altogether consists in serving your selves but to disobey so dear a Friend to whom we are obliged by such stupendous Favours when he enjoins us nothing but the Means of our own Happiness is such a Piece of monstrous and unnatural Baseness as the Devil himself can hardly parallel O unkind that we are that we will not be good to our selves for our Saviour's sake and that when he conjures us to it as he doth even by all the Love that we owe him For so Iohn 14. 15. If ye love me saith he keep my Commandments Consider what mighty things I have done for you how I left my Throne in Heaven for your sakes and became a miserable mortal Man And now that I am going from you and am offering up my Life to redeem you if ever I have merited any Love at your hands express it in keeping my Commandments 'T is no great matter that I require of you 't is only that you would be kind to your selves that you would let Misery alone and endeavour to be as happy as Heaven can make you This is all the Requital that I expect at your hands that you would be as good and happy as I would have you and this which is the sum of all my Commands I conjure you strictly to observe even by all the Love that you owe me O blessed Iesus one would have thought thou hadst been requiring some mighty Trial of our Love to thee that we should do some great Thing for thee to which nothing could prompt us but only our Gratitude and Kindness But when thou only requirest us to express our Love to thee in doing that which is the highest Expression of our Love to our selves can we be so disingenuous as not to do that for thy sake to whom we are so infinitely obliged which we are bound to do for our own sakes as well as thine 5. And lastly Hence I infer what a glorious Thing it is to do Good since the Son of God having so great an Opportunity of doing Good to the World thought it worth his While to come down from Heaven and assume our Natures and undergo our Miseries as if he esteemed it more glorious and becoming the Majesty and Divinity of his Person to dwell upon Earth with poor miserable Mortals among whom he might do the greatest Good than to sit above upon the Throne of Heaven and receive the most humble Adorations of Angels for 't was only for an Opportunity of doing the greatest Good that he exchanged the Glory and Happiness of Heaven chusing rather to become a miserable Man to make others good and happy than to continue among those infinite Delights with which the Heavenly State abounds What a most glorious Thing then is it to do Good when our most wise Redeemer chose it before Heaven it self when he thought it more eligible to come down upon Earth and make us happy than to dwell in the Bosom of his Father and shine in Heaven with the Brightness and Glory of his Divinity And if there be nothing in Heaven so glorious as doing Good what is there upon Earth that may be compared unto it What dim what sullied Things are all the Pomps and Splendors of this World compared with the Glory of doing Good to others when God preferred it before Heaven it self To conquer Kingdoms to lead the World in Triumph after us how mean and inconsiderable are they compared with that Glory which the Son of God forsook meerly to do Good to the World A Thing which he esteemed so great and illustrious that he did not only leave Heaven for it but scorned and despised the Kingdoms of the Earth finding nothing below that was worthy of him but only to go about doing Good For this was his constant Imployment as you may see Acts 10. 21. And now is it possible that after this great Example we should think Beneficence a cheap or vulgar Thing Can we think it a Dishonour to stoop to the meanest Offices whereby we may serve the Souls or Bodies of our Brethren when the Son of God came down from Heaven and vailed his Glory in mortal Flesh for no other End but to do Good O foolish Creatures that we are did we but understand and consider what a magnificent Thing it is to supply the Necessities of Men and contribute to their Happiness we should doubtless embrace it as our greatest Preferment and think our selves bound to bless God for ever for furnishing us with Occasions of doing Good that he doth deem us worthy of such an illustrious Imployment to have some share with himself in the Glory of it that he will vouchsafe to us an Opportunity to honour and magnify our selves by acting this Divine this Godlike Part in the World Never then let us think that we dishonour our selves though we stoop never so low when it is to do Good no though it be to visit a Beggar to dress the Sores of a poor Lazar to instruct or comfort the meanest Wretch in all thy Neighbourhood For now thou actest the Part of God in doing the most glorious Thing in all the World a Thing for which the greatest Princes may envy thee and the blessed God for ever applaud thee Now thou art doing that which the Son of God came down from Heaven to do and which he thought more worthy of his Choice than to reign over Angels in Heaven So that either we must say that He was unwise for preferring it before Heaven or else we must acknowledge that we are infinitely foolish in preferring any Thing in the World before it II. I now proceed to the Second Proposition And dwelt among us full of Grace and Truth For that these later Words full of Grace and Truth belong to the former And dwelt among us you may plainly see by the Parenthesis in your Bible by which they are interrupted and broken off from one another In the Explication of these Words I shall do these Two Things 1. Enquire what is here meant by the Word 's dwelling among us 2. What we are to understand by his being full of Grace and Truth 1. What is here meant by the Word 's dwelling among us In the Greek it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is he pitched his Tabernacle among us which seems plainly to refer to God's dwelling in the Tabernacle under the Mosaic Law For the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comes immediately from the Hebrew Shacan and differs from it only by the Greek Termination and from Shacan comes the word Shechinah by which the Hebrews were wont to express God's glorious Presence upon Earth and especially his Habitation in the holy Tabernacle between the two Cherubims where he is said to dwell 1 Sam. 4. 4. and 2 Sam. 6. 2. because from thence God was wont to speak and discover himself by a visible Brightness and Glory And accordingly this Presence or Habitation of God is called in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
shewed you already how it was as the Glory of the only begotten Son by shewing you the great Agreement and Similitude there was between the Glory of Christ when he dwelt in the Tabernacle of Moses and in the Tabernacle of our Nature And when I consider how plainly this Text doth allude to the Shechinah or Divine Presence of the Word in that ancient Tabernacle I am very much induced to think that we ought not to exclude this Sense of it namely that as he dwelt in the Tabernacle of our Nature like as he dwelt in the Tabernacle of Moses so that Glory of his which they beheld in the Tabernacle of our Nature was like unto that Glory in which he appeared in the ancient Tabernacle But then this Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is sometimes also taken for a Note of Confirmation So Psal. 73. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Truly God is good to Israel And thus St. Chrysostome understands it here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. It is not a Note of Similitude and Comparison but of Confirmation and unquestionable Distinction as if the Evangelist had said we saw his Glory such as became and was fit for the only begotten and truly natural Son of God For my Part I see no Reason why the Words may not be fairly understood in both Senses since they are no Ways opposite to nor inconsistent with one another and if so then this must be the Meaning of the Words We beheld his Glory which was like unto that Glory in which the only begotten Son appeared in the old Tabernacle and which was such as was every Way becoming the only begotten Son to appear in The first of which Senses I have proved to you already that the Glory of Christ in the Tabernacle of our Natures was like unto his Glory in the Tabernacle of Moses and therefore now I shall only prove the second that it was such as became and was every Way worthy of the only begotten Son of the Father and this I doubt not will plainly appear by considering the several Particulars of it 1st That visible Splendor and Brightness in which he appeared at his Baptism and Transfiguration was such as became him and was worthy of him For in all Probability that Splendor consisted of Angelical Beings clothed in bright and luminous Bodies because as I have formerly proved to you that Brightness in which he appeared upon the Mount and which he displayed from between the Cherubims was nothing else but those Angels of Light or ministring Spirits which he made to appear as Flames of Fire round about him and therefore that Train of Angels whom Esay saw filling the Temple Esay 6. 1. Our Saviour calls the Glory of the Lord Jo. 12. 41. that is that visible Glory in which the Lord appear'd from between the Cherubims And if that visible Glory consisted in a Train of Angels appearing in glorious Forms then there is no doubt but that visible Glory of our Saviour at his Baptism and Transfiguration was the same since as I have already shewed you it is described by the same Name and in the same Manner of Appearance and if so how well did it become the only begotten Son to be surrounded with the illustrious Guards of his Father's Court and attended on with those high-born Spirits whose Office it is to minister before the Throne of the most High For never was the most glorious Potentate upon Earth attended with such a splendid Train and Retinue the meanest of which was far more illustrious than the greatest and most high-born Monarch in the World So that as the most High God did by a Voice from Heaven both at his Baptism and Transfiguration declare him to be his beloved Son so by the glorious Train of Attendants he sent him he manifested the Truth of his Declaration for we must needs suppose him to be the Son of the most High when we see the most glorious Beings in all the Creation so willingly submit themselves to his Service and Attendance And when we see the most High adorning his Outside with the luminous Bodies of Angels we may reasonably conclude that there was a Divinity within and that the Iewel was God because the Casket was Angels But whatsoever this glorious Splendor was in which he was clothed at his Baptism and Transfiguration it was apparently such as very well became the only begotten Son not only because as the Philosopher saith that if God would ever take upon him a Body it would be certainly Light which is a Vestment most suitable to his Glory and Majesty but also because that miraculous Splendor was an infallible Token of the Presence of the Divinity in him for it never was but where God was present and therefore it is called the Glory of God it being the inseparable Concomitant of his more peculiar Residence For thus as I have shewed you upon the Mount and in the Tabernacle it was a visible Demonstration of the special Presence of the invisible God and wheresoever in all the Old Testament any Mention is made of its Appearance you shall find that there God himself did peculiarly reside And therefore it is not to be imagined that God would have communicated to our Saviour this inseparable Token of his own Presence unless the Divinity had resided in him For Iesus Christ was the only Person upon whom this visible Glory descended never did the Hand of Heaven put such a Robe and Diadem of Glory upon any Person in the World as this which our Saviour wore at his Baptism and Transfiguration which plainly denotes that he was the only Person in whom the Divinity was substantially united and did essentially dwell So that as this visible Glory was a certain Token of God's peculiar Residence in the Tabernacle and Temple so it was also of his special Presence in Christ for the History of his Baptism tells us that it did not only make a transient Appearance but that it remained on him signifying that the Divinity whose Presence was denoted by it had made him his Habitation and Place of constant Abode For though that visible Glory after some Time disappeared and went off from him yet the Thing signified by it viz. the Divine Presence always remained in him for by that outward Glory he was clearly manifested to be the Holy One of God the Tabernacle and Sanctuary in which God was and where he had taken up his Residence for ever that his Humane Nature was that sacred Temple where the Divinity intended to dwell and from whence for the future he would deliver all his Oracles and communicate all his Blessings to Mankind So that in this Respect this visible Glory was such as highly became the only begotten Son because it plainly denoted that the Fulness of the God-head dwelt bodily in him and had chosen him for his Habitation for ever and therefore Iohn Baptist tells us that though he knew him not yet this God had revealed
Mind of God to Men So that it seems it was upon this Account as well as others that He was called by the Ancients The Word of God And the same Account is given of it in the New Testament So Ioh. 1. 18. No Man hath seen God at any time the only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father he hath declared him Where there is a particular Reason assigned why though other Men interpreted the Mind of God to us yet Christ alone is called The Word of God because he only was the immediate Interpreter of the Divine Will even as the Word which we speak is of ours For he was in the very Bosom of the Father and there understood his Mind not by the Instructions of an Angel nor by Dreams and Visions nor only by the Holy Ghost but by an immediate Intuition of his Thoughts and Purposes which from all Eternity were exposed to his View and Prospect For as St. Gregory Nazianzen hath observed He had the same Relation to the Father as the inward Thought hath to the Mind because of his intimate Conjunction with him and Power to declare him to the World For the Father is known by the Son who is a brief and easy Demonstration of the Father as every thing that is begotten is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the silent Word of that which doth beget it 4thly And lastly He is called The Word because he is the Executor of his Father's Will even as the Word and Command of a King is the Executor of his Will and Pleasure For according to the Sense of the Ancients God hath from the very Beginning governed the World by his eternal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whom they therefore call the Immortal King the Governor of all things that are or shall be and the Vice-Roy of the great God as I have already shewed you at large And 't was by this Word that God executed his Will when he made the World For by his Word he made the Heavens and all the Host of them by the Breath of his mouth Ps. 33. 6. He did but say the word Let there be Light and there was Light and to his powerful and efficacious Fiat the whole Frame of Nature was but a real Eccho For these Expressions Let there be Light and let there be a Firmament c. are not perhaps so to be understood as if God did actually pronounce those Syllables but they rather seem to be a popular Description of the infinite Energy of the Eternal Word by which God made the Heavens and the Earth to whom it was as easy to give Being to the World as it was to command it to be and that Passage of the Psalmist by the Word of the Lord were the Heavens made and of the Author to the Hebrews Heb. 11. 