him without fear that we would do it in holinesse and Righteousness before him And if he would restore his opportunities of Worship how we would use them Thus we did labour to tempt God and draw him in to have compassion and this was Ephraims Imagination just I heard Ephraim bemoaning himself saith the Prophet as a Bullock unaccustomed to the yoke turn thou me and I shall be turned turn my Captivity and I will turn my life But this was as a Bullock unaccustomed to the yoke that did not like the straitness and pressure of it and would promise any thing to get it off thought it more easie to reform than bear Affliction But is this hopeful think you The Souldiers of Lyons that would ravish Death and break into the Grave for Lust it may be would have been modest and retired from the fair Palaces that are prepared to tempt and entertain that vice Cold and insensible of all those heats that Health and Beauty kindle but remember it was the taking off Gods Hand that hardned Pharaohs heart and a release from punishment was his Reprobation And as for those that were humbled under the Rod and when God had retrencht from their enjoyments did put restraints upon themselves gave over sinning I have a word of Caution for them that they examine well and take a care it be a ceasing from fin like that in the Text a dying to it that they no longer live the rest of their time in the flesh to the lusts of men For if this Old Man be onely cold and stiff not mortified by the calm and sunshine of peace likely to be warm'd into a recovery if thou owe all thy Innocence to thy Pressure wert onely plunder'd of thy sins and thy Vertue and Poverty hand in hand as they were born so they will dye together thy Vices and Revenues come in at once What is this but to invite new Desolations which God in kindness must send to take away the opportunities and foments of our ruining sins 't is true when God has wrought such most astonishing miracles of mercy for us when he did make Calamity contribute to our Happinesse when we were Shipwrackt to the Haven and the Shore when rains did advance us and we fell upwards it is an hopeful argument God would not do such mighty works on purpose to undo them we have good ground of confidence that he will preserve his own mercies and will not throw away the issues of his goodness in which his bounty hath so great an interest and share But yet if we debauch Salvation and make it serve our undoing if we order these opportunities of mercy so that they onely help us to fill up the measure of our sins if we teach Gods long suffering onely to work out our eternal sufferings these Mercies will prove very cruel to us and far from giving any colour for our hopes When the Prodigal was received into his Fathers house and arms had a Ring put on him and the fatted Calf killed for him if he should strait have invited the companions of his former riot to that fatted Calf and joyn'd his Harlot to him with that Ring he had deserved then to be disinheritated both from his Fathers house and pitty who would have had no farther entertainment nor no bowells for him To prevent such a fate let us make no relapses but quite cease from sin which if we do not do a little Logick will draw an unhappy inference from this Text if he that hath suffered hath ceast from sin then he that hath not ceast from sinning hath not suffered and then what is all this that we have felt and so layn under what is it if it be not suffering If this be but preparative then what is the full potion the Cup of Indignation when all his Violls shall be poured into it If such have been the beginnings of sufferings what shall the issues be If the morning dew of the day of punishment have been so full of blood what shall the Storm and Tempest be the deluge and inundation of Fury Take heed of making God relapse 't is in your power to prevent it your Reformation will be his preservative and Antidote That is the way to keep all whole to settle Government and Religion both at once to establish the Kings Throne and Christs For notwithstanding mens pretensions these Thrones are not at all inconsistent For that there must be no King but Christ that there cannot be a Kingdome here of this world because there is a Kingdome that is not of this world is such another Argument as that there cannot be an Earth because there is an Heaven Indeed if we fulfill my Text then we shall reconcile these Kingdoms and bring down Heaven into us for that 's a state where there is neither sin nor suffering where there shall be no tears because no guilt to merit them and no calamity to make them Now Reformation does work this here in some degree and afterwards our comforts that are checker'd with some sufferings and our piety which is soiled with spots shall change into Immortal and unsullied Glories to the Throne of which Glories he prepare us all Who washt us from our sins in his own Blood and by his sufferings hath made us Kings and Priests to God and his Father to whom be Glory and Dominion for ever and ever Amen SERMON II. VVHITE-HALL October 20. 1661. PSALM LXXIII 1. Truely God is good to Israel even to such as are of a Clean Heart ' T was a false Confidence the Jews did nourish That they should dwell securely in their Land notwithstanding their provocations because the Worship and the House of God was in it They did but trust on lying words the Prophet sayes when they did trust upon The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord As if the Temple were a Sanctuary for those that did profane it and the horns of the Altar would secure them when 't was the blood upon the Altar call'd for Vengeance Nor was that after-plea of theirs more valid We are the chosen Israel of God We have Abraham to our Father As if when by their works they had adopted to themselves another Parent were of their Father the Devil they could claim any but their present Fathers interest or have the blessings of forsaken Abraham Now if it be no otherwise with us but because in our Judah God is known his Name great in our Israel with us in Salem that is in peace he hath his Tabernacle now and his dwelling in Sion And so much knowledge such pretences to the Name of God and to his Worship are not with other Nations nor have they such advantages to know his Law If as each party of us does assume these Priviledges to it self so each do also rest in them although their Lives answer not these advantages If while they judge themselves Christs chosen Flock boast Covenants and
without it they were to cleanse themselves from the impurities of meer Contingency yea they were bound to wash their Dreams and purifie their very sleeps and all this is expounded by the Prophet Isaiah 1. 16. 17. Wash ye make ye clean put away the evil of your doings cease to do evil learn to do well And in our Israel by our Covenant there is as much of this required for we were all initiated into our profession by Washing regenerated in a Lavet and born again of Water becoming so Tertullians Sanctitatis designati set aside for Holiness consecrated to cleanness and made the votaries of purity How clean a thing then must a Christian be who must be washt into the Name nor is he thus washt only in the Font there was a more inestimable fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness Apoc. 11. 5. Jesus Christ hath washt us in his own blood And Heb. 9. 14. The Blood of Christ did purge our Consciences from dead works to serve the living God How great is our necessity of being clean when to provide a means to make us so God opens his Sons side and our Laver is drawn out of the Heart of Christ Yet we have more effusions to contribute to it 1 Cor. 6. 11. But ye are washt but ye are sanctified by the Spirit of our God and we must be Baptized with the Holy Ghost and with fire A Laver of flame also to wash away our Scurfe as well as sullages and beyond all these some of us have been purg'd too with the fiery trial and molten in the furnace of Affliction to separate our drosse and purifie us from alloy that we may be clean and refined too may become Christians of the highest Carrect Such among others are the obligations such the instruments of cleanness in a Christian Let us inquire next into the importance of the quality and the degree that is exacted And here I need not say that it stands in direct opposition to the licentiÌ„ous practices of vice this Scripture calls corruption and pollution 2 Pet. 2. 19 20. and the sinner is there stiled the servant of corruption sure a worthy relation this a Servant is we know meaner than whom he serves at least he is in that consideration as he serves and then I pray you in what rank of things is Re or she who is below and baser then Corruption David does also call such open Sepulchres things all whose horrour does not lie in this that they enclose rottenness and putrefaction but open Sepulchres are gaping frightfull noysomness and they do also shed a killing stench a man that is ingaged in conversations with impure sinners is in a like condition with him who hath no air to draw into him but that of Funeral Vaults and does suck in onely the breath of Pestilence But it is a small thing to say the cleanness of a Christian does abhor such licentious impurities for it is such that though it may consist with those little stains that come by slips and failings of infirmity these are the spots of Children and also with some single fouler acts into which the man may be surprized provided they be suddenly washt off in tears Yet can it not consist with continuance in a known sin though it be but a breach of a single Commandment And though the man be strict in other things yet if he do allow himself one vice he is of the number of the unclean for partial obedience does imply also partial disobedience and to the worst and foulest mixture therefore no purity Herod feared John the Baptist knowing that he was a just man and an holy and observed him and when he heard him he did many things and heard him gladly Mar. 6. 20. Could you but pardon him one crime he were a most Religious person but that indulg'd makes him the wicked Herod The matter of Vriah threw dirt perpetual sticking dirt into the Character of David that man after Gods heart There are few persons but some sin or other finds a particular engagement on and does insinuate especially above all others into them the vice of Constitution the Crime of my Bosome 't is my own flesh and blood I cannot tear that from me Or else another sin does get into my Coffers the profits of it bribe me to make much onâ—t and it brings such a reward with it I cannot be unkind to it Or else the custome of a vice hath made it my acquaintance and my friend and then it is so joynted into me that there is no divulsion of it now when a vice hath got any of these relations to me rather then use a violence upon my self I must find out some salve how to quiet Conscience and yet keep the vice And truly if it be but one thing that a man transgresses in he is apt to be gentle to himself and finds plump grounds to be so The best man hath his fault and this is his onely in this the Good Lord pardon him in other things he will be strict but this is his particular infirmity to which his very making did dispose him having been poysoned by its Principles without his fault or conspiration 'T is true indeed men have some one or other sinful inclination which is a weight and violence upon them and which they did derive from Adam whose sin like an infection taken in by divers men breaks out in several Diseases according to variety of Constitutions But truely Adam gave them no ill Customes and they have no originall habits themselves did educate their inclinations into vices and for those inclinations that are derived into them the water of their Baptisme was therefore poured upon them to coole those inbred heats and quench those flashings out of Nature wash away those soul innate tendencies in that Laver of Regeneration which therefore they who spare and are tender to because they are original and naturall they spare them for that very reason for which they there engaged to ruine them and do â—enounce their Baptisme as to the aims and uses of it There thou didst List thy self a Souldier to fight against the Devil World and Flesh now whichsoere of these gets most into thee wilt thou think fit to spare thy Enemy because he is thy bosome one the Risque is greatest when thy Foe is Rebel and Traitor too is got in thy own Quarters shuffled with thy own Forces entred thy Holds and thy Defences and mixes in thy Counsells does counterfeit thy Guard so that thou but command'st and leadst on thy own ruine Sure here is need of strictest cares to rid thy self of so much treacherous danger so far is it from a defence to say this is the single force and bent of Nature in me that if I do not therefore most resist it I am perjuriously confederate with my Destruction and howsoever pure I keep my self from other vices I am not clean David will tell me when I am Psal. 18. 23.
