the enlivening us to a Life of Grace But though this meaning sutes well with S t Paul's Design in this Epistle to confute the Imagination of the Jews that they could obtain Eternal Life by Virtue of the Law of Moses without Faith in Christ Yet the Words of my Text point at the Blessed Immortality the Righteous shall hereafter be Partakers of and are only to be understood after this manner If Christians give themselves up to be led and governed by the Spirit of God in this World which is the Spirit that raised up Jesus they in like manner shall be raised up by it at the Last Day and the more they are quickned to a Life of Grace here the more they may be assured they shall be quickned to the Life of Glory hereafter Many Practical Uses and Advantages might be inferred from hence but I shall collect only this one which may be of great Encouragement to our Christian Industry and Endeavours to lead a Godly Life and that is the Expedition we shall make towards the attaining the Unspeakable Rewards of the Kingdom of Heaven There are three Lives to be attained and all to be attained by the Well-Ordering of One of our Spiritual Life alone in this World if we rise from the Death of Sin to Newness of Life we shall attain by the same Performance three Resurrections to that of perfect Grace to that of perfect Time or Duration and to that of perfect Joy and Glory This I say is so rich a Harvest and to be purchas'd with such Expedition that the Nicest and most impatient of Toil and Difficulties may be encouraged to strive for it Happy is he says S t John that has a share in the first Resurrection i. e. in the Life of Grace for the other are but Corollaries or Additional Complements of this Sanctification is as certain and assured a Way to Glorification as Childhood is the Way to Manhood 't is the Inchoation or Beginning of it and in a sense may be said to be it Those whom he Justify'd says S t Paul those he also Glorify'd as if these were done together and not in process of Time But to proceed The Author secondly of this Grace and Bounty is God And why did not the Apostle express himself so in a Word but used this Circumlocution He that raised up Jesus from the dead Because since Christ's coming in the Flesh and having performed the Work of our Salvation God has left off to govern in the Church immediately by himself and does all things by and through our Lord Jesus Christ. God Created and Drowned the World and wrought all the other wonderful things we read of in the Old Testament in his Own Name as God But now under the Gospel he dispenses all his Mercies as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and we must expect the Gift of Grace the Pardon of Sin Resurrection to Eternal Life and all his other Blessings and Favours from his Relation to his Son It is indeed by the Power of God that all men shall be raised from the Dead but then it is again for the Merits sake of Christ and their Believing in him that they shall be raised to Glory And that we should take notice of the Change of his Name in the New Testament from that he delighted to be called by in the Old is his own Will and Pleasure Says he there By my name Jehovah I will be known but now to us by the Name of his Relation to his Son as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Manichees from the Mistake of some Passages and Observations like this raised their detestable Heresie That the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New were two Different Persons the Father of Christ another God from the Creator of the World who sent his Son in the Flesh with a Design to win men from the Creator of the World But these are Wicked and Impious Dotages 't is only an Other Name that God has taken 't is not an Other God that acts among us there is but One God from and to all Eternity whose Name be Blessed for ever The meaning of the Scripture is only to teach us That 't is not God quatenus God that we expect should quicken us at the Last Day but God as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And this manifests the Perverseness of the Jews who still adhere to Moses and the Synagogue for their hopes of Salvation and the Blindness also of those who perswade themselves they can please God and attain Heaven by Natural and Moral Performances without Faith in Christ But the time permits me not to insist on these things I haste therefore to my last Particular The Means by which God will quicken our Mortal Bodies at the last Day viz. By his Spirit that dwelleth in us This Particle By in the Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does not infer any Means that God shall use as Instrumental for the quickening our Mortal Bodies but implies here and in many other places the Motive only or Reason that invites the Agent to perform an Action God will raise us from the Dead as he does all his other Works by his Word or Omnipotent Power but though his Power does the thing yet 't is for something in Men that invites him to do it namely his Holy Spirit which he gave them to that very End and Purpose to dispose and fit them for the receiving Eternal Life David says of himself immediately and Christ typically and of all Faithful People mystically Thou wilt not suffer thy Holy One to see Corruption i. e. God will not leave or forsake the Righteous either in their Life or Death as if he had forgotten them and the Motive of this his Favour to them is Because they are Righteous or Holy Ones And the Psalmist expresses the thing with some Indignation and as if it were an injury to God to imagine that he could suffer in his very Nature that that which was Holy should be swallowed up in the Grave that which was Righteous should perish that which was Incorruptible should see Corruption And indeed there is not only an Incongruity but an Impossibility that this should be For what the Apostle says of Christ's Resurrection God raised him up having loosed the Pains or Bands of Death because it was possible he should be held of them may be said of the Resurrection of all the Faithful with this Difference only That the Impossibility of Christ's being detain'd in the Grave proceeded from his Divine Nature ours from a Divine Promise Nay we may add and with good Warrant That the Impossibility of our remaining in the Grave depends not only on an External Promise but on Something With-in our selves though not Of our selves even on the Spirit of God which dwelleth in us by which we are united to Christ and made Members of his Body he being the Head and our Resurrection must
in the most General and Universal comprehension both of Prince and People not of the Prince alone as some are willing to reckon the Benefits his Majesty has receiv'd not to revere him the more for being so much in God's Favour but to make him more indebted to God than themselves as if because this is call'd the King's Day all the Mercies of it and all the Thanks for them were to be put upon his account Undoubtedly the Kings Obligations to Heaven are infinite but was he only restor'd this Day to his Crown and Country Or were not all we likewise re-call'd from the same Banishment or from Prisons and Sequestrations Dungeons and Gibbets at home to enjoy our Lives and Liberties our Religion and Estates Has all the delicious Fare of the Land been serv'd to the Kings Table All the Gold Lace been worn upon his Back Nay but I behold many at this instant standing like Kings in the presence of the King and 't is to be complain'd of that the Enjoyments of many Out vie his in their proportion Is there then no Thanks of our Own due to God We have this Obligation even more than the King has that we have him that we enjoy this Principle of Union this Bond of Peace this Foundation of Security and Prosperity O let us not forget in the loud Joys and Gaiety and Festivity of this Day the days of Sadness and Silence of Scarcity and Doubtfulness of Soul when we had no King when a Villain sat on the Throne when our Hatred and Aversion rul'd over us the Scourge of Loyalty and the Oppressor of Religion and Justice Let us not forget the Time when to be Noble was to be Guilty and to be Loyal an Enemy to the State Again when to be a Mechanick made room for the Person in the Places of Honour and a Fanatick qualify'd him for the highest Charges and Honours and our Great Ones bow'd down to these or bow'd under the saddest Misery The remembrance of these things will make us readily acknowledge the Mercies of this Day to have been General to us all and not only heighten but sanctifie our Joy make the Feast resound with Thanksgiving and Praises of God and not wholly to be spent in loose and confus'd Mirth Riot and Excess it will preserve us from falling into that Fatal Ingratitude which accompanies Prosperity and which God in the People of Israel warns all Nations of and yet which all more or less fall into The forgetfulness of the Arm that deliver'd them and the Goodness that made them Great And in the midst of our Felicity we shall remember our Duty and our Ease shall not corrupt our Manners nor our Prosperity and Affluence be snares to us And God will repeat and iterate his glorying we have heard this Day not only in the Person of our King but of his Posterity to all Ages even till all Kingdoms are swallow'd up in the Kingdom of Heaven Yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Sion Which God of the riches of his Mercy grant to whom be ascribed all Honour Glory and Thanksgiving this day forth and for evermore Amen The Eighth Sermon JOHN xvi 8 And when he is come he will reprove the World of Sin of Righteousness and of Judgment GOD who at sundry times and in divers manners says the Apostle spake in times past unto the Fathers by the Prophets hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son c. as if this were his ultimus conatus the last and utmost Effort or Endeavour of his Power and Goodness to reduce the Sinful and Unbelieving World But by miserable Event it appear'd that this Means prov'd as uneffectual as the former that the World did unto Christ as they had done unto the Prophets before him slew the Son as they had slain the Servants Yet notwithstanding the unfathomable Depths and Riches of the Divine Goodness gave not over here where Reason would have given over but shew'd it self still Infinite where Humane Imagination was Finite bow'd the Heavens again and sent down the third Person in the Trinity the Holy Ghost Pertinacia nostra exhausit Coelum the Obstinacy of Men even drain'd and exhausted Heaven Verbum Caro the Word made Flesh was not sufficient to master this Obstinacy but it must be Verbum Spiritus too the Spirit must become a Word i. e. be sent from Heaven to be a Word in the Mouth of the Apostles to reprove or as the Margent has it to convince the World of Sin And when he is come he will reprove or convince the World of Sin of Righteousness and of Judgment To convince is to force the Understanding of the Opposer by strength of Argument to acknowledge the Truth that is contended for And to reprove or rebuke is again but a Moral Conviction of Sin in a person In the Words I shall consider these two things I. The Matter of the Conviction which the Spirit shall bring the World to an Acknowledgment of namely of Sin of Righteousness and of Judgment II. The Manner how he shall bring the World to this Acknowledgment viz. by convincing it by irrefragable Arguments I begin with the Matter of the Conviction Sin Râ—ghteousness and Judgment And First He shall convince the World of Sin What Sin it is which is meant here that the Spirit shall convince the World of is doubtful It may well be thought to be the Sin of Cruelty the perverse and barbarous Inhumanity the Jews shew'd when they demanded a Murderer to be releas'd unto them and kill'd the Just One. And we read in Effect Acts 2.36 that it was one of the first Works of the Spirit after his coming to bring three thousand Souls to confess this Sin and shew their Compunction for it for after S t Peter had laid before them how by wicked hands they had crucified and slain the Lord of Life they were prick'd to the heart and said Men and Brethren what shall we do i. e. to be deliver'd from the Sin of Murder or Cruelty But though this Interpretation be plausible it agrees not with the Reason Christ himself gives in the Verse immediately following my Text why the Holy Ghost should convince the World of Sin Of Sin says he because they believe not on me It should seem then it was the Sin of Unbelief that he came to reprove or convince the World of And this is the Opinion of many on the place The truth is Infidelity is a Sin highly injurious to the Deity it makes God a Lyar as S t John says He that believeth not God hath made him a Lyar. It makes him impotent and ignorant How should God perceive says the Wicked Psal. 73.11 is there knowledge in the most High And the faithless Israelites Can God prepare a Table in the Wilderness He smote the stony Rock indeed that the Water gushed out but can he give Bread also and provide Flesh for his People Nay it
