assaults and does expose the person to be taken by him But where he sees he is resisted heartily his offers are received with an abhorrency discerns Men are in earnest watch to avoid all opportunities and occasions and prepare and fortifie and arm against him there he will not stay to be the triumph of their Vertue We may know this by his Agents those that work under the Devil whom he hath instructed in the mysteries of waging his Temptations Where they are not like to speed and as to this they have discerning spirits they avoid and hate and come not near but study spite and mischief onely there The intemperate men are most uneasie with a person whom they are not able to engage in the debauch the rudeness and brutality of their excesses are not so offensive to the sober man as his staid Vertue is to them they do not more avoid the crude egestions shameful spewings of their overtaken fellows Riot than they do the shame and the reproach that such a man's strict Conversation casts on them which does in earnest make them look more foul and nasty to themselves In fine every Sinner shuns the Company of those whom he believes Religious in earnest 't is an awe and check to them they are afraid and out at it as their Great Master also is who when he is resisted must be overcome And as they that are beaten have their own fears also for their Enemies which are sure to charge close put to flight chase and pursue them so it seems he also is afraid of a sincere and hearty Christian for he flies him So he did from Christ 4. Mat. vers 11. and so the Text assures If you resist him he will flie from you And now although we all did once renounce the Devil and his works were listed Souldiers against him took a Sacrament upon it and our Souls the immortality of life or misery depend upon our being true and faithful to our selves and oaths or otherwise nor is there more required of us but resolution and fidelity onely not to be consenting to our Enemies Conquest of us not to will Captivity and Servitude Yet as if in meer defiance of our Vows and Interests we not onely will'd the ruine but would fight for it we may find instead of this resisting of the Devil most men do resist the Holy Ghost quench not the fiery darts of Satan but the Spirit and his flames by which he would enkindle love of God and Vertue in them If he take advantage of some warm occasion to inflame their courage against former follies heat them into resolutions of a change as soon as that ocasion goes off they put out those flames and choak these heats untill they die If he come in his soft whispers speak close to the heart suggest and call them to those joyes of which himself is earnest to all these they shut their ears can hear no whispers are not sensible of any sounds of things at such a distance sounds to which they give no more regard than to things of the same extravagance with the Musick of the Spheres Nay if he come with his more active methods as the Angels came to Lot send mercy to allure and take them by the hand as they did to invite and lead them out of Sodome if that will not Judgments then to thrust them out as they did also come with fire and brimstone to affright them they not onely like the men of Sodome do attempt a violence and Rape upon those very Angells but they really debauch the mercies and profane the Judgments having blinded their own Eyes that they might see no hand of God in either using thus unkindly all his blessed methods of reclaiming them till they have grieved him so that he forsake and leave them utterly As if they had not heard that when the Holy Spirit is thus forc'd away the evil spirit takes his place 1 Sam. 16. 14. As if they knew not that to those who close their eyes and stop their ears against the Holy Spirit 's motions till they are grown dull of hearing and blind to them God does send a spirit of slumber that they should not see nor bear and that for this dire reason that they may not be converted nor be saved Five times he affirms it in the Scripture Yea once more in words of a sad Emphasis 2 Thess. 2. 12 13. He sends them strong delusions that they may believe a lye that they all may be damn'd who believe not the truth but have pleasure in unrighteousnesse And that because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved Blessed God! Is it so easie for such sinners to believe and be converted that thy self shouldst interpose to hinder it and hide the possibilities of mercy from their eyes that they may never see them nor recover What can then become of those for whom God does contrive that they shall not escape when instead of those bowells that did make him swear he would not have the sinner die but would have him return and live he puts on so much indignation at such sinners as to take an order they shall not repent and take an order that they shall be damn'd And yet all this is onely to those men who being dull of hearing the suggestions of the Spirit and not willing to give entertainment to his holy motions grieve him so that they repell and drive him quite away and so by consequence onely make way for the Devil Whereas there are others that directly call him force him to them ravish and invade occasions to serve him Some there are that study how to disbelieve and with great labour and contrivance work out arguments and motives to persuade themselves to Atheisme Others practise discipline and exercise themselves to be engag'd in Vice Some dresse so as to lay baits snares to entrap Temptation that they may be sure it may not passe them Others feed high to invite and entertain the Tempter do all that is possible to make him come and to assure him that he must prevail when they have made it most impossible for themselves to stand and to resist Some there are indeed whom he does not overcome so easily but is put to compound with them takes them upon Articles for when he would ingage them to a sin to which he sees they have great inclinations with some fears he is fain to persuade them to repent when they have done to lay hold upon the present opportunity and not let the satisfaction escape them but be sorry after and amend For where these resolutions of Repentance usher in transgression there we may be sure it is the Devil that suggests those resolutions But if he can get admittance once thus by prevailing with a person to receive him upon purposes of after Penitence he is sure to prosper still in his attempts upon the same condition For Repentance
the discoveries of the earth assure himself our constant Navigations which perswade us 't is a Globe inhabited on both sides bring home from the Indies nothing else but false relations and that indeed there are no Indies I need not urge how Christianity approves it self even to the reasoning of the sober part of mankind and the morality of it had the suffrage of the world before it self appeared for while the evidence stands good if the matter of fact be true the doctrine must be true and the commands obey'd and to use such arguings to refell such matter of fact is just like that which Zeno did attempt namely by subtilties to prove it was impossible there could be any motion while another did disturb his lecture by his motion up and down the Schools it is the same thing as to take a bowle to cut with or the vessels of the Danaid's to carry water in for such reasonings are alike improper for that work And indeed these arguings are not the exceptions of reason but the struglings of mens vices against Religion And it must be impossible so many thousands would give up their bodies rather then their Bibles to the fire in Dioclesian's days because it is a book which they can find no other pleasure in but that of railling it or helping them with subjects to be prophane upon It must be false that Christ did feed 5000 with 5 loaves and 2 small fishes till 12 baskets full of broken pieces did remain yet not so much because they know not how their eating could nourish the victuals so and make it grow as because they are angry with the worker of the miracle who forbids and upbraids the excesses of their luxury which can easily and does daily consume the price of that that would suffice 5000 without miracle on 5 single persons and all that when 't is drest according to the modern mode of eating