inclines it draws the whole Man after it If any thing in us be crucified in a Conformity to Christ it must be this for in that death wherein Christ offered up himself upon the Crosse where although the Divine Nature gave the value 't was onely the Humane Nature made the Offering there it was the crucifying his own Will that above all other the ingredients made his Death a Sacrifice and the price of our Redemption God that had given him his Blood and Life might call for it again when and how he saw good and being due it was not properly a price that could be given him for sin but his free voluntary choice his being willing to endure the Agonies and Contempts of the Crosse his stabbing his own natural desires with a resolute determination Not my will but thine be done This his own Will was his own offering and such is ours if we be Crucified with Christ made conformable to his death if we present our selves a Sacrifice acceptable to the Lord for our will is not given up to him till it do perfectly comport with his but that it cannot do till we renounce our own desires till we have brought our selves to an indifference in outward things to such a resignation as she is storied to have had who being in her Sicknesse bid to choose whether she rather would have Health or Death made answer Vehementissimè desidero ut non facias voluntatem meam Domine this above all I desire that thou wilt not do my will I would have thee not do what I desire and would have So that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the whole of us the Spirit Soul and Flesh go to make up this person and the body of Sin is the Old man entire I whole I am nothing but a mass of guilts my Senses are the bands of wickednesse that procure for my evil inclinations my members are the weapons of unrighteousness my Body is a body of Sin and Death and the affections of my Soul are Lusts its faculties are the powers of Sin yea and the Spirit of my mind that Breath of God is putrefied that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Angel-part of me is fall'n and turn'd Apostate and however I be partly Son of Man and partly Son of God yet I am wholly Child of Wrath and so fit to be Crucified Which calls me to the next Enquiry to the nature of the duty here intended I am Crucified What is design'd by it S. Paul does perfectly declare Rom. 6. 6. Our old man is crucified with Christ that the body of Sin might be destroyed that we should no longer serve sin So that it means a through Repentance and abandoning of former evil Courses A Duty which there are few men but in some instants of their life think absolutely necessary and perswade themselves they do perform it At some time or other they are forc't to recollect and grow displeas'd and angry at their sins and have some sad reflections on them beg for mercy and forgiveness and do think of leaving them and when they have return'd to them again they shake the head and chafe and curse at their own weaknesse and renew their purposes it may be and do this as oft as such a Season as this is or other like occasions suggest it to or move them And with this they satisfie themselves and hope if God do please to take them hence in some such muddy gloomy fit of their Repentance all 's well Now shall we call this being Crucified are there Racks and Tortures in this discipline hath a Spear prickt them to the heart and no blood nor no water no tears gush out thence hath it made no issue for some hearty Sorrow to purle out Indeed I must confesse the Scripture does sometimes word the performance of this duty in expressions that are not so sower but of an easier importance as first put off the Old Man as if all were but Garment put it off I say not as they stript our Saviour in order to his Scourgings and his Crosse but intimating to us what an easie thing it is to cast off Sin for them who do begin with it betimes before it get too close to the heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. saith Theophyl even as easie as putting off thy Cloaths and thy Repentance is but as thy Shift thy change of life like changing thy Apparel But alas for all the easienesse which this expression hints where the sins also lye in the Attire as besides emulation pride vainglory great uncharitablenesse and inhumanity cruel injustice and oppression often do when many are undone through want of those dues which do furnish other men with the excesses of this kind when the sins therefore lye in the attire and they may put them off without a Metaphor yet it is so hard that it cannot be done sometimes the worth of a whole Province hangs upon a slender thread about a neck a Patrimony thrust upon one joynt of one least finger and these warts of a Rock or a Shell-fish with the appendages eat out Estates and starve poor Creditors for whom indeed they should command these stones to be made bread but that 's Miracle too stubborn for their Vertue And then how will they proceed to the next expression of this duty Circumcise your selves to the Lord and take away the foreskin of your hearts Jer. 4. 4. These are harder and more bloody words they differ in the pain and anguish that they put us to as much as to uncloath and flea would do It appears indeed this punishment of fleaing often went before the Crosse. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Ctesiâ—s of one having his Skin pull'd off he was Crucified And the scourges in some measure did inflict this on our Saviour when they put off his Cloaths they stript his Skin also left him no covering but some rags of that which whipping had torn from his flesh Yet this expression sounds harsher when it bids us circumcise the foreskin of our hearts and tear it from thence flea that When long conversation with the pleasures of a sin hath not onely given them Regallias but hath made them necessary to us so as that we cannot be without them when Custome craves with greater feaver than our thirst when if we want it we have qualms faintings of Soul as if the life were in that blood of the grape when men can part as easily with their own bowells as the Luxuries that feed them if you take away their dishes then you take their souls which dwell in them when the sins of the Bed are as needful and refreshing as the sleeps of it when to bid a man not look not satisfie his lustful eye is every jot as cruel as that other If thine eye offend thee pluck it out For if he must no more find pleasure in his sight he hath no use of it yea if this be indeed a kindnesse not to leave him Eyes
severe a shape and gives the lineaments of so fierce displeasures against sin as do exceed all comprehension There was a passion in Christs Prayer to prevent his passion when he deprecated it with strong cryes and tears yea when his whole body wept tears as of blood to deprecate it and yet he cryed more dreadfully when he did suffer it The nayles that bor'd his hands the spear that pierc't his heart and made out-letts for his blood and Spirits did not wound him as that sting of death and torments sin did which made out-lets for God to forsake him and which drove away the Lord that was himself out of him Neither did his God forsake him onely but his most Almighty attributes were engag'd against him Gods Holinesse and Justice were resolv'd to make Christ an example of the sad demerit of Iniquity and his hatred of it Demerit so great as was valuable with the everlasting punishment of the World fal'n Angels and fal'n Men for to that did it make them lyable Now that God might appear to hate it at the rate of its deservings it was very necessary that it should be punisht if not by the execution of that sentence on Mankind as on the Devils yet by something that might be proportionable to it so to let us see the measures God abhors it by to what degrees the Lord is just and holy by those torments torments answerable to those attributes Now truly when we do reflect on this we cannot wonder if the Sinner be an enemy to the Crosse and hate the prospect of it which does give him such a perfect copy of his expectations when our Saviours draught which he so trembled at shall be the everlasting portion of his Cup For if God did so plague the imputation of Iniquity how will he torment the willful and impenitent commission of it But then when we consider those torments were the satisfaction for the sins of man methinks the sinner should be otherwise affected to them Christ by bearing the Cross gave God such satisfaction as did move him in consideration thereof to dispence with that strict Law which having broken we were forfeit to eternal death and to publish an act of grace whereby he does admit all to pardon of sins past and to a right to everlasting Life that will believe on him for sake their sins and live true Christians He there appears the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the World for that he does as being a Lamb slain then he was our Sacrifice and that Crosse the Altar And the humbled sinner that repents for notwithstanding satisfaction God will not acept a Sinner that goes on by all those Agonies his holynesse would not be justifyed if when he had forsaken and tormented his own Son for taking sin upon him he should yet receive into his favour and his Heaven sinners that will not let go but will retain their sins but the penitent may plead this expiation Lo here I poor Soul prostrate at the footstool of the Crosse lay hold upon the Altar here 's my Sacrifice on which my sins are to be charg'd and not on me although so foul I am I cannot pour out tears sufficient to cleanse me yet behold Lord and see if there ever were any Sorrow like the sorrow of thy Son wherewith thou didst afflict him for these sins of mine And here is Blood also his Blood to wash me in and that Blood is within the Vaile too now and that my offering taken from the Crosse up to thy Throne thou hast accepted it and canst not refuse it now my Advocate does plead it and claims for me the advantage of the Crosse. Now that men should be Enemies to this and when they are forseit to eternal Ruine hate that which is to redeem the forfeiture that they should trample on the Crosse whereon their satisfactions were wrought tread down the Altar which they have but to lay hold on and be safe wage war with beat off and pursue a Lamb that Lamb of God that comes to take away their sins and make a spoyl and slaughter of their Sacrifice hostilely spill upon the ground that Blood that was appoynted for their Blood upon the Altar for their blood of sprinkling and was to appear in Heaven for them It men resolve to be on terms of Duell with their God and scorn that Satisfaction shall be made for them by any other way than by defiance and although their God do make the satisfactions for them to himself yet not endure it but choose quarrel rather this is so perverse and fatal an hostility as no tears are sufficient to bewail But possibly men sleight these satisfactions because some terms are put upon them which they know not how to comport with the merits of the Crosse must not be accounted to them but upon conditions which they are not able to perform they are required to master all their wicked Customes their untam'd appetites and settled habits to keep under their Concupiscence to calm their inclinations and their passions Now on such severe articles friendship with the Crosse they think is too hard bought But therefore Secondly that Crosse was the consideration upon which Grace is offer'd us whereby we are enabled to perform all this the power to will and strength to do all necessary aids from Heaven are granted to us as Christ merited them for us by his Sufferings and that Blood he shed upon the Crosse it is the Fountain 't is the Ocean of all grace And if temptations storm thee lay hold on that Crosse it is the Anchor of Salvation thou hast hold on tell thy God although thou art not able to resist and stand thou hast the price of strength that which did purchase it was paid down for thee on the Crosse and is at his right hand he hath it give me therefore grace for it let me have the value of that Blood the Blood of God in spiritual succours which may make me able to resist thy Enemies and do thy will Now God will never be unjust to deny any man those aids that were so dearly purchast for him and for which he hath receiv'd the price And then that men should be Enemies of the Crosse which is their Magazine of strength against their Enemies As men that do resist the having grace least it should change their inclinations as men that will not be impowered against Vice but will oppose the Aids of Heaven fight against the succours that are given them and destroy their own forces least with them they should be able to encounter sin and overcome it Thus wilfully to run against and charge their Anchor of Salvation to poyson to themselves the Fountain the whole Ocean of their graces is the state of them onely that do resolve and that had rather perish Once more on that Crosse was wrought a reconciliation betwixt God and Man and that upon such terms of honour to us Men
