soever you shall find it Put the Question to your selves over and over O my Soul here are such Advantages and such Calamities before you importuning you to change your present discountenanced Religion for a more thriving and prosperous One Are you now resolved fairly and impartially to examine the Merit of the Cause And if thereupon you still find Reason to believe that your present Religion is the very Truth of Iesus will you rather renounce those Advantages and incur those Calamities than forgoe it Will you follow the Truth wheresoever you find it and whithersoever it shall happen to lead you though it be from Preferment into Persecution Are you resolved by the Grace of God to prostrate all your temporal Hopes and Fears before it and rather to lose any Good or suffer any Evil than desert it For let me tell you if you find your Heart shrink at this Proposal or that you have any reserved Intention if the worst come to the worst rather to part with your Religion right or wrong than to shake hands with your temporal Interest you are in a very unfitting Temper to examine on which side the Truth lies For it is a plain Case your Mind is under a prevailing Byass of temporal Hopes and Fears which will be sure to incline it to favour that side of the Question which is most for your Interest and 't will be impossible for you to examine fairly and judge impartially whilst your Judgment is thus bribed and corrupted by your Interest For your Will hath already determined upon the Matter before ever your Understanding hath heard the Cause and it is your secret Intention right or wrong to forgoe your Religion rather than your Interest if ever they come in Competition So that now you will be obliged in your own Defence to use your utmost Art to set the fairest Colours upon the Evidences against your Religion and to stifle and enervate those that assert and maintain it lest they should so confirm you in the Belief of it as that when Occasion requires you will not be able to surrender it up without committing an horrible Outrage and Violence upon your selves Wherefore before you suffer your worldly Hopes and Fears to summon your Religion upon a new Tryal be sure you fix this Resolution in your Souls By the Grace of God I will now lay aside all Interest and Affection and strictly examin the Evidence on hoth Sides with an equal and unbyass'd Iudgment I will attend to nothing but the Reasons of Things and the pure Merits of the Cause and where-ever I find the Truth lies whether on the Side of my Interest or against it I will be sure to follow it whatsoever shall be the Event and Issue For if upon the Temptation of any worldly Interest you bring your Religion to a new Tryal with this secret Intention that though it should still approve it self to your Judgment yet you will rather part with it than abandon that Interest this very Intention will be apt to blind and mislead your Judgment to arm your Wit and Reason against your Religion and to set all your Faculties at work to argue you out of it and pervert you from ii to a contrary Faith and Persuasion which if it should accomplish you will certainly be found guilty of a wilful Apostacy when you come to be tryed before the Tribunal of God to whose all-seeing Eye the most secret Motions of your Souls are as visible as if they were written on your Foreheads with a Sun-beam who sees your treacherous Heart and false Intention rather to forsake his Truth than your Interest and knows very well that it is this that seduces you and gives Force to those false Reasons and Convictions that impose upon your Judgment and betray your Faith 6. And lastly When you fall under any Temptation to change your Religion consider whether before you were inclined to change you did conscientiously comply with the Obligations of it We have too many Men that pretend to be mighty inquisitive after the true Church and the true Religion and yet live as if there were no such Thing as true Religion in the World and quietly allow themselves in such impious Courses as do openly affront the common Principles of all Religions There is nothing they dread so much as Heresy and if you will believe them are monstrously concerned to examine whether the Church with which they now communicate be Catholick or Heretical and yet all this while they persist without any Concern or Remorse in the most damnable Heresy in the World and that is a wicked and immoral Life So that upon comparing their Atheistical Lives with the loud Cry they make about the true Catholick Faith and Church one would be tempted to think that their Christianity began at the wrong End of their Creed and that they believed in the Holy Catholick Church before they believe in God the Father Almighty or in Iesus Christ his only Son our Lord Which is such a gross and fulsom Piece of Hypocrisy as one would think any modest Man should be ashamed of For in the name of God Sirs What have you to do to wrangle and make a Noise about Religion whose prostigate Manners are a Shame and Scandal to common Humanity It is a Reproach to any Religion for you to name it and Shame to any Church for you to pretend to it and therefore when such as you raise a Cry after the true Church and true Religion it is a plain Case that whatever Pretence you bring upon the Stage you are prompted by some base Interest behind the Curtain And is it not a pleasant Thing to hear such Profligates as these pretend to be Converts who only turn from one Opinion to another but still continue as wicked and unreformed in their Manners under the Opinion they turn to as they were under that they turned from These are such Converts as there is no Church is the World that advances true Piety above worldly Interest but would glory to lose and blush to gain And what Diogenes said of a wicked Fellow that praised him that the Religion may say which those Men turn to What Hurt have I done what wicked Principles am I guilty of that such vile Wretches as these should commend and embrace me For for God's sake what is it that they are converted to Is it to any Thing that renders them wiser or better Men No The contrary is too notorious through the whole Course of their Actions Well then it seems they are converted to something that doth them no manner of Good that serves them to no true End of Religion that is to a meer empty Notion that only gingles about their Understandings but hath no good Influence on their Hearts and Manners Had their Conversion proceeded upon pure Principles of Conscience that would have obliged them to change their Manners as well as their Opinions there being very few Opinions in Religion so
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
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
