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
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
frighted into Resurrection and more the Hypostatick Union seem'd rent by them the God to have forsaken his own person And can the sinner hope to stand this shock will the courage of his Iniquity make his heart harder than those Rocks more insensible than the Grave and better able to endure than he that was a God and will you dye into this state eternally which it was necessary for him to have the assistance of Divinity in his person that he might be able to endure one day and which yet notwithstanding made one day intolerable The sum is this a person so desiring death and yet so dreading it and sinking under the essayes of it and this person the Son of God and that dread meerly because there was sin in the Death for if this were not in the cause no Martyr but had born death with more courage but that Son of God all this as it does leave no Reason for the sinners choyce of death Eternal so neither doth it leave a possibility of bearing it And if so give me leave in God's Name to Expostulate the last imployment of these words Why will ye dye After this killing prospect while the damp of it is on you let my Bowells debate with you which yearn more over you than they did over my Beloved Son in whom I was well pleased when I have sent my onely Son God one with my own Self to be made Man that he might suffer what was necessary to be suffer'd to preserve you from eternal sufferings when I have laid on him that was brought up with me from everlasting and that was daily my Delight all your Iniquities and my own Indignation that so you might be freed from both When I have found out made an Expiation with which I am more pleased than ever your transgressions offended me which hath quite blotted out your sins and my Displeasure when your Redemption from death is made the Ransom paid the Price is in my hand why do you then refuse your selves your own Eternal Blessednesse which was thus dearly purchas'd and is ready for you Why will you seize that Indignation which you are redeemed from and force those sufferings on your selves which have been laid already and inflicted on another 'T is a small thing that you refuse me the return of my Expence that which I gave my Son for but do you renounce Happinesse because my Love and Blood is in it and will you dye because you may and I desire you should live when my Son went from the essential felicities of my bosome to embrace Agonies and dy'd for you why will you also dye as you have slain his Person will you Crucifie his Kindnesse too and crucifie your selves rather than have it and having us'd him most despightfully will you therefore use his favours so and not let his Death and Passion do you any good contemn his methods of Salvation his divine Acts of making you for ever Blessed is your Saviour and Life it self so hateful to you and after such Redemption of your persons is there no redemption of your Will from perishing nothing of value that can bribe your choyce against it nothing that can betroth you into a desire of Life and take you off from your resolves to dye had I set no advantage on the other side if sin had sweetned misery to your palate it had been no such great despite and contradiction to Appetite but when Heaven and the Joyes of God are in the Scale against it to prefer Misery is Wretchless beyond aggravation Oh why will you rather dye Those very things that tempt your Wills were they abstracted from the death they do inveigle you into were they sincere and innocent if they were set against that Life that blessed life immortal Life would vanish quite in the comparison when you should see they are but frolicks of delight that never take you but when you are tun'd up to them in moods and fits and the complacencies you take in them are but starts of Appetite that swells and breaks out to them and then falls again and so the pleasures dye even in the birth and therefore cannot satisfie indeed do but disquiet an immortal appetite such as man's is so that it were impossible to choose a life these rather although there were no misery annex't to them if you consider'd For it were to resolve that a few drops were more than an immence Ocean of Delight a Moment longer than Eternity a Part were bigger than the Whole an Atome greater than an Infinite Now there is nothing then that can prefer these to your choyce but the Death only and Oh will ye without and against all Temptation Will ye dye O thou my Soul take other Resolutions thou feest the things that men with so much care and sin provide to make their lives delightful here although successe answer their care are vain and helpless things and life it self as vain and I must dye and drop from them and therefore be thou sure to take a care their treacherous comforts do not make me dye into the everlasting want of them and of all comforts The Artificial pleasures of the Palate whether in meats or drinks forc't tast's that do at once satisfie and provoke the Appetite will rellish ill when I begin to swallow down my spittle but sure I am I am invited to the Supper of the Lamb to drink new Wine with Christ in my Father's Kingdom The fatted Calf is dressing for my Entertainment and shall I choose to be a while a Glutton with the Swine rather than the eternall Guest of my Father's Table and Bosom and refuse these for a few sick Excesses which would end in qualms and gall and vomits if there were no guilt to rejolt too and which will kindle a perpetual Feaver The Honours and the Glories of this Life will loose their shine when I am going to make my Bed in the Dark in a black lonely desolate hole of Earth my Gayeties must dye when I must say to Corruption thou art my Father and to the Worm thou art my Mother and my Sister And if there were pride or ambition in them their Worm will never dye that Pride will make me fall as low as Lucifer that Glory will go out into utter darknesse and that Ambition change my Honour into everlasting Shame Envy and Torment But sure I am that there are Glorious Robes and Thrones and Scepters in God's promises and let thy gayety my Soul be in the Robe of Immortality the Throne of thy Ambition that of Glory When I shall lye tortur'd or languishing in my last Bed Palaces and Possessions will no more relieve me than the Landskip of them in the Hangings can do it And if there were Covetousness Bribery Sacriledge or Injustice in them I shall be carryed out of these and have no other Habitation assigned me but with the Devil and his Angels shall inherit and possesse nothing but the Almighty's
