the Joys which thy everlasting Heaven is composed of and I be such a Wretch to my self such a Traytor to the Dignity of my own Nature as to give up my self and all my Faculties to the Pursuit of such vain and wretched Trifles That I who am akin to Angels should make my self a Muck-worm and chuse Nebuchadnezzar's fate to leave Crowns and Scepters and live among the salvage Herds of the Wilderness That having such a great and noble Nature I should content my self to live like a Beast and aim no higher than if I had been born only to eat and drink and sleep and wake for thirty or forty Years together and then retire into a silent Grave and be insensible forever Wherefore in the Name of God let us at last remember what we are and what we are born to Let us consider that we have Faculties that are capable of exerting themseves for ever in the most inravishing Contemplation and Love of the eternal Fountain of Truth and Goodness of copying and transcribing his most adorable Perfections his Wisdom Goodness Purity and Iustice from whence the infinite Happiness of his Nature derives and thereby of glorifying us into living Images of God and rendring us like him both in Beauty and Happiness in a word that we have Faculties to converse with Angels and with blessed Spirits to bear a Part in the eternal Comfort of their Joys and Praises and to relish all those unknown Delights of which their everlasting Heaven doth consist And having such great and noble Powers in us is it not a burning shame that they should be always condemned to an endless Pursuit of Shadows and Impertinencies Let us therefore rouse up our selves and shake off this sordid and degenerate Temper that sinks and depresses us and makes us act so infinitely unbecoming the Dignity of our immortal Natures And since we are descended from and designed for the Heavenly Family let us learn to demean our selves upon Earth as becomes the Natives of Heaven Let us disdain all base and sordid all low and unworthy Ends of Action as Things beneath our illustrious Rank and Station in the World of Beings and live in a continual Tendency towards and Preparation for that Heavenly State which is the proper Orb and Sphere of our Natures 3ly From hence also I infer how much they undervalue themselves that fell their Souls for the Trifles of this World For since we know before-hand that the Wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all Unrighteousness and Ungodliness of Men and he hath plainly assured us that our Souls must smart for ever for our Sins it necessarily follows that when ever we knowingly suffer our selves to be inticed into Sin we make a wilful Forfeiture of our Souls He that knows that such a Draught however sweetned and made palatable is yet compounded with the Juice of deadly Nightshade and notwithstanding that will have the poisonous Draught is wilfully bent to Murder and Destroy himself And when we see that the Pleasure of our Sin draws after it the Ruin of our Souls and yet will Sin notwithstanding we do in effect stake our Souls against it and with our Eyes open make this desperate Bargain that upon Condition we may injoy such a sinful Pleasure we will willingly surrender up our immortal Spirits to the Pains of an endless and intollerable Damnation And if so O blessed God how do the Generality of Men depreciate and undervalue themselves For how often do we see Men in their little Frauds and Cozenages sell their Souls for a Penny gain in their lascivious and intemperate Humours barter their Souls for a Moments Mirth or Pleasure in their ambitious Projects and Designs part with their Souls for a Blast of vulgar Breath and popular Noise For in every Temptation to Sin the Devil cheapens our immortal Souls bids so much Pleasure or so much Profit for them and in every Compliance with the Temptation we take his Offer and strike the fatal Bargain So that if we will Sin we had need Sin for something since we must pay so dearly for it But alas there is no Proffer the Devil can make us that is a â—elerable Price for the Blood of our Souls though he should offer us the whole World for it our Saviour assures us that he would bid us infinitely to our Loss and if so what wretched Sales do we make of our Souls when we Sin for Trifles lie and cheat to get a Penny consent to a wicked Motion for a Pleasure that will wither while we are smelling to it and expire in the very Injoyment For so much we value our Souls at and do in effect declare that in our Esteem these precious Beings which God and Angels set so high a Price on are worth no more than what that Profit or Pleasure for which we Sin amounts to O good God! What cheap and worthless Things then are our Souls in our Esteem who sell and barter them every Day for such mean and worthless Trifles How do we part with our Gold for Dross and exchange our Iewels for Pebbles What sordid Thoughts what wretched vile Opinions have we of our selves that are so ready upon all Occasions to sell our selves for nought or which is next to nought for the sorry Proffers of every base and infamous Lust O would to God we would at last make but a just Estimate of our selves and thereupon resolve as it is most reasonable we should never to comply with any sinful Motion till we can get more by it than our Souls are worth and then I am sure we should be for ever Deaf to all the Proffers which the Devil or World can make us 4ly And lastly from hence also I infer how much we are obliged above all things to take Care of our Souls For since they are Beings of such vast Capacities in themselves and of such an high Estimation in the World of Spirits methinks we should all be convinced that to take leave of their Welfare and prevent their everlasting Miscarriage is the highest Concern and Interest of a Man And yet God forgive us if we consult the common Practice of Mankind we shall find that there is scarce any thing in which we have any Interest at all that is more slighted and disregarded by us Our Body is the Darling that hath our Hearts and takes up all our Care and Thoughts and to entertain its Appetite and accommodate it with Pleasures and Conveniencies there is no Expence either of Labour or Time grudged or thought much of but as for the Soul that precious and immortal Thing which will be living and perceiving unspeakable Pleasures or Pains when this Body is dead and insensible that is overlooked as a Thing not worthy our serious Notice or Regard And though we cannot but be sensible how much it is diseased in all its Faculties how much its Vnderstanding is overloaded with Error and Ignorance its Will festered with unreasonable
Mind of God to Men So that it seems it was upon this Account as well as others that He was called by the Ancients The Word of God And the same Account is given of it in the New Testament So Ioh. 1. 18. No Man hath seen God at any time the only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father he hath declared him Where there is a particular Reason assigned why though other Men interpreted the Mind of God to us yet Christ alone is called The Word of God because he only was the immediate Interpreter of the Divine Will even as the Word which we speak is of ours For he was in the very Bosom of the Father and there understood his Mind not by the Instructions of an Angel nor by Dreams and Visions nor only by the Holy Ghost but by an immediate Intuition of his Thoughts and Purposes which from all Eternity were exposed to his View and Prospect For as St. Gregory Nazianzen hath observed He had the same Relation to the Father as the inward Thought hath to the Mind because of his intimate Conjunction with him and Power to declare him to the World For the Father is known by the Son who is a brief and easy Demonstration of the Father as every thing that is begotten is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the silent Word of that which doth beget it 4thly And lastly He is called The Word because he is the Executor of his Father's Will even as the Word and Command of a King is the Executor of his Will and Pleasure For according to the Sense of the Ancients God hath from the very Beginning governed the World by his eternal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whom they therefore call the Immortal King the Governor of all things that are or shall be and the Vice-Roy of the great God as I have already shewed you at large And 't was by this Word that God executed his Will when he made the World For by his Word he made the Heavens and all the Host of them by the Breath of his mouth Ps. 33. 6. He did but say the word Let there be Light and there was Light and to his powerful and efficacious Fiat the whole Frame of Nature was but a real Eccho For these Expressions Let there be Light and let there be a Firmament c. are not perhaps so to be understood as if God did actually pronounce those Syllables but they rather seem to be a popular Description of the infinite Energy of the Eternal Word by which God made the Heavens and the Earth to whom it was as easy to give Being to the World as it was to command it to be and that Passage of the Psalmist by the Word of the Lord were the Heavens made and of the Author to the Hebrews Heb. 11. 3. that the Worlds were framed by the Word of God seem rather to denote that powerful Act of Creation which was exerted by the vital and substantial Word of God whereby he instantly and as it were with a words speaking gave Existence to those Beings he intended to create than any articulate Words or Phrases pronounced by God himself because in this Chapter and many other Places of the New Testament it is expresly said that God made the World by Christ who is that living and substantial Word that was with God from the Beginning Well therefore may Christ be called The Word of God since by him God doth as effectually execute his Will as if it were done by the Word of his own Mouth For Christ hath such Power both in Heaven and Earth that at his Word and Command all things are presently done according to his Will and therefore you may observe in that Vision to St. Iohn Rev. 19. 13. Iesus being represented as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords clothed in a royal Purple Robe is called by the name of the Word of God when he was executing the Divine Vengeance upon the Nations by that Power which he hath at God's Right-hand 3. I now pass on to the third and last Thing namely what we are to understand by the Word 's being made Flesh of which I shall give you a brief Account and then conclude with a few short Inferences from the whole Which Words being made Flesh we ought not so to understand as if the Eternal Word was changed or converted into Flesh as Cerinthus taught or as if the Flesh was changed or converted into the Word as Valentinus ridiculously asserted for the Deity is immutable and as it can be changed into nothing so nothing can be changed into it But by Flesh we are to understand Man a Part being put for the Whole for so the Scripture doth very frequently call Man Flesh that being one of the Ingredients of his Nature Thus Ps. 56. 4. I will not fear what flesh can do unto me Ierem. 17. 5. Cursed be the Man that maketh flesh his arm that is that puts his Confidence in Man Matth. 24. 22. Except those days be shortned no flesh shall be saved that is no Man And Rom. 3. 20. No flesh shall be justified in his sight that is no Man shall be justified So here The Word was made flesh that is The Word was made Man Not that the Divine Nature was converted into the Nature of Man but the Meaning is it was made one with Man even as our Soul is not turned into nor confounded with the Body yet they two though distinct in Natures grow into one Man so the Manhood of Christ was assumed or taken into The Word both being united into one Person the Natures being preserved entire and distinct without any Mixture or Confusion For as the Fourth General Council hath defined it He was so made Flesh that he ceased not to be the Word never changing that he was but assuming that which he was not And though our Humanity was advanced by it yet his Divinity was not at all diminished and the Mystery of Godliness God manifested in the flesh was no Detriment to the Godhead which is always unchangeably the same And therefore the seeming Harshness of this Expression may be easily mollified by comparing it with others of the same import for elsewhere it is said that he was manifest in the flesh 1 Tim. 3. 16. Which only denotes that the Divinity was made known and did appear in the World in a Humane Nature Elsewhere it is said that he took on him the Nature of Man Heb. 2. 16. which only denotes that the Divinity did assume the Humane Nature to it and was personally united with it So here The Word was made flesh that is The Word was made one with the Flesh by assuming the Humane Nature into a personal Union with it self Having thus explain'd to you the Sense and Meaning of the Words I shall now conclude this Argument with three or four short Inferences from the whole 1. From hence we may infer the Eternal Divinity of our Blessed Saviour
