endless Bliss and Perfection And that it is thus is so plain and apparent that we cannot but acknowledge it a most convincing Instance of God's infinite Goodness towards us 2 ly That God hath most mercifully proportioned this Condition to the present State and Circumstances of our Naure He saw very well into what a deplorable Condition humane Nature was reduced how its Strength was broken and its Health and Vigor impair'd and decayed how its Reason was clouded and all its Faculties depraved how apt it was to be surprized and to act unadvisedly sometimes for Want of Time sometimes for Want of Order and Distinction in its Thoughts how much it was hindred from acting regularly by intervening Accidents and how it was weakend and determined by the bad Habits and Necessities it had generally contracted and seeing it reduced to this sad State he hath most graciously accommodated its Burthen to its Strength and taken Measure of its Duty by its Ability to discharge it For though in his Gospel he requires that we should perfect holiness in the fear of God and be perfect as our Father in Heaven is perfect that is that we should advance to the utmost Degrees and Improvements in Virtue that our Natures are capable of yet he requires this of us under such moderate Penalties as are no ways destructive to our eternal Happiness such as the hiding his Face from us and other such like paternal Severities and Castigations his correcting us with the Rod of temporal Judgments and abating us in the Degrees of our future Happiness proportionably to our moral Defects and Non-improvements which Penalties though they are sufficient to quicken our Endeavours and excite us still to a farther Progress from one Degree of Virtue to another yet are they not such as do excommunicate us from Heaven or disseize us of the Reward of our honest and sincere Obedience And indeed should God have been severe in marking what we do amiss and exacted of us under the Penalty of Damnation the utmost Degrees and Improvements that are possible for us to attain no Flesh would be saved it being morally impossible for us in this degenerate State to do always the utmost Good or avoid the utmost Evil that we are able and therefore out of a tender Regard to the Weakness and Infirmity of our Nature he hath only forbid those Neglects and Miscarriages under this Declaration that they are inconsistent with the Sincerity of our Submission and Obedience to him But as for our moral Defects and Infirmities and Surprises though so far as it is in our Power to avoid them they are truly Sins against the Law of Perfection and as such we ought to lament and beg Pardon for them yet Thanks be to a merciful God we shall only be chastned for them here that we may not be condemned with the World as the Apostle expresses it 1 Cor. xi 32 and reap less Happiness in the other World for having sowed less Degrees of good than we might and ought to have done in this as the same Apostle in 2 Cor. ix 6 'T is true indeed as for wilful Sinners he hath concluded them as it is very reasonable he should under the Sentence of eternal Death for should he let such go unpunished he must e'en resign up his Government and leave the wretched World in a State of Anarchy and Confusion but yet to these he hath extended as much Kindness as was possible for a wise and gracious Governour to do for he hath not so irrecoverably concluded them under this direful Sentence but that still he doth indulge to them the saving Remedy of Repentance having for the sake of Jesus and his all-sufficient Propitiation bound himself by Promise to pardon and receive into his Favour every wilful Sinner in the World if he will but repent of what is past and amend for the future Thus to save the miserable World he hath gone to the utmost Borders of what is fit and reasonable and done as much for us as it was possible for the Justice and Rectitude of his Nature to admit of for should he have proceeded any further he must have pardoned impenitent Sinners which he could not have done without allowing and incouraging their Rebellion And to pardon an Offendor that persists in his Fault that is neither sorry for it nor willing to amend it is utterly incongruous to all wise Rules of Government and cannot be practised by any Government either divine or humane without endangering its own Foundations What then is there beyond this that we can modestly ask or God wisely grant If God had summoned us to his Privy Council in Heaven and there promised to grant us any Terms of Salvation that we our selves could think fit to propose to him surely the utmost that any modest Man could have asked would have been only this Lord Be but so merciful as to consider the Weakness and Infirmity of our Natures so as not to cast us off for every Neglect or Miscarriage that was only possible for us to avoid And if at any time we should be such Wretches as knowingly and wilfully to Offend thee be but so gracious as to receive us again into thy Favour whensoever we heartily repent and amend This is the utmost that we can request at thy Hands and for this we will praise thee on the bended Knees of our Souls and adore thy Goodness for ever and ever Why now all this he hath freely granted us of his own Accord and is not this a most amazing Instance of his Goodness that of his own free Motion he should thus indulge to us the utmost Mitigations that we could have modestly desired and condescended so far to our Weakness that without an unpardonable Impudence we cannot desire him to condescend yet further 3 dly That he hath rendred the Performance of the whole Condition of our Salvation almost necessarily consequent to our believing in Jesus Christ For in that Revelation of his Will which he hath made by Jesus Christ he hath pressed the Performance of this Condition upon us with such irresistible Arguments as must needs prevail wheresoever they are heartily believed and duly considered What Man can be so stupid as to trample upon Christ's Law that firmly believes and considers those glorious Rewards it proposes to all that sincerely obey it What pleasures of Sin can seduce that Man from his Duty who is firmly persuaded that after a few Moments Obedience he shall swim in Rivers of Pleasures that flow from God's right Hand for evermore How can any Man have the Courage to violate the Laws of our Saviour who heartily believes and considers those direful Punishments which he hath denounced against the Transgressors of them And what Evils or Miseries can scare that Man from his Duty that is chained so fast to it by the Consideration of that Wrath of God which is revealed from Heaven against all Unrighteousness and Ungodliness of Men How can any
that by the grace of God he tasted death for every Man So that the Scripture hath as emphatically declared the universal Extent of this great Gift of God's Love as it was possible for it to do in any human Words and methinks 't is strange that any Men should presume to restrain it when they have no other Defence for so doing but only an odd Distinction that makes the whole World to signify the smallest Part of it the Body of Christ to import a few particular Atoms of it and every Man to denote one Man of Ten Thousand Behold then the immense Goodness of God that hath not only given up his Son for Sinners but for a whole World of Sinners and excluded none but those who exclude themselves from the Benefits of this mighty Donation That hath planted this heavenly Tree of Life in the midst of a sick and sinful World and hath not confined or inclosed it for the Use of a few selected Patients but laid it open for all Comers that whosoever would might take of its Fruit and eat and live for ever O good God! How vast is thy Love that hath thus impartially diffused it self over such a wide World of Sinners that in this stupendous Gift of thy Son had so kind a Respect to every Individual and made no Exception of any how sinful and unworthy soever that will but comply with the merciful Terms and Conditions of it 4 thly The Greatness of God's Love and Goodness towards us appears also in this that he hath given up his only begotten Son to become a Man for Sinners For whatsoever he was upon God's giving him up he was what God gave him up to be and therefore since upon God's giving him up he became a Man it necessarily follows that he gave him up to become so And indeed since God had such a merciful Design as to send his Son into the World to reform and save it it was highly convenient for us though not for him that he should come to us in our own Natures not only that he might consecrate human Nature that had been so miserably desecrated and prophaned but also that he might endear himself to us by the great Honour he did us in assuming our Natures and that having our Passions and being in our Circumstances he might by his own Practice give us an Example how to govern the one and how to behave our selves in the other Had he come down from the Heavens inrobed with Splendor and Light and preached his Gospel to us in the midst of a Choir of Angels from some bright Throne in the Clouds this indeed would have been more convenient for him as being more suitable to the natural Dignity and Majesty of his Person But the All-merciful Father in the Disposal of his Son consulted not so much his Convenience as ours he knew well enough that should he have sent his Son to us in such an illustrious Equipage his Appearance amongst us would have been more apt to astonish than to instruct us and to have fixed our Thoughts in a profound Admiration of his Glory than to have directed our Steps in the Paths of Virtue and true Happiness and that it would be much more for our Interest that he should conduct us by his Example than amaze us by his Appearance and therefore that he might do so he sent him to us in our own Natures that so going before us as a Man he might shew us by his Example what became Men to do and direct us by the Print of his own Footsteps Since therefore he assumed our Nature purely for our sakes what a stupendous Instance of God's Goodness was this that for the sake of a World of miserable Sinners he should be content that his own most dear and most glorious Son should condescend to become a Man and to empty himself into our Nature that he who by the Divinity of his Nature was exalted more above that of the highest Angel than that is above the lowest Animal should personally unite himself to a Handful of Dust and marry his Divinity to the Infirmities of our Nature that he whose Throne was in the Heavens and before whose sacred Feet the whole Choir of heavenly Angels lie prostrate should abase himself so low as to come down among Mortals and associate