are above so fit our selves for the Reception of his Representative Body in the Holy Sacrament that we be not unworthy after Death to be received unto the Society of his Natural and now glorious Body in Heaven Where he sitteth on the right hand of God To him with the Father and the Holy Spirit be ascribed all Honour Power and Glory henceforth and for evermore The Fourteenth SERMON PREACH'D May 4th 1689. At LAMBETH CHAPEL Joh. XIV 1. Let not your heart be troubled ye believe in God believe also in me OUR Lord and Saviour being now ready to leave the World and return to his Father endeavoured by many Preparatory Discourses to confirm the Minds and dispel the Anxiety of his Disciples who began to despond at the News of his approaching Departure This to them not yet fully understanding the design of Christ's Coming seemed a total Dereliction of them and abandoning them to the World They had forsaken all the present Conveniences of Life when they entred into the number of his Disciples and had all along shared in the Miseries and Hardships that their Master was content to endure on Earth in hopes of partaking at last in the Glories of that temporal Kingdom which they fondly imagined he would found on Earth With these Hopes they supported themselves under all their Calamities and busied themselves in proposing imaginary Methods of enjoying what they so long and so earnestly expected We find them disputing who should be the greatest Officer or the principal Favourite in this Kingdom who should sit on his right hand and on his left And now that after their Lord had entred into Jerusalem in a triumphal manner their Hopes were enhanced and Expectations grew higher as believing the Completion of them to be at hand and that this glorious Kingdom of the Messias would immediately commence When on a sudden all their Hopes were dashed and their imaginary Happiness overthrown by a free and open Declaration of their Lord concerning his Sufferings and ignominous Death which now drew near and were immediately to be accomplished In what Confusion and Anxiety must we then conceive them to have been when not only their Hopes and therein in their own Opinion the Fruits and Reward of so many Labours so much Hardship undertaken and endured in prospect of their Preferment in a temporal Kingdom to be founded by their Master were in an instant overthrown and cancelled When not only themselves were to be dispersed as sheep having no Shepheard exposed to the Derision Insults and Persecution of the Jews who as our Lord foretold should even force them to deny their Master and thereby renounce all Title to any share in the Glories of his Kingdom When they were to be left alone without any Head to direct comfort and protect them When not only all these Calamities were to come upon themselves but also their dearest Lord and Master was to be delivered up to the Rage of wicked Men to be treated with the utmost Indignities and at last Crucified as a Malefactor What Distraction must they then have suffered when so many contrary Passions Love of their Master and fear of their own Misery Deprivation of past hopes and Despair of future Happiness wrought together in their Minds They retained still indeed some faint Hopes of the Resurrection of their Lord after three days Imprisonment in the Grave who should then enter upon his Kingdom and satisfie all their Expectations but alas even these remaining Hopes are dissipated by our Saviour's acquainting them in this Chapter that immediately after his Resurrection he was to leave the World and go unto the Father In this disconsolate Condition of the Church our Lord seeks to chear up the Spirits and remove the Despair of his Followers by representing to them the necessity of his Suffering That thus it was written and that thus it behoved Christ to suffer by giving them the Promise of the Holy Ghost who should both Comfort Instruct and Guide them by assuring them this Comforter could not be sent untill himself first returned to the Father and by his Intercession should obtain the Mission of him that although his Bodily Presence should be taken from them yet that it was for their good and that he would ever continue to be present with them by the influences of his Government and Blessed Spirit by interceding for them continually with the Father by promoting their Requests in the Court of Heaven by pouring down his Gifts and Graces on them and watching over them with a constant Eye of Providence but above all in preparing Mansions for them in Heaven to receive them after Death and the Final Completion of their Labours upon Earth Upon all these Accounts he bids them not be troubled in their Hearts for his Departure and the temporal Calamities which they fancied would ensue upon it and for an Argument of Consolation says to them Ye believe in God believe also in me As if he should say You cannoâ—… deny that it is both your Duty and Safety also to trust in God considered only as the Creator and Governour of the World to resign up your Wills to his difposal and upon firm assurance that he both knoweth and willeth what is best for you rest contented in all the various Conditions of Life If you consider him as the Author of your Religion in which ye have been brought up ye have yet much greater reason to rely upon his Care and Providence in all doubtful Cases and Distresses as having often experienced his peculiar Kindness to your Church and Nation in many and wonderful Instances which were therefore at first recorded that ye might from thence conceive assured hope of the Divine Goodness and Providence interposing in your behalf in all Calamities as it is in the LXXVIII Psalm He gave Israel a law which he commanded our forefathers to teach their children To the intent that when they came up they might shew their children the same That they might put their trust in God and not to forget the works of God If for these Reasons you are content to trust in God and depend on him for relief in your Afflictions for much greater Reasons ye ought to confide and relye upon my Promises of Assistance to you and constant Care of you even after I shall be removed from you inasmuch as ye have received from me more manifest Assurances of the peculiar Favour of God to you than ever were indulged to any part of Mankind to the Patriarchs or the Jews My Ability to do all this you cannot doubt As knowing who I am and what place I bear in Heaven or if ye should not believe this merely for the Consideration of the Divinity of my Person yet believe me for the very works sake Ver. 11. being convinced by so many Miracles as I have wrought for your Satisfaction that I am able to perform whatsoever I Promise to you And then for my willingness to do it you have
