hopes but such as these the greatest part of the world will fall into when that terrible day of the Lord shall come For as it was in the days of Noe so shall it be also in the day of the Son of Man they did eat they drank they married wives they were given in marriage until the day that Noe entred into the Ark and the flood came and destroyed them all Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot they did eat they drank they bought they sold they planted they builded but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from Heaven and destroyed them all Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole Earth If some of these expressions seem to relate to the unexpected coming of Christ to judgment upon Hierusalem we are to consider that was not only a fore-runner but a figure of Christ's coming to judge the World And that may be the great reason why our Saviour mixeth his discourses of both these so much together as he doth for not only the judgment upon that nation was a draught as it were in little of the great day but the symptoms and fore-runners of the one were to bear a proportion with the other among which the strange security of that people before their destruction was none of the least And the surprise shall be so much the more astonishing when the day of the Lord shall come upon the whole World as the terrour and consequents of that universal judgment shall exceed the overthrow of the Jewish Polity But supposing men were aware of its approach and prepared for it the burning of the Temple and City of Hierusalem though so frightful a spectacle to the beholders of it was but a mean representation of the terrour that shall be at the conflagration of the whole World When the Heavens shall pass away with a great noise or with a mighty force as some interpret it and the Elements shall melt with fervent beat i. e. when all the fiery bodies in the upper regions of this World which have been kept so long in an even and regular course within their several limits shall then be let loose again and by a more rapid and violent motion shall put the World into confusion and a flame together For then the present frame of things shall be dissolved and the bounds set to the more subtile and active parts of matter shall be taken away which mixing with the more gross and earthy shall sever them from each other and by their whirling and agitation set them all on fire And if the Stars falling to the Earth were to be understood in a literal sense none seems so probable as this That those aethereal fires shall then be scattered and dispersed throughout the Universe so that the Earth and all the works that are therein shall be turned into one funeral Pile Then the foundations of the Earth shall be shaken and all the combustible matter which lies hid in the bowels of it shall break forth into prodigious flames which while it rouls up and down within making it self a passage out will cause an universal quaking in all parts of the Earth and make the Sea to roar with a mighty noise which will either by the violent heat spend it self in vapour and smoak or be swallowed up in the hollow places of the deep Neither are we to imagine that only the sulphureous matter within the Earth shall by its kindling produce so general a conflagration although some Philosophers of old thought that sufficient for so great an effect but as it was in the deluge of water the fountains of the great deep were broken up and the windows of Heaven were opened so shall it be in this deluge of fire as one of the ancients calls it not only mighty streams and rivers of Fire shall issue out of the bowels of the earth but the cataracts above shall discharge such abundance of thunder and lightning wherein God will rain down fire and brimstone from Heaven that nothing shall be able to withstand the force of it Then the Craters or breaches made in the earth by horrible earthquakes caused by the violent eruptions of Fire shall be wide enough to swallow up not only Cities but whole Countries too And what shall remain of the spoils of this devouring enemy within shall be consumed by the merciless fury of the thunder and lightning above What will then become of all the glories of the world which are now so much admired and courted by foolish men What will then become of the most magnificent piles the most curious structures the most stately palaces the most lasting monuments the most pleasant gardens and the most delightful countries they shall be all buried in one common heap of ruines when the whole face of the earth shall be like the top of mount Aetna nothing but rubbish and stones and ashes which unskilful travellers have at a distance mistaken for Snow What will then become of the pride and gallantry of the vain persons the large possessions of the great or the vast treasures of the rich the more they have had of these things only the more fuel they have made for this destroying fire which will have no respect to the honours the greatness or the riches of Men. Nay what will then become of the wicked and ungodly who have scoffed at all these things and walked after their own lusts saying Where is this promise of his coming because all things yet continue as they were from the beginning of the creation When this great day of his wrath is come how shall they be able to stand or escape his fury Will they fly to the tops of the mountains that were only to stand more ready to be destroyed from Heaven Will they hide themselves in the dens and the rocks of the mountains but there they fall into the burning furnaces of the earth and the mountains may fall upon them but can never hide them from the wrath of the Lamb. Will they go down into the deep and convey themselves to the uttermost parts of the Sea but even there the storms and tempests of these shours of fire shall overtake them and the vengeance of God shall pursue them to everlasting flames Consider now whether so dreadful a preparation for Christ's coming to judgment be not one great reason why it should be called the terrour of the Lord For can any thing be imagined more full of horror and amazement than to see the whole world in a flame about us We may remember and I hope we yet do so when the flames of one City filled the minds of all the beholders with astonishment and fear but what then would it do not only to see the earth vomit and cast forth fire every where about us
and the Sea to boyl and swell and froth like water in a seething pot but to hear nothing but perpetual claps of thunder and to see no light in the Heavens but what the flashings of lightning give Could we imagine our selves at a convenient distance to behold the eruption of a burning mountain such as Aetna and Vesuvius are when the Earth about it trembles and groans the Sea foams and rages and the bowels of the Mountain roar through impatience of casting forth its burden and at last gives it self ease by sending up a mixture of flames and ashes and smoak and a flood of fire spreading far and destroying where-ever it runs yet even this though it be very apt to put men in apprehensions and fears of this great day falls very far short of the terrour of it Could we yet farther suppose that at the same time we could see fire and brimstone raining from Heaven on Sodom and Gomorrah the earth opening to devour Corah and his company Belshazzar trembling at the hand-writing against the wall and the Jews destroying themselves in the fire of their Temple and City this may somewhat higher advance our imaginations of the horror of the World's conflagration but yet we cannot reach the greatness of it in as much as the Heavens and the Earth which are now are kept in store saith the Apostle reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men even those heavens whose beauty and order and motion and influence we now admire and that earth whose fruitful womb and richly adorned surface affords all the conveniencies of the life of man must either be destroyed or at least purged and refined by this last and dreadful Fire The expressions of which in Scripture being so frequent so particular so plain in Writers not affecting the losty Prophetical stile wherein fire is often used only to express the wrath of God make it evident that their meaning is not barely that the world shall be destroyed by the anger of God but that this destruction shall be by real fire which adds more to the sensible terrour of it to all that shall behold it 2. The terrour of Christ's appearance in that day The design of the Scripture in setting forth the coming of Christ to judgment is to represent it in such a manner to us as is most apt to strike us with awe and terrour at the apprehension of it Now the greatest appearance of Majesty among men is either when a mighty Prince marches triumphantly in the midst of a Royal Army with all the splendor of a Court and the discipline of a Camp having his greatest attendants about him and sending his Officers before him who with the sound of Trumpets give notice of his approach and is every-where received with the shouts and acclamations of the people or else of a Prince sitting upon his Throne of Majesty set forth with all the Ornaments of State and Greatness with all his Nobles and Courtiers standing about his Throne and in his own Person calling Malefactors to account and both these ways the appearance of Christ upon his second coming is represented to us first as coming in the clouds of Heaven i. e. riding triumphantly as it were upon a Chariot on a body of light brighter than the Son having all the Heavenly host attending upon him and therefore he is said to come with power and great glory and sending his Angels with a great sound of a trumpet before him after whom the Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout with the vioce of the Archangel and with the trump of God Not as though we were to imagine any material trumpet as some have grossly done whose sound could reach over the whole earth but the sound of the last trumpet seems to be the same with the voice of the Son of God which the dead are said to hear and live i. e. it shall be an effectual power for raising the dead which may be therefore called the sound of the Trumpet because it supplies the use of one in calling all people together and doth more lively represent to our capacities the Majesty of Christ's appearance with all the Heavenly host of Angels and Saints Thus when God appeared upon Mount Sinai with his Holy Angels about him we there read of the noise of the trumpet and when God shewed his glorious presence in the temple he is said to go up with a shout and the Lord with the sound of a trumpet and when he sets himself against his enemies God himself is said to blow the trumpet and to go with the whirlwinds of the South But besides this we find Christ upon his second coming described as sitting on the throne of his glory and all the Holy Angels about him and all nations gathered before him to receive their sentence from him His Throne is said to be great and white i. e. most magnificent and glorious and to make it the more dreadful from it are said to proceed lightnings and thundrings and voices and so terrible is the Majesty of him that sits upon the throne that the Heaven and Earth are said to fly away from his face but the dead small and great are to stand before him and to be judged according to their works And if the appearance of a common Judge be so dreadful to a guilty prisoner if the Majesty of an earthly Prince begets an awe and reverence where there is no fear of punishment what may we then imagine when Justice and Majesty both meet in the person of the Judge and fear and guilt in the Conscience of Offenders Therefore it is said Behold he cometh with clouds and every eye shall see him and they also which pierced him and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him We find the best of men in Scripture seized on with a very unusal consternation at any extraordinary divine appearance The sight upon Mount Sinai was so terrible even to Moses that he did exceedingly fear and quake the vision which Isaiah had of the glory of God made him cry out Wo is me for I am undone for mine eyes have seen the King the Lord of Hosts When Daniel saw his vision all his strength and vigour was gone and though an Angel raised him from the ground yet he saith of himself that he stood trembling If these whom God appeared to in a way of kindness were so possessed with fear what horror must needs seize upon the minds of the wicked when the Lord Iesus shall be revealed from Heaven in flaming fire on purpose to take vengeance upon them If in the days of his flesh there appeared so much Majesty in his Countenance that when the Officers came to apprehend him they went backward and fell to the ground how unconceivably greater must it be when his deâ—ign shall be to manifest that