himself with Companions so unworthy of him O good God! When thou hast condescended so low what is there thou wilt not condescend to to do good to thy Creatures But this is not all you shall see him stoop lower yet For 5 thly The Greatness of God's Love and Goodness towards us appears also in this that he gave up his only begotten Son to become a miserable Man for Sinners It would have been some Abatement to his mighty Condescention if when he sent him down among us in our Nature he had made him supream visible Monarch of the World if he had crowned him with all the Splendors of an earthly Condition if he had ushered him into the World in a triumphal Chariot with all the Kings of the Earth either prostrate before him or chained at his Chariot-Wheels This though a vast Condescention in the eternal Son yet would not have been so low as it was to be born of a poor Mother to be educated as a Carpenters Son to be exposed to Want and Penury to the Contempt of every sordid Wretch and the perpetual Persecutions of a borish and ill-natured Rable and yet this was the wretched State to which God humbled his own dear Son for our sakes For the Design of his Humiliation being to raise us the most merciful Father consulted not so much what was for his Ease as what was for our Benefit for he knew well enough that should he have introduced him into the World in earthly Pomp and Magnificence it would not have been so well for us that we were too Ambitious already of the Vanities of this World and that that had been the great Snare that had intangled and ruined us and that therefore it was necessary when his Son came among us he should take us off from our over-eager Pursuit of them disgrace and expose them to us by his own voluntary Refusal of them that by seeing him trample on them when they lay all at his Feet we might learn to despise them and be at length convinced what foolish Bargains we make when we sell our Innocence and our Happiness for such insignificant Trifles He thought it much more necessary for us that his Son should exercise his Virtue than display his Greatness among us and therefore he placed him in such Circumstances of human Life wherein by his own Example he might copy out to us the noblest Pattern of holy living For of all States that of Affliction affords the largest Sphere to exercise human Virtue in and therefore in this State out of his good Will to us he placed his own Son that herein he might set us a Patten of
These are all plain and easie Deductions and seem as naturally to follow from one another as the most immediate Consequences do from First Principles This therefore being supposed which you see is very reasonable that God is infinitely Powerful and Wise and Happy and that because he is so he loves himself infinitely I doubt not but from each of these it will naturally follow that he is also infinitely good and benevolent 1. He is infinitely powerful and therefore he is good For Power is nothing but an Ability to act and Action is the End of all Ability for Action So that the greater any Power is the farther it must necessarily be removed from Inactivity and consequently infinite Power must be so infinitely removed from it that it cannot be supposed to exist without Exercise or if it could yet it cannot be imagined that any Being in whom infinite Power exists should determine with it self that the best Use it could make of that Power were to make no Use of it at all because such a Being can with as much Ease to it self act as not act And therefore since every Being doth necessarily delight in the Exercise of its own Perfections it cannot be supposed but a Being infinitely powerful should necessarily delight in the Exercise of its Power when it can as easily exercise it as suffer it to sleep on in eternal Inactivity and consequently when it can exercise its Power more vigorously as easily as less and can do more Things as easily as fewer it must necessarily chuse to do it because as the having of Power inclines the Agent to act so the having of more Power inclines it to act more vigorously Wherefore if the doing of Good to others be a much greater Exercise of Power than the doing of Evil it will hence necessarily follow that God being infinitely powerful must be infinitely prone to do Good because he cannot but be delighted in that whereby this great Perfection of his Nature is most vigorously Exercised But now for God to chuse to imploy his Power in doing Mischief to others rather than Good would be to chuse to do less rather than to do more when both are equally easy to him and consequently to lay a needless Restriction upon the Exercise of his Power and so far to render it useless and in vain For in doing Mischief to others he must be supposed either wholly to annihilate them or to make them miserable and continue them so but by doing Good to others he must be supposed either to uphold them in those Beings he gave them or to perfect those Beings and thereby to render them as happy as their Capacities will bear And certainly to do either of the later is a much more vigorous Exercise of Power than to do either of the former For for God to annihilate Beings or reduce them to Nothing is rather to withdraw his Power from them than to exercise it upon them because that which is not of it self cannot continue to be of it self it being in the Nature of the Thing as possible for a Thing to be of it self in the first Moment of its Existence as to be of it self in any Moment of its Duration So that the Continuance of our Being and the Original of it must necessarily be owing to the same Power and consequently as our Continuance in Not-Being must necessarily have followed upon the Non-exercise of this Power so our Relapse into Not-being must as necessarily follow from the Discontinuance of the Exercise of this Power So that to our Annihilation there needs no more than the bare Suspension of the Exercise of Almighty Power upon us or a ceasing to uphold us in Being for to the upholding us in Being there is required a continued Exertion of that creative Power that first brought us into Being for if we can exist of our selves this one Moment we might as well have done so the Moment before and may as well do so the Moment after and so backward and forward to all Eternity So that unless we had such an exuberant Fulness of Essence in us as to exist of our selves from all Eternity past to all Eternity to come we cannot exist so much as one Moment without new Supplies of Being from that infinite Fountain whence we were originally derived and that we are this Moment is as much the Effect of God's Power as that we were that Moment when we first came into Being So that whereas by annihilating us God would chuse to exercise no Power at all that is to render his own Omnipotence useless by giving it a Quietus from Action by upholding us in Being his Power is still as vigorously exercised about us as it was in the first Moment of our Creation and therefore by how much more suitable it is to infinite Power to act than to be idle by so much more suitable to it it must necessarily be to uphold us in our Beings than to annihilate and destroy us And then for making us miserable and continuing us so it is a much less vigorous Exercise of Power than to perfect our Beings and thereby to render us happy And verily should God turn the whole World into one intire Globe of unquenchable Fire and continue its wretched Inhabitants for ever weltring in its Flames I should not look upon this as so great an Act of Omnipotence as it is to perfect our rational Nature so as to render it immutably and eternally happy For to the making of any Being perfect and happy there is required many more Causes and many more Acts than there is to the making them miserable For the greatest Part of Misery consists in the Privation of Happiness and for God to deprive his Creatures of Happiness is not so much the Exercise as Non-exercise of his Power for then he deprives us of it when he ceases to do any Thing for us and refuses to produce or to contribute to the producing of what tends to our Happiness So that this Part of Misery consisting in a mere Privation is not so properly the Effect of the Exercise of Power as of the Suspension of the Exercise of Power So that unless we can suppose that the Omnipotent Creator of the World chuses rather not to act than to act we must necessarily suppose that he chuses rather to bestow Happiness on his Creatures than to deprive them of it And as for the positive Part of Misery which consists in Pain and Torment I dare appeal to any Man whether it be not much more easie to vex and torment any Being than it is to render it happy For even a Child can put a Man yea an Elephant to Pain but to make a sick Man well a poor Man prosperous a mad Man sober or a Fool wise are such mighty Things as do most commonly transcend all humane Power whatsoever But then to retrieve such imperfect Beings as we from the Bondage of Sense and Sensuality and from being almost
beneficial Course and Order wherein he first created them For we see the Heaven and the Elements still as kind to us as ever the Sun Moon and Stars do still run the same Courses and still they cherish and refresh us with the same benign Influences and though for six Thousand years together they have been perpetually visiting us and spending the liberal Alms of their great Creator upon us yet to this Day they are neither wearied nor exhausted but still continue to do us good with the same Freedom and Vigour as when they first danced round the World and sang together for Joy The Fire and Air and Earth and Water are still as liberal to us as ever and do supply us with the same Necessaries of Life as they did from the first Moment of their Being and though for so many Ages we and innumerable other Animals have been liberally maintained out of these vast Store-houses of Nature yet still we find them replenished with an inexhaustible Fulness So that still not only the Earth but all the other Elements are full of the Goodness of the Lord yea and though in their Qualities they are quite contrary to one another yet are their Animosities so tempered by the gracious Providence of Heaven that they all live together like Brethren in unity and the Dryness of this drinks not up the Moisture of that nor doth the Cold of the one quench the Heat of the other The Fire invades not the Air nor the Water the Earth but every one keeps within its proper Bounds and though in sundry Places the Water be above the Earth yet contrary to its own Nature which is to flow and expatiate it self it doth only overlook its Banks but doth not overflow them being bounded by that merciful Providence which in