of the Flesh we might easily renounce also the Devil and all his Works and the Pomps and Vanities of this wicked World But still to render the Righteous Man's Task harder and his way to Heaven more rugged and difficult he hath besides this Enemy within him his own original Corruptions two Enemies more without to engage with the World and the Devil First The World which with all its Pomps and Vanities its gilded Baits and deceitful Enticements allures and invites him to set his Heart and Affections wholly upon these worthless Toyes and Trifles here below With all the specious Promises of Pleasure Riches Honour and what not It seeks to alienate and estrange his Thoughts from God from his native Country from the Heavenly Canaan that Jerusalem which is above the Mother of us all and to perswade him to set up his staff here in this Vale of Tears where he is but a stranger and a Pilgrim and like the Children of Reuben and Gad to content himself with an inheritance on this side Jordan for the Transitory and perishing enjoyments of this present Life to exclude himself out of the Kingdom of Heaven and to lose the eternal Glory and Happyness of the Saints in light This World is a Shop an inexhaustible Magazine of Temptations suitable and correspondent to the Constitution and desires of all the Sons and Daughters of Adam Here then the Righteous Man the constant and faithful Souldier and Champion of Jesus Christ is again fiercely assaulted in his way to Heaven by this second Adversary the World Here he meets with every thing that can gratifie the most carnal and sensual Appetite Which way soever he stands most inclined and some way or other that natural Corruption wherein all Men are conceived and born will be apt more or less to sway him he shall be sure to have a Bait fitted to his Humour Whatsoever it be that is most likely to seduce and intice him into the Snares of Sin the World is amply stored with all things and is ever ready to furnish him so that it highly concerns him to stand continually upon his guard praying always that God would turn away his Eyes from beholding Vanity and quicken him in his way that he may so pass through things Temporal that he finally lose not the things Eternal But further yet besides these two Enemies of his Salvation his own flesh and the World he hath still another that is indefatigable in plotting and contriving his Destruction and that is the Devil whose business it is continually like a roaring Lion to walk to and fro in the earth seeking whom he may devour This is the great and chief Enemy of Mankind to whose accursed designs the other two are fatally helpful and subservient It was he that beguiled our first Parents in the state of Innocence and by that Means plunged both them and all their posterity into a state of Sin and Corruption And now he makes use of that advantage he hath gained over us he joyns against us together with our lusts and when they seek to draw us away to any thing that is evil he is ever ready to back and strengthen their Temptations with his own secret whispers and suggestions When the World offers any thing to us that is pleasant and inviting he is ready to set a fresh gloss upon it that may render its Charms more prevalent He leaves no Stone unturned no project nor Design unattempted by which he may bring us into the Bondage and Slavery of Sin His Power is great his Industry unwearied and his Malice implacable against all the Sons of Men and by how much the more vigilant and careful the Person against whom he bends his Force is to stand upon his Guard and to defend himself against his Assaults and Stratagems so much the fiercer are his On-fets so much the more violent and outragious is his Fury So that above all others the Righteous Man that constantly withstands and resists his Wiles hath the hardest Task to perform Other Persons that easily yield to his Temptations he may safely leave to themselves He knows that they have an Enemy within them that will be sure to be their Ruin that their own Lusts will be sufficient to prevail against them and that they themselves without his help will work out their own Damnation But where he meets with Opposition there he doubles his Diligence and uses all the Means that Power or Policy or Malice can suggest to him in order to the effecting of his Designs No sooner hath the Man of God overcome one Temptation but he presently sets upon him with another No sooner hath the Shield of Faith quenched one of his fiery Darts but it is again assaulted with a second We read that he dealt thus with our Blessed Saviour himself Three several Attempts he made upon him and would not leave him until he found that he was indeed the Son of God and that it was utterly in vain for him to hope to prevail against him by any of his Temptations And surely if he had so much impudence as not to leave Christ our Head before the third Assault he will much more hardly suffer a repulse from any of his Members Thus ye see how great opposition the Righteous Man is sure to meet with and with what cruel and dangerous Enemies he is daily to fight during the time of his Sojourning here upon Earth And by this Means it comes to pass that he is scarcely saved so scarcely that if the incessant importunities of his own corruptions the sweet and alluring Baits and Temptations of the World and all the restless Malice and Power and Policy of Hell could prevail against him he should certainly be damned All these Adversaries must be subdued by him before he can be esteemed worthy through the merits of Christ to receive a crown of Life Yea and besides all this I might proceed further and shew you that as to outward Appearance and in the Opinion of Men even God himself sometimes seems to be his Enemy here in this World forasmuch as he often laies upon him heavy and great Afflictions for the Trial of his Patience and Faith His Portion in this Life is Sorrow Persecution taking up the Cross and suffering for Righteousness sake All these things are entailed upon every true Disciple of Christ and he must expect to have his share more or less of every one of them While the wicked are in great Power and spread themselves like a green Bay-tree while they enjoy the world at will and live in Ease and Plenty and Prosperity the Righteous are killed all the day long and accounted as sheep for the Slaughter This was our blessed Saviour's own Condition here upon Earth All his whole Life was but one continued scene of sufferings and even from his Mother's Womb to his Death he was all along a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief When he first came into the World he
