in the most General and Universal comprehension both of Prince and People not of the Prince alone as some are willing to reckon the Benefits his Majesty has receiv'd not to revere him the more for being so much in God's Favour but to make him more indebted to God than themselves as if because this is call'd the King's Day all the Mercies of it and all the Thanks for them were to be put upon his account Undoubtedly the Kings Obligations to Heaven are infinite but was he only restor'd this Day to his Crown and Country Or were not all we likewise re-call'd from the same Banishment or from Prisons and Sequestrations Dungeons and Gibbets at home to enjoy our Lives and Liberties our Religion and Estates Has all the delicious Fare of the Land been serv'd to the Kings Table All the Gold Lace been worn upon his Back Nay but I behold many at this instant standing like Kings in the presence of the King and 't is to be complain'd of that the Enjoyments of many Out vie his in their proportion Is there then no Thanks of our Own due to God We have this Obligation even more than the King has that we have him that we enjoy this Principle of Union this Bond of Peace this Foundation of Security and Prosperity O let us not forget in the loud Joys and Gaiety and Festivity of this Day the days of Sadness and Silence of Scarcity and Doubtfulness of Soul when we had no King when a Villain sat on the Throne when our Hatred and Aversion rul'd over us the Scourge of Loyalty and the Oppressor of Religion and Justice Let us not forget the Time when to be Noble was to be Guilty and to be Loyal an Enemy to the State Again when to be a Mechanick made room for the Person in the Places of Honour and a Fanatick qualify'd him for the highest Charges and Honours and our Great Ones bow'd down to these or bow'd under the saddest Misery The remembrance of these things will make us readily acknowledge the Mercies of this Day to have been General to us all and not only heighten but sanctifie our Joy make the Feast resound with Thanksgiving and Praises of God and not wholly to be spent in loose and confus'd Mirth Riot and Excess it will preserve us from falling into that Fatal Ingratitude which accompanies Prosperity and which God in the People of Israel warns all Nations of and yet which all more or less fall into The forgetfulness of the Arm that deliver'd them and the Goodness that made them Great And in the midst of our Felicity we shall remember our Duty and our Ease shall not corrupt our Manners nor our Prosperity and Affluence be snares to us And God will repeat and iterate his glorying we have heard this Day not only in the Person of our King but of his Posterity to all Ages even till all Kingdoms are swallow'd up in the Kingdom of Heaven Yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Sion Which God of the riches of his Mercy grant to whom be ascribed all Honour Glory and Thanksgiving this day forth and for evermore Amen The Eighth Sermon JOHN xvi 8 And when he is come he will reprove the World of Sin of Righteousness and of Judgment GOD who at sundry times and in divers manners says the Apostle spake in times past unto the Fathers by the Prophets hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son c. as if this were his ultimus conatus the last and utmost Effort or Endeavour of his Power and Goodness to reduce the Sinful and Unbelieving World But by miserable Event it appear'd that this Means prov'd as uneffectual as the former that the World did unto Christ as they had done unto the Prophets before him slew the Son as they had slain the Servants Yet notwithstanding the unfathomable Depths and Riches of the Divine Goodness gave not over here where Reason would have given over but shew'd it self still Infinite where Humane Imagination was Finite bow'd the Heavens again and sent down the third Person in the Trinity the Holy Ghost Pertinacia nostra exhausit Coelum the Obstinacy of Men even drain'd and exhausted Heaven Verbum Caro the Word made Flesh was not sufficient to master this Obstinacy but it must be Verbum Spiritus too the Spirit must become a Word i. e. be sent from Heaven to be a Word in the Mouth of the Apostles to reprove or as the Margent has it to convince the World of Sin And when he is come he will reprove or convince the World of Sin of Righteousness and of Judgment To convince is to force the Understanding of the Opposer by strength of Argument to acknowledge the Truth that is contended for And to reprove or rebuke is again but a Moral Conviction of Sin in a person In the Words I shall consider these two things I. The Matter of the Conviction which the Spirit shall bring the World to an Acknowledgment of namely of Sin of Righteousness and of Judgment II. The Manner how he shall bring the World to this Acknowledgment viz. by convincing it by irrefragable Arguments I begin with the Matter of the Conviction Sin Râ—ghteousness and Judgment And First He shall convince the World of Sin What Sin it is which is meant here that the Spirit shall convince the World of is doubtful It may well be thought to be the Sin of Cruelty the perverse and barbarous Inhumanity the Jews shew'd when they demanded a Murderer to be releas'd unto them and kill'd the Just One. And we read in Effect Acts 2.36 that it was one of the first Works of the Spirit after his coming to bring three thousand Souls to confess this Sin and shew their Compunction for it for after S t Peter had laid before them how by wicked hands they had crucified and slain the Lord of Life they were prick'd to the heart and said Men and Brethren what shall we do i. e. to be deliver'd from the Sin of Murder or Cruelty But though this Interpretation be plausible it agrees not with the Reason Christ himself gives in the Verse immediately following my Text why the Holy Ghost should convince the World of Sin Of Sin says he because they believe not on me It should seem then it was the Sin of Unbelief that he came to reprove or convince the World of And this is the Opinion of many on the place The truth is Infidelity is a Sin highly injurious to the Deity it makes God a Lyar as S t John says He that believeth not God hath made him a Lyar. It makes him impotent and ignorant How should God perceive says the Wicked Psal. 73.11 is there knowledge in the most High And the faithless Israelites Can God prepare a Table in the Wilderness He smote the stony Rock indeed that the Water gushed out but can he give Bread also and provide Flesh for his People Nay it
last Day for where the Spirit it self is not its Operations cannot be expected 'T is true indeed that Sinners and Infidels shall rise again as S t Paul says Acts 24.15 There shall be a Resurrection of the Dead both of the Just and Vnjust Those that crucified Christ in the days of his Flesh and those that crucifie him by their Wicked Lives now in his Glory shall rise no less than True Believers than his holy Apostles and Martyrs But how and to what Resurrection shall they rise Even to such a Resurrection as is no other than a Second and Worse Death a Death not of Extinction or annihilation but a Death of Eternal Duration in Torment Non-Existence being not the State of the Second Death but Endless and Insupportable Misery insomuch that they shall wish that the Grave had for ever swallowed them up that as they liv'd like the Beasts that perish so they had also dyed like them without the Expectation of any After-Being So that the Resurrection of the Wicked is but an Aequivocal Resurrection as the lifting up of the Head of Pharaoh's Baker on the Gallows and the hanging Haman fifty Cubits high were but Aequivocal Advancements The Bodies of the Saints that rose after the Passion dy'd again the same Death but those that shall rise at the Last Day not having the Spirit shall dye again not the same Death that would be a Happiness but a Death that shall have no End and the Miseries of which we can no more describe than we can the Joys of Eternal Life but we must suffer a Change and be endued with new Powers and Faculties before we can support the Bliss of the one or the Torments of the other The second Property of an Inhabitant or Dweller in a House is to Command and Rule 'T is the Saying of every man to those that withstand the Exercise of their just Authority or but their Civility Give me leave to Command in my own House The Spirit of God must Rule and Command where it dwells we must not only give it House-room but Dominion look upon him as a Tenant but revere as our Land-Lord resign our Actions Wills Affections the Whole Man to his Dispose and Guidance Faith invites the Holy Ghost but Obedience and Submission to his Gracious Motions perfumes his Habitation and makes him delight to stay in it The Spirit of Love Meekness Purity and Holiness will not reside but where these and the like Vertues bear the Sway. Let the Word of Christ says S t Paul dwell in you Richly in all Wisdom So let the Spirit of God dwell in you Richly in all Wisdom it will not Cohabit with the Sons of Men unless it be Richly i. e. in the Abundance of its own Divine Graces and Operations If we will have the Spirit of God quicken our Mortal Bodies hereafter we must suffer him to quicken our Souls in this Life if we hope to reign by his Power in the World to come we must submit to his Dominion in this present World The third Property is Residence and Mansion our Houses are called our Manours and Places i. e. the Places where we ordinarily abide and where the Law presumes we are to be found so that if a Writ be delivered to any of the Houshold or but fastned to the Ring of the Door 't is counted the same thing as if given into our hands Thus our Hearts must be the Holy Spirit 's Manour or Place for what David says of God's constant Abode in his Temple on Mount Sion This is the Hill which God delights to dwell in yea the Lord will dwell in it for ever the like must be said of the constant Abode of the Holy Spirit in our Hearts This is the Habitation of the Holy Spirit and if we grieve him not nor drive him away by our Sins he will delight to dwell in us for ever When we were devoted to God in Baptism we devolved and made-over to his Holy Spirit an Estate in our Hearts even the Whole Term we had to live in this World and if we make good this Grant or Demise he will never abandon his Tenements till he has raised them up to Eternal Glory The Reason that a Great Schole-Man gives Why God punishes the Sins of Men which were but Temporal with an Eternity of Torments is Quia peccaverunt in suo aeterno because they sinn'd out all the Eternity they had i. e. all the Time God allowed them in this World and had he continued their Lives to the End of all Ages they would have continued still the same Wicked Persons The like Reason may be given for God's rewarding the Temporal Obedience of the Righteous with Eternal Glory Quia obedientes fuerunt in suo aeterno because they were Obedient all that little Eternity he allowed them in this World and would have persever'd in their Obedience if he had drawn out their Lives to the last Period of Time Abiding and Persevering in Righteousness is that which will give us Immortality if we give up the Possession of our Souls to the Dispose and Conduct of the Blessed Spirit the Whole Little Aeternum we have in this World we shall certainly obtain an Eternity that shall have no end in the next And thus I have shew'd the Manner of the Spirit 's Dwelling in every Christian and they that pretend to his In-dwelling without these Properties boast of an In-mate which they have not and as they want this Divine Guest so they will want the Blessed Effects and Consequence of his inhabiting in them the quickning of their Mortal Bodies at the last Day to Glory Which is the second thing I propos'd to explain The Effect or Consequence of the Spirit 's dwelling in us If the Spirit dwell in you He that raised up Jesus from the Dead shall quicken your Mortal Bodies The Words suggest two things to our Consideration 1. What shall be done to such Persons in whom the Spirit dwells He shall quicken their Mortal Bodies 2. Who shall be the Author to effect or bring this to pass He that raised up Jesus from the Dead 1. What shall be done to such Persons in whom the Spirit dwells 'T is said He shall quicken their Mortal Bodies Our Bodies are Mortal three Ways by Natural Death the Dissolution of the Substance of them by Eternal Death which succeeds the Natural that Riddle of a Death which by its Existence is in truth a Life but by the Torments belonging to it may deservedly be called a Death and by Spiritual Death which is the Cause of the other two Now our Mortal Bodies may be quicken'd or reviv'd again to three Lives To a Life of Eternal Duration to a Life of Eternal Joy and to a Spiritual Life or a Life of Grace which is the Cause in us of the other two Lives Some understand these Words shall quicken our mortal bodies only of Spiritual Proselytism of the raising us from the Death of Sin and