shall be more happy and others more miserable by it The righteous shall not only see God but know what the seeing of God means and that the greatest happiness we are capable of is implyed therein and the wicked shall not only be bid to depart from him but shall then find that the highest misery imaginable is comprehended in it It is a great instance of the weakness of our capacities here that our discourses concerning the happiness and misery of a future life are like those of Children about affairs of State which they represent to themselves in a way agreeable to their own Childish fancies thence the Poetical dreams of Elysian fields and turning wheels and rouling stones and such like imaginations Nay the Scripture it self sets forth the joys and torments of another world in a way more suited to our fancy than our understanding thence we read of sitting down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob to represent the happiness of that State and of a gnawing worm and a devouring fire and blackness of darkness to set forth the misery of it But as the happiness of Hâ—aven doth infinitely exceed the most lofty metaphors of Scripture so doth the misery of Hell the most dreadful representation that can be made of it Although a worm gnawing our entrails and a fire consuming our outward parts be very sensible and moving metaphors yet they cannot fully express the anguish and torment of the soul which must be so much greater as it is more active and sensible than our bodies can be Take a man that afflicts himself under the sense of some intolerable disgrace or calamity befallen him or that is oppressed with the guilt of some horrid wickedness or sunk into the depth of despair the Agonies and Torments of his Mind may make us apprehend the nature of that misery although he falls short of the degrees of it And were this misery to be of no long continuance yet the terror of it must needs be great but when the worm shall never dye and the fire shall never be quenched when insupportable misery shall be everlasting nothing can then be added to the terrour of it and this is as plainly contained in the sentence of wicked men as any thing else is But here men think they may justly plead with God and talk with him of his judgments what proportion say they is there between the sins of this short life and the eternal misery of another which objection is not so great in it self as it appears to be by the weak answers which have been made to it When to assign a proportion they have made a strange kind of infinity in sin either from the object which unavoidably makes all sins equal or from the wish of a sinner that he might have an eternity to sin in which is to make the justice of God's punishments to be not according to their works but to their wishes But we need not strain things so much beyond what they will bear to vindicate God's Justice in this matter Is it not thought just and reasonable among men for a man to be confined to perpetual imprisonment for a fault he was not half an hour in committing Nay do not all the Laws of the world make death the punishment of some crimes which may be very suddenly done And what is death but the eternal depriving a man of all the comforts of life And shall a thing then so constantly practised and universally justified in the world be thought unreasonale when it is applyed to God It is true may some say if annihilation were all that was meant by eternal death there could be no exception against it but I ask whether it would be unjust for the Laws of men to take away the lives of offenders in case their souls survive their bodies and they be for ever sensible of the loss of life if not why shall not God presâ—rve the honour of his Laws and vindicate his Authority in governing the world by â—entencing obstinate sinners to the greatest misery though their souls live foâ— ever in the appreâ—ension of it Especially since God hath declared these things so evidently before-hand and made them part of his Laws and set everlasting life on the other side to ballance everlasting misery and proposed them to a sinner's choice in such a manner that nothing but contempt of God and his Grace and wilâ—ul impenitency can ever betray men into this dreadful State of eternal destruction 2. Thus much for the Argument used by the Apostle the terrour of the Lord I now come to the assurance he expresseth of the truth of it Knowing therefore the terrour of the Lord we perswade men We have two ways of proving Articles of Faith such as this concerning Christ's coming to judgment is 1. By shewing that there is nothing unreasonable in the belief of them 2. That there is sufficient evidence of the truth and certainty of them In the former of these it is of excellent use to produce the common apprehensions of mankind as to a future judgment and the several arguments insisted on to that purpose for if this were an unreasonable thing to believe how come men without Revelation to agree about it as a thing very just and reasonable If the conflagration of the world were an impossible thing how came it to be so anciently received by the eldest and wisest Philosophers How came it to be maintained by those two Sects which were St. Paul's enemies when he preached at Athens and always enemies to each other the Epicureans and the Stoicks It is true they made these conflagrations to be periodical and not final but we do not establish the belief of our doctrine upon their assertion but from thence shew that is a most unreasonable thing to reject that as impossible to be done which they assert hath been and may be often done But for the truth and certainty of our doctrine we build that upon no less a foundation than the word of God himself We may think a judgment to come reasonable in general upon the consideration of the goodness and wisdom and justice of God but all that depends upon this supposition that God doth govern the world by Laws and not by Power but since God himself hath declared it who is the Supreme Judge of the world that he will bring every work into judgment whether it be good or evil since the Son of God made this so great a part of his doctrine with all the circumstances of his own coming for again this end since he opened the commission he received from the Father for this purpose when he was upon earth by declaring that the Father had committed all judgment to the Son and that the hour is coming in which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth they that have done good to the resurrection of life and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation Since
one but the hazard of losing the soul is certain to all And what folly is it for men to run themselves upon so great and certain danger for so uncertain gain which never any man yet attained to or is like to do it our Saviour knew how hard a matter it was to set any bounds to the ambitious thoughts or the covetous designs of men every step the ambitious man takes higher gives him the fairer prospect before him it raises his thoughts enlarges his desires puts new projects into his mind which like the circles of water spread still farther and farther till his honour and he be both laid in the dust together The covetous person is never satisfied with what he enjoys the more he gets still the more he hopes for and like the grave whither he is going is always devouring and always craving Yet neither of these can be thought so vain as to propose no less to themselves than the Empire or riches of the whole world But our Saviour allows them the utmost that ever can be supposed as to mens designs for this world let men be never so ambitious or covetous they could desire no more than all the world though they would have all this yet this all would never make amends for the loss of the Soul It is a thing possible that one person might by degrees bring the whole world in subjection to him but it is possible in so remote a degree that no man in his wits can be thought to design it How small a part of the inhabited world have the greatest Conquerours been able to subdue and if the Macedonian Prince was ever so vain to weep that he had no more worlds to conquer he gave others a just occasion to laugh at so much Ignorance which made him think he had conquered this And to put a check to such a troublesome ambition of disturbing the world in others how early was he taken away in the midst of his vast thoughts and designs What a small thing would the compass of the whole earth appear to one that should behold it at the distance of the fixed stars and the mighty Empires which have made the greatest noise in the world have taken up but an inconsiderable part of the whole earth What are then those mean designs which men continually hazard their souls for as much as if they aimed at the whole world For we are not to imagine that only Kings and Princes are in any hazard of losing their souls for the sake of this world for it is not the greatness of mens condition but their immoderate love to the world which ruins and destroys their souls And Covetousness and ambition do not always raign in Courts and Palaces they can stoop to the meanness of a Cottage and ruin the souls of such as want the things of this world as well as those that enjoy them So that no state oâ— condition of men is exempt from the hazard of losing the soul for the love of this world although but one person can be supposed at once to have the possession of the whole world 2. The gain of this world brings but an imaginary happiness but the loss of the soul a most real misery It is easie to suppose a person to have the whole world at his command and not himself and how can that man be happy that is not at his own command The cares of Government in a small part of the earth are so great and troublesome that by the consent of mankind the managers of it are invested with more than ordinary priviledges by way of recompence for them but what are these to the solicitous thoughts the continual fears the restless imployments the uninterrupted troubles which must attend the gain of the whole world So that after all the success of such a mans designs he may be farther off from any true contentment than he was at the beginning of them And in that respect mens conditions seem to be brought to a greater equality in the world because those who enjoy the most of the world do oft-times enjoy the least of themselves which hath made some great Emperours lay down their Crowns and Scepters to enjoy themselves in the retirements of a Cloyster or a Garden All the real happiness of this world lies in a contented mind and that we plainly see doth not depend upon mens outward circumstances for some men may be much farther from it in a higher condition in this world than others are or it may be themselves have been in a far lower But if mens happiness did ariâ—e from any thing without them that must be always agreeable to their outward condition but we find great difference as to mens contentment in equal circumstances and many times much greater in a private State of life than in the most publick capacity By which it appears that whatever looks like happiness in this world depends upon a mans soul and not upon the gain of the world nay it is only from thence that ever men are able to abuse themselves with false notions and Idea's of happiness here But none of those shall go into another world with them farewel then to all imaginary happiness to the pleasures of sin and the cheats of a deceitful world then nothing but the dreadful apprehensions of its own misery shall possess that soul which shall then too late discern its folly and lament it when it is past recovery Then the torments of the mind shall never be imputed to melancholy vapours or a disordered fancy There will be no drinking away sorrows no jesting with the sting of conscience no playing with the flames of another world God will then no longer be mocked by wicked men but they shall find to their own eternal horrour and confusion that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God He neither wants power to inflict nor justice to execute nor vengeance to pursue nor wrath to punish but his power is irresistible his justice inflexible and his wrath is insupportable Consider now O foolish sinner that hast hitherto been ready to cast away thy soul upon the pleasures of sin for a season what a wise exchange thou wilt make of a poor imaginary happiness for a most real and intollerable misery What will all the gain of this world signifie in that State whither we are all hastening apace What contentment will it be to thee then to think of all those bewitching vanities which have betrayed thy soul into unspeakable misery Wouldst thou be willing to be treated with all the ceremonies of State and Greatness for an hour or two if thou wert sure that immediately after thou must undergo the most exquisite tortures and be â—acked and tormented to death When men neglect their souls and cast them away upon the sinful pleasures and gains of this world it is but such a kind of airy and phantastical happiness but the miseries of a lost soul
