Lustre upon the Solemnization of this present Day A Day which if any may most properly be said to be made by the Lord since it bears the liveliest Characters and Impresses of his Power and knowledge of his Wisdom and Goodness and of all those other glorious Attributes whereby we are assur'd that he governs the World For trace the Histories of ancient Times turn over all Authors both Sacred and Prophane and the Day of our Spiritual Redemption excepted produce me a Day like This so memorable in its Circumstances so glorious in its Issue and so unparallel'd in its Consummation Of all those Deliverances God in past Ages vouchsaf'd his Church methinks none ever amounted to the Wonder of this Day when I consider 1. The black and dismal nature of the Design which was this Day fram'd against us And 2. The Strangeness and Unexpectedness of our Deliverance from it 1. I say It will appear that of all those Deliverances God in past Ages vouchsaf'd his Church none ever amounted to the Wonder of this Day and consequently that this Day of all others may most properly be said to be made by the Lord if we consider the black and dismal nature of the Design which was this Day fram'd against us As the Heavens rejoyc'd and the Earth was glad to see the glory of the Lord in the uncorrupted Light of the Gospel after a long Night of Ignorance and Superstition arise in Brightness upon us so those restless Spirits who always bore Evil-will to our Zion as though they had received a second Downfall in their undiscerned Habitations vented themselves in nothing but Lamentations and Mournings and Woe They saw the unparallell'd Beauty of her Countenance which tho' long mask'd and clouded with the Veil of Widowhood did now at length break forth in such Splendour and Brightness that the Gentiles were coming to her Light and Kings to rejoyce in the Brightness of her Rising That therefore in this holy Mountain there was no Den for such Beasts of Prey but that they must either forego their beloved Dainties and peaceably lie down in the Pastures with the Lamb or for their own Security betake themselves to harder seeding in the barren Recesses of the Wilderness Wherefore impatient both of Restraint and Exile they incontinently breathed out our Destruction and to support and underprop their sinking Interest at sundry Times and in divers Manners endeavour'd to overturn the Foundations of our Felicity sometimes with the factious Son of Sheba they blow'd the Trumpet of Rebellion disclaim'd their Right in David and endeavoured by good Words and fair Speeches to perswade others also that they likewise had no Inheritance in the King Sometimes on the contrary by the terrible Assaults of Anathema's Curses and Excommunications they laboured to scare and fright us into a Compliance But when they found that notwithstanding all their Craft and Subtlety their Designs were still defeated and unravell'd and all their most cunningly contriv'd Enterprises dwindled into continual Disappointments that their ravenous woolfish Nature tho' never so close cover'd with Sheeps-cloathing was always discovered and that none therefore dar'd to come in to their Standard nor tho' led on by the Infallible Hero himself to enter the Field against the Lords Anointed so that neither their Armado's from Spain nor false Witnesses from St. Omers nor all those dreadful Thunderings and Lightnings from Rome could prevail any thing at all but that the Virgin the Daughter of Zion despis'd them and laugh'd them to scorn the Daughter of Jerusalem still shook her head at them as Men even encouraged by Disappointments and emboldned by Repulses they start anew and rather than be for ever frustrated are contented to devest themselves utterly of their Humanity and to embark into so barbarous so savage a Design as will make the ears of all Posterity to tingle Many Waters cannot quench their burning Rage neither can the Floods how deep soever drown their Fury but they resolve to tear in pieces the more excellent Prey and one way or other to take their Pastime in Rivers of Royal Blood Flectere fi nequeunt Superos Since Heaven and Earth Angels and Men are against them they descend into the Regions of Darkness and Obscurity as if they design'd to ask Counsel of the Powers of Darkness And indeed whoever accurately contemplates the nature of this cursed Design must needs acknowledge it to bear all the marks of a hellish diabolical Off-spring For where but in the dismal Regions of everlasting Malice and Cruelty could be hatch'd so barbarous so villainous a Conspiracy A Conspiracy so black and detestable so hideous in its Circumstances so fatal in its Consequences that 't is hardly possible to imagine that it could have been invented by Man unless what the Jews of old thought of their Daemoniacks they had really been converted into the Nature and Substance of fierce implacable destructive Daemons A Conspiracy which if it had taken effect would have utterly extinguish'd the Light of our Israel and overspread the Nation again with thick Darkness of Ignorance and Superstition which would have murdered the Lord 's Anointed and accomplish'd the savage Tyrants most execrable Wish at one Blow cutting off the Head even of three Kingdoms nay in a moment in the twinkling of an eye have entirely destroy'd both Root and Branch King and Parliment Prince and People Peers and Prelates Lords and Commons A Conspiracy that would have involv'd us all in Blood exposed our Wives and Children to the merciless Fury of our Enemies and enslav'd our Lives and Fortunes Souls and Bodies to the imperious and domineering Lords of monopolizing Rome Lastly A Conspiracy it was whose teeming Womb was ready to bring forth the ghastly Issue of Blood and Fire and pillars of smoak which would either have rendered our beautiful Cities a Wilderness or which is worse an Habitation of Dragons and made Jerusalem a Desolation Alas These unrighteous and cruel Men did not design only to shake off the Leaves or to lop off the Branches of this fruitful Vine but entirely to pluck her up by the Roots * Ps 137.7 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lay her wast and down with her even to the ground was all the Cry So that not only our Land would have mourn'd for the Loss of her Gracious Soveraign our Cities of their wise and prudent Governours our Countries of their vigilant and powerful Guardians which alone would have rendred us the Wonder and Astonishment of Men and Angels but which is yet worse if any thing can be worse our pure and undefil'd Religion had also been lost in the general Devastation Those insatiable flames which had devour'd her noble Patrons would likewise unmercifully have prey'd upon her drooping Vitals till they had rarisy'd her Substance into a mere empty Shadow and chang'd the Spirituality of her Worship into external cumbersome impertinent Ceremonies In short Whatever the very Quintessence and Elixir of all villainy and
all Duty and Obedience a Charter only of Libertinism and Licentiousness Provided a Man be orthodox in his Notions and sound in his Faith 't is no matter how he lives like an Angel or like a Devil so apt are Men to abjure their Reason in complement to their Senses and rather than forsake their darling Vices to shelter them under the Patronage even of the immaculate Jesus But if we look upon Christianity as our Great Master himself is pleas'd to hold the Perspective as he is all Fair 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psal 50.2 the Perfection of Beauty and the Holy One of Israel so would his Institution appear to be a most fair and amiable Copy of his Eternal Beauty and Holiness It commands us not to rest in a fruitless barren and dead Faith but to evidence its Life and Reality by our Works That we walk worthy of the Vocation wherewith we are called turning from these Idols of our own Brains these vain fantastick Ideas of our carnal Imaginations to serve truly and painfully the Living God That we trifle not away our precious hours in Idleness and Impertinence but work out our Salvation with all that Care and Solicitude a matter of such moment requires even with Fear and Trembling It endeavour◠by all the endearing Methods of everlasting Love and Kindness to allure and charm us into the Practice of all Vertues beseeching us even by the Mercies of God all those ineffable Appearances of Goodness which take up the Wonder the Praises and the Adorations of the Sons of God in Glory that we think no Sacrifices worthy of our Maker but such as are offer'd in the purest Fires the most ardent and brightest Flames of Seraphick Love That the Redeem'd of the Lord declare not his Glory in such feeble Sounds and Voices as are the faint Echoes of a distant Valley but that they clap their hands together with Joy and Chearfulness and sing Praises to him lustily and with a good Courage That our Souls with all their Powers and Faculties magnifie and set forth the admirable Greatness of the Lord and our Minds also or Spirits rejoyce with Joy unspeakable in God their Saviour In a word That we do not the Work of the Lord negligently nor be remiss and slothful in the great Business of our Souls but always fervent in Spirit vigorously industrious to improve all those Talents all those golden Opportunities God intrusts us with to our greatest Advantage with our utmost Diligence serving the Lord. Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do do it with thy might The Reasonableness of which Exhortation I shall briefly represent to you from these following Considerations I. From the Nature of God II. From the Nature of our own Souls III. From the transcendent and inestimable Value of the Rewards that attend us And IV. From the exceeding Brevity or Shortness of the time we are allow'd to work in 1. From the Nature of God Was God indeed such a one as the Epicureans fansi'd him to be a Being taken up with the Fruition and Contemplation of his own Blessedness and that would never vouchsafe to respect the humble Addresses and Supplications of his most faithful Servants we should have no great reason to wonder at that Coldness and Indifferency that lukewarm and careless Behaviour which appears so visibly in our Religious Performances Nay I could willingly conclude with the Wise * Senec. de Benef. lib. 4. cap. 4. Heathen that nothing but pure Madness could induce Mankind to bestow any Worship at all upon such a Being who as though he was deaf as Baal and helpless as Dagon after all their Wrestlings and Importunities would neither hear them nor help them But alas we have no such Pretence or Subterfuge for our Impiety The God whom we serve is indeed that Blessedness and Eternal Being that rests upon his own Center without the Assistance of any External Object enjoying infinite Delight and Complacency from the solitary Contemplation of his own Essential Perfections He dwells in the high and lofty Place encircled with such transcendent Rays of Light that the brightest Seraphim veil their Faces and at an awful distance adore his inaccessible Glory Yet do Mercy and Goodness so essentially sit enthron'd with his glorious Majesty that even he who thus inhabits Eternity humbleth himself to behold the things that are done both in Heaven and Earth The Lord looketh down from Heaven says the * Psal 33.13 Psalmist and beholds all the Children of Men from the habitation of his Dwelling he considereth all them that dwell upon the Earth And the Philosophick Orator without the help of Revelation Sit persuasum civibus says he and so on i. e. Let all the Citizens assuredly know that God takes particular notice what manner of Persons we are with what Mind and Devotion we perform the Acts of our Religious Worship and that he will deal with every man according to his Works He is not a petty Prince 1 King 20.13 28. as the Syrians profanely imagin'd whose Knowledge and Soveraignty are confin'd only to a particular Province but the Lord most High is terrible he is a great King over all the Earth Not only the shining Inhabitants of the Courts above the innumerable and invincible Legions of Glorious Angels but the inferiour Troops likewise of natural Causes serve under his Banner and duly execute his Commands He maketh the Spirits or Winds his Messengers and the flaming Fires his Agents or Ministers The Clouds at his Command drop Fatness upon the Hills and Mountains and the Valleys likewise by his Blessing stand in their Season so thick with Corn that they laugh and sing Yea the most casual and seemingly fortuitous Actions are order'd by his Wisdom and the Sun sees nothing in all his Course so little and inconsiderable but what falls under his Care and Providence He feeds the young Ravens that call upon him and the Lions roaring after their prey do seek and receive their Meat from God By him do the Rose in Sharon and the Lily of the Valleys on play their fragrant Beauties and the airy Choiristers securely sit upon the Boughs and sing not one of them falling to the ground without our heavenly Father Yea the very Hairs of our Head says our Lord are all numbred In short no Space no Place exludes his Presence He penetrates into the Center of our Spirits enters the secret Chambers the closest Recesses and Retirements of our Hearts yea and discovers all our most secret Thoughts and Imaginations long before we our selves do even before they are He is about our Paths and about our Beds and spies out all our ways Now then considering the Nature of God how ought our Souls think ye to be employ'd in his Worship and Service Is this God whose Majesty fills Heaven and Earth to be approach'd with flat and tepid Devotions Is he fond of trifling impertinent Ceremonies or to be pleas'd with Lip-Devotion and complemental Addresses
various and phantastick Spirits of Error and Delusion Were Men once well grounded in the Principles of their Religion and able to give a Reason for their profession of the Faith did they not take up their Religion upon Trust and like the Turks and Pagans only therefore embrace it because consonant to the Belief and Practice of their Progenitors they would be wonderfully delighted in the Statutes of the Lord and walk without Offence in the Path of his Commandments The multifarious Contrivances of the Enemy and the Deceiver would be easily detected and unravell'd by their Reason which assisted by the unerring Records of Divine Revelation would break through all the Fogs and Vapours of Deceit with the Strength and Brightness of the faithful Witness in Heaven But when the Mind lies uncultivated and devoid of true Principles and is not fram'd into a Right Understanding and Judgment of Divine Things when Men cannot rationally account for any and therefore are indifferently inclin'd to all the ways of Worship the Tempter will soon appear in the beautiful Form of an Angel of Light and under that disguise unhappily decoy them into the endless Mazes and Labyrinths of Error The Shadow of Religion to their unskilful Judgments will soon be effectually recommended for the Substance and the External fallacious superficial Signs be mistaken for the Interiour and Real Acts of Devotion A judicious safe well-grounded Piety will be renounc'd for the wild irrational Dictates of Melancholy and Enthusiasm and one phantastical senseless unintelligible Interpreter of the Divine Oracles be preferr'd before ten Men that can render a Reason In a word They 'll be induc'd either totally to reject the Word of God for their own pretended Inspirations the undefiled Law of the Most High for the soul impure Suggestions of their ungodly Spirits or at least to mingle with the Waters of Life the putrid Streams that flow from their own Cisterns This I need not prove from the Records of Antiquity our own Nation being a sad Demonstration of it at this day For how are some of our Brethren tho' they enjoy the most blessed Opportunities of a right Information tost to and fro like foolish Children with every Wind of strange Doctrine How are they led away by every Impostor from the simplicity of the Gospel and spoil'd and plunder'd of their Christian Armour by the false Prophets that are gone out into the World Alas were it not for the decent and orderly the wise and prudent the beautiful and heavenly Constitution of our Establish'd Church This Land which was not long since the Glory of all Lands would really be nothing else but a Spiritual Bedlam all the various kinds of Spiritual Phrenzy and Madness having entred into it and uncomfortably filling its mournful Habitations with their outragious Blasphemies and unintelligible Jargon No Notion so absurd and ridiculous no Doctrine so monstrous and paradoxical no Principles so wicked and atheistical but what find some dreaming Prophet amongst us to espouse and assert them and that Dreamer tho' he has neither Piety nor Learning nothing but the loathsome detestable Vernish of Hypocrisie and Dissimulation to distinguish him from his Neighbours has notwithstanding his Followers Abetters and Admirers Mens indifferency in the Affairs of Religion unfortunately leads them to those unlawful Assemblies where their unstable and treacherous Hearts are easily taken captive by the Spirit of Delusion so that under the pretence of trying all things they really let go all that is good from Neuters or indifferent and lukewarm Friends commencing virulent irreconcilable Enemies to the Preachers of sound Doctrine To such Delusions and Inpostures I say are Men unhappily exposed by their unaccountable Indifferency in the Affairs of Religion But alas this is not all For 3. This indifferent Temper not only exposeth particular Persons to the various and phantastick Spirits of Error and Delusion but the whole Community likewise to Ruin and Destruction A Kingdom divided against it self says our * Mar. 3.24 Lord cannot stand and by these means this Nation stands divided into several Factions and Parties who with all imaginable Rancor and Bitterness endeavour to devour and prey upon one another Our Enemies then may save themselves the danger of venturing their Necks among us Let them have but Patience and we shall do their work for them What their Plots and Cabals their Fire and Faggots their Gun-powder and Treason could never effect our Enmities and Divisions our Fewds and Animosities our Strises and Seditions will certainly bring to pass These disunite and weaken our Forces in the day of Battel These divide our Councils and evacuate the wise Sanctions and Decrees of our Synods These pull down our Fortresses our Walls and Bulwarks and expose us naked and defenceless to the Incursions of the Common Enemy Tho' therefore we never so solemnly protest against the Innovations of Popery and zealously declare our Abhorrence and Detestation of its impious Doctrines unless we endeavour by all lawful and warrantable means to cement these Differences we our selves are the Men who maintain its Interest here and make way for its unhappy Re-admission into the Land May the Good Lord of Heaven and Earth then