according as his Custom was he framed an Answer not to gratifie the Curiosity of the Askers but to reveal to the World what was the Will of God should be revealed For there are some future Events which the Divine Wisdom thinks fit to make known to men the better to prepare them to receive or avoid them Others again which it thinks fit to hide from them not only to restrain their Curiosity but to prevent their Trouble Our Lord being therefore to speak of Future things and the secret Counsels of God as the Subject was Prophetick he treats of them in a Prophetick i. e. in a more Obscure Strain than when he taught the Doctrines and Precepts of Life Not that there is any imperfection in his expressing himself or uncertainty of that which he foretold but as Solomon says It is the Glory of God to conceal a thing as 't is the Honour of Kings to search out a matter Christ spoke sufficiently plain what his purpose was should then be known and what was not he kept still under a Cloud However therefore there are those that undertake to say He handles one Question precisely to such a Verse and another to such a Verse and the like there are no discernible Transitions in his Discourse but he seems purposely to involve the matter he speaks of to treat sometimes of two Questions together and sometimes of all three promiscuously uttering himself one while literally another while allegorically Which has caused some to conceive that his whole Discourse has respect but to one thing Which some will have to be the Day of Judgment Others to the temporal Destruction only of the Jewish Nation by the Romans expounding the Eagles in my Text of the Roman Standards or Ensigns and all the other Wonders and Prodigies that are mentioned The darkning of the Sun and Moon the falling of the Stars c. allegorically of the Change that should be in the Church and State of Israel parallel to the like Allegory us'd in the second of Joel Some understand by the Eagles in my Text the Elect or Faithful and by the Body about which they shall be gathered together the Person of Christ to which they shall fly as to their Spiritual Food But it seems very strange when the Disciples enquired of our Lord three things and his Words comport so well to the Satisfaction of all three that he should be thought to answer to None or but to one of them which yet we must say if we admit of any of the Interpretations I have instanc't in As therefore not only as more congruous to Reason but to the Passages in our Lord's Discourse we may determine that he answers however indistinctly to all his Disciples Queries And as there is no Question but that he speaks of his Coming to destroy Jerusalem and his wicked Crucifiers So there is as little doubt to be made that he speaks also of the Destruction of the World at the last Day and his coming to judge it For however the Calamity of the Jews was so great the Tragical Circumstances of the Subversion of their Nation so dismal that it was a kind of Dooms-day to them and their particular Destruction may be resembled to the General Destruction of the World Yet they that shall duely consider the formidable Phaenomena or Appearances the Scene of mixt Majesty and Terrour set out by S t Matthew must confess they are Incommunicable to any other Event but his coming to judge the World and the Dissolution of the visible Heaven and Earth and can be affixt to none beside but figuratively and improperly So that not only to accommodate but to appropriate them to a less Accomplishment with the exclusion of the greater seems an Interpretation intolerable I shall not therefore scruple to proceed to understand the Words as I have begun of the last Judgment Particularly that by the Body in my Text or by the Carcase as S t Matthew has it is meant all Persons of the World and by the Eagles the Angels whose Office it shall be as God's Apparators to summon and bring together at the Last Day the Quick and the Dead before the Tribunal of Christ. And the End or Drift of an Emblem or Parable being chiefly to be regarded and not the particular Words rack'd for what Mysteries may possibly be found in them I shall insist no longer at present to consider what Comparisons may be brought from Carcasses and Eagles or the like but observe from the General Scope of the Words these three things I. That at the Last Day there shall be an Exact Discrimination and Distinction between the Righteous and the Wicked II. That there shall be a particular Visible Place to which all men shall be brought together to Judgment III. That Men very hardly or very unwillingly believe these things I begin with the first of these That at the Last Day there shall be an Exact Discrimination made between the Righteous and the Wicked The Almighty and Wise God finds it not Expedient while this World remains continually to be giving outward and ocular Demonstrations either of his Approbation of the Faithful or of his Detestation of the Wicked the most which he does in the Course of his Providence is sometimes to check the Madness of the one that they grow not insupportable and to encourage the Vertue of the other that they may not be dejected but as Solomon says There is no convincing Argument from visible Occurrences of God's love or hatred to either of them And the Unrighteous take from hence no little heart to run on in their Evil Ways and to deride the Faithful for losing the certain pleasures of a present Life for the uncertain Hopes of a future they see no Difference made between themselves and the Godly in this World and they conceive there will be as little in the next flatter themselves that their Sins will either be buried with them in the Grave and forgotten in that long Night or else shuffled and lost in the vast Heap of semblable Transgressions of other men But as it is the Quality of Cold to congeal and unite together into one Lump things heterogeneous or of divers Sorts as Sticks Straws Stones c. and of the Thaw when it comes to dissolve the Union and then the Stones and like heavy Bodies are precipitated Straws and light Bodies float and those of a middle Nature are suspended between both So though in this World the Innocent and Guilty cohabit together and make but one Lump or Corporation yet at the Dissolution of it some Men shall be precipitated into the Bottomless Pit and others again exalted above the Region of the Stars Or else as at the Creation all things made but one Chaos and appear'd to be but of one and the same Nature till God by his Divine Power separated them and then the Lighter flew up to the Heavens or higher Parts of the World and the Heavier settled on
for Sin if Christ had not come in the Flesh no Redemption no Salvation of the World if the God of the World had not vouchsafed to have been born of a Woman Yes some perhaps will say God of his free Grace might have pardoned mens sins without the Incarnation of his Son or any Sacrifice or Atonement for them What belongs to this will fall-in in the next Place the handling the Purpose of the Manifestation of Christ in the â—â—â—sh which was To take away our Sins It is no Wisdom barely to understand things but this is Wisdom To understand the Purpose of things Generally the greatest Naturalists among us admire the World this stupendous Workmanship of the Almighty and Eternal Agent and think they have studied and observed fairly if they have arrived to the Knowledge of the Qualities and Properties of some particular Natural Bodies but rarely do they deduce them from their first Original the Creator and rarelier discern the chief End for which they were created they see a continual corruption and generation of Sublunary Beings and that by this means the succession of the Universe is maintained but pierce not so deep as to see that this is done not so much for the continuance of the World as for the continuance of God's Glory in the World and that many Ages may see and acknowledge his Power and partake of his Bounty and Goodness And so it is with many Believers under the Gospel they read what 's written of Christ they magnifie his Miracles admire his holy Life and Doctrine commemorate his Sufferings celebrate his Festivals But what was the main Design of these things what they were to bring to pass in the World they reflect not on as they ought to do but stand in need to be put in mind of it as the first Christians our Apostle here wrote to All men are ready to assent to this Saying of St. Paul Great is the mystery God was manifest in the Flesh justify'd in the Spirit seen of Angels preached to the Gentiles c. But then that all these Mysteries are Mysteries of Godliness i. e. such as should produce Godliness Vertue and Piety in all those to whom they are preached and revealed make them renounce their wicked ways and fulfil the Law of righteousness this they neither penetrate into nor care to be convinc'd of We cannot be therefore too solicitous and assiduous in making known the End and awakening men to the consideration of the Design and Purpose of the Transactions of their Salvation as necessary to be understood as the Transactions themselves As our Apostle does not only teach That Christ was manifested in the Flesh but adds also the Reason of it that 't was to take away our sins And this being his chief design in my Text I shall endeavour to explain How Christ assuming our Flesh did take away our sins For the contrary may be imagined that by taking our Flesh he should have taken likewise our sins but not have taken them away But Christ by his Incarnation took away our sins two ways He took them away From us And took them away out of us or From within us First He took away our sins from us And this he did by taking them upon himself and paying to God the forfeiture for them undergoing the punishment of their guilt in our behalf so that they were no longer our sins but his own the Original sin of Adam after this manner and all the Actual sins since of the whole World he made his own To speak strictly indeed the Guilt of sin can never be taken away for sin after 't is once committed remains for ever sinful but in a Legal and Political sence Sin may be said to be taken away from us when the Guilt of it is transferr'd and the Punishment undergone by another and the Word in the Original for taking away our Sins is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies the lifting them up and is in importance the same with St. Peter's expression he bare or as the Margent of our Bible has it he bare away our sins in his Body on the Tree What our Lord said of his Exaltation on the Cross When I am lifted up from the Earth I will draw all men unto me may be affirmed of their Sins as well as of themselves of the Guilt as well as of the Persons of them that believe in him viz. that by his lifting up on the Cross the Sins of all men should be taken up from them as Exhalations are drawn up from the Earth by the heat of the Sun and after dispers'd into Air. But now if we consider seriously this great and wonderful Dispensation of God's in manifesting his Son in the Flesh to take away the Sins of the World we must certainly conceive that he had a further and more excellent aim and end in it than merely to pardon the Guilt of Sin and to cancel past Transgressions For if this had been all as 't was objected this might have been done freely and with less ado without Sacrifice or Atonement for Sin without God's sending his Son from Heaven to live so many Years upon Earth in a poor and persecuted Condition and at last to suffer a painful and ignominious Death Besides in all reason the Pardon of Sin would have been pronounced more authoritatively and satisfactorily by God in his Glory than in the Disguise of Humane Nature as the Great Lord of Heaven and Earth than as a poor Delinquent standing himself before the Tribunal of Justice Again what had all the other Mutations in the Church of the Jews the removing of the Law of Moses and the introducing a more perfect that of the Gospel to do with the bare Remission of Sin the giving so many excellent Precepts and Christ himself for an Example of a holy Life the clear discovery of a Heaven for the Reward of Well-doers and of a Hell for evil the confirming these things with so many Miracles and the Bloud of so many Divine Persons the instituting an Order of men to preach and inculcate these things to the end of the World If I say the absolving men from their past Transgressions had been all the business and nothing had been aimed at further or required of them to qualifie them to receive this Grace but barely to believe that such a Grace was offered them as too many flatter and delude themselves all these operose toilsome mysterious and astonishing Performances of Christ and the Holy Ghost might have been spar'd and any one of the least of the Sons of the Prophets would have serv'd to have proclaim'd the Remission of Sins and coming on this Errand would have found credence and welcome But alas the Case was otherwise Men were not only to be pardoned but reformed to be absolved from their Guilt but as 't is in the Benedict ' being delivered out of the hands of their Enemies they were to serve God without fear in holiness
Moloch and the Queen of Heaven So these ascribe to Chance or Fortune to Good and Bad Seasons to Humane Prudence or Folly all their Prosperity and Adversity and not to Divine Providence When I say the Goodness of God is thus injured his Benefits over-seen or denied his Judgments contemned his Righteousness hated and his Deity set at naught what wonder is it if his Love be also turned into Detestation and Hatred When Men hate they wish the Person hated may perish they wish it I say because their Power does not always answer their Anger but God to whom it is as easie to destroy as to be angry when he hates he sends certain Ruine and Destruction on the Offenders he punishes with the same Facility as he says in my Text I will punish you for all your iniquities And now to hang our Ancestors Picture in our Gallery if I may so allude to set the Actions of Israel by ours that we may draw some Instructions from them I could almost wish that this Proposition Whatever People God has blessed above others if they sin against him he will also punish above others were not so great a Truth so Ominously it sounds For if there be a Nation upon the Earth that God has Known i. e. distinguish'd by his Singular and Signal Favours from all others it is this of ours S t Paul reckons it among the highest Priviledges of Israel that they had the Oracles of God though we may say of them they were Oracles indeed if their Darkness be compared with the Clear Light of the Gospel revealed to us Christ was preached to them and not preached but if to any of us he be hid 't is through wilful and affected blindness and as the Apostle says He is hid only to those that perish And when through the Inundation of Barbarians and Ignorance and the worse Inundation of Corrupt Manners Errours and Superstition over-spread the Face of the whole Christian World upon the first Dawning again of the Light of the Gospel and the shaking off of this Darkness while the Abominations of Rome were yet seen and detested by all Discerning and Conscientious Believers and the Fermentation of the Truth in mens hearts was not settled again upon the Lees of Secular Policy and Interest we were rescued by God's Goodness from the Yoke of Anti-Christ But not to look back to the Benefits of remote Ages but only to those we our selves have been immediate Partakers of and are accountable for What Mercy was ever more Glorious than the Restauration of our King and Church in these our Days not to name our later though Signal and Illustrious Deliverances But as God has known us in all our Distresses and Adversities and wrought such Miracles of Mercy for us how have we received them What Miracles of Thanksgivings and Duty have we returned to him We have wrought Miracles indeed but Miracles in an Untoward Sense Miracles of Impiety and Ingratitude As God restored our King and Kingdom to their former Splendour and Glory and all of us to our forfeited Peace and Prosperity multitudes have endeavoured by their Atheistical Opinions to depose God from his Kingdom in Heaven and Government over the World As God brought us out of the Saddest and Darkest Night of Adversity into the bright Sun-shine of Felicity by a Power and Goodness like that by which he brought Light out of Darkness at the Creation there are those that have turned Light into Darkness i. e. denied and obscured all the Light of Divine Truth and Revelation again that have turned Darkness into Light made the Sins of Darkness become Sins of Light and Noon-day those Sins which were reproachful and crept into Corners in all Ages to be of Credit and Reputation in this These together with the rendering things Venerable and Sacred ridiculous and contemptible are the Miracles of these times Saint Peter says In the last days shall come Scoffers walking after their own Lusts. These two Sins Walking after their own Lusts and Scoffing at things Holy go together and 't is no wonder that this dissolute and profligate Age should mock at Religion and at all things Serious mock at their Reason and degrade it below their Sense mock at the Immortality of their Souls and level themselves with the Beasts mock the Kingdom of Heaven into a Dream and the Torments of Hell into a Fable the Creation of the World into a piece of Non-sence and Impossibility and why Because 't is more rational to believe the Doctrine of Atoms that the orderly and beautiful Frame of Heaven and Earth and all that is in them were produced by the casual shuffling together of I know not what little Particles than by the Contrivance of an Infinitely Wise and Powerful God Or again that the World was from all Eternity and that Men and all other Creatures grew at first like Plants out of the Earth and the like rather than that they were created No certainly these things are not so easie to be conceived and digested by Reason as the Doctrines that are rejected but the most Monstrous Opinions are easier to be embrac'd by Wicked men than such Truths as cannot be held together with their Vicious Lives as the Apostle says They live without God in the World and they cannot endure to hear that he made it and will judge it that their Bodies should dye and their Souls survive their Pleasures come to an End and their Guilt remain that there should be a Resurrection to Punishment and not for the Execution of their Lusts. Julian the Apostate to justifie his revolt from the Faith said of the Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have perused it I have understood it I have despised it Alas if he had approved it he must have condemned himself if he had acknowledged the Gospel to be Divine and the Way to Bliss he must have confess'd himself a Monster and the most Accursed of Mankind But that which is so great a Prodigy is that the least Night or Darkness of Atheism should be seen in this Kingdom where the Gospel shines in its Meridian that Apostasie should be found where so many glorious Manifestations of God's Power and Goodness are found We have heard that the Ungratefully Wicked the Wicked after much Good done for them are in greater Danger of God's Wrath and Displeasure than the Simply Disobedient What then can we expect our Portion should be when after so many Unparallell'd Benefits we have shew'd our selves not only Unthankful but Atheistical not only Transgressors of God's Laws but Renouncers of them Says our Prophet Verse the 5 th Will a Lion roar in the Forest when he has no Prey i. e. will he roar to no purpose when nothing provoketh him when he designs nothing by it So when God threatens Sinners does he mean nothing are the Dreadful Denunciations of his Judgments mere Empty Noise Again in the Verse before my Text says the Prophet Can two walk together