here delivered as the course God used to reclaim the Israelites but to what is â—eported by the most faithful Historian of those times of the degrees and steps that God made before the ruines of the British Nation For Gildas tells us the decay of it began by Civil Wars among themselves and high discontents remaining as the consequents of them after this an universal decay and poverty among them after that nay during the continuance of it Wars with the Picts and Scots their inveterate enemies but no sooner had they a little breathing space but they return to their luxury and other sins again then God sends among them a consuming Pestilence which destroyed an incredible number of people When all this would not do those whom they trusted most to betrayed them and rebelled against them by whose means not only the Cities were burnt with Fire but the whole Island was turned almost into one continued flame The issue of all which at last was that their Country was turned to a desolation the ancient Inhabitants driven out or destroyed and their former servants but now their bitter enemies possessing their habitations May God avert the Omen from us at this day We have smarted by Civil wars and the dreadful effects of them we yet complain of great discontents and poverty as great as them we have inveterate enemies combined abroad against us we have very lately suffered under a Pestilence as great almost as any we read of and now the great City of our Nation burnt down by a dreadful Fire And what do all these things mean and what will the issue of them be though that be lockt up in the Councils of Heaven yet we have just cause to fear if it be not our speedy amendment it may be our ruine And they who think that incredible let them tell me whether two years since they did not think it altogether as improbable that in the compass of the two succeeding years above a hundred thousand persons should be destroyed by the Plague in London and other places and the City it self should be burnt to the Ground And if our fears do not I am sure our sins may tell us that these are but the fore-runners of greater calamities in case there be not a timely reformation of our selves And although God may give us some intermissions of punishments yet at last he may as the Roman Consul expressed it pay us intercalatoe poenoe usuram that which may make amends for all his abatements and give us full measure according to that of our sins pressed down shaken together and running over Which leads to the third particular 3. The Causes moving God to so much severity in his Iudgements which are the greatness of the sins committed against him So this Prophet tells us that the true account of all Gods punishments is to be fetched from the sins of the people Amos 1.3 For three transgressions of Damascus and for four I will not turn away the punishment thereof so it is said of Gaza v. 6. of Tyrus v. 9. of Edom v. 11. of Ammon v. 13. Moab ch 2. 1. Iudah v. 4. and at last Israel v. 6. And it is observable of every one of these that when God threatens to punish them for the greatness of their iniquities and the multitude of their transgression which is generally supposed to be meant by the three transgressions and the four he doth particularly threaten to send a fire among them to consume the Houses and the Palaces of their Cities So to Damascus chap. 1.4 to Gaza v. 7. to Tyrus v. 10. to Edom v. 12. to Ammon v. 14. to Moab ch 2. v. 2. to Iudah v. 5. I will send a fire upon Judah and it shall devour the Palaces of Jerusalem and Israel in the words of the text This is a Judgment then which when it comes in its fury gives us notice to how great a height our sins are risen especially when it hath so many dreadful forerunners as it had in Israel and hath had among our selves When the red horse hath marched furiously before it all bloody with the effects of a Civil War and the pale horse hath followed after the other with Death upon his back and the Grave at his heels and after both these those come out of whose mouth issues fire and smoak and brimstone it is then time for the inhabitants of the earth to repent of the work of their hands But it is our great unhappiness that we are apt to impute these great calamities to any thing rather than to our sins and thereby we hinder our selves from the true remedy because we will not understand the cause of our distemper Though God hath not sent Prophets among us to tell us for such and such sins I will send such and such judgments upon you yet where we observe the parallel between the sins and the punishments agreeable with what we find recorded in Scripture we have reason to say that those sins were not only the antecedents but the causes of those punishments which followed after them And that because the reason of punishment was not built upon any particular relation between God and the people of Israel but upon reasons common to all mankind yet with this difference that the greater the mercies were which any people enjoyed the sooner was the measure of their iniquities filled up and the severer were the judgements when they came upon them This our Prophet gives an account of Chap. 3.2 You only have I known of all the Nations of the earth therefore will I punish you for your iniquities So did God punish Tyre and Damascus as well as Israel and Iudah but his meaning is he would punish them sooner he would punish them more severely I wish we could be brought once to consider what influence piety and vertue hath upon the good of a Nation if we did we should not only live better our selves but our Kingdom and Nation might flourish more than otherwise we are like to see it do Which is a truth hath been so universally received among the wise Men of all ages that one of the Roman Historians though of no very severe life himself yet imputes the decay of the Roman State not to Chance or Fortune or some unhidden causes which the Atheism of our Age would presently do but to the general looseness of mens lives and corruption of their manners And it was the grave Observation of one of the bravest Captains ever the Roman State had that it was impossible for any State to be happy stantibus moenibus ruentibus moribus though their walls were firm if their manners were decayed But it is our misery that our walls and our manners are fallen together or rather the latter undermined the former They are our sins which have drawn so much of our blood and infected our air and added the greatest fuel to our flames But it is not enough in general to declaim against our
reputation for want of wisdom but such whom nature or some violent distemper have wholly deprived of the use of their reason and understandings But wisdom does not lye in the rambling imaginations of mens minds for fools may think of the same things which wise men practise but in a due consideration and choice of things which are most agreeable to the end they design supposing the end in the first place to be worthy a wise mans choice for I cannot yet see why the end may not be chosen as well as the means when there are many stand in competition for our choice and men first deliberate and then determine which is the fittest to be pursued But when the actions of men discover that either they understand or regard not the most excellent end oâ— their beings or do those things which directly cross and thwart their own designs or else pursue those which are mean and ignoble in themselves we need not any further evidence of their folly than these things discover Now that those who make a mock at sin are guilty of all these will appear if we consider whom they provoke by doing so whom they most injure and upon what reasonable consideration they are moved to what they do 1. Whom they provoke by their making a mock at sin Supposing that there is a Governour of the world who hath established Laws for us to be guided by we may easily understand whose honour and authority is reflected on when the violations of his Laws are made nothing of For surely if they had a just esteem of his Power and Soveraignty they never durst make so bold with him as all those do who not only commit sin themselves but laugh at the scrupulosity of those who dare not When Dionysius changed Apollo's Cloak and took off the Golden Beard of Aesculapius with those solemn jeers of the unsuitableness of the one to the Son of a beardless Father and the much greater conveniency of a cheaper garment to the other it was a sign he stood not much in awe of the severity of their looks nor had any dread at all of the greatness of their power But although there be so infinite a disproportion between the artificial Deities of the Heathens and the Majesty of him who made and governs the whole world yet as little reverence to his power and authority is shewed by all such who dare affront him with such a mighty confidence and bid the greatest defiance to his Laws by scoffing at them What is there the Soveraigns and Princes of the earth do more justly resent and express the highest indignation against than to have their Laws despised their Persons affronted and there Authority contemned And can we then imagine that a God of infinite Power and Majesty the honour of whose Laws is as dear to him as his own is should sit still unconcerned when so many indignities are continually offered them and never take any notice at all of them It is true his patience is not to be measured by our fretful and peevish natures and it is happy for us all that it is not he knows the sinner can never escape his power and therefore bears the longer with him but yet his lenity is always joyned with his wisdom and justice and the time is coming when patience it self shall be no more Is it not then the highest madness and folly to provoke one whose power is infinitely greater than our own is and from the severity of whose wrath we cannot secure our selves one minute of an hour How knowest thou O vain man but that in the midst of all thy mirth and jollity while thou art boasting of thy sins and thinkest thou canst never fill up fast enough the measure of thy iniquities a sudden fit of an Apoplexy or the breaking of an Aposteme or any of the innumerable instruments of death may dispatch thee hence and consign thee into the hands of divine Justice And wherewithall then wilt thou be able to dispute with God Wilt thou then charge his Providence with folly and his Laws with unreasonableness when his greatness shall affright thee his Maiesty astonish thee his Power disarm thee and his Iustice proceed against thee when notwithstanding all thy bravado's here they own Conscience shall be not only thy accuser and witness but thy judge and executioner too when it shall revenge it self upon thee for all the rapes and violences thou hast committed upon it here when horror and confusion shall be thy portion and the unspeakable anguish of a racked and tormented mind shall too late