advantage 3. Besides to make our Estate good is required Investiture so that although Christ hath made a purchase and paid a price for us yet what would this advantage us without Livery and Seizin which the same Apostle calls The Earnest of the Spirit 2 Cor. 5. 5. Lastly What are we at all the better for what Christ did for us if we be not joined to Him as He was to us and 't is by his Spirit that we are joined unto Him For he that hath not Christ's Spirit is none of his Rom. 8. 9. and then Christ will profit him nothing From whence it plainly appears That what the Father and the Son did for us could not be compleat or available without the concurrence of the Holy Ghost They could doe nothing for us without Him nor we any thing for our selves in order to our Salvation For first without Holiness we cannot see God who is therefore called Holy because he is the cause of Holiness in us his Office consisting in the sanctifying of us We are by Nature void of all saving Truth 1 Cor. 2. 10 11. None knoweth the things of God but the Spirit of God And 't is the Spirit that searcheth all things and revealeth them unto the Sons of Men That dispells their Darkness enlightens their Understandings with the knowledge of God and works in them an assent unto that which by the Word is propounded unto them Again 2dly Unless they be regenerate and renewed they are still in a state of natural Corruption Now 't is the Holy Spirit that regenerates and renews us According to his mercy he saveth us by the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost Tit. 3. 5. And Except a man be born again of Water and the Holy Ghost he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God Joh. 3. 5. We are all at first defiled by the corruption of our Nature and the pollution of our Sins but we are washed but we are sanctified but we are justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God 1 Cor. 6. 11. Thirdly We are not able to guide our selves and 't is the Spirit that leads directs and governs us in our Actions and Conversations that we may perform what is acceptable in the sight of God 'T is He that giveth both to will and to doe and As many as are thus led by the Spirit of God they are the Sons of God Rom. 8. 14. Fourthly If we be separate from Christ we are as branches cut off from the Tree which presently wither away for want of sap to nourish them Now 't is the Spirit that joins us to Christ and makes us Members of that Body whereof he is the Head For by one Spirit we are all baptized into that one Body 1 Cor. 12. 13. And hereby we know that God abideth in us by the Spirit which he hath given us 1 Joh. 3. 24. Fifthly Till we be assured of the Adoption of Sons we have no comfort no hope for 't is that which creates in us a sense of the Paternal love of God towards us The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us Rom. 5. 5. And the Spirit it self beareth witness with our Spirit that we are the Children of God Rom. 8. 16. who is therefore said to be the Pledge and the Earnest of our Inheritance In a word had not the Holy Ghost been sent to us we could have done nothing to any purpose no means on our part would have availed us Not Baptism which might wash spots from our Skins nor stains from our Souls No laver of Regeneration without renewing of the Holy Ghost Tit. 3. 5. Not the Word which without the Spirit would have proved but a killing letter Not the Sacrament The Flesh profiteth nothing 't is the Spirit that quickneth Joh. 6. 63. Lastly Not Prayer which without the Spirit is but lip-labour For unless he help our infirmities and make intercession for and with us we know not what we should pray for as we ought Rom. 8. 26. To summ up all It was expedient nay absolutely necessary that the Spirit should have his Advent as well as Christ. Christ's Advent was necessary for the fulfilling of the Law and the Spirit 's for the compleating of the Gospel Christ's to redeem the Church and the Spirit 's to teach it Christ's to shed his bloud for it and the Spirit 's to wash and purge it in that bloud Christ's to preach the acceptable year of the Lord and the Spirit 's to interpret it The one without the other is imperfect Christ's Birth Death Passion Resurrection are good news but sealed up a Gospel hid till the Spirit come and open it Of such importance was his coming and so expedient yea and necessary for us it was that our Lord should go away to send Him to us And as he did send Him to the Apostles in an extraordinary manner in cloven tongues like as of fire as at this time so all Christians have a promise of the Comforter though not of the firey tongues The promise is to you and to your Children and to all that are a-far off even as many as the Lord our God shall call Act. 2. 39. That is To all that wait for and are in such a fit posture and condition to receive Him as the Apostles themselves were To all that are like Him Holy Pure Charitable Peaceable That have those fruits of the Spirit mentioned Gal. 5. 22 23. That are void of carnal sensual Affections than which nothing will more obstruct his entrance He being a Spirit and having therefore no commerce with the Flesh. Christ carnally apprehended we see could not avail any thing and so long as our Thoughts and Desires run after things here below his Spirit from above will not fill or inflame them Therefore sur sum corda let us lift up our hearts towards Him He will meet us and Christ will send Him to us if we meet Him in his way Send Him if we send for Him too if we send up our Prayers to fetch Him down For being a Spirit of supplication Zach. 12. 10. the proper means to obtain Him is Prayer And surely He is worth the asking for being the greatest gift God can give us or we receive In giving whereof He is said to give us all things Mat. 7. 11. In whom we have a Teacher to instruct The Spirit of Truth to lead us into all Truth necessary for us An Advocate to plead for and defend us A Comforter in all our outward and inward distresses so that Direction Protection Consolation and all that is beneficial to us or we can desire we have in Him But then when we have got let us be sure to retain and to cherish Him not chase Him away for then we had better never to have had Him Be sure not to resist Him by our Pride quench Him by our Carnality and so grieve Him
Christ by the instigation of the Devil shed tears by the effusion of the Holy Ghost and as they had cruelly wounded him to the death they were penitently and mercifully by his Word and Spirit themselves wounded with Repentance unto life Which piercing as it was in part accomplished in those few Converts fore-mentioned so shall it have its fuller and more perfect fulfilling on the whole Nation of the Jews when they shall see their error and be all turned unto Christ as St. Paul tells us Rom. 11. 11 32. I heartily wish it may as no doubt it was intended be fulfilled in us too and that my Sermon may have the same effect on you that it had on Peter's Auditors That looking on Him whom we also have pierced we may with them be pierced at the heart too We find that at our Lord's crucifixion all Nature mourned all the Creation groaned Rom. 8. 22. The Sun put on blacks the Earth trembled the Rocks cleft asunder and it were strange if we of all God's creatures should remain insensible and express no sorrow when we behold the Lord of Nature suffering and for us too What a shame were it for us that the dumb inanimate Creatures should upbraid us as the Children their fellows in the Market-place Matth. 11. 17. We have mourned to you and ye have not wept Let us then bear our part in this Quire of Mourners but with this difference that our Mourning be not so much outward as inward not so much in the face as in the heart a heart pricked with sorrow for having pierced Christ and not so much for the smart as out of the sense of our Sin not so much for our selves as for him for his sake whom we have crucified for no Tears prevail with God but such as are wept over Jesus Christ If he be not the flame in our Breasts that melts our Hearts if he be not the Object that draws forth our Tears though we should weep Bloud our Bloud shall be but as Water spilt upon the ground If we grieve and not in and for Christ our grief will be but Hypocrisie at least but Formality This is the Sorrow this the Mourning which our piercing of Christ calls for as a proper effect of the Spirit of Grace and Supplication and it must come in at the Eye For the way to be pierced with Christ is to look upon him Iisdem quibus videmus oculis flemus The Eye is the instrument both of Sight and Sorrow That must affect the Heart What the Eye never sees the Heart as we say never rues If the Understanding be not convinced of Sin our Hearts will never be moved at it Sight of Sin must precede Sorrow for it The Prodigal first came to himself ere he returned to his Father Look we then to Christ but let us reflect upon our selves too that our Eyes may dissolve into Tears without which Christ's Bloud shall not wash away our guilt of having spilled it Let us sorrow but with a sorrow according to God such as may work in us repentance unto Salvation for having crucified the Author of it and then we may look upon Him to our comfort 3. With an Eye of Faith which is another prospect here mainly intended For the looking on in the Text is an Allusion to the beholding of the brazen Serpent a Type of Christ crucified on the Cross as himself tells us Joh. 3. 