open all our Eyes and cause us to know the Things which belong unto our Peace before our Sins provoke him to hide them finally from our Eyes And thus you have seen how much this indifferent Temper falls short of the Character some Men unskilfully put upon it That 't is so far from being ally'd to that truly excellent and laudable Vertue Moderation that 't is a very indecent and unreasonable thing odious and abominable in the sight of God and Good Men most impious in its Nature and pernicious in its Consequences That it plainly demonstrates that Men are acted by no fix'd and steddy Principles but are of vagrant and loose Minds unresolv'd in their Judgments unsetled in the Faith and in truth of very little or no Religion at all That it not only exposeth particular Persons to the various and phantastick Spirits of Error and Delusion but the whole Community likewise to Ruin and Destruction Let me then intreat you my Brethren for the Credit and Reputation of our Common Christianity for the Honour of our most Beautiful Prudent and Pious Mother the Church of England for the Preservation Safety and Happiness of these Kingdoms as you love your God your Religion your Country your own Souls to be stedfast and immovable in the Profession of the Faith not walking deceitfully and in Masquerade as you see the manner of some is nor basely prostituting your Consciences by an hypocritical prevaricating Behaviour to your Secular Interest but in spight of all the Terrors and Allurements of the World serving God with a faithful and true heart with Uprightness and Sincerity all the days of your Life And to this End give me leave to advise these few things 1. That you call no Man Master upon Earth i. e. That you never
have any Man's Learning or Piety in such Veneration as to receive all he says for an Oracle for an infallible Rule of your Faith and Manners but that you always remember that you have a great Master in Heaven who has given you a sure and certain Rule to walk by and who expects your Obedience without any Reserve This Caution was given by our Lord himself to his Disciples Mat. 23. and it truly favours of the excellent Wisdom and Providence of its Author For the Proselites of the Pharisees were possest with such a Perswasion of the great Sanctity and unparallell'd Learning of their Masters that they entirely resign'd themselves up to their Conduct and Guidance becoming thereby both in Notion and Practice twofold more the Children of Hell than themselves and those famous Contests between the Thomists and Scotists and other Disputants in the Church of Rome are wholly to be ascrib'd to the over-weening Opinion which they all pertinaciously retain for their own Patriarchs Nay the First Sin that crept into the World came this way for I conceive with a great and learned * Joseph Mede Book 1. Disc xl Author of our own that 't was the too great Opinion which the Woman entertain'd of the Wisdom of the Serpent that induc'd her first to listen to and then to comply with his Suggestions and I doubt not but that the Apostate Spirits themselves might still have kept their Heavenly Habitations had not their deluded Fancies doubled the Glory of that Son of the Morning Lucifer In short †Vid. Hen. Dodwell Ep. 2. Sect. 5. Steph. Penton Appar Spec. ad Theol. par 1. cap. 6. 'T is the superstitious Reverence and unaccountable Honour which the Schoolmen pay to Authority that betrays them into many unhappy Errors as well in their Theological as Philosophical Speculations Honour Men then only as Men. Whatever their Natural or Acquir'd Excellencies may be they are all subject to Error Try all their Doctrines therefore whether they be of God and believe nothing tho' enforced with the greatest Human Authority unless upon due Examination you find it consonant to Scripture and Reason And so I come to the 2. Thing advisable which is That you would try all Things and not take up your Religion upon Trust upon the Authority and Recommendation of your Natural Civil or Spiritual Fathers but that you would let it be what it ought to be a Rational Service the Result of your own mature impartial and well-weigh'd Considerations And what in this I say unto you I would say more particularly to our Dissenting Brethren They are equally guilty with the Romanists in this Point depending too securely upon the Authority and acquiescing in the Reports and Representations of their Leaders I would therefore I say most earnestly intreat them as they will answer it at the Dreadful Day of Judgment when every Man must stand or fall by his own Conscience to judge for themselves and fairly and ingenuously severely and impartially to weigh and consider the Doctrine and Discipline the Principles and Order of our Establish'd Church Could we thus far prevail I am verily parsuaded that those Heats and Passions which now so tumultuously boil in some Mens Bowels against her would all evaporate and expire and we should soon walk together into the House of God as Friends Which I therefore believe because 't is well known that many of her Adversaries have been perfectly reconcil'd to her upon lesser Motives only by venturing to consult their own Senses and calmly and sedately to look into her Devotions The Church did then to their unbiass'd Judgments most clearly unfold her ravishing Beauty and Brightness and their wondring Eyes saw and confess'd her Parts and comely Proportions She appear'd fair as Tirzah comely as Jerusalem and quite contrary to their Expectations terrible to Enthusiasm and Popery too as an Army with Banners I would therefore I say again most earnestly intreat these Persons to lay aside their Prejudices and with their own Eyes seriously to look into and examine her Constitution If she injoyns any thing that 's inconsistent with any Law of Reason any Law or Rule of the Gospel any Article of our Faith any part of Christian Worship or the Practice of the Universal Church in the First and Purest Ages Reason would that we should bear with their Separation But if her Doctrine be truly consonant to the Word of God If her Discipline serves directly to the Beating down the Strong-holds of Sin and to the Promotion of Piety and a Good Life If her Devotions are substantially pious and prudent serious and comprehensive significant and intelligible and Every way most wisely and divinely compos'd If her Ceremonies are not only few in Number but likewise decent grave significant and edifying in their Nature and Use In a word If she does all things according to the Apostolical Injunction Decently and in order after the Primitive Patterns according to the best measures of Human Wisdom If I say she does all this and all this 't will be demonstratively evident to every impartial Enquirer that she does then I cannot but affirm that their Separation from us in point of Conscience is altogether unwarrantable impious schismatical But because they are taught to be deaf to our Apologies and with an unmanly blind implicit Faith to believe us Apostates to Popery and Innovation I would I say most earnestly beseech them to use their own Senses and to read to think and to judge at last for themselves That they would not pass Sentence upon us before they know us nor judge of the Doctrine or Discipline of our Church by the Prejudices of their Education or the disingenuous illaudable Reports of their Partial Leaders but wholly and entirely by the word of God the sure infallible Rule of the Holy-Scriptures A Method which in the next place I likewise most heartily advise you to 3. Then Read the Scriptures This is the Duty of Every Christian requir'd and injoyn'd by the Saviour of our Souls the Lord Christ Jesus Search the Scriptures says * Joh. 5.39 he for in them ye have Eternal Life and they are they which testifie of me And indeed 't was by these that our Lord himself repell'd the impudent Assaults and crafty Insinuations of the Devil that his Apostles both planted and water'd his Church and that the pious Fathers and Councils baffled the Heresies and put to Silence the Ignorance of foolish Men. Let as many of us therefore as can distinguish between Good and Evil Young Men and Maidens Old Men and even Children be conversant in these Writings They are that Rule which if duly attended to will not suffer us to err being not like the Oracles of Daemons wrapt up in intricate obscure ambiguous Expressions but plain and easie to the meanest Understanding Plain and Easie I say in all things necessary to Salvation the Credenda as well as the Agenda of our Religion the things
