shew'd them not the Father now in the Person of another but in their Own in his Divine and Omnipotent Power displayed in themselves And this was not only a Plain and Evident but a Gracious Revelation of the Father which as it improv'd their Knowledge of him so it gave them also Demonstrations of his Love and Favour The Father was both gracious to them and present with them before under the Law he was their God and they were his People but after they had embrac'd the Gospel he sent his Son into the World to preach they were admitted into a Nearer Relation and were not only call'd the People and Servants but the Children of God the adopted Brethren of Christ and the Father of Heaven and Earth was appropriated by our Lord no less to them than to himself I go says he to my Father and to your Father to my God and to your God And this being the blessed Condition not only of the first Disciples but of all true Believers since I cannot chuse but take Occasion from hence to say That those Christians are not sensible of their own Priviledge and Dignity that go a Compass to God when they are allowed the Directest and Shortest Way to him who keep a Distance when they are invited and encouraged to make a Near and familiar Address out of an affected Humility move them that they may move her that she may move Christ that Christ may move the Father What a trifling Ambages is this after our Lord has promised an Immediate Access and upon no better ground but because forsooth the like is practised in the Courts of Earthly Princes where Strangers and Unknown Persons are not allow'd to make their Approach to the King without the Introduction of some in Place Alas to the Court of Heaven there comes no Strangers or Unknown Persons all the Suters there are Sons and these use not to implore the help of Servants but being first in Power and Place themselves go directly and boldly to the Throne of the King their Father as S t Paul Heb. 4.16 encourages the Faithful to do Let us come boldly says he to the Throne of Grace and our Lord at the 16 th Verse of this Chapter speaks as if his own Mediation were not always necessary At that day says he ye shall ask in my Name and I say not unto you that I will pray the Father for you for the Father himself loveth you because ye have loved me and have believed that I came out from God Those that believe that Jesus is the Christ as the Apostle says are born of God and begotten of his Spirit and they need no other Advocate to speak for them but the Spirit and such their Propinquity by Faith and to distrust their Interest were to distrust God's Love and Christ's Truth and we may say of such a Diffidence what one says of the like in humane Alliance peccat Qui commendandum se putat esse suis he sins against the Right of Kindred that thinks he needs to be recommended to his own Relations Therefore though we decline not with the ranker Socinians the Intercession of Christ who say He is mere Man and not God and consequently that all Prayers made to him are idolatrous Nor yet comply with the more allay'd and qualify'd Poyson of others of them who allow it lawful to pray to Christ but not necessary yet we may vindicate the Prerogative given to a Disciple in my Text against the Shew of Wisdom in Will-Worship and Humility practis'd in the Church of Rome For we who are rightly instructed in the Close Conjunction of the Father and the Son that teach he is both God and Man know it is indifferent whether we supplicate the Father or the Son whether with our Lord himself we say Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit or whether with S t Stephen Lord Jesu receive my Spirit who praying after this manner is said also to have call'd upon God And in truth when our Lord sends his Disciples in my Text to his Father he neither extinguishes his own Adoration nor Mediation but sends them from his Humane Nature as I may say to meet them again in his Divine And this is the true Importance of his sending them to the Father but they were not capable at this time of receiving the Doctrine of his Divinity for a little before in plain terms without a Figure he had discoursed to them of his Death and Passion and those to whom it was a hard Saying That they should eat his Flesh and drink his Bloud would have thought it a much harder to have heard That he was the Eternal God and could yet be Crucify'd by Wicked men Not willing therefore to force their Reason either by his Argumentation or Authority he let this Mystery alone to be revealed in due time by the Holy Ghost and establisht their Comfort on a Foundation more easie to be conceived by them the Goodness and All-Sufficiency of the Father For however they did believe their Master to be an Extraordinary and Divine Person they could not chuse but believe their God was Greater and if it were a happiness to follow the Son it must be yet a higher Felicity to be Favourites to the Father of whom the whole Family of Heaven and Earth is named Now this being the Condition which a Disciple was left in at his Lord's Departure he had no reason to mourn and languish for his Absence with S t Augustine to desire to see Christum in ore Christ's natural face again while he enjoyed Christum in Patre Christ in the power and presence of the Father When a less Person at his Departure gives us the Favour of a Greater we may say He does not Desert us but bestows his Absence on us But Christ's Care of his Disciples and kindness to them will be seen yet more in the Unlimited Measure in which they were promised God's Favour exprest in these Words Whatsoever ye shall ask he will give it you Which is the next thing I am to explain Whatsoever ye shall ask he will give it you This was a large Promise and yet as largely and stupendiously made good For 1. Such was the Power of a Disciple by Prayer upon Earth that he could cast out Devils chase away all Diseases heal all Infirmities call the Dead out of their Grave and send the Living into it 2. Such was his Power in the Sea that when the Ship was become a Prey to the merciless Element and nothing but Death and Desperation appear'd to all others a S t Paul could say Not one of the Company shall perish And why so Because he had pray'd and God had given him the Lives of them that sail'd with him 3. Such was his Power in Heaven that the Holy Ghost stood press'd and ready as I may say upon the laying-on of the Apostles hands as upon a Sign given to descend in all his various and wonderful