16. It was not the brazen Serpent it self but their looking upon it that cured the bitten Israelites It was their Faith that did it which came in at their Eye though it usually does at the Ear and gave it a healing quality As it was not the Woman's touch but her Faith that drew out Vertue from Christ to stanch her issue of bloud It is the generally received opinion that the Souldier who pierced Christ one Longinus was when he did that act blind but by vertue of that pretious Bloud which sprang on his Eyes from our Saviour's side he had his Sight restored and was hereupon converted and after became a Bishop of Cappadocia and in the end died a Martyr What truth there is in the History I know not but very much surely there is in the Application If by Faith we will look upon him whom we have pierced that Sight shall not only clear our Eyes to discern but touch our Hearts and dispose them to embrace a Saviour No spiritual Cure to be wrought on us without our Faith We find that Christ in all his miraculous Cures of diseased Persons still required their Faith as a necessary preparative to their healing as if Omnipotency it self could doe nothing without the Patient's belief nor will the diseases of our Souls be ever remedied without the concurrence of ours too The Prophet Elijah by applying the Members of his Body to those of the dead Child fetcht it again to life Let us stretch every part of Christ pierced to our Souls and they will soon be revived be they never so dead in trespasses and sins 4. We are to look upon Christ pierced with an Eye of Love This we know naturally comes in at the Eye too Oculi sunt in amore duces Now as there is no such Attractive of Love as Love so never was there any such Love as that of Christ in dying for us It was our Sin that gave Him his Wounds but it was his Love that made him receive them And we may reade that Love to use the Prophet Esay's expression in the Palms of his hands that were stretcht out for us upon his Cross In the Prints of the nails which could never have enter'd Him had not his Love made them a passage And in the point of the Spear which lets our Eyes into the very Bowels of his tender Love and Compassion towards us Well may each of us say with the Holy Martyr Ignatius My Love was crucified for me If the Jews that stood by Him when he was about to raise Lazarus said truly Behold how he loved him when he shed but a few Tears out of his Eyes much more truly may we say of Him Behold how he loved us for whom He shed his very Heart-bloud the utmost Expression of Love as Himself tells us Joh. 15. 13. Greater Love than this hath no Man to bestow his life for his friends and yet greater love than this did he shew forth by laying down his life for us who were his Enemies I say by laying it down for no man had power to take it from him Joh. 10. 18. It was his own pure Love not any force that compell'd him to dye for us And therefore our Obligation to love him ought to be so much the stronger by how much his suffering for us was more free and voluntary 5. Lastly Let us look on Him whom we have pierced with infinite Joy and Exultation not for that we have pierced Him which ought to produce a quite contrary Passion in us
It was the design of his Spirit to imprint his Image in their Hearts which consisted in true holiness and righteousness But how could that Image be imprinted on them till they were first adopted his Children Or how could they be owned for his Children but in and through Christ his only begotten and beloved Son That Peace which his Holy Spirit brings into and settles in our Consciences is founded in that other which our Mediator hath procured and merited for us by his Death and Sufferings nor could our Minds ever have been calmed had not the Lamb of God taken away the sins of the World Our Peace was to be prepared by the Father ere it could be purchased by the Son and purchased by the Son ere it could have been applied by the Spirit The Gift of the Comforter was an effect of Christ's Intercession I will pray the Father and He shall send you another Comforter And it was requisite that He should go away to send that Comforter since he was the Effect of his Intercession and that Intercession the last Act of his Sacrifice in the Heavenly Sanctuary But then 2dly it was not fit that Christ should bestow his best and most excellent Gifts on us till he had recovered his first Majesty or that the Members should be thus adorned till the Head was perfectly glorious 'T is at the time of their Coronation and Triumph that Kings and Emperors scatter their Largesses When our Lord had ascended up on high and had led Captivity captive then was it a proper time for him to give gifts unto men and among the rest of his Gifts the Fountain and Giver of all Gifts and Graces the Holy Spirit it self This St. Peter tells his Auditors Act. 2. 33. That Christ being by the right hand of God exalted and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost he hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear Christ was first to rise from the dead and to be glorified before he could send down the Spirit And this we learn from Joh. 7. 39. where 't is said That the Holy Ghost was not yet given because that Jesus was not yet glorified nor could he be fully glorify'd without the descent and testimony of the Spirit For 1. It had been some impeachment to Christ's equality with the Father had our Lord still remained on Earth for as much as the sending of the Spirit would have been ascribed to the Father alone as his sole Act. This would have been the most That the Father for his sake had sent Him but He as God had had no honour of sending Him 2. Nor indeed till he ascended up to Heaven could he have been fully glorified on Earth his appearance here having been very mean void of all pomp and state nothing about Him to strike men's Senses nothing of worldly grandeur to affect them who conversed with him neither wealth nor honour exposed he was to want and other inconveniencies of life and put at last to a cruel and an ignominious Death What strong prejudices had both Jews and Gentiles against Him upon this account And how could those prejudices be removed so long as he continued in that low state and condition But they were now quite taken away by the descent of the Holy Ghost which he had so often promised to send after his departure and which when they saw he made good their mean opinion of him was soon changed into veneration when they saw him who was made a little lower than the Angels nay who had appeared on Earth lower than the lowest of Men for the suffering of death crowned with such glory and honour And how can we but adore Him as God when we now behold Him that once stood before Herod and Pilate as a criminal exalted above all the Kings and Potentates of the Earth whose pride and glory now it is to be his Disciples to doe him homage and to lay down their Crowns and Scepters at the foot of his Cross We now see Temples every-where erected to his honour The most remote obscure Regions of the World enlightned by his beams That Jesus once so much despised become now the glory of the Earth His Name dreadfull to Devils adored by Turks and Infidels so that his Kingdom knows no bounds as it shall never have an end Had he still remained here below he had been lookt upon as no better than what the Arrians once styled Him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But now his Godhead is as visible to each Christian as his Manhood heretofore was to each Man the Spirit of God whom He sent down having born witness to Him in all those wonderfull Signs and Miracles that were wrought by his Apostles through his Name And thus we see how that Christ could not have been glorify'd on Earth as God had he not ascended up into Heaven and from thence sent down the Holy Ghost Nor 3. could the Holy Ghost himself otherwise have been discovered Christ's stay here would have been a lett to the manifestation of his Godhead also which appearing in those many great signs and wonders done by Him had not our Lord gone away those glorious Works would in all probability have been wholly ascribed unto him and so the Holy Ghost should have lost that honour which was due to him while his Deity should have been concealed from the notice of the World 4. A fourth reason of the necessity of Christ's departure respects his Apostles and all other his Disciples 1. His Apostles who we know were to be sent abroad into all Coasts to be dispersed over the whole Earth to preach the Gospel and not to stay in one place Now Christ's corporal Presence could herein have availed them little in order to this purpose He could not have been with St. James at Jerusalem and St. John at Ephesus whatever Ubiquitaries Papists or Lutherans say to the contrary in flat contradiction to all Philosophy and Scripture too which allows not this priviledge to Christ's Body now glorified Whom the Heavens must receive saith St. Peter untill the times of Restitution of all things Act. 3. 21. There He must be till He comes to fetch us to Him and when He promised his Apostles to be with them always even to the end of the World Mat. 28. 20. He meant no otherwise than by his Holy Spirit who should comfort and guide them into all Truth And therefore it was expedient for them as our Lord says here in the Text that himself should go away to make room for the Spirit as fitter for his Disciples in their dispersed disconsolate condition since He could be and was present with them all and with every one of them by himself as filling the compass of the whole World which cannot be affirmed of our Lord 's bodily Presence 2. Besides had this manner of Christ's Presence been possible without confounding the Properties of his humane and divine Nature it had been very