Gratitude by their direct Tendency to the benefit of Mankind For among all the Miracles of Christ not above three or four can be found which do not immediately respect the Cure of the Infirmities the relief of the Wants or in general the good of Mankind And thus it appears both from the Nature of the thing and the Example of the Divine Oeconomy that a right Sense of the Divine Beneficence is the most effectual Motive of Obedience to the Laws of God But then Secondly This will appear more manifestly if we consider the Nature of the Divine Benefits how much greater influence they deservedly Challenge than any others Benefits so truly infinite and exceeding our comprehension that God might justly make that appeal to the whole world which he doth in the Prophet Isaiah Chap. V. Ver. 3 4. And now O Inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah judge I pray you betwixt me and my Vineyard What could have been done more to my Vineyard that I have not done in it So studiously hathGod endeavoured to procure the Happiness os Mankind by all thoseObligations which are wont to make impression on it Every one of the Divine Benefits may Challenge the most exalted Gratitude of our Soul and affords us Entertainment for Admiration as well as Love For to omit the common Benefits of Creation Preservation and the ordinary Acts of Providence and the peculiar ones of Redemption and Sanctification The means of grace and the hopes of gloâ—…y I will consider only that mentioned in the words immediately preceding my Text which the Apostle expresseth by the riches of his Goodness forbearance and long suffering whereby he winks at the sins of Mankind while there are any hopes or possiblity of Reformation left prolongeth the Execution of his Judgment giveth â—…s space for Repentance and gently leads us to it A Mercy which might justly alone incline us to conquer the Temptations of the world and depraved Inclinations of our mind and henceforward devote our Lives to the Service of God which having been so often forfeited to his Justice have been as often remitted by his Mercy A Vertue which hath been always wont beyond others to win the hearts of Men and hath antiently procured to the most admired Princes the Titles of Fathers of their Countrey and the delight of Mankind In them it was esteemed the highest degree of Perfection and to deserve from Posterity the most grateful Acknowledgements to pardon their conquered Enemies remit the offences of their Subjects and deferr the execution of Justice until the Criminal should appear incorrigible But alas how mean and inconsiderable are these Acts of Clemency if compared to the Divine Forbearance and Long-suffering where the Person offended is of infinite Worth and Dignity and Author of the most illustrious Benefits who is able to strike the Sinner dead in a moment and vindicate the Honour of his Name by a single nod where the offence is repeated not once or twice but very often perhaps every day and moment and that by inconsiderable Creatures who are the work of his hands the dependants of his Power and unable to render any Service to him which may tend to his Interest or augment his Greatness We are not ignorant with what transports of Joy and Resolutions of extreme gratitude a condemned Person would receive his Princes Pardon And if the same affection doth not seize us as often as we view the sins of our Life and consider the offers of Pardon made to us upon condition of Repentance if we do not with equal Gratitude resent the remission of every single sin we must acknowledge it to be no other than the product of a brutish stupidity which can be convinced by Sense that hainous Offences may forfeit their Lives to the Laws of their Countrey but will not be convinced by Reason that more hainous sins do forfeit them to the Divine Justice But I speak to those who are convinced of the Truth of the Christian Religion who believe they were created for no other end than to honour God by Obedience to his Laws that even by the Law of Nature the Commission of sin renders us obnoxious to undergo the Divine Vengeance in whatsoever way that may be inflicted on us but that by the revealed Law of Christianity every single sin in its own Nature subjects us to the Divine Wrath and in that to eternal Punishment How infinitely therefore are we bound to celebrate the Mercy of God in that he doth not immâ—…diately pour out his Wrath upon us but patiently awaits our Repentance and is not only ready to re-admit us to his Favour but by an extraordinary Act of loving kindness not to be parallelled in the Actions of Mankind passionately wisheth that by our Repentance we would capacitate our selves to receive his Favour For thus Psalm LXXXI 14 15. he testifieth how delightful it would have been to him to continue his Favours to the Children of Israel if their obstinate perseverance in sin had not rendred it incongruous to the Holiness of his Nature to do it O that my people would have hearkened unto me for if Israel had walked in my