Malice or swell with Pride and Vanity as the Pharisees who blew their Trumpets to convene the Spectators rather than the Poor You find this humour sharply reprov'd by the Prophet Isaiah Stand by thy self come not near to me for I am holier than thou these are a smoak in my nose a fire that burneth all the day 4. THE Fat and the Kidneys of all Burnt-offerings were consum'd upon the Altar to the honour of God And this Ceremony was the direct Type of the Sacrifice in the Text that the strength and vigour the superiour faculties of the Soul should be sacrific'd unto God So we are told by our Saviour in the Gospel that upon this Commandment Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart hang all the Law and the Prophets MOREOVER when the Sacrifice was cut down the Skin was taken off off entirely We must offer our Sacrifices under the New Testament without disguise hypocrisie or covering Whether shall I stee from thy presence If I ascend up unto heaven thou art there If I make my bed in Hell behold thou art there If I take the Wings of the Morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the Sea If I say surely the darkness shall cover me even the night shall be light about me yea the darkness hideth not from thee but the night shineth as the day the darkness and the light are both alike to thee We must not think to palliate our deformities by arts and subterfuges for all things are naked and open to his eyes Nothing must be offered unto him but what is pure and unmixt Therefore the Sacrifice was carefully inspected and narrowly examin'd And the Pagans borrowed this Ceremony from the Patriarchs When we appear before God we should come with purity and simplicity of Spirit that we may be bold to appeal to God himself in the language of the Psalmist Search me O God and know my heart try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting With what innocence and decency ought we to approach the Most High God! The High-Priest Licinius among the Romans thought that the Vestal Virgin that kept the Holy Fire carelesly ought to be publickly scourg'd Sulpitius was deprived of his Priesthood because the Crest of his Mitre through his carelessness fell to the ground in the time of sacrificing Cornelius Cethegus and Claudius were deprived of their Dignity because they brought the Entrails of the Sacrifices somewhat negligently to the Altars The Story of Alexander's Boy that suffered his hand to be burnt rather than disturb the Sacrifice is very well known I MIGHT also put you in mind that the Guts and the Feet were to be wash'd We are certainly to be divided from what is more feculent gross and putrid and Philo finds this Mysterie in it that we must not converse too much with the Earth nay that in a manner we must be wholly above it when we approach his Altars And this agrees harmonimoniously with the Christian Sacrifice If ye are risen with Christ seek the things that are above where Christ fitteth on the right hand of God Set your affection on things above and not on things on the Earth This heavenly temper fortifies against temptations and makes us resolute against Death cheerful under afflictions watchful against sin and ready when our Master calleth And since here we are but Pilgrims and Strangers Let our conversation be in heaven from whence we look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ YOU know that the Morning and the Evening Sacrifices were offered in their season without delays or intermission To this Custom the Psalmist alludes My Soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the Morning I say more than they that watch for the Morning The Priests in the Temple by turns did watch for the first appearance of the Day that they might offer the Morning Sacrifice We are to remember our Creator in the days of our youth and not delay our Repentance Our evil habits grow strong our time is uncertain the exercise of our Reason depends upon a thousand Contingencies and all our opportunities are slippery God is provoked by our delays his Spirit is resisted and our Convictions are stifled How dangerous is it then to delay the Sacrifice one moment longer lest God should judicially harden us and confine us to perpetual slavery To day then if you will hear his voice harden not your hearts but speedily break off thy sins by Repentance for the next moment may put thee under the final state of Impenitence BY what I have said you may easily see that the Caution and care that the Jews were tied to in their Sacrifices did not so much concern the Levitical Oblations as typifie the great Sacrifice of the New Testament God is to be worshipped agreeably to his Nature Our most solemn attendance on his Worship is but an abomination if at any time it is divided from a chearful and ingenuous surrender of our Souls to his Will This is the Sacrifice that S. Paul exhorts to with so much Rapture and Concern Fourthly and lastly LET us consider the Epithets bestowed upon this Sacrifice in the Text and these are three 1. It must be Living 2. Holy 3. Acceptable 1. I SAY it must be a Living Sacrifice And this in allusion to that Command under the Levitical Law that forbad any thing to be offer'd in Sacrifice which died of it self they were