sins are so not that our Enemies are sunk but that our flesh is vanquisht that sub hoc signo ninces is thus also come to passe with the Standard of the Crosse that Cross on which our selves were Crucified we have overcome and with this Christian banner we have put to flight the Armies of our Heathen Vices For thus it must be if my Text be true and sure it is not possible it should be otherwise For look upon the Muster-roll of these our Foes which S. Paul does produce Gal. 5. 19. 20 21. and see which of them could escape it runs thus Adultery Fornication uncleanness lasciviousness Idolatry Witchcraft Hatred Variance Emulations Wrath Strife Seditions Heresies Envyings Murder Drunkenness Revellings To begin with the great Commanders those that lead the Van and bring up the Reare Uncleannesse and Revellings They that consider how they not onely suffered for but by these Vices which did misplace mens watches and attendances sins that were not onely like Achans in our Army and ruin'd it by bringing the accursed thing into it but were like Hannibal's Numidians in the Roman Army that did at once betray to and inflict Ruine sins that did merit and effect Destruction and made as well as provok'd overthrows and sins that by Gods goodnesse did cut off themselves whilethey did bring men into a condition that would not bear such Vices These are the guilts of Wealth and Splendor that do attend Felicity and Pomp it is not onely hopeful that men did resolve to be reveng'd on these great workers of their mischief and will no more resett such traitors in their bosoms but sure these sins are ceast that did put out themselves Then for Seditions They who consider when they broke the Scepter they left us nothing but the Rod of God instead of it a Rod that turned straight into a Serpent that changed our Seas into Blood or rather made new Seas of our own blood that brought Locusts over the Earth and Frogs into the Temple also to croak there that struck Lights here worse than Egyptian Darkness and destroyed all the first born of the Nation all the Nobles of the Land these will easily believe that we have felt this Rod too much to seize upon it hastily again the Scepter is restored and this Rod like to that in Israel laid up I hope within the Ark together with the Tables of the Law never to be disjoyn'd from Gods Commands nor taken thence against them Next for Heresies Truely we have left us none to revive or to make new the mischief both of them and their Cause the want of Government in the Church is now discerned and remedied And for Divisions and Schismes they who reflect on the sad issues of them how well meaning soever all their Causes were will certainly avoid them To see how while we quarelled for the Fringes of Religion we tore the seameless Coat of Christ to pieces yea and the body too How when we first dislikt a Liturgy the daily Sacrifice of Prayer was made to cease and then the House of Prayer was demolisht next Christs our Lords Prayer was rejected that Liturgy of his own framing thrown away in the Rubbish of his Temple and then it was a sin to pray at all His Table we must have remov'd and then his Supper was so too and that Great Mystery of our Religion the Sacrament of our Redemption was buryed in the Ruines of his Altar To see how thus out of heats of Religion we destroyed all Religion because that some adjacent Circumstances did not please us and fetcht a Coal from the Altar to set fire to and burn down the Temple because the building of some out-court was we thought irregular is Document enough not to attempt this any more for Religions sake For now it would be in despite of Christ who hath almost verified the Jewish accusation of him Destroy this Temple also and in three dayes he will build it up again and hath built it up we hope as he did that of his own Body never to fall again by us Surely we will not kill this Body of his out of Love to him and make his Temple his burnt Offering When God hath set our sins in order thus before our eyes shewed them us in their sad effects there is no fear that we should fall in love with them But where it is not thus where Gods last and most working Method hath been able to produce no good I must to keep my word Apply the Danger In that case what remains but the Curse of the ground Heb. 6. 8. which if after all the Husband-mans methods of Care and Art it bring forth only thorns and briars it is rejected by him he will bestow no more labour on it but can hardly forbear cursing such an ill piece of ground and its end is to be burnt So we after Gods Husbandry of Afflictions when the Plowers plowed upon our backs and made long furrows and the Iron teeth of Oppressors as it were harrowed us if we bring forth onely the fruits of the Flesh we are rejected reprobated God will bestow no more arts on us we are not far from his curse and there remains onely a fearfull looking for of Judgment and ficry Indignation If any did continue refractory to the Rod sinn'd under and against Judgment and did commit with an high hand even while the Lords hand was stretcht out against them what shall reform what can express their guilt To have beheld that tragical iniquity we read of Lyons where when the City was so visited with the Pestilence that scarce any were free that the Dead without a figure buried their dead falling down one upon another each being at once a Carcass and a grave the Souldiers of the Cittadel would daily issue forth and deflour Virgins now giving up the ghost defile Matrons even already dead committing with the dust warming the grave with sinful heats and coupling with the Plague and Death would not this have seemed the Landskip of Hell to us when they suffer and sin together yet when a Church and State were on their death-beds Gods tokens on them visited with the treasures of his Plagues and our selves sinking in that our Ruine if any went a whoreing after their own flesh still fulfilling the lusts thereof and in the midst of Deaths searching for sins what was this but to do the same things whose story does affright us while the actions please and in this case what method will be useful do we think our selves of that generous kind that will do nothing by compulsion but will for kindness and though we would not be chained yet we will be drawn to Vertue by the cords of Love and now God hath shewn mercy on us we will return him service out of gratitude Truely I make no question but most of us have promised some such things to God how if he would but save us from our Enemies that we might serve
when he cannot give a Lamb for his Transgression he gives some of himself he offers Hunger for Shewbread and Thirst for a Drink offering he consecrates a Meal instead of a Beast and sheds a sower fasting sigh for Incense and this he hopes God will accept as Sacrifice And truely the Text sayes no day of Expiation could be kept without it Noâ— does the Scripture want great instances of its effect towards Atonements of Gods wrath How when Judgment was given on a Nation or Person and Execution going out against them yet this rever'st the Sentence Ahab is a great proof of this 1 King 21. 27. And it came to passe when Ahab heard those words that he rent his Clothes and put Sackcloth upon his flesh and Fasted and lay in Sackcloth and went softly And the Word of the Lord came unto Elijah the Tishbite saying Seest thou how Ahab humbleth himself before me Because he humbleth himself before me I will not bring the evil in his dayes One Fasting-day secured a Life the weaknesses it brought upon the body upheld it against all Gods threats Vengeance pronounc't and coming out against him falls to ground if Ahab humble and Afflict his Soul Gods stretcht out Arm will not strike Sackcloth nor wound through Fasting Garments One fit of it removes his Judgments a whole Age and had it been sincere and persevering how had it wip't them out to everlastingnesse Nineve is another instance of the practice and successe of this even among the Heathens Nor should it seem to have lesse Efficacy among Christians The Primitive Fathers call these severities Satisfaction for sin and Compensations the Price with which they are bought off the things that cover them and blot them out and which Propitiate and appease God for them not in their sense who force up these Expressions to a strange height of meaning and yet have quite beat down the Practise as to the publique wholesome use of them out of the Church But though these sayings assign not the Power and just Efficacy of that discipline in it self yet they do the acceptance and effect of it by virtue of Christs Satisfaction A Fainting Body cannot bear indeed the weight of our iniquities nor will lowest prostrations in the dust bury them in the dust or Tears alone blot out our Guilt but Christ having done that which is effectual to all this and requiring no more of thee to make that thine as he does every where most solemnly avow but faithfull humbling of thy self in an afflictive sorrow for what 's past and so to mortifie as to work out Repentance the doing this is doing what he does require and consequently will accept These satisfie the Command and therefore God though not by a condignity of performance yet as Conditions which his Covenant of Grace hath set us which when they are fulfilled then God is satisfied thy sins are expiated and thou art pardoned And so in this lower sense these are thy Satisfactions with which God is well pleased And thus these self Afflictions of the Sinner supply Gods Indignation and divert it They leave no place nor businesse for it and by these short severities upon himself he does make void he does expunge the Sentence of eternal Torments saith Tertullian As thou becomest severe against thy self so will the Lord abate of his severities and he will spare and he will pitty thee in that he sees thou wilt not spare thy self How can he choose but be appeased towards thee when he shall see thee executing his Sentence even upon thy own self and punishing his Enemies although they be thy Members so that by this means thou dost censure thy self into Gods Absolutions afflict thy self into his Pardons and dost condemn thy self into eternal Life Our Church sayes the same thing That in the Primitive Church there was a Godly Discipline that at the beginning of Lent such persons as were notorious sinners were put to open Pennance and punished in this world that their Souls might be saved in the Day of the Lord and she does wish if her wishes be of any force and value when her Orders and Constitutions are not that Discipline could be restored But this I shall not presse if all those whom the Primitive Church Condemned or S. Paul sentenced were so used if every Schismatick that lyes tearing himself and others off from the Lords Body were rejected and if the Fornicator that joyns himself to his unclean Accomplice were disjoyned from Christ and not suffered to make his members be the members of an Harlot if every scandalous debauching offender that lyes corrupting Christs Body spreading contagion thrusting the gangreen forward were cut off and these and all the rest delivered up to Satan alas what part would Christ have left of his own Body Sed illos defendit numerus junctaeque umbone phalanges and that I fear too in more senses than the Poet means Therefore I shall not urge the Churches Wish but only see whether the Statute in the Text sayes any thing to this and whether the for ever do reach us Which is my third and last Enquiry Thirdly Divers of the Jews Rites are said to be and be prescribed for ever although those very Rites and the whole oeconomy of their Covenant were to be chang'd and cease among other reasons as the Fathers say because they foresignifie and point at things in the new Covenant which were to last till Covenants and Rites shall be no more and so their meaning and signification was to be for ever Now truely that their Expiation Performances those which I am upon did so the whole Epistle to the Hebrews is employ'd to prove the Margent of your Bibles in this Chapter so refer you to the places that I shall not need to make it out Christ did fulfill the Temple and the Altar part yea and the refuse outcast part of the Atonement satisfied the Religion and the contempt of that dayes offices He was the whole true Expiation Now does this Expiation as theirs did require afflicting of the Soul in its attendance or was that but a Ceremony of their Rite and though a Jew must mourn and Fast to see his sin killing a Beast and when he does behold his wickednesse eating up a Goat for a Sin offering he must deny himself his daily bread and suffer thirst if his Iniquities drink but the blood of Bullocks yet when we behold ours embrew themselves in the Blood of the Son of God not onely lay hands and confessions on his head but drive Thorns into it make him cry out almost despair and Dye we need not be concern'd so much as to do ought of that either in order to the better Celebration of that Expiation or on the very day of it Indeed if we consider most mens practises it would appear most probable that if we were to expiate our sins as the Jews did by sacrificing of our Flocks not of our Jesus
midst of these severities when God breaks in in Comforts into them The Glory of the Lord appears in that Cloud too that is upon the penitent sad heart when he is drencht in tears the Holy Ghost the Comforter does move upon those waters and breaths Life and Salvation into them and he who is the Unction pours Oyle into those wounds of the Spirit and we are never neerer Heaven than when we are thus prostrate in the lowest dust and when our Belly cleaveth unto the ground in humble penitence then we are at the very Throne of Grace And this our light Afflicting of the Soul which is but for a moment does work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory To which c. SERMON IV. VVHITE-HALL October 12. 1662. JOHN XV. 14. Ye are my Friends if ye do whatsoever I Command you THe words are a conditional Assertion of Christ's concerning his Apostles and in them all Christians And they do easily divide themselves into two parts The First is a positive part wherein there is a state of great and Blessed advantage which they are declared to be in present possession of In these words Ye are my friends In which there are two things that make up that advantage 1. a Relation 2. the Person related to Friends and My friends The Second is a Conditional part wherein there are the terms upon which that possession is made over and which preserve the Right and Title to them in these words If ye do whatsoever I command you in which there are two things required as Conditions I. Obedience If ye do what I command you II. That Obedience Universal If ye do whatsoever I command you The first thing that offers it self to our consideration is the Relation Friends It is a known common-place truth that a Friend is the most useful thing that is in whatsoever state we are It is the Soul of life and of content If I be in prosperity We know abundance not injoy'd is but like Jewells in the Cabinet uselesse while they are there It is indeed nothing but the opinion of Prosperity But 't is not possible to enjoy abundance otherwise than by communicating it a man possesseth plenty onely in his Friends and hath fruition of it meerly by bestowing it If I be in adversity to have a person whom I may intrust a trouble to whose bosome is as open and as faithful to me as 't is to his own thoughts to which I may commit a swelling secret this is in a good measure to unlade and to pour out my sorrow from me thus I divide my grievances which would be insupportable if I did not disburthen my self of some part of them Now there is no bosome so safe as that where friendship lodges take God's opinion in the case Deut. 13. 