fansies him also Wicked as those words spoken in the Person of God Psal. 50. do shew Thou thoughtest I was altogether such an one as thy self And in the last place it concludes him to be Nothing at all The fool hath said in his heart There is no God Infidelity first entertains Mean thoughts of God doubts of his Attributes and afterwards of his very Being Infidelity moved God to send upon the Israelites in the Wilderness almost as many and grievous Plagues as he had sent upon the Egyptians And many Christian Professors are so possest against this Sin that they have not doubted to aver That as there is no Vertue that justifies but Faith so there is no Sin that condemns but Infidelity And that the Jews were highly guilty of this Sin in reference to Christ there is no question for though he had wrought so many Miracles among them as the Evangelist says they believed not on him They might have known who he was if they had not been wilfully blind by the Rule given them by Moses Deut. 18.12 to discern a True Prophet from a False and again at the 18 th ver to distinguish the Messiah from other Common Prophets yet blinded with Pride Malice Envy and the like the Great Council it self of the Sanhedrim condemned the Lord of Life for an Impostor and crucified him affirmed That by a Confederacy with the Devil he cast out Devils So that this their Unbelief and perverse Proceeding might be a very just Cause of the Descent of the third Person in the Trinity to vindicate the Injury and Outrage done to the second after a Judicial Manner to arraign and convince the World of Sin i. e. of Infidelity and Injustice to the Son of God But though there was Infidelity in the Case I conceive they do exactliest hit the meaning of the place who make not our Lord's Words point so much at any particular determinate Sin after his Coming as at the General Sin wherein all the World lay before his Coming viz. the Sin of Adam in which both Jew and Gentile were concluded and from which 't is said He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned Now the Holy Ghost when he came into the World to bear Testimony to all that Christ did reproved and convinced it that is all Unbelievers that they lay still under the Old Condemnation of the First Man seeing they embraced not the Means of Grace and Pardon offer'd by Christ in the Gospel nay and that their Infidelity added a new and worse Guilt to the former they lay under the Guilt of refusing Offer'd Redemption which would make their Condemnation yet heavier For though Hell be the ultimum Supplicium the utmost Punishment the Divine Vengeance can inflict yet as there are Degrees of Sins so there are Degrees of Torment and as 't is said Hell shall be a second time heated for those that leave their first Station so we may say it shall be a second time heated for those that refuse the Salvation offer'd by Christ. The second Particular the Spirit shall convince the World of is of Righteousness But how must this be understood Shall he convince the World of Sin and of Righteousness both Yes de Peccato proprio Justitia aliena as S t Augustine distinguishes of its Own Wickedness and of an Others Righteousness the Spirit shall convince the World that 't is sinful and that Christ was Righteous And thus our Lord afterwards interprets his own Words He will convince the World of Wickedness because I go to my Father The World spared not while Christ was on Earth to spend their rash Judgments of him He is a Good Man say some Nay say others but he deceiveth the People Others again He is a Samaritan and hath a Devil and the like But his going to the Father stopt the Mouth of all Slander For as this was an approv'd Maxim which was utter'd by the Man that was born Blind God heareth not Sinners So this was a Truth likely to find a more Easie and General Admittance God translateth not Sinners miraculously and visibly to Heaven Enoch and Elias were thus translated but 't is testified of the first That he pleased God and of the last That his Zeal for God's Glory exceeded Christ therefore being translated to Heaven it was an irrefragable Proof of his Righteousness But how did the Holy Ghost convince this Why by his very coming into the World had he born no other Testimony For Christ had said in the Verse before my Text If I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you but if I depart I will send him unto you The Descending of the Holy Ghost was the Consequent of Christ's Ascending But then the Righteousness which the Spirit shall here convince the World of must be understood in a greater Latitude than only of the Inherent Righteousness in Christ's Person it comprehends also the Transient Righteousness that past from him to others As S t John says in another place That he was not only a Glorious Light in himself but the Light of the World and the Light of Men. A Righteousness of greater Concern and Importance than his Inherent Righteousness for that made his Person only Illustrious but this brought Utility and Benefit to Mankind and as the first spoke him the Son of God the last also the Saviour of the World Christ's Righteousness is therefore here to be understood Causativè that he was the Author or Cause of Righteousness not only that he was Righteous but Righteousness unto others and that two Ways First In respect of his Doctrine that was Righteousness the very Rule and Standard of it the perfect Will of God able to conform us to his Likeness and the World rejected it only because their Deeds were Evil. And this the Holy Ghost when he came convinc't the World of viz. of the Desperateness of its Condition that it had refused the True Light and for no other reason than for that which was named Because their Deeds were Evil and they hated to be reform'd Secondly Christ was Righteousness in respect of the Justification of the World as he was Justitia nostra the Lord our Righteousness as the Prophets had foretold And indeed this was the Chief Office and Business of the Holy Ghost at his coming to convince Men That there was no other Name under Heaven by which they could be sav'd but only by that Name That neither the Contemplation of things Divine together with the Practice of Moral Vertues which was the Gentiles Way nor the Plea of being Circumcised and descended from such and such Parents which was the Jewish Way avail'd any thing towards the obtaining of Justification without the laying hold of Christ's Righteousness The third Particular the Spirit shall convince the World of is of Judgment S t Bernard understood the Words Actively viz. That the Spirit shall convince the World of its
contrariety of sin to God who is all Light and to walk in sin is to walk in darkness the unsuteableness of such ways to the glorious Promises they expected the vileness of earthly things in comparison of things heavenly and the like And in the Words of my Text he adds two Reasons more taken from two things which he says they did know but did not duly consider The first from the purpose of the manifestation of Christ in the Flesh which was to take away sin And the second from the Sanctity of his Life which was an even course of righteousness Christ purposing to take away Sin by his Example as well as by his Death and Sufferings And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins and in him is no sin We may observe in the Words these three things I. The Purpose of the manifestation of Christ in the Flesh It was to take away sin II. The Purpose of his holy Life That was also to take away sin For S t John alledges this for a Motive as well as his manifestation in the Flesh That in him was no sin III. The Inference from these two Purposes imply'd in the Argumentation of the Apostle though not express'd in his Words That it is the Duty of all Christ's Followers as far as 't is possible for frail men to be without sin I begin with the Purpose of Christ's Manifestation in the Flesh To take away sin And first a few things Of his Manifestation Christ's coming into the World is express'd in Scripture by this Term of Manifestation to shew that 't was of a different kind from other mens who had no Being before their productions into the World unless in a very imperfect way of conceiving it viz. in their Causes and Principles But Christ before he was born into the World had a full and perfect Existence even from all Eternity and did only assume our Nature to his Pre-existent Being thereby to enable him to perform the Work of our Salvation and more familiarly to converse with Mankind as our Apostle says that we might see and hear and handle the Word of Life And 't was in reference to his Being before he was born of the Virgin that Old Zachary compares his Manifestation in the Flesh to the rising of the Sun above the Horizon Whereby the Day-spring says he from on high hath visited us The Sun 's Rising we know is not his first Being as some ignorant People of old conceived who thought he was extinguish'd every Night in the Sea and a new one lighted every Morning But the Sun before he comes forth to us as a Bridegroom out of his Chamber has run his Course to many People and Nations So likewise Christ the Sun of righteousness before he shone to us here on Earth had run the Course of Eternity as I may say with his Father being the power of God from all Ages the Image of his Goodness and the brightness of his Person And this by the way may arme us against the errour and seduction of the Ebionites Samosatenians reviv'd again by the Socinians in later days who teach That Christ had no Being before he was conceived by the Virgin of the Holy Ghost Christus non fuit ante Mariam Virginem Mary the Virgin say they and Christ the Saviour were Cotemporaries Thus these Hereticks while they feared to worship a Man denyed the Son of God and ran into the highest Infidelity and Sacriledge to avoid only a supposed Idolatry But to proceed The Manifestation of Christ unto the World in our Nature the Appearance of the Son of God in the Flesh to speak strictly was rather an Obscuration than a Manifestation of him As the interposition of a Cloud between the sight of our Eyes and the Sun is a veiling and not a shewing of him so the exhibiting of Christ in the beggarly Raggs of our Flesh and Bloud was a disguising not a revealing of him That God who is incomprehensible and unconceiveable hid from our senses and hid from our understandings not by Darkness but by excess of Light and Glory and our incapacity to behold him would stoop to manifest himself to mortal eyes though in the most excellent created Form whatsoever was an infinite diminution of his Majesty But to manifest himself not only to but in our Nature must be confest to be the greatest Clouding and Absconding and not Revelation of the Deity imaginable and such as could never have entred into the thoughts of Man to believe if it had not been done and seen But however that this is most true yet if we consider this Mystery rightly for though the Evangelists set down the Manifestation of Christ in the Flesh Historically S t Paul speaks of it as of a high Mystery we shall find that God could no way have more eminently declared his Wisdom and consulted the infirmity of Men in the manifesting of his Son to the World than after that mean manner which he did that such his eclipsing and obscuring him was the most advantageous and effectual way of revealing him For in the first Place how was it possible for mortal eyes to have seen the Immortal God otherwise Alas we cannot behold the Sun but in his setting as one says Spectantes oculos infirmo lumine passus our weak Eyes are not able to gaze on that glorious Luminary in its Meridian strength but if we will see its Beauty we must watch the opportunity of its infirmity For otherwise the greater its lustre is the greater is our darkness to perceive it How then could we have beheld the Glory of Christ the ineffable Glory I say which he had with his Father from all Eternity His three Disciples were as dead men beholding only his Transfiguration and those that apprehended him in the Garden upon the streaming-forth only of some Rays of his Divinity through the Cloud of his Flesh fell twice to the Ground who could then have stood or supported the Fulguration as I may say of his Deity in its full Glory It was not possible for Christ to have appeared but in some exinanition or being stript of his Majesty the Son of God to have convers'd with Mankind but in the Clothing of Humanity 2. If we consider the Purpose of his Manifestation which was to take away sin it was not possible again to have effected this by any other Manifestation but such as was also an Obscuration of him For how could he have been subject to the Law in his Divine Nature delivered up into the hands of wicked men suffered Death and the like How could he have fulfilled the Types that shadow'd him in the Law the Paschal Lamb the Goat for the Sin-Offering the Ram caught by the Horns in the Bush c. unless he had been hamper'd as I may say and caught in our Flesh intangled in our infirmities found as St. Paul says in the similitude of a man There had been no Sacrifice no Propitiation
