Omnipotent God a power able to break in pieces the chains even of death its self strong ones indeed to hold all others but weak to hold him who was as well God as Man Whom God hath raised up c. From which words Four things are to be gather'd 1. The Certainty of Christ's Resurrection set down here as matter of fact Hath raised up 2. The principal Agent or rather the sole efficient Cause of Christ's Resurrection God Whom God hath c. 3. The Manner how 't was done Removendo impedimentum by taking away whatsoever might obstruct it the rowling away the stone as it were from the door of the Sepulchre the untying of a hard knot Having loosed the pains of Death 4. And lastly the Necessity of all this a most convincing and irresistible Argument and therefore brought up in the rear to make all sure Because it was not possible he should be holden of it Of these in their order and of such practical Inferences as doe arise out of them And first of the first Particular the Certainty of Christ's Resurrection in these words Hath raised up 1. There is not any truth in Scripture which God has been so carefull or as I may so say curious to secure as that of his Son's Resurrection Which he did as by taking away all grounds of doubting of it so by making use of all manner of proofs to ascertain it For first whereas Sceptical Men might have questioned whether Christ died truly or no or if so whether his disciples did not come by night and steal him away These two grounds of suspition God took care to remove The first by that Evidence the Centurion gave in to Pilate of his real dying besides that of so many Spectators who beheld that stream of bloud wherein he poured forth his Soul unto death And the second by the exact care of the High Priest who caused a vast stone to be rowled before the door of the Sepulchre adding his Seal and Souldiers of his own chusing to guard it from the attempts of the Disciples who had they had a will had neither power nor courage to break open a Sepulchre hewen out of a new entire Rock or force such a strong guard as kept it much less Money to bribe their silence as the High Priests and Scribes did And to say that his Disciples stole him away while the stout Watch-men slept was surely no better than a Dream or rather not a Dream but a studied Lie and yet such a Lie too as does most clearly confirm the truth of our Lord's Resurrection But then secondly As God took away all cause of doubt so did he draw Arguments from all Topicks to prove this great Truth Heaven and Earth here gave in their Evidence For not only the Souls of Holy Men were fetcht thence to be united to their Bodies for proof of that Resurrection by which themselves were raised but the Blessed Inhabitants of Heaven the Angels came down on purpose to publish it to the Women as these did to the Apostles to whom Christ shewed himself alive too after his Passion by many infallible proofs and expos'd himself to their very Senses who did not only see and hear but converse and eat with him after he was risen from the dead that they might not mistake his Body as once they did for a Phantasm or Christ for a Spirit having flesh and bones as they found he had and retaining still the marks and prints of the nails and spear to shew the Identity as well as Reality of that Body which arose The very Infidelity of an Apostle being not the least confirmation of our Faith too in this particular Not to mention other instances the Earthquake the empty grave the stone rowled away the linnen cloths curiously wrapt up together as dead Witnesses when there were so many living ones Angels and Men and among these such as were ready to seal this Truth with their dearest Bloud of such credit and honesty too as might highly recommend their Testimony to our belief of such Prudence Experience and Holiness withall as neither could betray them to Error nor suffer them to abuse the credit of others Such were the Holy Apostles who with great power gave witness of the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus and whose principal office it was to doe so as appears upon the Election of St. Matthias into the place of Judas grounded upon this necessity Act. 1. 21 22. To whom we may add no less than five hundred Brethren at once all agreeing in the same story Nemo omnes neminem omnes fefellerunt which made their Evidence rise to such a strong demonstration as was sufficient to stop the mouths of Christ's most contradicting Enemies and open ours to confess with the Disciples and Primitive Christians The Lord is risen indeed Luk. 24. 34. Thus we see how exact the Holy Ghost was as in removing all such Doubts as might in the least obstruct our Faith so in using all manner of Arguments to confirm and establish the undoubted Truth of Christ's Resurrection not only to show the possibility of a Resurrection in general by so pregnant and visible an Example but the importance of it in regard of ours whereof our Lord 's was the Fountain and Pledge 1. I say the clearing of the Truth of Christ's Resurrection was absolutely necessary in regard of the slowness and indisposition of most Men and in all times to admit of the possibility of a Resurrection The Philosopher we see could not digest it To the Stoicks and Epicureans it became matter of laughter who took it for some new Goddess Act. 17. 18 32. Nay some of the Disciples themselves lookt upon it as a Fable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luk. 24. 11. A considerable Sect too among the Jews the Sadducees utterly deny'd it Act. 23. 8. Simon Magus and the Gnosticks were of the same persuasion and so was Marcion as Tertullian informs me who deny'd the truth of Christ's flesh and consequently his Nativity and Resurrection as Valentinus's Disciple did the Resurrection of that Flesh he convers'd in Some there were who affirm'd 't was already past as Hymenaeus and Philetus Others turn'd it into a meer Allegory a Renovation Matth. 19. 28. A state of the Gospel call'd a New Heaven and a new Earth 2 Pet. 3. 13. And the World to come Heb. 2. 5. And lastly how doe all loose Christians decry it as a thing utterly inconsistent with their interest It was requisite then that this foundation should be laid very deep in men's Hearts which the Holy Ghost fore-saw so many would endeavour to over-throw 2. 'T was absolutely necessary to clear this Truth in regard of the importance of it to Christ's glory and the happiness of all true Christians 1. To Christ's glory which in the esteem of Men being much eclipsed by his Death was to shine out brighter by his Resurrection for nothing but this could take
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
inconvenient for his Apostles that He should still have remained with them considering how carnally affected they were to him Nay very convenient it was for them that he should withdraw his Presence when they grew too fond of it as we see Mothers deal with their little Children in the like case We know nothing would satisfie them but Christ's Flesh and his fleshly Presence nothing but that still them And we know who said If thou hadst been here Lord As if absent he had not been as able to doe it by his Spirit as present by his Body We know also that St. Peter would have built him a Tabernacle to keep him still on Earth and ever and anon his Disciples were dreaming of an Earthly Kingdom and their chief Seats therein All their Thoughts and Fancies being gross and carnal 't was time to refine them They were not to be held as Children still but to grow to Men's estate to perfect age and strength If they had hitherto known Christ after the flesh 't was fit that henceforth they should thus know him no more And so 't is for all Christians too who so long as they should stand affected in like sort as the Apostles here were would no doubt run into the same error with them as to conceit they could not be without Christ's bodily Presence though the Spirit it self should supply it Surely 't is much better for us by faith to converse with Christ in Heaven than by sight to behold him on Earth Because thou hast seen thou believest says he to St. Thomas Blessed are they that have not seen and yet believe Joh. 20. 19. Better it is for us to look to those things that are not seen than to those that are seen The time will come when it shall be our chiefest happiness to see our Redeemer as Job says with these fleshly Eyes we carry about us But that we cannot now doe or if we could that very sight would but astonish and confound us The only Glass to behold him in here is his Gospel as the only place to find him in is Heaven Thither he is now gone from us and 't is well for us as it was for his Apostles that he is so and so hath left us to the guidance and conduct of his Spirit Nay I dare say farther that 't is expedient for us Christians that Christ should withdraw even his Spiritual Presence from us in some cases As 1. when we grow faint in seeking and careless in keeping him When with the Spouse in the Canticles we lye in bed and take him there When 2. we grow high conceited of our selves and say with David We shall never be moved Psal. 30. 