mere Pity to the Inhabitants of the Earth says to its proud Waves hitherto shall ye go and no further So that in short the Continuation of the regular Motions of the Heavens of the Vicissitudes of Seasons and alternate Mutation of Bodies of the safety of the whole Vniverse notwithstanding the rude Clashings of turbulent Matter and of the exact Symmetry of all the Parts of it in Despite of the frequent Rencounters of so many contrary Principles shews not only the Power and Presence of some great Mind but is also a plain Evidence of the Continuation of his Care and good Will to the World And as he hath continued the inanimate World in that most excellent Course and Order wherein he first created it so he hath still preserved all those innumerable Species of Animals which he first gave Being to so that in so many Ages and among so many Chances there is not one Kind of them hath either failed or perished or become less capable of Happiness or less furnished with Means and Abilities of obtaining it So that his Providence is nothing else but a constant Repetition of the Goodness of his Creation and all the Difference between them is only this that in the one he made all Things Good in the other he continues them so 'T is true God hath left himself at Liberty when Occasion requires immediately to interpose in the Course of Nature and to vary from the Order of his Creation And indeed unless he had done so he would in a great Measure have tyed up his own Hands and incapacitated himself from Governing the World but yet he never makes Use of this Liberty but for very good Reason to serve some very great and excellent End of his Government either to punish some notorious Sinner or some very sinful People that so by their Example others may be warned from treading in their Footsteps or to deliver or preserve some eminently virtuous Person or Nation that thereby others may be incouraged to imitate and transcribe their Virtues or lastly to confirm and ratify by some miraculous Effects some necessary Revelations of his Will to the World Unless I say it be to serve some such excellent Ends as these he never interposes by his absolute Power to make the least Interruption in the established Course and Order of the Vniverse And as soon as ever he hath obtained the good Ends that he aims at he withdraws his Hand and immediately remits Things to their primitive Course and Order So that if Gods Creation be good as I have largely proved it is his Providence must needs be so too because it continues the Course and Order of the Creation and never interrupts or varies it unless it be to do some great Good to the World Thus God in his Providence doth continually spread forth the mighty Wings of his Goodness over all his Creation and thereby reaches out Perseverance to the Being and the Happiness of every Creature 2. Another Instance of his doing good in this great Work of his Providence is his continuing Mankind under an awful Sense of Religion notwithstanding the great Degeneracies of human Nature It is very strange to consider how this heavenly Spark hath been kept alive in the midst of such a vast Ocean of Impiety as hath over-spread the World for considering into what monstrous Barbarism Mankind have immersed themselves how miserably they have defaced their own Nature and blotted out their Reason insomuch that in several Ages and several Parts of the World they have had scarce any other Remains of Humanity in them but only their Language and their Shape I say considering these Things it is impossible but all Sense of Religion must long e're now have been extinguished in us had not the divine Providence from Time to Time been exceeding careful to cherish and revive it And this it hath done by very strange and extraordinary Methods sometimes by inflicting strange and amazing Judgments upon great and notorious Offenders sometimes by showering down miraculous Blessings and Deliverances upon virtuous and good Men sometimes by raising up eminent Examples and Preachers of Righteousness such as the Patriarchs among the Jews and the Philosophers among the Gentiles sometimes by making immediate Revelations from Heaven and confirming the Truth of them by miraculous Effects and sometimes by permitting evil Spirits to appear to possess the Bodies of their Enthusiasts and to deliver Oracles by them which though it sometimes tended to promote false Religions among Mankind yet did always prove instrumental to cherish and enliven the Sense and Belief of a Divinity By these and such like powerful Methods hath the good Providence of Heaven from time to time revived in us the dying Sense of Religion and in Despite of our selves continually kept us under its Aw and Restraints which if it had not done we should have immediately run headlong into the most deplorable Confusions and Disorders For not only our eternal but our temporal Interest too is bound up in Religion for this is the Foundation of all human Society and of all the Blessings that redound from it 't is this that gives Life and Security to all those Pacts
and Covenants by which Men are linked to one another and incorporated into regular Societies For if once Men were abandoned of all Sense of Religion they would own no other Law but that of their own Interest and esteem themselves no longer obliged by their Oaths and Covenants than 't is their Interest to keep them and he that thinks himself bound to be honest no longer than he needs must will by the same Principle be obliged to be a Knave as soon as he can So that if once Men could disingage themselves from the Sense of Religion and the Tyes of Conscience all those Pacts and Covenants which are the Cement of Society would presently be dissolved and rendred insignificant for what will it signify for Men to take Oaths and Covenants of Fidelity to any Society since whether they take them or no they will be faithful so long and no longer than 't is their Interest to be so And this vital Cement that unites us being dissolved our Society will soon disband of its own Accord and we like the Parts of a dead Body having lost the Soul that united and hold us together shall immediately disperse our selves and fly abroad into Atoms and out of an eternal Distrust and Diffidence of one another having no Religion or Conscience to secure each others Honesty shall be forced to withdraw like other Beasts of Prey into Dens and secret Retirements and there live poor and solitary as Bats and Owls and subsist like Vermin by robbing and filching from one another And in this deplorable Condition we should be forced to wander about the World naked and destitute both of all the mutual Aids and Assistances of each other and of all the blessed Hopes and supports of Religion which are the only Comforts and Refreshments that in such a calamitous State our wretched Natures would be capable of So that without the Sense of Religion we should be of all Creatures the most wretched and miserable And this the good God foresaw very well which made him so careful to inspire us with an awful Sense of Religion and when through the Degeneracy of our Nature it was in so much Danger of being utterly extinguished to awaken and revive it again from Time to Time by the wise and gracious Methods of his Providence that so we might live happily here as well as hereafter by enjoying the Blessings of each others Society and the continual Supports and Comforts of Religion For it is to him that we owe our Sense of Religion and 't is to our Sense of Religion that we owe all the Conveniencies and Comforts of our Lives How much Reason therefore have we to admire and adore the good Providence of God that hath taken so much Care of us that would not suffer us to make our selves the most wretched and miserable of all Beings that hath been so vigilant to rouze and awake us when we were nodding into a lethargick Stupidity and sleeping away all the Happiness and Comfort of our Lives in a word that hath kept Religion alive in us in Despight of all our Attempts to extinguish it and would not suffer us to destroy the Foundation of our own Happiness 3 dly Another Instance of the Goodness of God's Providence to us is his supporting of Government in the World notwithstanding the violent Tendency of our corrupt Natures to Anarchy and Confusion If we reflect but a little upon the depraved Natures of Men what ungovernable Passions they carry about with them how sick they are of every Yoak and how impatient of every Restraint how greedily they covet an unbounded Liberty and how much the greatest Part of Men are of this violent Temper it will afford us matter of sufficient Astonishment to think how Government and good Order could be so long preserved as it hath been among such a sort of wild and extravagant Creatures especially considering how much more numerous the governed Party is than the Governing and how apt the Government it self is to be rendred odious by ill Management by the Tyranny and Oppression of those that sit at the Stern and the perpetual Factions and cross Humours and Interests of the inferior Ministers of State I say considering all these Things 't is a Wonder how the Ship of Government should live so long as it hath sayled in the midst of such Tempests and Hurricanes and doubtless long ere now it must have been swallowed up in Anarchy and Confusion had it not been guarded by the Providence of that God who as the Psalmist tells us stills the noise of the Seas and the noise of their Waves and the tumult of the People Psalm lxv 5 And how much his Providence hath been concerned in securing of Government in the World is evident from the Care it hath taken to keep Men under an awful sense of Religion which is the main Foundation upon which Government leans and without which it must necessarily sink into Ruin and Confusion for together with Religion away go all Principles of Loyalty and when these are all gone their Obedience to Government will wholly depend upon their Interest and consequently whensoever it is their Interest to rebel they have no Obligation at all to restrain them And as Providence hath been very careful to secure the main Foundations of Government so it hath been no less careful to infatuate the Councels and bring to light the dark Contrivances and baffle the open Attempts of those that have sought to undermine it and this in such a remarkable manner that all the World hath taken peculiar Notice and all Histories abound with innumerous Instances of it And in all the Rises and Falls of the Empires of the World there hath ever been observed a most astonishing Concurrence either of such happy or unhappy Accidents as have very much furthered their approaching Fates which is a notorious Evidence how much God is concerned in the securing of the Governments of the World in that he doth so immediatly interpose in their Rises and Falls and whensoever in his just Displeasure he pulls down one he always takes Care to establish another in the Room of it lest through too long Interregnums the Nations of the Earth should insensibly crumble into Anarchy and Confusion and finally involve themselves in all the consequent Mischiefs of it For the Subversion of Government like the opening of Pandora's Box must necessarily let loose a swarm of Miseries into the World for without Government wronged Innocence can never be righted invaded Property can never be retrieved but every Man will be exposed to every Man's Lust which must immediately involve us into a State of War in which like so many Dogs we should try all our Right by our Teeth Into such a miserable State would Mankind be reduced if God did not uphold the Governments of the World So that whatsoever Benefits we receive from the Governments under which we live we owe it all to the divine Providence by whose Procurement