well dissolved turned into juyces and exalted into the Elixir of the Epicure shall leave alas no broken pieces for the alms-basket this is the quarrel this does make the miracle impossible And yet methinks upon the same account they should allow that at a feast he turned so many pots of water into wine because that seems to gratifie the thirsts of their intemperance In fine we do not live as men prepared or willing to be called to an account of all our doings therefore we have no mind to rise again to give it when we are thus minded it is not hard to meet with difficulties that encourage the opinion that we shall not rise Which difficulties when we look into we cannot find how it is possible we can be raised and 't is easie then to think we cannot that it is impossible especially when it is our will and interest to think so and then it must be false whatever is in Scripture that we shall These are the processes of those that reason against Christianity such the grounds that they dispute upon but their reasons are but Sophisms of lust and interest which will guild and paint whatever they are much in love with and it is no wonder they find colours for it and can think them reasons for they always did so against present evident conviction When Moses by his miracles endeavoured to let Pharaoh know who was the Lord and to persuade him to let Israel go while God permitted the Magicians to counterfeit those miracles it lookt like reasonable indeed that Pharaoh should not be convinced but when they could not imitate but did confess the finger of the Lord and themselves Suffered those plagues which they could not either conjure up or down then if Pharaoh will not be persuaded 't is plain nothing but his interests not the wonders which were wrought by the Magicians were the reasons that prevailed with him for those were not reasons against more and greater miracles yet they were effectual with him to the destruction of himself and his nation Again when they who knew the mighty works Christ did and were forewarned by him of false Christs and false Prophets that would come with signs and lying wonders God allowing Sathan leave to struggle at his last gasp and to make a blaze when he was to fall from Heaven as lightning but far beneath the glory of his onely begotten Son when they who knew both these chose yet to follow a Barchocab a false falling Meteor who came indeed with greater shew and not with such strict mortifying Doctrines nor onely with the thin encouragement of after-expectations as Christ did for he gave them hopes of present temporal enjoyments but he did no wonder besides spitting fire S. Jerome says and throwing great stones from his knee as from an engine say his followers which yet could not scare the Souldiers neither did the Roman Eagles which were true-bred fear those flames he spate but destroyed some millions of them Now 't is evident by the comparison of the several signs that Christ and this Barchocab wrought the only reasons that gave efficacy to that sleight imposture and did make it over-power Christs mighty works was their earthly desires and affections which Christs severe Doctrines could not gratifie and therefore they receiving not the love of the truth but having pleasure in unrighteousness gave themselves up to delusions to believe a lie yet still those delusions went for reason with them Once more Tertullian challenging the Heathen says Produce before your judgment sâ—ats some whom you will of those who are inspired by any of your Gods when gaping ore the Altar they have in its fumes according to their custom taken in the Deity till they are great with it ructando conantur while they are in travel with him as it were have belching throws that they burst almost till they are delivered of the inspiration while it is thus let but any Christian adjure them by the name of Christ and if the spirits that they are possest with do not presently confess that they are devils ibidem illius Christiani procacissimi sanguinem fundite let the sawcy petulant Christian lose his life He speaks of this as a known frequent trial And Minutius Felix says their chiefest Gods have been forced out of their Votaries and acknowledged they were evil spirits Now here was reason and experience the miracle was so evident that Tertullian bragging says do not believe it if your eys and ears can suffer you and the reason was more pressing then the fact Nec enim Divinitas deputanda est quae subdita est homini it being most impossible that that should be a God which a man could rule and triumph over so imperiously manage him as with a bare command to force him from his hold and make him shame himself so villainously before both his adorers and his enemies as to say He was a Devil Yet the Heathens still found colours to do out all this conviction and their old acquaintance with their Gods together with the custom
gives this account that he found no other opposition but from vicious humours Joh. 8 43 44 45. Why do ye not understand my speech even because ye cannot bear my Word Ye are of your father the Devil and the lusts of your father ye will do and because I tell you the truth ye believe â—ne not As if he should have said the reason why you do not regard me or my Doctrine but reject us both is not because my Doctrine hath not means to convince your understandings but itis not agreeable to your inclinations The Works that I have done to make my person be received and my Words credible are such as no heart how hard or blind soever can withstand but the Doctrine I bring along is most unwelcome ye cannot abide to hear it Now as he that 〈◊〉 his Eyes or turns away his Face because he hates to look upon an object may not see it though it be all cloath'd with day as visible as Sun-shine so your blindnesse proceeds hence that ye hate the light because your deeds are evil Neither do you love to hear that which you have no mind to practise and you will not be perswaded to believe that is your necessary duty which you are not willing to perform but will rather choose to think I do my Works by a confederacy with Bâ—â—lzebub the Prince of Devils although it be apparent that those Lusts which you will do and which my Works and Doctrine come to drive out of the World they are Lusts of the Devil and I because I tell you the truth truth I confess somewhat severe and not so agreeable therefore you will not believe me And is it not strange when nothing can be acceptable to the Understanding but as it hath appearance of Truth and when truth comes with evidence and demonstration though it be but speculative uselesse truth yet it does seize and force assent that yet Christ's truths which did not want conviction for they came to them with that infallibility which Miracles can give should be therefore not believ'd because they were truths not strange at all for his truths were not for their turns nor humours And therefore he sayes to them Matth. 21. 32. Ye repented not that ye might believe them As if they assented not with their Understandings but their Appetites And we our selves have seen too much unhappy evidence of men whom Libertinisme hath made Antimonians whom a desire of being loose from duty hath made Solifidians of them whom sensuality hath made Atheists men that become Proselytes to their Lusts the converts of their base affections And we cannot expect it should be otherwise For certainly that men who are averse to the dutys of Christianity and cannot bend their minds to the observance of that which Christ commands should not care to believe they are his Precepts or their duty is but very natural they were unwise should they do otherwise it being far more reasonable to deny the duty and obligation than granting both to trample on that obligation which they do acknowledge and to renounce that Duty which they do confesse Is it not far more prudent to believe that there is not a God that does regard our foolish actions here below which are not more worthy or more likely to enter into his considerations than the buzzings of flyes into the notices and observations of a Statesman then if we do believe one does severely mark will take a strict account of execute a vengeance for them yet not incline our minds to leave them if we did suffer this belief to