before mentioned that is unless we rise from Sin to die again Lastly the Justice of God and the incomparable Humility and Patience of Christ manifested in his Sufferings rendred it not possible not fit that he should be holden of Death He died not for his own but for the Sins of others and to demonstrate that his own Guilt drew not that Punishment upon him it was agreeable to the Justice of God to raise him up to relieve the Cause of oppressed Innocence and not suffer his Persecutors any longer to triumph in their wickedness Further by his exact Obedience by his inimitable Patience in suffering the Pains and his admirable Humility in undergoing the Shame of the Cross he did deserve to be raised up that as he had humbled himself in so extraordinary a manner so he should be exalted to a no less illustrious Glory And therefore the Sufferings and Humility of Christ are frequently assigned as the meritorious Cause of his Exaltation It was long before Prophesied of him Psal. CX 7. He shall drink of the brook in the way therefore shall he lift up his head And after his Passion and Ascension it is said of him by St. Paul Philip. II. He humbled himself and became obedient to death even the deash of the Cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him The first step of his Exaltation was his Resurrection which therefore was to relate to both those parts of his Humane Nature which had undergone that meritorious Humiliation Not only his Soul had suffered Agonies and the Contradiction of sinners had resigned it self intirely into the hands of God and submitted quietly to the Execution of that bitter Sentence which was inflicted on him as the Representative of sinful Men had endured the Shame of the Cross the insults of his Enemies a violent Separation from the Body with invincible Patience and Charity But also his Body had partaken in his Agony had sweat drops of Blood had endured Scourgings and Buffettings Crucifixion and the wound of the Spear Both Soul and Body therefore were to share in the Reward of all these Sufferings which began to be bestowed on him in his Resurrection His Body was to be raised from the Grave and his Soul being in no other Sense capable of Resurrection was to be reunited to the Body and both to continue for ever joyned since by his Death and Resurrection he is become the Mediator of a new and eternal Covenant Thus I have passed through the several parts of the Text and from the whole I shall make but one Inference proper to the Solemnity of this day If the Resurrection of Christ be the great and ultimate Confirmation of the Christian Religion that upon which our Faith is founded our hopes are raised that by which the Mystery of our Redemption is compleated the Author of it Crowned and advanced to be the Head of all the faithful who look for the same Resurrection it becomes us to celebrate this Festival Dedicated to the Memory of it with a suitable Religion We are not to account it an Arbitrary institution or the invention of the Church that this day is accounted Sacred beyond all others of the Year Our Lord hath made it so by rising from the Dead and compleating the Redemption of Mankind on it No revealed Religion was yet ever professed in the World which did not celebrate some certain and solemn Festivals at fixed times of the year and to cast off the publick Solemnization of those Festivals upon which the most illustrious Acts of the Life of our Saviour were performed is no other than in Fact to deny all belief in him and relation to him It is not enough to say that he hath declared he will be worshipped in Spirit and Truth He was himself then going up to Jerusalem to celebrate a solemn Festival when he spake those words And surely unless there be solemn times and places of worshipping him in Spirit and Truth it will never appear that he is so worshipped nor is he worshipped in Truth when Men pay no external Acknowledgments of those eminent Benefits which he hath truly obtained to them Himself hath consecrated this day by his rising from the Grave on it The Apostles have Dedicated it to this sacred Use by their own and by Divine Authority The Jews had before celebrated one day in seven in Recognition of their adoring that God who had created the World in Six days and rested on the Seventh and that Seventh day which they celebrated rather than any other of the Week was sanctified in Memory of their Deliverance out of Egypt wrought upon that day as it is Deut. V. 15. Remember that thou wast a Servant in the Land of Egypt and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence by a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm Therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath day As the Jews therefore dated their Seventh day for ever from that day of their Deliverance out of Egypt so the Apostles began and the Church hath to this day continued to date their Seventh day from the day upon which their Redemption was compleated A Redemption so far greater than that given to the Jews from the Bondage of Egypt that well might the day instituted in remembrance of their Deliverance give way to the day celebrated in Honour of our Redemption This change therefore was made by the Apostles immediately upon the Resurrection of our Lord and even before his Ascension and so no doubt by his personal Direction and Approbation For all the religious Assemblies we find of them both before and after his Ascension were upon the first day of the Week That so as the Jews acknowledged their belief in God the Creator of the World by celebrating one day in seven and manifested their Worship of that God who brought them out of Egypt by Solemnizing for ever that Seventh day in which he brought them out So we Christians should declare that we worship the same God the Creator of the World by celebrating one day in seven and also manifest that we worship him in and through Jesus Christ by Sanctifying for ever that Seventh day upon which the great and last Act of our Redemption wrought by him was performed which is therefore in Scripture called the Lords Day Rev. I. 10. Farther as the particular Day of the weekly Festival of the Jews was determined by their Deliverance out of Egypt wrought upon the Seventh day so the far greatest of their Annual Solemnities was instituted in Commemoration of that Deliverance effected in the first Month of the year This God did institute by a special Command which was at large repeated to you in the first Lesson of this day And exacted the Observation of it with so great Rigour that he declared That Soul which did not keep this annual Feast should be cut off from Israel And can we imagine that God should require such eminent external Testimonies