6. If thy Brother the Son of thy Mother or thy Son or thy Daughter or the Wife of thy bosome or thy Friend that is as thine own Soul This is the highest step in the Gradation And there is all the reason in the world for though Parent and Child are as neer one to other as any thing can be to part of it self Husband and Wife are but two different names of the same one yet these may become bitter and unkind A Parent may grow cross or a Child refractory a Mother may be like the Ostrich in the Wildernesse throw off her bowels with her burthen and an ungracious Son is constant pangs and travail to his Mother his whole life gives her after-throws which are most deadly Dislikes also may rest within the Marriage-Bed and lay their heads upon two wedded Pillows but none of these unkindnesses can untie the Relation that ends not where the bitternesse begins he is a Parent still though froward and a Child though stubborn but a true Friend can be nothing but kind it does include a deerness in its essence which is so inseparable from it that they begin and end together A man may be an Husband without loving but cannot be a lover that is a Friend without loving And sure to have no one friend in this Life no one that is concerned in any of my interests or me my self none that hath any cares or so much as good wishes for me is a state of a most uncomfortable prospect The Plague that keeps Friends at a distance from me while I live out of the sphere of my infection and after gives me Death hath yet lesse of Malignity than this that leaves me the Compassions the Prayers all the solitary comforts all indeed but the outward entertainments of my Friends that though it shut the Door against all company yet puts a Lord have Mercy on the Door But this I now described hath none of that hath no good wishes nothing else but hate is worse than a perpetual Pestilence Yet neither is this state so comfortlesse in respect of this life as not to have a Friend in the concernments of the Life to come none that hath so much kindnesse for my Soul as every man hath for his Enemies Beast which if he see fallen in a Ditch he will at least give notice that it may be helpt out thence No one that when a sin like to that Falling sickness in the Gospel and it is such indeed without a Parable is casting me into the Water quenching my parts my Reason and the Immortal spark within me or throwing me into the Fire raising Lascivious heats within which after will break out into Hell fires none yet that will stretch out his hand to catch me or to pull me out None that does care to see me perish-to Eternity or that values my Soul which yet did cost the Blood of God at a word speaking This is to be like Dives in the Flames to whom they would not lend the help of the tip of a finger or give the kindness of a drop of Water I am as it were on the other side the Gulfe already Here is the use of Friendship the only noble one that 's worthy of that blessed quality When I have one that will be an assistant Conscience to me who when that within me sleeps or is benummed will watch over my actions will testifie them to my Face will be as faithful to me as the Conscience should be hold a Glasse to my Soul shew me the stains and the proud tumours the foul Ulcers that are there and then will fret and rub or prick lance and corrode to cure those tumours and do off those spots such an one is a familiar Angel Guardian is truely of that blessed Heavenly rank and onely lesse than the Friend in the Text the Person related to and my next part My Friends There are three things from which men use to take the measures of a Friend First From the good things he bestows on them He that thinks to keep friendship alive onely with air that gives good words but parts with nothing that entertains onely
Lord appointed them they were so close a sence that our Saviour calls them Keyes of the Kingdom of Heaven as if they lockt us in the Path of Piety and Life and we must pick or break all that the Key of Heavin can make fast burst Locks as well as Vows before we can get out have liberty to sin God having bounded in the Christians race as that among the Grecians was which had a River on one side and Swords points all along the other so that Destruction dwelt about it on the borders And God hath mounded ours with the River of Hell the Lake of Fire and with these spiritual Swords as S. Cyprian and S. Hierome call the Censures But yet a Mound too weak alas to stand the Resolution and assaults of Vices now adayes which do not onely make great breaches in the Fence but have quite thrown it down and slighted it and the Church dares not set it up again should she attempt it they would scoff it down Men will endure no bar in the way to Perdition they will have liberty of Ruine will not be guarded from it so far from brooking Censures they will suffer no Reproof nor Admonition not suffer one word betwixt them and death eternal But Fiftly Though we will not let Almighty God restrain us with his Censures yet he will do it with his Rod and set the sharp stakes of Affliction in our walk to keep us in thus he makes sins sometimes inflict themselves and then we straight resolve to break off from them and while we suffer shame and feel destruction in the vice we shrink and uncling And now the sinner would not dye especially if his Precipitance have thrown him to the consines of the grave and while he took his full careers of Vice the fury of his course did drive him to the ports of Ruine and Death seemed to make close and most astonishing approaches when standing on the brink of the Abysse he takes a prospect of the dismal state that must receive him and his Vices then he trembles and flyes his apprehensions swoon his Soul hath dying qualins caused as much by the Nausea of sin as by the fear of Hell he is in agonies of passion and of prayer both against his former courses he never will come near them more and now sure God hath catch't him and his will is wholly bent another way now he will live the new life if God will grant him any But alas have we never seen when God hath done this for him stretch't out his Arm of Power hal'd him from the brow of the Pit and set him further off how he does turn and drive on furiously in the very same path that leads to the same Ruine and he recovers into death eternal And now this Will is grown too strong for the Almighty's powerful methods and frustrates the whole Counsell of God for his Salvation neglects his Calls and Importunacies whereby he warns him to consult his safety to make use of Grace in time not to harden his heart against his own mercies and perish in despight of mercy And when he can reject Gods Graces and his Judgments thus defie his Conscience and his own Experience too there is but one thing left wherein this Resolution can shew its courage and that is Sixthly His own present Interests All which the sinner can break through and despise to get at Death It is so usual to see any of the gross wasting Vices when it is once espoused murder the Reputation and all those great concerns that do depend upon a mans Esteem eat out his Wealth and Understanding make him pursue pernicious wayes and Counsells besot him and enslave him fill his life with disquiet shame and needinesse and the sad consequents of that Contempt and all that 's Miserable and unpittied in this Life and yet the sin with all these disadvantages is lovely not to be divorc't nor torn off from him that I were vain should I attempt to prove a thing so obvious I shall give but one instance of the power of the Will the violence and fury of its inclimations to ruine The man who for anothers inadvertency possibly such as their own rules of Honour will not judge affront yea sometimes without any shadow of a provocation meerly because he will be rude does that upon which they must call one another to account and to their last account indeed at Gods dread Judgment feat whither when he hath sacrific'd two Families it may be all their hopes and comforts in this Life two Souls which cost the Blood of God having assaulted Death when it was aâ—m'd and at his heart and charged Damnation to take Hell by Violence he comes with his own and his Brother's blood upon his Soul to seize his Sentence Go ye Cursed into everlasting Fire 'T is plain against all Interests of this World and the World to come this man will dye And yet this is one of the laudable and generous Customes of the Age. Neither doth this man stand alone the desperate Rebel would come into the Induction that without any hopes sets all on fire to consume all here and to begin his Flames hereafter But I have said enough to prove the Resoluteness of a Sinners Will which is so great indeed that it is this especially which does enhance the guilt of sin into the merit of an endlesse punishment this persevering obstinacy does deserve Hell and make it just For whatsoever inequality there is betwixt the short liv'd pleasures of a sin which dye while they are tasted and put out themselves and those eternal never dying retributions of Vengeance As sure there is also betwixt the life of Man and several of those petty felonies that forfeit it yet the Law does not murder when it Executes I might have instanc't in the gathering sticks upon the Sabbath day in Israel For since the preservation of publique safety and propriety is valuable with the lives of many men and to secure that and affright the Violation it was necessary to affix such punishments to such offences they that know the penalty and wilfully meerly to feed their other vices run upon it justly suffer it So that Man might not rob himself of that immortal Glory which God had ordain'd him when he did see it absolutely necessary thus to hedge Vice with Eternal Death And as he set Angels and Flaming Swords to keep him out of Paradise so to set Fiends and Flames to guard Hell from him and to entail those Torments on Man's sin which he had prepared for the Devil and sealed the Deed in the Blood of his Son If notwithstanding men renounce the blessedness and against all their Interests and Obligations in spight of all the arts and Powers of Heaven they will have the Torments and what they never would attempt for Paradise invade those flames to get to Hell 't is very just that God should let them have it should not break his
to draw nigh to the Lord yet being put into the High Priests Censor with the Altar coals to give them holy flame and wrapt up in his Cloud and Smoak of Incense that will cover all the failings of my Prayers they may get access into his Ears and his Compassions Indeed how can they choose when Christ does joyn his Intercessions for my requests will go where the High Priests do go he carrys them now He himself doth sit at the right hand of God The intercessions that are made for me are made upon the Throne and therefore cannot be repulst from thence and such desires command and they create effects But should my Prayers fail and should God hide himself from my Petitions withdraw himself and hide his face from them although they be even before his face Yet Secondly I have an Advocate there too 1 Joh. 2. 1 2. If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the Righteous and he is the propitiation for our sins one that not onely pleads for me but brings the satisfaction of my Forfeiture in his hands makes the just value plead appears there with his Blood and proves a recompence 'T is Jesus Christ the righteous Advocate that does propitiate and atone for what he pleads for purchase what he begs 'T is true that poor Worm saith he hath provokt thee often Lord but thou didst smite the Man that is thy fellow for it Behold my Hands and look into my Sides see there thy Recompence wilt thou refuse that Satisfaction thy self didst contrive and thy beloved Son did make why did a Person of the blessed Trinity descend from Heaven and Divinity to be made Sin and be a Curse but to Redeem him from the Curse and Sin and to entitle him again to the possession of Heaven and God Why was I Crucified but that thou might'st be aton'd and he be pardon'd Thus he solicites for us there presents himself in our stead as our Attorney He was not a publique person onely on the Crosse but he is so at the right hand of God as he was there our Representative and bore our sins so he is here our Representative and bears our wants was there our Proxey to the Wrath of God is here our Proxey to his Mercies and Compassions He looks upon himself as in our case whose Cause and Persons he supplyes and so is prompted to desire and beg for our poor sakes and he looks upon us as on himself and so obtains as for his own beloved sake pleads as our selves and then as to himself he does decree Sentence and grant For Thirdly I have there a Judge and this is he who sits at the right hand of God to Judge the quick and dead I might have said a Saviour for he was exalted to a Saviour to give Remission of Sins But my Judge is as kind a word For however there be some will cry for Rocks and Hills to hide them from his Face yet this they are afraid of is the Face but of the Lamb Apoc. 6. 16. And it is strange that they who can look upon Hell and charge Fiends in a sin should tremble at a Lamb and fly him so But to the Faithful and sincere endeavouring Christian though he sins as his Advocate is his propitiation so his Judge is his Sacrifice is that Lamb that does take away the sins of the World is his sin-offering his expiation only remov'd off from the Altar to the Judgment-Seat indeed the Mercy-Seat the Throne of his Atonement and his Absolution Where his Judge notwithstanding that his Forfeit shall Decree Possession to him Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you Lastly we have our first fruits for so S. Paul does call our Saviour and then in whatsoever sense that which is done to the first Fruits is applicable to the Harvest all this being hallowed in their Consecration in that sense we our selves are raised to the right hand of God together with this our first Fruits And now O Lord whom have I in Heaven but thee I have my self in pledge and earnest there And then they that rather than have these Interests these Heavenly possessions in present will have onely desires here on Earth are certainly of a perverse and Reprobate choyce Sure it would make Consideration sick to think of the comparison betwixt the after-expectations of a Pious man and those things which our worldly persons call present Enjoyments how for the little spangles of their pride they are so taken with its rustling Pomp they reject Glory that can never wither fade or sully forfeit the being cloath'd upon with Immortality How they lose all that everlasting Heaven means for little things that go by in a Whirlwind come in storm and so they passe away refuse immortal Hallelujahs for a Song cast away solid Joyes and an Eternal weight of Blessednesse for froth for the shaddow of smoak Perchance this may be said for them the nearness of the object does impose upon them they choose something in present rather than dry future hopes But then when that advantage too lyes on the other side their Choyce hath no Temptation when the Pious mans possessions are in hand the others onely in desire in view indeed they may be he does catch at and pursue them still But the hinder Wheel of the Chariot that presses and with larger turns and rowlings hastens after may as soon hope to overtake the first as that man reach a satisfaction still it removes and he does onely heat his appetite in posting after it onely get more desire Now 't is prodigious that these great Men of Sense should be men of such Faith and Expectation as to trust and hope in things that have so constantly so daily mockt their confidences and desires yet be not only Infidels to all Gods blessed preparations which they have nor reason nor Experience against but also have no sense nor rellish of himself in present Not tast nor see how gracious the Lord is 'T is said that the desires of Earthly sensual things do make the greatest part of the Torments of Hell Now though this Doctrine be false and pernicious yet 't is plain that Torment must attend strong passions and most infinite desires which are radicated in the Sinner's heart and which he carries hence and cannot there deposite and to which yet satisfactions are impossible against his knowledge to be mad to have what he knows all the world cannot make it possible for him to have this tears his Soul Affections these that may be said in some sense to fulfil some of the expressions of the Torments of that place their Envy makes the gnashing of their teeth and their Desires are their Uultures Thus Tantalus's ryotous hunger that does gnaw his bowells is his Worm that never dyes and his intemperate thirst his everlasting burnings and his Water that he cannot reach or tast of is his Lake of