of ordinary Capacities For sirst learned Men that are as well acquainted with the Hebrew Tongue as the Jews themselves have evidently made it appear that wheresoever this word occurs in any other place of the Old Testament it always signifies a pure and undefiled Virgin and no tolerable reason can be given why it may not signifie so in this place as well as in all the rest nay on the contrary very great reason may be given why in this place above all others it may and must of necessity signifie a Virgin as well as elsewhere forasmuch as otherwise this Prophecy will be made downright Nonsense which is the second absurdity contained in this Assertion of the Jews which I say is obvious enough to be discerned by an ordinary Capacity For this Prophecy was delivered upon this occasion Ahaz King of Judah being much afraid of the Kings of Syria and Samaria that were coming to war against him God sends the Prophet Isaiah to comfort him and to assure him that they shall not prevail against him and withal gives him leave to ask some great Sign to be given him to satisfie him that God would certainly protect him which when he refused to do I will not ask saith he neither will I tempt the Lord God himself most graciously promises to give him a Sign therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign And surely if God pleases to give a Sign he will give such a one as is worthy of himself one that is exceedingly wonderful and extraordinary But after all as the Jews would interpret the Text the Sign only to be this Behold a woman shall conceive and bear a son What Sign what Wonder is there in this Certainly no more than what is to be seen every day every hour every minute in one place or other in the world If therefore we interpret the Text thus it is not reconcileable to Sense But as our Translation renders it Behold a Virgin shall conceive and bear a son this is a Wonder indeed such as the world never did nor ever shall behold but once this is an astonishing Sign worthy of God to give and a Prerogative so eminent as none else but the Messias was worthy to receive Now that our biessed Saviour was born of a pure Virgin is a thing so clearly revealed and firmly attested by persons of unquestionable Fidelity and Integrity authorized and commissioned by God himself to give the world a true account of these matters and guided and assisted by his Spirit in the doing of it that it can be denied by nothing less obstinate than the same malice which would pervert the sense of that famous Prophecy which foretold it That the Evangelists and Apostles have given us this account of the Birth of our Saviour is so well known that I need not insist upon it and to prove that their Writings are the word of God and consequently that they are most certainly and infallibly true is beyond my present Purpose which is to shew that there is not any one Prophecy in the Old Testament concerning the Messias which we find not punctually fulfilled even to the least tittle in the person of our Saviour in that account which the Evangelists have given us of him which sufficiently demonstrates him to be the true Messias and their Writings to be of Divine Authority This manner of our Saviour's Birth is very emphatically expressed by our Apostle in my Text. God sent forth his son made of a woman As he is God he is not made but begotten of the Father by an eternal and unspeakable Generation and as he is Man he was not begotten but made of a woman after an unconceivable manner by the omnipotent Power of God And thus it was necessary that the Messias should make his Entry into the world who was to be conceived and born without sin sanctified from the Womb holy harmless undefiled separate from sinners Thus much of the fourth Circumstance relating to the manner of the Messias his appearing in the world He was to be born of a Virgin and so was our Saviour The next thing to be considered is in what Quality and Condition he was to come This is that grand Stumbling-block at which the Jews are irreconcilably scandalized They are very ready to acknowledge that our Saviour appeared in the world in a very poor and despicable State and thus far they believe the Gospel as well as we but because he did appear in such a Condition they utterly deny him to be the Messias whom they still expect to come with exceeding great Pomp and Splendour and Glory becoming so great a King as was to sit for ever upon the Throne of David and to suddue all the Nations of the Earth and to reduce them to his obedience Had our Saviour come in this manner and made their Nation the head of the World it is more than probable that this one Circumstance would have fully satisfied them and without any scrupulous Enquiry of what Tribe he was born of what Family in what Place and in what manner they would have unanimously proclaimed him to be the true Messias the Son of David and the redeemer of Israel But that