the work of Man's Redemption which could not have been perform'd but in such a Body as his own nor could the Seed of the Woman be said to bruise the Serpent's head had not Christ been conceived of that Seed nor the Promise renew'd to Abraham Gen. 22. 18. In thy seed shall all the Nations of the Earth be blessed have been made good had not the Mother of our Lord descended from his loins too And surely well may she be call'd Blessed without whom we could never have been so since 't was she that furnish'd those Materials that repair'd our ruines from whose Bloud also flow'd that most pretious One which alone can cleanse and redeem us Our Mother Eve could brag when she had brought forth her first-begotten and he but an untoward Child for St. John tells us he was of that wicked one the Devil 1 John 3. 12. as all other Reprobates are there said to be vers 10. I have gotten a Man from the Lord Gen. 4. 1. i. e. as some interpret the words That famous Man the Lord fancying Cain to be that Seed of the Woman that should bruise the Serpent's head But how truly may each of us now say Possedi Deum per Virginem I have gotten the Lord my Redeemer by the means of a pure Virgin of whom my Saviour was made Man that I might be made the Son of God How much better may the Virgin Mary deserve the name of the Mother of all the Living than Eve did Gen. 3. 20. who at best convey'd unto us but a Natural whereas the former a Spiritual life in giving us Him who is the Life so far was Eve from being Mater Viventium in this sense that she brought forth all her Posterity still-born into the World dead in trespasses and sins She indeed hearkned to the Suggestions of an evil Spirit but the Holy Virgin to the Message of a good one If she were the Mother of the Living then this of the Predestinate and if by the former Satan bruised our heel by this Anti-Eve we crush his head being instated in a better condition than we had forfeited Now if they who were the first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Benefactors to Mankind were thought worthy of divine Honours the first occasion of Idolatry there being nothing that renders a person more like God than to doe good especially to oblige all Manking nothing that could raise such Persons so high in the Esteem of Mortals as such a large and comprehensive Goodness surely none came so near the Almighty in this so divine a quality as the Holy Virgin did by whose means not only the Inhabitants of the Earth but in some sort too those of Heaven became certainly and immutably Blessed confirm'd in such a state of happiness by her Son as they are uncapable of losing And therefore well might the Angel pronounce her Blessed who with the rest of his Order were so much obliged by her And surely all generations of Men much more who in part owe unto her their recovery and those hopes they have of being one day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 alike Blessed with them and if St. Paul was Blessed in being a chosen Vessel to bear Christ's name then the Holy Virgin much more by conveying a humane Nature to him who alone makes us partakers of the divine one All these advantages had the Mother of God glorious indeed but not the chiefest part of her happiness nor was she to value her self for her relation purely considered in its self Yea rather Blessed are they says our Lord who hear the Word of God and keep it Whereby it appears how little he set by any carnal propinquity and how much nearer and dearer to him the Righteous are than his own bloud not that he did in the least despise his Parents for his own Example preaches Subjection to them Luke 2. 51. but only preferr Spiritual kindred to Carnal as he often does letting us know That to doe the will of his Father which is in Heaven is to be his Brother Sister and Mother Matth. 12. 50. That true Christian Heraldry is founded in Grace and not in Bloud That to be joined unto him in one Spirit is a closer Union than to be united to him in the flesh and to be obedient to his Commands far more advantageous than to relate to his Person Nay so little would our Lord have us too to prize such outward things as these that unless in some cases we hate Father and Mother Wife and Children Brethren and our selves too he plainly tells us we cannot be his Disciples Luke 14. 26. And for this reason Moses blessed Levi Deut. 33. 9. Who said unto his Father and to his Mother I have not seen him neither did he acknowledge his Brethren nor knew his own Children but observed God's Word and kept his Covenant This is certain that all outward favours and privileges how pompous soever in themselves are wholly insignificant and ineffectual without the grace of Obedience being at best but gratioe gratis datoe non gratum facientes rather ornaments than benefits which as we are not thanklesly to over-slip so neither presumptuously to over-ween See how little account St. Paul makes of them 2 Cor. 5. 16. Though we have known Christ after the flesh have familiarly convers'd with him been eye-witnesses of all those glorious things he did as his Apostles yet now henceforth know we him no more we disclaim all such carnal acquaintance and if we should know Christ no better he would not know us nor own us for his we might be nearly related to him and yet be far enough from him and without him for so 't is expresly recorded of some of his Brethren that they did not believe in him Joh. 7. 5. So far were they from looking upon him as their Saviour that they took him for no better than a mad-man one besides himself Mark 3. 21. though in process of time some of them indeed became his disciples and no doubt of Christ's Genealogy not a few were eternally lost The Jews much prided themselves in being Abraham's sons and yet one of them that calls himself so fryes in Hell What did it avail Saul to be a Prophet or Judas an Apostle when such privileges serv'd them for no other purpose but to enhanse their damnation We reade not of any dignified with more glorious Prerogatives than these two the Blessed Virgin and St. John the Evangelist the one for bearing our Saviour in her Womb and the other for leaning on his Breast yet how little had these things benefited them had not Faith and Piety seasoned such outward privileges and made them as gracious as they were glorious Happier Mary for bearing Christ's Sayings in her Heart than Himself in her Womb in that she partook of the Merit than imparted the Matter and Substance of his bloud 'T was not so much the loveliness of her Motherhood as the lowliness of her Handmaidship that He regarded