creep into our minds to lye close unto our hearts sure it would fret off our aversness to Piety and inclinations to sin we durst not entertain them both together these thoughts would prove very ill company they would distract and tear the mind our Souls would tremble and disjoynt and we be sure to put one of them off Covetous and Adulterous Felix when he began to think that S. Paul's Sermon of a Judgment to come might be true straight he began to shake and then immediately to turn the Sermon off bid S. Paul depart till another time Nor can there any other reason be assigned for this for in the Systeme of Christs Religion there is not any thing but is so suited to the very Constitution of a rational being that the Soul would instantly imbrace and suck in if the prepossessions of vices which the mind will not resolve to part with and repent of did not infect taint the palate with prejudices did not keep out the belief For the morality which it injoyns did long before the birth of this Religion make its way into the Tenents and the Faith of every Sect of whole Mankind it broke through all the oppositions of corrupted Nature and deprav'd habits nor could all the Devils arts who then govern'd the World stifle or quench the Light of Reason which through all that darkness did discover such deformity in Vice such strict agreement betwixt that which we call Virtue and a rational Creature that they accounted it and truly the essentiall duty of his nature he that was wicked was reputed false to his own being as great an aberration from and contradiction to Nature as an Animal that were insensible or as cold fire In this all the most distant Factions conspir'd in despite of Principles The Stoick who by fettering all Events all Consultations and Designs in the lines of inexorable Destiny does seem to make all Virtue worthless all endeavours towards it uselesse yet requires it with a strict necessity as his Fate prescribes with his reasons are as ineluctable as her Laws Nay he does seem to break his Adamantine Chain to make way for this Chain of Virtues though his Jupiter were bound by that yet for the sake of these he leaves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our appetites and actions in our power 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that so there may be place for doing well while it is in our choyce and we are free to do it And on the other side the greatest enemies to their necessity and to choyce too the Sect that made all actions and things in the whole world to be not effects of any Agent that intended them but meerly sports of Chance and matter who taught that their own souls were but the concretion of some Atomes casually met together without any direction and to no end yet the great Master of it in his Ethicks would not suffer any of this blind Contingency to have to do in Humane actions regulating them by strictest Rules and Laws and in plain contradiction to his tenents from which our Age derives the most of their impiety although he held there was no God lookt on nor after-life attended none that did see or would reward or punish any of his actions yet requires highest Virtue yea and liv'd such too they say In a word many of them rais'd Morality to such a pitch as if
it had arriv'd at the same heights from whence our Christian Revelation did pretend to come And there is nothing so peculiar to Christs Doctrine in the poynts of Morality but you may find it recommended by the Heathen as a thing which no external obligation did impose but the Law of their making did prescribe which they read in themselves and Christian Morality is but a fairer and more perfect Copy of the impressions of Reason on our Soul clear'd from the blurs and defects which they had been tainted with but Naturales Tabulae Natures Decalogue wrote by the Finger of the Lord So that to quarrell with Christ for requiring it is the same thing as to be angry with our Saviour because the nature of the Fire is such as does require that it should burn Nay many of them were so sensible of the unhappy state of their Corruption sound so great pressures in themselves from the weights of their vicious inclinations discerned so perfect an antipathy betwixt their being and their actions that when with all the arts of Reason and the practise of their Philosophy they could not ease themselves they went to Sorcery and Magick for a Cure receiv'd Catharticks and a discipline of purity from Hell the Region of uncleanness the Devil making them believe he would assist in casting out himself Such were the stresse the restlessness the groans the cry of Nature to be rid of its impurity These poor Souls were mistaken in their Method but if the Devil by those worships of his which they were us'd to had not stopt the avenues sure one would judge they had prepar'd the way for Christianity there being no obstruction to it nothing that can hinder its acceptance but the low esteem and aversation of Virtue For if men believe the Moral truths they have no reason in the world to doubt the Supernatural these being intended for the most part as encouragements to those other as God's last attempts to kindle in us love of Virtue by such strong incentives that that wherein Philosophy was ignorant and the Law weak as having neither Promises nor Terrors equal to the force of our Corruptions that the Gospel might effect as having both to the utmost possibility of Divine Contrivance Now this requires us to believe those Supernaturals mostly for this reason by believing them to make us perform what it enjoyns And it is apparent that because men would not do this therefore they will not believe those Shew me but any one that is sincere and strict in Christian dutyes that does doubt the Principles if there be such an one he cannot doubt them long not onely for Christ's Promise sake If any man will do my Will he shall know of the Doctrine whether it be of God he will soon know that Doctrine is from God that does prescribe such Godlike lives nor onely for the Churches judgment which did make Synesius a Christian Bishop before he did believe the Resurrection upon that confidence they had of him by reason of his Piety But in reason why should he that does embrace the Piety disbelieve that which was propos'd to his belief onely to urge him to embrace onely to crown that Piety Indeed he that accounts his Vices but sleight tricks of wit or folly onely pleasant satisfactions to the desires of his Nature for he understands no nature but his carnal one he hath no reason to believe there was a Passion of the Son of God by making him a Sacrifice for sin so to to condemn sin in the flesh is not prepar'd to think that there is an Eternal weight of Indignation due and ready for it He that hath but mean thoughts of Virtue counts it onely pedantry or as it were the Flatus of the Mind making the Soul Hypocondriack it is impossible that he should think God was Incarnated and dyed to teach it by his Doctrine and Example and to purchase graces to enable us to live it or that there is a Resurrection to reward it a Trinity engag'd in working out Salvation for it I must confesse I would believe that men perswade themselves that the reason of their disbelief is onely this that these things are not testified sufficiently because I find the Man in Hell would have one sent to his Brethren from the Dead to testifie unto them of that place of Torments Luc. 16. 28. as if those Truths did want witnessing But this is not because enough hath not been done for their conviction in the truth of Christ's Religion for there is hardly any thing besides in the whole world that men believe but they believe upon lesse grounds The whole World was convinc't in such a manner as that millions chose to dye rather than not confess it that many Ages prov'd but Centuries of Martyrdom unto that Truth all Torments were more eligible than the disbelief of this Religion which was confirmed so that against all arts and power of Opposition against the Wit and Fury of the World though all the Subtlety and and all the Strength of Earth resisted it yet it overspread the Universe Besides it is most prudent to believe it too for if there be another World what then There was enough done therefore but Corruptions suffer them not to attend to that which hath been done And 't is no wonder they should do so at this distance for they contrasted with Christs Miracles when present and they were so uneasie under the conviction of them that rather than be prest so by the mighty power of his Works they did design to rid themselves of him that wrought them Joh. 11. 