convince thee of thy folly in making a mock at that which stings with an everlasting venom Art thou then resolved to put all these things to the adventure and live as securely as if the terrours of the Almighty were but the dreams of men awake or the fancies of weak and distempered brains But I had rather believe that in the heat and fury of thy lusts thou wouldst seem to others to think so than thou either doest or canst perswade thy self to such unreasonable folly Is it not then far better to consult the tranquillity of thy mind here and the eternal happiness of it hereafter by a serious repentance and speedy amendment of thy life than to expose thy self for the sake of thy sensual pleasures to the fury of that God whose justice is infinite and power irresistible Shall not the apprehension of his excellency make thee now afraid of him Never then make any mock at sin more unless thou art able to contend with the Almighty or to dwell with everlasting burnings 2. The folly of it is seen in considering whom the injury redounds to by mens making themselves so pleasant with their sins Do they think by their rude attempts to dethrone the Majesty of Heaven or by standing at the greatest defiance to make him willing to come to terms of composition with them Do they hope to slip beyond the bounds of his power by falling into nothing when they die or to sue out prohibitions in the Court of Heaven to hinder the effects of Iustice there Do they design to out-wit infinite Wisdom or to find such flaws in God's government of the World that he shall be contented to let them go unpunished All which imaginations are alike vain and foolish and only shew how easily wickedness baffles thâ— reason of mankind and makes them rather hope or wish for the most impossible things than believe they shall ever be punished for their impieties If the Apostate Spirits can by reason of their present restraint and expectation of future punishments be as pleasant in beholding the follies of men as they are malicious to suggest them it maybe one of the greatest diversions of their misery to see how active and witty men are in contriving their own ruine To see with what greediness they catch at every bait that is offered them and when they are swallowing the most deadly poyson what arts
ground-work laid upon so course a Being And rather than believe the foundation of his happiness to be within himself there is nothing so vain and trifling without him but he is ready to fall down before it and cry out Here I place my felicity Sometimes he admires the brave shews and the Pomp and Gallantry of the World and thinks nothing comparable to a glorious outside and a great train of attendants sometimes he raises himself and flutters upon the wings of a popular Air till a cross blast comes and leaves him in the common rout sometimes his eyes arâ— dazled with the glory of the more refined and solid pieces of that Earth out oâ— which he was framed and thinks it reasonable that the softness of flesh and blood should yield to the impressions oâ— silver and gold sometimes he even envies the pleasures of the Brutes and if iâ— were possible would outdo them in their grossest sensualities sometimes again he flatters himself and then adores his own imperfections and thinks his Passiâ—ns Honour and his Profaneness Wit So far vain man from making himself happy that the first step to it is to make hiâ— understand what it is to be so But supposing that the true image of his happâ—ness should drop down from Heaven and by the place from whence it felâ— should câ—nclude where the thing it 〈◊〉 is to be sound yet this were only tâ— make him more miserable unless 〈◊〉 withal knew how to come thither Hâ— is sure not to climb up to it by the top of the highest mountains nor to be caried thither upon the wings of a mightâ— wind he hath no fiery Chariots at his command to ascend with to the Glories above bâ—t only he that maketh his Angels Spirits and his Ministers a flame of fire is able to preserve the souls of men from vanishing into the soâ—t air and to conduct them to the Mansions of eternal Bliss It is he only that can make them capable of the Joys of another life by purging them from the stains and the pollutions of this And therefore without his grace and favour ever to hope for the happiness of Heaven must be by fancying a Heaven to be there where there is no God So that it is necessary that the Proposals of this salvation must come from the Author of it and that with such arguments as may perswade men of the truth of it and with such motives as may encourage men to accept of them Now the Gospel of Christ affords us all these things which are necessary to our happiness there we have the most agreeable and setled notion and Idea of it the most large and free offers of divine goodness in order to it the greatest assurance that these things did immediately proceed from God and the most encouraging motives to accept of these offers in order to that great salvation which is tendred to us 1. We have the most agreeable and setled notion of true happiness not such a mean and uncertain thing which lies at the mercy of the continual vicissitudes and contingencies of this present state but that which is able to bear up the mind of man against all the troubles of this life and to carry him to a Region beyond them all where there is a fulness of joy without an allay of sadness after it and ever-flowing rivers of pleasures that need no dams to make them rise higher nor falls to make their motion perceived Our Blessed Saviour never flatters his followers with the expectation of a felicity in this life Contentment is the most he hath promised them and that they may enjoy if they follow his directions let this world be what it will and do what it pleases with them He never tells his Disciples they may have satisfaction here if they lie upon their beds of Down with their heads full of tormenting cares that the pleasure of humane life lies in the gratifications of the senses and in making what use they can of the world he never deceives them with the promise of so poor a happiness as that which depends upon health friends prosperity and having our own wills No but he tells them of a more noble and generous felicity that will preserve its own state and grandeur in spight of the world a happiness consistent with loss of Estate loss of Friends with affronts and injuries with persecutions and death it self For when our Saviour begins to discourse of happiness what another kind of strain doth he speak of it in than any of those Philosophers who have so much obâ—â—ructed the happiness of mans life by their voluminous writings and contentions about it Here we meet with no Epicurean softness which the sense of true Vertue carried the minds of the more noble Heathens above no rigid and incredible Stoical Paradoxes that make men only happy by the change of names no Aristotelian supposition of a prosperous life for Vertue to shew its power in but here the only supposition made is that which lies in a mans own breast viz true goodness and then let his condition be what it will his happiness is consistent with it For those above all other persons whom our Saviour calls Blessed in the beginning of that excellent Abstract of Christianity his Sermon on the Mount are not the rich and great men of the world but those who to the poverty of their condition add that of their spirits too by being contented with the state they are in not those who are full of mirth and jollity that laugh away one half of their time and sleep the rest but they who are in a mournful condition either by reason of their own sorrows or out of compassion to others or out of a general sense of their own imperfections or the inconstancy of our present state Not those who are ready enough to give but unable to bear affronts that think the lives of men a sacrifice small enough for any words of disgrace which they have given them but the meek and patient spirit that is neither apt to provoke nor in a rage and madness when it is that values the rules of Christianity above all the barbarous Punctilioes of Honour Not those who are as impetuous in the pursuit of their designs and as eager of tasting the fruits of them as the thirsty Traveller in the sands of Arabia is of drinking the waters of a pleasant Spring but such who make righteousness and goodness their meat and drink that which they hunger and thirst after and take as much pleasure in as the most voluptuous Epicure in his greatest dainties Not those whose malice goes beyond their power and want only enough of that to make the whole World a Slaughter-house and account racks and torments among the necessary instruments of governing the World but such who when their enemies are in their power will not torment themselves by cruelty to them but have such a sense of common humanity as not
only to commend pity and good nature to those above them but to use it to those who are under them Not those whose hearts are as full of dissimulation and hypocrisie as the others hands are of blood and violence that care not what they are so they may but seem to be good but such whose inward integrity and purity of heart far exceeds the outward shew and profession of it who honour Goodness for it self and not for the Glory which is about the head of it Not those who neuer think the breaches of the world wide enough till there be a door large enough for their own interests to go in at by them that would rather see the world burning than one peg be taken out of their Chariot-wheels But such who would sacrifice themselves like the brave Roman to fill up the wide gulf which mens contentions have made in the world and think no Legacy ought to be preserved more inviolable than that of Peace which our Saviour lest to his Disciples Lastly not those who will do any thing rather than suffer or if they suffer it shall be for any thing rather than righteousness to uphold a party or maintain a discontented faction but such who never complain of the hardness of their way as long as they are sure it is that of Righteousness but if they meet with reproaches and persecutions in it they welcome them as the harbingers of their future reward the expectation of which makes the worst condition not only tolerable but easie to them Thus we see what kind of happiness it is which the Gospel promises not such a one as rises out of the dust or is tost up and down with the motion of it but such whose never-failing fountain is above and whither those small rivulets return which fall down upon Earth to refresh the minds of men in their passage thither but while they continue here as the Iews say of the water that came out of the rock it follows them while they travel through this wilderness below So that the foundation of a Christians happiness is the expectation of a life to come which expectation having so firm a bottom as the assurance which Christ hath given us by his death and sufferings it hath power and influence sufficient to bear up the minds of men against all the vicissitudes of this present state 2. We have the most large and free offers of divine Goodness in order to it Were it as easie for Man to govern his own passions as to know that he ought to do it were the impressions of Reason and Religion as powerful with Mankind as those of Folly and Wickedness are we should never need complain much of the misery of our present state or have any cause to fear a worse to come There would then be no condition here but what might be born with satisfaction to ones own mind and the life one day led according to the principles of vertue and goodness would be preferred before a sinning Immortality But we have lost the command of our selves and therefore our passions govern us and as long as such furies drive us no wonder if our ease be little When men began first to leave the uncertain speculations of Nature and found themselves so out of order that they thought the great care ought to be to regulate their own actions how soon did their passions discover themselves about the way to govern them And they all agreed in this that there was great need to do it and that it was impossible to do it without the principles of Vertue for never was there any Philosopher so bad as to think any man could be happy without