fire without Metaphor So that desire alone without its satisfaction is so much of Hell and yet this is the worldly sensual mans estate exactly here on Earth for he hath nothing but desires and lusts and his condition is not easier at all for how is Tantalus more wretched than a Midas or than any covetous wretch who in the midst of affluence and heaps hungers as much as Midas did for meat and for Gold too and can touch neither for his uses so that the Worlds delights are very like the miserys of Hell and men with so much eager and impatient pursuit do but anticipate their torments and invade Damnation here And if the case be so sure there is no great self-denyal in our Psalmist here when he resolves to desire nothing upon Earth in comparison of his God 'T is no such glorious conquest of my Appetite to make it not pursue a present Hell and an eternal one annext to it before a Saviour Yet the world does so Some there are that desire Money rather and although when Judas did so this desire could not bear it self but cast all back again and though it did disgorge it burst him too the Sin it self supply'd the Law and his guilt was his Execution Yet this will not terrifie men will do the like betray a Master and a Saviour and a God onely not for so little money peradventure Others when the Lord paid his own Blood for their Redemption yet if their wrath thirsts for his Blood that does offend them their revenge makes their Enemies the sweeter blood though their own Soul bleed to death in his stream To others the deservings of the partner of an unclean moment are much greater than all that the Lord Jesus knew to merit at their hands or purchase for them And it is no wonder they are so ungrateful to their Saviour when they are so barbarous to themselves as to choose not to have present Divine Possessions rather than not suffer the vengeance of their own Appetites choose meerly to desire here though that be to do what they do in Hell rather than have in Heaven O thou my Soul if thou wilt needs desire propose at least some satisfaction to thy Appetite do not covet onely needs thirst for a feaver and desire meerly to inflame desire and Torments But seek there where all thy wants will find an infinite happy supply even in thy Saviour covet the riches of his Grace and Goodnesse thirst for the fountain opened for transgression for the waters of the well of Life desire him that is the desire of all Nations yet why should we desire even him when we have him in Heaven and we have nothing upon Earth left to desire but that God who hath exalted him unto his Kingdom in Heaven would in his due time exalt us also to the same place whither our Saviour Christ is gone before To whom c. SERMON VII VVHITE-HALL Third Wednesday in LENT 1663 4. MARK I. 3. Prepare ye the way of the Lord. I Shall not break this single short Command asunder into Parts but shall instead of doing that observe three Advents of our Saviour in this Life before that last to Judgment For each of which as it must concern us there must be preparation made by us In pressing which I do not mean to urge you to do that which none but God can do It is not in man to direct his own wayes much lesse the Lords The very preparations of the Heart are from Him Therefore supposing the preventings of his Graces I shall subjoyn that the Comporting with those graces the using of his strengths to the rooting out of our selves all aversation to Virtue and all love of Vice and planting other inclinations even Resolutions of good life is the onely thing that can make way for Christ and for his benefits Now of those Advents the First was when he came Commission'd by God to reveal his Will to propose the Gospel to our belief the coming of Christ as a Prophet which particularly is intended in the Text. The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ as it is written prepare ye the way of the Lord. The Second was that coming which the Prophet Isay did foresee and in the astonishment of Vision askt Who is this that comes from Edom with dy'd garments from Bozrah travelling in the greatness of his Strength Why is he red in his Apparrel and his garments like him that treadeth in the Wine-fat And it was the prospect of him when he came to tread the Wine press of the Wrath of God to Sacrifice himself for us upon the Crosse his coming as a Priest The Third is when he comes to visit for Iniquity coming coercively as a King with his Iron Rod to execute his threats on the rebellious those that will not have him reign over them This coming also was considered in my Text for in the parallel place of S. Matth. it is said Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand for this is he of whom it was spoken by the Prophet Esaias saying the Voyce of one crying in the Wilderness prepare ye the way of the Lord. For each of these in order I shall shew you what prepares his way beginning with the first His coming as a Prophet appearing in the World to reveal his Father's Will the Gospel Now the Preparative for this Appearance is discovered easily we find both in this Chapter and the parallel places that John came to make way for it by the Baptism and Preaching of Repentance and it was Prophecied of him that he should go before him in the Spirit and power of Elias to turn the hearts of the Fathers with the Children and the Disobedient to the Wisdom of the Just to the minding of just things so to make ready a people prepared for the Lord Luke 1. 17. And this is a preparative so necessary that the Nation of the Jewes affirm it is meerly for the want of this that he does yet deferr his coming And though the appointed time for it be past yet because of their sinfulnesse and impenitence he does not appear adding If Israel Repent but one day presently the Messias cometh And it is thus far true that though it hindred not his coming yet it hindred his receiving although it did not make him stay it made him be refus'd I may lay all down in this Proposition Where there is not the preparation of Repentance where there are not inclinations and desires for Virtue if Christ come with the glad tidings of the Gospel He is sure to be rejected his Religion disbeliev'd If the Word of the Son of God might be taken in his own case this would be soon evinc't for when He came unto his own they were so far from preparing his way that they received him not but did reject and would not entertain him as one sent from God of all this he onely
to be to him the same as Appetite to Tantalus that which he must not satsifie and is his hell 'T is easie if the lust be got no further than the Eye to pull them out together but if through that it shoot into the Blood and Spirits mix heats with those if it enwrap the heart twist with its strings and warm the Soul with its desires so that it Spirit all the motions all the thoughts and wishes of the heart when it is thus to make the heart to stifle its own motions stab its thoughts and strangle all its wishes to untwist and disentangle and to tear it thence if this be to be Circumcised with the Circumcision of Christ and he that hath not the sign of this the Seal of the New Covenant as he that in the Old had not the other was must be cut off our long habituated hardned Sinners must not think that there is any thing of true Repentance in their easie perfunctory sleight performances there is something like Death in the Duty which yet is required of us farther under variety of more severe expressions for we are bid thirdly to slay the Body of Sin Rom. 6. 6. to mortifie our members Col. 3. 5. and to crucyfie Gal. 6. 14. which how it may be done the next consideration of S. Pauls condition in the Text and my next part declare I am Crucified with Christ that is first as he was by being made conformable to his Death And truly should we trace him through all the stages of his Passion we should hardly find one passage but is made to be transcribed by us in dealing with our sins First he began it with Agony when his Soul was exceeding heavy for it labour'd with such weight of indignation as did make the Son of God to sink under the meer apprehension And he was sorrowful unto Death so as that his whole body did weep blood The Sinners passion his Repentance is exactly like it it begins alwayes with grief and sense of weight whoever is regenerate was conceiv'd in sorrow and brought forth with pangs and the Child of God too is born weeping And for loads the Church when she does call us to shew forth this Death of Christ as if she did prescribe that very Agony requires that we should find that Garden at the Altar makes us say we are heartily sorry for our misdoings the remembrance of them is grievous unto us the burden of them is intollerable So that the Sinner's Soul must be exceeding heavy too Secondly There he is betrayed by his own domestick sold for the poorest price imaginable as a Slave for thirty pieces of silver I shall not mind you what unworthy things the love of Money does engage men to to sell a Christ a Saviour and a God! and rather than stand out at such a base rate as we scorn to buy a sin at every single act 's engagement to Damnation costs more than the Ransom of the world is sold for and the Blood of God is purchas'd cheaper than any one opportunity of vice does stand us in But I onely mind you here that he shall have a better hire that will but be a Judas to his own iniquities do but betray thy Regent sins deliver them up and thou shalt have everlasting Heaven Thirdly we find him next carryed before the High Priest And the strictest times of Christianity would serve their sins so to receive his doom upon them to be excommunicated into reformation But I shall not urge how we can discover to a Physician our shames all our most putrid guilts as well as Ulcers and make him our Confessor in our most secret sins neither will I be inquisitive why the Physicians of our souls are balk'd but will passe this part of the Conformity and follow Christ to Pontins Pilate And for this part we our selves are Fitted the whole furniture of a Judicial Court all that makes up both Bench and Barr is born within us God hath given us a Conscience whereby we are a Law to our selves Rom. 2. We have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Jews did want such evidence as is sufficient to condemn us the same Conscience that is privy to our doings and stands by our thoughts and sees through our intentions is a thousand witnesses And that there may be a Prosecutor our own thoughts accuse us saith S. Paul and if we will give them way will aggravate each Circumstance of guilt and danger bark and howl and cry as loud against us as the Jews did against Christ for Sin is of so murthering a guilt it will be sure to slay it self and that he may not want his deserved Ruin the Sinner makes his own Indictement yea and his own Sentence too for our own heart condemns us saith S. John And when ever it does so Oh that we would follow it through all the gradations that brought Christ to Death and use our wickednesse as he was us'd strip it from its Cloaths bare it from its fair pretexts it useth to be drest in Lay our anger naked from all those excuses which our provocations that either wrath or humour will be sure to think intollerable do make for it strip our pride and vanity from those paints and dresses which the Custome of the Age that does require and warrant strange things dawbs the sin with use our Luxuries and Intemperances so and the other greater and more thirsty dropsie that of Wealth and of unjust unworthy gains which there are richer Luxuries in too And there are none of these but have their pleas their colours which they set themselves out in to please the Appetite and to deceive the Mind all which we must strip off and then when we have laid them naked spit upon them vomit all our spleen and contumelious despite at that which hath made us so ugly in Gods sight scourge it with Austerities and buffet it as they did Christ and S. Paul did himself 1 Cor. 19. 27. And when the Body of Sin is thus tamed and weakened it will be easie then to lead it out and crucifie it A Crucifiction this that does make our Good-Friday be a day of Expiation and Atonement to us A sight which next to that of his own Son upon the Crosse is the most acceptable to the Lord when he does see us execute his Enemies although they be our selves and Crucifie the dear Affections of our bosome as God did This is indeed to be conform'd unto the death of Christ. If I might have leave to go before you and to let you into the Example draw the Curtain from before the Passion I would call my Sins out drag them to behold that prospect hale them into the Garden shew them how he was us'd there You my Extravagancies of my youth my mad follies and wild jollities come see my Saviour yonder how he swoons when guilt began to make approaches towards him and can I make my self merry with nothing