3. that the Worlds were framed by the Word of God seem rather to denote that powerful Act of Creation which was exerted by the vital and substantial Word of God whereby he instantly and as it were with a words speaking gave Existence to those Beings he intended to create than any articulate Words or Phrases pronounced by God himself because in this Chapter and many other Places of the New Testament it is expresly said that God made the World by Christ who is that living and substantial Word that was with God from the Beginning Well therefore may Christ be called The Word of God since by him God doth as effectually execute his Will as if it were done by the Word of his own Mouth For Christ hath such Power both in Heaven and Earth that at his Word and Command all things are presently done according to his Will and therefore you may observe in that Vision to St. Iohn Rev. 19. 13. Iesus being represented as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords clothed in a royal Purple Robe is called by the name of the Word of God when he was executing the Divine Vengeance upon the Nations by that Power which he hath at God's Right-hand 3. I now pass on to the third and last Thing namely what we are to understand by the Word 's being made Flesh of which I shall give you a brief Account and then conclude with a few short Inferences from the whole Which Words being made Flesh we ought not so to understand as if the Eternal Word was changed or converted into Flesh as Cerinthus taught or as if the Flesh was changed or converted into the Word as Valentinus ridiculously asserted for the Deity is immutable and as it can be changed into nothing so nothing can be changed into it But by Flesh we are to understand Man a Part being put for the Whole for so the Scripture doth very frequently call Man Flesh that being one of the Ingredients of his Nature Thus Ps. 56. 4. I will not fear what flesh can do unto me Ierem. 17. 5. Cursed be the Man that maketh flesh his arm that is that puts his Confidence in Man Matth. 24. 22. Except those days be shortned no flesh shall be saved that is no Man And Rom. 3. 20. No flesh shall be justified in his sight that is no Man shall be justified So here The Word was made flesh that is The Word was made Man Not that the Divine Nature was converted into the Nature of Man but the Meaning is it was made one with Man even as our Soul is not turned into nor confounded with the Body yet they two though distinct in Natures grow into one Man so the Manhood of Christ was assumed or taken into The Word both being united into one Person the Natures being preserved entire and distinct without any Mixture or Confusion For as the Fourth General Council hath defined it He was so made Flesh that he ceased not to be the Word never changing that he was but assuming that which he was not And though our Humanity was advanced by it yet his Divinity was not at all diminished and the Mystery of Godliness God manifested in the flesh was no Detriment to the Godhead which is always unchangeably the same And therefore the seeming Harshness of this Expression may be easily mollified by comparing it with others of the same import for elsewhere it is said that he was manifest in the flesh 1 Tim. 3. 16. Which only denotes that the Divinity was made known and did appear in the World in a Humane Nature Elsewhere it is said that he took on him the Nature of Man Heb. 2. 16. which only denotes that the Divinity did assume the Humane Nature to it and was personally united with it So here The Word was made flesh that is The Word was made one with the Flesh by assuming the Humane Nature into a personal Union with it self Having thus explain'd to you the Sense and Meaning of the Words I shall now conclude this Argument with three or four short Inferences from the whole 1. From hence we may infer the Eternal Divinity of our Blessed Saviour
even from this great name The Word that is here attributed to him For since it is so apparent that this Phrase is a Term of Art derived from the Schools of the Iews and Gentiles and since by it they did all so generally understand a Divine Person subsisting from all Eternity it must necessarily follow that the Holy Ghost deriving it from them and applying it to our Blessed Saviour must use it to the same Sense for otherwise He were better never to have used it at all because by discoursing in the same Language with them he will give us just occasion to think that he means the same thing namely that Christ whom he calls The Word is a Divine Person subsisting from all Eternity which if he doth not mean by using that Term he will almost necessarily betray us into a false Belief concerning our Saviour As to instance briefly in a Case of anothâ—r Nature Our Saviour in his Sermons dâ—â—h frequently press us to Meekness and Patience Humilty and Charity all which are Terms frequently used long before in the Moral Philosophy both of the Iews and Gentiles by which they signify such and such particular Virtues Since therefore our Saviour doth use the same Terms with them we have just Reason to conclude that he means the same Virtues by them and should he mean any thing else his very using of these Terms would necessarily impose upon us a false Sense of his meaning for how should we understand his Meaning but by his Words and how should we understand his Words but by the common Import and Signification of them And can we imagine that the Spirit of Truth would have ever described our Saviour by a Term that was so generally used to signify a Divine Person subsisting from all Eternity and used it too as he doth without any Restraint or Limitation nay and so seemingly at least to the same Purpose as he doth in the three first Verses of this Chapter where he describes the Divine Nature and Operations of Christ The Word in the same terms in which the Iews and Gentiles were wont to describe the Divinity of their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 can we imagine I say that the Holy Spirit would have done thus had he known Christ to be nothing but a meer Man that never was before he was born of his Mother Far be it from us to charge that Blessed Spirit with imposing such a Delusion upon Mankind 2. Hence I infer the astonishing Love of our Blessed Saviour in condescending so low as to be made Flesh for us and assume our Nature For what he was before he took our Nature you have heard already He was no less than the Eternal Word of the Father in whose Bosom he enjoyed the supremest Degree of Bliss and Happiness being crowned with Glory and incircled about with the Essential Rays of the Divinity And yet such was his Love to poor Mortals so infinite was his Zeal and Concern for our Happiness that seeing the Misery we were plunged into he could not rest no not in the blessed Arms of his Father but stript himself of all his Majesty and Bliss and comes down among us and assumes our Nature to save and rescue us and invite and lead us to those Heavenly Mansions from whence he descended to us Lord what a Prodigy of Love was here as doth not only puzzle my Conceit but out-reach my Wonder and Admiration For when I seriously consider it though it be a Blessing beyond all my Hopes and such as I could never have had the Impudence to desire yet it fills my Mind with an awful Horror to think that there was a Time when the great God was here upon the Earth in my Form and Nature and conversed familiarly with such mortal Wights as my self and for my sake and such poor Worms as I patiently under-went the common Infirmities of Men and willingly exposed himself to the Contempt and Scorn of a malevolent World and the Malice and Cruelty of those barbarous Men to whom he gave Being and could with the Breath of his Nostrils have scattered into Atoms and all this in meer Compassion to a Company of apostatized Natures who had so highly deserved to be thrown from his Care and Mercy for ever O my Soul how am I astonished at this Miracle of Love Methinks when I consider it I am looking down from a stupendous Precipice whose Height â—ills me with a trembling Horror and even over-setting Reason 3. From hence I infer what mighty Obligations we have for ever to love and serve our Blessed Redeemer If our Hearts are capable of being warmed into any degree of Affection sure 't is impossible but we must be affected at such an unheard of Instance of Love For the Son of God to leave his Father's Bosom where he was infinitely more happy than we can express and think of and disguise himself in mortal Flesh and become a Man of Sorrows that he might make me a Man of endless Joys can my Heart hold when I think of this Is it possible I should reflect upon such a prodigious Instance of Affection without being wrapt into an Extasy of Love Blessed Iesus what barbarous Hearts do we carry about with us that will not melt before the Flames of thy Love Flames that are sufficient to kindle Seraphims and to fill all reasonable Breasts with burning Affections towards thee For how is it possible that any Man I had almost said that any Devil should be so disingenuous and ill-natured as not to be affected with such stupendous Kindness When we see a Child slight his careful and indulgent Parents we are ready to account him an unnatural Monster when we see a Man neglect his Friend or disregard his Benefactor we presently call him base and ungrateful nay when we see one abuse a poor brute Creature that fawns upon him and expresses its Kindness to him we look upon it as an undoubted Sign of a very hard Heart and an ill Nature What Term then can we find in all the World of Words that is odious enough to express our Disaffection to our Blessed Redeemer to whom we are so infinitely obliged Base Disingenuous Ill-natured and Vngrateful are all too soft 't is something beyond Barbarous and Devilish For one would think that neither the most inhumane Canibal on Earth nor the blackest Devil in Hell could ever be guilty of so foul a Crime which hath something in it too monstrous for any Words to express Well therefore may the Heavens be astonished and the Earth tremble and all the Creation of God stand amazed at us to see how insensible we are of this most ravishing and endearing Love Well may we be amazed at our selves and wonder at our own Stupidity to think that the Son of God should be so kind as to come down from Heaven to visit us to leave the Habitation of his Glory and shâ—oud his Divinity in mortal Flesh and make himself a miserable Wight
the Eyes c. which Characters are proper only to that inward and spiritual Sense of the Law that was decyphered upon those outward Signs and Ceremonies Which Sense seems to have been very little taken notice of by the sottish Vulgar for only the Ceremony it self was Matter of Law to them which if they observed they were not punishable by that Law though they never took notice of its spiritual Sense and Meaning which made them neglect that inward Purity which was pictured on those outward Signs and place the whole of their Righteousness in an outside ceremonious Pageantry Hence is that of St. Paul 2 Cor. 3. 13 14 15. I used saith he great plainness of Speech And not as Moses which put a Vail over his Face that the Children of Israel could not stedfastly look unto the end of that which is abolished But their Minds were blinded for until this day remaineth the same Vail untaken away in the reading the Old Testament which Vail is done away in Christ By which Vail he means those outward Shadows and Types in which the mystical Sense of the Law was wrapt and involved and it seems they were so taken with the Pomp and Gaity of the outside that they never minded that rich Treasure of Sense that was contained within it and which the Apostle here calls the End of that which is abolished yea to this day saith he the Vail of outward Ceremonies stands so much in their Light that they cannot discern the internal Sense of the Old Testament but now saith he it is done away by Christ. Now that the Eternal Word hath pitched his Tabernacle in our Nature those outward Types wherein this inward Purity of Soul was so obscurely intimated are vanished like Clouds before the Sun and in their room are introduced the most pure and spiritual Laws of the Gospel which are no longer couched in Types and Ceremonial Shadows but in plain and naked Propositions Now internal Holiness is palpably declared to be the great Design of Religion that we should cleanse our selves from all Filthiness of Flesh and Spirit and perfect Holiness in the fear of God This therefore is another Instance of Christ's tabernacling among us full of Truth viz. the Purity and Spirituality of his Laws which heretofore he mystically represented to the Iews by outward Rites and Ceremonies 3. Another Instance of his tabernacling among us full of Truth in Contradistinction to that obscure typical Way of his conversing among the Iews is the Condition and Quality of his Church and Kingdom The Eternal Word designing to erect a glorious Kingdom in the World drew as it were a rude Scheme or Draught of it in the Form and Model of the Iewish Polity For first he erects a Kingdom among them of which himself was King to typify that Spiritual Kingdom which afterwards he meant to establish in the World then he adopts the Iews to be his Children by the external Sign of Circumcision who are therefore called a Holy Seed which was an Emblem of that holy Seed which afterwards he designed to beget to himself by spiritual Regeneration which is therefore called the Circumcision of the Heart whose Praise is not of Men but of God His delivering them from the Bondage of Egypt and leading them through the Red-Sea and the Wilderness into Canaan typified his delivering of his future Church from the Bondage of Sin and Satan and leading it by his own gracious Presence through the Red-Sea of Blood and Persecutions and the Wilderness of the World to the Canaan of eternal Rest. His giving the Law on Mount Sinai in Fire was a Figure of his delivering the Gospel by the Spirit which came down in fiery cloven Tongues at the Feast of Penteâ—ost Thus his erecting the Ark in the Wilderness was also another Type of that Spiritual Kingdom which afterwards he meant to erect in the World The divers Ornaments and Instruments of that Tabernacle represented the Diversity of spiritual Gifts and Functions in the Christian Church it s being covered with Skins without and adorned with Gold within shadowed the mean and contemptible Form wherein the Christian Church first appeared to the World notwithstanding the inward Glory and Purity with which it was adorned and embellished The Glory of God appearing in the Tabernacle denoted the Presence of Christ in his Church which he hath promised to continue to the end of the World it s being removed from Place to Place and finding no Rest till it was lodged in the Temple prefigured the persecuted State of the Primitive Church which was hunted up and down the World by the mighty Nimrods of the Earth and could find no Rest till it was transported to the Heavenly Temple By these and such like Types and Shadows did the Eternal Word prefigure the State and Condition of his future Church that so when it came to be erected in the World the Iews might know and own it having seen it before-hand so exactly decyphered and adumbrated in the very Frame and Model of their own Polity But when he came to tabernacle in our Nature he gave actual Being to those Things which before he only shadowed and represented for then he erected this glorious Church of which the Iewish was only a Model and Platform delivered it from the Egyptian Bondage of Wickedness and Idolatry and by his own glorious Presence conducted the Members of it through all the Persecutions of an enraged World to the Canaan of eternal Rest and therefore this also is another plain Instance of his tabernacling among us full of Truth the State and Condition of his Church which before was so obscurely represented 4. And lastly Another Instance of his tabernacling among us full of Truth in Contradistinction to that obscure and typical Way of his conversing among the Iews is the glorious Recompences which he hath so plainly and clearly promised to his Subjects For this he also obscurely typified to the Iews for as I have already hinted by that Canaan which he bestowed upon them after their tedious Travel through the Wilderness he did darkly represent to them that Canaan above flowing with infinite Delights which he hath promised to bestow upon his faithful Servants after they have pass'd through the Wilderness of this World So also by their Sabbaoths and especially their Year of Iubilee wherein they were to rest from all their Labours and keep a perpetual Festivity He did obscurely decypher to them that Sabbaoth of Rest and Iubilee of endless Pleasure which vertuous Souls shall enjoy in Heaven after they have finished their Labours here on Earth as you may see at large Heb. 4. Now by these and such like Shadows of their Law which possibly the Prophets by Divine Inspiration might expound to them those who were wise and good among them it is very probable were instructed in the Article of eternal Life Hence it may be might arise that famous Controversy among the Iews concerning the Written and Oral
