident that this Fire that came down upon the Apostles in Cloven Tongues was not a flitting and vagrant Meteor unfixt and moveable but a solid and durable Light which was to continue in the Church until the consummation of all things 3. HERE we may consider the accomplishment of the Promise contain'd in the fourth Verse They were all filled with the holy Ghost That the Apostles were inspir'd by God is beyond all contradiction and they who impute their Progress in the Conversion of Nations their Languages and Miracles their divine Reasonings and Revelations to any ordinary Cause subvert the Principles upon which our Religion stands All Civiliz'd Nations ancient and modern do acknowledge the possibility of a Divine Revelation nay that it is reasonable for Mankind to expect it in some extraordinary Cases and most people plead it in favours of some one Custom or other received amongst themselves and if all men agree in this that it is reasonable to look for it and that by the strength of Reason we may distinguish a true Revelation from what is counterfeit What should harden men against the Christian Religion for the miraculous Inspiration which the Church commemorates this Day hath stampt upon it all the Characters of Divinity that our Souls can think of even when they examine things most calmly and accurately LET us therefore thank Almighty God that he gave us the highest assurances of our Religion that he made our hope so sixt that it cannot be battered for when we read that the Holy Ghost came down upon the Apostles in this manner we may conclude infallibly that our Lord is not only risen from the dead but invested also with the highest Power at the right hand of God the Father The Gifts and magnificent Donatives that he scattered amongst his Subjects when he enter'd into the Heavens sufficiently convince us that all power in heaven and in earth is given unto him To his Ascension may be applied that of the Psalmist Thou hast ascended up on high thou hast led captivity captive thou hast received gifts for men yea for the rebellious also that the Lord God might dwell among them Let us say then as the Psalmist invites I will bless the Lord at all times his praise shall continually be in my mouth O magnifie the Lord with me and let us exalt his Name together This Effusion of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles is so full a proof of his Victory that now we lean on his Promise with the greatest tranquillity and assurance He hath ridden prosperously because of truth and meekness and righteousness his right hand hath taught him terrible things the enemies of his Kingdom fall before him he hath broken them as with a rod of iron he hath dasht them in pieces like a potters vessel he is established for ever King in Zion The meditation of this fills our hearts with joy and gladness that our Redeemer who is bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh hath trodden all our enemies under his feet We have this hope as an anchor of the Soul both sure and steadfast and which entreth unto that within the Veil whither the forerunner is for us entered even Jesus made an High Priest for ever after the order of Melchizedeck NOR are we to think that because now he is encircled with Glory and Majesty that he can be unmindful of us no more than he was when he was compass'd with our Infirmities and as he made good his Promise to the Apostles and sent upon them the Holy Ghost to plead his cause against Infidelity so we may rely on his Word that he will raise us again unto life and immortality tho our dust stould mingle with all the scattered Atoms of the Creation he will change our vile bodies that they may be fashion'd like unto his glorious body according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself And the same Apostle assures us that if the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in us he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken our mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in us Thus from the fulfilling of what is past we may reason our selves into the belief and certainty of what is to come AND let us thank our heavenly Father that so early strengthen'd the
excellent beginnings that we shall be made more than Conquerours through Jesus Christ that loved us and we resign our selves to his conduct and goodness and by them we put to silence all our fears and anxieties Why art thou cast down O my Soul and why art thou disquieted within me hope thou in God for I shall yet praise him who is the health of my Countenance and my God To God the Father Son and Holy Ghost be all Praise Power and Dominion for evermore Amen A SERMON Preached at the FUNERAL Of the Right Honourable WILLIAM Viscount of Strathallan Lieutenant-General of all His MAJESTIES Forces within the Kingdom of SCOTLAND At Inverpeffray April 4. 1688. LONDON Printed for Joseph Hindmarsh at the Golden Ball over against the Royal Exchange in Cornhil 1693. A SERMON ON JOHN xi 25. Jesus said unto her I am the Resurrection and the Life he that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live Compared with 1 Cor. 15.12 13 14. Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead how say some among you that there is no resurrection from the dead But if there be no resurrection of the dead then is Christ not not risen and if Christ be not risen then is our preaching vain and your faith is also vain THE first Sentence that I have read is placed in the Frontispiece of the Office for the Burial of the Dead the clear foresight we have of our after subsistence being the only and the strongest Antidote against the Terrors of Death and the Solemnities of our Entrance into the Grave What more proper to be told the Sisters of Lazarus than that which rais'd their thoughts from the Corruptions of the Earth to that State of Celestial Vigour to which we shall arrive one day when we shake off the Dishonours of Weakness and Mortality The Article of the Resurrection is the great Pillar of the Christian Faith the Corner-stone of our Religion our Hope is founded on it and as the Apostle reasons our Belief without it is but one continued Fable and Imposture This alone hath in it the Strength and Quintescence of all Consolation and there is no remedy against our present Trouble but to believe our condition shall be changed into a better Humane Nature feels it self relieved by no other thought than the sure prospect of our happiness to come The wise sayings and pretty knacks of the Philosophers who had no view of the Resurrection did avail but little to support the Mind against Grief and Sorrow So S. Paul concludes that if in this life only we had hope we were of all men the most miserable There was indeed a general Tradition of the Immortality of the Soul that had overspread Mankind and so much we might gather from the Writings of Cicero and Seneca But to believe that the dispers'd parts of a Mans Body shall be rang'd and dispos'd into their true order and situation after they have been scatter'd thorough all the Corners of the Earth that they shall be reduc'd unto a temper fit to serve the Soul in all its Vital Functions that those Atoms shall be joyn'd to that Spirit from whom they have been separated was and is the peculiar Belief of the True Church WE cannot think of our utter Dissolution without horror and amazement we are naturally enemies to Sadducism and death in its strictest Notion The most barbarous Nations have something in their Rites and Religious Ceremonies that carry their thoughts beyond the Grave The very Phrase by which the ancient Romans did express Death let us see that they could not with patience think of being entirely extinct and annihilated when their Souls left their earthly habitations As for the Jews they could not but be fully acquainted with the Doctrine of the Resurrection though not from the Law of Moses yet the sayings of their Wise Men the Comments and Predictions of their Prophets the Traditions of the Patriarchs did establish them fully in the Belief of the Resurrection As we are informed by the Prophecies of Daniel and Job And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt and they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever Could any of the Christians prophesie with greater assurance of the Resurrection than Job I know that my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth And though after my skin worms destroy this body yet in my flesh shall I see God whom I shall see for my self and mine eyes shall behold and not another though my reins be consumed within me It s the Observation of S. Hierom upon these words that none spoke so clearly of our Saviours Resurrection and his own as Job before the Incarnation did And the following Prophets teach the same Doctrine Thy dead men shall live together with my dead body shall they arise Awake and sing ye that dwell in dust for the dew is as the dew of herbs and the earth shall cast out the dead But the Doctrine of the Resurrection hath received much Evidence and Certainty from our Lord Jesus Christ himself who brought life and immortality to light by the Gospel who not only asserts it frequently but proves it convincingly from the Books of Moses by the clearest and most undeniable consequence I am the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob God is not the God of the dead but of the living IT is needless for me or my design to trouble you with the more accurate inquiry of the order and coherence of those Words that I have read either out of the Gospel or the Epistle though we should disjoin them from their neighbour places yet they are entire in themselves full of light and comfort Martha told our Saviour her Faith now being almost overcome with Grief that he was highly in favour with God and so probably might prevail with him and obtain any thing he desired Our Saviour assures her that her Brother shall rise again this puts some life into her expectations and she seemed artificially to wave what she hoped and did insinuate that she understood him of the general Resurrection But he quickly saw into the darkest recesses of her mind and told her plainly that there was no necessity to let her thoughts fly so far off as the general Resurrection He who was the first efficient cause of the Resurrection and the Author of Life was himself present and so might when he pleas'd raise his subjects and followers from the captivity and dishonours of the Grave FROM both the places that I have read I invite your attention to Meditate First On the Resurrection of our Saviour as the Author and finisher of our Faith Secondly Our Resurrection who
