have found out a platform of Government among the fallen Angels who though their Principles be crooked yet being obey'd by Wills as crooked observe an irregular Rule and a perverse Order even in Hell so Sin rules in us too by Principles For there is saith St. Paul a Law of Sin But then 't is such a Law as if it should be Treason for any Subject not to Murther his Natural Prince or Adultery not to Ravish or Blasphemy not to take God's Name in vain 'T is such a Law as if two Anti-Tables should be written which should make it Sin not to break the Commandments Lastly Let the Apostle tell you what Law it is 'T is a Law of the Members warring against the Law of the Mind and not only warring but bringing it into Captivity Rom. 7. 23. Sin herein far exceeding the Author of it For he only aspir'd to be like the Highest but Sin hath made an inversion in the Soul advancing Sense into the Chair of Reason and placing the Beast above the Man And though it may leave us to a natural liberty in moral actions for 't is harsh to think that Justice and Temperance are but guilded Sins yet for actions of Grace it has so glewed and settered the Soul that it cannot possibly mount up to Heaven 2. Next for Death Men have made a Covenant with that saith the Scripture and if Contract be not enough we reade Wisd. 1. v. 14. of a Kingdom of Death so that Christ did not only find us Captives but Captives slain Teneo à primordio homicidam culpam says Tertullian Adam's Throat was our open Sepulchre who in that fatal Apple did not only murther his Children like Saturn but like Thyestes in the Tragedy did eat them After that Transgression there pass'd an Act upon us It is appointed for all Men once to dye Nay it were a degree of happiness to dye but once if nothing remained for punishment for nothing can suffer nothing But we were to be raised to another Death and like drowsie Malefactors that had lain down with their Sentence were to be awakened out of sleep to be put upon the Rack 3. The Scripture almost every-where styles the Devil the Prince of this World His Kingdom had enlarg'd its self from that place about which the Schools dispute to every rebellion and disorder of the Soul where as in a conquer'd Province per cupiditates regnavit saith St. Augustine He reigned by his Proconsul Sins There also making himself the Prince of Darkness by our ignorance and the Prince of the Air by raising Tempests through all the Regions of Man and exercising an universal and absolute Power over him For such was his power in the World when the Saviour of it came into it There was then a general defection from God Satan's Synagogue had in a manner swallowed up God's Church who had but one corner of the World left him and therein for a long time but a moving Tabernacle and when a fix'd habitation but one house wherein a very few to serve him while the Devil's Temples were every-where crowded with Priests and Sacrifices and his Altars smoak'd in all places with Incense so that the Earth and the fulness thereof seem'd now his and he though cast out of Heaven to have reveng'd himself in some sort of God by thus dispossessing him as it were of the Earth Nor was the Devil's power more Universal than 't was Absolute over men's Bodies and over their Souls too Their Bodies he possest and tormented at pleasure insomuch that his very Priests might have receiv'd Death with as much ease as they did his Oracles entring into Men as he did into the Hoggs hurrying them violently into perdition commanding Parents to make their Sons and Daughters pass through the fire to him tearing and bruising those he had got into and casting them sometimes into the water and sometimes into the fire Nor did he tyrannize less over Men's souls than bodies blinding their understanding putting out the light of natural reason in them first corrupting their Judgments and then their Manners from Error in judgment the passage being natural and easie to Error in practice and accordingly St. Paul tells us how vain men became in their imaginations even to worship the Creature instead of the Creator to change the glory of the uncorruptible God into Images made like to corruptible Men and to birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things which made God give them up to all manner of uncleanness as you may reade at large Rom. 1. 21 c. In such slavery had the Devil not only Heathens his own people as I may call them but even the Jews themselves God's chosen people who after so many Miracles of Power and Mercies so many excellent Statutes and Ordinances to direct them in the true manner of his Worship as had not been delivered to any Nation besides did not for all this fall short of the worst of Heathens either in matter of erroneous judgment or vitious practices The profane Sadducee had corrupted all good Manners and the hypocritical Pharisee perverted the Law by his false Glosses and Comments on it so that when our Saviour appeared on Earth an universal deluge of Wickedness had over-spread the face of it And thus all Mankind being the Devil 's by right of Conquest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 taken by him as it were in War the true import of that word and bound fast to him with his Chains of darkness of gross error and vitiousness 't was high time for the Son of God to come down to rescue miserable Men from these several Captivities which he did three manner of ways 1. By Commutation 2. By Conquest and 3. By way of Ransome or Purchase 1. By Commutation For when we were prisoners to Death by sin God made an exchange delivered his Son over to it for us became our Scape-goat like the Ram substituted in the place of Isaac and as the Apostle speaks tasted death for every man that we might not be devoured and swallowed up by it 2. By Conquest as it referrs to Power and thus our Lord offered violence to Hell snatcht us as brands out of its fire and rescued us as so many preys out of the teeth of the roaring Lion delivering us from the power of darkness and translating us into his kingdom vanquishing death and him that had the power of death the Devil and treading him under our feet And not content with that he spoiled principalities and powers making a shew or as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imports an example of them openly and triumph'd over them in himself or in his Cross. 3. By way of Purchase or Ransome as it referrs to Justice Thus Christ made a perfect satisfaction to God by laying down a price for us and paying the very utmost farthing of our debt and so came not only to give us an Example as Socinians
Omnipotent God a power able to break in pieces the chains even of death its self strong ones indeed to hold all others but weak to hold him who was as well God as Man Whom God hath raised up c. From which words Four things are to be gather'd 1. The Certainty of Christ's Resurrection set down here as matter of fact Hath raised up 2. The principal Agent or rather the sole efficient Cause of Christ's Resurrection God Whom God hath c. 3. The Manner how 't was done Removendo impedimentum by taking away whatsoever might obstruct it the rowling away the stone as it were from the door of the Sepulchre the untying of a hard knot Having loosed the pains of Death 4. And lastly the Necessity of all this a most convincing and irresistible Argument and therefore brought up in the rear to make all sure Because it was not possible he should be holden of it Of these in their order and of such practical Inferences as doe arise out of them And first of the first Particular the Certainty of Christ's Resurrection in these words Hath raised up 1. There is not any truth in Scripture which God has been so carefull or as I may so say curious to secure as that of his Son's Resurrection Which he did as by taking away all grounds of doubting of it so by making use of all manner of proofs to ascertain it For first whereas Sceptical Men might have questioned whether Christ died truly or no or if so whether his disciples did not come by night and steal him away These two grounds of suspition God took care to remove The first by that Evidence