I never heard he ceases not to be my Brother nay though he be a Jew Mahometan or Infidel and not only an Enemy to the Faith but also to me he has not lost his Humanity though he lost his Religion and Goodness he has not drunk of Circe's Cup he is not become a Lion or a Wolf docet Christus delicto alterius non tolli Naturam and Christ teaches us that a mans Nature is not destroyed by his Sins the Image of God remains still in him and he is yet a Member of Mankind and whoever shall obliterate this Character though but in his Uncharitable Estimation is impious and sacrilegious and because his Brother has done something unworthy of his Relation to him he does that which is unworthy of his Creation unworthy of the Divine Character he bears The Word Enemy ought to be a mere Notion or empty Term in Christian Religion or to be Relative to nothing but to Sin and Satan to the Devil and the Devil's Works God and Nature made all men Brethren Malice Interest or Chance made them Strangers or Enemies Says Hierocles To a Good man no man is an Enemy i. e. a Good man may be hated but he will not hate again he may be treated hostilely but he will not use another as an Adversary And this unconquered Love of returning good for evil is the truest and noblest Badge of our Christian Profession The Disciples of the Philosophers were distinguisht by the Various Opinions of their Masters those of the Lawyers by particular Sentences and Interpretations of the Law the Scholars of the Pharisees by certain Traditions and Observations But Christ would have his Disciples known by no Vain-glorious Marks or Distinctions But by this says he shall men know that you are my Disciples if ye love one another And those that hate their Brother be it upon what Pretence soever Judaize and though they wear their Baptismal Cross as conspicuously on their Foreheads as the Pharisees did their Phylacteries they are Disciples of the Synagogue I shall add but one thing more and conclude this Point Though we are oblig'd to love one another i. e. All men to love all men we are not obliged to love all men alike Our heavenly Father who is set to be our Example in general Beneficence does not do so though his Love be Universal to all 't is not Equal to all but as Seneca says of Earthly Kings Rex honores dignis dat congiarium indignis a King bestows common Largesses both on the Worthy and Unworthy but Offices and Charges of Honour he confers only on the Worthy So the King of Heaven sends his Rain and makes the Sun to shine on the Good and Bad on the Just and Unjust but does not in the like promiscuous manner and without Distinction scatter the Gifts of his Holy Spirit he shews himself a Common Father to all men but a Gracious Father only to the Righteous And we ought to conduct our private limited Charity by the like Rule shed the common Influences of it on all Mankind even as far as we can extend them but when they will not reach both to Believers and Unbelievers then to give the preference to Believers for the Alliance of Grace is yet straiter than that of Nature And thus S t Paul states this Duty Gal. 6.10 As we have opportunity says he let us do good to all men but especially unto the houshold of Faith And I conceive after this manner we are to understand what is said Ecclus 12.4 Give to a godly man and help not a Sinner i. e. help the Godly man rather when thou canst not relieve both chuse to relieve the first And let thus much suffice to be said of the Object of our Charity I proceed to the Reason that inforces it which is taken from its Operation and Effect It covers Sins together with the Extent of that Effect not one or two but many and many Sins For Charity shall cover the multitude of Sins These Words are Parallel to the last Verse of the fifth Chapter of S t James He that converteth a Sinner from the errour of his ways shall save a Soul from death and shall hide a multitude of Sins But in some Copies both in this place and in my Text the Original has not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Future Tense Charity shall cover a multitude of Sins implying the Sins of the Charitable Man but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the present Does cover a multitude of Sins implying the Sins of other men as 't is Prov. 10.12 Hatred stirreth up Strife but Love or Charity covereth all Sins i. e. hideth and beareth with the transgressions of other men and thus again 't is said 1 Cor. 13.4 Charity suffereth long and is kind In which words the Apostle speaks of a prime Act of Charity not of its Reward of the Goodness it shews not of the Recompence it shall receive But there will be no need to contend for rendring of the Words either way for both these Propositions are true Charity is a benign Vertue that pardons the Sins of those that offend against us And again Charity is so acceptable a Vertue in the Sight of God that for its sake he will pardon many Sins committed against him I shall therefore handle the Words in both Senses And first Charity shall cover the Multitude of Sins i. e. of our own Sins against God Sins are said to be hid or covered in Scripture when they are pardoned so Psal. 32.1 Blessed is he whose unrighteousness is forgiven and whose sin is covered And again Psal. 84.3 Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people thou hast covered all their Sins Covering of Sins imports not the concealing them in relation to God's Sight or Knowledge but in relation to his Justice or Punishment as men are said to forget Injuries not in a Sense of Memory but of Mercy when they remember them not to revenge them as Joseph forgot his Brethrens selling him into Egypt not as Pharaoh's Butler forgot Joseph in Prison But may not then the same Question be ask'd here which the Scribes and Pharisees ask'd in the Gospel Who can forgive sins but God alone In what Sense can Charity be said to cover or pardon Sins for covering or pardoning of Sins and Justification are one and the same thing the peculiar Prerogative of God and his free Gift of Grace through Jesus Christ and to affirm that Charity or any other Vertue whatsoever can work this Work belonging only to God were to make it as S t Hilary speaks ambitiosa errorum patrona an ambitious or aspiring Patroness of Errour to make it affect the Throne of God like Lucifer to attribute to an imperfect humane Vertue the Power of the Deity and to advance that to be a Giver of Pardon which stands in need to receive Pardon it self When 't is said therefore That Charity shall cover our Sins it means only That it