believe in him Thirdly The Interest that we have in his purchase by our adherence to him and dependence on him He that believes on me though he were dead yet shall he live First THAT our Saviour did raise himself from the dead is certain else our Religion is but a fable and a lying vanity It is S. Paul's own Inference to the Corinthians If Christ be not risen then our faith is in vain and we are yet in our sins And so our Saviour tells the Disciples that Christ must needs suffer and rise from the dead the third day The Spirit of Prophecy did enlighten the Jewish Church and foretold the success glories and triumphs of the Messias He shall drink of the brook in the way therefore shall he lift his head And Isa 53.10 That when he made his Soul an offering for sin he should prolong his days and the pleasure of the Lord should prosper in his hand That because he had poured out his Soul unto death God would divide him a portion with the Great and he should divide the Spoils with the strong All those Predictions have the Resurrection of our Saviour in their bosom and without it they are nothing When he was declared to be the Son of God by the Resurrection from the dead the suspicions concerning his Person were remov'd he appear'd then to be the Christ of God the Lord of all things the Judge of the world And his mean equipage bitter pains and shameful disgraces did but heighten and inflame the Zeal and Devotion of Jew and Gentile How mysterious was the stratagem of his Love to hide the Glories of his Divinity to obscure the brightness of his Majesty by the interposal of human Nature to cloath himself with our flesh that he might die that through death he might overcome him that had the power of death and by his omnipotence raise himself from death and the grave For though he was Crucified through weakness yet he liveth by the power of God He was put to death as a notorious Malefactor exposed to the reproach and contempt of all Nations treated as an Enemy to God and to true Religion his adversaries insulted over him as one stricken smitten of God But when it appear'd that he was the mighty Favorite of Heaven by his Resurrection from the Dead how did this confute their Reasoning How did it baffle their Accusations How did it upbraid their Ignorance and scatter their vain Surmises and aggravate their incurable Malice Since he must needs be acknowledged to be the Messias in defiance of all spite and contradiction The stone which the builders refus'd became the head-corner-stone of the building Being found in fashion as a man be humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the Cross Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth and that every Tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father Now the human Nature is rais'd above the Angelical in the Person of our Saviour And the hosts of heaven fall down before him that was dead and is alive and dies no more and every creature which is in heaven and in earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea say with a loud voice Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and blessings The very thought of it delivers us from all our fears as the value and merit from our offences This is the Triumphant Song of the Christian Church the strong Tower we flie to in all our straits and difficulties the immovable Author of our Faith Who is he that condemneth It is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again who is even at the right hand of God who also maketh intercession for us The meditation of it is the strongest inducement to a holy life for he was rais'd to bless us in turning every one of us from our iniquities For as he was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father Even so we also should walk in newness of life And if you be present with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God Do we worship him that is risen from the dead and brake thorow the Iron barrs of death and yet remain captive our selves under the tyranny and bondage of our sins Let it appear by our heavenly Conversation that we are acted by a Spirit superior to the World that we are born of God that he that is in us is stronger than he that is in the world for in this the Children of God are manifest and the Children of the Devil whosoever doth not righteousness is not of God neither he that loveth not his brother Do we believe that our Saviour is victorious over Death and the Grave and yet shall we remain slaves to our Lusts and Passions Let the contrary appear that we are united to him in the closest manner encouraged by his Promises and enliven'd by his Spirit Whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report if there be any vertue and if there be any praise think on these things And this is the most proper method to prove to the World the Resurrection of our Saviour and the divinity of our Religion and this was the Argument that the first Christians made frequently use of to confound their Adversaries For how can we