the Centurion gave in to Pilate of his real dying besides that of so many Spectators who beheld that stream of bloud wherein he poured forth his Soul unto death And the second by the exact care of the High Priest who caused a vast stone to be rowled before the door of the Sepulchre adding his Seal and Souldiers of his own chusing to guard it from the attempts of the Disciples who had they had a will had neither power nor courage to break open a Sepulchre hewen out of a new entire Rock or force such a strong guard as kept it much less Money to bribe their silence as the High Priests and Scribes did And to say that his Disciples stole him away while the stout Watch-men slept was surely no better than a Dream or rather not a Dream but a studied Lie and yet such a Lie too as does most clearly confirm the truth of our Lord's Resurrection But then secondly As God took away all cause of doubt so did he draw Arguments from all Topicks to prove this great Truth Heaven and Earth here gave in their Evidence For not only the Souls of Holy Men were fetcht thence to be united to their Bodies for proof of that Resurrection by which themselves were raised but the Blessed Inhabitants of Heaven the Angels came down on purpose to publish it to the Women as these did to the Apostles to whom Christ shewed himself alive too after his Passion by many infallible proofs and expos'd himself to their very Senses who did not only see and hear but converse and eat with him after he was risen from the dead that they might not mistake his Body as once they did for a Phantasm or Christ for a Spirit having flesh and bones as they found he had and retaining still the marks and prints of the nails and spear to shew the Identity as well as Reality of that Body which arose The very Infidelity of an Apostle being not the least confirmation of our Faith too in this particular Not to mention other instances the Earthquake the empty grave the stone rowled away the linnen cloths curiously wrapt up together as dead Witnesses when there were so many living ones Angels and Men and among these such as were ready to seal this Truth with their dearest Bloud of such credit and honesty too as might highly recommend their Testimony to our belief of such Prudence Experience and Holiness withall as neither could betray them to Error nor suffer them to abuse the credit of others Such were the Holy Apostles who with great power gave witness of the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus and whose principal office it was to doe so as appears upon the Election of St. Matthias into the place of Judas grounded upon this necessity Act. 1. 21 22. To whom we may add no less than five hundred Brethren at once all agreeing in the same story Nemo omnes neminem omnes fefellerunt which made their Evidence rise to such a strong demonstration as was sufficient to stop the mouths of Christ's most contradicting Enemies and open ours to confess with the Disciples and Primitive Christians The Lord is risen indeed Luk. 24. 34. Thus we see how exact the Holy Ghost was as in removing all such Doubts as might in the least obstruct our Faith so in using all manner of Arguments to confirm and establish the undoubted Truth of Christ's Resurrection not only to show the possibility of a Resurrection in general by so pregnant and visible an Example but the importance of it in regard of ours whereof our Lord 's was the Fountain and Pledge 1. I say the clearing of the Truth of Christ's Resurrection was absolutely necessary in regard of the slowness and indisposition of most Men and in all times to admit of the possibility of a Resurrection The Philosopher we see could not digest it To the Stoicks and Epicureans it became matter of laughter who took it for some new Goddess Act. 17. 18 32. Nay some of the Disciples themselves lookt upon it as a Fable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luk. 24. 11. A considerable Sect too among the Jews the Sadducees utterly deny'd it Act. 23. 8. Simon Magus and the Gnosticks were of the same persuasion and so was Marcion as Tertullian informs me who deny'd the truth of Christ's flesh and consequently his Nativity and Resurrection as Valentinus's Disciple did the Resurrection of that Flesh he convers'd in Some there were who affirm'd 't was already past as Hymenaeus and Philetus Others turn'd it into a meer Allegory a Renovation Matth. 19. 28. A state of the Gospel call'd a New Heaven and a new Earth 2 Pet. 3. 13. And the World to come Heb. 2. 5. And lastly how doe all loose Christians decry it as a thing utterly inconsistent with their interest It was requisite then that this foundation should be laid very deep in men's Hearts which the Holy Ghost fore-saw so many would endeavour to over-throw 2. 'T was absolutely necessary to clear this Truth in regard of the importance of it to Christ's glory and the happiness of all true Christians 1. To Christ's glory which in the esteem of Men being much eclipsed by his Death was to shine out brighter by his Resurrection for nothing but this could take
hominum sed propter homines quod est longè diversum They are God and Christ's Ministers but employ'd by them for the procuring and furtherance of the Elects Salvation So that their Looks and Services are directly levelled towards God and but glance and reflect from Him upon us All things says our Apostle even Thrones Dominions Principalities and Powers were created as by Him so for Him Col. 1. 16. For Him in the first and for our help and benefit in the second place And therefore they adore and ascribe glory to him Esay 6. 3. Luk. 2. 14. They stand in his presence ready to execute his Commands some of them being for this very reason says a School-man styl'd Thrones because they still attend on God's Hence the Ark of God's presence was between the two Cherubins Exod. 25. 22. And as the Psalmist in allusion to that place represents Him sitting between them Psal. 99. 1. so riding and flying upon them Psal. 18. 10. in regard of that quick and ready Obedience they perform to his Commands and to Christ as the Head of his Church as 't is ver 6. Let all the Angels of God worship him They proclaim'd his Conception Mat. 1. 20. and his Birth Luk. 2. 11. They Ministred to Him at his Temptation Mat. 4. 11. Comforted Him in his Agony Luk. 22. 43. Waited on Him at his Sepulchre Mat. 28. 2. At his Resurrection Mat. 28. Ascension Act. 1. And give glory to the Lamb now in Heaven Revel 5. 11 12. But as their chiefest and immediate Services are for God so by his appointment do they minister to his Elect to their Bodies and Souls 1. Their Bodies These are not without their care the very dead Bodies of Saints they have a care of Jude 9. much more of the living And our Lord deters Men from doing any hurt to his little ones by this argument that the Angels of God are appointed for their Guardians Mat. 18. 10. and when the Psalmist says There shall no evil befall thee nor any plague come nigh thy dwelling Psal. 91. 10. He gives the reason ver 11. For he shall give his Angels charge over thee to keep thee in all his ways They shall bear thee up in their hands lest thou dash thy foot against a stone It is impossible to describe the variety of their assistances to us here below One while they lead us in our way as they did Israel another while they fight for us as they did for Joshua They purvey for us as for Elias foretell our danger as to Lot Joseph and Mary and free us from it as they did St. Peter and the three Children They cure our Diseases as at the Pool of Bethesda They instruct us as they did Daniel and St. John The Law was given by them Act. 7. 53. and they were the first Preachers and Publishers of the Gospel Luk. 1. 31. ch 2. 10 11. And as God made them instruments to convey Knowledge to his Church so by the Ministry of the Church as it were in requital of that good Office the manifold Wisdom of God is made known unto them too Ephes. 3. 10. Do we run on in our own evil ways they resist us as they did Moses Balaam and St. John who would have adored them restraining our presumption as the Cherubin before the Gate of Paradise Does Satan tempt us to Sin they rebuke him and hinder him when he is most busie as in the case of Joshua the High Priest Zach. 3. 