this comparison when he clearly discerns and firmly judges of all these things as this comparison represents them when he applies this judgment to every instance of life and action is it not an effectual principle to restrain him from every wilful sin to urge and press him to every duty will he chuse what is no way recommended and refuse what is represented to him under all the motives to choice and practice No man chuses or doth amiss but he that is ignorant or forgetful either in the nature of good and evil or in the effects and issues of them If there be nothing of this in the case let the charms of the world entice to evil he knows they are deceits and vanities and cannot believe what he knows is false nor be cheated by what he doth not believe Let the dreads and calamities of the world encomber and perplex his duties he reckons as the Apostle speaks that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us Rom. 8.18 This gives him courage strength and patience and makes him chuse afflicted innocence rather than guilty and short prosperity Insomuch that all the great examples of the highest and the noblest vertues all these victories over the world and all its troubles and adversities that are recorded in Sacred History all the great things that have been done all the great things that have been suffered for the advancement of Truth and Piety have sprung from a setled resolution grounded upon stable judgment never to vary from Gods will and the way to everlasting happiness So Moses esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Aegypt Heb. 11.16 So Christ himself for that joy that was set before him endured the Cross despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God Heb. 12.2 And so did his first and faithful followers for the securing of their innocence and the rewards thereunto belonging patiently endure all their sufferings as knowing that their light affliction which was but for a moment wrought for them a far more exceeding and an eternal weight of glory 2 Cor. 4.17 Thus is the approbation of things excellent that is a clear and stable judgment in all the duties of the Gospel as there declared and recommended not only a perfect cure and remedy of all the diseases of our minds to wit Ignorance Doubt and Vanity but also a constant guide and monitor in the whole course of our lives in the World Which being so 2. Let us now consider what are the means of attaining to it the second head before propounded 1. And here I shall not need to say that since every good and perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of lights Jam. 1.17 it must be sought of God by prayer Men may be rich and great and powerful meerly by the permission of Providence by practices not allow'd by God by fraud and injury and oppression But no man is wise unto salvation but by the special grace of God nor doth he give this special grace but where it is diligently sought of him which was the reason why St Paul so often puts it into his Prayers that God would bless men with this wisdom So he prays for Timothy that God would give him understanding in all things 2 Tim. 2.7 for the Ephesians That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of glory would give unto them the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him Eph. 1.17 for the Colossians that they might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding Col. 1.9 and lastly for the Philippians here that there love might abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment that they might approve the things that are excellent from all which prayers to God for wisdom for sound judgment in all our duties as represented in the Gospel we learn that it is the gift of God and to be sought by fervent Prayer especially seeing that God hath promised to give his spirit to them that ask him and that in a promise confirmed by an argument drawn from common and known experience for so is that Luke 11.13 If ye then being evil know how to give good gifts to your Children how much more shall your heavenly Father give his Holy Spirit to them that ask him 2. Nor shall I need to put you in mind that to our Prayers for the illumination of Gods grace something of industry must be joyned in the study both our of duties themselves and the motives that recommend them to us And yet in truth both these things are partly so written upon our hearts and since the revelation of the Gospel so expresly declared to us that we need not weary or waste our bodies nor vex and torment our understanding to gain the knowledge of either of them We need not now as St. Paul tells us say in our hearts who shall ascend into Heaven That is to bring down Christ from above to reveal the mind of God to us Or who shall descend into the deep that is to bring up Christ again from the dead that he may confirm that Revelation both these things are already done so that now as the Apostle adds Rom. 10.8 9. The word is high thee even in thy mouth and in thy heart that is the word of faith which we preach that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved Where we see the Apostle takes it for granted that he that firmly believed the Gospel could scarce fail in the very practice much less in the knowledge and approbation of what is necessary to salvation so clearly are all our duties revealed and so effectually recommended in the Gospel 3. So that what is now mainly requisite to gain a clear and stable judgment in the good and perfect will of God is so much antecedent probity so much sincerity towards God as that we are willing to do his will when it shall be made known unto us and wonder not that this should be requisite for the gaining of stable judgment in it for this is no more than the very belief that there is a God may produce in every man so believing If a man have nothing of inclination to do Gods will when he shall know it why should God reveal it to him or supposing what is so indeed that he hath revealed it in the Gospel yet how unapt a man is to believe what he is resolved not to practise and what if believed and not practised will be a perpetual anguish to him How easie is it in this case when the interests of powerful lusts and passions bribe and corrupt the understanding for a man to prevaricate with himself and baffle and cheat his own mind But where there
ends wherein the best and wisest men shall be esteemed the very worst superstitious cold and formal men by those that are zealous in some Faction and know no Religion but that zeal because such times as these may be it is safest to content our selves in gaining those rewards and blessings that are peculiar to Religion the testimony of a good Conscience and life eternal in the World to come 3. And then lastly Because hypocrisie is so deceitful and sly a sin as always serving worldly interest which is apt insensibly to blind the eyes and infatuate the minds of the wisest men and yet hide it self from them themselves it will concern us to be very frequent and impartial in the examination of our selves to weigh our counsels to try our ends to prove our designs in every action relating any way to Religion It will be needful to consider whether we indeed design it really intend to promote and practise it whereever we make a profession of it And then because that God alone knows the heart and because his Grace is most needful to discover our selves unto our selves in the midst of the many sins and passions that may infatuate and beguile us let us earnestly pray for his Holy Spirit to deliver us from all the infatuations and all the seductions of our lusts Let us make the Address which David did Psal 139.22 24. with whose words I shall conclude Search me O God and know my heart try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting The Eleventh Sermon John 14.1 Ye believe in God believe also in me The whole verse is thus Let not your heart be troubled ye believe in God believe also in me THESE words are a preface to a very large and kind discourse made by our Lord unto his followers wherein he delivers the main foundations of Christianity as well in matter of Faith as Practice