miserable Condition they being there exposed to Hunger and Cold and perpetual Slavery So that if a Man should judge of the whole Empire by this Part of it he would conclude that Emperor to be a most savage Tyrant and his Country to be the most miserable Place in the World whereas in Reality all the other Parts of that Empire are rendred more happy by the Miseries of this Place which serve to strike an Aw into all the other Subjects of it and to restrain them within the Bounds of their Loyalty and Duty And so unless we had as full a Prospect of the whole Dominion of Gods Providence as we have of this little Spot of it we ought not to censure his Government of the Whole by the little Inconveniencies that occur in his Government of a Part for in such a vast Dominion as God's is there may be a thousand good Reasons that we know not of why some Parts of it should be more unhappy than others and if in some particulars he incommodes this Part for the publick Commodity of the Whole we are so far from having any Reason to complain that we ought in all Justice to praise and adore his Goodness for it It is enough for us that we understand so much of Gods Nature as we do and have such apparent Instances of his Goodness in the Works of his Creation and Providence and therefore if we in this little Part of Gods Empire suffer some small Inconveniencies we ought to bless and adore his Goodness for those greater Goods we enjoy and to rest satisfied with this that our particular Inconveniencies may for all we know be great Conveniencies to the Publick 5 thly That many other Things seem evil to us in the Course of Gods Providence because we judge of them by their present sensible Effects and are not able to comprehend the universal Drift and Connexion and Dependence of them For as I have already shewn you in the former Discourse on this Argument there is a continued Juncture and Dependence from first to last between all the Actions and Contrivances of divine Providence and every one hath a Relation to every one from the Beginning to the End of all that mighty Chain of Causes whereof it consists So that 't is impossible to judge rightly of one Part of Providence separately from the rest because we see not the Relation it hath either to what went before or to what is to follow after and though singly considered it may be hurtful yet in Conjunction with all the rest it may be exceedingly advantagious He that looks only on the first Links of that curious Chain of Providence in the History of Joseph will be apt to entertain a very bad Opinion of the Whole first he is thrown into a desolate Pit then sold a Slave then falsely accused then cast into Prison Lord what a tragical Prologue is here But then take all those Things in Conjunction with what follows and you shall presently see that Scene clear up and all those sad Preparations ending in a joyful Conclusion And if we consider that most glorious Part that ever Gods Providence acted on the Stage of the World viz. the History of our blessed Saviour how dark and gloomy doth the former Part of it look if we view it separately from the Antecedents and Consequents of it Surely if any Thing would justify our hard Censures of God's Providence it would be the beholding of such a rare and excellent Person exposed to so many Miseries and Calamities to see him cast forth to the wide World as a helpless Prey to the Rage of his Enemies to behold him hanging upon the Cross deserted of his Friends mock'd and tormented by his barbarous Murderers and in the most bitter Agonies breathing out his white and innocent Soul O good Lord What a dismal Prospect of thy Providence is here But stay a little let us but see the glorious Light that in Conclusion broke out of this dismal Darkness first he is raised from the Dead then he ascends up to Heaven where at the right Hand of his Father he reigns an eternal King in full Power and Authority to give Gifts unto Men and bestow those immortal Rewards on them which he purchased for them with his Blood So that though singly and apart the first Scenes of this great Providence were very dismal and affrighting yet considered altogether how beautiful and harmonious doth it appear So true is that of the Preacher Eccles. 3.11 He hath made every thing beautiful in his time Also he hath set the world in their heart so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end And therefore because we are not able to see from the Beginning to the End of God's Providence it is an unreasonable Thing for us to censure the Whole because of some seeming Inconveniencies that we see in those Parts of it that lie before us Let us stay but till the winding up of the Bottom till all is finished and Present it one intire Piece to our View and then we shall have leave to censure if we can find any Reason for it 6 thly And lastly many other Things seem evil to us in the Course of God's Providence which are not so merely because we understand very little of the other World It seems to us a mighty Evil in Providence that so great a Part of the World is left in Darkness and Ignorance and in so great a Measure deprived of the vast Advantages of true Religion but how do we know how God will dispose of them in the other World what Abatements he will make them and by what Measures he will judge them whether he will not allow them some farther Time of Tryal and so make good to them there whatsoever hath been wanting to them here But whatsoever he doth or will do this we may be sure of that he will damn none but those that are first self-condemned but those that knowingly and willingly miscarry and if so then he will exact of them but in Proportion to their Abilities and will not require Brick where he hath given no Straw But which way soever he deals with them to be sure first or last he will not be wanting in any Degrees of Kindness to them that are fit either for a wise Sovereign to grant or a reasonable Subject to demand and if he will do so as undoubtedly he will how unreasonably do we complain of his Providence towards us And though in this Life we see many good Men reduced to a very calamitous Condition yet how do we know how necessary this may be to the securing of their Happiness in the World to come For since our main State and Interest is in that other World there is no doubt but the Providence of God over us doth chiefly Respect that and if so how unreasonably do we censure it upon the Score of the present Evils it exposes us
should not perish but have everlasting life I. I begin with the first of these viz. the Greatness of the Gift by which the Greatness of his Love to us is measured God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he gave him that is he delivered him up from out of his own Bosom and everlasting Embraces for so Eph. v. 2 it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he gave himself for us or delivered up himself for us for so we render the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who was delivered for our offences Rom. iv 25 Now what a stupendous Expression of God's Love this was will appear by considering these six Things which are all of them expressed or implied in the Text 1. That he gave him up who was not only the greatest but the dearest Person to him in the whole World 2. That he gave him up for Sinners 3. That he gave him up for a whole World of Sinners 4. That he gave him up to become a Man for Sinners 5. That he gave him up to be a miserable Man for Sinners 6. That he gave him to be a Sacrifice for the Sins of Sinners that so he might not only with more Effect but with more Security to us interceed for our Pardon 1. The Greatness of God's Love and Goodness towards us appears in this that he gave up for our sakes not only the greatest but the dearest Person to him in the whole World for as the Text tells you it was his only begotten Son Which Phrase doubtless imports a much higher signification than his being begotten in the Virgins Womb by the Overshadowing of the Holy Ghost For though it cannot be denied but in Scripture he is called the Son of God sometimes upon the Account of this his divine Generation in the Virgins Womb and sometimes upon the Score of his being ordained by God to the Messiaship sometimes because he was raised by God from the Dead and sometimes because he was installed by him into his Mediatorial Kingdom Yet upon neither of these Accounts can he be properly called the only begotten Son for upon the three last Accounts sundry others have been as properly begotten by God as our Saviour some having been installed by him into great and eminent Offices others raised from the Dead others truly ordained by him his Messiah's or anointed Ones so that upon neither of these Accounts can he be stiled the only begotten Son others having been thus begotten as well as himself And as for the first his being conceived by the Holy Ghost in the Virgins Womb this was not sufficient neither to intitle him the only begotten because though it was indeed a miraculous Production yet was it not so much above the Production of the first Man as to place him in that singular Eminence For the forming of Adam out of the Substance of the Earth was altogether as miraculous a Production as the forming of Christ out of the substance of the Woman and therefore since Adam is called the Son of God Luk. 3.38 because God immediately formed him of the substance of the Earth he had thereby as good a Right to the Title of God's only begotten Son as Christ himself had because God immediately formed him of the substance of a Woman Wherefore his peculiar Right above all others