else but that which made him dye tickle cheer and heighten my self with Agonies You my intemperate Draughts my full bowles and the ryotous Evenings I have past look yonder what a sad night do these make Christ passe look what a Cup he holds which makes him fall lower to deprecate than ever my Excesses made me lye You my lazy Luxuries Fulnesse of Bread and Idlenesse whereby I have controul'd Gods Curse and onely in the Sweat of others Faces eat my Bread and in that dew drank up the Spirits of those multitudes that toyl to faintings to maintain my dissolute life see how he is forc't to bear the whole curse for me how the Thorns grow on his head and how he Sweats all over You my supine Devotions which do scarce afford my God a knee and lesse an heart not when I deprecating an eternity of all those Torments which kill'd Christ look yonder how he prayes behold him on his Face petitioning see there how he sweats and begs You my little Malices and my vexatious Anger 's that are hot and quick as Fire it self and that do fly as high too that are up at Heaven strait for the least wrong on Earth look how he bears his how his patience seems wounded onely in a wound that fell upon his persecutors and when one that came to apprehend him wrongfully was hurt as if the Sword of his defence had injur'd him he threatned and for ever curs'd the black deeds of that angry Weapon and made restitution of what he had not taken made his adversary whole whom he had not hurt See how with his cruel Judges he is as a Sheep that not before his shearers onely but before his Butcher too is dumb You my Scorns and my high Stomach that will take no satisfaction but Blood and Soul for the faults of inadvertency for such as not the wrong but humour makes offences look how they use him they buffet and revile and spit upon him Ye my dreadful Oaths and bitter imprecations which I use to lace my speeches with or belch out against any one that does offend me in the least making the Wounds and Blood of God and other such sad words either my foolish modes of speaking or the spittings of my peevishnesse There you may see what 't is I play with so you may behold the Life of Christ pouring out at those wounds which I speak so idly of and what I mingle with my sportive talk is Agony such as they that beheld afar off struck their breasts at and to see them only was a passion Ye my Atheismes and my Irreligion but alas you have no prospect yonder it s but faint before you who out-do the Example whatsoever Judas and the rest did to the Man Christ Jesus you attempt on God you invade Heaven Sentence Crucifie Divinity it self And now having shewed my Sins this Copy of themselves what they are in their own demerits when my bowels do begin to turn within me at that miserable usage which Christ underwent it will be a time to execute an act of Indignation at my self who have resetted in my bosom all these Traytors to my Saviour made those things the joy and entertainment of my life which had their hands in the Blood of my God and what a stupid senslesse Soul have I that was never troubled heartily at that which did make him almost out of hope and if this be the effect of sin then it is time for me to throw it off O my Jesu sure I am I am not able to support the weight of that thou didst sink under Thou didst come to bear our sins in thy own Body on the Tree therefore in thy Body they were nailed to the Crosse and then certainly I will not force and tear them thence No there I leave them and will never reassume them more which resolution is the effect of that vertue and efficacy which is in the Crosse of Christ to the crucifying of sin which is the second sense in which the Christian does professe with S. Paul I am Crucified with Christ. There are some Learned Men that when they would assign reasons sufficient to move Cod to lay the punishment of our iniquities upon his Son and execute that Indignation that was due to us on the most innocent most Holy Jesus give this onely that this was the highest and most signal way imaginable to discover Gods most infinite displeasure against Sin and by consequence to terrifie men from the practise of it For if any thing in Heaven or in Earth could make us fear and from henceforth commit no such evil it was surely this to see Sin sporting in the Agonies of Christ Iniquity triumphing in the Blood of God To see those dire instances of the deservings of a Sinner those amazing prelusions to his expectations and consider it was easier for God to execute all this upon his Son than suffer sin to go unpunisht Indeed they make all that is real in the whole account they give of satisfaction made to God for sin to consist in this that the temporal Death of Christ which God by vertue of his absolute Dominion may inflict on the most innocent taking away that which himself had given especially since Christ who had that right over his own life which none else had did of his own accord submit to it and he laid down his life who had a power to do so That Death I say might justly be ordain'd by God for an Example of his Wrath and Hatred against Sin and then might be accepted in the stead of their death who were warned by that example and affrighted from committing sin And truly there is colour for it for all satisfaction seems either of a losse sustain'd which is acquired by compensation or the satisfaction of our anger which is commonly appeased by the sufferings of the injurious party or else the satisfaction of our fears and doubts that we may be secure not to sustain the like again which is most likely to be best provided for by punishment For sure one will not venture upon that which he must suffer for the doing Now of all these the first the satisfaction of compensation as it cannot properly be made to God who could sustain no real diminution by Man's sin For though thy wickednesse saith Job may hurt a man as thou art yet if thou sinnest what doest thou against God or if thy transgressions be multiplyed what doest thou to him but onely as the breaking of his law does in S. Pauls expression dishonour him amongst men so also it were easie to demonstrate that this one example does exalt more of Gods attributes and to a greater height than either if his Law had been obey'd or executed if that either were our business or if this sort of satisfaction did not properly belong onely to the offended party not the supreme Judge or Governour as such under which notion God is here to
be considered As neither does the second satisfaction that of anger the Judge being to be like his Law that hath no passions or affections And truly since the things that do satisfie our angers and revenges are no real goods the satisfactions of them are unnatural and therefore surely not Divine Monstrous appetite that hath learnt to desire mischief hath also taught us to delight in misery and be satisfied with the griefs of others which being nothing to us cannot be our good And although we are stil'd Children of Wrath as if our portion were to be onely plagues our inheritance perdition and the fearful issues of Gods Fury Yet since to be angry signifies in God no more than this to testifie what great abhorrency he hath to sin how contrary to him how not to be indur'd it is It was impossible for God when he had once resolv'd to pardon sin to testifie that more than by resolving not to pardon it without such an example so that it did satisfie his anger perfectly But all true satisfaction lyes in the provision that is made by punishment against future offences This is that which the Magistrate and Law requires nec enim irascitur sed cavet for by Punishment they cannot call back the offences that are past undo or make them not have been but they can make men not to dare to doe them again nor others by their example This is the end why they annex Penalties to their Laws expresly said so Deut. 19. 20. Which end therefore when they attain by Punishment the Law and Magistrate is satisfied For it is not so much the Death of the Offender that is satisfaction of the Law as the Example of Terror that it gives and therefore humane Lawgivers have oft thought fit to change the Penalty and where Death was appoynted to assign other sufferings that consist with Life and prolong Misery and Terror as Proscription and the Gallies c. Accordingly to propose an Example of Terror to us God laid all the severe inflictions of the Passion-day upon his own Son Now it is evident that the example of a Man suffering for the breach of Lawes does certainly hedge in those Lawes keep them more safe from violence therefore we see those Laws are best observ'd which the Magistrate's Sword does most guard and Experience would quickly make it good a Land would prove but a meer Shambles and a Man's life cheaper than a Beast's if Murtherers and Duellists shall get impunity more easily than he that steals an Horse or Sheep When on the other side that Nation from whom we most receive the fashions of our vices also whom the honour of that sin is most peculiar to though they seemed to value it above Estate and Life and Family and Soul yet we know could be beaten from it by some sharp examples And then when our Lawgiver as he spoke his Laws at first with Thunder and with Lightning as if they brought their Sentence along with them and the very promulgation was a copy and example of their Execution So also he did write those Laws in Blood to let us see what does await transgression how he that spar'd not his own dear Son will certainly not spare any impenitent this could not choose but have some influence if 't were consider'd Should we call to mind the kindnesse God had at this time to lost Man how he so long'd to pity him that he resolv'd not to pity himself how yet in all those turnings of his bowells within him his repentings over Man when his Compassion was at such an height as to give his well beloved Son to satisfie for our transgressions in the midst of all those inclinations to us at that very time how yet he did so hate our sins that nothing else could satisfie him but the Blood of God How he made the Son of God empty himself of his Divinity and of his Soul and all to raise a sum onely to purchase one example of that Indignation that attends a Sinner it will be easie then to recollect how insupportable that Wrath will be to the impenitent in the Day of his fierce Anger when he shall have no kindness left for them but the Omnipotence of Mercy will become Almighty Fury Who shall be able to avoid or to endure the issues of it shall I think to scape them when he spared not his Son or shall I venture upon bearing that to all Eternity which that Son was not able to support some hours Thus as S. Paul expresses God sending his own Son in the likenesse of sinful flesh a Sacrifice for sin condemned sin in the flesh that is he shewed what did await iniquity that men by so great an example of his Wrath might be frighted from the practise Et si quis morte Christi admonitus paniteat iste per mortem Christi peccato mortâ—â—s esse dicitur saith Origen on Rom. 6. 1. He who seeing that example of Christ Crucified for sin is warned by it into Repentance he is crucified with Christ. God dealing with us as Men do with a young Prince that must be disciplin'd by the correction of another for his faults and in this sense also our chastisement was upon Christ and by his stripes we are cur'd And now though I propose not this as if I thought this Reason were sufficient of it self which seems to give no good account how any could be ransomed e're Christ suffered which yet certainly they were the vertue of his Death extending to all former Ages as is proved most evidently Heb. 9. 25. a place which Crellius himself does give no satisfaction to if the satisfaction of his Death consisted onely in its being an Example it could no more satisfie for the sins of former Ages than it could be an Example e're it was in being If that Death were accepted in the stead of their death who by that Example are frighted into Repentance what was accepted for their sins who had no such vision of it as that it could or did affright them yet repented Yet to them that have beheld it in its vigour they that can controul this check to vice and when to shew us an Example it cost God the life of his own Son after the prospect of whose Cross he hath not any Terrour to propose this being the contrivance of the Divine mind and the stresse of all his most Almighty Attributes conjoyn'd in one compounded Miracle can yet make all this vain and fruitlesse and have no effect are nor feared nor warned by it but as if it signified no peril to their sins they can come once a year to entertain themselves with the Example and go from the Agonies unconcern'd to the sins that inflicted them and that shew forth themselves in them Who act as if those were the onely soft and pleasant things that crusht his Blood and Soul out as if those which did make the Son of God cry out as if he did almost
despair were the onely fit things to make men jolly And do thus as they did it in despite to this great method of Salvation as if they did enjoy the indignation and the wrath of God as if those Agonies like the other difficulties of their sins did more provoke to them or like the Paschal bitter herbs that typified them were as sawce to the Ryots of their vices These certainly are men of a most desperate appetite and courage But 't is much more to be lamented that the Law of God does not seem better guarded by this dire example than it was of old among the Jews when it shew'd the Sinner his deservings onely by the dying of his Beast and had no other fence nor satisfaction than the blood of Bulls and Goats It is not very visible that it hath wrought upon consideration so as to make us more fear and beware nay we may question whether the example of my Bullock dying for my sin would not restrain and terrifie me more than that of Jesus Crucified for it If I were to expiate the Blood with which I word my anger and my oaths with the blood of my own Flocks if that Luxury which plunders every Element and brings a little Universe at once upon my Table to treat it self withal were but to kill one Heifer for the Temple and I to expiate each surfeit by one such Religious Ryâ—t Were I to quench the feavers of an Intemperance with a drink-offering 't is possible I should not be so prone to sacrifice to my Genius if I must sacrifice to God for doing so and I should be more tender of my Beasts than I am of my Saviour Now how comes this to passe It is impossible that we should be so apprehensive of our own demerits should we see them represented in the sufferings of a Beast as when they are shewed to us in those of the Son of God What is it then should we account our selves to suffer in our Beast His Death were our own losse and punishment And had we no communion in this Death of Christ was not that our own or account we our concern and share in that lesse valuable than in that of our Beast Far be this from us we are no further Christians than we can affirm with S. Paul who challengeth a fellowship in all Christ's sufferings and boasts it saying I am Crucified with Christ. Which brings me to the last sense of the words I have a share and am a partner in that Cross and all the satisfactions that were wrought upon it This is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. 3. 10. a partaking in Christs Passion having his Sufferings communicated to us made our own as if we had been crucified with him as much as he that offered a peace offering was said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 10. 