not so much as to eat of it far less could they sacrifice it The Sacrifices of the living God must be offered with Life he is the original Fountain of Life and it is Life that converses with Life This Meditation may justly startle the inconsiderate World who serve God with so much coldness and indifferency as if he were not the living God Let us prove My Brethren that we are living Christians by Actions and Motions suitable to that Life which we have from above Giving all diligence add to your faith vertue and to vertue knowledge and to knowledge Temperance and to Temperance Patience and to Patience Godliness and to Godliness brotherly kindness and to brotherly-kindness Charity We must prove by a steady and uniform practice of Christian Vertue that we are not the Votaries of some dead Idol but the Disciples of the living Jesus that as he was raised from the dead by the Glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of life 2. THE next Epithet is the Sacrifice must be holy I do not design to discourse here of Holiness in the general nor of that Holiness that must run through all our Actions as we are Christians but of that special Holiness that is related to Sacrifices And therefore we must observe that all Sacrifices were holy in a twofold regard 1. They were separate from common use And 2. They were an
that they were wrought by the power of Magick we need no other answer than that of our Saviour himself who told them that the Devil was not such a fool as to employ his power against himself since it was undeniably manifest that no discipline did so visibly and irreconcileably oppose all Magical Arts and Charms as did the Religion of Jesus So a great number of them that had followed those curious Arts brought their costly Books to the Apostles and burnt them And when they endeavour'd to alledge that equal Miracles have been done by others amongst the Pagans 'T is so idle a story that they are far form believing it who first invented it The story of Vespasian's restoring a blind man to his sight did proceed from the artifice of Egyptian flattery and is reported by his own Historians with so much diffidence and reserve that it is scarce worth the naming As for the prodigious seats of Apollonius Tianeus we can look upon them as no other than fictitious and Romantick Fooleries vouched by no competent Authority Whereas the Miracles done by our Saviour and his Apostles were not only of a different Nature from those little Tricks of Magick but were wrought amongst great crowds of People to the view of the World and acknowledg'd by the most bitter and implacable of his Enemies And this Power he had not only in himself but bestowed it on his Apostles Besides the full discovery of those Objections depends on so much History that they cannot be contracted within such narrow bounds as I am confind'd to THE Result of all is this Such as despise the Gospel do it upon the most unreasonable grounds For whereas they alledge that our Ministry was not attended with Wisdom and Proofs borrowed from Philosophy they betray their Ignorance For the Doctrine that we propagate and assert being of its own Nature wholly Divine and beyond the reach of all human enquiries it must needs have its Proofs and Demonstrations from Heaven Without this it could not prevail and when it is attended with this it is impossible that it can miss of its effect So we come not with the enticing words of mans wisdom but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power Now we find that those Miracles were necessary at the first establishment of Christianity to point out the Person of the Messias to baffle the Devil and to satisfie the expectations of all Men and that thus rationally we can give an account of the speedy and universal propagation of the Christian Religion Thirdly WE consider the design and scope of this Oeconomy That their Faith might be built on the surest Foundations i. e. on the Power of God And here I might reckon up the motives of Credibility that obliged us to assent to the Christian Religion if they can be numbered But I chuse to improve what is said in one Word of Application Blessed be God who hath so fully provided for our Illumination and Confirmation that we might rest in his Word and Testimony with full assurance of mind For the Apostles did not follow cunningly devised fables when they made known unto us the Power and Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ Let us give up our selves to it without wavering and hesitation of Spirit resolutely maintaining it even unto Death And above all endeavouring to adorn it by a Holy Conversation adding to our faith vertue to vertue knowledge and to knowledge temperance c. Let us esteem and love it for its genuine Grandure and Majesty even when it is not attended with the Ornaments of human Art For how shall we escape if we neglect so great a Salvation that was first confirm'd by Miracles and Wonders LET us not desire that supernatural Truths be recommended to us chiefly and only by human Art So weak are we that we relish not Heavenly things unless they smell of the Earth When we hear the Word of God the corruption of our Nature leads us to notice more the air accent and gesture of the Preacher