altogether consists in serving your selves but to disobey so dear a Friend to whom we are obliged by such stupendous Favours when he enjoins us nothing but the Means of our own Happiness is such a Piece of monstrous and unnatural Baseness as the Devil himself can hardly parallel O unkind that we are that we will not be good to our selves for our Saviour's sake and that when he conjures us to it as he doth even by all the Love that we owe him For so Iohn 14. 15. If ye love me saith he keep my Commandments Consider what mighty things I have done for you how I left my Throne in Heaven for your sakes and became a miserable mortal Man And now that I am going from you and am offering up my Life to redeem you if ever I have merited any Love at your hands express it in keeping my Commandments 'T is no great matter that I require of you 't is only that you would be kind to your selves that you would let Misery alone and endeavour to be as happy as Heaven can make you This is all the Requital that I expect at your hands that you would be as good and happy as I would have you and this which is the sum of all my Commands I conjure you strictly to observe even by all the Love that you owe me O blessed Iesus one would have thought thou hadst been requiring some mighty Trial of our Love to thee that we should do some great Thing for thee to which nothing could prompt us but only our Gratitude and Kindness But when thou only requirest us to express our Love to thee in doing that which is the highest Expression of our Love to our selves can we be so disingenuous as not to do that for thy sake to whom we are so infinitely obliged which we are bound to do for our own sakes as well as thine 5. And lastly Hence I infer what a glorious Thing it is to do Good since the Son of God having so great an Opportunity of doing Good to the World thought it worth his While to come down from Heaven and assume our Natures and undergo our Miseries as if he esteemed it more glorious and becoming the Majesty and Divinity of his Person to dwell upon Earth with poor miserable Mortals among whom he might do the greatest Good than to sit above upon the Throne of Heaven and receive the most humble Adorations of Angels for 't was only for an Opportunity of doing the greatest Good that he exchanged the Glory and Happiness of Heaven chusing rather to become a miserable Man to make others good and happy than to continue among those infinite Delights with which the Heavenly State abounds What a most glorious Thing then is it to do Good when our most wise Redeemer chose it before Heaven it self when he thought it more eligible to come down upon Earth and make us happy than to dwell in the Bosom of his Father and shine in Heaven with the Brightness and Glory of his Divinity And if there be nothing in Heaven so glorious as doing Good what is there upon Earth that may be compared unto it What dim what sullied Things are all the Pomps and Splendors of this World compared with the Glory of doing Good to others when God preferred it before Heaven it self To conquer Kingdoms to lead the World in Triumph after us how mean and inconsiderable are they compared with that Glory which the Son of God forsook meerly to do Good to the World A Thing which he esteemed so great and illustrious that he did not only leave Heaven for it but scorned and despised the Kingdoms of the Earth finding nothing below that was worthy of him but only to go about doing Good For this was his constant Imployment as you may see Acts 10. 21. And now is it possible that after this great Example we should think Beneficence a cheap or vulgar Thing Can we think it a Dishonour to stoop to the meanest Offices whereby we may serve the Souls or Bodies of our Brethren when the Son of God came down from Heaven and vailed his Glory in mortal Flesh for no other End but to do Good O foolish Creatures that we are did we but understand and consider what a magnificent Thing it is to supply the Necessities of Men and contribute to their Happiness we should doubtless embrace it as our greatest Preferment and think our selves bound to bless God for ever for furnishing us with Occasions of doing Good that he doth deem us worthy of such an illustrious Imployment to have some share with himself in the Glory of it that he will vouchsafe to us an Opportunity to honour and magnify our selves by acting this Divine this Godlike Part in the World Never then let us think that we dishonour our selves though we stoop never so low when it is to do Good no though it be to visit a Beggar to dress the Sores of a poor Lazar to instruct or comfort the meanest Wretch in all thy Neighbourhood For now thou actest the Part of God in doing the most glorious Thing in all the World a Thing for which the greatest Princes may envy thee and the blessed God for ever applaud thee Now thou art doing that which the Son of God came down from Heaven to do and which he thought more worthy of his Choice than to reign over Angels in Heaven So that either we must say that He was unwise for preferring it before Heaven or else we must acknowledge that we are infinitely foolish in preferring any Thing in the World before it II. I now proceed to the Second Proposition And dwelt among us full of Grace and Truth For that these later Words full of Grace and Truth belong to the former And dwelt among us you may plainly see by the Parenthesis in your Bible by which they are interrupted and broken off from one another In the Explication of these Words I shall do these Two Things 1. Enquire what is here meant by the Word 's dwelling among us 2. What we are to understand by his being full of Grace and Truth 1. What is here meant by the Word 's dwelling among us In the Greek it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is he pitched his Tabernacle among us which seems plainly to refer to God's dwelling in the Tabernacle under the Mosaic Law For the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comes immediately from the Hebrew Shacan and differs from it only by the Greek Termination and from Shacan comes the word Shechinah by which the Hebrews were wont to express God's glorious Presence upon Earth and especially his Habitation in the holy Tabernacle between the two Cherubims where he is said to dwell 1 Sam. 4. 4. and 2 Sam. 6. 2. because from thence God was wont to speak and discover himself by a visible Brightness and Glory And accordingly this Presence or Habitation of God is called in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
handling of which I shall do these two Things 1. Explain to you what this Glory of the Word was which the Apostle tells us they beheld 2. Shew you that it was the Glory as of the only begotten Son of the Father 1. What was that Glory of the Word which the Apostle tells us they beheld I answer in general By this Glory here must be understood something that is resemblant to the Glory of his dwelling in the Tabernacle because as I have already shewed you the Apostle seems plainly to refer to it in that he doth not only tell us that the Word tabernacled among us which alludes to his Tabernacling among the Iews but he also tells us that they saw his Glory which alludes to that Glory of the Lord which the Iews beheld in that ancient Tabernacle Since therefore the Apostle mentions this Glory of the Word Incarnate by way of Allusion to the Glory of his Divine Presence in the Tabernacle it must necessarily bear some Resemblance or Proportion to it because else it would be no proper Allusion The best Way therefore for us to discover what this Glory of Christ was which they beheld is to consider wherein the Glory of the Divine Presence in the Tabernacle did chiefly discover it self and that you shall find was in these four Things First In a bright and luminous Appearance Secondly In exerting of an extraordinary Power Thirdly In giving Laws and Oracles Fourthly In sensible Significations of its own immaculate Sanctity and Purity And in Proportion and Correspondence to these the Glory of the Word Incarnate also must consist in these four Things 1st In the visible Splendor and Brightness with which his Person was arrayed at his Baptism and more especially at his Transfiguration 2 dly In those great and stupendous Miracles that he wrought in the Course of his Ministry 3dly In the incomparable Purity and Goodness of his Life 4thly In the surpassing Excellency and Divinity of his Doctrine 1st That Glory of the Word which St. Iohn and the Apostles beheld consisted in that visible Splendor and Brightness with which his Person was arrayed at his Baptism and more especially at his Transfiguration in Resemblance to that visible Splendor and Brightness in which he appeared in the Mosaick Tabernacle where it is frequently said that the Glory of the Lord abode and appeared as you may see Exod. 24. 16. 40. 34. Which Glory it 's evident discovered its self in an extraordinary visible Splendor that shone forth from between the Cherubims and diffused it self thence all over that sacred Habitation And accordingly in Ezek. 43. 2. it is said that the Glory of the God of Israel came from the Way of the East and the Earth shone with his Glory which denotes that it was extraordinary bright and luminous since the Earth shone with the very Reflection of it And in this same glorious Splendor was Christ arrayed first at his Baptism and afterwards at his Transfiguration For at his Baptism it is said that the Heavens were open'd unto him and that he saw the Spirit of God descending like a Dove and lighting upon him Matth. 3. 16. where by the Holy Ghost's descending like a Dove it is not necessary we should understand his descending in the Shape or Form of a Dove but that in some glorious Form or Appearance he descended in the same manner as a Dove descends and therefore St. Luke expresses it thus And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily Shape like a Dove upon him Luke 3. 22. that is he descended in some very glorious and visible Appearance in the same Manner as Doves are wont to descend when they come down from the Skies and pitch upon the Earth But what that Shape was in which he appeared is not here expressed but that which seems to be most probable is this that the Holy Ghost assuming a Body of Light or surrounded as it were with a Guard of Angels appearing in luminous Forms came down from above just as a Dove with his Wings spread forth is observed to do and lighted upon our Saviour's Head and the Reason why I think so is this both because where-ever any mention is made of God's or the Holy Ghost's appearing in an indefinite Form it is always in a Body of Light and visible Splendor of which I have given you sundry Instances and also because it seems to have been a very early Tradition in the Church that it was in a very glorious Appearance of Light that the Holy Ghost came down upon our Saviour And therefore in the Gospel of the Nazarens as Grotius observes it 's said that upon the Holy Ghost's Descent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 immediately a great Light shone round about the Place and Iustin Martyr speaking of our Saviour's Baptism saith expresly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that there was a Fire lighted in the River Iordan that is the Water immediately after he was baptized in it seemed to be all on fire by the Reflection of that bright and flaming Appearance in which the Holy Ghost descended upon him so that while he wore this Crown of visible Light his Head as the Painters are wont to express it was circled round with the Rays of that Glory in which he was wont to appear from between the Cherubims And this Glory of his was questionless seen by many of the Apostles who were sundry of them Disciples to Iohn the Baptist and so many reasonably be supposed to be present at the Baptism of our Saviour And as for his Transfiguration upon Mount Tabor it is said that upon it his Face did shine as the Sun and that his Raiment was white as the Light or as St. Luke expresses it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is his Raiment was like the Whiteness of a Flash of Lightning Luke 9. 29. So that from Head to Foot he was all inrobed in a visible Glory and covered with all that Brightness and dazling Splendor in which he was wont to appear in the Tabernacle of Moses And accordingly you have mention made of a Cloud that over-shadowed the three Disciples whilst Iesus remained in his Transfiguration which is exactly agreeable with that Cloud that covered the Tabernacle of Moses whilst the Glory of the Lord filled it as you may see Exod. 40. 34. And that this glorious Transfiguration was a Part of that Glory of the Word which St. Iohn here says they beheld is evident because himself was one of the three Disciples that were Eye-Witnesses of this glorious Scene and it is expresly said of him and his Brethren that they saw his Glory and the two Men that stood with him Luke 9. 32. 2dly This Glory which they saw consisted in those great and stupendous Miracles that he wrought in the Course of his Ministry in Proportion to that extraordinary Power in which the Glory of the Divine Presence discovered it self in the Tabernacle of Moses For thus we find that it was from the Tabernacle