7. But then may it not be said If Christ leave us if he withdraw his spiritual Presence from us shall we not then fall into Sin And can that be expedient for any one of us It is good that I have been in trouble for before I was troubled I went wrong says David Psal. 119. 67. But is it good for any of us to fall into Sin If I should say so I have St. Augustine's warrant for it Audeo dicere I dare affirm says that Father Expedit superbo ut incidat in peccatum It is not amiss sometimes for a proud Man to fall with David and Peter into some notorious Sin to fill his Face with shame and to teach him Humility That this Messenger of Satan should sometimes thus buffet him as he did St. Paul to keep him down for the Holy Ghost will not come to him till he find him in this posture He will come to none rest on none nor give grace to none but to the humble In all respects then we see how expedient it is that Christ should leave us that he should withdraw himself from us as he did from his Apostles that he should go away to prepare a place for us where we may be with him for ever and that we should prepare our selves too for that better place he hath prepared for us by withdrawing our Thoughts and Affections from that we now are in For if that fond affection the Apostles had for his corporal Presence was a hinderance to the Spirit 's coming to them much more will our impure earthly ones keep him off from us Nor ought we to be troubled but rather to rejoyce that Christ our forerunner is gone before to take possession of a heavenly place for us in his flesh or to imagine that we shall lose any thing by his absence as if his Spirit could not abundantly make up that loss or that with his bodily Presence he had withdrawn his love or care from us In the midst of his Glories he still minds us He is not only a compassionate High-Priest to pity but an Advocate to plead and an Intercessor still to mediate for us Amidst the Angelical Acclamations and Hallelujahs he not only hears our sighs and groans but joyns in the Consort and shares with us too in our Sufferings Nay it is now that he is most intimately present with us that he dwells in our hearts by faith and if thereby we hold him fast he will then never leave us at least never leave us comfortless no more than he did his Apostles but will send the Holy Ghost to comfort us as he did them for his promise of sending him was not so ty'd up to them as to exclude us but is general here to all the faithfull If I depart I will send him unto you And thus we see how expedient and necessary it was that our Lord should depart that his Holy Spirit might come to us That without his Ascension-day there had been no Pentecost for us and so we should have wanted our Comforter and all those inestimable Blessings He brings along with Him 1. For had He not come the work of our Salvation had been but half done 'T is true indeed that our Lord just as he breathed out his Soul on the Cross did pronounce a Consummatum est and if we consider the Work it self he compleated all he came to doe for us here below for he exactly performed the part of a Mediator by putting an end to all the Ceremonies of the Law which prefigured Him but in regard of us and making that his work ours all had not been finished without the Coming of the Holy Ghost For to speak after the manner of Men we know a Word though written a Deed is of no force till the Seal be added 't is that which makes it Authentical Christ is indeed the Word but the Holy Ghost is the Seal In whom ye are sealed unto the day of Redemption Ephes. 4. 30. 2. Nor is this all The Will of a Testator is of no force when sealed till Administration be granted Christ is the Mediator of the New Testament Heb. 9. 15. But the Administration is the Spirit 's 1 Cor. 12. 11. And without that the Testament is of no
two things when I shall have briefly spoken to I shall then in the close endeavour 1. To shew you how the Holy Virgin was in this latter respect Blessed above all her Sex anointed like her Son with the Oyl of Gladness above her fellows in being as much the Mother of God and as properly in a Spiritual as ever she was in a Carnal sense 2. And secondly to stir you up to an imitation of those her Vertues and Perfections which as they entitled her to this more divine and blessed Relation will us too proportionably as they shall be found in every one of us The first thing that offers its self here is the Woman's Testimony allow'd by Christ That she that bare him was Blessed and for that very reason too In the time of the Law 't was accounted a great Blessing to be a Mother in Israel Barrenness being then as infamous as Fruitfulness was honourable To have still preserv'd their Virginity was in most people's conceit as bad as to have betray'd it insomuch that some have more bitterly lamented that than their untimely death or which is more their sins The reason which the Jewish Doctors give us of this strange passion was Because the Messiah being to come every one that was not barren might hope to be that person that should have the honour to bring him into the World And as all the Daughters of Israel were most ambitious of it so about the time Christ came in the flesh the expectation of the Messiah's Revelation was very high and pregnant Whether this Woman in the Text took our Lord for the true Messiah that great Prophet that should come into the World which yet 't is not improbable she might guess him to be by the visible power of his Miracles and which was as admirable the force of his persuasions is altogether uncertain But this is certain that she lookt upon him as an extraordinary person sent from God and as such one that might justly ennoble his Parents and Relations This as it was a great Truth so 't was not all and our Saviour did not only here allow this Woman's Testimony for good but farther improve it by expresly revealing Himself to be the Messiah which is called Christ Joh. 4. 25 the Holy One of Israel and the glory of its People a Monarch but a spiritual one to whose Sceptre all Nations and Souls should bow such a King as had Heaven for his Throne and the Earth for his Footstool That the Desire of Nations was now come so long before promised by God foretold by the Prophets expected by the Patriarchs infinitely wisht by all just Men with a desire equal to their necessities And to be the Mother of such a Prince as this to inclose Him in her bowels whom the Heaven of Heavens could not encircle to be the Mother of God Deipara A Title bestow'd on the Blessed Virgin by a General Council and which we may safely allow her This was more than to have descended from the Loins of the Kings of Judah or the most glorious Monarchs of the Earth An honour which the greatest Queens thereof would willingly have purchas'd even with the loss of their temporal Diadems A thing which never happened but once and can never any more unless a Saviour could again be born so that there can never any more be such a Mother because never again such a Son We reade Gen. 5. 2. that the Sons of God joined themselves to the Daughters of Men but that God himself should vouchsafe a poor Virgin that honour he is pleas'd to bestow upon his Church to call her his Spouse the great Creator He by whom all things were made and do consist not disdain to be made the Son of his own Creature and own himself as it were beholding to that Creature for something which he that has all things had not a garment of flesh such a garment as he can no more put off now than He can his Godhead for quod semel assampsit nunquam dimisit This I say was a strange Condescension in the Almighty and a peculiar honour done to the Holy Virgin who was cull'd out for this purpose from the rest of Women and may therefore very well be styl'd Blessed among yea and above them the top and glory of her Sex as in whom the whole Trinity now met to consult not as at the Creation to make Man but Deum-Hominem to unite God and Man in one Person of the Word so that as the Father bespeaks the Son Psal. 2. 7. Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee The Blessed Virgin might to her immortal honour say too This day have I conceived thee Nor was this all To be such a Mother was indeed a high Privilege but to be a Mother and yet still a Virgin wonderfull as that Son she brings forth This had the Prophet Esay long before foretold ch 7. 14. Behold a Virgin shall conceive But the Prophet Jeremy not content with that gives it out for a strange and unheard-of thing and so indeed it was more strange than Christ's coming into the house the doors being shut Joh. 20. 26. The Lord says he ch 31. 22. hath created a new thing in the Earth a Woman shall compass a Man i. e. A Virgin still continuing such otherwise sure it were no new thing shall in her Womb inclose a Man child and such a Man as the same Prophet styles Immanuel God with us chap. 8. 8. and chap. 9. 6. The mighty God the everlasting Father the Prince of Peace enough to silence the incredulous blaspheming Jew so that these two Glories like the two Luminaries of Heaven met in the Mother of our Lord which never happened to any before nor shall ever hereafter that of a Mother and of a Virgin the Fruitfulness of the one and the Purity of the other But these things as they were the Holy Virgin 's Privileges and in some sort her Happiness too so there was something that render'd her yet more blessed by being a Blessing to us in conveying to us the greatest good that ever could happen to Men. For as her Son is the Fountain of those living streams which refresh the Sons of Men so was this Mother the golden Pipe to derive them to them 'T is of his fulness we all receive but by her The promise of our Redemption as it was as old as our Fall Gen. 3. 15. The seed of the Woman shall bruise the Serpent's head so was it literally fulfilled in this Woman of whom St. Paul says Christ was made Gal. 4. 4. i. e. from whom He took the matter of that Body wherein He wrought out our Redemption the full import of St. Paul's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and St. John's too Joh. 1. 14. For however the Anabaptist dream of a Body fram'd in Heaven which pass'd through the Holy Virgin as water through a Conduit-pipe yet cannot this fancy possibly consist with