wrought before us How should we be ravished at a second Transfiguration and say with the Apostles who beheld it It is good for us to be here Should Christ ascend up again into Heaven in our sight as he did in that of his disciples and followers should we not need an Angel as they did to check us for our too much gazing And yet let me tell you that such a prospect as that would not be more glorious than of a Christ nailed to his Cross nor yet perhaps so usefull It would rather raise our curiosity than inflame our affections rather amaze and astonish than benefit us The Text therefore gives us a more advantageous one of Him It bids us look on him as pierced and pierced even for us who pierced him It bids us view this Sun of Righteousness more glorious in himself more benign to us in his Setting than in his Rising More beautifull in his Eclipse than in his full Lustre To look unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our Faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross and despised the shame and to consider him who endured such contradiction of sinners against himself This was the aim of all St. Paul's preaching We preach Christ crucified 1 Cor. 1. 23. This the top of his Knowledge I determined not to know any thing among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified 1 Cor. 2. 2. This his only Glory God forbid that I should glory save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ Gal. 6. 14. And here to our joy and comfort may we view him Redeeming us from the curse of the Law Gal. 3. 10. Abolishing in his flesh the Enmity the Law of Commandments Ephes. 2. 14 15. Blotting out the hand-writing of Ordinances that was against us and nailing it to his Cross Col. 2. 14. Reconciling the World to Himself making our peace expiating our offences satisfying the Justice of an offended God repairing our loss and restoring us to a better condition than we had forfeited by our Transgression In a word vanquishing Hell and opening Heaven for us And ought not this to be matter of glorying to us Can any sight be more worthy our beholding Any object more deserve to be lookt on than such a one as this At this time especially when the Church solemnly invites us to this Spectacle When as St. Paul speaks Gal. 3. 1. Jesus Christ is evidently set forth crucified among us This the Text prophetically tells us Christ's crucifiers should doe and indeed All that expect to have their part in the Merit of his Death and Passion must doe that is by a serious and often-repeated Meditation have Christ crucified always before their eyes For we are not to look upon the words of my Text only as a Prophecy but as a necessary Duty obliging us to fix our eyes constantly on this object Christ pierced for us and that we may the better doe it let us take a more particular and exact view of Him and consider Him as pierced both in his Body and in his Soul In every Member of That in every Faculty of This the better to estimate his Sufferings and raise our Devotion and Admiration Consider we then Christ as pierced 1. In his Body Let us behold the Man as Pilate exposed him to the eyes of the Jews all in Bloud all as it were one Wound pierced in every part of his Body His Head torn with thorns his Face bruised with buffetings his Shoulders crusht with the weight of that Cross which he first bare before it bare Him His Back plowed up with Whips his Feet and Hands bored with Nails and his very Heart pierced with the point of the Spear I am not able to paint out those dire Sufferings Christ endured in his Body but must draw a Veil over them and leave them to your own Meditations And yet this is but the least part of what our Lord suffered for us that which our bodily eye can discern All this is but the outward piercing and but as it were skin-deep in comparison of the piercing of his 2. Soul For what is the pain of the Body to that of the Soul And this had its piercing too What Simeon said of the Mother by way of Prophecy That a Sword should go through her Soul Luke 2. 35. was more signally verified of the Son of God The Arrows of the Almighty did not only stick in his Flesh but pierced his very Soul through That Bloud which streamed from him in his Agony was not so much the Bloud of his Body as of his very Soul And 't was this piercing which drew that sad and lamentable complaint from Him Matth. 26. 38. My Soul is exceeding sorrowfull even unto death Surely it was the apprehension of somewhat more horrible than either Pain or Death that made him so heavy and sorrowfull of Soul Evils are wont to crucifie the Mind in the expectation rather than in the suffering It is a double misery both to fear and undergo it God hath mercifully provided this ease for our Souls in the often ignorance of things that happen that they streighten not our Thoughts ere they load our Backs Who of us embraceth not Pain before Perplexity How often doe we groan and cry for a ready dispatch in our lingerings Defiring rather to dye than to feel or fear death and live Yet was our Saviour both terrified and crucified Terrified in the apprehension of Wrath and in the perpession of Death crucified Not only the sorrows of Death but the very pains of Hell came about him and God's dereliction was that which made up the greatest part of those pains Mat. 27. 46. My God my God why hast thou forsaken me was That which most tortured Him Christ's Enemies had now mocked scourged pierced Him so that from head to foot every Member was deformed and dislocated yet He opened not his mouth He is silent and patient at all the violence Man offered him He only complains of the absence of his God He bewails not what He feels but what He misses and could have endured any misery that could not abide to want his God And what a loss think we was this to want the presence and favour of God though but for a moment which where it is perpetual does in the judgment of Divines make up the greatest part of Hell But you will say How could God forsake Christ unless Christ forsook Himself Certainly God and Man were so unchangeably so inseperably combined in Him that so strict an Union could not possibly suffer the least Divulsion or Desertion True indeed And therefore the Godhead at this time denied the Manhood not his Person but his Patronage not his Presence but his Protection Divinity here winks and withdraws it self from Humanity that our Lord might now be bereft of all comfort and favour who took upon Him to sustain the wrath of all Well then might his Soul be heavy unto death
charitable as to relieve them The poor wounded Man in the Gospel who fell among Thieves though he found no help from the Priest and Levite that passed by but only from the good Samaritan yet even they went near and lookt upon him Luke 10. 32. We need no other Motive to pity any Lazar that lyes in the streets than his wounds and sores exposed to our view These sensible Arguments usually work upon and soften the hardest Hearts Nay the vilest Malefactors when led to the Scaffold or the Gallows draw Tears from our Eyes though we know they suffer but what they deserve Common humanity inclines us to compassionate them and we consider not then so much who they are as what they are to endure Thus Pilate to move the Jews pity thought it enough to expose Christ to them all bruised and besmeared with Bloud as conceiving that such a fight would stifle their Malice and raise their Compassion towards him This in his opinion was enough to make a Jew relent And can we consider our blessed Lord all bruised as he was for us and not so much as pity him There are three things which usually dispose us to pity suffering persons The greatness of their Misery and the dignity and innocence of their Persons Extraordinary Misery calls for extraordinary Pity towards any but who can behold an innocent and withall a great Person in distress and yet be insensible of it especially when himself is the cause of it Even Herod and Pilate and one of the Thieves too proclaim'd our Lord's innocence they took him for an innocent Man and we who know him to be no less than the Son of God who took upon him the form of a servant and yet humbled himself even to the death of the Cross and that meerly for our sakes ought to melt into Compassion as oft as we reflect on his direfull Sufferings and with St. Paul be crucified with him at least by a most sensible fellow-feeling of what he endured by our procurement that he may not complain of us as he does of those hard-hearted Passengers Lament 1. 12. Have ye no regard all ye that pass by the way Nay since there never was any sorrow like his sorrow nor any Person like Him that endured it our Compassion ought in some measure to bear proportion to that his Sorrow especially since we our selves were the Authors of it And so 2. Ought our Sorrow also to be answerable to his They shall look on him whom they have pierced so look on Him as to be themselves pierced too with sorrow and grief for having pierced Him This in the Original Text Zach. 12. 10. was a Prophecy of what Christ's crucifiers should doe and in the following verse it is said In that day there shall be a mourning in Jerusalem which some construe of the day of God's vengeance upon the Jews for their Sins especially for that of piercing Christ by reason of the Calamities it should bring upon them This is Theodoret and St. Hierom's Interpretation on this place followed by our Dr. Hammond on Revel 1. 7. That when the Jews should see Christ coming with Majesty to execute Vengeance upon his Crucifiers in the day of his visiting Jerusalem they should then though too late bemoan their own folly and madness Which Prophecy so taken is the same with that of our Saviour Matth. 24. 34. Then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in the Heavens and all the Tribes of the Earth shall mourn and with that of St. John Revel 1. 7. Behold he cometh with Clouds and every eye shall see him and they also that pierced him and all kindreds of the Earth shall wail because of him Which last prediction began to be accomplished in that day when Christ came in power to execute Vengeance on Jerusalem by the Roman Army at which time no doubt they experienced that fatal ruine which they had imprecated upon themselves His bloud be upon us and upon our Children Matth. 