ways I should soon have put down their enemies and turned my hand against their adversaries And in like manner Esai XLVIII 17 18. Thus saith the Lord thy Redeemer the Holy one of Israel I am the Lord thy God which teacheth thee to profit which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go O that thou hadst hearkned to my commandments then peace had been as a river and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea To name no more Passages of this Nature how passionate is that Protestation of God Ezek. XXXIII 11. As I live saith the Lord God I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turn from his way and live turn ye turn ye from your evil ways for why will ye die O ye house of Israel This carnest desire of God that by Repentance we would qualifie our selves to receive his Mercy can proceed from no other Principle than the utmost perfection of Clemency and Goodness to Mankind and beyond all other Arguments demonstrates to us the Greatness of it since the execution of Justice tendeth no less to manifest the Divine Glory than Acts of Mercy do And thus it again appears that a right Sense of our Obligation arising srom the Divine Benefits is the most effectual Motive of Obedience since his Benefits being infinite and transcendent may reasonably be expected to produce a sutable and not inferiour degree of Gratitude But then farther in Relation to the Divine Benefits it is to be considered that they are not only great in their own Nature but also wholly undeserved by us which contributeth very much to raise the esteem of their Excellency in our Minds and amplifie the riches of the Divine Beneficence The Psalmist made excellent use of this Consideration when comparing the unworthiness of Man to the
the natural reason and sense of Mankind are most perfective of it as hath been already in some measure shown Neither are they contrary to any precedent Revelation For although they tend to abolish and destroy the Mosaick Institution This doth not in the least derogate from the truth of it The Mosaick Law by the very Nature of it was fitted only for the Nonage of Revelation and to continue no longer than till the times of Reformation should come But which cleareth the matter beyond all doubt God had expressly foretold to the Jews that he would put an end to their Dispensation and institute a new and more perfect Covenant Infinite places to this purpose might be alledged out of the Old Testament I shall name but one In the aforementioned passage of Jeremy God tells them Behold the days come that I will make a new Covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah Not according to the Covenant which I made with their Fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt But this shall be the Covenant which I will make with the house of Israel The Christian Religion doth not only not contradict the Jewish Revelation but also receive infinite Confirmation from it God by foretelling the coming of the Messias with all the Circumstances of it had abundantly provided that when he should come unless a fatal Blindness and Stupidity intervened he should not be rejected by those for whose sake he came God had promised his coming to our first Parents had assured Abraham That in him all the Nations of the carth should be blessed had revealed to Jacob That before the departure of the Scepter from Judah Shiloh should come and had declared to the Jews by the mouth of Moses That he would raise up a Prophet from among them like unto him whom they should be bound to hear in all things But all this is inconsiderable in respect of that full and more clear Manifestation given by God in after Ages The most Wise God choosing to prefigure him by more express Characters according as the time of his coming drew more near In the Psalms and Prophets the manner and place of his Birth the Nature of his Office the meanness of his Condition the manner and bitterness of his Sufferings the Triumphs of his Resurrection in a word all the Circumstances of his Life and Death are so plainly pointed out and related that nothing less than a perverse Blindness could doubt of the Person designed by them Among the latter Prophets Daniel foretold that he should come at the end of seventy weeks of years and Malachi the last of all that he should come before the Second Temple was destroyed and honour it with his Presence So that all the Miracles which were wrought in Confirmation of the Jewish Religion tend most effectually to establish the Christian Faith Not only because all the Characters assigned by the Prophets to denote the future Messias met most exactly in the Person of our Saviour but because they can meet in no one else For the time prefixed for the Accomplishment of the Prophecies concerning the Messias is plainly expired and yet no other Person hath yet appeared to whom the Characters of the Messias can with any shew of Reason be applied So that either the Jewish Religion is wholly false or the Christian infallibly true Then as for the Miracles of our Saviour it is impossible to imagine any more wonderful in their Operation more beneficial in their Nature more Convictive of their Divine Original or better attested than they were So great and stupendious that they forced even his Adversaries to confess That no man ever did such works as he convinced the multitude That even when the Messias should come he could not do greater works than those and induced the Roman Centurion watching at his Cross even at the lowest ebb of his Fortunes and after he had lost his Life by an ignominious Punishment to acknowledge him to be the Son of God They were not performed once or twice but frequently upon all occasions and for many years together by himself and his Apostles Not in Corners or before a few Confidents but in the Face of the world in the publick Streets before vast multitudes and in all parts