then be that lose their Souls for that which hath no value at all if compared with the World 3. Consider what follows upon this neglect not only the loss of great salvation but the incurring as great damnation for it The Scripture describes the miseries of the life to come not meerly by negatives but by the most sensible and painfull things If destruction be dreadfull that is everlasting destruction if the anguish of the soul and the pains of the body be so troublesom what will the destruction be both of Body and Soul in Hell If a Serpent gnawing in our bowels be a representation of an insupportable misery here what will that be of the Worm that never dies if a raging and devouring fire which can last but till it hath consumed a fading substance be in its appearance so amazing and in its pain so violent what then will the enduring be of that wrath of God which shall burn like fire and yet be everlasting Consider then of these things while God gives you time to consider of them and think it an inestimable mercy that you have yet time to repent of your sins to beg mercy at the hands of God to redeem your time to depart from iniquity to be frequent in Prayer carefull of your Actions and in all things obedient to the will of God and so God will pardon your former neglects and grant you this great salvation FINIS Hebr. 12. 3. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself lest ye be weary and faint in your minds IT hath never yet been so well with the World and we have no great reason to hope it ever will be so that the best of things or of men should meet with entertainment in it suitable to their own worth and excellency If it were once to be hoped that all Mankinde would be wise and sober that their judgements would be according to the truth of things and their actions suitable to their judgements we might then reasonably expect that nothing would be valued so much as true goodness nothing so much in contempt and disgrace as impiety and profaneness But if we finde it much otherwise in the Age we live in we have so much the less cause to wonder at it because it hath been thus in those times we might have thought would have been far better than our own I mean those times and ages wherein there were not only great things first spoken and delivered to Mankinde but examples as great as the things themselves but these did so little prevail on the stupid and unthankfull world that they among whom the Son of God did first manifest himself seem'd only solicitous to make good one Prophesie concerning him viz. That he should be despised and rejected of men And they who suffer'd their malice to live as long as he did were not contented to let it dye with him but their fury increases as the Gospel does and wherever it had spread it self they pursue it with all the rude clamors and violent persecutions which themselves or their factors could raise against it This we have a large testimony of in those Jewish Christians to whom this Epistle was written who had no sooner embraced the Christian Religion but they were set upon by a whole army of persecutions Heb. 10. 32. But call to remembrance the former dayes in which after ye were illuminated ye endured a great fight of afflictions As though the great enemy of souls and therefore of Christians had watched the first opportunity to make the strongest impression upon them while they were yet young and unexperienced and therefore less able to resist so sharp an encounter He had found how unsuccessfull the offer of the good things of this World had been with their Lord and Master and therefore was resolved to try what a severer course would do with all his followers But the same spirit by which he despised all the Glories of the World which the Tempter would have made him believe he was the disposer of enabled them with a mighty courage and strange transports of joy not only to bear their own share of reproaches and afflictions but a part of theirs who suffer'd with them v. 33 34. But least through continual duty occasion'd by the hatred of their persecutors and the multitude of their afflictions their courage should abate and their spirits saint the Apostle finds it necessary not only to put them in mind of their former magnanimity but to make use of all arguments that might be powerfull with them to keep up the same vigour and constancy of mind in bearing their sufferings which they had at first For he well knew how much it would tend to the dishonour of the Gospel as well as to their own discomfort if after such an early proof of a great and undaunted spirit it should be said of them as was once of a great Roman Captain Ultima Primis cedebant that they should decline in their reputation as they did in their years and at last sink under that weight of duty which they had born with so much honour before Therefore as a General in the Field after a sharp and fierce encounter at first with a mighty resolution by his Souldiers when he finds by the number and fresh recruits of the enemy that his smaller forces are like to be born down before them and through meer weariness of fighting are ready to turn their backs or yield themselves up to the enemies mercy he conjures them by the honour they have gain'd and the courage they had already expressed by their own interest and the example of their Leaders by the hopes of glory and the fears of punishment that they would bear the last shock of their enemies force and rather be the Trophies of their Courage than of their Triumphs so does our Apostle when he finds some among them begin to debate whether they had best to stand it out or no he conjures them 1. By the remembrance of their own former courage whereby they did bear as sharp tryals as these could be with the greatest chearfulness and constancy and what could they gain by yielding at last but great dishonour to themselves that they had suffer'd so long to no purpose unless it were to discover their own weakness and inconstancy 2. By the hopes of a reward which would surely follow their faithfulness v. 35 36. Cast not away therefore your confidence which hath great recompence of reward For ye have need of patience that after ye have done the will of God ye might receive the promise and the time will not be long ere ye come to enjoy it v. 37. but if ye draw back you lose all your former labours for he who alone is able to recompence you hath said that if any man draw back my soul shall have no pleasure in him v. 38. and then from the example of himself and all the genuine followers of Christ but