a person of so mean and obscure a Birth as our Saviour was one who as to his external Condition made so inconsiderable a figure in the world that the Carpenter the Son of Mary as they scornfully called him should declare himself to be the greatest of all the Sons of men their so long expected and earnestly desired Messias the Son of God and the King of Israel they lookt upon to be so great an affront to their Nation that instead of owning him to be the Messias they reject him as an Impostor and cut him off by an ignominious Death little knowing that in all this they fulfilled the Scriptures and that their very opposition rejection and Crucifixion of him were all necessary and material Arguments which we could by no means have wanted to prove him to be the true Messias Since then we cannot deny that our blessed Saviour did come into the world in a poor and mean Condition far different from that wherein the Jews expected the Messias should appear in such a Condition indeed in which humane Reason would little imagine that God would send into the world his only begotten Son the Son of his eternal Love in whom he is well pleased him who was to be so highly exalted and to have a name given him above every name For all the world as well as the Jews might very reasonably expect that such a person as this would come attended with the most pompous and magnificent Circumstances imaginable suitable to the Grandeur and Glory of him who was to be higher than the Kings of the earth it concerns us above all other Circumstances relating to the coming of the Messias firmly and substantially to prove this which of all others seems to be the most improbable that he was
to come in this mean and contemptible Condition For since it is manifest from the Writings of the Prophets that the Messias was to be a most mighty King of the increase of whose Government and Peace there should be no end upon the throne of David and upon his Kingdom to order it and to establish it with judgment and with justice for ever if this great person was to be born of mean Parents in a Stable and afterwards all his life time to continue in a Condition answerable to that obscure Birth not to enjoy so much as an house of his own wherein to hide his head to be despised and hated by his own Countreymen and persecuted unto Death it was necessary that God by his Prophets should foretel this also or else it could never have been expected that when he did come any Man living should have been able to discern him in so strange a Disguise God having no where revealed any such thing But if God hath revealed this also as clearly as any of the aforementioned Circumstances and hath by his Prophets as plainly foretold the Humiliation of the Messias as his Exaltation then it is evident that our Saviour's coming in that mean Condition in which we confess he did is so far from being any Objection against us that joyned with the former Circumstances and with what I shall further insist upon it is an unanswerable Argument to prove that he is the true Messias seeing he came exactly in such a Quality and Condition as God by his Prophets foretold the Messias should come in And that God did foretel that the Messias should appear in this low and despicable State besides other places of Scripture we have the whole 53d Chap. of the Prophecy of Isaiah to convince us which of all others is the most full and plain Prophecy both of the Humiliation and Exaltation of Christ And it is a wonderful thing that the Jews even to this day should continue so obstinate as not to believe it though this very obstinacy and unbelief of theirs is a very strong Confirmation of our Faith since even this also is expresly foretold by the Prophet and that in the very first words of the Chapter He ushers in his Prophecy with an admiration at the stupidity and unbelief of his People who he foresaw would not receive it Who hath believed our report And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed And then in the two following Verses he gives an exact Description of this mean Condition in which the Messias was to come He shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of a dry ground he hath no form nor comeliness and when we shall see him there is no beauty that we should desire him He is despised and rejected of men a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and we hid as it were our faces from him he was despised and we esteemed him not Now if this be truly as we affirm it is a Prophecy of the Messias it is manifest that it agrees exactly with the manner of our Saviour's appearing in the world And though the modern Jews deny it to be a Prophecy of him yet we have sufficient Arguments to prove that it is I shall instance only in these two First it is very unreasonable to imagine that God would suffer every punctilio of this Prophecy to be completely accomplished and fulfilled in the person of one who owned and declared himself to be the Messias except the Prophecy were really intended of the Messias and he in whom it was so fulfilled were that very person whom it meant Now that there is not one tittle of this Prophecy which was not fulfilled in the person of our Saviour who professed himself to be the Messias and applied this Prophecy to himself is evident in the account the Evangelists have given us of him and then it follows not only that this is a Prophecy of the Messias but also that our Saviour is the Messias whom it points at The second Argument to prove this to be a Prophecy of the Messias is the unanimous Opinion of many of the ancient Rabbies and Doctors of the Jews before and about our Saviour's time who all acknowledge this whole Chapter together with the latter end of the former to be a Prophecy of the Messias And therefore if the