and out-shone by him and all the Philosophy that ever succeeded him hath been forced to derive and borrow Light from him And accordingly we find his Gospel in which his Doctrines are contained stiled by the Name of the glorious Gospel 2 Cor. 4. 4. which in Comparison with those dark and confused Discoveries which the World had formerly made the Apostle resembles to the first breaking forth of the Light out of the rude and obscure Chaos 2 Cor. 4. 6. For God saith he who commanded the Light to shine out of Darkness hath shined into our Hearts to give the Light of the Knowledge of the Glory of God in the Face of Iesus Christ where by the Face of-Iesus Christ the Apostle seems plainly to allude to that Divine Glory and Luster with which Moses's Face shone when he came down from seeing the Glory of God Exod. 33. 29. So that his Meaning is this that as the Children of Israel with their bodily Eyes saw the Glory of God shining upon the Face of Moses so they the Disciples and Apostles of our Saviour had far more clearly beheld with the Eyes of their Minds the Divine Glory displayed in his Doctrine and Ministry 4thly And lastly This Glory of the Eternal Word which they saw consisted also in the incomparable Sanctity and Purity of his Life semblably to that Expression of his glorious Presence in the Old Tabernacle viz. the sensible Significations he gave of the immaculate Purity and Holiness of his Nature For by those outward Cleansings of all Things and Persons that did any ways belong to the Tabernacle or did at any time approach it he did openly represent and signify the Purity and Sanctity of his own Nature which being infinitely separated from all manner of Impurity and Vncleanness cannot endure that any thing that is filthy or impure should approach it For thus we read that the Tabernacle it self and all the Vtensils of it were to be purified and sanctified with Oyl before the Entrance of the Shechinah or Divine Presence So also the High Priest the Priests and the People were to be cleansed and purified before they were suffered to approach the Holy Habitation and if at any time they had contracted any of those legal Uncleannesses that are specified in the Law of Moses they were to be excluded from the Communion of the Congregation and from all the Exercises of Publick Worship and Devotion till they were cleansed and purified again The Intent of all which was to signify to that People how irreconcilable his Nature was to all Impurity and Wickedness that it could not admit of the Neighbourhood of any Evil nor dwell within any Lines of Communication with it for this is expressed in the very Reason why these Legal Purifications are so strictly required For I the Lord your God am holy Levit. 19. 2. For I the Lord which sanctify you am holy Levit. 21. 8. Plainly intimating that the Intent and Reason of all those Ceremonial Purifications was to signify to that dull and stupid People the immaculate Holiness and Purity of his own Nature which is so infinitely removed from any thing that is impure and unholy that he could neither communicate with nor endure the Approaches of it And in this 't is evident he placed a great Part of the Glory of his Majestatical Presence in the Tabernacle since a great part of that Religion which he there instituted was intended to signify the Glory of his Holiness to them and accordingly he is described to be glorious in Holiness Exod. 15. 11. And agreeably hereunto did the Eternal Word when he tabernacled in our Natures signify to the World the unspotted Purity of his Nature by that incomparable Example of Holiness which he gave in his Life and Conversation among us For whereas before he express'd his Holiness by Mystical Types and Ceremonial Observances he hath now signified it by a Life full of Virtue and Goodness and a Conversation exactly conformable to the eternal Rules of Righteousness For as a Creature in respect of his Humanity he never failed in the least Punctilio of that Duty Homage and Devotion which he owed to the most High God his Creator as a Man he never swerved either in his Passions or Appetites from the strictest Rules of Sobriety and Temperance as a Member of Humane Society he never was guilty of an unrighteous Action either towards his Superiors Inferiors or Equals but all his Life was a walking Monument of Goodness and his whole Conversation a most perfect Transcript of those Divine and Heavenly Laws which he gave to the World So that he was all glorious without as well as within his Practice being a living Comment and Paraphrase upon that immaculate Purity and Holiness which is the Glory of his Divine Nature This therefore was doubtless a Part of that Glory which the Apostles beheld in the Eternal Word even that immaculate Sanctity and Holiness of which he gave so many glorious Significations in the whole Course of his Conversation And accordingly we find this his Purity and Holiness described by the Name of the Glory of the Lord 2 Cor. 3. 18. But we all with open face beholding as in a Glass the Glory of the Lord are changed into the same Image from Glory to Glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord Where it 's plain that by the Glory of the Lord must be meant his Holiness because it is into the Image of that that we are transformed So that the meaning of the Words is this we all beholding the Holiness of Christ which is his Glory in the Glass of his Doctrine and incomparable Example are transformed into the Likeness of it and do gradually pass on from one Degree of this Glory of his Holiness to another under the Conduct and Assistance of the Spirit of Christ. And so I have done with the first thing proposed which was to shew you what that Glory of Christ was which the Apostle here tells us they beheld 2. I now proceed to the second Branch of my Discourse which was to shew you that this was the Glory as of the only begotten Son of the Father But before we proceed to the Proof of it it will be necessary to explain this Phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Glory as of the only begotten Son Which Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or as is in Scripture taken two Ways sometimes as a Note of Similitude or Comparison so Mat. 6. 10 Thy Will be done in Earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is in Heaven that is like as it is in Heaven and if we take it in this Sense then the Meaning of the Words must be this And we beheld his Glory which was like unto the Glory of the only begotten Son of the Father that is like unto that Glory in which the only begotten Son was wont to appear when he dwelt in the Tabernacle and conversed with the ancient Patriarchs And in this Sense I have
his Love and the deepest Awe of his Severity that so whilest by the former he allured by the later he might terrify to Repentance To which end he determined not to grant it to them upon any other Consideration than that of anothers suffering for them and undergoing the Punishment of their Sin in their stead that so whilst he shewed his Love to them in admitting another to suffer for them he might express his Hatred to their Sin in not Pardoning it without anothers suffering And that he he might manifest this his Love to them and this his Hatred to their Sin in the highest Degree as he admitted another to suffer for us so he resolved to accept no meaner Suffering than that of his own beloved Son And that this his suffering might be the more effectual he proposed to send him down to us into this lower World cloathed in our Natures that so he might not only the more familiarly instruct us by his Doctrine and Example but the more exactly personate us in undergoing the Punishment of our Sin and upon his undertaking to undergo it the most Merciful Father agreed to this Covenant of Mercy by which he obliged himself to receive us into his Favour upon our unfeigned Repentance and impower'd his Son to govern us according to the Tenour of it that is to Crown us with the Rewards of it if we Repented and instict on us the Punishments of it if we went on in our Impenitence And that there might be nothing wanting to render this Government of his Son succesful and us obedient to it he also agreed upon this his Mighty undertaking to