fulfill'd in the most eminent Manner They shall look on him whom they pierced 2. For the clearer Conviction and more sensible Compunction of those that denyed and murdered him For as it is the Custom again among Men to send Malefactors to be judged and executed near the Place they committed their Crimes the more to awaken their Guilt so God the more first to awaken and then to confound the daring and relentless Infidelity of our Lord's Crucifiers who after all their Persecutions wish'd his Bloud might be on them and on their Children has determin'd to pass the Sentence of Condemnation on them in the Place they perpetrated their Crimes And the Prophecy of Joel Chap. 3. seem'd to some of the Antients to countenance this Opinion That God will assemble all Nations to Judgment in the Valley of Jehoshaphat which was near adjoining to Jerusalem says the Prophet Assemble your selves all ye Heathen and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat for there I will sit to judge c. Multitudes multitudes in the Valley of Jehoshaphat for the Day of the Lord is near in the Valley of Decision Which Prophecy whatever earlier Accomplishment it had in God's judging the Heathen that were Enemies to Israel yet the Principal Completion of it has been thought to point at the last Universal Judgment And 't is a General Perswasion of the Jews that the Tryal of all Men at the Last Day shall be at Jerusalem but not understanding That the Dead shall be gathered together by the Office and Ministry of Angels they say That in whatever remoter Parts of the World they dye in their Dispersion their Bodies by the Power of God shall be roll'd along through the inward and secret Parts of the Earth to Jerusalem the Place assigned for their Resurrection and the Appearance of all Men. But now after all that has been said though we conclude not peremptorily and chorographically Where or over what Part of the Earth Christ will erect his Throne for Judgment the Scriptures being silent or very obscure as to the Place yet there is nothing that they deliver more plainly than that the Great Session or Assize at the End of the World shall be Conspicuous and Dreadful and they seem even solicitous and industrious in describing the formidable Manner of it to make in mens minds a deeper impression of the Terrours of the Lord as the Apostle calls them And as we have two Corporal Senses or Inletts of Fear into the Soul the Eye and the Ear the Word of God makes the Terrours of Dooms-Day to consist in the Objects of both these Senses viz. in fearful and amazing Sounds and in Prodigious and Ghastly Sights For 't is said That the Lord shall descend from Heaven in a Shout with the Voice of the Arch-Angel and with the Trump of God and the Dead shall rise and the Sun shall become black as Sackcloth and the Moon red as Bloud and the Stars shall fall and the Heavens be roll'd up like a Scrole c. A Picture of such Horrour which no Phancy of Man could ever have drawn or possibly conceiv'd if it had not first been Divinely revealed and though we look upon this Scheme or Draught of the Lord 's coming at present with little Concern because we suppose it to be at a great Distance yet if we would consider that the holiest Persons of old were as dead men at the Sight only of an Angel though coming to them in a familiar Shape and with a gracious Message and that we our selves are beside our selves but at the fansy'd Appearance of a Spectre or Ghost or any other Supernatural Occurrent what must our amazement and Confusion be when we shall behold the whole World in a Flame the Visible Heaven and Earth passing away with tumultuous Thunders Lightnings and Earthquakes When we shall hear the Crack of the dissolving Universe and the Groans of dying Nature when we shall behold not only one Evil Spirit but the whole accursed and damned Crew in their Horrour again when we shall behold not only one Angel but all the Host of Heaven and their Lord and ours sitting in the midst of them with all the annexes of Majesty and Terrour And this dreadful Spectacle not like one of the Visions of the old Prophets which concerned not the Beholder himself but others but such as concerns the Eternal Woe or Welfare Salvation or Damnation of every Person there present i. e. of all that ever came or shall come into the World When our Lord discoursed of these things to his Disciples and of the dreadful manner of the Destruction of the Jewish Nation as a Prelude to it they were too big for their Imaginations to conceive or their Faith to digest and they could not or durst not understand him they were in the like Astonishment the three Disciples were in at his Transfiguration when Peter said not knowing what he said Let us make three Tabernacles c. So great I say was the Consternation of the Disciples at our Lord's Words that their Reason and Spirits were in a kind of Deliquium or Swoun as well as their Faith And they answered and said unto him Where Lord a Question not of Curiosity but of Terrour and Doubt And even still to this day we find men more inclin'd to distrust what is taught of the last Judgment than to be warn'd and edify'd by it to think the things affirmed of it impossible than to follow S t Peter's Advice and to consider what manner of Persons they ought to be seeing the World shall be dissolved And so I pass to my last Observation The Vnwillingness of Men to believe a Judgment-Day So weak is the Nature of man or such is the Subtilty of our Spiritual Adversary the Devil that even when we are convinced of the Substance of many Truths yet by reason of the Strangeness and Unconceiveableness of some Circumstances of them we let go the very Substance of the Truths again and the best Men have been sometimes subject to this Infirmity The Psalmist was throughly instructed in this fundamental Truth That there was a God that judged in the Earth yet because he saw the Righteous opprest and the Wicked in prosperiry he stagger'd in his Faith and his feet as himself confesses had well-nigh slipt The Blessed Virgin could not but believe the Message of an Angel appearing at Noon-day and out-shining the Brightness of the Noon-days Light but because she was to conceive miraculously without the knowing of a man some Scruple remained in her holy breast of the Event of the Prediction The Israelites heard from their Prophets of whose Divine Mission they doubted not That if they went on in their Transgressions their Temple should be destroyed and themselves led Captive by the Gentiles but then the Conceit that God would never suffer these things to be done for his own Glory whatever their Demerits were that if they were remov'd he would want a People and if
the Swords of those whose Relations he had murthered So let no Man after a Wicked Life hope to find a Place so remote obscure or fortify'd as to protect him from God's Vengeance 'T is said That Kings have long arms and can reach Delinquents at a great Distance but the King of Kings has much longer and if the Offenders against him could take Refuge even in the Centre of the Earth obtain of the Rocks to shelter them or the Mountains to fall upon them the Angels would fetch them from thence to Judgment There are none that shall escape none that shall be dispens'd with from appearing before the Tribunal of God and receiving their Doom at the Last Day Only it is now in our power while we are yet in this Life to make it a happy or unhappy Doom a Doom that adjudges us to Crowns and Scepters or to Chains and Everlasting Torments Repentance and a Holy Life will turn that Day of Terrour into a Day of Rejoicing make the Ominous Portents the dreadful Thunders and other amazing Concomitants of it but as the loud Musick cheerful Acclamations and Solemnities which attend a Triumph or Coronation I say which attend our own Triumph and Coronation as S t Paul assures us 2 Tim. 4 8. I have finisht my Course says he I have kept the Faith henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day and not to me only but unto all them that love his appearance However the Predictions of the Last Day cause Consternation and Distraction of Mind in Wicked Doers to the Righteous they are altogether Gospel or Good Tidings they that keep God's Laws cannot chuse but love and delight in his Appearance Let the Heavens rejoice and the Earth be glad says the Psalmist Let the Field be joyful and all that is therein before the Lord And why all this Joy For he cometh for he cometh to judge the World and the People with Equity And Luke 21.28 says our Lord When these things come to pass then look up and lift up your heads for your Redemption draweth nigh To God the Father Son and Holy Ghost be ascribed all Honour Glory c. The Eighteenth Sermon 1 PETER iv 8 And above all things have fervent Charity among your selves for Charity covereth the multitude of Sins THE Commandment of Charity if we look to the Birth and Cradle of it is as ancient as Adam for this Natural Law Deal so with others as you would have them deal with you which is the radical and original Precept out of which this Gospel one did immediately issue Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self sprung-up with Nature and is as old as it mutual Love beginning with mutual Society and affection to one another being exercised as soon as there was a Pair in the World to keep it up But the Practice of the Jews in our Saviour's time much thwarted this Precept Sect was against Sect the Pharisee against the Sadducee and the Sadducee against the Pharisee and both against Christ Professions and Offices were made Crimes Publicans the Receivers of Tribute were counted Sinners again Revenge was held as lawful as Punishment Extrajudicial Righting of a man's self as Judicial Censures Do Good to those that do Good to you and Evil to those that do Evil was good Ethicks among them and the Moral Man esteem'd to appear as eminent in practising the last part of this Maxime as the first So that the Precept of Charity was in a manner wholly extinguish'd among them so overwhelmed with the Rubbish of ill Customs and worse Traditions that to clear it and make it shine out again was a Work as hard as to introduce something that never before was Which caus'd our Lord to call this Commandment a New one I give you a New Commandment says he That ye love one another New not as if it then first entred the World but because it was then renew'd to them as things redeem'd from the injury of Age and Oblivion appear fresh and new when they are brought into Use and Fashion again But we may admire that the World has so much agreed in all Times to abrogate this Law brought in at first by General Interest and of so Universal Benefit that we may say with Tully Non aquâ non igne non aëre pluribus locis utimur quà m amicitiâ we stand not more in need of water fire or air in every turn of our Lives than of Friendship or the mutual Offices of Love And if this Law were entertained it would render all other Laws useless it would disannul the Commandments by fulfilling them it would remove heaps of Legal Cautions and Provisions the two Tables would be no more necessary to Men than to Angels private Grudges open Wars Rebellions Factions Schisms would all vanish every Person would be not only more holy in himself but would cause others to be more holy many Sins would be amended by a fair Example many would be extenuated by a candid Interpretation many overcome by a kind and amicable Usage Therefore as the Apostle advises in the foregoing Verses mortifie your Lusts be sober and watch unto Prayer neglect not necessary Duty But above all things have fervent Charity among your selves for Charity shall cover the multitude of Sins In the Words we may observe these four things I. The Habit or Grace that is enjoin'd Love Not that Passion which is born with all Sensitive Creatures and is common to Men and Beasts but that Theological Vertue which is infus'd into Man only 't is not simply Love but Christian and Brotherly Love Have Charity II. The Degree of this Habit the Intenseness of this Divine Quality and that is Fervency it is not enough to have a remiss lukewarm Charity it must burn and glow in us Have fervent Charity III. The Object of this Vertue that which bounds and terminates it and is adequately commensurate to it and that is All Men in general the Object is as large as Humane Nature our Charity is not to be ty'd to Families or Tribes to Sects or Nations or whatever Partitions else Policy or Passion have made use of to distinguish and estrange men from one another but it is to be extended to all not to this or that Man but to Mankind as 't is indefinitely express'd in my Text Among your selves IV. The Inforcement of the Practice of this Quality and that is by the Recommendation of it from its Operation or Effect it covers Sins together with the Extent of that Effect not one or two but many and many Sins For Charity shall cover the Multitude of Sins I begin first with the Habit or Vertue it self contain'd in these Words Have Charity The Charity or Love here enjoined us is not I say that melting Passion that is common to Men and Beasts an affection awaken'd in us by the beholding of outward Beauty the comely
Agreeable to him for his own sake And this Rule of Love to Men may teach us what Love we ought to pay to God for we ought to wish Well to God and to procure things Good and Agreeable to him And if any ask Wherein we can do this to God I need look no further for an Answer than the second Petition in the Lord's Prayer Thy Kingdom come thy Will be done in Earth as 't is in Heaven It consists in the Execution of God's Will and the Extension of his Glory For all other things besides these are nothing to God as the Psalmist says My goods are nothing unto thee The Riches of this World and the most precious things in its account are contemptible in his Sight but these two which I have named he esteems and in some measure wants and desires possesses not perfectly and absolutely as he would All his Creatures do not acknowledge him honour him worship him delight in his Dominion pay a ready cheerful Obedience to his Commands as the Angels in Heaven do notwithstanding that they are reasonable honourable beneficial have more of Profit than of the Yoke in them But so it is there is another God of this World that blinds most men and leads them away captive with divers Lusts and they chuse rather to be Vassals and Drudges to this Usurper and Tyrant than to be Nobles and Princes even adopted Children to the King of Heaven and Earth And with good reason holy Men in every Age have pray'd for God's Kingdom i. e. the Encrease of Righteousness and of the Number of the Faithful for God is yet in a manner like those Princes which are outed of part of their Dominions and deny'd the Obedience of whole Nations of their People and his Loyal Subjects can no way shew their affection so much to him as by espousing his Interest abetting his Title employing their best Endeavours to reduce the Rebellious to Allegiance by wishing with the Psalmist That Kings and all People young men and maidens old men and children would praise and glorifie his holy Name 'T is the business of Great Ministers of State to understand the Strength and weakness of Foreign Princes the Commodities and Defects of their Countries that they make the most advantageous Alliances for their own Masters and they are held the best Politicians that do this best But if both those of the highest Condition and also of the lowest and meanest even all People would set to their Power to serve the Great Monarch of Heaven and Earth they would find no Policy comparable to this that the promoting of his Designs would be the most certain way of promoting their own whether publick or private they would find that they would thrive like Jacob that all things would prosper under their hands like Joseph that they would return with constant Victory like David and heap up Gold and Silver like Solomon Numa though a Heathen rely'd so confidently on this Policy that when he was told on a time That the Enemy was drawing up against him he answer'd And I am praying against them And when 't was said They were charging he reply'd and he was Sacrificing assuring himself the Gods would not neglect his Safety while he was solicitous for their Worship But you will say Is it needful that we should wish for the Encrease of God's Kingdom does he want the help of his Creatures No. Is he not Omnipotent and can bring to pass whatever seems good to him Yes Who has resisted his Will As the Question is ask'd None and yet it may be as truly said Who is there that has not resisted his Will What was spoken of Israel may be affirmed of all Mankind that they are a rebellious and gain-saying People God 't is true is Omnipotent and his Power never fails he brought the World out of nothing by his Word and by his bare Word can reduce it again to nothing if he had pleas'd he could have created a Generation of Men that should have served him regularly and constantly fatally and necessarily as the Fire burns and the Sun and the Moon move in their Courses But this is not the Service that God wants and which we are to pray for in his behalf 't is the Free and Voluntary not the Constrain'd Service of his Rational Creatures that Men would obey him out of Love and Choice as his Dominion is gracious that they would desire it as it is beneficial and honourable that they would delight in it Compell'd Righteousness is no Righteousness 't is in Obedience as in Charity he that gives grudgingly and of necessity does not give but is tax'd and he that obeys of Compulsion is a Slave and not a Votary 'T is reported of the famous Painter Apelles that when he had finish'd any rare Piece his custom was latere post tabulam to hide himself behind it that he might hear what Passengers said of it and that he car'd for no Approbation but what came in this free way After the like manner God exposes to the View and Consideration of Men his Works of Power and of Wisdom of Mercy and of Goodness and then delights latere post tabulam to conceal himself in his inaccessible Glory and to observe what free and unextorted Returns of Honour and Love they will bring him in all forc'd or feign'd Superstitious and Hypocritical Acknowledgments being odious to him And now after all that has been said in strict speaking God stands no more in need of our Obedience and Worship than he does of our Riches as 't is said Acts 17.24 He dwelleth not in Temples made by hands neither is he worshipp'd by mens hands The meaning of his being outed of part of his Kingdom and denied his full Dominion in truth signifies no more But that he has not yet extended the Salvation of Men to the Bounds his Goodness designed But to proceed We said Love did not only Wish but Procure things good and acceptable to the Person belov'd and we ought not only to wish the Execution of God's Will and the Extension of his Glory but to set-to our hands to Effect what we pray for as it is not sufficient in Point of Charity to give good Words only to the Poor to say Be thou warm be thou fill'd God assist thee and the like when we can supply what they want our selves so 't is not sufficient in our Love to God to say only Thy Kingdom come thy Will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven but we must zealously and industriously do his Will and endeavour all we can to promote his Kingdom Says our Lord to S t Peter Simon Peter lovest thou me Lord reply'd he thou knowest that I love thee And yet notwithstanding that he knew the Sincerity of his heart he ask'd him the same Question three times Why to grieve Peter or that he delighted in the repetition of the Profession of his Love No but to excite him to a more