what do they signifie to us upon whom the Ends of the World are come and saw them not To answer this Objection at large would be in Effect to ingage in a Discourse of the whole Subject of the Truth of Christian Religion or the Demonstration Evangelical of which Eusebius the first Christian Historian after the Apostles now extant wrote seven Books I shall therefore content my self in the short time that remains to me to present you by way of Answer only with one Consideration but 't is a Consideration that had great force with S t Augustine and 't is this The very Conversion of the World is the highest Argument imaginable that it was converted by the Miraculous Power of the Holy Ghost For that Man says the Father that can conceive the World should relinquish their long doted on Religion received from their Ancestors with so much Veneration and a Superstitious Conceit that they had been Prosperous under it a Religion so well suited to their Carnal Affections and receive in Exchange of it a New Religion derived from so despicable and infamous an Author as a Mean Man crucified by his own Nation and the very Principles of which were so harsh to Flesh and Blood and contrary to all worldly Glory and Interest That Man says S t Augustine that can conceive this could be done without Miracle is himself a greater Miracle than those he thinks so hard to be believed There were among the Roman Fencers of old one sort that with a Net and Trident maintained Combate against their Opposers armed with a Sword and Helmet and were so dextrous as to intangle and vanquish their Adversaries with these Uncouth Weapons The Apostles of Christ those Fishers of Men may be likened to these Retiarii these Fencers with Nets who with the Metaphorical Nooses and Meaches of preaching seconded by the Power of Miracles ensnared and captivated to the Gospel the armed potent proud Idolatrous learned and vicious World And this was the Way the Spirit took at his Coming if we interpret 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Convince the Understanding of the World of its Errors But if we take it in the other Sense redarguet Mundum he shall Reprove the World for its Sins it imports these two things That the Spirit shall shame the World And condemn it First That it shall reproach and shame the World for loving Darkness more than Light Death than Life for lying under Wickedness and Guilt when the Means of becoming Innocent was offered them for chusing things Base and Degenerate before things Noble and Praise-worthy things Vicious and accompanied with Danger rather than things Vertuous though accompanied with Glory and Felicity in a word for chusing rather to perish in their Sins and Ignorance than to be Instructed reformed and saved And as the Spirit shall shame the World for so brutish and sottish a Choice so Secondly it shall Condemn it Shame and Confusion of Face is but the beginning of the Misery of Sinners the consequent of the Discovery of their Wickedness not the Punishment of it What the Wiseman says shall be the Portion of those that love Danger they shall perish in it is true also of those that love Darkness more than Light and the ways of Death than the ways of Life that they shall prove what the Riddle of Eternal Death is of a Death that never dyes and dwell in Eternal Night and Darkness And thus that Spirit which is the Spirit of Love and Gentleness which descended in the Similitude of a Creature that has no Gall nor Anger and whose Office 't is to save to comfort and support shall exercise a Part so contrary to its Name and Nature as to Condemn destroy and confound instead of shewing it self the Spirit of Lenity and Kindness shew it self the Spirit of Indignation and Fury a Froward Chiding and Reproaching Spirit O ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in Heart and Ears says the Holy Ghost by the mouth of S t Stephen which of the Prophets have not your Fathers persecuted and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One of whom ye have been now the Betrayers and Murderers Stephen who dyed the Example of Meekness the Miracle of Patience and Charity inspired by the same Divine Spirit lived a sharp Reprover and severe Condemner of their Hardness of Heart and Unbelief And now Beloved to make some Application of what has been said Are the things we have heard this day remote and unconcerning Stories Tales only of the Apostles Times and Events at the first preaching of the Gospel Or is it not still the Business of the Spirit to Convince the World of Sin of Righteousness and of Judgment To rebuke and reprove it for the little or ill Use it has made of the Unvaluable Benefits offered it by Christ To Judge and Condemn it for preferring the Ways of Death and Destruction before those of Life and Salvation even rejecting and crucifying the Lord of Glory a second time by their Sins 'T is true the Extraordinary Miraculous Operations of the Holy Ghost are ceased but his Ordinary his Inward Reproofs and Convictions by the Outward preaching of the Word his converting sanctifying and justifying of some and final Condemnation and sealing up of others in their Impenitence still remain Christ's Work of our Salvation lasted but a while and had its Period on the Cross but the Spirit of Christ which came after him had no Period no Hitherto of his working but his Operations continue to the End of the World And 't is wonderful to consider That after so many Unwearied and powerful Endeavours of the Spirit for sixteen hundred Years that so much gross Infidelity and so many scandalous Impieties are still in the World That the Unjust and Unmerciful are Unjust and Unmerciful still the Voluptuous and Incontinent are voluptuous and incontinent still the Prophane and Atheistical are prophane and atheistical still the Seditious and Disobedient to Government persist to be so still as if the World were grown too Old to blush or to learn and what was said in Praise of our Lords Constancy and Resolution in Suffering That he Despised the Shame were Commendable also in the Effrontery and Impudence of the World in its Sins That it despises all Shame S t Augustine says That in his Young Unconverted days he boasted of many Sins which he had never committed ne viderer abjectior quo innocentior lest I should have appeared Abject and poor Spirited if I had been known to be Innocent And too many there are in this Age that count the Vices of the Time the Gallantries of it and are as much abasht to come behind in any Lewdness in Vogue as to be late in the Fashion And when things stand thus that those that have given their Names to Christ in Baptism are more profligate Sinners than Turks and Infidels may not Preachers be allow'd to say The World is not yet Converted the Holy