and out-shone by him and all the Philosophy that ever succeeded him hath been forced to derive and borrow Light from him And accordingly we find his Gospel in which his Doctrines are contained stiled by the Name of the glorious Gospel 2 Cor. 4. 4. which in Comparison with those dark and confused Discoveries which the World had formerly made the Apostle resembles to the first breaking forth of the Light out of the rude and obscure Chaos 2 Cor. 4. 6. For God saith he who commanded the Light to shine out of Darkness hath shined into our Hearts to give the Light of the Knowledge of the Glory of God in the Face of Iesus Christ where by the Face of-Iesus Christ the Apostle seems plainly to allude to that Divine Glory and Luster with which Moses's Face shone when he came down from seeing the Glory of God Exod. 33. 29. So that his Meaning is this that as the Children of Israel with their bodily Eyes saw the Glory of God shining upon the Face of Moses so they the Disciples and Apostles of our Saviour had far more clearly beheld with the Eyes of their Minds the Divine Glory displayed in his Doctrine and Ministry 4thly And lastly This Glory of the Eternal Word which they saw consisted also in the incomparable Sanctity and Purity of his Life semblably to that Expression of his glorious Presence in the Old Tabernacle viz. the sensible Significations he gave of the immaculate Purity and Holiness of his Nature For by those outward Cleansings of all Things and Persons that did any ways belong to the Tabernacle or did at any time approach it he did openly represent and signify the Purity and Sanctity of his own Nature which being infinitely separated from all manner of Impurity and Vncleanness cannot endure that any thing that is filthy or impure should approach it For thus we read that the Tabernacle it self and all the Vtensils of it were to be purified and sanctified with Oyl before the Entrance of the Shechinah or Divine Presence So also the High Priest the Priests and the People were to be cleansed and purified before they were suffered to approach the Holy Habitation and if at any time they had contracted any of those legal Uncleannesses that are specified in the Law of Moses they were to be excluded from the Communion of the Congregation and from all the Exercises of Publick Worship and Devotion till they were cleansed and purified again The Intent of all which was to signify to that People how irreconcilable his Nature was to all Impurity and Wickedness that it could not admit of the Neighbourhood of any Evil nor dwell within any Lines of Communication with it for this is expressed in the very Reason why these Legal Purifications are so strictly required For I the Lord your God am holy Levit. 19. 2. For I the Lord which sanctify you am holy Levit. 21. 8. Plainly intimating that the Intent and Reason of all those Ceremonial Purifications was to signify to that dull and stupid People the immaculate Holiness and Purity of his own Nature which is so infinitely removed from any thing that is impure and unholy that he could neither communicate with nor endure the Approaches of it And in this 't is evident he placed a great Part of the Glory of his Majestatical Presence in the Tabernacle since a great part of that Religion which he there instituted was intended to signify the Glory of his Holiness to them and accordingly he is described to be glorious in Holiness Exod. 15. 11. And agreeably hereunto did the Eternal Word when he tabernacled in our Natures signify to the World the unspotted Purity of his Nature by that incomparable Example of Holiness which he gave in his Life and Conversation among us For whereas before he express'd his Holiness by Mystical Types and Ceremonial Observances he hath now signified it by a Life full of Virtue and Goodness and a Conversation exactly conformable to the eternal Rules of Righteousness For as a Creature in respect of his Humanity he never failed in the least Punctilio of that Duty Homage and Devotion which he owed to the most High God his Creator as a Man he never swerved either in his Passions or Appetites from the strictest Rules of Sobriety and Temperance as a Member of Humane Society he never was guilty of an unrighteous Action either towards his Superiors Inferiors or Equals but all his Life was a walking Monument of Goodness and his whole Conversation a most perfect Transcript of those Divine and Heavenly Laws which he gave to the World So that he was all glorious without as well as within his Practice being a living Comment and Paraphrase upon that immaculate Purity and Holiness which is the Glory of his Divine Nature This therefore was doubtless a Part of that Glory which the Apostles beheld in the Eternal Word even that immaculate Sanctity and Holiness of which he gave so many glorious Significations in the whole Course of his Conversation And accordingly we find this his Purity and Holiness described by the Name of the Glory of the Lord 2 Cor. 3. 18. But we all with open face beholding as in a Glass the Glory of the Lord are changed into the same Image from Glory to Glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord Where it 's plain that by the Glory of the Lord must be meant his Holiness because it is into the Image of that that we are transformed So that the meaning of the Words is this we all beholding the Holiness of Christ which is his Glory in the Glass of his Doctrine and incomparable Example are transformed into the Likeness of it and do gradually pass on from one Degree of this Glory of his Holiness to another under the Conduct and Assistance of the Spirit of Christ. And so I have done with the first thing proposed which was to shew you what that Glory of Christ was which the Apostle here tells us they beheld 2. I now proceed to the second Branch of my Discourse which was to shew you that this was the Glory as of the only begotten Son of the Father But before we proceed to the Proof of it it will be necessary to explain this Phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Glory as of the only begotten Son Which Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or as is in Scripture taken two Ways sometimes as a Note of Similitude or Comparison so Mat. 6. 10 Thy Will be done in Earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is in Heaven that is like as it is in Heaven and if we take it in this Sense then the Meaning of the Words must be this And we beheld his Glory which was like unto the Glory of the only begotten Son of the Father that is like unto that Glory in which the only begotten Son was wont to appear when he dwelt in the Tabernacle and conversed with the ancient Patriarchs And in this Sense I have
more or less subservient to his present Conveniâ—nce He can blaspheme and pray oppress and give Alms with the same Unconcernedness of Mind and to act the Devil or the Saint are Parts so indifferent to him that he can perform them both with the same Remorslessness And when a Man is thus got loose from the Restraints of his Conscience there is nothing so bad that can come amiss to him If therefore while he stands in this Posture his temporal Interest should chance to beckon him to change the best Religion in the World for the worst to pray to insensible Images and dead Mens Ghosts instead of the everliving God to let go Substances to catch at Shadows and Ceremonies and to part with the most rational Truths for the most palpable and fulsom Contradictions he hath no Principle in him strong enough to withold him from a base Compliance his Conscience being laid fast asleep which whilst awake would have trembled at such an horrid Proposal And though by thus prostituting his Faith to his Interest he at once renounces his God his Saviour and all his Hopes of future Immortality yet his insensible and remorsless Heart is no more toucht or affected with it than if it were the slightest Peccadillo Thus by letting go a good Conscience Men pave themselves an easie Way to Apostacy from true Religion which otherwise would be one of the most craggy and difficult Passages in all the High-Way to Hell 5. Living in any known Course of Sin doth very much strengthen and enforce the Temptations to Apostacy He who lives under the Conduct and Government of a good Conscience takes Care to regulate his Affections towards the Things of this World so as neither to fear the Evils of it too much nor love the Goods of it too well but makes a just and equal Estimate of both and by that proportions his Affections towards them and he who doth this disarms them of their tempting Power which is chiefly owing to our selves and the false Estimate we make of them 'T is our own Imagination that gives Life and Efficacy to the Charms and Terrors of the World and renders them so successful and victorious We fancy that to be in them which is not and so are affected not so much with the Things themselves as with the false Representations that we make of them But he who by following the Dictates of a good Conscience hath reduced his wild Affections within the Lists of Reason and Sobriety can from thence defie the World and maintain his Post against all its Temptations He loves its Goods no better than they deserve and consequently he loves them not so well as to part with his Virtue his Innocence and his Soul for them He dreads its Evils no farther than they are truly dreadful and consequently is fully satisfied that to Sin is much more dreadful than to suffer and he hath found by often Experience that in the faithful discharge of his Duty there is far more Peace more Ioy and Satisfaction than in all the vain Allurements of this World He hath found another Heaven upon Earth besides these temporary Enjoyments a Heaven within his own Breast composed of joyous Hopes and blessed Expectations and in this Heaven hath often found himself a thousand times more happy than among all the Festivities of an â—arthly Paradise and therefore knows very well that he is bid to his Loss when ever he is tempted to exchange the one for the other He is throughly sensible having already found it to his Smart that by Sinning he shall sustain a much heavier Loss and expose himself to far more exquisite Agonies of Mind than any this World can threaten him with all and therefore certainly reckons upon it that when ever to avoid a Sin he incurs a Suffering he wisely chooses of two Evils the least And while his Soul stands thus affected it is shot-proof against all Temptations and much more against those Temptations which sollicite him to renounce his Religion and in which he knows by Experience there is far more Good than the World can propose to him in Exchange for it He knows both how little the World and how much true Religion is worth and having made a just Estimate of both to propose to him any worldly Hope as a Price for his Faith is the same Thing as to offer a Miser Dross for his Gold His Mind is fixed in this Persuasion that all the