his Father's Glory must be an equal Evidence of his being invested with the Authority of his Father And as this visible Glory was always the peculiar Character of God's immediate Representative and the Royal Crown and Robes as it were with which the most High adorned him at his Inaguration and Investment with his own Kingly Authority so St. Peter expresly tells Cornelius and his Company that God had anointed him with the Holy Ghost and with Power Acts 10. 13. that is by that outward Sign of the visible Glory in which the Holy Ghost descended upon him he had invested him with Regal Power and deputed and declared him to be King of the Church And this in all probability was the Reason why he forbad his Disciples to declare his Transfiguration till after his Resurrection from the Dead Mark 9. 9. because he knew that if they did the Iews would not believe it but would maliciously interpret it to be a false Pretence of his to the Title of God's immediate Representative and Vice-Roy that visible Glory in which he appeared being the proper Character of that divine King by whom the most High God had formerly governed them and therefore in all the History of his Life you find he did industriously avoid openly to avow his Regal Authority and only insinuates it by Consequences and obscure Intimations For so violently were they prejudiced against his being their King upon the account of his obscure Parentage and mean Condition that he could not but foresee how unseasonable it would yet be publickly to own his Regal Authority and consequently the Glory of his Transfiguration which did so apparently infer it till by more miraculous Effects and particularly by his Resurrection from the Dead he had sufficiently proved and demonstrated it and then he openly declares without any Reserve that all Power was given him in Heaven and Earth Matth. 28. 18. Since therefore it is so apparent by this Characteristical Glory in which his Person was inrobed and which the Apostle assures us they saw him invested with we have all the Reason in the World to conclude that the most High God hath deputed him to be King and Lord of the Church For when the Apostle tells us that they saw this visible Glory which shone upon him at his Baptism and Transfiguration he doth as good as say that they saw all the Solemnity of his divine Coronation that they beheld the most High God circling his Brows with the Royal Diadem and investing his sacred Body with the Imperial Robes of the great King of the World So that if it be true what St. Iohn says that they did see this Glory as we have all the Reason in the World to conclude it is because he offered to seal his Testimony of it with his Blood and the other two that saw it with him actually did so then we cannot but acknowledge the blessed Iesus to be our King to whose divine Authority we are bound to pay the lowest Homage and Obedience and that whensoever we wilfully transgress his Laws we do openly rebel against our most rightful Sovereign to whose Service we are bound by all possible Ties and Obligations 2. They saw the Glory of that miraculous Power which he exerted in the Course of his Ministry from whence I infer the Credibility of the Christian Religion Foâ— the many stupendous Miracles that he wrought were a most plain and unquestionable Evidence of a Divine Power residing in him and accompanying his Ministry For never were there so many miraculous Effects produced either before or since in the World by the most renowned Workers of Miracles that ever were and all that hath been done by the most famous Magicians that are recorded in History were but like the little Tricks and Delusions of Iugglers compared with the wondrous Works of our Saviour and yet 't is apparent that his Education had been most plain and simple that he never had been instructed in any Mathematical Science or mystical Rites or in any other Art of performing Wonders either by Humane Wit or Diabolical Assistance but was bred up under the Care of his poor honest Parents who were forced to earn their Bread with the Sweat of their Brows and so in all Probability was trained up in his Father's Profession that so by his daily Labour he might be able to contribute to the Charge of his Maintenance And yet 't is plain this home-bred Person sometimes only by speaking of a Word sometimes meerly by the Touch of his Hand sometimes by a silent Virtue proceeding from him without any outward Sign intervening did more and far greater Wonders in three or four Years Time than all the most skilful Physicians Magicians and Mathematicians could ever do either before or after him Now how was it possible that ever such a Person should ever have accomplished such great and mighty Things as he did had he not been endued with Power from above And if he was endued with such a Power what greater Evidence can we desire of the Truth and Divinity of his Doctrine For it is not supposable that the God of Truth would have endued our Saviour with this miraculous Power had that Doctrine been false which he sought to confirm by it because in so doing he would have openly patronized a Cheat and designedly contributed to the Propagation of an Imposture which is utterly inconsistent with his Truth and Veracity So that now the Truth of Christianity finally resolves into the Veracity of God which is the Foundation of all the Certainty in the World For admitting that God can either deceive or be deceived we do not know but our Faculties may be constantly imposed upon and then there is nothing in Nature that we can be certain of So that if it be true as St. Iohn here testifies that they did see the Glory of our Saviour's Miracles that is a most undeniable Evidence of the Truth and Divinity of his Doctrine and that they did see it I think is as evident For it is not imaginable that any single Man would openly testifie a known Lye without some Temptation inducing him thereunto much less that so many Hundreds of Persons as the Eye-Witnesses of our Saviour's Miracles were should conspire to cheat the World not only when they had no Temptation to it but when they had all the Reason in the World against it for they saw their Master suffer a shameful Death before their Eyes by which they might easily divine what their own Fate would be if they persevered to preach up his Miracles and Doctrine which they could not resolve to do without bidding Adieu to all their temporal Hopes and ingaging themselves to undergo all the Miseries and Calamities in the World and if they testified what they knew to be false they transgressed the Rule of their own Religion and thereby forfeited all their Hopes of a blessed Immortality in the Life to come And can it be imagined that so many Men
a Mind to stear and manage it it would be an equal Chance whether we did well or ill with it So that unless there were some Vnderstanding either within or without us to conduct our active Powers and determine them to our Good we were as good be altogether without them because while they act by Chance it is at least an equal Lay whether they will injure or advantage us Since therefore Vnderstanding is the Rule and Measure of all our other Powers it necessarily follows that it self is the greatest and noblest of them all What an excellent Being therefore must a Soul be in which this great and Sovereign Power resides a Power that can collect into it self such prodigious Numbers of simple Apprehensions and by comparing one with the other can connect them into true Propositions and upon each of these can run such long and curious Descants of Discourse till it hath drawn out all their Consequents into a Chain of wise and coherent Notions and sorted these into such various Systems of useful Arts and Sciences That can discern the Harmonious Contextures of Truths with Truths the secret Links and Junctures of coherent Notions trace up Effects to their Causes and sift the remotest Consequents to their natural Principles That 〈◊〉 Abroad its sharp-sighted Thoughts over the whole Extent of Beings and like the Sun with it s out-stretched Rays reach the remotest Objects That can in the Twinkling of an Eye expatiate through all the Vniverse and keep Correspondence with both Worlds can prick out the Paths of the Heavenly Bodies and measure the Circles of their Motion span the whole Surface of the Earth and dive into its Capacious Womb and there discover the numerous Offsprings with which it is continually teeming That can sail into the World of Spirits by the never-varying Compass of its Reason and discover those invisible Regions of Happiness and Misery which are altogether out of our sight whilest we stand upon this hither Shore In a word That can ascend from Cause to Cause to God who is the Cause of all and with its Eagle-Eyes can gaze upon that glorious Sun and dive into the infinite Abyss of his divine Perfections What an excellent Being therefore is that Soul that is endowed with such a vast Capacity of Vnderstanding and with its piercing Eye can reach such an immense Compass of Beings and travail through so vast an Horizon of Truth Doubtless if humane Souls had no other Capacity to value themselves by but only this this were enough to give them the Preheminence over all inferiour Beings and render them the most glorious Part of all this sublunary World 2. The Soul of Man is of vast Worth in Respect of its Capacity of Moral Perfection For by the Exercise of those humane Vertues which are proper to it in this state of Conjunction with the Body it is capable of raising it self to the Perfection of those Angelical Natures which of all Creatures do most nearly approach and resemble the great Creator and Fountain of all Perfection For by keeping a due Restraint upon its bodily Appetites and thereby gradually weaning it self from the Pleasures of the Body it may by degrees be educated and trained up to lead the Life and relish the Joys of naked and immortal Spirits it may be contempered to an incorporeal State so as to be able to enjoy it self without eating and drinking and live most happily upon the Fare of Angels upon Wisdom and Holiness and Love and Contemplation And then by governing its own Will and Affections by the Laws of Reason and Religion it may be degrees improve it self so far in all these Moral Endowments which are the proper Graces of every reasonable Nature as to be at last as perfectly wise and reasonable in its own Choices and Refusals in its Love and Hatred in its Desires and Delights as the Angels themselves are For though it cannot be expected that in this imperfect state a Soul should arrive to such a Pitch as this yet even now it may be growing up and aspiring to it which if it doth as I shall shew you by and by when this is expired it hath another Life to live which being antecedently prepared for by those spiritual Improvements it hath made here will furnish it with Opportunites of improing infinitely faster than here it did or possibly could For in that Life it shall not only be freed from those many Incumbrances which do here retard it in its spiritual Progress nor shall it only be associated with a World of pure and blessed Spirits whose holy Example and wise Converse will doubtless wonderfully edifie and improve it but be also admitted into a more intimate Acquaintance with God who is the Author and Pattern of all Perfection the sight of whose ravishing Beauty will inflame it with a most ardent Love to him and excite it to a most vigorous Imitation of him All which considered it is not to be imagined how much the state of Heaven will immediately improve those happy Souls that are prepared and disposed for it But then considering that Moral Perfection is as infinite as the Nature of God in which there is an Infinity of Holiness and Iustice and Goodness within this boundless Subject there will be Room enough for Souls to make farther and farther Improvements in even to Eternity And then when they shall still be growing on so fast and yet be still forever improving to what a transcendent Height of Glory and Perfection will they at last arrive For tho no finite Soul can ever arrive to an infinite Perfection yet still it may be growing on to it because there will still be possible Degrees of it beyond its present Attainments and when it is arrived to the farthest imaginable Degree yet still it will be capable of farther and so farther and farther to all Eternity And if so O blessed God of what a Capacious Nature hast thou made these Souls of ours which tho they will doubtless improve in Goodness as fast in the other Life as is possible for them with all the Advantages of a Heavenly State yet will never attain to an utmost Period but still be growing perfecter and perfecter forever 3. The Soul of Man is of vast Worth in Respect of its immense Capacities of Pleasure and Delight For its Capacity of Pleasure must necessarily be as large and extensive as its Capacity of Vnderstanding and of Moral Perfection because the proper Pleasure of a Soul results from its own Knowledge and Goodness from its farther Discoveries of Truth and farther Proficiency in inward Rectitude and Vertue and consequently as as it Improves farther and farther in Vnderstanding and in Moral Perfection it must still gather more and more Fuel to feed and encrease its own Joy and Pleasure For the Pleasure of every Being consists in the vigorous Exercise of its Faculties about convenient and agreable Objects but the Faculties of a Soul are Vnderstanding and Will to which