47. you may find them strugling with his demonstrations to keep off the Evidence What do we for this man doeth many Miracles Yea they do conspire against the Miracles themselves and would put Lazarus also to death because he was raised from the dead they could not let the Evidence and the Conviction live but they must murder that too Nay more as if the pertinacy of their prejudices could do mightier Works than Christ and could controul and were above the power of his Miracles it is said to have bound his hands and he could do no mighty Works at Nazareth because of it Mar. 6. 6. At least as saith Theophylact 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he could not do them where men were not capable they should be done So that Christ did pronounce from Reason and Experience If they believe not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be perswaded though one rose from the dead Such an amazing argument might probably astonish but would not convince unlesse it met with honest inclinations for after the surprize of it were over and had vanisht then the corruption that Bosom Sophister would stir and goad and urge incessantly so that to ease himself the Man must find out some crosse Scruple to weaken the force of that Evidence and the Conviction would vanish like the Ghost And if we should examine the
which do exceed them by a whole Infinity and will out-live them an Eternity And here should I attempt what he would have had Lazarus perform to dash out the blessednesse of that place making the first draught of them with notions of delight not such as the understanding cannot apprehend but such as seize the heart with pleasure in this Life and that give it the strongest agitations here and sweetning that by those transendencies which I could fill it up with and should I raise it then with shadow evince that reason though it cannot fathom can yet by sure Discourse conclude the greatnesse of those glories which I would leave for your expectations to loose themselves into should I attempt all this I were an insolent undertaker Yet were it very easie to describe them so as that viewing them with the things below these would vanish in the comparison And to do so much was the utmost that our Rich man could design by sending Lazarus who if he could have been believ'd might probably have done the work for if Faith did but do what Lazarus did look into Abraham's Bosom were it but turn'd into a little vision and but as cleer an evidence of things not seen as eye-sight hath of its temptations had the spiritual object but that advantage the carnal hath of being present now it is the work of Faith to give it that advantage sure it would be impossible for the sensitive objects the pleasures are the Profits of this world which are so far inferiour to the other in desirablenesse and onely make advantage of their being present when the other is so far of 't would be impossible for them to gain our wills consent at any time and therefore when those glories shall be present to the Soul 't will be impossible for any other object to steal or ravish any way to engage one thought away from them In Heaven they cannot wish to sin Nay the flash alone of that glory fascinates the heart Peter and James and John saw but a glimpse of it and that transfigur'd too onely the other way that Moses and Elias were for the glory suffered an exinanition and they but wak'd into the sight of it so that 't was but an apparition of Heaven and yet they never would have left the place which it once lightned Master it is good for us to be here let us go down no more never converse with any thing beneath Mount Tabor but let us build three Booths such Tents would be like that which He hath spread and such Booths be some of the many Mansions of his House who spreadeth out the Heavens for a Tent for himself to dwell in But the truth is while men do onely hear of Joyes above and have but thin neglected notions of them and on the other side a sense of present profits pleasures honours which the world affords they will not be affected with the future dry hopes of those as with all these in present will not have as effectual a tast of the Supper of the Lamb as of their own delicious daily fare nor be as much wrought upon by the Promises of being Cloath'd upon with the white Robe of Immortality and by the mentions of a Crown although of Glory as they are pleas'd with their own Royal Purples they have much surer Conviction of the delights of present things than of those far removed futurities but now if Lazarus would go from Abraham's Bosom he might Convince them from his own Experience and then they would Repent Especially Thirdly because Lazarus hath seen me in my Torments and can give account of them wherefore I pray thee Father Abraham send him for if such an one went unto them from the Dead one that could testifie of this place he would tell them such sad stories of my condition here how in lieu of all my sumptuous fare I have nothing now but gnashing of teeth streams indeed of Brimstone and a lake of fire but everlasting feaver of thirst for my delicious intemperate Palate my short-liv'd sins turn'd to eternal Agonies sure this would prevail with them to cut off their sins by Repentance before Death cut off their sin and them together and so they might prevent the coming hither And very probably it might have taken for upon such Conviction 't is hard not to resolve to change for who is he that can resolve thus with himself well I will now content my self with everlasting Condemnation and this sin for I see they are consequent now this I cannot leave therefore let the other come they that were once affected with the apprehensions of the greatnesse and the certainty of that Damnation cannot resolve thus and therefore we see fewer men adventure to transgress Man's Law whose Punishment is neer and most assur'd than God's Commandments And when their fears of the Lords Judgments stare them in the face they quickly tremble into the terrours and the agonies of Penitence For who dares sin and who does not repent upon his Death-bed he sinks at the remembrance of his former draughts when he does apprehend his next is like to be in the Infernal Lake he hath the frost of the Grave on him when he but thinks of his lascivious heats and does think too that his hot lustful Bed will turn him off strait into Tophet And then if Lazarus could raise these apprehensions in them sure they would repent 'T is plain these were the grounds our Rich man built this his request upon I do not lay them as infallible I make no question but that men are able to defie their knowledge and charge through their own belief to sin and to destruction but commonly men do not lay things deep enough to their heart to be throughly convinc't in earnest and thus he believed for had Abraham granted his desire and sent Lazarus to testifie the Glories he had tasted in himself and the Torments he had seen their Brother in all he could hope from this was but to make them more believe the one and other therefore he thought for want of this they would miscarry and this alone would do it so that we may conclude that in the judgment of one that dy'd without Repentance having resisted all God's Methods and knew upon what score he did it and suffered the deserved pains of so doing the reason why men do not repent is because they are not sufficiently convinc't of the next Life and of its two Eternities of Joy and Torment they do not credit them but notwithstanding all that God hath done his truths want witnessing for if one went unto them from the Dead one that could testifie they would Repent I should now make reflections on this and our selves together and truly all this would bespatter fouly such as go on in a vice for it does conclude concerning them that they do not believe Gods Truths but in the midst of their professions of Religion are Infidels 't is plain they are so