and Erroneous Conceits in Religion I say are more pernicious to it and hateful to God than direct Opposition and Blasphemy against it and Turks Jews and Infidels have not hindred the Progress and Propagation of the Gospel so much as the Scandalous Dissensions and the Unsutable Lives of the Professors of it And all this while the Ways and Modes of serving God are not the Service of God it self but Holiness Righteousness Charity Obedience Meeknees Peaceableness and the like All Manners and Forms of Worship are good that are consonant to Scripture conduce to Edification and establisht by Just Authority I say and establisht by Just Authority for 't is not allow'd to Private Men to be the Fashioners or Chusers of the Publick Way of Worship if this were permitted the Issue would be only Confusion and the Dissensions about the Circumstances of Religion would destroy the Substance and Essentials of it Christ laid not down his Life to establish these or those Rites or Forms of Worship but as himself professes To destroy the Works of the Devil And this is that which ought to be the Business and Concern of his Followers that about which all their Care and Sollicitude should be employ'd against which their Anger and Animosity should be directed I say to abolish Sin and to make Vertue and Piety flourish in the Earth And they that lay not the Weight and Stress of Religion in this are Impertinent and Trifling in the Faith and Impious in their Zeal they understand not the most Material and weighty Part of their Profession and instead of receiving an Euge or Well-done from Christ at the last Day they will receive a Check or Increpation as the Blessed Virgin did in my Text and not only so but a Renunciation and a Condemnation God give us Grace to be Wise in a Wise Religion and Holy in a Holy Faith and to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost be ascribed all Honour Glory and Thanksgiving now and for evermore Amen The Fourth Sermon DAN ix 26 And after threescore and two Weeks Messiah shall be cut off but not for himself THIS is one of the most clear and most Illustrious Predictions of the Passion of our Lord which is contain'd in Scripture it comprehending not only the several Stages of his drawing near to the World for its Redemption his Advances and Pauses but unfolding also the wonderful Mystery and seeming Contradiction in it viz. That the Salvation of the World should be wrought by the Cutting-Off or Destruction of its Saviour the Son of God made subject to the Violence and Out-rages of the Sons of Men. I call'd the Words a Prediction but I might have styl'd them a Description or Register of all the Passages in that strange and astonishing Transaction they declaring the Design and Circumstances the How and for Whose behalf and the precise Time however obscurely of the Death of the Messiah However therefore at this Day every Child is catechiz'd and perfect in this Point of Chronology imperante Augusto natus est Christus imperante Tiberio crucifixus est Christus in the Reign of Augustus Caesar Christ was born in that of Tiberius he was crucifi'd and none needs to have recourse to the dark Calculations of remote Ages for this matter yet with good Reason we may look back to Prophecies when they are fulfill'd and scan Aenigmatical Speeches even after they are expounded For though this seems to be seeking of Light in Shades and Darkness the retiring back again into Night and Obscurity after the Day-spring from on high hath visited us yet not only much Confirmation but much Illustration of things Believ'd may be fetcht from the remote Springs of Antiquity for not only the Evangelists write the History of Christ but also the Law and the Prophets in many things Evangelize as the Prophet Daniel does in my Text And after threescore and two Weeks Messiah shall be cut off but not for himself We may observe in the Words these two General Parts I. The Angels Prediction to Daniel of the Death of the Messiah or Christ After threescore and two Weeks Messiah shall be cut off II. His Correction of what he had said or rather Direction for the right understanding of his Prediction and to prevent misappreheâ—â—â—on He shall be cut off but not for himself In the first of these two General Parts the Angels Prediction I shall observe more particularly two things The Substance of it the Excision of the Messiah he shall be cut off And the Circumstance of the Time of it when it should come to pass After threescore and two Weeks I begin first with the Substance of the Prediction He shall be cut off This Term of cutting-off does usually imply in Scripture three things 1. The untimely destroying a Person from the Land of the Living 2. The destroying him as a Criminal or Malefactor 3. The destroying him by God himself and if not always immediately yet by his Appointment I shall give but one Proof of this of the many that might be brought Exod. 31.14 God gives this Charge by the mouth of Moses Every one that defileth my Sabbath shall surely be put to Death that Soul shall be Cut-off from among his people In which Words are exprest the Person 's untimely Death that he dyes as a Criminal and that God is the Author that dooms him to it Now Death is call'd a Cutting-off for two Reasons First Because a Cutting-off is the discontinuation of a thing from that to which it was before united or Secondly A shortning of it from the Measure it had or would have arriv'd to Thus the Untimely Death of a Person is the shortning of the Days he might have liv'd to and the separating him from the Society of the Living of which he was a Member And however strange and wonderful it is such was the End of the Messiah after all the glorious Prophecies and magnificent Elogies relating to his Person and his Kingdom as that he should be call'd The Wonderful the Mighty God the Everlasting Father the Prince of Peace that his Dominion should reach to the Ends of the Earth and to the End of Time he was Cut-off and Extinguisht like a Mortal Man after the fashion as the Psalmist speaks of common Princes Ye are styled Gods but ye shall dye like Men. Like Men nay he dy'd like a Malefactor and by God's Sentence and Decree And it was upon the account of his Tragical End and the misunderstanding of other Predictions of him especially that one Christ shall live for ever that both the Jews of old despised him and those of these Days blaspheme him calling him from the manner of his Death and the Structure of his Cross The Warp and the Woof It was by reason also of his Ignominious Death that the Heathen derided and reproach'd our Holy Faith saying We believ'd in a hang'd Man But neither Jew nor Gentile had any just Cause of Exception against