fansies him also Wicked as those words spoken in the Person of God Psal. 50. do shew Thou thoughtest I was altogether such an one as thy self And in the last place it concludes him to be Nothing at all The fool hath said in his heart There is no God Infidelity first entertains Mean thoughts of God doubts of his Attributes and afterwards of his very Being Infidelity moved God to send upon the Israelites in the Wilderness almost as many and grievous Plagues as he had sent upon the Egyptians And many Christian Professors are so possest against this Sin that they have not doubted to aver That as there is no Vertue that justifies but Faith so there is no Sin that condemns but Infidelity And that the Jews were highly guilty of this Sin in reference to Christ there is no question for though he had wrought so many Miracles among them as the Evangelist says they believed not on him They might have known who he was if they had not been wilfully blind by the Rule given them by Moses Deut. 18.12 to discern a True Prophet from a False and again at the 18 th ver to distinguish the Messiah from other Common Prophets yet blinded with Pride Malice Envy and the like the Great Council it self of the Sanhedrim condemned the Lord of Life for an Impostor and crucified him affirmed That by a Confederacy with the Devil he cast out Devils So that this their Unbelief and perverse Proceeding might be a very just Cause of the Descent of the third Person in the Trinity to vindicate the Injury and Outrage done to the second after a Judicial Manner to arraign and convince the World of Sin i. e. of Infidelity and Injustice to the Son of God But though there was Infidelity in the Case I conceive they do exactliest hit the meaning of the place who make not our Lord's Words point so much at any particular determinate Sin after his Coming as at the General Sin wherein all the World lay before his Coming viz. the Sin of Adam in which both Jew and Gentile were concluded and from which 't is said He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned Now the Holy Ghost when he came into the World to bear Testimony to all that Christ did reproved and convinced it that is all Unbelievers that they lay still under the Old Condemnation of the First Man seeing they embraced not the Means of Grace and Pardon offer'd by Christ in the Gospel nay and that their Infidelity added a new and worse Guilt to the former they lay under the Guilt of refusing Offer'd Redemption which would make their Condemnation yet heavier For though Hell be the ultimum Supplicium the utmost Punishment the Divine Vengeance can inflict yet as there are Degrees of Sins so there are Degrees of Torment and as 't is said Hell shall be a second time heated for those that leave their first Station so we may say it shall be a second time heated for those that refuse the Salvation offer'd by Christ. The second Particular the Spirit shall convince the World of is of Righteousness But how must this be understood Shall he convince the World of Sin and of Righteousness both Yes de Peccato proprio Justitia aliena as S t Augustine distinguishes of its Own Wickedness and of an Others Righteousness the Spirit shall convince the World that 't is sinful and that Christ was Righteous And thus our Lord afterwards interprets his own Words He will convince the World of Wickedness because I go to my Father The World spared not while Christ was on Earth to spend their rash Judgments of him He is a Good Man say some Nay say others but he deceiveth the People Others again He is a Samaritan and hath a Devil and the like But his going to the Father stopt the Mouth of all Slander For as this was an approv'd Maxim which was utter'd by the Man that was born Blind God heareth not Sinners So this was a Truth likely to find a more Easie and General Admittance God translateth not Sinners miraculously and visibly to Heaven Enoch and Elias were thus translated but 't is testified of the first That he pleased God and of the last That his Zeal for God's Glory exceeded Christ therefore being translated to Heaven it was an irrefragable Proof of his Righteousness But how did the Holy Ghost convince this Why by his very coming into the World had he born no other Testimony For Christ had said in the Verse before my Text If I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you but if I depart I will send him unto you The Descending of the Holy Ghost was the Consequent of Christ's Ascending But then the Righteousness which the Spirit shall here convince the World of must be understood in a greater Latitude than only of the Inherent Righteousness in Christ's Person it comprehends also the Transient Righteousness that past from him to others As S t John says in another place That he was not only a Glorious Light in himself but the Light of the World and the Light of Men. A Righteousness of greater Concern and Importance than his Inherent Righteousness for that made his Person only Illustrious but this brought Utility and Benefit to Mankind and as the first spoke him the Son of God the last also the Saviour of the World Christ's Righteousness is therefore here to be understood Causativè that he was the Author or Cause of Righteousness not only that he was Righteous but Righteousness unto others and that two Ways First In respect of his Doctrine that was Righteousness the very Rule and Standard of it the perfect Will of God able to conform us to his Likeness and the World rejected it only because their Deeds were Evil. And this the Holy Ghost when he came convinc't the World of viz. of the Desperateness of its Condition that it had refused the True Light and for no other reason than for that which was named Because their Deeds were Evil and they hated to be reform'd Secondly Christ was Righteousness in respect of the Justification of the World as he was Justitia nostra the Lord our Righteousness as the Prophets had foretold And indeed this was the Chief Office and Business of the Holy Ghost at his coming to convince Men That there was no other Name under Heaven by which they could be sav'd but only by that Name That neither the Contemplation of things Divine together with the Practice of Moral Vertues which was the Gentiles Way nor the Plea of being Circumcised and descended from such and such Parents which was the Jewish Way avail'd any thing towards the obtaining of Justification without the laying hold of Christ's Righteousness The third Particular the Spirit shall convince the World of is of Judgment S t Bernard understood the Words Actively viz. That the Spirit shall convince the World of its
what do they signifie to us upon whom the Ends of the World are come and saw them not To answer this Objection at large would be in Effect to ingage in a Discourse of the whole Subject of the Truth of Christian Religion or the Demonstration Evangelical of which Eusebius the first Christian Historian after the Apostles now extant wrote seven Books I shall therefore content my self in the short time that remains to me to present you by way of Answer only with one Consideration but 't is a Consideration that had great force with S t Augustine and 't is this The very Conversion of the World is the highest Argument imaginable that it was converted by the Miraculous Power of the Holy Ghost For that Man says the Father that can conceive the World should relinquish their long doted on Religion received from their Ancestors with so much Veneration and a Superstitious Conceit that they had been Prosperous under it a Religion so well suited to their Carnal Affections and receive in Exchange of it a New Religion derived from so despicable and infamous an Author as a Mean Man crucified by his own Nation and the very Principles of which were so harsh to Flesh and Blood and contrary to all worldly Glory and Interest That Man says S t Augustine that can conceive this could be done without Miracle is himself a greater Miracle than those he thinks so hard to be believed There were among the Roman Fencers of old one sort that with a Net and Trident maintained Combate against their Opposers armed with a Sword and Helmet and were so dextrous as to intangle and vanquish their Adversaries with these Uncouth Weapons The Apostles of Christ those Fishers of Men may be likened to these Retiarii these Fencers with Nets who with the Metaphorical Nooses and Meaches of preaching seconded by the Power of Miracles ensnared and captivated to the Gospel the armed potent proud Idolatrous learned and vicious World And this was the Way the Spirit took at his Coming if we interpret 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Convince the Understanding of the World of its Errors But if we take it in the other Sense redarguet Mundum he shall Reprove the World for its Sins it imports these two things That the Spirit shall shame the World And condemn it First That it shall reproach and shame the World for loving Darkness more than Light Death than Life for lying under Wickedness and Guilt when the Means of becoming Innocent was offered them for chusing things Base and Degenerate before things Noble and Praise-worthy things Vicious and accompanied with Danger rather than things Vertuous though accompanied with Glory and Felicity in a word for chusing rather to perish in their Sins and Ignorance than to be Instructed reformed and saved And as the Spirit shall shame the World for so brutish and sottish a Choice so Secondly it shall Condemn it Shame and Confusion of Face is but the beginning of the Misery of Sinners the consequent of the Discovery of their Wickedness not the Punishment of it What the Wiseman says shall be the Portion of those that love Danger they shall perish in it is true also of those that love Darkness more than Light and the ways of Death than the ways of Life that they shall prove what the Riddle of Eternal Death is of a Death that never dyes and dwell in Eternal Night and Darkness And thus that Spirit which is the Spirit of Love