and righteousness before him all the days of their life That men therefore may not mistake the principal Design for which Christ came into the World our Apostle plainly declares it at the 8 th Verse For this purpose says he the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the Devil Christ came not only to pardon Sin but to destroy it not only to absolve a wicked World but to make a righteous to take away the condemnation but the commission of Sin And therefore the second way I named of Christ's taking away our Sins From within us ought to be taken into our highest consideration For can it be imagined that he should descend from the Bosome of his Father and visit the Earth for no other end but to make a Gaol-Delivery as I may say to reprieve so many Rake-Hells only and condemn'd Persons and to turn them loose again into the World to commit more villanies The whole Tenor of the Gospel speaks otherwise that Christ was born in the Flesh that we might be regenerate and new-born of the Spirit that he was crucified that we might crucifie our vile Lusts and Affections dyed for the Guilt of Sin that we might dye to the Practice of it suffer'd to excuse us from suffering but not to excuse us in any wickedness he cast out the Hand-writing or Accusation of Satan against us to no other end but that we should cast out Satan himself and his Kingdom out of our hearts and erect in the place God's Kingdom or the Kingdom of righteousness So that the manifestation of Christ in the Flesh to take away our sins imports no less than his rectifying that ugly confusion and disorder which Sin had wrought in the Universe and the deposing Satan from his Usurpation over the World than the restoring God to his Dominion and his Creatures to his Obedience the repairing his Honour and giving satisfaction not to one Attribute only his Justice but to all his other Attributes his Wisdom Truth Goodness Holiness c. And this was a Design worthy of the Incarnation of the Deity of the travel sufferings and all the other Glorious Works of the Messiah of his unhinging and unframing the Course of Nature by his Miracles for it was to no less end than to re-establish it again in the beautiful Frame and Order which God at first created it in before the Devil had disfigured and deformed it And for this Cause the Evangelists in relating the Passages of Christ's life often take us off from looking too intently on the Events which they record and call upon us to consider the Purposes of them rather than the Events themselves bidding us regard the Prophecies that went before of them frequently repeating that it might be fulfilled that it might be fulfilled that was spoken by such or such a Prophet And if we will make the best advantage of Christ's Incarnation we must not look so much on the Fact as on the design of the Fact what it intimates and preaches to us viz. the extinction and extirpation of Sin not only of the Guilt but of the reigning Power of it According to what S t Peter says As he has suffered for us in the Flesh arm your selves likewise with the same mind for he that has suffered in the Flesh hath ceased from Sin This arming-our selves with the same mind and ceasing from Sin in the Flesh was that which God chiefly aimed at in his Manifestation of his Son in the Flesh To the end as the Apostle goes on that we should no longer live the rest of our time in the Flesh to the lusts of men but to the will of God And to shew us yet further that the bringing of men to live righteously was the great aim of God in all Ages of the World says St. Peter For this cause was the Gospel preached also to those that are dead i. e. to those of the old World that they might live according to God in the Spirit Let every Christian therefore that professes the Faith of Christ's coming in the Flesh to take away Sin and yet lives in it hearken and attend to this Admonition Remember thy End In the Place where the Son of Syrach utters these Words he means the End or Consummation of our Days as we are natural men which is good Wisdom But remember thy end i. e. the Design and Purpose of thy Christian Profession and the Mysteries of it for this is yet a higher degree of Wisdom And before I yet leave this Point I shall give caution against two sorts of Men who greatly pervert this Advice And first Against the Papists who play and trifle with the weightiest Passages of our Salvation as Poets and Romance-Writers do with serious Histories turn them into Gauds and Entertainments of the Fancy make Models and Representations in their Churches of Christ's lying in the Manger at this holy Season and of his rising from the Grave at the Feast of Easter with all the circumstances belonging to them as if such Puppet-Shews were adequate and sutable Returns of Devotion for these Divine Dispensations Again they gather and hoard up the Nails and Fragments of our Lord's Cross as if they treasured to their Souls the Benefits of his Passion hug his Crucifix and weep over the Pictures of his Wounds as if this express'd a Seraphical Affection though they hug also at the same time the grossest Sins The second Caution is against those among our selves who yet worse abuse the Purpose of the Manifestation of Christ in the Flesh making it to be more for the encouragement than the taking away of Sin fansying that he died to excuse them from holy living was made subject to the Law that they might be freed from the Obedience of it perform'd all righteousness that they should need to perform none and these men pray as they believe O Lord say they do thou all in us and for us and take thou the glory Thus exempting themselves from all Obligations to the Commandments and making the Faith a jest and scorn to Libertines and Unbelievers while they talk only more of a holy Life than they but practise it as little make the Cross of Christ not a Sanctuary to Penitent Sinners but a refuge for Hypocrites and Cheats in Religion and yet none are so righteous so much in God's favour in their own opinion as these But they will find at last to their great confusion That Christ was manifested in the Flesh not only to take away our Sins From us but also to take them away Out of us or from within us And he does this by three Means or Expedients By his Spirit by his Word and by his Example First By his Spirit After the Manifestation of Christ in the Flesh his Suffering and being laid in the Grave he was quickned or raised to life again by the Spirit of God and exalted to have the Power and Prerogative of sending down the Spirit
as a worse evil than Scarcity God thus making his Punishments a Riddle while he confounds us no less by his Blessings than his Judgments as if he would at once confute and deride the Atheism that denies his Providence and ascribes all Events to Natural Causes letting men see their Wealth cannot enrich them their Victories advantage them their Wisdom profit them without his Blessing and concurrence But that which ought most tenderly and sensibly to affect us is the Fatality in the Royal Family so many of those Illustrious Branches having been snatcht away of late Years in their Youth or Infancy that we may compute our Annals by the Death of one or more of our Princes the Royal House Alas being only fruitful to the Grave But to proceed As the Consumption mentioned in my Text may be thus twofold so the Persons threatned to be consumed are also twofold and the threatning of the last is set down by way of Aggravation of the Evil Ye shall be consumed both ye and your King But there will not want some Sons of Belial to say here What Part have we in David or Inheritance in the Son of Iesse that this should be held a matter of so great moment so high an aggravation of our misery that not only our selves shall be destroyed but our King also The Speech of the People is When I dye all the World dyes with me not only all my thoughts perish as the Psalmist says but all my care and concern for my Relations also perish whether as of a Father for my Children or as of an Husband for my Wife or yet as of a Subject for my Prince So that to say Ye shall be consumed nay more your Prince shall be consumed aggravates the terrour but as if one should threaten Your Limbs shall be torn on the Rack nay further Your Garments shall be torn also No doubt I say but there are too many of these Sheba's in our Israel But yet where ingenuity and natural goodness honour and generosity are not quite extinguished by self-love and interest there is in many men a care of others their near Relations even beyond themselves and after their Decease And this made Lawgivers enact for a further terrour to evil Workers the destruction of Wives and Children for the offences of Fathers and Husbands ut haberent aliquid quod timerent qui mortem non timent that they that feared not Death as to their own Persons might yet fear it reaching to those for whom they had a greater tenderness than for themselves And we see those frequently among us that chuse to wear their lives out in a noysom Prison or to dye under the torture of the Press that by these means they may preserve a poor maintenance for those they leave behind them Why the Relation of a Subject to his King of a People to their Prince is in just estimation the chiefest and highest of Relations the principal in importance though not the nearest in Bloud which the men of Israel rightly understood when they called David the light of their eyes and preferr'd him before so many thousands of themselves And also the People of Rome when upon the Election of just Numa they rejoyced as Plutarch says as if they had not only obtained a new King but a new Kingdom Indeed the felicity of a Nation is bound up in the Person of the King and waxes or wains according to his Vertue Well therefore may we pray heartily and truly for our King as the Romans were wont to pray flatteringly for their Tyrant-Emperours Demas annos meos mihi addas Caesari Take O Jupiter from the number of my Years and add them to the account of Caesar's esteeming the King's life a greater Blessing to us than our own the destruction threatned to him more dreadful than the destruction threatned to our selves looking upon the Commination in my Text as the highest aggravation of Evils Ye shall dye for your Sins nay your religious your victorious or your gracious Prince shall dye also But some perhaps will say here Is it just and righteous with God to destroy a good King for the transgressions of his People Surely yes and the Scripture affirms as much For the transgressions of a People many are the Princes thereof and in the second Commandment God says He will visit the sins of the Father upon the Children and for the same reason of any Relation upon his Correlation as of a Subject upon the Prince For though the Subjects are Vassals and Homagers to the Prince both Prince and Subjects are Vassals aad Homagers to God and may be disposed of by him as he sees best for the ends of his Glory But then though it be righteous in God to cut off a good Prince for the punishment of his People because he can translate him to a better life and turn his Crown of Gold into a Crown of Glory yet wo be to those Subjects who any way contribute to their Prince's or Countries misfortune either by their wicked Plots or wicked lives by their immediate Conspiracies against them or their remoter as I may say of their sins against their Peace and prosperity For if men commit great offences and go on obstinately in them they sin not only against their own Souls but the Publick Safety Which brings me to my second general Part The Case wherein the Commination in my Text shall take place wherein both King and People are threatned to be consumed If ye shall still do wickedly The things wherein both Israel and their Forefathers continually did wickedly the Scripture tells us were Infidelity Stubbornness Ingratitude Murmuring openly upon the least want or distress against their best Governours but covertly and secretly against God himself Proneness to Idolatry Incontinence the very Sins for which the Nations were cast out before them to which the present Generation added over and above the demanding a King with the design to exclude God from ruling over them For we must note here That the greatness of the present sin of Israel consisted not in desiring a King simply in renouncing as some would have it the sweet Government of the Sanhedrim or Council of Elders for the Regal and more Tyrannical Power For not to say any thing in vindication of Monarchy that 't is the best of Governments not only by the consent of the wisest men of all Ages but by the attestation of Nature or rather the God of Nature in all Orders and Subordinations of things both in Heaven and Earth 't was God's express Purpose from the beginning to establish Israel under a Monarchical Government and Deut. 17. some hundreds of Years before a King was demanded the Laws concerning a King were set down by Moses Neither did the greatness of their Sin consist in desiring a King inordinately precipitately rebelliously not attending God's time nor consulting his Will in so important an Affair these were Aggravations of their Sin but not their
Sin it self which was no other than Apostasie at least in purpose and determination a resolution not only to shake off the Yoke of God's Political Government but also to break his Yoke of righteousness from off their Necks And that their Sin was of no common nature the miraculous Rain and Thunder v. 17. sent to reprove them are a sufficient Argument But we have no need to conjecture what their Offence was for God himself declares it to Samuel C. 8. v. 7. They have not rejected thee says God but they have rejected Me that I should not reign over them Their desire to be governed as the Nations of the Earth was indeed To live after the licentious manner of the Nations of the Earth not so much to have a King like them as to be without God in the World like them as the Apostle speaks They were weary of the Divine Conduct uneasie under God's Discipline his Statutes and Ordinances were a burden to them thâ—â— hated on all occurrences to address themselves to the Ephod to have their last Appeal to the Deity to see the Cloud descend upon the Tabernacle on every miscarriage as in the days of their Fathers The Presence of the Living God is dreadful to Flesh and Bloud in its purest and holiest state well then might these Rebels wish him further removed from them that were conscious to themselves not only of infirmities but of purposed defection from him not only of defects and failures but of direct Apostasie And as the Greatness of their Sin thus consisted not in desiring a King but in revolting in their hearts from God so their still doing wickedly which is so severely threatned in my Text could not possibly be as some interpret their persisting in the desire to have a King God had already given them a King before the Prophet denounced the Commination in my Text and not only so but he had promised a Blessing upon his Reign and also on them in case of future obedience as may be seen at the 14 th Verse Their Still doing wickedly therefore must be their persisting and going on to accomplish their wicked design to forsake God their making good their Apostasie in Act as well as in Determination and Purpose their giving themselves up like the Heathen to whatsoever their Lusts prompted them to and this out of a Perswasion that they might sin more securely under the Dominion of Flesh and Bloud than under the Dominion of God And this was the Case in which the Universal Destruction the Destruction of King and People is threatned in my Text. All Sin and Doing wickedly offends God but Presumption in sinning persisting and resolving to do wickedly turns him into a consuming Fire when men add wickedness to wickedness and draw iniquity as the Prophet says with a Cart-rope i. e. with a long Series or Train of evil Deeds not interrupting or breaking them off by Repentance but lying down to sleep in sin and rising up to return again to it making sin the business of their lives and not only transgressing against God and his Laws but renouncing them And we find in After-ages when the Children fell into the Apostasie which their Fathers only consulted of at this time when I say their King instead of humbling himself upon hearing God's wrath denounced against him Cut the Roll and cast it into the Fire and the People presumptuously told his Prophet As for the Words that thou hast spoken unto us in the Name of the Lord we will not hearken unto them But we will certainly do whatsoever goeth forth of our own mouth to burn Incense to the Queen of Heaven c. as it is Jerem. 44.17 For three iniquities and for four says God I will visit my People By three is understood many or very much as we say thrice happy and thrice honourable for exceeding happy and honourable When a Nation comes up to be thrice i. e. exceeding sinful their condition is dangerous but when it goes beyond that and is four times sinful then 't is no marvel if God also sets no Bounds to his Anger but says Nunc exurgam I will now arise and visit and as they have vext me with their transgressions I will vex them with my Judgments as they have cast me out of their Hearts I will cast them out of my Sight as they will allow me no longer to be their God I will pluck them up by the Roots and allow them no longer to be a People and Nation or which is all one a happy People a flourishing Nation governed as in times past But I will eclipse their Glory and change their Laws together with many thousands of them cut off their King and they that remain shall be in a worse condition as Sheep without a Shepherd They shall be a living and lasting Destruction I am now come to the full Close and Period of my Text and what Use or Application shall I make of that which we have heard Shall I endeavour to set forth the Heroick Vertues of our murthered King and shew that he fell not for his own Sins but the Sins of his People that the impious Act of executing a Sovereign Prince by a pretended Process of Law was a higher Strain of Treason than to have dispatcht him with a Dagger or an empoysoned Cup the one being Treason only against a single Monarch but the other against Monarchy in general These things I confess may be worthy of a pious Pains and a pious Attention but alas what would they profit here where they are already acknowledged Or what would it profit to dilate either on the Vertues or Vices of other men when we are so apt to think on the one side that while we only extol the Vertues of Heroick Persons we go Half-sharers with them in their Vertues like the Cryers in the Olympick Games who fansied while they pronounced only audibly and volubly the Victors Names and Victories part of their Glory redounded to them And again on the other side while we declame against Vice that we are free from all imputation of Vice our selves my Text calls us to other Considerations not only to look back on Evils past but forward on worse Evils to come I say on worse while but on the same repeated for if it be a sad reflection that we have been totally destroyed 't is certainly a much sadder that we may be so destroyed again that if we shall still do wickedly we shall be consumed both we and our King This consideration if rightly made use of will excite us rather to call our own Sins to remembrance than to commemorate the Sins of other men to arraign and condemn the evil deeds are found in our selves than to employ our time in raking into the crimes of the Age that 's past And in order to our doing this I shall instance in three Particulars in which this Nation seems most to tread the steps of Israel and to be in danger