could be no part of a finite Soul It hath its bounds and sphere of Activity fixed to it which if it exceeds it cannot judge without danger of Error and Illusion If we desire to extend our Knowledge to all Things and Objects the desire is unreasonable if we pretend to it the pretence is foolish The limitation of our Nature hath excluded all such Hopes which can be obtained no otherwise than by altering our Nature and raising us from the condition of Finite to Infinite Beings It becomes us to receive with grateful Acknowledgements those Perfections which God hath bestowed on us not to repine that he gave us not better much less be angry that they are not infinite since it is impossible that any Creature should have an infinite Understanding Further the Imperfection of our Knowledge is manifest from Experience The greatest part of Mankind are detained in miserable Ignorance even of plain and sensible Matters A barbarous Indian could never be perswaded of the Truth of many things which by their frequency are not in the least admir'd by us The fabrick of a Watch or the mutual Communication of Thoughts by Writing is no less inconceivable to him than the Mysteries of the Trinity are to us And yet we shou'd by no means allow his Conclusion if he should peremptorily deny the Existence of such things because he cannot conceive them Among us Men who have not improved their Reason by Thought and Study are far more unable to conceive those things which are certainly known by more Learned Men than the latter are to conceive the greatest Mysteries of the Deity And even in these the same Imperfection of Understanding may be discovered For however they may flatter themselves with knowing the Nature of Finite Beings and Causes of visible Effects which indeed are the proper and suitable Objects of Human Understanding yet they must acknowledge their Ignorance in many other things of the same kind and what they do pretend to know in Natural Philosophy others oft-times no less Learned will deny and if themselves now fancy that they know the Truth yet they must confess that they once knew it not or perhaps had different Conceptions of it And then that very improvement of their Knowledge is an undeniable Argument of the Imperfection of it So that if Men should always deny the truth of what they cannot conceive even all natural knowledge would be destroy'd and things most certain would be denied to exist And then surely we cannot but allow a greater distance to be between the infinite Knowledge of God and that of the most learned Man which how far soever improved yet still continueth to be finite than between the most perfect and most imperfect Understandings of any two Men living Secondly The Excellency of the Object may be such that it can never be fully conceived by the understanding of any created Being And such is God of whose Existence altho' we be most certain yet we have no other than an imperfect Idea of his Essence We conceive him indeed to be a most perfect Being but his Perfections we cannot comprehend in one single Idea we are forced to consider them apart and even then obtain the knowledge of them rather by removing all Imperfections from him then by conceiving the Nature of the Perfections themselves And after all many Attributes of God which none deny to be his Attributes and without which the Divine Nature cannot subsist include no less Difficulties than the Doctrine of the Trinity I will instance only in two his independent Existence and his Omnipresence For the first nothing can exist without a cause and since there can be no external cause to God the cause of his Existence must be sought for in himself and that is the infinity of his Nature Now altho' all Men firmly believe that God never received his Existence from any external Cause nor needed to do it since the infinity of his own Nature was a necessary Cause of independent Existence Yet cannot the Soul of Man conceive how any thing should be the cause of it self without being involved in inextricable darkness Again no Man can deny God to be Omnipresent who grants his Existence yet can we not conceive the Presence of God in all places without conceiving at the same time an Extension of parts altho' we be assured that God is an immaterial Being and as such can have no Extention of parts Further not only the infinity of the Subject may exceed our Apprehension but the Spirituality of it altho' finite may confound us in this Life wherein we are so much inured to judge by the report of our Senses that few or none can form a distinct Conception of an immaterial Being All allow the Soul of Man to be such yet the greatest part of Mankind are not able to form any Conception of an immaterial Being and even those who can yet have no other than a very confused Idea of it which consists rather in a Negative Conception of it to wit that it is not material than in any positive Notion of its Immateriality If then things which are on all sides allowed continue to be inconceiveable if we cannot solve the Difficulties arising from many Attributes in God which yet we cannot deny to be in him without denying his Existence at the same time if we be so much at a loss in the Conception of any immaterial Being we ought not to be astonished or scandalized that the Doctrine of the Trinity cannot be fully conceived by us So then since humane Reason cannot by its own Conceptions alone find out and determine all which may relate to the Nature of God the Second Consideration proposed will take place namely That in judging the truth of these Matters we must not consider their Internal Probability so much as their external Motives of Credibility For since we cannot perfectly comprehend the Nature of God many Properties may be in it which we could never discover by the light of Reason nor yet when discovered to us fully conceive them But what we cannot conceive we cannot judge of from internal Arguments which are to be drawn from the Nature and Essence of the subject the perfect knowledge of which being denied to us we cannot form any Arguments from thence It remains therefore that we respect only the external Arguments of its truth and those can be no other than external Revelation We cannot doubt that God fully knoweth his own Nature and that as he is most wise he is most veracious that as he cannot be deceived himself so he cannot deceive us If then we be sufficiently assured that God hath revealed this all scruples ought to cease which is the Apostles Argument in this Case It must be indeed acknowledged that we may be deceived in our belief of a Divine Revelation and that since God cannot affirm any thing which is false it is an invincible Argument against any pretended Revelation this Matter is false