modern Jews will not acknowledge as much they differ as much from their own Writers as from us and no reason can be assigned for their so doing but their obstinate prejudice that will not suffer them to apply any passage of Scripture to the Messias that seems to be inconsistent with worldly Pomp and Grandeur Thus I have proved to you that our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is the true Messias from these two Circumstances the time when he came into the world and the manner how The same truth may be yet further evinced from the reason and end of his coming but this I shall leave until another opportunity SERMON III. GAL. IV. 4 5. But when the fulness of the time c. YE may remember that when formerly I began to handle this portion of Scripture I laid down this Proposition as the Foundation of my Discourse That our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is the true Messias whom God hath long since sent forth into the world and that none other is to be expected This I undertook to prove chiefly by these Arguments with which the Apostle furnishes us here in my Text taken from the Consideration of the time when the manner how and the end wherefore he came into World The two former of these Circumstances the time when and the manner how our Saviour came into the World I have already handled and in the doing of it have sufficiently cleared the truth of this Proposition That our Lord Jesus Christ is the true Messias but to make it yet more evident there remains one Circumstance more to be considered and that is the reason and end of his coming which the Apostle comprises in these words To redeem them that were under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons It was not for nothing that so great a person as the Messias was to come into the World No he had a mighty work to do which none was able to perform but himself for he was to interpose betwixt the Divine Vengeance and Sin which is its proper Object to redeem all Mankind from the Curse of the Law to which we were become obnoxious and to reconcile us again unto God and to purchase for us the adoption of Sons This was a work worthy of the Messias and what the Scriptures plainly foretold that he should accomplish and that he might effect it it was necessary First That he should most fully and clearly reveal to us the whole Will of God concerning us and that he should instruct and teach us how to behave our selves acceptably in his sight
are heavy laden with the burthen of their Sins are invited to come unto Christ and that is that he may give them rest Ye have already heard that there is no burden so intolerable as that of Sin and the rest which Christ here promises to give to them that come unto him in that manner which I have shewed you is a freedom from this burden and from all the dreadfull consequents and effects of it a freedom from the anguish of an afflicted conscience from the insupportable troubles of a wounded Spirit that is smitten with the arrows of the Almighty from the wrath of God and from the Torments of Hell from the guilt of Sin and from its punishment And this Christ doth by taking the burden of their Sins upon himself and making a full satisfaction for them unto the Divine Justice For the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all Isa 53.6 And God made him to be sin for us saith S. Paul who knew no Sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him 2 Cor. 5.21 And he that by a true faith applies these Merits of Christ's Death and passion to himself he hath already obtained this rest which Christ here promises he is delivered from the burden of his Sins and from that vengeance which is due unto them This rest therefore is in a word our justification in the sight of God by which purely for the sake of the Merits of Jesus Christ we are acquitted and absolved of all our Sins and are reconciled to God Being justified by faith saith the Apostle we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ Rom. 5.1 This is that peace which passes all understanding a peace which nothing can disturb or interrupt but it will always continue firm and unshaken among all the changes and chances of this mortal life and when we shall have most need of it it will stand us in greatest stead When we walk through the valley of the shadow of death it will not leave us but will bear us company even before the Tribunal of Christ and will enable us to lift up our Heads with joy in that great day when the whole World shall tremble and will at the last conduct us into those glorious regions of rest and happiness which the Prince of peace hath purchased for us Thus ye see who they be that are here invited unto whom they are invited and for what end Sad and disconsolate Sinners that are oppressed with the weight of their Sins are invited by Christ to come and cast that insupportable burden upon him who alone is able to bear it and instead thereof to receive from him the most blessed rest and peace imaginable What remains then but that with most ardent prayers we continually besiege the Throne of Grace and beg of God that he would open our eyes by the Grace of his H. Spirit without whom we can do nothing that is good that so we may discern both the Misery of Sin with which by nature we are laden and the blessedness of that peace which by the grace of Christ we may obtain And when we once do discern these things let us immediately without any delay run unto Christ for help Let us not seek for this peace from any one else but from him who alone hath promised it to us and who alone is able to give it us Let us not seek it in the vain Pomps and Pleasures of this present World for all that this world can do for us without this peace will do us no good and with it all that it can