into the hearts of Believers to quicken them and to raise them from the Death of Sin to a Life of Righteousness i. e. to sanctifie and enable them to master Sin in themselves They that saw Christ in the Flesh knew not at first That the principal Intention of his Flesh was his Spirit viz. that his Incarnation was to produce their Sanctification to conform them to his likeness in the Inner-man as he was conformed to their likeness in the Outward-Man and those that are not thus conformed that have not their Sins taken away In them by Vertue of his Nativity shall never have them taken away From them by Vertue and Merit of his Passion Secondly By his Word he takes away our sin from within us Now ye are clean says our Lord John 15.3 through the Word which I have spoken unto you i. e. you have put away your former wickedness upon believing what I have preached To believe and to be clean in a Scripture sense is the same thing For 't is not possible rightly to believe and to continue in the Pollution of Sin The Word of God is quick and powerful sharper than any two edged Sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of Soul and Spirit The efficacy of it was seen in the reprobate hearts of Herod and Felix How did it ruffle and discompose the incestuous security of the first and put an Earthquake into the stupid Conscience of the last But yet 't is then only to use Solomon's expression that wise Words are as Apples of Gold in Pictures of Silver when they meet with docile ears and honest hearts when the disposition of the Hearers concurs with the faithful intention of the Preacher and they comply to destroy Sin in themselves as he endeavours to destroy it in his Sermon Otherwise this most powerful and effectual Engine to batter and beat down Sin the Word preached profits not as 't is in the Chapter now mentioned in the Hebrews But the Word preached did not profit them not being mixt with Faith in them that heard it Thirdly Christ takes away Sin from within us by his Example i. e. by his holy Life as well as by his Word and by his Spirit his Meekness Holiness Self-denial Obedience c. were designed by him to excite his Followers to practise the same Vertues equally or above his Precepts And though we condemn the Errour of those who affirm That the Pattern of Christ's life the perfect Exemplar of Piety and Holiness which he exhibited to the World was the only means besides his Word which he used to take away our Sins We may yet more condemn the sloth and hypocrisie of those who set his Life above our Imitation who put his Vertues into the same Classis with his Miracles and think it as impossible for us to practise his Humility Patience and the like as to open the Eyes of the Blind or to raise the dead affirm that his Obedience and Righteousness were not set for our Example to direct and encourage us to do the like but to upbraid and reproach our weakness and infirmities In the mean time our Lord himself Joh. 17.19 declares That the holiness he practised was not only for the love of holiness but that his Disciples should follow him even in the roughest Paths he trod those of his Suffering to which his Words more particularly relate For their sakes says he I sanctifie my self or offer up my self a Sacrifice that they also might be sanctified through the Truth And S t Peter says expresly Christ suffered for us leaving us an Example that we should follow his steps And this brings me to the second Motive the Apostle alledges to disswade men from Sin the sanctity and sinlesness of Christ's Person and ye know that in him is no sin But because this in a great part has fallen-in with the former Motive and to accumulate Reasons of the same Nature rather nauseates than perswades I shall wave this Point and proceed to my last The Inference which the Argumentation of the Apostle implies from the foregoing Motives viz. That 't is the Duty of all Christ's Followers to endeavour as far as 't is possible to be also without sin and which shall serve me also for an Application The Son of God we have heard was manifested in the Flesh to take away our sins and in him is no sin Now certainly we cannot think that we comply either with the Example of Righteousness which he has set us or yet with the gracious Purpose that brought him into the World if we reflect on his Nativity only after an Historical manner as that he was born in such an Olympiad or when such an one was Emperour that such rare Events attended his coming into the World as are recorded by the Evangelists namely that he was conceived by a Virgin of the Holy Ghost welcom'd by Angels signaliz'd and reveal'd to the Gentiles by a Star c. as if we were Chronologers rather than Christian Believers But that principally we are to consider these things Doctrinally and Morally to regard the Obligations they lay upon us and the final intendment of God in them For Example to say to our selves If God came so far as from the highest Heavens to take our Flesh that he might destroy sin how much more are we concerned to destroy sin in whom it dwells whose Flesh is its Domestick Organ and which will certainly destroy us both Body and Soul unless we destroy it Again if God vouchsafe so highly to dignifie our Flesh as to assume it to his Divine Nature and to carry it up to Heaven with him and that by way of Pledge and assurance to carry up all that live holy lives thither also how ought we to respect and even to revere these our mortal Bodies and not to pollute them with sin which are designed to such sublime Honour as to reign with God in Glory Once more If the Son of God came into the World not only to teach us his Father's Will but to demonstrate to us by his own performance the feasibleness of accomplishing it and did not only discourse of the probability of mortal mens ascending to Heaven but gave an instance of it in our Flesh how are we without excuse if either upon pretence of the difficulty of the Duties enjoined or the arduous ascent to the heavenly Kingdom promised us we supersede our endeavours to attain it When the Israelites were travelling to the Land of Canaan they said to Aaron Make us Gods that may go before us i. e. visible Gods that we may behold they were not satisfied with the conduct of an invisible Deity of a God that afforded not his personal presence Christ manifested in the Flesh is such a visible palpable God as they required who marches as a Captain at the Head of us and guides us not only by his Counsel but leads us by his Bodily Presence But yet notwithstanding this compliance with our infirmities
should be the Reception of the Messiah the Entertainment that the Prince of Peace should find in the World when he came to offer Peace to the World And that he may set it off the more lively he does it by way of Dialogue shews it in a kind of Drama or Acted Representation introduces a Nameless Person to be astonish'd at the Strange Spectacle of an Ambassadour wounded a publick Minister invaded like a publick Enemy and the Person so used giving as strange an account of his Usage viz. that 't was not on the Road but in the City not in the Camp but in the House again not in the House of his Enemies but in the House of his Allies and Friends And one shall say unto him What are these Wounds in thy hands Then shall be answer Those with which I was wounded in the House of my Friends I am not ignorant that the Generality of Interpreters a few only excepted as well ancient as modern apply these Words to the False Prophet mentioned ver 5. and not to Christ but though I affect not to follow the Few rather than the Many yet I find it hard to resign a Picture so perfectly resembling our Lord as my Text does and allow it to be drawn for a False Prophet I shall therefore shew upon what Considerations I have been induced to understand the Words as I do and if they are not convincing content my self to handle them by way of Accommodation to the Business of the Day though not by way of Interpretation In the first Verse of the Chapter the Times of the Messiah are confessedly spoken of In that Day there shall be a Fountain opened to the house of David and to the Inhabitants of Jerusalem for Sin and for Vncleanness In the five following Verses the things transacted preparatory to the Coming of the Messiah are set down viz. the rooting Idolatry out of the Land of Israel and the destroying of the False Prophets as at ver 2. For God having for a time determined to silence all Prophecies and to restrain all Miracles that greater Notice might be taken of his Son when he came in the Power of both with that lumine prophetico which Justin Martyr says Christ first kindled again after 't was Extinguish'd False Prophets from hence took occasion to arise and having nothing Divine to countenance their pretended Mission from Heaven they apishly imitated the Outward Garb and Austerity of the true Prophets as 't is ver 4. wore rough Garments and used boldness of Speech But God not suffering these Impostors to frustrate his Divine Counsels sent a Discerning Spirit into his People and stir'd them up to bring them to condign Punishment as at v. 3. The very Father and Mother of the False Prophet shall thrust him through and force him to confess that he spoke Lies and that he was not sent by God but was a Herdsman that had kept Cattel from his Youth And Christ at this Season entering on the Stage of Judaea in a Mean and Poor Condition far Unlike that Glorious and Warlike Prince that carnal Nation had fansy'd him the Priests and Rulers set him at nought and out of a pretence of Zeal to God's Glory as the faithful Jews had a little before laid hands upon the False Prophets did the like on the Messiah and crucifi'd him for an Impostor as these things are imply'd partly in the Words of my Text What are these Wounds in thy hands c. and partly in the Verse immediately following Awake O Sword against my Shepherd against the Man which is my Fellow says the Lord of Hosts smite the Shepherd and the Sheep shall be scattered Which last Words our Lord also applies to himself Matth. 26.31 The Prophet Zechary recounting so close together the semblable Treating of these two most Unresembling Persons the Messiah and the False Prophets and shifting his Narration from the one to the other without any transition has made it hard to distinguish which he speaks of But in Prophetick Writings this Abruptness is common as the Rabbins say lumen propheticum est lumen abruptum and S t Hierom Non curae fuit Spiritui prophetali Historiae ordinem sequi the Spirit of Prophecy is not sollicitous to observe Method but despising all Historical and Logical Contextures makes the Exits and Intrats of Persons in an unaccountable Manner And such a Freedom it uses in this Chapter that 't is impossible rightly to apply the Particulars related to the Persons they belong but by considering what was truly and indeed done to each of them And by this Rule Piercing the Hands plainly alludes to Crucifying and must belong to the Messiah this being a Punishment never practised among the Jews till they fell under the Roman Yoke Stoning being the Penalty of a False Prophet by the Law and then if we consider Wounding the Hands is not only a punishment differing from that prescribed but also an Odd one that no way comports with the Crime it being more sutable to the Offence to have bored the Tongue of the False Prophet than his Hands But the truth is the Prophet had exprest the Punishment of the False Prophet before at the third Verse namely by Thrusting him through which might be done jure Zelotarum by the Right of Zealots God exciting his own Relations against him Or else the Punishment may refer to Exod. 19.12 where God commands That if Man or Beast came within the forbidden Precincts of the holy Mount they should be Thrust through with a Dart Our Prophet threatning here the same Death to those that Uncall'd invaded the Prophetick Office which was threatned there to such as presumptuously intruded to pry into God's Mysterious and Dreadful Appearance Which things being premis'd I shall proceed to handle the Words as they are applicable to our Saviour and so they contain in them two Great Mysteries of our Faith which I shall explain by enquiring I. For what Reason the Divine Goodness so order'd it That Christ our Saviour should be a Wounded Saviour in satisfaction to this Question What are these Wounds in thy Hands II. For what Reason the Divine Goodness so order'd it That he should be wounded by those he deserved Best from in exposition of these Words Those with which I was wounded in the House of my Friends I begin with the First of these Why Christ was to be A Wounded Saviour What are these Wounds in thy Hands The Wounds in Christ's Hands do more particularly relate to the Wounds made by the Nails of the Cross but by the Figure of a Part for the Whole they may stand for the Wounds he received all his Body over and not only so but for all his Sufferings whether in Body or in Spirit from his Cradle to his Grave from the Manger at Bethlehem to his Crucifixion at Mount Calvary and the Summ Total of this Question What are these Wounds in thy Hands imports no less Than what is the meaning
necessarily be a Consequence of his by the very Law as I may say of the Body or the Inseparable Conjunction of the Limbs to one another for it is not possible that the Head should be quickened and the Body mortified that the Head should be raised to Life and crowned with Glory and the Members remain in Death and Dishonour And 't is on this account that Christ is said To be the First-fruit of those that Sleep and not only in regard that none went before him but the First-fruit in relation to them that were to follow after him The First-fruits in the Law were Part of the Fruits of the Season one Sheaf of the Harvest which being lift-up and consecrated to God in the Name of the rest sanctified the Whole Crop So Christ being lift up as the First-fruit of the Dead consecrated and sanctified the Whole Harvest of the Dead And as Saint John says of every true Believer in point of Impeccability He cannot Sin because the Seed of God abideth in him i. e. none can be a Child of God's and a customary Sinner for these are irreconcileable So we may affirm with unspeakable Comfort in the point of our Immortality A true Believer cannot be held in Death because God's Seed abideth in him i. e. Death and a Seed or Principle of Immortality are inconsistent with one another And thus we see we have not only Matter of Congratulation for Christ's Victory over Death and the Grave but the highest Cause of Jubilee and Rejoycing for our own Deliverance from this heavy Curse and Punishment of Sin As Sin subjected us to the Dominion of Death the Spirit of Sanctification breaks the Bonds of the Tyrant asunder and enables us to conquer this Conquerour of Mankind as Disobedience shut the Gates of Heaven against us Obedience sets them open again Holiness of Life in the Faith of Christ in this World is the Ticket whereby we receive Happiness and Immortality in that to come The Young Phoenix is said to spring out of the perfum'd Ashes and Reliques of the Old but though this be never so fabulous I am sure we shall be renewed and quickned to Eternal Life from the perfum'd Reliques of a Holy Life the remaining Good Works and Graces the Spirit of God wrought in us which as S t John says can never dye but will follow us into the other World If therefore we give our selves up to be led and governed by the Spirit of Christ in this Life conform our selves in all things to his Divine Will if the Spirit of Christ conducts us safely to use the Psalmist's Expression through Fire and Water i. e. through the Sharper Tryals of Afflictions and the Softer Allurements and Temptations of the Flesh and the World he will carry us also safe through the Regions of Death and the Grave pass