inferr Christ's Application that at least we begin to cease and sin no more least a worse thing come unto us I. He that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceast from Sin None but He and He certainly When it appear'd that Eden had too much of Garden for innocence to dwell in and although man were made upright yet amidst such delights he could not be so a whole day but of the many inventions he found out the first was to destroy himself immediately and under the shadow of the Tree of life he wrought out death and made the Walks of Paradise lead him towards Hell God saw himself concern'd to take another course He sets a guard of fire about Eden about the place of pleasure as well as in the place of torments and there was as much need of flame to keep man out of Paradise as flame to fright him from Hell He makes the Earth not spring with Garden any more but bring forth thorns and bryars that might scratch and tear man in the pursuit of things below which if the Soul should cleave and cling unto the Earth might gore and stab it in the embrace Nothing but sufferings will do us good The Earth was most accurst to man when it was all Paradise nothing but the malediction could make it safe and bless it to us our happiness must be inflicted executed on us and we must be goaded into blessedness and therefore God hath put afflictions into every dispensation since the first Among the Jews sin did receive immediate punishment by the tenour of the Covenant and though the retributions of our Covenant be set at distance as far remote as Hell yet Christ has drest his very promises in sackcloth and in ashes tears and trouble when he would recompense heroick vertue he says it shall receive an hundred fold with persecution Mar. 10. 30. and he does grant us sufferings to you it is given in the behalf of Christ to suffer Phil. 1. 29. so that the sting of the Serpent is now the tempter his biteings and his venom moving us to obedience as much as his lying tongue did our first Parents to rebellion and when he does fulfill Gods threat and wound the heel he onely drives us faster away from him and makes us haste to him that flies to meet us with healing under his wings This method God hath alwaies us'd and the experience confirm'd by the blood of all ages even from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of this season of all the Prophets that went before us and the Apostles that came after them as if those were men inspir'd for ruine and what ever Judgment they denounc't it was their own burden and as if these were men chosen out for and delegated to persecution men appointed unto death as St. Paul expounds their office none escap't and the next succeeding times of Primitive Christianity were but Centuries of Martyrdom so many years of Fire and Faggot and worse tortures This method hath not past by any Grandeur but of those great ones that have been eminently good their afflictions have vy'd with their Majesty the Calendar hath had as much share of them as the Chronicle the Martyrology as the Annals and their bloud not their Purple put them in the Rubrick Gods Furnace made Crowns splendid gave them a Majesty of shine and an Imperial glory and so all our Crowns indeed must be prepar'd in the Furnace he that told us we must be Baptiz'd with fire saw there was something in us that the Christians water will not cleanse Baptism may wash sullays but not dross away That must be washt in flame and nothing else but fire will take away our base alloy And it cannot be otherwise never was there any other way to Glory for when God was to bring many Sons to glory he sanctified the very Captain of our salvation through sufferings Heb. 2. 10. Who though he were a Son and that the Son of God yet learned he obedience by the things that he suffered Heb. 5. 8. This therefore is the only and most effectual way of teaching it when God speaks in Judgment and indeed he counts all other of his voices but as silence in comparison of this and though he gave his Law in Thunder and sent his Prophets daily to denounce wrath to transgression yet he reckons of all this as if he had said nothing till he speak Plagues and commands afflictions Psal. 50. 21. after a Catalogue of sins he tells the man these things hast thou done and I kept silence though my Law did warn thee and my Messengers call'd to thee yet I hardly expect that thou shouldst hear those whispers with all those voyces I did scarce break silence but now I will reprove thee and thou shalt hear the rod or hear thy own groans under it For that we may be sure to hear this voyce God does by it open the ear Job 33. 14 15 16. God speaks once yea twice yet man perceiveth it not in a dream and in a vision then he opens the ears of men by Chastisements as it follows in four verses full of them 19 20 21 22. and sealeth his instruction that he may withdraw Man from his purpose i. e. that he may make him cease from sin It seems the place of Dragons is Gods chiefest School of Repentance and we may have a clearer sight of him in the dimness of anguish than Vision it self does give When men did not perceive that saith Job yet this open'd the Ear and so God sealeth the Instruction And truly when the Soul dissolves in Tears and when as David words it The heart in the midst of the body is even like melting wax then onely 't is susceptible of Impression then is the time for sealing the Instruction Nor does Chastisement open the Ear only but the understanding also I will give her trouble 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will take her into the Wilderness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he and speak unto her Heart There is convincing Experience of all this Pharaoh that was an Atheist in Prosperity does beg for prayers in Adversity before he suffers Pharaoh saies Who is the Lord that I should obey his voyce I know not the Lord neither will I let Israel go Exod. 5. 2. but yet Thunder preaches obedience into him and Pharaoh sent and called for Moses and Aaron and said I have sinned the Lord is righteous and I and my People are wicked intreat the Lord that there be no more mighty Thundrings no more Voices of God the Hebrew words it and I will let you go Exod 9. 27. And in the Book of Judges you will find that whole Age was nothing but a vicissitude of sinning and suffering divided betwixt Idolatry and Calamity When Gods hand was not on them they ran after other Gods as if to be freed from Oppression had been to be set free from Gods Worship and Service but when
fire kindles his sacrifice with the flames of Hell for so S. James does call those heats He that gives God any of his performances and hath a naughty Heart like Nadab and Abihu he presents his offering in an unhallowed Censer and all his holy worship will get nothing else from Heaven for him but a consuming fire as theirs did He that will offer any thing to God must take a care it be not tainted with such mixtures which spoil all the Religion making it not sincere and also spoil the Heart by making it not clean and undefiled The last remaining sense A Clean and undefiled Heart Of those things which our Saviour sayes defile the man some are meerly sins of the Heart such as may be consummated within the Soul and for the perpetration of which a spirit is sufficient to it self such are Pride especially spiritual pride the sin of those that think none holy as themselves and cast the black doom of Reprobation upon all that do not comply with their opinions and interests such also are uncontentednesse with our estates inward repinings at the dispositions of Providence concerning us black malice bitter envyings Now in these as the mind does need no outward members to consummate them requires no accessary organs to work them out so neither does it require any outward accessary guilt to make them liable to condemnation we know 't was one sin of the spirit onely that made Angels Devils If a foul body be abominable to the Lord shall a foul spirit be less odious he that defiles his Soul offends God in a much