do against us will do us no harm Let us not as the Papists do seek for it from any merit or rightteousness in our selves for all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags neither let us as they do likewise seek for it to Saints or Angels or Archangels for the Angels refuse our Worship and own themselves to be but our Fellow-servants as is evident by two plain instances in the Revelation Chap. 19.10 and 22.9 And as for the Saints Abraham though he be the father of the faithfull yet he is ignorant of us and Israel knows us not Nay the blessed Virgin her self though the Papists blasphemously call her the Queen of Heaven and pray to her not only to intreat but to command her Son in their behalf doubtless could she hear such Prayers as these and had leave to answer them she would presently send such Persons as these to Christ and give them no other answer from Heaven than what she gave to the Servants at the Marriage-Feast in Cana of Galilee while she was upon earth John 2.5 Whatsoever he saith unto you do it Let us therefore acquiess in this answer of hers as if it were an Oracle from Heaven and instead of seeking either to her or any other Person for salvation let us come unto the Lamb of God which taketh away the Sins of the World even to Christ himself who hath invited us and whatsoever he saith unto us in his Gospel let us do it Thus if we come unto him we shall be sure to find him ready to receive us and to perform unto us this gracious promise which he hath here made in my Text he will give us in this World peace of conscience and joy in the Holy Ghost and in the World to come everlasting joy and rest in his Heavenly Kingdom SERMON VIII COL II. 18 19. Let no Man beguile you of your Reward in a voluntary Humility and worshipping of Angels intruding into those things which he hath not seen vainly puffed up by his fleshly Mind And not holding the Head from which all the Body by Joints and Bands having Nourishment ministred and knit together increaseth with the Increase of God THESE words are such a plain and direct Prohibition of Angel-worship and consequently of Saint-worship too that it is one of the greatest wonders in the World that there should be found in it a Christian Church that stiles her self Catholick and that in so arrogant a manner as to appropriate that Title to her self exclusively to all Christian Churches in the World besides and yet in open and hostile Opposition of this Text of Scripture should not only allow of the Worship of Angels and Saints as lawful but proceed so far as to impose it upon all Men as a necessary Article of Faith anathematizing all that will not join with her in it But these things must be that the Scriptures may be fulfilled For certainly whosoever laying aside all Prejudice and Partiality and Hypocrisie devoutly and seriously consults the Holy Oracles of God will find in the Writings of the New Testament as plain and punctual a Prediction and Description of Antichrist both as to the time and manner of his Coming and his Behaviour and Reception in the World as in the Old Testament there is of the Messias and seeing both exactly foretold will not think it a greater wonder that by one
the good fight finished his course kept the Faith overcome all his Spiritual Enemies resisted the temptations of Satan subdued and mortified his own Lusts and Corruptions despised the Derision of those Fools that sit in the seat of the scornful trampled upon all the vain pomps and flattering Glories of this present World and after all this perhaps at the last is called to suffer an ignominious and painful Death for the testimony of a good conscience and to endure the cruellest torments that the wit and malice of wicked Men can inflict upon him then he takes up his Cross with joy goes like a Lamb to the Slaughter acknowledging that he hath done nothing that he is but an unprofitable Servant that he is less than the least of all God's Mercies and that his Life is a Sacrifice unworthy of his acceptance and therefore he desires to appear before God's Tribunal not having his own Righteousness which is of the Law but that which is through the Faith of Christ the Righteousness which is of God by Faith This is such a Righteous Man as is here meant in my Text This is that Blessed Man unto whom the Lord imputes not iniquity and in whose Spirit there is no guile And this is that Man who as it is plain from my Text shall Scarcely be saved How that comes to pass I shall hereafter endeavour to shew you For though he shall be Scarcely saved yet saved he shall be infallibly for to him that is faithful unto Death Christ will give a Crown of Life SERMON XI 1 PET. IV. 18. And if the Righteous scarcely be saved where shall the Ungodly and the Sinner appear IN the handling of these words I have already shewed you who the Righteous Man is and how he is distinguished from the rest of the World He is a Man of a Temper and Conversation exceedingly different from the generality of Mankind and lives amongst them like a Stranger and a Sojourner in a foreign Countrey where he hath few or no Acquaintance like a single Stalk of good Corn in a large Field of Tares Few Men mind him few regard him few keep him company few delight in his Conversation and fewer imitate it He is a Proverb and a By-word among the Ungodly who account his Life madness and his End to be without Honour For Christ's sake he bears Reproach They that sit in the Gate speak against him and he is the Song of the Drunkards The World and he are irreconcilable Enemies as contrary one to the other as Light and Darkness as Heaven and Hell as Christ and Belial while the Wicked and Ungodly rejoice he mourns while they laugh he weeps while they triumph in the very Gall of Bitterness and Bonds of Iniquity he