the only agreable Objects are Truth and Goodness and therefore the more Truth there is in the Mind and the more Goodness there is in the Will the more vigorously will they imploy and exercise themselves about them and consequently the more they will be pleased and ravished Since therefore every new Discovery of Truth and every new Degree of Goodness gives new Life to our Minds and Wills and renders both more sprightly and vigorous it hence necessarily follows that our Souls are capable of as much Pleasure as they are of Truth and Goodness and how vastly Capable they are of both these I have already shewed you So that it is not to be imagined by us who have here so little Experience what Heavens of Joy a Soul is Capable of only at present we find by Experience that the more we improve in Knowledge and Goodness the more pleasant chearful we find and feel our selves and that our Faculties still grow more active and lightsom the more we disburthen them of that Ignorance and Sin that cloggs and incumbers them And upon great Proficiencies in Knowledge and Vertue we find a strange Alacrity within our selves we are as it were in Heaven upon Earth and do feel a Paradise springing up within us the Fragrance of whose Ioys grows many times so strong that our frail Mortality can hardly bear them When therefore such Souls do cast off this Mortality which now doth only fetter and intangle them and have made their Entrance into the invisible Regions of Blessedness how sprightly and active how lightsom and chearful will they feel themselves For in the first Moment of their Admission all that Mist of erroneous Prejudice which now interrupts their Prospect of Truth and all those Remains of irregular Affection that check and distract them in their Choice of Goodness will be forever chased from their Minds and Wills by the clear Light of the Heavenly State and their Faculties having thus disburthen'd themselves and shaken off every Clog with what unspeakable Vigour will they move and act especially in the Presence of such suitable Objects as the Heavenly State will present before them When infinite Truth and infinite Goodness shall be always present to their free Minds and undistracted Wills and nothing shall interpose to hinder them either in seeing the one or in chosing the other here will be work enough for both to all Eternity and both being freed from all Incumbrance the one will be discovering every Moment farther and farther into that infinite Truth which it loves and admires and the other will be improving every Moment more and more in that infinite Goodness which it chooses and adores And then every new Discovery and new Improvement will spring new Heavens of Joy in the Soul and by reason of those new Acquests of Truth and Goodness which we shall every Moment make we shall every Moment be entertained with new Pleasures and so before we have spent one Joy another will succeed and another that and so on forever For when a God of infinite Truth and Goodness becomes the Objective Happiness of a finite Nature which cannot comprehend and enjoy him but in an infinite Succession every new Delight the Injoyment of him creates in us must necessarily raise a new Desire and every new Desire immediately find a new Delight and so round again to all Eternity Of what a vast Capacity therefore is this Soul of ours in which there is room enough successively to entertain all the ravishing Joys and Pleasures that make an Everlasting Heaven That can drink in those deep Rivers of Pleasure as fast as they spring up and flow from God's right hand for evermore What Tongue can express the innumerable Joys that such a Soul can hold whose Capacity is so large as Heaven and so near to infinite as to be able to contain all those Joys and Pleasures that infinite Truth and Goodness can create 4. And lastly The Soul of Man is of vast Worth in Respect of its Capacity of Immortality For by its Operations it is evident that the Soul is not composed of Corruptible matter but is a spiritual and immaterial Substance for if it were Matter it would act and move only when other Matter presses upon it and not be able to determine the Course of its own Motion but would be forced to move backwards or forwards according as it was thrust on by that outward Matter that continually moves and presses upon it and all its Motions would be as necessary as that of a Stone in the Air when it is thrust up by an impressed Force and pressed down again by the weight of the Air above it Whereas in this Soul of ours we sensibly feel and experience a natural Liberty of acting a Power to move it self and to determine its own Motions which way it pleaseth when it is pressed forward never so vigorously by the strong Impulses of outward Objects it is in its Power to go on or retreat and to divert the Current of its Thoughts into a quite contrary Channel to that whereinto it is thrust and directed by all the Impressions of its Sense For thus in the midst of the Alarums and Shoutings of an Army of the Noises of Drums and Trumpets ringing in our Ears our Soul can recollect it self and reduce its scattered Thoughts into profound Contemplations of a sweet and Blessed Peace and when it is pressed from without with never so much Importunity to this or that particular Choice it is in its Power to reject the Motion and to choose the quite contrary By all which it is apparent that the Soul hath an innate Liberty of acting thaâ— she is not necessitated from without by the different Concourses and Motions of the several Particles of Matter but that all the Diversity of her Wills and Opinions is principally owing to her own Freedom and Power of self-determination and to make the least doubt of it is to question the common Sense and Experience of Mankind Since therefore the Soul is not determined in its Motions by the different Pressures of material things as all other Matter is but hath power to swim against the Torrent and move quite counter to all foreign Impressions it hence necessarily follows that it is immaterial And indeed considering how much its Operations do exceed the utmost Power of dull and passive Matter I cannot but wonder that any Man should be so forsaken of his Reason as to rank it among material Things for how is it possible that a Piece of dull unactive Matter that a little Grass or Dirt or Mire after all the Refinings Macerations and Maturations that can be performed by the help of Motion should ever be able to make a thinking Being or grow up into the Soul of a Philosopher That a Company of dead Atoms which cannot move unless they are moved can ever be capable of framing Syllogisms in Mood and Figure and disputing pro and con whether they are Atoms
or no That such inert and sluggish Bodies should by their impetuous jostling together awaken one another out of their senseless Passiveness and make each other hear and feel their mutual Knocking 's and Jostlings and then from this sense into which they have thus awakened one another and which they are as incapable of as a Musical Instrument is of hearing its own Sounds or taking pleasure in the harmonious Aires that are playd upon it should proceed and consult together to make wise Laws and contrive the best Models of Government to investigate the Natures of Things and deduce from them the several Systems of Arts and Sciences in a word how is it possible that a Company of fluid Motes and Particles of Matter should ever be so artificially complicated and twisted one with another as to form an Vnderstanding that can lift up its Eyes and look beyond all this sensible World into that of immaterial Beings and conceive abstracted Notions of things which can never be Objects to any material Senses such as a pure Point Equality and Proportion Symmetry and Asymmetry of Magnitudes the Rise and Propagation of Dimensions infinite Divisibility and the like Notions that never were in Matter nor consequently could ever be extracted out of it That can correct the Errors of all our material Perceptions and demonstrate Things to be vastly different from what they apprehend and report them can prove the Sun for instance to be one handred and sixty times bigger than the Earth when to our Eye and Imagination it appears no bigger than a Bushel that can lodg within it self all that Mass of sensible Things which taketh up so much Room without it and when it hath piled them up upon one another in vast and most prodigious Numbers is still as capacious of more as when it was altogether empty in a word that can grasp the Vniverse with a Thought and comprehend the whole Latitude of Heaven and Earth within its own indivisible Center how senseless is it to imagine that such Noble Operations as these can be performed by a meer Complex of dead Atoms and senseless Particles of Matter And if they cannot as doubtless they cannot then from hence it will necessarily follow that the Soul of Man is an immaterial Thing Furthermore we see that tho the Soul takes in Objects of all sizes yet when once they are in they are not as Bodies in a material Place in which the Greater take up more Room than the Less For the Thought of a Mile or ten thousand Miles doth no more fill or stretch a Soul than that of a Foot or an Inch or a Mathematical Point and whereas all Matter hath its Parts and those extended one without another into Length and Breadth and Thickness and so is measurable by Inches Yards or solid Measures there is no such Thing as measurable Extension in any thing belonging to the Soul For in Cogitation which is the Essence of a Soul there is neither Length nor Breadth nor Thickness nor is it possible to have any Conceit of a Foot of Thought or a Yard of Reason a Pound of Wisdom or a Quart of Vertue And if what belongs to a Soul be immaterial it will necessarily follow that the Soul it self is immaterial too and as such capable of Immortality For immaterial Natures being pure and simple having neither contrary Qualities nor divisible Parts in them as material Things have can have no Priciples of Alteration and Corruption in them and being devoid of these they must needs be capable of living and subsisting for ever What Noble Beings therefore are the Souls of Men which together with those vast capacities of Vnderstanding of Moral Perfection of Ioy and Pleasure are naturally capable of Immortality and consequently of improving in Knowledge in Goodness and in Ioy and Pleasure unto all Eternity And therefore certainly a Soul must needs be a most precious Thing that can thus â—â—t-live all sublunary Beings and subsist for ever in so sâ—ublime a state of Glory and Beatitude Having thus shewn you the invaluable Worth of the Soul in Respect of its own natural Capacities I proceed 2. To shew you of what vast Esteem it is in the Judgment of all those who we must needs suppose do best understand the Worth of it and that is the whole World of Spirits For to be sure Spirits must best understand the Excellency of Spirits because they have a clearer In-sight into each others Natures and a more immediate Prospect of the Vertue Power and Excellency of each others Faculties For as for us whilest we are in this imbodied state and do understand by corporeal Organs we generally judge of the Worth and Excellency of Things by the Impression they make upon our Senses and as these are more or less gratified and affected with them we set a higher or lower Value upon them Since therefore Spirits are a sort of Beings that cannot touch or affect our Bodily Senses it is impossible we should be competent Judges of the true Worth and Value of them and therefore in this matter we ought to be guided by the Judgment of Spirits who must needs be supposed to have a more intimate Acquaintance with one anothers Natures And if we will be guided by these we shall find the whole World of Spirits even from the highest to the lowest unanimously rating the Souls of Men at an inestimable Price and Value And to make this appear I shall shew you the vast Price there is set upon them 1. By God the Father 2. By God the Son 3. By God the Holy Ghost 4. By the Holy Angles 5. By the Devils 1. Let us Consider the vast Price which God the Father hath set upon Souls For when he intended to form these Noble Beings and transmit them into terrestrial Bodies that so being compounded with a sensitive Nature they might clasp the Spiritual and Animal Worlds together he being sensible of the vast Hazards and infinite Snares they would be exposed to was so deeply concerned for their Preservation that he thought nothing too dear to save and secure them And fore-seeing their Fall from that terrestrial Happiness which he originally designed them notwithstanding the liberal Care he had taken to preserve them in the State of Innocence he designed to remove the Scene of their Happiness from Earth to Heaven being resolved if possible to repair the Loss of a terrestrial with a caelestial Paradise For which end instead of the Covenant of Innocence the Blessings whereof by their Sin they had for ever forfeited he introduces the Covenant of Repentance that so by the help of this Plank after their general Ship-wrack they might be preserved and go safe to the Shoar of a happy Eternity And that by this Covenant he might the more effectually recover them he designed to grant it to them in such a Way and upon such a wise and weighty Consideration as might at once affect them with the greatest sense of
the Joys which thy everlasting Heaven is composed of and I be such a Wretch to my self such a Traytor to the Dignity of my own Nature as to give up my self and all my Faculties to the Pursuit of such vain and wretched Trifles That I who am akin to Angels should make my self a Muck-worm and chuse Nebuchadnezzar's fate to leave Crowns and Scepters and live among the salvage Herds of the Wilderness That having such a great and noble Nature I should content my self to live like a Beast and aim no higher than if I had been born only to eat and drink and sleep and wake for thirty or forty Years together and then retire into a silent Grave and be insensible forever Wherefore in the Name of God let us at last remember what we are and what we are born to Let us consider that we have Faculties that are capable of exerting themseves for ever in the most inravishing Contemplation and Love of the eternal Fountain of Truth and Goodness of copying and transcribing his most adorable Perfections his Wisdom Goodness Purity and Iustice from whence the infinite Happiness of his Nature derives and thereby of glorifying us into living Images of God and rendring us like him both in Beauty and Happiness in a word that we have Faculties to converse with Angels and with blessed Spirits to bear a Part in the eternal Comfort of their Joys and Praises and to relish all those unknown Delights of which their everlasting Heaven doth consist And having such great and noble Powers in us is it not a burning shame that they should be always condemned to an endless Pursuit of Shadows and Impertinencies Let us therefore rouse up our selves and shake off this sordid and degenerate Temper that sinks and depresses us and makes us act so infinitely unbecoming the Dignity of our immortal Natures And since we are descended from and designed for the Heavenly Family let us learn to demean our selves upon Earth as becomes the Natives of Heaven Let us disdain all base and sordid all low and unworthy Ends of Action as Things beneath our illustrious Rank and Station in the World of Beings and live in a continual Tendency towards and Preparation for that Heavenly State which is the proper Orb and Sphere of our Natures 3ly From hence also I infer how much they undervalue themselves that fell their Souls for the Trifles of this World For since we know before-hand that the Wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all Unrighteousness and Ungodliness of Men and he hath plainly assured us that our Souls must smart for ever for our Sins it necessarily follows that when ever we knowingly suffer our selves to be inticed into Sin we make a wilful Forfeiture of our Souls He that knows that such a Draught however sweetned and made palatable is yet compounded with the Juice of deadly Nightshade and notwithstanding that will have the poisonous Draught is wilfully bent to Murder and Destroy himself And when we see that the Pleasure of our Sin draws after it the Ruin of our Souls and yet will Sin