of this Pretended Messiah this bold Reprover of our Vices and Confuter of our Traditions no less by Miracles than by Reason and then we shall continue to sit in Moses's Chair lead the People as we please and none will dare to contradict us If we will not shew our selves such Friends to Christ as my Text speaks of who stain'd their hands in his Bloud let us with all Submission of Soul and Singleness of Heart embrace his Doctrines and pay Obedience to his Precepts whether they relate to Faith or to Manners and suffer neither Pleasure nor Profit Reputation among Men or any By-Respect whatsoever to disaffect us to him For the things of this World are at Enmity with Christ and if we set our Affections upon them they will lead us from the Worship of the True God as the Canaanitish Wives did the Israelites to worship Idols and the worst of Idols even themselves Christ himself will appear to us a Deceiver and we shall sooner rescue Barabbas from the Cross than him And let none in these days who have received the Knowledge of the Truth and after extinguisht the Grace of God in their Hearts by fulfilling the Lusts of the Flesh flatter themselves as the Jews did who said If we had lived in the Days of Old we would not have been Partakers of the Bloud of the Prophets So if we had liv'd in Christ's days we would not have used him as the Jews did for this is but a Pharisaical Deception those that hate Christ's Gospel would have shew'd but little Kindness to his Person who crucifie him now by their Wicked Lives would not have spared his very Life if they had liv'd in his days Idem qua idem semper efficit idem the same thing dispos'd in the same Manner will produce the same Effect the same Corruption in the Heart will always bring forth the same Wickedness in the Hands The second Reflection I shall make upon Christ's being wounded in the House of his Friends Is the Part which God performed after the Jews added this Great Wickedness of murdering the Messiah to all their former Impieties For if we look on the Reverse of the Coin as I may say the Vengeance God sent upon them we shall find it stampt in as deep and legible Characters as their Wickedness was engraved on the other Side it being no less than the utter Rejection and Ruine of their Nation and with such Tragical Circumstances as are in no Story to be parallell'd but they are so generally known that I shall spend no time to dilate on them but rather exhort all such who after the manifold Admonitions and frequent Warnings of God still persist in their Sins and are deaf and incorrigible to all his Invitations to Repentance to consider How for the like Refractoriness and Hardness of Heart God suffered his Own People to proceed from Wickedness to Wickedness till they arriv'd at last in profundum malorum into such a Gulph of Perdition that if the most Desperate among them had seen the End of their Rebellious Ways at their first setting-out in the Course of them they would have started back with Horrour at the Prospect The 2 d Kings 5. we read that when the Prophet Elisha foretold to Hazael yet a Private Person and unacquainted with his own Temper what Immanities and Cruelties he would commit when he came to be King of Assyria that he would butcher Men rip up Women with Child dash Infants against the Stones c. He answer'd But what is thy Servant a Dog that I should do these things And the very Scribes and Pharisees who were the Chief Actors in this Days Tragedy when our Lord insinuated to them in the Parable I late mentioned of the Husbandmen consulting to kill the Heir that they would be his Murderers and by it pull certain Destruction on their Nation they reply'd God forbid Not only deprecating the Punishment but detesting the Crime The raw Novice-Sinner knows not at first to what a Villain to what a Devil he will grow Men ought therefore to fear the first Motions of Sin and to suppress the Beginnings of Wickedness if for no other Reason but this Lest they become Worse than they could have imagined it possible for them to have been Who allows himself at first only to Over-reach his Brother by degrees will take from him by Violence or Open Robbery who makes no Scruple to be Factious and Seditious will hardly stop till he arrives at Rebellion and Treason who indulges himself at first in a Negligent Irreverent Performance of God's Service and makes the Church the Scene of his Vanity and not of his Devotion is in the ready Path to proceed from Prophaneness to Atheism But as Sin encreases we have heard that Vengeance also ripens and Encreases says our Lord Whoever falls on this Stone shall be broken but on whomsoever it shall fall it will grind him to Powder The first Sins a man commits dangerously wound his Soul they dash against Christ as an Earthen Vessel does against a Rock but Presumption and Obstinacy in Sinning causes Christ to fall upon the Sinner as a Rock upon an Earthen Vessel which is sure to crush it to Dust. To conclude Though we that are here present are not of the House of Christ's Friends i. e. of his Kindred and Nation yet we have a Nearer and more Excellent Relation to him in that we are of the Houshold of Faith and of the Family of his Church as himself declared when he stretcht forth his Hand to his Disciple saying Behold my Mother and my Brethren for whoever shall do the Will of my Father which is in Heaven the same is my Mother my Sister and my Brother Now if we in our Spiritual Relation shall by our Sins crucifie Christ in his Glory as his Kindred according to the Flesh nail'd him to the Cross when he liv'd on Earth our Wickedness will far exceed theirs as the Wickedness of a Disciple far exceeds that of an Unbeliever the Wickedness of Judas did that of Pontius Pilate and Caiaphas It is our Unspeakable Happiness that Christ was Wounded for us but it will be our Unexcusable Impiety if he be wounded by us 't is again our Strange Felicity that when Others slew him we reap the Benefit of his Death when the Husbandmen Kill'd the Heir that we inherit the Vineyard And if we make that faithful Use of Christ's Death which we ought while the Jews bear the Guilt of his Bloud we shall be purged by it from all our Transgressions and while Eternal Infamy and Wrath cleaves to them Eternal Glory and Felicity shall be our Portion which God of his Infinite Mercy through our Lord Jesus Christ grant to us And to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost be ascribed all Honour Glory c. Amen The Sixth Sermon ROMANS viii 11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the Dead dwell in you he that raised up