of the Earth They tended not so much to raise the amazement and astonishment of Spectators as all false Miracles do as to relieve the Infirmities cure the Diseases and procure the benefit of some part at least of Mankind and therein by a wonderful mixture of Wisdom served no less to declare the Goodness than the Power of God That the History of the Miracles and Life of our Saviour as it is delivered to us in the Books of the New Testament is true we have all the Reason in the world to believe These Books were written by Persons who were Eye-witnesses of what they relate or at least who received Instructions from such They had all the advantages which could possibly be required of knowing the truth of them And so could not be mistaken in their Relations and that they should wilfully deceive us we have no reason to believe We might with as much reason call in doubt and dis-believe all the Relations of former Histories which depend upon no other Authority than that of their Writers yet should we justly esteem him Mad who should doubt whether there were ever such Persons as Caesar and Alexander in the world and we daily regulate our Actions and found our Concerns upon matters attested with no better Proofs But to our comfort and entire conviction Christianity hath yet much greater Evidence The Writers of these Books are known to have been Persons of unquestioned Integrity who far from managing any worldly design or interest in this matter quitted all the Conveniences of Life underwent the most toilsome Labours and Miseries suffered Punishments Contempt and Scorn and at last laid down their Lives in Attestation of the truth of what they had related Not to say that they confirmed the truth of their report by Miracles while alive and that their Holiness Sincerity and miraculous Power was in like manner attested for some Ages after by many pious and learned Persons who laid down their Lives in Testimony of their veracity and wrought Miracles in Confirmation of it until a great part of Mankind being by these convincing Proofs converted to the belief of Christianity and the truth of them fully made known to the world Miracles became no longer necessary All these things happened in a learned and inquisitive Age and were Matters of the greatest moment concerning no less than the eternal Happiness or Misery of Mankind So that on both these Accounts if the least ground of Forgery or Imposture could have been discovered in the Christian Religion it would have been impossible for it to have gained any Success or made any progress in the World Especially if
God in the day when I chose Israel and lifted up my hand unto the seed of the house of Jacob and made my self known unto them in the land of Egypt when I lifted up my hand unto them saying I am the Lord your God In the day that I lifted up my hand unto them to bring them forth of the land of Egypt into a land that I had espied for them flowing with milk and honey which is the glory of all lands Then I said unto them Cast ye away every man the abomination of his eyes and defile not your selves with the Idols of Egypt I am the Lord your God To say no more this appears evidently from the name of JEHOVAH under which God was constantly worshipped from the giving of the Law till the coming of Christ. For this name imported no more than the Immutability of the Divine Nature and Constancy in effecting his Promise the Completion of which should necessarily as often return into their Minds as that most Holy Name was taken into their mouths And therefore at that moment in which the Promises were compleated God made himself known unto the Jews by this name Jehovah saying unto Moses Exod. VI. 3. And I appeared unto Abraham unto Isaac and unto Jacob by the name of El Shaddai or God Almighty but by my name Jehovah was not I known unto them As if he should say I was known indeed unto your Forefathers by my Attributes of Greatness and Omnipotence whereby they were intirely satisfied that I was able in due time to conferr upon them all those Benefits which I had promised to them but my Attributes of Veracity and Immutability were not sensibly made known to them by the Completion of those Promises These now you see performed and consequently are convinced that I am a God true to my Promise and invariable to my Resolutions By this Name or under this Notion will I be henceforward worshipped by you The exceeding Care which God took to perpetuate the Memory of these Benefits among the Jews does manifest it to have been the best means of preserving Religion and the true Worship of himself among them To this all the Rites and Ceremonies of the Law in some mea sure tended but especially the grand Festival of the Passover was instituted for no other Purpose than to continue the remembrance of their Deliverance out of Egypt Annual repetitions of the History of those Benefits were enjoyned and Parents commanded to teach them to their Children on the severest Penalties The greatest part of the Book of Deuteronomy which was in more frequent use among the Jews than any other Book of the Old Testament is employed in repeating the Favours of God and urging the Duty of gratitude arising from them And as if the whole Duty of that People consisted in retaining the Memory of those Favours Moses in one place seems to require nothing else of them Who after he had described the Excellency of that Law and Religion which God had revealed to them subjoyns Only take heed to thy self and keep thy soul diligently least thou forget the things that thine eyes have seen and least they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life but teach them thy sons and thy sons sons Deut. IV. 9. He was sufficiently assured That if this grateful remembrance were preserved among them it would draw along with it an universal Obedience to the whole Law And therefore as our Savioâ—…r summed up