notwithstanding we do in effect stake our Souls against it and with our Eyes open make this desperate Bargain that upon Condition we may injoy such a sinful Pleasure we will willingly surrender up our immortal Spirits to the Pains of an endless and intollerable Damnation And if so O blessed God how do the Generality of Men depreciate and undervalue themselves For how often do we see Men in their little Frauds and Cozenages sell their Souls for a Penny gain in their lascivious and intemperate Humours barter their Souls for a Moments Mirth or Pleasure in their ambitious Projects and Designs part with their Souls for a Blast of vulgar Breath and popular Noise For in every Temptation to Sin the Devil cheapens our immortal Souls bids so much Pleasure or so much Profit for them and in every Compliance with the Temptation we take his Offer and strike the fatal Bargain So that if we will Sin we had need Sin for something since we must pay so dearly for it But alas there is no Proffer the Devil can make us that is a â—elerable Price for the Blood of our Souls though he should offer us the whole World for it our Saviour assures us that he would bid us infinitely to our Loss and if so what wretched Sales do we make of our Souls when we Sin for Trifles lie and cheat to get a Penny consent to a wicked Motion for a Pleasure that will wither while we are smelling to it and expire in the very Injoyment For so much we value our Souls at and do in effect declare that in our Esteem these precious Beings which God and Angels set so high a Price on are worth no more than what that Profit or Pleasure for which we Sin amounts to O good God! What cheap and worthless Things then are our Souls in our Esteem who sell and barter them every Day for such mean and worthless Trifles How do we part with our Gold for Dross and exchange our Iewels for Pebbles What sordid Thoughts what wretched vile Opinions have we of our selves that are so ready upon all Occasions to sell our selves for nought or which is next to nought for the sorry Proffers of every base and infamous Lust O would to God we would at last make but a just Estimate of our selves and thereupon resolve as it is most reasonable we should never to comply with any sinful Motion till we can get more by it than our Souls are worth and then I am sure we should be for ever Deaf to all the Proffers which the Devil or World can make us 4ly And lastly from hence also I infer how much we are obliged above all things to take Care of our Souls For since they are Beings of such vast Capacities in themselves and of such an high Estimation in the World of Spirits methinks we should all be convinced that to take leave of their Welfare and prevent their everlasting Miscarriage is the highest Concern and Interest of a Man And yet God forgive us if we consult the common Practice of Mankind we shall find that there is scarce any thing in which we have any Interest at all that is more slighted and disregarded by us Our Body is the Darling that hath our Hearts and takes up all our Care and Thoughts and to entertain its Appetite and accommodate it with Pleasures and Conveniencies there is no Expence either of Labour or Time grudged or thought much of but as for the Soul that precious and immortal Thing which will be living and perceiving unspeakable Pleasures or Pains when this Body is dead and insensible that is overlooked as a Thing not worthy our serious Notice or Regard And though we cannot but be sensible how much it is diseased in all its Faculties how much its Vnderstanding is overloaded with Error and Ignorance its Will festered with unreasonable
What then remains but that being seriously affected with the Sense of our Danger we presently awake out of our Security and with the deepest Concern for our immortal Souls cry out with St. Peter's Auditors Men and Brethren what shall we do to be saved Verily when I reflect upon the strange Unconcernedness of Men about their future Condition I am tempted to think either that they do not believe they have an immortal Soul in them or that if they do they believe it is impossible it should for ever miscarry For how is it conceivable that Men who in other matters are so solicitous when their Interest is at Stake and exposed to the least Hazard should believe that they have Souls in Danger of perishing for ever and yet take no more Care or Regard of them but like the forgetful Mother who when her House was on Fire to save her Goods forgot her Child lay out all their thoughts upon the little Concerns of this frail and mortal Life and in the mean time forget their precious Souls and leave them perishing in the Flames of Perdition O stupid Creature what art thou made of that canst consider that thou hast an immortal Soul surrounded with so many Dangers of being lost for ever and yet be no more concerned for its Preservation Methinks if thou hadst any Sense in thee having a Prospect of such endless Miseries before thee the remotest Possibility of falling into them should be enough to startle and awake thee but when thou art so near the Brink of those Miseries and hast so many Causes round about thee shoving thee forward and thrusting thee headlong down into them and yet be no more concerned at it is such a Prodigy of sensless Stupidity as Heaven and Earth may justly be astonished at 'T is true if the Danger thou art in were such as is impossible to be evaded it would then be the wisest Course thou couldst take to concern thy self as little as may be about it but rather to live merrily whilst thou mayst and not antedate thy Misery by thinking of the dismal Futurity But God be praised this is not our Case though our Condition be dangerous yet it is far from desperate for if we will use our honest Endeavour and vigorously exert the Faculties of our Nature we not only may but shall escape There are indeed a great many Causes of our Danger a great many Enemies concurring to our Ruin but none of these are able to effect it unless we our selves joyn hands in the fatal Conspiracy If we will be but faithful Friends to our selves and true to our own eternal Interest it will be beyond the power of all those Causes together to do us any material Injury For blessed be the good God those that are for us are far greater and mightâ—er than those that are against us against us we have the World the Flâ—sh and the Devil the weakest of which is I confess a dangerous and puissant Enemy but for us we have God and Angels and our own Reason assâ—â—â—ed with the most invincible Motives with vast and glorious Promises that stand beckoning to us with Crowns of Immortality in their hands to call us off from the Pursuit of our Lusts to the Practice of Virtue and Religion with direful Threatnings that are continually Alarming and warning us of the dreadful Consequents of our Sins and sundry other such mighty I had almost said Almighty Motives as if we would seriously attend to would certainly render our Souls impregnable against all the Temptations of Vice And besides our Reason thus Armed and Accoutered we have on our side the Holy Angels of God who are always ready to prompt us to and assist us in our Duty and to second us in all our spiritual Combats against the Enemies of our Souls And besides all these we have with us the Almighty Spirit of God who upon our sincere Desires and honest Endeavours is engaged to aid us and co-operate with us in working out our Salvation whose Grace is abundantly sufficient for us to strengthen us in our Weakness to support us under our greatest Difficulties and carry us on victoriously through the most violent Temptations And being back't with such mighty Auxiliaries how is it possible that we should miscarry unless we are resolved to betray our selves and give fire to the fatal Trains of our Enemies and if we are so bent there is no Remedy for our Obstinacy and it is just and sit we should be left to the dismal and pitiless Effects of our own Folly and Madness For if when we see our selves in so much danger and it is yet in our Power to escape if we please we will notwithstanding precipitate our selves into Ruin all the World must agree upon an impartial Inquisition for the Blood of our Souls that we murdered our selves that God is just and that his hands are clean from any stain of our Blood and that our own Ruin is wholly owing to our own invincible Obstinacy III. I proceed now to the Third Proposition That our renouncing of Christ and his Religion will most certainly infer the loss of our Souls For as I have shewed you these Words are urged by our Saviour as a Motive to deter his Disciples from forsaking him as is plain from Ver. 24 25. which necessarily supposes that upon their forsaking him this Loss would most certainly and inevitably follow In the Prosecution therefore of this Argument I shall endeavour these two things 1. To shew you what that forsaking of Christ is which Infers this Loss 2. Upon what Accounts our thus forsaking him infers it 1. What that forsaking of Christ is which infers this Loss To which I answer there is a Four-fold Forsaking of Christ which the Scripture takes notice of as capital and damnable to the Souls of Men. 1. When we forsake him by a total Apostacy 2ly When we cowardly renounce the Profession of his Doctrine or any Part of it notwithstanding we still belive and are convinced of the Truth of it 3. When by obstinate Heresy we either add to or subtract from the Faith of Christ. 4ly When by any wilful Course of Disobedience we do vertually renounce the Authority of his Laws 1. We lose and forfeit our Souls when we forsake Christ by a total Apostacy from him When after we have been Baptized into his Name and thereby have made a visible Profession of our believing his Doctrines and obeying his Laws we turn Runagadoes and cast off our Belief of the one and disown our Obligation to the other we do most justly incur the Loss and Forfeiture of our Souls For so strong and cogent is the Evidence of Christianity that it is not to be supposed that any professed Christian can be either innocently or excusably seduced into a Disbelief of it For Religion being a Matter of the vastest Moment and Concern he is a Traytor to himself that either takes up his Religion without Examination or that
lowermost is the bottomless Pit and for all we know the very last Step we took brought us to the Brinks of the flaming Abyss and if it did one Step further will set us beyond all Hope of Recovery For in our sinful Progress we are wading forwards in a shelving Pool which the farther we go the deeper it is and so deeper and deeper till we come to the Bottom of it so that at every Step we are in Danger of going beyond our Depth and plunging our selves into an irrecoverable Ruin for we know not how soon we may be snatched away in our Iniquities and if it should so happen that after we have sinned this Moment we should die the next this will determin our everlasting Fate and sink us into eternal Misery Wherefore as we tender the safety of our precious Souls let us speedily forsake this dangerous Road in which Perdition way-lays and Hell gapes to devour us every step we go and return unto our Lord in whom our safety lyes As yet the Opportunity of Salvation is in our Hands but before to morrow Morning it may slip away from between our Fingers and vanish for ever and we that are this day wallowing in our Sins may before the next be roaring in Hell So that while we defer and put off our Repentance from day to day we do as it were cast Lots for our Souls and venture our everlasting Hopes upon a Contingency that is not in our Power to dispose of As yet the Gate of Mercy is open to us and our blessed Lord stands ready with his Arms out-stretched to welcome and receive us but for all we know if we enter not presently the Gate may be shut within a few Moments and then though we knock and cry till our hearts ake Lord Lord open to us we shall receive no other Answer but Depart from me I know you not O good God how are we besotted then that rather than begin our Repentance to day we will wilfully run the Hazard of being eternally miserable before to morrow Morning For if this should be the Evening of our day of Tryal as for all we know it may our Life and Eternity depends upon what we are now doing and therefore one would think it should highly concern us wisely to manage this last stake the winning or losing whereof may prove our making or undoing In pity therefore to our perishing Souls let us return to our Saviour before it be too late before our Feet stumble on the dark Mountains and we fall down into everlasting Darkness And being returned and reunited to him let us have a Care we do not revolt again for if we draw back we cancel our Repentance and forfeit all its blessed Fruits and Benefits and unless we stedfastly persevere and hold out to the end all the Pains we have taken in our Christian Course will be for ever lost and the Remembrance of it will only administer to our future Misery For how will it vex us in the other World to consider the Labour it cost us to take Heaven by storm How vigorously we strove to mount the Scaling Ladder through how many Difficulties we had forced our way to that height of Vertue and Religion we were arrived to and then when we are got as it were to the topmost Rounds and had laid our Hands upon the Battlements of Heaven just ready to leap in and take possession of all its Joys how basely we let go our Hold and so tumbled down from that stupendious height into the bottomless Abyss of endless Misery Doubtless this Consideration must necessarily sting our woful Souls hereafter and for ever inrage them against themselves Wherefore as we value the Safety of our precious Souls let us who by our wilful Rebellions have gone astray return and constantly adhere to our blessed Saviour Alas where can we be happier than in his Service who imposeth nothing on us but what contributes to our Welfare Where can we be safer than in his Arms and under his Protection who hath the Command and Disposal of all Events and to whom all Power is given in Heaven and Earth Where can we be placed more to our own Advantage than under his Guidance and Authority who never permits any to serve him for nought but hath engaged himself to recompence our Labour with a Crown of Glory that fades not away And is it not strange that after so many advantagious Invitations we should need to be scared to our Duty that after our blessed Master hath enjoyned us such a reasonable gentle and infinitely beneficial Service he should be forced to terrify us into it with the Flames of Hell IV. I proceed now to the Fourth Proposition That when the Soul is lost 't is lost irrecoverably where the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we render Exchange is used in the same sense with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies a Price of Redemption denoting that when once a Man hath sold his Soul to Perdition it is unredeemable and that no Price will be accepted for its Ransom and Deliverance when a Man's Soul is in Hell under the wretched Bondage of a damned Spirit how little soever he regards it now he would give all the World if it were in his power to be released again but if he had a thousand Worlds it will not do his Bondage being such as will admit no Ransom For these Words of our Saviour seem to have been a common Proverb of the Age he lived in and that derived from those words of the Devil in Iob All that a Man hath will he give for his Life that is when a Man is dying he would willingly part with all to redeem his Life but all will not do Which Proverb our Saviour adapts to his own Argument in which he proceeds from temporal to eternal Life If a Man would give so much for his temporal Life what would he not give for his eternal one But as our temporal Life is not to be redeemed so neither is our eternal one when once it is lost for when once our Soul is lost or abandoned to the State of the Damned it is lost for ever and there is no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Ransom that will be accepted of by God for its Redemption thence In the Prosecution of which Argument I shall endeavour these two things 1. To shew you that if God be so determined he may without any Injury either to his Iustice or Goodness detain lost Souls in the Bondage of Hell for ever and absolutely refuse to accept any Ransom for them 2. That he is actually determined so to do 1. That if God be so determined he may without any Injury either to his Justice or Goodness detain lost Souls in the Bondage of Hell for ever without accepting any Ransom for them And this I doubt not will plainly appear upon the due Consideration of these following Propositions 1st That God being the Sovereign