remembrance again Joh. 14. 26. He admonisheth and directeth us his Clients how to order and solicit our own business what Evidences to produce how to manage and plead them making up our failings by his Wisdom and not only so but as the word Paraclete here imports he intercedeth also with God for us not in such a manner as Christ is said to doe whom St. John also calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our Advocate with the Father 1 Joh. 2. 1. For as much as that Bloud which He shed for us on the Cross speaks for us better things than that of Abel and continually pleads our Pardon before the Tribunal of God but the Holy Ghost is said to make intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered because he stirreth us up to Prayer prompting and teaching us also how to pray as we ought to doe in all our Necessities So that as Christ is the first Advocate by working our Reconciliation with God so is the Spirit our other or second one by testifying and applying the same unto our Souls 2dly He is our Advocate not only in respect of God but of Men too by maintaining our Cause against the World against Tyrants and Persecutors 1. Against the World as oft as it accuseth us by false and slanderous Calumniators laying to our charge things we never did The Spirit in this case maketh us not only plead our Innocency but rejoyce in the Reproaches of Christ count our selves happy in this that it is not such low marks as we are which the malice of the World aimeth at but the Spirit of glory and of God which resteth upon us who is on their part evil spoken of 1 Pet. 4. 14. 2dly Against Tyrants and Persecutors Whence it is that our Saviour Mat. 10. 19. bids his Disciples not be concern'd what they should speak when they should be delivered up to Men because it should be given them in that same hour what they should speak And he adds vers 20. It is not ye that speak but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you And we know how that God in all Ages did by the mouths of Infants maintain his Truths to the shame and confusion of Tyrants who endeavour'd to suppress them But here it may be objected Was not the Holy Ghost given to the Jewish Church before the coming of Christ Did He not comfort and support them under a long and tedious expectation of his appearance Was He not then a Teacher of the Faithfull and when that Cloud of Witnesses suffered for the Cause of the God of Jacob when they were sawn in pieces and stoned was not the Holy Ghost their Advocate as well as the Martyrs under the Gospel Did He not speak by the Mouth of Daniel when cast to the Lions and of the three Children who chanted out the Praises of God in the midst of the flames of the firey furnace How then does our Lord say here If I go not away the Comforter will not come to you since so many Ages before He was come and as a Comforter too For Resolution hereof we are to observe That although the Three Persons of the Blessed Trinity be equally the Principles of all those Acts they produce without according to the received Maxim of the Schools yet with a considerable difference in relation to those three distinct Oeconomies or Dispensations towards the Church That of the Father lasted till the Coming of Christ in the Flesh yet so as that in that space of time 't is generally believed that the Son of God did sometimes appear as to Abraham Jacob and Joshua being a kind of Essay or Prelude to his Incarnation and the Holy Ghost did then also impart some degree of Efficacy to the Faithfull However This is properly to be reckoned the Oeconomy of the Father The second was That of the Son from his Incarnation to his Ascension yet so as that the Father made his voice to be heard at Jordan and Mount Tabor This is my beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased hear ye Him As at another time in the Audience of the People Joh. 12. 28. I have both glorified it and will glorifie it again Then also did the Holy Ghost appear in the form of a Dove yet still this is to be accounted the Oeconomy of the Son That of the Holy Spirit commenced from his Descent upon the Apostles and shall last unto the end of all things Differing herein from the other two That in the two first Dispensations Men's senses were usually affected with some extraordinary miraculous and sensible Objects God the Father shewing himself in a Cloud and Pillar of Fire giving out his Oracles from between the Cherubins consuming the burnt-offerings with Fire from Heaven and filling the Sanctuary with his Glory And the Son of God conversing so familiarly with Men that it made St. John say That which was from the beginning which we have heard which we have seen with our eyes which we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the word of life declare we unto you Whereas I say All was as it were visible and palpable here 'T was far otherwise in the Dispensation of the Spirit The Heavens were not seen to part nor was God's terrible Voice heard in the Air no Shechinah no Glory or sensible Mark of the Presence of the living God in his Temple For which reason the third Person in the Trinity has the Special Name of Spirit given Him For as He is styled Holy in respect of that Sanctification he worketh in us though that same Title belongs also to the other two Persons as having the same Spiritual Essence yet the Holy Ghost bears the name of Spirit in regard of his altogether Spiritual Dispensation and those Graces he imparts to each faithfull Soul which are Heavenly and Spiritual such as are the Knowledge of the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven and his inward Vertues and Consolations As for Knowledge it was so weak and imperfect under the Ancient Oeconomy that in respect of that our Lord preferrs the least in the Kingdom of Heaven i. e. the meanest Christian to all the Prophets not excepting the Baptist himself Nor can it be deny'd but that the very first Principles and Rudiments of Christianity do far surpass the highest Attainments of the Law The Jews were under a Cloud and the Doctrine of the Prophets was but as a light shining in a dark place All was then Shadow or rather Night and Moses his Veil was over the Eyes of the whole Nation God made himself known to the Jews as the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob not as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ of whom They had a very wrong Notion looking upon him as the Conqueror of the World such was the very Apostle's fancy of him and that even after his Resurrection Act. 1. The ineffable Mystery of the Trinity that of Godliness which without controversie is great God manifested
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
