inglorious Ends which we pursue and aim at O good God that thou should'st give me a Soul of an immortal Nature a Soul that is big enough for all 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 for ever 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 themselves 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 Justice 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 Confort 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 sell 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 whenever 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 intolerable 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 Dewil 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 tolerable 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 wretehed 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 Jewels 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
and the Perfections of the Divine Nature are very frequently attributed to him as particularly Omniscience John 16.30 Eternity Heb. 1.12 and Rev. 22.13 I am Alpha and Omega the beginning and the end the first and the last So that upon this Account also he may very properly be called The Word of God because as our Words are the Images of our Minds so He is the most perfect Image of God 3dly He is called The Word because he is the Interpreter of the Father's Mind even as our Words also are the Interpreters of our Minds to others And this Philo the Jew doth also take notice of as the proper Work and Office of The Word to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Quis rer div haer p. 397. the Embassador of the Great King to his Subjects to communicate his Mind and Will to them and also the Angel and Messenger of God to Men to declare his Will and Pleasure to them And that in the Execution of this Office he doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 2 De Somn. p. 461. Some as a King he commands what they shall do others as a School-Master he profitably instructs others as a Counsellor he faithfully admonishes all which he performs as the Interpreter of the Mind of God And elsewhere he calls him the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3 De Charitate p. 552. the Divine Sun that enlightens the Souls of Men and elsewhere he expresly calls him the Interpreter of the 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 Joh. 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 ΛΟΓΟΣ 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 Psal 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. John Rev. 19.13 Jesus 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 Jerem. 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
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 insentible 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 shroud 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 Peproaches and Scandals of humane Nature and been hiss'd out of all Society for a Company of infamous Villains unworthy of the least Repsect 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 Lore 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 that 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 humant 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 Jesus 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 had 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 endeavoun 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 thing 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 thing 't were impossible for any reasonable Being to deny such poor such inconsider able Boons to such a great and deserving Benefactor and yet these are much more then 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 then 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 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 John 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 Jesus 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 insinitely 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 haply 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
can urge at the Judgment-Seat of Jesus Christ which here hath not been fully answered And if so how inexcusable shall we be when we come to plead our own Cause in the great Assembly of Spirits For when these Aggravations of our Disobedience shall be laid open our Guilt will apear so foul and monstrous that we shall doubtless be condemned by the unanimous Vote of all the Reasonable World and as soon as the great Judge hath pass'd his Sentence upon us our own Consciences will be forc'd to eccho Just and righteous art thou O Lord in all thy Ways Wherefore as we would not be found inexcusably guilty when we come to plead for our Lives before the Tribunal of our Saviour let us all be perswaded to return to his Service and faithfully to continue in it that so instead of Goye cursed we may hear from his Mouth that welcome Approbation Well done good and profitable Servants enter into the Joy of your Master III. I come now the last Proposition in the Text viz. And we beheld his Glory the Glory as of the only Son of the Father In 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 the 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 it in that he doth not only tell us that the Word tabernacled among us which alludes to his Tabernacling among the Jews but he also tells us that they saw his Glory which alludes to that Glory of the Lord which the Jews 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 2dly 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. John 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 Tranfiguration 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 t 's evident discovered its self in an extraordinary visible Splendor that shone 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 Skes 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 Ghosts Descent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 immediately a great Light shone round about the Place and Justin Martyr speaking of our Saviour's Baptism saith expresly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that there was a Fire lighted in the River Jordan 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 John the Baptist and so may 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
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 antient Patriarchs And in this Sense I have 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 antient 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 behold 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 proveed 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 in 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 Jewel 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 Jesus Christ was the only Person upon whom this visible Glory descended never did the Hand of Heaven put forth 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