only forfeited our selves to it but have also sinned our selves into an Incapacity of having any good done upon us the only Use which the Divine Goodness can make of us for the future is to do good to others by us which it can no otherwise do but by making our everlasting Suffering an everlasting Example for them to take warning by For though there is no doubt but every vertuous Soul shall be hereafter so confirmed in its state of Beatitude as that it shall never fall from it yet shall it be confirmed no otherwise than by the force of those Reasons and invincible Motives which shall then continually urge and immovably determine it unto that which is good One of which Reasons as we may reasonably suppose will be their Prospect of the endless Miseries of the Damned which will be an everlasting Monitor to them and together with their own sense of the ravishing Pleasures of Goodness will secure them for ever from falling For if the Angels of Heaven took warning by the Fall and Ruin of their Apostate Brethren as doubtless they did and thereupon became more immovably confirmed in Innocence and Goodness why may we not as well suppose that one of those Reasons by which the Spirits of just Men are so immovably confirmed in their Heavenly State is the sad Example of the endless Miseries of the Wicked If therefore when God hath denounced eternal Misery against us on purpose to threaten us into Happiness we will take no warning it is an Act of Goodness in him to inflict it upon us since thereby he may so effectually contribute to the confirming of others in eternal Happiness For if we will not be wrought on by such a dreadful Denunciation there is no good can be done upon us and when we are past Recovery and are forfeited by our own Obstinacy into the hands of God's Vengeance it will be an Act of Goodness in him so to dispose of us as may be most for the good of others and consequently to dispose of us to eternal Misery and by so doing to make use of us as Arguments to confirm and establish others in eternal Happiness that so our Sufferings may be to them what his Threatnings were to us Arguments to oblige us to be happy for ever And so I have done with the First Thing propos'd which was to shew you that if God be so determined he may without any Injury either to his Iustice or Goodness retain lost Souls in the Bondage of Hell for ever and absolutely refuse to accept any Ransom for them I now proceed to the Second Head of Discourse namely to prove that God is actually determined so to do And this I shall endeavour to demonstrate by these three Reasons 1. Because he hath already exacted a Ransom for the Souls of Men to which no other can be equivalent from whence we may reasonably infer that if this be rejected he will accept no other 2. Because he hath expresly declared himself to be thus determined 3. Because having thus declared himself we must suppose that either he intended this Declaration only for a Scare-crow or that he is determined to act accordingly 1st That God is determined to conclude lost Souls under endless Misery and admit no Ransom for them appears from hence because he hath already exacted a Ransom for them to which no other can be equivalent from whence we may reasonably infer that if this be rejected he will accept no other When by our first Apostacy from God we stained the Innocence of our Natures and forfeited our Lives to the just Vengeance of Heaven so terribly was it then incensed against us that it would accept no meaner Ransom for us than the precious Blood of the Son of God for so St. Peter tells us That we were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold but with the precious blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot 1 Pet. 1. 18 19. And though this Ransom was of such a vast and incomparable Value that all the Treasures in Heaven and Earth are insignificant Trifles to it yet was the Virtue of it to extend no further than to those who by a lively Faith and unfeigned Repentance returned from their Rebellion to their Duty and Allegiance which if we do not but instead thereof obstinately persist in our Wickedness and Folly we renounce all our Part and Interest in the Blood of our Saviour and do in effect declare that upon such Terms as those we will not be beholding to him for our Ransom but that rather than accept of Redemption upon such ungrateful Conditions we will trust to the Courtesy of the Vengeance of God and abide the most fatal Effects of it When therefore by persisting to the End in our Unbelief and Impenitence we have finally rejected the Blood of Christ and utterly extinguish'd all our Right and Title to it what Pretence of Reason have we to hope that God will ever accept of any other Ransom for us When to the Sins by which we made the first Forfeiture of our Souls we have added the rank and horrid Impiety of trampling on the Blood of the Son of God and so are not only not redeemed by it from the Vengeance to come but are a thousand times more deeply inthralled to it by reason of that additional Guilt we have contracted by squandring away the Price of our Redemption With what Face can we expect in the midst of such black Circumstances that God should accept of any Exchange for our Souls He that would not release us from the Obligation of our first Guilts upon any less Consideration than the Blood of his Son what likelihood is there that any Consideration should move him to release us after we have so prodigiously augmented our Guilt by rejecting his Blood and finally renouncing all our Interest in it Doubtless he that demanded so vast a Ransom for us when our Guilt was so comparatively small and inconsiderable will account no Ransom sufficient when we have so transcendently inhanced and multiplied it For if the Blood of Christ which is of such an unspeakable value can give us no Relief without our willing Acceptance of it upon the Terms it is proposed to us then when we have finally refused it on those Terms it must be something that is more valuable than his Blood that must relieve us something that is sufficient not only to redeem us from those Guilts which his Blood was a Ransom for but also to expiate the Guilt of our trampling on his Blood which is the greatest and blackest of all But since the Blood of Christ is incomparably the most precious Ransom that Heaven and Earth could afford what hope is there that when this is rejected by us God should accept any other in exchange for our Souls 2dly That God is really determined to conclude lost Souls under endless Misery and admit no Ransom for them appears also from hence
Debt we received all from him and therefore must owe all to him for by Right of Creation he is the supream Proprietor of all our Powers and Faculties and as such hath a just Claim to all the Homage and Obedience that we are able to render him So that as God's Dominion over us is originally founded in his most absolute Power to do whatsoever is just and becoming him so the Justice and Becomingness of his Dominion over us doth immediately result from his creating of us by which he hath for ever intitled himself to all the Obedience we can render him And by Virtue of this immutable Title doth he claim our Obedience to the Laws of Iesus Christ whom next to himself he hath made our Prince and Ruler having vested him with his own Sovereign Authority and constituted him his supream Representative in the Church So that by disobeying his Laws we incur the Guilt of the most monstrous Injustice in the World we resume our selves from him to whom we owe our Being and refuse to own our selves to be his Creatures from whose Bounty we receive even the Power of rebelling against him we alienate our Faculties from those sacred Uses whereunto they were designed and consecrated and turn these living Temples of God into Dens of impure Thoughts and filthy Lusts In a word we fight against God with his own Gifts and arm the Effects of his Bounty against his Sovereign Authority And what do we think will be the Consequence of these Things Can we be so sottish as to imagine that the Almighty Father will sit above in the Heavens and see how his Laws are trampled upon his Authority contemned and exposed to Scorn and Derision by a Company of impious Wretches that owe their very Beings to him and never be concerned at it Do we think him so stupid a Being as that no Provocations will awake his Vengeance that he will for ever sit unconcerned with his Hands in his Bosom whilst his violated Laws like the Souls under the Altar are continually crying out to him How long O Lord holy and true dost thou not avenge our Quarrel upon the Heads of these audacious Rebels that every day trample us under foot and have no more regard for our Authority than they have for the Whistling of the Wind For God's sake Sirs let us consider before it be too late what is like to become of us what probable Hopes of Security we can propose to our selves if we persist in this unjust Rebellion Gird up your Loins like Men and I will demand of you in the Name of God do you think that the wise Governor of the World will be for ever insensible of all the rude Affronts and Provocations you offer him If so pray where is his Wisdom or in what Sense doth he govern the World if he takes no care to secure his Laws by punishing Offenders and lets his Subjects alone to do as they list Or have you an Arm as strong as God's Can you grapple with his Almighty Vengeance or withstand the Stroke of his Thunderbolts Sure such a ridiculous Conceit can never enter into any reasonable Breast and if not in the Name of God what do you propose to your selves when you can neither hope for Favour from God nor Security from your selves Are you so abandoned of all your Reason as wilfully to shut your Eyes against your Danger and run the desperate Venture of falling into the Hands of the living God Hath not our blessed Lord most fairly warn'd us what we are to trust to Hath he not told us how he values his Laws and how dreadfully he will punish the Transgression of them Hath he not most seriously protested to us that unless we do repent and amend he will never forgive us either in this Life or that to come and that if we still persist in our Rebellions he will at last banish us from his Presence for ever and assign us our Portion with Devils and damned Ghosts in that Lake that burns with Fire and Brimstone And hath he not taken it upon his Death that all this is true when he so freely sealed his Doctrines with his Blood And now after all this is it possible we should be so sensless as to think we can be safe in our Wickedness when God the Father is engaged both in Wisdom and Honour to avenge it as an Affront to his Authority and God the Son hath revealed his Father's Wrath from Heaven against all Unrighteousness and Ungodliness of Men and therefore as we value our own Safety it concerns us either to submit to that Divine Authority which is stamp'd upon the Laws of our Saviour or else to secure our selves of some Retreat or Sanctuary from that Almighty Vengeance which our Rebellion will certainly arm against us 2dly He dwelt among us full of Grace Hence I infer what mighty Encouragement we have to serve and obey our blessed Master who in his dwelling among us was full of every thing that can render his Service lovely or desireable and abounded in all those amiable Graces that can oblige us to love and obey him For what was there wanting in our blessed Master that any reasonable Subject can desire in his Prince and Sovereign Would he desire a Prince of a sweet and gracious Temper one that is full of Love and Tenderness to his Subjects Such a one in the most eminent degree is our blessed Lord for how doth the History of his Conversation upon Earth abound with the Expressions of a most sweet and loving Temper For Love was the Principle of all his Actions the Life and Soul of his Conversation and in all that he did or spoke he made some new Discovery of his unfeigned Affection to the World for he went about doing good and his whole Life was nothing but one continued Act of Charity to Mankind For still you find him either instructing the Ignorant or reproving the Erroneous or comforting the Dejected or feeding the Hungry or curing the Sick and Diseased From Morning to Night he was constantly engaged in one good Action or other and the whole Race of his Life like that of the Sun was spent in enlivening or inlightning the World So endearing was his Behaviour that he obliged his very Enemies and when he had won them treated them with all the Tenderness and Affection of a most loving Father towards his dearest Children From all he conversed with he extorted Respect and Veneration and none were able to resist the Charms of his victorious Love but those whose Hearts were harder than the nether Milstone But that I may convince you of the infinite Goodness and Tenderness of his Nature I will give you but that one Instance Luke 19. 41. And when he was come near he beheld the City and wept over it which as you will see afterwards was occasioned by the Fore-sight of its approaching Ruin and Destruction and yet at the same time he foresaw the