to this glorious Title of God's only begotten Son must necessarily be founded upon some higher Reason than this that is upon some such Reason as is wholly peculiar to himself For if he be really and truly God's only begotten Son all other Persons whatsoever must necessarily be excluded from that Claim and consequently he must be so begotten of God as no other Person is or ever was And to be so begotten of God is to be begotten by him by a proper and natural Generation which is nothing else but a vital Production of another in the same Nature with him from whom it is produced even as a Man begets a Man and every Animal begets another of the same Kind and Nature with it self And thus to be begotten of God is to be begotten into the same divine Nature with himself to derive or communicate from him the infinitely perfect Nature and Essence of a God And in this Sense only our blessed Saviour is the only begotten Son of the Father as being generated by him from all Eternity into the same Nature and communicating from him his own infinite Essence and Perfections in which sense he is truly the only begotten Son because in this Sense and in this only none is or was or ever shall be begotten of the Father but himself When therefore it is said that he gave his only begotten Son the Meaning is this he gave up that infinitely great and dear Son of his that is his natural Image and Resemblance that only Son to whom from all Eternity he hath communicated his own most perfect Essence and Nature If then it was so great an Instance of Abraham's Faith and ardent Love of God at his Command to offer up his only Son Isaac a Son who though how hopeful soever yet who fell infinitely shorter of the Perfection of our Saviour than the Light of the Glow-worm doth of the Light of the Sun what an astonishing Miracle of Love was it in the great Father of the World to give up his only begotten Son a Son whom he had begotten in his own divine Nature and to whom he had communicated all the infinite Perfections of his own Being a Son who was the most perfect Image of himself who was infinitely powerful and wise and good and differed from him in nothing but only in being his Son who had the Fulness of the Godhead dwelling in him and whom being infinitely perfect as himself he loved as infinitely as his own Person and consequently could as easily have given up himself for us as he did that dearly Beloved in whom his Soul was so well pleased Who but a God of infinite Love and immeasurable Inclination to do good to his Creatures would have given them such an inestimable Jewel out of his Bosom a Jewel wherein all the Brightness of the Divinity did sparkle and which upon that Account was as dear and precious to him as his own Life And hence we find the Apostle valuing the Greatness of God's Love to us by the Greatness and Dearness of the Person whom he gave up for our sakes in this was manifested the love of God towards us because that God sent his only begotten Son into the World that we might live through him 1 Joh. iv 9 And indeed without this Consideration of his being the only begotten Son of God by eternal Generation and Communion of Nature with him God's Love in giving him up for us would not be comparably so considerable as it is For if according to the Doctrin of the Socinians he should only have caused a Man to be born for us after another manner than
other Men are and then have delivered him for our sake there would have been no such great Expression of his Love in this Way of redeeming us more than what must have appeared should he have chosen to redeem us any other Way To have redeemed us indeed by what Means soever would have been a most glorious Expression of his Love and good Will to us but since the Scripture hath raised the Consideration of God's Love higher from the Dignity of the Person whom he sent to redeem us by how much higher the Dignity of this Person is by so much greater is the Estimation of his Love But if the Dignity of Christ's Person as the only begotten Son of God consisted meerly in being a Man born into the World in such an extraordinary Manner this would have made such an inconsiderable Addition to his Love in redeeming us that he would have much more agrandized his Kindness to us to have offered up an Angel of Heaven for us though of the most inferior Order than to have thus delivered up his only begotten Son But to offer up his natural Son to whom he had communicated his Nature his Son who was God co-eternal and co-essential with himself was a more transcendent Expression of his Love to us than if he had unpeopled Heaven for our sakes and delivered up to us the whole Quire of Angels Archangels and Seraphims 2 ly The Greatness of God's Love and Goodness towards us appears in this also that he gave up his only begotten Son for us when we were Sinners And this is implied in that Expression God so loved the World that is the World as it then was a base depraved and degenerate World for of this very World whom God thus loved the Apostle gives this extream bad Character the whole World lieth in Wickedness 1 Joh. v. 19 And St. Paul distributing the whole World into Jews and Gentiles pronounces universally concerning them that they were all under Sin Rom. iii. 9 So that in giving up his Son for such a World as this he must necessarily give him for Sinners And certainly should we measure God's Goodness by our own this Consideration is enough to render his giving his only begotten Son for us a most incredible Expression of it that when by our Sins we had provoked him beyond the Sufferance of any Patience but his own when in Despight of all those innumerable Mercies wherewith from Time to Time he had sought to oblige us and mauger all those Stupendous Judgments with which from one Generation to another he had endeavoured to curb and restrain us when he had used so many effectual Arts to reclaim and amend us and we by our own Obstinacy had bafled and defeated them all and in stead of mending grew worse and worse under all his powerful Applications one would have thought that now at last in stead of trying any further Experiments on us he might have been sufficiently provoked to give us up as Physitians do their Patients when they are past all Hope of Recovery and so let us alone to perish in our own Obstinacy And doubtless if after all these Provocations we had known that he had intended to send his Son into the World our own Guilt and Consciousness would have made us conclude that the Design of his sending him was only to ruin and destroy us to extirpate the whole Race of us from the Face of the Earth that so his Creation might be no longer scandalized with the Remembrance of such a Generation of Monsters But now that after so many repeated Affronts and Rebellions and in the midst of so many loud-crying Guilts that perpetually rang in his Ears he should still persevere to love us in such a transcendent Degree as to part with what is nearest and dearest to him for our sakes even his only begotten Son out of his Bosom is such an astonishing Expression of his Goodness to us as we can never sufficiently magnify and admire Had Mankind been as innocent as they are guilty before God had their Virtues been as great and as numerous as their Crimes were yet to send his great Son down from Heaven to visit them had been such an Instance of condescending Goodness in him as would have justly merited our everlasting Praise and Remembrance but to send him down to Sinners to such a Race of obstinate and incorrigible Sinners and that not to destroy but to save them to obtain for and tender to them a Kingdom of immortal Pleasures and use all possible Means safely to conduct them thither Lord what a Miracle of Love is this And hence the Apostle estimates this prodigious Instance of the Love of God by the Vndeservingness of those upon whom it was exercised but God says he commendeth his love towards us in that while we were yet Sinners Christ died for us Rom. v. 8 3 dly The Greatness of God's Love and Goodness towards us appears in this also that he gave up his only begotten Son for the whole World of Sinners he did not confine and limit this great Design of his Goodness by granting a monopoly of it to a few particular Favourites but settled it as a publick Charter upon the whole Corporation of Mankind for he so loved the World says the Text that he gave his only begotten Son that is for the benefit of the World For how could his giving of his Son have been an Expression of his Love to the World if he had not given him for the publick Benefit of the World Had his Design been to restrain his Gift to a few particular Persons whom he had designed to rescue from the general Shipwrack the Text must have run thus God so loved some particular Persons in the World that he gave up his only begotten Son For to make that an Instance of his Love to all which he designed only for the Benefit of a few is to pretend a Love to the greatest Part of Men which he never intended them for that by the World here he means the whole World he himself assures us 1 Joh. ii 2 And he is the Propitiation for our Sins And not for ours only but also for the Sins of the whole World And what he means by the whole World he tells us in the same Epistle 1 Joh. v. The whole World lieth in Wickedness So that this whole World that lies in Wickedness is that whole World for whose Sins Christ is a Propitiation and that whole World for whose Sins Christ is a Propitiation is the World whom God so loved as to give his only begotten Son for But the Apostle yet more expresly tells us that the head of every Man is Christ 1 Cor. xi 3 And if so then every Man is a Part of Christ's Body and if so then every Man hath a Communion in the Benefits of his Blood for Ephes. v. 23 he is said to be the Saviour of the Body and more expresly yet Heb. ii 9 it is said