Vertue even the Epicureans themselves acknowledged it for one of their established Maxims that no man could live a pleasant life without being good and supposing the multiplication of Sects of Philosophers about these things as far as Varro thought it possible to 288. although there never were so many nor really could be upon his own grounds yet not one of all these but made it necessary to be vertuous in order to being happy and those who did not think vertue to be desired for it self yet made it a necessary means for the true pleasure and happiness of our lives But when they were agreed in this that it was impossible for a vitious man to enjoy any true contentment of mind they fell into nice and subtle disputes about the names and order of things to be chosen and so lost the great effect of all their common principles They pretended great cures for the disorders of mens lives and excellent remedies against the common distempers of humane nature but still the disease grew under the remedy and their applications were too weak to allay the fury of their passions It was neither the order and good of the Universe nor the necessity of events nor the things being out of our power nor the common condition of humanity no nor that comfort of ill natured men as Carneades call'd it the many companions we have in misery that could keep their passions from breaking out when a great occasion was presented them For he who had read all their discourses carefully and was a great man himself I mean Cicero upon the death of his beloved daughter was so far from being comforted by them that he was fain to write a consolation for himself in which the greatest cure it may be was the diversion he found in writing it But supposing these things had gone much farther and that all wise men could have governed their passions as to the troubles of this life and certainly the truest wisdom lies in thâ—t yet what had all this been to a prepararation for an eternal state which they knew little of and minded less All their discourses about a happy life here were vain and contradicted by themselves when after all their rants about their wise man being happy in the bull of Phalaris c. they yet allow'd him to dispatch himself if he saw cause which a wise man would never do if he thought himself happy when he did it So that unless God himself had given assurance of a life to come by the greatest demonstrations of it in the death and resurrection of his Son all the considerations whatever could never have made mankind happy But by the Gospel he hath taken away all suspicions and doubts concerning another state and hath declared his own readiness to be reconciled to us upon our repentance to pardon what hath been done amiss and to give that divine assistance whereby our wills may be governed and our passions subdued and upon a submission of our selves to his wise Providence and a sincere obedience to his Laws he hath promised eternal salvation in the life to come 3. God hath given us the greatest assurance that these offers came from himself which the Apostle gives an account of here saying that this salvation began at first
present life such great things in God's account that it was not possible for his Son to appear without them Nay how unsuitable had it been for one who came to preach humility patience self-denyal and contempt of the world to have made ostentation of the State and Grandeur of it So that either he must have changed his Doctrine or rendred himself lyable to the suspicion of seeking to get this world by the preaching of another And if his Doctrine had been of another kind he might have been esteemed a great person among the Iews but not the Son of God or the promised Messias in whom all Nations of the Earth should be blessed Which surely they would never have thought themselves to have been in one who must have subdued the neighbour Nations to advance the honour of his own But since the Son of God thought fit to appear in another manner than they expected him they thought themselves too great to be saved by so mean a Saviour If he had made all the Kingdoms of the Earth to have bowed under him and the Nations about them to have been all tributaries to them if Ierusalem had been made the Seat of an Empire as great as the World it self they would then have gloried in his Name and entertained whatever he had said whether true or false with a wonderful Veneration But Truth in an humble dress meets with few admirers they could not imagine so much Power and Majesty could ever shroud it self under so plain a disguise Thus Christ came to his own and his own received him not Yea those that should have known him the best of all others those who frequently conversed with him and heard him speak as never man spake and saw him do what never man did were yet so blinded by the meanness of his Parentage and Education that they baffle their own Reason and persist in their Infidelity because they knew the place and manner of his breeding the names of his Mother and his Brethren and Sisters Are they not all with us whence then hath this man all these things As though Is not this the Carpenters Son had been sufficient answer to all he could say or do 2. The disparagement of his Miracles Since the bare proposal of his Doctrine though never so reasonable could not prevail with them to believe him to be the Son of God he offers them a further proof of it by the mighty works which were wrought by him And though the more ingenuous among them were ready to acknowledge that no man could do the things which he did unless God were with him yet they who were resolved to hear and see and not understand when they found it not for their credit to deny matters of fact so universally known attested they seek all the means to blast the reputation of them that may be Sometimes raising popular insinuations against him that he was a man of no austere life a friend of Publicans and Sinners one that could choose no other day to do his works on but that very day wherein God himself did rest from his and therefore no great regard was to be had to what such a one did When these arts would not take but the people found the benefit of his Miracles in healing the sick curing the blind and the lame feeding the hungry then they undervalue all these in comparison with the wonders that were wrought by Moses in the Wilderness If he would have made the Earth to open her mouth and swallow up the City and the power of Rome if he would have fed a mighty Army with bread from Heaven in stead of feeding some few thousands with very small Provisions if in stead of raising one Lazarus from the Grave he would have raised up their Sampson's and their David's their men of spirit and conduct whose very presence would have put a new life into the hearts of the people if in stead of casting out Devils he would have cast out the Romans whom they hated the worse of the two if he would have set himself to the cure of a distempered State instead of healing the maladies of some few inconsiderable persons if instead of being at the expense of a Miracle to pay tribute he would have hinder'd them from paying any at all then a Second Moses would have been too mean a title for him he could have been no less than the promised Messias the Son of God But while he imploy'd his power another way the demonstration of it made them hate him the more since they thought with themselves what strange things they would have done with it for the benefit of their Country and therefore express the greatest malice against him because he would not imploy it as they would have him From thence they condemn his Miracles as only some effects of a Magical skill and say he dispossessed the lesser Devils by the power of him that was the Prince among them So unworthy a requital did they make for all the mighty works which had been done among them Which as our Saviour saith if they had been done in Tyre and Sidon they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes 3. But altho' all this argued a strange spirit of contradiction in them to all the designs for their own good yet the malice from whence that rose would not sâ—op here for as they had long contrived his ruin so they watched only an opportunity to effect it Which his frequent presence at Ierusalem seemed to put into their hands but his reputation with the people made them fearful of embracing it Therefore they imploy their Agents to deal privately with one of hâ—s Disciples who might be fittest for their design and to work upon his covetous humour by the promise of a reward to bring him to betray his Masâ—er with the greatest privacy into their hands This Iudas undertakes knowing the place and season of his Masters retirements not far from the City where they might with the greatest secrecy and safety seize upon his person Which contrivance of theirs our Saviour was not at all ignorant of but prepares himself and his Disciples for this great encounter He institutes his solemn Supper to be perpetually observed in remembrance of his death and sufferings after which he discourses admirably with his Disciples to arm them against their future sufferings and prays that most divine Prayer St. Iohn 17. which he had no sooner finished but he goes with his Disciples to the usual place of his retirement in a Garden at the foot of the Mount of Olives And now begins the blackest Scene of sufferings that ever was acted upon humane Nature Which was so great that the Son of God himself expresseth a more than usual apprehension of it which he discovered by the Agony he was in in which he sweat drops of blood by the earnestness of his Prayer falling upon his knees and praying thrice saying O my Father
himself lest ye be weary and faint in your minds SERMON VII Preached before the KING JANUARY 30. 1668 9. JUDE V. 11. And perished in the gainsaying of Corah AMong all the dismal consequences of that fatal day wherein the Honour of our Nation suffered together with our Martyr'd Soveraign there is none which in this Place we ought to be more concerned for â—han the Dishonour which was done to Religion by it For if those things which were then acted among us had been done among the most rude and barbarous Nations though that had been enough to have made them for ever thought so yet they might have been imputed to their ignorance in matters of Civility and Religion but when they are committed not only by men who were called Christians but under a pretence of a mighty zeal for their Religion too Men will either think that Religion bad which did give encouragement to such actions or those persons extremely wicked who could make use of a pretence of it for things so contrary to its nature and design And on which of these two the blame will fall may be soon discovered when we consider that the Christian Religion above all others hath taken care to preserve the Rights of Soveraignty by giving unto Caesar the things that are Caesars and to make resistance unlawful by declaring that those who are guilty of it shall receive to themselves damnation But as though bare resistance had been too mean and low a thing for them notwithstanding what Christ and his Apostles had said to shew themselves to be Christians of a higher rank than others they imbrue their hands in the Blood of their Sovereign for a demonstration of their Piety by the same figure by which they had destroyed Mens Rights to defend their Liberties and fought against the King for preservation of his Person But the actions of such Men could not have been so bad as they were unless their pretences had been so great for there can be no highter aggravation of a wicked action than for Men to seem to be Religious in the doing of it If the Devil himself were to preach sedition to the world he would never appear otherwise than as an Angel of Light his pretence would be Unity when he designed the greatest Divisions and the preservation of Authority when he laid the seeds of Rebellion But we might as well imagine that the God of this World as the Devil is sometime called should advance nothing but Peace and Holiness in it as that Christianity should give the least countenance to what is contrary to either of them Yet the wickedness of Men hath been so great upon earth as to call down Heaven it self to justifie their