neerer concern of his because that speaks neerer relation to him then the body this was only his workmanship made out of Earth the Spirit was created out of himself a foul body is but filthy Clay but he that does pollute his Soul does putrefie the Breath of God and stains a beam of the Divinity The other sort of things that are said to come from the Heart and to Defile are those which S. Paul calls works of the Flesh such as if they be committed must be committed outwardly Murders Drunkennesse Revellings Revenge Wrath and Contentions Seditions Factions Schismes all Uncleannesses c. In these indeed the Heart can be but partiall Actor the utmost it can do is to desire and to intend them and to contrive and manage the designs of compassing them which yet Providence or the Innocence of others may put out of the reach of mans power or his own temporal fears may make him not dare to set upon them though he do cherish the desires Now if they beobstructed from committing most men use to conclude gently of their guilts while they do keep within the Heart the Execution of them is the onely thing that does look mortal and till the sin be perfected there is no death in it And truly I confesse that as it happens many times on a sudden surprize of soul when a bright gilded temptation strikes the heart and dazles the mind we see that the Will rushes on it instantly consents and wishes heartily yet within a while the Spirit does recover out of the surprize puts by the thrusts of fancy and the stabs of the temptation and that Will languishes and dies like a velleity as if it had been nothing but a woulding and now the man would not by any means consent to the commission In this case though there be a guilt to be repented of and cleansed with many tears yet this is Innocence in the comparison but if the Will purpose contrive and do its utmost it is the same to the man as if he had committed T were easie to demonstrate this that whatsoever evill thing a man intends and does fixedly resolve he is guilty of though he do nothing or though the thing he chance to do be never so much lawful Those sayings of S. Paul I know and am perswaded by the Lord Jesus that there is no meat unclean of it self but to him that esteemeth any thing unclean to him it is unclean Rom. 14. 14. and he that doubteth is damned if he eat v. 23. These could have no truth in them unlesse the heart by choosing and pursuing to the utmost any thing that it does judge unlawful incurr'd the guilt of that unlawfulness even to Damnation and all that meerly by it self without the Action which in that case had nothing sinful in it A weight that is upheld by a mans hand and otherwise would rush down to the earth does surely gravitate as much it is as heavy though it do not fall quite down as if it did and were it let alone it would A settled tendency a resolv'd inclination to sin that presseth with its utmost agitation is that weight which though it may perchance be stopt in its career yet it tends to the Abysse its center and will not rest but in that Pit that hath nor rest nor bottome the Heart in this case is as liable as it can be because here it hath done its worst and such a will shall be imputed to it self And now I need not tell those who are still designing sin or mischief in the heart although it never dares come out of those recesses how far they are removed from the goodnesse of God to Israel A Father finds a way to prove such souls have larger doses of Gods Vengeance who when he had asserted that the soul does not dye with the body and then was askt what it did in that long interval for sure it is not reasonable that it should be affected with any anticipations of the future Judgment because the business of the day of Judgment should be reserved to its own day without all prelibation of the sentence and the restitution of the Flesh is to be waited for that so both soul and body may go hand in hand in their Recompences as they did in their demerits joynt partners in the Wages as they were in the Works To this he answers The Soul does not divide all its operations with the Body some things it acts alone and if there were no other cause it were most just the Soul should there receive without the Body the dues of that which here it did commit without the Body That 's for the former sort of sins those meerly of the Heart And for the latter sort the Soul is first engaged in the commission that does conceive the sin layes the design of compassing and does contrive and carry on the machination and then why should not that be first in Punishment which is the first in the Offence Go now and reckon that thy outward grosse transgressions are the only dangerous and guilty ones and slight thy sins of Heart but know that while thy flesh is sleeping in the quiet Grave at rest and ease thy Spirit then 's in Torments for thy Fleshes sins and feels a far severer Worm than that which gnaws thy Body Poor Soul Eternity of Hell from Resurrection to For-ever
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
Decrees dispence with Holy Laws so confirm'd meerly to gratifie those that are obstinate for ruine and against his whole Gospel quench Hell fires because men are resolv'd to run into them This Will does as it were even the Scales betwixt the Sin and the Damnation equal the pleasure to the punishment and fill the distance from a moment to Eternity But though this Will do clear Gods Justice yet it does not satisfie his Reason he seems astonisht at the choyce God himself cannot find a Ground for such a Resolution and therefore does enquire Why will ye dye Which is God's question and my second part Is it the present pleasure sin does tempt your sensuality withall whose agitations are so quick and strong that they surprize or break the forces of your Reason and your Principles put the Mind in disorder and then seize it with such violence as to lead it captive to the Law of Sin and Death 'T is true indeed thus both of them had their original so they prevail'd in Paradise for when the Woman saw the Tree was good for food and pleasant to the eye and a Tree to be desired to make one wise she took thereof and she did eat although she knew that God had said In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely dye Gen. 3. But there was generous pleasure here such as tempted the Soul assaulted it with the appearances of Wisdome and divine Knowledge Te shall be as Gods Gen. 3. 