which is the reason why he begins it with such words as might effectually stir them up to give both attention and belief to all that he should deliver in it Ye believe in God believe also in me In which words we have two parts 1. A concession or supposition Ye believe in God that is ye believe that there is a God and what is consequent hereupon that he is to be trusted and obeyed although some others read the words not as a Declaration Ye believe in God but as a Command Believe in God but there is no reason to depart from our own Translation in this matter 2. Here is a Precept also Believe in me that is to say believe that I am the Son of God sent by him into the world to reveal the Gospel of life eternal and therefore judge your selves obliged to believe whatsoever I reveal and obey whatsoever I command you Now being that belief in Christ in the sence I have now explained unto you is here required as an addition or further accession to the mere belief in God only as he may be known by the light of nature The Subject which the Words before us offer to our consideration is That the belief of Christian Doctrine as it is revealed to us in the Gospel over and above that knowledge of God which the light of Nature affords unto us is necessary to our eternal happiness In the prosecution of which Point 1. I must first consider That the firm belief of the Gospel of Christ is most expresly required by God and the denial of such belief forbidden under no less a penalty than the utter loss of life eternal Salvation is always promised to them who believe in him who hath revealed it and become his Followers and Disciples to other persons it is not promised As Moses lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness so must the Son of man be lifted up that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life Joh. 3.14 15. Nor is it only promised to those and those only that so believe but denied to them that believe not to them that refuse to yield their belief to him whom God hath sent and sanctified to be the Saviour of the World He that believeth on him is not condemned but he that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God And so again omitting several other places of the same sense and signification in the first Epistle of St John chap. 5. ver 10. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself he that believeth not God hath made him a Lyar because he believeth not the Record that God gave of his Son Thrice did God bear this Record and owne our Lord to be sent by him by an express voice from Heaven once at his Baptism in these words Matt. 3.17 This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased A second time at his transfiguration upon the mount with some addition to those words Matt. 15.5 This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased hear ye him And yet again a third time a little before our Saviours passion when praying to God in these words Father glorifie thy name he was answered by a voice from Heaven saying I have both glorified it and will glorifie it again John 12.28 To all which clear and express testimonies given by the Father to his Son I might first add the glorious miracles wrought by Christ during his life then his resurrection from the dead and the effusion of his Spirit upon the Apostles sent by him and all the miracles wrought by them and all his other followers also which being evident demonstrations that he was the very son of God and sent by him to save the World highly aggravate the great sin of infidelity and unbelief and teach us to forbear to wonder that it should be punished with death eternal and that Christ himself should thus pronounce Mark 16.16 He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned 2. But then secondly lest you should think that God will have us believe the Gospel meerly because he will have it so and that he had no further end in the truth therein revealed unto us than that we should believe them only I further add that the belief of those truths is greatly necessary to several ends of infinite moment and importance 1. For the full and perfect knowledge of the duties which he requires from us 2. For the like knowledge of the great motions to those duties 3. For our better support under all our tryals fears and dangers 1. The belief of the great truths revealed unto us in the Gospel is necessary for the perfect knowledge of the duties which God requires from us and that upon several considerations namely 1. because that though the light of nature well improved may in some measure direct us to very many of them yet
this he accepts also This is really prayer in Faith in belief of the promises God hath made and certainly God accepts such prayer This is a prayer put up to God with devour and humble and holy affections for so I state the nature of it and such was that the Apostle required Eph. 6.18 and therefore supposed to be grateful to God and so will every one believe who knows that the heart is in such prayer and that it is the heart which God requires And to say no more such prayer as this although it doth not proceed from an immediate Inspiration a present dictate of the holy Spirit yet is it the mediate effect of the Spirit as being the effect of that Faith that Hope that Love and Charity and Humility which is the fruit of the Spirit of God It is the fruit of these Graces and. whatsoever else is of the same nature and these are the fruits of the Spirit of God Gol. 5.22 23. 2. The second thing which I must observe concerning this way of praying by the Spirit is that it is applicable to a form of prayer The words of Scripture are a form of words and will any men say that he cannot read or hear those words read unto him and heartily believe what he hears or reads and be as heartily affected with it If he cannot do this let him confess that he doth not believe the Word of God when he hears it read and that he is nothing affected with is but if he will not confess this let him confess that faith and zeal faith and pious and holy affections may be applied to a form of words and consequently to a form of prayer 2. Most of those persons who disallow a form of Prayer and thanksgiving to God allow and practise a certain form in singing Psalms and what are such Psalms but certain forms of Praying and rendering thanks to God and if men can heartily pray to God in verse or meeter why not in prose as well as in verse 3. All the Protestant Churches of other Nations all the Christians Churches in the World have set forms for their publick Offices and so hath the whole Church had for fourteen hundred Years at least and therefore certainly it was and is the sense of the universal Church not only that it was very lawful but most expedient and useful also that the publick Offices of the Church should be performed in a set form and that men might pray in a set form and pray by the spirit at the same time that is to say in Faith and Hope and with holy and devout affections 4. Add hereunto that there are divers forms of Prayer expresly prescribed in the holy Scripture a form of benediction whereby the Priest was to bless the People Numb 6.23 24 25 26. a form for the offering of the First-fruits Deut. 26.5 6. c. That David composed many of the psalms as the titles of them expresly shew to be used as publick forms of Prayer in the solemn worship of God in the Temple That our Saviour himself gave that which is called the Lords Prayer as a form of Prayer to his Disciples according to the custome of the Jewish Doctors and John the Baptist who did the like for their Disciples Now had it not been a possible thing for men to use a form of Prayer with faith and zeal and holy affections as every man always ought to pray we should have had no forms of Prayer expresly prescribed in the holy Scripture 5. And to conclude the present point were not faith and zeal and devout affections applicable to a form of Prayer no man could heartily joyn in a Prayer which he hears uttered by another person for all such prayers whatsoever they be to him that speaks are certain forms to them that hear them to them they as are