be made partakers of the Divine Nature but by the Divine Power Shall we live a Life more pure and heavenly than the rest of Mankind if we are not inspir'd with a Spirit not only opposite to but above the maxims principles and genius of the World Shall the Scythians Persians and Romans forsake their fierceness lasciviousness and pride and become calm and chast and humble if they have no other rule to direct them than the glimmerings of Nature and weak essays of Philosophy Is it possible that we can overcome the Inclinations of Nature Lust Passion and Revenge but by a Spirit higher than Nature Can evil Habits be so soon removed Or can the Ethiopian change his Skin If we are then changed from what we were to the true use of our Reason and the acknowledgments of the Deity and the practice of all Vertue To what cause can this change be imputed but to the Divine Spirit of Jesus whose powerful intercecession prevails to Redeem us from under the dominion of all Error Darkness and Prejudice Do we then believe in Christ risen from the dead Let us live no more to sin but unto him that died for us and
to them which made the holy Patriarchs command their Children to transport their bodies from one place to another that their ashes might sleep with their Ancestors How boldly did the first Christians venture their Lives to procure the bodies of the Martyrs which the cruelty of their Persecutors left unburied And S. Cyprian tells us how dangerous it is to omit it and that we should expose our selves to all hazards rather than leave it undone Neither did the Piety of the ancient Christians confine it self to those of their own Religion but frequently did bury the Pagans deserted by their Relations and they thought it not enough to inshrine the remains of their fellow Christians in Tombs and Sepulchres but also prepared their Bodies for their Funeral with the richest odours spices and perfumes the best drugs and ointments they thought but too mean to express their tender regard to their deceased Friends So Tertullian in his Apology tells us that the most curious Spiceries the Sabeans could afford were employed this way When Mary Magdalen poured Ointment on our Saviour's Head he approved it as done to anoint his body to the burial And the good women mentioned by S. Luke prepared their ointments and sweet odours to embalm his body All this was done because they looked upon the body as the expectant of a joyful Resurrection And hence we commit it unto the earth in the sure and certain hope of the resurrection For when they have varyed all forms and figures they are again built up immortal and more delicate habitations for our Spirits 3. LET the thoughts of the Resurrection comfort us concerning our departed Friends and Relations It s S. Paul's own inference But I would not have you ignorant brethren concerning them that are asleep that you sorrow not even as others which have no hope Vers 16. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout and with the trump of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first wherefore comfort one another with these sayings 4. LET the thoughts of the Resurrection comfort us in our present troubles O happy day when we are brought again into the light after so many nights of darkness and solitude when our bodies appear with their brighter robes when flesh and blood are Spiritualised and invigorated with the warmth of the Sun of Righteousness and our heavy Earth is calcined and purified for its true Imployment that it may serve the Soul in its swiftest thoughts and vye with the Seraphims of Light and Zeal in their attendance on their Creator Now the Earthly Tabernacle drags and pulls down the Soul to low and despicable Enjoyments then the Body is made strong and refined to comply with the highest Capacities and Inclinations of the Mind We shall mount aloft from the Earth into the Air we shall shine as the brightness of the firmament and as the stars for ever and ever when we are got loose from the Prisons of Darkness and the Fetters of Corruption are broken off When we see the Glories and Empires of this little Globe below us and we our selves beyond danger and temptation far above its frowns and flatteries HOW strongly do we then feel our selves united to our true and immovable Happiness and assimilated to the Blessed Temper and Imployment of the Hosts of Heaven and the Spirits of just men made perfect When instead of this load of clay the uneasie weight that holds our Spirits in Captivity we shall then be cloathed upon with our house which is from heaven when mortality shall be swallowed up of life The very thoughts of this Elevation and Purity to think that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is might fill our Souls with the strongest Ardors and Impatience to be with Christ to be above the Clouds and the vicissitudes of this unquiet World WE cannot express the glory of the Body after the Resurrection better than in the language of the Scripture There is one glory of the Sun another of the Moon and another of the stars so also is the resurrection of the dead it is sown in corruption it is raised in incorruption it is sown in dishonour it is raised in glory it is sown in