at which more enemies may come in still so that when we finde our selves under their power we are contented for our own ease to call them Friends Which is the unhappy consequence of too easie yielding at first till at last the greatest slavery to sin be accounted but good humour and a gentile compliance with the fashions of the world So that when men are peâ— swaded either through fear or too greâ—… easiness to disuse that strict eye which theâ— had before to their actions it oft-time falls out with them as it did with the Soul dier in the Roman History who blinded hiâ— eye so long in the time of the Civil Wanâ—… that when he would have used it agaiâ—… he could not And when custom hath bâ— degrees taken away the sense of sin froâ— their Consciences they grow as hard as Hâ—… rodotus tells us the heads of the old Egyptâ— ans were by the heat of the Sun that nothing would ever enter them If men wilâ—… with Nebuchadnezzar herd with the beastâ— of the field no wonder if their reason departs from them and by degrees they grow as savage as the company they keep So powerfull a thing is Custom to debaucâ— Mankinde and so easily do the greatest vices by degrees obtain admission into the souls of men under pretence of being retainers to the common infirmities of humane nature Which is a phrase through the power of self-flattery and mens ignorance in the nature of moral actions made to be of so large and comprehensive a sense that the most wilful violations of the Laws of Heaven and such which the Scripture tells us do exclude from the Kingdom of it do finde rather than make friends enough to shelter themselves under the protection of them But such a protection it is which is neither allowed in the Court of Heaven nor will ever secure the souls of men without a hearty and sincere repentance from the arrest of divine justice which when it comes to call the world to an account of their actions will make no defalcations at all for the power of custom or common practice of the world 3. The Impossibility of the Command or rather of obedience to it When neither of the former pleas will effect their design but notwithstanding the pretended necessity of humane actions and the more than pretended common practice of the World their Consciences still fly in their faces and rebuke them sharply for their sins then in a a mighty rage and fury they charge God himself with Tyranny in laying impossible Laws upon the sons of men But if we either consider the nature of the command or the promises which accompany it or the large experience of the world to the contrary we shall easily discover that this pretence is altogether as unreasonable as either of the foregoing For what is it that God requires of men as the condition of their future happiness which in its own nature is judged impossible Is it for men to live soberly righteously and godly in this world for that was the end of Christian Religion to perswade men to do so but who thinks it impossible to avoid the occasions of intemperance not to defraud or injure his neighbours or to pay that reverence and sincere devotion to God which we owe unto him Is it to do as we would be done by yet that hath been judged by strangers to the Christian Religion a most exact measure of humane conversation Is it to maintain an universal kindness and good will to men that indeed is the great excellency of our Religion that it so strictly requires it but if this be impossible farewell all good nature in the world and I suppose few will own this charge lest theirs be suspected Is it to be patient under sufferings moderate in our desires circumspect in our actions contented in all conditions yet these are things which those have pretended to who never owned Christianity and therefore surely they never thought them impossible Is it to be charitable to the poor compassionate to those in misery is it to be frequent in Prayer to love God above all things to forgive our enemies as we hope God will forgive us to believe the Gospel and be ready to suffer for the sake of Christ There are very few among us but will say they do all these things already and therefore surely they do not think them impossible The like answer I might give to all the other precepts of the Gospel till we come to the denying ungodliness and worldly lusts and as to these too if we charge men with them they either deny their committing them and then say they have kept the command or if they confess it they promise amendment for the future but in neither respect can they be said to think the command impossible Thus we see their own mouths will condemn them when they charge God with laying impossible Laws on mankind But if we enquire further then into the judgements of those who it may be never concerned themselves so much about the precepts of Christian Religion as to try whether they had any power to observe them or not nay if we yield them more than it may be they are willing to enquire after though they ought to do it viz. that without the assistance of divine grace they can never do it yet such is the unlimited nature of divine goodness and the exceeding riches of Gods Grace that knowing the weakness and degeneracy of humane Nature when he gave these commands to men he makes a large and free offer of assistance to all those who are so sensible of their own infirmity as to beg it of him And can men then say the command is impossible when he hath promised an assistance suitable to the nature of the duty and the infirmities of men If it be acknowledged that some of the duties of Christianity are very difficult to us now let us consider by what means he hath sweetned the performance of them Will not the proposal of so excellent a reward make us swallow some more than ordinary hardships that we might enjoy it Hath he not made use of the most obliging motives to perswade us to the practice of what he requires by the infinite discovery of his own love the death of his Son and the promise of his Spirit And what then is wanting but only setting our selves to the serious obedience of them to make his commands not only not impossible but easie to us But our grand fault is we make impossibilities our selves where we finde none and then we complain of them we are first resolved not to practise the commands and then nothing more easie than to finde fault with them we first pass sentence and then examine evidences first condemn and then enquire into the merits of the Cause Yet surely none of these things can be accounted impossible which have been done by all those who have been sincere and hearty Christians
these things would bring them to repentance but yet the method God hath used with us seems to bode very ill in case we do not at last return to the Lord. For it is not only agreeable to what is here delivered as the course God used to reclaim the Israelites but to what is reported by the most faithfull Historian of those times of the degrees and steps that God made before the ruines of the British Nation For Gildas tells us the decay of it began by Civil Wars among themselves and high discontents remaining as the consequents of them after this an universal decay and poverty among them after that nay during the continuance of it Wars with the Picts and Scots their inveterate enemies but no sooner had they a little breathing space but they return to their luxury and other sins again then God sends among them a consuming Pestilence which destroyed an incredible number of people When all this would not do those whom they trusted most to betrayed them and rebelled against them by whose means not only the Cities were burnt with Fire but the whole Island was turned almost into one continued flame The issue of all which at last was that their Countrey was turned to a desolation the ancient Inhabitants driven out or destroyed and their former servants but now their bitter enemies possessing their habitations May God avert the Omen from us at this day We have smarted by Civil Wars and the dreadful effects of them we yet complain of great discontents and poverty as great as them we have inveterate enemies combined abroad against us we have very lately suffered under a Pestilence as great almost as any we read of and now the great City of our Nation burnt