27. 25. Though the final accomplishment shall not be till the last and great Day of Judgment when He shall come in Person to inflict that heavy Doom of Condemnation not only upon those who actually crucified but upon All that reject Him At which time it is impossible to imagine what weeping wailing and gnashing of teeth what howling and wringing of hands what despair horrour and astonishment what a bitter mourning and lamentation there shall be I could wish this were seriously speedily and sadly thought on by all sorts of impenitent Sinners that as they have their day of sinning God will sooner or later have his day of punishing And as the day of a Sinner's Impenitency is a day of carnal rejoycing so the day of God's vengeance shall be a day of bitter mourning Wo unto you saith our blessed Saviour who now laugh for you shall mourn and weep Luke 6. 25. But although this be an usefull Meditation I conceive that other interpretation to be more genuine and pertinent here which construes this Mourning mentioned in the parallel Text of Zachary not to be penal but penitential Indeed some Expositors glance at the Mourning of the Women which was in the day of our Saviour's Passion when beholding his sorrows their Bowels yearned and their Eyes melted with Tears At which time also others of the Spectators smote their Breasts and were astonished But this Mourning here relates not so much to the Spectators as to the Actors in the Tragedy to those not who saw but who pierced him And since in the fore-cited place of Zach. 12. 10. it is set down as an effect of the Spirit of Grace and Supplication or as some reade it Lamentation which was to be poured out upon them and is mentioned there rather as a Promise than as a Threat It cannot rationally be expounded any otherwise than to intend that godly sorrow which shall in that day in the day of the Jews conversion be expressed by them for so heinous a crime And doe we not find this Prophecy in part accomplished in St. Peter's Auditors when they felt the very Nails and Lance wherewith they had pierced Christ sticking fast in their own hearts and piercing them with horrour For so we reade Acts 2. 37. that at his Sermon they were pricked at their hearts and said unto Peter and unto the rest of the Apostles Men and Brethren what shall we doe The Spirit of Grace was then poured upon them and so at once their Ears Eyes and Hearts were opened to hear reproof to see and bewail their wickedness Nor was it a slight and superficial Sorrow but a great and deep Mourning so deep that it went to their heart and so great that according to the Emphasis of the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there used it was as if the sharpest points of many poysoned Daggers and Scorpion's stings had been all at once fastned in their hearts Thus they who had shed the bloud of
therefore this truth for granted I shall only speak to his Office described here by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies two things 1. A Comforter 2. An Advocate 1. A Comforter and such He was to be 1. To the Apostles themselves 2. To the whole Church 3. To each faithfull Believer 1. To the Apostles themselves It was indeed a seasonable time to talk to them of a Comforter when sorrow and distress were coming upon them and they were to be as sheep without a shepherd They had left all for Christ but while he was with them they found all in Him who was dearer to them than all their possessions While He lived with them their joy and satisfaction was full and compleat but a joy that was to last no longer than his Corporal presence which the Holy Spirit was to supply and that abundantly For although they could no longer have recourse to their Lord for Resolution of Doubts or Protection from Dangers yet should they not want an Oracle to clear the one nor a Sanctuary to secure them from the other The Holy Ghost should both enlighten their Understandings and dispell their Fears Being endewed with power from on high Afflictions themselves should prove Consolations unto them and they should find more satisfaction in their very Sufferings than worldly Men in their highest Enjoyments as we find they did Act. 5. 41. when departing from the presence of the Counsel they rejoyced and that with joy unspeakable that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for Christ's Name But then 2. The Holy Ghost was to be a Comforter not only to the Apostles but to the whole Church of God The Father under the ancient legal Dispensation was a severe Law-giver rewarding Obedience and strictly punishing Rebellion He appeared terrible on Mount Sinai Nothing was to be seen there but Fire and Smoak and thick Darkness Nothing to be heard but Thunder and the Trump of an Angel insomuch that Moses himself trembled and quaked Such an Appearance suiting well with the Promulgation of the Law as denouncing nothing but Woes and Curses to Offenders But under the Gospel-Oeconomy there was another face of things The Son of God while in the Flesh had no such marks of terror and severity attending him more proper to a Creator than a Redeemer He came not with a Rod but in the Spirit of Meekness His condition was a condition of Humility agreeable to one whose Kingdom was not of this World and suitable to his appearance in the Flesh was that of the Holy Ghost whose descent was indeed in Fire but to warm and cherish not to consume In a mighty rushing Wind to represent his divine Power and Efficacy not his Impetuosity 'T was not such a Wind as God came to Elijah in which rent the Mountains and brake the Rocks in pieces The motions of the Holy Spirit are not violent He does not affright those He lights on nor create Fear but Love in that Heart he fills 'T is He that makes us cry Abba Father That begets in us a holy generous Confidence and speaks peace to his People The cords he brings with Him are those of a Man such as chain and captivate Hearts The Oeconomy of the Divine Spirit was to be an Oeconomy of Sweetness and Consolation to the Church becoming the Gospel of Peace and the God of all Consolation 3. The Holy Ghost was to be a Comforter to all true Believers not only as begetting Faith in their Hearts and dispelling that Darkness which naturally possesseth their Understandings but as giving them Peace of Conscience and that unspeakable joy which the World is unacquainted with and cannot take from them Hence He is said to seal them unto the day of their Redemption Ephes. 4. 30. To be the Earnest of their heavenly Inheritance and to make them fore-tast the joys of Heaven here on Earth What comfort what ravishing joys does he still raise in the Souls of all the Faithfull by the apprehension and sense he gives them of the Love of God and that certain hope they have by him of enjoying Him in Heaven Grace is the Paradise of the Soul Holiness its Crown and the assurance it has of God's Love to it the choicest flower of that Crown Nor is he thus only a Comforter to each true Believer but he is so too as his Teacher and another-guess Teacher than Men are to one another For let their Methods of Teaching be never so perspicuous and their care and pains to inform us never so great yet when all is done they cannot communicate unto us either clearness of Apprehension faithfulness of Memory or soundness of Judgment and where they find us dull or stupid all their pains and skill are but thrown away upon us But the Holy Ghost does so teach as withall to change the natural temper and disposition of men's Minds working so upon their Understandings by the clearness and evidence of those Reasons he proposeth that they are not able to resist or stand out against the force of his Demonstrations drawing them to Him in so sweet and yet effectual a manner that although sensible of the effect yet the way of his Attraction is as imperceptible to them as the power thereof is uncontroulable The Manner of the Holy Spirit 's operation on Believers now is very different from that on the Prophets of old which was so forcible that Elisha could not Prophecy without the help of Musick to compose and tune his Spirit But under the Gospel-Dispensation the Holy Ghost deals otherwise with his Servants No such Enthusiasms or Transports here Their Understandings are enlightned without any disturbance to their Bodies They receive the Holy Ghost's Inspirations without the least astonishment or discomposure while he gently glides and descends into them like rain into a fleece of wool in the Prophet David's expression Psal. 72. 6. And thus the Holy Ghost is a Comforter But then 2dly He is withall an Advocate The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly signifies so much one that maintains the Cause of a Criminal or at least of an Accused Person Now the Spirit does so by justifying our Persons and pleading our Causes against the Accusations of our Spiritual Enemies 1. Against the Severity of God's Law and that most righteous undeniable Charge of Sin laid thereby upon us 2dly Against the Devil who we know is styled the Accuser of the Brethren and doth not only load our Sins upon our Consciences but farther endeavoureth to exclude us from the benefit of Christ by charging us with Impenitency and Unbelief Here the Spirit enableth us to clear our selves against this Father of lyes to secure our Title to Heaven against the Sophistical Exceptions of this our subtle Adversary and when by Temptations our Eye is dimmed or by the mixture of Corruptions our Evidences defaced he by his Skill helpeth our infirmities and bringeth those things which are blotted out and forgotten into our