Mischiefs this World can do him are inconsiderable to one who must live for ever in another unspeakably happy or misâ—rable and therefore to threaten him into Apostacy with any worldly Fear is to attempt to blow up a Rock of Marble with a Squib of Wild-fire But when once a Man hath taken off the Restraints of his Conscience from his wild Affections and let them loose to the World they will aid and assist its Temptations against him and animate them with a thousand times more Life and Vigour than is in their own Natures For as for the Goods of this World they could never bewitch us as they do did we not give a Dress to them we paint their Faces and varnish them over with an artificial Beauty and then fall in Love with our own Fucus and so much as we value and affect them beyond their natural Worth so much Power we give them to conquer and inslave us When therefore by leading a sensual and wicked Life a Man has wholly devoted himself to the World he hath put himself into the Worlds Power to be commanded and disposed of as it pleases And now if any worldly Good beckons and invites him his mad Affection will presently hurry him after it though it be through thick and thin through the most flagitious and enormous Courses If any worldly Evil threaten and alarm him he must immediately fly though it be from Virtue and Innocence from God and Heaven and all that is Sacred in Religion His Affections have render'd him a meer Laquey to the Goods and Evils that are without him and whither ever they send him he must go where-ever they lead him he must follow let their Vagaries be never so wild or wicked If therefore while his Soul is thus inslaved to the World he should be tempted by it to Apostatize from his Religion what hath he to restrain or secure him For ever since he got loose from his Conscience he is wholly led by his Affections and these being chained and fastned to the World hale him after it which way soever it moves So long as his Religion and his worldly Interest consist and go hand in hand he is very well content to own and follow it but if ever a Storm of Persecution should part them in all Probability he will follow his Interest and like the treacherous Orpha give his Religion a parting Kiss and leave it For his Heart is now so wedded to the World that he esteems nothing so good as its Goods and nothing
or no That such inert and sluggish Bodies should by their impetuous jostling together awaken one another out of their senseless Passiveness and make each other hear and feel their mutual Knocking 's and Jostlings and then from this sense into which they have thus awakened one another and which they are as incapable of as a Musical Instrument is of hearing its own Sounds or taking pleasure in the harmonious Aires that are playd upon it should proceed and consult together to make wise Laws and contrive the best Models of Government to investigate the Natures of Things and deduce from them the several Systems of Arts and Sciences in a word how is it possible that a Company of fluid Motes and Particles of Matter should ever be so artificially complicated and twisted one with another as to form an Vnderstanding that can lift up its Eyes and look beyond all this sensible World into that of immaterial Beings and conceive abstracted Notions of things which can never be Objects to any material Senses such as a pure Point Equality and Proportion Symmetry and Asymmetry of Magnitudes the Rise and Propagation of Dimensions infinite Divisibility and the like Notions that never were in Matter nor consequently could ever be extracted out of it That can correct the Errors of all our material Perceptions and demonstrate Things to be vastly different from what they apprehend and report them can prove the Sun for instance to be one handred and sixty times bigger than the Earth when to our Eye and Imagination it appears no bigger than a Bushel that can lodg within it self all that Mass of sensible Things which taketh up so much Room without it and when it hath piled them up upon one another in vast and most prodigious Numbers is still as capacious of more as when it was altogether empty in a word that can grasp the Vniverse with a Thought and comprehend the whole Latitude of Heaven and Earth within its own indivisible Center how senseless is it to imagine that such Noble Operations as these can be performed by a meer Complex of dead Atoms and senseless Particles of Matter And if they cannot as doubtless they cannot then from hence it will necessarily follow that the Soul of Man is an immaterial Thing Furthermore we see that tho the Soul takes in Objects of all sizes yet when once they are in they are not as Bodies in a material Place in which the Greater take up more Room than the Less For the Thought of a Mile or ten thousand Miles doth no more fill or stretch a Soul than that of a Foot or an Inch or a Mathematical Point and whereas all Matter hath its Parts and those extended one without another into Length and Breadth and Thickness and so is measurable by Inches Yards or solid Measures there is no such Thing as measurable Extension in any thing belonging to the Soul For in Cogitation which is the Essence of a Soul there is neither Length nor Breadth nor Thickness nor is it possible to have any Conceit of a Foot of Thought or a Yard of Reason a Pound of Wisdom or a Quart of Vertue And if what belongs to a Soul be immaterial it will necessarily follow that the Soul it self is immaterial too and as such capable of Immortality For immaterial Natures being pure and simple having neither contrary Qualities nor divisible Parts in them as material Things have can have no Priciples of Alteration and Corruption in them and being devoid of these they must needs be capable of living and subsisting for ever What Noble Beings therefore are the Souls of Men which together with those vast capacities of Vnderstanding of Moral Perfection of Ioy and Pleasure are naturally capable of Immortality and consequently of improving in Knowledge in Goodness and in Ioy and Pleasure unto all Eternity And therefore certainly a Soul must needs be a most precious Thing that can thus â—â—t-live all sublunary Beings and subsist for ever in so sâ—ublime a state of Glory and Beatitude Having thus shewn you the invaluable Worth of the Soul in Respect of its own natural Capacities I proceed 2. To shew you of what vast Esteem it is in the Judgment of all those who we must needs suppose do best understand the Worth of it and that is the whole World of Spirits For to be sure Spirits must best understand the Excellency of Spirits because they have a clearer In-sight into each others Natures and a more immediate Prospect of the Vertue Power and Excellency of each others Faculties For as for us whilest we are in this imbodied state and do understand by corporeal Organs we generally judge of the Worth and Excellency of Things by the Impression they make upon our Senses and as these are more or less gratified and affected with them we set a higher or lower Value upon them Since therefore Spirits are a sort of Beings that cannot touch or affect our Bodily Senses it is impossible we should be competent Judges of the true Worth and Value of them and therefore in this matter we ought to be guided by the Judgment of Spirits who must needs be supposed to have a more intimate Acquaintance with one anothers Natures And if we will be guided by these we shall find the whole World of Spirits even from the highest to the lowest unanimously rating the Souls of Men at an inestimable Price and Value And to make this appear I shall shew you the vast Price there is set upon them 1. By God the Father 2. By God the Son 3. By God the Holy Ghost 4. By the Holy Angles 5. By the Devils 1. Let us Consider the vast Price which God the Father hath set upon Souls For when he intended to form these Noble Beings and transmit them into terrestrial Bodies that so being compounded with a sensitive Nature they might clasp the Spiritual and Animal Worlds together he being sensible of the vast Hazards and infinite Snares they would be exposed to was so deeply concerned for their Preservation that he thought nothing too dear to save and secure them And fore-seeing their Fall from that terrestrial Happiness which he originally designed them notwithstanding the liberal Care he had taken to preserve them in the State of Innocence he designed to remove the Scene of their Happiness from Earth to Heaven being resolved if possible to repair the Loss of a terrestrial with a caelestial Paradise For which end instead of the Covenant of Innocence the Blessings whereof by their Sin they had for ever forfeited he introduces the Covenant of Repentance that so by the help of this Plank after their general Ship-wrack they might be preserved and go safe to the Shoar of a happy Eternity And that by this Covenant he might the more effectually recover them he designed to grant it to them in such a Way and upon such a wise and weighty Consideration as might at once affect them with the greatest sense of
And when he sees that they are utterly lost by their own Madness and Folly and that it is in vain to follow them any farther he casts a sorrowful Look upon them and like a grieved Friend after the utmost strugglings and extream Efforts of his affronted Goodness unwillingly leaves them to their own sad Fate and gives them up as it were with the Tears in his Eyes And can you think this blessed Spirit would be so industrious as he is in his Ministry for Souls that he would take such infinite Pains to save them be so extreamly urgent and solicitous for their Welfare if He did not know them to be a sort of Beings of an inestimable Worth and Value O blessed God what are not our Souls worth that are worth all the Pains thy blessed Spirit takes to save and make them happy That not only thou thought'st worth all those vast Thoughts and Counsels which thou hast spent upon them that not only thy Son thought worth all those vast Condescentions he stooped to to put those Thoughts in Execution but thy blessed Spirit also thinks worth all that unwearied Pains and Endeavour all that incessant Care and Importunity which he employs about them to save and rescue them from Sin and Misery Doubtless those Beings must needs be exceeding precious for whose Safety and Welfare all the blessed Trinity are so unspeakably concerned 4. Let us consider the vast Price which the Holy Angels put upon Souls For tho they are the Crown and Top of all the Creation of God and do by their essential Perfections border nearest upon him yet such is their Opinion of the Souls of Men that they think it no Disparagement to converse with and minister to them but from the begining of the World till now have been always ready to maintain a close Intercourse and intimate Correspondence with them and so far forth as they are permitted by the Laws of their invisible World they are continually attending to stretch forth a helping Hand to them in all their Needs and Necessities Tho they are the most Illustrious Courtiers of Heaven yet they disdain not to be the Life-Guards of Souls to pitch their Tents round about them as the Psalmist expresses it Psal. 34. 8. And interpose between them and their Danger to prompt them to and assist them in their Duties to strengthen them against or to remove their Temptations to comfort them in their Sorrows and chase away from them those malignant Spirits that are always about them watching all Opportunities to seduce and destroy them Hence Heb. 1 14. They are said to be ministring Spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be Heirs of Salvation And how much they are concerned for the Safety and Welfare of these precious Beings they are charged with is evident by that Passage Luke 15. 16. There is joy in the presence of the Angels of God over one Sinner that repenteth So Considerable are the Lives of Souls to the Angels of God that tho they are always entertained with the most ravishing Pleasures yet Heaven it self cannot divert them from being overjoyed at the Repentance of a Perishing Soul and celebrating its Recovery with a new Festival And when-ever the happy News is brought them that such a dying Soul is revived they not only attend to it in the midst of all their Joys and Triumphs but upon the hearing of it they shout for Joy and fill the Heavens with a new Acclamation And when-ever such a Penitent Soul hath bidden adieu to the Body those blessed Spirits stand ready to recieve and guard it through those Legions of malignant Spirits that do always infest these lower Tracts of Air and to conduct it safe to those happy Abodes where it is to lodge till the Resurrection for it is said of Lazarus's Soul Luke 16. 