down by a dreadful Fire And what do all these things mean and what will the issue of them be though that be lockt up in the Councils of Heaven yet we have just cause to fear if it be not our speedy amendment it may be our ruine And they who think that incredible let them tell me whether two years since they did not think it altogether as improbable that in the compass of the two succeeding years above a hundred thousand persons should be destroyed by the Plague in London and other places and the City it self should be burnt to the Ground And if our fears do not I am sure our sins may tell us that these are but the fore-runners of greater calamities in case there be not a timely reformation of our selves And although God may give us some intermissions of punishments yet at last he may as the Roman Consul expressed it pay us intercalatae poenae usuram that which may make amends for all his abatements and give us full measure according to that of our sins pressed down shaken together and running over Which leads to the third particular 3. The Causes moving God to so much severity in his Judgements which are the greatness of the sins committed against him So this Prophet tells us that the true account of all Gods punishments is to be fetched from the sins of the people Amos 1. 3. For three transgressions of Damascus and for four I will not turn away the punishment thereof so it is said of Gaza v. 6. of Tyrus v. 9. of Edom v. 11. of Ammon v. 13. Moab ch 2. 1. Judah v. 4. and at last Israel v. 6. And it is observable of every one of these that when God threatens to punish them for the greatness of their iniquities and the multitude of their transgressions which is generally supposed to be meant by the three transgressions and the four he doth particularly threaten to send a fire among them to consume the Houses and the Palaces of their Cities So to Damascus chap. 1. 4. to Gaza v. 7. to Tyrus v. 10. to Edom v. 12. to Ammon v. 14. to Moab ch 2. v. 2. to Judah v. 5. I will send a fire upon Judah and it shall devour the Palaces of Jerusalem and Israel in the words of the text This is a judgement then which when it comes in its fury gives us notice to how great a height our sins are risen especially when it hath so many dreadfull fore-runners as it had in Israel and hath had among our selves When the red horse hath marched furiously before it all bloody with the effects of a Civil War and the pale horse hath followed after the other with Death upon his back and the Grave at his heels and after both these those come out of whose mouth issues fire andsmoak and brimstone it is then time for the inhabitants of the earth to repent of the work of their hands But it is our great unhappiness that we are apt to impute these great calamities to any thing rather than to our sins and thereby we hinder our selves from the true remedy because we will not understand the cause of our distemper Though God hath not sent Prophets among us to tell us for such and such sins I will send such and such judgements upon you yet where â—…e observe the parallel between the sinsâ—…d â—…d the punishments agreeable with what â—…e find recorded in Scripture we have reaâ—…n to say that those sins were not only the â—…tecedents but the causes of those punishâ—…ents which followed after them And â—…at because the reason of punishment was â—…ot built upon any particular relation beâ—ween God and the people of Israel but â—pon reasons common to all mankind yet with this difference that the greater the mercies were which any people enjoyed the sooner was the measure of their iniquities filled up and the severer were the judgements when they came upon them This our Prophet gives an account of Chap. 3. 2. You only have I known of all the Nations of the earth therefore will I punish you for your iniquities So did God punish Tyre and Damascus as well as Israel and Judah but his meaning is he would punish them sooner he would punish them more severely I wish we could be brought once to consider what influence piety and vertue hath upon the good of a Nation if we did we should not only live better our selves but our Kingdom and Nation might flourish more than otherwise we are like to see it do Which is a truth hath been so universally received among the wise Men of 〈◊〉 ages that one of the Roman Historian though of no very severe life himself yâ—… imputes the decay of the Roman State nâ—… to Chance or Fortune or some unhiddâ—… causes which the Atheism of our Agâ—… would presently do but to the geneâ—… loosness of mens lives and corruption 〈◊〉 their manners And it was the grave Observation of one of the bravest Captain ever the Roman State had that it was iâ—… possible for any State to be happy stantibâ—… moenibus ruentibus moribus though their walâ—… were firm if their manners were decayed Buâ— it is our misery that our walls and ouâ— manners are fallen
him And as the reflection on the author of his being leads him to the acknowledgement of his duty towards God so the consideration of the design of it will more easily acquaint him with the nature of that duty which is expected from him Had man been designed only to act a short part here in the world all that had been required of him had been only to express his thankfulness to God for his being and the comforts of it the using all means for the due preservation of himself the doing nothing beneath the dignity of humane nature nothing injurious to those who were of the same nature with himself but since he is designed for greater and nobler ends and his present state is but a state of tryal in order to future happiness and misery the reason of good and evil is not to be taken meerly from his present but from the respect which things have to that eternal state he is designed for From whence it follows that the differences of good and evil are rooted in the nature of our beings and are the necessary consequents of our relation to God and each other and our expectations of a future life And therefore according to these measures the estimation of men in the world hath been while they did preserve any veneration for God or themselves Wisdom and folly was not measured so much by the subtilty and curiosity of mens speculations by the fineness of their thoughts or the depth of their designes as by their endeavours to uphold the dignity of mankind by their piety and devotion towards God by their sobriety and due Government of their actions by the equality and justice the charity and kindness of their dealings to one another Wisdom was but another name for goodness and folly for sin then it was a mans glory to be religious and to be prophane and vitious was to be base and mean then there were no Gods worshipped because they were bad nor any men disgraced because they were good Then there were no Temples erected to the meanest passions of humane nature nor men became Idolaters to their own infirmities Then to be betrayed into sin was accounted weakness to contrive it dishonour and baseness to justifie and defend it infamy and reproach to make a mock at it a mark of the highest folly and incorrigibleness So the Wise man in the words of the Text assures us that they are Fools and those of the highest rank and degree of folly who make a mock at sin It is well for us in the Age we live in that we have the judgement of former ages to appeal to and of those persons in them whose reputation