Obedience to Superiors and Contempt of the World of Patience and Courage and Meekness and Resignation to the Will of God that so by his Example we might be excited to the Exercise of all those passive Virtues which are not only most glorious but most difficult to human Nature and that by beholding how mean and yet how good he was we might all become more ambitious of being good than great in the World Now what an amazing Instance of God's Goodness is this that meerly for our sakes and to promote our Happiness he should depress his own Son into such a miserable Condition that he who was in the Form of God who thought it no Robbery to be equal with God should by the Appointment of his own Father to whom he was so infinitely dear make himself of no Reputation take on him the Form of a Servant become a Man of sorrows and acquaint himself with Griefs and all this to put himself into a better Capacity of doing good to the World Good God! When I consider with my self that once there was a Time when thou didst send thy blessed Son from Heaven to assume my Nature that therein he dwelt upon this Earth and conversed with such poor Mortals as my self that he suffered himself to be despised and persecuted and by thy own Appointment wandred about like a poor Wretch naked and destitute of all those Comforts which I abundantly enjoy and all this that he might the more effectually do good to a World of ill-natured Sinners methinks this wonderous Prodigy of Love not only puzles my Conceit but outreaches my Wonder and Admiration And though it be a Love that exceeds my largest Thoughts such as I have infinite Cause to rejoyce in but could never have had the Impudence to expect yet while I stand gazing on it methinks I am like one that is looking down from a stupendous Precipice whose Height fills me with a trembling Horror and even oversets my Reason 6 thly And lastly The Greatness of God's Love and Goodness towards us appears also in this that he gave his only begotten Son to be a Sacrifice for the Sins of miserable Sinners and this is plainly implied in that Expression he gave his only begotten Son For in the two Verses foregoing the Text our Saviour foretells his own Death for as Moses saith he lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness even so must the Son of Man be lifted up That whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal Life and then it immediately follows for God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that is he gave him to be lifted up upon the Cross even as the Serpent was lifted up by Moses in the Wilderness that so by his precious Death and Sacrifice he might make an Atonement for the Sins of the World And accordingly he is said to be delivered up for our offences Rom. iv 25 even as the Sacrifice was delivered up at the Door of the Tabernacle to propitiate God for the Sins of the Offerer For to compleat the propitiatory Sacrifices under the Law three Things were requisite first the offering of it at the Door of the Tabernacle the slaying of it and the presenting of its Blood either within the Holy of Holies or elsewhere all which were found in the Sacrifice of our blessed Saviour First he offered himself to God as a willing Victim for the Sins of the World Hence Joh. xvii 19 for this cause saith he do I sanctify my self that is offer up my self as a Sacrifice to thee for so in Levit. xxii 2 3. and sundry other places to hallow or sanctify any Thing to the Lord denotes the offering it to him in Sacrifice And accordingly we find that that Prayer by which Christ consecrated himself to the Lord Joh. xvii was much like that by which the High Priest did consecrate his Victims before the Altar on the great day of Expiation for as he before he slew the Sacrifice did first commend himself and his own Family then the Family of Aaron and the whole Congregation to the Lord so our Saviour in this excellent Prayer whereby he sanctified himself to his Father a Sacrifice for the Sins of the World first commended himself to him then his Apostles then all those who should afterwards believe in his Name which having done he went forth presently to the Place where he was apprehended and carried to Judgment and condemned to Death Then as a propitiatory Sacrifice he was slain for our sins for so St. Peter tells us Ephes. ii 24 he bore our Sins in his own Body on the Tree that is that natural Evil of a most shameful and painful Death was inflicted on him for our Sins that so he might make an Expiation for them and free us from the Guilt and Punishment that was due to them Hence in that Prophecy of him Isa. liii we often meet with such Expressions as these surely he hath born our Griefs and carried our Sorrows he was Wounded for our Transgressions he was Bruised for our Iniquities The chastisement of our Peace was upon him and with his Stripes we are Healed The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all For the transgression of my people was he stricken Thou shalt make his Soul an offering for Sin and he shall bear their Iniquities He was numbered with the Transgressors and he bare the sin of Many and made intercession for the Transgressors All which Expressions do plainly imply that what he suffered he suffered for our Sins as a Sacrifice substituted in the Room of us who were the Offenders that so he might make Expiation for us and obtain our Pardon from his Father And accordingly in the New Testament he is said to be made a Curse for us to be our Ransom and Propitiation to redeem and reconcile us and obtain the Remission of our Sins by his Blood to die for us and for our Sins and to be our Propitiation all which Expressions being applyed to the Sacrifices of Atonement under the Law and from them derived upon our Saviour do plainly denote him to be a Sacrifice of Atonement for the Sins of the World And then lastly there is the presenting of his Blood for us in Heaven and in the Virtue thereof his interceeding for us with his Father And hence the Blood of Christ as it is now presented in Heaven is called the blood of Sprinkling which speaketh better things than that of Abel Heb. xii 24 In which he plainly alludes to the High Priest's sprinkling of the Blood of the Sacrifice in the Holy of Holies which was a Type of Christs presenting his Blood for us in Heaven as you may see Heb. ix 7 compared with the 11th and 12th Verses Verse 7th he tells us that the High Priest entered not into the Holy of Holies without blood But then Verse 12th it is said that Christ with his own blood entred in once into the holy
into the Flames of Hell So careful hath the good God been to plot and contrive for the Welfare of his Creatures that he would not so much as pardon them when they had offended him but in such a Way as was most for their Security and Good 3 dly His consenting that his own Son should submit himself to this Suffering is another great Instance of his Goodness towards us in this method of pardoning us That he should not only admit of a Sacrifice to bear our Transgressions and suffer in our Stead but that himself should provide one for us and such a one too as his own most dear and precious Son is such a Miracle of Love and Goodness as the whole Creation cannot parallel For though Mankind had provoked him to that Height that none but a God of infinite Patience could have born it yet such was his Unwillingness to inflict that direful Punishment upon them which he had justly threatned and they had justly deserved that notwithstanding all their Demerits he was still vehemently inclined to be propitious to them But then how to save them and at the same Time so to manifest his Severity against their Sins as was needful to preserve the Authority and Honour of his Laws that had threatned Destruction to them was the great Difficulty for should he have wholly omitted the Punishment he would have very much undervalued the Authority of his Laws in the Esteem of his Subjects the main security of their Authority being the Punishment annexed to them but on the contrary should he have exacted the utmost of the Punishment he must have destroyed the whole Race of Men we being all Offenders in his Sight In this Extremity therefore that he might pardon such a World of Sinners with safety to his Government it was highly necessary for him to exhibit to the World some dreadful Example of his Severity against them such as might be sufficient to prevent Offenders from taking any Encouragement from his pardoning them to offend again But to make a Sinner such a great Example of his Severity against the Sins of others was impossible because his own Sins may deserve the utmost Severity that God can inflict upon him and therefore among our selves who were all Sinners there was no Person could be found fit to be made such an Example of his Severity against the Sins of the whole World And if an innocent Angel should have freely offered up himself to bear our Punishment and Suffer in our Stead his Suffering in our Room would not have so sufficiently expressed Gods Severity against the Sins of a whole World of Sinners as was convenient for what great Severity would it have been to have exacted the suffering of one innocent Angel in lieu of that eternal Punishment that was due to a whole World of Men Wherefore it being highly convenient that the Dignity of the Person who suffered for us should be such as might render his Suffering in some Degree proportionable to the Punishment due to our Sins that so his Suffering in our stead might be as exemplary to the World as if we our selves had suffered to the utmost of our Desert and there being no Creature of that Dignity either in Heaven or Earth in this Extremity the eternal Son of God himself interposes and freely offers to unite himself to our Natures and therein to suffer in our Stead upon Condition that on our unfeigned Repentance and Amendment a free Charter of Pardon might be granted for all our past Provocations So that now an Expedient being proposed by which God might both pardon our Sins and sufficiently manifest his Severity against them to secure the Authority of his Laws and deter us from sinning again though he saw how dear an Expedient it would prove that it would cost him the most precious Blood of his own Son yet such was his tender Pity towards us so great his Unwillingness to ruin us forever that he freely complyed with the Motion and consented that his Son should be sacrificed for the Sins of the World And hence it is said that he spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all Rom. viii 32 And the Reason why he deliverd him up as he tells us v. 3 of the same Chapter was to condemn Sin in the Flesh that is to pronounce in the Suffering of his own Son for it what a dreadful Punishment it deserved and how much his Soul was incensed against it that would not pardon it without such a mighty Propitiation How inexpressibly gracious therefore hath God been to us that when for the securing the Authority of his Laws it was so necessary to condemn our Sins rather than condemn them in our own personal Punishment he should chuse to condemn them in the sufferings of his own Son It was a great Instance of his Goodness towards us to admit of another to suffer for us in our stead but to admit of his own Son who is the Darling of Heaven and the Delight of his Soul and not only so but freely to give and deliver him up for us and amidst all the yearnings of his fatherly Bowels towards him not to spare his precious Life when it was to be made the Price of our Redemption is such a Miracle of Love as transcends all Hyperboles 4 ly and lastly his choosing to grant Pardon to us upon the Sufferings of his Son as a Sacrifice for our Sins is also another great Instance of his Goodness to us in this Way of pardoning us For the End of granting Pardon to Sinners upon their Repentance being to encourage them to repent it was highly convenient to grant it to them in such a Way and upon such Reason as might most effectually assure them thereof And considering what was the general Persuasion of Mankind in this Matter there was no such effectual Way to secure them of Pardon upon their Repentance as this of granting Pardon to them upon the Motive of a Sacrifice for their Sins For however it came to pass I know not but it was a Principle generally received by Men of all Nations and Religions that to appease the incensed Divinity it was necessary First that some Sacrifice should be made to him for their Sins and then that some high Favourite of his should intercede with him in their Be half upon which were founded those two great Rights of Propitiatory Sacrifices and worshiping of Demons which made up a great Part of all the Heathenish Religions in the World For as for Propitiatory Sacrifices they were generally used not only by the barbarous but by the most civiliz'd Heathens which Sacrifices they devoted unto God to be their Proxies in Punishment to undergo the Punishment that was due to them for their own Sins And hence is that of the antient Poet Cum sis ipse nocens moritur cur Victima pro te When thou thy self art the Offender for what Reason should the Victim die for thee And