substitute to him the Holy Ghost to be the supreme Minister of his Government that so by the Agency of this vicarious Power he might bow and incline the Hearts of Men to submit unto him and comply with the Terms of this Merciful Covenant in which their everlasting Welfare is so abundantly provided for This is the mighty Project which for the sake of the Souls of Men the Father of Spirits hath contrived and upon which he hath acted and proceeded even from their first Fall to this very Moment And by this he hath most plainly expressed the high and great Veneration that he hath of them for doubtless had they not been exceeding precious in his Eyes he would never have thought it worth the while to project and act such mighty Things to redeem and save them He would rather have left them to their own Fate and not have concerned himself about them or not have concerned himself to that Degree as to make them the Subjects of such a vast Design For all wise Agents measure their Designs by the Worth and Value of the Things they aim at and do never lay great Projects for the sake of little Trifles and unless God had a mighty Value for the Souls of Men his making such vast Preparations to save them would be like that foolish Emperors raising a numerous Army only to go and gather Cockle-shells 2. Let us consider the vast Price which God the Son hath set upon Souls For it is plain he valued them at that mighty Rate as that for their sakes he willingly undertook to execute this vast Design of his Father and that to save these precious Being he thought it would be very well worth his while to come down from Heaven and vail his Divinity in our Natures to put on the Form of a Servant and make himself of no Reputation to live a Miserable Life and die a painful and accursed Death And can we think he would ever have layd down so vast a Price as his Glory and Happiness his Life and Blood amounts to for Things of a mean and inconsiderable Value Had he so low an Esteem of his Father's Bosom and his own Heavenly Glory as to part with them for Trifles such slight Apprehensions of Shame and Sorrow Pain and Misery as to cast himself into them for the sake of Beings he had little or no Esteem of Could any thing but what is inestimable countervail that Glory he parted with and that Misery he indured Or can you think those Souls of little Worth which the Son of God thought worth his dying for No certainly if we knew nothing of our Souls but this that the Son of God thought them a good Purchase at the dear Price of his Bliss his Glory and his Blood yet from thence we have infinite Reason to conclude them most precious and inestimable Beings it being impossible that he who doth so perfectly understand the Worth and Value of Things should ever be so over-seen as to pay so vast a Sum for slight and cheap Commodities 3. Let us consider the vast Price which God the Holy Ghost hath set upon Souls For 't is for their sakes that he doth so Industriously operate in the Kingdom of our Saviour that he takes so much pains in it as he doth and hath always done ever since it was first erected to drive on that blessed Design of making the Souls of Men the native subjects of it happy It is upon their Account that he hath made so many Revelations of God's Will to the World and confirmed them by so many Miracles that so he might extricate those precious Beings out of those Labyrinths of Error in which they had involved and lost themselves and direct them into the way to true Happiness And it is for their good that he still continues shedding forth his Heavenly Influences upon them that he still inspires them with so many good Thoughts importunes them with such urgent Motives presses upon them with such earnest Struglings and vigorous Efforts not only of his preventing but of his assisting Grace too that if possible he may awaken them into a Sense of their Danger and excite and quicken them to pursue the Methods of their own Safety and Happiness So infinitely jealous is this blessed Spirit lest these precious Beings should Miscarry that tho one would think them sufficiently safe-guarded in their Voyage through this dangerous Sea under the Convoy of their own Reason yet he dares not trust them to themselves but bears them Company all along and keeps a watchful Eye over them and when any Rock is nigh he warns them of it and when they are beset with evil Spirits those mischievous Pirates that lie in wait to Captivate and Inslave them he presently comes into their Assistance and unless they are resolved to betray themselves always brings them off victoriously Nay tho they many times not only yield to these Piratical Spirits but joyn their Forces with them to resist and beat off their merciful Friend and Deliverer yet he doth not therefore presently abandon them but being infinitely concerned for their Rescue follows them even to the Mouth of the Enemies Harbour with his blessed Motions and Importunities and never gives over the Pursuit of them till he hath either actually recovered or lest them past all Hopes of Redemption
glorious Things he was to transact in his Incarnate State and this he did chiefly by the High Priest and those Expiatory Sacrifices which he ordained and instituted among them as you may find it demonstrated at large in the Epistle to the Hebrews For as to the High Priest he was to be called and ordained of God Heb. 5. 4. in which the Eternal Word represented to them his Commission from the Father to descend into the World as his Embassador to Men. Secondly He was to be born of a Woman that came a pure Virgin into the Arms of his Father Levit. 21. 14. in which he seems to represent to them his own pure Nativity of a Virgin-Mother Thirdly He was to be washed with Water and his Flesh and Loyns were to be covered with the whitest and the cleanest Linnen Exod. 29. 7. and 28. 42. by which Christ typified to them the IMMACVLATE Sanctity and Innocence of his humane Life Fourthly He was to be clothed in the most glorious Garments that could possibly be made by the most excellent Workmen Exod. 28. 2 3. which seems to denote the Majesty of Christ's Person and those glorious Works by which he render'd himself so illustrious in the World Fifthly The Colours of the Embroideries of his Garment being blue purple scarlet and white seem to denote the Truth of his Prophetick Office the Majesty of his Royal the Perfection of his Priestly and his Innocence and Sanctity in the Execution of them all Sixthly He wore a holy Crown on his Head and a Plate on his Forehead engraven with Holiness which denotes the Divine Authority of Christ and the Sacredness and Divinity of his Person And Seventhly Upon his Breast he wore the Vrim and Thummim in which was prefigured the Height and Purity of Christ's Doctrine and the Holiness and Perfection of his Laws In a word the High Priest was to offer Sacrifice for the Sins of the People on the great day of Expiation which Sacrifice was to be a Beast without blemish voluntarily presented at the Door of the Tabernacle whither the High Priest being come he was to strip off his glorious Garment to lay his Hand on the Head of the Beast and to confess the Peoples Sins over it and then to slay the Beast and carry some of the Blood of it within the Vail and sprinkle it upon and before the Mercy-Seat by which he is said to make an Attonement for their Sins that is to obtain Authority from God to bless and pardon In which the Eternal Word gives us a plain Representation of his future