with their several Actions and Operations All which clearly demonstrate their Existence For the first Their Creation may be gathered though it be not set down in express terms from the first and second Chapters of Genesis where they are styl'd the Host of Heaven an usual Title afforded to all Creatures in Scripture-language but in a more especial manner appropriated to Angels as 't is by the Psalmist Psal. 148. 2. and most suitable to them in regard of their great Power and exact Order And so all Expositors allow it 'T is true indeed there is no such express mention of the Creation of Angels in Moses's Writings as in those of the other Holy Pen-men which he omits not so much as some would have it to prevent Idolatry in the Israelites who had they known Angels would have been apt to have ador'd them as for these two Reasons 1. Because Moses applies himself to the simple Capacity of that People and describes the Creation of visible and sensible things leaving spiritual as above their lower apprehensions and 2dly lest Men should think God needed the help of Angels either in the production or disposition of other Creatures As if the Fabrick of the World had been too great a Task for Himself alone to undertake as Heathens and some Hereticks also have fancied to the manifest derogation of the Divine Omnipotency But for what reason soever Moses forbore to speak out here the Psalmist is plain enough By the Word of the Lord were the Heavens made and all the Host of them by the breath of his mouth Psal. 33. 6. and clearer yet Psal. 104. 4. He maketh his Angels spirits and his Ministers a flaming fire And whereas our Apostle v. 4. tells us That God made the Worlds Colos. 1. 16. He explains the meaning of that expression by things visible and invisible and these invisible things by Thrones Dominions Principalities and Powers the usual Titles Angels are design'd by So void of all Reason as well as of Religion is that bold or rather impudent Assertion of the Author of the Leviathan concerning the Creation of Angels there is nothing delivered in Scripture 2. A second proof of the Existence of Angels may be taken from their sundry Apparitions both before and under the Law and in the first dawning of the Gospel There is nothing more certain than that under those several Dispensations especially at the beginning of them such Apparitions were very frequent Holy Men in those times had a familiar acquaintance and correspondency with Heaven 'T was no news then to see an Angel of God The Patriarchs scarce convers'd so much with Men as with blessed Spirits They were their Guests and their Companions of their Family and of their Counsel Nothing of importance was done either at home or abroad without their privity and direction And he must be a great stranger to the New Testament that finds them not there too very often among the Servants of God For though God had for a long time withdrawn from the Jews all means of supernatural Revelations yet at the first publication of the Gospel he began to restore them 'T was no marvel that when that wicked people became strangers to God in their Conversation God should grow a stranger to them in his Apparitions But when the Gospel approacht he visited them afresh with his Angels before he visited them with his Son Joseph Mary Zachary the Shepherds Mary Magdalen the gazing Disciples at the Mount of Olives Peter Philip Cornelius St. Paul St. John the Evangelist were all blessed with the sight of them In succeeding times 't is also very credible what Ecclesiastical Writers report That the good Angels were nowhit more sparing of their Presence for the comfort of Holy Martyrs and Confessors who suffered for the Name of Christ. I doubt not but Constant Theodorus saw and felt the refreshing hand of the Angel no less than he reported to Julian the Persecutor Nor do I question but that those retired Saints too of the prime Ages of the Church had sometimes such heavenly Companions for the Consolation of their forced Solitude as St. Jerome reports of them But this is evident too that the elder the Church grew the more rare was the use of these Apparitions as of all other Miracles Actions and Events not that the Arme of God is shortned or his Care and Love to his abated but that his Church being now setled in an ordinary way has no need of any extraordinary ones no more than the Israelites had of Manna when they were once got out of the Wilderness Nay such extraordinary ones now would perhaps be not useless only but dangerous and we may justly suspect those strange Relations of the Romanists concerning later Angelical Apparitions to Saints of their own Canonizing when we see them made use of to countenance Doctrines of Men. And yet notwithstanding their false play here 't is hard to say that all those instances which sober learned Men have given us of Modern Apparitions are utterly incredible But it has often fallen out indeed that Evil spirits have appeared in this wicked and corrupt Age more than good ones The frequent experience of later days gives in here its Evidence and 't is unreasonable wholly to reject it there being no other reason but this to doe so that our selves doe not see what others so peremptorily affirm they did which were to call in question all that our own Eyes have not been witnesses to and if we will believe nothing but what we see we may as well doubt whether there be Souls as Devils And yet so far as men's Eyes may discern Spirits they may doe it in those possessed Bodies they usurp For that such Possessions have been and still are in the World though more frequent in our Saviour's time than ours is as hard to deny as that there are Witchcrafts which yet many will not allow of and the Papists would take it ill we should deprive them of this one great Argument to prove the truth of their Doctrines who though they feign Possessions where there are none and conjure up imaginary Devils that they may have the credit to lay them yet this is no good reason to say there are no such things at all And this once granted as we must needs doe unless we will contradict all credible sensible Experience there will be no ground left to dispute the real Being of bad Angels which is an Argument of equal force to prove that there are good ones But then 3dly What if we do no longer now-a-days see Angels in visible shapes may we not discover them by their several actions and operations And do not these necessarily imply the Being of things Now besides the Testimony of Scripture which represents Angels standing moving talking and the like It is apparent that there are many effects in Nature which as they cannot be attributed to any natural Causes unless we will have continual
of our religious Duties And for this cause ought the Woman to have power on her head because of the Angels says St. Paul 1 Cor. 11. 10. While Zachary and the People were praying he sees an Angel of God who as Gideon's Angel went up in the smoak of the Sacrifice came down in the fragrant smoak of his Incense too Those glorious Spirits are indeed always with us but most in our Devotions They rejoyce to be with us while we are with our God nor will they any longer be with us than while we are with Him while we keep in his ways they will keep us safe if we go out of his Precincts we forfeit their Protection They will certainly leave us when we forsake God and when the Good ones go from us the Evil will come to us as in Saul's case And therefore to prevent the coming of the bad let us be sure to make the good ones our friends which we shall best doe by being like them by imitating them in their Obedience as our Saviour bids us in their Purity and Humility as also in their Charity by ministring to others though never so mean as they doe to us who are so much below them that so we may be the true heirs of Salvation be sure of their Protection here and enjoy their Society hereafter Which God of his infinite Mercy grant for his sake who is the Angel of the Covenant c. Amen Soli Deo gloria in aeternum A SERMON Preached on All-saints-day COLOS. I. 12. Giving thanks unto the Father which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light SAint John reflecting on the Honour and Dignity of God's Children is so affected with that very Thought that in a Divine Rapture he breaks forth Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the Sons of God! 1 Joh. 3. 1. And then describing the future happiness that Relation should entitle us to he does it in such terms as shew it unconceivable ver 2. We are now says he the Sons of God but it doth not yet appear what we shall be In like manner St. Paul speaking of the Joys above describes them Negatively telling us rather what they are not than what they are Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard neither have entred into the Heart of Man the things which God hath prepared far them that love him 1 Cor. 2. 