the whole Duty of Man in the Love o God and our Neighbour so he comprized all in a thankful remembrance of the Divine Benefits Afterwards when the deplorable Idolatry of the Jews for which God caused them to be led into Captivity had almost effaced the Memory of their miraculous Deliverance out of Egypt and by a new Prodigy of Mercy God had brought them out of Captivity and replaced them in their ancient Possessions he tells them he would not any longer be worshipped by them as the Author of that almost forgotten Benefit of their Deliverance out of Egypt the Memory of which was grown faint among them but as the Author of the late Restitution the remembrance of which was yet fresh in their Minds and might therefore be supposed to produce a greater Sense of gratitude in them For thus he bespeaks them Jerem. XVI 14 15. Therefore behold the days come saith the Lord that it shall no more be said the Lord liveth that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt But the Lord liveth that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the North and from all the lands whither he had driven them and I will bring them again into their Land that I gave unto their fathers The same words he repeats in the XXIII 7th and 8th Verses So studiously did God indeavour to oblige the Jews to pursue their own Happiness in the true Worship of him by heaping new Benefits upon them and inculcating the Memory of them in all solemn Acts of Worship Under the Gospel also God continues to be worshipt as the Author of some signal Benefits as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we obtained Redemption from our sins and Deliverance out of the spiritual Egypt the bondage of Sin and the Devil In every Act of our Christian Worship the Memory of this Benefit is presented to us while we are taught to direct our Prayers to him and to worship him in the Notion of the Father which cannot be without recalling to mind his infinite Mercy manifested in our Redemption which was designed by him and effected by his only begotten Son All the Sacraments and external Worship of the Christian Religion tend no less to preserve the Memory of this Benefit than did the Rites of the Jewish Law to Commemorate their Deliverance out of Egypt particularly the Holy Eucharist which was intended for the constant and most solemn Act of the Christian Worship was instituted to this very Purpose to preserve a lively Memory of that great and final Act of our Redemption to represent to us the Death of our Saviour and continue the Memory of those stripesby which we were healed and of that blood by which we were cleansed If by the degeneracy of latter Ages it hath in great measure failed to produce that Effect for which it was at first intended that is to be ascribed to that deplorable disuse of the Celebration of it which crept into latter Ages and is continued in our times That universal decay of Religion and Piety which we all acknowledge and lament cannot with so much Reason be attributed to any other cause as to this the Memory of our Saviours Passion and with that of our Redemption sensibly decayed in the minds of Men when that venerable Mystery began to be discontinued which was instituted on purpose to continue for ever a lively Representation of it in the Church Men perhaps may retain an Historical remembrance of
by reflecting on it would perswade himself that his Interest is indeed engaged in it For it affects those very Passions which are wont to betray the Will of man to sin desire and fear and would men consider could not but be more prevalent than all other Objects which move those Passions since the Reward proposed is more desirable the Punishment denounced more to be feared than any other thing whatsoever This was the Argument which our Lord his forerunner John Baptiâ—…t and his Apostles employed to convert the World Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand the time now cometh when he will no longer wink at the Sins of Mankind when he will evidently declare his Resolution to punish impenitent Sinners and even exemplifie it in the terrible Destruction of the impenitent Nation of the Jews as he did shortly after The axe is now laid to the root of the tree and every tree which bringeth not foâ—…th good fruit shall be hewen down and cast into the fire These and such like Denunciations of the wrath of God to unrepenting Sinners drew multitudes of Men to a sense of and sorrow for their Sins not only the more devout Jews but also Soldiers and Publicans who confessing their Sins were then Baptized manifesting by that anciently received Emblem of Purity and Innocence their Resolution of sinning no more Even after a full Conviction formed of their Duty our Lord thought fit to propose this very Argument to his Disciples who had been long trained up in Obedience to him and were now entring upon the most difficult Point of Christianity the patient enduring of Persecution Affliction and even Death it self all which he foretold should befall them in that Mission which he then enjoyn'd them Yet to these Fears he opposeth as the greatest Remedy this Consideration only Fear not them which can kill the Body and after that can do no more but I will tell you whom you shall fear Fear him who can destroy both Body and Soul in Hell All other Motives of Interest all other Objects of fear or hope concern the Body only and terminate there But in the Matters of Religion the Reward to be desired the Punishment to be feared equally concern both Soul and Body the common Happiness or Misery of both which depends upon it The Reward you may slight perhaps as not desiring any greater Satisfaction than what you now enjoy but the Fear you cannot surmount that will still affect you For if you so much value the present ease of the Body the one part of you you cannot but be affrighted at the certain Expectation of the eternal Misery