prays well he preaches well he is ever arraigning Sin and the like but caetera sint paria do all things correspond does his private Practice comport with his publick Demeanour his inward Goodness with his outward Austerity as he is Severe against Sin is he merciful to Sinners as he is assiduous in his Calling is he Obedient to his Governours and faithful to his Prince as he exhorts the People to Church does he not debauch them with Factious Doctrines when they come there as he is not Scandalous in his Conversation so is he not Morose Proud or Covetous In a Word does he conform his Whole Life to the Tenor of the Gospel does he indeed do All things well All things that is in a Moral Sense and according to the Measure of a Sincere Honest Man If he does let him carry away our Euge's and our Sophos our Approbations and Applauses But if he does only two or three of these things and those hypocritically and upon Design to give credit to a Cause and to carry on an Interest the Pharisees made long Prayers that they might devour Widows houses and Herod heard John the Baptist gladly and did many things upon his preaching but continued still to live incestuously with his Brother Philip's Wife and at last gratify'd her Malice with the Baptist's head If a few Good Actions may set such a Colour and Varnish upon mens Lives that they ought to be accounted holy Persons the Scenes in our Theatres may pass for the Glorious Heavens and solid Edifices they represent when they are nothing but patcht Clouts and pasted Papers painted and shewed to an artificial Light Lucian's Image of Jupiter in Gold outwardly of a Majestick Form grasping a Thunder-bolt may be allowed to be the Deity that rules the World though it be nothing within but Dust and Cobwebs Soder and Cramps of Iron which hold the miserable Machine from falling asunder I say if we thus make Saints from Shews and Seemings we may fill the Kalendar with Red Letters but we shall adde but few Names to the Book of Life I shall therefore conclude this last Particular with our Lord's advice John 7. 24. Judge not according to Appearance but judge righteous Judgment And now what Use shall we make in general of the Peoples Testimony and Approbation of our Lord shall we likewise justifie his Actions assert his Divine Mission and say He hath done all things well To praise Christ to speak Honourably of him to vindicate him from the Aspersions of Jews and Gentiles and the like is our bounden Duty but all of us here present are his Disciples and Followers all of us Christianissimi Pretenders to be the Chiefest and most Eminent of his Worshippers and we acknowledge not only that he spake the Truth but that he is the Truth even the Eternal Logos and to take upon us to pass a humane Judgment on him and to censure him as one Man censures another to say He is no Seducer or the like were so far from honouring him that it were to be Irreverent and Insolent towards him and to set our selves above him for the Justifier is Greater than the Justified How then must we celebrate his Eternal Generation and Descent from his Father's Bosom for our Redemption in Magnificats sing his Victory over Death and Hell Yes this we must do but not this only for these are still but Empty Words we must adde Deeds to our Praises Obedience to our Magnificats Duty and Service to our Psalms and Hymns the Praises of a holy Life to the Acknowledgments of a thankful Tongue To praise God only with the Voice is to praise him like the Trumpets of the Sanctuary or the Organs of our Churches Or as the Psalmist calls upon the Sun and Moon Fire and Hail Beasts and feather'd Fowls to praise him which all do in a Figure and after a manner in that they are the Works of his hands and proclaim his Wisdom and Power thus also the Devils and Damned Spirits praise him while their Sufferings and Torments declare his Justice But we are to praise God not only passively occasionally and instrumentally like Inanimate Brute or accursed Creatures but intentionally primarily and affectionately as becomes Rational and Intellectual Beings Obliged and illuminated Persons and Believers And as the Faithful do best evidence their Faith by their Works so they best evidence also their Good Opinion of Christ by their Works viz. by following his Precepts then we give our true Approbation of him when we transcribe his Actions and tread in his Steps 't is the Life of a man that expresses his Thoughts of Christ if that be righteous and conformable to his Gospel he has set to his Seal that he is the Messiah and Son of God that was to come into the World proclaims indeed That he has done All things Well But if his Ways are Wicked and repugnant to his Gospel let him praise him never so industriously never so ambitiously with never so loud Vociferations he does but in Effect say He was an Impostor and deceived the People For as S t Paul says of False Teachers Tit. 1.17 They profess that they know Christ but in Works they deny him being abominable disobedient and to every Good Work reprobate So we may say of these false and counterfeit Extollers of Christ that in Words they Approve him but in their Works they Condemn him being abominable disobedient and to every Good Work reprobate How can a Strumpet praise Chastity Or the Sot that is fill'd with Drink like a Spunge say any thing in the Commendation of Sobriety Vertue is praised of her Followers and the best Verdict we can pass on Christ is to imitate him in all holy Conversation to live after his Example is the highest Encomium we can give him To God the Father Son and Holy Ghost be ascribed all Honour Glory Worship and Thanksgiving this Day forth and for evermore Amen The Eleventh Sermon AMOS iii. 2 You only have I known of all the Families of the Earth therefore will I punish you for all your iniquities THIS Expression of God's knowing a Thing or Person is taken in Scripture in several Senses Sometimes it is meant literally and in propriety of Speech of the Knowledge of mere Perception and Discerning as when David says Thou knowest my thoughts long before and S t John God is greater than our hearts and Knoweth all things i. e. perceiveth and discerneth all things Sometimes again it is taken Figuratively not for mere Perceiving or Understanding a thing but for the Owning Approving Favouring Blessing of it or the like because these follow upon God's perceiving a Good thing Thou hast Known my Soul in adversity says the Psalmist i. e. Own'd protected and delivered it Again the Lord Knoweth the way of the Righteous and the way of the Ungodly shall perish Knoweth their way i. e. prospereth blesseth and will not suffer it to miscarry like that of the Ungodly