9. That is they exceed the apprehension not only of humane Sense but Understanding Now if any could have given us an exact description of those things then surely these two Apostles For since Heaven did as it were come down to the one in Visions and Revelations and the other went up thither having been caught up into it Who fitter than these Persons to display the Glories of that Place which themselves had seen And yet we see the only account they give or indeed could give us of them is but this That they are unaccountable not to be reacht by Thought nor to be known but by Enjoyment But how obscure soever or inexpressible those Glories appear to such as expect them This is certain that they are reserved and laid up in a sure place for as many as God shall account worthy of them An Estate they have in Reversion though now incapable of its actual Possession during their minority They are Heirs apparent of Salvation even in this their nonage and are as sure of Heaven as if they were already in it For it is their certain Inheritance Yet lest any should wax proud of their Title they are to remember that they owe it not to themselves but to the mere goodness of their Heavenly Father who both gives them the thing it self and their capacity for it Gives them Heaven and makes Heavenly too and therefore may justly challenge their most hearty acknowledgment of so great a Mercy which is that the Apostle requires of these Colossians That they should give thanks to the Father who had made them meet to be partakers of the Inheritance of the Saints in light So that we have in these words 1. A Description of the future Happiness of God's Children consisting of two Particulars 1. That it is their Inheritance 2. An Inheritance in light 2. The Persons who are the true Heirs and Proprietaries thereof The Saints 3. The Manner of its Conveyance to them and that is by Free-gift It descends not to them by any natural succession nor is it the fruit of their own pains or purchase But 't is God the Father that makes them both Partakers and meet Partakers thereof 4. Lastly Here is a Duty on their part to be performed arising from so high an Obligation That since the Father had been so bountifull in bestowing on them so goodly an Inheritance they should not fail to be thankfull to Him for it Giving thanks c. These be the Parts whereof briefly in their order And first of the Inheritance it self with the Nature and Condition thereof An Inhertaince in light An Inheritance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Singular 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is it seems but one common Inheritance as but one common Salvation wherein all God's Saints are Heirs in solidum And let not this trouble any of them For Heaven is big enough and God sufficient for All. There not the Elder Brother is the only Heir and goes away with the Inheritance when many times the younger are Beggars but we shall All be Heirs and Co-heirs with Christ. Earthly Inheritances are indeed impaired and lessened by being parcelled out But this Inheritance in light like light loseth nothing by being communicated to All wherein every one shall have his Part and that Part shall be his All. Each vessel of honour shall be filled up it shall have as much as it can hold and that is as much as it shall desire All shall shine as stars in the Kingdom of their Father though with different lustre As one star differeth from another star in glory 1 Cor. 15. 41. Joh. 14. 2. All shall be in their Father's house but in several Mansions and with several Portions assigned them Which difference shall be so far from abating that it shall increase their mutual Glory when none shall complain that another hath too much and himself too little when each other's share shall be his own and more his own for being another's so that he shall be glorified in that very glory wherein his fellow Saint shall outshine him and his own Crown for this reason be brighter because his Neighbour's shall be so And as this Inheritance here is but one so is it a durable one That very name speaks a lasting Title What comes thus unto us we look upon as our own and our own for ever And indeed without Propriety and that perpetual all we have or enjoy is nothing We are at best but usu-fructuaries not true Possessors
Glorious things are spoken of the City of God and we may say of them what the Queen of Sheba said of the Glory of Solomon's kingdom that the half thereof is not told us But surely among those many glorious things spoken of it nothing is more glorious than this That it is a City which hath foundations whose builder and maker is God Heb. 11. 10. And that in Heaven we have an house not made with hands but eternal An House that shall last as long as its Builder and whose Inhabitants shall last as long as both and dwell therein for ever For what would all the Glories of Heaven be to us if we had no other advantage but what Solomon says worldly men have of their riches to behold them with our eyes What should we be the better for them if we might never enjoy them and have no right to the place where they are to be found What is a Kingdom to him to whom it belongs not Or a Crown of glory to that man whose head shall never wear it Had we such a sight of all the kingdoms of the world and of the glory of them as the Devil shewed our Saviour but withall as little right to any part of them as that Tempter could give Him That glittering sight might perhaps dazle our eyes but never raise any other passion in us than that of Envy towards them who should enjoy them And thus it would be with us as to the kingdom of Heaven To behold this spiritual Canaan afar off without any hope of ever possessing it to view it as another's Countrey not our own would be but such a sad and melancholy prospect as the rich man had when he saw Lazarus in Abraham's bosom or as our Lord gave the Jews when he told them that they should see Abraham Isaac and Jacob and all the Prophets in the kingdom of God when they themselves should thence be thrust out Luk. 13. 28. There is no true satisfaction to be had in any thing wherein we have no Interest no lasting Propriety Without this Heaven it self would be a Hell to us as it is to the Damned But 't is the peculiar advantage and comfort of God's Saints that they can look upon it even while here below as their Inheritance Christ hath entail'd it upon them Matt. 25. 34. Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the kingdom prepared for you They have his word for it which is as sure to them as Free-hold II. But what kind of Inheritance is prepared for them The Text tells us 'T is an Inheritance in light and that in opposition to another sort of Inheritance if I may so call it styled in the following Verse the power of darkness yea and Darkness it self Act. 26. 18. As that which lies in darkness is maintained and upheld by it and shall bring men without repentance into outer darkness into the blackness of darkness for ever From which dismal state the godly being delivered are said to be called out of darkness into God's marvellous light 1 Pet. 2. 9. Out of the darkness of ignorance the natural state of man into the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ which will at last bring them to that of eternal glory So that the Inheritance here is an Inheritance in light in two respects 1. In respect of the light of Faith and the knowledge of God which englightens us in this life And 2dly In respect of that light of Glory which shall adorn and crown us in the next We have here the outward light of the Word before us and the inward light of the Spirit within us And if we walk in these lights as children of the light we have a promise of shining forth hereafter as the Sun in the kingdom of our Father Matt. 13. 43. Both which lights are in effect but one That of Faith a light in part and that of Glory a full and perfect light For Grace is nothing else but the dawning of Glory They differ not in substance but in degree no otherwise than as light in the Sun when it first peeps out above our Horizon from that of the same Sun when it is in its Vertical point shining out in its full strength Both these lights I say of Faith and Glory make up but one great united Light And therefore 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Text An Inheritance not in lights but in light There being but one Light as there are but one sort of Inheriters thereof The Saints For who fit to partake of this glorious unspotted light but they who are so themselves or who have a proper right to this Inheritance but the Children of the most Highest Psal. 82. 6. So St. Paul argues Rom. 8. 17. If Children then Heirs Heirs of God and joint Heirs with Christ Heirs of God indeed but through Christ Gal. 4. 7. Holding their Inheritance in Capite in the right of Him who is the Heir of all things Heb. 1. 2. He the natural Heir They but adopted ones Rom. 8. 15. But still in Him Ephes. 1. 5. Having predestinated us unto the Adoption of Children by Christ Jesus unto himself Whence they claim the Inheritance by promise also For being Christ's says the same Apostle they become Abraham's seed and Heirs according to the promise Gal. 3. 23. And so Heb. 9. 15. They receive the Promise of an eternal Inheritance Not that they have not the Promise also of temporal Inheritances For Godliness hath the Promise of the life that now is as well as of that which is to come 1 Tim. 4. 8. But because the Heavenly is setled only upon them whereas Temporal Inheritances may and do fall to their share and that in large Proportions who have neither part nor lot in the Heavenly I have blessed Ismael says God Twelve Princes shall he beget but my Covenant will I establish with Isaac Gen. 17. 20 21. Esau had the like Temporal blessing as Jacob had But not with a God give thee the Dew of Heaven Gen. 27. 28. God gives gifts unto men even to the rebellious Psal. 68. 18. Common giftless gifts But the Inheritance and to abide in his house for ever is for the Children Joh. 8. 35. Nor will these be put off or sent away with a few gifts as the sons of Abraham's Concubines were nothing less will content them than the Inheritance it self The Children of this world indeed have their Portion in this life and they are satisfied with it This is our Portion and our Lot is this say they Wisedom 2. 9. But the Children of light and of a better world reckon otherwise The Lord himself is the Portion of mine Inheritance says David Psal. 16. 6. They are fellow Citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem Ephes. 2. 19. Their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their Burgeship is there They live according to the Laws of Heaven and even while on Earth enjoy the Priviledges thereof being