is a Prisoner of Jesus Christ while they are in great Power and spread themselves like a green Bay tree lie upon Beds of Ivory and stretch themselves upon their Couches and eat the Lambs out of the Flock and the Calves out of the midst of the Stall live in Idleness and Luxury and Pleasure nourishing their Hearts as in a day of slaughter and pampering up those Lusts which of themselves are too apt to rebel he keeps under his Body and brings it into subjection crucifies the old Man that the Body of Sin may be destroyed subdues and mortifies his Corruptions by Prayer and Fasting and walks mournfully before the Lord of Hosts He meets with scarce any thing in this sinful World which can delight his Soul but almost every Spectacle that he beholds is to him an occasion of sorrow He grieves for his own Sins and he grieves for those of other Men whom he sees with so much Eagerness and Jollity posting towards the Gates of Death He grieves for the Afflictions of Joseph and laments to see the Church of God in Adversity Nothing contents him nothing pleases him in this Valley of Tears but that he is pleased at nothing here below but his Affections are set on those things which are above and the earnest Desire of his Heart is to depart and to be with Christ Which happy End he shall at the last most certainly attain to though it shall not be without great Pains and Difficulty and as my Text expresses it scarcely And so I proceed to make good my second Undertaking which was To shew you why St. Peter here supposes the Righteous to be scarcely saved Which word implies not an Impossibility that they should be saved for certainly then of all Men they would be most miserable nor a Possibility that any one of them should not be saved For every one of them is as sure to obtain Salvation as he is sure to obtain it scarcely Those that thou gavest me saith our Saviour I have kept and none of them is lost but the Son of Perdition who never was one of the Number of the Righteous But this word scarcely denotes only the many and great Difficulties and Troubles and Dangers through which the Righteous are to pass in their way to Heaven They must be tempted afflicted scorned derided persecuted They must labour they must sweat they must die that they may be saved and pass by the very Gates of Hell in their way to Paradise There are large Mansions and a Glorious and Everlasting Kingdom prepared for them but they have many potent and malicious Enemies all which they must overcome before they can take possession of it There is a Crown of Glory laid up for them but they must run for it if they will obtain it They must wage War with Devils and wrestle against Principalities and Powers before they can be accounted worthy to be Companions for Angels And now if David that reposed so great a Confidence in his God and was sufficiently assured that he was ordained to be King over Israel did nevertheless begin to despond and was sore afraid that he should one Day perish by the Hand of Saul much more may the Righteous fear and tremble who have far greater and mightier Enemies than Saul to oppose them able to dismay the stoutest Souldier in the Camp of Christ had he not a Shield of Faith to defend him from their Weapons and an Eye of Faith to discover that those that are for him are more than those that are against him When a mighty Host of the Syrians besieged Elisha God placed Horses and Chariots of Fire round about him for his Defence So though the Righteous Man hath Devils for his Enemies yet he hath Angels for his Guardians and Jesus Christ the Captain of his Salvation He may march on then with Confidence and Assurance of the Victory but he must fight if he will obtain it Heaven is his Inheritance the Kingdom prepared for him from the Foundation of the World but he is a Stranger and a Pilgrim here in a far Countrey and his Journey to it is long and troublesome He hath a narrow and rugged way to walk in tedious and irksome to Flesh
came in a very Mean and despicable Condition so poorly provided for that he had not so much as a House wherein he might lay his Head nor a cradle wherein he might rest but was forced to be content with a Stable for the one and a Manger for the other And all the rest of his Life was answerable to this Mean beginning He was continually affronted and abused and persecuted by the Chief Priests and Scribes and Pharisees and by almost all Men with whom he conversed and after all this he was most perfidiously betrayed by one of his own Disciples denied by another of them and forsaken by all the rest and at the last most barbarously murdered by bloudy and sinful Men. And if God dealt thus hardly with his only begotten Son in whom he was ever well-pleased it would be unreasonable for his Disciples and Followers to expect to fare so much better than their Lord as to be wholly exempted from Afflictions in this Life If the Captain of our Salvation was not made perfect but through sufferings surely then we shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven except we drink more or less of the same Cup. This our blessed Lord hath assured us shall be the Portion of all that will follow him Luke 14.26 27. If any Man come to me and hate not his Father and Mother and Wife and Children and Brethren and Sisters yea and his own Life also he cannot be my Disciple And whosoever doth not bear his Cross and come after me cannot be my Disciple And In the World ye shall have Tribulation John 16.33 And this the holy Apostles afterwards found true by their own Experience They were all hated and maligned and persecuted whithersoever they went and not one of them died a natural Death but S. John the Disciple whom our Saviour seemed to love above the rest and perhaps was therefore pleased to exempt him from