into the hearts of Believers to quicken them and to raise them from the Death of Sin to a Life of Righteousness i. e. to sanctifie and enable them to master Sin in themselves They that saw Christ in the Flesh knew not at first That the principal Intention of his Flesh was his Spirit viz. that his Incarnation was to produce their Sanctification to conform them to his likeness in the Inner-man as he was conformed to their likeness in the Outward-Man and those that are not thus conformed that have not their Sins taken away In them by Vertue of his Nativity shall never have them taken away From them by Vertue and Merit of his Passion Secondly By his Word he takes away our sin from within us Now ye are clean says our Lord John 15.3 through the Word which I have spoken unto you i. e. you have put away your former wickedness upon believing what I have preached To believe and to be clean in a Scripture sense is the same thing For 't is not possible rightly to believe and to continue in the Pollution of Sin The Word of God is quick and powerful sharper than any two edged Sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of Soul and Spirit The efficacy of it was seen in the reprobate hearts of Herod and Felix How did it ruffle and discompose the incestuous security of the first and put an Earthquake into the stupid Conscience of the last But yet 't is then only to use Solomon's expression that wise Words are as Apples of Gold in Pictures of Silver when they meet with docile ears and honest hearts when the disposition of the Hearers concurs with the faithful intention of the Preacher and they comply to destroy Sin in themselves as he endeavours to destroy it in his Sermon Otherwise this most powerful and effectual Engine to batter and beat down Sin the Word preached profits not as 't is in the Chapter now mentioned in the Hebrews But the Word preached did not profit them not being mixt with Faith in them that heard it Thirdly Christ takes away Sin from within us by his Example i. e. by his holy Life as well as by his Word and by his Spirit his Meekness Holiness Self-denial Obedience c. were designed by him to excite his Followers to practise the same Vertues equally or above his Precepts And though we condemn the Errour of those who affirm That the Pattern of Christ's life the perfect Exemplar of Piety and Holiness which he exhibited to the World was the only means besides his Word which he used to take away our Sins We may yet more condemn the sloth and hypocrisie of those who set his Life above our Imitation who put his Vertues into the same Classis with his Miracles and think it as impossible for us to practise his Humility Patience and the like as to open the Eyes of the Blind or to raise the dead affirm that his Obedience and Righteousness were not set for our Example to direct and encourage us to do the like but to upbraid and reproach our weakness and infirmities In the mean time our Lord himself Joh. 17.19 declares That the holiness he practised was not only for the love of holiness but that his Disciples should follow him even in the roughest Paths he trod those of his Suffering to which his Words more particularly relate For their sakes says he I sanctifie my self or offer up my self a Sacrifice that they also might be sanctified through the Truth And S t Peter says expresly Christ suffered for us leaving us an Example that we should follow his steps And this brings me to the second Motive the Apostle alledges to disswade men from Sin the sanctity and sinlesness of Christ's Person and ye know that in him is no sin But because this in a great part has fallen-in with the former Motive and to accumulate Reasons of the same Nature rather nauseates than perswades I shall wave this Point and proceed to my last The Inference which the Argumentation of the Apostle implies from the foregoing Motives viz. That 't is the Duty of all Christ's Followers to endeavour as far as 't is possible to be also without sin and which shall serve me also for an Application The Son of God we have heard was manifested in the Flesh to take away our sins and in him is no sin Now certainly we cannot think that we comply either with the Example of Righteousness which he has set us or yet with the gracious Purpose that brought him into the World if we reflect on his Nativity only after an Historical manner as that he was born in such an Olympiad or when such an one was Emperour that such rare Events attended his coming into the World as are recorded by the Evangelists namely that he was conceived by a Virgin of the Holy Ghost welcom'd by Angels signaliz'd and reveal'd to the Gentiles by a Star c. as if we were Chronologers rather than Christian Believers But that principally we are to consider these things Doctrinally and Morally to regard the Obligations they lay upon us and the final intendment of God in them For Example to say to our selves If God came so far as from the highest Heavens to take our Flesh that he might destroy sin how much more are we concerned to destroy sin in whom it dwells whose Flesh is its Domestick Organ and which will certainly destroy us both Body and Soul unless we destroy it Again if God vouchsafe so highly to dignifie our Flesh as to assume it to his Divine Nature and to carry it up to Heaven with him and that by way of Pledge and assurance to carry up all that live holy lives thither also how ought we to respect and even to revere these our mortal Bodies and not to pollute them with sin which are designed to such sublime Honour as to reign with God in Glory Once more If the Son of God came into the World not only to teach us his Father's Will but to demonstrate to us by his own performance the feasibleness of accomplishing it and did not only discourse of the probability of mortal mens ascending to Heaven but gave an instance of it in our Flesh how are we without excuse if either upon pretence of the difficulty of the Duties enjoined or the arduous ascent to the heavenly Kingdom promised us we supersede our endeavours to attain it When the Israelites were travelling to the Land of Canaan they said to Aaron Make us Gods that may go before us i. e. visible Gods that we may behold they were not satisfied with the conduct of an invisible Deity of a God that afforded not his personal presence Christ manifested in the Flesh is such a visible palpable God as they required who marches as a Captain at the Head of us and guides us not only by his Counsel but leads us by his Bodily Presence But yet notwithstanding this compliance with our infirmities