5. And sure 't is no great wonder if the proper pleasures of the mind ingage it therefore when God would give a Precept liable to a Temptation of being broke he laid it in the sphere of those things that delight the Soul of Knowledge but far be it that those of sensuality should ever have prevail'd Man may yield to the pleasure of being like God but for pleasure to make himself a Beast is contradiction to Nature For pleasure is but satisfaction of our appetites and the more natural the inclination is the higher and more powerful that nature and the desire eagerer so much the more delightful is the satisfaction Now it is certain that the reasonable faculty the Soul or Spirit is the highest and most proper nature of a man In all the rest he 's not a step remov'd from Beasts unlesse it be in shape but in the accurateness of his senses is below them far and therefore must be so in sensual satisfactions but in his Soul he borders upon Angels and does come towards God Now then that Soul being mans peculiar nature the highest part of him It follows its delights Spiritual reasonable Joyes must needs be the most natural and most proper for it most conform'd to it and therefore the most taking with it This may be cleared most irrefragably A Beast hath several ingredients of Nature in his making he is an heavy body and a Vegetable and he hath also sense which is his highest nature Now though the only inclination of heavy bodies be to fall down to the Earth and this be also natural to a Beast we do not find that 't is his greatest pleasure sure he had rather feed than tumble in the Pasture his chief delight lyes in the satisfaction of his chiefest faculties wherein he does excell his Senses and as Beasts differ and transcend in these so do their pleasures also differ and exceed A man also as Aristotle sayes does live a threefold Life At first he is but a Plant-man a growing span of living Creature and he 's born only into Animality a Life of Sense and at last Educated into reasonable Now the delights of his first Stages whilst onely Vegetation and Sense live although proportioned to those states yet have no savour to the mind he grows through Nuts and Rattles to the use of Reason and the pleasures of it also these must keep even with the growing faculties and become higher rational and manly Which if they do not but the man still dwell upon the satisfactions of sense he does confound the Stages contradict the progresses of Nature he hath the age and strength of Reason but to play the Child with to exert it in those things that are but a Man's Rattles hath the sagacity of an Intelligence meerly to find out how to be a brute with greater luxury and rellish Come therefore shew me now the sins which the delights of Reason do betray you to and I 'le admit the plea But if you live your own reverse that you may dye renounce all your own pleasures first that so you may renounce the joyes of God and Heaven and fall from Nature that you may fall into Hell this case hath no pretence those pleasures cannot toll man on to death which till the man be dead and the brute onely live within him cannot be his pleasures and it is plain they are not pleasures to a Sober man that lives the life of Reason not to say of Grace Nor are they such to any man till he have train'd and exercis'd himself into an habit of enduring them and by a discipline of Torment made himself experienc't for Vice and for Damnation Nor is there ever any pleasure in some vices what is there in the dismal Wishes of mans imprecating passion there cannot be musick in those harsh horrours and yet these sinners will destruction so as that they call to God to pour it on them and tear it down from Heaven so that Pain and Disease seem to sauce those delights and Death to be the tempter to the pleasure 't is evident mens reasons and their Practises must be first debauch't that they may count them Pleasures and therefore pleasure cannot be the first mover in the sinners race to Death But I will grant that the Spirit and Flesh of Man by their so strait alliance and perpetual converse may grow to have the same likes and dislikes have but one appetite and this alas be that of flesh to whose only satisfactions the man useth himself by long Custome of which the Soul doth so imbibe the Inclinations of the Body that nothing of another kind can possibly be relisht In this case sensuality hath pleasures yet such as cannot answer Gods inquiry for do but consult mans other Choyces and you find a present satisfaction cannot work his Resolutions to forgo great after-hopes or run upon a foreseen ruine Who will exchange his right to the Reversion of a Crown which from his Father he shall certainly inherit and succeed to if he do out live him for a present Scene of Royalty and choose a painted Coronet the pomps and adorations of a Stage and the applauses of a Groud before the reall Glories of his Kingdom the love and the obedience of his Subjects And yet my Soul the disproportion of the sinners terms is infinitely greater and there is no hazzard which to make his choyce of present things more flattering the others hopes are liable to For that Heir of the Crown
may dye before the Crown fall to him but it is impossible that we should misse of ours except we put our selves by by such choyces except we change it thus And on the other side we know men will adventure the Sentence of the Law by Robberies and murders to provide for lusts while they hope to be undiscovered But sure a Prison made delightful by all arts of pleasure and all plenties of it will not hire a man to own those actions which shall forfeit him to certain shameful Execution the next Sessions and yet this is the sinners state exactly he is ti'd and bound in the chain of his sins they are it may be chains of Gold and softned with delices but they reserve him to the Judgment of the great Assise And yet he chooses these and puts them on as ensigns of delight and honour Once more Do not men choose a present Agonie to keep off an after evill they teare their bowels with a Vomit to prevent a Surfeit they cup and scarifie and with all artifice of pain upon themselves kill a Disease yea they are well content to prolong torment so they may but prolong life and though the preservation of it prove onely continued pangs and all they can effect is onely this that they are longer dying yet they are glad to be so in all cases except where the prescription is virtue and the death prescribed against Eternall Now why do you choose thus onely in Sin and Hell 'T is clear the very pleasure you change Heaven for cannot invite you from this Life and then you that will suffer any thing rather than you will dye Why against all resistance will you dye for ever Is it Secondly because you know not what it is to dye the second Death at least your notions of it are so slight and easie that they cannot fright you from a pleasure or cope with a temptation to it and so though present satisfactions are not able to engage you upon present ruin they can upon the after-death Indeed the Sinner would have reason if it meant no more than hath been taught of late by one that hath gained many Proselytes among the Virtuosi of Religion After the Resurrection the Reprobates shall be saith he in the state that Adam and his Posterity were in after his Sin i. e. the state we are now in Live as we do Marry and give in Marriage and cease to be when they have got some heirs to succeed them in Tophet Poor unhappy Souls these that never had any sin to merit being there nor any Sentence to condemn them thither but this mans Who must put them there succssively one after other to find employment for Everlasting-fire A Doctrine such as had an Angel Preacht from Heaven by S. Paul's award he must have been Anathema when the Devil made Religions and Theology came from the bottomless Pit he never found out such an Engine to conveigh men into it as this pleasant notion of the punishment of sin therein as if Leviathan were made to take his pastime in that Lake also by such interpretations which surely were contrived to make out the Assertion of that Romish Priest who sayes that those in Hell love to be there nay more that 't was impossible for God to do a kinder thing for them than