Ages on the Rack we have still an eternal Hâ—ll behind and are as far distant from the End of our Misery as we were when it first began O! now if we could die and be insensible for ever what welcome Tidings would it be how gladly should we receive that fatal Blow that could put an End to a woful Eternity But now it will be in vain for us to cry O Death Death have mercy upon us and dispatch us quickly into an eternal Grave For Death is deaf and cannot hear every Moment it stabs and wounds but woe is me it cannot kill it strikes and strikes but cannot strike home and so is forced to continue as strugling under the Pangs of an immortal Death If there were any Prospect of an End of our Misery though it were after a Million of Ages this would give some Ease to the languishing Sufferer But never never O how that fatal Word stabs the wretched Soul and rankles its Anguish into eternal Desperation For to be in extream Misery and see no End of it is the Perfection of Hell and the utmost Possibility of Damnation And thus have I endeavoured to represent unto you the fearful Mulcts our Souls are liable to in the other World which are such as one would think were sufficient to awaken the most stupid and insensible Creature II. I now pass on to the second thing proposed which was to shew you upon what Accounts it is that our Souls are liable to these dreadful Things or what it is that exposes us to the Danger of them In general it is our own Sin and Wickedness which doth not only incense the holy God against us who is of purer Eyes than to behold Iniquity and provoke and urge him to inflict these endless Miseries upon us as the just Retributions of our desperate Folly and Obstinacy but doth also by its own natural Causality prepare us for and sink us into that miserable State So that if God should not damn us yet our own Wickedness would the Misery of Damnation being little else but the Perfection and Consummation of Sin For the Sting of eternal as well as temporal Death is Sin and it is Goodness and Wickedness that makes Heaven and Hell those two opposite Hemispheres of the Invisible World and as if Goodness were plucked out of Heaven it would cease to be Heaven and be overcast immediately with the dismal Shades of Hell so if Wickedness were banished out of Hell it would be Hell no longer but presently clear up into Light and Serenity and shine forth into a glorious Heaven But wheresoever Sin and Wickedness reigns there is Hell and Damnation in its necessary Causes Since therefore in necessary Causes that which is the Cause of the Cause is also the Cause of the Effect our best way to be resolved what it is that renders us liable to these future Miseries will be to enquire what it is that renders us liable to fall into a sinful Condition at the present for whatsoever renders us liable to Sin must necessarily expose us to the Danger of Misery Now the Danger of our falling into and continuing in a State of Sin proceeds from these following Causes 1. From the natural Liberty of our Wills to Good and Evil. 2ly From the many Temptations to Evil among which we are placed 3ly From the more close and intimate Access which these Temptations have to us than the contrary Motives to Goodness 4ly From the great Correspondence of these Temptations with the corrupt Inclinations of our Nature 5ly From the unwearied Diligence and great Subtilty of the Devil to make Use of and apply these Temptations to us 6ly From the plausible Pretences we are furnished with to excuse and justifie our Compliance with them 7ly From the extream Difficulty which this our Compliance brings us under to reject and vanquish them for the future 1. We are liable to fall into a sinful State and from thence into eternal Misery from the natural Liberty of our Wills to Good and Evil. If indeed we were necessarily determined to Good our Happiness would be intailed upon our Natures and it would be as impossible for us to be miserable as it is for the Fire to freeze or for the Ice to burn but to be so determined I am apt to think is not consistent with the condition of a Creature For to be good by a natural Necessity requires an infallible Understanding or a Mind that is infinitely removed from all Possibility of being deceived and mistaken and this no finite Mind can be But how should the Will be in all particulars necessarily determined to what is Right so long as it is under the Conduct of a fallible Mind that hath a natural Possibility of misleading it So that to be naturally necessarily and essentially good seems to be an incommunicable Prerogative of the Divine Nature according to that of our Saviour There is none good save one and that is God Luke 18. 