Mistakes of Job and his Friends which I proposed and come now to consider in the second place To Solve this Difficulty every one of them formed a different Opinion yet all came short of Truth Eliphaz who spake first asserted that God inflicted temporal Misfortunes on no Man but by way of Punishment for some enormous Sins and therefore urged Job to confess his secret Sins and give Glory to God as it is XXII 5. Is not thy wickedness great and thine iniquities infinite And so on Where he affirmeth Job to be the greatest of Sinners only because God had heaped extraordinary Calamities upon him Bildad maintaind that God might as the supreme and absolute Governour of the World afflict Man without any respect to antecedent Sins but then that he was bound in Justice to recompense it to him by subsequent Prosperity For thus he expresseth himself VIII 6 7. If thou wert pure and upright surely now he would awake for thee and make the Habitation of thy Righteousness prosperous Though thy beginning was small yet thy latter end should greatly increase Zophar delivereth his Opinion throughout the whole XI Chap. that God might in right of his supreme Power lay the heaviest Afflictions upon Men without any respect either to Antecedent Sin or subsequent Recompence Elihu thought that God might afflict good and bad Men indifferently but that if good Men received the Affliction humbly and with submission and addressed themselves to God by Prayer for the removal of it and if bad Men were moved to repent through it God would remove the Affliction and restore prosperity to them especially if an Angel interceded for them as he expresseth himself at large in the XXXIII Chap. Lastly Job whatever his Opinion might be while his Calamity was yet fresh and any hopes remained of the speedy removal of it or however he might alter his Judgment after the Revelation of God in the end of the Book yet in the midst of his Troubles when the Disease grew inveterate and no hope of Delivery yet appeared he seems to have thought that God inter-medled not in the proceedings of the World and reserved neither Rewards for the good nor Punishments for the bad Which Opinion he proposeth chiefly in the XXI Chap. All these Opinions were alike erroneous and yet all founded upon the Attributes of God those of Eliphaz Bildad and Elihu upon his Justice those of Zophar and Job upon his Power The Errors of the Three first plainly arose from hence that they pretending to determine Matters above their knowledge confined the Exercise of the Divine Judgment and consequently the Dispensation of Rewards and Punishments to this Life only Had this which they all supposed been indeed true one at least of their Opinions must necessarily have been received otherwise the Justice of God could not be cleared But what ground had they to conclude that God exercised his Judgments in this Life only Might not the Nature of Man the quality of the Rewards and Punishments to be inflicted on an immaterial and immortal Soul teach them that another World was a far more convenient Tribunal for this Judicature Or if they knew not the Nature of the Rewards for want of Revelation yet at least the example of the Patriarchs with which they were not unacquainted and wherewith our Saviour afterwards convinced the Jews might not I say the experience of their Afflictions and Troubles have taught them that God did not ultimately bestow his Rewards and consequently not his Punishments in this Life They had received glorious Promises of some extraordinary Benefits to be received from God Promises which might justly make them expect some eminent Advantages beyond the rest of Mankind yet none of all these just Expectations were satisfied in this World wherein they were Strangers and Pilgrims exposed to Injuries and troubled with frequent Afflictions and that till Death an invincible Argument that God reserved the Consummation of their Hopes and his Promises to another Life As to the Opinion of Zophar that God might bring Afflictions on Men for no other end than to demonstrate his absolute and arbitrary Power over Mankind that overthroweth both the Wisdom and Justice of God It would render his Government Tyrannical and even like to that of Hell which Sports in the Misery of Mankind God is a most wise Being and cannot do such a vain Act he is a most just Being and cannot execute such an unjust Sentence He never afflicts or prospers Men by extraordinary Power in this Life but either for their Reward their Punishment or their Correction As for the Prosperity or Affliction which may befall Men in the ordinary Course of the Government of the World they may respect indeed none of all those Ends nor do they concern our present Case Lastly The Opinion of Job that God interpofeth not extraordinarily in the Affairs of Mankind might be confuted from the same Attributes and Considerations For we must not suppose that God allowed and ratified whatsoever he had said when he gave such an illustrious Testimony of Integrity to him in the close of the Book That was only to vindicate him from the Aspersions of his Friends more particularly Eliphas and Elihu maintaining that his Afflictions had befallen him for the Enormity of his antecedent Sins God confirmed not his Speeches made in answer to them by this Suffrage and therefore Job himself deploreth the rashness of his Opinion in XLII 6. Wherefore I abhor my self and repent in dust and ashes And indeed nothing could be more false or derogatory to the Majesty of God and the Preservation of his Honour among Men. Only Job asserted not pertinaciously as his Friends did their Opinions he concluded not peremptorily but only confessed that he could not discover any extraordinary interposition of God by visible Effects in this Life An Opinion indeed which too many have taken up and some do yet maintain but which cannot be allowed without the utter ruin of Religion and Reason also For do we not believe that God is infinitely good and just that he is the supreme Governour of the World both in this Life and after Death But can we conceive him to be infinitely good who after having created Man and settled him in the World takes no farther care of him abandons him to Chance and there stops the Emanations of his Goodness Can he be perfectly just who makes no provision for the universal Calamities or Opressions of Mankind which cannot but often happen notwithstanding the ordinary Laws of his Government which consist only in maintaining the Course of Nature Do we not destroy his Government when we confine it only to another Life or perhaps allow it no place in either Since God hath created the World the Government of it hath become necessary to him and then not to derive at any time any extraordinary influences upon it will be no more commendable than for a temporal Prince to sit still and be unconcerned for the Affairs of