1. They remove our hindrances from good and our occasions of evil mitigate our temptations comfort us in our sorrows further us in our good purposes assist us in our devotions present our prayers and holy performances to God promote our conversion and rejoyce at it and as if this life were too narrow a bound for their Charity they extend it to the next carrying up our Souls to Heaven when our Bodies return to the Earth as they shall gather together the Elect of God at the last day when those Reapers shall separate the Tares for the fire and the Wheat for God's barn This is their Ministry to the Saints of God But what need of it some will say Is it not the Lord that ordereth all our steps And have we not Him for our help who never slumbereth nor sleepeth Did he need the Ministry of Angels in the Creation of the World and if not there why in the Government of it True indeed he needed it not nor does need it yet is he pleas'd to use it to manifest and illustrate the Order of his Providence in the conduct of his Creatures resigning some part of its administration and execution to them while he reserves the whole authority to himself Not out of any inability or necessity as Earthly Princes who make use of others Eyes and Hands in the managing of their affairs since they cannot be present every-where but by their Substitutes but to express his Wisdom in this Order and Power in this subordination and dependence of one Creature on another and of all upon himself Nor does that Wisdom more clearly appear any-where than in the choice of those instruments which he has design'd to govern the World under him The Kings of the Earth do not always observe the strict Rule of Justice in the distribution of Charges and Employments allowing something to Favour and something to Passion setting many times such persons over others as are fitter to be commanded than to command assigning blind Guides to the more clear-sighted But the All-wise God disposeth things in a far different manner He chuses out the noblest strongest and most enlightned Creatures to guide the meanest most infirm and least knowing makes his Angels so many Intelligences not only to move and turn about the Heavens but to regulate and steer the motions of all sublunary affairs So that the Ministry of Angels is so far from extenuating that it very much extolls the Goodness and Greatness of the Almighty towards us in the execution of his high and holy Providence It adds to God's glory and to the honour of Angels themselves to be employ'd by him in so many good and great Affairs It advances the order and beauty of the Universe while no creature in it is idle It begets a greater and more strict friendship between Men and Angels and affords us strong Consolation in having such a powerfull and mighty Protection For these and the like reasons it seems good to the Almighty to use the Ministry of Angels and as they are most zealous for his glory and the good of Mankind especially since 't is reconcil'd to God by Christ so is there not one amongst them but is most willing here to be employ'd All of them says the Text are Ministring spirits It has been a question much disputed whether every one Man have a particular Angel for his Guardian I find several of the Ancient Fathers most of the School-men and
therefore this truth for granted I shall only speak to his Office described here by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies two things 1. A Comforter 2. An Advocate 1. A Comforter and such He was to be 1. To the Apostles themselves 2. To the whole Church 3. To each faithfull Believer 1. To the Apostles themselves It was indeed a seasonable time to talk to them of a Comforter when sorrow and distress were coming upon them and they were to be as sheep without a shepherd They had left all for Christ but while he was with them they found all in Him who was dearer to them than all their possessions While He lived with them their joy and satisfaction was full and compleat but a joy that was to last no longer than his Corporal presence which the Holy Spirit was to supply and that abundantly For although they could no longer have recourse to their Lord for Resolution of Doubts or Protection from Dangers yet should they not want an Oracle to clear the one nor a Sanctuary to secure them from the other The Holy Ghost should both enlighten their Understandings and dispell their Fears Being endewed with power from on high Afflictions themselves should prove Consolations unto them and they should find more satisfaction in their very Sufferings than worldly Men in their highest Enjoyments as we find they did Act. 5. 41. when departing from the presence of the Counsel they rejoyced and that with joy unspeakable that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for Christ's Name But then 2. The Holy Ghost was to be a Comforter not only to the Apostles but to the whole Church of God The Father under the ancient legal Dispensation was a severe Law-giver rewarding Obedience and strictly punishing Rebellion He appeared terrible on Mount Sinai Nothing was to be seen there but Fire and Smoak and thick Darkness Nothing to be heard but Thunder and the Trump of an Angel insomuch that Moses himself trembled and quaked Such an Appearance suiting well with the Promulgation of the Law as denouncing nothing but Woes and Curses to Offenders But under the Gospel-Oeconomy there was another face of things The Son of God while in the Flesh had no such marks of terror and severity attending him more proper to a Creator than a Redeemer He came not with a Rod but in the Spirit of Meekness His condition was a condition of Humility agreeable to one whose Kingdom was not of this World and suitable to his appearance in the Flesh was that of the Holy Ghost whose descent was indeed in Fire but to warm and cherish not to consume In a mighty rushing Wind to represent his divine Power and Efficacy not his Impetuosity 'T was not such a Wind as God came to Elijah in which rent the Mountains and brake the Rocks in pieces The motions of the Holy Spirit are not violent He does not affright those He lights on nor create Fear but Love in that Heart he fills 'T is He that makes us cry Abba Father That begets in us a holy generous Confidence and speaks peace to his People The cords he brings with Him are those of a Man such as chain and captivate Hearts The Oeconomy of the Divine Spirit was to be an Oeconomy of Sweetness and Consolation to the Church becoming the Gospel of Peace and the God of all Consolation 3. The Holy Ghost was to be a Comforter to all true Believers not only as begetting Faith in their Hearts and dispelling that Darkness which naturally possesseth their Understandings but as giving them Peace of Conscience and that unspeakable joy which the World is unacquainted with and cannot take from them Hence He is said to seal them unto the day of their Redemption Ephes. 4. 30. To be the Earnest of their heavenly Inheritance and to make them fore-tast the joys of Heaven here on Earth What comfort what ravishing joys does he still raise in the Souls of all the Faithfull by the apprehension and sense he gives them of the Love of God and that certain hope they have by him of enjoying Him in Heaven Grace is the Paradise of the Soul Holiness its Crown and the assurance it has of God's Love to it the choicest flower of that Crown Nor is he thus only a Comforter to each true Believer but he is so too as his Teacher and another-guess Teacher than Men are to one another For let their Methods of Teaching be never so perspicuous and their care and pains to inform us never so great yet when all is done they cannot communicate unto us either clearness of Apprehension faithfulness of Memory or soundness of Judgment and where they find us dull or stupid all their pains and skill are but thrown away upon us But the Holy Ghost does so teach as withall to change the natural temper and disposition of men's Minds working so upon their Understandings by the clearness and evidence of those Reasons he proposeth that they are not able to resist or stand out against the force of his Demonstrations drawing them to Him in so sweet and yet effectual a manner that although sensible of the effect yet the way of his Attraction is as imperceptible to them as the power thereof is uncontroulable The Manner of the Holy Spirit 's operation on Believers now is very different from that on the Prophets of old which was so forcible that Elisha could not Prophecy without the help of Musick to compose and tune his Spirit But under the Gospel-Dispensation the Holy Ghost deals otherwise with his Servants No such Enthusiasms or Transports here Their Understandings are enlightned without any disturbance to their Bodies They receive the Holy Ghost's Inspirations without the least astonishment or discomposure while he gently glides and descends into them like rain into a fleece of wool in the Prophet David's expression Psal. 72. 