22. That it was carried by Angels into Abraham ' s Bosom All which is a clear Demonstration of the vast Esteem which those blessed Angels have of Souls For can it be thought that such noble Beings who have a God and themselves to converse with and have so immediate a Prospect both of his Beauty and their own to exercise their Faculties and employ their Contemplation would be so ready and willing as they are to attend upon Souls and minister to their Safety and Happiness if they had not a mighty Value and Estimation of them Surely if these immortal Spirits within us were not unspeakably dear and precious those Angelical Beings who have always the most sublime and enravishing Objects before them to employ and entertain their Faculties would never have thought it worth the while to stickle so zealously in their Affairs and concern themselves so much about them And thus our Saviour himself argues Mat. 18. 10. Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones for I say unto you that in Heaven their Angels do behold the Face of my Father which is in Heaven that is do not undervalue any Soul for how mean or little soever some of them may appear to you they are under the Guardianship of those blessed Angels that are the Courtiers of God and do always attend upon his Majestick Presence 5. And Lastly Let us consider the vast Price which the Devils themselves do put upon Souls for ever since those malignant Spirits through their own Pride and Ambition revolted from God and conspir'd to make War with Heaven and revenge their Expulsion thence the constant Drift of all their Designs and Actions hath been to seduce and ruin them being conscious that of all the Beings that are within the reach of their Power there are none so dear to God as these and that by seducing from him these his most precious Creatures they shall do him the greatest spight and most effectually revenge upon him their own Damnation For doubtless were there any Beings below the Moon more dear to God than these they would bend their Force and Malice against them and not make these as they do the only Centers of their mischievous Activity Had they any nobler Game to fly at their ambitious Malice would disdain to stoop to the Quarry of Souls but because of all others These are the noblest and best worth the ruining therefore do these malignant Spirits turn all their Artillery upon them and level all their fiery Darts against them And how ambitious they are of seducing our Souls and training them on to Perdition is evident by the infinite Wiles and Snares and Stratagems they contrive against them by their unwearied Diligence to watch all Opportunities against them to surprize them where they are careless and assault them where they are weakest and cheat them with disguised Suggestions to inspect their Humours and apply themselves to their Interest and nick their Tempers with convenient Temptations And if after all their Labour Craft and Contrivance they can but seise the Game they hunt for the Blood of a Soul is so rich a Draught that
lowermost is the bottomless Pit and for all we know the very last Step we took brought us to the Brinks of the flaming Abyss and if it did one Step further will set us beyond all Hope of Recovery For in our sinful Progress we are wading forwards in a shelving Pool which the farther we go the deeper it is and so deeper and deeper till we come to the Bottom of it so that at every Step we are in Danger of going beyond our Depth and plunging our selves into an irrecoverable Ruin for we know not how soon we may be snatched away in our Iniquities and if it should so happen that after we have sinned this Moment we should die the next this will determin our everlasting Fate and sink us into eternal Misery Wherefore as we tender the safety of our precious Souls let us speedily forsake this dangerous Road in which Perdition way-lays and Hell gapes to devour us every step we go and return unto our Lord in whom our safety lyes As yet the Opportunity of Salvation is in our Hands but before to morrow Morning it may slip away from between our Fingers and vanish for ever and we that are this day wallowing in our Sins may before the next be roaring in Hell So that while we defer and put off our Repentance from day to day we do as it were cast Lots for our Souls and venture our everlasting Hopes upon a Contingency that is not in our Power to dispose of As yet the Gate of Mercy is open to us and our blessed Lord stands ready with his Arms out-stretched to welcome and receive us but for all we know if we enter not presently the Gate may be shut within a few Moments and then though we knock and cry till our hearts ake Lord Lord open to us we shall receive no other Answer but Depart from me I know you not O good God how are we besotted then that rather than begin our Repentance to day we will wilfully run the Hazard of being eternally miserable before to morrow Morning For if this should be the Evening of our day of Tryal as for all we know it may our Life and Eternity depends upon what we are now doing and therefore one would think it should highly concern us wisely to manage this last stake the winning or losing whereof may prove our making or undoing In pity therefore to our perishing Souls let us return to our Saviour before it be too late before our Feet stumble on the dark Mountains and we fall down into everlasting Darkness And being returned and reunited to him let us have a Care we do not revolt again for if we draw back we cancel our Repentance and forfeit all its blessed Fruits and Benefits and unless we stedfastly persevere and hold out to the end all the Pains we have taken in our Christian Course will be for ever lost and the Remembrance of it will only administer to our future Misery For how will it vex us in the other World to consider the Labour it cost us to take Heaven by storm How vigorously we strove to mount the Scaling Ladder through how many Difficulties we had forced our way to that height of Vertue and Religion we were arrived to and then when we are got as it were to the topmost Rounds and had laid our Hands upon the Battlements of Heaven just ready to leap in and take possession of all its Joys how basely we let go our Hold and so tumbled down from that stupendious height into the bottomless Abyss of endless Misery Doubtless this Consideration must necessarily sting our woful Souls hereafter and for ever inrage them against themselves Wherefore as we value the Safety of our precious Souls let us who by our wilful Rebellions have gone astray return and constantly adhere to our blessed Saviour Alas where can we be happier than in his Service who imposeth nothing on us but what contributes to our Welfare Where can we be safer than in his Arms and under his Protection who hath the Command and Disposal of all Events and to whom all Power is given in Heaven and Earth Where can we be placed more to our own Advantage than under his Guidance and Authority who never permits any to serve him for nought but hath engaged himself to recompence our Labour with a Crown of Glory that fades not away And is it not strange that after so many advantagious Invitations we should need to be scared to our Duty that after our blessed Master hath enjoyned us such a reasonable gentle and infinitely beneficial Service he should be forced to terrify us into it with the Flames of Hell IV. I proceed now to the Fourth Proposition That when the Soul is lost 't is lost irrecoverably where the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we render Exchange is used in the same sense with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies a Price of Redemption denoting that when once a Man hath sold his Soul to Perdition it is unredeemable and that no Price will be accepted for its Ransom and Deliverance when a Man's Soul is in Hell under the wretched Bondage of a damned Spirit how little soever he regards it now he would give all the World if it were in his power to be released again but if he had a thousand Worlds it will not do his Bondage being such as will admit no Ransom For these Words of our Saviour seem to have been a common Proverb of the Age he lived in and that derived from those words of the Devil in Iob All that a Man hath will he give for his Life that is when a Man is dying he would willingly part with all to redeem his Life but all will not do Which Proverb our Saviour adapts to his own Argument in which he proceeds from temporal to eternal Life If a Man would give so much for his temporal Life what would he not give for his eternal one But as our temporal Life is not to be redeemed so neither is our eternal one when once it is lost for when once our Soul is lost or abandoned to the State of the Damned it is lost for ever and there is no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Ransom that will be accepted of by God for its Redemption thence In the Prosecution of which Argument I shall endeavour these two things 1. To shew you that if God be so determined he may without any Injury either to his Iustice or Goodness detain lost Souls in the Bondage of Hell for ever and absolutely refuse to accept any Ransom for them 2. That he is actually determined so to do 1. That if God be so determined he may without any Injury either to his Justice or Goodness detain lost Souls in the Bondage of Hell for ever without accepting any Ransom for them And this I doubt not will plainly appear upon the due Consideration of these following Propositions 1st That God being the Sovereign
even from this great name The Word that is here attributed to him For since it is so apparent that this Phrase is a Term of Art derived from the Schools of the Iews and Gentiles and since by it they did all so generally understand a Divine Person subsisting from all Eternity it must necessarily follow that the Holy Ghost deriving it from them and applying it to our Blessed Saviour must use it to the same Sense for otherwise He were better never to have used it at all because by discoursing in the same Language with them he will give us just occasion to think that he means the same thing namely that Christ whom he calls The Word is a Divine Person subsisting from all Eternity which if he doth not mean by using that Term he will almost necessarily betray us into a false Belief concerning our Saviour As to instance briefly in a Case of anothâ—r Nature Our Saviour in his Sermons dâ—â—h frequently press us to Meekness and Patience Humilty and Charity all which are Terms frequently used long before in the Moral Philosophy both of the Iews and Gentiles by which they signify such and such particular Virtues Since therefore our Saviour doth use the same Terms with them we have just Reason to conclude that he means the same Virtues by them and should he mean any thing else his very using of these Terms would necessarily impose upon us a false Sense of his meaning for how should we understand his Meaning but by his Words and how should we understand his Words but by the common Import and Signification of them And can we imagine that the Spirit of Truth would have ever described our Saviour by a Term that was so generally used to signify a Divine Person subsisting from all Eternity and used it too as he doth without any Restraint or Limitation nay and so seemingly at least to the same Purpose as he doth in the three first Verses of this Chapter where he describes the Divine Nature and Operations of Christ The Word in the same terms in which the Iews and Gentiles were wont to describe the Divinity of their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 can we imagine I say that the Holy Spirit would have done thus had he known Christ to be nothing but a meer Man that never was before he was born of his Mother Far be it from us to charge that Blessed Spirit with imposing such a Delusion upon Mankind 2. Hence I infer the astonishing Love of our Blessed Saviour in condescending so low as to be made Flesh for us and assume our Nature For what he was before he took our Nature you have heard already He was no less than the Eternal Word of the Father in whose Bosom he