us indemnified by the Gates of Hell and neither the Malice of Devils the Weight of our Tomb-Stone the Load of our Flesh or the yet greater Load of our Infirmities shall hinder but our Bodies shall be raised and so winged that they shall overtake their Souls and be joined to them that took their Flight so long a time before them and both of them together shall be transported in Triumph to Heaven and crown'd with Immortality and Glory the Assurance and Pledge of which Christ has given us this Day in his own Resurrection To God the Father Son and Holy Ghost be ascribed all Honour Glory Worship and Thanksgiving this Day forth and for evermore Amen The Seventh Sermon PSALM ii 6 Yet have I set my King upon my holy Hill of Sion WIsdome does not only do her Works well but perceives that she does so delights in their Beauty exults in remembrance of the master'd difficulty and triumphs over the conquer'd Opposition Thus God stood-off as 't were from his great work of the Creation when he had finish'd it applauded and bless'd it prided himself as I may say in his noble performance in that he had brought Light out of Darkness Order out of Chaos a World out of nothing In the like manner when he had here compos'd the Distractions and Confusions both in the Church and State of Israel by establishing David literally and Christ mystically on the Throne of the Kingdom he glories in having brought about his great Design laughs at the fruitless Opposition of his Adversaries at home and abroad of the Philistines the Moabites the Ammonites the Damascens the Amalekites of the King of Zoba and of all the turbulent and ambitious Spirits of the House of Saul delights to recount their Might and their Machinations the more to signalize their Overthrow and to make his Victory illustrious For after all their rage their malice their Counsels their Combinations their seeming successes against him the Issue was this Yet have I set my King upon my holy Hill of Sion We may observe in the Words these three things I. The Person establisht My King i. e. David Literally so called and Christ Mystically II. His Establishment I have set my King upon my holy Hill of Sion III. God's Glorying in the Fact that he had done it with such a Non obstante notwithstanding such Opposition and Contradiction Yet have I set my King I. The Person establisht My King God's King Not only holy Scripture but the Writings of Heathens declare Kings to be Sacred Persons descended more immediately from the Gods and more particularly depending on them Kings are from Jupiter says Callimachus and nothing ever descended more sacred from him And Theocritus Kings are the special Care of the Gods And this Epithet's affected by Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God lov'd Kings Indeed all Kings in general are God's derive their Authority from him govern by his Permission and Providence as himself testifies By me Kings Reign But then he delights in a more especial manner to style Good Kings his to appropriate their Persons and owne their Causes to interpret all things done to them as done to himself as at Verse 2. Why do the Rulers take Counsel together against the Lord and against his Anointed Conspiracies against the King are reckoned Conspiracies against God the resisting his Anointed the resisting himself And thus if it be a Glorious thing to be a King 't is a Blessed to be a Good King for as splendour attends Majesty and Greatness protection and safety and felicity and the love of Heaven attend Righteousness But let us see why David is here more particularly call'd God's King than others The First Reason we may say was Because he was a King of God's Making because he brought him to the Throne having no Title by Birth to it à Caulis Ovium tuli te I called him from the Sheep-hook to the Sceptre And as those Persons which are of our Election preferring or favouring we call Ours this is my Scholar my Souldier my Officer because he was of my nomination my chusing my advancing so David was called God's King
because he was of his chusing and advancing his Right to the Crown was his immediate nomination he had no other Interest in the Royalty but the Interest he had in God's favour and if he had not been God's King he had not been King of Israel 2. David was call'd God's King more particularly by reason of his many Deliverances of him he preserv'd him from the time of his first anointing by Samuel from the jealousie of Saul and the malice of Saul's house conducted him through all the potent and perillous Oppositions of the Heathen as I shew'd and left him not till he had set him on his holy Hill of Sion i. e. establish'd him peaceably and Gloriously on the United Throne of Israel and Judah And for this reason David is not only call'd God's King in my Text but in the following Verse his Son Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee The Day of his Redemption and Promotion being counted the Day of his Creation And the same Words are apply'd to Christ in the like manner after his Resurrection Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee The day of his deliverance from death and the Grave is call'd the day of his Nativity or Generation the day in which God exalted him and Invested him with Power the day in which he begot him 3. David was call'd God's King more particularly because he was a King of his liking as 't is said After his own heart And in this sense also men say a thing is theirs when they approve it and are pleased with it above things of the like kind Horace is my Poet Tully is my Orator Tacitus is my Historian because these hit my fancy and Genius In the Books of the Kings of Israel and Judah and the Chronicles of their Acts there 's registred a long Catalogue of them but though they were all Kings of God's people they were not all God's Kings in this last sense Kings of his liking he did not boast of many of them or owne their proceedings but of those only which executed Justice and Judgment destroyed Idolatry and restored the true Worship the others though they wore the Crown they wore not the Praise of being Kings of God's liking they were of the Royal Vnction but not of this Divine Relation And just after this manner Christ esteemed his Kindred not she that bare him was his Mother nor those that descended of the same Stock were of his Alliance but they that heard his sayings and did them were his Mother his Sisters and his Brethren 'T is not he that bears the Diadem and the Scepter not he that is of the Race of Kings that is anointed by the Prophet shouted for by the people praised by the hired Historian that is God's King but he that does that which is Righteous in his sight the others may boast their Title from God but they can boast no Title to him to his Approbation and liking and consequently not to his Protection and Blessing In the Hebrew Dialect things that excel in Greatness or Height above others are entitled to God tall Cedars are thus styl'd Cedars of God high Mountains Mountains of God great Rivers Rivers of God c. And Kings that excel only in might and magnificence are entitl'd to God but as Trees and Mountains and we may say unto them as the Psalmist does to the high Hills Why leap ye so ye high Hills that is why do ye insult or lift up your proud heads unto the Clouds Sion is God's Hill where he delights to dwell Sion of an humbler and lower pitch but more pleasant and fruitful 'T is not the Bulk and large Dimensions of any thing that commends it to God but the Vertue of it not the King mighty in his Host goodly in the Symmetry and Proportions of his Body but the King that 's mighty in Goodness whose Actions hold a just Symmetry and Proportion with God's Laws 't was not Saul higher than the People but David eminent in Piety with whom God made his Covenant of Mercy and set upon his holy Hill Which brings me to my second part The Establishment of David I have set my King upon my holy Hill of Sion By four Circumstances observable in the Words may be seen the extraordinary security in which God placed David after all his Troubles He set him on Sion and Sion was a Fortress taken by David from the Jebusites who had made it the chief strength and Seat of their Kingdom And so First 'T was a Fortification by Art Secondly 'T was a Hill and that 's a Fortification by Nature such as must be ascended before it can be assaulted Thirdly 'T was a holy Hill and Holiness is another Fortification a Moral or Spiritual stronger than either of the former for here God is the Watch man and concern'd in the Defence And therefore Fourthly 'T is said My i. e. God's holy Hill of Sion the place where he dwelt and had fixt his Tabernacle God had other Places of Religious Worship in the Land but Sion was the Metropolis to which the rest paid Homage and to which all the Tribes came up thrice every Year to offer their Oblation and so was God's by a more Excellent Title And to storm this Place was as vain an Enterprize if God did not first forsake it drove away by the Sins of the Inhabitants as to attempt to force Heaven it self for he would sooner neglect the Government of the World than forget the Place where his Honour dwelt So that David being establisht on Sion might defie all danger from the Princes his Enemies abroad or from his ill affected Subjects at home nay he was so far from Fearing from any of them that he was Formidable to them as the last Verse of this Psalm shews Be wise now therefore O ye Kings Kiss the Son i. e. pay subjection to David himself for that 's the first sense of the Words lest he be angry and ye perish Thus we see David who for so many Years together fled from place to place as he describes his own condition like a Partridge upon the Mountains fixt and establisht like a Mountain inviron'd with a fourfold Fortification as if he had been within the Enclosures of Heaven it self so that with a Pious presumptiom he might well say as he does Psal. 30.6 I shall never be removed thou Lord of thy goodness hast made my Hill so strong And let no man think much that there was a time that he was depress'd and afflicted as many are apt to take scandal when they read or hear such things as this Insignem pietate virum tot adire labores That Persons excelling in Piety should excel also in Sufferings for God by these ways conducts his Servants to the Noblest Ends hardens and prepares the Instruments of his Glory by afflictions as men do those Tools which they design for the toughest Employments by several drenchings of them in astringent Water
cruelty they used unto their other Prisoners they cry'd out They were Citizens of Rome at which the Pyrates pretended to start as awed by that formidable Name and commanded presently Gowns to be brought and put upon their Backs and Shoes on their Feet and then with a seeming lowly observance besought them To walk over the sides of the Ship and be free telling them by way of excuse for their Violation of such Venerable Persons When they met them next in that Attire they should not be ignorant of their Quality and with this derision threw them into the Sea when the unfortunate men refus'd to cast themselves And the Enemies of David were such as God thought fit not only to destroy but also to mock and vex as 't is said Verse the 4 th and 5 th The Lord had them in derision And vext them in his sore displeasure But How and after What manner did he mock and vex them By letting them a long time plot and strengthen themselves make a profuse expence of labour money and bloud by letting them perswade themselves they had prevailed that David was utterly excluded and then after all to shew them the despised and Rejected Son of Jesse set Gloriously on the Throne their Machine of Usurped Government made a Pageant for his Triumph all their endeavours all their glorying serve but for this Occasion of God's glorying over them Yet have I set my King upon my holy Hill of Sion I have done with the Words which have been twice already eminently fulfilled Once as I have shewed in the Person of David And a Second time in the Exaltation of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ into the Kingdom of Heaven after his Resurrection and setting up his Spiritual Throne in the hearts of men So that I may seem to essay an Impious thing to make a Third Application to any Mortal King whatsoever But while I shall not parallel or compare the Sufferings and Exaltation of the Divine and Mystical King but adore his Foot-steps there will be no danger to shew the Tracts and Lineaments that are between the Deliverance and Establishment of David and of our Gracious Sovereign for the awaking our Gratitude and magnifying God's mercies shewed to this Nation this Day And to observe the Method I began with For the same Reasons and Respects that David is called Gods King in my Text our King may pretend to the Title before all the present Kings of the Earth First He was a King of God's particular and singular Advancing and placing on the Throne though not call'd like David from being a poor Shepherd-Boy to Rule a Kingdom but descended of a long and glorious Race of Kings yet recall'd from a forlorn exil'd State and a deposd Condition to hold the Scepter of his Royal Ancestors by a no less Divine Favour So that whatever his Title to the Crown was we may truly say Had he not been God's King he had not been King of this Land Secondly David was not only call'd God's King as we have shew'd for his Eminent Deliverance of him but His Son And whoever considers the many Risques of our Sovereign's Life the Prodigies both of his Dangers and Escapes how God snatcht him out of the Battel led him safe through the midst of his Enemies conceal'd him many days by a Divine Providence after the manner the Ancients feign'd their Heroes were wrapt in a Cloud and then without the assistance of Armies by the same Invisible and Unresistable Hand fixt him in his Throne must confess we have not only reason to celebrate this Day for his coming into the World and his coming