Sacrifice upon Earth and Intercession in Heaven for he being both our Sacrifice and High Priest did freely divest himself of the Glory and Dignity of his Humane Nature and offer up himself to die for us by which he laid his Hand as it were upon his own spotless and immaculate Head did as our Representative acknowledge what we had deserved that for our Sins we have justly merited to die for ever by the Hand of God even as He for our sakes did submit to die by the Hand of Man And having performed this bloody Sacrifice he enters into Heaven which is the true Holy of Holies and there by the Oblation of his Blood and Obedience makes an Atonement for our Sins and obtains Authority from his Father to pardon and receive into Favour every truly penitent Offender in the World Thus you see how the Personal Transactions of our Saviour were under the Law of Moses represented in mystical Types and Figures but when he came to tabernacle among us he did all that which before he only represented He actually came down from the Father to us was born of the Holy Virgin lived a most holy and innocent Life died a Sacrifice for our Sins and is gone into Heaven to intercede for us So that now instead of Types and Figures we have the Substances and Realities that were obscurely shadowed and represented in them 2. Another great Instance of his conversing among us full of Truth is the Purity and Spirituality of his Laws It 's apparent that those which he gave to the Iews according to the literal Sense of them did only oblige them to an external Obedience and therefore St. Paul calls the whole Law a carnal Commandment Heb. 7. 16. and the Precepts of it he calls carnal Ordinances imposed upon them till the time of Reformation Heb. 9. 10. But yet it is apparent that by these carnal Ordinances the Eternal Word did designedly typify and represent that internal Purity of Soul which the Evangelical Law doth exact For he seeing that the Iews were not only a perverse but also a dull and sottish People as those generally are who are born and bred in Slavery and that therefore they were incapable of sublime and spiritual Precepts and would be apt to forget plain ones He therefore thought it most proper and suitable to their Capacity and Genius to instruct them by sensible and material Signs even as Parents do sometimes teach their Children by Pictures for of this his Condescention to their Dulness and Capacity the Prophet Isaiah takes notice Chap. 28. 10 11. where he saith that he gave them Precept upon precept line upon line here a little and there a little with a stammering tongue that is he look'd upon them as Children and so condescended to their Weakness and spoke to them in their own Dialect And this Way of instructing them by outward and visible Signs was the most probable to take effect because it was much in use in the Eastern Countries but more especially in Egypt whose Manners they were infinitely fond of to wrap up their most excellent Precepts in Hieroglyphicks which were nothing but Pictures and material Signs by which they represented their Divine and Moral Institutions Thus therefore by such visible Signs and Pictures the Eternal Word instructed them in the Rules of internal Purity and Goodness so by Circumcision he signified to them the Circumcision of their Hearts and by their several Washings Purity from Hypocrisy and Sensuality yea this was probably the Intent of that Difference of Meats as St. Barnabas in his Epistle tells us that Swines Flesh was pronounc'd unclean to instruct them not to live like Hoggs that clamour when they are hungry and forget their Masters when they are full that Eagles and such ravenous Birds were forbidden to be eat to teach them that those who live not by Industry but Rapine are abominable that Fish without Scales which generally dwell in the Mud were all pronounced unclean to teach them the Evil of Sensuality and Earthly-mindedness Thus by these outward Signs his Intent was to insinuate into them internal Purity of Mind and this was very well understood by those who were good and wise among them Hence we find David gives very high Encomiums of the Law Ps. 19. 7 8. The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the Soul making wise the simple rejoycing the Heart enlightning
Law which they call the Cabala or the Law by Tradition not that this traditional contained any thing that was not in the written Law but because those things which were obscurely contained in the Types of the written Law were explained and interpreted in this their Traditional Law But it is apparent that the Types of eternal Life were not fully explained in this traditional Law till after the Babylonish Captivity after which the Prophet Daniel and after him Ezekiel began to speak more plainly of the Resurrection of the Dead and from that Time forwards the Doctrine of the Resurrection and eternal Life began to be more openly taught among the Common People till about the Time of the Maccabees when it was brought forth in the Light from under those Types in which it was so obscurely represented and became a Principle even of the Popular Religion and an Article of the Iewish Faith as plainly appears from the Records of those Times particularly 2. Macc. 7. 23 26. Comp. with Heb. 11. â—5 And indeed it was very necessary that then this Article should be more clearly revealed to fortify the Iews against those many Persecutions whereunto they were exposed for the sake of their Religion that they might not be terrified to apostatize from it by those cruel Martyrdoms which in the Time of the Maccabees they many of them endured and besides now the Time of the Gospel was approaching and consequently its Mysteries like the Light of the rising Sun began to break forth clearer and clearer from under that Cloud of Types wherein it was wrapt and involved till at last the Sun of Righteousness himself arose and dispersed those Clouds and brought Life and Immortality to light by the Gospel But as for the Sadducees who give no heed to the Cabala or Traditional Law in which this Doctrine was first discovered and adhered only to the written Law of Moses they still continued Infidels in this Point and believed neither Angels nor Spirits nor the Life to come So very obscurely was it represented in the Types and Shadows of the Written Law But when once the Eternal Word came to tabernacle in our Flesh he revealed this great Article so plainly and clearly to the World that 't is impossible for any one not to believe it that believes him to be the Messias or Incarnate Word And thus you see by all these Instances what a vast Difference there was in respect of Truth between Christ's tabernacling in our Nature and in the Tabernacle of Moses And now I shall conclude this Argument with two or three practical Inferences 1st He dwelt or tabernacled among us From hence I infer the high Authority of Christ and that holy Religion which he hath revealed to us For to tabernacle among us as I have already shewed you signifies to dwell in the midst of as the Shechinah Presence or Representative of the most High God as one that acted in his Father's Person and was vested with his Authority and consequently as one who hath as great a Right to exact our Obedience as the Eternal Father himself should he have come down from Heaven in his own Person to give Laws to Mankind For so when the Eternal Word went before the Camp of Israel as the Shechinah or Angel of God's Presence God requires them that they should obey him as himself Beware of him and obey his Voice saith God provoke him not for he will not pardon your Transgression for my Name is in him Exod. 23. 