limited forms when they are spoken as if they had been printed and read for the words are still the very same and all the sense contained in them And so I conclude the second observation that is that a man may pray by the spirit that is in Faith and holy Zeal and pray by a Form at the same time 3 I must further observe unto you that as the way of Praying by the Spirit is applicable to a form of Prayer so that it ought in very truth to be applied to every Prayer we make to God whether it be with or without a form God hears no Prayers accepts no service offered to him where there is no attention of mind no Zeal and Affection in the heart It is a great neglect of God a dangerous irreverence to our Maker not to attend to what we speak or what is spoken in our name when we make our addresses to him by Prayer doth any man speak unto a Prince not minding what he speaks unto him doth any man make an address to a King without giving heed to his own address and if we judge it a great irreverence to speak to a Prince without attending to what we speak what shall we judge of that affront men do to God when they atend not to those Prayers which they themselves offer to God or are offered by others in their names in their presence and behalf And then for Faith and Zeal and Fervour these are the very life of Prayer Prayer is but sound and noise without them Men may pray and pray acceptably where they do not utter express words Rom. 8.26 but the most excellent words in the World are not true and real Prayer where there is nothing of desire nothing of affection added to them Confess your faults one to another faith S. James cap. 5.16 and pray one for another that ye may be healed The effectual fervent Prayer of a righteous man avai leth much 'T is the fervent Prayer that is effectual the effectual Prayer that is useful to us and who can wonder that God should not hear those Petitions which are void of affection and desire if we our selves neglect our Prayers those very Prayers we seem to make how much more will God neglect them why should he grant what we our selves do not desire especially since it is an affront a mocking of God to ask of him what in truth we do not really desire what we have no mind to receive from him which is indeed the very case when our Prayers have nothing of attention nothing of zeal and affection in them What then shall we say to all that coldness all that remisness which appears in our publick and solemn worship of God By this we lose those spiritual joys those sensible warmths and feeling comforts which always attend fervent Prayer and tend to the strengthning of Faith and Hope and all other Virtues and Christian Graces By this we fail of Gods acceptance and of gaining the things we ask of him By this we give scandal to other persons who take occasion from our remissness and want of zeal in our
this end that it be a hope of the very happiness God hath promised unless it expect that happiness upon those terms and no other whereupon 't is promised in tha Gospel and those are faith working by love those are as God himself declares to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in the world Whence that of the Author to the Hebrews Chap. 12. vers 14. Follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. he that hopes for happiness without these terms cannot by virtue of that hope be any way moved to practise these so far is such a hope as that from moving men unto their duties that it gives them the very greatest encouragement to live in the perfect neglect of them What need they to deny themselves and their vicious appetite and desires What need they to offer any violence to their sinful lusts and inclinations Why should they part with a right hand why should they pluck out a right eye forego the pleasure lose the profit of any lust if they can hope for eternal Glory in the fruition of their lusts and reconcile the hopes of Heaven with all the desires of flesh and blood and soft indulgence to those desires From whence I conclude that that hope which purges the hearts and lives of men must be a hope of that happiness that God hath promised upon those terms and those only whereupon 't is promised in the Gospel 3. And yet further we must observe that it is only a firm assurance of arriving at that eternal happinefs upon the performance of those terms that shall enable us to perform them Conjecture is too weak a thing to overcome those strong temptations that dare men into sin and folly No man will deny himself what he feels to gratifie his sensual appetites at the present upon meer guess of what may possibly be hereafter Strong desires are not subdued by weak hopes Men will not deny their present ease their present pleasures their present joys though never so contrary to the Gospel upon meer probabilities and peradventures they will be sure of something future before they part with what they have they will be sure of something better before they forsake what they feel or apprehend to be good and useful at the present And it was want of this assurance in the Philosophy of former days that made its Precepts and Institutions so ineffectual in the World and so Lactantius then observed Omnia ibi conjecturis aguntur ideo nemo paret quia nemo vult in incertum laborare Philosophy affords but meer conjecture in the point of suture life and happiness and therefore no man observes its precepts because no man will labour at all adventures From whence I conclude that that hope which shall effectually perswade with men to obey the Precepts of our Lord to cleanse themselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit must be a firm and strong assurance of gaining the happiness God hath promised upon the terms that he requires sincere obedience to his Precepts 4. But now because it is impossible for flesh and blood in this degenerate state of man and in the midst of these temptations which daily assault him in this state sincerely to obey those Precepts without the assistance of Gods Spirit there is yet a further qualification that is required in that hope which shall enable us so to do which is that it wholly grounds it self upon the promise of Gods grace and moves a man to apply to God for the assistance and help thereof in the purifying of his heart and life Nature will never raise it self to a supernatural state of life or to a supernatural end Man is of the earth earthy and in no capacity so to elevate his own thoughts so to advance his own desires as to prepare and fit himself for that happiness which lies in likeness to God himself in perfect purity and incorruption without the assistance of Gods grace And therefore that hope must of necessity be successless must fail to cleanse and purge our hearts to purifie us as God is pure which shall not be so far instructed as to teach us to apply to God for the assistance of his Spirit in a work above the power of Nature But now to recollect the summ of what I have said upon this point that hope which fixes on that happiness which God hath promised in the Gospel consisting in purity and immortality which is a hope of this happiness upon those terms and those only whereupon it is there promised to us which is a firm and full assurance of that happiness upon the performance of those terms which grounds it self upon the assistance of Gods Spirit in that performance and therefore moves to apply to God by fervent prayer for the attaining of that assistance which is never denied when so desired that is the hope the Apostle intends in these words that is the hope that purifies us as God is pure Which leads me to the second general 2. Where I am to shew the several ways whereby it hath these effects upon us and these I refer to two particulars 1. This hope moves and excites to strong endeavours in order unto this end namely the purifying of our selves 2. It is of such a nature as cannot but render those endeavours truly effectual unto that end 1. It moves to strong endeavours in order unto this great design which is the purifying of our selves from all our inordinate lusts and passions and the reason is because it hath firmly fixed