weakness it is raised in power it is sown a natural body it is raised a spiritual body And thus we are told by the same Apostle to the Philippians That he shall change our vile bodies that they may be fashioned like unto his glorious body by the power whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself What a mighty support is it for us at the approach of death to reason our selves out of our fear and diffidence to get above the terrour and the thought of our dissolution and strengthen our selves in view of the Glory that is to come Let us say in the words of the Psalmist Why art thou cast down O my Soul and why art thou disquieted within me Hope thou in God for I shall yet praise him who is the health of my Countenance and my God The Meditation of this joyful Day puts us beyond all Calamities sets our feet upon a Rock and makes us look down with Magnanimity on all the changes of this lower World for when our Eyes are fix'd upon those purer Pleasures what can disturb the peace and tranquillity of our Spirits For which cause we faint not but though our outward man perish yet our inward man is renewed day by day for our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory The prospect of that state and felicity makes us forget this foolish World and trample on all its glories with a generous disdain and contempt when we remember that we are heirs of God and coheirs with Christ of that inheritance incorruptible undefiled and that fadeth not away 5. But fifthly THE belief of the Resurrection arms us more immediately against the terrours of Death Thus St. Paul discourses in the fifteenth Chapter of the first Epistle to the Corinthians and 54. verse So when this corruptible hath put on incorruption and this mortal hath put on immortality then shall be brought to pass this saying that 's written Death is swallowed up of victory O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory The King of terrours is rifled his Forces are broken we have an Antidote against his Poison Let him come in his blackest dress in his most dismal Robes of darkness and fear Let him appear with all the Solemnities of terrour and sadness yet the Christian in the midst of all this meets him with undaunted Courage He is like mount Zion which cannot be moved he sees beyond those Clouds he defies all those frowns he strengthens himself in the death of Jesus and his Resurrection from the dead and the belief of both makes us more than Conquerours This is
were irrecoverably chain'd up under the power of his sins and evil habits God pleads with him and his own Conscience expostulates and the experience of all sober men baffle his pretences for no man is so fatally ty'd to misery and corruption but that he may break his bonds and escape the corruption that is in the World through lust To day then let me exhort you if you will hear his voice harden not your hearts break up the Prison doors the Grace of the Gospel is mighty and powerful you cannot be captive against your wills this corruption that prevails in the World may be escaped and overcome Do not fright your selves out of your duty by vain apparitions scare-crows and counterfeit apologies such as the slothful man in the Proverbs is said to use There is a Lyon without I shall be slain in the streets All such excuses are vain and impertinent whether they are taken 1. From the difficulty of removing old habits or 2. From the variety of our worldly incumbrances or 3. From the multitude and strength of temptations or 4. From the severities of Christian Religion 1. THE excuses taken from the difficulty of old habits The incorrigible sinner will plead that the Ethiopian cannot change his skin nor the Leopard his spots nor they that are accustomed to do evil ever learn to do well THUS Celsus against Origen seems to deny the possibility of any such reformation as the Christian Religion requires because customary sins become a second Nature that no punishments can reform or change yet saith Origen herein Celsus not only contradicts the Christians but all others who own any genenerous principles of Philosophy And there Origen gives instances in their own Heroes and such as were admir'd for Vertue among the Heathens that our recovery from Vice was very practicable and though it be difficult in the beginning to eradicate old habits yet when the first assaults are over if we vigorously prosecute so excellent a design it becomes pleasant and delightful Herein appeared the power of the Gospel that it made men exemplary in these very Graces that were most opposite to their former biass Thus the first Apologists plead in behalf of Christian Religion Let us see saith Lactantius the most proud and he will become humble the most covetous liberal the most fierce and cruel tame and meek like a Lamb. And is it possible that such a change can be wrought but by a supernatural Cause by light and motives far beyond our former principles If we act by worldly Maxims we must be confin'd in our thoughts to the lower Regions but when the day-spring from on high visits us the Soul feels within her self new powers and faculties which earthly motives could not put in motion Therefore though evil habits could not be throughly