yet nothing is so loose as they in effect Trace these Worshippers of Bel by the print of their feet in the ashes and you shall find whither they go and what their pretended Abstinences end in And yet should they in the austerity of their Will-worship go beyond us I am sure Baal s Priests went beyond them such things make them not better than us or make Baal's Priests far better than them while they leave that which God commands them to doe that for which He will never thank them To this I might add as a great Motive to dissoluteness their Catholick implicit Faith while they require Men to believe at a venture as the Church does and so save them the labour of searching A Doctrine easie to flesh and bloud and excellently fitted to the designs as their perpetual Vow of Continency does promote the Lusts of it exposing some to an inevitable Temptation by denying them those remedies which the Gospel freely allows every Man 3. Can any thing more advance the pride of Nature than their Pharisaical Doctrines of Merit and Supererogation which teach Men to purchase their own Glory without being beholding to God's Mercy and by fulfilling his Law to out-brave his Justice Nay that they can doe more than they need and may if they please help their neighbours too What an excellent lesson is this to make Nature run mad of self-conceit while it is assured that it can carve out its own destiny by an exorbitant freedom of Will that Men can dispose themselves to Conversion work out their own Salvation without Christ's help or if not themselves with the assistance of others who can furnish them with a supply out of their super-abundant stock of Merits Thus while they run away with such fond conceits they become careless and negligent of doing any good themselves while they are made to believe that others can doe it for them as if the lashes of Saints supposing them such could heal us as Christ's stripes doe that God's Justice would suffer its self to be paid with any other coyn than that which bears his Son's image and superscription or that his bloud could not be able to cleanse us without being mixt with the water of our own or other men's tears What can be more effectual I say than this to puff up Men with spiritual pride or more derogatory or injurious to the Saviour of the World And yet this is the Doctrine of the false Prophets of Rome who stick not some of them blasphemously to affirm That we are more beholding to the Mother's milk than to the Son's bloud And as their Doctrine of Merit and Supererogation promotes spiritual pride so does that of the Pope's Infallibility and Supremacy as much foment their spiritual and carnal too while by the former they allow no more possibility of Error in St. Peter's than the Pharisees did in Moses's Chair and consequently exclude all hope of any Reformation of the Pope's abuses which all Men must swallow and digest as the dictates of God's Spirit to whom he entitles them and from which there lying no Appeal he may Lord it as he pleases over God's heritage let his pretended Predecessor say what he will to the contrary 1 Pet. 5. 3. and over all the Princes of the Earth too by vertue of his Dabo tibi claves in spight also of the same Apostle 1 Pet. 2. 13 14. Doctrines which serve to swell him up with Pride as that of Transubstantiation fills all his Emissaries with it too which giving them a power to make their God must needs make them look upon themselves as some great ones and the people admire and stand in awe of them who can create their Creator and which is worse sell him too as some of them doe at a lower price than Judas did his Saviour though others can sometimes raise the Market when they see occasion And surely there is nothing more certain than that they doe so as by vertue of this so of their other fore-mention'd Doctrines of Purgatory whereof the Pope keeps the Key as well as of Heaven and has kindled a fire there on purpose to make his Pot seeth of Masses for the Dead who are to be released thence by their own or friends Money and Indulgences to the Living that when they come thither they may also find a quick dispatch being in their description of it as hot though not so close a quarter as Hell its self wherein Men desiring to continue as short a time as possibly they can would be glad at any rate to provide themselves a Pass-port to an easier place To which Doctrines I might add their forbidding of Marriage to many degrees of Men a subtle way too of driving on their Trade of Merchandize For the more Prohibitions the more Dispensations and the more Dispensations the more Money No Peny no Pater-noster with them Thus doe their Doctrines empty themselves still into the Churches Treasury and the Sins of the whole World must be taxed to increase St. Peter's Patrimony though himself could tell us he had neither Silver nor Gold and rather than the Pope's Coffers shall stand empty he will set a price upon Damnation its self and the very Stews shall become Tributary to his Holiness's Purse that so that very Purse may maintain his Grandeur to the lessening of that of all other Princes That these are the aims of such-like Doctrines is plainly discernible by any that have not lost their Senses And surely Purgatory yields him so considerable a Rent that as Bishop Jewell well said the Pope would be content to lose Heaven and Hell too to save that And nothing can render his Indulgences tolerable but this one Consideration That they gave the first occasion to the Reformation of this and all other his Abuses The time would fail me to discover the aims of other Popish principles How some of them doe preach downright Falshood and Injustice such as are the Jusuitical Maximes of No Faith to be kept with Hereticks of Equivocations and mental Reservations whereby they can make any thing signifie any thing of Probabilities and rectifying of Intentions mentioned at large in the Provincial Letters and which the Jesuites have made such excellent use of for deciding Cases of Conscience To which I might add Their uncharitable and non-sensical Principle of their Particular Churches being the Universal Catholick one as the Pharisees and Donatists of old and our over-strict Precisians of late dooming all to Hell who are not of their cut and garb as if none could be saved that were out of their Ark Besides those innumerable burthensome and superstitious Ordinances they load men's Consciences with A yoke as they make it heavier than that of Moses whose whole loins are not so thick as their little finger But I forbear and shall conclude this part with a brief account of their Doctrine of Obedience to Magistrates which how destructive 't is to all civil Government will appear by the
very proposing of these four Particulars 1. That they so exempt all Ecclesiastical persons from Subjection to Princes as to allow these no co-active but only a directive Power over them 2. That by the Seal of Confession they tye up their Priests from revealing any traiterous Plots of Rebels against their Soveraigns 3. That the Pope by his Authority can when he pleases absolve Subjects from their Oaths of Fidelity to them 4. That 't is not lawfull for Christians to obey an Heretical Prince By which Maximes 't is evident how impossible it is for any Man that believes them to be a good Subject He must be no Papist if he be true to his Prince since he can be so no longer than the Pope will suffer him Whatever such a Man's practice may be as no doubt many noble Gentlemen of that persuasion have been Loyal to their last breath yet his Principles are rebellious and if his natural generosity or some other respect keeps him fast to his King his Religion I am sure does not bind him And when there happens a contest between Honour and Religion 't is odds but the latter will carry it For put the case the Pope should command one thing and the King another I would fain know whether of the two a Papist conceives himself oblig'd to obey If he says His King he can be no good Roman Catholick If the Pope as he must say unless he will renounce his profession 't is impossible for him to be a good Subject since the Pope whom with Bellarmine he acknowledges the Head of the Church one that cannot err and that has power to make Articles of Faith according to the determination of the Council of Trent hath ex Cathedra declared these forenamed Principles of Rebellion to be such Articles of Faith