enjoyed the supremest Degree of Bliss and Happiness being crowned with Glory and incircled about with the Essential Rays of the Divinity And yet such was his Love to poor Mortals so infinite was his Zeal and Concern for our Happiness that seeing the Misery we were plunged into he could not rest no not in the blessed Arms of his Father but stript himself of all his Majesty and Bliss and comes down among us and assumes our Nature to save and rescue us and invite and lead us to those Heavenly Mansions from whence he descended to us Lord what a Prodigy of Love was here as doth not only puzzle my Conceit but out-reach my Wonder and Admiration For when I seriously consider it though it be a Blessing beyond all my Hopes and such as I could never have had the Impudence to desire yet it fills my Mind with an awful Horror to think that there was a Time when the great God was here upon the Earth in my Form and Nature and conversed familiarly with such mortal Wights as my self and for my sake and such poor Worms as I patiently under-went the common Infirmities of Men and willingly exposed himself to the Contempt and Scorn of a malevolent World and the Malice and Cruelty of those barbarous Men to whom he gave Being and could with the Breath of his Nostrils have scattered into Atoms and all this in meer Compassion to a Company of apostatized Natures who had so highly deserved to be thrown from his Care and Mercy for ever O my Soul how am I astonished at this Miracle of Love Methinks when I consider it I am looking down from a stupendous Precipice whose Height â—ills me with a trembling Horror and even over-setting Reason 3. From hence I infer what mighty Obligations we have for ever to love and serve our Blessed Redeemer If our Hearts are capable of being warmed into any degree of Affection sure 't is impossible but we must be affected at such an unheard of Instance of Love For the Son of God to leave his Father's Bosom where he was infinitely more happy than we can express and think of and disguise himself in mortal Flesh and become a Man of Sorrows that he might make me a Man of endless Joys can my Heart hold when I think of this Is it possible I should reflect upon such a prodigious Instance of Affection without being wrapt into an Extasy of Love Blessed Iesus what barbarous Hearts do we carry about with us that will not melt before the Flames of thy Love Flames that are sufficient to kindle Seraphims and to fill all reasonable Breasts with burning Affections towards thee For how is it possible that any Man I had almost said that any Devil should be so disingenuous and ill-natured as not to be affected with such stupendous Kindness When we see a Child slight his careful and indulgent Parents we are ready to account him an unnatural Monster when we see a Man neglect his Friend or disregard his Benefactor we presently call him base and ungrateful nay when we see one abuse a poor brute Creature that fawns upon him and expresses its Kindness to him we look upon it as an undoubted Sign of a very hard Heart and an ill Nature What Term then can we find in all the World of Words that is odious enough to express our Disaffection to our Blessed Redeemer to whom we are so infinitely obliged Base Disingenuous Ill-natured and Vngrateful are all too soft 't is something beyond Barbarous and Devilish For one would think that neither the most inhumane Canibal on Earth nor the blackest Devil in Hell could ever be guilty of so foul a Crime which hath something in it too monstrous for any Words to express Well therefore may the Heavens be astonished and the Earth tremble and all the Creation of God stand amazed at us to see how insensible we are of this most ravishing and endearing Love Well may we be amazed at our selves and wonder at our own Stupidity to think that the Son of God should be so kind as to come down from Heaven to visit us to leave the Habitation of his Glory and shâ—oud his Divinity in mortal Flesh and make himself a miserable Wight
meerly that he might make us happy and advance us to that Glory and Bliss which for our sakes he willingly abandoned and yet that we are no more touched and affected with it than with the most indifferent Thing in the World Blessed God what are we made of What kind of Souls do we carry about with us that no Kindness will oblige us no not the most endearing that ever was known or heard of Doubtless should any Man have shewn us but half this Kindness should a Friend but offer to die for us or a Prince to descend from his Throne and put himself into the State of a Beggar to inrich and advance us in the World we should have thought our selves bound to him as long as we lived and should we have thought any Services too much any Requitals too dear for him we should have been lookt upon as Monsters of Ingratitude as the Reproaches and Scandals of humane Nature and been hiss'd out of all Society for a Company of infamous Villains unworthy of the least Respect or Favour from Mankind But for a Friend to die or a Prince to become a Beggar for our sakes alas what poor inconsiderable Things are they compared with the Condescentions of the Son of God who humbled himself much lower in becoming a Man than the most glorious Angel in Heaven could have done in assuming the Nature of a Worm And can we be so inhumane as not to be moved by such a Miracle of condescending Love Is it the less because it is the Love of God or doth it less deserve our Requital What Excuse then can we make for our wretched Insensibility O ungrateful that we are with what Confidence can we shew our Heads among reasonable Beings after we have so barbarously slighted our best Friend and behaved our selves so disingenuously towards our greatest Benefactor How can we pretend to any thing that is modest or ingenuous tender or apprehensive in humane Nature when nothing will oblige us no not that astonishing Love that made the Son of God leave all his Glory and become a poor miserable Mortal for our sakes O blessed Iesus what do thy holy Angels think of us how do thy blessed Saints resent our Unkindness towards thee yea how justly will the Devils themselves reproach and upbraid our Baseness who bad as they are were never so much Devils yet as to spurn the Love of a Redeemer coming down from Heaven to die and suffer for their sakes Wherefore as we would not be hiss'd at by all the reasonable World and become Spectacles of Horror to God and Angels and Devils let us endeavour to affect our selves with the Love of our Redeemer and to inflame our own Souls with the Sense of his Kindness who hath done such mighty things to endear and oblige us 4. From hence I infer what monstrous Disingenuity it would be in us to think much of parting with any thing or doing any thing for the sake of Christ who for our sakes parted with his Father's Bosom and all those infinite Delights which he there enjoyed and united himself to our miserable Nature that he might make us good and happy for ever And now after all this with what Conscience or Modesty can we grudge to do any thing which he shall require at our hands Should he command me to descend into the lowest Form of Beings and to become the most wretched and contemptible of all Animals could I be such a Caitif as to deny him who descended much lower for the sake of me Should he remand me back into Non-entity and bid me cease to be for ever alas the Distance is nothing so great between me and nothing as 't was betwixt him and that humane Nature which he assumed for my sake Should he require me to die for him under all those lingering and exquisite Tortures which the blessed Martyrs suffered for his Name what Proportion were there between what he requires of me and what he hath done for me He only requires that I should pass through Death to Heaven for him but he came from Heaven to pass through Death for me so that for his sake I should only put off a wretched Garment of Flesh that I may be inrobed with Glory and Immortality but for my sake he put off his Robes of Glory and Majesty that he might wear my frail and mortal Flesh and therein reconcile me to God and make me everlastingly happy And when I may advance my self into an Equality with Angels by suffering the Agonies of a miserable Death for him shall I refuse or think much of it when he who was equal with God in Glory and Happiness was so ready to be born a wretched miserable Man for me Should he require me to give my Substance to the Poor and leave my self destitute of all Supplies and Comforts could I deny so poor a Request to him who forsook a Heaven of infinite Pleasures for my sake and exposed himself naked to the Mercy of a wretched wicked and ill-natured World from whom he could expect nothing but the most barbarous Contempt and Cruelty Sure one would think 't were impossible for any reasonable Being to deny such poor such inconsiderable Boons to such a great and deserving Benefactor and yet these are much more than what he ordinarily requires at our hands For that which he ordinarily requires of us is that we would forsake those Vices which are as injurious to us as they are hateful to him and which are therefore hateful to him because they are our Enemies and that we would practise those Virtues in which the Perfection and Happiness of our Nature is involved and which we can no more be happy without than we can be without Being And can I think much to part with those Lusts for his sake which are my Shames and Infelicities who never grudg'd to part with Heaven for mine Can they be as dear to me as his Father's Bosom was to him and yet he left that for Love of me and shall not I leave these for Love of him Methinks if we will not part with them for our own sakes as being destructive to our Peace and Happiness yet had we the least spark of Ingenuity in us we should gladly part with them for the sake of our Saviour who for ours was so ready to part with all that was dear to him Can we be such Wretches as to refuse to serve him when he requires nothing of us but what we are obliged to by our own Interest Are we so lost to all that is ingenuous and modest that we will not obey him when he only requires us to be kind to our selves O wretched Mortals doth his Coming down from Heaven to save you deserve this barbarous Treatment at your hands that to spite him you should injure your selves and wound his Authority thro' your own Sides Had he been wholly indifferent to you it had been very unreasonable to reject his Service when it
glorious Things he was to transact in his Incarnate State and this he did chiefly by the High Priest and those Expiatory Sacrifices which he ordained and instituted among them as you may find it demonstrated at large in the Epistle to the Hebrews For as to the High Priest he was to be called and ordained of God Heb. 5. 4. in which the Eternal Word represented to them his Commission from the Father to descend into the World as his Embassador to Men. Secondly He was to be born of a Woman that came a pure Virgin into the Arms of his Father Levit. 21. 14. in which he seems to represent to them his own pure Nativity of a Virgin-Mother Thirdly He was to be washed with Water and his Flesh and Loyns were to be covered with the whitest and the cleanest Linnen Exod. 29. 7. and 28. 42. by which Christ typified to them the IMMACVLATE Sanctity and Innocence of his humane Life Fourthly He was to be clothed in the most glorious Garments that could possibly be made by the most excellent Workmen Exod. 28. 