6. And thus the Holy Ghost is a Comforter But then 2dly He is withall an Advocate The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly signifies so much one that maintains the Cause of a Criminal or at least of an Accused Person Now the Spirit does so by justifying our Persons and pleading our Causes against the Accusations of our Spiritual Enemies 1. Against the Severity of God's Law and that most righteous undeniable Charge of Sin laid thereby upon us 2dly Against the Devil who we know is styled the Accuser of the Brethren and doth not only load our Sins upon our Consciences but farther endeavoureth to exclude us from the benefit of Christ by charging us with Impenitency and Unbelief Here the Spirit enableth us to clear our selves against this Father of lyes to secure our Title to Heaven against the Sophistical Exceptions of this our subtle Adversary and when by Temptations our Eye is dimmed or by the mixture of Corruptions our Evidences defaced he by his Skill helpeth our infirmities and bringeth those things which are blotted out and forgotten into our
in the Flesh justified in the Spirit seen of Angels preached unto the Gentiles believed on in the World received up into Glory were then all riddle And as our Knowledge now is far clearer than that of God's ancient People was so is our Consolation and Joy also being established on better Promises revealed with more Evidence and embraced with more Firmness and Certitude Death is now swallowed up in victory and hath lost its sting so that our Fears are less as our Hopes are stronger sweeter and more comfortable being now not under the Spirit of Bondage but of Adoption which makes us go boldly to the Throne of Grace The Result of all is this That the Oeconomy of the Spirit followed that of the Father and of the Son That the Holy Ghost was not properly to be styled a Comforter till Christ went up from Earth to Heaven and that if our Lord had remained here below the blessed Comforter would not have come down in that plentifull Effusion of his Gifts and Graces as he did after our Lord's departure which is the Third thing proposed But before I enter upon this subject I shall first take notice of the sender of Him which our Lord says was Himself I will send him unto you Christ had before told his Disciples That He would pray the Father that He would send them another Comforter Joh. 14. 16. v. 26. That the Father would send Him in his Name But chap. 15. 26. as here in the Text He takes it upon Himself to send him I will send Him unto you from the Father And both with Truth For the Father and the Son sent and had an equal share in sending Him He is therefore called The Spirit of the Father Mat. 10. 20. and The Spirit of the Son Gal. 4. 6. For he proceedeth from both From the Father 't is said expresly Joh. 15. 26. and from the Son if not in express terms yet virtually imply'd in that He is said to be the Spirit of Christ as well as of the Father and must therefore come from Him because sent from Him too The only difference being this That the Holy Ghost is sent by the Father as from Him who hath by the Original Communication a right of Mission which denotes only distinction of Order The Father being as the Spring the Son as the Fountain and the Holy Ghost as the Stream flowing from both From whence we may collect two Things 1. That the Holy Ghost is a real distinct Person from the Father and the Son in as much as He is sent by them For how can He be the same with them that send Him If he proceed from the Father he must be distinct in subsistence and if his Coming depended on the Son 's going away and sending Him after he was gone He cannot be the Son who therefore departed that He might send Him 2. It follows hence That the Holy Ghost is equal to the Father and the Son For whatsoever proceedeth from God must be God whatsoever partakes of his Essence must be equal with Him And surely if the Son have the same right of Mission with the Father as we learn from the Text he must be acknowledged to have the same Essence with him too And had not the Holy Ghost been Equal with the Son as with the Father how could He have supplied his Place Or what Expediency could there have been in the Holy Spirit 's coming when being less than Christ he could have never been able to doe as much as Christ did and so the exchange must needs have been to the Apostle's loss and not as Christ himself had told them it should prove to their benefit and advantage St. Augustine's Prayer then was not impertinent Domine da mihi alium Te alioqui non dimittam Te Give me Lord another as good as thy self or I will never leave Thee nor ever consent that Thou shouldst leave me Nor is it any diminution to the Deity of the Holy Ghost that He is said here to be sent by the Son These Expressions To be sent or To come and the like being not Expressions of disparagement For He was so sent as to come too and to come of his own accord His coming being free and voluntary He came in no servile manner but as a Lord as a friend from a friend in a Letter the very Mind of him that sent it which shews an agreement indeed and concord with Him that sent him but implies no Inferiority nor any the least degree of Subjection 'T is the Spirits honour to be sent to be a Leader and though sent He be yet is He as free an Agent as He that sent him Tertullian calls Him Christi Vicarium Christ's Vicar on Earth But if that argued any inequality in the Spirit it might as well in the Son too who is styled in Scripture the Angel and Messenger of God and is said to go about his Father's business that sent Him But to leave this Argument as more proper to convince a Macedonian Heretick than needfull for any true Believer I shall proceed to the third Thing namely The time when the Holy Ghost was to be sent and that was after our Lord's departure If I depart I will send him unto you But what necessity was there may some say of Christ's departing in order to the Spirit 's Coming Might He not have tarried here and the Spirit have come for all that Was the stay of the one any lett or hinderance to the coming of the other Or might not Christ have sent for as well as go away himself to send him To this I say 1. That it was decreed from all Eternity That God the Father should draw us to his Son Joh. 6. 44. 2dly That God the Son should instruct us chap. 17. 6 8. And 3dly That God the Holy Ghost should assist and establish us in all Truth And so the whole Work of our Redemption should be ascribed to the Father as electing To the Son as consummating and to the Holy Ghost as applying it God the Father had done his part God the Son was at this instant doing his too It remained only that the Comforter should come to perfect both which could not be till the Son had performed his Task here on Earth and should go away to Heaven For the Acts of the Holy Ghost pre-suppose those of a Redeemer 'T is the part of that Blessed Spirit to inflame our Souls with the Love of God but in order to this effect 't is absolutely necessary that the Redeemer should first appease God Our first Parent was not able to endure the terror of the voice of his provoked Majesty but was forc'd to hide his head And what is each Sinner but as Flax before the consuming fire of his Justice Till our Redeemer then had disarm'd that Justice till he had made men's Peace and Reconciliation the Holy Ghost could not excite any motions of Love in them