and Gentleness which descended in the Similitude of a Creature that has no Gall nor Anger and whose Office 't is to save to comfort and support shall exercise a Part so contrary to its Name and Nature as to Condemn destroy and confound instead of shewing it self the Spirit of Lenity and Kindness shew it self the Spirit of Indignation and Fury a Froward Chiding and Reproaching Spirit O ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in Heart and Ears says the Holy Ghost by the mouth of S t Stephen which of the Prophets have not your Fathers persecuted and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One of whom ye have been now the Betrayers and Murderers Stephen who dyed the Example of Meekness the Miracle of Patience and Charity inspired by the same Divine Spirit lived a sharp Reprover and severe Condemner of their Hardness of Heart and Unbelief And now Beloved to make some Application of what has been said Are the things we have heard this day remote and unconcerning Stories Tales only of the Apostles Times and Events at the first preaching of the Gospel Or is it not still the Business of the Spirit to Convince the World of Sin of Righteousness and of Judgment To rebuke and reprove it for the little or ill Use it has made of the Unvaluable Benefits offered it by Christ To Judge and Condemn it for preferring the Ways of Death and Destruction before those of Life and Salvation even rejecting and crucifying the Lord of Glory a second time by their Sins 'T is true the Extraordinary Miraculous Operations of the Holy Ghost are ceased but his Ordinary his Inward Reproofs and Convictions by the Outward preaching of the Word his converting sanctifying and justifying of some and final Condemnation and sealing up of others in their Impenitence still remain Christ's Work of our Salvation lasted but a while and had its Period on the Cross but the Spirit of Christ which came after him had no Period no Hitherto of his working but his Operations continue to the End of the World And 't is wonderful to consider That after so many Unwearied and powerful Endeavours of the Spirit for sixteen hundred Years that so much gross Infidelity and so many scandalous Impieties are still in the World That the Unjust and Unmerciful are Unjust and Unmerciful still the Voluptuous and Incontinent are voluptuous and incontinent still the Prophane and Atheistical are prophane and atheistical still the Seditious and Disobedient to Government persist to be so still as if the World were grown too Old to blush or to learn and what was said in Praise of our Lords Constancy and Resolution in Suffering That he Despised the Shame were Commendable also in the Effrontery and Impudence of the World in its Sins That it despises all Shame S t Augustine says That in his Young Unconverted days he boasted of many Sins which he had never committed ne viderer abjectior quo innocentior lest I should have appeared Abject and poor Spirited if I had been known to be Innocent And too many there are in this Age that count the Vices of the Time the Gallantries of it and are as much abasht to come behind in any Lewdness in Vogue as to be late in the Fashion And when things stand thus that those that have given their Names to Christ in Baptism are more profligate Sinners than Turks and Infidels may not Preachers be allow'd to say The World is not yet Converted the Holy
and righteousness before him all the days of their life That men therefore may not mistake the principal Design for which Christ came into the World our Apostle plainly declares it at the 8 th Verse For this purpose says he the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the Devil Christ came not only to pardon Sin but to destroy it not only to absolve a wicked World but to make a righteous to take away the condemnation but the commission of Sin And therefore the second way I named of Christ's taking away our Sins From within us ought to be taken into our highest consideration For can it be imagined that he should descend from the Bosome of his Father and visit the Earth for no other end but to make a Gaol-Delivery as I may say to reprieve so many Rake-Hells only and condemn'd Persons and to turn them loose again into the World to commit more villanies The whole Tenor of the Gospel speaks otherwise that Christ was born in the Flesh that we might be regenerate and new-born of the Spirit that he was crucified that we might crucifie our vile Lusts and Affections dyed for the Guilt of Sin that we might dye to the Practice of it suffer'd to excuse us from suffering but not to excuse us in any wickedness he cast out the Hand-writing or Accusation of Satan against us to no other end but that we should cast out Satan himself and his Kingdom out of our hearts and erect in the place God's Kingdom or the Kingdom of righteousness So that the manifestation of Christ in the Flesh to take away our sins imports no less than his rectifying that ugly confusion and disorder which Sin had wrought in the Universe and the deposing Satan from his Usurpation over the World than the restoring God to his Dominion and his Creatures to his Obedience the repairing his Honour and giving satisfaction not to one Attribute only his Justice but to all his other Attributes his Wisdom Truth Goodness Holiness c. And this was a Design worthy of the Incarnation of the Deity of the travel sufferings and all the other Glorious Works of the Messiah of his unhinging and unframing the Course of Nature by his Miracles for it was to no less end than to re-establish it again in the beautiful Frame and Order which God at first created it in before the Devil had disfigured and deformed it And for this Cause the Evangelists in relating the Passages of Christ's life often take us off from looking too intently on the Events which they record and call upon us to consider the Purposes of them rather than the Events themselves bidding us regard the Prophecies that went before of them frequently repeating that it might be fulfilled that it might be fulfilled that was spoken by such or such a Prophet And if we will make the best advantage of Christ's Incarnation we must not look so much on the Fact as on the design of the Fact what it intimates and preaches to us viz. the extinction and extirpation of Sin not only of the Guilt but of the reigning Power of it According to what S t Peter says As he has suffered for us in the Flesh arm your selves likewise with the same mind for he that has suffered in the Flesh hath ceased from Sin This arming-our selves with the same mind and ceasing from Sin in the Flesh was that which God chiefly aimed at in his Manifestation of his Son in the Flesh To the end as the Apostle goes on that we should no longer live the rest of our time in the Flesh to the lusts of men but to the will of God And to shew us yet further that the bringing of men to live righteously was the great aim of God in all Ages of the World says St. Peter For this cause was the Gospel preached also to those that are dead i. e. to those of the old World that they might live according to God in the Spirit Let every Christian therefore that professes the Faith of Christ's coming in the Flesh to take away Sin and yet lives in it hearken and attend to this Admonition Remember thy End In the Place where the Son of Syrach utters these Words he means the End or Consummation of our Days as we are natural men which is good Wisdom But remember thy end i. e. the Design and Purpose of thy Christian Profession and the Mysteries of it for this is yet a higher degree of Wisdom And before I yet leave this Point I shall give caution against two sorts of Men who greatly pervert this Advice And first Against the Papists who play and trifle with the weightiest Passages of our Salvation as Poets and Romance-Writers do with serious Histories turn them into Gauds and Entertainments of the Fancy make Models and Representations in their Churches of Christ's lying in the Manger at this holy Season and of his rising from the Grave at the Feast of Easter with all the circumstances belonging to them as if such Puppet-Shews were adequate and sutable Returns of Devotion for these Divine Dispensations Again they gather and hoard up the Nails and Fragments of our Lord's Cross as if they treasured to their Souls the Benefits of his Passion hug his Crucifix and weep over the Pictures of his Wounds as if this express'd a Seraphical Affection though they hug also at the same time the grossest Sins The second Caution is against those among our selves who yet worse abuse the Purpose of the Manifestation of Christ in the Flesh making it to be more for the encouragement than the taking away of Sin fansying that he died to excuse them from holy living was made subject to the Law that they might be freed from the Obedience of it perform'd all righteousness that they should need to perform none and these men pray as they believe O Lord say they do thou all in us and for us and take thou the glory Thus exempting themselves from all Obligations to the Commandments and making the Faith a jest and scorn to Libertines and Unbelievers while they talk only more of a holy Life than they but practise it as little make the Cross of Christ not a Sanctuary to Penitent Sinners but a refuge for Hypocrites and Cheats in Religion and yet none are so righteous so much in God's favour in their own opinion as these But they will find at last to their great confusion That Christ was manifested in the Flesh not only to take away our Sins From us but also to take them away Out of us or from within us And he does this by three Means or Expedients By his Spirit by his Word and by his Example First By his Spirit After the Manifestation of Christ in the Flesh his Suffering and being laid in the Grave he was quickned or raised to life again by the Spirit of God and exalted to have the Power and Prerogative of sending down the Spirit