delegate Employment in some great Mutation of States and many Probabilities have been observ'd by wise Personages says the Excellent Bishop ††Great Exemplar pag. 100. Taylor perswading that the Grandeur of the Roman Empire was in the Degrees of Increment and Decrement permitted to the Power and Managing of the Devil that the Greatness of that Government being in all Appearance full of Advantage to Satan's Kingdom and employ'd for the Disimprovement of the weak Beginnings and improbable Increase of Christianity might give Lustre and Demonstration to it that it came from God since the great Permissions of Power made to the Devil and acted with all Art and Malice in Defiance of the Religion could produce no other effect upon it but that it made it grow greater and the Greatness was made more miraculous since the Devil when his Chain was off fain would but could not suppress it But perhaps it may be here objected That tho' we must confess that before the Mysterious Incarnation of the Son of God the Devil had such vast Dominions in the World that he seem'd actually to have possess'd what God promis'd to his Son even the Heathen for his Inheritance and the uttermost Parts of the Earth for his Possession yet since the Triumphant Ascension of our Blessed Saviour we cannot suppose without Contradiction to Sacred Writ that he now retains any at all since both * Joh. 12.31 Christ himself assures us that he hath cast him out and St. †Pet. 2.4 Peter expresly declares that they are cast down to Hell and deliver'd into Chains of Darkness to be reserv'd unto Judgment To this we answer Those bright Sons of the Morning which grew vertiginous through the Sublimity of Happiness and are most deservedly charg'd with Folly for leaving their own Habitations are indeed bound over to Eternal Pains and lie at present in a dark miserable and wretched Condition Where-ever they be they carry Hell in their Breasts and read in their Consciences the large Characters of Divine Vengeance consigning them over to Everlasting Woe and Misery But Yet we must needs acknowledge that 't is abundantly evident both from * Mat. 8.20 Mat 5.7 Luk. 8.31 Scripture and Reason That their present Punishment how dolorous and bitter soever will be much heightned and increas'd after the Great Day of Accounts so that tho' I will not deny but that as the School-men and other Divines of Latter â—iâ—es would have it many of these infernal Bands may be so closely committed to Prison that they are never permitted to make Excursions into the Earth yet on the other side we may dare to affirm that the All-wise God does often suffer great Troops and vast Multitudes of them to come abroad into this World either for the Trial of the Good or for the Punishment of the Bad or to be to us what the Remnant of the cursed Nations was to the sinful Israelites even Pricks in our Eyes and Thorns in our Sides And if we impartially consider neither this Text of St. Peter nor the parallel one of St. Jude do any thing evacuate or enervate this Assertion For if they must needs be understood to prove such an actual condemning of the Devil to Chains at present that he shall not come forth till hal'd to Judgment if I say the Sence of the Words must needs be this we cannot allow them by any means to be true For even when these Epistles where written which is suppos'd to have been a little before the Destruction of the Jews his Dominions were large and his Empire extensive He did not only work powerfully in the Children of Disobedience who were taken Captive by him at his Will but had also began to Lord it over God's own Heritage He was daily sowing Tares among the Wheat and endeavouring to choak the good Seed and to render it fruitless Like an hungry Lion he roar'd after the Prey and began to glut his Jaws with the Blood of the slain and upon this account the Apostle in my Text warns the Christians to watch and to be always upon their Guard against so potent and vigilant an Adversary Though therefore the victorious Saviour of the World hath utterly divested these Evil Spirits of their Power and made his Conquests over them publickly discernible to all Men by throwing them out of their Temples gagging and silencing them in their Oracles and so dragging as it were Principalities and all the Powers of Darkness shackled and unarm'd at the Wheels of his triumphant Chariot Though I say since the towring Roman Eagle which for many Ages had spread its all-conquering Wings over the trembling World submitted her self and gave place to the humble Sign of the Cross the Sound of the Gospel is gone out into all Lands and its Words unto the Ends of the World so that the Kingdoms of the World are become the Kingdoms of the Lord and almost all Nations do him Service yet Certain it is that the Devil is not yet totally banished out of this World For in the 23d Chap. of the Revelations and the 3d Ver. we have an account of a closer Imprisonment of Satan and so of his Regiments of Evil Spirits that shall be before the Worlds End than is yet for sthe present and 't is also manifest from the * Sozom. Hist l. 5. c. 19. p. 627. History of Primitive Times that after the Death Resurrection and Ascension of Christ he was still permitted to be in the World For even in the Times of Julian the Apostate we find his Oracle yet standing and 't was the constant Custom of the Church in the first Ages to excommunicate or as S. Paul phraseth it to deliver enormous and incorrigible Sinners to Satan as to a Lictor or Executioner who was wont to sift and shake them terribly and by inflicting Diseases and Torments upon the Body forc'd them to fly for Refuge to the Arms of their offended Father Now therefore we must indeed acknowledge with the †Rev. 12.9 10 Inhabitants of Heaven that Salvation and Strength and the Kingdom of our God and the Power of his Christ is come unto us for the great Dragon is cast out that old Serpent call'd the Devil and Satan which deceiv'd the whole World He is cast out of his Strong-holds and his Angels can no longer exercise their Tyranny in the Earth But yet he still sitteth lurking in the thievish Corners of the World and privily in his lurking Dens does he plot against the Innocent his Eyes are wholly set against the Saints Though his Hands are tied and he is bound to his Good-behaviour yet as an Explorator or Searcher for faults he goes up and down to and fro in the Earth I know there are some who will be ready to object That this Relaxation of Evil-Spirits from their dark houses of Sorrow can by no means consist with the Wisdom of God For since his Justice condemn'd them to unspeakable and Eternal Torments
't is next to Madness say they to suppose that he would suffer their Pains to receive any Diminution which yet the Hurt which according to this Position they are sometimes permitted to do to Mankind would certainly afford them But this seeming Contradiction will be easily reconcil'd if we consider that the like Argument may be urg'd as well against the Absence of good Angels from the Court of Heaven For since 't is piously believ'd on all hands that the Bless'd Inhabitants of those serene and peaceful Mansions are now the time of Probation being gone long ago fully and unalterably confirm'd in Happiness and Glory how can we imagine that their heavenly Father would be so unkind as to deprive them of the Beatifick Intuition of his interiour Beauties and as it were to banish his beloved Sons for a time from the Regions of Bliss And yet we need not be beholden neither to the Egyptians nor to the Platonists for the Confirmation of this Truth the Sacred History more than once assuring us if they do not constantly adhere to and inseparably accompany Good Men yet that they often descended to succour them in their Dangers and are also still 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ministring Spirits sent forth to minister to them who shall be heirs of Salvation Wherefore in Answer to this Objection we may consider That Kindness and Compassion are so twisted and interwoven as I may so say with the very Essences of these glorious Creatures that 't is Heaven to them to relieve and assist their Fellow-Servants here below which being joyn'd to that infinite Delight and Satisfaction which they undoubtedly receive in the Execution of the Divine Will makes abundant Recompence for the seeming Loss of that more plentiful Harvest of Joys which the Blessed reap in the Mansions above And on the other side The Evagation of Evil Spirits from their infernal Dungeon must rather afford them fresh Occasions of Torture than administer any true Solace or real Content For so fierce and implacable so insolent and outrageous so envious and Eternally malicious are these Sons of Perdition that it must needs be Death to them to be frustrated in their Designs and worse if possible than Hell it self to see their Plots and Machinations all defeated and unravell'd How then must they fret and tear their Bowels for Grief to find their weak Attempts trampled on in great Disdain and Triumph by the Regenerate Sons of Adam who dwell securely under the Defence of the Most High and abide continually under the Shadow of the Almighty To see themselves sunk into so low and despicable a condition that they are as light and contemptible as the Dust before the Wind whilst the Angels of the Lord persecute and Scatter them How must they be cloath'd with Shame and Dishoour and Confusion of Face to see those little Mists they endeavour'd to raise utterly dispers'd and vanish'd and the Glory of the Lord shining round about the World and appearing out of Sion in perfect Beauty But not to prosecute these Considerations any farther The bare dismal Apprehensions of that accumulated Punishment which after the Last Day they must certainly undergo for all the Evil they have done amongst Men are sufficient to counterpoise whatever accidentary Satisfaction they seem to receive upon the Earth I foresee but one Scruple more that may arise against this Discourse which is That supposing Men were very well dispos'd to believe all we have said yet those Antick ridiculous Circumstances which in the Narrations even of the gravest Personages do accompany many things of this nature strongly argue the Uncertainty of them all But to this 't will be sufficient to answer with the Learned and Judicious Dr. * Appendix to the Antidote against Atheism c. 12. par 3. More That the Conversation of Evil Spirits amongst us in this World ought to seem never the more incredible for those ludicrous Passages For 't is not at all disconsonant to Reason that such Daemons which have their Haunts near this lower Air and Earth are variously †Hanc opinor ob causam audiunt apud S. Lucam c. 4. v. 33. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 passim apud Ethnicos penates Lares Lamiae Empusae Fauni Satyri Lemures c. laps'd into the enormous Love and Liking of the Animal Life having utterly forsaken the Divine and that therefore there are such Passions and Affections in them as are in Wicked Men and Beasts and that some of them especially bear the same Analogy to an Unfallen Angel that an Ape or Monkey does to a Sober Man so that all their Pleasure is in unlucky ridiculous Tricks This I am sure is fully and clearly attested by * De Abst lib. 2. Porphyry †Orig. cont Cels l. 8. p. 417. l. 7. p. 334. Celsus Origen St. Basil or whoever else was the Author of that Commentary upon Isaiah and others Wherefore 3. I come to shew with what indefatigable Pains and various Stratagems they seek to Ruin Men and with what Cruelty they treat them when they are delivered up into their hands This sublunary Region indeed which Man inhabits is nothing else but a continued Scene of Changes and Revolutions All things in this natural World are subject to Ebbs and Flows and nothing is found in it that acts either uniformly or constantly But the Devil's Malice is of another Constitution it suffers no Intermissions no Vicissitudes but like that stock of Motion which that great Mechanical Wit Descartes supposeth the Universe at first endow'd with it continues always in the same proportion and is never intended or remitted For tho' he may act more fiercely at one time than at another yet certainly he pursues his Revenge in general with the same Earnestness and Vigour and always wills our Ruine in the same measure of Volition Hence it comes to pass that having once gain'd Permission to begin his Assault he like Fire has no Power to suspend his Act but is as entirely determin'd by the Fullness of his Malice as a Natural Agent by the Appetites of Nature Thus as though it had been a small thing to have caus'd infinite Numbers of the Heavenly Host to let fall their Crowns and to have swept away with his Tail the third part of the Stars of Heaven we find him in the way Infancy of the World nay if some say true in the same Day wherein Man was Created plotting and nontriving to ruin all Mankind in their Head And tho' 't is believ'd for very good Reasons that he could not with all his Art and Subtilty entice so much as the Impure and Debauch'd Posterity of Cain to Idolatry before the Flood yet we are too well assur'd that he laid the Foundations of his Empire very early in the World For Historians say that even in the time of Heber who was the fifth from Noah Idolatry began mightily to prevail these Hellish Impostors giving Answers through the Images which Men generally
Glorified Spirits to behold admire and praise his excellent Greatness and when our enlarged Souls shall fly away to the same blissful Mansions and be admitted to the Comprehensions of an intuitive Beatitude they shall with equal Satisfaction contemplate his Divine Beauty and as skilfully tune their Harps to his Praises as they Let us therefore in the mean time lay our Hand upon our Mouth and with all due Prostration both of Body and Mind adore this great Mystery of Goodness this astonishing Miracle of the Divine Mercy and Condescention which though above the adequate Comprehension of our Reason is put beyond all possibility of Distrust being most amply confirm'd to us by the concurrent and infallible Testimony of God Angels and Men. At his Baptism and Transfiguration you know he was proclaim'd by a Voice from Heaven to be the Beloved Son of God in whom he was well pleas'd And again when he bringeth in his First-begotten into the World he commands that this Exinanition of himself this Obscuration of his Essential Glory under the Veil of Humane Flesh may not diminish one Ray from the Honour of his Divine Majesty but that all the Potentates in Heaven and Earth fall down and worship him Worship him †Psal 97.7 says he all ye Gods all ye Angels and Thrones in Heaven all ye Kings and Judges of the Earth The holy Angels with their usual Chearfulness obey'd the Royal Orders They humbly ador'd the holy Child Jesus and stood ready through all the Periods of his Life to Serve and Worship him St. Peter though he saw him not so clearly as these Blessed Spirits generously confess'd that he was Christ the Son of the Living God and he receiv'd this Confirmation from the Mouth of our Lord himself That Flesh and Blood had not reveal'd it unto him but his Father only which is in Heaven Nay to the everlasting Shame and Confusion of the unbelieving Sons of Men the Devils themselves have ever subscrib'd to this Article They knew and confess'd him here on Earth and still believe and tremble The over-aw'd and trembling ‖ Vid. Suidam in August Oracle plainly confess'd to the Roman Emperour at his Birth that though he appear'd under all the disadvantageous Circumstances of Humanity and Weakness He was the Soveraign Lord and King of the blest Beings above * Luke 8.28 which was afterwards confirm'd by a whole Legion of unclean Spirits when in the Man possess'd they joyntly lifted up their Voices to him with a Jesus thou Son of God Most High But to what purpose I say was all this or why all this Noise and Ostentation had he not been the Son of God in another and more excellent manner than were any of the Sons of Men who either liv'd with him or that went before him had there not been something in it extraordinary that entitled him to so sublime and divine a Privilege Angels Kings and Prophets I confess are frequently call'd the Sons of God They have a larger Participation of his Power or a Communication of more special Grace than is indulg'd and granted to his other Children but yet their Honour and Dignity fall infinitely short of that of Jesus the Son of God For to which of the Angels said he at any time Thou art my Son this Day have I begotten thee Or who is he amongst all those exalted Sons of the Most High whom the Father advanc'd to sit at his own Right-hand till his Enemies are made his Footstool David you know was a King and yet he calls him Lord and John the Baptist though he was more than a Prophet was never by Angels Men or Devils acknowledg'd to be properly the Son of God no these are the high Prerogatives of our Lord Christ Jesus to him alone belong the most glorious and supereminent Titles of his own Son his only Son his only Begotten and the Heir of all things So that in all things I say he has the Preheminence But the Scriptures if possible speak plainer yet They not only instruct by natural and necessary Illations and Consequences but also to prevent all Cavils and Disputes are careful in many places to assert this Truth as clearly and as expresly as Words can speak * Joh. 20.28 29. St. Thomas believes and confesseth to him that he is his Lord and God and those who should afterwards inherit the same Faith are pronounced Blessed The Beloved †Joh. 1.1 Disciple is positive that the Word was God and in the Close of his first Epistle speaking of Jesus to shew against an Objection which he rightly foresaw would be afterwards urg'd against the Christians that they might safely worship him without any Fear or Danger of that Idolatry which the Heathens were guilty of in worshipping their Daemons This says he is not Deus factus a made God a God by Office not by Nature but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the True God The Learn'd * 1 Cor. 15.87 1 Tim. 3.16 Rom. 9.5 Apostle adds that this Second Man is the Lord from heaven and God manifested in the Flesh and again most blasphemously if not truly this being that particular Eulogy which is due only to Jehovah the one Supreme Eternal God of Israel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God over all Blessed for Ever and Ever Nay not to mention the many Repetitions of this most glorious Doxology to him in other places of Scripture This is that good Confession our Lord himself made before his Judge He had all along to the Rage and Amazement of his Enemies held his peace shewing by his Silence that he despis'd all their Accusations as certain and apparent Calumnies But no sooner is urg'd to determine this Point but he opens his Mouth and decides the matter I adjure thee by the living God * Mat. 26.63 64. says the High-Priest that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ the Son of God Jesus after their modest way of Affirmation saith unto him Thou hast said Or as St. Mark more positively Jesus said I am 'T is certain the High-Priest understood him not in that Vulgar Sense wherein Great and Righteous Persons Kings and Prophets are call'd the Sons of God but that he affirm'd himself to be so in the Literal Proper and Natural Signification of the words For otherwise he could not upon the account of this Confession have charg'd him with Blasphemy nor consequently the Council have voted him to be guilty of Death Thus too in the Fifth of St. John he tells the Jews plainly that God is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his own Father making himself thereby as they rightly concluded to be Equal with God And in another Conference with them in the Tenth of that Evangelist He not only owns himself to be the Christ and the Son of God in the most proper sence but adds farther that He and his Father are One One not in Will only but in Essence Glory Honour and Power I am sure the Jews understood him