the soul upon future glory and immortality as its only happiness and perfection the only thing that is fit or worthy to be made the end and design of life and also fixt and setled this as a most sure and certain truth that the purifying of a mans heart and life according to the Laws of Christ is the only and certain way of attaining to that bliss and happiness God hath made us all of such a nature that we cannot forbear to love our selves nor can that creature forbear to desire his own happiness that cannot forbear to love himself nor can the desires of that enjoyment wherein a man hath placed his happiness cease to urge and press endeavours in order to the attainment of it Suppose we then that a man believe that true happiness lies in the purity and immortality that God hath promised in his Kingdom suppose he believe that a holy life is the only means to attain this happiness suppose these things fixed and setled upon his heart by the operation of Gods Spirit can we imagine but that the hope of such an end should most effectually excite and move him to purifie himself as God is pure Will he not be content to resist his sinful lusts and appetites subdue his inordinate inclinations in consideration of such a happiness Will he not be content to deny himself all the unlawful joys
And now to conclude with some reflections upon the words 1. If every man that hath this hope purifie himself as God is pure then first of all hence it appears that whosoever doth not this whosoever indulges his sinful lusts hath not really that hope as it hath been described unto you he either hopes for nothing at all after this life or for another kind of happiness than that is which God hath promised or to gain it without a holy life or so to live without the assistance of Gods grace and application to God for it or he reels and staggers in his hope and is not firm and stable in it Some or other of these defects do always attend that hope which doth not purifie and reform the lives and hearts and spirits of men and that which I take to be the general and great defect in those that profess the Christian Faith is that they hope for life eternal without performing those conditions whereupon it is promised in the Gospel namely repentance and reformation Although there be scarce one single page in the whole Gospel wherein it is not expresly said or clearly implied that no man shall ever be admitted into eternal bliss and glory who doth not yield sincere obedience to Christs precepts and purifie himself as God is pure yet will they not see what is most visible they will not believe what is revealed they will trust to a fruitless liveless Faith or to some Penances and Satisfactions and Commutations made with God doing what he hath not required instead of what he hath commanded No perswasions shall prevail to move and excite them to do this no reasons arguments or demonstration no not the express words of God that it is necessary to be done or to forbear to censure them as enemies to the grace of God who do with clear and express Scripture shew the absolute necessity of it They blindly and wilfully shut their eyes to the light that shines as clear as day in the very Oracles of God himself and so they stumble and fall and perish and brand and revile all those persons who refuse to erre and perish with them 2. But secondly if every man that hath the hope before described purifie himself as God is pure Hence we learn the great advantage the Gospel gives us for the purifying of our hearts and lives For it hath given the firmest reasons to settle that very hope upon and qualifie it with the very conditions which may make it useful and efficacious to purge and cleanse us from all filthiness of flesh and spirit The Gospel hath promised eternal glory upon these conditions and no other it hath also promised the Spirit of God to them that ask it to enable them to yield sincere obedience to Christs precepts that is to perform those conditions The Gospel hath given firm foundations of that true and powerful hope which where it is never fails to purge the impure to humble the proud to soften the hard and bring them to eternal happiness 3. But what then what if the Gospel have done this done it to infinite satisfaction to all that believe and entertain it Why then take heed of departing from the living God by an evil heart of unbelief Take heed lest a promise being left you of entring into eternal rest any of you should come short of it Fix your hope on eternal glory but hope not for it on other terms than those whereupon it is promised to you than in obedience to our Lord than in conformity to Gods image than in mitation of that God of whom you expect and hope for it Fix and settle this kind of hope in the very bottom of your hearts and when you have done use it in every part of your lives and live by the power and virtue of it Ask its counsel in all the temptations that any forbidden joys or pleasures any unlawful gains or profits offer to you and it will confute and resist them all it will not suffer you to embrace a trifle a shadow a perishing vanity instead of eternal life and glory Ask its counsel in all the temptations whereby the dangers of the world may attempt your innocence and integrity and it will resist them also and make you chuse rather to suffer the greatest evils in this life with patience courage and perseverance in your duties than lose your part in Gods Kingdom It will subdue and overcome all the inordinate desires and appetites of the fruitions of this world It will remove the fears and dreads of all its sufferings and calamities It will make you sober just and holy It will make you wise and strong and patient It will establish you in obedience and place and settle you in that Kingdom which is in righteousness peace and joy in the Holy Ghost The Eighth Sermon Galat. 5.13 Ye have been called unto liberty only use not your liberty for an occasion to the flesh ALthough the Law given by Moses was so heavy a yoke upon the Jews that they themselves who were otherwise apt to glory in it sometimes complained of the burden of it saying What a weariness is it Malach. 1.13 Yet were there some of the very Gentiles and these converted to Christianity who were willing enough to embrace that yoke which the Jews themselves were not able to bear S. Paul had no sooner planted the Gospel amongst the Galatians a Colony of Gauls seated in Asia but there arose some false Apostles amongst these Converts to Christianity who taught the necessity of Circumcision pretending they could not be saved without it and so fuccessful was this attempt as strong pretences use to be upon ignorant and unsetled minds that the Galatians began to waver and yield themselves to the importunity of those that opposed the Apostles Doctrine Upon this account he stirs them up to stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free and that they should not suffer themselves to be intangled again with the yoke of bondage v. 1. of this Chapter And because they might judge that Circumcision was less troublesom and more needful than the other Rites of Moses his Law he assures them that they that submitted themselves to that institution of the Law left all the advantages of the Gospel Behold I Paul say unto you That if ye be circumcised Christ shall profit you nothing v. 2. And this he proves in the next words For I testifie again to every man that is circumcised that he is a debtor to the whole Law that is to say to all the rest of its ritual Precepts and to the penal Sanction it self in all its rigour and severity and therefore no gainer by the Gospel And having shewed in the following verses what is the summ of Christianity namely faith working by love having perswaded them to persist in the Faith which he himselfe had taught them having sharply censured the false Apostles who laboured to pervert that Faith he adds what you