than the great Truths that he recommends and all these be they never so plain innocent and unexceptionable they have their fate and censure not from our unbyassed reason but from that part of us that is carnal I am not of the opinion that the Mysteries of the Gospel are to be handled confusedly and negligently in a slovenly dress such garments become not the Majesty of that Religion whose Ministers we are The Oracles of God deserve that we should Meditate in them night and day But we are so to study them that we preach not our selves but Christ Jesus the Lord and our selves your Servants for Christs sake that we may not think that the success of our Labours depends on the skill and contrivance of our Composures but on God that giveth the Increase To God the Father Son and Holy Ghost be Glory and Dominion for ever Amen A SERMON Preached at the ABBEY of Holy-Rood-House MAY 1686. ON MATT. V. V. 20. For I say unto you that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven MY design from these words of our Saviour is to hint shortly at the Scope and Drift of Christian Religion and then to state the comparison between it and the Pharisaical Religion And in the next place to direct you in the Practice of true and sincere Godliness WHEN our Saviour appeared the Church was sadly over-run with the grossest Immoralities and the most absurd Superstitions and Delusions The Law of God which was in it self pure and just and holy was perverted by their Commentaries and made to truckle under such designs as were hateful to God and subversive of all true Morality Their plausible glosses and corrupt maxims destroy'd the natural force of Religion and withal they deceiv'd the poor People into an Opinion that they themselves were the peculiar favourites of God even then when our Saviour told them that the publicans and the sinners should enter into the kingdom of heaven before them WHEN we read the Sermon on the Mount we find that it was our Saviour's great design to plant and establish amongst his Disciples a manly rational and heroick temper of mind a higher kind of Philosophy than the Pharisees understood or the Pagans pretended to The rule of Life that he gave us was so accurate and so suitable to our Nature in its first and original constitution that nothing can equal it for purity and holiness The wisest sayings and the best thoughts of Jews and Pagans scattered here and there in all their books are very far outdone in one Page of the New Testament He removes our errors prejudices and mistakes concerning God our selves and the rewards of another Life He opens our eyes to see thorow the little tricks hypocritical designs and superstitious follies of the Pharisees And by the most cogent proofs he forces us to acknowledge that there is no
God saith Isaiah In all publick Sacrifices there was some Ceremony to signifie the translation of the punishment from the People to the Sacrifice Thus the Person among the Heathens that was appointed for a publick Sacrifice had all the Imprecations of the People heaped upon him as he went along the streets But our Saviour did not only expiate the sins of one City Kingdom or Family but the sins of the whole World past present and to come in their most heinous Nature and numberless Aggravations He made Atonement for them all by that one peculiar Sacrifice which needs not again be repeated because it had no imperfection He himself alone bore our sins in his own body on the Tree that we being dead to sin should live unto righteousness And our sins are thus for ever buried if we do not reinflame the Wrath of God by our impenitence Now when we remember the Love of Jesus in dying for us and all the circumstances of his Disgrace and the variety of these peculiar Vertues that appeared in him under his saddest Torture may not we pray in the words of the Greek Church By thy unknown sufferings Lord have mercy upon us NOW I go forward to the second Particular that I propos'd to speak to and that is by whom this Cup was ordered and prepared And our Saviour tells S. Peâ—er that it was the Cup his Father gave him to drink The sufferings of our Saviour were not casual and fortuitous but duly weigh'd by infinite Wisdom So much the Apostles St. Peter and St. John in their Scraphick Prayer acknowledge Of a truth against thy Holy Child Jesus whom thou hast anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy Counsel determined before to be done I might illustrate this Truth 1. From the signification of Ceremonies under the Law particularly that of the Scape-Goat and the Red Heifer 2. From the Prediction of Prophets especially the Prophecies of Isaiah and Daniel 3. From the nature of his Undertaking whether 1. the Sacrifice that he offer'd or 2. the Religion that he planted I say from all those Heads I might demonstrate this great Truth viz. that the sufferings of our Saviour were weighed and ordered in the Divine Counsel But I must leave this and the third Particular also which was the alacrity and readiness of his Soul to drink this Cup insinuated in the Question propos'd to St. Peter Shall I not drink the Cup that my Father giveth me And those things I leave at present that I may make some Application of what I have already