upon his constant Guard least he should at any time be surprized And surely a Surprize is hard to be avoided where so many passages must be guarded when the Enemy may enter in by the Senses or Imagination by the Operation of external Objects or the suggestion of internal Thoughts and all these as numerous and various as are the Objects from whence they proceed or about which they are imployed Scarce in the best of Men may we not discover some Passion predominant to the rest and which might he be allowed to indulge he would confidently undertake for the good Behaviour of all the rest But this Liberty Christianity denieth to him injoyneth him an universal Conquest of all his Passions a general performance of the whole Will of God forbids the Omission of any one Duty upon Pain of incurring the Guilt of all And this is truly so great a Difficulty that we need not seek any farther Reasons why the best Christians of all Ages are but hardly saved I proceed to the Difficulties peculiar to the latter Ages of Christianity and which more nearly concern us I will mention but two 1. The want of an universal Example and 2. The want of Miracles By these the ancient Christians converted the Heathen World and through want of these we are almost returned to Heathenism It could not but be a powerful Argument of Vertue to all ingenuous Men when they could not so much as retain the Character they had undertaken without a diligent Exercise of Piety when to be a vicious Christian was to be a Monster in the account of the World when Vice was a Singularity and Dissent from all others of the same Denomination Whereas in latter Ages the whole hath been inverted the Character universally retained without any regard to the Conditions of it A pious Christian must dissent in the Course of his Life from the greater part of the Christian World and Vertue is become a Singularity inasmuch as what cannot be sufficienty lamented many ingenuous Minds have been betrayed to sin to which otherwise they were not inclined least they should appear uncivil and morose And when unlawful Customs can acquire the Esteem of Civilities among Christians we cannot but confess an extreme Degeneracy of the true Spirit of Christianity It may truly be said of Examples in general that they have more influence upon the greater part of Mankind than Reasons or Arguments Men of ordinary Capacities such as make up the Body of Christendom take their measures of Christianity from the Practice of the Professors of it as Men do of the Laws of any Countrey from the Practice of the Courts of Justice and will hardly be perswaded that Christianity is so severe and serious a Matter when they perceive the far greater part of Christians trifle with it It is natural for Men to hope for impunity in a multitude to fall into impiety when no shame restrains them when a prevailing Example leads them As for Men of more raised Understandings it is impossible they should thus deceive themselves about the Obligation of their Religion yet even those escape not this universal Contagion they fear to be accounted singular are forced to dissemble and perhaps at last to stifle their Knowledge as not being able to withstand the force of such a mighty Torrent This Difficulty receives yet farther Aggravation if we reflect that it proceeds from our own Guilt that our selves are the Authors of it The Difficulties of the Apostolick Age were purely extraneous for which those Christians were not accountable They brought not their Persecutions upon themselves and their Sins committed before Conversion could not afterwards be justly imputed to them as Christians Whereas this disadvantage we now complain of is the Effect of our Sins committed in the Profession of Christianity to which every one of us have contributed somewhat and besides the internal Guilt of the Crime committed have upon that account increased our sin The Sense of which ought to be a Motive to us to endeavour by the Exemplariness of our future Conduct I will not say to remove this Difficulty and retrieve the glorious Example of former times for that can scarce be hoped but to compensate the Injury which we have done to the Christian Religion by our sinful Deportment The other disadvantage of the present Age which I mentioned the want of Miracles cannot indeed be ascribed to any Fault of ours nor yet be retrieved by us Yet a sensible disadvantage it must be acknowledged when we compare our selves with former times whose Faith and Zeal were constantly awakened kept up and enlivened by the frequent sight of Miracles which confirmed to them the Truth of what they had received the certainty of what they expected and the Power and the Favour of that God they worshipped But I wave the farther Consideration of this Difficulty because the removal of it is not in our Power Yet this use we may make of it to take occasion from it to reflect upon the infinite Goodness and most Wise Providence of God which hath so contrived the advantages and disadvantages of former and latter Ages that both of them have very near equal Assistances and Difficulties in the Prosecution of their Duty that so he might without derogation to his Justice perform what our Lord Promiseth in the Parable of the Housholder in the XX. of St. Matthew reward those whom he had called in the eleventh hour equally with those whom he had hired in the Morning who had born the heat and burden of the day which the Fathers generally expound of this very Case For now those whom he called first who underwent such grievous Afflictions and fierce Persecutions for the defence of the Faith cannot justly complain that we are equally rewarded with them who endured none of those Calamities The Church indeed in latter Ages hath enjoyed Peace and Quiet hath not maintained the Faith of Christ with the expence of her Blood so neither doth she enjoy those Miracles with the sight of which they were Blessed The remembrance of the eminent Example the Miracles and the Sufferings of our Lord were yet fresh in the minds of Men the extraordinary Gifts of the Holy Ghost were every where Conspicuous the Apostles yet alive who spoke and writ by the immediate impulse of God and even after their death the same Gifts and Miracles were continued till Peace was given to the Church All these advantages we want which they enjoyed Peace and Security we have which was denied to them If we proceed in the Comparison we want also that glorious Example of universal Piety which shone forth in their Days But then on the other side we enter not upon the Profession of Christianity with the same Prejudices and Habits of Vice with which they did They felt not the mischief of an ill Example prevailing among Christians So neither did they enjoy the benefit of a Christian Education Thus God hath most wisely in all Ages made