besides that the use of Vertue should be very mean if it should no otherwise make us happy than beasts are who contenting themselves with what merely sufficeth nature are more vigorous and some of them longer liv'd than men It may be questionable whether a dry Platonical Idea of a Vertue perishing with our selves or a bare moral complacency in it might in the balance of reason weigh down those other more sensual delights which gratifie our lower faculties or a severe and morose Vertue have charms in it equal to all those various pleasures which sooth and flatter our appetites much more whether a calamitous one such as that of a Christian usually is a vertue still under a cloud and ever as it were on the rack persecuted hated and afflicted here and never to be considered hereafter Far be it from me to decry moral Vertue which even Heathens have granted to be a reward to it self but surely in the supposed case of annihilation very short of a full and complete one and to cry it up as some doe to the weakning of our belief and hope of the Immortality of the Soul however at first blush it may seem plausible is in effect no better than a subtle invention to ruine Vertue by it self since it cannot possibly subsist but by the belief and support of another life For setting this aside what would Vertue be but a bare Notion what but a gaudy rattle to still and please Children but of little force to persuade men to quit a present sensible delight for a bare Philosophical though never so taking Speculation Vertue may carry a big Title she may appear the fairest thing of the world and be the least usefull while men expect no other advantage of their good actions but the content of having done them 'T is what she brings charms us more than her self her beauty would have no attractive had she no dowry she would soon be laid aside as the most unprofitable thing of the Earth did she not give us assurance of some better reward hereafter than what she now bestows The joys vertuous actions afford do so far affect us as they are an earnest of greater and those satisfactions which spring from good deeds are so far to be prized as they promise and entitle us to higher ones If we are pleased in doing good here 't is that we may hereafter find it and if we sow in grace 't is because we hope one day to reap in glory Vertue without Immortality can never content us and our longings after that are strong arguments of it when we wish we prove it and that we may attain it 't is evident because we so passionately desire it O quà m vilis contempta res est homo nisi supra humana se erexerit says the Moralist That man is not so much as a man that is not a great deal more than so that raises not himself above himself that looks not beyond his threescore and ten years nor above the ground he treads on The vilest worm were happier than he if his hopes were laid up where his body shall be He has a Heaven in prospect and the expected joys of that quite swallow up his miseries on Earth Now indeed is the time of his sowing but not of his harvest His work is here but not his wages His good Master that employs shall one day fully pay him who gives him some of that pay in hand but bids him look for more and that blessed hope bears him up against all the discouragements of this life sweetens his afflictions here and makes him happy in his very unhappiness while he comfortably expects to be more happy than he can now fansie himself ever to be because he is fully persuaded that there is another far better and more glorious life in reversion which brings in the third and last Observation III. That there is another Life remaining the Expectation whereof makes a Christian of all other men most happy both here and hereafter This I am not now to prove to Christians because it is a truth to be supposed by them as it is in this Text by St. Paul Christ has sufficiently demonstrated it by his rising from the dead and the force of our Apostle's argument here would be quite lost if we should in the least doubt of it And to speak clearly This grand Article of the Christian Faith The Resurrection is a Truth to be taken for granted by all good Christians Infidels may deny it Atheists may wish it were not but all good Christians must confess and hope it They have little reason to question that which 't is their highest interest should be All their designs are laid in it and their hopes built upon it If they be content to suffer here 't is in hope to reign hereafter If with Christ they be willing to endure the cross and the shame of this life 't is for the joy that is set before them in the next A joy which throughly apprehended cheers them up in their greatest dumps enlightens their very dungeons turns their prisons into Palaces their Hell into a Heaven their torments into delights and their beds of hot burning coals into those of down It makes their afflictions infinitely more pleasant than the Epicures most exquisite pleasures can be A joy before which sorrow can no more stand than a mist before the Sun that presently chases away that evil Spirit of Melancholy which seizes the happy Worldling in the midst of all his jollities damps his spirits makes his chaplets of Roses wither on his head and is that stinking fly which spoils his most fragrant ointment as oft as he shall seriously consider that he must one day become a part of his own lands lye down for ever in the dust and his honour with him which yet is the best he can expect For such a one can no otherwise look upon Death than as a Serjeant to arrest him whereas to the good Christian 't is but a Messenger of joyfull tydings to tell him that his corruption must put on incorruption This is his hope and 't is founded in Christ's Resurrection who ever since he tasted death for us hath sweetned that bitter Cup so bitter before that time that St. Paul assures us That through fear of death men were all their life-time subject to bondage For it made their pleasures less delightfull their vertues more harsh and tedious and all their afflictions most insupportable Whereas now they are so far from being insupportable that they are most easie to us who know that being light and but for a moment they work for us a far more exceeding eternal weight of glory How sad and deplorable then must their condition be who are without this hope and without God in the world as the Apostle describes Heathens to be and yet how many Christians content themselves with no better whose thoughts are bounded with the same objects
the work of Man's Redemption which could not have been perform'd but in such a Body as his own nor could the Seed of the Woman be said to bruise the Serpent's head had not Christ been conceived of that Seed nor the Promise renew'd to Abraham Gen. 22. 18. In thy seed shall all the Nations of the Earth be blessed have been made good had not the Mother of our Lord descended from his loins too And surely well may she be call'd Blessed without whom we could never have been so since 't was she that furnish'd those Materials that repair'd our ruines from whose Bloud also flow'd that most pretious One which alone can cleanse and redeem us Our Mother Eve could brag when she had brought forth her first-begotten and he but an untoward Child for St. John tells us he was of that wicked one the Devil 1 John 3. 12. as all other Reprobates are there said to be vers 10. I have gotten a Man from the Lord Gen. 4. 1. i. e. as some interpret the words That famous Man the Lord fancying Cain to be that Seed of the Woman that should bruise the Serpent's head But how truly may each of us now say Possedi Deum per Virginem I have gotten the Lord my Redeemer by the means of a pure Virgin of whom my Saviour was made Man that I might be made the Son of God How much better may the Virgin Mary deserve the name of the Mother of all the Living than Eve did Gen. 3. 