impieties and when they have found themselves unable to bear the burden of them they would fain make Religion do it Such as these we have a description of in this short but smart Epistle viz Men who pretend inspirations and impulses for the greatest villainies who believed it a part of their Saintship to despise Dominions and speak evil of Dignities who thought the Grace of God signified very little unless it serv'd to justifie their most wicked actions These in all probability were the followers of Simon Magus the Leviathan of the Primitive Church who destroyed all the natural differences of good and evil and made it lawful for Men in case of Persecution to forswear their Religion The great part of his Doctrine being that his Disciples need not be afraid of the terrours of the Law for they were free to do what they pleased themselves because Salvation was not to be expected by good works but only by the Grace of God No wonder then that such as these did turn the Grace of God into lasciviousness And when it proved dangerous not to do it would deny their Religion to save themselves For they had so high opinions of themselves that they were the only Saints that as Epiphanius tells us they thought it the casting Pearls before Swine to expose themselves to danger before the Heathen Governours by which they not only discovered what a mighty value they set upon themselves but what mean and contemptible thoughts they had of that Authority which God had established in the world But this they would by no means allow for they thought all the Governments of the world to be nothing else but the contrivance of some evil spirits to abridge men of that liberty which God and nature had given them And this is that speaking evil of Dignities which they are charged with not only by our Apostle here but by St. Peter before him Although the phraâ—e used by St. Peter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be taken by the use of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the first of Maccabees not for the bare contempt of Authority expressed by reviling language but for an open resistance of it which the other is so natural an introduction to that those who think and speak contemptibly of Government do but want an occasion to manifest that their actions would be as bad as their thoughts and expressions are And from hence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here in the words of the Text is made use of to express one of the most remarkable seditions we ever read of viz. that of Corah and his Company against Moses and Aaron whose punishment for it did not deter these persons who went under the name of Christian from joyning in seditious practices to the great dishonour of Christianity and their own ruine For therefore the Apostle denounces a Woe against them in the beginning of the verse and speaks of their ruine as certain as if they had been consumed by fire or swallowed up by the earth as Corah and his accomplices were And they perished in the gainsaying of Corah In the verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Aorist saith Grotius is taken for the future or present and so implying that these courses did tend to their misery and ruine and would unavoidably bring it upon them If the evidence in history had been clear of the Carpocratians joyning with the Iews in the famous rebellion of Barchochebas wherein such multitudes of Christians as well as Heathens were destroyed in Africa Egypt and other places and the time of it had agreed with the time of writing this Epistle I should then have thought that this had been the Rebellion here spoken of for all the Actors in it were destroyed by the Roman Power and some of the chief of them made publick examples of Justice for the deterring of others from the like practices But however this be we find these persons here charged with a sin of the same nature with the gainsaying of Corah and a judgment of the same nature as the consequent of the sin for they perished in the gainsaying c. And therefore we shall consider the words 1. As relating to the fact of Corah and
his company 2. As implying as great displeasure of God under the Gospel against the same kind of sin as he discovered in the immediate destruction of those persons who were then guilty of it 1. As relating to the fact of Corah and his company and so the words lead us to the handling 1. The nature of the Faction which was raised by them 2. The Judgment that was inflicted upon them for it 1. For understanding the nature of the Faction we must enquire into the design that was laid the persons that were engaged in it the pretences that were made use of for it 1. The design that was laid for that and all other circumstances of the story we must have resort to the account that is given of it Numb 16. where we shall find that the bottom of the design was the sharing of the Government among themselves which it was impossible for them to hope for as long as Moses continued as a King in Iesurun for so he is called Deut. 33.5 Him therefore they intend to lay aside but this they knew to be a very difficult task considering what wonders God had wrought by him in their deliverance out of Egypt what wisdom he had hitherto shewed in the conduct of them what care for their preservation what integrity in the management of his power what reverence the people did bear towards him and what solemn vows and promises they had made of obedience to him But ambitious and factious Men are never discouraged by such an appearance of difficulties for they know they must address themselves to the people and in the first place perswade them that they manage their interest against the usurpation of their Governours For by that means they gain upon the peoples affections who are ready to cry them up presently as the true Patriots and Defenders of their Liberties against the encroachment of Princes and when they have thus insinuated themselves into the good opinion of the people groundless suspicions and unreasonable fears and jealousies will pass for arguments and demonstrations Then they who can invent the most popular lies against the Government are accounted the Men of integrity and they who most diligently spread the most infamous reports are the Men of honesty because they are farthest from being Flatterers of the Court The people take a strange pride as well as pleasure in hearing and telling all the â—aults of their Governours for in doing so they flatter themselves in thinking they deserve to rule much better than those which do it And the willingness they have to think so of themselves makes them misconstrue all the actions of their Superiours to the worse sense and then they find out plots in every thing upon the people Whatever is done for the necessary maintenance of Government is suspected to be a design meerly to exhaust the people to make them more unable to resist If good Laws be made these are said by factious men to be only intended for snares for the good people but others may break them and go unpunished If Government be strict and severe then it is cruel and tyrannical if mild and indulgent then it is remiss and negligent If Laws be executed then the peoples Liberties be oppressed if not then it were better not to make Laws than not to see them executed If there be Wars the people are undone by Taxes if there be Peace they are undone by Plenty If extraordinary Judgments befall them then they lament the sins of their Governours and of the Times and scarce think of their own If miscarriages happen as it is impossible always to prevent them they charge the form of Government with them which all sorts are subject to Nay it is seldom that Governours escape with their own faults the peoples are often laid upon them too So here Numb 16.14 Moses is charged with not carrying them into Canaan when it was their own sins which kept them thence Yea so partial have the people generally been against their Rulers when swayed by the power of Faction that this hath made Government very difficult and unpleasing for what ever the actions of Princes are they are liable to the censures of the people Their bad actions being more publick and their good therefore suspected of design and the wiser Governours are the more jealous the people are of them For always the weakest part of mankind are the most suspicious the less they understand things the more designs they imagine are laid for them and the best counsels are the soonest rejected by them So that the wisest Government can never be secure from the jealousies of the people and they that will raise a Faction against it will never want a party to side with them For when could we ever have imagined a Government more likely to be free from this than that which Moses had over the people of Israel He being an extraordinary person for all the abilities of Government one bred up in the Egyptian Court and in no mean degree of honour being called the Son of Pharaohs Daughter one of great experience in the management of affairs of great zeal for the good of his Country as appeared by the tenderness of his peoples interest in their deliverance out of Egypt one of great temper and meekness ☞ above all men of the earth one who took all imaginable care for the good establishment of Laws among them but above all these one particularly chosen by God for this end and therefore furnished with all the requisites of a good man and an excellent Prince yet for all these things a dangerous sedition is here raised against him and that upon the common grounds of such things viz. usurpation upon the peoples rights arbitrary Government and ill management of affairs Usurpation upon the peoples rights v. 4. the Faction makes a Remonstrance asserting the Priviledges of the people against Moses and Aaron Ye take too much upon you seeing all the Congregation are holy every one of them and the Lord is among them Wherefore then lift you up your selves above the Congregation of the Lord. As though they had said we appear only in behalf of the Fundamental Liberties of the people both Civil and Spiritual we only seek to retrench the exorbitances of power and some late innovations which have been among us if you are content to lay aside your power which is so dangerous and offensive to Gods holy people we shall then sit down in quietness for alas it is not for our selves that we seek these things what are we but the cause of Gods people is dearer to us than our lives and we shall willingly sacrifice them in so good a Cause And when Moses afterwards sends for the Sons of Eliab to come to him they peremptorily refuse all Messages of Peace and with their men of the sword mentioned v. 2. They make votes of non-Addresses and break off all Treaties with him and declare these for their reasons that he