dayes there shall come scoffers walking after their own lusts Now the men of our dayes have the luck to obey Scripture thus far as to make that Prophecy to come to passe for those scoffers are come in power and great glory The Psalmist tells us of a Chair of Scorners as if these were the onely men that speak ex cathedra And sure scoffs and taunts at Religion are the onely things that may be talk'd with confidence aloud They imprint an Authority on what is said and conversations that are most insipied on all other scores get accompt as they come up towards this practise Hence they gain degrees commence ingenious as they border on these Atheistical and irreligious Blasphemies and when it is pure scorn then it is in the Chair But it stayes not there For Secondly Upon the same account of strictnesse of Religion men will fall off from and openly renounce both Christ and his Religion This is that our Saviour himself found Light saith he is come into the World and men loved Darknesse rather than the Light because their deeds were evil And he said of the Pharisees They repented not that they might believe as knowing it impossible that they could venture to believe that Doctrine which condemn'd those courses that they would not repent of And if I should affirm that it is nothing else but mens unwillingnesse to be obliged to those things which if there be a God and a Religion which this Child was set to institute they must account themselves obliged to nothing else I say but this which makes them so unwilling to believe a God or Christ yea openly renounce them both and their Religion I should have for proof of this not only the late instance of a Nation in the Indies which by institution of the Portugals was easily perswaded to embrace the Christian Creed and was Baptized into our Faith but when they were required to lead their lives according to Christs Precepts and renounce their Heathen Licences they chose rather to renounce their Creed and Saviour and returned instantly to their indulgent Heathenisme But to this experience give me leave to add this Reason that it is not the Difficulty of the Misteries of Faith and their being above our Comprehension which makes them not to be receiv'd because there are as great difficulties in things that we are certain of For in the very Sphere of Reason within the lines and measures of her own Infallibility in things of which she does assure her self by diagrams and sense yet she is as much amaz'd as at those objects in the highest and remotest Regions of Faith and Mathematicks hath her Paradoxes that stand in as great danger of a contradiction as any of Religions Mysteries while Reason cannot cape what she demonstrates but is to seek how those things can be possible which she proves most certain and they are incomprehensible to her even when they are most evident And then sure if we can think there is a God we must needs think He can do things which we cannot comprehend when it is plain our Reason cannot comprehend what she her self does find out and creat It is not therefore contradiction to Reason but to Appetite that makes things of Religion so incredible which I thus demonstrate to the Atheist Those very difficulties to avoid which he denies a God to wit Those of an Eternal Being that is of himself those very things he must and does acknowledge in the being of the World if that either be it self Eternal as the Atheist of the Peripatetick Tribe will have it or else if its atomes out of which it was concreted were As those of Epicurus herd assert In a word if they say the World or its materials were made they grant a God that made it If they say they were not made they assert then an Eternal Being of its self that is they allow those difficulties for which they pretend to deny a God There being therefore the same difficulties Greater I could prove them from the diverse natures of corporeal and spiritual beings for we are sure in bodies that are still in motion and so subject to succession those things are impossible but if there be a Being that is not in motion and by consequence not subject to the laws of our time all these knots unty themselves those difficulties vanish and have no place But to say no more than I have shewed there being the same Difficulties in the Atheist's hypothesis as in the other 't is apparent not the difficulties of belief but practise make him fix upon his own against the common notions of the World So that 't is not his understanding but his Appetite frames his hypothesis and without figure 't is his Will that he believes with And it is most evident that because men do not love the Precepts of Religion would not have them be their duty therefore they would have the Doctrines of it not be truths and in this they are the Disciples onely of their Lusts and because they cannot resolve to be otherwise therefore they resolve not to be Christ's Disciples but reject him for his holy Doctrines sake And so this Child is for the fall of many But it were strange if upon this account Christ should be for the fall of any of us who have learnt a trick to reconcile his severe Doctrines and our Sins together Where Vice most abounds though it be wilful and men persevere in it they are so far from finding any reason to fall off from him or from his Gospel for this that they therefore take the faster hold of it rely upon Him with the bolder stronger confidence As if good old Simeon were mistaken when he thought because men would not leave those sins which Christ so threatned therefore they would leave him Because they could not bear those his hard sayings to pull out the lust and the Eye too cast away the treasures of unrighteousnesse and the right hand that receives them also therefore they would cast off him For for this reason they betake themselves to him more eagerly devolve and cast themselves upon him with assurance T is possible indeed that the new Christian'd Indians might believe themselves oblig'd to lead their lives according to the Vow that they had made in Baptisme knew not how to live a contradiction to be Christian Pagans therefore they thought it absolutely necessary to renounce the one and to reject Christ and his strict Religion was easier they thought Our Saviour also might suppose that when he brought Light into the World men would not receive that Light because their deeds were evil But our modern wickednesses that are of the true Eagle kind are educated bred up to endure and to defie the Light Our deeds of Night have learnt to face both Sun and Men yea and face the Sun of Righteousnesse and the light of those flames that are to receive them Our Saviour told
the Pharisees indeed that they repented not that they might believe for thinking it impossible they could assent to what he did affirm except they would consent to what he did Command He therefore thought they were not able to Believe because they would not purpose to amend But there is nothing difficult in this to us who at the same time are so perfectly resolv'd that every threat of Gospel is so Divine truth as that we assure our selves that we could be content to dye Martyrs to the truth of them rather than renounce one tittle of them yet even then are Martyrs to those Lusts and Passions which those Threats belong to Who at once believe this Book of God that sayes except ye repent ye shall all perish and believe also that notwithstanding we do not Repent yet by Believing we shall scape not perish but be saved And is not this directly to believe our selves into Damnation the third and the great fall which his Child is set for 3. This Child is for the fall of many to wit of all those who on these or any other grounds do not believe in or do not obey him who shall therefore fall into Eternal Ruin This our Saviour does affirm S. John 3. 