of both Soul and Body If this Consideration hath not that effect upon us which it had upon the Hearers of Christ John Baptist and the Apostles it is because the Expectation of this denounced Destruction far from being certain in us is eluded by vain Perswasions that Destruction may be avoided without Repentance We all believe the truth of the Divine Revelations prescribing Rules of Piety Justice and Temperance commanding Repentance upon neglect or violation of these Rules giving Sentence of dreadful Punishments upon Impenitence We all confess that we have violated those Rules we apply not the Remedy of Repentance and yet we hope to avoid the Punishment For did not Men really flatter themselves with those hopes it is impossible that the mind of Man convinced of the truth of such a future Punishment and conscious of its own Demerits should not immediately apply it self to prevent the Execution of that dreadful Sentence by a timely Repentance These false hopes and perswasions may be referred to a double Head either that of Presumption or that of Inadvertency That men through a fond Opinion of their own worth fancy God will exempt them from the general Sentence and from the necessity of Repentance or at least allow this and another and a third Sin to them or that they proceed in sin securely and with a sort of Stupidity never willingly considering the consequences of Punishment upon Sin and when they are suggested to them still putting them off and continuing to imagine that God will however save them though theyk now not why Both these sort of Prejudices are too common among all Christians and to both I shall oppose some general Considerations shewing it impossible that Goâ—… should not execute the Sentence of Destruction pronounced universally against all impenitent Sinners or in the words of my Text that it cannot be that Men should not repent and yet should not perish The necessity of Destruction consequent upon Unrepentance is drawn chiefly from the Determination of the Divine Will which hath so appointed it And the resolution of God herein is so frequently and fully expressed in Scripture that no doubt can be admitted of it Nay the holy Spirit of God seems to have taken particular care least men should be deceived herein by affixing vehement Asseverations to his Threats of Punishments As in Ezech. XVII 19. Thus saith the Lord God as I live surely my Oath that he hath despised and my Covenant that he hath broken even it will I recompense upon his own head And in the XXII Chapter having denounced to Sinners the extremity of his anger he subjoyns Verse 14. Can thy heart endure or can thy hands be strong in the days that I shall deal with thee I the Lord have spoken it and I will do it So that those who promise Salvation to themselves without Repentance of past Sins or Reformation of Life must either pretend to new Lights and new Revelalations new terms of Covenant or disbelieve those contained in Scripture which are indeed the only true ones Yet I will not say dis-believe them For far be it from me to judge that of many Christians who do firmly indeed believe all the Revelations of that Sacred Writing and yet continue their hopes of Salvation without employing the means of it Only we must confess that believing them we do not regard them and when we do seriously reflect upon it must acknowledge that such vain hopes are inconsistent with those revealed Truths For I hope none of this Assembly have been deceived with the idle Pretences of inward Lights or unaccountable Revelations of Arbitrary Election for secret Reasons and absolute Reprobation for unknown Causes which Delusions when once entertained would render all Repentance useless We hold fast to the old form of Tradition delivered to the Saints pretend to no Revelations unknown to former Ages to know more of the Will of God than what our Lord or the Apostles have plainly delivered in Scripture We are content to go to Heaven the same way that all Saints have gone before us by the Exercise of Repentance and good Works Nor if there be any truth in those Sacred Writings is there any other way Yet we hear those Holy Scriptures daily read to us wherein we are commanded by Precepts we are allured by Promises we are terrified by Threats
to shew you that no objection to the Justice and Impartiality of God can be deduced from his conduct in relation to them Which not only tendeth to vindicate his Honour and to create in us a just esteem of his infinite Perfections not only restrains us from passing uncharitable censures upon our fellow Servants or conceiving amiss of those immutable Rules which God hath fixed to the exercise of his Mercy and Judgment but also teaches us that Salvation depends not so much upon any external Relation or Denomination as upon the eternal Obligations of Righteousness and Holiness This was the Second Head proposed to be Treated of namely the Conditions of the Divine Favour expressed in the latter part of the Text. But in every Nation he that feareth him and worketh Righteousness is accepted with him The favour of God is not now as it seemed to be under the Jewish dispensation annexed to a Family or a Nation to external Badges and ritual Observations but to the more noble and universal obligations of Fear and Righteousness offered and dispensed unto all Men upon the same Conditions Conditions from which none can plead exemption even although no Revelation had enforced them They had then been Duties even without a Reward but are now conditions of a Reward which manifesteth the infinite Mercy and Goodness of God which is also enhanced by the universality of it for that in eve y Nation he that worketh Righteousness is accepted by him For after all the Title to a Reward must be grounded upon the Divine acceptance not on any merit of the Work But the time will not permit me to Discourse farther of these things