God is the best security against the greatest dangers we never read of anâ— invasion of that Counâ—ry in one of tâ—ose times nor of any miseries they sufâ—er'd thâ—n till the last and fatal dâ—â—â—ruction of Hierusalem when God had taken away his Kingdom from them And with that their whole Polity fell for never since have they been able to maintain so much as the face of Government living in subjection if not in slavery in all parts of the world So that whether we mean the succession of power in Iudah's tribe or the seat of power in the whole Nation or the distinction and superiority of that tribe above the rest â—y the Scepter which was not to depart from Iudah till Shiloh came we are sure in eveâ—y one of these senses it is long since dâ—parted from it For neither have any of the Posterity of David had any power over them nor was it possiâ—le they should considering that all Government is taken from them and the very distinction of tribes is lost among them they having never had any certaâ—n Genealogies since the destruction of the Temple I know what vain hopes and foolish fancies and incredible stories they have among them of some supreme power which they have in some part of the world but they know not where Sometimes they talk of their mighty numbers at Bagdad and the officers of their own Nation which are set over them but had they not so in Egypt and were they ever the less in captivity there Sometimes they boast of their Schools in those Eastern parts such as Pombeditha Sura and Neharda and the authority the Rabbins have over them but this is just as the Orator said of Dionysius the Tyrant of Syracuse that he loved Government so well that when he was not suffered to govern men there he went to govern Boys at Corinth usque eò imperio carere non poterat But these are tolerable in comparison with the incredible fictions of the four Tribes in the East hem'd in by a vast and unpassable ridge of mountains on every side but when the famous Sabbatical River runs which â—or six days bears all before it with a mighty torrent and carries stones of such incredible bigness that there is no passing over it but because the admirable nature of that River is That it keeps the Sabbath and rests all that day we might have thought it had been possible to have had some entercourse with them on that day but to prevent this they tell us That as the water goes off flames of fire come in the place of it and hinder all access to them But these are things whiâ—h a man must be a Iew first before he can believe and what will not they believe rather than Christ is the Son of God! For Manaâ—se ben Israel hath had the confidence in this age to say That the sand taken out of the Sabbatical River and preserved in a Tube doth constantly move â—or six days and rests punctually from the beginning of the Sabbath to the end of it Which is the less to be wondred at since in all his Book of the hope of Israel he eagerly contends for the incredible fiction of Montezini of the flourishing condition of the Jews at this day in some parts of America but the Salvo is translated thither too for there is a mighty River which hinders any from access to them By all which we see how vain all their attempts are to preserve any reputation of that power and Government wherein they made so great a part of the Kingdom of God among them to consist 3. That which they thought gave them the greatest Title to the being God's peculiar pâ—ople was the solemn worship of him at the Temple But what is become of all the glory of that now where are all the pompous Ceremonies the numerous Sacrifices the magnificent and solemn Feasts which were to be constantly observed there how is it then possible for them to observe the Religion now which God commanded them since he likewise forbid the doing these things any where but in the Place which himself should appoint So that they are under an unavoidable necessity of breaking their Law if they do them not they break the Law which commands them to be done if they do them they break the Law which forbids the doing them in any other place but at the Temple at Hierusalem And this I am apt to think was one of the greatest grounds among them after the destruction of the Temple of their setting up Traditions above the written Law for finding it impossible to keep the written Law if they could gain to themselves the Authority of interpreting it they were not much concerned for the Law it self And this is one of the strongest holds of their infidelity at this day For otherwise we might in reason have thought that their infidelity would have been buried in the ashes of their Temple when they had such plain predictions that the Messias was to come during the second Temple that the prediction of Christ concerning the destruction of this Temple was so exactly fulfilled that all attempts for the rebuilding of it were vain and fruitless Of all which none promised so fair as that in Iulians time who out of spight to the Christians and particularly with a design to contradict the prophecy of our Saviour gave all encouragement to the Iews to build it he provided at his own charge all materials for it and gave command to the Governour of the Province to take particular care in it and the Jews with great joy and readiness set about it but when they began to search the ground in order to the laying the Foundations the earth round about trembles with a horrible earthquake and the flames of a sudden break out which not only consumed the undertakers but a great multitude of spectators and the materials prepared for the building Insomuch that an universal astonishment seized upon them and the rest had rather leave their work than be consumed by it This we have delivered to us not by persons at a greaâ— distance of time from it but by such who lived in the same age 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we are all witnesse saith St. Chrysost. of the truth of these things not by one or two but the concurrent Testimony of the writers of that age Not only by St. Chrysost but Gregorius Nazianzenus Ambrose Ruffiâ—â—s Socrates Sozomen Theodoret. And leâ—t all these should be suspected of partiality because Christians we desire no more to be believed concerning it than what is recorded by Ammianus Marcellinus a Heathen Historian of that time who was a Souldier under Iulian in his last exâ—edition and he asserâ—s the substance of what I have said before And what a strange difference do we now find in the building of a third and a second Tempâ—e In the former though they met with many troubles and difficulties yet God carried them
hear them No arguments can be more proper to mankind than those which work upon their reason and consideration no motives can stir up more to the exercise of this than their own happiness and misery no happiness and misery can deserve to be so much considered as that which is eternal And this eternal state is that which above all other things the Christian Religion delivers with the greatest plainness confirms with the strongest evidence and enforces upon the consciences of men with the most powerful and perswasive Rhetorick I need not go beyond my text for the proof of this wherein we see that the Apostles design was to perswade men i.e. to convince their judgments to gain their affections to reform their lives that the argument they used for this end was no less than the terrour of the Lord not the frowns of the World nor the fear of Men nor the malice of Devils but the terrour of the Almighty whose Majesty makes even the Devils tremble whose Power is irresistible and whose Wrath is insupportable But it is not the terrour of the Lord in this world which he here speaks of although that be great enough to make us as miserable as we can be in this State but the terrour of the Lord which shall appear at the dreadful day of judgment of which he speaks in the verse before the text For we must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad This is the terrour here meant which relates to our final and eternal State in another world when we must appear before the judgment-seat of Christ c. And of this he speaks not out of Poetical Fables ancient Traditions uncertain Conjectures or probable Arguments but from full assurance of the truth of what he delivers Knowing therefore the terrour of the Lord we perswade men In which words we shall consider these particulars 1. The argument which the Apostle makes choice of to perswade men which is the terrour of the Lord. 2. The great assurance he expresseth of the truth of it Knowing therefore the terrour of the Lord. 3. The efficacy of it in order to the convincing and reforming mankind Knowing therefore c. we perswade men 1. The argument the Apostle makes choice of to perswade men by viz. the terrour of the Lord. In the Gospel we find a mixture of the highest clemency and the greatest severity the richest mercy and the strictest justice the most glorious rewards and intollerable punishments accordingly we find God therein described as a tender Father and as a terrible Judge as a God of peace and as a God of vengeance as an everlasting happiness and a consuming fire and the Son of God as coming once with great humility and again with Majesty and great glory once with all the infirmities of humane nature and again with all the demonstrations of a Divine power and presence once as the Son of God to take away the sins of the world by his death and passion and again as Judge of the world with flaming fire to execute vengeance on all impenitent sinners The intermixing of these in the doctrine of the Gospel was necessary in order to the benefit of mankind by it that such whom the condescension of his first appearance could not oblige to leave off their sins the terrour of his second may astonish when they foresee the account that will be taken of their ingratitude and disobedience that such who are apt to despise the meanness of his birth the poverty of his life and the shame of his death may be filled with horrour and amazement when they consider the Majesty of his second coming in the clouds to execute judgment upon all and to convince all that are ungodly not only of their ungodly deeds but of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him And we shall easily see what great reason there is that this second coming of Christ to judgment should be called the terrour of the Lord if we consider 1. The terrour of the preparation for it 2. The terrour of the appearance in it 3. The terrour of the proceedings upon it 4. The terrour of the sentence which shall then be passed 1. The terrour of the preparation for it which is particularly described by St. Peter in these words But the day of the Lord will come as a Thief in the night in which the Heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the Elements shall melt with fervent heat the Earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up This day will come as a Thief in the night by way of surprise when it is not looked for and that makes it so much the more dreadful A lesser calamity coming suddenly doth astonish more than a far greater which hath been long expected for surprisals conâ—ound men's thoughts daunt their spirits and betray all the succours which reason offers But when the surprise shall be one of the least astonishing circumstances of the misery men fall into what unconceivable horrour will possess their minds at the apprehension of it what confusion and amazement may we imagine the soul of that man in whom our Saviour speaks of in his parable who being pleased with the fulness of his condition said to his soul Soul thou hast much goods laid up for many years take thine ease eat drink and be merry but God said to him Thou fool this night thy soul shall be repaired of thee then whose shall those things be that thou hast provided Had God only said This night shall thy barns be burnt and thy substance consumed to ashes which thou hast laid up for so many years that would have caused a strange consternation in him for the present but he might have comforted himself with the hopes of living and getting more But this night shall thy soul be required of thee O dreadful words O the tremblings of body the anguish of mind the pangs and convulsions of conscience which such a one is tormented with at the hearing of them What sad reflections doth he presently make upon his own folly And must all the mirth and case I promised my self for so many years be at an end now in a very few hours Nay must my mirth be so suddenly turned into bitter howlings and my ease into a bed of flames Must my soul be thus torn away from the things it loved and go where it will hate to live and can never die O miserable creature to be thus deceived by my own folly to be surprised after so many warnings to betray my self into everlasting misery Fear horrour and despair have already taken hold on me and are carrying me where they will never leave me These are the Agonies but of one single person whom death snatches away in the midst of his years his pleasures and his