me advise you Not to weep for what Christ suffer'd more than sixteen hundred Years ago for your sakes seeing he is now at the Right Hand of his Father in Glory but to weep for your Own Souls that you have made no more Advantage by his Sufferings Weep not therefore because he was mockt and spit on and set at nought by the Souldiers but weep because thou thy self hast despis'd him set his Gospel at nought perhaps derided it Sigh not because Christ was scourg'd and crown'd with Thorns and hung so many hours upon the Cross but sigh truly and deeply that all these things have not moved thee to forsake one Sin or to mortifie one Lust mourn sensibly and pungently that he drunk the bitter Cup of his Passion in vain as to thee or for thy greater Condemnation For if it be a Sad Reflection that he liv'd a persecuted and afflicted Life and dy'd a Calamitous Death 't is yet a much Sadder that such his Sufferings do not Expiate but aggravate thy Guilt and Damnation The second Use I shall desire you to make of the painful and ignominious Death of so Divine a Person as the Messiah is to consider the Malignant Nature of Sin which however easily and hourly regardlesly and remorslesly we commit cost our Lord his Heart bloud to expiate and after we were once infected by it nothing less than his being Accurs'd could put us into a Capacity again of being Blest nothing but his being Cut-off could restore us to Life and Felicity Let the third Use we make of the Messiah's Death be To consider how precious a Thing the Soul of a Man is that 't is such a Jewel that the Son of God came down from Heaven to save from perishing compass'd the Earth like a greedy Merchant to purchase set his Glory and Life at nought to ransome And now 't is ransom'd at so Immense a Rate is of more Value than before and he that sells it now for Gold or Pleasure or any other Worldly Consideration sells not only an Immortal Spirit but a Divine Purchace sells his Soul Redeem'd parts with his Soul and his Messiah too delivers it up together with the Ransom and Satisfaction after no more can be expected When the Devil therefore offers to barter with us his beggarly and deceitful Wares for this Divine Treasure as the Satyrist said with indignation to a Gluttonous Person that gave more for a Fish than would have bought the Fisherman Hoc pretium Squamae all this Revenue for Finns and Scales So let us say with no less Indignation Shall we give our Immortal Souls the Bloud of Christ and Eternal Glory for a little Momentary Pleasure such as the very Slaves to it set often below a contemptible Summ of Money even when they have drawn their Purse and bid for it put it up again as thinking it too dear I proceed to the Circumstance of the Time of the Cutting-off the Messiah After threescore and two Weeks From what Epocha or Computation of Time these threescore and two Weeks begin to be reckon'd or in what King 's Reign they determin'd is very difficult to pronounce by reason that the Scripture is silent in the Extent or Number of Years of the Reigns of the Kings of Persia and those Accounts we have from Heathen Writers however competently punctual and sutable to their own Chronologies yet to make them fall in and come to a Concurrence with Holy Story one reckoning by Lunary Years and the other by Solary has been found a very hard Task insomuch that some that have labour'd over-curiously in this matter while they have sought to reconcile the Times have lost much of their own and instead of giving Satisfaction have only forfeited their Discretion I shall not therefore engage in so difficult and ambitious an Undertaking but content my self to follow the Conclusion of the soberest Expositors hasting through the ragged Ways and barren Tracts of Chronology and Arithmetick as a Traveller that delights not in his Journey and not sitting down and amusing my self in them as if I took pleasure in the Passage The plain Account is this The Prophet Jeremy long before our Prophets time had foretold that the Captivity of the Jews in Babylon should continue seventy Years Now Daniel being a Captive in Babylon about the End of this time and mindful of Jeremy's Prophecy besought of God by fasting and Supplications an Accomplishment of the promis'd Deliverance whereupon an Angel was sent to him with much more Gladsome Tydings than he expected viz. to assure him that not only at the Expiration of the Seventy Years prefixt the People should certainly return but that after Seventy Weeks of Years more i. e. seventy times seven Weeks a Week of Years consisting of seven Years the righteous and glorious Prince Messiah should be sent And the more to confirm Daniel in this joyful News the Angel according to the Distribution of the Time for the bringing this Counsel and Determination of God to pass divides the Seventy Weeks of Years into three Parts assigns seven Weeks of Years for the rebuilding Jerusalem and the Temple threescore and two from that to the Birth of the Messiah and his Cutting-off or at least for the Preaching of the Gospel by his Disciples and one Week of Years remaining for the destroying of Unbelievers as these things may be collected from ver 21. to the end of the Chapter In which Distribution of Time God's singular Goodness and Wisdom in chusing the Season for sending his Son into the World is very remarkable He sent him not the first seven Weeks or forty nine Years after the Jews return from Babylon that the City and Sanctuary were building and the Nation re-establishing for that was a busie and troublesome Time but sixty two Weeks after that when they were setled and at Leisure to attend Divine things And for this Reason God also so order'd it that Christ should be born in a Calm and Serene Age of the World in the peaceful Reign of Augustus Caesar when as the Historian says universi terrarum orbis aut pax aut pactio that there was either an Universal Peace or Treaty of Peace through the Whole World God thus stilling the Noise of Wars and the Tumults of the Nations that the Voice of his Son might be heard gave men nothing to intend that they might intend Religion But though he offer'd the Jews this Opportunity for their Salvation they laid not hold of it but when they were disengaged from Civil Affairs they engaged and immers'd themselves in all manner of Sin and Wickedness when their Wars ceas'd their Lusts began to rage when the Architects and Builders had finish'd their Work the Contrivers of Iniquity set to plot and contrive theirs So that few were at leisure to compute how Daniel's Weeks for the coming of the Messiah past away and much less to prepare themselves for his Reception and accordingly when he appear'd so far they were
Indignities of a Humane Life His Sufferings indeed were antecedent to his Exaltation but his Exaltation was not the End or Reason of his Sufferings God highly exalted him and gave him a Name above every Name that at the Name of Jesus every Knee should bow of things in Heaven and things in Earth and things under the Earth but this was the Result or Event of the Merit of his Humiliation not the Design of it And the Joy which as the Apostle says was set before him and made him endure the Cross and despise the Shame was a Contemplation of the Redemption and Recovery of Lost Man and of the Glory redounding to God by his Atchievement more than of his own Glory There are but two Sorts of Creatures in the Whole Lump of the Creation for whom the Excision of the Messiah could possibly be namely Angels and Men but the Scripture excludes the first He took not upon him the Nature of Angels but took upon him the Seed of Abraham and the Ancients interpret That the Nature that was not assum'd was not ransom'd The State of the Angels Good and Bad immediately after the Fall of those that kept not their Station was made Immutable and they are Happy or Accursed without Change For Men therefore alone the Benefit was and it being said for Men indefinitely it must be understood of all the Race of Mankind the Men of all Nations and of all Times quocunque sub axe how remote or in what Clime soever quocunque sub scelere how remote from Righteousness or under what Sins soever all that Believe all that Repent are of the Number of those for whom Christ was cut off as S t John says He is the Propitiation for our Sins and not for ours only but for the Sins of the Whole World None are so much cut off from Goodness but Christ was cut off to bring them to Righteousness and Salvation And now to draw to a Conclusion What does this Universal this Wonderful Love of Christ preach to us Who when he was not capable as God to dye for us as our Condition required espoused our Nature first that he might espouse our Miseries after and that he might bring us to perfect Felicity was content to be made perfect by Sufferings as the Apostle speaks As I said before an affected weeping and sorrowing in remembrance of Christ's Passion was but an Insignificant Return for his Sufferings So I may say here an Empty Admiration of his Love will be as Vain as Ungrateful and as unacceptable an Acknowledgment of his Goodness The Return he expects for his Unspeakable Love is that we according to our Measures and proportions should shew the like Love to our Brethren And this is the Consequence S t John draws from the Love of Christ If Christ so loved us we ought to love one another But what Kind of Love is it which is requir'd of us For the Love commonly practis'd in the World is but a Confederation for Lust and Pleasure or an Association like that of Merchants for Interest and Profit Moralists observe three Kinds of Love in regard of the Ends of them Love for Pleasure sake Love for Profit and Love for Vertues sake Now the last only of these bears any Resemblance to the Love of Christ which we are to imitate and which is more perfectly described by the Pen of S t Paul To be first a Benevolence or Well-willing to others as to our Selves not excluding our very Enemies a Candid and favourable Interpretation of all Mens Actions a Meek Conceit of our selves and a Lowliness towards others ready to forgive Injuries and to overcome Evil with Good c. which Love the Apostle prefers even before Martyrdom Secondly a Mutual Compassion and being affected as our Brethren are a sorrowing with them that sorrow and a rejoycing with them that rejoyce as the Apostle says like Members of the same Body suffering all if one suffers and if one be honoured all rejoycing Thirdly a Beneficence or Liberal Contribution to those that need exprest in these Words But to do Good and to Contribute forget not And this Love it seems the Church was so happy in in S t Paul's days that he thought it superfluous to recommend it among other Duties to the Thessalonians But as touching Brotherly Love says he ye need not that I should write unto you But had the Apostle liv'd in these days he would have thought it necessary not only to say Love one another love Strangers love your Enemies but love your Friends love your Selves For we see Men destroy their Souls for the love of their Bodies and their Bodies again for the love of their Lusts. And if any in these days should pretend to love merely for Vertue and Goodness sake to have a Kindness to those that gave them an Opportunity to exercise their Charity even as unto those that did them a Good Turn they would be hiss'd at as Hypocrites and if they should love their Enemies and return Good for Evil they would be lookt on as base and degenerate despicable and ridiculous persons But had not Christ been so ridiculous as to do Good to them that hated him so degenerate as to lay down both his Life and Glory for his Enemies none that now shall be admitted into the Kingdom of Heaven should ever have come there And he that gave his Soul unto Death for our sakes looks that we should not only be Believers but Martyrs for his Sake if Occasion requires that we should be ready to be cut off for Him that was cut off for us that is be content to lay down our Lives for the Truth or the Salvation of our Brethren To God the Father Son and Holy Ghost be ascribed all Honour Glory c. Amen The Fifth Sermon ZECHARY xiii 6 And one shall say unto him What are these Wounds in thy hands Then shall he answer Those with which I was wounded in the house of my Friends THere is nothing esteemed more barbarous than to violate the Laws of Hospitality to outrage a Stranger-Guest The sense of Mankind in this Particular may be seen by the fatal Revenge taken for the abuse of the Levite's Concubine which occasioned the destruction well near of a whole Tribe in Israel But then the Violation of an Ambassadour and of such an one as comes to offer Peace and Alliance not only to break the Laws of Hospitality but of Nations to Evil-Entreat a Sacrosanct Person and to return Hostility for Friendship and Amity what can be found sufficient to make an Atonement for such Inhumanity How beautiful are the feet of them that bring glad Tydings of Good things And how deformed and detestable on the other side must the Ingratitude of those be that are injurious to such Messengers 'T is no wonder if such Barbarity creates irreconcileable Feuds inter mortales inimicitias immortales between mortal men immortal Enmities Yet the Prophet Zechary foretells that such
Success The Life of a Christian is full of Difficulties and Troubles many Lusts are to be mortifi'd many Affections to be rectifi'd many Vices to be rooted out and many Vertuous Habits to be acquir'd which things are not Easie even to the best of Men again Persecutions and Evils loss of Goods of Liberty and Life it self are the Lot often of the most Righteous and for their Righteousness So that there was need of a Great Encouragement and a Generous Precedent to excite Men to undertake the Heroick Duties of Christianity God therefore afforded them his Own Son clothed in our Nature to go before them his Own Son I say to add the Greater Authority to his Example and cloathed in our Flesh to remove all Objections which Sloth might otherwise make against the Possibility of following his Steps I am not Equal says one to the Burdens and Dangers required in a Christian Life able to undergo Imprisonment Beggary Martyrdom c. Behold my Hands and my Feet says Christ these Wounds I suffered for thy Salvation and canst not thou who art framed of the same Flesh and Bloud endure as much for thy Self as another could endure for thee Says another I cannot digest Injuries and Affronts my Temper my Profession of Life are inconsistent with these things Learn of me says Christ I am lowly and meek and when I was enthron'd in the highest Heavens I disdained not to descend into this World in the form of a Servant and to bear Indignities and Outrages when the Wisdom of God so order'd it and well then mayst thou submit to the like whose Original is but from the Earth These things are too plain to be long insisted on let thus much suffice to be said in Satisfaction to this Question What are these Wounds in thy Hands viz. they signifie first Malum culpae the Evil Demerit of Sin which Christ suffered that we might be excused Secondly Malum poenae the Toleration of Evil which Christ underwent to leave us an Example to follow him I proceed to shew For what Reason the Divine Wisdom so order'd it that Christ should be wounded by those be deserved Best from in Explanation of these Words Those with which I was wounded in the House of my Friends Of whom do the Kings of the Earth take Tribute says Christ Of their Children or of Strangers Not of their Children but of Strangers So again Who are those Men usually Wound and Kill their Friends or their Enemies certainly not their Friends but their Enemies Yet so it was that the Messiah was wounded and murthered by his Own Nation and Kindred The Gentiles bore him no Malice Herod laid nothing to his Charge Pilate would have set him free Am I a Jew says he thine own Nation and the Chief Priests have delivered thee unto me all Strangers honoured him but as S t John says He came unto his Own and his Own received him not Received him not is a Meiosis or mitigated Expression for the Worst of Usages they Persecuted him with the highest Malice and Hatred the more to disgrace him they hung him between two Thieves and put him to Death in their Capital City But though the Nation of the Jews were not his Friends de facto yet they are so called because they ought to have been his Friends de jure for they were his Compatriots and Kindred he chose to be born of their Stock before any other he preacht the Gospel to them first made Palestine the Scene of his Holy Life and Miracles design'd their whole Nation the Honour of being his Apostles at large to be the Preachers of Salvation to the rest of the World and by how much the more they ought to have been his Friends for these Obligations the more unpardonable was their Barbarity not only to make him so Strange a Spectacle as Saint Paul says himself was made Legatus in vinculis an Ambassadour in Bonds but also Legatus cum vulneribus an Ambassadour wounded and crucified What Malice besides the Jews was ever so Great as to destroy so much Vertue and Goodness What Envy so black and rancorous to persecute so much Meekness and Humility What Wickedness ever so unfortunate and unhappy as to cut off the Saviour of their Nation and of the World to the Salvation of others and to their own only Destruction It appears at first hearing the most Mysterious and unaccountable the most Strange and amazing Event that ever the Wisdom of God produced in the World That he should permit his Own People of all the People of the Earth to be the Murderers of his Son Acts 2.23 says S t Peter Him being delivered by the determinate Counsel and Foreknowledge of God ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain But the wonder of this will vanish as soon as the Reason appears for if we consider the Blindness and Hardness of the Jews Hearts after so many Glorious Revelations their Uncorrigible Lives under so many holy Laws their high Ingratitude after so many Benefits Who deserved to be condemned to such a Prodigious Punishment but those who were the Greatest Prodigies of Stubbornness and Impiety From this wonderful and dreadful Judgment of God I shall reflect upon two things for our Edification First The Wickedness of Mens Hearts when they are void of the Spirit of Grace For upon such no Reason no Benefits no Miracles whether of Power or Goodness can effect any thing but those very Means and Endeavours which are employed for their Salvation serve only for their greater Obduration those that are their chiefest Friends and of whom it may be said as of the Apostles These Men are the Servants of the most High God which shew the Way of Salvation if they rebuke them for their Sins seek to instruct their Ignorance or to confute their Folly they will look upon them as the Worst of Enemies Am I become your Enemy says S t Paul because I tell you the Truth Yes Blessed Apostle there 's nothing more certain nothing turns Friends sooner into Foes than an Unwelcome Truth they that will not be reformed will not be taught and to instruct one that loves his Sins is like the bringing a Candle upon him when he is retir'd to commit it And 't is observable in all times that those Persons who mov'd by an Heroick Piety have attempted to reform the Errours and Vices of a Nation have found as hostile a Reception as those who have sought to Enslave it men defending their long-wedded Opinions as passionately as their Riches their Hereditary Corruptions as their Hereditary Country In the Parable in which our Lord set forth his own Ill Success in seeking to convert Sinners when he liv'd upon the Earth he introduces certain Husbandmen saying Come this is the Heir let us kill him and the Inheritance shall be our own For such was the Consultation of the Sanhedrim or principal Council of the Jews concerning him Come let us rid our selves