his Enemies as well as Friends at that time The Soldiers sent to break his Legs while hanging on the Cross that so they might hasten his Death whom they supposed not yet to have expired found him already dead Joseph of Arimathea and the devout Women which followed him taking him down from the Cross laid him in his Grave being well assured that he was then Dead His Disciples who if any shew of Reason might be offered would not easily believe him dead from whom they then expected a temporal Kingdom yet were so far perswaded of it that at his first appearing to them they were affrighted and supposed they had seen a Spirit To these Proofs nothing more could be added to Evince the reality of his Death an Evidence which is wanting to all the Relations of Men raised from the Dead opposed by the Heathens to the Resurrection of our Lord. They alledged from Plato the Story of Eris lying for many days among the dead Bodies and after that recovering Life again and pretended that Apollonius Tyaneus whom they set up in opposition to Christ had raised a certain Person to Life But the first was not related by any for more than a thousand years after the Fact was pretended to be done and in the second Case the Heathen Historian confesseth that he dare not affirm that the Person was truly Dead Nor after his Resurrection was it less evident that Christ was truly alive invested with Soul and Body All the Actions of Life and Arguments of a real Body met in his He was seen by a great number of his Disciples who judged it to be such He eat and drank with them which proved his Body not to have been a meer Phantasm or Aerial Apparition He talked and reasoned with them out of the Scriptures which demonstrated that Body to be indued with a rational Soul He appealed to their Sense of feeling commanded them to handle him said to unbelieving Thomas reach hither thy finger and behold my hands and reach hither thy hand and thrust it into my side which manifests that the Body which he then offered to that Tryal was that very Body which had suffered on the Cross and still retained the Print of the Nails and the Impression of the Spear That this same Body and Soul reunited was also joyned to the Divinity as before his Passion appeared from his many Miracles wrought after his Resurrection Thus we have a true proper and real Resurrection And that all these things were so we have the Testimony first of his own Disciples the Faith of whom although so nearly related to him cannot be called in question since they laid down their Lives in Confirmation of it Nor can it be imagined that any Men should die for the Testimony of what they knew to be false Of these the pious Women were first Blessed with the sight of him whether it were in Reward of their maintaining their Love and Fidelity to him when his Apostles had forsaken him or that they came into the Garden where the Sepulchre was immediately after the Resurrection and before he was yet departed out of it They saw him knew him and saluted him held him by the feet and worshipt him The Apostles being advertised of it by them hasted to see their Master and received not only a transient view of him but conversed with him for forty days together and by many infallible proofs were assured of the truth of it Afterwards he appeared to more than five hundred at once and at last ascended up to Heaven in the presence of them all To the witness of Friends we will add the Testimony of his Enemies which in all Cases is allowed to be of great weight The Soldiers who were employed by the Jews to watch his Sepulchre plainly saw the Effects of Divine Power which accompanied his Resurrection although being astonished and confounded at such unusual Prodigies they did not well perceive it or perhaps were not suffered by their Fears to stay till Christ should proceed out of the Sepulchre They felt the Earthquake which removed the stone rolled to the mouth of the Sepulchre they saw the countenance of an Angel like lightning and his raiment white as snow upon which they did shake and became as dead Men and coming into the City shewed to the chief Priests all the things that were done as we read Matth. XXVIII II. The Angels and heavenly Hosts had before joyned with Men in celebrating the Nativity of Christ and they here concurred in witnessing his Resurrection The Women coming to the Sepulchre betimes in the Morning presently after the Resurrection and looking for the Body of their beloved Lord in the Sepulchre found there two Angels in white sitting one at the head the other at the feet where the Body of Jesus had lain who said to them why seek ye the dead among the living he is not here he is risen come see the place where the Lord lay Lastly If we should imagine both his Friends and Enemies the report of Sense oft-times repeated to have been deceived in the Opinion of his Resurrection God hath been pleased to confirm the Truth of it and to set his Seal to it This he hath done not only by his Holy Spirit comforting enabling and encouraging the Apostles in Preaching the Mystery of Christ's Refurrection but also in confirming their Testimony with concurrent Miracles As it is Acts IV. 33. With great power gave the Apostles witness of the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus They openly affirmed it upon their own Knowledge and then in Proof of the truth of their Affirmation wrought Signs and Miracles which to the Spectators did as fully evince the Truth of the Relation as if they had seen it done with their own Eyes since it was impossible that God should exert his omnipotent Power in working Miracles for the Attestation of a Lye Thus much for the reality I proceed in the second place to the II. Manner of the Resurrection expressed in those words having loosed the pains of death which are variously interpreted some maintaining that they imply only a Deliverance from Death and rescue from the Grave others that they point out the dolorous Sufferings by which our Lord was brought to the Grave and raising him up to a state opposite to that Humiliation a third sort understanding by them a Destruction of the Power and Dominion of Death All these Opinions are supported with great Reasons nor will it here be proper to enter into a strict Examination which of them rather is to be embraced They are all rational Consonant to the Design of the Apostle and Significative of the manner of Christ's Resurrection I will therefore apply them all The first Opinion includeth only a Deliverance from Death that is a reunion of Soul and Body separated by Death In which Sense it chiefly referreth to the words of David and the Promises made to him here alledged by the Apostle David had been often brought