20. who at best convey'd unto us but a Natural whereas the former a Spiritual life in giving us Him who is the Life so far was Eve from being Mater Viventium in this sense that she brought forth all her Posterity still-born into the World dead in trespasses and sins She indeed hearkned to the Suggestions of an evil Spirit but the Holy Virgin to the Message of a good one If she were the Mother of the Living then this of the Predestinate and if by the former Satan bruised our heel by this Anti-Eve we crush his head being instated in a better condition than we had forfeited Now if they who were the first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Benefactors to Mankind were thought worthy of divine Honours the first occasion of Idolatry there being nothing that renders a person more like God than to doe good especially to oblige all Manking nothing that could raise such Persons so high in the Esteem of Mortals as such a large and comprehensive Goodness surely none came so near the Almighty in this so divine a quality as the Holy Virgin did by whose means not only the Inhabitants of the Earth but in some sort too those of Heaven became certainly and immutably Blessed confirm'd in such a state of happiness by her Son as they are uncapable of losing And therefore well might the Angel pronounce her Blessed who with the rest of his Order were so much obliged by her And surely all generations of Men much more who in part owe unto her their recovery and those hopes they have of being one day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 alike Blessed with them and if St. Paul was Blessed in being a chosen Vessel to bear Christ's name then the Holy Virgin much more by conveying a humane Nature to him who alone makes us partakers of the divine one All these advantages had the Mother of God glorious indeed but not the chiefest part of her happiness nor was she to value her self for her relation purely considered in its self Yea rather Blessed are they says our Lord who hear the Word of God and keep it Whereby it appears how little he set by any carnal propinquity and how much nearer and dearer to him the Righteous are than his own bloud not that he did in the least despise his Parents for his own Example preaches Subjection to them Luke 2. 51. but only preferr Spiritual kindred to Carnal as he often does letting us know That to doe the will of his Father which is in Heaven is to be his Brother Sister and Mother Matth. 12. 50. That true Christian Heraldry is founded in Grace and not in Bloud That to be joined unto him in one Spirit is a closer Union than to be united to him in the flesh and to be obedient to his Commands far more advantageous than to relate to his Person Nay so little would our Lord have us too to prize such outward things as these that unless in some cases we hate Father and Mother Wife and Children Brethren and our selves too he plainly tells us we cannot be his Disciples Luke 14. 26. And for this reason Moses blessed Levi Deut. 33. 9. Who said unto his Father and to his Mother I have not seen him neither did he acknowledge his Brethren nor knew his own Children but observed God's Word and kept his Covenant This is certain that all outward favours and privileges how pompous soever in themselves are wholly insignificant and ineffectual without the grace of Obedience being at best but gratioe gratis datoe non gratum facientes rather ornaments than benefits which as we are not thanklesly to over-slip so neither presumptuously to over-ween See how little account St. Paul makes of them 2 Cor. 5. 16. Though we have known Christ after the flesh have familiarly convers'd with him been eye-witnesses of all those glorious things he did as his Apostles yet now henceforth know we him no more we disclaim all such carnal acquaintance and if we should know Christ no better he would not know us nor own us for his we might be nearly related to him and yet be far enough from him and without him for so 't is expresly recorded of some of his Brethren that they did not believe in him Joh. 7. 5. So far were they from looking upon him as their Saviour that they took him for no better than a mad-man one besides himself Mark 3. 21. though in process of time some of them indeed became his disciples and no doubt of Christ's Genealogy not a few were eternally lost The Jews much prided themselves in being Abraham's sons and yet one of them that calls himself so fryes in Hell What did it avail Saul to be a Prophet or Judas an Apostle when such privileges serv'd them for no other purpose but to enhanse their damnation We reade not of any dignified with more glorious Prerogatives than these two the Blessed Virgin and St. John the Evangelist the one for bearing our Saviour in her Womb and the other for leaning on his Breast yet how little had these things benefited them had not Faith and Piety seasoned such outward privileges and made them as gracious as they were glorious Happier Mary for bearing Christ's Sayings in her Heart than Himself in her Womb in that she partook of the Merit than imparted the Matter and Substance of his bloud 'T was not so much the loveliness of her Motherhood as the lowliness of her Handmaidship that He regarded
that pull'd out by thy powerfull Redeemer how can it now hurt thee It may possibly hiss at but it cannot bite thee Look upon the Serpent lifted up for thee on the Cross and this Serpent's sting if it has any to wound it can have none to kill thee If thy Saviour has not quite destroy'd this thine enemy at least he has brought it under and made it subject like the Gibeonites if not banished 't is enslaved and made now instrumental to Christ's Kingdom Loose thou then the bands of thine iniquity and those of death which Christ has broken shall no more be able to hold thee than they could doe him Death in its most affrighting shapes to thee is but a scare-crow 't is but the shadow of death while God is with thee Nay 't is but an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a going out a departing in peace to a Holy Simeon 'T was no more between God and Moses but go up and dye as 't was said to another Prophet up and eat Ever since our Lord has swallow'd death up in victory our Tombs become Death's Graves more than ours Sepulchrum non jam mortuum sed mortem devorat says a Father Our Bodies are not lost in the Earth but laid up to be improved like Porcellane-dishes which the ground does not consume but refine In the Transfiguration that body of Moses which was hid in the valley of Moab appeared glorious in the Mount of Tabor And though we appear now like Aaron's dry rod yet that dry rod shall at last bud and bring forth fruit unto glory The Israelites garments indeed in the Wilderness waxed not worse for wearing but though our Bodies which are the garments of our Souls doe so and are rent and torn by afflictions and death yet God can and will mend them Nay when these Temples of the Holy Ghost we carry about us are dissolved he will so build them up that as it was said of the first and second Jewish Temples Haggai 2. 9. the glory of our latter houses shall be greater than that of the former Diruta stante Major Troja fuit God will bless us as he did Job more at our latter end than at our beginning and Exalt us as he did Christ by our Sufferings If with him we drink of the brook in the way tast of his Cup he will lift up our heads too We shall be like him as now He is A golden Head and Members of Clay suit not well together This is our great comfort that Christ is risen for if the Head be above water the Body is safe Joseph is alive said Jacob and that news revived the drooping Patriarch So when we hear that Christ our elder Brother the first-begotten from the dead is alive too let us take courage go and find him out seek him not in the Grave He is not there he is risen and why should we seek the living among the dead but in Heaven where he now is and set our affections on things above and not on things below It befits us not to lye in our Beds of ease and pleasure to lye sleeping there when Christ is up such a spiritual Lethargy does not suit with a Resurrection How are we conformable to Him if when He is risen up we remain still in the Grave of our Corruptions How are we Limbs of his Body if while He hath perfect dominion over death death hath dominion over us if while he is alive and glorious we lye rotting in the dust of death O let us then rouse our selves up this day with the Lion of the Tribe of Judah Let this be our Resurrection-day too and that it may be so let it be our Passion-day also as it is our Lord's For as he rose this day for us so does he now this day dye for us too And although St. Paul tells us Rom. 6. 