That a Company of dead Atoms which cannot move unless they are moved can ever be capable of framing Syllogisms in Mood and Figure and disputing pro and con whether they are Atoms or no That such inert and sluggish Bodies should by their impetuous jostling together awaken one another out of their sensless 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 played 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 Divisibilty 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 hundred and sixty times bigger than the Earth when to our Eye and Imagination it appears no bigger than a Bushel that can lodge 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 sensless is it to imagine that such Noble Operations as these can be performed by a meer Complex of dead Atoms and sensless 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 Foot of Thought or a Yard of Reason a Pound of Wisdom or a Quart of Virtue 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 Principles 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 Joy and Pleasure are naturally capable of Immortality and consequently of improving in Knowledge in Goodness and in Joy and Pleasure unto all Eternity And therefore certainly a Soul must needs be a most precious thing that can thus out-live all sublunary Beings and subsist forever in so sublime 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 to 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 Virtue Power and Excellency of each others Faculties For as for us whilst 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 Angels 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 too 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 calestial Paradise For which end instead of the Covenant of Innocence the Blessings whereof by their Sin they had forever 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 to safe to the Shoar of a happy Eternity And that by this Covenant he might the more effectually recover
the Enemies Harbour with his blessed Motions and Importunities and never gives over the Pursuit of them till he hath either actually recovered or left them past all Hopes of Redemption 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 Welface 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 beginning 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 though they are always entertained with the most ravishing Pleasures yet Heaven it self cannot divert them from being over joyed 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 receive 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 atttend upon Souls and minister to their Safety and Happyness 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 conspired to make War with heaven and revenge their Expulsion thence the constant Drift of all their Designs and Actions hath been to seduce and ruine 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
to the 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 in 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 determine 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 pershing 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 re-united 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 blesed 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 gnetle 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 Job 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 Justice 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
came to tabernacle among us and our Natures he was full of Truth that is of Substance and Reality For then instead of the Shadows and Pictures of them he exhibited to us the Things themselves then he brought down the Mysteries of the Gospel out of that Cloud of Types in which they were before involved and set them before us in a clear and open Light But that I may more fully demonstrate this to you I shall briefly give you some particular Instances of his dwelling or conversing among us full of Truth in Contradistinction to that obscure typical Way of his conversing or tabernacling aomg the Jews which I shall rank under these four Heads 1. His Personal Transactions 2. The Purity and Spirituality of his Laws 3. The Condition and Quality of his Kingdom 4. The Rewards and Recompences which he promises to his Subjects 1. One great Instance of his conversing among us full of Truth in Contradistinction to that obscure and typical Way of his conversing among the Jews is his own Personal Transactions The Eternal Word being to assume our Natures thoguht fit to give the Jews whilst he tabernacled among them a Specimen or Pattern of those 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 Attonement 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 Jews 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 Jews 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 Sings by which they represented their Divine and Moral Institutions Thus therefore by such
if we could because we are able to do all through Christ who will strengthen us if we will but do what we can so that this methinks should be sufficient to encourage any reasonable Man in the World to undertake his Service to consider that he who is my Master will co-operate with me and proportion my Strength to the Work he enjoyns me that he will not stand still with his Arms in his Bosom and see me struggle in vain under an insupportable But then of Duties but that he will set too his own Shoulders and contribute his own Strength and enable me by degrees to undergo it with Ease and Alacrity so that though thro' the Weakness and Importency which I have voluntarily contracted my Duty is become too heavy for my Shoulders yet I will never be disheartened so long as I am sure it is not too heavy for my Saviour's for if I heartily endeavour I am confident I shall undergo it if it be in the Power of an Almighty Grace to enable me 5. And lastly He was full of Grace to us also in Respect of that glorious Recompence which 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 sensless 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 than 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 Jews and among Christians that whereas among the Jews 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 Senfe 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 Jews 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 Jews 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
his Conscience the natural Tenderness of it will by Degrees wear off till at length it grows quite callous and insensible For what is reported of Methridates that by often drinking of Poison he had so familiarized it to his Constitution that at length it sate quietly on his Stomach and gave him no Disturbance is true of Conscience which at first recoils at every sinful Potion and cannot swallow it without suffering violent Spasms and Convulsions but having been awhile accustomed to it it by Degrees grows more and more natural till at length it goes more glibly down without straining and goes quietly off without Remorse or Reluctance And when once a Man's Conscience is frozen over by a Custom of Sinning it will every day grow harder and harder and at length be able to bear the heaviest Loads of Guilt without Relenting and when once Things are Reduced to this State Good and Evil Virtue and Vice are Things indifferent to him which he chuses or refuses as they come to hand and are more or less subservient to his present Convenience 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 Joy 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 earthly 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 withall 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 miserable and therefore to threaten him into a 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 can 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