into the hearts of Believers to quicken them and to raise them from the Death of Sin to a Life of Righteousness i. e. to sanctifie and enable them to master Sin in themselves They that saw Christ in the Flesh knew not at first That the principal Intention of his Flesh was his Spirit viz. that his Incarnation was to produce their Sanctification to conform them to his likeness in the Inner-man as he was conformed to their likeness in the Outward-Man and those that are not thus conformed that have not their Sins taken away In them by Vertue of his Nativity shall never have them taken away From them by Vertue and Merit of his Passion Secondly By his Word he takes away our sin from within us Now ye are clean says our Lord John 15.3 through the Word which I have spoken unto you i. e. you have put away your former wickedness upon believing what I have preached To believe and to be clean in a Scripture sense is the same thing For 't is not possible rightly to believe and to continue in the Pollution of Sin The Word of God is quick and powerful sharper than any two edged Sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of Soul and Spirit The efficacy of it was seen in the reprobate hearts of Herod and Felix How did it ruffle and discompose the incestuous security of the first and put an Earthquake into the stupid Conscience of the last But yet 't is then only to use Solomon's expression that wise Words are as Apples of Gold in Pictures of Silver when they meet with docile ears and honest hearts when the disposition of the Hearers concurs with the faithful intention of the Preacher and they comply to destroy Sin in themselves as he endeavours to destroy it in his Sermon Otherwise this most powerful and effectual Engine to batter and beat down Sin the Word preached profits not as 't is in the Chapter now mentioned in the Hebrews But the Word preached did not profit them not being mixt with Faith in them that heard it Thirdly Christ takes away Sin from within us by his Example i. e. by his holy Life as well as by his Word and by his Spirit his Meekness Holiness Self-denial Obedience c. were designed by him to excite his Followers to practise the same Vertues equally or above his Precepts And though we condemn the Errour of those who affirm That the Pattern of Christ's life the perfect Exemplar of Piety and Holiness which he exhibited to the World was the only means besides his Word which he used to take away our Sins We may yet more condemn the sloth and hypocrisie of those who set his Life above our Imitation who put his Vertues into the same Classis with his Miracles and think it as impossible for us to practise his Humility Patience and the like as to open the Eyes of the Blind or to raise the dead affirm that his Obedience and Righteousness were not set for our Example to direct and encourage us to do the like but to upbraid and reproach our weakness and infirmities In the mean time our Lord himself Joh. 17.19 declares That the holiness he practised was not only for the love of holiness but that his Disciples should follow him even in the roughest Paths he trod those of his Suffering to which his Words more particularly relate For their sakes says he I sanctifie my self or offer up my self a Sacrifice that they also might be sanctified through the Truth And S t Peter says expresly Christ suffered for us leaving us an Example that we should follow his steps And this brings me to the second Motive the Apostle alledges to disswade men from Sin the sanctity and sinlesness of Christ's Person and ye know that in him is no sin But because this in a great part has fallen-in with the former Motive and to accumulate Reasons of the same Nature rather nauseates than perswades I shall wave this Point and proceed to my last The Inference which the Argumentation of the Apostle implies from the foregoing Motives viz. That 't is the Duty of all Christ's Followers to endeavour as far as 't is possible to be also without sin and which shall serve me also for an Application The Son of God we have heard was manifested in the Flesh to take away our sins and in him is no sin Now certainly we cannot think that we comply either with the Example of Righteousness which he has set us or yet with the gracious Purpose that brought him into the World if we reflect on his Nativity only after an Historical manner as that he was born in such an Olympiad or when such an one was Emperour that such rare Events attended his coming into the World as are recorded by the Evangelists namely that he was conceived by a Virgin of the Holy Ghost welcom'd by Angels signaliz'd and reveal'd to the Gentiles by a Star c. as if we were Chronologers rather than Christian Believers But that principally we are to consider these things Doctrinally and Morally to regard the Obligations they lay upon us and the final intendment of God in them For Example to say to our selves If God came so far as from the highest Heavens to take our Flesh that he might destroy sin how much more are we concerned to destroy sin in whom it dwells whose Flesh is its Domestick Organ and which will certainly destroy us both Body and Soul unless we destroy it Again if God vouchsafe so highly to dignifie our Flesh as to assume it to his Divine Nature and to carry it up to Heaven with him and that by way of Pledge and assurance to carry up all that live holy lives thither also how ought we to respect and even to revere these our mortal Bodies and not to pollute them with sin which are designed to such sublime Honour as to reign with God in Glory Once more If the Son of God came into the World not only to teach us his Father's Will but to demonstrate to us by his own performance the feasibleness of accomplishing it and did not only discourse of the probability of mortal mens ascending to Heaven but gave an instance of it in our Flesh how are we without excuse if either upon pretence of the difficulty of the Duties enjoined or the arduous ascent to the heavenly Kingdom promised us we supersede our endeavours to attain it When the Israelites were travelling to the Land of Canaan they said to Aaron Make us Gods that may go before us i. e. visible Gods that we may behold they were not satisfied with the conduct of an invisible Deity of a God that afforded not his personal presence Christ manifested in the Flesh is such a visible palpable God as they required who marches as a Captain at the Head of us and guides us not only by his Counsel but leads us by his Bodily Presence But yet notwithstanding this compliance with our infirmities
Christ from the dead shall quicken your mortal Bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you IF the Resurrection of Christ had been of his Person only it would have been a rare and glorious Event but an Event of no Concern to us and if we did meet only this Day to celebrate his Resurrection from the Dead and not our Own that shall be though we celebrated a Great Miracle we should not celebrate a Great Benefit But S t Paul teaches us in my Text how we may be assured to commemorate our own Resurrection as well as Christ's namely If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in us Those whom the Spirit does not inhabit in this Life when they dye they dye for ever but they on the other side in whom it dwells and inhabits now the Resurrection of Christ is not to them a History but a Precedent and such Persons shall not be only Admirers but themselves Partakers of the Miracle If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the Dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the Dead shall also quicken c. To look further into this Mystery and the Expedient propos'd to bring this Wonderful thing to pass I shall observe in the Words these three Particulars I. What it is for the Spirit of God or which is all one of him that raised up Jesus from the dead to dwell in us II. The Effect or Consequence of such In-dwelling of the Spirit of God viz. if it be in a Man He that raised up Christ from the Dead shall raise up his Mortal Body III. By what Means God will produce this Effect in such a Man even by that which dwelleth in him by his Spirit that dwelleth in him I. What it is for the Spirit of God to dwell in a man The Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the Dead is no other than the Eternal Spirit of God the third Person in the Trinity the Spirit which is mentioned in Genesis that in the beginning of the World gave Life to all things is the same Spirit that still gives the Palingenesia the second Genesis or Regeneration whether we understand the Word of the Change and Renovation of our Soul and Affections to the Will of God in this Life or the Resuscitation of the Body from the Grave in the next and the Reuniting it with the Soul in order to Eternal Bliss The Spirit is said here to be the Spirit Of God but not the Spirit In God as if it dwelt in God as it dwells in us it is in God Personally and Essentially as his Being but 't is in us only by way of Tenancy as an Inhabitant or Inmate to excite in us its Gifts and Graces And this may serve to refute and silence those deceived Souls who of late times through their misunderstanding of the Union of the Saints with God exprest in Scripture have run into such high-flown and horrible Blasphemies as to say They are In-Godded in God and In-Christed in Christ thus claiming Prerogative instead of Priviledge and affirming Divinity instead of a Divine Spirit to be in them supposing themselves to be inspired even Essentially with the Divine Nature But such Blasphemous Conceits as these so audacious and injurious to the Deity are so far from being Effects of God's Spirit which is the Principle of Eternal Life in those it dwells that they are Demonstrations of the Spirit of Satan an Affectation to be like the Most High and to equal their Maker and unrepented of will certainly consign them to have a Portion with him in Eternal Death for what the Jews blindly objected against our Lord as a Crime That being but a Man he made himself God may be justly charged on these that being indeed but Men and commonly but the Dreggs of Men they fansie themselves to be Gods Only the Sin of these is more unpardonable in regard that after so long a time and so much warning of the like Miscarriage in this kind they have not exploded this old worn out Stratagem of Satan's But though this Diabolical Frenzy must be abhorr'd yet when 't is said that the Spirit of God dwells in a Man we must look upon it as denoting something more Extraordinary and Excellent than the common Lodging or Abiding of an Inhabitant in a House as representing rather God's Residence in his Temple at Jerusalem which Temple as it was Splendid and Glorious with all that Art and Cost could make it a Representation of Heaven so God by wonderful Tokens and Testimonies declared his Divine Presence in it And after this manner the Heart of every Christian ought to be embellish'd with Vertue and sanctified like a Temple appear like a little Heaven upon Earth in which the Holy Spirit may be seen to dwell by shewing his Divine Operations Know ye not says S t Paul that your Bodies are the Temples of the Holy Ghost Solomon built God but one Material House but Christ by his Spirit has raised to God as many Living Temples on Earth as there are Believers But to be more particular Dwelling in a House implies three things 1. Legitimate Possession by Legal Title and Introduction 2. Command and Dominion 3. Residence or Mansion And all these Properties the In-dwelling of the Spirit of God ought to have in those whom it hereafter quickens to Everlasting Life 1. The Spirit must have Legitimate Introduction and Possession God dwelt not in his Temple at Jerusalem till it was Dedicated and consecrated to him till he was introduced into it by Supplications and Sacrifices And his Holy Spirit will not dwell in Mens Hearts till they be dedicated and consecrated to him by Baptism and he be introduced by Prayer and Vows of Faith and Repentance Ephes. 3.17 S t Paul beseeches God that he would grant to the Ephesians according to the riches of his Glory to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the Inner-Man that Christ may dwell in their Hearts by Faith They that by Faith in Christ do not unite themselves unto him and so receive of his Spirit have not yet introduced the Spirit into its Temple and they that recede again from the Faith after they have received it dislodge and thrust the Holy Spirit out of his Tenure and Occupation The Jews reckoned that God was still among them as before when they had rejected and crucified the Holy One but after such their Infidelity and Wickedness he remained no more in their Hearts than he did in their Material Temple after that Voice was heard to come out of it migremus hinc let us depart hence Wheresoever it is so That either Men believe not on the Son of God or else having believed on him through the Allurements of the World and the Flesh fall back again into Unbelief and chuse rather to dispossess his Spirit than their Sins and Lusts there no Quickening Power will be found to revive their Mortal Bodies at the