to the Crown for the Birth I say of his Person or the Birth of his Royal Dignity but for his being Born God's King and God's Son i. e. The King of his Preservation and the Son of his Promotion Thirdly As David was call'd God's King because he was more pleased with him than with others was the King of his liking as well as of his Preserving and Advancing So the Wonderful Testimonies of God's Love to our Sovereign warrants nay obliges us to believe and revere him as God's King also in this sense as the King of his liking and after his own heart And whom God has approv'd let no man judge whom he has Seal'd let no man dare to Censure no not in his thoughts Princes then for the most part want Goodness when the People want Candour and their defect of Vertue is their Subjects defect of Love and Loyalty But if those were God's Kings Kings of his liking Kings after his own heart that set up the True Worship and discountenanc'd the False that executed Justice and Judgment in the Land then Malice it self must confess our King is God's King David was renown'd for that one Merciful Speech upon his Return to his Kingdom Shall there any man be put to death this day in Israel As if it had been a thing to be abominated to shew Severity when God had shew'd him such singular Grace But how many Shimei's how many Railers how many Cursers 't is but a small thing which I have said how many Capital Enemies how many Betrayers how many Covenanters against him and lyers in wait for his Blood did our David pardon upon his Return 'T was an Observation of Old regnabit sanguine multo Ad regnum quisquis venit ab exilio The King that returns after Exile will Reign for the Future in Blood and Revenge But our King contrariwise after his Exile regnabat Sanguine parco Reigns at this day as one Elected to a Kingdom that had a Crown bestow'd on him and not as one that had recover'd his own So that as the Virgins gave David the preheminence to Saul in the Songs of Victory and Triumph saying Saul has slain his thousands and David his Ten thousands We in the Songs of Mercy and Clemency may give our King the preheminence to David and say As David pardon'd one single Detractor our Gracious Sovereign gave life and opportunity of Repentance to thousands of Traitors and Murtherers and was truly in this Gods King and not only a King of his liking but a King that is like him resembling him in one of his Noblest Attributes that of his Mercy Those to whom Princes intrust the care of their Souls ought to be faithful to them and not only speak pleasing things but true to imitate good Surgeons who not always use Oyls and Lenitives but if need be Lancets and Corrosives But then let no man at a distance surmise Evil of his Prince lest while he denies him to be Gods King he sets to his hand to make him no King at all and while he strips him of his Righteousness strips him also of his Royal Dignity I speak not to the Kings Enemies but to his severer Friends if he have any The Sinister Thoughts and Censures of the Subject are often Ominous and Fatal to a Prince whereas their good Opinions are
what do they signifie to us upon whom the Ends of the World are come and saw them not To answer this Objection at large would be in Effect to ingage in a Discourse of the whole Subject of the Truth of Christian Religion or the Demonstration Evangelical of which Eusebius the first Christian Historian after the Apostles now extant wrote seven Books I shall therefore content my self in the short time that remains to me to present you by way of Answer only with one Consideration but 't is a Consideration that had great force with S t Augustine and 't is this The very Conversion of the World is the highest Argument imaginable that it was converted by the Miraculous Power of the Holy Ghost For that Man says the Father that can conceive the World should relinquish their long doted on Religion received from their Ancestors with so much Veneration and a Superstitious Conceit that they had been Prosperous under it a Religion so well suited to their Carnal Affections and receive in Exchange of it a New Religion derived from so despicable and infamous an Author as a Mean Man crucified by his own Nation and the very Principles of which were so harsh to Flesh and Blood and contrary to all worldly Glory and Interest That Man says S t Augustine that can conceive this could be done without Miracle is himself a greater Miracle than those he thinks so hard to be believed There were among the Roman Fencers of old one sort that with a Net and Trident maintained Combate against their Opposers armed with a Sword and Helmet and were so dextrous as to intangle and vanquish their Adversaries with these Uncouth Weapons The Apostles of Christ those Fishers of Men may be likened to these Retiarii these Fencers with Nets who with the Metaphorical Nooses and Meaches of preaching seconded by the Power of Miracles ensnared and captivated to the Gospel the armed potent proud Idolatrous learned and vicious World And this was the Way the Spirit took at his Coming if we interpret 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Convince the Understanding of the World of its Errors But if we take it in the other Sense redarguet Mundum he shall Reprove the World for its Sins it imports these two things That the Spirit shall shame the World And condemn it First That it shall reproach and shame the World for loving Darkness more than Light Death than Life for lying under Wickedness and Guilt when the Means of becoming Innocent was offered them for chusing things Base and Degenerate before things Noble and Praise-worthy things Vicious and accompanied with Danger rather than things Vertuous though accompanied with Glory and Felicity in a word for chusing rather to perish in their Sins and Ignorance than to be Instructed reformed and saved And as the Spirit shall shame the World for so brutish and sottish a Choice so Secondly it shall Condemn it Shame and Confusion of Face is but the beginning of the Misery of Sinners the consequent of the Discovery of their Wickedness not the Punishment of it What the Wiseman says shall be the Portion of those that love Danger they shall perish in it is true also of those that love Darkness more than Light and the ways of Death than the ways of Life that they shall prove what the Riddle of Eternal Death is of a Death that never dyes and dwell in Eternal Night and Darkness And thus that Spirit which is the Spirit of Love and Gentleness which descended in the Similitude of a Creature that has no Gall nor Anger and whose Office 't is to save to comfort and support shall exercise a Part so contrary to its Name and Nature as to Condemn destroy and confound instead of shewing it self the Spirit of Lenity and Kindness shew it self the Spirit of Indignation and Fury a Froward Chiding and Reproaching Spirit O ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in Heart and Ears says the Holy Ghost by the mouth of S t Stephen which of the Prophets have not your Fathers persecuted and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One of whom ye have been now the Betrayers and Murderers Stephen who dyed the Example of Meekness the Miracle of Patience and Charity inspired by the same Divine Spirit lived a sharp Reprover and severe Condemner of their Hardness of Heart and Unbelief And now Beloved to make some Application of what has been said Are the things we have heard this day remote and unconcerning Stories Tales only of the Apostles Times and Events at the first preaching of the Gospel Or is it not still the Business of the Spirit to Convince the World of Sin of Righteousness and of Judgment To rebuke and reprove it for the little or ill Use it has made of the Unvaluable Benefits offered it by Christ To Judge and Condemn it for preferring the Ways of Death and Destruction before those of Life and Salvation even rejecting and crucifying the Lord of Glory a second time by their Sins 'T is true the Extraordinary Miraculous Operations of the Holy Ghost are ceased but his Ordinary his Inward Reproofs and Convictions by the Outward preaching of the Word his converting sanctifying and justifying of some and final Condemnation and sealing up of others in their Impenitence still remain Christ's Work of our Salvation lasted but a while and had its Period on the Cross but the Spirit of Christ which came after him had no Period no Hitherto of his working but his Operations continue to the End of the World And 't is wonderful to consider That after so many Unwearied and powerful Endeavours of the Spirit for sixteen hundred Years that so much gross Infidelity and so many scandalous Impieties are still in the World That the Unjust and Unmerciful are Unjust and Unmerciful still the Voluptuous and Incontinent are voluptuous and incontinent still the Prophane and Atheistical are prophane and atheistical still the Seditious and Disobedient to Government persist to be so still as if the World were grown too Old to blush or to learn and what was said in Praise of our Lords Constancy and Resolution in Suffering That he Despised the Shame were Commendable also in the Effrontery and Impudence of the World in its Sins That it despises all Shame S t Augustine says That in his Young Unconverted days he boasted of many Sins which he had never committed ne viderer abjectior quo innocentior lest I should have appeared Abject and poor Spirited if I had been known to be Innocent And too many there are in this Age that count the Vices of the Time the Gallantries of it and are as much abasht to come behind in any Lewdness in Vogue as to be late in the Fashion And when things stand thus that those that have given their Names to Christ in Baptism are more profligate Sinners than Turks and Infidels may not Preachers be allow'd to say The World is not yet Converted the Holy
the performing Noble Actions out of an Honest Disobedience as I may say refus'd to keep the Silence he enjoined them For after he had done such Wonderful things and no less Good and Beneficial than Great and astonishing they could not they would not consent they should be smothered that that which was Praise-worthy should go away without Praise that that which deserved so well of the World should not be known to the World and they even contested with our Lord in this matter as 't is said ver 36. By how much the more he charged them to keep Silence by so much the more a great deal they publisht it 'T is reported that Virgil condemned his incomparable Poems to the fire and that this endeared them the more to Posterity men setting a Value on them afterwards not only because they were Excellent but because they were Preserved And the People in like manner here set a higher Rate on those Miracles our Lord sought to Conceal because he sought to Conceal them more industriously endeavoured to make them Illustrious because they were condemned to Obscurity and Oblivion to pay them their due Honour because it was denyed them When the Pharisees out of Envy urged our Lord to rebuke his Disciples and the Multitude for crying Hosanna before him he said unto them If these should hold their peace the Stones would cry out And if the People had not done him the Right they did the Stones would have proclaim'd his Glory and I look not upon their words in my Text as proceeding from the Spirit of Opposition and Contradiction but from the Spirit of Grace and Truth even from the Inspiration and Dictate of the Holy Ghost himself He hath done all things well he maketh both the Deaf to hear and the Dumb to speak Before I proceed yet to the Division it will not be amiss to premise some things more particularly both concerning the Words and the Speakers of them And the Words in the first place are plainly a Justification of our Saviour from the mouth of the People their Verdict given upon him in Opposition to the Censure of their Priests and Rulers But of What are they a Justification Of his Innocent and holy Conversation among men There was no need of that He went about his whole Life as S t Peter says doing Good conferring Health as well as Faith Curing as well as Converting men and though the Malice of his Adversaries joined with the Malice of Hell at his arraignment to bring an Accusation against him they found none There was as little need also of their Justification of his Miracles for they were wrought in the face of all Judea and the Sanhedrim as well as the People confest them What do we do say they John 11.47 for this Man doth many Miracles Of what then was their Justification Not so much of his Life and Miracles as of the Divine Power or Principle by which he wrought all that he did There was a Division in the Thoughts of men concerning him upon the Sight of his works and some said He was a Good Man and others again Nay but he deceiveth the People secretly intimating that every One that made a holy Show was not a holy Person that every Worker of Miracles was not a Messenger of God's but many times the most seeming Instruments of Heaven were indeed Agents and Instruments of the Devil In these Extremes of a good and bad Opinion the People adhered to the most Favourable concluded that he was a Good Man and no Seducer that a Great Prophet was risen among them and that God had visited his People And their omnia bene in my Text he hath done all things well points not so much at his Morality as at his Mission from God at the Truth of his Miracles as at the Truth of his Pretences viz. that all he taught and did was by the Power and Spirit of God Secondly The Persons that pronounc'd this Sentence were the Multitude the Judgment proceeded ex ore populi from the mouth of the People But it was ne'er the worse for that what is to be concluded upon the Sight of an undoubted Miracle may be believed as well nay perhaps better from the impartial Opinion of the People than from the biass'd Reasonings of the Great Ones in those things where Common sense is a sufficient Guide 't is safer many times to submit the Tryal to the Country than to the Bench to honest and plain Dealing than to Wit and Learning for too often it comes to pass that the Politicks of Persons in high Place extinguish their Ethicks and that the Truth of Religion is corrupted for Reasons of State As may be seen in the Church of Rome where Truth holds always the second place to Interest and is frequently on its account allow'd no place at all The Scribes and Pharisees saw the same Miracles which the People did but while they were ambitious to be Teachers themselves while Vain-Glory Envy and other by-Respects possest them they were not Converted but hardened by them John 9.24 when our Lord had cured one that was born blind the Pharisees said to him Give God the Praise we know this Man is a Sinner But the Person cured that was one of the People and unconcern'd in their Pretences pronounced If he were not of God he could do nothing Again Matth. 