2 3. which seems to denote the Majesty of Christ's Person and those glorious Works by which he render'd himself so illustrious in the World Fifthly The Colours of the Embroideries of his Garment being blue purple scarlet and white seem to denote the Truth of his Prophetick Office the Majesty of his Royal the Perfection of his Priestly and his Innocence and Sanctity in the Execution of them all Sixthly He wore a holy Crown on his Head and a Plate on his Forehead engraven with Holiness which denotes the Divine Authority of Christ and the Sacredness and Divinity of his Person And Seventhly Upon his Breast he wore the Vrim and Thummim in which was prefigured the Height and Purity of Christ's Doctrine and the Holiness and Perfection of his Laws In a word the High Priest was to offer Sacrifice for the Sins of the People on the great day of Expiation which Sacrifice was to be a Beast without blemish voluntarily presented at the Door of the Tabernacle whither the High Priest being come he was to strip off his glorious Garment to lay his Hand on the Head of the Beast and to confess the Peoples Sins over it and then to slay the Beast and carry some of the Blood of it within the Vail and sprinkle it upon and before the Mercy-Seat by which he is said to make an Attonement for their Sins that is to obtain Authority from God to bless and pardon In which the Eternal Word gives us a plain Representation of his future Sacrifice upon Earth and Intercession in Heaven for he being both our Sacrifice and High Priest did freely divest himself of the Glory and Dignity of his Humane Nature and offer up himself to die for us by which he laid his Hand as it were upon his own spotless and immaculate Head did as our Representative acknowledge what we had deserved that for our Sins we have justly merited to die for ever by the Hand of God even as He for our sakes did submit to die by the Hand of Man And having performed this bloody Sacrifice he enters into Heaven which is the true Holy of Holies and there by the Oblation of his Blood and Obedience makes an Atonement for our Sins and obtains Authority from his Father to pardon and receive into Favour every truly penitent Offender in the World Thus you see how the Personal Transactions of our Saviour were under the Law of Moses represented in mystical Types and Figures but when he came to tabernacle among us he did all that which before he only represented He actually came down from the Father to us was born of the Holy Virgin lived a most holy and innocent Life died a Sacrifice for our Sins and is gone into Heaven to intercede for us So that now instead of Types and Figures we have the Substances and Realities that were obscurely shadowed and represented in them 2. Another great Instance of his conversing among us full of Truth is the Purity and Spirituality of his Laws It 's apparent that those which he gave to the Iews according to the literal Sense of them did only oblige them to an external Obedience and therefore St. Paul calls the whole Law a carnal Commandment Heb. 7. 16. and the Precepts of it he calls carnal Ordinances imposed upon them till the time of Reformation Heb. 9. 10. But yet it is apparent that by these carnal Ordinances the Eternal Word did designedly typify and represent that internal Purity of Soul which the Evangelical Law doth exact For he seeing that the Iews were not only a perverse but also a dull and sottish People as those generally are who are born and bred in Slavery and that therefore they were incapable of sublime and spiritual Precepts and would be apt to forget plain ones He therefore thought it most proper and suitable to their Capacity and Genius to instruct them by sensible and material Signs even as Parents do sometimes teach their Children by Pictures for of this his Condescention to their Dulness and Capacity the Prophet Isaiah takes notice Chap. 28. 10 11. where he saith that he gave them Precept upon precept line upon line here a little and there a little with a stammering tongue that is he look'd upon them as Children and so condescended to their Weakness and spoke to them in their own Dialect And this Way of instructing them by outward and visible Signs was the most probable to take effect because it was much in use in the Eastern Countries but more especially in Egypt whose Manners they were infinitely fond of to wrap up their most excellent Precepts in Hieroglyphicks which were nothing but Pictures and material Signs by which they represented their Divine and Moral Institutions Thus therefore by such visible Signs and Pictures the Eternal Word instructed them in the Rules of internal Purity and Goodness so by Circumcision he signified to them the Circumcision of their Hearts and by their several Washings Purity from Hypocrisy and Sensuality yea this was probably the Intent of that Difference of Meats as St. Barnabas in his Epistle tells us that Swines Flesh was pronounc'd unclean to instruct them not to live like Hoggs that clamour when they are hungry and forget their Masters when they are full that Eagles and such ravenous Birds were forbidden to be eat to teach them that those who live not by Industry but Rapine are abominable that Fish without Scales which generally dwell in the Mud were all pronounced unclean to teach them the Evil of Sensuality and Earthly-mindedness Thus by these outward Signs his Intent was to insinuate into them internal Purity of Mind and this was very well understood by those who were good and wise among them Hence we find David gives very high Encomiums of the Law Ps. 19. 7 8. The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the Soul making wise the simple rejoycing the Heart enlightning
he hath promised to us and prepared for us I confess were his Service all Work and no Wages there were some Reason to be disheartned but when he hath promised and so amply assured us that after we have spent a few Days or Years in his Service upon Earth he will receive us into the Participation of his own Joys where we shall commence as happy as it is possible for an everlasting Heaven to make us methinks we should kiss his Yoke and court his Service and think we can never do too much for such a bountiful Master who rewards all his Servants with such immortal Preferments For what is the Labour of a few Moments compared with that everlasting Rest and Pleasure wherein it shall shortly terminate And when once we are arrived to the Heavenly Canaan and have tasted those ravishing Delights with which it flows and abounds how light and inconsiderable will all these Difficulties in our Voyage appear to us which now do so startle and affright us How shall we wonder at our own Sloth and Faint-heartedness to think that ever we should be such wretched Cowards as to be afraid of any thing that hath Heaven at the End of it which is a Happiness so vast and unspeakable that the Hope of it is sufficient to turn Torments into Recreations How shall we be astonished at our selves to think that we could ever be such wretched Fools as to deliberate one Moment whether Heaven were preferable before all the Pleasures of Sin or whether it were more eligible to dwell with Harlots and Drunkards for a Moment and wallow in their beastly Pleasures than to enjoy the Society of God and Saints and Angels to all Eternity The Odds will then appear so vast and the Disproportion so unspeakable that we shall wonder how we could ever be so senseless as to make a Comparison between them Sure Sirs we do not believe that Heaven is the Recompence of Christ's Service for if we did methinks we should more heartily engage in it For could we stand thus deliberating upon the Shore whether we shall bid adieu to our Lusts take Leave of all their fulsom Pleasures and imbark our selves in the Service of our Saviour Could we stand pausing thus as we do whether we shall venture into those petty Storms that are like to attend us in our spiritual Voyage did we verily believe that a few Leagues Distance lies that blessed Shore where we shall be crowned as soon as we are landed with all the Joys that an everlasting Heaven means Certainly the Belief of this is sufficient to put Life and Courage into the most crest-fallen Soul in the World and to give her Spirit and Vigour enough to carry her triumphantly through all the weary Stages of her Duty So that considering how in all Respects our blessed Lord abounds in Grace and Goodness to us we have the greatest Encouragement imaginable to engage us to his Service 3dly He was full of Truth From whence I infer that the Christian Religion is a very plain and intelligible thing For this as I have shewed you at large is one of the great Notes of Distinction between Christ's tabernacling among the Iews and among Christians that whereas among the Iews he was full of obscure Types and mystical Representations among us Christians he is full of Truth that is he is plain and open and clear without any dark Reserves or Mysteries now he hath plainly revealed that which before he did so obscurely decypher now he hath unriddled all those mystical Types and turned them as it were inside outwards and given us their hidden Sense and Meaning in plain and naked Propositions and of these our holy Religion is composed So that those Doctrines which before were all Mystery whilst they lay obscurely couched under the Types and Figures of the Law are now brought forth from behind the Curtain into the open View of the World and presented barefac'd to our Understandings in the most plain and easy and familiar Sense Not but that Christianity hath some Mysteries in it still whose Depths we are not able to fathom but 't is not because Christ hath not revealed them but because our Understandings are incapable of comprehending them such are the Doctrines of the Holy Trinity the Incarnation of our blessed Saviour and the Hypostatical Vnion of the Divine and Humane Nature in him Nor indeed is it much to be wonder'd at that we who with all our Wit and Reason are not able to explicate the Mysteries of a Mite or Flea of a Plant or a Stone or any of those innumerable things that are before us should not be able to understand such incomprehensible to order such infinite or define such ineffable things but though we cannot comprehend the Modes nor understand the strict Philosophy of them yet if we would but strip them out of their false Disguises into their original Plainness and Simplicity we might doubtless easily disintangle them from all Repugnancy and Contradiction which is sufficient to render them rationally credible they being contained in that excellent Religion whose Truth is demonstrated by such abundant Evidence But perhaps as God continued all the Doctrines of Christianity in a Mystery among the Iews and reserved the clear Revelation of them to the coming of the Messias so for the same Reason he hath still reserved the clear Discovery of those Doctrines which are still Mysteries to us Christians for the future State and then it may be we may as fully understand these as the believing Iews after the Coming of Christ did those other Doctrines of the Gospel which before were all Mysteries to them But God be praised whatsoever is necessary to make us good and happy is now so plainly discovered to us that we cannot be ignorant of it unless we wilfully shut our own Eyes We need not dive into mystical Senses nor grope after Truth among Shadows and Vmbrages as the good Iews were fain to do under the Mosaick Dispensation all that is necessary to our Salvation being written as it were upon the very Surface of our Religion and openly exposed to our View in plain and literal Proposals And yet not withstanding the Plainness and Simplicity of the Christian Religion there are too many both among our selves and in the Church of Rome who have industriously set themselves to resolve all its Doctrines again into Darkness and unintelligible Mysteries having instead of the plain Propositions of our Saviour introduced a new-fashioned Mystical Divinity made up of nothing but certain empty Schemes of effeminate Follies and wild Enthusiasms which are impossible for any Man to understand that cannot conjure for the Meaning of them And those Doctrines which our Saviour purposely delivered in the most plain and literal Sense that so the meanest Understanding might be instructed by them these Men have blown up like so many Bubbles into swelling Mysteries which being strip't of those glittering Allusions and pompous Metaphors wherein they are clothed