as a worse evil than Scarcity God thus making his Punishments a Riddle while he confounds us no less by his Blessings than his Judgments as if he would at once confute and deride the Atheism that denies his Providence and ascribes all Events to Natural Causes letting men see their Wealth cannot enrich them their Victories advantage them their Wisdom profit them without his Blessing and concurrence But that which ought most tenderly and sensibly to affect us is the Fatality in the Royal Family so many of those Illustrious Branches having been snatcht away of late Years in their Youth or Infancy that we may compute our Annals by the Death of one or more of our Princes the Royal House Alas being only fruitful to the Grave But to proceed As the Consumption mentioned in my Text may be thus twofold so the Persons threatned to be consumed are also twofold and the threatning of the last is set down by way of Aggravation of the Evil Ye shall be consumed both ye and your King But there will not want some Sons of Belial to say here What Part have we in David or Inheritance in the Son of Iesse that this should be held a matter of so great moment so high an aggravation of our misery that not only our selves shall be destroyed but our King also The Speech of the People is When I dye all the World dyes with me not only all my thoughts perish as the Psalmist says but all my care and concern for my Relations also perish whether as of a Father for my Children or as of an Husband for my Wife or yet as of a Subject for my Prince So that to say Ye shall be consumed nay more your Prince shall be consumed aggravates the terrour but as if one should threaten Your Limbs shall be torn on the Rack nay further Your Garments shall be torn also No doubt I say but there are too many of these Sheba's in our Israel But yet where ingenuity and natural goodness honour and generosity are not quite extinguished by self-love and interest there is in many men a care of others their near Relations even beyond themselves and after their Decease And this made Lawgivers enact for a further terrour to evil Workers the destruction of Wives and Children for the offences of Fathers and Husbands ut haberent aliquid quod timerent qui mortem non timent that they that feared not Death as to their own Persons might yet fear it reaching to those for whom they had a greater tenderness than for themselves And we see those frequently among us that chuse to wear their lives out in a noysom Prison or to dye under the torture of the Press that by these means they may preserve a poor maintenance for those they leave behind them Why the Relation of a Subject to his King of a People to their Prince is in just estimation the chiefest and highest of Relations the principal in importance though not the nearest in Bloud which the men of Israel rightly understood when they called David the light of their eyes and preferr'd him before so many thousands of themselves And also the People of Rome when upon the Election of just Numa they rejoyced as Plutarch says as if they had not only obtained a new King but a new Kingdom Indeed the felicity of a Nation is bound up in the Person of the King and waxes or wains according to his Vertue Well therefore may we pray heartily and truly for our King as the Romans were wont to pray flatteringly for their Tyrant-Emperours Demas annos meos mihi addas Caesari Take O Jupiter from the number of my Years and add them to the account of Caesar's esteeming the King's life a greater Blessing to us than our own the destruction threatned to him more dreadful than the destruction threatned to our selves looking upon the Commination in my Text as the highest aggravation of Evils Ye shall dye for your Sins nay your religious your victorious or your gracious Prince shall dye also But some perhaps will say here Is it just and righteous with God to destroy a good King for the transgressions of his People Surely yes and the Scripture affirms as much For the transgressions of a People many are the Princes thereof and in the second Commandment God says He will visit the sins of the Father upon the Children and for the same reason of any Relation upon his Correlation as of a Subject upon the Prince For though the Subjects are Vassals and Homagers to the Prince both Prince and Subjects are Vassals aad Homagers to God and may be disposed of by him as he sees best for the ends of his Glory But then though it be righteous in God to cut off a good Prince for the punishment of his People because he can translate him to a better life and turn his Crown of Gold into a Crown of Glory yet wo be to those Subjects who any way contribute to their Prince's or Countries misfortune either by their wicked Plots or wicked lives by their immediate Conspiracies against them or their remoter as I may say of their sins against their Peace and prosperity For if men commit great offences and go on obstinately in them they sin not only against their own Souls but the Publick Safety Which brings me to my second general Part The Case wherein the Commination in my Text shall take place wherein both King and People are threatned to be consumed If ye shall still do wickedly The things wherein both Israel and their Forefathers continually did wickedly the Scripture tells us were Infidelity Stubbornness Ingratitude Murmuring openly upon the least want or distress against their best Governours but covertly and secretly against God himself Proneness to Idolatry Incontinence the very Sins for which the Nations were cast out before them to which the present Generation added over and above the demanding a King with the design to exclude God from ruling over them For we must note here That the greatness of the present sin of Israel consisted not in desiring a King simply in renouncing as some would have it the sweet Government of the Sanhedrim or Council of Elders for the Regal and more Tyrannical Power For not to say any thing in vindication of Monarchy that 't is the best of Governments not only by the consent of the wisest men of all Ages but by the attestation of Nature or rather the God of Nature in all Orders and Subordinations of things both in Heaven and Earth 't was God's express Purpose from the beginning to establish Israel under a Monarchical Government and Deut. 17. some hundreds of Years before a King was demanded the Laws concerning a King were set down by Moses Neither did the greatness of their Sin consist in desiring a King inordinately precipitately rebelliously not attending God's time nor consulting his Will in so important an Affair these were Aggravations of their Sin but not their
Indignities of a Humane Life His Sufferings indeed were antecedent to his Exaltation but his Exaltation was not the End or Reason of his Sufferings God highly exalted him and gave him a Name above every Name that at the Name of Jesus every Knee should bow of things in Heaven and things in Earth and things under the Earth but this was the Result or Event of the Merit of his Humiliation not the Design of it And the Joy which as the Apostle says was set before him and made him endure the Cross and despise the Shame was a Contemplation of the Redemption and Recovery of Lost Man and of the Glory redounding to God by his Atchievement more than of his own Glory There are but two Sorts of Creatures in the Whole Lump of the Creation for whom the Excision of the Messiah could possibly be namely Angels and Men but the Scripture excludes the first He took not upon him the Nature of Angels but took upon him the Seed of Abraham and the Ancients interpret That the Nature that was not assum'd was not ransom'd The State of the Angels Good and Bad immediately after the Fall of those that kept not their Station was made Immutable and they are Happy or Accursed without Change For Men therefore alone the Benefit was and it being said for Men indefinitely it must be understood of all the Race of Mankind the Men of all Nations and of all Times quocunque sub axe how remote or in what Clime soever quocunque sub scelere how remote from Righteousness or under what Sins soever all that Believe all that Repent are of the Number of those for whom Christ was cut off as S t John says He is the Propitiation for our Sins and not for ours