to put them there Doctrines to be abhorr'd as Hell it self and yet upon these grounds he builds their Church by demonstration so strong as that the Gates of Hell cannot prevail against it and in truth they have no reason to assault it on these terms But to passe by such dolages and frenzies you will be able sure to check all those presumptions which grow from sleight impressions of the second Death if you but take that prospect of it which the close of this time gives look forward through this season which is designed for you to prepare the way of the Lord to his passion in and you shall see the Death that does await iniquity If you behold him coming to Jerusalem with Hosannas and Palmes about him as if Death were his Triumph his Passion so desirable that he rode to meet it which he never did at any other time and then complaining he was straitned untill it were accomplisht as he had throws of Longing after it and singing when he went out to it you would believe the sinner never chose his death sweetned by his most pleasant sin with a more cheerful eagernesse But then open the Garden and you see his apprehensions of it throw him on his Face to pray against it See how he sweats and begs his very Prayer is a Passion the zeal of it is agony and canst thou choose that he so dreads and deprecates and when he durst not meet the apprehensions wilt thou stand the storm see what a sting death hath when it makes outlets for such clots and globes of blood and stings the Soul so too that it pours out it self in Sweat And then he sinks again under the deprecation of it and prayes that that Cup may passe from him Blessed Saviour when thou hadst just now made thy Death thy Legacy thy Sacrament dost thou intreat to scape this death if this Cup passe from thee what will the Cup of Blessing profit us thou hadst but now bequeathed a Cup to us which was the New Testament in thy Blood and now wilt thou not shed that Blood But dost thou refuse thy Cup Oh 't was a Cup of deadly Wine red with Gods Indignation poyson'd with Sin And can the sinner thirst for the Abysse of this the Lake that hath no bottom and when he goes again and prayes the same words the third time be yet not only so supine as not ask to scape it seldom and very sleight in any prayer or wish against it but also so resolv'd to have it as to gape that he may swill it down to everlastingness Follow him from that Garden and you see him even dying under his Cross he cannot bear that when it is laden with sin who yet upholdeth all things by the word of his power 'T is said the time will come when the sinner will cry out to the Hills to fall on him any weight but that of iniquity the burden of that is intollerable 't is easier for him to bear a mountain than a vice and yet Christ saith he hath a beam in his Eye and can he shrink at any weight whose part that is most sensible tender to an expression can bear that which shoulders must fall under onely Pillars can sustain Oh yes that which did sink the shoulders of Omnipotence Then the Mountains rather and the Rocks to cover but in vain they will not cover for thy very Groans will rent them Christs were so sad that his did they tore the Rocks and that which is much more inflexible the Monuments Death started at them and the bonds of the Grave loosened and the Dust was
of all Gods Promises and Threats as much as if they were in fight and though we see them through a glasse but darkly yet we see them by it 1 Cor. 13. 12. it being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It represents the things of which we have no demonstration from sense or humane reasoning as convincingly to the mind as if they were before our eyes And it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the substance the subsistence and the very being of things that are not yet in being but in hope So that the Eye of Faith like that of God does see those things that are invisible and futurity is present to it Now by this alone it is of force to break the powers of the World which as we saw while the things of the other World were lookt upon as at a great distance afar off taking advantage of their absence storm'd the mind with present forces and had supplies at hand for fresh assaults so overcame it Whereas had the powers of the World to come been present now by Faith they are made so we see the other which are so inferiour that there is no more comparison than of immensity to a point a moment to Eternity could not stand before them 'T is too notorious that this is the case For should a man cry fire in the House how it had seiz'd the strengths of it were blotting out the glories of it in thick Smoak devouring all their shine in flame we would leave our Devotions our most eager pleasures to prevent this and no speed were swift enough to serve our cares and fears But though a Prophet of the Lord cry Tophet is prepared the pile thereof is Fire and much Wood and the Breath of the Lord like a stream of Brimstone kindling it and do this till his Lungs crack not one heart is mov'd nor brings a drop of tear to quench the flame because these fires are not present as the other neither have men any sense of them were they alike convincing alike present to the apprehension 't were impossible according to what we have demonstrated that the Will in her choyces and her aversations where the objects are of alike kind and have one common measure of their good and evil is determin'd to avoyd or take that which appears the greatest alwayes 't were I say impossible not to fly these which the Devils do believe and tremble at with greater dread wherever they appear Now a strong lively Faith must paint them out and shew them in each fin the World ensnares into Neither would any of those rotten planks which while the Will does fluctuate betwixt her worldly inclinations and these fears and is tost about offer themselves as I declared to you for her to escape upon though she does dash her self upon God's Threats choosing the present sin such as the application of Decrees or Promises made absolutely to himself without any condition confidence in Gods Mercies hopes of Pardon none of these would be security to one that were convinc't in earnest He that did believe and as it were discern that height which his ambition goads him to aspire to were upon the brink of the bottomless Pit whither when he arriv'd that very sin that tempts him with the glories of the prospect would then tumble him down headlong into that Abysse he would no more dare to ascend it by such false and guilty steps upon such hopes of mercy trusts on Promises or Decrees than he would dare to throw himself off from a Pinacle in confidence God was Almighty and Almerciful able enough and kind enough to stretch out his right hand and catch him in the fall or trusting to that Promise He will give his Angels charge concerning thee and in their hands they shall bear thee up least at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone Or leaning upon any such Decree as makes the term of life immovable and fatal neither to be hastned or retarded none of these will make him mad enough to break his neck neither would the same presumptions encourage him to cast away his Soul had he but equal apprehensions of the danger And it is plain all the temptations of the World and all these false encouragements