the precious Blood of the Son of God such as our Saviour must die for or our Souls must have suffered for to all Eternity How different therefore are our Thoughts from God's We think it a Matter of Sport and Laughter a Thing to Play and make Merry with but God who knows the inmost Nature of things looks upon it as a Thing of such a black and horrid Nature as that nothing but the Blood of our Souls or the Blood of his Son can make Expiation for O blessed God! Had we but such Thoughts of our Sins as thou hast how should we start and tremble at the Sight of them and with what Horror and Amazement should we reflect upon them Surely if all the Devils in Hell should stand round about us in the most gastly Shapes and Apparitions it would not put us into half that Agony of Fear as would the Sense and Remembrance of our own Guilts and Follies For had we but a Window into Hell to look through and see what unsufferable Torments the damned Ghosts undergo there for those Sins we make so light of how they burn and roar in those Flames of Lust about which we like silly Flies do sport and dally or had we but the Cross always standing before our Eyes with the Son of God hanging on it for those Sins that are our Recreation sighing and groaning out his innocent Soul in Torment and Agonies to expiate those Faults which we commit with so much Greediness and Pleasure surely either of these sad Spectacles would be sufficient to cool our Courage and to make us affraid of ever sinning more Why then should not our Belief of these Things have the same Effect upon us as the Sight and Sense of them must needs be supposed to have O my Soul why should I be so mad as to hug and embrace my Lusts any longer when I believe the Evil of them to be so great as that the merciful Father would never have forgiven them had not his own most blessed Son born their Punishment and freely submitted himself to suffer for them in my Stead yea and which I verily believe he will never Pardon yet unless I heartily repent of and forsake them but notwithstanding all that his Son hath suffered to make Expiation for them will yet pursue and prosecute them with the most direful effects of an endless and omnipotent Vengance 2 ly Hence I infer the Certainty of our perishing for ever if we do not repent of our Sins and forsake them For if God would not have forgiven them upon our Repentance unless an Expiation had been made for them by the Blood of his Son how can we imagin that he will now forgive them whether we repent of them or no When all that could be obtained for us from our offended God by the vocal Blood and Wounds of his own Son whose Language was a thousand Times more effectual for us than all the Retorick of Angels could have been was only this that if yet we would heartily repent and amend we should certainly find Mercy and Favour at his Hands can we be so assured as to hope for any more Is it likely that our obstinate Continuance in wilful Rebellion against him should be a more prevalent Advocate for us than the most eloquent Blood of that innocent Lamb which spoke better Things for us than the Blood of Abel Will he be more indulgent to our Sins than he was to the obedient Sufferings of his own Son whose Blood cryed Mercy Mercy with a Voice more moving and persuasive than the united Prayers of a World of sinful Creatures could have done though they had been washed in Floods of penitent Tears Let us not therefore be so fond as to presume that when the utmost that God would grant us for his own dear Son's sake was to receive us to Mercy upon our unfeigned Repentance he will now for our own sakes pardon us whether we repent or no. And since at the powerful Intreaties of the Blood of Jesus he hath indulged to us as much Mercy as was fit for him to grant and much more than we could ever have hoped for let us not be so immodest as to expect any farther but fix this as an eternal Verity in our own Minds that either our Sins or our Souls must perish and then if after all that he hath done for us we will continue wicked there is no Remedy but we must be miserable for ever 3 dly And lastly Hence also I infer how inexcusable we are if we now perish in our Sins now God hath done such great Things for us and contrived such an excellent Way to pardon us So that now there can be nothing wanting to the Accomplishment of our Pardon but only our own Repentance and Reformation for God and our Saviour have done all that is to be done on their Part our Saviour hath suffered for us and God hath accepted it as an Expiation for our Sins And now the whole Matter sticks at us and there is nothing wanting but only our Repentance and if we will not Repent and thereby intitle our selves to that merciful Pardon which God and our Saviour have prepared for us there is none can be blamed for our Ruin but our selves For when Inquisition shall be made for the Blood of our Souls the only Cause of our Ruin will be found to be this that we were wilfully and obstinately impenitent What then shall we be able to say for our selves when we come to plead for our Lives at the Tribunal of God Shall we plead that our Condition was hopeless and desperate we being bound over for our past Sins to an irrevocable Damnation Alas With what Confidence can we plead this when God had been so merciful as not to exact of our own Persons the Penalty which his Law had denounced against us but graciously admitted another to suffer for us and upon his suffering promised to forgive us if we would heartily repent Or can we pretend that by this gracious Indulgence of his he encouraged us to Sin on and gave us Reason to hope that he who without our Repentance had remitted so much of the Severity of his Laws as to admit another to suffer in our Stead might as easily be induced to remit all whether ever we repented or no Why how could he have more effectualy discouraged us from sining on when he would admit of no less Suffering but what considering the Greatness of the Person who underwent it was as dreadful an Example of his Severity against Sin as if he had damned for ever a whole World of Sinners Or will you urge that you thought it in vain to return since by your former Sins you had for ever forfeited the Favour of God For though there was some Hopes that he might be intreated to pardon or remit your Punishment yet 't was in vain to hope that after so many Provocations he would ever be throughly reconciled again
could we but stand a while in the Mid-way between Heaven and Earth and at one Prospect see the Glories of both how faint and dim would all the Splendors of this World appear to us in Comparison with those above How would they sneak and disappear in the Presence of that eternal Brightness and be forced to shroud their vanquished Glories as Stars do when the Sun appears And whilst we interchangably turned our Eyes from one to t'other with what Shame and Confusion should we reflect upon the wretched groveling Temper of our own Minds what poor mean-spirited Creatures we are to satisfy our selves with the impertinent Trifles of this World when we have all the Joys of an everlasting Heaven before us and may if we please after a few Moments Obedience be admitted into them and enjoy them for evermore Ah! foolish Creatures that we are thus to prefer a far Countrey where we live on nothing but Husks before an everlasting Festivity that is celebrated in our Father's House where the meanest Creature hath Bread enough and to spare To chuse Nebuchadnezzar's Fate and leave Crowns and Scepters and live among the salvage Herds of the Wilderness Could the blessed Saints above divert so much from their more happy Employments as to look down a little from their Thrones of Glory and see how busy poor Mortals are in scrambling for this wretched Pelf which within a few Moments they must leave for ever how they jostle and rencounter defeat defraud and undermine one another what a most ridiculous Spectacle would it appear to them with what Scorn would they look on it or rather with what Pity to see a Company of heaven-born Souls capable of and designed for the same Glory and Happiness with themselves groveling like Swine in Dirt and Mire one priding it self in a gay Suit a nother hugging a Bag of glistering Earth a third stewing and dissolving it self in Luxury and Voluptuousness and all imployed at that poor and mean and miserable Rate as might justly make these blessed Spirits ashamed to own their Kindred and Alliance To tell you truly and seriously my Thoughts I cannot imagine but if when we are thus extravagantly concerned about the pitiful Trifles of this World the blessed Spirits do see and converse with us it is a much more ludicrous and ridiculous Sight in their Eyes to see us thus sillily concerned and imployed than it would be in us to see a Company of Boys with mighty Zeal and Concern wrangling and crying striving and scrambling for a Bag of Cherry-stones Wherefore in the Name of God Sirs let us not expose our selves any longer to the just Derision of all the World by our excessive Dotage upon the trifling Vanities of this Life but let us seriously