insisted on And 1. CAN we read the History of his Passion without any Concern Are we made of Flint Marble or Adamant O stupid and inconsiderate Sinner Wilt thou look upon him whom thou hast pierced by thy sins We find that when this Tragedy was acted universal Nature seem'd to groan The Sun did hide his head the Earth blush'd to be the Theatre of so much Villany and have we no sense at all When we remember that we were principally accessory to his grievous Torments He was bruis'd for our iniquities he was wounded for our transgressions the chastisement of our peace was upon him and by his stripes are we healed Shall we again crucifie him afresh by our treacherous and perfidious impenitence This is a higher outrage than that other committed by the Jews As for his Crucifiers many of them were converted but this obstinate contempt of his Love sets us without the bounds of Mercy tho his mercy be above the heavens and over all his works To provoke him again by our sins is a downright affront to his Love but after such undeniable proofs of his kindness to disbelieve the Gospel is utterly inexcusable Infidelity makes the nearest approaches to the sin against the holy Ghost which I take to be the malicious opposition of that Light and Evidence which God offers for our Conviction When the Messias came he proved his Mission and Authority by the most convincing Miracles and Signs more glorious than ever Moses wrought nor was it reasonable to expect that he should bring with him fairer Credentials to recommend himself and his Doctrine than those he displayed before his Country-men But his Countrymen shut their Eyes against the Light He came unto his own and his own received him not And we are guilty of the very same sin if we trample upon the Gospel which at first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed by them that heard him He seal'd the Truth by his Death confirm'd it by his Resurrection and by the various Gifts of the holy Ghost proves beyond all contradiction that He is at the right hand of God the Father Secondly DID our Saviour thus die for us Then we ought to treat our selves with greater regard than to be inslav'd to our former sin Did he hide the glory of his Divinity that he might redeem us from misery and despair by his own Blood Was it for this that he took flesh of our Flesh that we might be made partakers of the divine Nature Why do we live like so many mean sordid abject Creatures as if we were confin'd by the frame of our Nature to the Earth only As if we could look no higher than the trifling interests of this World So sadly have we forgot our selves and though very frequently our Pride makes us hateful to God and odious to one another yet do we truckle under the meanest Vices We were not redeem'd with corruptible things such as silver and gold but with the precious blood of the Son of God This is the Argument that St. Paul makes use of to heighten our esteem of our Brethren Wilt thou make thy Brother perish for whom Christ died And the Argument of St. Peter to aggravate the folly and wickedness of the Hereticks that they deny'd the Lord that bought them To be bought by the blood of the Son of God is the powerful Argument of the Gospel against Sin and if we resist this we may justly fear to be delivered up to a Reprobate Sense Our sins set us at the greatest distance from God he is Light Beauty Strength and Perfection and Sin is folly weakness error and deformity Let us therefore fly from it because so horrid in its Nature so dismal in its consequences that nothing could attone it but the Blood of the Son of God Thirdly HERE is the true remedy against despair So reasons S. Paul He that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things And a little after Who is he that condemneth it is Christ that died This is the powerful Oratory that prevails before the Throne of God nay it is irresistible in the mouth of a penitent sinner Come now and let us reason together saith the Lord
the true Philosophy that animates against the pale fears and gloomy apprehensions of the Grave The merry Atheist that braved Death at a distance begins to tremble when it makes its approaches nearer then his Jests and his wanton Efforts of Fancy vanish into fearful expectations He flies to his desperate Complaints uneffectual Wishes and fruitless Prayers for the time of Prayer is over but the Christian gathers his Forces and strengthens himself in the Victory and Sacrifice and Power of our Lord Jesus Christ O how sad is it to delay the examination of our Consciences the confession of our Sins the amendment of our Lives until we have no more time than the few moments that just enter us into the Grave 6. WHEN we think of the Resurrection it should spiritualize our Souls and teach us in our desires and designs to fly above this terrestrial feculent Globe How come we to be so unwilling to leave those Habitations of sin and misery How come we to admire nothing and vanity when we are Candidates for a heavenly Kingdom If ye be risen with Christ set your affections on the things that are above c. Let the belief of the Resurrection put us in mind of the future Judgment For he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained whereof he hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead Can we think of that solemn Appearance without fear And if we call on the Father who without respect of persons judgeth every man according to his works Let us pass the time of our sojourning here in fear Let our zeal appear more and more in trimming and preparing our Souls for Eternity That we may know him and the power of his Resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death if by any means we may attain unto the resurrection of the dead THE third thing I proposed to speak to is the Interest that our faith gives us in a happy Resurrection I mean such a lively faith as is recommended to us in the Gospel Not every one that saith Lord Lord but he that doth the will of my Father which is in heaven I mean the faith that purifies the heart and overcomes the World and assimilates us to the temper and Spirit of the blessed Inhabitants above and makes us more than Conquerors through Jesus Christ that loved us MY Lords and Gentlemen so far have I discours'd of this Consolatory Argument to ease our mind upon this sorrowful occasion But you see another Text viz. the earthly remains of the noble Viscount of Strathallan When I remember his true Vertues I despair to say any thing proportionable to his worth the naming of him once suggests greater thoughts than ordinarily occur When we form to our selves the most perfect Idea's of Valour and honour and generosity then we have the best Notion of that great Soul that once lodged in that Tabernacle All the Projects of his Mind were beyond the common Level The generous Inclinations he derived from his Ancestors began to appear very early A Family too well known in Britain for every thing that is great ancient loyal and generous to need any particular descants of mine I am not to act the part of a Herauld from this place there is none capable to be my Hearer but knows already how needless it is to tell Scotchmen of the noble Atchievments and many Illustrious branches of that Cedar of which our deceased General is descended He began to bear Arms when as yet he had not strength enough to manage them the vigour and alacrity of his Spirit out running the growth of his body He then when but a Child lodged no thought in his Breast but such as were daring great and difficult When he was a Boy at St. Leonard's College he gave all the proof of a docile and capacious Spirit far above any of his School-fellows but his Mind that always entertain'd extraordinary Enterprises began to be weary of an unactive life Then it was that he was made Captain in that Regiment that went to Ireland against the Rebels under the Command of an old and experienced Officer In that expedition he behaved with so much life and resolution as drew upon him the eyes of all men and every body concluded the young Captain was calculated for the greatest actions There are no words so proper for this period of his life as those we meet with in the life of Agricola Nec Agricola licenter more juvenum qui militiam in lasciviam vertunt neque segniter ad voluptates Commeatus titulum tribunatus inscitiam retulit Sed noscere provinciam nosci exercitui discere à peritis sequi optimos nihil appetere jactatione nihil ob formidinem recusare simulque anxius intentus agere And this without the change of one word was his deserved Character when first he appeared in the Fields HE came over from Ireland some years after and assisted those Forces that beat the Rebels once at Stirling and all those Loyal Gentlemen engaged in that Expedition upon all occasions bestow'd upon him the most ample Applause and unforced Commendations that were truly due to his skill conduct and fidelity AFTER this General Drummond and all his Associates became so odious to the prevailing Faction of the Covenanters that until the Mock-repentance after Dunbar fight he was not suffered to engage in his Majesties Service Mean while he went to London and the Forces commanded by his Friend were disbanded And there he was a Spectator of that Tragedy that pierced his Soul with the most exquisit grief I mean the Martyrdom of King Charles the First The Scene he saw and the preparations to the fatal blow but more he could not endure He himself could not afterwards give an account of that consternation that seized his Spirits All that 's black and terrible invaded his Soul at once the most dismal Passions struggled within his Breast confusion and indignation possest his Heart and nothing but the force of Christian Religion and the belief of Providence could have preserved his Mind from sinking How can his great Soul but burst forth into all expressions of Sadness to see prosperous Villany lift up its head withy so much rage and insolence and defie the Justice of the Almighty and pull down his Image upon earth and sacrifice the best of Men the best of Kings to the fury and hypocrisie of the Rabble O Heavens Let not the Plagues due to the Cry of that sacred Blood fall upon Britain Next day after with all speed he went to Holland to the Prince and there he was the first that saluted him King He came over with his late Majesty and commanded a Brigade of that Army that went to Worcester where his Courage and Magnanimity appear'd to the highest