ill Daughter of a bad Mother a debauched and a dissolute Conscience and consequently partaking of all its natural Bane and Malignity even as all other bad Effects do of the malignant Nature of their bad Causes But the Truth of this will more fully appear by considering the particular Evils which Mens Inconstancy to and Proneness to revolt from the true Religion implies of which I shall give you these five Instances 1. The great Impiety of it 2. The desperate Folly of it 3. The foul Dishonesty of it 4. The shameful Cowardize of it 5. The vast Hazard and Insecurity of it 1. Consider the great Impiety of it He who can part with his Religion or any Principle of it upon any other Terms than a full Conviction of the Falshood of it is either a down-right Atheist who believing no Religion to be true governs himself by this Principle That the wisest Course is to profess none but that which is uppermost and most for his Interest or a prophane and impious 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 Judas fells 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 sufficient 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 desperate 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 divorce 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 ones 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 ones 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 soul 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 vicously 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 lewd 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
render'd him a meer Laquey to the Goods and Evils that are without him and whither ever they send him he must go wherever they lead him he must follow let their Vagaries be never so wild or wicked If therefore while his Soul is thus enslaved to the World he should be tempted by him 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 saftned 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 so evil as its Evils and the one being his Heaven and the other his Hell all other Considerations are overcome by them and to obtain the one and avoid the other he must stick at nothing no not at renouncing his God and his Religion together with all his Hopes of a future Immortality 6. And lastly Living in any known Course of Sin provokes God to give us up to the Power of Delusion For so long as Men submit themselves to the Guidance and Direction of a good Conscience the Spirit of God who is a Spirit of Truth abides with them and not only directs their Wills but also informs their Understandings and enables them to discern the Beauty and Reality of those heavenly Truths which he hath revealed to us in the Holy Scriptures For though since he hath revealed already the whole Will of God to us concerning our eternal Salvation we have no Reason to expect that he will reveal new Truths to us yet seeing so far forth as it is necessary he hath promised and engaged that he will co-operate with us to enable us as well to understand the Will of God as to perform it we have the greatest Reason in the World to depend upon it that so long as we cherish his heavenly Inspirations by yielding to them our free and ready Compliance he will be so far an assisting Genius to our Understandings as to suggest to us those Truths which he hath already revealed and set them before our Eyes in so fair a Light as that we shall not fail more clearly to discern and more distinctly to apprehend them than otherwise we should or could have done For when he writes his Truth upon our Minds it is with such a Victorious Sunbeam as will endure neither Cloud nor Shadow before it Whenever he speaks he speaks not to our Ears but to our Minds and represents Things nakedly and immediately to our Understandings He converses with our Spirits as Spirits do with Spirits without involving his Sense in articulate Sounds or material Representations but objects it to us in its own naked Light and characterizes it immediately on our Understandings And as he proposes the Divine Light to us so he also illuminates our Minds to discern and comprehend it He raises and exalts our Intellectual Powers and as a vital Form to the Light of our Reason invigorates and actuates it and thereby renders its Apprehension of Things more quick and piercing and sagacious Thus doth the Holy Spirit more or less assist us in the true Understanding of Divine Things as he finds us more or less compliant with his heavenly Pleasure and though he stands no more obliged to render our Minds infallible than our Wills impeccable yet so long as by our sincere Obedience to his holy Suggestions we keep our selves under his Conduct and Direction we may depend upon it he will either preserve us from all dangerous Errors or if for just Reasons he should permit us to fall into any such they shall not prove dangerous to us but either we shall be convinced of them while we live or obtain Pity and Pardon for them when we die But whilst we persist in any willful Course of Sin we do not only violate our own Conscience but also repel those good Motions of the Spirit of God whereby he strives to reduce and reclaim us in doing which we continually grieve him and if we do not forbear shall at length provoke him wholly to forsake and abandon us to give us up to our own Hearts Lusts as desperate Wretches with whom he hath hitherto strove and struggled in vain and of whose future Recovery there remains no farther Hope or Prospect And when he hath forsaken us our Mind will not only be left naked and destitute of all those Helps and Advantages for the understanding of Divine Truths which it receives from him but also be exposed to the Cheats and Fallacies of Evil Spirits whose Recreation it is to put Tricks upon our Minds to banter and play upon our easie Faith to cast Mists before our Eyes and therein to juggle away all true Religion from us and foist in the Room of it the most fulsom Errors and Mistakes For so the Apostle tells us of Antichrist the great Deceiver that he should come with all the deceivableness of unrighteousness to them that perish because they received not the love of truth that they might be saved And that for that Cause viz. their not receiving the truth in the love of it God should send them strong delusion that they should believe a lye that is by abandoning them to the Power of cheating and deluding Spirits That they all might be damned who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness 2 Thess 2.10 11 12. And God grant that this at last prove not our Fate that because we have sinned against the clearest Light and gone astray in all Unrighteousness under the best and purest Religion in the World we are not at length given up by God to follow the wile Delusions of Antichrist and to believe all those fulsom Lyes and Impostures which he from Age to Age hath been imposing upon the World But whether it prove thus or no this I am sure of that by persisting in any vicious Course against the Light and Conviction of our Consciences we highly provoke Almighty God to withdraw his Grace from us and give us up to our own Hearts Lusts and when this is done our own Hearts Lusts will soon betray and give up our Faith to false and vicious Principles of Religion And now having shewn at large what strong and prevalent Tendencies there are in a wicked Life to Apostacy from true Religion I shall conclude this Argument with two or three Inferences 1. From hence I infer What a great Malignity there is in Mens being inconstant to and apostatizing from the true Religion in Compliance with their sinful Affections it being as you see the