consider that we are all concerned in Matters of much higher Importance even in the unspeakable Felicity of an everlasting Life 3 dly Hence I infer how unreasonable it is for good Men to be afraid of Dying since just on t'other side the Grave you see there is a State of endless Bliss and Happiness prepared to receive and entertain them so that to them Death is but a dark Entry out of a Wilderness of Sorrow into a Paradise of eternal Pleasure And therefore if it be an unreasonable Thing for sick Men to dread their Recovery for Slaves to tremble at their Jubilee or for Prisoners to quake at the News of a Goal-delivery how much more unreasonable is it for good Men to be afraid of Death which is but a momentary Passage from Sickness Labour and Confinement to eternal Health and Rest and Liberty For God's sake consider Sirs what is there in this World that you have Reason to be fond of what in the other that you need be afraid of Suppose that now your Souls were on the Wing mounting upwards to the celestial Abodes and that at some convenient Stand between Heaven and Earth from whence you might take a Prospect of both you were now making a Pause to survey and compare them with one another that having viewed over all the Glories above and tasted the beatifical Joys and heard the ravishing Melodies of Angels you were now looking down again with your Minds filled with these glorious Ideas upon this miserable World and that all in a View you beheld the vast Numbers of Men and Women that at this Time are fainting for Want of Bread of young Men that are hewn down by the Sword of War of Orphans that are weeping over their Fathers Graves of Mariners that are shrieking in a Storm because their Keel dashes against a Rock or bulges under them of People that are groaning upon Sick-Beds or racked with Agonies of Conscience that are weeping with Want mad with Oppression or desperate by too quick a Sense of a constant Infelicity Would you not do you think upon such a Review of both States be infinitely glad that you are gone from hence that you are out of the Noise and Participation of so many Evils and Calamities Would not the sight of the Glories above and the Miseries beneath you make you a Thousand Times more fearful of returning hither than ever you were of going hence Yes doubtless it would Why then should not our Sense of the Misery here and our Belief of the Happiness there produce the same Effect in us make us willing to remove our Quarters and exchange this Wilderness for that Canaan 'T is true indeed the Passage from one to t'other is commonly very painful and grievous but what of that In other Cases we are willing enough to endure a present Pain in order to a future Ease and if a few mortal Pangs will work a perfect Cure on me and recover me into everlasting Bliss and Life methinks the Hope of this blessed Effect should be sufficient to sweeten and indear that Agony and render it easy and desirable But alass To die is to leave all our Acquaintance to bid adieu to our dearest Friends and Relations to pass into an unknown State to converse with Strangers whose Laws and Customs we are not acquainted with why now all that looks sad in this is a very great mistake for I verily hope that I have more Friends and Acquaintance and Relatives in Heaven than I shall leave behind me here on Earth and if so I do but go from worse Friends to better for one Friend there is worth a Thousand here in Respect of all those endearing Accomplishments that render a Friend a Jewel But if I die a good Man I shall carry into Eternity with me the Genius and Temper of a glorified Spirit and that will recommend me to the Society of Heaven and render the Spirits of those just Men whose Names I never heard of as dear Friends to me in an Instant as if they had been my ancient Cronies and Acquaintance But why should I grieve at parting with my Friends below when I shall go to the best Friend I have in all the World to God my
should be such as did clearly argue and evince his righteous Severity for otherwise it would have no Force in it to prevent our Presumption And what Motive of Pardon could better evince his Severity than the Suffering of some other in our Room especially the Suffering of his own Son the greatest and dearest Person in the whole Creation For not to be moved to grant a publick Pardon to us upon our hearty Repentance unless this blessed Person would engage to die for us whose infinite Greatness gave such an inestimable Value to his Sufferings as rendred them adequate to what we had deserved to suffer was as great an Argument of his inflexible Severity against Sin as if he should have destroyed at one Blow the whole World of Sinners So that as he hath expressed an infinite Mercy to us in admitting his own Son to die for us so in refusing to pardon us upon any less Motive than his precious Death he hath expressed an infinite Hatred to our Sins and so that very Death which moved God to pardon us moves us to stand in Awe of his Severity the Death of the Son of God upon which we are pardoned being the most terrible Instance that ever was of the Desert of our Sin and God's Displeasure against it Thus our blessed Lord hath not only given us the greatest Encouragement by procuring our Pardon to return from our Iniquities but by procuring it in such a formidable way he hath given us the most dreadful Warning of God's Severity against them So that now we cannot think upon the Reason for which our past Offences are forgiven without being vehemently moved to future Obedience And thus the main Design you see both of Christs Life and Death was to recal us from Sin to the Practice of Righteousness And hence he is said to have given himself for us to redeem us from all Iniquity and to purify to himself a peculiar people zealous of good Works Tit. ii 14 And then he arose again from the Dead to confirm that righteous Doctrine which he had revealed to the World and visibly ascended into Heaven to give us an ocular Demonstration of the heavenly Rewards of Righteousness and there he now sits at the right Hand of God to assure us that if we persevere in Righteousness we shall be continually befriended in the Court of Heaven through his all-powerful Intercession and hath assured us that at the End of the World he will come to Judgment and faithfully distribute those Rewards and Punishments which here he promised and threatned to righteous and unrighteous Persons Thus the main Drift you see of all these great Transactions of our Saviour was to advance the Interest of Righteousness and true Goodness What a mighty Evidence therefore is this of God's great Love of Righteousness that he should send his own most blessed Son upon its Errand to transact such mighty Things on its Behalf For by sending Christ into the World and exposing him to Misery for Righteousness Sake he did in Effect declare that he valued the Interest of Righteousness more than the present Happiness and Enjoyment of his most dearly beloved and only begotten Son and we may most certainly conclude that had not Righteousness been infinitely dear to him he would never have authorized his dearest Son to take such infinite Pains to promote it 4 thly Another supernatural Indication of God's Love of Righteousness is his promising such vast Rewards to us upon it and denouncing such fearful Punishments against us if we despise and neglect it For besides all those temporal Rewards he hath proposed to us if we seek the Kingdom of Heaven and the Righteousness thereof he hath erected a Heaven of immortal Joys and Felicities to crown and entertan it a Heaven that contains in it all the Beatitudes that humane Nature is capable of all that Truth that the most capacious Mind can comprehend and all that Good that the vastest Affections can either crave or contain In a word a Heaven whose Blisses are all as large as our immense Desires and all as lasting as our immortal Beings For 't is a Heaven which consists in an eternal Fruition of the Fountain of infinite Truth and Goodness whose everflowing Streams are abundantly sufficient to quench the Thirst and make glad the Heart of every Being that understands and loves How much therefore God loves Righteousness you may easily guess by these vast Preparations he hath made to entertain it For he built Heaven on purpose to lodge righteous Souls and that they may see he thinks nothing too dear for them he is himself their Feast there as well as their Entertainer He feeds them with his own Perfections and they live for ever as happily as their Hearts can wish upon the Sight and Love and Imitation of his Beauties So vehemently is his Heart set upon Righteousness that he will have every righteous Soul dwell with him and live upon him and partake of all those heavenly Joys in which his own Beatitude consists But as for Vnrighteousness how much his Soul abhors it is evident by those dire Punishments he hath denounced against it by those dark and dismal Abodes which he hath condemned unrighteous Souls to to languish out a woful Eternity to burn in Flames there that never consume and be gnawn with Worms which never devour them to be scared and haunted with Devils without and Furies within and perpetually worried Day and Night without any Ease or Intermission with all the Horrors Griefs and Vexations that an everlasting Hell imports O thou merciful Father of Beings How couldst thou have found in thy Heart to condemn thy Creatures to so wretched a State had not their unrighteous Practices been infinitely odious in thine Eyes No certainly the good God would never have made Hell for a Trifle for the sake of any Thing that his Nature could have endured or dispensed with nor would he ever have cast any unrighteous Creature into it were it not for the implacable Abhorrence he hath to all Unrighteousness And therefore since he hath not only made Hell but warns us of and threatens us with it we may be sure he infinitely abominates that for which he made and threatens it and consequently that he is infinitely concerned for the Cause and Interest of Righteousness 5 thly And lastly Another supernatural Indicaton of God's Love of Righteousness is his granting his blessed Spirit to us to excite us to and assist us in our Endeavours after Righteousness First he sent his Son to propagate Righteousness by his Ministry his Life and Death and upon his Return to Heaven he sent his Spirit to supply his Room and carry on that dear Design of which his Son had already laid the Foundation For in Christ's personal Absence his Spirit acts in his Stead and was sent down from the Father by Virtue of his Intercession to be his Vicegerent in the World to promote and inlarge his heavenly Kingdom to conquer our