to whom the Gospel is proposed so doth it not concern any but those to whom it is proposed truly and upon true accounts that is to say with the proper arguments which our Saviour used to confirm his Doctrine If his Doctrine be not truly proposed it is not really his Doctrine but it is the opinion of the preacher and it is not any mans own opinion but it is the true Doctrine of Christ to which the promise of Christ belongs And then further if the very true Doctrine of Christ be not propounded by true arguments by those arguments and demonstrations which Christ himself and his Apostles have afforded for the proof of the truth of it it may possibly fail of gaining credit for want of true and proper evidence if men shall labour to prove the Gospel by arguments of their own invention and not by miracles and predictions not by the true and proper arguments which were intended for its proof the weakness of them that do propose it may prejudice the truth which is proposed and that with those very men themselves who were disposed to entertain it 2. Now these are they who are ready to do the will of God when it appears to be his will If any man says Christ will do his will that is to say whosoever he be that is so disposed so affected towards God as that he is I willing to do or suffer whatsoever God shall require of him when it appears that God requires it whosoever is upright and sincere not prejudiced by any inordinate lust by Pride or Avarice or Sensuality but willing to obey the commands of God this man will believe the Gospel when truly and sufficiently propounded to him propounded as it is to us 2. So it follows in the Consequent If any man will do his will he shall know of the Doctrine whether it be of God or whether I speak of my self 1. In which Consequent the Doctrine was that which was taught by Christ and that which he taught was his Gospel 2. And then whereas it is further added that if any man will do the will of God he shall know of the Doctrine whether our Lord spake of himself or whether he spake of God this is not so to be understood as if there were any doubt at all whether he spake of God or not but as a peremptorory affirmation that what he spake was the word of God so that the sense of the words is this That whosoever is so disposed and inclined as that he is willing to do Gods will will readily believe the Gospel of Christ when truly and sufficiently propounded to him These things explained the observation the words offer us is this That a hearty and sincere inclination to do whatsoever God commands is a most powerful preparation to understand and believe the Gospel I do not say that none but they who are thus prepared do ever believe or understand it for experience often hews the contrary this it shews in all thole persons who believe it and yet obey it not and of these no doubt there are great numbers but this I say that they who are really thus disposed are under a powerful preparation to believe the Doctrine of the Gospel as will appear from several reasons For 1. First of all whosoever he be that is thus prepared whole heart and will is sincerely bent to do whatsoever God shall command him the same person will not neglect the use of sincere and true endeavours to inform himself especially in the Doctrine of Christ which threatens no less than death eternal to them that refuse and disobey it and promises everlasting happiness to all that believe it and obey it Whosoever is willing to do Gods will when he knows it is willing to know and understand it in order to the doing of it The same probity the same sincerity of heart and will which doth dispose him to the one disposes him also to the other He that will not endeavour to know Gods will will not obey it though he know it he that will obey it when he knows it will labour sincerely to know it also and certainly this is a fair step to gain the belief and knowledge of it we do not find in the whole Gospel that any one man refuted the Gospel who duly considered what it was and the miracles done for the proof of it Nicodemus considering these miracles concludes that Christ was sent of God Rabbi saith he we know that thou art a teacher come from God for no man can do these miracles except God be with him John 3.2 Lydia attending to the Gospel readily believed and entertained it Acts 16.14 The Bereans who applyed themselves to consider the Gospel preached unto them and compared it with the ancitient Prophecies readily believed and entertained it Acts 17 12. nor doth it appear that any person who did impartially apply himself to consider it and the proofs of it did ever refuse or disbelieve it which is no small or obscure evidence that whosoever uses his best indeavours to understand the will of God as every sincere person doth shall not fail to believe the Gospel duly and rightly propounded to him 2. Add hereunto in the second place that a true and hearty inclination to do whatsoever God commands removes those inward dispositions of Pride and Avarice and Sensuality which are the causes of Infidelity Truth hath no enemy but Vice men never disbelieve the Gospel but upon some prejudice they have against it nor are they prejudiced against the Gospel but by their lusts which it forbids and threatens with most severe punishment This is the condemnation that light is come into the world and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil for every one that doth evil hateth the light neither cometh to the light lest his deeds should be reproved Truth is rejected and disbelieved because disgusted and disrelished it is disrelished because it forbids because it reproves and controlls those lusts to which men have enthralled themselves which hold them in bondage and captivity 1. If we consider the matters of practice which are commanded in the Gospel they are so suitable to our reason they are so plainly good for the World they do so evidently design our happiness they are every way so becoming God that it can be nothing but the prejudice of mens unreasonable lusts and passions that can perswade any man in the world that the Laws prescribed us in the Gospel are not the Laws of the living God especially since the first publication of these Laws were confirmed with many and great miracles Could any man living make a doubt whether it was the will of God or not that we should love him with all our hearts and do to men as we would that they should do to us were he not prejudiced by his lusts Is it any thing else but want of willingness to do Gods will that can raise a scruple in any
and exposes him to the scorn of others And so do they so far at least as they are able expose the Majesty of God himself that abuse the words of the Holy Scriptures to entertain themselves or others 3. There is yet another sin behind which I could willingly have omitted if I could have tolerably satisfied my self that it doth not carry a more than ordinary mark upon it of an irreverence towards God though not so great as the two former and that 's habitual and constant swearing and that without all provocation in common and ordinary conversation just contrary to that Law of Christ Matt. 5.34 I say unto you swear not at all that is in ordinary communication for so it follows v. 37. But let your communication be yea yea nay nay for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil Cometh of evil so doth every Overt act of sin every such act flows from some sinful lust within for when lust hath conceiv'd it bringeth forth sin and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death But it should seem this sin of swearing in cool blood and that in ordinary conversation proceeds from some extraordinary evil And what that is will very easily be understood if we consider that this sin hath no foundation in those appetites that God hath planted in mans nature either to preserve himself or to propagate and to continue his kind as all indulgence to the body all kinds of sensuality have for this sin of common swearing hath no foundation in hunger or thirst or bodily pleasure or in the desire of wealth or ease nay I may add of power and greatness It is a sin without a temptation from without nor doth it arise from any of those very inward appetites that God hath planted in our natures from whence it appears that it hath its rise from an unnatural kind of vanity join'd with a very