only but for the Sins of the Whole World None are so much cut off from Goodness but Christ was cut off to bring them to Righteousness and Salvation And now to draw to a Conclusion What does this Universal this Wonderful Love of Christ preach to us Who when he was not capable as God to dye for us as our Condition required espoused our Nature first that he might espouse our Miseries after and that he might bring us to perfect Felicity was content to be made perfect by Sufferings as the Apostle speaks As I said before an affected weeping and sorrowing in remembrance of Christ's Passion was but an Insignificant Return for his Sufferings So I may say here an Empty Admiration of his Love will be as Vain as Ungrateful and as unacceptable an Acknowledgment of his Goodness The Return he expects for his Unspeakable Love is that we according to our Measures and proportions should shew the like Love to our Brethren And this is the Consequence S t John draws from the Love of Christ If Christ so loved us we ought to love one another But what Kind of Love is it which is requir'd of us For the Love commonly practis'd in the World is but a Confederation for Lust and Pleasure or an Association like that of Merchants for Interest and Profit Moralists observe three Kinds of Love in regard of the Ends of them Love for Pleasure sake Love for Profit and Love for Vertues sake Now the last only of these bears any Resemblance to the Love of Christ which we are to imitate and which is more perfectly described by the Pen of S t Paul To be first a Benevolence or Well-willing to others as to our Selves not excluding our very Enemies a Candid and favourable Interpretation of all Mens Actions a Meek Conceit of our selves and a Lowliness towards others ready to forgive Injuries and to overcome Evil with Good c. which Love the Apostle prefers even before Martyrdom Secondly a Mutual Compassion and being affected as our Brethren are a sorrowing with them that sorrow and a rejoycing with them that rejoyce as the Apostle says like Members of the same Body suffering all if one suffers and if one be honoured all rejoycing Thirdly a Beneficence or Liberal Contribution to those that need exprest in these Words But to do Good and to Contribute forget not And this Love it seems the Church was so happy in in S t Paul's days that he thought it superfluous to recommend it among other Duties to the Thessalonians But as touching Brotherly Love says he ye need not that I should write unto you But had the Apostle liv'd in these days he would have thought it necessary not only to say Love one another love Strangers love your Enemies but love your Friends love your Selves For we see Men destroy their Souls for the love of their Bodies and their Bodies again for the love of their Lusts. And if any in these days should pretend to love merely for Vertue and Goodness sake to have a Kindness to those that gave them an Opportunity to exercise their Charity even as unto those that did them a Good Turn they would be hiss'd at as Hypocrites and if they should love their Enemies and return Good for Evil they would be lookt on as base and degenerate despicable and ridiculous persons But had not Christ been so ridiculous as to do Good to them that hated him so degenerate as to lay down both his Life and Glory for his Enemies none that now shall be admitted into the Kingdom of Heaven should ever have come there And he that gave his Soul unto Death for our sakes looks that we should not only be Believers but Martyrs for his Sake if Occasion requires that we should be ready to be cut off for Him that was cut off for us that is be content to lay down our Lives for the Truth or the Salvation of our Brethren To God the Father Son and Holy Ghost be ascribed all Honour Glory c. Amen The Fifth Sermon ZECHARY xiii 6 And one shall say unto him What are these Wounds in thy hands Then shall he answer Those with which I was wounded in the house of my Friends THere is nothing esteemed more barbarous than to violate the Laws of Hospitality to outrage a Stranger-Guest The sense of Mankind in this Particular may be seen by the fatal Revenge taken for the abuse of the Levite's Concubine which occasioned the destruction well near of a whole Tribe in Israel But then the Violation of an Ambassadour and of such an one as comes to offer Peace and Alliance not only to break the Laws of Hospitality but of Nations to Evil-Entreat a Sacrosanct Person and to return Hostility for Friendship and Amity what can be found sufficient to make an Atonement for such Inhumanity How beautiful are the feet of them that bring glad Tydings of Good things And how deformed and detestable on the other side must the Ingratitude of those be that are injurious to such Messengers 'T is no wonder if such Barbarity creates irreconcileable Feuds inter mortales inimicitias immortales between mortal men immortal Enmities Yet the Prophet Zechary foretells that such
of thy Strange and astonishing Miseries thy low Condition and sad Wants thy perpetual Dangers and Persecutions What is the meaning of thine Agony and bloudy Sweat thy Crown of Thorns platted and crusht into thy Head thy being Mockt and Spit on What is the meaning of thy Submitting not only to the Dishonours of a Humane Birth but to those also of a Violent and Ignominious Death Being the Son of God why didst thou suffer any Evil Why didst thou not convert the Stable in which thou wert Born into a Palace and the Cross to which thou were Nail'd into a Throne Why didst thou undergo such Miseries and Indignities as made the World doubt of thy Divine Nature and not exert thy Deity and destroy thy Murderers and burn up their City as thou spak'st in one of thy Parables Thy People expected thee a mighty Prince but thou shew'd'st thy self a Destitute Forlorn Person they lookt for a Deliverer but behold one Obnoxious to Bonds and Death for a Redeemer but Alas none needed Redemption more himself Great undoubtedly and wonderful was the Mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God and that he should not only be born in a Mortal but in a Miserable Condition The Apostle might well give it the precedence to all other Mysteries of Godliness Great is the Mystery of Godliness says he God was manifested in the Flesh justify'd in the Spirit seen of Angels c. But that Christ should suffer the things he did in our Nature was no less Necessary than Wonderful And to omit all other Reasons for it I shall insist only on that One Great One Because Sin could not otherwise have been abolisht the End for which Christ came into the World attain'd which was To destroy the Works of the Devil Christ could have destroy'd the Devil with more Facility if he had come in Majesty and Glory as the Apostle says 2 Thess. 