of this Pretended Messiah this bold Reprover of our Vices and Confuter of our Traditions no less by Miracles than by Reason and then we shall continue to sit in Moses's Chair lead the People as we please and none will dare to contradict us If we will not shew our selves such Friends to Christ as my Text speaks of who stain'd their hands in his Bloud let us with all Submission of Soul and Singleness of Heart embrace his Doctrines and pay Obedience to his Precepts whether they relate to Faith or to Manners and suffer neither Pleasure nor Profit Reputation among Men or any By-Respect whatsoever to disaffect us to him For the things of this World are at Enmity with Christ and if we set our Affections upon them they will lead us from the Worship of the True God as the Canaanitish Wives did the Israelites to worship Idols and the worst of Idols even themselves Christ himself will appear to us a Deceiver and we shall sooner rescue Barabbas from the Cross than him And let none in these days who have received the Knowledge of the Truth and after extinguisht the Grace of God in their Hearts by fulfilling the Lusts of the Flesh flatter themselves as the Jews did who said If we had lived in the Days of Old we would not have been Partakers of the Bloud of the Prophets So if we had liv'd in Christ's days we would not have used him as the Jews did for this is but a Pharisaical Deception those that hate Christ's Gospel would have shew'd but little Kindness to his Person who crucifie him now by their Wicked Lives would not have spared his very Life if they had liv'd in his days Idem qua idem semper efficit idem the same thing dispos'd in the same Manner will produce the same Effect the same Corruption in the Heart will always bring forth the same Wickedness in the Hands The second Reflection I shall make upon Christ's being wounded in the House of his Friends Is the Part which God performed after the Jews added this Great Wickedness of murdering the Messiah to all their former Impieties For if we look on the Reverse of the Coin as I may say the Vengeance God sent upon them we shall find it stampt in as deep and legible Characters as their Wickedness was engraved on the other Side it being no less than the utter Rejection and Ruine of their Nation and with such Tragical Circumstances as are in no Story to be parallell'd but they are so generally known that I shall spend no time to dilate on them but rather exhort all such who after the manifold Admonitions and frequent Warnings of God still persist in their Sins and are deaf and incorrigible to all his Invitations to Repentance to consider How for the like Refractoriness and Hardness of Heart God suffered his Own People to proceed from Wickedness to Wickedness till they arriv'd at last in profundum malorum into such a Gulph of Perdition that if the most Desperate among them had seen the End of their Rebellious Ways at their first setting-out in the Course of them they would have started back with Horrour at the Prospect The 2 d Kings 5. we read that when the Prophet Elisha foretold to Hazael yet a Private Person and unacquainted with his own Temper what Immanities and Cruelties he would commit when he came to be King of Assyria that he would butcher Men rip up Women with Child dash Infants against the Stones c. He answer'd But what is thy Servant a Dog that I should do these things And the very Scribes and Pharisees who were the Chief Actors in this Days Tragedy when our Lord insinuated to them in the Parable I late mentioned of the Husbandmen consulting to kill the Heir that they would be his Murderers and by it pull certain Destruction on their Nation they reply'd God forbid Not only deprecating the Punishment but detesting the Crime The raw Novice-Sinner knows not at first to what a Villain to what a Devil he will grow Men ought therefore to fear the first Motions of Sin and to suppress the Beginnings of Wickedness if for no other Reason but this Lest they become Worse than they could have imagined it possible for them to have been Who allows himself at first only to Over-reach his Brother by degrees will take from him by Violence or Open Robbery who makes no Scruple to be Factious and Seditious will hardly stop till he arrives at Rebellion and Treason who indulges himself at first in a Negligent Irreverent Performance of God's Service and makes the Church the Scene of his Vanity and not of his Devotion is in the ready Path to proceed from Prophaneness to Atheism But as Sin encreases we have heard that Vengeance also ripens and Encreases says our Lord Whoever falls on this Stone shall be broken but on whomsoever it shall fall it will grind him to Powder The first Sins a man commits dangerously wound his Soul they dash against Christ as an Earthen Vessel does against a Rock but Presumption and Obstinacy in Sinning causes Christ to fall upon the Sinner as a Rock upon an Earthen Vessel which is sure to crush it to Dust. To conclude Though we that are here present are not of the House of Christ's Friends i. e. of his Kindred and Nation yet we have a Nearer and more Excellent Relation to him in that we are of the Houshold of Faith and of the Family of his Church as himself declared when he stretcht forth his Hand to his Disciple saying Behold my Mother and my Brethren for whoever shall do the Will of my Father which is in Heaven the same is my Mother my Sister and my Brother Now if we in our Spiritual Relation shall by our Sins crucifie Christ in his Glory as his Kindred according to the Flesh nail'd him to the Cross when he liv'd on Earth our Wickedness will far exceed theirs as the Wickedness of a Disciple far exceeds that of an Unbeliever the Wickedness of Judas did that of Pontius Pilate and Caiaphas It is our Unspeakable Happiness that Christ was Wounded for us but it will be our Unexcusable Impiety if he be wounded by us 't is again our Strange Felicity that when Others slew him we reap the Benefit of his Death when the Husbandmen Kill'd the Heir that we inherit the Vineyard And if we make that faithful Use of Christ's Death which we ought while the Jews bear the Guilt of his Bloud we shall be purged by it from all our Transgressions and while Eternal Infamy and Wrath cleaves to them Eternal Glory and Felicity shall be our Portion which God of his Infinite Mercy through our Lord Jesus Christ grant to us And to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost be ascribed all Honour Glory c. Amen The Sixth Sermon ROMANS viii 11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the Dead dwell in you he that raised up
Christ from the dead shall quicken your mortal Bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you IF the Resurrection of Christ had been of his Person only it would have been a rare and glorious Event but an Event of no Concern to us and if we did meet only this Day to celebrate his Resurrection from the Dead and not our Own that shall be though we celebrated a Great Miracle we should not celebrate a Great Benefit But S t Paul teaches us in my Text how we may be assured to commemorate our own Resurrection as well as Christ's namely If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in us Those whom the Spirit does not inhabit in this Life when they dye they dye for ever but they on the other side in whom it dwells and inhabits now the Resurrection of Christ is not to them a History but a Precedent and such Persons shall not be only Admirers but themselves Partakers of the Miracle If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the Dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the Dead shall also quicken c. To look further into this Mystery and the Expedient propos'd to bring this Wonderful thing to pass I shall observe in the Words these three Particulars I. What it is for the Spirit of God or which is all one of him that raised up Jesus from the dead to dwell in us II. The Effect or Consequence of such In-dwelling of the Spirit of God viz. if it be in a Man He that raised up Christ from the Dead shall raise up his Mortal Body III. By what Means God will produce this Effect in such a Man even by that which dwelleth in him by his Spirit that dwelleth in him I. What it is for the Spirit of God to dwell in a man The Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the Dead is no other than the Eternal Spirit of God the third Person in the Trinity the Spirit which is mentioned in Genesis that in the beginning of the World gave Life to all things is the same Spirit that still gives the Palingenesia the second Genesis or Regeneration whether we understand the Word of the Change and Renovation of our Soul and Affections to the Will of God in this Life or the Resuscitation of the Body from the Grave in the next and the Reuniting it with the Soul in order to Eternal Bliss The Spirit is said here to be the Spirit Of God but not the Spirit In God as if it dwelt in God as it dwells in us it is in God Personally and Essentially as his Being but 't is in us only by way of Tenancy as an Inhabitant or Inmate to excite in us its Gifts and Graces And this may serve to refute and silence those deceived Souls who of late times through their misunderstanding of the Union of the Saints with God exprest in Scripture have run into such high-flown and horrible Blasphemies as to say They are In-Godded in God and In-Christed in Christ thus claiming Prerogative instead of Priviledge and affirming Divinity instead of a Divine Spirit to be in them supposing themselves to be inspired even Essentially with the Divine Nature But such Blasphemous Conceits as these so audacious and injurious to the Deity are so far from being Effects of God's Spirit which is the Principle of Eternal Life in those it dwells that they are Demonstrations of the Spirit of Satan an Affectation to be like the Most High and to equal their Maker and unrepented of will certainly consign them to have a Portion with him in Eternal Death for what the Jews blindly objected against our Lord as a Crime That being but a Man he made himself God may be justly charged on these that being indeed but Men and commonly but the Dreggs of Men they fansie themselves to be Gods Only the Sin of these is more unpardonable in regard that after so long a time and so much warning of the like Miscarriage in this kind they have not exploded this old worn out Stratagem of Satan's But though this Diabolical Frenzy must be abhorr'd yet when 't is said that the Spirit of God dwells in a Man we must look upon it as denoting something more Extraordinary and Excellent than the common Lodging or Abiding of an Inhabitant in a House as representing rather God's Residence in his Temple at Jerusalem which Temple as it was Splendid and Glorious with all that Art and Cost could make it a Representation of Heaven so God by wonderful Tokens and Testimonies declared his Divine Presence in it And after this manner the Heart of every Christian ought to be embellish'd with Vertue and sanctified like a Temple appear like a little Heaven upon Earth in which the Holy Spirit may be seen to dwell by shewing his Divine Operations Know ye not says S t Paul that your Bodies are the Temples of the Holy Ghost Solomon built God but one Material House but Christ by his Spirit has raised to God as many Living Temples on Earth as there are Believers But to be more particular Dwelling in a House implies three things 1. Legitimate Possession by Legal Title and Introduction 2. Command and Dominion 3. Residence or Mansion And all these Properties the In-dwelling of the Spirit of God ought to have in those whom it hereafter quickens to Everlasting Life 1. The Spirit must have Legitimate Introduction and Possession God dwelt not in his Temple at Jerusalem till it was Dedicated and consecrated to him till he was introduced into it by Supplications and Sacrifices And his Holy Spirit will not dwell in Mens Hearts till they be dedicated and consecrated to him by Baptism and he be introduced by Prayer and Vows of Faith and Repentance Ephes. 3.17 S t Paul beseeches God that he would grant to the Ephesians according to the riches of his Glory to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the Inner-Man that Christ may dwell in their Hearts by Faith They that by Faith in Christ do not unite themselves unto him and so receive of his Spirit have not yet introduced the Spirit into its Temple and they that recede again from the Faith after they have received it dislodge and thrust the Holy Spirit out of his Tenure and Occupation The Jews reckoned that God was still among them as before when they had rejected and crucified the Holy One but after such their Infidelity and Wickedness he remained no more in their Hearts than he did in their Material Temple after that Voice was heard to come out of it migremus hinc let us depart hence Wheresoever it is so That either Men believe not on the Son of God or else having believed on him through the Allurements of the World and the Flesh fall back again into Unbelief and chuse rather to dispossess his Spirit than their Sins and Lusts there no Quickening Power will be found to revive their Mortal Bodies at the
And this last Way did God Know Israel above all the Families of the Earth for he knew them not only with a Perceptive Knowledge so as he Knows equally all the Nations of the World but Owned favoured and was beneficial to them As the Sun beholds some Countries with a more bounteous Aspect than others not only shedding on them Light and common Influences but enriching them with the Noblest Plants Minerals and Precious Stones Or as he is feign'd by the Poets to have beheld Thessaly when he was in love with Daphne terrâ figit in unâ Quos mundo debet oculos he fixt his Eyes on one particular Soil which ought to have cheered the Universe So God as if he had been Enamoured on Israel of all the Nations of the Earth set his Heart on them alone to the seeming Contempt of all beside he revealed himself to them in a more Especial Manner made a Covenant with them gave them Laws and heaped Blessings upon them vouchsafed to be their King and Governour in his own Person conducted fed protected them by by Wonderful and Supernatural Means and whereas he governed the other Nations by his Ordinary Invisible Power as if he had erected a New Providence in the World for them he brought all things to pass in their behalf by Miracles And thus though by Nature Israel was no better than other Nations by his Grace and Favour God made them Excel them But then though it be the highest Advantage To be Known by God after a particular and Extraordinary Manner yet if a People shew themselves not worthy of it it ceases to be an Advantage nay it turns to their greater Evil. 'T is not enough therefore that men are known by God to make them happy but God must also be known by them they must understand his Will what is pleasing and displeasing to him and hold a reciprocal Correspondence with him by Faith Love and Obedience For as S t Peter says of Apostates It had been better for them not to have known the Way of Righteousness than after they have known it to turn from the holy Commandment So it had been better for Israel if they had not been the Favourites of God than after their being so by their Sins to lose that Grace for Sins against Favour are greater than Sins against a Commandment Men in this Case being not only Disobedient but Ungrateful and whereas God would possibly have past by the Offences of less Obliged Persons he will call such as these to a strict account what he would have pardoned in the Heathen that were Strangers to him he will punish in his own People whom he has known by so many Great and Distinguishing Benefits You only have I known of all the Families of the Earth therefore will I punish you for all your Iniquities The Words afford us this Proposition or Observation That whatever People God blesses above others if they shew themselves Ungrateful by sinning against him he will punish them above others Which Proposition I shall handle after this manner I. Prove and confirm the Truth of it that it is indeed so And II. Shew the Reason and Equity of it why it should be so I. To clear and confirm the Proposition Sin as soon as it is committed is followed by Punishment except prevented by Repentance Punishment follows it I say sometimes with Slow but always with Sure Paces till it over-takes it Vengeance attends it as the Gaoler in some Countries does Malefactors who is bound in the same Chain with them Or is coupled to it as the After-Birth is to the Birth For as in Natural Productions after the Birth of the Creature there is a second Birth or Protrusion so there is in the bringing-forth of Sin it is no sooner produced in the World but there succeeds a Title to Punishment so close upon it as if it came from the same Womb. If thou dost Evil says God to Cain Sin lyeth at the Door i. e. the Punishment of Sin is at hand to seize thee and says our Lord in regard of mens proneness to Wickedness It is necessary that Offences should come but then also that 't was as necessary That upon them Woes should come and the Scripture makes it a piece of Injustice to detain them no less than a Sin to spare Sin The Wages of Sin is Death says S t Paul and as when the Wages of a Labourer or the Pay of a Souldier is detained a Mutiny or Clamour is raised so when Punishment the Wages of Sin is with-held a Cry is sent up to Heaven and God's Justice is continually sollicited till Guilt receive its due Reward This indeed to the Men of this World is the primum incredibile one of the most Incredible Doctrines that is taught they see not the Link which by God's appointment couples Sin and Punishment and because the Act of Sin is transient and Vengeance deferred they conceive the Guilt and the Bitterness of Death contracted by it are also transient and that they can confute the whole Hypothesis from their own Experience they having not only run on in Disobedience for many Years together but encreased their Wickedness as well as continued in it proceeded from sinning with fear to sin with presumption from offending God to the affronting him from breaking his Laws to the deriding of his Worship and the denying of his Deity and yet say they we have found none of that Vengeance that is spoken of no not the least Disturbance in our Evil Ways But is it then no Vengeance to let a Sinner run on in the Ways of Perdition without any Check Is the Blindness and Darkness of the Soul and Hardness of the Heart no Judgment Is the falling from the Condition of a Man to that of a Beast the despising all things Spiritual and Noble and finding no relish but in things sensual and Brutish no Judgment Is God's giving them up thus to a Reprobate Mind and Vile Affections condemning them to love Necessarily and Finally what they have so long loved Perversely and Wilfully no Judgment Is the visible trailing after them in this manner the Chain of Damnation and going on singing and dancing to Hell without apprehending the least Evil no Judgment What Sadder Arrest can there be of God's Wrath than such an Exemption from it What Plague or Punishment sent upon Less Offending Sinners half so dreadful as the Calm and Peace which these boast of But let it be as these Men imagine that all these things we speak of are Dreams that Obdurateness and Insensibility in Sinning is no Punishment and that nothing deserves the Name of Vengeance but what is Corporal Loss of Life or Liberty deprivation of Health Estate and the like How do these know they shall escape these Evils Those of this Way are for the most part Young or in the Strength of their Days and perhaps God has determined before they depart hence to make them as Eminent Examples
judged for their Sins and shall not those to whom he has revealed his Laws and his Righteousness on whom he has heaped his Blessings be judged more severely He that knoweth his Masters Will says our Lord and doth it not shall be beaten with many Stripes As the Heathen therefore were chastised for their Offences Israel was utterly ruined and Un-nationed And this was not only God's proceeding under the Law but 't is the same still under the Gospel For he has Known or favoured Believers in Christ not only above the Gentiles but even above the Jews themselves and if Judah be trod down and the Temple destroyed for the Sins and Ingratitude of that People the seven Churches in Asia lye under a Sadder Desolation at this Day for their Disobedience to Christ Travellers being scarce able to discern so much as the Places where they stood These Examples of God's Wrath both on Single Persons and whole Nations teach us this Lesson That 't is never so dangerous to offend against God as when he has been Gracious to us his former Benefits being so far from priviledging any to transgress that he is sure to punish those most he has done most for But 't is not enough to shew the quod sit the Truth of the Proposition that it is so I proceed in the next place to shew the cur sit the Reason Equity and Merit of it why it should be so The Reason why it should be so This Position That God punishes with heavier Judgments those whom he has chosen to fix his Favours on if they offend against him than others seems to have something in it contrary to the Nature and Disposition of Men who are apt to delight in the Persons on whom they have placed their Benefits to love the Creatures of their Advancing no less than those of their Begetting So S t Augustine affirms the like Disposition is found in God who speaking of his Rewards to Men says Coronat opera sua non merita nostra God crowns his own Gifts and Graces not any Merit he finds in us and Moses makes it a Plea for his Mercy to Israel that he would not destroy them after he had done them so much Good alledging his former Bounty as a Motive for his Pardon and Forgiveness In satisfaction to this I answer We must consider in God's Benefits to men not only his Love but the Purpose of his Love he confers his Gifts upon us with a Design to make us more holy Persons and for the Favours he bestows he looks for a Return of Obedience and Righteousness on our part and where he fails of this Return he does not only cease to give but hates in a manner his Gifts and destroys them for the Parties sake on whom they were bestowed Says S t Paul Ephes. 