even now Heirs of a kingdom Jam. 2. 5. The wise that shall inherit Glory Prov. 3. 35. Heads destinated to a Diadem in Tertullian's expression which their Heavenly Father hath prepared for and will at last put upon them who alone too makes them fit to wear it meet to be Partakers of the Inheritance of the Saints in light III. How differently soever the Children of God may share in the same Inheritance This is certain that every one's share therein shall be the Gift of his Heavenly Father The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here imports it The Apostle alluding to the Division of the Land of Canaan a Type of Heaven which God had appointed to be done by lot wherein Himself we know had the main hand according to that of Solomon Prov. 16. 33. The lot is cast into the lap but the whole disposition thereof is of the Lord. Thus it was in the Choice of Matthias to the Apostleship Act. 1. And thus it is as to our share in the Inheritance of Glory It falls to us by lot by the disposition of God the Father we have no part here but what he gives us And if so then no merit of Condignity nor so much as of Congruity can be pleaded by us And truly one would think it were sufficient to partake of the Inheritance without making out our own Title to it That we might be content to be Heirs without coming in as Purchasers or if we will needs be so to be Purchasers on Christ's score and not our own But this is too low and mean for some men who come with Counters in their hand ready to reckon with God to shew Him how much he is in their debt and who stick not to tell Him to his face that He is an unjust Master if he pay them not their due wages But 1. Our Lord Himself hath told us That God is beforehand with us That whatsoever we can doe is due from us to Him That when we shall have done all those things which are commanded us we must say that we are unprofitable servants and have done but that which was our duty to doe Luk. 17. 10. And then what merit can there be in paying just debts And 2. St. Paul hath told us That we can doe no good thing without Him too who worketh in us both to will and to doe of his good pleasure Phil. 2. 13. So that He crowns His own gifts in us and rewards not our deservings Besides 3. Our goodness extendeth not to God says David Psal. 16. 2. And being unusefull how can it be meritorious Nay our best works are so imperfect and so sinfull too that the utmost they can expect is but a Pardon and not a Reward And were they never so good and perfect yet what proportion can they bear to such a Reward as an Inheritance in light Our light affliction which is but for a moment to a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory 2 Cor. 4. 17. where we must not let pass an elegant Antithesis For Affliction there is Glory For Light affliction a Weight of glory And for Momentary affliction an Eternal weight of glory to shew the vast disproportion between these things so vast that even Martyrdom it self the highest utmost proof of our love to God is in St. Paul's account nothing in comparison of that Glory we expect For I reckon says he that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us Rom. 8. 18. IV. And lastly The very word Inheritance excludes all Purchase on our part For this were to renounce Succession to cast off all Filial Duty and Affection not to own our selves Sons but mercenary Purchasers yea and Purchasers of an Inheritance already purchased for us by Christ and for his sake freely bestowed upon us by our Heavenly Father out of His own pure Goodness and Bounty to which alone we must ascribe it For we all the best of us have sinned and come short of the glory of God Rom. 3. 23. And we are told ch 6. 23. that The wages of sin our proper wages is death but the gift of God is eternal life The Apostle might have said and indeed the Antithesis or Opposition there seem'd to require it But the wages of Righteousness is eternal life But he altered the Phrase on set-purpose and chose rather to say The gift of God is eternal life That we might from this change of the Phrase learn That although we procure Death unto our selves yet 't is God that bestows eternal life on us That as He hath called us to his kingdom and glory 1 Thess. 2. 12. so he gives that glory and that kingdom for no other reason but because He is pleased so to doe It is your Father's good pleasure for into God the Father's good pleasure Christ resolves it to give you a kingdome Luk. 12. 32. No merit nor so much as any good disposition in us for it He propares it for us Matt. 20. 23. And he prepares us for it too here in the Text by making us meet to be partakers thereof For what meetness could he find in us for such an Inheritance Title to it we have none being by nature the Children of wrath and disobedience Eph. 2. 2 3. Mere Intruders here and Usurpers The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence and we the violent take it by force Mat. 11. 12. Qualifications proper for it we have none too That An Inheritance in light we darkness That An Inheritance incorruptible undefiled and that fadeth not away 1 Pet. 1. 4. we corruptible polluted and still decaying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cries out our Apostle We are not sufficient not fit for the word signifies either as of our selves but our sufficiency or fitness call it which you will is of God 2 Cor. 3. 5. 2 Pet. 1. 4. who as He makes us Partakers of his divine Nature so meet Partakers of the divine Inheritance not by pouring out the divine Essence but by communicating to us those divine Qualities which will fit and prepare us for the Sight thereof by putting light into our Understandings and holiness into our Wills without which no man shall see the Lord Heb. 12. 14. By cleansing our hearts and washing our hands that so we may ascend into the hill of the Lord dwell and rest in his Tabernacle Psal. 15. 24. He gives us Faith and with that a Prospect of our Inheritance and He gives us Hope and with that an Interest therein And to summ up all in one He gives us his Holy Spirit the earnest of that Inheritance Eph. 1. 14. who worketh all our works in us writes his laws in our hearts and by softning makes them capable of his divine Impressions In short That divine Spirit which by Regenerating makes us new Creatures and so fit Inhabitants for the new Jerusalem calling us first to Vertue and then to Glory to that as
are we to those who bequeath them to us And if we think we have reason to be so to Men for such mean Inheritances how much more ought we to be to our Heavenly Father for this Inheritance in light Now since we cannot be thankfull to him for an Inheritance which we are not well assured does belong unto us it will concern us here to try and secure our Evidence and for that we need go no farther than the Text. If as that tells us it be an Inheritance of Saints and an Inheritance in light what Right or Title can we pretend to it without being our selves Saints and Children of the light And if as St. Peter hath described it it be an Inheritance incorruptible and undefiled how can we hope to partake of it unless our Corruptible even here put on Incorruption and we endeavour to be pure as God who is our Inheritance is pure 1 Joh. 3. 3. Heaven is no place for the polluted Into the Heavenly Jerusalem shall in no wise enter any thing that defileth or is defiled Revel 21. 27. Nor will Christ receive any into his Kingdom but whom He shall find when He cometh without spot and blameless 2 Pet. 3. 9. If these things be found in us Innocence Vertue and Holiness of Life an entrance shall then be ministred unto us abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ 2 Pet. 1. 11. And so when St. Peter bids us give diligence to make our calling and election sure 1 Pet. 1. 10. He shews us the way how to doe so and that is by adding to our faith vertue and to vertue knowledge and so on verses 5 6 7. by practising the Vertues of the Moral Law there set down These are the clear Evidences of the Inheritance in light as well as the means to attain it which we are to find in our selves continually and to clear up still fearing lest any of us come short of our Inheritance Heb. 4. 