high irreverence towards God who hath given an express Law against it and that it is in its own nature a bold ostentation of that irreverence for it is a calling God to witness in every trivial and slight affair where a man would not dare to call a Prince or a serious person to give his testimony I do confess that some persons may have been habituated to this vice before they well understood themselves or the nature of the vice it self But why do they use no care to leave it why do they not study to reform it when they do or may understand better What will he do in compliance either with Gods command or with his own eternal happiness who will not labour to quit a vice which is so expresly forbid by Christ and to which he hath no greater temptation than he hath to prophane and idle swearing How can he hope to overcome the lusts and vices of Sensuality which are nothing else but the abuse of natural desires and inclinations and are by them suggested to him and often excited by strong temptations from without how can he hope to deny himself in point of wealth and power and honour or to embrace death or bonds rather than forfeit his integrity which is most necessary to be done who will not forsake a groundless sin a sin without any natural appetite to suggest and without a temptation to excite it A small degree of fear and reverence to God Almighty would easily overcome this sin which is an evident demonstration that it flows from great irreverence to him 4. But to proceed to the last general namely the several considerations which may produce a singular reverence towards God both in it self and its effects and restrain us from all contradictions to it 1. Let us first consider the Spirit and quickness of the style wherein God demands our fear and honour wherein he requires our reverence to him If I be a Father where is mine honour and if I be a Master where is my fear which Language carries this sense in it Do not you your selves require a singular love and fear from your relations namely from your children and servants under the name of the same relations whereupon I require the like from you and what is more generally receive what you require For a son saith he honoureth his Father and a servant his Master And had he not reason then to add If then I be a Father where is mine honour and if I be a Master where is my fear 2. Now therefore secondly let us consider how great a guilt we must contract if we should deny that to God to the Father of the whole Creation and the Sovereign master of all the World which every Father every Master demands from his Children and his Servants under the name of the same Relations though the obligations thence arising be infinitely greater as they stand between God and men than between men among themselves And yet notwithstanding all this what Father is there amongst men who will endure neglect and insolence and disobedience in his Son who will not reject and disinherit and utterly cast him of for it if he do not repent and humble himself and return to the practice of his duty Where is the Master that patiently bears not only the neglect of service but wilful injury in his Servant Where is the Master that bears this without the greatest indignation against his servant for so doing and that doth not judge his guilt so great as to deserve the severest punishment And therefore judge what guilt it is which every man draws upon himself by a wilful irreverence and disobedience to the great Father and Lord of all 3. And although it be very true indeed that they who bear the greatest load of guilt upon them may not at present find themselves grieved and oppressed by the sense of it yet ought it seriously to be considered that God can in a single moment such is his Sovereignty over the very spirit of man awake that guilt into fear and dread in the greatest Spirits in the World awake it by an invisible dart a secret arrow of his indignation shot immediately into the heart And some such things he did in David as plainly appears from his own words Psal 38.1 2. and following verses O Lord rebuke me not in thy wrath neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure for thine arrows stick fast in me and thy hand presses me sore There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin I am troubled and bowed down greatly I go mourning all the day long Thus was a Prince and a man of War who never feared the face of an Enemy who had encountred and slain a Giant in a single combate who had killed two of the fiercest kinds of savage beasts a Lyon and a Bear with a naked arm 1 Sam. 17.36 Thus was he dash'd and broken all to pieces by the sense of his guilt and Gods displeasure a wakened by the hand of God 4.
reason is because our Saviour in his following discourse in this Chapter takes no notice of matter of history or prediction but only of matter of Law and Precept 2. And then further as the Law and the Prophets signifie the precepts delivered in the Books of the Old Testament so when our Lord assures his hearers that he came not to destroy those precepts his meaning is that he did not come to thwart or oppose or contradict them or any thing which God designed in them for so is the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 taken in several places of the Scripture 3. And lastly when he further adds that he came to fulfil those precepts his sense necessarily must be this that he came to advance and improve or accomplish whatsoever God intended in them Having now sufficiently cleared the sense of the words before us I shall proceed to shew the truth of the several parts contained in them 1. And first of all of the negative part I am not come to destroy the Law or the Prophets 2. And secondly of that which is affirmative But I am come to fulfil them In my discourse on both which parts it will be convenient to consider the several kinds of Laws or Precepts given to the Jews Moral Ceremonial and Judicial apart or severally by themselves 1. And to begin with the negative part plain it is 1. In the first place That our Lord did no way contradict any moral precept of the Law but left his followers under perpetual obligations to obey all precepts of that kind All things saith he whatsoever you would that men should do to you do ye even so to them for this is the Law and the Prophets Matt. 7.12 Where we find him confirming that general rule which the Law and Prophets had delivered touching our duty towards our neighbours and consequently setling all particular acts of duty which the moral Law required toward them by the confirmation of that rule The same is done as to our duties both to God and man Matt. 22.37 39. where he establishes and approves the two great commands of the Law that we love God with all our heart and with all our mind and that we love our neighbour as our selves whereunto he presently adds these words on these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets These were the things which the Law and Prophets aimed at in all their precepts and exhortations and these hath Christ confirmed and ratified but no way prejudiced by the Gospel I say not now how much more holy rules of life our Lord hath given in several cases than were given by the Law or Prophets of that I shall give an account anon all that I now observe unto you is that an addition of higher precepts of obedience was no destruction or violation of those that were not so high as they but really an improvement of them just as the growth of a child to a man is no destruction but an improvement of the person or as a greater degree of vertues includes but doth not destroy the less from whence I conclude that although our Lord hath added perfecter rules of holiness than the Law or the Prophets had delivered yet he did not destroy them by so doing but further improved what they designed But the great difficulty doth not lie in reconcileing our Saviours words I came not to destroy the Law or the Prophets with what he did as to the moral part of the Law but with what befel its other branches namely the ceremonial and judicial both which parts fell to the ground after his coming into