suffering a violent Death as the other did And thus it fared afterwards with their Successours the Bishops and Pastours of the primitive Church yea and not only with them but with the greatest part of their Flock too Every one that was known to profess the Faith of Christ was persecuted as a Traytour and to be a Christian was to be a capital Offender And though at present by the blessing of God the Light of the Gospel shines amongst us gloriously yet even amongst Christians themselves those few rare Examples of Piety those Persons that are extraordinarily strict and careful to live answerable to their Profession in all Holy Conversation and Godliness are generally hated and scorned and looked upon with an evil Eye and suffer more Sorrow and Affliction in the World than other Men. And now I have given you an Account of all those dangerous Enemies and those manifold and great Difficulties and Troubles which the Righteous Man hath to overcome in his way to Heaven And from what I have said it is sufficiently evident that he shall scarcely be saved that is it shall cost him great pains and striving to work out his Salvation and through much Tribulation he shall enter into the Kingdom of God And if the Righteous be thus scarcely saved I need not insist much upon the other Proposition nor spend many words to shew you that the wicked the ungodly and the sinner shall most certainly be damned For this follows from the former Doctrine by an undeniable consequence and therefore the Apostle takes it for granted appeals to your own Judgment and leaves it to your selves to determine the question in the words of my Text If the Righteous scarcely be saved where shall the Ungodly and the Sinner appear If the Righteous that hath undergone so many Troubles hath taken so much pains to subdue and mortifie his Lusts hath with so much Constancy and Resolution turned away his Eyes and his Heart from the bewitching Baits and ensnaring Pomps and Vanities of this sinful World hath with so much Courage and Faith resisted the Temptations of Satan and quenched all the fiery Darts of the Wicked hath with so much Patience and Meekness born his Cross and indured the Afflictions and sufferings of this present Life is after all these painful and glorious Performances even when he hath gained a full and compleat Victory over all his Spiritual Enemies and is a Triumphant Conquerour over Principalities and Powers still but an unprofitable Servant and dares not appear before God's Tribunal trusting in his own Righteousness but in that which is through the Faith of Christ the Righteousness which is of God by Faith how then shall the Ungodly and the Sinner that hath taken no pains at all to fight the good Fight of Faith that hath let loose the Reins to his Lusts that hath yielded himself a Slave to his Passions that hath put God out of all his Thoughts hath set-his Heart and Affections wholly upon the things which are on Earth and glutted himself with sensual Pleasures hath harkned to the wicked suggestions of the Devil hath walked according to the Course of this World according to the Prince of the Power of the Air the Spirit that works in the Children of Disobedience hath enjoyed his good things in this Life and hath not come into trouble like other Men be able to stand before the Righteous Judge of all the Earth when he shall be summoned to give an account of all his Actions done in the flesh The case is plain he shall not be able to stand at all but shall be overwhelmed with everlasting Confusion and Misery and Despair The Vngodly saith the Psalmist shall not stand in the Judgment nor Sinners in the Congregation of the Righteous For the Lord knoweth the way of the Righteous but the way of the Vngodly shall perish Psal 1.5 6. If then we desire to stand in that great Day and to lift up our Heads with joy at the coming of our Saviour let us resolve and labour with all our Might now to stand and fight the Lords Battles Manfully against all the Enemies of our Souls Ye see in what Circumstances we are how great Opposition every faithful Champion of Jesus Christ is like to meet with in this troublesome Wilderness before he can arrive at his heavenly Canaan But though the difficulties which threaten us be great yet they are not insuperable but we may by the Assistance of God's holy Spirit who is ready to help our Infirmities overcome them if we will Let not any thing then discourage nor affright us from our perseverance in well-doing but let us animate our selves by the Example of the blessed Apostles and Martyrs and Confessours to run with patience the race that is set before us looking unto Jesus the Authour and finisher of our Faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross despising the shame and is set down at the Right-hand of the Throne of God Let us consider him that endured such Contradiction of Sinners against
and Blood and the Gate that must admit him into those Mansions of Glory is exceeding strait and he must strive hard if he will enter in at it Thus ye see in general that the Righteous shall scarcely be saved that is it shall cost him much Labour and Sweat and Pains to work out his Salvation and through much Tribulation through many and great Troubles and Afflictions through many amazing Difficulties and affrighting Dangers he shall at the last enter into the Kingdom of Heaven and receive a Crown of Glory And this will appear more plainly if we consider distinctly these several Difficulties which he hath to encounter in his way to Heaven And these are First his own natural Corruptions The best and holiest of Men our Blessed Saviour only excepted who was sanctified from the Womb are all conceived and born in Sin By one Man saith St. Paul Sin entred into the World and Death by Sin and so