19. For since no Will can be essentially good but that which is guided by an infallible Mind and no Mind can be essentially infallible but that which is infinite in Knowledge it hence necessarily follows that to be free to Good and Evil is as natural to reasonable Creatures as it is to be finite in Knowledge and Understanding 'T is true the greater Light of Knowledge there is in the Mind the less Freedom to Evil there must be in the Will unless it hath some antecedent Biass and Inclination to Evil and consequently the Angels being of far more intelligent Natures than we Men must needs be naturally less free to Evil but yet that even they are naturally free to it is evident for that some of them have actually lapsed into Devils and if they are so by their Natures then much more are we by ours who are so much their Inferiours in the rational World For as we are finite Intelligences we must necessarily have some Degree of Freedom to Evil in us but as we are of the lowermost Rank of Intelligences we must naturally have greater Degrees of this Freedom in us than any other Order of intelligent Natures And if this were all yet this very Condition of our Natures renders us more liable to degenerate into an evil and sinful State than any other kind of reasonable Creatures If we were now in a State of perfect Innocence yet of all intelligent Creatures we should have the greatest Reason to apprehend the Danger of our Fall because being the least intelligent we have the greatest Freedom to Evil and consequently are on that Account in the greatest danger of falling into it By the very Condition of our Natures we are of all rational Creatures placed nearest to the Brinks of the fatal Precipice and therefore have most Reason to apprehend the Danger of falling headlong into it For doubtless among innocent Creatures there are none so near the Danger of sinning as those whose Wills are least restrain'd from it
that God exerted all that miraculous Power by which he punished the Rebellions of the Iews and wrought those miraculous Deliverances for them 'T was from the Tabernacle that he commanded the Earth to open and swallow up Corah Dathan and Abiram and that he sent forth that devouring Fire which consumed their Two hundred and fifty Accomplices 'T was from the Tabernacle that he smote the false Spies with the Plague and sent forth an Army of fiery Serpents to destroy the murmuring Israelites 'T was by his Presence in the Tabernacle that he conducted them through the Wilderness and drave their Enemies before them that he divided the River Iordan to open them a Passage into Canaan and made the Walls of Iericho to fall flat at the Blasts of a few Rams-horns And upon the Account of this Miraculous Power which he exerted from the Tabernacle the Ark that was contained in it and was the special Seat of his Presence is called the Ark of his strength Ps. 132. 8. and God is said to send them help from his Sanctuary and to strengthen them out of Sion where the Ark was reposited in the Sanctuary of the Temple Ps. 20. 2. Thus also those Words are to be understood Ps. 80. 2. Before Ephraim Benjamin and Manasseh stir up thy strength and come and help us because the Ark from whence God was wont to put forth his Strength in saving of that People marched immediately before these three Tribes And this was very well understood both by the Israelites and the Philistines for when the Philistines had overthrown them they desired that the Ark of the Lord might be fetched out of Shiloh that so when it came among them it might save them out of the Hands of their Enemies 1 Sam. 4. 3. And when the Philistines understood that the Ark was brought into their Camp they were sore afraid and cryed out God is come into the Camp Wo unto us who shall deliver us out of the hands of these mighty Gods These are the Gods that smote the Egyptians with all the Plagues in the Wilderness v. 7 8. From whence it is evident that they both look'd upon the Tabernacle as the Seat of God's miraculous Power and this miraculous Power is called the Glory of God for thus when the Ark was taken by the Philistines it is said that God delivered his Strength into Captivity and his Glory into the Enemies hand Ps. 78. 61. and his Glory and the Miracles that he wrought from the Tabernacle in the Wilderness are mentioned as Synonimous Terms Numb 14. 22. Because all these Men have seen my Glory and my Miracles which I did in Egypt and in the Wilderness c. So that it 's evident that he exerted his miraculous Power from the Tabernacle and that this miraculous Power was his Glory And consonantly hereunto it was from the Tabernacle of Humane Nature wherein he dwelt that the Eternal Word exerted that miraculous Power whereby he cured the Sick calmed the Sea and raised the Dead vanquished the Devils and wrought all his miraculous Works which were so many and so great that they ravished his Friends with Joy to behold them and struck Terror and Amazement into his Enemies for so it is said that they were all amazed at the mighty Power of God that was in him Luke 9. 43. And that when they saw how the Devils trembled and fled before him they marvelled saying It was never so seen in Israel Matth. 9. 