1. If we doe these things we shall never fall Let our Inheritance be as sure as God can make it yet is it not sure to us till our Consciences can bear us witness that we are the Children of God by obeying our Heavenly Father And since he has provided such a glorious Estate for those that doe so how ought we to despise those poor Inheritances He allots us here below in comparison of what He prepares for us above How willing to part with those for that when He requires it and we cannot keep both Heaven will make up all our losses here it will pay for all at last And this is the main Argument the Apostle useth here to persuade the Colossians unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness in the precedent Verse because by outward afflictions God did make them meet to be partakers of such an Inheritance in light as could not be taken from them as their Earthly Ones daily were by Heathens Tyrants and Oppressors That with other Saints of God they should take joyfully the spoiling of their goods knowing in themselves that they had in Heaven a better and an enduring substance Lastly As God the Father first makes us meet to be partakers of the Inheritance of the Saints in light so when he has once made us meet by his Grace let us endeavour by the assistance of that Grace still to make our selves meeter always blessing and thanking him as for all sorts of Blessings he bestows upon us so in an especial manner for this in the Text for the blessed hope and assurance he gives his Saints of partaking one day of such an Inheritance as is All Blessedness Here He crumbles his Blessings unto us we have them here by Retail In Heaven we shall have them all in a lump and that for ever All the satisfactions and enjoyments of this present life are so thin empty and comfortless that we have need of patience to be able to endure them The Prophet David found them so and had He not had a prospect of far better things as a Cordial to cheer up and enliven his Heart it would quite have failed him I should utterly have fainted but that I believe verily to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living Psal. 27. 15. Let this Faith bear up our drooping spirits as it did his And let our Thoughts continually dwell on Heaven and on the Happiness we shall there enjoy when we shall come into the City of the living God the Heavenly Jerusalem to an innumerable Company of Angels to the general Assembly and Church of the first-born which are written in Heaven and to God the Judge of All and to the Spirits of just Men made perfect who now partake of the Inheritance in light To which blessed Society God bring us all Amen Soli Deo gloria in aeternum A SERMON Preached on the Fifth of NOVEMBER St. Matt. VII the former part of v. 16. Ye shall know them by their fruits THE main design of Satan as it hath ever been the same to ruin the Church of God so his arts and methods to compass it have been various and different Sometimes he hath endeavoured to destroy her by force otherwhiles to undermine her by subtlety His first attempt was to crush her in the Birth and the second Man that ere was born dy'd a Martyr Ever since the Church has been an Acheldama a Field of Bloud and its Kalendar markt all along with Red letters the profession of truth having still been fatal as to its Author so to all his followers in succeeding Ages distinguishable not so much by the several Reigns of Heathen Emperors as those various storms that in their times have fallen upon Christians 2. But as these storms were ever blown away by the breath of God and Satan by strictly winnowing the Church gat nothing thereby but his own tares when he saw that Phoenix grew fruitfull from her own ashes and the fertile bloud of her Martyrs did but bring her in a larger harvest of Proselytes He then shifted the Scene laid aside those terrible Arguments of Racks and Gibbets to compell Men to come into his Kingdom and took up other more plausible and insinuative the allurements and blandishments of this World to baffle them out of the rewards of another thinking by out-bidding Christ to gain a more numerous party to himself wherein how successfull he has been the frequent Apostasies of Men in all Ages do abundantly testifie 3. Lastly As he met with some of a stouter and wiser temper than to be prevail'd on by either of these Methods Men not to be beaten off from their Profession by threats nor drawn away from it by such mean hopes as this World could afford them His subtlest policy has been to work upon their Judgments to deprave their Understandings by poysoning the very Fountains of Knowledge the Scriptures To which end he made choice of corrupt Teachers as the most proper
the advantage of his Maker 4. A fourth strange opinion of theirs was a fancy they had of a temporal flourishing Messiah which serv'd to promote their carnal ambition by filling their heads with designs of worldly grandeur and begetting a contempt in them of and hatred to all other Nations while they look'd upon themselves as the only true Subjects of their mis-shapen Messiah and on all others as Rebels to Him and consequently such as they were obliged to persecute with Fire and Sword and by force of Arms to compel to come into his kingdom and so to prepare the way of the Lord as we see our modern Chiliasts have attempted hating all foreign Princes as Usurpers and deeming it no better than a sinfull Vassalage to stoop to a Heathen Sceptre and dispensing with their oaths and obligations upon the accompt of their Religion and Customs which was the ground of their frequent Rebellions especially against the Roman Emperors and of the final Ruine of their State and Religion I might here give you in a larger Catalogue of other their erroneous doctrins Concerning their over-strict observation of the Sabbath Of an Astronomical Destiny and Fatality held by them Of Vows of Continency though not perpetual Of the necessity of Washing Cups and Pots with a farrago of more ridiculous and burthensome Ceremonies as Abstaining from certain kinds of Meats as naturally unclean though God himself had not prohibited the use of them and many such like Fopperies their Talmud is stuff'd with which is nothing else but a Shop and Legend of such Impertinences But by those main doctrines I have mentioned and which are indeed of the very essence and constitution of a Pharisee 't is easie to discover their design and drift how full of impiety they were tending to the disparaging of God's Laws and the weakning of that Obedience which was due to them and men's too and to the fomenting of hypocrisie superstition and rebellion the natural conclusions of such false and dangerous premises 2. Nor did their Actions bely their Principles If we look into their carriage we shall find there nothing but Hypocrisie a mere form of godliness without the power of it Painted Sepulchres they were offering to the purblind view of men the scum and outside of their nobility and merit in the large characters of Marble Statues Heraldry and Epitaphs while they entertained the all-piercing eye of God with the nasty prospect of a Charnel-house For such they were cramm'd with the bodies of those martyr'd Prophets whose bones they so hypocritically enshrin'd Bodily worship which is but the rinde and bark of Religion was the main of the Pharisees sanctity which usually concluded like the Turkish Lents after the vizarded austerity of a few spare hours in nightly Bacchanals They would not fast without a smeared or disfigured Face nor give alms without a Trumpet nor pray without Witnesses and vain repetitions Strict observers they were of the mint and cummin and as great neglectors of the weightier matters of the law judgement mercy and truth They could strain at a Gnat and swallow a Camel were so much for Sacrifice that they neglected Charity observed the Sabbath but had no Love laying heavy loads on others which themselves would not touch with one of their fingers God had charged them to bind the Law to their hand and before their eyes meaning thereby the meditation and practice of it and they extended the dimensions of their Philacteries to fill the gazing eyes of the People bearing them not in their hearts and lives but in their foreheads hands and heels also as whipt and branded Malefactors have no more of Law than what is legible in red letters of Justice on their backs or fists In a word all they aimed at in their works of Charity was to be seen and get glory of men to make clean the outside of the platter and draw near unto God with their lips when their hearts were far from him This is the description our Saviour gives of their Hypocrisie Nor was their Ambition less in affecting the Title of Rabbi's and greeting in the markets the highest seats in the Synagogues and the chief rooms at feasts This was their carnal and their spiritual Pride which is worse was as great while their enthron'd righteousness lookt down on the integrity of all the World besides as its footstool They were not as other men true indeed for they were much worse for this very reason because they thought themselves so much better And upon this accompt they avoided all communication with any but those of their own Tribe They would not board with a Samaritan or a Publican falling foul with Christ for tasting of their bread a crime as bad with them as to eat Swines-flesh herein shewing themselves the true Successors of those in the Prophet Esay 65. 