21. and v. 22. To obey the Voice of this Angel is interpreted to be the same thing as to obey the Voice of the most High God himself But if thou shalt indeed obey his Voice saith God and do all that I speak then I will be an Enemy to thy Enemies c. So that for the Israelites to disobey this Angel who as I have proved to you was the Eternal Word or Representative of the most High God to them was to all Intents and Purposes the same Thing as if they had disobeyed the most High himself And accordingly our Saviour tells the Iews He that believeth on me believeth not on me but on the Father that sent me that is he doth not meerly believe on me but on the Father too whose Authority I have and whose Person I represent for so he explains himself in the following Verse He that seeth me seeth him that sent me that is I being my Father 's Shechinah or Representative Ioh. 12. 44 45. And therefore as every Contempt of the Deputy or Vice-Governor is an Affront to the Sovereign Prince whose Person he bears and by whose Authority he acts so every Rebellion against Christ is an open Defiance to the Sovereign God whose Person he represents and by whose Authority he reigns Hence our Saviour tells the Iews Ioh. 5. 23. that He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him which plainly intimates that God the Father resents those Indignities which we offer to Christ and his Laws as if they were done to his own Person and that if himself should speak to us from the Battlements of Heaven or proclaim his Law to us in a Voice of Thunder he would not be more displeased to hear us openly declare that we will not obey him than he is to see us trample upon the Laws of his Son which he hath stamp'd with his own Sovereign Authority So that if we were not infinitely fool-hardy methinks we should never dare to violate our Religion in which the Authority of the most High God is so immediately concerned For whatsoever our Religion requires of us it requires in his Name who hath an undoubted Right and Authority to command us for from all Eternity he was invested with an absolute and unlimited Power of doing any thing that is not unbecoming his Divine Perfections and in this the Right of his Dominion over us is originally founded For he that hath Power must needs have a Right to exercise it so far as it is just and becoming his Nature otherwise his Power would be altogether in vain and therefore since God from all Eternity hath a Power of doing whatsoever he pleases so far as is consistent with his Holiness and Goodness there is nothing can be pretended against the Right of his Dominion and Authority over us For God cannot but have an eternal Right to exercise his own Power and he cannot but have an immutable Right to exercise it over his own Creatures And as from all Eternity he had Power to do whatsoever was just and becoming him so from his creating of us it became most just and becoming that he should rule and govern us for we became his as soon as we were created by him all our Powers of Action were from him and by that he hath acquired an unalienable Right in whatsoever we are able to do We have nothing but what is his Gift and therefore can do nothing but what is his
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
to him Vpon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on him the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost And I saw and bear Record that this was the Son of God Joh. 1. 33 34. where you may observe that though it was revealed to him only that he was the Person that should baptize with the Holy Ghost upon whom the Spirit descended yet he bare Record also that this Person was the Son of God rationally concluding that this visible Glory which was such an infallible Token of the special Presence of the Divinity was never to be communicated to any but the Son of God And it is very observable that at both these Times when our Saviour was arrayed in this glorious Splendor he is declared by a Voice from Heaven to be the Son of God it being the Father's Intention at once to manifest him to be his Son both by Word and Deed and at the same time when he declared him to be his Son to array him in such a Glory as became the Dignity of his Person 2dly The great and stupendous Miracles that he wrought were such as became his only begotten Son 'T is true it cannot be denied but several Miracles have been wrought by meer Men they being authorized by God and assisted by his Almighty Power but so many and so great as our Saviour wrought were never performed by any Mortal For as to the Number of them they were more than ever were wrought by Moses and all the Prophets together for besides those that are recorded which were all performed within the Space of four Years at most St. Iohn tells us that he wrought so many that the World could not contain the Records of them Ioh. 21. 25. which though it be an Hyperbolical Expression yet denotes thus much at least that the Number of them was so great that they were almost innumerable And as to the Greatness of them they did apparently exceed all that ever were wrought before in the World For he did not only raise the Dead but he raised himself also after he had been barbarously murdered by his Enemies He made the Winds and Sea obey him and with the Word of his Mouth vanquished the Devils and drave them from their Habitations and forc'd them against their Wills and their Interest to acknowledge him to be the Son of God And whereas the Miracles of Moses and the Prophets were most of them noxious they being Acts of Divine Vengeance upon the Wicked and Vngodly and consequently more apt to terrify than to oblige those that beheld them the Miracles of our Saviour were all of them Expressions of his unfeigned Love and Good-Will to the World For among all that vast Number of wondrous Works that he wrought there is not one to be found by which any Man was ever prejudiced unless it was his dismissing the Devils into the Swine of the Gadarens which without all doubt he did in Kindness and Good-will to the Owners who being so cruel to themselves as to prefer their Swine before their Saviour it was great Charity and Mercy to deprive them of that which was so apparent a Hindrance to their Enjoyment of a far greater Good So that all his wondrous Works were nothing but Acts of Kindness and Beneficence for he went about doing Good curing all that were possessed with the Devil and healing all manner of Diseases And whereas none of those that wrought Miracles before him could ever pretend to perform them by any immanent Power of their own but had only a transient Power given them for the present Miracle which they either obtained from God upon their Prayers and Supplications or was given by God for the Execution of his own Will and Command the blessed Iesus had this Power subjected and abiding in him so that he could exert it when and where and as often as he pleased and whether he were absent or present with the Word of his Mouth he could do what he would yea and many times he performed his wondrous Works without any Word or Sign intervening even by a silent Virtue proceeding from that miraculous Power with which he was endued and of all his Miracles there is only one which he performed upon Prayer and Supplication to his Father and that was his raising Lazarus from the Dead the Reason of which he himself gives Ioh. 11. 