19. This is the Condemnation that Light came into the World c. This does aggravate the guilt and Sentence We were fal'n before indeed in Adam And I dare not undertake to be so learned to say whether to determine with some men that was but a fall from Paradise into the Grave and we were forfeit to Death onely But I may adventure to affirm that in the second Adam sinners finally impenitent shall fall much farther than we did in the first Adam Now their pit shall have no bottom but this light that came to lighten them shall be to them consuming fire and everlasting burnings And all reason in the world For upon that fall of ours in Adam help was offer'd us an easie way not onely to repair those ruines but to better infinitely that estate which we were fal'n from and a way that cost God dear to purchase cost him not this Incarnation onely but the Death and Passion of his Son and diverse other blessed methods of Salvation Now if we refuse the mercy of all this and scorn these miracles of condescending goodnesse and defie those methods that he makes use of to raise us from our Fall it is apparent we provoke and choose deeper ruine this refusal hath in it such desperate malignity as to poyson this great mercy of the Incarnation and all the rest 'T is but a small thing to say that they who Stumble at this Rock of their Salvation spurning at it by their wilful disobedience that these make an infinite masse of loving-kindnesse to be lost upon them so as that Salvation cannot save them for alas Salvation ruines them the deeper and this Child is for their fall The condition they were forfeit to before by reason of their breach of the first Covenant was advantage comfortable in comparison of that which Christ does put them in This is the Condemnation that he came into the world And it had been infinitely beter for them that this Child too had never been born The unreformed have the least reason in the world to solemnize this Festival they do but celebrate the birth of their own Ruin bow down and do reverence to their Fall Had it not been for this they had not gone to so severe an Hell So that they do but entertain the great occasion of their greater Condemnation Such it proves to them and that it might be so He was fore-ordained for it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This Child is set for the fall of many which does lead me to Gods Councel in all this My next part This Child is set for the fall of many even by Gods direct appointment for saith Grotius Accedo iiâ— qui 〈◊〉 non nudum eventum sed consilium Dei signifieâ—â—â— I am of their opinion who understand not the success alone but the design of this Child 's coming and Gods Counsel in it iâ— intended here And without disputing of Gods antecedent will and consequent this is safely said God design'd this Child should be such an one that they who had no inclinations for Virtue would not entertain the love of it but counted it a mean pedautick thing and all its Rules and Laws unreasonable servitude these loose men would certainly reject Him and his Doctrines which were so severe and strict That those who did pretend friendship for Vertue and a service for Religion but withal must be allowed to maintain correspondence with the World seek the Honours and advantages of Earth and will trespasse on Religion where it enterferes with these break with Virtue when their interests cannot consist with it that these false hypocritical pretenders should be offended with the mean conditions of this Child and of his followers in this World and with the poor spirited Principles of his Religion In summe they that upon these or any other grounds 〈◊〉 disbelieve or disobey him God design'd this Child to be a means of bringing sorer Punishments even to everlasting ruin upon such A black Decree this one would think He that had so much kindnesse for Mankind to give away the onely Son both of his Nature his Affections and his Bosom to them could he then design that Gift to be the Ruine of the greatest part of men This Child Simeon said but just before my Text is Gods Salvation which he had prepared before all people and does he now say God hath set him for their fall The Angels preached this was a Birth that brought glad tydings of great joy that should be to all people and is there so much comfort in destruction that most men should rejoyce at that which is ordeined to be the great occasion of it to them But we have no reason to complain 'T is not unkind to deny Mercy to them that refuse the offers of it that will not accept Salvation when their God himself does come to bring it to them tenders it upon condition of accepting and amending Which if they despise and prefer Hell before Repentance choose sin rather than Gods blessed retributions 't is but reason to deny them what they will not have and let them take their chosen Ruine to will their Judgment which they will themselves set and ordein Him to be that to them which themselves do ordein and make him to be to themselves So S. Peter sayes expresly He is a Stone of stumbling and a Rock of offence to them who being disobedient stumble at the Word whereunto they were appointed Disobedience where it is obdurate alters so the temper of our God that it makes Him who swears he would not have the Sinner dye yet set out his Son to make such sinners fall into eternal Death Makes Judgment triumph over Mercy even in the great contrivances and
execution of the greatest and most Kingly Power and every Doctrine had the force of Proclamation every denunciation were Sentence as it will be certainly to them that do not give obedience to it Which obedience is Secondly and that most properly entitled the Kingdom of God Rom. 14. 17. for by that he Reigns without this our great universal Lord were a Prince of no Subjects had a Kingdom but of Rebells onely So that to receive the Kingdom of God is by the obedience of Faith to submit to the Gospel to receive the Doctrines of is by believing and the Precepts by obeying them The duty which our Saviour here directs and which with such severity he threatens non-performance of even with exclusion from that blessed Immortality of Joyes which the Kingdom of God imports which is that sense it bears in the last words of my Text. In which we must consider First the object both of the Duty and the Threat a Kingdom and that the Kingdom of God Secondly our concern and duty in relation to that Kingdom we have onely to receive it Whosoever shall not receive the Kingdom of God Whatever bustle men are well content to make to get possession of any Earthly Dignity or Power sometimes to wage war with their Conscience and all obligations violate all Rights both Humane and Divine and assault greatest difficulties and yet greater guilts to invade mens Crowns and other rights there 's no such need in this we have no more to do but let this Kingdom come and not resist the having it For therefore also Thirdly the manner we are by our Saviour here prescribed to receive this Kingdom in is as a little Child Whosoever shall not receive the Kingdom of God as a little Child as one that cannot stand against the power of a Kingdom when it comes that hath nor strength nor malice neither force nor will to oppose which they that do must needs keep themselves out of it Which is Fourthly the thing threatned they shall not enter therein there being neither reason nor indeed a possibility men should possesse that which they will not receive Lastly Christ's asseveration is added to all this Verily I say unto you whosoever shall not receive the Kingdom of God as a little Child he shall not enter therein But because the main thing Christ intended in the Text which he so oft repeated upon several occasions was by the significative embleme of a little Child visibly to informe us of some dispositions that are absolutely necessary to the entertaining Christianity either in our minds by Faith or in our lives by practise I shall therefore wholly attend that design of his in the words and handle them particularly as they seem here to be spoken in relation to the Doctrine of it This being most of use now in an age when men not only tear Religion with disputes but aime to baffle it with reproaches quite out of the world Now against such the text is positive Whosoever shall not receive the Kingdom of God the Doctrine of Christianity as a little Child he cannot enter therein neither into the possession of the Promises of Christianity nor indeed into the profession of it And here I need not labour much to finde that in a child which Christ requires of those that come to be disciples in Religion for it is plain that children being impotent unable to sustaine or to direct themselves they give themselves up to the aids and the directions of others those especially whom