last Day for where the Spirit it self is not its Operations cannot be expected 'T is true indeed that Sinners and Infidels shall rise again as S t Paul says Acts 24.15 There shall be a Resurrection of the Dead both of the Just and Vnjust Those that crucified Christ in the days of his Flesh and those that crucifie him by their Wicked Lives now in his Glory shall rise no less than True Believers than his holy Apostles and Martyrs But how and to what Resurrection shall they rise Even to such a Resurrection as is no other than a Second and Worse Death a Death not of Extinction or annihilation but a Death of Eternal Duration in Torment Non-Existence being not the State of the Second Death but Endless and Insupportable Misery insomuch that they shall wish that the Grave had for ever swallowed them up that as they liv'd like the Beasts that perish so they had also dyed like them without the Expectation of any After-Being So that the Resurrection of the Wicked is but an Aequivocal Resurrection as the lifting up of the Head of Pharaoh's Baker on the Gallows and the hanging Haman fifty Cubits high were but Aequivocal Advancements The Bodies of the Saints that rose after the Passion dy'd again the same Death but those that shall rise at the Last Day not having the Spirit shall dye again not the same Death that would be a Happiness but a Death that shall have no End and the Miseries of which we can no more describe than we can the Joys of Eternal Life but we must suffer a Change and be endued with new Powers and Faculties before we can support the Bliss of the one or the Torments of the other The second Property of an Inhabitant or Dweller in a House is to Command and Rule 'T is the Saying of every man to those that withstand the Exercise of their just Authority or but their Civility Give me leave to Command in my own House The Spirit of God must Rule and Command where it dwells we must not only give it House-room but Dominion look upon him as a Tenant but revere as our Land-Lord resign our Actions Wills Affections the Whole Man to his Dispose and Guidance Faith invites the Holy Ghost but Obedience and Submission to his Gracious Motions perfumes his Habitation and makes him delight to stay in it The Spirit of Love Meekness Purity and Holiness will not reside but where these and the like Vertues bear the Sway. Let the Word of Christ says S t Paul dwell in you Richly in all Wisdom So let the Spirit of God dwell in you Richly in all Wisdom it will not Cohabit with the Sons of Men unless it be Richly i. e. in the Abundance of its own Divine Graces and Operations If we will have the Spirit of God quicken our Mortal Bodies hereafter we must suffer him to quicken our Souls in this Life if we hope to reign by his Power in the World to come we must submit to his Dominion in this present World The third Property is Residence and Mansion our Houses are called our Manours and Places i. e. the Places where we ordinarily abide and where the Law presumes we are to be found so that if a Writ be delivered to any of the Houshold or but fastned to the Ring of the Door 't is counted the same thing as if given into our hands Thus our Hearts must be the Holy Spirit 's Manour or Place for what David says of God's constant Abode in his Temple on Mount Sion This is the Hill which God delights to dwell in yea the Lord will dwell in it for ever the like must be said of the constant Abode of the Holy Spirit in our Hearts This is the Habitation of the Holy Spirit and if we grieve him not nor drive him away by our Sins he will delight to dwell in us for ever When we were devoted to God in Baptism we devolved and made-over to his Holy Spirit an Estate in our Hearts even the Whole Term we had to live in this World and if we make good this Grant or Demise he will never abandon his Tenements till he has raised them up to Eternal Glory The Reason that a Great Schole-Man gives Why God punishes the Sins of Men which were but Temporal with an Eternity of Torments is Quia peccaverunt in suo aeterno because they sinn'd out all the Eternity they had i. e. all the Time God allowed them in this World and had he continued their Lives to the End of all Ages they would have continued still the same Wicked Persons The like Reason may be given for God's rewarding the Temporal Obedience of the Righteous with Eternal Glory Quia obedientes fuerunt in suo aeterno because they were Obedient all that little Eternity he allowed them in this World and would have persever'd in their Obedience if he had drawn out their Lives to the last Period of Time Abiding and Persevering in Righteousness is that which will give us Immortality if we give up the Possession of our Souls to the Dispose and Conduct of the Blessed Spirit the Whole Little Aeternum we have in this World we shall certainly obtain an Eternity that shall have no end in the next And thus I have shew'd the Manner of the Spirit 's Dwelling in every Christian and they that pretend to his In-dwelling without these Properties boast of an In-mate which they have not and as they want this Divine Guest so they will want the Blessed Effects and Consequence of his inhabiting in them the quickning of their Mortal Bodies at the last Day to Glory Which is the second thing I propos'd to explain The Effect or Consequence of the Spirit 's dwelling in us If the Spirit dwell in you He that raised up Jesus from the Dead shall quicken your Mortal Bodies The Words suggest two things to our Consideration 1. What shall be done to such Persons in whom the Spirit dwells He shall quicken their Mortal Bodies 2. Who shall be the Author to effect or bring this to pass He that raised up Jesus from the Dead 1. What shall be done to such Persons in whom the Spirit dwells 'T is said He shall quicken their Mortal Bodies Our Bodies are Mortal three Ways by Natural Death the Dissolution of the Substance of them by Eternal Death which succeeds the Natural that Riddle of a Death which by its Existence is in truth a Life but by the Torments belonging to it may deservedly be called a Death and by Spiritual Death which is the Cause of the other two Now our Mortal Bodies may be quicken'd or reviv'd again to three Lives To a Life of Eternal Duration to a Life of Eternal Joy and to a Spiritual Life or a Life of Grace which is the Cause in us of the other two Lives Some understand these Words shall quicken our mortal bodies only of Spiritual Proselytism of the raising us from the Death of Sin and
the performing Noble Actions out of an Honest Disobedience as I may say refus'd to keep the Silence he enjoined them For after he had done such Wonderful things and no less Good and Beneficial than Great and astonishing they could not they would not consent they should be smothered that that which was Praise-worthy should go away without Praise that that which deserved so well of the World should not be known to the World and they even contested with our Lord in this matter as 't is said ver 36. By how much the more he charged them to keep Silence by so much the more a great deal they publisht it 'T is reported that Virgil condemned his incomparable Poems to the fire and that this endeared them the more to Posterity men setting a Value on them afterwards not only because they were Excellent but because they were Preserved And the People in like manner here set a higher Rate on those Miracles our Lord sought to Conceal because he sought to Conceal them more industriously endeavoured to make them Illustrious because they were condemned to Obscurity and Oblivion to pay them their due Honour because it was denyed them When the Pharisees out of Envy urged our Lord to rebuke his Disciples and the Multitude for crying Hosanna before him he said unto them If these should hold their peace the Stones would cry out And if the People had not done him the Right they did the Stones would have proclaim'd his Glory and I look not upon their words in my Text as proceeding from the Spirit of Opposition and Contradiction but from the Spirit of Grace and Truth even from the Inspiration and Dictate of the Holy Ghost himself He hath done all things well he maketh both the Deaf to hear and the Dumb to speak Before I proceed yet to the Division it will not be amiss to premise some things more particularly both concerning the Words and the Speakers of them And the Words in the first place are plainly a Justification of our Saviour from the mouth of the People their Verdict given upon him in Opposition to the Censure of their Priests and Rulers But of What are they a Justification Of his Innocent and holy Conversation among men There was no need of that He went about his whole Life as S t Peter says doing Good conferring Health as well as Faith Curing as well as Converting men and though the Malice of his Adversaries joined with the Malice of Hell at his arraignment to bring an Accusation against him they found none There was as little need also of their Justification of his Miracles for they were wrought in the face of all Judea and the Sanhedrim as well as the People confest them What do we do say they John 11.47 for this Man doth many Miracles Of what then was their Justification Not so much of his Life and Miracles as of the Divine Power or Principle by which he wrought all that he did There was a Division in the Thoughts of men concerning him upon the Sight of his works and some said He was a Good Man and others again Nay but he deceiveth the People secretly intimating that every One that made a holy Show was not a holy Person that every Worker of Miracles was not a Messenger of God's but many times the most seeming Instruments of Heaven were indeed Agents and Instruments of the Devil In these Extremes of a good and bad Opinion the People adhered to the most Favourable concluded that he was a Good Man and no Seducer that a Great Prophet was risen among them and that God had visited his People And their omnia bene in my Text he hath done all things well points not so much at his Morality as at his Mission from God at the Truth of his Miracles as at the Truth of his Pretences viz. that all he taught and did was by the Power and Spirit of God Secondly The Persons that pronounc'd this Sentence were the Multitude the Judgment proceeded ex ore populi from the mouth of the People But it was ne'er the worse for that what is to be concluded upon the Sight of an undoubted Miracle may be believed as well nay perhaps better from the impartial Opinion of the People than from the biass'd Reasonings of the Great Ones in those things where Common sense is a sufficient Guide 't is safer many times to submit the Tryal to the Country than to the Bench to honest and plain Dealing than to Wit and Learning for too often it comes to pass that the Politicks of Persons in high Place extinguish their Ethicks and that the Truth of Religion is corrupted for Reasons of State As may be seen in the Church of Rome where Truth holds always the second place to Interest and is frequently on its account allow'd no place at all The Scribes and Pharisees saw the same Miracles which the People did but while they were ambitious to be Teachers themselves while Vain-Glory Envy and other by-Respects possest them they were not Converted but hardened by them John 9.24 when our Lord had cured one that was born blind the Pharisees said to him Give God the Praise we know this Man is a Sinner But the Person cured that was one of the People and unconcern'd in their Pretences pronounced If he were not of God he could do nothing Again Matth. 12.22 when our Lord healed another that was blind and dumb and possest with a Devil the Pharisees said This Fellow doth not cast out Devils but by Beelzebub the Prince of the Devils But what said the Multitude on the other side Is not this the Son of David i. e. the Great Prophet or Messiah that was to come into the World Such were the Collections of a Simple and Sincere People free from Envy and Malice We owe the Growth of Christian Religion to plain honest Men that heard the Gospel with disinteressed and unprejudiced Affections and closed with it when they saw it consonant to Right Reason and Christ found at first but few of the Great or Learned that were fit to be Evangelists or yet Disciples 't was three hundred Years before any Scepter submitted to Christ and none were so fierce Opposers of the Faith in the Infancy of it as the Philosophers But the Ignorant People that knew not the Law as the Pharisees reproach'd them to weaken their Testimony convey'd to us the Knowledge of the Gospel and in my Text and many places beside it may be truly said Vox populi Vox Dei the Voice of the People was the Voice of God O how happy and blessed were this Nation if it had a People of the like Temper that without Prejudice and Prepossession without Siding and Faction would embrace Sound Doctrine and bear Testimony to it by their peaceable and holy Lives be profitable Hâ—â—rers of the Word and not like the Pharisees aâ—fect to be Teachers of it Followers of Christ and his Apostles and not think they are