33. So that by their own Confession that miraculous Power which he exerted in the Tabernacle of Humane Nature did far exceed that miraculous Power which he exercised in the Tabernacle of Moses And this miraculous Power of his is also expresly called his Glory Ioh. 2. 11. This beginning of Miracles did Iesus in Cana of Galilee and manifested forth his Glory and his Disciples believed on him So that as his miraculous Power was called his Glory when he tabernacled among the Iews so it was also when he tabernacled in Humane Nature and so by consequence this also was a Part of that Glory of his which his Apostles saw while he dwelt among them 3dly This Glory which they saw consisted also in the surpassing Excellency and Divinity of his Doctrine agreeably to that Expression of his glorious Presence in the Old abernacle viz. his giving Laws and Oracles to the Israelites For thus we find that God told Moses that he would meet him in the Tabernacle and commune with him of all things which he would give him in Commandment to the Children of Israel Exod. 25. 22. And Numb 7. 89. you have the manner of his Communing with them described for when Moses saith he went into the Tabernacle he heard the Voice of one speaking unto him from off the Mercy-Seat that was upon the Ark from between the two Cherubims For Christ as I have formerly shewed you being the civil Prince or Sovereign of the Iews the Cherubims were the Throne upon which he sat and from whence he gave Laws and Directions for the Administration of the Affairs of his Kingdom And accordingly he is said to dwell between the Cherubims Ps. 99. 1. and to ride upon the Cherubims 2 Sam. 22. 11. and the Sanctuary wherein the Cherubims were seated is expresly called the Throne of the Lord Ierem. 17. 12. because here it was that he sat in all his Majesty and gave forth his Laws and Ordinances to the Kingdom of Israel And this was an eminent Expression of the Glory of his Presence among them because hereby he asserted his Sovereign Authority and did publickly challenge to himself that Right to his glorious Power which from all Eternity was inherent in him And hence the Apostle calls the giving those Divine Laws and Oracles a glorious Ministration and plainly asserts it to be an Instance of the Glory of the Divine Shechinah or Presence in the Tabernacle when he grants that the Ministration of Death written and engraven in stone was glorious yea and that Ministration to be Glory in the Abstract 2 Cor. 3. 7 9. And in Correspondence hereunto did the Divine Word when he tabernacled in our Natures give forth Divine Laws and Oracles to the World all which are yet remaining among us and do contain in them the Substance of our Holy Religion which being so divine and godlike and altogether composed of the purest Laws and most Heavenly Doctrines is a most proper Instance of that Glory of the Eternal Word which the Apostles beheld tho' not with the Eyes of their Bodies yet with those of their Minds For what can be more glorious in the Eye of Reason than those illustrious Discoveries which he hath made to us in his Gospel of the Nature of God and the Duty of Man and the immortal Recompences of the World to come in which he hath so far exceeded whatsoever Humane Wisdom was able to discover of them that all the Philosophy that ever was before him must confess it self eclipsed
to what they have done in the Flesh And even the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity which is the profoundest Mystery of all our Religion hath been owned and professed by the greatest and most famous Philosophers that ever were And as for those Doctrines that are purely Christian such as the Birth and Life and Death the Resurrection and Ascension of our Saviour together with his Sitting at the Right-hand of God and coming at the last Day to judge the World they are all of them so excellently contrived to serve the great Ends of Religion so wonderfully pregnant with Motives and Arguments to engage Men to the greatest Purity and Goodness that by their own native Beauty and excellent Contrivance they manifest themselves to be the Products of a divine Wisdom So that there can be no reasonable Pretence to contemn Christianity either because it is a Revealed Religion or because it contains any thing in it that is any ways unworthy of the Revealer And that there wants not sufficient Evidence to demonstrate it to be the Revelation of God I have already proved in the former Inference So that after all the lewd Talk of these confident Men it 's apparent there is not the least Colour of Reason for their impious Censures of Christianity But alas it's evident that the Foundation of their Quarrel against it lies not so much in their Reason as their Lusts. Christianity lays them under severe Restraints and will not permit them to be wicked in quiet which provokes them to arm their Wit and the little Reason that they have against it that so having baffled or rather laughed themselves out of their Religion they may be left at liberty to play the Fools and Mad-men without