cannot work upon a man when Death once looks him in the Face and the great Champions of Prophanenesse are tame then not that God's Threatnings are more true or made more evident to sense or reason than they were before but their Faith is active and they apprehend more strongly then To see my self trampled upon by pride and malice or worse yet begging of him whom my blood it may be helpt to streams of plenty begging like Lazarus the portion of his Dogs Dogs that are taught to snarle and bite and make more sores not lick them this is a state more killing than my want able almost to tempt a man to any courses But then if with the Eye of Faith I do but look beyond the gulph and there behold the Rich man in his flames begging for water and although it be the Region of eternall weeping yet not able to procure one drop of his own tears to cool his Tongue O then I see 't is better to be Lazarus although there were no Abraham's bosome But if my Faith look through that bosom also into that of God and there behold the Son of God leaving all the essential felicities of that Bosom to come live a life of Vertue here on Earth and to teach us to do so choosing to do this also in a state of the extreamest poverty consecrating want and nakednesse contempt and scorn making them thus the ensigns of a divine Royalty And to encourage us not to sink under any of the Worlds assaults he hath proposed Rewards of Vertue such as God is blessed in did my Faith give me but a constant view of all this sure the paint and varnish of these little things below the twinkling exhalations of the glories of this World could not dazle my mind and captivate my Soul I should burst these entanglements to catch at those 'T is evident and 't is acknowledg'd that when our belief shall be all vision and our expectation possession when our understanding shall become all sense in Heaven and we see and tast and have those glories then we cannot sin cannot be tempted from them And therefore by the measures of the nearness of these objects of our sight and of our interest so are our strengths to stand and overcome temptations Now Faith is sight gives presence we have seen and it gives interest too He that believes is born of God saith the Apostle and therefore hath a right Now to be born of one is to receive from him a principle of life He then that hath receiv'd from God a Principle of life such as he can derive life like his own such as is led in Heaven when he does consider his original and looks upon himself as born of
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
but that he should truly be perswaded so without this duty is impossible for he that is Christ's hath crucified the Flesh with the Affections and Lusts therefore by good Logick he that hath not crucified them is not Christ's and evidently whosoever is not crucified at all he is not crucified with Christ. And sure I need not put you in remembrance that the man in whom sin reigns and whensoere his Lusts and Passions bid him go he goeth or come he cometh or do this he doeth it that the body of sin is not crucified in him that which were nayled and settel'd on the Crosse and slain there could not command and rule him so Or if sins dominion be not so absolute but God hath got some footing so as that his Law hath power in the man's mind so as to make him make resistances against his sin and he dislikes it but alas commits it still yet what he does allows not but returns to do it at the next temptation afterwârds would faâ—â— be good yet does not find how to perform something governs in his members leading that Law in his mind into captivity to the law of sin this man although he hath the body of death yet 't is not crucified and slain for it does live and exercise the greatest tyranny upon him forces him to serve and to obey against his mind it overcomes his own heart and all inclinations to good and conquers God within him Till men have left off the custome of the works of sin and all grosse deeds of the flesh it were as vain to prove they are not crucified as that he is alive that walks and eats Those works they are the fruits of the flesh the of-spring of its lusts and were that crucified and we by likenesse to Christ's death planted into the Crosse we could no more produce them than that dead Tree the Crosse could bear fruit or then a Carcasse could have heat to generate or the grave become a womb the dust bring forth Secondly Yea more they perform not the outward actions of life who have but the image of death on them and a man asleep works not yet is alive his fancy and his inwards work and if sin be onely kept from breaking out and men commit not grosse deeds of the flesh but yet indulge to these things in imagination and the heart cherish them in phansie and design and wish onely restrain the practice or indulge to spiritual wickednesses you may as well say that a man is dead because he does not walk abroad because he keeps within doors and lives onely in his Closet or his Bed-Chamber as say that sin is crucified which while it stirs but in the heart it is not dead Thirdly Once more we part from all acquaintance with the dead the Corps of one that had the same Soul with us howsoever we may have some throws of grief to leave it yet we put it from us we admit it to no more embraces but if 't were the loathsome Carcasse of a Villain Traytor that was Executed we turn from the sight as from a siend it is a detestable and accursed spectacle And so he that hath put his Body of sin to death would have great aversations to it yea how dear soever it had been he would no more endure the least acquaintance with it then he would go seek for his old conversations in the Chambers of Death he would shun the sight of any the most bosom custome as he would the Ghost of his dead Friend he would abandon it as a most ghastly dreadful spectacle he would also bury these his dead out of his sight Thus he must needs be dispos'd that hath crucified his Old man And they that are thus dead with Christ shall also live with him yea those that are thus crucified with him he hath already rais'd up together and hath made them sit together in Heavenly places in Christ Jesus There already in their cause and in their right and pledge and there hereafter in effect and full enjoyment SERMON X. CHRIST-CHURCH IN OXFORD Novemb. 5. 