Efficacy of it with an unjust Judge It had been sufficient to have introduced the Person of a just and benign Man that so his Justice if compared with the Divine Clemency might demonstate the force of Prayer For if a good Man receives those kindly who address themselves to him how much more will God the Greatness of whose Bounty exceeds our comprehension It had been enough as I before said to have proposed the Person of a just Judge but to represent a cruel impious inhumane Judge unmerciful to others but kind and easie to Supplicants instructeth us that even a wicked Nature may be by Prayer inclined to Lenity and Mercy This therefore our Lord chose to do more lively to express the force fo Prayer When in the next place he carrieth us from the Consideration of this severe Judge cruel by Nature but mollified by Prayer to the Consideration of God the Father most good kind gentle merciful slow to anger and forgiving sins bearing with insuperable Patience the daily Affronts of Men the Honours paid to his Adversary the Devil and the Contumelies therein offered to his own Son what Success may we not then hope to our Prayers made to him if they be presented with a due Reverence and necessary Preparation The unjust Judge although he feared not God nor regarded Man yet did Justice to the Widow for her importunity What Fear could not do Prayer obtained Neither Threats nor the Fear of Punishment could incline the Man to Justice yet the Cries and Supplications of a poor Widow softned his Nature and made him tractable If she could obtain so much from a rough ill-natur'd Man how much greater Kindness Goodness and Love may we not expect from God who always desires to shew Mercy but never to exercise Severity whose very Threats and Punishments are intended for our good and directed to deterr us from Disobedience Let us once more review the effect of Prayer upon this unjust Judge that we may the better discover the infinite kindness and love of God to Men. If he who never willingly and of his own accord did any good changed on the sudden by the Petitions of a poor Supplicant and was moved to Compassion much more will the importunate Prayers of Men be prevalent with him whose Nature includeth an infinity of Goodness and who dispenseth the Emanations of that Goodness in vast and constant Benefits even without intreaty For who doth not see that the Light of the Sun the influences of Heaven the Fruits of the Earth Riches Life and Health are given by God to all Men to the good and to the bad and that only for his immense Kindness to Mankind but if he so favours cherisheth and maintaineth those who ask him not and are not perhaps so much as sensible that the Benefit proceedeth from him what will he not bestow on those who spend a considerable part of their Lives in Prayer and Supplication The last Reason of doubting in Prayer is the Conscience of unworthiness in the Supplicant which Conscience is either founded in the natural unworthiness of Man or arises from the Sense of his want of these Qualifications of Prayer which are required to make it acceptable The former falls in with that doubt which I last spoke of and the latter is in the Power of every Man to remove and to perswade the necessity and convenience of that removal hath been the Subject of this days Discourse I shall therefore add no more upon this Head Upon the whole it doth appear that the Duty of Prayer is necessary the place of it to be regarded the posture not to be neglected the Conditions indispensable and the Success certain The Eighteenth SERMON Preach'd on May 4. 1690. At LAMBETH CHAPEL Acts X. 40 41. Him God raised up the third day and shewed him openly Not to all the People but to Witnesses chosen before of God THE Resurrection of our Lord from the Dead being so illustrious a Confirmation of the Truth of that Religion which he taught so undeniable an Argument of the Divinity and Authority of his Person so firm an Assurance of those Hopes which we conceive of our own Resurrection deserveth at this Season more than a single Consideration It is the knowledge and conviction of that which chiefly Establisheth the Faith of a Christian continueth his Expectations of enjoying hereafter a better State and after a serious Meditation of the Actions of his Saviour here on Earth wrought for his sake compleats his Joy In the ancient Church therefore all the time between Easter and Whitsunday was dedicated to the Memory of this wonderful Mystery as was manifest by the particular expressions of Joy during that whole Season in the publick Offices and Ceremonies of the Church And as the benefit of Christs Resurrection doth no less extend to the Christians of these Times than to those of more ancient Ages so our Gratitude and Rejoycing in Memory of it ought to be no less intense It may be pretended that those ancient Christians living nearer to the time of Christ had more certain assurance of the Truth of the Fact related than we now have at so great a distance and that the Will of Man always acting agreeably to the perswasions of the Understanding cannot now be so much affected by the consideration of an uncertain Interest as they were then when the Experience of frequent Miracles rendred it most certain Or that however the Apostles and those Five hundred Disciples who were blessed with the presence of Christ after his Resurrection had no less just Cause of Joy than Admiration Yet that others who were not convinced of the same Truth by the report of their own Senses could not but be less concerned at the relation by how much the less they were ascertained of the reality of it And as the Mind of Man is fruitful in inventing Arguments opposing the Obligation of Religion some have been brought to doubt of and others even to deny the Resurrection of Christ upon this consideration that after he is said to be risen from the Dead he appeared not in Publick conversed not in solemn Places and among the Multitude as before but only shew himself to some few Disciples of his own whom he had chosen for that purpose To take off this Objection and assert the Truth of our Lord's Resurrection I will endeavour to manifest the reasonableness of that conduct of Christ related in the Text Whom God raised up and shewed openly not to all the People but to Witnesses chosen before of God To this purpose I will divide my designed Discourse into these three parts I. That to have shewed Christ after his Resurrection to the whole unbelieving Multitude of the Jews was unbecoming the Majesty Justice and Wisdom of God II. That it would have failed of creating an universal Conviction III. That God hath notwithstanding offered to Mankind sufficient Arguments of reasonable Conviction First then neither the Wisdom Justice and Honour