2. He shall consume Anti-Christ with the Spirit or breath only of his Mouth and the Brightness of his Coming But our Lord's Business at this time was not to destroy the Person but the Power of the Devil Sin was both the Stratagem by which he conquer'd and the Chain by which he held Mankind in Captivity and Christ undertaking to rescue them from this Thraldom to bind the Strong Man and to take from him the Armour in which he trusted he was not to do this by an Omnipotent Power as he brought the World out of Nothing Light out of Darkness c. but by an Heroick Vertue such as he shew'd when he trampled upon the Temptations of the Devil in the Wilderness He therefore enter'd the Lists against Satan as a Champion or Combatant according to the fair Law of Armes as they say i. e. with a sutable Strength and Appointment to his Adversaries Man was lost by Sin and could only be restored by Righteousness he had forfeited God's Favour and his Felicity by his Transgressions and could recover them again no other way but by Obedience On this Account Christ laid by his Majesty and Glory and took our Nature that in the Infirmity of our Flesh he might foil our Strong Enemy the Second Adam redeem the Glories lost by the First Adam the Seed of the Woman bruise the Serpents head made himself subject to the Law that he might fulfil the Law obnoxious to Death that he might subdue Death and the Author of it by suffering Death as S t Paul says Heb. 2.14 That through Death he might destroy him that had the Power of Death that is the Devil So that we see here was no place for Thunder and Lightning for an O'er-bearing Irresistible Power but only for Divine Graces or Vertues and the Weapons Christ used in this Conflict were only Courage Holiness Obedience Patience Self-denial Meekness and the like such as were in the Power of Men also to make use of he so conquer'd as they might conquer after him For the Great Business was not Christ's Personal Victory that was secure but the Victory of his Followers he indeed was to break the Power of the Kingdom of Darkness but they were to compleat the Conquest every one in his own Particular to subdue Sin and Satan And thus while Christ destroy'd the Power of the Devil disarm'd him and made those that had been his Slaves Lords over him by consequence and in a Political Sense he destroy'd the Devil himself as a Prince is said to be destroy'd that is stript of his Forts and Castles his Territories and Armies his Ammunition and Harness of War though his Person still survives However then that Zipporah upbraided Moses upon the Circumcising of her Child saying factus es mihi Sponsus sanguinum thou art to me a Bloudy Husband we have no reason to quarrel that Christ was to us Salvator Sanguinum a Bloudy Saviour i. e. a Saviour drencht in his own Bloud for without the Bloud of Christ there had been no Redemption But to be more particular and distinct There are two Ways by which Christ destroy'd the Power of the Devil and delivered Mankind from his Bondage and those are Pretio Exemplo by the Price or Satisfaction he paid for Sin And by the Example of his Holy Life By the first he destroy'd the Guilt of Sin And by the second the Dominion or reigning Power of Sin 1. Therefore we may say There was a Necessity of Christ's Death and Sufferings and that he should be a Wounded Saviour that he might pay a Price make Satisfaction to God the Father for the Sins of the World For whether it be that the Vindicative Justice of God for Sin be so natural and intimate to his Essence that he cannot without renouncing his very Nature and Being pardon Sin without a Competent Satisfaction as some would have it Or whether it be only his Declared Will not to pardon Sin without a Competent Satisfaction as others more sutably to the Divine Goodness and Glory affirm I shall not need here to dispute seeing both Sides agree in one and the same Conclusion That it was necessary for Christ to Dye for the Sins of the World The Wages of Sin is Death says the Apostle and in another place Almost all things by the Law were purged by Bloud and without shedding of Bloud there was no Remission Now though the Bloud there mentioned was but the Bloud of Beasts that were sacrificed yet those Beasts were the Proxies and Representatives of Men and also Types of the Great Sacrifice which Christ was once to offer on the Cross and derived from it all their Vertue and Merit and God revealed this Way of atoning by Sacrifice early to the World and afterwards prescribed it to his People the Jews by written Laws from whom it was deriv'd to all Nations though the Mystery that Sacrifices were founded in the Death of Christ was not clearly understood till the Days of the Gospel As a Remedy for Sin was promised from the Beginning so 't was
also taught however obscurely from the very Beginning That Sin was not to be abolisht without Satisfaction made for it and that no Competent Satisfaction could be made for it but by the Bloud of the Son of God or the Eternal Destruction of the Sinner And if we will make the best Use of this Doctrine we must observe That as the Parts of the Body are framed in so excellent a manner that they serve for more Uses than one as the Nose not only to breathe but to smell the Hand not only to lay-hold with but to strike c. So likewise that the Institution of Sacrifices for expiation of Guilt had two Excellent Designs in it First to shew God's Mercy to Sinners and secondly his Irreconcileable Hatred to Sin And if we look no further in this Matter than on God's Goodness only in accepting so favourable an Exchange as the Bloud of the Sacrifice for the Bloud of the Sinner we defeat one half of his Design which was to shew the Malignant and Mortiferous Nature of Sin in that it could not be purged away by any less Means than Death than either by the Destruction of the Sinner or of some Other in his behalf And therefore though God deal with us after that Royal Manner as the Children of Princes are dealt with who have another Punishment for their Faults or as he dealt with David after his Numbering the People past by in a great measure his Offence and took Occasion from it only to send a Plague on Israel for former Transgressions thus chusing rather to punish David's Ingenuity than his Person to afflict him with beholding the Afflictions of others than by sending any immediately on himself yet if we shew not the like Ingenuity which David did suffer not Our Selves for what we see another suffer when we were the Delinquents I say if as he cry'd out upon the Destruction of the People Lo I have sinned I have done Wickedly but these Sheep what have they done So if we cry not out in Contemplation of what our Proxy suffered on our behalf We have sinned we have done Wickedly but the Lamb of God what has he done to be sacrificed for us We shall forfeit both the Indulgence and Indemnity which God intended us and while we shew our selves Insensible of so high a Benefit we shall be deprived of it and in the next place we must Dye our Selves and Dye to all Eternity And thus we see as the Death of Christ paid to God as a Ransom for Sins ought to be the highest Object of our Joy So the Consideration again on the other side that Nothing but the Death of Christ could pay that Ransom ought to create in us no less than a horrour and Detestation of Sin But yet I know not how we see men precipitately and remorslesly run into all Impiety as if there were no danger in Sin as if Christ had suffered nothing for it as if it were as easily remitted as 't is committed the Price of Iniquity no more than what it cost the Wicked Person to purchase it For certainly if Men did consider at how dear a Rate God's Justice and Wrath were satisfied they would not think the gratifying of every Lust more valuable than the Compensation made for it they would not set more by the Savage Delight of Revenge or the Swinish of Drunkenness than by the Bloud of Christ prefer the Favours of a Light Woman before their Peace with God a cheap Sin before the dearest-bought Redemption A Fool can work a Mischief which may pose