1.3 God has blessed us with all Spiritual Blessings in Christ and why that we should be holy and without blame before him in love But then if this Design be defeated and made void and we are not holy and without blame before him in love we may assure our selves that all his purposed Bounty is also made void and that is hated which is loved thought fit to be destroyed that was intended to be built and the rather because it was not found fit to be built There are three things which are observed to provoke Anger and Indignation in the most Patient First An affront to a Mans Person all vilifying and despising as Aristotle the best Describer of Passions says being a just Cause of Choler Secondly The Loss of a Mans Labour as when a Professor of some Curious Art arrives to great Perfection in it and reaps no Advantage by it is Excellent but yet notwithstanding Poor and Neglected ravishes all for Example with his Musick or Poetry and wants Bread this will make him hate his Muse and break his Strings reek his Revenge upon the Instrument of his Profession because he cannot reach his unfortunate Profession it self Thirdly The Loss of a Mans Love and Good-Will exasperates him more than all the rest and turns his Kindness into Fury Neglect of Worth and Personal Contempt though they be deeply resented yet they touch not so to the Quick as the Contempt of Affection for indeed the Contempt of Affection includes in it both the Contempt of the Worth and of the Person and he that despises a mans Love despises all that he has and all that he is But what then must the Provocation be when all these Causes concur as they do when either a Nation or a Single Person returns God Disobedience after he has shewed them his Extraordinary Mercies and Favours For First His Person is affronted Regard is not had to the Great God of Heaven and Earth condescending to do Good to his own Sinful Creatures and the Greater the Person is the Greater is the Contempt and consequently the Greater Anger and Evil Effects of it Revenge and Punishment may be expected Says S t Paul Of how much Sorer Punishment suppose you shall he be thought worthy who has trod under foot the Son of God viz. than he that has only trod Moses under his feet Secondly God loses his Labour on such Persons and that enrages him yet more he likens Israel to a Vineyard on which he had bestow'd great Cost and Husbandry fenced and gathered out the Stones and planted it with a Choice Vine but after all when he lookt for Grapes behold it brought forth Wild Grapes Grapes which instead of delighting the Taste set the Teeth on Edge What does he do therefore upon so unexpected a Frustration and disappointment of his Hopes Why as a Person much Incensed shews many times a Wild and Frantick Behaviour so God puts on a seeming Transport and Fury breaks out into a Tragical Song to vent his Indignation I will sing says he a Song of my Beloved touching my Vineyard in which he utters both his Displeasure and his purposed Revenge The Issue of God's Labour lost upon a People can be no less than the Perdition or Loss of those People First He complains but after that lest he should seem to be Master'd or Mock'd by his own Creatures he sends Destruction and Desolation on them Thirdly His Love and Kindness is despised which provokes his Anger above all the rest When God has shew'd Singular Goodness and Mercy to a Nation eminently delivered them or otherwise Blessed and prospered them and they return him nothing but contempt and Neglect disregard his Laws and violate his Commandments esteem his Worship a Burden and his Service a Slavery reflect upon their late Infelicities and Deliverances as the Common Vicissitudes of the World or only as False or more Wary and Masterly Steps made by themselves in Points of Policy Thus like Israel sacrificing to their own Net and burning Incense to their Drag Or as another Prophet representeth them ascribing all the Good things they received from God to the Idols of Canaan to Baal and
severe Discipline Danger and Persecutions will make them stagger and recoil The Seed that fell upon Stony Ground sprung up faster for a season than that which fell on the Good Ground but when the Sun arose and smote it it presently withered wanting root The Children of Israel went cheerfully and lustily with Moses out of Egypt but when their Food grew scarce and they saw the Host of Pharaoh pursue them they boggled in their Enterprize and in their hearts returned again into Egypt preferring Bondage with Safety and Plenty before Freedom with Hardship and Danger But their Posterity voluntarily follow'd Christ three days without Sustenance and never lookt back to their houses or yet to their beloved City If I forget thee O Jerusalem says the Psalmist let my right Hand forget its Cunning. But these Israelites when they heard Tidings of the Heavenly Jerusalem the Jerusalem above they cast behind them all thoughts of Jerusalem below it appeared to them no better than a second Babylon or house of Bondage As our Lord therefore made others of the People his Scholars he made these of his Family as he taught them he fed these revealed not only the Word but the Power and Glory of God to them To conclude I shall raise from all that I have said but this One acceptable and comfortable Doctrine Whosoever follows Christ faithfully affectionately and constantly in these days will find him as Compassionate in their Wants and Distresses as the Multitude here did For he has the same Bowels and Tenderness now at the Right Hand of God which he had when he conversed with men on Earth he is ascended Intire into the Heavens he did not carry up his Body thither and leave his Affections in the Grave If we therefore seek the Kingdom of Heaven in the first place and its Righteousness we may rest assured of our Lord's Promise That all the Necessaries of this Life shall be added to us that if we perform the Principal he will take care to make good the Accessory What is said of the Productions of Nature That she brings forth nothing but what she provides for is much more true of the Productions or Children of Grace For when the Earth with-holds its Fatness and the Clouds their Dew when the Creatures that should nourish Men starve themselves for want of Nourishment when the Breasts of Nature seem wholly dryed up venit Coelum in partes Heaven it self will come in to succour and take Part with the Faithful and if Sterility abounds Grace on this occasion also will much more abound if the Soil afford no Corn Bread shall be rained from the Sky if the Springs fail the Stony Rock shall send forth Water and Rivers shall run in dry places the Ravens shall feed the Righteous or their little Stock shall encrease as fast as 't is spent the Courses of Nature shall be inverted rather than Christ's Truth fail Heaven and Earth shall pass away but not one Tittle of his Word shall fall to the ground And if any say How comes it then to pass that the Servants of God do suffer Want Nay that commonly they are more destitute and persecuted than other Men I answer to this as our Lord did to his Disciples urging him on a time to eat I have Meat to eat says he which you know not of So the Faithful have Meat to eat which the World knows not of they have Peace Plenty and Prosperity though not seen by every Eye They have the Grace of God which is as a hidden Manna in their Hearts and as a Well of Living Water which suffers them neither to hunger nor thirst And is it not much more Eligible and Glorious to fast with Moses and Elias forty days than to feast even at the Table of Princes To be in the State of Angels who need neither Food nor Raiment than to be clothed and served with all the Sumptuousness and Magnificence of Solomon The Righteous have Content in Poverty which is more than Riches Joy in Bonds which is better than Freedom Satiety in a little which is not always found in Abundance And what is this but to receive Bread from Heaven when the Earth affords none Water from the Rock when the Springs are dryed up To be fed even by a more Wonderful Way than by the Ministry of Ravens Neither is the Favour of God this Way shew'd to the Followers of Christ less than that which he shew'd to his Own Servants of old but much greater for it speaks yet a higher Grace to be content to perish under Hunger Poverty and Bonds than to be snatch'd out of these Evils after a Miraculous Manner Saint Peter rejoiced more when he was scourged for bearing Testimony to Christ than when he was delivered by an Angel from the Death design'd him by Herod And Saint Paul gloried more in his Persecutions and Sufferings than he did even in his Charismata his Miraculous Gifts of the Holy Ghost And thus our Gracious Lord relieves the Necessities of his Servants from the Store-houses of the World or from the Riches of his Grace rescues them out of their Afflictions or makes them delight in them supplies their Wants or sets them above the Wants of other Men takes away their Wants or takes them up to that Place where no Wants are and where all Tears shall be wip'd from their Eyes To which blessed Place God of his infinite Mercy through our Lord Jesus Christ bring us all And To God the Father Son and Holy Ghost be ascribed all Honour Glory Worship and Thanksgiving this Day forth and for evermore Amen The Fourteenth Sermon LUKE xvi 9 Make to your selves Friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness that when ye fail they may receive you into everlasting habitations THESE Words may be call'd a Lecture of holy Usury they teaching us the highest Advantages that are to be made of Riches beyond what is to be learned from the Books of Eastern Merchants or the Trade to both the Indies from the Mysterious Rules of the antient Publicans or our modern Bankers 1. They teach men by a Divine Alchymy how to convert Earthly Treasure into Heavenly to make Money the ordinary Salary and hire of Sin to be the Price of Salvation and the Purchace of the Holy Ghost without the Danger of Simony 2. Men are instructed by them how to cure the Vanity and Instability of Riches call'd for their inconstant and short Abode mendacium phantasmata praestigiae scenica persona c. a Lye a Dream a Delusion the quick shifting of a Scene or Vizor in the Theatre and notwithstanding that 't is said We can carry nothing out of this World with us we are shew'd which way to confer them to Heaven and to erect Banks in those Eternal Mansions 3. Whereas Folly is ordinarily imputed to Rich men insanus dives stultus dives the Mad man and the Rich the Fool and the Rich being seldom in Scripture out of conjunction
Condition or Qualification of it The Vnrighteous Mammon 1. The Name and Substance of it Mammon The Word Mammon by the consent of most Criticks is originally Syriack but with very little Variation of writing and pronunciation as Mamon or Mammon Mamoná or Mammoná 't is Chaldee Hebrew Greek Latine and as S t Hierome and S t Augustine affirm also Punick or Carthaginian not to say how far it has obtained in the Modern Tongues A Word it seems very significant that is adopted into so many Languages and become Proverbial and the Proper Name of a Deity for Mammon imports the Same with Plutus the God of Riches who was an Anti-Deity of old set up by Covetousness which as the Apostle says is Idolatry and to whom every full Barn of the Miser is as 't were a Chappel and every Store-house a Temple And this Idol has more and more Early Votaries than any other whatsoever not only Old men being its Priests and Sacrists but Young men are also its Adorers and Children were of old dedicated to it in Ventilabro olim infantes collocabant in futurarum divitiarum affluentiae auspicium 't was an antient Custom to lay Infants to sleep in the Fan that winnow'd Corn as a Good Auspice of their future Plenty and Abundance But to understand plainly what Mammon is without Deity or Disguise without Figure or Mystery we have no more to do but to look to the 6 th Verse of this Chapter where he is set down in his pure and naked Nature to be a hundred Measures of Oil and a hundred Measures of Wheat i. e. to be the Fruits and Products of the Earth Corn Wine Oil Gold Silver Jewels c. all that is Money and Money-Worth is Mammon and so the Word signifies in the Original Treasure or Riches of any Sort or as Suidas yet more critically Superfluous or Unnecessary Riches And here by the way this mightily commends the Policy which is taught us that with such Vile Superfluous Unnecessary things we may purchase things Inestimable and of the highest Importance that with things Temporal and Perishing even in the Using we may procure things Eternal even Everlasting Habitations But so it is God is pleased that we should trade with him for his Heavenly Treasures as men traded at first with the Indians for their Gold and Jewels with Beads and Glasses Only we must observe the Rule S t Jerome prescribes in such our Negotiation We must give our Hearts to God as well as our Goods male enim dividit says the Father qui animam Diabolo tribuit opes Deo he 's a false and deceitful Merchant that offers his Goods to God and his Service to the Devil without Sanctity of Life there is no difference between Alms and Simony between attempting to purchase the Kingdom of Heaven and the Gifts of the Holy Ghost for Money Mammon joined with Righteousness is the Current Price of Salvation but mixt with Sin is worse than the Dung of the Earth this is Mammon And then in the second place for the Condition or Qualification of it the Vnrighteous Mammon or as it is in my Text the Mammon of Vnrighteousness which is the same thing this being only the Hebrew manner of speaking which often uses the Genitive Case for the Adjective or instead of an Adjective Now Mammon is not call'd Unrighteous because it is Unrighteous in it self all the Creatures of God are Good and Riches are the Choicest Part of those Good Creatures Neither in regard that 't is Unrighteous to possess them contrariwise they are the Gifts and Favours of God and beatus dives the Rich and Blessed are not undeservedly made Synonyma's But Mammon is call'd Unrighteous because for the most part 't is got Unrighteously according to that Saying Omnis Dives aut iniquus est aut iniqui Haeres Every Rich man is either an Unjust Man or the Heir of an Unjust Or again because it goes Unjustly from us in the Expence of Sin and Vanity 'T is call'd also Unrighteous in Opposition to the True Riches as at ver 11. If ye have not been faithful in the Unrighteous Mammon who shall commit to your trust the True Riches But though Mammon may be and is call'd Unrighteous upon these and the like accounts yet it seems to be term'd Unrighteous in my Text upon a Particular and distinct Account from all these which is set down ver 12. If you have not been faithful in that which is an Other Man's who shall give you that which is your Own So that Mammon is principally styled Unrighteous here because the Riches we employ are an Other Persons and yet we employ them for our Advantage as if they were our Own as the False Steward did his Lord's Goods And Riches may be said not to be our Own in two Respects 1. Because they are God's as the Psalmist says The Earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof He is the True Proprietary and the most rightful Possessors among Men are but Stewards 2. Because in the Law those things are only styled propria our Own which will stay with us which are in our Power and which we can dispose of at our pleasure as Birds and Beasts which we take and let go and take again but those which we have not thus at our Will and Command are counted Ferae Naturae of a Wild Nature Now Worldly Riches in a Moral account are of this last Sort Wild and Uncertain no man is Secure of them with any Care or Providence can hedge them in But they make them Wings as Solomon says and fly away They depart through their own default or the default of others we forfeit or we lose them they perish or by a Secret Decree pass to an other Master On these Considerations therefore when ever we bestow a Charity or any other Pious Benefaction we may well account we give but that which is at present in our power and perhaps to morrow will not be and again that when we are most Liberal we are but de alieno munifici bountiful at an Others Cost and we may say of our Alms if we speak strictly what Christ did of the Sitting at his Right hand and his Left in his Kingdom They are not mine to give Yet such is the Goodness of God that he accepts our Robberies from him as our Bounty to him interprets our Trespasses on his Royalties and Purloinings of his Treasure our Righteousness Fidelity and Wisdom gives us an Euge for it as the Lord of the False Steward did to him in the Parable Not that he applauded his Falshood and Dishonesty but the Subtilty and Dexterity he shew'd in it as 't is said subitis casibus ingenium for shewing a Present Wit in a sudden Streight and making the best of a bad Accident The Steward is prais'd as we praise the Fox not for the Mischief he does us but for the Craft with which he does it Or as a Judge may
shew'd them not the Father now in the Person of another but in their Own in his Divine and Omnipotent Power displayed in themselves And this was not only a Plain and Evident but a Gracious Revelation of the Father which as it improv'd their Knowledge of him so it gave them also Demonstrations of his Love and Favour The Father was both gracious to them and present with them before under the Law he was their God and they were his People but after they had embrac'd the Gospel he sent his Son into the World to preach they were admitted into a Nearer Relation and were not only call'd the People and Servants but the Children of God the adopted Brethren of Christ and the Father of Heaven and Earth was appropriated by our Lord no less to them than to himself I go says he to my Father and to your Father to my God and to your God And this being the blessed Condition not only of the first Disciples but of all true Believers since I cannot chuse but take Occasion from hence to say That those Christians are not sensible of their own Priviledge and Dignity that go a Compass to God when they are allowed the Directest and Shortest Way to him who keep a Distance when they are invited and encouraged to make a Near and familiar Address out of an affected Humility move them that they may move her that she may move Christ that Christ may move the Father What a trifling Ambages is this after our Lord has promised an Immediate Access and upon no better ground but because forsooth the like is practised in the Courts of Earthly Princes where Strangers and Unknown Persons are not allow'd to make their Approach to the King without the Introduction of some in Place Alas to the Court of Heaven there comes no Strangers or Unknown Persons all the Suters there are Sons and these use not to implore the help of Servants but being first in Power and Place themselves go directly and boldly to the Throne of the King their Father as S t Paul Heb. 4.16 encourages the Faithful to do Let us come boldly says he to the Throne of Grace and our Lord at the 16 th Verse of this Chapter speaks as if his own Mediation were not always necessary At that day says he ye shall ask in my Name and I say not unto you that I will pray the Father for you for the Father himself loveth you because ye have loved me and have believed that I came out from God Those that believe that Jesus is the Christ as the Apostle says are born of God and begotten of his Spirit and they need no other Advocate to speak for them but the Spirit and such their Propinquity by Faith and to distrust their Interest were to distrust God's Love and Christ's Truth and we may say of such a Diffidence what one says of the like in humane Alliance peccat Qui commendandum se putat esse suis he sins against the Right of Kindred that thinks he needs to be recommended to his own Relations Therefore though we decline not with the ranker Socinians the Intercession of Christ who say He is mere Man and not God and consequently that all Prayers made to him are idolatrous Nor yet comply with the more allay'd and qualify'd Poyson of others of them who allow it lawful to pray to Christ but not necessary yet we may vindicate the Prerogative given to a Disciple in my Text against the Shew of Wisdom in Will-Worship and Humility practis'd in the Church of Rome For we who are rightly instructed in the Close Conjunction of the Father and the Son that teach he is both God and Man know it is indifferent whether we supplicate the Father or the Son whether with our Lord himself we say Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit or whether with S t Stephen Lord Jesu receive my Spirit who praying after this manner is said also to have call'd upon God And in truth when our Lord sends his Disciples in my Text to his Father he neither extinguishes his own Adoration nor Mediation but sends them from his Humane Nature as I may say to meet them again in his Divine And this is the true Importance of his sending them to the Father but they were not capable at this time of receiving the Doctrine of his Divinity for a little before in plain terms without a Figure he had discoursed to them of his Death and Passion and those to whom it was a hard Saying That they should eat his Flesh and drink his Bloud would have thought it a much harder to have heard That he was the Eternal God and could yet be Crucify'd by Wicked men Not willing therefore to force their Reason either by his Argumentation or Authority he let this Mystery alone to be revealed in due time by the Holy Ghost and establisht their Comfort on a Foundation more easie to be conceived by them the Goodness and All-Sufficiency of the Father For however they did believe their Master to be an Extraordinary and Divine Person they could not chuse but believe their God was Greater and if it were a happiness to follow the Son it must be yet a higher Felicity to be Favourites to the Father of whom the whole Family of Heaven and Earth is named Now this being the Condition which a Disciple was left in at his Lord's Departure he had no reason to mourn and languish for his Absence with S t Augustine to desire to see Christum in ore Christ's natural face again while he enjoyed Christum in Patre Christ in the power and presence of the Father When a less Person at his Departure gives us the Favour of a Greater we may say He does not Desert us but bestows his Absence on us But Christ's Care of his Disciples and kindness to them will be seen yet more in the Unlimited Measure in which they were promised God's Favour exprest in these Words Whatsoever ye shall ask he will give it you Which is the next thing I am to explain Whatsoever ye shall ask he will give it you This was a large Promise and yet as largely and stupendiously made good For 1. Such was the Power of a Disciple by Prayer upon Earth that he could cast out Devils chase away all Diseases heal all Infirmities call the Dead out of their Grave and send the Living into it 2. Such was his Power in the Sea that when the Ship was become a Prey to the merciless Element and nothing but Death and Desperation appear'd to all others a S t Paul could say Not one of the Company shall perish And why so Because he had pray'd and God had given him the Lives of them that sail'd with him 3. Such was his Power in Heaven that the Holy Ghost stood press'd and ready as I may say upon the laying-on of the Apostles hands as upon a Sign given to descend in all his various and wonderful