the World and what he did and suffered in it and yet in truth he did not destroy either of them in the sense wherein destruction is taken in these words that is to say he did not oppose or contradict them or otherwise behave himself toward them than was suitable to the mind and will of the Law-giver 2. He did not violate much less oppose any precept of the ceremonial Law but caused the Law it self to cease not by any opposition to it but by removeing all occasion of any further use of it as the Laws of war are not violated but cease and take no place in peace He introduced that very thing which the ceremonial Law designed the introduced the life and substance of those things which were foreshadowed in that Law and so he made it cease and vanish not by opposing or contradicting but by accomplishing the end of it as it will further appear to you when I shall shew how he fufilled it 3. Nor lastly did our Lord destroy that is violate or contradict the judicial part of Moses his Law namely the Law of the Jewish State for that Law fell of it self in the Jewish Common-wealth when the City of Jerusalem was destroyed when the generality of the people were carried away into captivity when the whole Government was dissolved and the Country became a Roman Province there was an end of that Common-wealth and so an end of those Laws whereby that Common-wealth was governed For the Laws of the Jewish Common-wealth were not given save only to the people of the Jews nor were they designed to continue longer than the Common-wealth it self continued so that when this was once dissolved those also fell of their own accord without any violation offered unto them by our Saviour from all which several considerations it plainly appears that he did not come to destroy or opose the Law or the Prophets or any precept contained in them and that he did not behave himself to either of them as one that came to oppose or thwart them So careful was he to give no scandal to create no real offence to the Jews by contradicting in any precepts moral ceremonial or judicial which the Law or the Prophets had established 2. Having shewed the truth of the negative part of our Saviours words which is that he came not into the World to destroy either the Law or the Prophets let us now proceed to give an account of the other part wherein he affirms that he came to fulfil them that is as I have before explained it to improve and accomplish what they contained and what was mainly designed in them And here proceeding in that method which I have used in the former part 1. I first observe that our blessed Lord fulfilled the moral part of the Law by giving stricter rules of holiness than either Moses or the Prophets had formerly given unto the Jews according to the received sense amongst the best of their Interpreters and no doubt in several cases stricter than Moses himself design'd and this is the sense wherein St Chrysostom and Tertullian and divers others of the ancient Christians affirm our Saviour to have fulfilled the moral Law as well as by personal obedience to it They teach that he filled up those vacuities that Moses had left in moral duties because the Jews were not able to bear them
and where thieves do not break through and steal He knew that where we place our happiness styled our treasure in these words there should we also place our hearts For saith he where your treasure is there will your heart be also Upon which words I shall discourse in this method 1. I shall shew in what manner and in what degree men set their hearts upon that which they judge their chief good whether it be the wealth and honours the ease and pleasures of this World or the Bliss and Glory of the future 2. And then secondly I shall consider the several consequences of the words and draw such conclusions from them as deserve especial consideration 1. And to begin with the former general 1. The first application of mens souls to that which they judge their supreme good is a fixt and earnest desire of it 2. The next to this is a firm design and resolution to apply themselves to the gaining of it 3. And both these in the third place in such degrees that if ever any competition arise between this end and any other this is preferred and still pursued the other neglected and laid aside 1. The first application of mens Souls to that they judge their chief good is a fixt and earnest desire of it which is so rooted in humane nature that no man can ever shake it off wholly extinguish or remove it And the truth is were it not so that God had planted this desire in the very frame of mans nature the World would presently fall asleep the minds of men would drowze and slumber having nothing to quicken and to awake them the Soul itself as busie and active as it is as full of various thoughts and passions would be as unactive in the body as the very body without the Soul Desire is the principle of all action and this desire of being happy the spring of all our other desires this moves and quickens all within us this puts life into all our powers excites our thoughts forms our Counsels lays our designs stirs up and animates all endeavours This holds the eye of the mind open this keeps the Soul it self awake and puts it into continual motion for whatsoever it be we do 't is done in the view and consideration of what we believe to be good for us and some way tending to our happiness remove this out of the eye of a man and the clearest reasons that you can urge will never excite his will to choice much less engage him unto action He cannot act where he cannot hope nor can he hope where he sees nothing to be desired Say you whatsoever you can to move him he will always have this to say for himself the thing you propound no way tends to any advantage it doth not serve any end of mine and therefore why should I undertake it give me that which will do me good let me see how it tends unto my welfare let me know what account I shall find in it prove that I shall be better for it either in this or another World and then you may perswade me to it Nor doth this desire of a mans own happiness contradict or prejudice publick welfare for every wise man understands that his own particular and private good is always involved in publick welfare and every good man makes it a part of his own happiness to serve the advantage of other persons and besides he knows that he shall be rewarded hereafter for it And although we cannot all be wise yet every man may at least be good But after all both the good and evil wise and unwise always desire and chuse that which makes at least the fairest appearance of contributing to their own felicity This is the reason why God himself applies himself to this desire in the whole oeconomy of his providence in all his dealings with mankind When he prescribes his Laws to us he urges obedience to these Laws by promising happiness thereunto which promise yet could have no effect upon us had we no desire of being happy on the same account he threatens misery to the violation of his precepts which yet would be to little purpose could we be contented to be miserable or cease to desire our own felicity 'T is the same method which he uses in all his other addresses to us when he rebukes when he perswades when he expostulates and reasons with us he still accommodates all these things to that desire of being happy which he hath ingrafted in our natures as the first mover in all our actions Sometimes indeed he applies himself unto the natural desire men have of peace and safety in the world And so he did to the Jewish Nation Deut. 30.15 See saith he I have set before thee this day life and good death and evil and after that at the 9. v. I call heaven and earth to record this day against you that I have set before you life and death blessing and cursing therefore chuse life that is to say chuse obedience that both thou and thy seed may live But the great applications made unto us in the Gospel are addressed to that desire in man which moves him both to desire to be and to be happy to all eternity This is the promise saith St John that he hath promised us even