they are committed to and with whose cares of them they are acquainted to whose guidance they resign themselves entirely laying hold on them in any dangerous appearance and not trusting to themselves at all And when their age first makes them capable of having any thing infus'd into them being empty and unseason'd vessels they will easily receive all and sincerely without taint And being neither fill'd before hand with prejudicate opinions nor with windy vaine conceits of their own skill or knowledge they must needs take in without any let or hindrance what ever is infus'd and submit themselves to be directed wholly by their teachers without contradiction or dispute for they Judge not nor examine but receive Now such a resignation seems the proper disposition which our Saviour expects in a disciple It is plain that his pretended Vicar and that Church expect it that men shall submit their Faith entirely to the Church believe whatever shee proposeth as reveal'd by God meerly on that account as she proposeth it for otherwise it is not a right faith Yea she requires that men give their assent to the determinations of her head the Pope in matters of fact also where they are as competent to Judge as he And though with all their industry and using the same means they cannot finde the fact to be as he determines yet they are oblig'd in conscience to that superior to depart from their own Judgement and to yield and sign their assent to his determinations Witnesse the matter of Jansenius Yea their great Cardinal is positive that If the Pope could erre so far as to call evil good good evil to prohibit vertues or command vices the Church were bound in conscience to believe those vices good and honest and those vertues evil So far he Indeed if that Church be the Mother and Nurse of all Christians 't is from her breasts only they must seek the sinceremilk of the word Now that she is so they must take her word as Children do their Parents words that they are so And indeed this is properly to receive the Doctrine as a little Child not judge nor reason nor examine but believe it And such legendary doctrines as well as Histories which they deliver are most fit to be receiv'd by such as Children Yet as if this had been the proper method among Christians alwaies in S. Austin's time we finde the Manichees derided Christianity that discipline of Faith because by that men were commanded to believe and were not taught how to distinguish truth from falshood by clear reason and again that it requires us to assent before we have a reason for it And long before that Celsus did advise the Christians to receive no doctrines but on the account of reason credulity being the inlet to deceit saying they that without grounds believe are like those that admire and are satisfied with juglers and take appearances and sleight of hand for truth adding many of the Christians neither would receive nor give a reason of their faith but us'd to say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do not you examine but believe 't is your faith shall save you and as if from the beginning it were so we cannot but have heard the story of that man that reading Genesis where Moses says In the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth And he said let there be light and there was light c. Swore at him saying this Barbarian
only asserted boldly but prov'd nothing As if argument and reason never had place in the Jewish or the Christian Religion only those who were the institutors of each Religion did deliver it others had no more to do but to believe it that is to receive it as a little Child Whether these reproaches and the oath of these known enemies may go for proofs that it was so I shall not now enquire But it is certain on the other side S. Paul requires of his new Christian Corinthians that they be not children in understanding that they be in malice Children but in understanding Men. Now a man and a child differ not in this that the one hath an understanding reasonable soul and the other hath not but in that the one cannot use his understanding or his reason and the other where he acts as man does So that our Religion in requiring that we be in understanding men does require of us that we use our reason in it And since assenting to a thing as truth is an act of the highest faculty of the soul of man as it is properly and truly reasonable namely as it understands and judges it is not possible a man should really believe a thing unlesse he fatisfie himself that he hath reason for so doing Yea whether that be true or not which many men so eagerly contend for that the will though free is bound and cannot choose but will that which appears best at that time it wills yet it is sure that he who with his understanding which is not free in her apprehensions and judgments but must necessarily embrace that which hath most evidence of truth He I say who really assents to any proposition does satisfie himself that he hath better and more cogent reasons for that then the contrary And therefore it is impossible that any man can verily believe a thing which he is throughly convinc't is contrary to clear and evident right reason for he cannot have a better reason for the thing that is so And were it possible for any man to believe so there could be neither grounds nor rules for such a ones belief for there is nothing in the world so false and so absur'd although he were assur'd it were so but he might assent to it for whatever demonstrations could be offer'd why he should not yet it seems he might believe against acknowledg'd evident truth and reason but this were onely wish or fancy and imagination not belief And to prevent such childish weak credulity was the great work and care of Christ so far is he from requiring we should be as Children in this kind For when he was ascended up to heaven he gave some Apostles some Evangelists some Pastors and Teachers he shed down the Holy Spirit and his gifts that we might not be as Children tossed to and fro and carried about with every winde of Doctrine Eph. 4. 14. First For want of rationall grounds instable in our Faith as Children are in body and in judgement also taking all appearances for truths If men were only to believe there must needs be as great variety of Religions as of teachers And though God hath appointed that some Church should be as perfectly infallible as that of Rome pretends to be yet since there are so many Churches and the true one therefore could be known no otherwise then by some marks there must be disquisition before Faith and men must reason and examine ere they can believe upon good grounds for were they to receive Religion as a little Child be nurst up with the Doctrine as with milk a Child we know may suck infection from the poyson'd breast of an unwholesome mother or some other person for it knows not to distinguish And so may be nurst to death A soul like theirs that is but rasa tabula white paper is as fitted to receive the mark of the beast as the inscription of the living God just as the first hand shall impresse Therefore we are bid not to believe every Spirit not every Teacher though he come with gifts pretend and seem to be inspir'd but try them and our Saviour forewarn'd the Jews of false Christs that should come with signes and wonders Something therefore must be known first and secur'd before the understanding can be thus oblig'd to give up its assent And Captivate every thought into obedience as S. Paul directs Now what that was here to the hearers in the Text is easily collected namely that he was the Christ that does require it And S. Paul expresses it in the forecited place where he says we must bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ to wit of that Christ who as he does himself professe that if he had not done among them the works which no other had done they had not had sin John 15. 