9. That Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more and that death hath no more dominion over him or to speak in the Language of the Text that he be not holden of it yet in regard of the constant vertue and benefit of his Death and Passion he may be said to dye daily for us who receive him worthily in the Blessed Sacrament Let me then bespeak you in the words of St. Thomas utter'd upon another occasion Joh. 11. 16. Let us also go and dye with him Dye with him unto sin that we may live unto God through him Rom. 6. 9 10. Let us feed on him by Faith flock like true Eagles to his Holy Carcass and eat thereof that we may live This is the way to be raised to glory Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my bloud hath Eternal life is even now in possession of it and I will raise him up at the last day says Christ himself Joh. 6. 54. The very touch of the Prophet Elias's bones Ecclesiasticus 48. 5. could raise up a dead Man to a Temporal and shall not the sense and application of Christ crucified be able to quicken us who are dead in trespasses and sins to a spiritual and immortal Life O let us then be planted with him in the likeness of his Death that we may be also in the likeness of his Resurrection Rom. 6. 5. Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus that great Shepherd of the Sheep through the bloud of the Everlasting Covenant make you perfect in every good work to doe his Will working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ To whom with the Father c. Amen Soli Deo gloria in aeternum A SERMON Preached on Whit-sunday JOHN XVI 7. Nevertheless I tell you the truth it is expedient for you that I go away for if I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you but if I depart I will send him unto you WE find the Disciples here in a very sad and disconsolate Condition Christ had told them that He was going his way to Him that sent Him V. 5. and thereupon Sorrow had filled their hearts V. 6. And no marvel for they were to be separated from one who hitherto had been their only comfort and support Had we been under the same circumstances we should no doubt have equally resented that loss They had had the happy advantage of beholding his glorious Miracles wrought by his All-powerfull Voice in the cure of Diseases in the confusion of Devils and the raising of the Dead They had heard those his ravishing Discourses which forc'd his most implacable Enemies in spight of all their prejudice against Him to confess That never Man spake as He did They had been Eye-witnesses of that Eminent Holiness that pure and unspotted Innocence which gave beauty and lustre to all his actions and of that glory too which discovered Him to be the only Son of God full of Grace and Truth And now unless we can suppose them void of all natural affection and
inconvenient for his Apostles that He should still have remained with them considering how carnally affected they were to him Nay very convenient it was for them that he should withdraw his Presence when they grew too fond of it as we see Mothers deal with their little Children in the like case We know nothing would satisfie them but Christ's Flesh and his fleshly Presence nothing but that still them And we know who said If thou hadst been here Lord As if absent he had not been as able to doe it by his Spirit as present by his Body We know also that St. Peter would have built him a Tabernacle to keep him still on Earth and ever and anon his Disciples were dreaming of an Earthly Kingdom and their chief Seats therein All their Thoughts and Fancies being gross and carnal 't was time to refine them They were not to be held as Children still but to grow to Men's estate to perfect age and strength If they had hitherto known Christ after the flesh 't was fit that henceforth they should thus know him no more And so 't is for all Christians too who so long as they should stand affected in like sort as the Apostles here were would no doubt run into the same error with them as to conceit they could not be without Christ's bodily Presence though the Spirit it self should supply it Surely 't is much better for us by faith to converse with Christ in Heaven than by sight to behold him on Earth Because thou hast seen thou believest says he to St. Thomas Blessed are they that have not seen and yet believe Joh. 20. 19. Better it is for us to look to those things that are not seen than to those that are seen The time will come when it shall be our chiefest happiness to see our Redeemer as Job says with these fleshly Eyes we carry about us But that we cannot now doe or if we could that very sight would but astonish and confound us The only Glass to behold him in here is his Gospel as the only place to find him in is Heaven Thither he is now gone from us and 't is well for us as it was for his Apostles that he is so and so hath left us to the guidance and conduct of his Spirit Nay I dare say farther that 't is expedient for us Christians that Christ should withdraw even his Spiritual Presence from us in some cases As 1. when we grow faint in seeking and careless in keeping him When with the Spouse in the Canticles we lye in bed and take him there When 2. we grow high conceited of our selves and say with David We shall never be moved Psal. 30. 7. But then may it not be said If Christ leave us if he withdraw his spiritual Presence from us shall we not then fall into Sin And can that be expedient for any one of us It is good that I have been in trouble for before I was troubled I went wrong says David Psal. 119. 67. But is it good for any of us to fall into Sin If I should say so I have St. Augustine's warrant for it Audeo dicere I dare affirm says that Father Expedit superbo ut incidat in peccatum It is not amiss sometimes for a proud Man to fall with David and Peter into some notorious Sin to fill his Face with shame and to teach him Humility That this Messenger of Satan should sometimes thus buffet him as he did St. Paul to keep him down for the Holy Ghost will not come to him till he find him in this posture He will come to none rest on none nor give grace to none but to the humble In all respects then we see how expedient it is that Christ should leave us that he should withdraw himself from us as he did from his Apostles that he should go away to prepare a place for us where we may be with him for ever and that we should prepare our selves too for that better place he hath prepared for us by withdrawing our Thoughts and Affections from that we now are in For if that fond affection the Apostles had for his corporal Presence was a hinderance to the Spirit 's coming to them much more will our impure earthly ones keep him off from us Nor ought we to be troubled but rather to rejoyce that Christ our forerunner is gone before to take possession of a heavenly place for us in his flesh or to imagine that we shall lose any thing by his absence as if his Spirit could not abundantly make up that loss or that with his bodily Presence he had withdrawn his love or care from us In the midst of his Glories he still minds us He is not only a compassionate High-Priest to pity but an Advocate to plead and an Intercessor still to mediate for us Amidst the Angelical Acclamations and Hallelujahs he not only hears our sighs and groans but joyns in the Consort and shares with us too in our Sufferings Nay it is now that he is most intimately present with us that he dwells in our hearts by faith and if thereby we hold him fast he will then never leave us at least never leave us