to tempt God in this kind when they are not mov'd to it by a Divine Spirit And if Miracles were to be perform'd at the asking of every Follower of Christ if every Prophet or Preacher of the Gospel in these days might divide the Sea and call down Fire from Heaven every faithful Commander cause Hail-Stones to be cast from the Clouds upon his Enemies and the like not only the Harmony of the Creation the Laws of Agents and Patients would be confounded but the Harmony of Religion For if such a present certain Impetration of all things of this Life did attend every true Christian Professor that their Prayers were answered with a Miracle who would not be a Professor or Believer on these Terms and what Praise were it to be a Believer The Congregation of the Faithful would be encreased on this account but the Vertue of Faith would be wholly destroyed 2. If that which is pray'd for be not foreseen by God to be hurtful to him that prays as 't is said dando irascitur non dando miseretur if he gives he 's angry and if he denies he 's merciful If a Child aks of his Father a Fish says our Lord will he give him a Serpent Or if he asks a Serpent instead of a Fish will he give him a Serpent The Gentiles indeed complained that their Gods which were Devils easily granted them Evil things but were inexorable when they sought Good things at their hands Evertere Vrbes totas optantibus ipsis Dii faciles But the Father of Heaven and Earth gives only Good things to his Children 3. If there be not something that is Better for the Petitioner than that which he prays for though Good and which undoubtedly he would have desired before it if he had understood it and thus 't is said again Non tribuit quod vellem ut tribuat quod mallem God gave me not what I ask'd that he might give me what I aim'd at he denied the Form of my Request that he might grant what was more Advantageous for me And 't was with this purpose of conferring a Greater Benefit than was ask'd that God denied S t Paul praying thrice that the Thorn in his Flesh might be taken away for he gave him his Grace to support him in that Temptation or Affliction whichsoever it was which was better for the Apostle than to have removed the Evil for that would have deprived him both of the Tryal and reward of his Vertue And on this account 't is said Heb. 5.7 of our Lord 's praying that the Cup of his Passion might pass from him That he was heard in that he fear'd though God made him drink up the very Dregs of that bitter Potion And thus we see though the Promise made in my Text extends not to the Exorbitant Desires of fond Men nor yet to the Mistakes or Weaknesses of those that are Pious and Righteous yet it reaches to all their great and important Concerns to all that is behoof ful and best for them that 't is commensurate to God's Goodness and Wisdom and 't is not to be imagin'd that when he promises his Creatures to be merciful to them he obliges himself to do any thing unworthy of his Majesty that when he says he will hear their Prayers he divests himself of his Soveraignty renounces his Wisdom or any other of his Attributes We must not therefore liken God to Antigonus King of Macedon that was Sir-named 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Giver for giving much in Words and little in Deeds because upon every trifling Petition he does not unframe the World or break the Course of Providence The Words of our Lord Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my Name he will give it you as they are not to be swallow'd crudely as if a Fortunatus's Cap were promised so neither on the other side are they to be received with Doubting and Suspicion as if they were fallacious and deceiveable For in case their Petitions are retarded or not answered in kind it becomes not Christians presently to entertain thoughts like the Heathen who were perswaded that the Winds had power to scatter their Prayers before they reach'd Heaven Terribilisque Notus jactat mea verba precesque nor yet should it be so that their righteous Requests succeeded not to their Expectation are they to stagger in their Faith like Cato who because his honest Vows for Pompey and the Commonwealth were not heard against the Usurpation of Caesar doubted of a Providence Both this melancholy Mis-giving that God often regards not our Prayers though they are Just and the other Sanguine Folly and Credulity that it is fit for him to grant whatever is desired spring from one and the same Root viz. the Immoderate Love of Earthly things For the truly Faithful who set their Affection on things above feel neither such Flashes of fond Hopes nor Damps of black Despair but being Indifferent to Worldly things and wholly resign'd to God's good Will and Pleasure they can think it reasonable that the Ends of his Providence and the Interests of his Glory should be serv'd in the first place And then for those that depend and hang on Christ in hopes only of Preferment in his Imagin'd Temporal Kingdom if his Followers for the Loaves his Disciples as I may call them of the Basket be disappointed 't is no great marvel nor matter for 't is not said Whatever ye shall ambitiously wantonly or any other way inordinately covet ye shall receive but Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my Name he will give it you i. e. Whatever ye that are my Disciples shall duly pray for if you request it in my Name as nothing is difficult to my Father so you will find there is nothing so precious that for Love of me he will not grant you Which brings me to my last Part The Means by which we are to obtain our Requests By asking in Christ's Name Whatsoever ye shall ask in my Name Though all the Favour Men receive from God is in the Name or for the Sake or Merits of Christ yet even that Meritorious and prevailing Name will benefit them nothing unless they be Faithful Persons or such as are dispos'd to be so such as those to whom the Promise in my Text is made and no small Emphasis or Stress is to be put in this Particle Ye whatsover Ye shall ask Ye that are my Disciples Ye that have received me as coming from the Father believed my Miracles and my Doctrine rely'd upon my Promises continu'd with me from the beginning to the end notwithstanding the Scandal that so many others took at the Meanness of my Condition and the Severity of my Precepts The Promise I say is not Universal to all Men no nor yet to the mere titular Professors of Christianity who as the Jews of old cry'd The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord even when they were Idolaters and Apostates so cry
the Earth below So at the End of the World when God shall come to judge it he will distinguish and separate the Mass of men according to the Quality of their Works and those who have set their Hearts on heavenly things shall be thought worthy of Heaven and to reign for ever with him and his holy Angels in Glory and those who have hated heavenly things and set their Affections on things below corrupted themselves with the Vices of this Life to use the Psalmists words shall be turn'd into Hell And the revealing of this Mystery does vindicate the Justice of the Deity and absolve Providence from the Censures and hard Speeches of men for our Lord has plainly taught That there shall be a Day of calling all Flesh to account for what they have done in this Life and however the Good and Bad are promiscuously join'd at present and seem to be every way alike and equal to one another though they be in the same Field as he says or the same Bed yet one shall be taken and the other left Again in another place The hour is coming when all that are in the Graves shall come forth those that have done Good unto the Resurrection of Life and they that have done Evil unto the Resurrection of Damnation And this being asserted by the mouth of Truth it self and also the Fundamental Part of our Creed which sustains its whole Frame and Fabrick it will be sufficient thus to have illustrated it without bringing any Proofs of the Matter The Article of Christ's judging the Quick and the Dead though it be last in Place in the Confession of our Faith yet it is the first in Office and Importance and has an Influence on all the Articles that go before it and which would be of no Consequence without it For what avails it to believe there is a God if neither in this Life nor in the Life to come he will make any Difference between the Righteous and the Wicked What profit is it to believe a Redeemer or a Saviour if there be no Salvation or Damnation That there is a Holy Ghost if in the Issue it shall be all one to those that are Sanctify'd and to those that are not Sanctify'd The very Equity and Reason of the thing that there should be a Day of Judgment is a sufficient Demonstration that there shall be such a Day Instead therefore I say of bringing Proofs of this Doctrine I shall rather advise men to make the best Use of it and not to be deceived with the present Uniformity and Identity as 't were of the Condition of the Godly and Ungodly in this World but to reflect on what is said of the Severe Scrutiny that shall be at the Last Day when the present Mask shall be pull'd off from the Face of the World and no Action whatsoever be concealed when the secret Sins as well as secret Counsels of Princes whatever they have done amiss or been the Authors of others doing amiss without regard to their Persons shall be laid open when the delinquencies of the Meaner Sort shall not be past over or lost in Oblivion by reason of the Obscurity of their Condition When the Nice in point of Fame and Reputation but regardless of their Innocence shall have their Sly and close Sins ript open and publisht to their greater Confusion before Men and Angels When the Player and Actor in Religion the Hypocrite shall be stript of his Vizard and Mantle of Holiness and the loathsome Vices concealed under them exposed For as 't is said At the coming of Christ Anti-Christ shall no longer deceive the Nations So it shall arrive to all those that have liv'd Anti-Christs at the coming of Christ to Judgment they shall no longer deceive however successful their Cozenages have been in this Life The Children of Darkness are many times to outward Appearance clad in richer Robes of Righteousness and make a goodlier Shew of Piety and Devotion than the Children of Light But in the Day that God shall make up his Jewels as the Prophet Malachi speaks he will distinguish the true from the false and however the Counterfeit Vye at present in Lustre with the right and Orient and exceed them in Magnitude then it shall be seen what trash they are Which if men would duely consider and that this Tryal and Examination of all Flesh is not only to lay open their Actions to the Eye of the Judge for alas he knew them in the hour they were committed or yet to expose them only to Shame before the innumerable Host of Men and Angels that will be there assembled for that is but the Beginning of the Evils they are to expect But 't is that every One may receive a Reward according to his Merit as our Lord says They that have done Well Everlasting Glory and they that have done Evil Everlasting Fire I say if men would seriously consider this they would anticipate this Work of Tryal and Judgment while time was allowed them to do it they would tear off their Disguises of Sin before they were stript of them they would distinguish and separate themselves from the Wicked by a Holy Life before the Great Day of Separation of the Just and Unjust prevent God's severe Sentence on their Misdeeds by their own severe Condemnation of them before-hand that whether they labour at the Mill or in the Field in the City or in the Camp whatever their Callings and Employments be they may be of the number of those that are taken and not of those that are left And let this suffice to be said of my first Observation That at the last Day there shall be an exact Discrimination between the Righteous and the Wicked I proceed to my Second Observation That there shall be some particular visible Place to which all men shall be brought to Judgment Although it be in the Power of the Almighty where-ever Sinners shall be found at the last Day there to sentence and send them to Hell and where-ever the Righteous shall be found from thence to translate them to Heaven Yet as 't is the manner of Earthly Princes to summon their People to receive Justice at some certain Place their chief City where their Court and ordinary Residence are so it seems good to the Wisdom of God to assemble all Persons both Just and Unjust to one Place of Common Judicature and Writers do most probably conceive the place shall be Jerusalem the City of God's most visible Residence on Earth And that for these two Reasons 1. For the Reparation of Christ's Honour Because he suffered there not only the Scorn and Despight of the Jews who put him to a cruel unjust and shameful Death but the Affronts also of all Nations gathered together at the Feast of the Passover it being God's will that he should receive Reparation and Amends where he had received the greatest Outrage and Indignity and that the Prophecy of Zechary should be
Structure of the Body or other Graces of a fair and amiable Person which is the Child only of an abused Fancy begot through Weakness and nurs'd up by fond Conversation Musick Feasts Comedies and other the like Genial Sports and busie Idlenesses of the times and produces no better Effects than Folly dissolute Manners Jealousie discontent Madness c. This Frenzy has obtain'd too much in being the glorified Theme of Poets and Romance-Writers who advance it above all other Concerns of Man's Life whether Secular or Sacred and while they make it the admired Subject of many Fables and the ambitious Pursuit and highest Ornament of their counterfeit Heroes the gilded Poyson is often swallow'd by the more Sober and Vertuous Our Apostle is so far from recommending or in the least degree countenancing of this Dotage that ver 3. he ranks it among the detestable practices of the Heathen and such things as Christians ought to be asham'd of For this Sensual Love in those days was not only an Immorality or Vice but a prime Branch of Idolatry from hence flew all the Cupids from hence came the Temples dedicated to Venus the Divinity of Beauty and the Deities of Women And happy it were if we could say These were not Idols still in the World for if as S t Jerome says every reigning Lust is an Idol set up in our hearts Sensual Love is no inferior Deity Quotcunque habemus Vitia says the Father quotcunque peccata tot recentes habemus Deos iratus sum ira mihi Deus est vidi Mulierem concupivi Libido mihi Deus est as many Vices we have as many Sins so many Gods we have I am angry Anger is a God to me I see a Woman and lust my Lust again's a God to me And the Reason of this is plain Because none of these things can be in us but they must be before God in us for if they can come after God they can agree with and be reconcil'd to God which is impossible and then being before or above him can we say less of them than that they are Gods in us 'T is not the Temple or the Image that constitutes the Idolatry but the Shrine the Idol has in our hearts the Adoration and Sacrifice paid to it by our Affections Neither does God require of us a higher Acknowledgment than to love him with all our Heart and with all our Mind The Love therefore recommended here by the Apostle cannot be any thing that is an Enemy to God to Man or to our Selves Charity or Love carries something Pious and Beneficial in its very Name and if these things be not in the Nature of it 't is a Spurious or Bastard Love To come then to the Love recommended by the Apostle we define it to be A Divine Vertue or Supernatural Grace inspired into us by God's Holy Spirit a Quality which resides in himself and which is subject to no perturbation an Image of it we see in the pious Love of Parents and Children the religious Amity between Brethren Friends and Neighbours and the Perfection of it in our Saviour his Apostles Martyrs and other Christian Heroes that follow'd his Example An Affection it is but a Severe and Sober one a Fire that warms the hearts of men but a pure and sanctify'd one lifted far above the Softnesses and Wantonnesses of the other Carnal heat and not kindled by the Deception of the Outward Senses or flaming from the Fewel of a bright Beauty but a reflected Beam of our Love to God descending downwards and glancing on our Brethren from a Sense of God's Goodness to us and in obedience to that Commandment of his that enjoins us to pay to men as his Proxies and Substitutes on Earth the Tolls and Tributes due unto himself So that 't is not This or That Person that this Love makes court to but to Mankind its Addresses are as Universal as the Image of God in the World no more regard is had by it of the Handsome than the Deformed of the Young than the Aged or if more be had of the one than the other 't is of the Party most to be compassioned the Object of this Love is Want or Misery in any kind and whoever it can help is its Amata or Beloved And as the Object of this Love is no less General than the Distresses of Humane Nature so its Expressions towards them are as many and various as there are Ways of doing Good and being Beneficial in any kind For Charity is not only a Largess of Money or a Dole of Bread a feeding of the hungry and a cloathing the naked c. but a parting with our Passions for the sake of our Brethren a condescending to their Weakness a complying with their Temper and tolerating their Infirmities 'T is again a relieving them with Good Counsel a Donative of Seasonable Admonition and Reproof a shewing of Severity when need requires as well as Mercy an Exacting of Punishment as well as a remitting of it for Charity is not that which is always grateful and always pleasing but which is ever salutary and ever beneficial The Wanton Love we condemned is a constant Floud of Sweetness which flows smoothly into the Ocean of Destruction a smiling Evil that knows nothing harsh or disagreeable till it turns all to Harshness and Disagreeableness But Godly Love is often bitter in the first Taste and sweet in the after Relish a rugged Mercy and an Austere Kindness a Good transferr'd with Frowns and Severe Discipline and such are the Corrections of Servants and Children the Correptions of Friends the Excommunications of the Church and the exterminating Sentences of the Law the Rod and the Stocks the Hurdle and the Axe being as instrumental unto Charity as Money Food Raiment and the like Open Rebuke says Solomon is better than secret Love and I may say Open Rebuke has in it much secret Love And to think the Remissness of Laws charitable and the Execution of them cruel is a Shortness of Reasoning which becomes only Women and Children who pity the present Sufferings of the Criminal but see not the future Good purchased by it The timely cutting off of a Notorious Malefactor has rescued a Nation from Destruction Phineas stood up and pray'd and the Plague ceas'd his seasonable Execution of two Eminent Offenders preserved the lives of many thousands of the people and holy Writ calls not his Fact Slaughter but styles it by the milder Name of Prayer because it invoked God's Mercy and propitiated his Wrath. If Pity may bind the hands of Justice and Charity protect Violence and Outrage not only one Wolf will worry a whole Flock but the Flock or Body of People will in time become Wolves and Tygers for Religion only perswades men to be Just and Righteous it does not constrain them to be so indeed it promises Rewards to Well-doers and threatens Judgment to Evil-doers but they are Rewards to come and Judgments at a