intimated ver 5. The Lord tryeth the Righteous but the Wicked and he that loveth Violence his Soul hateth Stratagem is mentioned ver 3. For lo the Wicked bend their Bow they make ready their Arrow upon the String that they may privily shoot at the Vpright in heart And now before we proceed any further if we shall compare the Machinations of the Enemies of our Israel this Day with those of the Enemies of David if we stretch Plot upon Plot and Conspiracy upon Conspiracy as Elijah stretcht himself upon the dead Child we shall find that not only Limb answers to Limb but that the Malice of our Adversaries exceeded that of David's as much as the Dimensions of a Man exceed those of a Child 1. We say The Design of David's Enemies was to destroy All his Foundations of what Kind soever and the Design of ours was as Universal to destroy our Forts and Castles our Ships and Ammunition our Laws and Policies our Prince and People and though they knew they could not subvert our Invisible Divine Foundation that the Eternal Omnipotent God was not to be subdu'd yet they sought to deprave his Worship and to corrupt his Religion which would have deprived us of him or have alienated him to us It was not for their Interest to set up Baal against Jehovah Dagon against the God of Israel but as it was Jeroboam's interest to set up the Calves and High Places against the Temple and Altar at Jerusalem so it was hugely their Interest to set up their Superstitious and Idolatrous Worship in the place of our pure and Holy so inconsistent with their Anti-Christian Monarchy And though the Enemies of Israel designed after the same manner to destroy all their Foundations and All can be but All yet one All may be greater than another and our All if we may believe Geographers many times exceeds theirs 2. The Design of David's Enemies was Fatal and Final and to extirpate utterly not only I say to make a total Destruction but to destroy Totally And the same was the Design of our Enemies only whereas the Malice of David's Enemies was weak and insignificant they being Aliens and at a Distance rather a Disposition than an Ability to hurt only one of those kinds of Ill will which Aristotle in his Ethicks says Is not furnisht to do much Evil and seldom grows up beyond Petulancy and the Trouble of them that are possess'd with it Our Adversaries were Natives and in the Bowels of us armed with Power as well as Malice and wanted not the Means and Opportunity to effect our Ruine any more than the Will to plot it Can a Nation be born at once says Job No nor one would think be destroyed and brought to Nothing in a Day The Grecians were ten Years in ruining Troy and when our Lord said Destroy this Temple and I will rear it again in three days the Jews supposing he spoke of the Temple of Stone which was forty and six Years a building heard his words as a Prodigy But lo a People that were our Adversaries that could do more And had not our Rock or rather the Rock of our Rock been Invincible they had destroyed us I say not in three days but in three Minutes in a Thought in a Moment Many Alas and of Various Perswasions and Pretences are the Adversaries of our Church but as the Historian says of the Contentions Rome had in her Minority with the Veii and the Gabii and other petty Townships her Neighbours that they were but as the Squabbles of little Children about the Lap of their Mother not like those she had afterwards with Carthage and other potent States which were like the Fatal Dissentions of grown Men which seldom end without the Blood of the one or the other Party So we hop'd it might be said of the Quarrels of our Dissenting Brethren though they troubled us about the Superstructions the Rites of Religion and the like that their Exceptions were but lucta circa matrem as the Brabbles and Wranglings of Children standing about the Lap of their Mother not like the Mortal Enmities of those that plotted against us this day whom nothing could satisfie but the Destruction of our Foundations and that Totally and Finally But late times have given us experience that the Malignity of these is not inferior to the others not less black and bloudy and though they make such Out-cries against Popery pretend to dread and detest nothing like its Return again into the Nation yet they abstain not from its Practices nor abhor to serve themselves with the Wickedest of its Principles So that these two so seeming contrary Parties are not ill resembled to two fierce opposite Streams which when they meet roar and chide but then friendly close and join But while both Papist and Puritan stick at nothing though never so impious to subvert the Foundations of our truly pure and holy Religion they plainly demonstrate they have subverted in their own Hearts the Fundamental Principles of Christianity it self But to proceed I said Thirdly That the Ways which the Enemies of David took to bring about his Destruction were three Parley Violence and Stratagem and our Enemies took the very same Courses to effect ours 1. Parley The Danger of Parley is not easily seen it pretends only to remove Misunderstandings and to compose Differences in an amicable Way and Book-Combats have been ever held consistent with a State of Peace but more Mischief has been done by this Close and Covert than by Open and profess'd Hostilities and those that have defended themselves against Force have been undone by Treaties many Camps and Cities have been lost by permitting a free Parley and Entercourse between the Souldiers that could never have been stormed And while simple and unskilful Israelites among us have play'd with this Danger like Children upon the hole of the Asp they have perisht by it before they have understood that any Evil was near How many were the Attempts of Rome in this kind upon our Glorious Queen Elizabeth at her first coming to the Crown how many flattering Epistles were there sent her from that See how many fatherly Admonitions What tender Care exprest for her Souls good What Sollicitude for her Temporal How were the Treasures i. e. the Cheats of that Church offered to be commanded by her its Usurpt Authority to be put upon the Tenter for her accommodation She might have marry'd Philip King of Spain her Brother if her fancy or interest had lain for it there was nothing so Unlawful but it should have been dispens'd with so Infirm but after the manner of Rome it should have been corroborated Never I may say was the Way to Destruction more strowed with Roses never did the smooth Accents of the Tongue so vie with the soft Ayres of Instrumental and Vocal Musick till the Holy Father saw that his Artifices were seen through and despised And then he betook himself to the second Means that