reform'd by the faint and pusillanimous attempts of the Pagan Philosophers yet the most inveterate customs and wicked practices could not resist the light of the Gospel When we plead that we cannot do otherwise than we do it is not our Reason that speaks but our laziness our idleness and sensuality for all wise men and the starkest fools in their lucid intervals thought otherwise else there is no distinction between choice and blind fate between Men and Beasts between Reason and Mechanism between Intellect and Matter If you then persist in this obstinate foolery that you cannot be reform'd from your vicious conversation your reasonings design to prove no more than that you have no excellency above the Beasts that perish and by such arguings you take the nearest methods to resemble them in the strictest sense 2. SOME plead the incumbrances of the World And it is certain that most men endeavour to excuse themselves by such Arguments The vanity and emptiness of this excuse is represented by our Saviour One went to his Farm another to his Merchandise and alledg'd they could not come But this is the highest contempt of the Wisdom of God as if there could be any business of so great importance as the saving of our Souls And besides to prove the impertinence of this excuse I can instance Men of Royal Quality and vast incumbrances who amidst all their divertisements and avocations found leisure for their devotion and the Worship of God Moses was a great Captain a great Prince and a great Politician yet his hands were lifted up to Heaven in Prayer when others must needs support him Job was very illustrious among the Arabians and yet under a deluge of Calamities and the continual repinings of his Wife he preach'd resignation David was a Warlike Prince yet the melodious Strains of his Harp were as Devout as Poetical Solomon a King the greatest and wisest that ever sat upon the Throne of Judah when he enter'd upon the Government in the first place fell down before God and begged Wisdom to order and conduct so numerous a People Daniel is entrusted with the affairs of so many Provinces yet he prayed thrice a day towards Jerusalem The Eunuch whom Philip baptiz'd read the Prophecies of Isaiah in his Chariot when he was upon his Journey LET us not then plead the incumbrances of the World for they that most converse with God are taught even to dispatch their worldly affairs with greater discretion than their neighbours because no part of their time is spent impertinently 3. SOME plead the strength and impetuous violence of temptations It must be confess'd that the objects of Sense do strongly allure and flatter the mind to unworthy compliances and that they entice us constantly to bodily pleasures yet if it be uneasie to overcome such insinuations let the very difficulty provoke our courage for the most glorious enterprises are atcheiv'd by patience and fortitude And if the prize of honour were not encompass'd with Thorns and Briars it might fall to the share of every despicable Wretch whereas indeed honour crowns the Heroes and such as resolutely face the enemy Was it sleep softness ease and luxury that first distinguish'd the Nobles from their inferiours No. It was magnanimity valour courage fidelity and patience that rais'd them above their neighbours And if such a transient thing as the favour of a King and the Hosanna's of the Croud cannot be justly obtain'd but by toil and labour how is it possible that we can think to gain immortal honours without wrestling and struggling God hath placed us on this Theatre to act our part to try our patience and our fidelity and with a design to trample upon the World by his Grace in us that we may be more than Conquerours through Christ that loved us The tentations from the World are indeed very terrible the Lusts of the Flesh the Lusts of the Eye and the Pride of Life But may not all these be conquered by Faith and the Spirit of Christianity their strength if we approach them closely is not so formidable 'T is true they appear invincible to the soft and delicate but they
the Spirit of Jesus 3. Having these promises saith the Apostle let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness both of the Flesh and of the Spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God 'T is certain that every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure If we are Candidates for eternal life our Souls must be purified from Vice for the pure in heart only shall see God 4. Let us therefore fear lest the promise being left us of entring into his rest any of you should seem to come short of it The Israelites in the Wilderness came short of the Promises made to them by their sickleness and inconstancy Their goodness was like the early dew as the Prophet speaks and by their cowardice they were afraid of the Children of Anak partly by their unbelief they would not believe Moses nor the faithful Spies And this is easily applicable to our case for there is no way to be saved but to believe the Promises to break through all obstacles to fight the good fight of Faith and to lay hold of eternal life 5. LET us ponder and consider the excellencies of these Promises I shall name but the two Epithets bestow'd