42. Because of the People which stand by that they may believe that thou hast sent me Intimating that he did not offer up this Prayer to his Father with design to obtain of him any new Power of working Miracles which he was already endued with in an abundant measure but that hereby I might signify to the People how acceptable I am to thee and let them see that I do all my Works in thy Name And that he had this Power is evident in that he did so plentifully communicate it to his Apostles and Followers which neither Moses nor the Prophets were ever able to do For thus Luke 10. 19. he expresly tells his Seventy Disciples Behold I give you power to tread on Serpents and Scorpions and so also when he dismissed his Twelve Apostles into Iudea Matth. 10. 8. he bids them Go heal the Sick cleanse the Lepers raise the Dead cast out Devils for freely ye have received saith he and therefore freely give From all which it is apparent how far the miraculous Works of our Saviour did exceed all those that ever were done before him and being so great and excellent so far transcending all that ever was done by any Mortal they plainly demonstrated him to be the Son of God and very well became the Dignity of his Person For how could he have done all these mighty Things by a Power immanent in himself had he not been the Son of an Omnipotent Father And in what more becoming Way could he have expressed that Omnipotent Power which he derived from his Father than in those astonishing Miracles of Love which he wrought in the World 3dly The excellent and divine Doctrine which he taught was such as became the only begotten Son For certainly if we consider the excellent Frame and Contrivance of the Christian Religion we cannot but confess it to be most Divine and Godlike most worthy of that infinite Wisdom and Goodness from whence it was derived For Religion in general is the means of advancing Rational Beings to that Perfection and Happiness for which the great Creator hath designed and intended them and certainly never was there any Religion in the World more adapted to advance this noble Design of God than that which our Saviour hath taught For as for its Agenda what it requires to be done they all consist in acting reasonably and according to the Dignity of our Nature in thinking speaking and practising in loving and hating desiring and delighting hoping and fearing as becomes Reasonable Beings placed in our Condition and Circumstances and do require nothing of us but
their Land of Canaan and the spiritual Sense of all their general Promises of good Things to come They had all the Articles of Faith and all the Instances of Duty that were necessary to their Attainment of eternal Life exhibited to them in the Writings of their Prophets and the Types and Figures of their Law For it was by this Rule alone that all the holy Men of the Iewish Nation did live and believe and either this was sufficient to guide and direct them to eternal Life or they were left under a fatal Necessity of falling short of it It was the Law of the Lord that did enlighten their Eyes and rejoyce their Hearts and convert their Souls and it was in keeping it that they found great Reward Ps. 19. 7 8 11. And therefore either they fell short of the Reward of eternal Life notwithstanding this their Illumination and Conversion or they found it in keeping that Law by which they were illuminated and converted and if in keeping their Law they found eternal Life then it 's certain that in their Law they had it So that these Words of our Saviour for in them ye think ye have eternal life do not imply that they were mistaken in thinking so or at least they only imply that they were mistaken in thinking to obtain eternal Life by adhering to the prime and literal Sense of their Law without pursuing the Mystery and Spiritual Meaning of it which was indeed the Error of the Pharisees with whom our Saviour is here discoursing For the internal Sense and Mystery of their Law was the Gospel all whose Articles of Faith and Precepts of Duty were though darkly and obscurely expressed and represented in the Types and Figures of the Mosaick Institution And hence the Apostle tells us that both the Priests and their Oblations did serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things Heb. 8. 5. So that the heavenly Things contained in the Gospel were the substantial Idea's which those Legal Types and Patterns contained and represented and the same Author calls that Law a shadow of good things to come Heb. 10. 1. that is it was an obscure Scheme or Prefiguration of the Mercies of the Gospel of which eternal Life is a principal Part. Since therefore the Law was nothing else but only the Gospel in dark and obscure Cyphers if in this we Christians have eternal Life in that the Iews had it also And therefore the Reason which our Saviour here urges to oblige the Iews to search the Scriptures of the Old Testament for in them ye think ye have eternal life doth at least equally oblige us Christians to search the Scriptures both of the Old and New For if they had just Reason to think they had eternal Life in the Old Testament and were thereupon obliged to search into it we have rather more Reason to think that we have eternal Life in the New since the New Testament is nothing else but only the Old decyphered and unriddled and therefore we must not only have eternal Life in this as they had in that but we must also have it far more expresly than they In the Prosecution of this Argument therefore I shall endeavour these Two Things I. To shew you that in the Holy Scriptures we have eternal Life II. That this is a very forcible Reason to oblige us to search them I. First that in the Holy Scriptures we have eternal Life that is that in them we have eternal Life proposed to us together with all that is necessary to be believed and practised by us in order to our obtaining it or in other words that the Holy Scripture is a sufficient Rule both of Faith and Manners to guide and direct 〈◊〉 to eternal Happiness And this is one Article of the Faith of the Church of England which we are required to explain to the People for so in her sixth Article our Church professes that the Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to Salvation so that whatsoever is not read therein or may be proved thence is not required of any Man that it should be believed as an Article of Faith or be thought requisite or necessary to Salvation Now to make the Scripture a sufficient Rule as to all Things necessary to Salvation there are two Things necessary First That it should be full and Secondly That it should be clear both which the Holy Scripture is in an eminent Degree as containing in it all that is necessary to be believed and done in order to eternal Life And this will evidently appear from these three following Propositions 1. That the Holy Spirit inspired the Writers of the Scripture with all that is necessary to eternal Life 2. That they preached to the World all those Necessaries with which the Holy Spirit inspired them 3. That all those necessary Truths which they preached are comprehended in those Sacred Writings of theirs of which the Holy Scripture consists 1. That the Holy Spirit inspired the Writers of the Scripture with all that is necessary to eternal Life For first our Saviour by whom they were originally instructed declares that as the Father loved him and shewed him all things that himself did Ioh. 5. 