shewed you already how it was as the Glory of the only begotten Son by shewing you the great Agreement and Similitude there was between the Glory of Christ when he dwelt in the Tabernacle of Moses and in the Tabernacle of our Nature And when I consider how plainly this Text doth allude to the Shechinah or Divine Presence of the Word in that ancient Tabernacle I am very much induced to think that we ought not to exclude this Sense of it namely that as he dwelt in the Tabernacle of our Nature like as he dwelt in the Tabernacle of Moses so that Glory of his which they beheld in the Tabernacle of our Nature was like unto that Glory in which he appeared in the ancient Tabernacle But then this Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is sometimes also taken for a Note of Confirmation So Psal. 73. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Truly God is good to Israel And thus St. Chrysostome understands it here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. It is not a Note of Similitude and Comparison but of Confirmation and unquestionable Distinction as if the Evangelist had said we saw his Glory such as became and was fit for the only begotten and truly natural Son of God For my Part I see no Reason why the Words may not be fairly understood in both Senses since they are no Ways opposite to nor inconsistent with one another and if so then this must be the Meaning of the Words We beheld his Glory which was like unto that Glory in which the only begotten Son appeared in the old Tabernacle and which was such as was every Way becoming the only begotten Son to appear in The first of which Senses I have proved to you already that the Glory of Christ in the Tabernacle of our Natures was like unto his Glory in the Tabernacle of Moses and therefore now I shall only prove the second that it was such as became and was every Way worthy of the only begotten Son of the Father and this I doubt not will plainly appear by considering the several Particulars of it 1st That visible Splendor and Brightness in which he appeared at his Baptism and Transfiguration was such as became him and was worthy of him For in all Probability that Splendor consisted of Angelical Beings clothed in bright and luminous Bodies because as I have formerly proved to you that Brightness in which he appeared upon the Mount and which he displayed from between the Cherubims was nothing else but those Angels of Light or ministring Spirits which he made to appear as Flames of Fire round about him and therefore that Train of Angels whom Esay saw filling the Temple Esay 6. 1. Our Saviour calls the Glory of the Lord Jo. 12. 41. that is that visible Glory in which the Lord appear'd from between the Cherubims And if that visible Glory consisted in a Train of Angels appearing in glorious Forms then there is no doubt but that visible Glory of our Saviour at his Baptism and Transfiguration was the same since as I have already shewed you it is described by the same Name and in the same Manner of Appearance and if so how well did it become the only begotten Son to be surrounded with the illustrious Guards of his Father's Court and attended on with those high-born Spirits whose Office it is to minister before the Throne of the most High For never was the most glorious Potentate upon Earth attended with such a splendid Train and Retinue the meanest of which was far more illustrious than the greatest and most high-born Monarch in the World So that as the most High God did by a Voice from Heaven both at his Baptism and Transfiguration declare him to be his beloved Son so by the glorious Train of Attendants he sent him he manifested the Truth of his Declaration for we must needs suppose him to be the Son of the most High when we see the most glorious Beings in all the Creation so willingly submit themselves to his Service and Attendance And when we see the most High adorning his Outside with the luminous Bodies of Angels we may reasonably conclude that there was a Divinity within and that the Iewel was God because the Casket was Angels But whatsoever this glorious Splendor was in which he was clothed at his Baptism and Transfiguration it was apparently such as very well became the only begotten Son not only because as the Philosopher saith that if God would ever take upon him a Body it would be certainly Light which is a Vestment most suitable to his Glory and Majesty but also because that miraculous Splendor was an infallible Token of the Presence of the Divinity in him for it never was but where God was present and therefore it is called the Glory of God it being the inseparable Concomitant of his more peculiar Residence For thus as I have shewed you upon the Mount and in the Tabernacle it was a visible Demonstration of the special Presence of the invisible God and wheresoever in all the Old Testament any Mention is made of its Appearance you shall find that there God himself did peculiarly reside And therefore it is not to be imagined that God would have communicated to our Saviour this inseparable Token of his own Presence unless the Divinity had resided in him For Iesus Christ was the only Person upon whom this visible Glory descended never did the Hand of Heaven put such a Robe and Diadem of Glory upon any Person in the World as this which our Saviour wore at his Baptism and Transfiguration which plainly denotes that he was the only Person in whom the Divinity was substantially united and did essentially dwell So that as this visible Glory was a certain Token of God's peculiar Residence in the Tabernacle and Temple so it was also of his special Presence in Christ for the History of his Baptism tells us that it did not only make a transient Appearance but that it remained on him signifying that the Divinity whose Presence was denoted by it had made him his Habitation and Place of constant Abode For though that visible Glory after some Time disappeared and went off from him yet the Thing signified by it viz. the Divine Presence always remained in him for by that outward Glory he was clearly manifested to be the Holy One of God the Tabernacle and Sanctuary in which God was and where he had taken up his Residence for ever that his Humane Nature was that sacred Temple where the Divinity intended to dwell and from whence for the future he would deliver all his Oracles and communicate all his Blessings to Mankind So that in this Respect this visible Glory was such as highly became the only begotten Son because it plainly denoted that the Fulness of the God-head dwelt bodily in him and had chosen him for his Habitation for ever and therefore Iohn Baptist tells us that though he knew him not yet this God had revealed
Wretch who though he believes his own Religion true exchanges it for another which he believes to be false upon no other Consideration but so much temporal Advantage to boot By which he plainly declares that in the Ballance of his Estimation the Odds between Truth and Falshood the Declarations of God and the Impostures of the Devil is so inconsiderable that the least Addition of the transitory Goods of this World to the later renders it of sufficient Weight to turn the Scale against the former and that for his part he is not much concerned whether the Almighty be his Friend or Foe and provided he may but enjoy his Ease and Pleasure a few Years longer here he is very well contented to part with all his Hopes and Interest in God for ever For this is the natural Construction of Mens Apostacy from the true Religion in Consideration of their worldly Interest that that Interest is in their Esteem far more eligible than God with all his Power and Goodness that it is better to be without God in the World than without Preferment and that that Man makes a very good Bargain who gets a good Place in Exchange for his Maker and with the treacherous Iudas sells his Saviour though it be but for thirty Pieces of Silver Which is such a monstrous Degree of Impiety as one would think should be fufficient to scare and affright the most couragious Sinner that hath but the least Apprehension of God or Sense of Good and Evil. But then 2. Consider the desparte Folly of Mens abandoning their Religion in Complyance with their vicious Affections For he who without through Conviction abandons the Profession of his Religion whether it be true or false doth together with that most certainly abandon all the blessed Rewards and incur all the dreadful Penalties that true Religion promises and denounces because though his Religion perhaps may be false yet in renouncing it whilst he believes it true his Will doth as maliciously renounce the true Religion as if it really were so He thought it true and yet renounc'd it by which he plainly declares that if it had been true he would have renounced it so that whether it be true or false it 's all one to him his Will is the same his Crime and Guilt the same it is true Religion he intentionally renounces and therefore in so doing he doth intentionally renounce all his Concern and Interest in true Religion Now what a desperate Piece of Folly is this for a Man to part with all his Stock in the Common Bank of Religion which if it be not a down right Sham and Imposture is of everlasting Moment and Concern to him only for a present Gratification of some vain and unreasonable Lust to divorse himself for ever from the Love of God to quit all Title and Interest in the precious Blood of the Saviour of the World only to curry a short-lived Favour with Men with Men whose Breath is in their Nostrils and who within a few Days or Years must go off the Stage and leave us here perhaps forlorn and destitute To part with all my glorious Hopes of Heaven which are my best Heaven upon Earth and which is worse with Heaven it self where I have Treasures of Bliss sufficient to maintain me in a most happy Port to eternal Ages only to gain or secure a transitory Estate or Preferment which while I have it cannot make me happy and from which erelong I shall be torn and divided and not be a Farthing the better for forever to expose one self as a publick Spectacle of Scorn and Contempt to God and Angels and all the wise and good Part of the rational World for a short extemporary Blaze of pompous Splendor and Greatness which lies at the Mercy of every Counter-blast of Fortune and in all Probability will e'er long expire in Smoak and Stink Wretchedness and Infamy to plunge one self head-long into all the Agonies and Torments the Horrors and Desperations of a woful Eternity only to escape a short Persecution and a glorious Martyrdom when a little after perhaps I shall suffer a great deal more and longer under the Gout or Stone or Strangury without the Comfort of dying in a brave Cause and being assured of an immortal Recompence than I could have done under the Hand of the Executioner with it And yet all these mad Pranks that Man plays at once who abandons his Religion in Complyance with his Lusts. 3. Consider the foul Dishonesty of it For besides that our Religion being the most sacred Pledg committed to us by God for our own Use and the Use of our latest Posterity we cannot viciously desert and abandon it without betraying of God and falsifying our Trust to him and which is worse without squandering away the most inestimable Good that ever he committed to Men upon our own base Lusts and his most execrable Enemies which is Dishonesty blackned with the foulest Ingratitude Besides this I say by forsaking our Religion in Complyance with any leud Affection we not only do a dishonest Thing at present but also totally discard the Obligations to Honesty for the future For there is nothing can rationally oblige a Man to be throughly honest but only his Religion or inward Sense that it is his indispensable Duty towards God before whose righteous Tribunal he must one Day give an Account of all his Actions The two great Motives of humane Action are Religion and worldly Interest Now as for Religion that consists of fix'd and unalterable Principles which will by no Means ply or bend to the Alterations of outward Affairs and Circumstances but do in all Conditions move and oblige us with equal Force and Vigour whereas Worldly Interest is a fickle and mutable Thing that varies and alters with every outward Turn and Revolution So that that which is my Interest to Day may prove my Damage to Morrow and if it should whatever Part I act to Day it will oblige me to act the contrary to Morrow When therefore a Man hath let go his Religion and hath nothing but his Interest to hold him it is Cross or Pile for the future whether you find him an honest Man or a Knave because from henceforth he will be Knave or Honest according as it serves his Turn and that which serves his Turn to Day may prove his Loss and Prejudice to Morrow so that whether to Day or to Morrow he proves a true Man or a Cheat wholly depends upon the Die of Fortune and you must consult his Stars to find the lucky Hour or Moment when you may safely trust him For after the Wretch hath been so perfidious as to renounce his God and his Religion he hath no one Principle remaining in him upon which you can fasten any lasting Confidence As for his Interest that is such a fickle and inconstant Thing that there is no trusting it if it plead for you now the next Turn of Affairs it may be