12.22 when our Lord healed another that was blind and dumb and possest with a Devil the Pharisees said This Fellow doth not cast out Devils but by Beelzebub the Prince of the Devils But what said the Multitude on the other side Is not this the Son of David i. e. the Great Prophet or Messiah that was to come into the World Such were the Collections of a Simple and Sincere People free from Envy and Malice We owe the Growth of Christian Religion to plain honest Men that heard the Gospel with disinteressed and unprejudiced Affections and closed with it when they saw it consonant to Right Reason and Christ found at first but few of the Great or Learned that were fit to be Evangelists or yet Disciples 't was three hundred Years before any Scepter submitted to Christ and none were so fierce Opposers of the Faith in the Infancy of it as the Philosophers But the Ignorant People that knew not the Law as the Pharisees reproach'd them to weaken their Testimony convey'd to us the Knowledge of the Gospel and in my Text and many places beside it may be truly said Vox populi Vox Dei the Voice of the People was the Voice of God O how happy and blessed were this Nation if it had a People of the like Temper that without Prejudice and Prepossession without Siding and Faction would embrace Sound Doctrine and bear Testimony to it by their peaceable and holy Lives be profitable Hâ—â—rers of the Word and not like the Pharisees aâ—fect to be Teachers of it Followers of Christ and his Apostles and not think they are
Wings to their Devotion and raise it to a higher Pitch than the quiet Actings of the Heart alone can do And as a man by vehement Speeches and Emotions of his Body may chafe himself into a greater Degree of Anger so by devout Gestures in Prayer he may heighten and enflame his Zeal 3. Ceremonies are useful in regard of the Beholders The reverent solemn and holy Rites of the Church being suited to the Majesty of the Deity that is worshipp'd excite Faith and a more awful Regard in the Hearts of men and 't was for this very Reason as I said that our Lord used so many Circumstances and Ceremonies in the working of his Miracles For such Visible Performances are many times more Efficacious Lessons than long Harangues and though men affect to appropriate the term of Edification to Sermons only the External Parts of Religion are not without their Edification too and a holy Practice or Custom may make a smarter Impression on the Soul than the Inculcations of a flat and heavy Sermon 4. Ceremonies are useful in regard of the Light they give to many Doctrines which being assisted and seconded by such Sensible Circumstances as Exhibit them to the Eye as well as to the Ear they are the better explain'd and establish'd in the Understanding by the help of two Senses as Differences in Law are by the Mouths of two Witnesses and we may term the Ceremonies which accompany the Precepts of Religion the Jael or Nail that fastens the Substance of them in our Minds as the holy Matron of that Name rivetted the temples of Sisera to the ground Or we may call them the Masorah of the Church for as the Jewish Masorah by an exact and critical Calculation of the Number of Words Syllables and Letters in the Scripture hedg'd in the Text both from Mutilations and Additions So Ceremonies often empale the Substance of Religion and guard it from Innovation and Corruption And may we not then justly condemn the Perverseness of those that make such Out-cries against such Useful such Innocent nay such Necessary things as Ceremonies who decry the same things for Superstition when used in the Church which they allow to be Wisdom when practis'd by our Saviour But Wisdom is justified of her Children impartially and those that have the Ingenuity and Goodness of the People in my Text and no Taint of Pharisaical Pride and Hypocrisie will approve the Rites of our Church as well as her Doctrines and say She has done all things Well She has made the Unanimous in Faith Uniform in Worship added to the Beauty of Truth the Beauty of Holiness neither dressing up the Service of God in that Strumpet-like Attire which the Church of Rome does nor stripping it into that deformed and sordid Nakedness which is seen in the Fanatick and Congregational Assemblies The Tenth Sermon MARK vii 37 He hath done all things well he maketh both the Deaf to hear and the Dumb to speak I Observed in the Testimony or Verdict of the People three things 1. The Appellation or Denomination they give our Lord He or This Man 2. The Kind or Nature of their Verdict it was an Approbation That he had done Well 3. The Extent of their Approbation That he had done All Things well I begin first with the Appellation or Denomination they give our Lord He or This Man The Peoples Appellation here is but a lame and imperfect Acknowledgment of Christ it exprest only one half and the meanest half of his Condition It was not the Style in which Believers in after-times spoke of him who never mentioned him as mere Man but as God or the Eternal Son of God When the Primitive Christians met in their early Devotions before day laudes Christo tanquam Deo canebant they sung Hymns to Christ as to a God as a Heathen could bear witness But however the Appellation of the People was less Honourable at the present it was accepted from them and registred as a Proof of their Ingenuity that they gave Christ the Due of his Actions though under an imperfect Style of his Person God opens the Eyes of mens Understanding and cures the Infirmities of their Souls by Degrees as Christ in the following Chapter cured the Blind mans Eyes who first saw Men like Trees and afterwards Men like Men. 'T was enough upon our Lord's first entering on his Prophetick Office and preaching to the World that the People received his Doctrine and conceived rightly of his Miracles though not of his Divine Nature that they acknowledged him to be a Good Man though not the Son of God Incarnate which at that time was not understood even by the Apostles themselves But then that which was an Ingenuous Expression in those days would be an Injurious or Blasphemous one in these if men should now so far debase Christ as to restrain him to his Humane Nature only and deny his Divine as the Socinians do who allow no higher Title to be due to him than this Man this Man has done all things well this Man was born of a pure Virgin this Man died rose from the Grave ascended into Heaven and sitteth at the right-hand of God and the like And 't is not without good reason that some have doubted whether those that are of this Perswasion are to be numbered among Christians who after so full and perfect a Revelation of Christ apprehend him yet so imperfectly who with a greater blindness if not malice persecute his Divinity than the Scribes and Pharisees did his Humanity use greater Endeavours to destroy the Son of God than they did to destroy the Supposed Son of Joseph and Mary I say though He or This Man was a pardonable appellation from the People who were yet but Raw Auditors of the Gospel yet 't is intolerable coming from Grown Christians and such Elementarii Senes Grey-headed Ignorants as stick still at the first Rudiments of the Faith deserve to be expell'd the School of Christ for their Non-proficiency Saint Paul 1 Cor. 1.12 sharply reproves Believers for saying I am of Paul I of Apollos I of Cephas I of Christ and not only for their Schisms but chiefly for levelling our Lord with his Servants and making him only the Head of a Sect a Partial Minister of mens Salvation when he was the Sole Author and Finisher of their Faith But what shall we say then of those Fanaticks of later times who deny not only the Divinity but Humanity of Christ affirm that what the Gospel says of God Incarnate is not to be understood Historically but Morally not of a Particular Single Person but of all that are True Believers and that themselves are the Godded with God those in whom God is Man'd or Humaniz'd as they delight to Cant. Acknowledge no Saviour or Redeemer of the World but make themselves all to be Christs assume his Attributes and Prerogatives pretend to be without Sin Not that they do not do those things which the Worst of
Men do but the Spirit of God as they fansie doing all things in them to say they could sin were to say that God himself could Sin however therefore all Breaches and Transgressions of the Law are Criminal in other Men in them they are only Nominal and Seeming Sins Sins improperly and falsly so called from the similitude they bear to them And on this account they reprove none among themselves for committing the most heinous and flagitious Crimes but for shewing Sorrow for them after it being not Sin in their Opinion but a Remorse for Sin that is the Sign of an Unregenerate State the discerning a Difference between Good and Evil which they call the Relish of Eves Apple still remaining and endeavour by all means to eradicate perswading themselves that when they have destroyed all Sense of Sin they are arrived to the highest Point of Saintship and Perfection to the very State of Innocence in which Adam was created the State in which he knew no Evil. Miserably dreaming because Adam knew no Difference between Good and Evil Experimentally before his Fall that he knew not any Intellectually And thus we see not to believe Rightly of the Person of Christ is in truth not to believe in Christ to deny either his Humanity or Divinity is in Effect not to be a Christian. It is not only necessary therefore to receive all that is delivered By him but also all that is delivered Of him to acknowledge him to be our God as well as our Saviour and to adore him as well as to be Instructed by him To say in these days with the People in my Text He or This Man hath done all things well were no less than Sacriledge when our Style ought to be The Eternal Son of God blessed for evermore hath done all things well And so I pass to the Second Particular The Kind or Nature of the Peoples Verdict it was an Approbation He hath done Well The Peoples Approbation here was rightly grounded they concluded with good Reason That he that had made the Deaf and Dumb to hear and speak was a Prophet and no Deceiver that he whose Works were so Mighty must himself be Holy and his Words True Miracles are infallible Signs of a Divine Person Irrefragable Testimonies of a Man of God as the Widow of Zarephath rightly concluded when Elijah restored her dead Son to Life Now says she I know thou art a Man of God and that the Word of the Lord in thy Mouth is Truth and likewise Nicodemus when he said to our Lord Rabbi we know thou art a Teacher come from God for no Man can do the Miracles thou dost except God be with him Our Lord himself made use of this Argument drawn from his Mighty Works as his last Appeal for the Truth of his Divine Mission says he If I do not the Works of my Father believe me not but if I do though ye believe not me believe the Works Thus even licensing the Infidelity of men in case he had not performed Works above the Power and Ability of men At the first production of the Creatures there were certain Properties or Qualities implanted in them as Descending to heavy Bodies Ascending to light moving Circularly to heavenly c. Now when it comes to pass that Heavy things move Upwards and Light Downwards when Water a fluid Body is made a Pavement or a Wall the Fiery Furnace a Refrigeratory as Nebuchadnezzar's was to the three Children circa frigidos capillorum globulos innoxium luxit incendium says S t Jerome the harmless Flame did only shine upon not singe their curled Locks When I say the Courses of Nature are thus changed and its Laws inverted when the Creature is fashioned again anew as the Author of the Book of Wisdom speaks and is made to observe Particular Commands it is a Kind of Second Creation For none can change the Laws of Nature but the God of Nature Well therefore did S t Augustine say Habent Miracula linguam suam opera sunt argumenta Miracles have a Tongue and speak and they are not only Works but Arguments To give a man Speech that was born without it is even of it self a Kind of Speech the Speech no less than of the Almighty for God appears not Personally to converse with Men but such as these are his Utterances of himself to the World neither did the Voices that broke from the Clouds at the Baptism and Transfiguration of our Lord saying This is my Beloved Son more clearly and intelligibly declare to the Hearers who Christ was than the Voice of God in every Miracle he wrought pronounc'd the same thing but on all his Mighty Works was engraved in bright and shining Characters This is my Beloved Son and again This is my Beloved Son hear him The first Way I say was not more convincing to mens Senses than the second was argumentative to their Reason and there is but One and the same Proof of the Deity and of the Truth of Christ's Pretences and they are either both True or both False he that gives Hearing to the Deaf-born is a Righteous Person or he that made the Ear is nothing he that gives Speech to the Dumb-born has done well or he that made the Tongue is a mere Chimaera But yet this is to be received with some Caution for there are two Uses which God makes of Miracles The one to plant Faith And the other to try the Constancy of Believers And as God sent Christ and the Prophets before him with the Power of working Miracles for the first End so he permits Anti-Christ and other Impostors to work False Signs and Wonders for the second End and those so seemingly true as to deceive if it were possible the very Elect. You will say then Which of these two shall have the Preheminence in our Belief how shall we know to which to adhere both performing the same Works but drawing several Ways Must these Miracle-Workers as one asks the Question take place as Women in a Bake-house the first Comer the first served There is a Rule set down Deut. 13.1 how we are to carry our selves in this Case and to judge of Miracles If there arise among you a Prophet says Moses or a Dreamer of Dreams and gives you a Sign or a Wonder and the Sign or the Wonder comes to pass whereof he spake unto you saying Let us go after other Gods which you have not known and let us serve them you shall not hearken unto the Word of that Prophet for the Lord your God proveth you Now the Wonders and Signs performed by Anti-Christ and other Impostors are all to this Purpose To draw men from the Worship of the True God or at least from some Fundamental Points in Religion For as S t Paul says of Anti-Christ He opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God so that he as God sitteth in the Temple of God shewing himself to be God When