I will only exhort you to make a just use of what you have already Learned That God is no respecter of Persons This cannot but be a mighty encouragement to you to use your utmost diligence to attain that Reward which God hath rendered equally possible to you with those who are now the greatest Saints in Heaven that whatever your condition or circumstances may be here below God respecteth not that in distribution of his Favour but only what is in your own power On the other side if you neglect these possible these easie conditions offearing God and working Righteousness flatter not your selves with the thoughts of being exempted by any peculiar Favour from undergoing that universal Sentence of Condemnation which is indifferently pronounced against all Sinners Which is also the conclusion drawn by St. Peter from this very consideration 1 Pet. I. 17. And if ye call on the Father who without respect of Persons judgeth according to every Mans work pass the time of your Sojourning here in fear The Thirteenth SERMON PREACH'D Easter-Day 1689. At LAMBETH CHAPEL Coloss. III. 1. If ye then be risen with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God THE Resurrection of our Blessed Saviour from the Dead hath by the Church in all Ages been deservedly celebrated with a greater Solemnity than any other Festival whatsoever as being instituted in remembrance of the most signal Act of our Lord here on Earth and the final Completion of our Redemption by it Other Actions indeed prepared the Minds of his Followers to expect Salvation from him but this alone gave them infallible assurance of the performance of it Till then they retained Doubts and Scruples were meanly instructed in the Nature of his Office and Design of his Coming were confounded at his Ignominious Crucifixion and began to suspect that they had been mistaken in the Person of the Messias All their glorious hopes of a temporal Kingdom to be founded by their Lord and Master were laid aside and in a little time they began to doubt whether it were he that should have redeemed Israel The Church then was not only dispersed but destroyed and none left who would own their Belief in a Crucified Saviour The Apostles were fled The Women prepared Spices for his Body now lying in the Grave as not expecting it should rise again and the Jews triumphed over his afflicted Disciples as having defeated their hopes and overthrown their Pretences At this time in this State of things our Lord rose from the Dead and by his Resurrection demonstrated the Divinity of his Person dispelled the Anxiety of his Disciples and confounded his Enemies By this he retrieved the lost Faith of his Followers and put it beyond all possibility of being subject to any more Fluctuations Hereby he not only gave the last and most infallible Confirmation to the truth of his Doctrine by a Miracle unheard of in former Ages but also established in Mankind the glad assurance of a future Resurrection He had before indeed promised it but now gave an earnest of it in his own Person and manifested it to be possible by the actual effecting of it No wonder then that as the Church did at first receive our Lord from the Dead with unspeakable Joy and Triumph so it always continued to renew the remembrance of that Triumph by extraordinary Solemnities that the Apostles urged the Miracle of his Resurrection as the highest Argument of Conviction to Jews and Gentiles and admonished their Disciples to comfort one another with the Remembrance of it And not only so but also drew continual Arguments of Instruction and Motives of Holiness from it and made all the Mysteries and Sacraments of the Christian Religion to be in some measure subservient to it An Action of so great importance was not barely to strike the Senses and to satisfie the doubtful or convince the incredulous but to affect the Soul and become a Foundation of Practice as well as Belief to all Christians Our Lord raised not his natural Body from the Grave to leave us his Mystical Body groveling on the Ground he resumed not his bodily Life to leave us in a spiritual Death but taught us thereby to raise our Thoughts and Affections from the Earth to free our selves from the Power of Darkness and enter into the Regions of Light For we are risen with Christ if we be true Christians as the Apostle assureth us in my Text and if so the natural consequence will be That we seek those things which are above and act agreeably to the new state of Life into which we are entred If then ye be risen with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God The words therefore will oblige me to treatFirst of our Resurrection with Christ and Secondly of the Conclusion drawn from thence by the Apostle that we ought therefore to seek those things which are above That we shall hereafter rise and bewith Christ is the most firm Belief of all Christians but that we are already risen may not perhaps be so easily conceived especially by those who experience not in themselves any Effects of this Blessed Resurrection We are therefore said to rise with Christ even in this Life either by similitude or by