eternal life 1 John 2.25 And so St Paul Rom. 2.6 7 8 9. where he tell us that God will render to every man according to his deeds to them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honour and immortality eternal life but unto them that are contentious and obey not the truth but obey unrighteousness indignation tribulation and wrath and anguish upon every soul of man that doth evil of the Jew first and also of the Gentile Thus he that made us and knows our nature and all the springs of motion in us in all his applications to us accommodates himself to that desire of being happy which he himself hath planted in us as knowing this to be the way to gain a ready complyance from us On the same account the great deceiver of mankind paints his baits covers his snares gilds his temptations with an appearance of what is good He knows it would be a vain thing to attempt to press us unto the choice of what is evil what is destructive to our selves should it appear in its own likeness and therefore he puts a disguise upon it He boldly told the woman in paradise that if they would eat what God had forbidden their eyes should be opened they should be as Gods knowing good and evil for if as Gods then surely wise and blessed and happy And thus the temptation found success which first brought sin into the World and death as the wages due unto it Nor was it a much different method whereby he applyed himself to Christ for he took him as the Gospel tells us into an exceeding high mountain and shewed him all the Kingdoms
and so pursue the thing wherein they place felicity that if ever a competition arise between that end and any other that is preferred and still pursued the other neglected and laid aside And certain it is that although it be true and real happiness though it be the glory of Heaven it self which we have propounded to our selves as the only thing that will make us happy yet such is the vanity such the frailty of humane nature such are the temptations of the World such is the subtilty and activity of the great deceiver of mankind that we must expect to find something of competition between this great and excellent end of serving God and our own happiness and others of infinitely less importance We are compounded of flesh and spirit and the flesh lusteth against the spirit as well as the spirit against the flesh We are made up of body and mind and the body will prompt the desire and study of bodily pleasure and ease and safety beyond allowed and lawful measures sense will oppose it self to reason nay sense will combate Faith it self especially where the way to Heaven is beset with the troubles of this World loss of favour decay of estate eclipse of honour and reputation and where the slipping a little aside will not only serve to give security but great accession to all the advantages of this life In this case sense will paint a hideous representation of all the sufferings and calamities and give a glorious shew and luster to the advantages of this World in the imaginations and minds of men Add hereunto that we live in a throng of ill examples such as may toss us to and fro like men in the midst of a moving croud without a vigorous opposition We are apt to believe that if the liberties commonly used be not expedient or lawful for us neither câ—uld they be so to other persons but seeing others plainly believe them so to them we have reason to judge them so to us For as all men are of the same mold so are they under the same Laws so that we have no more to lose than others nor they any less to save than we Nor is the Devil a sleep or mindless how he may divert our course to Heaven He walketh about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour 1 Pet. 5.8 His approaches to us are invisible his insinuations quick and pressing and then especially applied and urged when he finds us ruffled and discomposed by the hopes and fears and ill impressions that other temptations have made upon us And thus it sometimes comes to pass that wise and good and vertuous persons do by surprise either make a stand or a false step in the way to Heaven But here now is their great advantage that having formerly fixed upon Heaven and the glory of it as their only happiness having deliberately chosen piety and sincere obedience to Christs precepts as the only means of arriving there this habit of mind by the grace of God soon recovers it self again recollects it self finds its mistake rescues it self from the surprize and returns to God and it self again just as the needle to the Pole and fixes where it was fixed before and prefers the reward of future glory beyond whatsoever this present world can bring into competition with it On the contrary if a man hath chosen the perishing vanities of this World as things wherein he hopes for happiness he will pursue and prefer these whensoever a competition happens between this World and that to come perhaps his conscience may smite him for it perhaps his reason may for a while make some resistance and opposition he may possibly find some reluctancies within himself and waver and fluctuate for sometime between some contrary hopes and fears hopes of the end which he hath propounded and fear of loss in another state But if the thing which he hath designed be that wherein he places happiness his hopes will at length baffle his fears either remove the consideration and exclude the thoughts of another World or else shake the belief of it or teach him some deceitful arts of reconciling the hopes of Heaven with the enjoyment of his lusts for what men love and value most that will have the command of them in every contest and competition And this is the reason why our Lord takes such care to give us a true account of things to state their real value to us to put us in mind how much the joys and treasures of heaven transcend the treasures that are on earth seeing moth and rust consume the latter and that thieves may rob and spoil us of them while the former are not only durable not only eternal in themselves but beyond the reach of theft and rapine Thus doth our Lord adjust and rate the worth of things that we may learn to chuse aright to esteem that most which best deserves to be so esteemed to judge that best which is the best for having judg'd it so to be we shall fix our hearts and desires upon it apply our selves to the gaining of it and that in such degree and manner that when ever a competition happens between this end and any other this will not fail to be preferred in all our deliberate thoughts and actions 2. Having thus shewed in what manner and what degrees men set their hearts upon their treasure upon that which they make their chief good I shall now draw some such conclusions from the words as deserve our especial consideration 1. And first of all if the heart will be where the treasure is we may conclude mens treasure is there wherever it be that we find their hearts for these are inseparable each from other Whatsoever it is that men prefer in all their deliberate thoughts and counsels and so pursue in all their actions that they will rather lose or hazard all other things than miss of it that most undoubtedly is their treasure If a man will defraud or oppress his neighbour for the heaping up of wealth and riches this man hath mammon his God and from this Idol expects felicity If he will violate truth and justice reproach or flatter or dissemble to advance himself to power and honour these are the things he makes his happiness and as for those that indulge their sensual inclinations in contradiction to Christs precepts and the just hopes of a better life they describe themselves in the 2d chapter of the Book of Wisdom v. 5 6. c. Our time say they is a very shadow that passeth away and after our end there is no returning for it is fast sealed so that no man cometh again Come on therefore let us enjoy the good things that are present and let us speedily use the Creatures like as in youth Let us us fill our selves with costly wine and ointments and let no flower of the spring pass by us Let us crown our selves with rose-buds before they be withered Let none of