them intends it or not they cannot be concealed or pass unregarded Upon which account Christ justly resembleth them to a City placed on a Hill and to a Candle set on a Candlestick in the 14th and 15th Verses which naturally appear and give Light to all round about them as if he should say Do but you take care to perform good Works and the very Nature of them will cause them to become Exemplar I do not require you to publish and Blazon them abroad nor is there any need of it For if they be indeed performed they cannot escape the Knowledge and Observation of other Men. Farther not only the Nature of good Works maketh the Ostentation of them to be unnecessary in order to become Exemplar but also they carry with them less Temptation to Pride and Arrogance than any other Acts either of true or supposed Religion If the grounds and more ordinary Reasons of Pride and Self-conceit in Religion be searched it will be found that they are wont to be grounded in the more easie and commonly in mistaken Points of Religion As of old among the Pharisees in the punctual performance of Washings and other Ritual Observations among the more Ignorant of the Church of Rome at this day in Pilgrimages Beads and other Trifles among their Saints in extraordinary Austerities or unusual Acts of Self-denial among Enthusiasts in Raptures and pretended Inspirations All these naturally tend to foment the Pride and Self-conceit of Men they draw the Eyes of others on them and serve to make unwary People believe them extremely Conscientious and have this farther advantage towards the Design of Hypocrites that they are cheaply performed cross no Passion restrain no Lust make a great shew and cost them nothing And when they are performed not affording any inward Satisfaction of Mind as having no internal worth it is but natural for the Actors of them to seek that Satisfaction from the Praises and Applause of other Men which they reaped not from the Reflections of their own Conscience Whereas the performance of good Works raiseth in the Soul of Man so sweet a Complacency when reflected on that external Commendations can add nothing considerable to the internal Satisfaction of the Mind and will be neglected when compared with it To which I may add that the Exercise of many good Works and most signally the greatest of them that of Charity towards the Poor do naturally dispose to Humility accustoming the Mind to consider and compassionate the Wants and Infirmities of inferior Persons and condescend to the relief of their Condition It being most certain that Pride or an over-valuing of their own Dignity is in some Men the Cause of uncharitableness as well as the love of Riches betraying them to imagine it beneath their Quality to take into their Consideration the necessities of distressed Persons and to be aggrieved for them Which sort of Pride cannot consist with real Charity and where this is to be found the former can have no place At least it is most certain that Hypocrisie may consist with all those mistaken Indications of Holiness I before mentioned but with good Works with Mercy Justice Truth and Charity it is impossible it should consist For that whosoever performeth these doth really perform what he pretends to do that is satisfieth the Obligation of the Religion which he professeth However although ordinarily it be not necessary so to direct the performance of good Works that they may not escape the Knowledge of Men and it be always unlawful to direct them in that manner for this end alone to obtain the Praise of Men Yet in some extraordinary Cases it is not only lawful to perform them publickly with this Design that they may be seen of others not to obtain their Praise but to promote the Honour and Glory of God but it is also highly acceptable to God and serviceable to his Church This is warranted by the express words of our Lord in the Text which require his Disciples to cause their Light so to shine before Men that they may see their good Works and glorifie God If this Design doth at last terminate in the Honour of God and be so intended it is not only warrantable but recommendable by God and will be certainly rewarded by him Only great Caution is to be used in the Management of it and a scrupulous Care to be observed least any thing of vain Glory any sinister End should intervene and is to be put in Practise only in Cases of exceeding moment Such are when any Age or large Society of Men are especially deficient in any Duty In which Case it is a laudable and noble Undertaking for any private Persons to give the greatest and most publick Lustre to their performance of that Duty that so if it be possible by their eminen Example therein they may retrieve the publick Practice of it and whensoever any great and common Good altho' of another Nature may be attained or promoted thereby Such was the Case more particularly of the Apostles who were sent to preach Faith and Repentance among Jews and Heathens generally devoid not only of Faith but of all Moral Vertues For this Reason it was necessary that those noble Acts of Charity which they exercised in healing the Sick and restoring the use of their Limbs and Senses to those who before wanted them should be performed publickly that themselves should decline no opportunity of manifesting the Excellency of the Christian Religion and the deep Impression of it upon their own Minds For this Cause also St. Paul was not ashamed to relate at large and to Glory in the many Afflictions Hazards and Persecutions which he had undergone for the Testimony of Christ because the amplifying of his Labour and Patience tended to the spiritual Good of the Corinthians to whom it is directed and consequently promoted the Honour of God This Design also justified the Bravery of those ancient Christians who voluntarily and unsought for delivered up themselves into the hands of their Persecutors when they observed a general Cowardize and frequent Examples of Apostacy among other Christians who were apprehended and brought before the Heathen Tribunals that so by their Courage and Constancy they might excite others to persist resolutely in the Profession of their Faith It must be acknowledged that simply to throw themselves into Danger to expose themselves to the Fury of their Persecutors was unlawful Our Lord in Matth. X. 23. had commanded his Disciples When they should be persecuted in one City to fly into another And the Doctrine and Discipline of the ancient Church had forbidden the ordinary Practice of such rash Undertakings Yet whensoever so great a Good might be attained thereby as to raise the dejected Courage of other Christians and to assert the Honour of Christ against the Heathens boasting in the subversion of many weaker Christians it was not only lawful to engage in voluntary Martyrdom but highly meritorious and rewarded as such by