24. If his demonstrations had not convinc't them it had been no fault not to believe So when he had made appear he was that person whom their prophesies had poynted out the Messiah the Son of the living God and this not only his Disciples had acknowledg'd but the multitudes yea when his miracles had made one of the Pharisees confesse Rabbi we know thou art a Teacher come from God for no man can do these miracles except God be with him Then if the Pharisees dispute against his Doctrine of Divorce urge the authority of Moses and Gods Law and the Disciples presse the inconveniences that will happen If the case of a man be such with his wife he may answer them He that will not receive my Doctrines without dispute that is to say He that will not receive the Kingdom of God as a little Child shall not enter therein This King that cometh in the name of the Lord may well determine how we shall receive the Kingdom of God If he propose strange precepts to our practise It appears that he is sent from God and Gods commands are not to be disputed but obey'd if his revelations present dark unintelligible Mysteries to our faith his promises offer seeming impossibilities to our hope why yet he hath made proof he comes from God and surely we are not so insolent as to doubt that God can discover things above our understanding and do things above the comprehension of our reason Therefore since we are as Children to all these it is but just we should receive them even as little Children With a perfect resignation of our understandings and of our whole souls Here 't is most true what S. Austin says Those are not Christians who deny that Christ is to be believ'd unlesse there be some other certain reason of the thing besides his saying Si Christo etiam credendum negant nisi indubitata ratio reddita fuerit Christiani non sunt For to them that are convinc't of that 't is such a reason that he is the Christ. There is indeed no other name now under heaven to whom we are oblig'd to give
they come from God I might have urged completion of Prophecies to prove the same First those in the Old Testament of the Messiah which so eminently came to passe in Christ that they sufficiently clear those Books to be Divine Next Christ's predictions in the New particularly those about Jerusalem which saith Eusebius He that will compare with what Josephus an eye-witnesse and no Christian writes of it or what our selves know of that Nation and that place indeed he must acknowledge the Divinity of his words But enough hath been said to prove they come from God and therefore we must so receive them as the Word of God with perfect resignation of our Souls and submission of our judgments denying every apprehension that would start aside from and not captivate it self to that prime truth which cannot be deceived nor lye and renounce all discourses Reason offers that resist such abnegation of it self and all our other faculties that is receive this Word of the Kingdom as a little Child I do not here affirm by saying this that our Religion does disdain or keep at distance from the services of any of Mans faculties for it sometimes admits them not as Ministers only but as Judges 'T is plain the senses were the first I do not say conveyance onely but Foundation of Faith which was built on the first Believers eyes and ears they heard the Doctrine saw the Miracles were sure they saw and heard them and so supposing the signs sufficient to confirm the Doctrine to have come from God were certain of their truth without any Authority of a Church to influence that faith into divine And S. John therefore does not onely call in and admit and urge their testimony That which we have heard which we have seen with our Eyes which we have looks upon and our hands have handled of the Word of Life that declare we unto you But our Saviour in the highest point of Faith appeals directly to their Judgment Reach hither thy finger and behold my hands and reach hither thy hand and thrust it into my side and be not faithlesse but believing And S. Austin also gives them the decision of a point of Doctrine which of all others now troubles the Church most for speaking of the Eucharist he sayes that which you see is Bread and 't is a Cup it is that very thing which your eyes tell you ' t is Tertullian also long before that had appealed to them in that very cause And in an instance where their sentence passes 't is not strange if Reason also take the Chair and do pretend to Judge And truly when the Scripture that does call those Elements Christs Body and his Blood does also call them after Consecration Bread and Wine and since they must be called one of them by a figure for they cannot be in Substance both and since that Scripture hath not told us where the Figure lyes hath not expresly said 't is this but in resemblance that in Substance Here if Reason that hath Principles by which to judge of Bodies which are expos'd to all the notices and trials of our several faculties and to which a Trope is not a stranger it can judge of figurative speeches when it therefore finds if it admit the figure in that form This is my Body 'T is but just the same which was in the Jews Sacrament the Paschal Lamb which they call'd the Body of the Passever though it were but the memorial a figure which was alwayes usual in Sacraments and is indeed essential to Sacraments And which is used in all things that are given by exhibitive signs But if it should resolve it to be Bread Wine onely in a figure besides a most impossible acknowledged Consequence that a man can be nourisht by them which the Romamsts dare not deny nor yet dare grant that men can feed upon a trope be nourish't with a figure besides this if Reason shall resolve that it must judge against all Rules it hath of judging by and judge in contradiction to known Principles and trample on all Laws of sense and understanding which especially when the Scripture hath no where defined expresly must be most unreasonable yea most impossible to judge that true that is to say believe that thing which it sees is most irreconcileable with known truths Here therefore Reason is not insolent if it give verdict by its proper evidences men are not bound to swallow contradictions as they do the Wafer or receive as a little Child that discerns the Lords Body no more then it does the repugnancies that are consequent to their Hypothesis concerning it Or to make another instance when the Scripture says God is a Spirit yet does also give him hands and eyes and ears and wings and these of strange prodigious dimensions neither tells us which of these is proper and which figure Here if Reason that can prove God cannot be a Body and cannot endure his God should be a monster shall be called in to passe sentence they that make Philosophy interpret Holy Writ in this case and give the last resort to Reason do no more usurp or trespasse on Religion then they that make use of Authours or a Dictionary judge of the sense of any Greek or Hebrew word in Scripture But notwithstanding this we may not think the mysteries of Faith are to be measured by the Rules of natural Reason so to stand or fall as they approve themselves to its discourse or Principles For though it be impossible that any Revelation can contradict right Reason truth cannot be inconsistent with truth yet it is very possible God can reveal those truths which we have neither faculties analogal nor principles or notions proportioned to nor any natural wayes of judging or examining And if those faculties which are not capable of cognisance will judge and judge of things removed from all our notices such as Spiritual Infinite Eternal being is and do it by principles gathered from the information of our Senses and by analogy with things of another kind corporeal finite things that are about us reason need not be informed how liable such judgments must be to mistakes and how that which we call repugnancy in one may have no place in the other Here therefore to submit our understandings and believe is but modest justice and to receive as Children what our Heavenly Father sayes And therefore they that will presume to comprehend whatere they are commanded to believe and those that will believe nothing but what they are able to comprehend are alike insolent if not pernicious T is true God by the Gospel hath revealed and brought to light many things which before appeared onely as he himself did in the Temple in a Cloud namely concerning the Divine nature Persons Properties and the Eternal being and the Incarnation of his Son but still as God himself is said to do these also dwell in Light that no man can approach unto Which he that will