he spared not the Natural Branches take heed lest he spare not you 'T is not so much the Contingency that is in the Nature of the things of this World as the Sins of Men that make them unstable the Fortunes of Kingdoms are not tost like the Waves of the Sea lift up one while to the Clouds and then carried down again to the Center by the force of Winds but according to their Righteousness or Unrighteousness God pulls down one and sets up another Neither are they governed by the Power of Stars The Jews have an excellent Saying Non est Planeta Israeli Israel has no Planet i. e. though God gave up the Heathen oft-times to be governed like the Plants of the Earth by the Influences of Stars because they trusted in such Vain things yet he orders and disposes the Affairs of his faithful People immediately himself And 't is a mere Vulgar Conceit that Comets cause Wars and Changes of States Divine Philosophy tells us Mens Sins occasion God to send Comets and to fill the Sky with Prophetick Prodigies We affect to look as far beyond our selves as we can for the Causes of our Evils but they are to be found nearer at Home and arise out of our own Breasts the Heavens are not the Authors of our Misfortunes i. e. the Conjunctions or Revolutions of the Celestial Bodies but our own Wicked Lives and the surest Prognosticks are to be made from the Innocence or Guilt of a Nation and not from the Face of the Sky Let no Man think I cast a Cloud upon the Glory of this Day Illustrious in the Birth Illustrious in the Restoration of our most Gracious King that instead of exciting I affect to damp the Publick Joy by Ill Bodings unless he also supposes that the Blessings of a Nation cannot be rightly commemorated and celebrated without Noise and Inconsideration Tumult and Riot Excess and Debauchery setting-light by Sin and forgetfulness of Religion A sad and severe Reflection on our Unthankfulness to God for the Singular Mercies of this Day with a serious Resolution of our better Acknowledging them by a future Holy Life will add more Lustre and true Joy to it than the Bravery and Feasts the Bells and Bonfires and all the other Pomps that solemnize it For let us consider That every Wise Agent works to some End or other and that not only the Words we have heard this Day explain'd but the whole Tenour of Scripture concurs in this That the End and Purpose of God's bestowing Benefits on a Nation is to make them Righteous and Holy and that the only Expedient on our part to secure a Continuation of them is to have a strict regard to our Duty that Obedience is the best Preserver of our Happiness and the Means always to keep God's Favour is always to keep his Laws The Thirteenth Sermon MARK viii 2 3. I have Compassion on the Multitude because they have now been with me three days and have nothing to eat And if I send them away fasting to their own houses they will faint by the way for divers of them came from far THESE Words were the Introduction to that Illustrious Miracle by which our Lord fed four thousand Souls with seven Loaves and a few small Fishes made the bare and spare Allowance of seven Persons as some suppose sufficient to satisfie the Hunger of so great a Multitude A Miracle that baffled one of the clearest and most irrefragable Principles in Natural Reason namely That the Part is less than the Whole making it appear that when the Lord of Nature will have it so a Part shall as many times exceed the Whole as he pleases as the Bread and Fishes here encreased by being eaten and consumed multiplied by being dol'd and distributed about and the Fragments which remained exceeded seven times seven fold the Provision which at first was set before them that eat Our Lord wrought this Miracle as himself declares to relieve the Hunger of the Multitude but his principal Design here as in all his other Miracles was to create Faith in such as received Benefit by them to teach those whom he healed that he was the great Physician of the Soul and whom he fed that he was the true Bread that came down from Heaven And if We at this great Distance of time by our Meditations and Reflections on this Miracle shall make it also nourish our Souls refresh our Faith relieve and sustain our fainting Spirits ready to sink under the continual Opposition of Sin and the length of Duties we shall add yet to the Glory of it and in a Spiritual Sense make these Words spoken to us I have Compassion on the Multitude because they have now been with me three days and have nothing to eat c. This Portion of Scripture is part of a larger Narrative and I shall take that Way in handling it which those do who make Remarks and Observations upon Notable Occurrents and Events in History reflect and descant on the Principal Passages in it as I conceive they may be most edifying and useful And in order to this I shall observe in the Words three things 1. Our Lord 's tender and compassionate Spirit I have Compassion 2. The Object of his Compassion the Persons to whom he shew'd it the Multitude I have compassion on the Multitude 3. The Motives of his Compassion which are exprest to be two Their present Distress they were Hungry and had nothing to eat And their future feared Danger in case they were so dismiss'd they will faint by the way I begin first with Christ's tender and compassionate Spirit I have Compassion The Great Preacher our Blessed Lord had ended his Sermon to the People and as the antient custom of the Church was at the End of the first Service to dismiss the Poenitentes and Catechumeni all such as were not qualify'd to receive the Sacrament with these Words Ite missa est Depart and void the Church So the Disciples might very fairly here have pronounc'd an Ite missa est to the Multitude Ye may be gone there is nothing more at this time to be expected the Prophet has no further words of Instruction to impart to you For as for their want of Bread whether it proceeded from Negligence or Necessity it was not chargeable on the Preacher he that ministred Spiritual things was not also to minister Temporal but in these to be ministred to But our Lord had no purpose to shift off a Work of Mercy when 't was seasonable and in his power though he might never so fairly have done it he cast not therefore in his thoughts how he might plausibly Excuse his not relieving the peoples Hunger but which way he might do it best for the Glory of God and their Comfort and Edification There were a Sort of Preachers in this Kingdom in the days of its late Troubles who when they had usurp'd the whole Revenues of the Church grudg'd to allow
of Violence But Good God! how great was now the Change all the late harmonious Courtship was turn'd into Harshness and Discord the Blessings into Anathema's or Curses nothing was heard but the Reproaches of Heretick Apostate Accursed Woman nothing but Fulminations Excommunications Interdictions which may be call'd Rome's Spiritual Violence Foreign Princes were stirr'd up against the Queen open Invasions set on foot by Sea and Land secret Conspiracies plotted at home Insurrections Poysonings Assassinations Treasons of all kinds fomented and encouraged which by Divine Providence being also rendred bruta Fulmina idle Thunder that made a Noise and did no further Hurt the Great Enemy of our Church and State and his Complices had recourse In the Third place to Stratagem to carry on their Designs in tenebris with the dark and hellish Contrivance of the Powder-Treason this Day I will not say with the Psalmist They put the Arrow upon the String that they might privily shoot at the Vpright in heart Alas Bows and Arrows are an antiquated and despicable Artillery in these days being so far out-done by the Newer and rarer Invention of Execution and Cruelty Guns that they deserve not to be named for destroying Foundations to be compared with the Still and for a time Silent Battery in the Cave but which when least expected thunders louder than the Heavens and overturns Towns and whole Cities with greater Violence than an Earthquake The Jebusites were but rude and ignorant Engineers in comparison of those who but with a little Change bear their Name the Jesuites these indeed are great Workers in Darkness none ever before them delved so deep to undermine Foundations we may apply to them the words of the Prophet Hosea These Revolters are profound to make Slaughter For the Jesuites did not only Acheronta movere stir Hell to promote their Plot but they dug to Hell to carry it on But their Stratagem I was going to say was blown up but blessed be God I cannot say so but is blown over and many more since to their own great Shame only and Confusion And now if we ask here Why was all this Transport of Rage and Fury against us Why all this restless and unwearied Malice 'T was still for the same Reasons that the Enemies of David were set on fire against him We had dispossest them of their Dominion retrench'd their Power supplanted their Religion derided their Lame and their Blind namely their Images detected their forged Miracles degraded their Mock-Saints their Hypochondriack S t Anthony their Fanatical S t Francis their Bedlam Ignatius their Chimera Giant S t Christopher c. and they could find no peace or rest in their Spirit till they had restored these to their former Credit and Reputation and that by making their Prophaners their Worshippers And by this we may see what would have been our Condition in case our Adversaries could have brought about their Design For as the Jebusites were Idolaters as well as the rest of the Canaanites and the Lame and the Blind with which they braved David and defy'd the Host of Israel were as the most Learned conjecture their Tutelar Gods Telesmatical or Magical Images So our Adversaries however they seek to purge themselves with their Distinctions are gross Idolaters and just such a goodly Change as David should have made if he had left the Eternal God to trust in Stocks and Stones is the Change we should