obtained by it I proceed in the last place to shew The Honour of God is promoted by the Praises and by the Service of Men. The Praise of God is directly promoted by the good Works of his own Servants while other Men viewing the Excellency of their Actions raise their Thoughts to God the Fountain of them and conceive somewhat yet greater and more excellent in him Necessarily concluding that if that imperfect Light which may be discovered in the Soul of Man be yet so glorious the Perfection of the Divine Nature exceedeth all Imagination That if such eminent Acts of Goodness be performed by frail Men in Obedience to his Will in him devoid of Frailty and Imperfection the Fulness of all Goodness dwells if the Actions of his Servants deserve Love and Praise much more will the Operations of him their Lord and Master proclaim him worthy of Honour and Adoration But this manner of reflecting Honour upon God from the good works of his faithful Servants is not so much respected by our Lord in this place as the Instruction and Conversion of other Men who by the good Example of true Christians may be brought to the knowledge of the Truth to the love of Vertue and to the practice of their Duty to effect which eminent Examples have no less force than Reason or Arguments This giveth Authority to Vertue and taketh off the Reproach of being singular It relieveth the Modesty of new Beginners and encourageth to pursue their Course so well begun notwithstanding the Scorn and Derision of prophane Men. To tender and unexperienced Minds there is no greater Obstacle of Goodness than the fear of being singular thereby The natural impressions of Reason may incline to the Exercise of Vertue but yet they have not the Courage to swim against the Stream to oppose their single Example to the prevailling Corruption of a sinful World nor bear up against the Contempt of wicked Men without the Patronage and Assistance of other great and good Examples whose practice they may plead in their own behalf and that defence which the weakness of their Judgment inableth them not to draw from Reason they may draw from their Authority Altho' not only weaker Minds but even more ingenuous and understanding Persons while unexperienced in the World are not able to shock the Power of a general Example If they be convinced of their Duty they yet want Boldness to execute it and dread nothing more than the Suspicion of Affectation or fear of appearing singular Whence it is that youth especially suffers by ill Examples who through a natural Modesty are ever wont to accommodate themselves to the prevailing Fashion Further a good Example instructeth the more ignorant part of Mankind both in the Rules and the Obligation of their Duty Few are enabled at least few take the pains to examine the Grounds of that Religion into which they were baptized to discover the Truth and convince themselves of the Obligation of it They rely herein upon the Judgment of others whom they esteem wiser than themselves whom they find to profess no Religion or which is all one to Act as if they had none they supercede the Labour of any further Enquiry and dismiss all Resolutions of Goodness On the contrary if it be found by them that wise Men or so accounted who by their Learning were fully enabled to discover the truth of things to find out the Cheat of Religion if it were indeed such have after a diligent and accurate search been so fully convinced of the truth of it that they have been content to hazard their Lives to restrain their Pleasures to deny their Passions from the perswasion of it if great and illustrious Persons who had opportunity of improving all the Pleasures of Life to the most exquisite satisfaction yet moderated and limited them in Obedience to the Laws of Religion To a vulgar Mind there can be no greater assurance than the experience of this and if he finds this he there rests satisfied if not he proceeds no farther And from this experience also he draws the Rules of his Conduct even after a general Conviction of his Obligation In all doubtful Actions and Cases of Conscience he consults the example of his Superiours and pursueth the way which they have marked out to him following them as he supposeth them to follow the true Light Nay to generous as well as vulgar Minds example is an effectual Motive of Vertue To such Emulation is the most powerful Argument and a noble disdain of being exceeded in any thing that is Excellent and Praise-worthy To them the preference of any other is a reproach of their own Sloth and when others have gone before with Reward and Praise it is uneasie to stay behind It was this Principle of generosity which kept up Vertue among the Heathens it is this which gave rise and increase to Arts and Sciences and which now maintaineth Valour Our Lord hath improved the use of it and directed it to a yet more noble End proposing the Excellency and the Rewards of Obedience holding out the Crown of Victory and encouraging us to strive for the Mastery He hath in this Precept concerning Exemplariness given to us a yet further Scope for the Exercise of Generosity not only proposing Rewards to the Conquerors to those of a more elevated Vertue but also to such who excited by their illustrious Example should follow them altho' at a distance making them thereby the Instruments of saving others and that possibly in great numbers At least there is scarce any one of us so inconsiderable who may not have so much Influence and Authority upon some one or other as to move and direct him by his Example which if he doth he will for ever enjoy this satisfaction that he hath been the occasion of infinite Happiness to another which to a good and a generous Mind is a strong Argument of the pursuit and practice of those Vertues and Perfections which may make him Exemplary that so he may promote the Reformation of the World and the eternal Happiness of other Men. It may seem indeed past hope that in this degenerate Age when so few endeavour to obtain their own Salvation or are good for their own sake any should attempt it for the sake of other Men. Yet I do not despair that there are yet such generous Minds left in the World who esteem it no small Felicity to themselves to promote the good of other Men and acting upon this perswasion study to be good and excellent that by their Example others may be drawn to the same Practice and thereby secure to themselves a state of Happiness To such exemplary Persons frequent Praise is given and eminent Rewards promised more particularly in Daniel XII 3. They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the Firmament and they that turn many to Righteousness as the Stars for ever and ever The Lustre of our Lord's Example is compared to