and the salvation of so many Millions as the bringing in the body of the Jewish Nation to the Faith of Christ to whom the Promise was principally made to be separated or excluded my self from him as Vatablus excellently expounds Vnus pro tam multis optarim perire si liceat I could wish as far as 't is lawful for me that One rather than so many might perish And there is nothing in either of these Passages of Moses or S t Paul which every faithful Pastor may not safely imitate let their Zeal be as much in Earnest and as right plac'd as theirs and it will not only be pardonable but rewardable Neither is there any thing in their Practice if rightly weighed contrary to this Rule I must love my Neighbour As my self not Above not Before my self I should proceed to the Object of our Charity but what remains will be sufficient for another Task The Nineteenth Sermon 1 PETER iv 8 And above all things have fervent Charity among your selves for Charity covereth the multitude of Sins The Object of Charity All Men in General GOD taught the Church of the Jews in the beginning by easie and natural Notices and Instructions by a kind of hieroglyphical or symbolical Divinity the Scene of their Religion lay in Garments Diet Washes and the like the Commandment was conversant in the Objects of the Senses touch not taste not handle not And thus men were inur'd to the Ways of Vertue and held at a Distance from Vice by allowing or disallowing them the Use of such Creatures and Customs as shew'd the Beauty of the one and the Deformity of the other God endeavouring to render Sensuality and Prophaneness odious by rendring Dogs and Swine so Hypocrisie and Corruption of Doctrine by forbidding Garments of mixt matters and sowing the Field with Seeds of several kinds Exorbitant Lust by amputation of the Fore-skin Idolatry and Unnatural Mixtures by commanding a perpetual War with the seven Nations of Palestine deeply ingulph'd in these Sins Again he endeavoured to train them in Purity and Innocence of Life by enjoining frequent Washings of themselves their Garments and their Vessels But the Jews perverted and defeated the Counsel of God in this method of instructing them they lookt not as 't is said of them to the bottom of their Lavatories to the Design and Signification of their Types they cleans'd their Pots and Skins and polluted their Lives they entertain'd the forbidden Sin and terminated their Hatred in the innocent Sign wallow'd in the Sensuality of Beasts and detested the harmless Creatures practis'd all the Abominations of the Heathen and when they were as guilty as they lookt upon them as their Enemies As if God had taught them not to hate Idolatry but Men not to be at Variance with Sin but to keep up a Feud with the greatest part of the Creation When they were enjoined utterly to root out the Canaanites that their Corruptions might not spread among them they made Marriages with them and incorporated them into one People with themselves and again when in after Ages the reason of such Enmity was worn out and the Danger of their Community Out-dated when their Aversion to the Gentiles did not Secure their Religion but render it Odious and preserved not the Truth but hindred the Propagation of it then most preposterously and unreasonably they shew'd an irreconcileable Hatred to the Heathen and extended their Malice not only to the seven Nations but to all Nations beside themselves and were detestable to all the Inhabitants of the Earth for their Churlishness and Inhumanity In this Condition of hating and being hated our Lord found them when he came into the World and when he set himself to reform their Mistakes to remove the Outward Ordinances they had so little profited by and to reveal the Duties that were shadowed under them they abhorred the Sanctity of their Meaning preferr'd the Burden of them before the Vertue they signified embraced closer and more strictly their beggarly Elements like degenerate Children that fly from their Book to the Bables of their Infancy from their Tutors to their Nurses chusing rather to counterfeit still an imperfect clipt Speech than to form their Tongue to pronounce Words of Instruction and Knowledge And it cost our Saviour the Cross and his Disciples Persecutions and cruel Deaths while they laboured to wean them from their first Childish Rudiments to redeem the Creatures from those Prejudices which for a time were thrown upon them for Religion and Instruction sake to bring the anathematiz'd and excommunicated World into the Pale of the Church to have all men seen to be of one Kindred as they were at the Creation to revive the Consanguinity of Nature by the Alliance of Grace which acknowledges its scattered and remotest Relations though situate in the furthest Climes and made not only Strangers but Enemies by distant Countries and more distant Religions and Interests However therefore the Jews were born to Animosities and Hatreds had Quarrels intail'd on them like their Lands had so many Nations made over to them their hereditary legal and commanded Enemies yet Christians are allow'd to account no Sort of People their Enemies but are enjoined to bear an Amicable friendly Disposition to all men or taught that their Brethren are not those only of the same Kindred or Nation but those of the same Kind and the same Nature as Tertullian says Lex vetus amorem docet in proximos nova in extraneos the Old Law taught us to love our Neighbours but the New teaches us that all the World are our Neighbours not only those that live near us but those that do any way stand in need of our Assistance not those alone that we know but those whose Distresses we are acquainted with though their Persons are Strangers to us And this Doctrine our Lord revealed or explained in the Parable of the wounded Samaritan and according to the Tenour of it we ought to say with Gregory Nazianzen All the Earth is my Country and no Part of the Earth is my Country 't is Heaven alone that can claim that Title and no man ought to be excluded my Kindness till I know him to be excluded Heaven and no man but may challenge my Love of whom I can say Behold an Other Man And this Point of Christianity is so grounded on the Principles of Nature that the better Heathens discerned and practised it As I am Antoninus says that excellent Emperour my Country and City are Rome and Italy but as I am a Man the whole World And like again to this is that Speech in the Comoedian Homo sum humani nihil à me alienum puto I am a Man and I esteem nothing humane strange to me or not to be my Concern Be then my Brother an Arabian or Indian though he has travelled far and planted himself in a remote Clime though he be fed with Fruits of the Earth I never saw and speaks a Language
so well known that I shall not need to insist longer on it The Measure of the Love we are to shew him requires more Explanation We are to love him as our self And the Rule is so Excellent that I may say of it That if the like Freedom had been allow'd to Men to chuse a Standard of their Love to those of their own Kind as was allowed Isai. 7.11 to Ahaz to ask a Sign Ask thee a Sign either in the Depth or in the Height above i. e. in the whole Circuit of Heaven and Earth they could not have found a more apt and congruous than that which is here prescribed them The Love of their own selves Which I shall shew in four Regards or Respects 1. In regard of the Universality of it 't is a great Universality where there is no Exception S t Paul says of our Love to Our Selves No man ever hated his own flesh but nourishes and cherishes it God implanted this Love in every man by Nature and that with singular Wisdom and Goodness that his Creatures loving themselves might conserve themselves in their Being and we see when this Love in any afterwards fails through Miseries which befal them and that they find no Amability in themselves they ordinarily make themselves away God therefore made choice of this Passion implanted in all men in general for Self-Preservation for the Preservation of our Neighbour that as our Love never fails to our Selves so it should never be wanting to others 2. In regard that this Rule is ever ready and at hand as present and officious as he in the Gospel that said to our Lord Master I will follow thee wheresoever thou goest Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self is a Sociable and Concomitant Rule that is never absent an inherent Direction that prompts us from within when any Opportunity of doing Good is offered us Or we may liken it to the Foot of the Compass that stands fixt at home and guides and carries on the other that romes and circuits about so this quiescent resident Love we bear our Selves ought to be the Guide of that Love we extend or carry out to others 3. In regard that this Rule takes from us all Excuse of Ignorance in performing the Duties of Charity Men are often Churlish to one another too apt to say How must I love my Neighbour What must I do to him to be said to love him Nescio quid sit Amor as the Young Novice is made to speak I know not what this Enjoined Love is No why the Pattern of it is within thy self how dost thou love thine own Person dost thou not clothe it when 't is naked feed it when 't is hungry cure it when 't is hurt consult for it when 't is in Trouble or Danger c. Do the same for thy Neighbour There is no need here to turn over Books or to ask how the Learned have determin'd but to ask thy self what thou wouldst do to thy self in the like Cases What desirest thou Not What readest thou What God says of mens knowing his Laws under the Gospel I will put my Law into their Inward Parts and write them in their Hearts and they shall teach no more every man his Neighbour saying Know the Lord for all shall know me may be affirmed of the Rule that is given us for the Love of our Neighbour It needs not be learned or copied out from any other for the Original of the Duty is a multiply'd Original in the Breasts of all Mankind 4. In regard of the Truth and Sincerity of the Rule No man loves himself with a False or Counterfeit Love but is truly Dear to himself will not hurt will not deceive himself David in the 22 th Psalm calls his Soul or Life his Darling Deliver my Soul says he from the Sword my Darling from the power of the dog How tender is David to David how David careth for himself Why every man does this as well as he and lo here is the Rule of our Love to other Men With the same Fidelity with the same Sincerity with the Same Tenderness we treat Our Selves we ought to treat our Other-Selves our Neighbours What David calls in this place his Darling is styl'd in the Margin his Only-One unicam meam Men are allow'd in a sense of Propriety to esteem their Own Souls their own Lives their own Interests to be their Only Ones yet in a sense of Charity they are obliged to make this Onlyness or Singularity become Plural and so to look upon themselves as their Only-Selves as to reckon all Men else their Multiply'd and Several-Selves Since this Commandment was given Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self all men are made in a manner One Man again as at the first Creation and I can no more count my self and my Neighbour to be two in regard of Charity than I can separate my self from my self seclude him from my Love than I can seclude my self from it I shall make but one General Reflection on all that has been said for Application and conclude my first General Part. Although these two Precepts Of loving our Neighbour As our selves and God Above our selves are founded in Nature re-inforc'd and bound straiter on us by express Commandments press'd further in the Gospel and declar'd to be the Summ and General Design of the whole Law yet there is one Rival one Opposite Vicious Principle which is able to with-hold us from paying Obedience to them I say One because whatever with-holds us beside may be reduc'd to this One and that is our Over-much Love of our selves Saint Paul 2 Tim. 3. reckoning many Vices which are causes of perillous Times brings them all out of the Belly of this Monster makes them all the Daughters and Spawn of Self-Love says he This know also That in the last days perillous times shall come for men shall be Lovers of themselves covetous boasters proud blasphemers without natural affection c. All the cursed Genealogy of Ungodliness and Uncharitableness draw their Extraction from this Stock The Immoderate Love of Our Selves From hence it is that we think it more reasonable to satisfie our vainest Desires and to gratifie our most Sinful Affections than to relieve the most weighty and pressing Distresses of our Brethren from hence it is that we set more by our own Opinions and Estimation than by the Truth it self or God's Glory by our Ambition or Revenge than by the Peace and Tranquillity of the Land The Rule that Divines give men when they seek Justification from God viz. That they go out of themselves and look upon nothing in themselves with a very small change will direct us in the Duty of Love that is commanded us We must go out of our Selves and look less upon what concerns our Selves if we will love God and our Neighbour as we ought to do Some men are praised and perhaps not undeservedly for being good Fathers they have laid up
to bring it low Good and Gracious Souls who can give the Lie to their King and Country to justifie Villains make no scruple to rescue Traitors from the Bar and to set the Judges in their place to acquit Schismaticks and Regicides and to arraign the whole Loyalty of the Realm And with what reason beside their secret favouring of the Guilty Forsooth some of the Condemned Persons denied their Treason to the last Moment of their Life and expired in Protestation of their Innocence Their False Principles and Impious Tenets were their Innocence and the Good Opinion they have of their Wicked Designs is all the Uprightness and Integrity they insist on O foolish Galatians says S t Paul who has bewitched you when the Christians among them Judaized And we may say to those that countenance Sectaries and Schismaticks among us O insensati O fautores O mad and besotted Favourers of your greatest Enemies who has fascinated who has bewitched you Are these indeed those truely Illuminated Persons they pretend to be and are you your selves those Reprobated People they call you that you think the Terms easie to involve the Kingdom in Bloud and Ruine to be of their Number This is no time to convince this Frenzy but I instance in these Important and even Incumbent Evils to shew we are not without Just Causes of Complaint and so little does the Nation want Complaints that Complaints are one of the greatest Grievances we complain of namely the Complaints of those who at present have no power to do further Mischief but with false Surmises and feigned Lamentations endeavour to fill the Unwary with Jealousies and Fears Against all these Complaints the Prophet's Advice in my Text is a Sure Armour and Defence If we turn unto the Lord by Repentance and holy Lives he will turn our Dangers into Security our Troubles into Peace and Prosperity I laid me down and slept says the Psalmist and rose again for the Lord sustained me If we lye down and repose our Trust in the Lord in well-doing though there be Trayterous Cabals and Midnight Conspiracies against us our Sleeps shall be as Safe as Sweet a false Brother or a Misgiving Conscience a faint Heart or an Unwary Word let slip shall betray all Nay Means most remote and unlikely no way relating to the Design on foot shall overthrow the whole Machination a casual Fire shall drive the King into his Safety and leave the Traytors in the Destruction they contrived against him and the like If we secure our Duty God will secure our Peace and Safety To whom be ascribed all Honour Glory c. FINIS ERRATA PAge 14. Line 29. for in read by p. 16. l. 30. r. vouchsafed p. 32. l. 16. for that r. they p. 36. l. 32. r. Secular Enjoyments p. 121. l. 19. r. prov'd an Adversary p. 195. l. 18. r. Transgression p. 228. l. 23. for were r. are p. 266. l. 14. r. be a defence p. 269. l. 2. dele and. p. 330. l. 12. r. Humour p. 333. l. 2. for so this r. says the. p. 335. l. 10. r. where the battel p. 341. l. 6. r. washings p. 344. l. 4. for or r. are p. 354. l. 1. r. Endowments p. 363. l. 26. for Conversation r. Conservation p. 378. l. 24. r. of so easie A Catalogue of some Books Printed for R. Royston at the Angel in Amen-Corner Books written by the Reverend Dr. Patrick THE Christian Sacrifice A Treatise shewing the Necessity End and Manner of receiving the Holy Communion together with sutable Prayers and Meditations for every Month in the Year and for the Principal Festivals in Memory of our Blessed Saviour In four Parts The Eighth Edition corrected The Devout Christian instructed how to pray and give thanks to God Or A Book of Devotions for Families and particular persons in most of the concerns of Humane Life The Fifth Edition in Twelves An Advice to a Friend The Fourth Edition in Twelves Jesus and the Resurrection justified by Witnesses in Heaven and in Earth In two Parts in Octavo The Book of Job Paraphrased in Octavo The Book of Psalms Paraphrased in Octavo The Truth of Christian Religion in Octavo The Glorious Epiphany with the Devout Christians Love to it in Octavo The Proverbs of Solomon Paraphrased with the Arguments of each Chapter which supply the place of Commenting A Paraphrase upon the Books of Ecclesiastes and the Song of Solomon With Arguments to each Chapter and Annotations thereupon In Octavo New A Book for Beginners Or A Help to Young Communicants that they may be fitted for the Holy Communion and receive it with profit A Friendly Debate between a Conformist and a Non-Conformist In Two Parts The Sixth Edition Corrected and Enlarged A Treatise of the Necessity and Frequency of receiving the Holy Communion With a Resolution of Doubts about it In three Discourses begun upon Whitsunday in the Cathedral Church of Peterburgh In Twelves New The Works of Doctor Hammond in Four large Volumes viz. Vol. I. A Collection of Discourses chiefly Practical Vol. II. A Collection of Discourses in Defence of the Church of England 1. Against the Romanists 2. Against other Adversaries Vol. III. A Paraphrase and Annotations upon all the Books of the New Testament Vol. IV. A Paraphrase and Annotations upon the Books of the Psalms A Paraphrase and Annotations upon the ten first Chapters of the Proverbs MS. Thirty one Sermons Preach'd upon several Occasions With an Appendix to Vol. II. The Free-holders Grand Inquest touching our Sovereign Lord the King and His Parliament To which are added Observations upon Forms of Government Together with Directions for Obedience to Governours in dangerous and doubtful Times By the Learned Sir Robert Filmer Knight The End of the Catalogue