and the denying them to be so no less than Heresie You see the doctrines of these false Prophets of Rome and they have exemplified them all by their practices The Pharisees were great boasters of their Father Abraham and so are these of the Fathers of the Church as if they were their only legitimate offspring and the sole heirs of their learning and piety And these two they have so engross'd to themselves that they look upon all the world besides as bankrupt As to learning 't is so confin'd to the Colleges of Jesuits that if we may believe them it very seldom travels beyond their walls who being the only Rabbi's have appropriated to themselves the swelling Titles of Angelical Seraphical and the like All besides them having but one eye while these like the Chineses have two As to piety and devotion the Catholick-church like the Temple of the Lord among the Jews is ever in their mouths They are the only godly Party the Favorites and Minions of heaven Nothing to be seen in their Churches but miracles and nothing on their Walls but devotion and indeed all their religion is but paint The very habit of a Monk with them is miraculous beyond St. Paul's handkerchief and a Franciscan's frock wrapt about a dying man shall as infallibly make him a Saint as Rablais his gown a Physician All the Pharisee's arts of dawbing and pargetting are but rude and gross and his colours faint to those of a Mendicant View him with his shaven head his long beard and longer beads his ill habit and worse looks prostrating his body to the ground before his woodden god and what Pharisee can compare with him And yet this is the best side of the man and of his religion which like an Egyptian Temple belies and shames its fair frontispiece with some ridiculous Ape within There is no such hypocrisie as that which lurks under a Cowle no pride to that of a feigned and voluntary humility nor any such lewdness as that which is gilded over with devotion Should I lay the dirt of their Cells before you or rake up the bones of buried Infants the prospect would be too nasty and dismal We know what good use they make of their Confessions They who are well acquainted with them find them one thing abroad and another at home one thing at their Altars and another in their Chambers These Pedlers of devotion carry all on their backs abroad while their storehouses lye empty They can appear to the eye of the world like so many Baptists with their Camels hair and leathern girdles which they brag of as Antisthenes of old did of the rents of his garment that served only to let in light to sober Spectators to view the Wearer's vanity And what is all their Tinsel devotion but a Pharisaical will-worship That rabble of insignificant and superstitious ceremonies wherein they out-doe the most hypocritical Pharisees in Crosses Relicks Agnus's Exorcising of devils of their own raising and ridiculous cringings and postures not to be found among the Pharisees whose behaviour was sober and grave in comparison of that antick Mascarading and religious Mummery practised by these Romish Augurs who cannot chuse but laugh sufficiently at themselves for them and do no doubt much more at them who are so silly as to admire them The Pharisees had their superstitious washings 'tis true but they had no holy water to fright away the Devil nor did they wear their Philacteries as these men doe a piece of St. John's Gospel about their necks to charm him Indeed those many Sects of religious orders among Papists derive from them but are far more numerous and ridiculous exceeding them as much in their Crimes as they doe in their Fopperies Did they compass sea and land to gain a Proselyte these will run farther than the Indies to gain Souls that is to extend Empire like subtle Foxes preying far from home or rather going about like roaring Lyons seeking whom they may devour And when they have gained men they make them much more the children of the Devil than themselves being sure when once they have them to keep them fast and tame enough either by a gross ignorance or the consciousness of those sins which they have pickt out from them by Confessions and which they continually nurse up by their Indulgencies Had the Pharisees subtle ways to entrap men these their disciples can out-wit them and a Pharisee is but a Dunce to a Jesuit in his art of Legerdemain spiritual juggling and holy frauds whose fundamental Principle 't is That Gain is Godliness If the Pharisees were covetous these have hearts exercised with all manner of covetous practices Let the Quarry be never so mean these Hauks will stoop to it To say the truth The religion of these men is founded in policy and interest and the whole current of their doctrines and practices run that way as 't is easie for any one to see that well considers them 'T is this that sets the Fryars and Jesuits together by the ears all the quarrel between them being this Who shall bring most grist to their several mills A man can
Church when they cannot make them of their Religion I doe not think that those Christianos nuevos those new Christians as they call them in Spain That is such as the Inquisition has made Christians of Mahumetans doe much love the Religion they turn to and much less those who turn them to it by employing Fire and Faggor These indeed are undeniable Evidences of cruelty in them that use them but slender Motives of credibility to beget belief in them that suffer by them And this way will not fail to multiply enemies instead of procuring friends to any Cause though never so good For as Persecution to the true Church is but as the Pruning to the Vine which gains in its bulk and fruit what it loseth in a few luxuriant branches lopt off so even Heresies themselves thrive by being prun'd too the cropping of these Weeds does but serve to thicken them the bloud of the Devil's Martyrs proves as much the Seed of his Synagogue as that of Gods Saints does of his Church and the destroying of the Persons of Hereticks supposing them such does but add life to their Cause And indeed what encouragement have Men to receive a Religion from their Oppressors or how can they think that they who torture and kill their Bodies are really concern'd to save their Souls And while the felicities of another World are recommended to them only by such as doe deprive them of all in this we cannot wonder at their little appetite to embrace them or to find the oppress'd Indians protest against that Heaven where the Spaniards are to be their Cohabitants Add we to all this That such Motives as these can never demonstrate Truth For how successfull soever their force proves yet it cannot prove the Doctrines true For by that argument it proves the Religion it goes about to settle true It proves that that which it destroys was true before while it prevailed and had the power And then such a testimony is given to the truth of Christianity which Heathenism had before and Turcism hath since And thus you see how all violent ways to propagate the Faith cannot be acceptable to God the Father as being directly contrary to his Nature and Will nor yet to his Son since they cross the very end and design of his coming into the World his Doctrine and Practice Fly in the very face of Religion it self and can never serve their turn who make use of it From all which it follows That they who pursue such ways neither know God the Father nor his Son Jesus Christ. I know what is commonly said by some who practice this way of compulsion in excuse and defence of it That many who serve God at first by compulsion may come after to serve him freely That these sorts of Conversions doe not augment the number of Saints but they diminish that of Hereticks That although some among them may prove bad Converts themselves yet they have Families to be saved that their Children may make good Christians and though the stock be naught yet the branches may be sanctified But the answer hereunto is easie That neither good Intents nor casual Events can justifie unreasonable Violence which instead of rendering Men orthodox Christians makes them rather Atheists Hypocrites and Formalists For being constrained to practice against Conscience they soon come at last to lose all Conscience Nor are Men to owe the Salvation of Souls to any unwarrantable proceedings because they must not doe any present evil in prospect of any future good This was another gross error of these persons in the Text as I am now to show you in the next place 2. The Jews here thought their Zeal to the Temple and their Ritual Observances so invincibly meritorious that no crime could defeat it And we see how apt many Christians are to ascribe so much to the force of a good meaning as if it were able to bear the stress and load of any sins that can be laid upon it A good purpose shall hallow all they doe and make them boldly rush into the most unchristian practices in prosecution of what some call The good old Cause others The Catholick Faith For how doe Men swallow down the deadliest Poyson Perjury Sacriledge Murther Regicide and the like in confidence of this their preservative and say grace over the foulest sins How many have made themselves Saints upon that account that would never have been such upon any other And how much Religion groans under the Reproach of all those Evils which zeal and good meanings have consecrated is notorious to all the World Men call the over-flowing of their gall Religion and value their Opinions so high and their eagerness in abetting them that they think the propagating of them so important a service to God as will justifie all they doe in order to this end Now not to speak of their Error in the choice of their Opinions That of many opposite one only can be the Right my present business shall be to shew you 1. The Impiety and 2. The Danger of this strong delusion in respect of that Malignant influence it has on Practice For the clearing of which two things we are to observe That to the making an Action good and warrantable these three things are requisite 1. A good Intention in the Doer 2. That the Matter of the Action be in it self good and 3. That it be rightly circumstantiated For a failure in either of these three things quite vitiates the whole Action 1. The first thing necessary to a good Action is a good Intention in the Doer This we learn from Matth. 