he spared not the Natural Branches take heed lest he spare not you 'T is not so much the Contingency that is in the Nature of the things of this World as the Sins of Men that make them unstable the Fortunes of Kingdoms are not tost like the Waves of the Sea lift up one while to the Clouds and then carried down again to the Center by the force of Winds but according to their Righteousness or Unrighteousness God pulls down one and sets up another Neither are they governed by the Power of Stars The Jews have an excellent Saying Non est Planeta Israeli Israel has no Planet i. e. though God gave up the Heathen oft-times to be governed like the Plants of the Earth by the Influences of Stars because they trusted in such Vain things yet he orders and disposes the Affairs of his faithful People immediately himself And 't is a mere Vulgar Conceit that Comets cause Wars and Changes of States Divine Philosophy tells us Mens Sins occasion God to send Comets and to fill the Sky with Prophetick Prodigies We affect to look as far beyond our selves as we can for the Causes of our Evils but they are to be found nearer at Home and arise out of our own Breasts the Heavens are not the Authors of our Misfortunes i. e. the Conjunctions or Revolutions of the Celestial Bodies but our own Wicked Lives and the surest Prognosticks are to be made from the Innocence or Guilt of a Nation and not from the Face of the Sky Let no Man think I cast a Cloud upon the Glory of this Day Illustrious in the Birth Illustrious in the Restoration of our most Gracious King that instead of exciting I affect to damp the Publick Joy by Ill Bodings unless he also supposes that the Blessings of a Nation cannot be rightly commemorated and celebrated without Noise and Inconsideration Tumult and Riot Excess and Debauchery setting-light by Sin and forgetfulness of Religion A sad and severe Reflection on our Unthankfulness to God for the Singular Mercies of this Day with a serious Resolution of our better Acknowledging them by a future Holy Life will add more Lustre and true Joy to it than the Bravery and Feasts the Bells and Bonfires and all the other Pomps that solemnize it For let us consider That every Wise Agent works to some End or other and that not only the Words we have heard this Day explain'd but the whole Tenour of Scripture concurs in this That the End and Purpose of God's bestowing Benefits on a Nation is to make them Righteous and Holy and that the only Expedient on our part to secure a Continuation of them is to have a strict regard to our Duty that Obedience is the best Preserver of our Happiness and the Means always to keep God's Favour is always to keep his Laws The Thirteenth Sermon MARK viii 2 3. I have Compassion on the Multitude because they have now been with me three days and have nothing to eat And if I send them away fasting to their own houses they will faint by the way for divers of them came from far THESE Words were the Introduction to that Illustrious Miracle by which our Lord fed four thousand Souls with seven Loaves and a few small Fishes made the bare and spare Allowance of seven Persons as some suppose sufficient to satisfie the Hunger of so great a Multitude A Miracle that baffled one of the clearest and most irrefragable Principles in Natural Reason namely That the Part is less than the Whole making it appear that when the Lord of Nature will have it so a Part shall as many times exceed the Whole as he pleases as the Bread and Fishes here encreased by being eaten and consumed multiplied by being dol'd and distributed about and the Fragments which remained exceeded seven times seven fold the Provision which at first was set before them that eat Our Lord wrought this Miracle as himself declares to relieve the Hunger of the Multitude but his principal Design here as in all his other Miracles was to create Faith in such as received Benefit by them to teach those whom he healed that he was the great Physician of the Soul and whom he fed that he was the true Bread that came down from Heaven And if We at this great Distance of time by our Meditations and Reflections on this Miracle shall make it also nourish our Souls refresh our Faith relieve and sustain our fainting Spirits ready to sink under the continual Opposition of Sin and the length of Duties we shall add yet to the Glory of it and in a Spiritual Sense make these Words spoken to us I have Compassion on the Multitude because they have now been with me three days and have nothing to eat c. This Portion of Scripture is part of a larger Narrative and I shall take that Way in handling it which those do who make Remarks and Observations upon Notable Occurrents and Events in History reflect and descant on the Principal Passages in it as I conceive they may be most edifying and useful And in order to this I shall observe in the Words three things 1. Our Lord 's tender and compassionate Spirit I have Compassion 2. The Object of his Compassion the Persons to whom he shew'd it the Multitude I have compassion on the Multitude 3. The Motives of his Compassion which are exprest to be two Their present Distress they were Hungry and had nothing to eat And their future feared Danger in case they were so dismiss'd they will faint by the way I begin first with Christ's tender and compassionate Spirit I have Compassion The Great Preacher our Blessed Lord had ended his Sermon to the People and as the antient custom of the Church was at the End of the first Service to dismiss the Poenitentes and Catechumeni all such as were not qualify'd to receive the Sacrament with these Words Ite missa est Depart and void the Church So the Disciples might very fairly here have pronounc'd an Ite missa est to the Multitude Ye may be gone there is nothing more at this time to be expected the Prophet has no further words of Instruction to impart to you For as for their want of Bread whether it proceeded from Negligence or Necessity it was not chargeable on the Preacher he that ministred Spiritual things was not also to minister Temporal but in these to be ministred to But our Lord had no purpose to shift off a Work of Mercy when 't was seasonable and in his power though he might never so fairly have done it he cast not therefore in his thoughts how he might plausibly Excuse his not relieving the peoples Hunger but which way he might do it best for the Glory of God and their Comfort and Edification There were a Sort of Preachers in this Kingdom in the days of its late Troubles who when they had usurp'd the whole Revenues of the Church grudg'd to allow
severe Discipline Danger and Persecutions will make them stagger and recoil The Seed that fell upon Stony Ground sprung up faster for a season than that which fell on the Good Ground but when the Sun arose and smote it it presently withered wanting root The Children of Israel went cheerfully and lustily with Moses out of Egypt but when their Food grew scarce and they saw the Host of Pharaoh pursue them they boggled in their Enterprize and in their hearts returned again into Egypt preferring Bondage with Safety and Plenty before Freedom with Hardship and Danger But their Posterity voluntarily follow'd Christ three days without Sustenance and never lookt back to their houses or yet to their beloved City If I forget thee O Jerusalem says the Psalmist let my right Hand forget its Cunning. But these Israelites when they heard Tidings of the Heavenly Jerusalem the Jerusalem above they cast behind them all thoughts of Jerusalem below it appeared to them no better than a second Babylon or house of Bondage As our Lord therefore made others of the People his Scholars he made these of his Family as he taught them he fed these revealed not only the Word but the Power and Glory of God to them To conclude I shall raise from all that I have said but this One acceptable and comfortable Doctrine Whosoever follows Christ faithfully affectionately and constantly in these days will find him as Compassionate in their Wants and Distresses as the Multitude here did For he has the same Bowels and Tenderness now at the Right Hand of God which he had when he conversed with men on Earth he is ascended Intire into the Heavens he did not carry up his Body thither and leave his Affections in the Grave If we therefore seek the Kingdom of Heaven in the first place and its Righteousness we may rest assured of our Lord's Promise That all the Necessaries of this Life shall be added to us that if we perform the Principal he will take care to make good the Accessory What is said of the Productions of Nature That she brings forth nothing but what she provides for is much more true of the Productions or Children of Grace For when the Earth with-holds its Fatness and the Clouds their Dew when the Creatures that should nourish Men starve themselves for want of Nourishment when the Breasts of Nature seem wholly dryed up venit Coelum in partes Heaven it self will come in to succour and take Part with the Faithful and if Sterility abounds Grace on this occasion also will much more abound if the Soil afford no Corn Bread shall be rained from the Sky if the Springs fail the Stony Rock shall send forth Water and Rivers shall run in dry places the Ravens shall feed the Righteous or their little Stock shall encrease as fast as 't is spent the Courses of Nature shall be inverted rather than Christ's Truth fail Heaven and Earth shall pass away but not one Tittle of his Word shall fall to the ground And if any say How comes it then to pass that the Servants of God do suffer Want Nay that commonly they are more destitute and persecuted than other Men I answer to this as our Lord did to his Disciples urging him on a time to eat I have Meat to eat says he which you know not of So the Faithful have Meat to eat which the World knows not of they have Peace Plenty and Prosperity though not seen by every Eye They have the Grace of God which is as a hidden Manna in their Hearts and as a Well of Living Water which suffers them neither to hunger nor thirst And is it not much more Eligible and Glorious to fast with Moses and Elias forty days than to feast even at the Table of Princes To be in the State of Angels who need neither Food nor Raiment than to be clothed and served with all the Sumptuousness and Magnificence of Solomon The Righteous have Content in Poverty which is more than Riches Joy in Bonds which is better than Freedom Satiety in a little which is not always found in Abundance And what is this but to receive Bread from Heaven when the Earth affords none Water from the Rock when the Springs are dryed up To be fed even by a more Wonderful Way than by the Ministry of Ravens Neither is the Favour of God this Way shew'd to the Followers of Christ less than that which he shew'd to his Own Servants of old but much greater for it speaks yet a higher Grace to be content to perish under Hunger Poverty and Bonds than to be snatch'd out of these Evils after a Miraculous Manner Saint Peter rejoiced more when he was scourged for bearing Testimony to Christ than when he was delivered by an Angel from the Death design'd him by Herod And Saint Paul gloried more in his Persecutions and Sufferings than he did even in his Charismata his Miraculous Gifts of the Holy Ghost And thus our Gracious Lord relieves the Necessities of his Servants from the Store-houses of the World or from the Riches of his Grace rescues them out of their Afflictions or makes them delight in them supplies their Wants or sets them above the Wants of other Men takes away their Wants or takes them up to that Place where no Wants are and where all Tears shall be wip'd from their Eyes To which blessed Place God of his infinite Mercy through our Lord Jesus Christ bring us all And To God the Father Son and Holy Ghost be ascribed all Honour Glory Worship and Thanksgiving this Day forth and for evermore Amen The Fourteenth Sermon LUKE xvi 9 Make to your selves Friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness that when ye fail they may receive you into everlasting habitations THESE Words may be call'd a Lecture of holy Usury they teaching us the highest Advantages that are to be made of Riches beyond what is to be learned from the Books of Eastern Merchants or the Trade to both the Indies from the Mysterious Rules of the antient Publicans or our modern Bankers 1. They teach men by a Divine Alchymy how to convert Earthly Treasure into Heavenly to make Money the ordinary Salary and hire of Sin to be the Price of Salvation and the Purchace of the Holy Ghost without the Danger of Simony 2. Men are instructed by them how to cure the Vanity and Instability of Riches call'd for their inconstant and short Abode mendacium phantasmata praestigiae scenica persona c. a Lye a Dream a Delusion the quick shifting of a Scene or Vizor in the Theatre and notwithstanding that 't is said We can carry nothing out of this World with us we are shew'd which way to confer them to Heaven and to erect Banks in those Eternal Mansions 3. Whereas Folly is ordinarily imputed to Rich men insanus dives stultus dives the Mad man and the Rich the Fool and the Rich being seldom in Scripture out of conjunction