make if our Adversaries could prevail to make us leave our Mountain or Church to fly to theirs of Rome And First In regard that our Mountain is a Clear Mountain enlightned by the bright Beams of the Word of God which darts its Rays into every Corner of it Or stands as I may say like a Mercurius directorius in every Path and points the Right-Way to all that go by bidding them to walk in it But the Mountain of our Adversaries is always wrapt in Fogs and Mists and yet as if it were not Dark enough those that profess to be Guides to it blind the Eyes of all that are to ascend it And as the Guards of Forts and Frontier Castles make those that enter into them first surrender their Weapons so these make their Disciples and Proselytes resign their Reason and lay down their Understanding at the foot of the Mount and go on for ever after in Ignorance and an Implicit Faith And they do wisely in taking this Course for 't is not possible that any with their Reason about them should make any long Progress where they meet so many gross Scandals or Stumbling-Blocks at every step where they see the Scripture not only misinterpreted in some hard places but in the most Easie industriously perverted to Countenance the foulest Errours even Idolatry it self and after they have swallow'd whole so many Contradictions no less to humane Reason than to Divine Writ where they are obliged to believe that the Church which imposes these Monsters cannot Erre nay that God has confirmed them with Miracles shew'd Signs and Wonders more and more glorious to overthrow the Gospel of his Son than he did at first to establish it Signs and Wonders cry'd indeed every Market-Day among them like the Fruits of the Earth i. e. the Relation of them but which were never seen by any Eye For as one well observes Whereas our Lord wrought his Miracles to make Believers the Church of Rome requires that men should be Believers before they see any of her Miracles i. e. should be trained up to swallow Lies and Impostures Secondly As our Mountain is a Lightsome and Clear Mountain so 't is also a Safe whereas that of our Adversaries may be likened to the Hills of Robbers which the Psalmist speaks of where nothing is heard of but Depredations the continual Pillaging and spoiling of Travellers men go up to Rome as to a great Fair where Themselves are bought and sold Confessions Pardons Penances Indulgences Dispensations Pilgrimages c. aiming all at the Purse and not at the Good of the Soul and who shall look no further than our English Chronicle will find that the Vniversal Pastor when he exercised his Usurp'd and Tyrannical Power in this Realm was not content to fleece his Sheep only but tore off the very Flesh from their Bones Thirdly Ours is our own Mountain we are in it but our Adversary's is more than a thousand Miles distant and many other Mountains are to be past over before we can come to it and those that with a tame Simplicity delight to pay Homage to the Usurp'd Majesty of that Mount travel many a dangerous and weary League before they can attain the Abuse they seek And sad was the Condition of this Nation when upon every great Controversie to be judged every great Preferment to be collated every great Sin to be absolved men were transferr'd to the See of Rome corpus cum causa themselves as well as their Cause and where if they sped in their Pretences they often
in these days Lord Lord but do not the Will of God A Vain and Superstitious Citation of Christ's Name will avail none in their Prayers his Name is no Charm and if there be no Vertue in the Users of it there will be as little in the Letters or Sound as in other Names Which the Sons of Sceva the Jew found Acts 19. when they call'd over the Evil Spirits the Name of the Lord Jesus in imitation but not with the Faith of S t Paul for the Name protected them not but left them to the Outrage of the Devil strengthen'd and not subdu'd by the undue Invocation of it Saint Peter best interprets these Words in my Name Acts 3. when he cur'd the Lame man in the Name of Christ His Name says he through Faith in his Name has made this man Strong And our Lord himself John 15.7 shews that 't is not the Vocal but Vertual Using of his Name that prevails If you abide in me says he and my Words in you ye shall ask what you will and it shall be done unto you So that the true Quatenus or Reason of the Return of men's Prayers the Secret wherein their Strength lyes as Samson's did in his Hair is their Discipleship to Christ or in other words their doing the Will of God this only powerfully insinuates and effectually presses his Name to the Father When mere Nominal Christians present themselves before God in the Congregation of Believers 't is but as Satan intruded Job 1. among the Sons of God they are of their Company but not of their Number neither will they find any Advantage by using Christ's Name God is not to be impos'd upon like Isaac by false Pretences by counterfeit Hands a borrow'd Name or Garments but will discover the Cheat through all and he that to the Righteous is all Ear to the Wicked will be as an Idol that has Ears and hears not those I say that regard not the Words of his Commandments nor understand the Voice of his Spirit are to him also as Barbarians as a People whose Language he understands not Nay and 't is well if it fares no worse with them than not to be understood and that their Petitions are only answered with Silence for God many times breaks forth in Fury and Indignation against such for their double Provocation of him for rebelling against him and presuming to make Addresses for his Favour Vnto the Wicked says God What hast thou to do to declare my Statutes or that thou shouldest take my Covenant into thy mouth seeing thou hatest to be reformed c. Such as these when they make their Prayers add Sacriledge to Disobedience and as they have corrupted themselves they prophane the Ordinances of Religion and God is not only deaf to their Devotion but angry at their Presumption Men themselves are not patient of such an Usage that those that injure them be they never so much their Near Relations should importune them for the highest Benefits And can we imagine that God should brook the bold and impudent Sollicitations of those that Sin against him which are his only Enemies be they Jews or be they Christians Esse Christianum grande est non videri as S t Jerome says 't is a Blessed and Glorious Priviledge to be a Christian but not only to be call'd one and they are hugely deceiv'd as the Father goes on that think a Good Name can profit those that do wickedly a fair Appellation justifie such as have foul Manners If we will have God Kind and Propitious to us we must be first Kind to our Selves if we will have his Ears open to our Prayers we must keep our Ears open to his Commandments we must be Obedient if we expect he should be Gracious like David we must search and try our Hearts whether any Iniquity be found in us for we may assure our Selves where Iniquity is found Favour will not be found There is no Name under Heaven given among men whereby they can be sav'd but that of the Lord Jesus But as we must not trust in a Wrong Name so neither must we trust in the Right Name a Wrong Way we must not entertain Vain Confidences in our Saviour himself hope that he will countenance any thing contrary to his Gospel as S t Paul says Let every one that nameth the Name of Christ depart from Iniquity Which God give us Grace all to do to whom be ascrib'd all Honour Glory c. The Seventeenth Sermon LUKE xvii 37 And they said unto him Where Lord And he said unto them Wheresoever the Body is thither will the Eagles be gathered together AS the Spirit of God before the time of the Gospel was fain to turn and winde it self as I may say many ways to reclaim the World from Sin So after the Son of God came into the World to preach to it he found it necessary to use many holy Arts to win upon it Sometimes the Convictions of Miracles sometimes the Invitations of Promises sometimes the Terrours of Threats and Judgments as in my Text and those Judgments not only temporal which concerned the Jewish Nation but eternal which concerned all Mankind And we that live in these Days so much nearer the Approach of the final Judgment prophesy'd of by our Lord have reason to deplore the strange Contumacy which is yet seen in the World that the Hearts of men are still so Unalterable from their Evil Ways that those Engines that heretofore were so successful in oppugning Sin should now like antiquated Engines of War become wholly unserviceable those powerful Methods of the Gospel which could convert the Heathen World cannot reclaim the Relaps'd and Apostate If the Preacher does paulo majora canere add Terrours to his Perswasions join the Voice of the Trumpet and even of the last Trumpet to his own Voice leave Christ's Sermons and take his Prophecies for Texts threaten Destruction to restrain Vice Damnation to awe Impiety it effects nothing But where the Pulpit is Ominous Men are Obstinate and Obdurate hear of Christ's coming in the Clouds and their appearing before his Tribunal as unconcerned as they hear a Poetick Fable shew not that Fear and Amazement however mixt with hesitancy and doubting which the yet raw Disciples did upon their being informed of these things And they said unto him Where Lord And he said unto them Wheresoever the Body is thither will the Eagles be gathered together Before I proceed to explain the Words it will be necessary to shew to what they appertain The which that I may do I must have recourse to the 24 th Chapter of S t Matthew where the Subject of which my Text is but a Branch is more fully treated of than by our Evangelist And there we read at the third Verse That the Disciples enquired of our Lord three things When the Time of his Coming the Destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple and the End of the World should be To which