1665. LUKE IX 55. Ye know not what manner of Spirit ye are of THE state of that great controversie which the words suppose between the Jews and the Samaritans as it then stood seems briefly thus Those that were planted in the Regions of Samaria by Salmaneser however great Idolaters at first having admitted in a while the God of Israel among their Gods and after having an High-Priest of Aaron's Line a Temple too built on that place where Abraham and the Fathers of the Hebrews friends of God did choose to offer Sacrifice and on that very place where God himself enjoyn'd the Law and all the Blessings of it to be publisht to the People on Mount Gerizim which therefore seems to have pretences to vye with Mount Zion for there also the Lord commanded the Blessing An Altar too saith Benjamin in his Itinerary made of the same stones that God commanded to be taken out of Jordan and set up for a memorial of his Peoples passage through it And besides all this having the Law of Moses too when they had all these pretensions to the God of Israel they clave to him alone and wholly threw off their Idolatry So Epiphanius does affirm expresly And their countrey being as Josephus sayes the receptacle of all discontented fugitive Jews a great part of it too planted with them by Alexander they espoused the Worship of the Jews and came to differ very little either in the Doctrine or the practise of Religion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 having all things as it were the very same the only distance seems to be betwixt their Temples 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 just as the Woman states it to our Saviour 4. Joh. Our Fathers Worshipped in this Mountain but ye say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to Worship So that if we audit the account of the Samaritane guilt they separated from the place of Worship which God had appointed and set up another in a word they were Schismaticks Whether this be such a guilt as should make those terms equivalent He is a Samaritane and hath a Devil I shall not say but it is such as makes our Saviour say somewhat exclusively Salvation is of the Jews All the Blessings and Salvations of the Law did indeed hover on Mount Gerizim were given thence that was the place of them but they were cut away when Schisme came The Church is not a place of blessing when 't is built against the Church The Altar hath no Hornes to lay hold on for refuge but to push and gore onely when it is set up against the Altar and Gerizim is Ebal when it stands in competition with Mount Zion Well this onely thing does breed the greatest distances imaginable in the Nations nothing more divides than Separation and Schisme and then these Samaritanes as all Separatists do grew such
able to dead the force of the activity of all that Moses sayes although acknowledged with that veneration which the Jews receive Moses with whose credit they themselves do say no Miracle can be wrought so great as to be able to add to or diminish from why then that same improbity within a while will with more ease work off the force of this new confirmation so that it will be vain Indeed 't is possible that the surprize of such a Miracle just as any other suddain and amazing accident may make a man consider what though he did afore believe yet he did not mind nor lay to heart yet when the astonishment of that is over the motives then are left to their own strength and can work only by their own activity which we see hath been able to do nothing so that a miracle at most can be but a more aâ—ful remembrancer Now sure to bring this to our selves we want none such nor do they prove much useful Occasions of astonishment and such fatall remembrancers have come and taken up their habitation in our Land and make approaches towards hover over every place Long Bills of mortality and sad knells and dreadful passing-bells these are all messengers from the dead that come posting to us swift a Gods Arrows And one would think we should take notice of their message hear them when they passe so near us when they seem to call out to our selves when a thousand do fall besides us and ten thousand at our right hand wherefore should not an Army of such Carcasses become as moving as one Ghost should Lazarus come forth with all his sores they would not be so terrible as these carbuncles and ulcers of the Plague And the destroying Angel out of Heaven with his Sword drawn one would expect should be as efficacious as a Preacher out of Abrahams Bosom And yet men do not seem to hearken any more to these than they do to us when we either Preach or which they think much lesse when we read Scripture to them that is when they hear Moses and the Prophets Men have the same security as to their sins which they had in the freest times whatever fears possess them they are not the fears of God those that make men depart from evil none of those that fright into Repentance we have no Religious cares upon us now more than at other times but Vice as if that also had a Sanctuary under the Lords wings and might retire under his feathers to be safe dreads no Terrours of the Night nor Arrows of the Day but walks as open and as unconcern'd as ever And now should we behold a mad man on his death-bed spending his onely one remaining minute in execrations the paleness of a shrowd upon his face but Blood and crimson Sins upon his tongue the frost of the Grave over all his parts but a lascivious heat in his discourse in fine one that had nothing left alive of him but his Iniquity would not an horrour seize you at that sight and the same frost possesse you but to hear him and yet his madness is his excuse and his disease his Innocence Should we see one that had no other madness no other sickness but his sin do thus would it not be more horrid and is it not the same to see a Nation as it were upon its Death-bed visited with all the treasures of Gods Plagues his tokens on it and every place and man in fearful expectations and yet no allay of Vice Wickednesse as outragious as ever while it is thus with what face can we beg of God to keep from us this Plague and grievous sicknesse when we do onely mean to make this use of such indulgence to cherish another Plague in our own hearts What can we say to prove it would not be a mercy to us to be suddenly cut off even in the midst of our iniquity when by our going on in sin in the midst of Destruction we make appear if he should let us live yet we would onely live to finish our iniquities And longer time would have no other use but to fill up a greater measure of sin What answer do we make to all these Messengers of Death that come so thick about us what do we that may justifie Gods care in sending us so many warnings But 't is no Wonder if the onely neighbourhood of Death have not been able to prevail upon us have you not seen one whom his own iniquity or Gods immediate Hand hath by a Sicknesse or by some sad Accident cast to the very brink of Death so as the Grave seemed to begin to take possession of him and all his hopes sickned and dy'd so that recovery from that condition may be well as 't is in Scripture often called a Rising have you not seen him in that state when he supposed that sinning was now done with him and the next thing was Judgment when God's Tribunall seemed to be within his view and Hell to gape for him as wide as the Grave both opening to receive their parts of him at the same time and himself ready to divide himself into those two sad Habirations With what effectuall Sermon will he then Preach to himself against his sins and that you may be sure shall work upon him he instantly resolves against his Vices he will not carry them along with him out of this Life but cast them off as too sad dangerous Company nor yet if God shall lend him life will he retain them but it shall be a New Life which he will lead And yet when God hath rais'd him up after a while he returns to his vomit his Sins recover with his Body he owes his Innocence but to his Weaknesse nor is it more long liv'd his holy purposes decay as his strength grows and dye as soon as setled health does come And he who never would commit the Sin again when he was Dying mends into it again And then what hopes is there in this mistaken Method when we see men come themselves from the Dead unto themselves yet cannot make themselves Repent But if we are not all concerned in this take a more spreading and more visible experiment If ever one came from the Dead this Church and State came thence And by as great a Miracle of Resurrection But where is the Repentance such a Miracle may have flattered our Expectations with as I am confident the resolutions of it did in that sad dying state are not some men as violent in those wicked practises that merited our former Ruine and others in those cursed Principles that did inflict it as they ever were 't is said by many that have evil will at Sion and it is our concern to take a care they speak not truth that in the Church some that are risen up again have still the silence of the Grave upon them and are as dumb as if their mouth were yet full of their monument Earth And