for wisdom is yet unquestionable For otherwise we might be born down by that spightful enemy to all vertue and goodness the impudence of such who it is hard to say whether they shew it more in committing sin or in defending it Men whose manners are so bad that scarce any thing can be imagined worse unless it be the wit they use to excuse them with Such who take the measure of mans perfections downwards and the nearer they approach to beasts the more they think themselves to act like men No wonder then if among such as these the differences of good and evil be laughed at and no sin be thought so unpardonable as the thinking that there is any at all Nay the utmost they will allow in the description of Sin is that it is a thing that some live by declaiming against and others cannot live without the practice of But is the Chair of Scorners at last proved the only chair of Infallibility Must those be the standard of mankind who seem to have little left of humane nature but laughter and the shape of men Do they think that we are all become such fools to take scoffs for arguments and raillery for demonstrations He knows nothing at all of goodness that knows not that it is much more easie to laugh at it than to practise it and it were worth the while to make a mock at sin if the doing so would make nothing of it But the nature of things does not vary with the humours of men sin becomes not at all the less dangerous because men have so little Wit to think it so nor Religion the less excellent and advantageous to the world because the greatest enemies of that are so much to themselves too that they have learnt to despise it But although that scorns to be defended by such weapons whereby her enemies assault her nothing more unbecoming the Majesty of Religion than to make it self cheap by making others laugh yet if they can but obtain so much of themselves to attend with patience to what is serious there may be yet a possibility of perswading them that no fools are so great as those who laugh themselves into misery and none so certainly do so as those who make a mock at sin But if our authority be too mean and contemptible to be relyed on in a matter wherein they think us so much concern'd and so I hope we are to prevent the ruine of mens souls we dare with confidence appeal to the general sense of mankind in the matter of our present debate Let them name but any one person in all the monuments of former ages to whom but the bare suspicion of Vice was not a diminution to an esteem that might otherwise have been great in the world And if the bare suspicion would do so much among even the more rude and barbarous Nations what would open and professed wickedness do among the more knowing and civil Humane nature retains an abhorrency of sin so far that it is impossible for men to have the same esteem of those who are given over to all manner of wickedness though otherwise of great sharpness of wit and of such whose natural abilities may not exceed the other but yet do govern their actions according to the strict rules of Religion and Vertue And the general sense oâ—… mankind cannot be by any thing better known than by an universal consent of men as to the wayes whereby they express their value and esteem of others What they all agree on as the best character of a person worthy to be loved and honoured we may well think is the most agreeable to humane nature and what is universally thought a disparagement to the highest accomplishments ought to be looked on as the disgrace and imperfection of it Did ever any yet though never so wicked and profane themselves seriously commend another person for his rudeness and debaucheries Was any mans lust or intemperance ever reckoned among the Titles of his honour Who ever yet raised Trophies to his vices or thought to perpetuate his memory by the glory of them Where was it ever known that sobriety and temperance justice and charity were thought the marks of reproach and infamy Who ever suffered in their reputation by being thought to be really good Nay
they might seem to others to see when they know themselves they do not Nay there is nothing so plain and evident but the reason of some men is more apt to be imposed upon in it than their senses are as it appeared in him who could not otherwise confute the Philosophers argument against motion but by moving before him So that we see the most certain things in the world are lyable to the cavils of men who imploy their wits to do it and certainly those ought not to stagger mens faith in matters of the highest nature and consequence which would not at all move them in other things But at last it is acknowledged by the men who love to be called the men of wit in this Age of ours that there is a God and Providence a future state and the differences of good and evil but the Christian Religion they will see no further reason to embrace than as it is the Religion of the State they live in But if we demand what mighty reasons they are able to bring forth against a Religion so holy and innocent in its design so agreeable to the Nature of God and Man so well contrived for the advantages of this and another life so fully attested to come from God by the Miracles wrought in confirmation of it by the death of the Son of God and of such multitudes of Martyrs so certainly conveyed to us by the unquestionable Tradition of all Ages since the first delivery of it the utmost they can pretend against it is that it is built upon such an appearance of the Son of God which was too mean and contemptible that the Doctrine of it is incosistent with the Civil Interests of men and the design ineffectual for the Reformation of the World For the removal therefore of these cavils against our Religion I shall shew 1. That there were no circumstances in our Saviours appearance or course of life which were unbecoming the Son of God and the design he came upon 2. That the Doctrine delivered by him is so far from being contrary to the Civil Interests of the World that it tends highly to the preservation of them 3. That the design he came upon was very agreeable to the Infinite Wisdom of God and most effectual for the reformation of Mankinde For clearing the first of these I shall consider 1. The Manner of our Saviours appearance 2. The Course of his Life and what it was which his enemies did most object against him 1. The Manner of our Saviours Appearance which hath been alwayes the great offence to the admirers of the pomp and greatness of the World For when they heard of the Son of God coming down from Heaven and making his Progress into this lower world they could imagine nothing less than that an innumerable company of Angels must have been dispatched before to have prepared a place for his reception that all the Soveraigns and Princes of the World must have been summon'd to give their attendance and pay their homage to him that their Scepters must have been immediately laid at his feet and all the Kingdoms of the earth been united into one universal Monarchy under the Empire of the Son of God That the Heavens should how down at his presence to shew their obeysance to him the Earth tremble and shake for fear at the near approaches of his Majesty that all the Clouds should clap together into one universal Thunder to welcome his appearance and tell the Inhabitants of the World what cause they had to fear him whom the Powers of the