a Wiseman to remedy and every Weak Person when he is tempted can commit Sin but none but the Eternal Son of God can remove the Guilt of it when 't is done And 't is the light Reckoning that men make of Sin which brings God's heavy Displeasure upon them for it their thinking so cheaply of the Greatest Offences because the Pardon of them costs them little that provokes him to make them feel what the Weight of Guilt is For 't is but just that those who refuse to understand the pernicious Nature of Sin by the Punishment laid on an Other should understand it by undergoing the Punishment of it themselves who will not learn how Odious it is to God by the Death of his Son should be taught it by their own Confusion Who is there so Ungrateful and Insensible even among the Worst of Men that if a Friend hazard his Life for his Preservation will not acknowledge so great a Benefit and yet the Son of God did not only hazard but lay down his Life to redeem us from Eternal Damnation and few there are that consider it that have so much Compassion as but to ask the Question in my Text What are these Wounds in thy hands resentingly to say Was it possible so Divine a Person should be so Abus'd for me that the Son of God should be buffetted spit on derided torn with Scourges mangled with Tortures and at last nail'd to the Cross for my Disobedience There are those I confess in the Church of Rome who spend a great Part of their Lives in gazing on a Crucifix and weeping over the Pictures of our Lord's Passion in bemoaning his Sufferings and kissing the Representations of his Wounds but alas these do but haerere in cortice stick at the Bark and Husk of the Mystery out of a simple or affected Fondness express their Gratitude to Christ a Wrong Way lament his Sufferings now they are past and he in Glory at the Right Hand of his Father they do not penetrate into the true Purpose and Meaning of his Sufferings as they declare the Malignant Nature of Sin that could not be expiated at a less Rate than the Death of so Divine a Person For this is the true Return that Men should make Christ for his Passion not so much to consider What his Wounds were as For what they were and from thence fly that which was the Cause of his Sufferings The second Reason of the Necessity of Christ's Sufferings I said was To give Men an Example of Obedience The Apostle Heb. 2.17 gives another Reason for Christ's suffering in our Nature viz. that he might be a Merciful High Priest become Compassionate of our Infirmities by the Experimental Knowledge of them in his Own Person But the Reason or Purpose I now speak of is such as is in Reference to Men and not to himself that he might give an Example to the World that God commanded nothing but what was possible to be performed by Flesh and Bloud The last Effort or Endeavour of Heaven to bring Men to Salvation was now essaying and the shortest and most Efficacious Motive was thought to be to give them an Instance of the Fulfilling the Law Precepts are but cold Inducements but an Example fires the Soul with Emulation to do what it sees done before it and Men think it a Disparagement to give out in that which another has enterpriz'd with
necessarily be a Consequence of his by the very Law as I may say of the Body or the Inseparable Conjunction of the Limbs to one another for it is not possible that the Head should be quickened and the Body mortified that the Head should be raised to Life and crowned with Glory and the Members remain in Death and Dishonour And 't is on this account that Christ is said To be the First-fruit of those that Sleep and not only in regard that none went before him but the First-fruit in relation to them that were to follow after him The First-fruits in the Law were Part of the Fruits of the Season one Sheaf of the Harvest which being lift-up and consecrated to God in the Name of the rest sanctified the Whole Crop So Christ being lift up as the First-fruit of the Dead consecrated and sanctified the Whole Harvest of the Dead And as Saint John says of every true Believer in point of Impeccability He cannot Sin because the Seed of God abideth in him i. e. none can be a Child of God's and a customary Sinner for these are irreconcileable So we may affirm with unspeakable Comfort in the point of our Immortality A true Believer cannot be held in Death because God's Seed abideth in him i. e. Death and a Seed or Principle of Immortality are inconsistent with one another And thus we see we have not only Matter of Congratulation for Christ's Victory over Death and the Grave but the highest Cause of Jubilee and Rejoycing for our own Deliverance from this heavy Curse and Punishment of Sin As Sin subjected us to the Dominion of Death the Spirit of Sanctification breaks the Bonds of the Tyrant asunder and enables us to conquer this Conquerour of Mankind as Disobedience shut the Gates of Heaven against us Obedience sets them open again Holiness of Life in the Faith of Christ in this World is the Ticket whereby we receive Happiness and Immortality in that to come The Young Phoenix is said to spring out of the perfum'd Ashes and Reliques of the Old but though this be never so fabulous I am sure we shall be renewed and quickned to Eternal Life from the perfum'd Reliques of a Holy Life the remaining Good Works and Graces the Spirit of God wrought in us which as S t John says can never dye but will follow us into the other World If therefore we give our selves up to be led and governed by the Spirit of Christ in this Life conform our selves in all things to his Divine Will if the Spirit of Christ conducts us safely to use the Psalmist's Expression through Fire and Water i. e. through the Sharper Tryals of Afflictions and the Softer Allurements and Temptations of the Flesh and the World he will carry us also safe through the Regions of Death and the Grave pass us indemnified by the Gates of Hell and neither the Malice of Devils the Weight of our Tomb-Stone the Load of our Flesh or the yet greater Load of our Infirmities shall hinder but our Bodies shall be raised and so winged that they shall overtake their Souls and be joined to them that took their Flight so long a time before them and both of them together shall be transported in Triumph to Heaven and crown'd with Immortality and Glory the Assurance and Pledge of which Christ has given us this Day in his own Resurrection To God the Father Son and Holy Ghost be ascribed all Honour Glory Worship and Thanksgiving this Day forth and for evermore Amen The Seventh Sermon PSALM ii 6 Yet have I set my King upon my holy Hill of Sion WIsdome does not only do her Works well but perceives that she does so delights in their Beauty exults in remembrance of the master'd difficulty and triumphs over the conquer'd Opposition Thus God stood-off as 't were from his great work of the Creation when he had finish'd it applauded and bless'd it prided himself as I may say in his noble performance in that he had brought Light out of Darkness Order out of Chaos a World out of nothing In the like manner when he had here compos'd the Distractions and Confusions both in the Church and State of Israel by establishing David literally and Christ mystically on the Throne of the Kingdom he glories in having brought about his great Design laughs at the fruitless Opposition of his Adversaries at home and abroad of the Philistines the Moabites the Ammonites the Damascens the