Reflections upon the inestimable Happiness of Good Men in the other World he in the very last Words dash'd all with an open undisguis'd Acknowledgment of his remaining Doubts and Jealousies Sub finem Apol. apud Platonem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Could I be assur'd says he a little before of the Reality of this Blessed State I would gladly die a thousand times over to enjoy it But now my Judges the time of my Departure is come 'T is your Lot to live and mine to die which of these two is the Better 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a thing utterly unknown to any but God alone In short Dicaearchus Democritus Epicurus and their Followers as constantly as positively declare That there is no Subsistence of the Soul after this Life but that when the Body returns to Dust she immediately relapseth into the bottomless Abyss of Annihilation and Darkness And then for the Jews at the time of our Saviour's Coming they stood much upon the same Level For though from the Translation of Enoch and Elias and the Death of their Patriarchs who never inherited the Promises of Temporal Felicity and particularly that of Moses which their Rabbins are pleas'd to call The Kiss of God's Mouth intimating thereby that he breathed out his Soul by the Force and Energy of Contemplation without those Pains and Convulsions which are the usual Concomitants of the Death of other Men resolving himself into the Embraces of his Maker From the positive and express Words of Job which however some Modern Commentators are pleas'd to understand them are I conceive with S. Hierom and the Ancients as plain and clear a Confession of the Resurrection as any that have been made since the Promulgation of the Gospel From the glorious Confession of that excellent Woman and her seven Children in the Maccabees who all refus'd Deliverance that they might obtain a better Resurrection and from those many Promises of Eternal Life scatter'd up and down in the Book of Psalms and other Writings of the Old Testament Though I say from all these one might reasonably expect the Jews should have had some fuller and clearer Knowledge of the State after Death yet being no part of that Covenant which if strictly considered as made with that People at Mount Sinai was founded only upon Temporal Promises Peace Long Life Plenty and Prosperity in their own Land they had generally no other Effect than that they were believ'd to be the Reward of Men of Heroick and Extraordinary Piety Nay their unaccountable Blindness and Unattention to the Faith and Manners of their Fathers who did all eat the same spiritual Meat and did all drink the same Spiritual Drink as we Christians do occasion'd so many Cavils and Disputes amongst them that the Sadduces peremptorily deny'd it not only decrying the Resurrection of the Dead but affirming likewise with the foremention'd Epicureans that the Souls of Men did perish together with the Body And tho' the Pharisees on the contrary confess'd it yet their Notions of it as Josephus himself * Antiq. Jud. l. 18. c. 2. who was one of them tells us were no better than those of Fairy-Land or Elysian Dreams Delicious Dwellings flowery Fields Crystalline Rivers and beautious Trees of Gold under whose delightful shade they should play and toy away a whole Eternity with fair and amorous Virgins was the utmost Heaven they could or car'd to imagine and therefore the Sadduces so often foil'd and buffled them with that Argument of the Woman and her seven Husbands which they thought to be so conclusive that but with different Success they attack'd likewise with it our Saviour himself But now the Veil is taken off by Christ and we behold the Glory of the Lord with open Face For this says the Apostle is the Promise that he has promis'd us even Eternal Life A Life not of sensual and brutish Pleasures not a Paradise of all Filthiness and Debauchery whereby the Epileptick Impostor has likewise impos'd upon his Followers but a Life of perfect Purity and Holiness a Life of immaterial spiritual abstracted Joys of chaste and rational Delights where our Nature shall be entirely conform'd to the Divine made like to God and we enjoy an endless and uninterrupted Communion with our Maker This he has promis'd and of this he has given us Assurance all the Assurance the thing is capable of in that he has not only rais'd himself from the Dead but call'd likewise some of our Brethren already out of the Grave and taken them up with him in their glorious Bodies to enter before-hand upon the Possession of this promis'd Inheritance So that we may boldly say with the Apostle We know for certain and are fully assured that if this earthly house of our Tabernacle be dissolved we have a Building of God an House not made with hands eternal in the Heavens Thus has the Sun of Righteousness dispell'd all those Clouds of Ignorance and Darkness which overspread the whole World at his Rising and brought Life and Immortality to perfect Light thro' the Gospel Which must certainly be acknowledg'd to be a very great Salvation if we consider in the next place that he has hereby rescu'd us from that base and slavish Fear of Death by reason of which we had otherwise been all our life-time subject to Bondage 6. Now how unwelcome soever Death must be to those Men to whom 't is therefore all Terror before because all Darkness behind who are therefore dismay'd at his Approach because they know not the Consequences of this King of Terrors 't is impossible that Person should immoderately fear Death who considers that 't is only a Passage from this Wilderness to the true Canaan the Rest above that flows with Milk and Honey with Innocence and Happiness for ever who knows that the Death of the Saints is not total but that as in the Ceremony of Purification from Leprosie one Bird was kill'd the other let fly into the open Air the mysterious Shadow of the Lepers being restor'd to a state of Liberty so when the Body dies and returns to the Earth the Spirit is freed from the Clogs of Mortality and returns with Songs of Joy and Triumph in its mouth to the Object of its Happiness the God that gave it Nay the faithful Christians the true Lovers of Jesus who have tasted the Goodness of the Lord and long consider'd and well weighed the incomparable Difference between the mean imperfect frail Felicities of this present World and the substantial solid immutable Glories of that which is to come must certainly cry out with the inflamed * Cant. 1.4 Spouse Draw us and we will run after thee O! loosen our Affections from this World that we may readily ascend to thee Their longing Souls will renew the passionate Sighs of the Exil'd Prophet O when shall we come and appear before the presence of God! How welcome must Death be to them when it comes as it were with
Death This last Enemy has at present an absolute and entire Domination over us our Beauty Honour and Glory mouldering and consuming all away in his insatiable Dwellings But yet he who hath the Keys of Hell and of Death hath promis'd to unlock the Doors of these loathsome Prisons and to let the Prisoners go forth into a state of Liberty and Glory He turneth Man to Destruction but his Almighty Voice will one day call through all the Receptacles of Nature Come again ye Children of Men. By him lastly who liveth and was dead and is alive for evermore shall those that sleep in the Dust of the Earth be awak'd and sing Death is swallowed up in Victory Which Consideration alone as it is full of Comfort and Joy and Triumph to every faithful Christian so is it likewise sufficient to curb the Arrogance and Haughtiness of that Apostate Spirit Who therefore says an ingenious * Br. Rel. Med. pag. 87. Author of our own chiefly frequents Coemeteries Charnel-Houses and Churches because they are the Dormitories of the Dead where like an insolent Champion he beholds with Pride the Spoils and Trophies of his Victory over Adam And thus I have discharg'd my first General Head which was to shew the Greatness of the Salvation wrought for us by Christ I now proceed to my Second which is very briefly to lay before you our Inexcusableness and the intolerable Aggravations of our Guilt and Punishment if we neglect it How shall we escape c. 1. Then we shall be utterly inexcusable and intolerably aggravate our Guilt and Punishment if we neglect this great Salvation which Christ hath wrought for us because we shall be entirely destitute of the mollifying Circumstances and Considerations of Ignorance Whilst Men had little or no Understanding but walk'd on still in Darkness 't was no wonder that the Foundations of the Moral as well as of the Intellectual World were out of course Their broken Notices of another State and beggarly Conceptions of its Delights and Entertainments induc'd them rather to let loose the Reins to their Intemperance than to correct and retrench the Luxuriancy of their Vices A more delicious Canaan the Fields and Groves of Elysium and a Mahometan Paradise naturally lead Men to an unbounded Gratification of their sensual Appetites as to that which is the End and Perfection of their Beings their ultimate Portion in the Regions of Eternity So that a truly moral Man with such Perswasions about him would be an Object equally strange and surprizing as Fewel or dry Stubble that will not take fire in the midst of a burning firy Furnace