Heavens obey that the Sea should run out of its wonted course with amazement and horror and if it were possible hide it self in the hollow places of the earth that the Mountains should shrink in their heads to fill up the vast places of the deep so that all that should be fulfilled in a literal sense which was foretold of the comeing of the Messias That every Valley should be filled and every Mountain and Hill brought low the crooked made straight and the rough wayes smooth and all flesh see the salvation of God Yea that the Sun for a time should be darken'd and the Moon withdraw her light to let the Nations of the Earth understand that a Glory infinitely greater than theirs did now appear to the World In a word they could not imagine the Son of God could be born without the pangs and throws of the whole Creation that it was as impossible for him to appear as for the Sun in the Firmament to disappear without the notice of the whole World But when instead of all this pomp and grandeur he comes incognito into the World instead of giving notice of his appearance to the Potentates of the Earth he is only discovered to a few silly Shepheards and three wise men of the East instead of choosing either Rome or Hierusalem for the place of his Nativity he is born at Bethleem a mean and obscure Village instead of the glorious and magnificent Palaces of the East or West which were at that time so famous he is brought forth in a Stable where the Manger was his Cradle and his Mother the only attendant about him who was her self none of the great persons of the Court nor of any fame in the Countrey but was only rich in her Genealogy and honourable in her Pedigree And according to the obscurity of his Birth was his Education too his youth was not spent in the Imperial Court at Rome nor in the Schools of Philosophers at Athens nor at the feet of the great Rabbies at Jerusalem but at Nazareth a place of mean esteem among the Jews where he was remarkable for nothing so much as the Vertues proper to his Age Modesty Humility and Obedience All which he exercises to so high a degree that his greatest Kindred and acquaintance were mightily surprized when at 30 years of age he began to discover himself by the Miracles which he wrought and the Authority which he spake with And although the rayes of his Divinity began to break forth through the Clouds he had hitherto disguised himself in yet he persisted still in the same course of humility and self-denyal taking care of others to the neglect of himself feeding others by a Miracle and fasting himself to one shewing his power in working miraculous Cures and his humility in concealing them Conversing with the meanest of the people and choosing such for his Apostles who brought nothing to recommend them but innocency and simplicity Who by their heats and ignorance were continual exercises of his Patience in bearing with them and of his care and tenderness in instructing them And after a life thus led with such unparallel'd humility when he could adde nothing more to it by his actions he doth it by his sufferings and compleats the sad Tragedy of his Life by a most shamefull and ignominious Death This is the short and true account of all those things
which the admirers of the greatness of this world think mean and contemptible in our Saviours appearance here on earth But we are now to consider whether so great humility were not more agreeable with the design of his coming into the World than all that pomp and state would have been which the Son of God might have more easily commanded than we can imagine He came not upon so mean an errand as to dazzle the eyes of Mankinde with the brightness of his Glory to amaze them by the terribleness of his Majesty much less to make a shew of the riches and gallantry of the World to them But he came upon far more noble and excellent designs to bring life and immortality to light to give men the highest assurance of an eternal happiness and misery in the World to come and the most certain directions for obtaining the one and avoiding the other and in order to that nothing was judged more necessary by him than to bring the vanities of this World out of that credit and reputation they had gained among foolish men Which he could never have done if he had declaimed never so much against the vanity of worldly greatness riches and honours if in the mean time himself had lived in the greatest splendour and bravery For the enjoyning then the contempt of this world to his Disciples in hopes of a better would have looked like the commendation of the excellency of fasting at a full meal and of the conveniencies of Poverty by one who makes the greatest haste to be rich That he might not therefore seem to offer so great a contradiction to his Doctrine by his own example he makes choice of a life so remote from all suspicion of designs upon this world that though the foxes had holes and the birds of the air had nests yet the Son of Man who was the Lord and Heir of all things had not whereon to lay his head And as he shewed by his life how little he valued the great things of the World so he discovered by his death how little he feared the evil things of it all which he did with a purpose and iâ—tention to rectifie the great mistakes 〈◊〉 men as to these things That they migâ—… no longer venture an eternal happiness fâ—… the splendid and glorious vanities of tâ—… present life nor expose themselves to tâ—… utmost miseries of another world to avoâ—… the frowns of this From hence proceeâ—ed that generous contempt of the Worlâ— which not only our Saviour himself bâ— all his true Disciples of the first Ages 〈◊〉 Christianity were so remarkable for 〈◊〉 let others see they had greater things iâ—… their eye than any here the hopes of whiâ—â— they would not part with for all that thâ— world thinks great or desirable So thâ—… considering the great danger most men arâ— in by too passionate a love of these thingâ— and that universal and infinite kindneâ—… which our Saviour had to the Souls 〈◊〉 men there was nothing he could discover it more in as to his appearance in the world than by putting such an affroâ—… upon the greatness and honour of it as he did by so open a neglect of it in his life and despising it in his death and sufferings And who now upon any pretence of reason dare entertain the meaner apprehensious of our Blessed Saviour because he appeared without the pomp and greatness of the world when the reason of his doing so was that by his own humility and self-denyal he might shew us the way to an eternal happiness Which he well knew how very hard it would be for men to attain to who measure things not according to their inward worth and excellency but the splendour and appearance which they make to the world who think nothing great but what makes them gazed upon nothing desireable but what makes them flatter'd But if they could be once perswaded how incomparably valuable the glories of the life to come are above all the gayeties and shews of this they would think no condition mean or contemptible which led to so great an end none happy or honourable which must so soon end in the grave or be changed to eternal misery And that we might entertain such thoughts as these are not as the melancholy effects of discontent and disappointments but as the serious result of our most deliberate enquiry into the value of things was the design of our