Amalekites of the King of Zoba and of all the turbulent and ambitious Spirits of the House of Saul delights to recount their Might and their Machinations the more to signalize their Overthrow and to make his Victory illustrious For after all their rage their malice their Counsels their Combinations their seeming successes against him the Issue was this Yet have I set my King upon my holy Hill of Sion We may observe in the Words these three things I. The Person establisht My King i. e. David Literally so called and Christ Mystically II. His Establishment I have set my King upon my holy Hill of Sion III. God's Glorying in the Fact that he had done it with such a Non obstante notwithstanding such Opposition and Contradiction Yet have I set my King I. The Person establisht My King God's King Not only holy Scripture but the Writings of Heathens declare Kings to be Sacred Persons descended more immediately from the Gods and more particularly depending on them Kings are from Jupiter says Callimachus and nothing ever descended more sacred from him And Theocritus Kings are the special Care of the Gods And this Epithet's affected by Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God lov'd Kings Indeed all Kings in general are God's derive their Authority from him govern by his Permission and Providence as himself testifies By me Kings Reign But then he delights in a more especial manner to style Good Kings his to appropriate their Persons and owne their Causes to interpret all things done to them as done to himself as at Verse 2. Why do the Rulers take Counsel together against the Lord and against his Anointed Conspiracies against the King are reckoned Conspiracies against God the resisting his Anointed the resisting himself And thus if it be a Glorious thing to be a King 't is a Blessed to be a Good King for as splendour attends Majesty and Greatness protection and safety and felicity and the love of Heaven attend Righteousness But let us see why David is here more particularly call'd God's King than others The First Reason we may say was Because he was a King of God's Making because he brought him to the Throne having no Title by Birth to it à Caulis Ovium tuli te I called him from the Sheep-hook to the Sceptre And as those Persons which are of our Election preferring or favouring we call Ours this is my Scholar my Souldier my Officer because he was of my nomination my chusing my advancing so David was called God's King
it being rarely seen that a Good Understanding goes along with a Great Estate that the same Person should be born both to much Wealth and to much Wit my Text informs men how to reconcile these together how the Rich having the advantage of Wealth may have also the advantage of Wisdom how with their Transitory things they may purchase things Eternal nay and which is yet a higher Strain of Wisdom how being but Stewards of the Riches they possess they may make after the example of one of the craftiest Dealers in this World and best practis'd in the Double ways of Cozenage the gainful Purchace of Heaven at anothers Cost and do this Innocently as he did it Fraudulently Lastly Men are taught how to remove the Difficulty and almost Impossibility of a Rich man's entering into the Kingdom of Heaven how to make its Narrow Passage which is as the Eye of a Needle to a Camel as wide as the Gate of a City or the Royal Way leading to it A Lecture which undoubtedly must be very acceptable to Great and Rich men instructing them how to possess the Good Things of this World without forfeiting those of the next how to join Celestial Joys to Earthly Felicity immortal Glory to Secular Prosperity Again which can be no less grateful to the Penurious and Covetous who love to enjoy their Wealth after they have parted with it to have it their Friend when they can hold it no longer their Servant who desire to dwell for ever if it were possible with their beloved Gold to cohabit with it in the next Life as they brooded over it in this my Text comports and complies with all these Desires Make to your selves Friends of the Mammon of Vnrighteousness that when ye fail they may receive you into Everlasting Habitations The Words offer these two things in general to our Consideration I. The Necessity of our Faâ—ling in these Habitations When ye fail II. The Policy taught us how to procure Admission into Everlasting Habitations when we fail in these and that is By making Friends of the Mammon of Vnrighteousness And without troubling you with any further Division at present I begin with the first of these The Necessity of our failing in these Habitation These Words when ye fail are by some understood two ways by our failing in Duty and our failing in our Being or Dying As the Steward in the Parable fail'd two Ways 1. In his Honesty as at ver 1. he had wasted his Master's Goods And 2 dly In his Office as at ver 2. where his Master says to him Thou may'st be no longer Steward And after the like manner all Men fail more or less in their Fidelity and Justice But all equally and necessarily in their Mortal Being But whether we fail in the one of these Ways or the other whether we come short in our Duty or are cut short in our Lives in both these Failings the Unrighteous Mammon will stand us in stead 1. If we fail in our Justice Eleemosynae sunt instar Justitiae Alms are a kind of Justice and not only to Forgive but also to Give will cover a multitude of Sins So that if we fail viz. in our Integrity we may again be restored by our Charity and when we have wasted and consumed our Graces we may recruite them by exhausting our Purses and in this Shipwrack also casting our Goods overboard may be a Means of our Preservation But though this Sense of the Words has nothing in it contrary to sound Doctrine yet it cannot be that which our Lord points at in them For the Failing here spoken of is supposed to be Inevitable Necessary and Universal when ye fail indefinitely when ye All fail neither can the Words be supposed to allude to the Common Pardonable Failing or Miscarriage of an honest Servant but to the Purloining and Cheating of a Thief which the Steward was and for that cause was turned out of his Office If therefore we say the Failing here is meant of our Duty it must be of our General Total Duty which is Apostasie or else it holds no proportion to the Steward's failing in the Parable and if we do it holds no proportion with the Truth for we must affirm our Lord supposes it Necessary and Inevitable for all Men Universally to be Apostates We must take the Words therefore in the other Sense For Failing in our Being or Mortal Bodies which are often resembled in Scripture to Houses and Tabernacles but I shall instance only in 2. Cor. 5.1 For we know if the Earthly Houses of this Tabernacle were dissolved we have a Building of God a House not made with Hands Eternal in the Heavens There is in the Words the Figure Euphemismus which terms things by more gentle and Favourable Names than properly belong to them Death sounds harsh to those 't is denounced to alleviate therefore the ungratefulness of it 't is render'd Failing But the plain Importance of these Words when ye fail is no other than this When ye Die But now though this be the true Meaning of the Words it may seem to be a Theme less necessary to be insisted on than any other To tell men they must Die Not that the Admonition is not weighty and of the highest Concern