upon them in the Text. 1. They are Great 2. They are Precious I say 1. They are Great and that in three regards 1. With regard to their Author the only begotten Son of God whom all the Angels worship and adore He is the brightness of his Fathers glory and the express image of his person and upholds all things by the word of his power This one consideration is enough to overawe the boldest sinner and it is frequently taken notice of to magnifie the Gospel and to recommend to us the Precepts of our Saviour that he was in the form of God and thought it no robbery to be equal with God but made himself of no reputation c. Shall we contemn the Promises made by the Son of God God sent his Son to give the Jews the last and most undenyable proof of his Love and Wisdom Certainly they will reverence my Son Thus reasons the Author to the Hebrews How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him And again He that despised Moses Law died without mercy under two or three Witnesses of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden under foot the Son of God and hath counted the blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing and hath done despite unto the Spirit of Grace Against whom does the incorrigible sinner sport himself against the Son of God and the clearest proofs of his love For herein is love not that we loved him but that he loved us and gave his Son to be a propitiation for our sins 2. THE Promises are Great in their intrinsic value I mean not only the Promise of eternal life but all the other Promises that are of a relative and subordinate Nature the Graces of the Spirit the remission of our sins the peace of our Consciences these are things to be valued above Gold and Silver Wisdom is preferred above the choicest Rubies the Gold of Ophir is not to be compar'd unto her Therefore the Graces of the Spirit are compar'd unto the most costly things I counsel thee to buy of me Gold tried in the fire that thou mayest be rich and white rayment that thou mayest be cloathed and the shame of thy nakedness do not appear and anoint thine eyes with eye-salve that thou mayest see 3. The Promises are Great in their tendency and design to recover the World sunk into Corruption to overthrow the Worship of Devils to enlighten the World to take down the Kingdom of Darkness and to advance the Image of God upon the Souls of Men were designs becoming the Goodness and Majesty of the Son of God But of this I shall have occasion to speak under the fourth Particular And therefore I consider the second Epithet bestowed upon the Promises They are not only Great but 2. PRECIOUS And that in regard of their 1. Price 2. Certainty 3. Durableness 1. In regard of their Price S. Peter informs us that we are not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from our vain conversation but with the precious blood of Christ as of a Lamb without spot or blemish There is no Religion wants its Sacrifice and this is the Mysterious Sacrifice of our Religion the blood that speaketh better things than the blood of Abel that powerful Atonement that so successfully pleads for pity and compassion in the ears of God the Sacrifice under whose intercession we come with boldness to the Throne of Grace the Sacrifice that laid aside all the Mosaick Oblations the Sacrifice that was typified by all the former and was more acceptable unto God than the Cattel upon a thousand bills This is the Sacrifice that the Prophets foretold and the Apostles preach'd and upon which we must lean at the hour of death Nature teacheth us to fly to the strongest refuge when we are reduc'd to the saddest extremities And therefore do we grasp the Merit of his Sacrifice in our last conflicts and agonies for he is the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world This is the Sacrifice that bears the weight of all their sins who are penitent So reasons the Divine Author to the Hebrews for if the blood of Bulls and of Goats and ashes of an Heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifieth to the purifying of the Flesh how much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God purge your Conscience from dead works to serve the living God THEY that allow him no more than to be a resolute Martyr for the Truth who rob us of the comforts of his Sacrifice and Propitiation take away the great pillar of our hope at the hour of death they would reform us unto a gentile kind of Paganism though there be no error more plainly opposite to the Scriptures than theirs For the Notion of a piacular Sacrifice and the penal substitution of it in the room of the criminal was receiv'd amongst all Nations and the Scripture makes use of the same words that are used by other Authors to express a proper atonement when they speak of the Sacrifice of our blessed Saviour WHEN we consider this it may confirm our hope and withal put us in mind how fearful a thing it is to trample upon the blood of the Son of God for being redeem'd by his blood we are no more our own 2. THE Promises are precious because of their certainty The frame of Nature may sooner be dissolv'd the pillars of the Creation may shake and crumble into their first disorder rather than that his Word should