be as Mount Sion which shall not be removed but standeth fast for ever And the truth is that which is said of Temporal Kingdoms Justitia Thronum firmat Justice supports the Throne may be affirmed of God's Spiritual Kingdom in the World his Justice and Goodness establishes his Dominion in the Hearts of Men. For if it were not so That the Lord regarded the Righteous this great Incongruity would produce another great Incongruity and Irregularity The Righteous as the Psalmist says would put their hand to Iniquity i e. they would be no longer Righteous they would make Justice and Piety no more their Business and Concern if there were no Regard in Heaven for these things and so God would lose his Obedience when he neglected Good Men. Let us therefore be careful of our Duty and we need not be solicitous for our Safety let us firmly rely upon God in well-doing and believe that our Trust in our Divine Invisible Foundation is not merely Chimerical or Imaginary and while we fail not it it will never fail us but the Business of this Day shall be the business of the Year round viz. to praise and magnifie our Foundation for protecting and preserving our Foundations and these Lauds and Thanksgivings if they be Cordial and Real will create us new Occasions of Lauds and Thanksgivings even daily Mercies and Blessings I say if they be Cordial and Real not only Verbal and Vocal not only express'd in Bells and Bonfires Noises and Excesses but in true Piety and Devotion as our Prayer of General Thanksgiving teaches us In shewing forth God's Praise not only with our Lips but in our Lives by giving up our selves to his Service and so forth For though 't is impossible to solemnize Publick Joy and Thanksgiving without Publick Expressions of them yet these Publick Expressions should be but the Outward Signs and Significations of the Inward Sence we have of God's Benefits and the Gratitude that dwells in our Hearts and which ought chiefly to be shew'd in the Duties of Religion in the Acts of Mercy and Charity in a Day of Mercy and Deliverance in the Reformation of whatsoever is contrary to the Divine Will in us and the like 'T is not enough therefore that our Streets resound with Festivity and Joy or yet that we celebrate God's great Mercies in Psalms and Hymns sung to the Organ by Asaph and other Chief Musicians but every Faithful Person must be a Musician and every Grateful Heart that has been delivered an Instrument of God's Praise To God the Father Son and Holy Ghost be ascribed all Honour Glory Worship and Thanksgiving this Day forth and for evermore Amen The Sixteenth Sermon JOHN xvi 23 Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my Name he will give it you THESE Words are part of our Lord's Farewel-Speech to his Disciples when he was to leave the World the unexpected News of which did so afflict them that they had not the power as himself takes notice ver 5. so much as to ask him any Question concerning it But now I go to him that sent me and none of you ask Whither goest thou but because I have said these things unto you Sorrow hath filled your heart And very deservedly for what more amazing more Ominous Tidings could they have heard than that he for whom they had forsaken all they had should after that forsake them than that he that had put Enmity between them and the World should abandon them to the World he in whom they had plac'd all their Ambition all their Hope should at last leave them in a Riddle A little while and ye shall not see me and again a little while and ye shall see me To raise therefore their drooping and disconsolate Spirits he promises them a double Advantage by his Departure and which could only arrive to them by his Departure 1. That they should receive the Holy Ghost who would establish their Faith and wonderfully rejoice their Hearts by assuring them of the truth of the Doctrines he had taught them and of their own Divine Mission 2. That they should be under the immediate Care of the Father by reason of whose Almighty Protection they would have no Cause to deplore his Absence or in the least to wish for his Corporal Presence again for they would find their Dependance on the Father much more happy than the following his Steps through the Cities of Palestine The Words of my Text relate to the latter of these two Advantages Their being under the immediate Care and Protection of the Father While our Lord abode with his Disciples he supply'd all their Wants solv'd all their Doubts stopt the mouths of all their Maligners but he let them know that his Father was Greater than he and would perform all these things in a more uncontroul'd and unlimited manner than he had done when he acted only in the Flesh by his Commission that the Using only of his Name to the Father would be more Beneficial to them than his Person had formerly been for though in many things he had been kind to them there was nothing so Precious nothing so Difficult nothing so Wonderful but if they pray'd for it in his Name the Father would bestow it on them Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my Name he will give it you In this Singular Priviledge and Prerogative promised by our Lord to his Disciples there are three things very remarkable I. The Person with whom they are to have it The Father he will give it you II. The Measure in which they were to have it it is a Measure indeed unlimited and without Measure Whatsoever ye shall ask ask what you will he will give it you III. By what Means they are to obtain it by asking in Christ's Name Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my Name I begin with the first of these The Person with whom they are to have this Singular Priviledge The Father This was a comfortable Promise of our Lord 's to his Disciples if they had then understood it as they afterwards did but when the Words were spoken they were but as a Parable or Proverb to them as 't is ver 25. These things have I spoken unto you in Proverbs the time will come that I shall speak no more unto you in Proverbs but I shall shew you Plainly of the Father How was that in what fashion did he afterwards shew them plainly of the Father By his Charismata the miraculous Gifts of the Holy Ghost which they received from him and which bore the very Character of the Father stampt upon them For every Good and perfect Gift as S t James says is from above and cometh from the Father of Light And thus he shew'd them more plainly and convincingly of the Father than he did to Philip when he said Have I been so long time with you and yet hast thou not known me Philip he that hath seen Me hath seen the Father For he