18. to communicate with the Altar and partake the Sacrifice which he really did We read indeed there in the sixteenth veâ—se that in the Sacrament there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sheding of Christs Blood is there communicated reckoned to us but it is communicated in a Cup of Blessing And is this to be a partner in his Crucifixion to partake onely the Sacrament of Crucifixion not to receive the wounds and torments but the benefits the pledge of the satisfactions of the Crosse the seal of the Remissions that he purchas'd on it Blessed Jesu we should have born thy pangs and all the dire things thou didst suffer ought to have been ours eternally that Agony which an Angels comfort could not calm that dreadful Terrour which exprest it self in the cold Sweat of clotted Blood that greater Terrour which came so near Despair as to make thee cry out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me all should have been our portion to everlastingnesse and spent their fury on our Souls And wilt thou have us bear no more of this than the remembrance all our Mount Olivet and Golgotha be onely the Lords Table and his Entertainment dost thou communicate thy Agonies in Eucharistick wine and is this to be Crucified with Christ so he does account it seems He that by vertue of the Crosse of Christ hath crucified his body of Sin Christs satisfactions are accounted to him he is esteemed to have a fellowship in all the sufferings to have had an hand in all that was done for man on the Crosse they are all reckoned his And as Christ bore the guilt of all our doings on the Tree so he will have us bear the name and merit and reward of his for as S. Paul does expresse Rom. 6. 5. We are planted together in the likeness of his death by being made conformable to that in crucifying of our sins we are inoculated as it were and both together ingraffed in into the Crosse and so there is deriv'd to us the vertue of that Stem that Root of Expiation and Atonement and by this insertion being as the same S. Paul sayes Phil. 3. 9. found in him we have his righteousness That poor Soul that does throw himself down in the strict humiliations of Repentance at the footstool of the Crosse and there beholds his Saviour dying for him and that is himself by Penitence incorporated into him graffed into his Death and planted in his very Passion as Origen and Thomas interpret He may take confidence to say Behold Lord if the satisfactions of thy eternal Justice be acceptable to thee if the blood of God that is offer'd up without spot be a well pleasing Sacrifice look down at once on thy Messiah and on my poor Soul turn not thy face from me for whatever my guilts are I have an equal Sacrifice those are my satisfactions and that blood my offering the Passion and propitiation of the Crosse are mine I am crucified with Christ. We have gone through all the Parts all the Considerations of this expression and have no more now to take notice of but this that all of them must go together that they never are fulfill'd asunder but he onely whom the efficacy of the Crosse of Christ hath wrought on to the Crucifying of sin he onely hath the satisfactions of the Crosse imputed to him he is planted with ingraffed into Christ For if any man be in Christ he is a new creature old things are done away 2 Cor. 5. 17. Whosoever is not such he hath no interest in the Jesus of that day He may perchance in some one of those easie Saviours which these times afford wherein Opinions call'd holy or a sanctifi'd Faction give such interests and to be in a party is to be in Christ or else he may depend upon that Christ that may be had with meer Dependance that is ours if we perswade our selves he is so Now sure he that is perswaded he is Christ's is either truly so perswaded or else falsly if but falsly that will not advantage him for God will never save a man for believing a lye
executions of that Mercy and while God was plotting an Incarnation for the everlasting Safety of Mankind prevails with him to decree Ruins by the means of that Salvation to Decree even in the midst of all those strivings of his Mercies that that Issue of his kindnesse should be for the fall of such as they Oh! let such consider whether they are likely to escape that which is set and ordein'd for them by God Whether they can hope for a Redemption when the onely great Redeemer is appointed for the Instrument of their Destruction and God is so bent on their ruiâ—e that to purchase it he gives this Child his Son Yea when he did look down upon this Son in Agonies and on the Crosse in the midst of that sad prospect yet the Ruin of such sinners which he there beheld in his Sons Blood was a delight to him that also was a Sacrifice and a sacrifice of a sweet smell to him For S. Paul sayes We are unto God a sweet savour of Christ in them that perish because we are the savour of Death unto death to them As if their Brimstone did ascend like Incense shed a persume up to God and their everlasting burnings were his Altar-fires kindled his holocausts and he may well be pleased with it for he ordein'd it 'T is true indeed This Child riding as in Triumph in the midst of his Hosannas when he saw one City whose fall he was set for on this very accompt He was so far from being pleas'd with it that he wept over it in pity But alas that onely more declares the most deplored and desperate condition of such sinners Blessed Saviour hadst thou no Blood to shed for them nothing but Tears or didst thou weep to think thy very Bloodshed does but make their guilt more crimson who refuse the mercy of that Bloodshed all the time that is offered Sad is their state that can find no pity in the Tears of God and remedilesse their Condition for whom all that the Son of God could do was to weep over them all that he did do for them was to be for their fall too sad a part indeed for Festival Solemnity very improper for a Benedictus and Magnificat To celebrate the greatest act of kindness the Almighty could design onely by the miseries it did occasion to magnifie the vast descent of God from Heaven down to Earth onely by reason of the fall of Man into the lowest Hell of which that was the cause My Text hath better things in view The greatnesse of that fall does but add height to that Resurrection which He also is the cause of For Behold this Child is set for the rising again of many My remaining part Rising again does not particularly and only refer to the fore-going fall here in the Text which this Child did occasion as I shewed you but to the state wherein all Mankind both in its nature and its Customes lay ingulfâ—d the state of Ignorance and sin A state from which recovery is properly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a resurrection and a reviving in this Life and so call'd in Scripture often as Ephes. 5. 14. Wherefore he saith Awake thou that sleepest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and arise from the dead And Rom. 6. 13. Yield not your members as instruments of unrighteousnesse unto sin but yield your selves unto God as those that are alive from the dead Now to raise us from the death of sin into the life of Righteousnesse by the amendment of our own lives to recover us into a state of Vertue is the thing this Child is said here to be set for This was that which God thought worth an Incarnation Neither was there any greater thing in the prospect of his everlasting Counsel when he did decree his Son into the World than that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He is set for this The Word was made Flesh to teach practise and perswade to Vertue To make men Reform their lives was valued at the price of a Person of the Trinity Piety and his Exiâ—anition yea his Blood and Life were set at the same rates All of him given for our recovery The time would fail me if I should attempt onely to name the various methods he makes use of to effect this How this Child that was the brightnesse of his Fathers Glory came to lighten us shining in his Doctrine and Example How he sent more light The fiery Tongues Illuminations of the Holy Ghost to guid us in the ways of Piety How he suffered Agonies and Death for sin to appale and fright us from it How he Rose again to confirm Judgment to us to demonstrate the rewards of Immortality to them that will repent and leave their sins and everlasting Torments to those that refuse this Grace Grace purchased with the Blood of God to enable them to repent and leave Besides all these the Arts and Mesnage of his Providence in preventing and following us by Mercies and by Judgments importuning us and timeing all his blessed Methods of Salvation to our most advantage Arts God knows too many if they serve us onely to resist and turn to wantonnesse and aggravation if we make no other use of Grace but this to sin against and overcome all Grace and make it bolster Vice by teaching it to be an incouragement to go on in it from some hopes we entertain by reason of this Child instead of doing that which he was set Decreed to make us do And really I would be glad to see this everlasting Counsel of the Lord had had some good effects some though never so little happy execution of this great Decree and that that which God ordein'd from all Eternity upon such glorious and magnificent terms were come to passe in any kind Now certainly there are no evident signs of any great recovery this Child hath wrought among us in the World that 's now call'd Christian. After those Omnipotent inforcives to a vertuous life which he did work out if we take a prospect of both Worlds it would be hard to know which were the Heathen and there would appear scarce any other notice of a Christ among us but that we blaspheme Him or deride Him Sure I am there are no Footsteps of him in the lives of the community of Men And I am certain that you cannot shew me any Heathen Age outgoing ours either in loosnesse and foul Esseminacies or in sordidnesse and base injustice or in frauds and falsenesse or Malignity hypocrisie or treachery or to name no more even in the lowest most ignoble disingenious sorts of Vice In fine men are now as Earthy Sensual yea and Devilish as when Sins and Devils were their Gods Yea I must needs say that those times of dark and Heathen Ignorance were in many men times of shining Vertue and the little spark of Light within them brake out through all obstructions into a glory of Goodnesse to the wonder and Confusion of most Christians
with which the World assaults us in our course of Duty Thus the Crosse of Christ first shews us the necessity we have to renounce and Crucifie the World But to encourage and enable us to do so it does also shew us Secondly the certainty of a good issue in the doing it assures us that those who deny themselves forbidden satisfactions here that will be vertuous maugre all the baits and threats of Earth will embrace duty when it is laden with a Cross although so heavy as to crush out life and kill the body assures us that those lose not but exchange their lives shall save their Souls and that there is another World wherein their losses shall be made up to them and repaired with all advantage To the truth of this the Crosse of Christ is a most pregnant and infallible testimony For as by multitudes of Miracles Christ sought to satisfie the world that he was sent from God to promise all this and justified his Power to perform it by experiment raising some up from the dead so when they said he did his Miracles by Beelzebub he justified it further with his Life affirming that he was the Son of God now 't is impossible but he must know whether he were or no and consequently sent and able to do all he promised and resolv'd to do it also for our more assurance in himself that he would raise himself up from the dead within three dayes and saying this when he was sure he should be Crucified for saying so and sure that if he did not do according to his words he must within three dayes appear a meer Impostor to the world and his Religion never be receiv'd Now 't is impossible for him that must needs know whether all this were true or no to give a greater testimony to it than his Life For this that Blood and Water that flowed from his wounded side upon the Crosse which did assure his Death is justly said to bear witnesse to his being the Son of God and consequently to the truth of all this equal to the testimony of the Spirit whether that which the Spirit gave when he came from Heaven down upon him in his Baptisme or the testimony which he gave by Miracle for there are three that bear witnesse upon Earth the Spirit the Water and the Blood Thus by his Death Christ did bring Life and Immortality to light his choosing to lay down his own life for asserting of the truth of all this was as great an argument to prove it as his raising others from the dead and Lazarusâ—â— empty Monument and walking grave-cloathes were not better evidence than this Crosse of Christ. 3. Once more this Crosse not onely proves the certainty of a future state but does demonstrate the advantage of it and assures us that it is infinitely much more eligible to have our portion in the life to come than in this life That to part with every thing that is desirable in this World rather than to fail of those joyes that are laid up in the other that to be poor here or to be a spoyl to renounce or to disperse my wealth that so I may lay up treasures for my self in Heaven and may be rich to God never to taste any one of these puddle transient delights rather than to be put from that right hand where there are pleasures for ever more to be thrown down from every height on Earth if so I may ascend those everlasting Hills and mount Sion that is above that this is beyond all proportion the wisest course it does demonstrate since it shews us him who is the Son of God who did create all these advantages of Earth and prepare those in Heaven and does therefore know them both Who also is the Wisdom of the Father and does therefore know to value them yet for the joyes that were set before him choosing to endure the Crosse and despising the shame On that Beam he weigh'd them and by that his choice declar'd the Pomps of this World far too light that exceeding and eternal weight of Glory that the whole Earth was but as the dust upon the Ballance and despis'd it and to make us do so is both the Design and direct influence of the Cross of Christ. But as at first the Wise men of this World did count the Preaching of the Crosse meer folly to give up themselves to the belief and the obedience of a man that was most infamously Crucifyed and for the sake of such an one to renounce all the satisfactions suffer all the dire things of this Life and in lieu of all this onely expect some after Blessednesses and Salvations from a man that they thought could not save himself seemed to them most ridiculous So truly it does still appear so to the carnal reasonings of that sort of men who have the same objections to the Crosse of Christ as it would crucify the World to them and them to it as it would strip them of all present rich contents and give them certain evils with some promises of after good things which they have no tast for nor assurance of Now this being in their account folly then the contrary to this they must think wisdom as it is indeed the Wisdom of this World which Wisdom since it does design no further than this World and hath no higher ends than Earth and its Felicities it must needs put men upon minding the acquist and the enjoyment of these Earthly things for that is onely to pursue and to atchieve their ends to catch at and lay hold on their felicity and accordingly we see it does immerse them wholly in those cares So that it is no wonder if their God and Religion can get no attendance from them it being most impossible they should when Mammon hath engaged them in the superstitious services of Idolatry and when they sacrifice their whole selves to pleasure and make their bodies the burnt offerings of their Lusts and when Ambition even while it makes them stretch and climb and mount causes them also to fall low prostrate make their temper nature stoop lye down to every humour and to every vice they think themselves concern'd to court and please And though a man would think these so great boundlesse cares are very vain and foolish upon several accounts for common sense as well as Scripture does assure 〈◊〉 that this life and the Contents of it do not consist in the abundance of the things that we possess that it is all one whether my draught come out of a small Bottle or an Hogshead 〈◊〉 the one of these indeed may serve excesse and sicknesse better but the other serves my appetite as well the one may drown my Vertue but the other quenches thirst alike And every dayes experience also does convince us that the least crosse accident pain or affliction on our persons or some other that is seated neer our hearts or the least