only asserted boldly but prov'd nothing As if argument and reason never had place in the Jewish or the Christian Religion only those who were the institutors of each Religion did deliver it others had no more to do but to believe it that is to receive it as a little Child Whether these reproaches and the oath of these known enemies may go for proofs that it was so I shall not now enquire But it is certain on the other side S. Paul requires of his new Christian Corinthians that they be not children in understanding that they be in malice Children but in understanding Men. Now a man and a child differ not in this that the one hath an understanding reasonable soul and the other hath not but in that the one cannot use his understanding or his reason and the other where he acts as man does So that our Religion in requiring that we be in understanding men does require of us that we use our reason in it And since assenting to a thing as truth is an act of the highest faculty of the soul of man as it is properly and truly reasonable namely as it understands and judges it is not possible a man should really believe a thing unlesse he fatisfie himself that he hath reason for so doing Yea whether that be true or not which many men so eagerly contend for that the will though free is bound and cannot choose but will that which appears best at that time it wills yet it is sure that he who with his understanding which is not free in her apprehensions and judgments but must necessarily embrace that which hath most evidence of truth He I say who really assents to any proposition does satisfie himself that he hath better and more cogent reasons for that then the contrary And therefore it is impossible that any man can verily believe a thing which he is throughly convinc't is contrary to clear and evident right reason for he cannot have a better reason for the thing that is so And were it possible for any man to believe so there could be neither grounds nor rules for such a ones belief for there is nothing in the world so false and so absur'd although he were assur'd it were so but he might assent to it for whatever demonstrations could be offer'd why he should not yet it seems he might believe against acknowledg'd evident truth and reason but this were onely wish or fancy and imagination not belief And to prevent such childish weak credulity was the great work and care of Christ so far is he from requiring we should be as Children in this kind For when he was ascended up to heaven he gave some Apostles some Evangelists some Pastors and Teachers he shed down the Holy Spirit and his gifts that we might not be as Children tossed to and fro and carried about with every winde of Doctrine Eph. 4. 14. First For want of rationall grounds instable in our Faith as Children are in body and in judgement also taking all appearances for truths If men were only to believe there must needs be as great variety of Religions as of teachers And though God hath appointed that some Church should be as perfectly infallible as that of Rome pretends to be yet since there are so many Churches and the true one therefore could be known no otherwise then by some marks there must be disquisition before Faith and men must reason and examine ere they can believe upon good grounds for were they to receive Religion as a little Child be nurst up with the Doctrine as with milk a Child we know may suck infection from the poyson'd breast of an unwholesome mother or some other person for it knows not to distinguish And so may be nurst to death A soul like theirs that is but rasa tabula white paper is as fitted to receive the mark of the beast as the inscription of the living God just as the first hand shall impresse Therefore we are bid not to believe every Spirit not every Teacher though he come with gifts pretend and seem to be inspir'd but try them and our Saviour forewarn'd the Jews of false Christs that should come with signes and wonders Something therefore must be known first and secur'd before the understanding can be thus oblig'd to give up its assent And Captivate every thought into obedience as S. Paul directs Now what that was here to the hearers in the Text is easily collected namely that he was the Christ that does require it And S. Paul expresses it in the forecited place where he says we must bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ to wit of that Christ who as he does himself professe that if he had not done among them the works which no other had done they had not had sin John 15. 24. If his demonstrations had not convinc't them it had been no fault not to believe So when he had made appear he was that person whom their prophesies had poynted out the Messiah the Son of the living God and this not only his Disciples had acknowledg'd but the multitudes yea when his miracles had made one of the Pharisees confesse Rabbi we know thou art a Teacher come from God for no man can do these miracles except God be with him Then if the Pharisees dispute against his Doctrine of Divorce urge the authority of Moses and Gods Law and the Disciples presse the inconveniences that will happen If the case of a man be such with his wife he may answer them He that will not receive my Doctrines without dispute that is to say He that will not receive the Kingdom of God as a little Child shall not enter therein This King that cometh in the name of the Lord may well determine how we shall receive the Kingdom of God If he propose strange precepts to our practise It appears that he is sent from God and Gods commands are not to be disputed but obey'd if his revelations present dark unintelligible Mysteries to our faith his promises offer seeming impossibilities to our hope why yet he hath made proof he comes from God and surely we are not so insolent as to doubt that God can discover things above our understanding and do things above the comprehension of our reason Therefore since we are as Children to all these it is but just we should receive them even as little Children With a perfect resignation of our understandings and of our whole souls Here 't is most true what S. Austin says Those are not Christians who deny that Christ is to be believ'd unlesse there be some other certain reason of the thing besides his saying Si Christo etiam credendum negant nisi indubitata ratio reddita fuerit Christiani non sunt For to them that are convinc't of that 't is such a reason that he is the Christ. There is indeed no other name now under heaven to whom we are oblig'd to give