comfortless no more than he did his Apostles but will send the Holy Ghost to comfort us as he did them for his promise of sending him was not so ty'd up to them as to exclude us but is general here to all the faithfull If I depart I will send him unto you And thus we see how expedient and necessary it was that our Lord should depart that his Holy Spirit might come to us That without his Ascension-day there had been no Pentecost for us and so we should have wanted our Comforter and all those inestimable Blessings He brings along with Him 1. For had He not come the work of our Salvation had been but half done 'T is true indeed that our Lord just as he breathed out his Soul on the Cross did pronounce a Consummatum est and if we consider the Work it self he compleated all he came to doe for us here below for he exactly performed the part of a Mediator by putting an end to all the Ceremonies of the Law which prefigured Him but in regard of us and making that his work ours all had not been finished without the Coming of the Holy Ghost For to speak after the manner of Men we know a Word though written a Deed is of no force till the Seal be added 't is that which makes it Authentical Christ is indeed the Word but the Holy Ghost is the Seal In whom ye are sealed unto the day of Redemption Ephes. 4. 30. 2. Nor is this all The Will of a Testator is of no force when sealed till Administration be granted Christ is the Mediator of the New Testament Heb. 9. 15. But the Administration is the Spirit 's 1 Cor. 12. 11. And without that the Testament is of no
quarrels and divisions For this gives all men an equal right to persecute as many as differ from them in Religion For by the same reason that I have a good opinion of my persuasion and call it true because I think it so Another who is as strongly convinc'd of the truth of his may justly and upon equal pretence doe the like It matters not where the truth or error lyes the mischief is still the same For so long as men continue in such a persuasion be it right or wrong they will be sure to act vigorously according to it And it is certain that they who use bad means to compass a good end against others doe arme them with the same power resolution and justice to employ the like when ever occasion serves against themselves And thus you see both the Impiety and the Mischief of pious but misguided Intentions which though not allowable in ordinary practice yet in cases extraordinary some think may be justify'd by that common Maxime That All great Actions have aliquid Iniqui something bad in them which publick advantage afterwards makes amends for How far this may go in State-policy I know not but I am sure it will not pass for good Divinity if our Saviour's word here may be taken or St. Paul's Rule be good Rom. 3. 8. That we must not doe evil that good may come of it Not any the least Moral Evil for the greatest either Temporal or Spiritual Good whatsoever Which Rule some finding too strict and severe for them and those designs they carry on as utterly inconsistent therewith usually plead the Examples of some holy Men in Scripture who having served God by strange violences of fact have for his glory laid hold on Instruments not fit to be used by a Christian As for example Jacob's telling a down-right lye to get his Father's blessing David's making use of Hushai as a spy Elias and Jehu's causing a sacrifice to be proclaimed to Baal with intent to destroy that Idol and its Worshippers and the like Instances of humane frailty which God was pleased to over-look and pardon in those that did them but never intended them as Patterns for us to imitate Many things have been done by good men in their heat which had God's approbation after they were done but not his Law to countenance the doing them and therefore can be no certain Rule for us to go by From what has hitherto been said we may now perceive what ill Commentators they are of those words of our Saviour Compell them to come in who put this sense upon them by threats and torments force them into the Church Than which Doctrine nothing certainly can be more unreasonable but the way of excusing it by a good meaning a fair pretence of advancing God's glory by any though never so bad means as if God would be served by taking in the Devil into his service Surely as the wrath of Man worketh not the righteousness of God so neither can any good end of his if carried on by bad instruments advance his glory He may make great allowances to the miscarriages of sincere but he will never doe it to the errors of such wicked Intentions as are besides his Commission yea and against his express Will and Command Now as this was the Jews and Heathens way so I could heartily wish that many Christians did not follow it The former to wit the Jews had still recourse to their Excommunications and both Jews and Gentiles fell to killing Christs servants out of equal Zeal and pious Intention no doubt The one for their Law and the other for their blind Superstition But neither of these two ways suit with true Christianity As for Excommunication which some Men are so apt immediately to fly to upon every trivial occasion they doe not well siconder what a dreadfull thing it is A forestalling of the great-day of Judgment It is the delivering up of a man to Satan a declaring him to be as a Heathen-man and a Publican one that has nothing to doe with the people of God but is to be cast out of their Church and Company Now as this is the last Remedy to reclaim Sinners by so is it but rarely to be made use of and but in cases extraordinary We do not find that our Lord Himself ever practised it nor any of his Apostles except St. Paul and he but in one Instance He bids us indeed Reject an Heretick after the first and second admonition Tit. 3. 10. Not presently anathematize much less kill him I would they were even cut off that trouble you says he Gal. 5. 12. It was but an I would I could wish it done And when himself did it it was but to one single person and that for an enormous crime Incest nor was it done at last but with much solemnity too by calling on the name of Christ 1 Cor. 5. 4. so seldom even scarce at all were these spiritual arms employed even by those who were Boanerges's Sons of thunder and surely knew best how to manage them And when they did it for the destruction of the flesh that is for the mortifying and destroying the old man for that only is meant there by flesh they did it for the saving of men's souls That their spirits might be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus v. 5. Excommunications are such edge-tools as will cut their hands who have not skill to manage them but seldom or never hurt or hit those at whom they are lanc'd at randome Is it not then strange that some men should think to approve their Christianity by ruining that of their Brethren or to secure themselves of Heaven by keeping others out of it Though with these men in the Text they should think it a service to God to kill men's bodies methinks they should not think it one to destroy their Souls How the Council of Trent can be excused in this particular I understand not For who-ever looks into the Canons of that Council will find That as there is scarce any one there without its Anathema so that most of them are either for such matters as cannot deserve so heavy a Censure or for such plain Scripture-truths as deserve none being some of them of Christ's own Institution Nor are these Church-weapons for the most part Bruta Fulmina They carry a fatal Train after them Deposition Absolving Subjects from their Oaths of Allegiance to their natural and lawful Sovereigns who are thereupon abandoned to whosoever shall think it fit to kill them follow close upon them These Thunder-claps are not without their Thunder-bolts which will be sure to doe Execution one way or other either on men's Souls or on their Bodies if not on both So that when once People are devoted to Hell all the mischiefs of the Earth immediately pursue them The Instance of this Day 's intended work is an evident demonstration of this Truth For he who was a main Instrument in the