6. 22. If thine Eye that is thy Intention for so Interpreters generally understand it be single thy whole Body shall be full of light Be the matter of an Action never so good yet if a Man's aim and intention in the doing of it be not so all is stark naught For Actus moralis specificatur ex fine And Finis dat speciem in moralibus And as the End is the first thing that sets an Agent a working so is it the last that perfects its work Nay so valuable in the sight of God is a good Intention where-ever it be found That as He sometimes prevents an evil Act in him in whom He discovers a good Intention as in Abimilech so does He sometimes reward a good Purpose tho' it proceeds not to act as in David T is true that a good End alone does not justifie any action but it is as true that there can be nothing good or tolerable without it And although a good meaning doth not wholly excuse yet an evil one wholly condemns it But then 2dly Besides a good Intention two things more are requisite to the making an Action good 1. That the Matter of it be such 2. That it be rightly circumstantiated 1. That the Matter thereof be good For our Intention as our zeal must be always in a good thing And a thing is then
besides that the use of Vertue should be very mean if it should no otherwise make us happy than beasts are who contenting themselves with what merely sufficeth nature are more vigorous and some of them longer liv'd than men It may be questionable whether a dry Platonical Idea of a Vertue perishing with our selves or a bare moral complacency in it might in the balance of reason weigh down those other more sensual delights which gratifie our lower faculties or a severe and morose Vertue have charms in it equal to all those various pleasures which sooth and flatter our appetites much more whether a calamitous one such as that of a Christian usually is a vertue still under a cloud and ever as it were on the rack persecuted hated and afflicted here and never to be considered hereafter Far be it from me to decry moral Vertue which even Heathens have granted to be a reward to it self but surely in the supposed case of annihilation very short of a full and complete one and to cry it up as some doe to the weakning of our belief and hope of the Immortality of the Soul however at first blush it may seem plausible is in effect no better than a subtle invention to ruine Vertue by it self since it cannot possibly subsist but by the belief and support of another life For setting this aside what would Vertue be but a bare Notion what but a gaudy rattle to still and please Children but of little force to persuade men to quit a present sensible delight for a bare Philosophical though never so taking Speculation Vertue may carry a big Title she may appear the fairest thing of the world and be the least usefull while men expect no other advantage of their good actions but the content of having done them 'T is what she brings charms us more than her self her beauty would have no attractive had she no dowry she would soon be laid aside as the most unprofitable thing of the Earth did she not give us assurance of some better reward hereafter than what she now bestows The joys vertuous actions afford do so far affect us as they are an earnest of greater and those satisfactions which spring from good deeds are so far to be prized as they promise and entitle us to higher ones If we are pleased in doing good here 't is that we may hereafter find it and if we sow in grace 't is because we hope one day to reap in glory Vertue without Immortality can never content us and our longings after that are strong arguments of it when we wish we prove it and that we may attain it 't is evident because we so passionately desire it O quà m vilis contempta res est homo nisi supra humana se erexerit says the Moralist That man is not so much as a man that is not a great deal more than so that raises not himself above himself that looks not beyond his threescore and ten years nor above the ground he treads on The vilest worm were happier than he if his hopes were laid up where his body shall be He has a Heaven in prospect and the expected joys of that quite swallow up his miseries on Earth Now indeed is the time of his sowing but not of his harvest His work is here but not his wages His good Master that employs shall one day fully pay him who gives him some of that pay in hand but bids him look for more and that blessed hope bears him up against all the discouragements of this life sweetens his afflictions here and makes him happy in his very unhappiness while he comfortably expects to be more happy than he can now fansie himself ever to be because he is fully persuaded that there is another far better and more glorious life in reversion which brings in the third and last Observation III. That there is another Life remaining the Expectation whereof makes a Christian of all other men most happy both here and hereafter This I am not now to prove to Christians because it is a truth to be supposed by them as it is in this Text by St. Paul Christ has sufficiently demonstrated it by his rising from the dead and the force of our Apostle's argument here would be quite lost if we should in the least doubt of it And to speak clearly This grand Article of the Christian Faith The Resurrection is a Truth to be taken for granted by all good Christians Infidels may deny it Atheists may wish it were not but all good Christians must confess and hope it They have little reason to question that which 't is their highest interest should be All their designs are laid in it and their hopes built upon it If they be content to suffer here 't is in hope to reign hereafter If with Christ they be willing to endure the cross and the shame of this life 't is for the joy that is set before them in the next A joy which throughly apprehended cheers them up in their greatest dumps enlightens their very dungeons turns their prisons into Palaces their Hell into a Heaven their torments into delights and their beds of hot burning coals into those of down It makes their afflictions infinitely more pleasant than the Epicures most exquisite pleasures can be A joy before which sorrow can no more stand than a mist before the Sun that presently chases away that evil Spirit of Melancholy which seizes the happy Worldling in the midst of all his jollities damps his spirits makes his chaplets of Roses wither on his head and is that stinking fly which spoils his most fragrant ointment as oft as he shall seriously consider that he must one day become a part of his own lands lye down for ever in the dust and his honour with him which yet is the best he can expect For such a one can no otherwise look upon Death than as a Serjeant to arrest him whereas to the good Christian 't is but a Messenger of joyfull tydings to tell him that his corruption must put on incorruption This is his hope and 't is founded in Christ's Resurrection who ever since he tasted death for us hath sweetned that bitter Cup so bitter before that time that St. Paul assures us That through fear of death men were all their life-time subject to bondage For it made their pleasures less delightfull their vertues more harsh and tedious and all their afflictions most insupportable Whereas now they are so far from being insupportable that they are most easie to us who know that being light and but for a moment they work for us a far more exceeding eternal weight of glory How sad and deplorable then must their condition be who are without this hope and without God in the world as the Apostle describes Heathens to be and yet how many Christians content themselves with no better whose thoughts are bounded with the same objects