Death passed upon all Men for that all have sinned Rom. 5.12 And this Original Sin as it is generally stiled by Divines which the Righteous themselves even the best of God's Saints as well as other Men bring into the World with them deriving it from Adam by a wonderful but certain Propagation is of a spreading and infectious Nature as dangerous and deadly to the Soul if it be not carefully subdued and mortified as Leprosie to the Body It is ever active and stirring labouring and struggling continually to get the Mastery over the Soul that so it may break out into open and actual Transgressions And too often it doth so even in good Men and prevails sometimes over the most pious and devoutest Christians This was that which moved David to commit Adultery and Murder This was that which shook the Constancy of Peter and made him so timorously and basely to deny his Master And this is that which causes so many Weaknesses and Failings in all the Saints of God so that there is not a just Man upon Earth that doth good and sins not but in every Man there is a Law in his Members warring against the Law of his Mind and bringing him into Captivity to the Law of Sin which is in his Members Rom. 7.23 In every Man as the same Apostle speaks Gal. 5.17 The Flesh lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit against the Flesh and these two are contrary the one to the other so that by means of this intestine War within him it comes to pass often times that he cannot do the things that he would Even the Heathen Philosophers did observe and complain of though they knew not the Cause of this strange Depravation of humane Nature Plato tells us that Men are by Nature wicked and cannot be perswaded to do that which is right and that the two great and principal Diseases of the Soul are Ignorance and Vice And to the same Effect Tully observes that Nature is to Man a Stepmother that brings him into the World with a naked Body feeble and helpless and with a Soul throughout the whole Course of his Life sorrowful and distracted with Multiplicity of Cares and Troubles tormented with Fears tired with Labour and prone to Lust wherein the Divine Light Wit and good Manners are as it were overwhelmed and stifled This sad Condition which all Mankind is in by Nature I say the wiser Sort even amongst the Heathen amidst the gross Darkness of Paganism and Idolatry had some little Knowledge of though they were utterly ignorant of the true Cause and Reason of it And therefore they made it their chief Care and Business by their Learning and Philosophy according to the best of their Power to correct and amend it But unto us Christians God hath unlocked this Secret and hath fully discovered this great and hidden Mystery which all the Learning of the profoundest Heathen Philosophers was not able to search out In the lively Oracles of the Holy Scriptures he hath fully explained unto us both the Cause and Danger and Remedy of this Corruption of our Nature In that Sacred Book we have it represented to us under divers Names and Characters all of them foul and abominable like it self This is that which Rom. 7.17 St. Paul calls the Sin that dwells in us Because since the Fall of our First Parents it is become natural and hereditary to us and never leaves us nor forsakes us in this World but abides continually in our Flesh even unto Death whence in the same Chapter it is called the Evil that is present with us and Hebr. 12.1 the Sin which doth so easily beset us because it cleaves to us so closely and inseparably and with so much Force and Violence presses and besieges all the Strength and Powers of our Soul The word in the Original is very Elegant and Emphatical and but once used in all the New Testament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Sin which doth so easily beset us that Sin which doth as it were hug and embrace us and is continually insinuating and winding it self like a Serpent into our Hearts with a Design to deceive and beguile us This is that which ver 15. of the same Chapter is called a Root of Bitterness springing up to trouble us because it is ever plentiful in producing evil Branches and corrupt and deadly Fruit. This is that which by St. James is called the Lusts that war in our Members James 4.1 and by St. Peter the fleshly Lusts which war against the Soul 1 Pet. 2.11 St. Paul calls it the old Man and the Body of Sin Rom. 6 6. And what the Members of that Body are he tells us Coloss 3.5 Fornication Uncleanness inordinate Affection evil Concupiscence and Covetousness which is Idolatry Thus ye see the first Difficulty that the Righteous Man hath to encounter within his way to Heaven which renders that way so troublesome to him that notwithstanding all his Courage and Resolution he cannot walk in it without great Pains and Labour He carries a most unwelcome and heavy Clog about him from which he cannot possibly disengage himself which continually pulls him back and hinders and retards his Soul in its Flight towards those glorious Mansions of Joy and Happiness towards which it doth so eagerly press forward And had he no other Enemies but this one to vanquish even this alone might be sufficient to satisfie us that he shall scarcely be saved since it is most certain that he never shall be saved at all except he do overcome this first Enemy of his Salvation which of all others is the most formidable One deceitful Dalilab was worse to Samson than all the Philistines and this one innate intestine Foe of ours which lies continually in our Bosom is more dangerous to us than either the World or the Devil both which join their Forces together with this to bring us to Destruction And could we as we have all solemnly promised and engaged to do in our Baptismal Vow renounce all the sinfull Lusts