and what more natural than for the Members to follow their Head He is the Captain of their Salvation and what more consistent than for Soldiers to follow their Captain He is their forerunner and what more usual than for Travellers to follow their Leader a Forerunner who is for us entred Hebr. VI. 20. that is to take Possession in our Names and for our behalf agreeably to what himself had promised to his faithful Disciples that he departed from them into Heaven only to prepare Mansions for them and that where he was there they should be also How blessed and desireable then shall the state of the Faithful be after the Resurrection when they shall be made Companions with the Son of God and even share with him in his present Happiness A Happiness which however inconceivable in this Life is excellently deseribed by the Apostle in the latter words of my Text where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God He sitteth to denote the Permanence and Eternity of his Happiness and at the right hand of God to shew the Power Majesty and Glory wherewith he is invested Such were the glorious consequences of our Saviour's Resurrection and such will be the blessed Effects of our's also if we diligently observe the Apostle's Precept which he inferrs from our rising with Christ That we seek those things which are above If ye then be risen with Châ—…ist seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God Our Lord after his Resurrection settled not his abode upon Earth he stayed no longer than to instruct his Disciples in the necessary Duties of their Mission and convince them that he was really risen Even while he remained upon Earth he was farr more reserved than before his Resurrection abstained from a publick and ordinary Conversation and resumed not the common Offices of mortal Life such as eating and drinking but only to convince his Followers of the reality of his Resurrection Not but that he might if he had pleased continued all these Actions untill his Ascension with the same Innocency and Freedom from sin which was inseparable from his whole Life but he chose rather to teach us thereby that after our new Birth and spiritual Resurrection we are not to imploy our Care and Affections in the things of this World but living here as if we lived not carry our thoughts much higher even whither he is gone before us and fix them upon the Interests of Eternity Not but that we may and even ought to take a prudent Care for the Concerns of this world while we are engaged in it but that we ought not to rest here or make this our ultimate end but make it the great business of our Lives to secure those more noble Ends which are proposed to us the Fruition of God and Society of Christ in Heaven This all will acknowledge to be our farr greatest Concern and then surely our utmost Care ought to be employed in the Acquisition of it What we earnestly Love we cannot but diligently seek it being most true That where our treasure is there will our hearts be also Desire is the Spring of all Actions in us and whatsoever we perform even the most trifling Action ariseth from the desire of some end to be obtained by it so that we cannot be said so much as to desire the Joys of Heaven if we diligently seek not to obtain them by all those means which are possible to us and proposed by God If we retain an unlawful Love of the Pleasures of this Life it is manifest we preferr the Satisfaction proceeding from them before the Concerns of the next and however we be said abstractedly to desire these yet certainly in that Case we desire them not in Comparison of the other nay we even quit our desire of them which we may truly be said to reject when we espouse an Interest which we know to be utterly inconsistent with it But farr be this from any Christian to admire and celebrate the Glories of his Lord's Resurrection and yet refuse the offers of sharing with him in it We have all already by our Baptism and by assuming the Name of Christians professed to die with Christ and to rise with him and if we falsifie not these Resolutions we cannot but set our selves wholly to seek those things which are above To die is to suspend or to cease the ordinary Actions of Life and if yet the Lusts of the world and the Flesh be retained if the same Care be employed on the Concerns of it which were before any hopes of a future better Life were given if the same Love the same desire of earthly Satisfactions continue such a Person can no more be said to have died to the World than a Body to be naturally dead which yet continueth to eat and drink and walk and perform all the ordinary Actions of Life After those things do the Gentiles seek who are without God in the world who have hope only in this Life who expect no Satisfaction but what they reap here below From these a Christian separates himself by his Baptism professeth himself a Member of a different Society which proceeds upon contrary Principles and foundeth his Interests in another Life He abandons his Pretensions to the unlimited Pleasures of this Life Crucifies his Affections and dieth to the world that he may rise with Christ rise with him here to a new Life that he may rise with him to Glory hereafter In Confirmation of this blessed Hope he often considers of his Lord's Resurrection he celebrates the Mercy and Faithfulness of God in comforting his afflicted Church as upon this day by restoring to her the Presence of her Beloved Saviour He thence conceiveth assured Hopes that himself shall in like manner be raised up at the last day And now that the bodily Presence of his Lord is after his Ascension taken from him he strengthens his Faith and confirms his Hope by the frequent Participation of the Holy Eucharist instituted in remembrance of him He esteemeth these sacred Symbols received and eaten by him as an infallible Pledge of his own Resurrection agreeably to the Belief of the ancient Christians who accounted the Body and Blood of Christ delivered to the Faithful to be a most certain earnest of their future Resurrection as being perswaded that as God permitted not the natural Body of Christ to see Corruption so neither will he suffer his Symbolical Body to be imprisoned in the Grave for ever By the Reception of these sacred Elements we are incorporated with Christ and become Members of his Mystical Body and thereby obtain the highest assurance that we can desire that as he raised up his own Body on the Third day so he will raise up us who are thereby Members of his Body in his due time Only let us by dying to the World and living to him by renouncing the inordinate Affections of the Flesh seeking those things which