but because it is so well known by all and none needs this Information Linquenda domus tellus pavens uxor that our Houses Lands and tender Relations must be left by us that nothing which is either dear to us or we dear unto can exempt us from the Law of Death is News to no man all men of what Sort and Condition soever can assume Saint Paul's scio We Know that this Earthly Tabernacle shall be dissolved The Ignorant see it daily demonstrated in the Mortality of other men and the Infirmities they find in themselves the Learned yet further by Philosophy and Reason which tell them That their Bodies being made up of a Mass of contrary Humours continually jarring and fighting with one another the Victory on either side must certainly be the Destruction of the Subject in which they are contained Divinity adds to these a third Demonstration teaching men that there is a Law of Death in their Members not that which I but now spoke of a Natural Law of Mortality but a Spiritual Law of Sin and consequently of Death which Law had its Sanction from God 's own Mouth Gen. 2. In the hour thou eatest thou shalt dye This present World is but a Nursery or Seminary to another in which nothing is to be seen more common than the transplanting of Men from this to that Or it may be likened to a Tree that has at the same time upon it some Fruit decaying some ripe and some blooming the one continually succeeding and thrusting off the other till the Tree it self at last fails as not being design'd to stand for ever All Men I say are of sufficient Learning to preach such Lectures as
great distance and the Sinner has leave to execute his Wickedness so that the Terrours of Religion work only upon the Good and Faithful while the Worst and most of men despise them But even the boldest and most daring in their Impiety who count Heaven and Hell only the Parables of Scripture and the Fictions of Preachers will boggle in the Cariere of their Sins at the remembrance of a severe Judge and an unrelenting Humane Law and consider whether they can escape if they commit them and will not run on madly to transgress when they see nothing is to be had but Vengeance the Attempt and their Miscarriage their Sin and their certain Death Thus we see Severity is not contrary to the Rules of Charity the Sword in the hand of Justice less instrumental to mens Good than the Scales that the fear of Punishment is a kind of Grace and Principle of Obedience in the Hearts of Wicked men which restrains them from Vice even when it wins them not to the Part of Vertue But then though Severity and Punishment are Noble and necessary Branches of Charity they are not the Natural and Genuine they relate to it but as the Prophet Isaiah says they do to God They are his Works his strange Works his Acts his strange Acts. The Works which Charity delights most in are those that are mild and gentle which not only produce Good but which in themselves are Good which shew Mercy by the Ways of Mercy and are no less beneficial in their Progress than their End And these are the Operations of Charity which our Apostle chiefly recommends here to us and that we may not erre in so Divine a Grace or come short in so important a Duty our best way will be to set before us the Perfectest Exemplar of it that ever was our Lord and Saviour and himself commands us John 15.12 to do this As I have lov'd you says he so love one another thus making his Love to us the Rule or Pattern of our Affection to those of our own Kind And the first Instance of Christ's Love which I shall propose for Imitation is this That as he lov'd us Before we lov'd him lov'd us without any Merit or Invitation on our part lov'd us when we could not love him when we were wholly benumm'd and dead to all heavenly Affections So likewise that we love one another expect not Obligations and Invitations from our Brethren to quicken our Charity towards them but rather delight to begin and be before-hand in our Expressions of Kindness and to have it seen that they come from our selves A natural Spring flows of its own Impulse unbid unprovoked and makes its Way through all Oppositions if it meets a hollow in its Course it fills it up if a light Obstacle it bears it away with its Stream if a great one it swells and passes over it at least pours out still its free Source till it finds or makes a Passage And thus our Charity must take its Rise and flow from its self shew it depends on nought beside that it cannot be obstructed by the want of any Qualifications or yet by any Disobligations of our Brethren Atticus the charitable Bishop of Constantinople when he sent Money to relieve the Poor in the City of Nice commanded that no enquiry should be made in the Distribution of it of what Sect in Religion the Poor were but what their Wants were He that confers his Benefits upon Consideration only of mens agreeing with him in Opinion of their Merit Neighbourhood former Obligations or the like may be just prudent or Grateful but he cannot be said to be Charitable for this is a free unbiass'd disinterested Vertue and if it regards ought in the Good it does beside the Opportunity and Power it has to do it it changes its Nature becomes another thing and assumes a New Name Let no man therefore think he has absolved the Duty of Charity if he be Kind only where his Honour is courted and comply'd with ready to entertain Friendship when he is sought to to be reconcil'd when full Amends is made him But if he will shew this Grace he must first break the Ice and lead the way to Concord Kindness and Beneficence And none think this so hard a Saying as those who would hugely stomach and disdain in case their Neighbour should precede or take place of them upon any Meeting or Encounter as if it were Disparagement to them to sit lower than another at the Table and not to be below him in Vertue to go after him at a Door and not to come behind him in all Goodness If we cannot part with our Passions and Evil Affections for the sake of our Brethren as well as our Money for go our Pride and Animosities as well as our Goods we are Charitable but in part Merciful but in a Case and possibly the Vertue may not be only Imperfect and lame in us but we may be wholly destitute of it for S t Paul says We may bestow all our Goods to feed the Poor give our Bodies to be burnt and yet not have the Grace of Charity Because these things may be done out of Ostentation and not only so but without any Profit or Benefit For put the Case our Brother be not low in Fortune but weak of Undestanding not indigent of outward things but of Instruction and Advice stands in need to be born with not to be reliev'd what Good will our Money do him in these his Infirmities It were as seasonable to apply it to a broken Arm or fester'd Wound to give it to one starving in a Desart where no Food is to be bought If we will be Charitable we must compassionate our Brothers Necessities of what Nature soever they be supply his Wants not gratifie our own Temper The second Instance of Christ's Love which I recommend to our Imitation is this That as he lov'd us not only first and before we lov'd him but lov'd us when we were Enemies to him when we were not only Strangers but Rebels to Heaven when we exercised all the acts of hatred and hostility against it So that we love one another and not think the Obliging and Good Natur'd only worthy of our Kindness but the Discourteous and Injurious Some men are contentious with their Neighbours outrageous to their Children tyrannical to their Inferiors insupportable to their Equals irreconcileable to their Enemies implacable upon every Colour of a Wrong But the Charitable on the other side can Excuse and pardon the most design'd and study'd Injuries see something to commiserate and pity even in mens Injustice can look upon their Malice as their Mistake or Misfortune pray for their Enemies as our Lord did in the very Article of the Death which they have brought upon them Father forgive them for they know not what they do And if we consider rightly Sinners are Ignorant and Mistaken in what they do Fools as the Scripture