all who committed it and for a sin at so great a distance of time from the commission of it But I forbear I know not whether there be such another instance of God's severity in Scripture but it is such as may justly make us cry out with the Psalmist If thou Lord shouldst thus mark iniquities O Lord who shall stand But although God in this world so seldom shews his severity and tempers it with so much kindness we have no reason to expect he should do so in another For here he hath declared that mercy rejoyceth against judgment This being the time of Gods patience and forbearance and goodness towards sinners being not willing that any should â—erish but that all should come to repentance but if men will despise the riches of his goodness if they will still abuse his patience if they will trample under â—oot the means of â—heir own salvation then they shall to their unspeakable sorrow find that there is a day of wrath to come wherein their own dreadful experience will tell them That it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God For that will be a day of justice without mercy a day of vengeance without pity a day of execution without any further patience Thâ—n no vain excuses will be taken whereby men seek to palliate their sins and give ease to â—heir minds now It will be to no purpose to charge thy wilful sins upon â—he infirmity of thy nature the power of temptation the subtilty of the Devâ—l the allurement of company the common practice of the world the corruption of the age the badness of education the folly of youth all these and such like excuses will be too weak to be made then when it shall appear to thy eternal confusion that thy own vicious inclination swayed thee beyond them all Then there will be as little place for intreaties as for vain excuses God shews his great pity and indulgence to mankind now that he is so ready to hear the prayers and grant the desires of all penitent sinners but for those who stop their ears to all his instructions and will not hearken to the reproofs of his word or the rebukes of their own consciences but contemn all sober Counsels and scoff at Religion what can they expect from him but that when they shall call upon him he will not answer and when they seek him earnestly they shall not find him bâ—t he will laugh at their calamity and mock when their fear cometh O blessed Jesus didst thou weep over an incorrigible people in the days of thy flesh and wilt thou laugh at their miseries when thou comest to judge the world didst thou shed thy precious blood to save them and wilt thou mock at their destruction didst thou woo and intreat and beseech sinners to be reconciled and wilt thou not hear them when in the anguish of their souls they cry unto thee See then the mighty difference between Christ's coming as a Saviour and as a Judge between the day of our salvation and the day of his wrath between the joy in Heaven at the conversion of penitent sinners and at the confusion of the impenitent and unreclaimable How terrible is the representation of Gods wrath in the style of the Prophets when he punisheth a people in this world for their sins It is called the day of the Lord cruel with wrath and fierce anger the day of the Lord's vengeance The great and dreadful day of the Lord. If it were thus when his wrath was kindled but a little when mercy was mixed with his severity what will it be when he shall stir up all his wrath and the heavens and the earth shall shake that never did offend him what shall they then do that shall to their sorrow know how much they have displeased him Then neither power nor wit nor eloquence nor craft shall stand men in any stead for the great Judge of that day can neither be over-awed by power nor over-reached by wit nor moved by eloquence nor betrayed by craft but every man shall receive according to his deeds The mighty disturbers of mankind who have been called Conquerours shall not then be attended with their great armies but must stand alone to receive their sentence the greatest wits of the world will then find that a sincere honest heart will avail them more than the deepest reach or the greatest subtilty the most eloquent persons without true goodness will be like the man in the parable without the wedding garment speechless the most crafty and politick will then see that though they may deceive men and themselves too yet God will not be mocked for whatsoever a man sows that shall he reap and they who have spread snares for others and been hugely pleased to see them caught by them shall then be convinced that they have laid the greatest of all for themselves for God will then be fully known by the judgment which he shall execute and the wicked shall be snared in the work of their own hands for the wicked shall be turned into Hell and all the nations that forget God 4. The terror of the sentence which shall then be passed That the Judge himself hath told us before hand what it shall be to make us more apprehensive of it in this State wherein we are capable to prevent it by sincere repentance and a holy liâ—e The tenour of it is expressed in those dreadful words depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels It is impossible to conceive words fuller of horrour and amazement than those are to such as duâ—y consider the importance of them It is true indeed wicked men in this world are so little apprehensive of the misery of departing from God that they are ready to bid God depart from them and place no mean part of their felicity in keeping themselves at a distance from him The true reason of which is that while they pursue their lusts the thâ—ughts of God are disquieting to them as no man that robs his neighbour loves to think of the Judge while he does it not as though his condition were securer by it but when men are not wise enough to prevent a danger they are so great fools to count it their wisdom not to think of it But therein lies a great part of the misery of another world that men shall not be able to cheat and abuse themselves with false notions and shews of happiness The clouds they have embraced for Deities shall then vanish into smoke all the satisfaction they ever imagined in their lusts shall be wholly gone and nothing but the sad remembrance of them left behind to torment them All the Philosophy in the world will never make men understand their true happiness so much as one hours experience of another State will do all men shall know better but some
this was so great a part of the Apostles doctrine to preach of this judgment to come and that God hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained whereof he hath given assurance to all men in that he hath raised him from the dead No wonder the Apostle speaks here with so great assurance of it knowing therefore c. And no persons can have the least ground to question it but such who wholly reject the Christian doctrine upon the pretences of infidelity which are so vain and trifling that were not their lusts strongeâ— than their arguments men of wit would be ashamed to produce them and did not mens pasâ—ions oversway their judgments it would be too much honour to them to confute them But every Sermon is not intended for the conversion of Turks and Infidels my design is to speak to those who acknowledge themselves to be Christians and to believe the truth of this doctrine upon the Authority of those divine persons who were particularly sent by God to reveal it to the world And so I come to the last particular by way of application of the former viz. 3. The efficacy of this argument for the perswading men to a reformation of heart and life knowing the terrour of the Lord we perswade men For as another Apostle reasons from the same argument Seeing all these things shall be dissolved what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness There is great variety of arguments in the Christian Religion to perswade men to holiness but none more sensible and moving to the generality of mankind than this Especially considering these two things 1. That if this argument doth not perswade men there is no reason to expect any other should 2. That the condition of such persons is desperate who cannot by any arguments be perswaded to leave off their sins 1. There is no reason to expect any other argument should perswade men if this of the terror of the Lord do it not If an almighty power cannot awaken us if infinite justice cannot affright us if a judgment to come cannot make us tremble and eternal misery leave no impression upon us what other arguments or methods can we imagine would reclaim us from our sins We have been too sad an instance our selves of the ineffectualness of other means of amendment by the mercies and judgments of this present life have ever any people had a greater mixture of both these than we have had in the compass of a few years If the wisest persons in the world had been to have set down beforehand the method of reforming a sinful nation they câ—uld have pitched upon none more effectual than what we have shewed not to be so Firâ—â— they would have imagined that after enduring many miseries and hardships when they were almost quite sunk under despair if God â—hould give them a sudden and unexpected deliverance meer ingenuity and thankfulness would make them afraid to displease a God of so much kindness But if so great a flash of joy and prosperity instead of that should make them grow wanton and extravagant what course then so likely to reclaim them as a series of smart and severe judgments one upon another which might sufficiently warn yet not totally destroy These we have had experience of and of worse than all these viz. that we are not amended by them For are the Laws of God less broken or the duties of Religion less contemned and despised after all these What vices have been forsaken what lusts have men been reclaimed from nay what one sort of sin hath been less in fashion than before Nay have not their number as well as their aggravation increased among us Is our zeal for our established Religion greater Is our faith more firm and settled our devotion more constant our Church less in danger of either of the opposite factions than ever it was Nay is it not rather like a neck of land between two rough and boisterous seas which rise and swell and by the breaches they make in upon us threaten an inundation By all which we see what necessity there is that God should govern this world by the considerations of another that when neither judgments nor mercies can make men better in this life judgment without mercy should be their portion in another O the infatuating power of â—in when neither the pity of an indulgent Father nor the frowns of a severe Judge can draw us from it when neither the bitter passion of the Son of God for our sins nor his threatning to come again to take vengeance upon us for them can make us hate and abhor them when neither the shame nor contempt the diseases and reproaches which follow sin in this world nor the intolerable anguish and misery of another can make men sensible of the folly of them so as to forsake them Could we but represent to our minds that State wherein we must all shortly be when the bustle and hurry the pleasures and diversions the courtships and entertainments of this world shall be quite at an end with us and every one must give an account of himself to God what another opinion of these things should we have in our minds with what abhorrency should we look upon every temptation to sin how should we loath the sight of those who either betrayed us into sin or flattered us when we had committed it Could men but ask themselves that reasonable question why they will defie God by violating his known Laws unless they be sure he either cannot or will not punish them for it they would be more afraid of doing it than they are for supposing both to do it is perfect madness to question his power who is Almighty or his will who hath declared it and is immutable is the height of folly 2. The condition of such is desperate whom no arguments can perswade to leave their sins For there can be no breaking prison in that other State no escaping tryal no corrupting the Judge no reversing the sentence no pardon after judgment no reprieve from punishment no abatement or end of misery How canst thou then hope O impenitent sinner either to fly from or to endure that wrath of God that is coming swiftly upon thee to arrest thee by death and convey thee to thy tormenting prison canst thou hope that God will discharge thee before that dreadful day comes when he hath confined thee thither in order to it Canst thou hope that day will never come which the vindication of God's Justice the honour of Christ the happiness of the blessed as well as the punishment of the wicked make so necessary that it should come or canst thou hope to defend thy self against an all-seeing eye a most righteous Judge and an accusing conscience when that day doth come when all the mercies thou hast abused the judgements thou hast slighted