be as Mount Sion which shall not be removed but standeth fast for ever And the truth is that which is said of Temporal Kingdoms Justitia Thronum firmat Justice supports the Throne may be affirmed of God's Spiritual Kingdom in the World his Justice and Goodness establishes his Dominion in the Hearts of Men. For if it were not so That the Lord regarded the Righteous this great Incongruity would produce another great Incongruity and Irregularity The Righteous as the Psalmist says would put their hand to Iniquity i e. they would be no longer Righteous they would make Justice and Piety no more their Business and Concern if there were no Regard in Heaven for these things and so God would lose his Obedience when he neglected Good Men. Let us therefore be careful of our Duty and we need not be solicitous for our Safety let us firmly rely upon God in well-doing and believe that our Trust in our Divine Invisible Foundation is not merely Chimerical or Imaginary and while we fail not it it will never fail us but the Business of this Day shall be the business of the Year round viz. to praise and magnifie our Foundation for protecting and preserving our Foundations and these Lauds and Thanksgivings if they be Cordial and Real will create us new Occasions of Lauds and Thanksgivings even daily Mercies and Blessings I say if they be Cordial and Real not only Verbal and Vocal not only express'd in Bells and Bonfires Noises and Excesses but in true Piety and Devotion as our Prayer of General Thanksgiving teaches us In shewing forth God's Praise not only with our Lips but in our Lives by giving up our selves to his Service and so forth For though 't is impossible to solemnize Publick Joy and Thanksgiving without Publick Expressions of them yet these Publick Expressions should be but the Outward Signs and Significations of the Inward Sence we have of God's Benefits and the Gratitude that dwells in our Hearts and which ought chiefly to be shew'd in the Duties of Religion in the Acts of Mercy and Charity in a Day of Mercy and Deliverance in the Reformation of whatsoever is contrary to the Divine Will in us and the like 'T is not enough therefore that our Streets resound with Festivity and Joy or yet that we celebrate God's great Mercies in Psalms and Hymns sung to the Organ by Asaph and other Chief Musicians but every Faithful Person must be a Musician and every Grateful Heart that has been delivered an Instrument of God's Praise To God the Father Son and Holy Ghost be ascribed all Honour Glory Worship and Thanksgiving this Day forth and for evermore Amen The Sixteenth Sermon JOHN xvi 23 Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my Name he will give it you THESE Words are part of our Lord's Farewel-Speech to his Disciples when he was to leave the World the unexpected News of which did so afflict them that they had not the power as himself takes notice ver 5. so much as to ask him any Question concerning it But now I go to him that sent me and none of you ask Whither goest thou but because I have said these things unto you Sorrow hath filled your heart And very deservedly for what more amazing more Ominous Tidings could they have heard than that he for whom they had forsaken all they had should after that forsake them than that he that had put Enmity between them and the World should abandon them to the World he in whom they had plac'd all their Ambition all their Hope should at last leave them in a Riddle A little while and ye shall not see me and again a little while and ye shall see me To raise therefore their drooping and disconsolate Spirits he promises them a double Advantage by his Departure and which could only arrive to them by his Departure 1. That they should receive the Holy Ghost who would establish their Faith and wonderfully rejoice their Hearts by assuring them of the truth of the Doctrines he had taught them and of their own Divine Mission 2. That they should be under the immediate Care of the Father by reason of whose Almighty Protection they would have no Cause to deplore his Absence or in the least to wish for his Corporal Presence again for they would find their Dependance on the Father much more happy than the following his Steps through the Cities of Palestine The Words of my Text relate to the latter of these two Advantages Their being under the immediate Care and Protection of the Father While our Lord abode with his Disciples he supply'd all their Wants solv'd all their Doubts stopt the mouths of all their Maligners but he let them know that his Father was Greater than he and would perform all these things in a more uncontroul'd and unlimited manner than he had done when he acted only in the Flesh by his Commission that the Using only of his Name to the Father would be more Beneficial to them than his Person had formerly been for though in many things he had been kind to them there was nothing so Precious nothing so Difficult nothing so Wonderful but if they pray'd for it in his Name the Father would bestow it on them Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my Name he will give it you In this Singular Priviledge and Prerogative promised by our Lord to his Disciples there are three things very remarkable I. The Person with whom they are to have it The Father he will give it you II. The Measure in which they were to have it it is a Measure indeed unlimited and without Measure Whatsoever ye shall ask ask what you will he will give it you III. By what Means they are to obtain it by asking in Christ's Name Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my Name I begin with the first of these The Person with whom they are to have this Singular Priviledge The Father This was a comfortable Promise of our Lord 's to his Disciples if they had then understood it as they afterwards did but when the Words were spoken they were but as a Parable or Proverb to them as 't is ver 25. These things have I spoken unto you in Proverbs the time will come that I shall speak no more unto you in Proverbs but I shall shew you Plainly of the Father How was that in what fashion did he afterwards shew them plainly of the Father By his Charismata the miraculous Gifts of the Holy Ghost which they received from him and which bore the very Character of the Father stampt upon them For every Good and perfect Gift as S t James says is from above and cometh from the Father of Light And thus he shew'd them more plainly and convincingly of the Father than he did to Philip when he said Have I been so long time with you and yet hast thou not known me Philip he that hath seen Me hath seen the Father For he
the Earth below So at the End of the World when God shall come to judge it he will distinguish and separate the Mass of men according to the Quality of their Works and those who have set their Hearts on heavenly things shall be thought worthy of Heaven and to reign for ever with him and his holy Angels in Glory and those who have hated heavenly things and set their Affections on things below corrupted themselves with the Vices of this Life to use the Psalmists words shall be turn'd into Hell And the revealing of this Mystery does vindicate the Justice of the Deity and absolve Providence from the Censures and hard Speeches of men for our Lord has plainly taught That there shall be a Day of calling all Flesh to account for what they have done in this Life and however the Good and Bad are promiscuously join'd at present and seem to be every way alike and equal to one another though they be in the same Field as he says or the same Bed yet one shall be taken and the other left Again in another place The hour is coming when all that are in the Graves shall come forth those that have done Good unto the Resurrection of Life and they that have done Evil unto the Resurrection of Damnation And this being asserted by the mouth of Truth it self and also the Fundamental Part of our Creed which sustains its whole Frame and Fabrick it will be sufficient thus to have illustrated it without bringing any Proofs of the Matter The Article of Christ's judging the Quick and the Dead though it be last in Place in the Confession of our Faith yet it is the first in Office and Importance and has an Influence on all the Articles that go before it and which would be of no Consequence without it For what avails it to believe there is a God if neither in this Life nor in the Life to come he will make any Difference between the Righteous and the Wicked What profit is it to believe a Redeemer or a Saviour if there be no Salvation or Damnation That there is a Holy Ghost if in the Issue it shall be all one to those that are Sanctify'd and to those that are not Sanctify'd The very Equity and Reason of the thing that there should be a Day of Judgment is a sufficient Demonstration that there shall be such a Day Instead therefore I say of bringing Proofs of this Doctrine I shall rather advise men to make the best Use of it and not to be deceived with the present Uniformity and Identity as 't were of the Condition of the Godly and Ungodly in this World but to reflect on what is said of the Severe Scrutiny that shall be at the Last Day when the present Mask shall be pull'd off from the Face of the World and no Action whatsoever be concealed when the secret Sins as well as secret Counsels of Princes whatever they have done amiss or been the Authors of others doing amiss without regard to their Persons shall be laid open when the delinquencies of the Meaner Sort shall not be past over or lost in Oblivion by reason of the Obscurity of their Condition When the Nice in point of Fame and Reputation but regardless of their Innocence shall have their Sly and close Sins ript open and publisht to their greater Confusion before Men and Angels When the Player and Actor in Religion the Hypocrite shall be stript of his Vizard and Mantle of Holiness and the loathsome Vices concealed under them exposed For as 't is said At the coming of Christ Anti-Christ shall no longer deceive the Nations So it shall arrive to all those that have liv'd Anti-Christs at the coming of Christ to Judgment they shall no longer deceive however successful their Cozenages have been in this Life The Children of Darkness are many times to outward Appearance clad in richer Robes of Righteousness and make a goodlier Shew of Piety and Devotion than the Children of Light But in the Day that God shall make up his Jewels as the Prophet Malachi speaks he will distinguish the true from the false and however the Counterfeit Vye at present in Lustre with the right and Orient and exceed them in Magnitude then it shall be seen what trash they are Which if men would duely consider and that this Tryal and Examination of all Flesh is not only to lay open their Actions to the Eye of the Judge for alas he knew them in the hour they were committed or yet to expose them only to Shame before the innumerable Host of Men and Angels that will be there assembled for that is but the Beginning of the Evils they are to expect But 't is that every One may receive a Reward according to his Merit as our Lord says They that have done Well Everlasting Glory and they that have done Evil Everlasting Fire I say if men would seriously consider this they would anticipate this Work of Tryal and Judgment while time was allowed them to do it they would tear off their Disguises of Sin before they were stript of them they would distinguish and separate themselves from the Wicked by a Holy Life before the Great Day of Separation of the Just and Unjust prevent God's severe Sentence on their Misdeeds by their own severe Condemnation of them before-hand that whether they labour at the Mill or in the Field in the City or in the Camp whatever their Callings and Employments be they may be of the number of those that are taken and not of those that are left And let this suffice to be said of my first Observation That at the last Day there shall be an exact Discrimination between the Righteous and the Wicked I proceed to my Second Observation That there shall be some particular visible Place to which all men shall be brought to Judgment Although it be in the Power of the Almighty where-ever Sinners shall be found at the last Day there to sentence and send them to Hell and where-ever the Righteous shall be found from thence to translate them to Heaven Yet as 't is the manner of Earthly Princes to summon their People to receive Justice at some certain Place their chief City where their Court and ordinary Residence are so it seems good to the Wisdom of God to assemble all Persons both Just and Unjust to one Place of Common Judicature and Writers do most probably conceive the place shall be Jerusalem the City of God's most visible Residence on Earth And that for these two Reasons 1. For the Reparation of Christ's Honour Because he suffered there not only the Scorn and Despight of the Jews who put him to a cruel unjust and shameful Death but the Affronts also of all Nations gathered together at the Feast of the Passover it being God's will that he should receive Reparation and Amends where he had received the greatest Outrage and Indignity and that the Prophecy of Zechary should be