Cruelties which those barbarous Villains were about to practise upon him how they would scourge his Body with knotty Whips and nail his Hands and Feet to the Cross and thrust a Spear into his Heart he saw how they would triumph over his Misery mock at his Calamity and dance to the Musick of his dying Grones And now one would have thought such a Prospect as this would have for ever enraged his Soul against them and made him rejoyce to see that sweeping Destruction that was coming upon them but such was the incomparable Sweetness of his Temper that while he foresaw them plotting his Ruin he could not but sigh over theirs and while he beheld their Malice all reeking in his Blood and sporting it self with his Torments and Agonies yet at the Sense of their approaching Destruction his very Bowels earned and his Heart melted with Commiseration and he could not forbear weeping to think that those cursed Instruments of all his Miseries must e're long be so wretched and miserable themselves earnestly wishing that they who so greedily thirsted for his Blood had known in that their day the things which belong to their Peace And though one would have thought the barbarous Entertainment he met with here upon Earth would have for ever quenched all his Affections to Mankind yet still it lives and in despite of all the Affronts and Outrages he endured burns as vigorously in his Breast as ever So unconquerable was his Love to his Subjects that all the bloody Cruelties they practised upon him when they chased him out of the World were never able to alienate his Heart and Affections from them but after all their Cruelties he still retained his Fatherly Bowels towards them and when he could endure their Torments no longer breathed out his loving Soul in an earnest Prayer for their Pardon Father forgive them for they know not what they do And now that he is in Heaven among Angels and glorified Spirits where he cannot but remember how unkindly we treated him when he was upon Earth and perhaps doth still bear upon his glorified Body those very Wounds which he received from our Hands which one would think were sufficient to incense him against us for ever yet his Heart is the same towards us full of all those kind and tender Resentments that first brought him down from Heaven and render'd his Conversation among us so full of Sweetness and Endearments And now being so infinitely kind as he is why should we be disheartned from serving him Methinks the Sense of his Love to us if there were no other Argument in the World should be sufficient to bind us to his Service for ever For O my Soul how can I do too much for so kind a Friend How can I be too submissive to so good a Master That is so infinitely tender of all his Servants and loves them a thousand times more than they love themselves Sure if we had any Spark of Ingenuity in us the Sense of his matchless Kindness towards us would be sufficient to turn all our Duty to him into Recreation to make us thirst after his Service and catch at all Opportunities of expressing our Loyalty and Obedience to him We should embrace his Commands as Preferments to us and wear them as the greatest Favours and think our selves more honoured in being the Servants of Iesus Christ than in being made mighty Kings and Potentates 2. Consider as he is full of Grace in Respect of his own Personal Disposition so he is also in Respect of his Laws in which as I have already shewed you he requires nothing of us but what is for our Good nothing but what tends to the Perfection of our Natures and the Consummation of our Happiness All that our Saviour requires at our Hands is only that we should act according to the Laws of a Reasonable Nature and constantly pursue the great End of our Creation which can never be obtained by us unless we regulate our Actions by those wise and excellent Rules which he hath prescribed us and which he hath prescribed us upon no other Inducement but only to oblige us to be happy For as to any Advantage that will accrue to him from our Actions 't is altogether indifferent to him whether we obey him or no for he was always infinitely happy within himself and would have always been so though we had never had a Being so that his Felicity depends not upon us and were it not that the superabundant Goodness of his Nature doth for ever incline him to make us happy as well as himself he would never have concerned himself about us but would have let us alone to do as we list and abandoned us to the Fate of our own Actions He therefore being infinitely happy within himself can have no self-Ends to serve upon his Creatures because within the Circle of his own divine Being he hath all that he needs and all that he desires but being infinitely good as he is infinitely happy we are sure that our Good must be the only End of his intermedling with our Actions and his giving Laws to direct them And if we consult the particular Lawss which he hath given us we shall find they all of them most naturally tend to perfect and rectiâ—ie our disordered Natures to exalt and spiritualize our Affections and inspire us with all those divine Dispositions that are requisite to qualify us for the Happiness of the World to come And now methinks if we had any Sense of our own Interest this Consideration should mightily encourage us to Obedience to think that while we are serving our blessed Master we are serving our selves to the best Purposes and that his Service and our Interest are so combined and united that by the same Actions we may gratify him and do our selves the greatest Kindness in the World that he exacts nothing from us but what he was obliged to do by the infinite Care and Concern he hath for us and that he had been less kind should he have required less and must necessarily have subtracted from us some Degree of our Happiness should he have abated us any Part of our Duty O Blessed Iesus who can complain of thy Service when thy very Commands are Tokens of thy Love when all the Duty thou requirest of us is only to be kind to our selves in doing those things which if thou hadst never commanded our own Interest would have obliged us to had we but understood it as well or regarded it as much as thou dost 3. But then consider again as He is full of Grace to us in his own personal Temper and in those mild and gentle Laws which he hath given us so Thirdly He is full of Grace to us also in respect of that gracious Pardon and Forgiveness which he hath procured for and promised to us if we will heartily repent and amend I confess though his Personal Temper should be never so sweet and his
briefly as I can argue the Point from these following Topicks 1. From the Obligations which the Iews were under to Read and Search the Scriptures of the Old Testament 2. From our Saviour's and his Apostles Approbation of their Practice in pursuance of this their Obligation 3. From the great Design and Intention of Writing the Scriptures 4. From the Direction of these Holy Writings to the People 5. From the great Concernment of the People in the Matters contained in them 6. From the Vniversal Sense of the Primitive Church in this matter 1. From the general Obligation which the Iews were under to Read and Search their Scriptures For so God requires them to keep the words which he commanded them in their Hearts and to teach them diligently to their Children and to talk of them as they sat in their Houses and as they walked in the way and when they lay down and when they rose up and to bind them as a sign upon their hands Deut. 6. 6 7 8. And elsewhere This book of the Law shall not depart out of thy mouth but thou shalt meditate therein day and night speaking to the Children of Israel in general Ios. 1. 8. And again Ye shall lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul that your days may be multiplied and the days of your children in the land which the Lord sware unto your Fathers to give them as the days of heaven upon the earth Deut. 11. 18 21. And to meditate on God's Law day and night David makes a Part of the Character of the Blessed Man Psal. 1. 3. Now if they could not keep God's Laws in their Hearts as most certainly they could not if they could not teach them to their Children if they could not talk of them upon all just and proper Occasions and in a word if they could not meditate on them day and night without being very well acquainted with them by diligent Search and Reading them it is most certain that to Read and Search into them was their indispensable Duty Now if there be the same Reason why we should Read the Scriptures as there was why the Iews should then the Obligation of these Commands must extend to us as well as to them because the Reason of the Law is the Law but 't is evident even beyond Contradiction that there is no good Reason assignable for the one which is not of equal force for the other and whatsoever is objected by our Adversaries in this Point against our Reading the Scriptures is of equal validity against the Iews Reading them It is Objected That our Reading them through our Incapacity to understand them must occasion a great many Errors and Heresies in the Church And why should not their Reading them occasion the same since neither their Understandings were larger than ours nor their Scriptures clearer and more intelligible than ours It is farther objected that because of the many ill Examples recorded in Scripture it is dangerous for the People to read it because of their Aptness to be misled and corrupted by Example But I beseech you are there not more bad Examples in the Old Testament than in the New And were not the Iews as apt to be corrupted by them as we Christians And therefore since these Objections do press as much against their reading the Scriptures as ours it is certain they ought to keep both from it or neither Seeing therefore notwithstanding these Objections God obliged the Iews to read them it 's plain they are not of Force enough to disoblige us from doing the same 2. From our Saviour and his Apostles Approbation of this Practice of the Iews in Pursuance of their Obligation to it it is also evident that we are obliged to the same That the Common People of the Iews did ordinarily read the Scriptures in our Saviour's Time is evident not only from the Text Search the Scriptures which if you take them Indicatively are an express Declaration that they did read them and if you take them Imperatively necessarily imply that they themselves owned that they ought to read them but also from those Questions which our Saviour frequently ask'd them in his Conferences with them such as Have ye not read Have ye never read in the Scripture And hath not the Scripture said so and so Which Question would be very impertinent if reading the Scripture were not then ordinarily practised by that People And that even their holy Women were then so well instructed in the Scriptures as to be able to instruct their Children Timothy is a signal Instance who though his Father were an Heathen had known the holy Scriptures from a Child 2 Tim. 3. 10. which Knowledge he must necessarily have derived from his Grand-Mother Lois and his Mother Eunice whose Faith St. Paul celebrates 2 Tim. 1. 10. And this Practice of reading the Scriptures which was so common among that People in our Saviour's time is so far from being discontinued either by himself or his Apostles that it is always mentioned by them with Applause and Approbation Thus the Bâ—reans are commended as a People of a nobler Strain than those of Thessalonica because they searched the Scriptures daily whether those Things which St. Paul had preached to them were so or no. And St. Paul is so far from reprehending Timothy for medling with the Scriptures whilst he was a Lay-man that he mentions it to his Honour that he had known the Scriptures from a Child And in all those Passages wherein our Saviour takes it for granted that the Common People of the Iews did read the Scripture we have not the least Intimation of his dislike of their Practice which we should certainly have had had he apprehended it to be either dangerous or unwarrantable Seeing therefore neither our Saviour nor his Apostles do in the least disallow of the Scriptures being read by the Common People but on the contrary do expresly commend it this is a plain Argument that it was their Intention to perpetuate the Practice of it to future Ages For seeing the Iews read the Scriptures in Obedience to an express Command of God as was shewn before had our Saviour intended that they should not continue it he would doubtless have repealed that Command by some Countermand which he was so far from doing that he not only every where allows of their reading the Scriptures but also expresly approves and commends it whereby he plainly establishes the Obligation of that ancient Command in Obedience to which they did read them 3. From the great Design and Intention of Writing the Scriptures it is also evident that the People are still obliged to Read them It is plain that the great Design of Writing the Scripture was to instruct Men in the Knowledge and persuade them to the Practice of True Religion For thus of the Scriptures of the Old Testament St. Paul tells us That whatsoever things were written afore-time were written for our learning
more or less subservient to his present Conveniâ—nce He can blaspheme and pray oppress and give Alms with the same Unconcernedness of Mind and to act the Devil or the Saint are Parts so indifferent to him that he can perform them both with the same Remorslessness And when a Man is thus got loose from the Restraints of his Conscience there is nothing so bad that can come amiss to him If therefore while he stands in this Posture his temporal Interest should chance to beckon him to change the best Religion in the World for the worst to pray to insensible Images and dead Mens Ghosts instead of the everliving God to let go Substances to catch at Shadows and Ceremonies and to part with the most rational Truths for the most palpable and fulsom Contradictions he hath no Principle in him strong enough to withold him from a base Compliance his Conscience being laid fast asleep which whilst awake would have trembled at such an horrid Proposal And though by thus prostituting his Faith to his Interest he at once renounces his God his Saviour and all his Hopes of future Immortality yet his insensible and remorsless Heart is no more toucht or affected with it than if it were the slightest Peccadillo Thus by letting go a good Conscience Men pave themselves an easie Way to Apostacy from true Religion which otherwise would be one of the most craggy and difficult Passages in all the High-Way to Hell 5. Living in any known Course of Sin doth very much strengthen and enforce the Temptations to Apostacy He who lives under the Conduct and Government of a good Conscience takes Care to regulate his Affections towards the Things of this World so as neither to fear the Evils of it too much nor love the Goods of it too well but makes a just and equal Estimate of both and by that proportions his Affections towards them and he who doth this disarms them of their tempting Power which is chiefly owing to our selves and the false Estimate we make of them 'T is our own Imagination that gives Life and Efficacy to the Charms and Terrors of the World and renders them so successful and victorious We fancy that to be in them which is not and so are affected not so much with the Things themselves as with the false Representations that we make of them But he who by following the Dictates of a good Conscience hath reduced his wild Affections within the Lists of Reason and Sobriety can from thence defie the World and maintain his Post against all its Temptations He loves its Goods no better than they deserve and consequently he loves them not so well as to part with his Virtue his Innocence and his Soul for them He dreads its Evils no farther than they are truly dreadful and consequently is fully satisfied that to Sin is much more dreadful than to suffer and he hath found by often Experience that in the faithful discharge of his Duty there is far more Peace more Ioy and Satisfaction than in all the vain Allurements of this World He hath found another Heaven upon Earth besides these temporary Enjoyments a Heaven within his own Breast composed of joyous Hopes and blessed Expectations and in this Heaven hath often found himself a thousand times more happy than among all the Festivities of an â—arthly Paradise and therefore knows very well that he is bid to his Loss when ever he is tempted to exchange the one for the other He is throughly sensible having already found it to his Smart that by Sinning he shall sustain a much heavier Loss and expose himself to far more exquisite Agonies of Mind than any this World can threaten him with all and therefore certainly reckons upon it that when ever to avoid a Sin he incurs a Suffering he wisely chooses of two Evils the least And while his Soul stands thus affected it is shot-proof against all Temptations and much more against those Temptations which sollicite him to renounce his Religion and in which he knows by Experience there is far more Good than the World can propose to him in Exchange for it He knows both how little the World and how much true Religion is worth and having made