20. so he had made known to them all things that he had heard of his Father Ioh. 17. 8. And then when he went from them and ceased to instruct them in his own Person he promised that by his Spirit he would teach them all things and bring all things to their remembrance whatsoever he had said unto them Ioh. 14. 26. and that by the same Spirit he would guide them into all Truth Ioh. 16. 13. If therefore the Spirit did perform this Promise to them as there is no doubt but he did then we are sure that he did teach them over again whatsoever Christ had taught them before and if Christ had taught them whatsoever he had heard of his Father as he declares he had then it is certain either that he taught them all Things necessary to eternal Life or that he himself had not heard from his Father all Things that are necessary thereunto 2. That as they were taught by the Spirit all Things necessary to eternal Life so what they were taught they preached and delivered to the World For so our Saviour commanded them to go forth into all the World and teach all Nations to observe all those things which he had commanded them Matth. 28. 19 20. Which Injunction of his they strictly observed for so we are told that in Obedience to it they went forth and preached every where Mark 16. 20. And that their preaching extended to all Things necessary to Salvation is evident from their own Testimony For thus St. Paul tells the Ephesians that he had not shunned to declare unto them the whole Counsel of God Acts 20. 27. And to be sure in the whole Counsel of God all that is necessary to Salvation must be included And concerning that Gospel which he
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
courted you to accept of it and though time after time you scornfully refused and rejected it yet in hope that at last you might be prevailed with you know how long I waited upon you even till you had tired out my Patience and I saw there was no Remedy And do you now charge your not returning to your Duty upon your Hoplesness of Pardon for your former Rebellions 'T is true Lord we cannot deny but thou didst offer us Pardon but alas it was upon an impossible Condition even upon a hearty Repentance and a thorough Reformation which thou knewest we were not then able to perform For by a long Custom of Rebellion against thee we had contracted so many inveterate evil Habits which had so weaken'd and debilitated our Powers that we were no more able to reform and amend our selves than the Leopard is to change his Spots or the Aethiopian his Skin To what Purpose then should we attempt Impossibilities or set our selves to wrestle with Difficulties which we knew we were never able to surmount But pray how did you know that it was impossible for you to repent when by all the Arguments I used with you I could never persuade you to make Trial of it You know in your own Consciences that there are many things that you could do you could have betaken your selves to a serious Consideration of the Duties and Motives of Religion you could have attended and abstained at least from the outward Acts of Sin and humbly implored my Grace and Assistance and that to encourage you to do this and what else was in your Power I gave you the most ample Assurance in the World that I would back and enforce your Endeavours with the Aids of my Grace and in despite of all opposition crown them with Success So that though by your own single Strength indeed you could never have effected your Repentance yet it was far from being impossible to you since you knew that by doing what was in your power you should infallibly oblige me to enable you to do all the rest But blessed Lord what Encouragement had we to repent and return to our Duty for if we had done it we must have bid adieu for ever to all those Pleasures and Delights by which we were invited and detained in the Service of our Lusts and Thou offered'st us nothing in exchange for them but only Sighs and Tears with other ungrateful Rigours of a bitter and severe Repentance How then canst thou blame our Disobedience against thee when we had so many inviting Temptations to it and so little Encouragement to the contrary O prodigious Impudence with what Face can you assert such a notorious Falshood when you know in your own Consciences that besides all those Pleasures that are connatural to my Service and which do vastly exceed all the Pleasures of Sin I laid an immortal Crown at your Feet and faithfully promised you that if you would but spend a short Life in my Service I would at the End of it receive you into that blissful State where you should be happy beyond all your Wishes and to the utmost Capacity of your Nature where you should live with God and Angels in the most rapturous Exercise of everlasting Love and Joy which one would have thought had been sufficient to recompence you for those silly Pleasures for whose sake you deserted me and my Service But since you have trampled upon all my Offers and would by no means be perswaded by all those mighty Tenders I have made you Go ye deservedly cursed into ever Hold Lord we beseech thee and before thou passest thy irrevocable Doom upon us hear this last Petition we shall make for our selves We now confess that we are fully convinc'd and O that we had understood it sooner what infinite Reason we had to adhere to thee and thy Service It is our Misery that these things were not sooner discover'd to us or at least that they were not so clearly discovered as to convince and perswade us Had we but known what we now know we would never have deserted thee as we did and therefore we beseech thee have Pity upon our Ignorance and impute not to our Wills the Faults of our Vnderstandings which are not in our Power to remedy Why is this the utmost that you can plead for your selves Have I not told you all these things before-hand as plainly as Words could express them Have I not instituted an Order of Men in my Church to explain these things to you and to put you in mind of them So that whatever you pretend you could not but know and understand them or if you did not it was because you would not And if you would wilfully shut your Eyes against the Light it was your own Fault that you did not see and you may thank your selves for the Consequents of it I plainly told you where your Wickedness would end and unless you were wilfully blind you could not but see what the Event of your Sin would prove even while you were committing it and you know in your own Consciences that this fearful Doom which now you deprecate you were fairly warned of when you might have easily avoided it by a timely Submission but you would not And seeing you would be so mad as to reject Heaven when it lay before you and leap into Hell with your Eyes open your Blood be upon your own Heads For I have tried all the Arts of Love and Methods of Kindness to reclaim you and since you have render'd them all ineffectual what remains but that you depart from me like accursed Wretches as you are into that everlasting Fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels And now I beseech you do not your own Consciences consent to the Justice and Righteousness of this Procedure Is there any tolerable Plea you can urge at the Judgment-Seat of Iesus Christ which here hath not been fully answered And if so how inexcusable shall we be when we come to plead our own Cause in the great Assembly of Spirits For when these Aggravations of our Disobedience shall be laid open our Guilt will appear so foul and monstrous that we shall doubtless be condemned by the unanimous Vote of all the Reasonable World and as soon as the great Judge hath pass'd his Sentence upon us our own Consciences will be forc'd to eccho Iust and righteous art thou O Lord in all thy Ways Wherefore as we would not be found inexcusably guilty when we come to plead for our Lives before the Tribunal of our Saviour let us all be perswaded to return to his Service and faithfully to continue in it that so instead of Go ye cursed we may hear from his Mouth that welcome Approbation Well done good and profitable Servants enter into the Ioy of your Master III. I come now to the last Proposition in the Text viz. And we beheld his Glory the Glory as of the only Son of the Father In