Saviour in the humility of his appearance and of that excellent Doctrine which he recommended to the World by it Were I to argue the case with Philosophers I might then at large shew from the free acknowledgements of the best and most experienced of them that nothing becomes so much one who designs to recommend Vertue to the World as a reall and hearty contempt of all the pomp of it and that the meanest condition proceeding from such a principle is truely and in it self more honourable than living in the greatest splendour imaginable Were I to deal with the Jews I might then prove that as the Prophecyes concerning the Messiaâ— speak of great and wonderfull effects of his coming so that they should be accomplished in a way of suffering and humility But since I speak to Christians and therefore to those who are perswaded of the great kindness and love of our Saviour in coming into the World to reform it and that by convincing men of the truth and excellency of a future state no more need be said to vindicate the appearance of him from that meanness and contempt which the pride and ambition of vain men is apt to cast upon it 2. But not onely our Saviours manner of Appearance but the manner of his Conversation gave great offence to his enemies viz. That it was too free and familiar among persons who had the meanest reputation the Publicans and Sinners and in the mean time declaimed against the strictest observers of the greatest rigours and austerities of life And this no doubt was one great cause of the mortal hatred of the Pharisees against him though least pretended that even thereby they might make good that charge of hypocrisie which our Saviour so often draws up against them And no wonder if such severe rebukes did highly provoke them since they found this so gainfull and withall so easie a trade among the people when with a demure look and a sowre countenance they could cheat and defraud their Brethren and under a specious shew of devotion could break their fasts by devouring Widows houses and end their long Prayers to God with acts of the highest injustice to their Neighbours As though all that while they had been only begging leave of God to do all the mischief they could to their Brethren It is true such as these were our Saviour upon all occasions speaks against with the greatest sharpness as being the most dangerous enemies to true Religion and that which made men whose passion was too strong for their reason abhorr
the very name of Religion when such baseness was practised under the profession of it When they saw men offer to compound with Heaven for all their injustice and oppression with not a twentieth part of what God challenged as his due they either thought Religion to be a meer device of men or that these mens hypocrisie ought to be discovered to the World And therefore our Blessed Saviour who came with a design to retrieve a true spirit of Religion among men findes it first of all necessary to unmask those notorious hypocrites that their deformities being discovered their wayes as well as their persons might be the better understood and avoided And when he saw by the mighty opinion they had of themselves and their uncharitableness towards all others how little good was to be done upon them he seldom vouchsafes them his presence but rather converses with those who being more openly wicked were more easily convinced of their wickedness and perswaded to reform For which end alone it was that he so freely conversed with them to let them see there were none so bad but his kindness was so great to them that he was willing to do them all the good he could And therefore this could be no more just a reproach to Christ that he kept company sometimes with these than it is to a Chyrurgeon to visit Hospitals or to a Physician to converse with the sick 2. But when they saw that his Greatness did appear in another way by the authority of his Doctrine and the power of his Miracles then these wise and subtle men apprehend a further reach and design in all his actions Viz. That his low condition was a piece of Popularity and a meer disguise to ensnare the people the better to make them in love with his Doctrine and so by degrees to season them with Principles of Rebellion and disobedience Hence came all the clamors of his being an Enemy to Caesar and calling himself the King of the Jewes and of his design to erect a Kingdom of his own all which they interpret in the most malicious though most unreasonable sense For nothing is so politick as malice and ill will is for that findes designs in every thing and the more contrary they are to all the Protestations of the persons concerned the deeper that suggests presently they are laid and that there is the more cause to be afraid of them Thus it was in our Blessed Saviours case it was not the greatest care used by him to shew his obedience to the Authority he lived under it was not his most solemn disavowing having any thing to do with their civil Interests not the severe checks he gave his own Disciples for any ambitious thoughts among them not the recommending the doctrine of Obedience to them nor the rebuke he gave one of his most forward Disciples for offering to draw his sword in the rescue of himself could abate the fury and rage of his enemies but at last they condemn the greatest Teacher of the duty of Obedience as a Traytor and the most unparallel'd example of innocency as a Malefactor But though there could be nothing objected against the life and actions of our Blessed Saviour as tending to sedition and disturbance of the Civil Peace yet that these men who were inspired by malice and prophesied according to their own interest would say was because he was taken away in time before his designs could be ripe for action but if his doctrine tended that way it was enough to justifie their proceedings against him So then it was not what he did but what he might have done not Treason but Convenience which made them take away the life of the most innocent person but if there had been any taint in his doctrine that way there had been reason enough in such an Age of faction and sedition to have used the utmost care to prevent the spreading it But so far is this from the least ground of probability that it is not possible to imagine a Religion which aims less at the present particular interests of the embracers of it and more at the publick interests of Princes than Christianity doth as it was both preached and practised by our Saviour and his Apostles And here we have cause to lament the unhappy fate of Religion when it falls under the censure of such who think themselves the Masters of all the little arts whereby this world is governed If it teaches the duty of Subjects and the authority of Princes if it requires obedience to Laws and makes mens happiness or misery in another life in any measure to depend upon it then Religion is suspected to be a meer trick of State and an invention to keep the world in awe whereby men might the better be moulded into Societies and preserved in them But if it appear to inforce any thing indispensably on the Consciences of men though humane Laws require the contrary if they must not forswear their Religion and deny him whom they hope to be saved by when the Magistrate calls them to it then such half-witted men think that Religion is nothing but a pretence to Rebellion and Conscience only