But now with Christians is the Case quite otherwise We know for certain both the Existence and Nature of the other State That for pure and holy Souls who are entirely cleans'd from the Stains and Pollutions of corrupted Nature and rais'd to the Possession of their Primitive Brightness remains a most glorious and undefil'd Inheritance Entertainments most agreeable to their enlarged Faculties exalted and divine Joys for evermore That for impure and sensual Souls on the contrary who fight under the Banner of the World and the Flesh forsaking God that made them and lightly esteeming the Rock of their Salvation is prepar'd a Worm that will never die and a Fire that will ne'er be quench'd We know I say that Refin'd and Purified Souls will be receiv'd into serene undisturbed Mansions of everlasting Happiness the City of the Living God the Heavenly Jerusalem where with all the shining and innumerable Companies of Holy Angels they shall for ever behold and praise the unfolded Beauties of their God and Saviour That on the other hand there are sad uncomfortable Regions of Darkness and Misery where Fire and Brimstone Storms and Tempests will be the lamentable and everlasting Portion of the Ungodly Fire and Brimstone to possess inflame and torment their Bodies and the Storms and Tempests of an enraged Conscience impetuously to hurry their awak'ned Souls through all the unhappy Stages of that woful Eternity If we then dare to commit Wickedness who have received this clear Knowledge of its sad Effects and Consequences that it cuts off all our hopes of the Glories of Heaven and irrevocably condemns us to the unconceivable Agonies and Amazements of Hell we put our selves beyond all possibility of Excuse and as our Saviour himself assures us unmeasurably enhanse the Severities of our Condemnation This is the Condemnation * Joh. 3.19 says he with an Emphasis i. e. the highest the greatest the most intolerable Condemnation that when Light is come into the World Men love Darkness rather than Light In a word God may vouchsafe to wink at the times of Ignorance and graciously overlook the unhappy Miscarriages of the unenlightned World He may be favourable to the Servant that knows not his Will and therefore does unwittingly things worthy of Stripes But Christians who know their Lord's Will and yet prepare not themselves nor do accordingly will have nothing to plead or pretend for their Disobedience and therefore will most certainly be beaten with many Stripes 2. We shall be utterly inexcusable and intolerably aggravate our Guilt and Punishment if we neglect this great Salvation which Christ has wrought for us because we thereby become guilty of the vilest Ingratitude We know the infinite Obligations to Duty and Gratitude which our Heavenly Father has laid upon us all the Stratagems of his Goodness the astonishing Miracles of Divine Mercy and Condescension That he whom the Virgins the untainted Beings above adore and love meekly drew a veil over his Essential Glories and cloath'd himself with Flesh for the Society of Mankind That the Eternal Independent All-sufficient One stoop'd down for our sakes to the lowest Estate of Uneasiness and Need and the Lord and Governour of all the Kingdoms of the Earth vouchsaf'd to dwell among us though he scarce found a place where to lay his Head That the King of Glory was contented not only to be despis'd and rejected of Men to become a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with Grief but also to suffer his most precious Life to be most cruelly and ignominiously taken from among Men that be might entitle us again to Happiness and Glory Nay we have seen the only begotten Son of the Living God oppress'd and groaning under a heavier load of Misery than all this almost sinking under the insupportable Burthen of his Father's Wrath and in the Anguish and Bitterness of 〈◊〉 Soul most lamentably complaining tâ— his Father too whom he had never offeâ—â—ed had for the Foulness and Blackneâ—â— our Iniquities hid his Face from him 〈◊〉 more we are sensible that we our seâ— have been the Betrayers and Murtherers of the Lord of Life that he has frequently bled afresh and been crucify'd again 〈◊〉 our new Sins that our repeated Impieties have wounded his sacred Side and the 〈◊〉 rows of our Ingratitude pierc'd him to 〈◊〉 very Heart How notwithstanding 〈◊〉 this he
into the Kingdom of God Yet he means not by this Assertion utterly to exclude all Rich Men from the Hopes of Heaven but only signifies to us that 't is a very hard and difficult matter for them that trust in Riches saying to Gold Thou art our Hope and to the fine Gold Thou art our Confidence ever to undertake the severer Discipline of the Gospel here and consequently to be made Partakers of his Glory in the Kingdom of Heaven hereafter How hard is it says he to his astonish'd Disciples for them that trust in Riches to enter into the Kingdom of God In like manner say these Learned Men when he positively asserts that all Sins and Blasphemies whatsoever shall be forgiven unto Men but that the Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall never be forgiven he means not that 't is absolutely impossible it should ever be forgiven but only that it shall not be forgiven so easily but more hardly and with greater Difficulty than any other Sin or Blasphemy whatsoever Non utiquè quod remitti non possit as the fore-cited Jesuit not that it cannot he forgiven at all but because they who commit it nullam peccati sui excusationem habent are utterly destitute of all Apologies and Excuses and therefore are more unpardonable than other Men. I confess I can determine nothing in this matter whether this Sin be irremissible or not I can only answer with the humble Prophet Lord thou knowest God's gracious dealing indeed with David after his Adultery and Murther with Peter after his Denial of his Master with Paul after his persecuting the Church and with a thousand other Sinners of the same Magnitude obligeth me to believe that there is no Sin or Blasphemy whatsoever which is irremissible in respect of God and that therefore if the Sin against the Holy Ghost be indeed irremissible 't is only because it utterly excludes those who commit it from Repentance But tho I dare not be positive as to the Consequences of this Sin yet what is a greater matter of Comfort to despairing Souls I may venture to affirm that as to the Nature of it 't is such as cannot be committed by any Christian If you ask me what 't is I briefly answer That 't is a Total Apostasie and Final Falling away from Christ and his Gospel I say a Total Apostasie and Final Falling away And yet not every Total Apostasie and Final Falling away neither For 't is possible a poor ignorant Soul may be so decluded as to Apostatize from Christianity to Mahometism or some other Imposture and yet still believe Christ to have been a very good Man But this is such a Total Apostasie such a Final Falling away from Christ and his Gospel as is attended with the greatest Virulency Rancour Spight and Malice against both as can be imagin'd When a Man not only utterly renounceth the known Truth but also doth hate and abhor Christ and his Word doth revile and spit upon him doth with the Scribes and Pharisees crucifie and mock him and is so far from acknowledging him to be the Son of God or indeed so much as a good Man who did all his Miracles by the Power and Assistance of the Holy Spirit that he most maliciously and despitefully after full Conviction of his Conscience to the contrary pronounceth him the greatest of Cheats a most grand Impostor the Eldest Son of the Devil who acted only by Commission from Beelzebub the Prince of the Devils This I take to be plain from our Saviour's own Words when he mention'd this Sin There was brought unto him says the Evangelist one possess'd with a Devil blind and dumb Matt. 12. compar'd with Mark 3. and he heal'd him insomuch that the blind and dumb both spake and saw The People amaz'd at this great Miracle gave Glory to him confessing him to be in very deed the promis'd Messiah the Son of David But the Scribes and Pharisees mov'd with envy tho' they knew the Miracle to be the Effect only of the Spirit of God yet to lessen his Reputation among the People declar'd against their own Consciences that 't was not by any Divine Authority but purely by Vertue of a black Confederacy with the Infernal Powers that he did these things This Fellow say they with unparallell'd Rancour and Disdain doth not cast out Devils but by Beelzebub the Prince of the Devils Upon this says our Lord All Sins shall be forgiven unto the Sons of Men and Blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme but he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness but is in danger of eternal damnation And then is added the Reason of this Assertion which plainly shews what the Sin against the Holy Ghost is in these words because they said He hath an unclean Spirit Now then My Brother do'st thou believe and confess That our Lord Jesus Christ is in very deed the Eternal Son of the Living God That when he was here upon Earth he acted only by Commission from his Father and that the Mighty Works which did shew forth themselves in him were done by the Vertue and Power of his own most Holy Spirit If thou dost then be of good cheer that hast not yet and as long as thou continuest in this Faith thou canst not commit this Sin against the Holy Ghost Nothing now but thy Impenitence can separate between thee and thy God Thou hast his