needs gaze and pry too near to must be dazled into blindness and be only so much more in the dark But he that proudly does conceit his little spark of Reason can bear up with that Divinity of brightnesse and enlighten him to look through all those inaccessible discoveries with Lucifers assuming he hath reason to expect his fall The one of these that will needs clear all mysteries the other will take them all away the one that with his Pencil will presume to figure him who is the brightnesse of Gods glory and trace out the lineaments by which that everlasting Father did impresse the character and express Image of his person on him and the other that with a bold hand dashes out the Person from the Nature the one that will untie the knots of the Hypostatick union and the other that will cut them and the union too asunder the one that will needs prove by Reason whatsoever is in Scripture and the other that speaking of Christ satisfaction saith for my part if it were not onely once 〈◊〉 oftentimes set down in holy Scripture yet would not I therefore believe it because forsooth it was against his reasonings Neither the one or other of these sure receive revelation as a little Child not like young Samuel Speak Lord for thy Servant heareth But these as all extravagance is wont are profited into much worse The one that would be proving making reasons for the mysteries often God knows framed only shadows and the other by their light of Reason being able to dispel and make those shadows vanish that so easie victory encouraged them to frame reasons against and to attaque the Mysteries themselves and then others finding there was something that was taken to be Reason not agreeing with some chief heads of Religion as they had been still received took occasion thence to conclude against the whole Religion and by scruples at some Articles taught themselves to dispute all the Creed and now a difficulty in one Doctrine makes the rest suspected and regarded onely as things made to amuse and the unusual wording of a Command is thought ground enough to turn all Christian duty into Raillery For instance If Christ intending by prescribing patience to teach men how to escape not onely from the guilt and present torture that a Spirit which will needs return each sleight offence is subject to but also from the future and eternal recompences of revenge shall in phrasing his in junctions but bid them turn the other cheek no Gentleman can be of his Religion and that is cause enough I hope not only to renounce but scorn it If in meer compassion meaning only to make virtue easie by advising us against the snares and the occasions of Vice he word his counsel in prescriptions to pull out the right eye cut off the right hand His Religion is a much worse Tyranny then the Covenant Nahash offered to the men of Jabesh Gilead and they think themselves as much concern'd to make parties against it In fine if that he might at once instruct us how to pull up the root of all evil he forbid us to lay up treasures upon the Earth and tell us that our treasures should be laid up in Heaven and say it is impossible for arich man to enter into heaven here they cry out mainly he supposeth us and treats us just as Children This Command requires indeed that they who do receive it should be Children whom we use to cheat of gold by the same methods telling them it is not good for them at present that it shall be laid up for them and therefore when Religion does attempt to deal with men so 't is concluded it designs to cozen them as they think it does indeed and is a cheat and all that minister about it are meer fourbes And truely if we rackt the Consciences of dying men and if so be they would give so much to this Cloyster or that Order promised them remission of their sins and worse than Judas sold the purchase of Christs Blood at those base rates and betrayed the Redemption so on Gods name let them so account us but if we do attempt on nothing but mens vices and would onely steal their Souls from Hell and cheat them into piety and blessedness these we hope are very unreproachful frauds But alas to talk to them of these after things of Heaven and Hell is altogether as much liable to their contempt as the commands are If we tell them of a Resurrection to Judgment and of everlasting fire to punish wicked men because their reason cannot comprehend how flame can hurt a Soul or for the Body how devouring fire can repair the food it preys upon that it may keep alive and nourish torment to eternity or how each mans peculiar dust that is digested into several mens being and so become no one mans peculiar when it shall be also blended with the ashes of the Universe can be singled out and parted to its proper owner when there are so many own it because their reason cannot comprehend all this therefore Scriptures lake of fire must be no more then the Poets Acheron and Resuâ—rection was fram'd as the apparition of a Ghost is wont to do to fright men meerly and however 't is attested Christ did never rise but all is fable Thus from such premises as these our rational disputing men conclude And here I shall not aske how these men dare presume that if there be a God who hath declar'd that he will bring such things to passe yet he must be unable to affect them if they cannot comprehend the manner how he does them or be confident they can look through those h leams that come out of his hand in which the hiding of his Power is But this I shall say to our men of reason theirs is the most unreasonable way of arguing in the world to dispute against plain matters of fact the being and the Works of such and such so many ages since and witnessed by a greater testimony then the world can shew for any other thing And ever since appearing in their visible and vast effects as the Conversion Suffering Faith of the whole Earth almost Now to attempt the confutation of such matter of fact by reasonings drawn from difficulties in some things which those men are witnessed to have deliver'd or to conclude that there can never have been any such persons in the world because they cannot understand all that those persons taught or possibly because they can take some occasions to buffoone on what they taught is most ridiculous Thus History must have been false and several known places not have been because the story hath been turn'd into Burlesque Thus he that with the Ancients cannot comprehend how it is possible that there should be Antipodes or the earth can be any thing but a plain flat otherwise he thinks the inhabitants must fall down to Heaven may as rationally despise all
his indignation by force I can but pity them in their own opinions and enjoyments but O my soul enter not thou into their counsels As for seeking their King I shall content my self vvith that vvhich Calvin saies upon the words Nam aliter verè ex animo Deum quaerere non potuit quin seetiam subjiceret legitimo â—mperio cuâ— subjectus erat For they could not otherwise truly and with all their heart seek God except they did subject themselves to his Government to whom they did of right belong as Subjects And I shall adde that they vvho do forsake their King vvill soon forsake their God The Rabbines say it more severely of Israel that they at once rejected three things the Kingdome of the house of David and the Kingdome of Heaven and the Sanctuary And truly if vve do consult that State from the beginning we shall find that vvhen they vvere vvithout their King they alvvaies vvere vvithout their God Moses vvas the first King in Jeshurun and he vvas only gone into the Mount for forty daies and they set up a golden Calf they make themselves a God if they vvant him vvhom the Lord makes so as he does the Magistrate if they have not a Prince that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 living Image of God then they must have an Idâ—l When Moses his next successor vvas dead vve read that the man Micah had an house of Gods and consecrated one of his sons to be his Priest and truly he might make his Priest vvho made his Deities And the account of this is given In those daies there vvas no King in Israel Iud. 17. 5 6. The very same is said ch 18. 1. to preface the Idolatry of the Tribe of Dan There vvas no heir of restraint as it is worded ver 7. It seems to curb impiety is the Princes Inheritance vvhich till it be supprest he hath not what he is heir to But Vice vvill know no boundaries if there be no King vvhose sword is the only mound and fence against it for if vve read on there 19 20 21. ch vve shall finde those dismal tragedies of Lust and VVarre the one of vvhich did sin to death the Levites wife the other besides 40000. slain of them vvho had a righteous cause and vvhom God did bid fight destroyed also a Tribe in Israel these all spraâ—g from the same occasion for so the story closes it In those daies there was no King in Israel ch 21. 25. Just upon this when God in their necessities did raise them Iudges that is Kings read all their story you will find to almost every several Judge there did succeed a several Idolatry God still complaining the children of Israel did evill again after the death of such an one till he raised them another Those 450. years being devided all betwixt their Princes and their Idols After them Jeroboam he that made the great secession of that people from their Prince hath got no other character from God but this the a Man that did make Israel to sin at once against God and against their King Yea upon this account they are reckon'd by God to sin after both their Idolatry and State vvere ended vvhen their calves and their Kingdome vvere destroyed Ezek. 4. 4 5. the Lord does bid the Prophet lie on his left side 390. daies to bear the iniquity of Israel according to the number of the years of their iniquity But this vvas more then the years of their State vvhich vvere only 255. 390. years indeed there vvere betwixt the falling off of the ten Tribes and the destruction of Ierusalem by the King of Babel but those ten Tribes vvere gone their Kingdome perfectly destroy'd above 130. years before but their iniquity vvas not it seems that does outlive their State so long as that God's Temple that King's house did stand from vvhich they did divide As if Seditious men and Schismaticks sin longer then they are even while those are vvhom they do sin against in separating from 'T is true there vvas an Ahaz and Manasseh in the house of David but Hezekiah and Iosiah did succeed Mischief did not appear entail'd on Monarchy as 't is upon rebellion and having no King It does appear their Kings vvere guards also to God and his Religion the great defendors of his faith and worship God and the Prince for the most part stood and fell together Therefore St. Paul did afterwards advise to pray for Kings that we might live in godliness and honesty and still they vvere the same vvho sought the Lord their God and David their King But vvhy David their King for could his Kingdome disappear and be to seek of vvhom the Lord had said I have sworn once by my Holiness I will not fail David Psal. 89. And his Throne therefore vvas as sure as God is holy But yet the Lord had said to the people of Israel If ye do wickedly ye shall be destroyed both you and your King There are other sins besides Rebellion and Treason that murder Kings and Governments Those that support their Ills by their dependencies and use great shadows for a sâ—elter to rapacity oppression or licences or any crying vvickedness these prove Traitors to Majesty and themselves strike at the root of that under vvhich they took covert fell that and crush themselves National vices have all Treason in them and every combination in such sins is a Conspiracy If universal practice palliate them we do not see their stain it may be think them slight but their complexion is purple Common blood is not deep enough to colour them they die themselves in that that 's sacred Nay these do seem to spread contagion to God as if they vvould not let the Lord be holy nor suffer that to be which he swore by his holiness should be for the Psalmist cries out Where are thy old loving kindnesses which thou swearest unto David But sure some of God's oaths will stand if not those of his kindness those vvill by vvhich he swears the râ—ine of such sinners and God that is holy will be sanctified in judgement upon them Yea upon more then the offenders for the guilty themselves are not a sacrifice equal to such piacular offences Innocent Majesty must bleed for them too If you do wickedly you shall be destroy'd both you and your King Thus when God vvould remove Judah out of his sight good Josiah must fall and the same makes them be to seek David their King But how David their King vvhen 't was Zorobabel for with Theodoret and others I conclude he must be meant in the first literal importance of the vvords It vvas the custome of most Nations from some great eminent prince to name all the Succession so at once to suggest his Excellencies to his followers and to make his glory live Now vvithout doubt David vvas Heroe enough for this and his â—lour alone sufficient to ground the like practice upon And