a just Estimate of both to propose to him any worldly Hope as a Price for his Faith is the same Thing as to offer a Miser Dross for his Gold His Mind is fixed in this Persuasion that all the Mischiefs this World can do him are inconsiderable to one who must live for ever in another unspeakably happy or misâ—rable and therefore to threaten him into Apostacy with any worldly Fear is to attempt to blow up a Rock of Marble with a Squib of Wild-fire But when once a Man hath taken off the Restraints of his Conscience from his wild Affections and let them loose to the World they will aid and assist its Temptations against him and animate them with a thousand times more Life and Vigour than is in their own Natures For as for the Goods of this World they could never bewitch us as they do did we not give a Dress to them we paint their Faces and varnish them over with an artificial Beauty and then fall in Love with our own Fucus and so much as we value and affect them beyond their natural Worth so much Power we give them to conquer and inslave us When therefore by leading a sensual and wicked Life a Man has wholly devoted himself to the World he hath put himself into the Worlds Power to be commanded and disposed of as it pleases And now if any worldly Good beckons and invites him his mad Affection will presently hurry him after it though it be through thick and thin through the most flagitious and enormous Courses If any worldly Evil threaten and alarm him he must immediately fly though it be from Virtue and Innocence from God and Heaven and all that is Sacred in Religion His Affections have render'd him a meer Laquey to the Goods and Evils that are without him and whither ever they send him he must go where-ever they lead him he must follow let their Vagaries be never so wild or wicked If therefore while his Soul is thus inslaved to the World he should be tempted by it to Apostatize from his Religion what hath he to restrain or secure him For ever since he got loose from his Conscience he is wholly led by his Affections and these being chained and fastned to the World hale him after it which way soever it moves So long as his Religion and his worldly Interest consist and go hand in hand he is very well content to own and follow it but if ever a Storm of Persecution should part them in all Probability he will follow his Interest and like the treacherous Orpha give his Religion a parting Kiss and leave it For his Heart is now so wedded to the World that he esteems nothing so good as its Goods and nothing
Wretch who though he believes his own Religion true exchanges it for another which he believes to be false upon no other Consideration but so much temporal Advantage to boot By which he plainly declares that in the Ballance of his Estimation the Odds between Truth and Falshood the Declarations of God and the Impostures of the Devil is so inconsiderable that the least Addition of the transitory Goods of this World to the later renders it of sufficient Weight to turn the Scale against the former and that for his part he is not much concerned whether the Almighty be his Friend or Foe and provided he may but enjoy his Ease and Pleasure a few Years longer here he is very well contented to part with all his Hopes and Interest in God for ever For this is the natural Construction of Mens Apostacy from the true Religion in Consideration of their worldly Interest that that Interest is in their Esteem far more eligible than God with all his Power and Goodness that it is better to be without God in the World than without Preferment and that that Man makes a very good Bargain who gets a good Place in Exchange for his Maker and with the treacherous Iudas sells his Saviour though it be but for thirty Pieces of Silver Which is such a monstrous Degree of Impiety as one would think should be fufficient to scare and affright the most couragious Sinner that hath but the least Apprehension of God or Sense of Good and Evil. But then 2. Consider the desparte Folly of Mens abandoning their Religion in Complyance with their vicious Affections For he who without through Conviction abandons the Profession of his Religion whether it be true or false doth together with that most certainly abandon all the blessed Rewards and incur all the dreadful Penalties that true Religion promises and denounces because though his Religion perhaps may be false yet in renouncing it whilst he believes it true his Will doth as maliciously renounce the true Religion as if it really were so He thought it true and yet renounc'd it by which he plainly declares that if it had been true he would have renounced it so that whether it be true or false it 's all one to him his Will is the same his Crime and Guilt the same it is true Religion he intentionally renounces and therefore in so doing he doth intentionally renounce all his Concern and Interest in true Religion Now what a desperate Piece of Folly is this for a Man to part with all his Stock in the Common Bank of Religion which if it be not a down right Sham and Imposture is of everlasting Moment and Concern to him only for a present Gratification of some vain and unreasonable Lust to divorse himself for ever from the Love of God to quit all Title and Interest in the precious Blood of the Saviour of the World only to curry a short-lived Favour with Men with Men whose Breath is in their Nostrils and who within a few Days or Years must go off the Stage and leave us here perhaps forlorn and destitute To part with all my glorious Hopes of Heaven which are my best Heaven upon Earth and which is worse with Heaven it self where I have Treasures of Bliss sufficient to maintain me in a most happy Port to eternal Ages only to gain or secure a transitory Estate or Preferment which while I have it cannot make me happy and from which erelong I shall be torn and divided and not be a Farthing the better for forever to expose one self as a publick Spectacle of Scorn and Contempt to God and Angels and all the wise and good Part of the rational World for a short extemporary Blaze of pompous Splendor and Greatness which lies at the Mercy of every Counter-blast of Fortune and in all Probability will e'er long expire in Smoak and Stink Wretchedness and Infamy to plunge one self head-long into all the Agonies and Torments the Horrors and Desperations of a woful Eternity only to escape a short Persecution and a glorious Martyrdom when a little after perhaps I shall suffer a great deal more and longer under the Gout or Stone or Strangury without the Comfort of dying in a brave Cause and being assured of an immortal Recompence than I could have done under the Hand of the Executioner with it And yet all these mad Pranks that Man plays at once who abandons his Religion in Complyance with his Lusts. 3. Consider the foul Dishonesty of it For besides that our Religion being the most sacred Pledg committed to us by God for our own Use and the Use of our latest Posterity we cannot viciously desert and abandon it without betraying of God and falsifying our Trust to him and which is worse without squandering away the most inestimable Good that ever he committed to Men upon our own base Lusts and his most execrable Enemies which is Dishonesty blackned with the foulest Ingratitude Besides this I say by forsaking our Religion in Complyance with any leud Affection we not only do a dishonest Thing at present but also totally discard the Obligations to Honesty for the future For there is nothing can rationally oblige a Man to be throughly honest but only his Religion or inward Sense that it is his indispensable Duty towards God before whose righteous Tribunal he must one Day give an Account of all his Actions The two great Motives of humane Action are Religion and worldly Interest Now as for Religion that consists of fix'd and unalterable Principles which will by no Means ply or bend to the Alterations of outward Affairs and Circumstances but do in all Conditions move and oblige us with equal Force and Vigour whereas Worldly Interest is a fickle and mutable Thing that varies and alters with every outward Turn and Revolution So that that which is my Interest to Day may prove my Damage to Morrow and if it should whatever Part I act to Day it will oblige me to act the contrary to Morrow When therefore a Man hath let go his Religion and hath nothing but his Interest to hold him it is Cross or Pile for the future whether you find him an honest Man or a Knave because from henceforth he will be Knave or Honest according as it serves his Turn and that which serves his Turn to Day may prove his Loss and Prejudice to Morrow so that whether to Day or to Morrow he proves a true Man or a Cheat wholly depends upon the Die of Fortune and you must consult his Stars to find the lucky Hour or Moment when you may safely trust him For after the Wretch hath been so perfidious as to renounce his God and his Religion he hath no one Principle remaining in him upon which you can fasten any lasting Confidence As for his Interest that is such a fickle and inconstant Thing that there is no trusting it if it plead for you now the next Turn of Affairs it may be
retained against you and the Man being got loose from all the Tyes and Obligations of Fidelity you may be sure he will stick at nothing be it never so foul that his present Interest invites him to to serve himself he will make no Bones whenever he hath a fair Opportunity to cheat and betray his own Father or supplant his dearest Friend or Benefactor and what should hinder him his Conscience and Religion being gone and with them all binding Principles of Truth and Honesty For when a Man forsakes his Religion out of any vicious Affection he doth in Effect make this publick Declaration to the World By this my own Act and Deed I do here for ever renounce all the Obligations to Honesty and fair Dealing with God or Men and am resolved for the future to be deaf and inexorable to all the Importunities of Conscience and Religion From henceforth I will listen to no other Call but that of my worldly Interest when that bids me be honest I will be honest and when it bids me play the Knave I will play the Knave and therefore for the future I warn all that know me to trust me no farther than they can make it my Interest to be true and not to venture the most trifling Matter in which they are unwilling to be wronged either upon my Faith or Word or Oath without demanding of me such ample Securities as may render it impossible for me to wrong them without wronging my self For this is the Principle I now intend to live by That is always best and fittest to be done that is most subservient to my present Interest This in Construction of Fact is the Profession which that Man takes up who in Compliance with any vicious Affection abandons the Profession of his Religion 4. Consider the shameful Cowardize of it The Advantages of true Religion are great enough to encourage a Mind of any Constancy or Firmness to charge through the greatest Difficulties the World can interpose between them and him Who that hath the Spirit of a Man would ever boggle to wade through a narrow shallow Stream of temporary Sufferings whilst on the farther Shore he beholds a Heaven of immortal Joys ready to receive and reward him But for a Man to turn his Back and run away from God and Heaven for Fear only of being disappointed by some leud or covetous or ambitious Hope is such an Instance of vile prostitute Baseness as is beneath even Contempt and Derision For what Danger or Difficulty dares that Wretch encounter that dares not stand by his Religion in which he confesses all his future Hopes are involved for Fear of losing such a Place or being disappointed of such a Preferment which within a few Days or Years he knows very well he must lose for ever He who hath a Mind capable of being scared out of his Religion by such mean Considerations as these is good for nothing but only to be made the Foot-Ball of Fortune to be kick'd up and down upon her scornful Toe at Pleasure who by threatning him with the smallest Evil can huff him out of the greatest Good and finding him a wretched passive Thing that hath not Strength enough to resist her weakest Impressions makes him her Sport and Recreation and turns him into any Thing and tosses him any whither she pleases from Truth to Falshood from God to the Devil and from Heaven to Hell without the least Controul or Opposition For the poor Man's Soul is grown so tender and effeminate that for the greatest Good in all the World he cannot endure the least Air of Suffering to blow upon him Tell him of Suffering for Righteousness Sake and the very Thought of it frights and appales him Present but a Persecution at his Breast and bid him stand and deliver and the crest-fallen Pultroon is presently ready to cry out O spare my Life spare my Skin and take my Religion take my God and all my Hopes of Heaven and Immortality And who but an infamous Coward would ever endure to be hector'd out of so vast a Good by the weak and impotent Evils of this World which if they do their worst can only rob him of a few transitory Enjoyments which without their Constraint he must ere long take his leave of for ever How ridiculously mean-spirited would it be for a Man to deliver up his Purse to a Thief who he knows hath no other Weapon but a slender Switch to hurt and offend him But for a Man to deliver up his Religion and with that his God and his Heaven at the demand of a short Skin-deep Affliction which can only disease him for a few Moments and shall then determine in everlasting Pleasure and Delight is a thousand times more mean and ridiculous 5. And Lastly Consider the vast Hazard and Insecurity of a Man's parting with his Religion in Compliance with his vicious Affections For that which moves him to it is only his Prospect of living at Ease a few Years longer or gratifying some covetous Desire or Ambition but whether he obtain these Ends by parting with his Religioâ— is vastly hazardous and insecure Perhaps when I have acted this impious and perfidious Part I may be cast into such Circumstances as may force me upon impartial Reflections and make me see whether I will or no the Blackness and Infamy of my Revolt and Apostacy which if it should happen would inevitably raise such a Swarm of Horrors in my Conscience and cast me into such Agonies and Convulsions of Soul as will render me a Hell and a Devil to my self and give me a thousand times more Pain and Uneasiness than all those temporal Evils could have done for fear of which I ran away from my Religion And if to shun Poverty I should throw my self into Desparation if to avoid a Prison which to an innocent Mind with a righteous Cause can make a Heaven upon Earth I should cast my self into a Hell upon Earth if to keep in a whole Skin I should bring upon my self the intollerable Anguish of a wounded Spirit if to escape being rejected disgraced and discountenanced by Men I should expose my self to the perpetual Clamour and Reproaches of my own Conscience If these Things I say should happen as it s very probable they may I shall find my self miserably disappointed of that Ease and quiet Enjoyment for the sake of which I basely abandoned my Religion I shall find that to save my Garments from being singed I have thrown my Body into a consuming Flame and only exposed my Breast to save my Buckler But then suppose this should not happen suppose my Conscience should be stupid and insensible enough to bear the Guilt of my Apostacy without Remorse or Relenting yet my Prospect of Gain and Advancement in this World is extreamly hazardous and insecure For it is a thousand to one but they to whose Religion I turn and upon whose Favour I depend will by one Means or other