an obstinate plea for Disobedience But this is to take it for granted that there is no such thing as Religion in the World for if there be there must be some inviolable Rights of Divine Soveraignty acknowledged which must not vary according to the diversity of the Edicts and Laws of men But supposing the profession and practice of the Christian Religion to be allowed inviolable there was never any Religion nay never any inventions of the greatest Politicians which might compare with that for the preservation of civil Societies For this in plain and express words tells all the owners of it that they must live in subjection and obedience not only for wrath but for Conscience sake that they who do resist receive unto themselves damnation and that because whosoever resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God Than which it is impossible to conceive arguments of greater force to keep men in obedience to Authority for he that only obeys because it is his interest to do so will have the same reason to disobey when there is an apprehension that may make more for his advantage But when the reason of obedience is derived from the concernments of another life no hopes of interest in this world can be thought to ballance the loss which may come by such a breach of duty in that to come So that no persons do so dangerously undermine the foundations of civil Government as those who magnifie that to the contempt of Religion none so effectually secure them as those who give to God the things that are Gods and by doing so are obliged to give to Caesar the things that are Caesars This was the Doctrine of Christianity as it was delivered by the first author of it and the practice was agreeable as long as Christianity
he had no sooner finished but he goes with his Disciples to the usual place of his retirement in a Garden at the foot of the Mount of Olives And now begins the blackest Scene of sufferings that ever was acted upon humane Nature Which was so great that the Son of God himself expresseth a more than usual apprehension of it which he discovered by the Agony he was in in which he sweat drops of blood by the earnestness of his Prayer falling upon his knees and praying thrice saying O my Father if it be possible let this Cup pass from me nevertheless not as I will but as thou wilt Surely this Cup must needs have a great deal of bitterness in it which the Son of God was so earnest to be freed from If there had been nothing in it but what is commonly incident to humane Nature as to the apprehensions of death or pain it seems strange that he who had the greatest innocency the most perfect charity the freest resignation of himself the fullest assurance of the reward to come should express a greater sense of the horror of his sufferings than thousands did who suffer'd for his sake But now was the hour come wherein the Son of God was to be made a Sacrifice for the sins of Men wherein he was to bear our griefs and carry our sorrows when he was to be wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities now his soul was exceeding sorrowfull even unto death for now the hour of his enemies was come and the power of darkness And accordingly they improve it they come out against him as a Malefactor with swords and staves and having seized his Person being betray'd into their hands by one of his Disciples they carry him to the High Priests house where his professed enemies presently condemn him of Blasphemy and not content with this they express the greatest contempt of him for they spit in his face they buffet him and smite him with the Palms of their hands they mock him and bid him prophesie who it was that smote him so insolent was their malice grown and so spightfull was their indignation against him And so fearfull were they lest he should escape their hands that the very next morning early they send him bound to the Roman Governour to have the sentence pronounced against him to whom they accuse him of Sedition and Treason but Pilate upon examination of him declares he found no fault in him which made them heap more unreasonable calumnies upon him being resolved by what means soever to take away his life Nay the price of the blood of the Son of God was fallen so low with them that they preferred the life of a known seditious person and a Murtherer before him And when Pilate being unsatisfied asked still what evil he had aone they continue their importunity without any other answer but Crucifie him and making up what wanted in Justice and Reason in the loudness of their clamors And at last seeing the fury and madness of the people with the protestation of his own innocency as to his blood he delivers him up to the people and now he is stripped and scourged and mock'd with a Crown of Thorns a Scarlet Robe and a Reed in his hand all the indignities they could think of they put upon him But though it pleased them to have him exposed to all the ignominies imaginable yet nothing would satisfie them but his blood and therefore he is led forth to be crucified and though so lately scourged and weakened by his sorrows yet he is made to carry his own Cross at least through the City for no other death could satisfie them but the most ignominious and painfull And when he was brought to the place of Crucifixion they nail his hands and feet to the Cross and while he was hanging there they deride and mock him still they divide his garments before his face give him Gall and Vinegar to drink and the last act of violence committed upon him was the piercing of his side so that out of his Pericardium issued both water and blood Thus did the Son of God suffer at the hands of unreasonable men thus was the blood of that immaculate Lamb spilt by the hands of violence and he who left the bosom of his Father to bring us to glory was here treated as if he had been unworthy to live upon the Earth 2. But that which yet heightens these sufferings of Christ is to consider from whom he suffer'd these things it was from sinners which is as much as to say from men if the word were taken in the largest sense of it for all have sinned but being taken by us in opposition to other men so it implyes a greater height of wickedness in these than in other persons But this is not here to be consider'd absolutely as denoting what kinde of persons he suffer'd from but with a particular respect to the nature of their proceedings with him and the obligations that lay upon them to the contrary So that the first shews the injustice and unreasonableness of them the second their great ingratitude considering the kindness and good will which he expressed towards them 1. The Injustice and unreasonableness of their proceedings against him It is true indeed what Socrates said to his wife when she complained that he suffer'd unjustly What saith he and would you have me suffer justly it is much greater comfort to the person who does suffer when he does it unjustly but it is a far greater reflection on those who were the causes of it And that our Blessed Saviour did suffer with the greatest injustice from these men is apparent from the falseness and weakness of all the accusations which were brought against him To accuse the Son of God for Blasphemy in saying he was so is as unjust as to condemn a King for treason because he saith he is a King they ought to have examined the grounds on which he call'd himself so and if he had not given pregnant evidences of it than to have passed sentence upon him as an Impostor and Blasphemer If the thing were true that he was what he said the Son of God what horrible guilt was it in them to imbrue their hands in his blood and they found he alwayes attested it and now was willing to lay down his life to confirm the truth of what he said This surely ought at least to have made them more inquisitive into what he had affirmed but they allow him not the liberty of a fair tryall they hasten and precipitate the sentence that they might do so the execution If he were condemned as a false Prophet for that seems to be the occasion of the Sanhedrim meeting to do it to whom the cognisance of that did particularly belong why do they not mention what it was he had foretold which had not come to pass or what reason do they give why