5. whose Motto 't was Stand a-part Come not near me for I am holier than thou And thus we find the Pharisee praying by himself leaving the despised Publican in the utmost Porch of the Peoples Court whom he brands with the odious contemptible name of This Publican Uncharitableness being the natural brat of Pride and none more ready to spy a mote in another's eye than he who has a beam in his own To their Hypocrisie and Pride I may add their excessive Covetousness and Extortion charg'd upon them which was so unsatiable that their throat was an open Sepulchre swallowing up whole Widows houses and the Estates of Orphans dress'd in the poynant Sawce of their owners Tears and eaten with their leavened Bread of deceit in a traiterous Executorship And what was their Corban but an art to fill their Treasury by cheating Parents of their due upon the score of Religion Or what were all their subtle arts to gain and uphold a Party but Interest Wherein their blind zeal and industry did vye with their policy compassing Sea and Land to make but one Proselyte who when they had made him such would be sure to be twofold more the child of Hell than themselves As Renegadoes among the Turks exceed the Natural Turks in their hatred and malice to Christians and for that reason have priviledges above the Natives And indeed 't is hard to say which was greater their Malice or Cruelty to those who refused to subscribe to such dictates as they Magisterially delivered out of Moses's Chair which were to be received as infallible Oracles Of such invincible Incredulity too that though they continually required Signs and Miracles yet none though as clear as light could convince them so far were they from believing Christ that they were most jealous lest any others should doe so Doe any of the Pharisees believe on him Joh. 7. 48. Nay Were there not many that durst not confess him lest they should be cast out of their Synagogues Thus would they neither enter into the kingdom of Heaven themselves nor suffer
crosseth the very end and design of his Coming into the world and is expresly contrary to his Doctrine and Example 2. Because it is a very improper way to advance Religion by And 3. Such as does not serve their purpose who make use of it which is To gain Proselytes to their Cause 1. I say It crosseth the very end c. For as God the Father was not in the whirlwind but in the still voice so his Son 's coming into the world is said to be like rain coming down into a fleece of wooll scarce to be heard He shall not strive nor cry neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets says the Prophet Esay speaking of Christ ch 42. v. 1. His behaviour was to be mild and gentle not boisterous and clamorous such a way becoming Him who was the Prince of Peace whose business it was to reconcile men to God and to themselves and who came not to destroy men's lives but to save them He tells us indeed in one place that He came not to send peace on earth but a sword Matt. 10. 34. or as it is in St. Luke ch 12. v. 51. divisions yea and such divisions as should set a man at variance against his father and the daughter against her mother v. 35. that is He foresaw what would be the event of his coming That the nearest Relations would hate and persecute one another to death upon the score of Religion That different pretences thereunto would separate those whom nature and bloud had most closely link'd together That none here would pardon less than they who were by nature obliged to love most And we see how sharp-edged this Sword has always proved even to the cutting asunder all natural and civil tyes and obligations so that a man's greatest foes are many times those of his own houshold Now this was no natural but an accidental effect of Christ's coming and of that Doctrine He brought with Him whose proper character it is to be pure and then peaceable Jam. 3. 17. mild and gentle not like the Law a killing letter much less like Draco's Laws writ in bloud but admirably fitted for the perfecting men's Natures and the sweetning of their Tempers and Spirits and calculated for the peace and order of the World which how inconsistent it is with those violent ways of Excommunications and Murthers some Men practice against such as differ from them never so little in opinion in matters of Religion I cannot see Nor indeed can I find any thing in the Gospel in the Doctrine or Practice either of Christ Himself or of his Apostles to authorize or countenance any such violent proceedings but enough to condemn them When an enemy had sown Tares in the field and some over-hasty people were presently for plucking them up our Lord we see forbids them and will have them both grow up together till the harvest when God should make the separation Matth. 13. 28 29 30. So when the Disciples would call down fire from Heaven to consume the Samaritans who were both Schismaticks and Hereticks He checks them for it telling them That they knew not what Spirit they were of Luk. 9. 54 55. That however the doing so might suit with the firey temper of Elias it did not at all with that of his Disciples It is not for Christianity to assume a power to inflict itself nor is it commissionated to plant it self with violence or to destroy all that refuse or oppose it If it be to be writ in bloud 't is in that of its own Confessors only as it was in that of its Author whose practice was as mild and gentle herein as his doctrine For when some of his Disciples being scandalized at the eating of his flesh went back and walked no longer with Him which was direct Apostasie does He use any menaces or force to reduce them No He leaves them to themselves and only cautions his Disciples to beware of their pernicious Example by gently expostulating with them Will ye also go away Joh. 6. 67. And when He afterward sent out those his Disciples to convert the World He sent them forth as Lambs among Wolves Luk. 10. 3. which does not found like a Commission to tear and worry them that would not come into the flock but rather to be torn and worried by them Their Commission was to preach the Cross not to inflict it And when any City would not receive their Doctrine all they were to doe in such a case was only to shake off the dust of their feet against it That is to suffer nothing of theirs to cleave unto them to have nothing more to doe with them but to leave them to their own ways and to God's judgment How well our Modern Apostles have copied out this Doctrine and these Examples I leave it to all the World to judge Surely those qualifications which St. Paul requires in the servants of the Lord not to strive but to be gentle unto all men and in meekness to instruct those that oppose themselves 2 Tim. 2. 24 25. are not to be found in them who now call themselves Converters who carry the Gospel in one hand and a Sword in the other That if Men will not receive That into their Heads They shall be sure to have This sheath'd in their Bowels 2. But this as it is a most unchristian so is it a very improper way to advance Religion by it being impossible to settle That by violence which cannot be forc'd and where 't is forc'd 't is not Religion The Understandings and Wills of Men are not to be bound with the same fetters their Bodies are The Apostle indeed says There is a way of bringing every thought into Captivity to the obedience of Christ but he tells us withall that the weapons by which that victory is obtained are not carnal 2 Cor. 10. 4. One may as well invade and think to get a conquest over thoughts and chain up a mind as force a Man to will against his own will Not whole Armies can besiege ones Reason nor Cannons batter his Will Religion is seated in those Faculties to which outward force can have no access The Sword hath no Propriety that way Silence it may but it can never convince and rather breed an aversion and abhorrence of that Religion whose first address is in bloud and rapine For 3ly It is certain that all compulsion here gains nothing to any Cause but the infamy of those rigours that are used to promote it Outward force may make a Man more a Hypocrite than he was before but never more a Convert It may tye up his Tongue or his Hand not change his Heart make him perhaps dissemble his Opinion but never constrain him to alter it And what is the advantage that is got by such Proselytes who shall still bear an Enemies heart towards those who force them outwardly to profess what inwardly they abhor and to be of their