own word for 't All sins and blaspemies whatsoever shall he forgiven unto the Sons of Men tho' perhaps this Sin against the Holy Ghost which thou hast not committed shall never be forgiven Break off thy sins then by Repentance and they shall all be forgiven thee Depart out of Babylon and come to Christ and thou shalt be refresh'd and find Rest unto thy Soul And so I come to the Last Thing observable in my Text viz. the Benefit of accepting our Lord's Invitation I will give you Rest 4. What joyful Tidings are these What Ease is here to wounded Consciences what Comfort to Despairing Sinners * Cant. 2. v. 11 12. Lo the Winter that dismal time wherein Ignorance Error and Superstition like Floods in the Winter-season overflow'd the earth is past and the Rain those cloudy uncomfortable days wherein we could see and enjoy but little of him is over and gone All the tokens of a new World appear and invite us to come and partake of heavenly joys and pleasures The Flowers appear on the Earth All manner of Blessings spring up in abundance now the Sun of Righteousness is risen upon us The time of the singing of Birds is come and the voice of the Turtle is heard in our land The heavenly Host sing for Joy and excite all Mankind to praise their Saviour with joyful Lips Is then thy Soul full of Sorrow and Heaviness and drooping under the Apprehensions of thine approaching Judgment Does thy Conscience tell thee That Hell is thy Portion and thine Inheritance in the
free Possession of your Estates and the Happiness of being Members of the most uncorrupted Church in the World are things that can in reason pretend to our Gratitude we of all Men in the World are the most indebted O then let us never with the ungrateful Israelites hanker again after these loathsome Flesh-pots nor when we have eaten and drank to the full rise up to play with this Harlot any more She will often no doubt be tempting and ensnaring you and by her Paints and Colours gaudy Shows and Pompous Pageantry endeavour to entice you again into her Embraces But remember 't is only a treacherous Syren's Voice which only therefore courts you that she may make you her Prey She seeks not you but yours and how Zealous soever she may seem for your Welfare the Term of her desire is only her own She knows the Fruitfulness of your Land the Liberality of your Soil and the Pleasantness of your Dwellings She remembers how she once rang'd without Controul over all your pleasant Pastures and chose out the fattest of your Lands for her to sport and play in and therefore since for the foul Apostasie she made from her Primitive Innocence the flaming Sword and the Guardian Spirits debar her from re-entring this Paradise 't is no Wonder if the better to deceive us she transform her self for a time into an Angel of Light But I trust the wakeful eye of Providence will still discover her Treacheries and not suffer us any more to be ensnar'd by her Smiles And then for her Frowns we are sure they cannot hurt us Those Curses she so liberally throws against us will I doubt not take wing and fly back upon her self and all those Bulls and Interdicts Anathema's Curses and Excommunications which yearly in Passion Week the better to prepare her self for the Celebration of the Lords Supper she charitably denounceth against us either prove Bruta fulmina Thunder-claps which indeed make a Noise but want a killing Bolt or by woful Rebounds turn the direful Execution upon her own Head In a word If we take care to walk worthy of the Vocation wherewith we are call'd and not dishonour Reform'd Religion by the Deformity of our Lives maugre all the Malice of Earth and Hell of Men and Devils we shall undoubtedly be sav'd Damnation will not be inflicted according to mens Passions and Uncharitableness neither will the grim Faces and dreadful Menaces of Romish Emissaries exclude us from the Favour and Blessing of Heaven Tho' they reject us Christ will embrace us Tho' they turn us out of their Synagogues God will receive us under his Wings and provided we forfeit not his Protection by our Misdemeanours the Angel of his Presence will undoubtedly continue to save us till Time it self shall be no more Wherefore that we may not peculiarly incur this Judgment by our Ingratitude but duly express our Joy and Thankfulness to God for the transcendent Mercy of this Day let us 3. Take Care both to continue our selves and also to bequeath to our Posterity a grateful Remembrance of it How near was the Daughter of Zion to be covered with a Cloud and to be trampled under foot by her treacherous Enemies The Net you have heard was cast about her and the Fowlers even hasting to the Slaughter The Train was laid all the Instruments of death prepar'd and there remain'd nothing to make us an Holocaust to the Roman Moloch but just putting the lighted Match to the Powder And yet methinks I hear the Church full of Faith saying Tho' no Danger was ever like to any Danger yet I charge You O ye Daughters of Jerusalem by the Roes and by the Hinds of the Field that ye stir not up nor awake my Love 'till he please For how forlorn and destitute soever I may seem to some yet I am my Beloved's and my Beloved is mine tho' therefore he tarries he will not be long but will in due time look forth as the Morning fair as the Moon clear as the Sun and terrible as an Army with Banners And indeed her Beloved came when she expected him not He was found of her when she sought not after him He awaked as one out of Sleep and look'd and saw there was none to help and wondred that there was none to uphold Therefore his own Arm brought Salvation to her and his infinite Goodness alone upheld her May then that God who has thus wonderfully wrought for us in snatching us from the Mouth of the Lion and the Paw of the Bear be ever blessed and the Remembrance of this unspeakable Mercy never defac'd so long as the Sun and Moon shall endure May those glorious Spirits which before pity'd our Danger and now rejoyce at our Deliverance never be frustrated in their Expectations but see all our Members and Faculties our Lips and Lives Hearts and Voices harmoniously singing the Triumphs of the Lord and in the continual Order Concord and Congruity declaring the infinite Goodness of our God that so our Candlestick may never be remov'd for our Ingratitude but tho' Darkness cover the Earth and gross Darkness the People This Church may still be a Crown of Glory in the Hand of the Lord and a Royal Diadem in the Hand of her God that the Gentiles may admire her Beauty and the Sons also of them that afflicted her come bending unto her and all they that despis'd her bow themselves down at the Soles of her Feet and all the Nations round about call her the City of the Lord the Zion of the Holy one of Israel Lastly May she be covered with the Robes of Righteousness and continually cloath'd with the Garments of Salvation 'till the Great Year of Jubilee the time of her final Redemption shall come when God shall put an End to all Prejudices and Animosities all Struglings and contentions and all the Elect with Crowns on their Heads and Palms in their hands shall make one perfect Harmony in singing the eternal Praise of God and of the Lamb. Which blessed time God in his Mercy hasten through Jesus Christ our Lord To whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit Three Persons and One God be ascrib'd as is most due all Honour Glory Power Might Majesty Dominion and Thanksgiving from this time forth and for evermore Amen FINIS BOOKS Printed for RICHARD SARE AND JOSEPH HINDMARSH FAbles of Esop and other Eminent Mythologists with Morals and Reflections Folio The Visions of Dom Francisco de Quevedo Octavo Seneca's Morals Octavo Erasmus's Colloquies Octavo Tully's Offices Twelves Bona's Guide to Eternity Twelves All six by Sir Roger L'Estrange The Genuine Epistles of St. Barnabas St. Ignatius St. Clement St. Polycarp The Shepherd of Hermas and the Martyrdoms of St. Ignatius and St. Polycarp Translated and Published with a large Preliminary Discourse by W. Wake D. D. Octavo A Practical Discourse concerning Swearing by Dr. Wake Octavo Compleat Sets consisting of Eight Volumes of Letters writ by a Turkish Spy who lived forty five years undiscovered at Paris giving an Impartial account to the Divan at Constantinople of the most remarkable Transactions of Europe during the said time Twelves Humane Prudence or the Art by which a Man may raise himself and Fortune to Grandeur the sixth Edition Twelves Moral Maxims and Reflections in four Parts written in French by the Duke of Rochefoucault now made English Twelves Epictetus's Morals with Simplicius's Comment made English from the Greek by George Stanhop late Fellow of King's College Cambridge Octavo The Parson's Councellor or the Law of Tythes by Sir Simon Degge Octavo Of the Art both of Writing and Judging of History with Reflections upon Ancient as well as Modern Historians by the Learned and Ingenious Father Le Moyne Twelves An Essay on Reason by Sir George Mackenzie Twelves The Unlawfulness of Bonds of Resignation Octavo The Doctrine of a God and Providence vindicated and asserted by Tho. Gregory late of Wadham College Oxford and now Lecturer near Fulham Octavo Some Discourses on several Divine Subjects by the same Author Octavo Death made Comfortable or the Way to Die well by John Kettlewell a Presbyter of the Church of England Twelves Dr. Gregory's Divine Antidote against the Socinians Octavo Dr. Wake 's Thanksgiving Sermon Dr. Gregory's Thanksgiving Sermon