fulfill'd in the most eminent Manner They shall look on him whom they pierced 2. For the clearer Conviction and more sensible Compunction of those that denyed and murdered him For as it is the Custom again among Men to send Malefactors to be judged and executed near the Place they committed their Crimes the more to awaken their Guilt so God the more first to awaken and then to confound the daring and relentless Infidelity of our Lord's Crucifiers who after all their Persecutions wish'd his Bloud might be on them and on their Children has determin'd to pass the Sentence of Condemnation on them in the Place they perpetrated their Crimes And the Prophecy of Joel Chap. 3. seem'd to some of the Antients to countenance this Opinion That God will assemble all Nations to Judgment in the Valley of Jehoshaphat which was near adjoining to Jerusalem says the Prophet Assemble your selves all ye Heathen and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat for there I will sit to judge c. Multitudes multitudes in the Valley of Jehoshaphat for the Day of the Lord is near in the Valley of Decision Which Prophecy whatever earlier Accomplishment it had in God's judging the Heathen that were Enemies to Israel yet the Principal Completion of it has been thought to point at the last Universal Judgment And 't is a General Perswasion of the Jews that the Tryal of all Men at the Last Day shall be at Jerusalem but not understanding That the Dead shall be gathered together by the Office and Ministry of Angels they say That in whatever remoter Parts of the World they dye in their Dispersion their Bodies by the Power of God shall be roll'd along through the inward and secret Parts of the Earth to Jerusalem the Place assigned for their Resurrection and the Appearance of all Men. But now after all that has been said though we conclude not peremptorily and chorographically Where or over what Part of the Earth Christ will erect his Throne for Judgment the Scriptures being silent or very obscure as to the Place yet there is nothing that they deliver more plainly than that the Great Session or Assize at the End of the World shall be Conspicuous and Dreadful and they seem even solicitous and industrious in describing the formidable Manner of it to make in mens minds a deeper impression of the Terrours of the Lord as the Apostle calls them And as we have two Corporal Senses or Inletts of Fear into the Soul the Eye and the Ear the Word of God makes the Terrours of Dooms-Day to consist in the Objects of both these Senses viz. in fearful and amazing Sounds and in Prodigious and Ghastly Sights For 't is said That the Lord shall descend from Heaven in a Shout with the Voice of the Arch-Angel and with the Trump of God and the Dead shall rise and the Sun shall become black as Sackcloth and the Moon red as Bloud and the Stars shall fall and the Heavens be roll'd up like a Scrole c. A Picture of such Horrour which no Phancy of Man could ever have drawn or possibly conceiv'd if it had not first been Divinely revealed and though we look upon this Scheme or Draught of the Lord 's coming at present with little Concern because we suppose it to be at a great Distance yet if we would consider that the holiest Persons of old were as dead men at the Sight only of an Angel though coming to them in a familiar Shape and with a gracious Message and that we our selves are beside our selves but at the fansy'd Appearance of a Spectre or Ghost or any other Supernatural Occurrent what must our amazement and Confusion be when we shall behold the whole World in a Flame the Visible Heaven and Earth passing away with tumultuous Thunders Lightnings and Earthquakes When we shall hear the Crack of the dissolving Universe and the Groans of dying Nature when we shall behold not only one Evil Spirit but the whole accursed and damned Crew in their Horrour again when we shall behold not only one Angel but all the Host of Heaven and their Lord and ours sitting in the midst of them with all the annexes of Majesty and Terrour And this dreadful Spectacle not like one of the Visions of the old Prophets which concerned not the Beholder himself but others but such as concerns the Eternal Woe or Welfare Salvation or Damnation of every Person there present i. e. of all that ever came or shall come into the World When our Lord discoursed of these things to his Disciples and of the dreadful manner of the Destruction of the Jewish Nation as a Prelude to it they were too big for their Imaginations to conceive or their Faith to digest and they could not or durst not understand him they were in the like Astonishment the three Disciples were in at his Transfiguration when Peter said not knowing what he said Let us make three Tabernacles c. So great I say was the Consternation of the Disciples at our Lord's Words that their Reason and Spirits were in a kind of Deliquium or Swoun as well as their Faith And they answered and said unto him Where Lord a Question not of Curiosity but of Terrour and Doubt And even still to this day we find men more inclin'd to distrust what is taught of the last Judgment than to be warn'd and edify'd by it to think the things affirmed of it impossible than to follow S t Peter's Advice and to consider what manner of Persons they ought to be seeing the World shall be dissolved And so I pass to my last Observation The Vnwillingness of Men to believe a Judgment-Day So weak is the Nature of man or such is the Subtilty of our Spiritual Adversary the Devil that even when we are convinced of the Substance of many Truths yet by reason of the Strangeness and Unconceiveableness of some Circumstances of them we let go the very Substance of the Truths again and the best Men have been sometimes subject to this Infirmity The Psalmist was throughly instructed in this fundamental Truth That there was a God that judged in the Earth yet because he saw the Righteous opprest and the Wicked in prosperiry he stagger'd in his Faith and his feet as himself confesses had well-nigh slipt The Blessed Virgin could not but believe the Message of an Angel appearing at Noon-day and out-shining the Brightness of the Noon-days Light but because she was to conceive miraculously without the knowing of a man some Scruple remained in her holy breast of the Event of the Prediction The Israelites heard from their Prophets of whose Divine Mission they doubted not That if they went on in their Transgressions their Temple should be destroyed and themselves led Captive by the Gentiles but then the Conceit that God would never suffer these things to be done for his own Glory whatever their Demerits were that if they were remov'd he would want a People and if
Jesus and their own Prophets and persecuted us and are Contrary to all men 2. Because Love easily forgives Injuries hardly perceives any can never possibly wrong the Party Beloved and the Object or Party Belov'd of Divine Love is all Mankind So that there needs no Admonitions here to suppress Malice or Uncharitable Inclinations for the first Motions of them never arise in the heart to be suppress'd 3. Because Love of all other Vertues of the Soul goes forth of a Mans self and places its Content in the Good it does to another that so hard a Duty to Flesh and Bloud which the Apostle commands 1 Cor. 10.12 Let no man seek his own but every man an Others Wealth is its Choice and Delight No Vertue therefore qualifies us equal to this to perform the Works of Piety Justice and Charity 4. Because of the wonderful Activity of Love in the Soul and enflaming it more than any other Vertue to Great Actions for indeed whatsoever is Vigorously performed is the Effect of Love This Grace is like a Fire in the Heart and makes it restless in what it conceives will be acceptable to the Person beloved it renders it also undaunted in the greatest Difficulties and Dangers and for this reason 't is Faiths chiefest Instrument to conquer the World and the Temptations of it This is the Victory that overcometh the World says S t John even your Faith but then 't is that Faith which as S t Paul speaks worketh by Love 'T is a strange word in the Original which the Apostle uses in that place for working by Love 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which imports as much as being possess'd with Love as a Demoniack is possess'd with an Evil Spirit which kind of Persons are ordinarily indued with an Unusual Strength to do things which naturally they could not do as the Demoniack that met our Lord out of the Tombs whom no Chains of Iron could hold but he brake them asunder Those that are acted by Love are transported after the like manner to perform things above their own and other mens Measures As the Spouse speaks in the Canticles Love is strong as Death i. e. conquers all things and nothing can stand against it 2 Cor. 5.13 S t Paul says again That for the Love of God and the cause of the Gospel and the sake of the Brethren he had done some things that in the Eye of the World appeared Wild and Extravagant But whether we be Beside our Selves says he it is to God or whether we be sober 't is for your Cause for the love of Christ Constraineth us For the Influence therefore Love has upon all other Good Works as well as for its own Good Nature it is that God so highly Esteems it and 't is no wonder that 't is the Favourite of his Graces when as S t John says God himself is Love and though he be no more Love essentially than he is Wisdom Justice Power or any of his other Attributes yet because he exerts and diffuses his Love more among men and is revealed and made known more by it than by another Attribute it is spoken of as his Sole Being And now after so many Excellent things have been said of this Divine Grace namely That 't is the Summ of the Commandments the Soul of all Vertue the Favourite of God and in a Sense God himself certainly it will be worth our best Endeavours to acquire it and how we may do this is the last thing I am to shew How we may acquire or attain Divine Love That we may take the right course to attain this Vertue we must look upon it as upon all other Vertues partly as a Grace of God's bestowing and partly as that which is to be acquired by our own Labour for there is something of Gift and something of Industry in it First We must look upon it as a Grace of God's Donation For what our Lord says of Faith That all men have it not and S t Paul That no man has it of himself but it is the Gift of God may likewise be said of the Love of God and of our Neighbour We have them not of our Selves but they are Heavenly Gifts born of a Divine Seed and we must not conceive that by our own mere Natural Power and humane Will we can acquire them to the Soul and that we have no more to do but to resolve to obtain them and the Possession will follow But we must seek them by devout Addresses from God and expect them from his Bounty they being as I say Graces as well as the Fruits of our Labour As our Church therefore sets before the Epistle of Charity a Collect or Prayer to God for it Send O Lord into our Hearts the most Excellent Gift of Charity without which all our doings are nothing worth c. we must also supplicate for this Grace before we can hope to attain it But then Secondly 't is also an Acquisition of Labour and to be arriv'd to as other Vertues or Habits by Industry There are that have written of the Art of Vnchaste Love and all the Mysteries of it taught men how to accomplish their Wicked Ends which it would have been happier for them if they had been ignorant of And the Art of Godly Love may be also taught Rules and Precepts given to make men Masters of it And the Way in general to raise our Affections to the Love of God is to take the same course which we do when we betray our selves into a humane Passion reflect on what is Excellent and Amiable in God meditate on his Unparallell'd and Glorious Perfections which are sufficient to ravish us from the Desire of all Earthly things The reason that the Love of many waxes cold and their Affection to God as I may say is without Affection without heat and ardour is because they understand not the Beauties of his Essence and the Glorious Operations of his Power Wisdom and Goodness Men profess to be Worshippers of God to be brought up and skill'd in the Knowledge of him and his Religion but generally they are Strangers to him and his ways and what the Psalmist says of the Ungodly That they care not for God neither is God in all their thoughts I fear without Injustice may be affirmed of most men That they care not for God neither is he in all their thoughts and then what wonder is it si ignoti nulla cupido if men have no longing after a Good that they are ignorant of or at least never weigh and consider The Spouse in the Canticles numbers up and runs over in her Thoughts the manifold Graces that are in Christ which made him so amiable in her own and others Eyes before she sigh'd out her Love for him My Beloved says she is white and ruddy the chiefest among ten thousand again Because of the Savour of thy Ointments therefore do the Virgins love thee There must be some Fewel