Controul or Disturbance And I make no doubt but if instead of that strict Piety and Virtue which Christianity enjoins it had but indulged to them the Liberties of the Heathen Religion so that they could have but acted all their Wickedness with Devotion sacrificed to the Gods in drunken Bowls and worshipped in the Arms of a Strumpet there are no Men in the World would have been more zealous Christians than they But let no Man be so foolish as to imagine that he can alter the Nature of Things by laughing at them or that Christianity will cease to be true in Compliance with our wicked Interest and Desires no no Things will be as they are in despite of us and howsoever we will please to fancy them And if after all our rude Contempts of Religion it be found to be true as I doubt not but it will we shall be sensible when it is too late that it had been more for our Safety to have play'd before the Mouth of a Cannon while it is spitting Fire or to have catch'd hold of a Thunderbolt as it comes roaring down from the Clouds than to have plaid with Religion and made it the Subject of our impious Scorns and Buffooneries 4. And lastly They saw the Glory of his immaculate Holiness and Purity From whence I infer that Holiness and true Goodness is the greatest Glory and Honour to humane Nature For this was the Glory of the Son of God himself when he assumed our Nature and dwelt among us and there is nothing more glorious in Christ than his Goodness and notwithstanding those excellent Doctrines that he preached those stupendous Miracles that he wrought and that visible Splendor in which he was inrobed he had not deserved the Name of a great and glorious Man if he had not been just and charitable temperate and humble and Heavenly-minded and eminent in all those divine and humane Virtues which are the proper Glory and Ornament of humane Nature For that which makes a Man more honourable than a meer Animal and advances us into the next Degree of Beings to Angels is our Reason by which alone we border upon the Divinity and do claim Kindred with the Angelical Natures That therefore which is truly our Honour and Glory consists in living according to that Reason by which we are advanced above all sublunary Natures that is in governing our Passions and Appetites Words and Actions according to those Eternal Rules of Righteousness which Right Reason dictates to us and if instead of doing thus we wholly resign up our selves to the Dominion of our brutish and unreasonable Inclinations we thereby render our selves more despicable and infamous than the most beastly Brutes in all the Creation and even those Goats and Wolves and Swine and Tygers whom we resemble in our beastly Manners could they see our Shame would doubtlesly hiss at us and reproach us for greater Beasts than themselves for they all live up to the best of their Natures and regularly pursue the highest End for which they were created whereas we who are Allyed to the noblest of Beings and are created and designed for the most glorious Ends do by our base and unreasonable Condescentions shamefully under-value our selves in pursuing no Ends but what are extremely unworthy of us So that it had been much more for our Honour and Reputation to have assumed the Shape and Nature of Brutes when we assumed their Manners and Customs for then our Actions would have very well become us and neither God nor Men could have justly upbraided us for them But to lead the Lives of Brutes in the Shape and Nature of Men is monstrous 't is to advance the Beast above the Man to place our Heels where Nature hath placed our Head and become our own Reverse and Antipodes OF THE AUTHORITY OF THE Holy Scripture JOHN V. 39. Search the Scriptures for in them ye think ye have eternal life BY the Scriptures here must be meant the Old Testament for as yet the greatest Part of the New was unrevealed and the whole of it unwritten They were those very Scriptures which the unbelieving Iews to whom our Saviour was now preaching owned and acknowledged to be the Word of God for in them says our Saviour ye think ye have eternal life which it's certain they did not think of any other Scriptures but only those of the Old Testament and they are they says he which testify of me And to be sure there were no other Scriptures which could testify of Christ to the unbelieving Iews but only those of Moses and the Prophets these being the only Scriptures whose Testimony they credited But yet the Reason which our Saviour urges to move them to read the Old Testament doth as much oblige us to read the New as well as the Old as it did them to read the Old for in them ye think to have eternal life that is in them ye think ye have eternal Life promised and all the Necessaries to be believed and done by you in order to your obtaining it proposed to you And indeed as they thought so it was they had eternal Life proposed to them in Hieroglyphicks for that was the Mystery of their Holy of Holies that was the Interpretation of