and the salvation of so many Millions as the bringing in the body of the Jewish Nation to the Faith of Christ to whom the Promise was principally made to be separated or excluded my self from him as Vatablus excellently expounds Vnus pro tam multis optarim perire si liceat I could wish as far as 't is lawful for me that One rather than so many might perish And there is nothing in either of these Passages of Moses or S t Paul which every faithful Pastor may not safely imitate let their Zeal be as much in Earnest and as right plac'd as theirs and it will not only be pardonable but rewardable Neither is there any thing in their Practice if rightly weighed contrary to this Rule I must love my Neighbour As my self not Above not Before my self I should proceed to the Object of our Charity but what remains will be sufficient for another Task The Nineteenth Sermon 1 PETER iv 8 And above all things have fervent Charity among your selves for Charity covereth the multitude of Sins The Object of Charity All Men in General GOD taught the Church of the Jews in the beginning by easie and natural Notices and Instructions by a kind of hieroglyphical or symbolical Divinity the Scene of their Religion lay in Garments Diet Washes and the like the Commandment was conversant in the Objects of the Senses touch not taste not handle not And thus men were inur'd to the Ways of Vertue and held at a Distance from Vice by allowing or disallowing them the Use of such Creatures and Customs as shew'd the Beauty of the one and the Deformity of the other God endeavouring to render Sensuality and Prophaneness odious by rendring Dogs and Swine so Hypocrisie and Corruption of Doctrine by forbidding Garments of mixt matters and sowing the Field with Seeds of several kinds Exorbitant Lust by amputation of the Fore-skin Idolatry and Unnatural Mixtures by commanding a perpetual War with the seven Nations of Palestine deeply ingulph'd in these Sins Again he endeavoured to train them in Purity and Innocence of Life by enjoining frequent Washings of themselves their Garments and their Vessels But the Jews perverted and defeated the Counsel of God in this method of instructing them they lookt not as 't is said of them to the bottom of their Lavatories to the Design and Signification of their Types they cleans'd their Pots and Skins and polluted their Lives they entertain'd the forbidden Sin and terminated their Hatred in the innocent Sign wallow'd in the Sensuality of Beasts and detested the harmless Creatures practis'd all the Abominations of the Heathen and when they were as guilty as they lookt upon them as their Enemies As if God had taught them not to hate Idolatry but Men not to be at Variance with Sin but to keep up a Feud with the greatest part of the Creation When they were enjoined utterly to root out the Canaanites that their Corruptions might not spread among them they made Marriages with them and incorporated them into one People with themselves and again when in after Ages the reason of such Enmity was worn out and the Danger of their Community Out-dated when their Aversion to the Gentiles did not Secure their Religion but render it Odious and preserved not the Truth but hindred the Propagation of it then most preposterously and unreasonably they shew'd an irreconcileable Hatred to the Heathen and extended their Malice not only to the seven Nations but to all Nations beside themselves and were detestable to all the Inhabitants of the Earth for their Churlishness and Inhumanity In this Condition of hating and being hated our Lord found them when he came into the World and when he set himself to reform their Mistakes to remove the Outward Ordinances they had so little profited by and to reveal the Duties that were shadowed under them they abhorred the Sanctity of their Meaning preferr'd the Burden of them before the Vertue they signified embraced closer and more strictly their beggarly Elements like degenerate Children that fly from their Book to the Bables of their Infancy from their Tutors to their Nurses chusing rather to counterfeit still an imperfect clipt Speech than to form their Tongue to pronounce Words of Instruction and Knowledge And it cost our Saviour the Cross and his Disciples Persecutions and cruel Deaths while they laboured to wean them from their first Childish Rudiments to redeem the Creatures from those Prejudices which for a time were thrown upon them for Religion and Instruction sake to bring the anathematiz'd and excommunicated World into the Pale of the Church to have all men seen to be of one Kindred as they were at the Creation to revive the Consanguinity of Nature by the Alliance of Grace which acknowledges its scattered and remotest Relations though situate in the furthest Climes and made not only Strangers but Enemies by distant Countries and more distant Religions and Interests However therefore the Jews were born to Animosities and Hatreds had Quarrels intail'd on them like their Lands had so many Nations made over to them their hereditary legal and commanded Enemies yet Christians are allow'd to account no Sort of People their Enemies but are enjoined to bear an Amicable friendly Disposition to all men or taught that their Brethren are not those only of the same Kindred or Nation but those of the same Kind and the same Nature as Tertullian says Lex vetus amorem docet in proximos nova in extraneos the Old Law taught us to love our Neighbours but the New teaches us that all the World are our Neighbours not only those that live near us but those that do any way stand in need of our Assistance not those alone that we know but those whose Distresses we are acquainted with though their Persons are Strangers to us And this Doctrine our Lord revealed or explained in the Parable of the wounded Samaritan and according to the Tenour of it we ought to say with Gregory Nazianzen All the Earth is my Country and no Part of the Earth is my Country 't is Heaven alone that can claim that Title and no man ought to be excluded my Kindness till I know him to be excluded Heaven and no man but may challenge my Love of whom I can say Behold an Other Man And this Point of Christianity is so grounded on the Principles of Nature that the better Heathens discerned and practised it As I am Antoninus says that excellent Emperour my Country and City are Rome and Italy but as I am a Man the whole World And like again to this is that Speech in the Comoedian Homo sum humani nihil à me alienum puto I am a Man and I esteem nothing humane strange to me or not to be my Concern Be then my Brother an Arabian or Indian though he has travelled far and planted himself in a remote Clime though he be fed with Fruits of the Earth I never saw and speaks a Language