handling of which I shall do these two Things 1. Explain to you what this Glory of the Word was which the Apostle tells us they beheld 2. Shew you that it was the Glory as of the only begotten Son of the Father 1. What was that Glory of the Word which the Apostle tells us they beheld I answer in general By this Glory here must be understood something that is resemblant to the Glory of his dwelling in the Tabernacle because as I have already shewed you the Apostle seems plainly to refer to it in that he doth not only tell us that the Word tabernacled among us which alludes to his Tabernacling among the Iews but he also tells us that they saw his Glory which alludes to that Glory of the Lord which the Iews beheld in that ancient Tabernacle Since therefore the Apostle mentions this Glory of the Word Incarnate by way of Allusion to the Glory of his Divine Presence in the Tabernacle it must necessarily bear some Resemblance or Proportion to it because else it would be no proper Allusion The best Way therefore for us to discover what this Glory of Christ was which they beheld is to consider wherein the Glory of the Divine Presence in the Tabernacle did chiefly discover it self and that you shall find was in these four Things First In a bright and luminous Appearance Secondly In exerting of an extraordinary Power Thirdly In giving Laws and Oracles Fourthly In sensible Significations of its own immaculate Sanctity and Purity And in Proportion and Correspondence to these the Glory of the Word Incarnate also must consist in these four Things 1st In the visible Splendor and Brightness with which his Person was arrayed at his Baptism and more especially at his Transfiguration 2 dly In those great and stupendous Miracles that he wrought in the Course of his Ministry 3dly In the incomparable Purity and Goodness of his Life 4thly In the surpassing Excellency and Divinity of his Doctrine 1st That Glory of the Word which St. Iohn and the Apostles beheld consisted in that visible Splendor and Brightness with which his Person was arrayed at his Baptism and more especially at his Transfiguration in Resemblance to that visible Splendor and Brightness in which he appeared in the Mosaick Tabernacle where it is frequently said that the Glory of the Lord abode and appeared as you may see Exod. 24. 16. 40. 34. Which Glory it 's evident discovered its self in an extraordinary visible Splendor that shone forth from between the Cherubims and diffused it self thence all over that sacred Habitation And accordingly in Ezek. 43. 2. it is said that the Glory of the God of Israel came from the Way of the East and the Earth shone with his Glory which denotes that it was extraordinary bright and luminous since the Earth shone with the very Reflection of it And in this same glorious Splendor was Christ arrayed first at his Baptism and afterwards at his Transfiguration For at his Baptism it is said that the Heavens were open'd unto him and that he saw the Spirit of God descending like a Dove and lighting upon him Matth. 3. 16. where by the Holy Ghost's descending like a Dove it is not necessary we should understand his descending in the Shape or Form of a Dove but that in some glorious Form or Appearance he descended in the same manner as a Dove descends and therefore St. Luke expresses it thus And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily Shape like a Dove upon him Luke 3. 22. that is he descended in some very glorious and visible Appearance in the same Manner as Doves are wont to descend when they come down from the Skies and pitch upon the Earth But what that Shape was in which he appeared is not here expressed but that which seems to be most probable is this that the Holy Ghost assuming a Body of Light or surrounded as it were with a Guard of Angels appearing in luminous Forms came down from above just as a Dove with his Wings spread forth is observed to do and lighted upon our Saviour's Head and the Reason why I think so is this both because where-ever any mention is made of God's or the Holy Ghost's appearing in an indefinite Form it is always in a Body of Light and visible Splendor of which I have given you sundry Instances and also because it seems to have been a very early Tradition in the Church that it was in a very glorious Appearance of Light that the Holy Ghost came down upon our Saviour And therefore in the Gospel of the Nazarens as Grotius observes it 's said that upon the Holy Ghost's Descent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 immediately a great Light shone round about the Place and Iustin Martyr speaking of our Saviour's Baptism saith expresly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that there was a Fire lighted in the River Iordan that is the Water immediately after he was baptized in it seemed to be all on fire by the Reflection of that bright and flaming Appearance in which the Holy Ghost descended upon him so that while he wore this Crown of visible Light his Head as the Painters are wont to express it was circled round with the Rays of that Glory in which he was wont to appear from between the Cherubims And this Glory of his was questionless seen by many of the Apostles who were sundry of them Disciples to Iohn the Baptist and so many reasonably be supposed to be present at the Baptism of our Saviour And as for his Transfiguration upon Mount Tabor it is said that upon it his Face did shine as the Sun and that his Raiment was white as the Light or as St. Luke expresses it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is his Raiment was like the Whiteness of a Flash of Lightning Luke 9. 29. So that from Head to Foot he was all inrobed in a visible Glory and covered with all that Brightness and dazling Splendor in which he was wont to appear in the Tabernacle of Moses And accordingly you have mention made of a Cloud that over-shadowed the three Disciples whilst Iesus remained in his Transfiguration which is exactly agreeable with that Cloud that covered the Tabernacle of Moses whilst the Glory of the Lord filled it as you may see Exod. 40. 34. And that this glorious Transfiguration was a Part of that Glory of the Word which St. Iohn here says they beheld is evident because himself was one of the three Disciples that were Eye-Witnesses of this glorious Scene and it is expresly said of him and his Brethren that they saw his Glory and the two Men that stood with him Luke 9. 32. 2dly This Glory which they saw consisted in those great and stupendous Miracles that he wrought in the Course of his Ministry in Proportion to that extraordinary Power in which the Glory of the Divine Presence discovered it self in the Tabernacle of Moses For thus we find that it was from the Tabernacle