with what authority did he both speak and live such as commanded a reverence where it did not beget a love And yet after a life thus spent all the requital he met with was to be reproached despised and at last crucified O the dreadfull effects of malice and hypocrisie for these were the two great enemies which he alwayes proclaimed open war with and these at first contrived and at last effected his cruel death What baseness ingratitude cruelty injustice and what not will those two sins betray men to when they have once taken possession of the hearts of men for we can finde nothing else at the bottom of all that wretched conspiracy against our Saviour but that his doctrine and design was too pure and holy for them and therefore they study to take him away who was the author of them 3. We consider in what way and manner our Saviour underwent all these sufferings and this as much as any thing is here propounded to our consideration For it is not only who or what but in what manner he endured the contradiction of sinners that we ought to consider to prevent fainting and dejection of minde So another Apostle tells us that Christ suffered for us leaving us an example that we should follow his steps who did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth who when he was reviled reviled not again when he suffered be threatned not but committed himself to him that judged righteously He uses none of those ranting expressions which none of the patientest persons in the world were accustomed to of bidding them laugh in Phalaris his Bull and when they were racked with pains to cry out Nil agis dolor he tells them not that it is their duty to have no sense of torments and to be jocund and pleasant when their flesh is torn from them or nailed to a Cross if this be any kinde of fortitude it is rather that of a Gladiator than of a wise man or a Christian. The worst of men either through a natural temper of body or having hardned themselves by custom have born the greatest torments with the least expression of grief under them And Panaetius one of the wisest of the Stoicks is so far from making insensibleness of pain the property of a wise man that he makes it not the property of a man The inferiour Creatures are call'd Brutes from their dullness and insensibleness and not meerly from want of reason any further than that one follows from the other bruta existimantur animalium quibus cor durum riget saith Pliny those animals are call'd Brutes which have the hardest hearts and the nearer any of them approach to the nature of man the more apprehensive they are of danger and the more sensible of pain thence Scaliger saith of the Elephant that it is maxima bellua sed non maximè bruta though it be the greatest beast it is the least a Brute Stupidity then under sufferings can be no part of the excellency of a man which in its greatest height is in the Beings the most beneath him But when danger is understood and pain felt and Nature groans under it then with patience and submission to undergo it and to conquer all the strugglings of Nature against it that is the duty and excellency of a Christian. If to express the least sense of grief and pain be the highest excellency of suffering the Macedonian boy that suffer'd his flesh to be burnt by a Coal till it grew offensive to all about him without altering the posture of his arm lest he should disturb Alexanders sacrifice out-did the greatest Philosophers of them all Possidonius his pitifull rant over a fit of the Gout so highly commended by Pompey and Tully O pain it is to no purpose though thou beest troublesome I will never confess thou art evil falls extremely short of the resolution of the Macedonian boy or any of the Spartan Youths who would not in the midst of torments so much as confess them troublesome And what a mighty revenge was that that he would not confess it to be evil when his complaint that it was troublesome was a plain argument that he thought it so It is not then the example of Zeno or Cleanthes or the rules of Stoicisme which Dionysius Heracleotes in a fit of the Stone complained of the folly of that are to be the measures of patience and courage in bearing sufferings but the example and Precepts of our Lord and Saviour who expressed a great sense of his sufferings but withall the greatest submission under them When Lipsius lay a dying and one of the by-standers knowing how conversant he had been in the Stoicks writings began to suggest some of their Precepts to him Vana sunt ista said he I find all those but vain things and beholding the Picture of our Saviour near his bed he pointed to that and cryed haec vera est patientia there is the true pattern of Patience For notwithstanding that Agony he was in immediately before his being betray'd when he sees the Officers coming towards him he asks them whom they seek for and tells them I am he which words so astonished them that they went back and fell upon the ground thereby letting them understand how easie a matter it was for him to have escaped their hands and that it was his own free consent that he went to suffer for he knew certainly before hand the utmost that he was to undergo and therefore it was no unreasonable impetus but a settled resolution of his minde to endure all the contradictions of sinners When he was spi◠upon mocked reproached and scourged none of all these could draw one impatient expression from him The malice and rage of his enemies did not at all provoke him unless it were to pity and pray for them And that he did with great earnestness in the midst of all his pains and though he would not plead for himself to them yet he pleads for them to God Father forgive them for they know not what they do How much more divine was this than the admired Theramenes among the Greeks who being condemned to dye by the thirty Tyrants when he was drinking off his cup of Poyson said he drank that to Critias one of his most bitter enemies and hoped he would pledge it shortly Socrates seemed not to express seriousness enough at least when he bid one of his friends when he was dying offer up a Cock to AEsculapius for his deliverance Aristides and Phocion among the Greeks came the nearest to our Saviours temper when one pray'd that his Countrey might have no cause to remember him when he was gone and the other charged his Son to forget the injuries they had done him but yet by how much the greater the person and office was of our Blessed Saviour than of either of them by how much the cruelty and ignominy as well as pain was greater which they